Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 10

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz – Oral History of Episode 10

Release Date: January 24, 2025

Introduction

In Episode 10 of "The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz," hosts Dan Le Batard and Stugotz delve into an in-depth oral history of their show, addressing pivotal moments, internal challenges, and personal struggles that have shaped the program. This episode offers listeners a candid look behind the scenes, exploring the complexities of maintaining a successful sports and pop-culture talk show within the tumultuous landscape of ESPN and beyond.

1. The Departure of John Skipper and Its Impact

Timestamp: 06:12

The episode opens with a discussion about the unexpected resignation of John Skipper, ESPN's influential president, and its profound effect on the show. Dan reminisces about being mid-segment when the news broke, highlighting the immediate shift in their show's dynamics:

Dan LeBatard [06:12]: "When the news came that John Skipper was leaving ESPN, my heart dropped. I couldn't let the team find out on air and derail our segment."

Stugotz reflects on Dan's emotional response, emphasizing the depth of Dan's relationship with Skipper:

Stugotz [06:53]: "Dan was really emotional. I hadn't seen him that open before, and it was clear Skipper's departure was going to change everything for us."

2. Navigating Internal Turbulence and Management Changes

Timestamp: 10:32

Billy Corben takes the lead in chronicling the aftermath of Skipper's departure, discussing the uncertainties it introduced:

Billy Corben [10:32]: "I didn't consider the immediate impact on us. Skipper was pivotal in shaping ESPN's culture, and his leaving meant we lost a key protector."

The conversation shifts to the challenges of maintaining their show's unique voice amidst ESPN's evolving management under Jimmy Pitaro. Dan expresses concerns about losing the "top-line protection" that Skipper provided, fearing it would limit their creative freedom:

Dan LeBatard [13:14]: "We were in a good spot—growing, thriving—but losing Skipper meant worrying about how our new leadership would view our content."

3. The 17-Page Dossier and Its Consequences

Timestamp: 30:32

Billy discusses submitting a comprehensive critique of their executive, Mike Ryan, aiming for maximum honesty to foster improvement:

Billy Corben [30:32]: "I compiled a 17-page dossier outlining everything Mike could improve on—not to slander, but to help fix our environment."

Dan reveals how this feedback backfired, leading to personal stress and professional strain. The emotional toll resulted in Dan experiencing severe burnout, prompting him to seek therapy:

Dan LeBatard [28:08]: "I was suffering from real burnout and adrenally fatigued, running out of answers and searching desperately for what was going on."

4. Personal Struggles and Mental Health Journey

Timestamp: 34:41

The hosts openly discuss Dan's mental health struggles, providing a raw and honest account of his battle with anxiety and depression. Dan shares his reluctance to seek help due to his mother's history with addiction:

Dan LeBatard [28:23]: "I formed resentment towards mental health issues because my mother struggled with prescription meds. It made seeking help a complicated choice for me."

Stugotz adds his perspective, explaining his initial disbelief and subsequent empathy towards Dan's condition:

Billy Corben [34:16]: "I was embarrassed by Dan's emotional reaction, not realizing it was tied to his mental health struggles and therapy."

Dan details the turning point when he finally sought professional help, leading to significant personal growth and better coping mechanisms:

Dan LeBatard [36:58]: "Once I spoke to a therapist, I started identifying my triggers and learned to manage my anxiety and depression, even though it meant putting my career at risk."

5. Reflections and Future Directions

Timestamp: 48:00

As the episode progresses, the hosts reflect on the lessons learned from these tumultuous events. They emphasize the importance of mental health, honest communication, and supportive relationships in overcoming professional and personal challenges. Dan acknowledges the critical role Mike Ryan played in supporting him through his darkest times:

Dan LeBatard [45:39]: "Having gone through that, Dan and I were able to grow closer. His support was invaluable in helping me navigate the aftermath of the fallout."

Stugotz and Billy echo sentiments of resilience and the ongoing commitment to healing and introspection:

Billy Corben [51:25]: "Mike has grown into a more patient and understanding executive, shaped by the profound pain we've all endured."

Notable Quotes

• Dan LeBatard [06:12]: "When the news came that John Skipper was leaving ESPN, my heart dropped."

• Stugotz [06:53]: "Dan was really emotional. I hadn't seen him that open before."

• Billy Corben [10:32]: "Skipper was pivotal in shaping ESPN's culture, and his leaving meant we lost a key protector."

• Dan LeBatard [28:08]: "I was suffering from real burnout and adrenally fatigued, running out of answers."

• Billy Corben [34:16]: "I was embarrassed by Dan's emotional reaction, not realizing it was tied to his mental health struggles."

• Dan LeBatard [36:58]: "Once I spoke to a therapist, I started identifying my triggers and learned to manage my anxiety and depression."

• Dan LeBatard [45:39]: "Having gone through that, Dan and I were able to grow closer."

Conclusion

Episode 10 of "The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz" serves as a poignant exploration of the personal and professional hurdles faced by the hosts. Through candid discussions about mental health, internal conflicts, and significant changes within ESPN, the episode underscores the importance of vulnerability, support, and resilience in the face of adversity. Listeners gain a deeper understanding of the complexities behind maintaining a beloved talk show and the human struggles that often lie beneath the surface.

Transcript

[Dan LeBatard]

You're listening to Giraffe Kings Network.

[Stugotz]

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[Mike Ryan]

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[Dan LeBatard]

Hey folks, it's Mike and I've listened back to this episode a little bit and while I think our approach on the mental health discussion that comes up in this episode is right, we do touch on some topics that might trigger some of those in the audience. We do talk about things like self harm and I don't want to appear flippant by any of those conversations. So I just want to give a warning to our listening audience there that we do touch on some mental health stuff here and some of you in the audience may find that triggering. So I just wanted to give you an advance warning.

[Billy Corben]

10Le I've seen you nude stew guts mar 20 mediocre years.

[Chris Cote]

I got horses that couldn't fill that thing out.

[Billy Corben]

This is the oral history of that 10 Levitard show with Stu. Guys. Really proud and happy that the audience has enjoyed so much this really narcissistic project of ours that now enters its second half here. And I'm encouraging Stugats during the second half of this. We're gonna tackle some stuff here today that is tricky. It's a labyrinth of controversial stuff. It's the stuff that happened at ESPN that ended up with us having a lot of turbulence and leaving espn. A lot of stuff that we haven't talked about publicly in any venue that we're going to talk about here. But as we go forward in the second half of this, I am encouraging Stugatz because I treat all of this as an exercise in healing and introspection. And during the first half, I had to show my ass in some places that are uncomfortable talking about stuff in the interest of giving Mike Ryan an honest platform that can become an oral history that stands the test of time because it's got warts and all stuff in it. So I am asking Stugatz now, as we embark on the second half, to not make this a Stugotz revisionist history, because I work with a thief and a liar, and he can turn some of these stories into some things that have a lot of charm in them. But I look up after episode three, and I'm like, wait a minute. Did Hawk and I break up because Stu Gotts was flirting with qam? Like, what just happened there? What's the truth there?

[Jeremy]

So, again, what's the message to me? What am I supposed to do here in the second half?

[Billy Corben]

Maximum honesty the rest of the way.

[Jeremy]

Okay, you're an asshole.

[Dan LeBatard]

Okay.

[Billy Corben]

All right. So let's continue here and find out where it is and how it is I'm an asshole.

[Dan LeBatard]

One last note on the first half of the oral history, because that's the first time we've talked, really, not even publicly, privately, about a lot of these things. And I know our timelines got a little warped, and I appreciate what Dana Stugatz did in that first half. I think it certainly brought about more questions, but it also brought about answers to some of the show's great mysteries. And I think even the audience gave us some leeway in understanding. Sometimes breakups can be complicated. Breakups can be hard. People hold on to what they remember most about it. And sometimes timelines shift. All that being said, I just wanted to thank you guys for being forthright and embracing this concept, because I know our audience, which we owe everything to, was really appreciative of that, and a lot of the stuff we had never addressed before. So it's brave, and I appreciate you guys for doing it.

[Jeremy]

I'm going to bring it in the second half.

[Billy Corben]

All right, let's go.

[Dan LeBatard]

Because second half, team.

[Billy Corben]

I really. I look forward to what it is that we cover here, because there's a lot of stuff that we've never talked about, as Mike said, not privately amongst each other, on what went down here. So I suspect there will be a lot of stuff here that people have not heard and will find interesting, if you're as interested in our narcissisms as we are. So where would you like to start? With this.

[Dan LeBatard]

And a reminder to both of you, some of this stuff is tricky, and some of this stuff we would like to really get into. But some of these things, like, as part of our separation agreement with espn, we can't get, like, we're not gonna slander folks here. We're just gonna tell you how things were and the events that led up to, in this timeline, our eventual separation. But let's go to 2017, which is, man, such a great time in our show. We really have the co host cooking. We feel really good about our ensemble. We're putting out good work. We're positioned well. ESPN likes us. We're navigating the Kaepernick and Trump stuff to the best of our ability. But something happens and stugats. You were in the studio when the news came, Dan, you were live on the air.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Dan LeBatard]

When the news came. This is when we had texts at this point, but you had social media up, and I knew it was just only a matter of time before you saw it for yourself. And I didn't want that to happen on the air. So I remember we were in the middle of a segment. My heart dropped when I saw the news that John Skipper was leaving espn. I then went to. I can't have these guys find out on the air and derail a segment. Let me get them to break as early as I can. And I remember vividly, I can feel the button on my fingertip talking to Dan in his headset, like, hey, it's gonna be out there. Skipper has stepped down. Let's take this thing to break and we'll talk about it during the break. I remember the look on Dan's face. And what washed over me was the realization that the game's about to change for us here. Stu Gotz, let me take it over to you first.

[Jeremy]

Dan was really emotional. I was concerned as well. I wasn't as concerned as I think you were about the relationships with ESPN and what would happen moving forward. Dan had a very unique and great bond and still does with John Skipper. And him leaving, I knew, wasn't going to be great for our show. Was it going to be great for us? And as you said, we had just started making some really serious inroads. The show was great. We had our co host cooking. ESPN liked us. But the guy who liked Dan the most was the guy who was leaving. And I remember just being concerned for Dan because I haven't really seen him that emotional on the air. And he was very, very emotional.

[Billy Corben]

It's funny looking back on it, because I can say with 100% honesty that I legitimately was not considering at that point, the impact at us at all. My immediate response, because I was so stunned by it, is what the hell happened here that would mean this person was leaving a position of power that is the most powerful in all of sports. And furthermore, two weeks earlier, I had just sent him a detailed plan of how it is that he could better use Hispanics throughout the company. Because I had finally realized that there were some places that I could be helpful around power and helpful in actually doing some of the things that he can execute that I wasn't really understanding that we can execute while I was there. Because all I was doing while I was there was making sure that they left us alone. I didn't want to get close to any of the things that would be mechanizations and power hungry. Because the greatest power to me is we're allowed to do what we want to down there. But in the instance, like for there to be tears on my face as that happened, I don't know that I've ever been as stunned by something that I wasn't feeling on behalf of myself. Like it wasn't a feeling of anything other than what just happened to this person. How can I know nothing about this? There's just a note that says there's a resignation and no information. How is it that this is just arriving here now during a show? I was just completely stunned.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah. And that kind of scared me, speaking for myself, because you're right. And we covered it in a previous episode, your North Star, always, when it came to your relationship with John Skipper was just leave me alone. Which is not how people normally flex that muscle when they get close to the boss.

[Jeremy]

But, Mike, I think John Skipper was in charge of everyone else. Leave us alone. That's why they left us alone.

[Dan LeBatard]

He certainly was. But look, other people have been close to bosses in media, and they use it to accrue incredible amounts of power. What I'm here to say is, like, it's the app generally, when. When there's a bond that tight is not just leave me alone. It's what else can I get?

[Billy Corben]

Oh, but the thing that gets misunderstood about this, no matter how many times they explain it to people, is that John and I weren't actually that tight then. Not tight the way that I measure tight, which is, oh, now I'm going to Winston Salem because you've gotten gone because of a cocaine extortion. And now you need a friend. Now you need somebody during dark times who is actually there for you. That's none of what was hitting me during the mom that you're explaining to us. Oh, there goes our protection. It's unusual that you ask me about it now, because this was not, in my mind, something that I was thinking about in any way. How does this affect us tomorrow? It's part of why it is. I was kind of blindsided, even with 18 months of warning that ESPN didn't want us because I had not considered the possibility that anybody at ESPN would not want us. I had not considered the possibility of anything other than pleasing employers because it's all I had ever done my entire career. I don't have contention relationships with employers.

[Jeremy]

By asking them to leave us alone.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, well, well.

[Billy Corben]

But asking us to leave. Asking them to leave us alone and understanding that part of why we were hired is to not be in Bristol, to be different from Bristol and not unlike the Ride Home production in Washington, that would have a cultural difference from the rest of Bristol, at least in part because it existed outside of all of their production rigidities.

[Jeremy]

So correct me if I'm wrong, but part of the emotion had to be, as you said earlier, that you felt like, along with John, you were kind of molding and shaping ESPN into a. That it really hadn't been in years past. And you were excited about that. And with him leaving, that meant perhaps that would get.

[Billy Corben]

Skipper hired me because he needed Latin representation. We were not friends that way. I was the Latin journalist to hire because he needed the Latin demo, and there weren't other Latin journalists. That was the source of our relationship at the beginning. And my job was then to bring more Minorities to the company, to bring more voices to the company and see if we can impact some cultural shift.

[Dan LeBatard]

Well, I was stunned by it. You have to keep in mind 2017, this is a time where there was a public reckoning and a lot of big time powerful people were getting called out publicly. And there was just all of this mystery because it was a shock. But I understand where Dan's just programmed that way. Dan, his mind immediately went to my friend. What's wrong with him? Is he okay? Because at that point I thought he.

[Billy Corben]

Might be sick, by the way. Just because I don't know what's happening here. Right. I just know that no one, I.

[Jeremy]

Mean, you're absent of details, you're on the air. So it's hard to know why would a guy step down from this?

[Billy Corben]

No one gives away this power. This power is only taken from people. It is not. Not given away by people.

[Dan LeBatard]

But at that point, I had grown more into my role of people will vent about what we talk about to me because they know that they're not to bring it to damn unless it's an oral on fire. I had already had a pretty good idea of the tensions inside of Bristol with us veering into social issues. Keep in mind, we weren't really talking politics. We were talking about it through the prism of social issues. But that was uncomfortable enough for some over there. So I had a pretty good idea of how many times they would lodge complaints my way about our show, that I was very effective in keeping away from the main show and a governor for all that was provided. We don't take personal shots. We don't harp on these things. We're not using our platform to call the president names or his supporters names. Like, we can navigate this because we have that top line protection. And when I read that blurb, I realize that top line of protection is gone. Who's going to replace him? Does he get to hand pick his replacement? Ideologically, will that replacement get what it is that we do? Because Jon didn't even get what it is that we did. He got what Dan did and what Dan stood for.

[Clinton Yates]

Right.

[Dan LeBatard]

So my mind goes to a million places because we were in a good spot at that point. We were enjoying our boom period. We were the biggest thing in sports radio. We were the biggest thing in sports podcasting at the time. We were getting a better platform on video. We were growing, we were humming and we had that top line protection. And I knew that that was a variable that was going to change things dramatically because out of all the People that were rumored, at least in house, the names that I heard we didn't have much of a relationship with. And, Dan, your relationship with John fortified over at ESPN the Magazine. Right. As background, because you just will get to the point where you actually go visit your friend in one of the more troubling times. I don't think we've ever really covered how you became friendly with John and how he identified you as someone that can really change the culture at espn. So I'm curious if we can go back to the origins of your relationship with John Skipper.

[Billy Corben]

John Skipper was the business side of ESPN the Magazine when it was taking down Sports Illustrated within two years. Because they were.

[Jeremy]

When journalism mattered. Yeah.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah, that's right. When magazines. The written word.

[Jeremy]

Yes.

[Billy Corben]

When magazines mattered. Yes. He was the head of their business operations. And they were spending a lot of money to get the best journalists to write the best stories because they wanted to have literary pieces that told sports stories well and competed with Sports Illustrated with educated fans. They wanted to have a classy, distinguished written thing. And I was the Latin writer that you go get if you want to do that, if you're young. And I didn't have much relationship with the business side, but I helped grow ESPN the Magazine. And from there, he and I didn't have very much in the way of any kinds of interactions, just social ones. But I saw him grow from that part of the company because it was successful to, you know, top power broker at espn. So I knew him when I knew him at the beginning of whatever was the climb to the meetings with Disney and all that stuff.

[Dan LeBatard]

But it could have amount of people knew him. Were you guys ideologically aligned back then?

[Billy Corben]

I can't say that. I can't say that I knew him very well. I can only say that he was, at the time he had a problem at ESPN where he was trying to make them have more fun, be more culturally diverse, and couldn't do it with just whatever the 4,000 employees that he had there that had done it a certain way. Lifers, Bristol, Connecticut. The entire economy in Bristol is a tax break so that ESPN can exist there. That entire giant company, he was having trouble in influencing the culture. So we hired seven or eight people, one of whom was me, because he was trying to build something that had studios in Los Angeles, in New York, in Miami, in Washington, that the worldwide leader in sports would at least represent on television more globally than Bristol, Connecticut.

[Dan LeBatard]

So let's cut back to the day that that announcement comes down. We finish our show. My memories of it are. We were kind of in a fog.

[Jeremy]

I just remember Dan crying, to be honest.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, Dan did cry during. Because he was worried about the purse. You and I probably shared a moment like, oh, shit, what does this mean? Oh, we have to. Who do you think gets it? Like, we were just already workshopping who would be next in line.

[Billy Corben]

I'm legitimately embarrassed by that reaction, by the way.

[Dan LeBatard]

Why it was human.

[Billy Corben]

I'm legitimately embarrassed that what ended up happening there is that somebody leaves the company. And because my reaction is an instant, stunned, tearful one, assume that it was an. About an assortment of different things that it wasn't about.

[Jeremy]

I assume that when I say I'm.

[Billy Corben]

Embarrassed, I'm at a microphone. I'm a communicator. I've been stunned by something and my ability to meet that moment, to articulate what it is that happened to me. I felt at a loss for words. The. The president of ESPN has resigned and sent out a statement. And I'm sorry. I. I just want to know that he's okay.

[Jeremy]

Take your time, buddy.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah, so I'm. I'm just learning this now. Okay? And this is a. Is. He's. This is the reason that I work here. And so I don't know what's coming. I don't know what this. I don't know what this is, but I know I look like it and sound like a fool right now, but I want you to understand something. And I don't know what's. I don't know what's coming. Like, I don't know if this is. I haven't talked to him, so I don't know how he's doing. And I care about him. But just so that you understand, this person has created everything that exists here at ESPN for us. And. And he did it because of how he cares about minorities and their causes. And so I'm just sort of shocked and hurt, and I am sorry I'm reacting this way, and I don't know what damage I'm doing in reacting this way, but I'm just. That's. I mean, so that's straight Talk. So that's where we are.

[Jeremy]

All right. That is Straight talk. It is brought to you by Straight Talk wireless nationwide coverage on America's largest and most important.

[Billy Corben]

Perhaps we could have done that better. Admittedly. Perhaps we could have done that better.

[Dan LeBatard]

Let it breathe. Just.

[Jeremy]

I mean, what am I supposed to do there?

[Billy Corben]

It can't all be content. It can't all be content. My vulnerabilities, they're. Out in front of you. You can't be trusted with them. They can't be sponsored.

[Jeremy]

What better way to communicate what it is you were feeling than crying though? I mean it was one of your finest moments. I thought it was.

[Dan LeBatard]

If you're a blogger, you're seasoned on that. I know like optics wise.

[Jeremy]

And if you're caring about what bloggers are seizing on, you're.

[Billy Corben]

Wait a minute. No, but no. When you're go when we're about to.

[Dan LeBatard]

Have a moment where the bloggers have a field day on day and his.

[Billy Corben]

Humanity to gods when you are dizzy and you are ill prepared as I was, as Skipper was, as everybody was for the cultural revolution that is coming, that Disney is too woke. LeBatard is too woke. Skipper is too woke. Don't want minority voices. Don't want women telling me about sports. Want SEC football. No. It was the culture war arrived at my doorstep. I was unprepared for it and surprised by it.

[Dan LeBatard]

You have the public reckoning of the MeToo movement and cancel culture. I mean it sounds silly now but Cancel Culture feeling more like a real thing there. Simultaneously you have Donald Trump in office who is running counterculture to what is happening in the public space. But there is a very public reckoning going on over there. So there's a lot of things happening in this moment in time. And Dan gets chewed up a little bit by the conservative news media cycle which is doing pretty well running on the ESPN is woke wagon. And our show is certainly figured into that equation. So Dan, walk us through the rest of your day. I don't know if you try to reach out to John Skipper, I know a couple of days later you are photographed in the Carolinas with John Skipper. And there are bloggers that run wild with speculation as to what you're doing there. After you find out this news, when do you get in touch with John? When do you set up? Hey, I'm gonna come over there. You look like you could use a friend in this moment.

[Billy Corben]

So I don't think it was a couple of days later. I'm going to say that it was the Christmas holidays if I have this right. It felt like we were around the holidays and that was the next time that I would have time to say to him, I'll wherever it is you are, what do you need? Do you need somebody? Anything? What's going on? And so I end up going to Winston Salem and when I'm there we go to dinner at a bar at 4:30 and we sit at the bar. He Has a martini. And now, after meeting with a group of people, saying hello to them, they're big fans, spending 30, 45 minutes with them.

[Jeremy]

You did an appearance?

[Billy Corben]

I did an appearance. And then they took pictures of me and send them to shit Stain and Shit Stain publish them. And what had become something that over 10 years was a silly thing that I laughed at, which is, what is this Breitbart thing? What is this tea party thing? How do they keep grabbing every time I'm celebrating a black athlete being, you know, demonstrative? How are they politicizing all that? What does it mean now I'm in the middle of the wars where look at this guy, cocaine guy, drinking, celebrating, when only reason I was there, like, I was legitimately hurt by what happened there because I was trying to do a good thing for a friend. And then I was trying to do good things for fans who were liking that they were interacting with us. And then somebody sent a picture that made it look like I'm out partying with John Skipper after he's left the company.

[Dan LeBatard]

Correct me if I'm wrong. The reasons why John stepped down weren't public knowledge, weren't even internal knowledge at that point. You might have known that.

[Billy Corben]

I did not know that. No, I did not know.

[Dan LeBatard]

There's all this speculation running rampant, and you're photographed at a bar. So people did take that, which is.

[Jeremy]

An odd place to be.

[Dan LeBatard]

People took that opportunity to say, look, here's Dan LeBatard enabling John Skipper what's going on here?

[Billy Corben]

And it'd be deserved if that's what was happening. But that's not what was happening. There was a person in need that I am not yet really friends with, who it seems like they're going through a pretty difficult time, might be lonely, might be shameful. How can I be helpful here? It's not something I've done before. There are not many circumstances in which I would do something like this. And what I'm telling everyone is this is not an act of friendship. It's not even an act of loyalty. I was grateful that this man did what he did for us. Hard, smart. Stop.

[Jeremy]

Anyone who knows you knows that you would make that kind of trip to be that kind of support for someone who is a friend, but not a good friend. So you're saying you did it because you felt like he needed somebody and because he had supported us for as many years as he did.

[Dan LeBatard]

I get where you're getting at.

[Jeremy]

Right.

[Dan LeBatard]

And you're kind of speaking for the audience here.

[Jeremy]

Well, I want them to get to know Dan because Dan would do something like that.

[Dan LeBatard]

Well, and we're also speaking for, like, the Breitbarts of the world that ran with this. Like, what are Dan's ulterior motives? This is a guy that just stepped down from the world, the sporting world's most powerful position.

[Jeremy]

Right. John Skipper can no longer help him.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah. At his lowest point. And at that point, being so fresh, no one knows if John Skipper, he's approaching retirement age. There isn't really a power play here for Dan. And if there were, we've already established plenty that Dan had power. And all he did with it was say, leave me alone. So this is not a guy that's grabbing for power. This is a genuine human moment. When do you learn that this photo of you started circulating on the Internet? Was it there? Was it while you were in the Carolinas?

[Billy Corben]

It was that night we went back to his home. Dark, haunted, cold. An hour after that, 6:00pm like, it's not. It's not out partying. It's just. And it's deep wounding on me. Like, I'm hurt by what it is that's just been done here because I'm like, oh, my God, that's so dirty.

[Dan LeBatard]

Betrayed by the fans that you were so kind to.

[Billy Corben]

Just all of it. Just not just that. Not just. Not just all of it.

[Dan LeBatard]

I don't talk to people.

[Billy Corben]

Just all of it felt dirty and hurtful. You'll summon that feeling right back on me now. Like, I remember calling my wife, walking through the airport, just sort of not feeling my legs, really, because of how hurt I was. On how something that was well intentioned could turn into watching him take a bunch of calls with espn, PR and everything else. And then all of a sudden it's that dance where inside of the machine where this thing gets weaponized in order to hurt. It landed. It landed in a place that hurt.

[Jeremy]

Were you surprised for the reasons he stepped down? The extortion? Were you surprised just knowing him the way you.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah, of course.

[Dan LeBatard]

You found out the whole story? I guess.

[Billy Corben]

I don't. I don't remember how I found out, but all of the details on that. Yes. Did not know that cocaine or extortion or any of that was something that was in any way in play.

[Jeremy]

Were you upset with him? Disappointed, I mean, yeah, that's human.

[Billy Corben]

But, but, but, but I'm not terribly judgmental that way. Like, I'm.

[Jeremy]

You do the show with me, but I'm just.

[Billy Corben]

I.

[Dan LeBatard]

That's a Tuesday for st.

[Billy Corben]

Disappointed.

[Dan LeBatard]

Certainly in The Primetime days.

[Jeremy]

My fourth show.

[Billy Corben]

Not judging it, though. Like, yeah, I guess disappointed, but not disappointed because of human frailty or weakness. Just disappointed because, oh, this all sucks. Like, this used to be good a few minutes ago, and now this sucks.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah. Can confirm it did start sucking.

[Jeremy]

It sucked. Yeah.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah.

[Dan LeBatard]

I knew just the way that a corporate entity like Disney works, that it would be a while before they named a replacement and the way that we had seen plenty of management types come and go already. Over at espn, everyone assumes a holding pattern. Pattern until the new person shows up. And it took a little bit of time.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, I applied for the job.

[Dan LeBatard]

I don't doubt it. We navigate the holidays, and then it's announced that Jimmy Pitaro is replacing John Skipper. I didn't really know Jimmy at all. I asked Dan if he knew Jimmy. There wasn't an existing relationship. But, Dan, at this point, you are one of ESPN's marquee personalities. You have their top digital audio property. They're top. Well, Mike and Mike are still going at this time. I believe so. Not the catalog, but pretty damn close and highly questionable. Is a linchpin of their afternoon programming. How soon was it before you heard from Jimmy Pitar again?

[Billy Corben]

You're asking me to parse through some details that I don't remember and didn't think enough to think important at the time. Because you have to understand that even with 18 months of warning, I was still somewhat blindsided by everything that happened at the end at espn, at least in part because Mike had done such a good job of insulating me from actually knowing how problematic any of what we were doing was. Stugots. Because I don't know what was falling on Mike. But in retrospect, I'm guessing we're gonna get into some stuff that a lot was falling on Mike that was too much for Mike to handle. Because the number one job of Mike since back through Hawk is protect Dan.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, well, in 2018, I'm going through a lot. And it's not just work. In fact, work was actually worse a couple years before. Probably a year and a half before we covered that. The Fusion stuff, the other Stu Studio. And I told you in a previous episode, I was writing checks that I was about to cash. I'm cashing them around this time. So it's not, for me personally, not a great time for me whatsoever. I'll tell the audience, like, I am having a really difficult time at this point with my own mental health and learning what that means. I was suffering real burnout. I was adrenally fatigued, and I was running out of answers. I had loads of questions. I didn't understand what was going on. And I was in a desperate search to identify what was going on. But for the audience, I had in my mind a callous against therapy and medication for these things because of my history with my mother, who ultimately passed away because of her addiction to prescription meds and abusing the system. And she would go to anyone and anyone, anyone and everyone who would write her a prescription for these things. And a lot of those houses along Bird Road, those standalone homes that are also clinics, my mom hit every single one of those up. And so I had formed quite a bit of resentment towards mental health ailments and my mother as well at that point. And I had always done so well at that point in my life. And pushing things down that human body and the brain is kind of like a dam once one thing squirts out. And for me, it was work. That was the thing that got me. The entire integrity, the architectural integrity of what's going on just breaks and collapses. And that was all happening to me in that moment.

[Jeremy]

So what was it about the work, though, that. Because I remember talking to you quite a bit on the phone.

[Dan LeBatard]

So Dan and I have talked this out, Dan, in an effort to get me better, because I was really struggling, upholding our standard and also being a people person and managing people. I was growing into that, this job.

[Jeremy]

Both jobs, both of our jobs come with a lot of pressure. So I understood what it is you were going through.

[Dan LeBatard]

I had a really high standard. And, Dan, this is going to sound messed up because in part it was. Dan canvassed it all. He probably asked you a couple of questions, ways to get Mike better, like as a more effective leader, as a better manager of people. But what had ended up happening was Dan compiled like a 17 page dossier of the worst things you can imagine about me. And there was no positives. It was all critiques. A lot of them were just flat out lies. A lot of them. I can tell who they were coming from. A lot of people, I could identify their resentments. There I was on a hammock in the Keys and I was cracking. And I saw this email come in and it rocked my world, Rocked my world. There was no coming back from it. That was vacation that. I later went to Oregon to watch Jack White. And I was at a Jack White concert and I was front row and he was killing it, and he's my favorite artist. And I left the concert early because I was like I don't deserve this, and I don't know what any of these feelings mean. So I finally crack and I'm like, let me talk to somebody so I can figure out what's going on. After I talk to a therapist, I start identifying everything that's going on in my life. And once you give it a name, it has to get worse before it gets better. And that's what happened to me. I am becoming more aware of what those things. Realizing that I had actually been dealing with anxiety and depression all my life, just not knowing it, realizing that the tingling in my fingers, the palpitations, the shortness of breath, all of that is tied into my mental. The GI issues. At this point, my stomach was a fucking mess. I had a couple of colonoscopies at that point. I just couldn't identify it. And then I realized that this was all a byproduct of stress. Keep in mind, work was the first thing that went out. I had personal life issues going, like my wife and I were dealing with stuff. And then on top of this, every time I opened that studio door in the Clevelander, I was armed with the knowledge that everybody truly resented me because I had seen their honest thoughts or thoughts that Dan had pushed like, no, let's really give it to him so we can get out of this.

[Jeremy]

Mike needs to hear it.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah. Which when I told my therapist about it, she thought Dan was batshit crazy because this is a terrible exercise.

[Jeremy]

My take.

[Billy Corben]

Well, just to be clear though, that the way that all of that came to be is just because the tensions with Mike in the room were such. I simply wanted to go around the entirety of the room, get everyone's thoughts, present them to Mike, not as something that was presented from one voice, but how do we make all of this better? So what Mike is receiving is a 17 page dossier of all the things that he's done wrong. Is really just something meant to be. Hey, Mike, can you help me fix this? Are you aware that these are the issues that some people have with you? Version I wrote I thought was the soft one.

[Jeremy]

Oh, you made some edits, huh?

[Billy Corben]

Well, it wasn't meant. It wasn't meant to rip him. Look, man, I've seen Shannon Sharpe talk.

[Jeremy]

Terrible idea.

[Billy Corben]

I've seen Shannon Sharpe talk about this saying, like, working for me is not for everybody. Like, working for Mike and me and what it is that we wanted to do there in terms of sharpening the standard is not for everybody. And there were plenty of resentments in an environment that had a lot of feelings in it. And feelings don't feel matter as much as making the thing right. So that the people want to listen to it.

[Dan LeBatard]

So I remember like my first date back because it was like I got that over like a two and a half week break. And I was just standing outside the main studio door, like, terrified open, not.

[Jeremy]

Wanting to walk in.

[Dan LeBatard]

I didn't want to walk in. It was a place I wanted to be in the least. And it was like, you know that great movie with Roddy Piper, they live where you put on the sunglasses.

[Jeremy]

No, great movie with Roddy Piper.

[Dan LeBatard]

They live is I'm here to chew bubble gum and kick some ass and I'm all out of chewing gum.

[Jeremy]

You're making it sound great now.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, well, he.

[Billy Corben]

That's your kind of movie.

[Dan LeBatard]

He puts on these Gl. John Carpenter directed it. He puts on these glasses and he sees like all these ghouls that are hiding in plain sight. And like for like six months, I just was. I had the Roddy Piper sunglasses on. And so like, I knew like, I was being fake with people. I was also like, again, through therapy, I learned how I would self medicate, would be through caffeine. Caffeine, as many people now know, because the mental health conversation is more public and more well known. Not a good thing for anxiety and depression exacerbates all that stuff. But for me as a performer and those who listen to the local hour in 2017, know this. I was doing eight Red Bulls a day. I was talking really fast. I was masking a lot of insecurities. I was also masking the fact that I knew everyone around me hated me, which probably wasn't accurate at that time. People probably in a vacuum had plenty of nice things to say about me too. But all I saw was resentment. And I just felt like shit for a very long time. And this actually leads. This is quite the. But I knew I would have to talk about this at a certain point. I'm. I'm cracking. Dan knows that I'm cracking. I pulled Suicide two and he knows that I'm cracking. He knows some of the things that led to me cracking. My life was hell at this point. There was a lot of things going sideways. And I also pulled members of the shipping container and had individual meetings with all of them to try to explain why my behavior is erratic. What happened was. So around 2018, this is all coming to a head. And my therapist, God bless her, she taught me how to identify these things. And she wanted me in the worst way to evacuate from A stressful situation situation. And I'm like, that really isn't an option for me because I'm live on the air. And she told me, the next time you're in this situation, you remove yourself from that situation. Me, in an effort to give myself over to this thing that I have all sorts of questions about and not fully trusting, I am giving myself over to this process. Want to follow her instruction. This is professionally just about the worst thing I've ever done. But I'm following my therapist's advice. In 2018, I'm having a really rough day. Keep in mind, we're launching the lebatoron friends network at this time. And a lot of the feedback that I got in that dossier was that I was handing my work off to other people, that I was just delegating all this, which wasn't really true, but, okay, I took that to heart. So I see that feedback, and then I just decide I'm going to put everything on my shoulders. And so for the entire network, keep in mind all the shows that we launched with. I am eping every single one of those. Those who are familiar with my editing style. I'm meticulously edit. I don't have a free moment in my life at this point. I am just. I have a furnace, and I'm just putting more coals in it, and I am burning my. So I have that happening. And I heed my therapist's advice. I'm having a really rough morning. Quite frankly, I shouldn't have been in that day. I never did this ever. Which was also following my therapist's advice, which was, tell Dan and Stu how you're feeling that day so they know to be careful around you. And I did. And Dan and I had a contentious back and forth on the air where I tried to correct him on something. I don't even remember what it was. And Dan pushed on me, and from my perspective, I was like, God damn you, Dan. Like, I told you. When do I ever do this?

[Jeremy]

Not today.

[Dan LeBatard]

I told you. Out of all the like, not today. Why are you trying me like this? And it's starting to bubble over. And I just say, all right, I'm gonna leave. And Dan says, okay, go. And this is like in the middle of a commercial break. I just up and leave the studio.

[Jeremy]

I was mad at you.

[Dan LeBatard]

Everybody was. Everybody was. Because they don't know the backstory. They don't know that I'm following a therapist's advice.

[Jeremy]

Let me clear that up for a second. I was mad at you. Because Lord knows I have had my share of really shitty days doing this show sitting next to Dan, but I stayed put.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, I wanna stay put.

[Jeremy]

So I was mad at you for that reason.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, I would have stayed put, but I'm giving myself over in an effort to get what my therapist wants, no matter my own apprehensions.

[Billy Corben]

So to be fair to me, by the way, I've had my share of shitty days sitting next to everybody and also stayed put.

[Jeremy]

Like, shittier.

[Billy Corben]

We've been together.

[Dan LeBatard]

This is what I kind of hate about reviewing.

[Billy Corben]

Sure. We've been together 20 years. There's a lot of shit here. And only one of us is being.

[Jeremy]

Called a dumb ass on a daily basis.

[Dan LeBatard]

I have to. I understand. Because I would label it too. I would couch that, like, I've had plenty of shitty days. There were plenty of shitty days. I toughed it out through during that stretch. I'm following my therapist's advice. This is, like, against my better judgment.

[Jeremy]

Right.

[Dan LeBatard]

I am giving myself over to that. And I understood the pitfalls of making that decision then and there. I leave. I try to explain as best I can on my way out, like, I have to go. I can't be in this situation. I'm not in the right headspace. No one in the shipping container really understands what I'm going through at the time. So they are just flabbergasted by this. I get up and leave. I remember I call my wife and I say, hey, I told my wife everything. And I told her about, like, my therapy sessions. And I told her about, like, that one thing that my therapist had been harping on, like, if you're in a really stressful situation, evacuate. I'm like, I did it. I know Dan's going to try to call me, know that I'm okay. I'm just going to shut my phone off. I know that this is probably going to change my career forever, but I'm at peace with that because I'm committed to getting right. And I told her, people are probably going to call. You just know that I'm okay. I just don't want to deal with it. I need my phone off. I don't need that trigger. I walked the beach for, like, 40 minutes because at that point, like, I figured out that water really helped me through those things. Then I drove home and I got a haircut. I was just going through my day, and I was surprised to learn that with my phone off, I wasn't constantly reminded of what had happened. I had already made sure that my wife wasn't worried. And I got all the serenity that I needed from that moment. So I was like, okay, that's a pretty cool data point.

[Jeremy]

You did answer one call that day.

[Dan LeBatard]

No, my call. Oh, well, later on. Well, I got home.

[Jeremy]

No, I begged you to call Dan.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah. I got home, and even though I had called my wife, telling her, look, people may react out to you, Everyone, I had come to learn over the course of the two hours that no one could reach me, was really scared for me because I was doing something totally out of character. And they didn't have the benefit of the call that I gave my wife, which is, hey, I swear I'm good. People are gonna jump to all sorts of conclusions here. I'm not suicidal. I'm sorry if that's a trigger warning. I'm not gonna harm myself. I'm not gonna go to a bar. I'm not doing any of that stuff. I wasn't really doing any of that stuff. Then I'm just going to unplug and get away from this really terrible environment for me. No one else had that background knowledge, so everyone was well within their rights to freak out, to worry. Forever changed my relationship with the shipping container after that. They forever changed my relationship with you guys, because you guys had never seen that part of me. You guys knew that I was going through something at that point. I was very emaciated. I was down to, like, 205 pounds, because the constant anxiety and depression that I had was just burning crazy calories.

[Billy Corben]

And not that you. I don't know that you were necessarily drinking too much. I wouldn't suggest that. But you were learning. Just like you were learning that caffeine could be something around anxiety. Anxiety. Any amount of drinking is like lighter fluid around that in terms of making someone sad.

[Dan LeBatard]

Right. I had pretty good knowledge because of. I lost my uncle to alcoholism and I lost my mom to drug addiction. And I knew that if I ran away from my problems, went to my favorite bar, had a drink, that I would feel immediate relief. But I had good enough governors in place to know, like, if I feel too good, I gotta get out of there too, because the next morning, I'll feel depressed.

[Jeremy]

You'll feel worse.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah. I never had an issue with drinking, but it was soothing in ways that I was aware of and afraid of because I guess genetically, I might have that in me. But no, I left the studio and got a haircut. Pretty lame. But then I finally spoke to my wife, who had been getting direct calls from you, Dan, and she got freaked out over the course of the day.

[Jeremy]

Well, I was calling her relentlessly. Can we just, like, try to laugh at this a little? You can't storm out of the studio and go get a haircut.

[Dan LeBatard]

I didn't immediately. I did walk the beach for 40 minutes.

[Jeremy]

Okay, well.

[Dan LeBatard]

But then I got a haircut.

[Jeremy]

Right.

[Billy Corben]

Funnier, though.

[Jeremy]

You just got to, like. You got to go, like, get up. You gotta go.

[Dan LeBatard]

It makes for a better story.

[Billy Corben]

You gotta go on vacation.

[Terry Bradshaw]

You gotta just get.

[Dan LeBatard]

Club Deuce was right there.

[Jeremy]

I mean, little walk on the beach.

[Dan LeBatard]

In a haircut, a great bar to be sat and just have a drink by yourself.

[Jeremy]

I know, but you left me alone with him for a walk on the beach in a haircut. He was emotional. He was a rag.

[Dan LeBatard]

No, I. I left. I left. And there was an explosion behind me. And that explosion could have very well been my career at that point. Thankfully, it wasn't.

[Billy Corben]

I don't know why you would think that there aren't those kinds of consequences around anything that we do. Like, that's not.

[Dan LeBatard]

I'm at espn.

[Billy Corben]

Dan.

[Jeremy]

He's in a bad place. You, Everyone writing bad things about him. I mean, he asked you not to poke him. You poked him. He walks out, he's in a bad place, and he. Listen, he broke one of the cardinal rules of doing a live show. Don't walk out on the show. He walked out on me and you. And Mike, when I talked to him, was nervous that you were going to get rid of him.

[Dan LeBatard]

This wasn't 790. This wasn't the independent days. Like, I had left an ESPN management position in the middle of my shift.

[Jeremy]

Yes.

[Dan LeBatard]

With no plan in the back.

[Billy Corben]

Okay, so.

[Dan LeBatard]

But that's how it would work at esp. Espn.

[Billy Corben]

All right?

[Jeremy]

We're not saying that's how it worked with us. That's how it works in big corporations.

[Billy Corben]

Okay. But I know how I was experiencing what it is that we are talking about. I don't have the recollection. I have some of this information. Right. I know Mike is going through it. I don't remember the particulars of Mike needing a relief there or me having to be gentle. Wherever Mike is, I would tell you that at that point, I had gotten to the point, wherever it is, that we had been frustrated after the Fusion stuff and everything else, that I was trying to fix our environment and the feelings in our environment by bringing to my chief management guy some of the issues and feelings that the other people we care about have about our environment. And as you're saying that Mike is lame for going off and getting a haircut. The oral history movie of this becomes even lamer when you see him getting a haircut. And I'm on the second floor of the Clevelander on the carpet sitting down, sobbing, because I think he's going to harm him. Calling his wife and talking to her about, are you sure he's okay? Because this is so out of character that I'm worried if he's not answering his phone, if he's left, if he's got all this other stuff going on.

[Dan LeBatard]

If also probably some guilt going on.

[Jeremy]

So now I'm pissed at you because I'm dealing with all this shit back at the studio and you're getting a trim. Like, are you kidding me?

[Billy Corben]

It's just great haircut. When you think of it, it is great. The idea of his career might be over or his boss, quote, unquote, is sobbing because he think he might hurt himself because others in his environment has hurt his feelings. Feelings.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, I, I, I did have.

[Billy Corben]

It's a real Western we're making here.

[Jeremy]

Real up family here, man.

[Dan LeBatard]

I did have some regret for putting Dan through that. No doubt. But at the same time, I'm like, how about me? Oh, told you guys that morning you sent me.

[Jeremy]

I told you guys, you sent me a text. I don't know where you were, but you said, stu, you're the only one on the show who loves me. And so how about me?

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah. I couldn't tell from that dossier which, which of the complaints were yours.

[Jeremy]

I didn't write anything. I don't think.

[Billy Corben]

I don't think I asked Stugatz.

[Dan LeBatard]

You did.

[Billy Corben]

I went around the room. I don't think Stugatz was any. Was any of the sources in the source material.

[Jeremy]

I would have finished it.

[Dan LeBatard]

Look, I have a lot of ownership from the error of my ways. I could have talked better to people, especially younger people at the time, about. I couldn't really communicate what the standard was. A lot of the stuff was living in my head, and I just wasn't a good manager. I wasn't a great communicator. I wasn't great with emails. Like, there's a lot of reasons why people had 17 pages worth of critiques for me. I will say that even though we had those critiques at this point, we were arguably the biggest thing in sports in terms of content.

[Jeremy]

Yes.

[Dan LeBatard]

So I'm not justifying my actions. I'm just saying, like, my standard being upheld did have us at a certain level. And my standard was Dan's standard. I was just fully indoctrinated in what Dan's standard was. And it was my job to keep all that away from Dan, know that people were upholding his standard. But interpersonally it did cause some strife and some resentment. Some stuff that I'm still trying to dig myself out of today. It did leave me in a bit of a pickle with ESPN to circle back to the main narrative of this episode. I thought I'd get suspended at the very least from espn. ESPN was supportive of me. I reported directly to Liam and Amanda. They had known for quite some time that I was not going well.

[Jeremy]

How'd they know?

[Dan LeBatard]

I was honest with them. They, they, they would ask me how I'm doing. I had a trip to London that was the lowest part of my life. It was a great trip. I went for Boxing Day. I went with my friend Eaves and Chris Winningham and we had had a wonderful trip, but I was a fucking mess. And there was one. I came home to the flat, I was in the shower and next moment I was on the floor hyperventilating, crying, looking at pictures of my family, wondering what the fuck is going on with me. I'd called Dan. I had reached out to Dan. I'm like, Dan, I don't know what's, I don't know what's going on with me. I think I have to go to a hospital here. I was prepared to check myself in to a mental health facility across the pond because I was just in loads of despair. So Dan had also known. This was prior to me walking out. This was a catalyst of me really fucking trying to dig in and help myself because I couldn't live that way. I never once ever thought about self harm. I always knew that I could get through it. But at that point I was out of answers and I didn't have a playbook and I didn't know how to identify these things that were going on. So I came back and everyone had those in my family knew. Dan knew. I let Liam and Amanda know that, look, I don't even know if I should be here right now, but I'm seeking this treatment. And ESPN didn't really have those programs in place for me. They were supportive of it, but this was a different time and they found out about that and you know, they knew that I could have handled that a lot better, but they backed me up. And Liam had been executive producer. Mike and Mike a different standard, but he knew and he was also overseeing our show for a time, so he knew the Stuff that I was keeping away from Dan and the pressure cooker that I was under. So he was very comforting in that moment. And I had support in the right places. And I also had support from Dan, even though he's, you know, crying on the floor, thinking that he might have been the catalyst for something really awful. It was coming from a good place. He was caring. All of this stuff came from Dan caring about me in ways that no one had ever really cared about me in my life. I didn't have that relationship with my dad. I certainly didn't have that relationship with my mother, who had long since passed. This was. Was Dan. Everything was Dan caring in ways that no one had ever really cared for me outside of my wife. And I knew that if Dan was approaching me on that level, I could resent, like, little actions here or there. I could resent, like, little triggers. I could resent the dossier. But I never once, ever doubted where they were coming from, which was to get me to be the best version of myself across the board. So Dan and I, even though we had that moment there where I eject and Dan has his own emotional break breakdown, we were good.

[Jeremy]

Probably closer, right?

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think then and there, Dan had a pretty good idea of what was living inside my head, and it did make us closer. Having gone through that, it wasn't an expected result, but I'm grateful for it because he could have fired me. He could have. He had the power at espn.

[Billy Corben]

Never a consideration, Mike. Like, I don't even know what you're talking about.

[Dan LeBatard]

He could have, though. I mean, that's.

[Jeremy]

That's what goes through your mind.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, we talked about what stugats. You guys had my back in ways after you saw something total. Totally out of character for me. Totally out of character.

[Billy Corben]

But probably creates in the room some preferential treatment of how does he get away with that?

[Jeremy]

When, like, I'm thinking about walking out right now. I mean, getting a haircut, walk on the beach.

[Billy Corben]

I don't know what the content of that note is. It didn't seem like 17 pages, but it was probably long. I don't know how any of the people. Maybe we'll hear from them on how they experienced any of it.

[Jeremy]

Was four pages. Felt like 17 to Mike.

[Billy Corben]

I mean.

[Dan LeBatard]

But again.

[Billy Corben]

Again, though, it's just stuff that had.

[Dan LeBatard]

Never been where I'd scroll and I just land on a certain word. I'd scroll again was never a good word to go.

[Billy Corben]

But think about what I'm trying to do there. I'm Interviewing the people in the shipping container for 60 to 90 minutes. Okay. Tell me everything that I need to bring to Mike so that this can all be something that feels a little bit better to everybody. Right. Tell me what. I don't know.

[Dan LeBatard]

I know what you're doing, but that's some real Bond villain shit.

[Jeremy]

You're lucky he forgave you.

[Billy Corben]

So you. Okay, so I. But. So he doesn't know how to manage people. I don't know how to manage people. Now I'm getting involved in the management of people to help him manage people. Like.

[Jeremy]

Well, you managed him. You helped him.

[Dan LeBatard]

I'm better for it. And I had to kind of spiral for a little bit to realize, like, how to avoid it because I was on a path where it's just totally unsustainable. Like, physically, it was manifesting.

[Jeremy]

Well, what changes did you make? Because I think for all three of us, right?

[Billy Corben]

Yeah.

[Dan LeBatard]

Well, I should take.

[Jeremy]

For Billy and for Chris, like, at times. And I'm really protective of Chris and Billy because I saw what happened to you. And I know some of the stuff that I put personally went through because we all put content first. The show comes first. The show came ahead of my family. I have regrets over that.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

I have spoken to people about some of that stuff. And so what changes did you make after that? Did you find yourself putting family first before the show?

[Dan LeBatard]

I found yourself first. No, I definitely. Look, I had to keep working, especially as 2018, 2019. I guess we'll kick some of this down in the next episode, but really.

[Billy Corben]

It'S become a Mental Health episode out of nowhere.

[Dan LeBatard]

It is a. And I kind of should take this opportunity to, like, speak to the audience and that I'm kind of sharing this because God bless Tony Reali, by the way. I don't make it through any of that without Tony Reali. And I've never let that be known publicly because I was going through a lot of stuff that I knew he had gone through and I.

[Billy Corben]

Not work related.

[Dan LeBatard]

No. But I was just grasping at anybody and Tony Reali, who I didn't have, like, this great relation. Like, we just knew each other.

[Jeremy]

It's funny where you find it, huh?

[Dan LeBatard]

Admirer of his work, but everybody. I had enough mutual friends that told me that Tony was his salt of the earth guy. And I flew up to New York just to see Tony. Just to see Tony. I think I ended up having really bland carnitas at Will Kane's house on this trip, too.

[Jeremy]

Oh, that's odd.

[Billy Corben]

That's a Good name for a book. Really bland. Carnitas at Will.

[Dan LeBatard]

At Will.

[Billy Corben]

He's still flourishing. Stu. Guys, you just don't watch those channels.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah, Will was actually a friend of mine at that point and we are no longer friends. FS1 But Tony Reali and I know he kind of shies away from this stuff. Tony Reali was a lifesaver for me in terms of normalizing. And see like this guy operates at a high level. I have immense respect for him. He works in this highly creative environment and you would never know what was going on with his life until he took the opportunity to share some of that stuff. And I knew how powerful it was to see someone that had gone through similar things give voice to it. How does this guy have it all together? So I went to him in a quest to find out how he did. So you asked me like what I did. I talked to people that had gone through therapy. I then found my own therapist. I identified my triggers through therapy, identified ways to. To deal with that. Sometimes it was leaving, sometimes it was going to water. You know how some people visualize water? I learned through that through many failed attempts at meditation in an effort to get better that I wasn't good at meditating. I had to literally go to water because I couldn't visualize it. I guess my mind was racing. Breathing exercises. I took breathing classes. Ultimately, and this is not the path for everybody. I dealt with bad anxiety and stress through 2022 and then ultimately, and this isn't the answer for everybody. Despite my own hesitance, I spoke to a doctor I had already been clinically diagnosed for depressant. I had always said, no, I don't want any of that stuff because of my mom's addiction history. And then I got on Lexapro, which my doctor talked me into because ultimately there were some cases of people that had gone through the full treatment of Lexapro and had dosed down and followed doctors orders when it came to that stuff and could eventually conquer it and not need the medication altogether. So it wasn't a high percentage but I wanted to try that as opposed to just popping a pill. A zany whenever I felt anxiety because I didn't want that dependency. I'd identified that, oh, having a bourbon on the rocks made me feel better. I didn't want that in pill form.

[Billy Corben]

Stugats when you think about the cost, the cost of things, the tax, the price on some of what it is that we've done around here. Mike Ryan did not learn to be an executive by any of the traditional executive paths. He just sort of learned how to do those things in and around us. Conquering at the beginning, an anger problem on wherever it is these feelings were pushed down and then came up and him and I having the back and forth of like, that can't be what we have here. To growing into this space where he is now as an executive, vastly more patient and understanding than I am because he has gone through what some of these things are to sharpen him and harden him into somebody who could grow on the other side of what was profound pain.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah. In the next episode, we'll talk about the beginning of the end.

[Jeremy]

Lighten it up, huh?

[Mike Ryan]

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[Billy Corben]

Rob, were you aware of Jeter's plan to trade players and slash payroll?

[Terry Bradshaw]

You know, it's interesting.

[Billy Corben]

Yes or no? Please don't. Yes or no? Please.

[Terry Bradshaw]

You know, I'm happy to do yes or nos.

[Billy Corben]

You can. You can elaborate afterward. I just want to know if you're aware of that plan. Like you approve. If you did, you approve a plan that had slash payroll again for South Florida.

[Terry Bradshaw]

We do not approve operating decisions by any ownership, new owner, current owners or not. And as a result, the answer to that question is no. I'm not going to be deposed like.

[Billy Corben]

This is some adversary thing.

[Terry Bradshaw]

You want to ask me questions, I'll answer them the way that I want to answer them.

[Billy Corben]

Okay?

[Josh Duhamel]

But that's not good enough. We can move on.

[Billy Corben]

Who is Bruce Sherman? Who is he, and why did. Why was he approved? Because all the bids came in low on.

[Terry Bradshaw]

That's actually not true. I mean, I know you keep saying these things on the Radio. But you have no idea what the cash was in this deal. The fact of the matter is this club, after the transaction, had the same amount of debt as it had pre transaction.

[Billy Corben]

Rob, I know that part. The reason I interrupt you is because I think you cared more about that $1.2 billion asking price than you did about the fans of South Florida.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Yeah, well, can I tell you something? You actually have no idea what I care and don't care about. The fact of the matter is a competitive club in each one of our 30 markets is my foremost concern.

[Billy Corben]

Rob, you got a problem here now, though, because you're not going to have many fans. They want to get the revenue up. They're not going to be able to get the revenue up because of the hostility in this market because this has happened four times.

[Terry Bradshaw]

I believe that they are committed to winning. And, you know, it's going to take some time to see who's right.

[Billy Corben]

All right. Yeah, I don't. I believe they're committed to making money, and I believe you made it very easy for them to make money, whether they have fans or not. And I don't. And I don't know that that's refutable.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Let me be really clear about that. If you believe it's easy to make money in South Florida with Major League Baseball, you are really dramatically ill informed.

[Billy Corben]

I know, but I don't understand. The stadium was supposed to. Yeah. Jeffrey Laurier just made 1.2 million. And he bought in for 10 million.

[Jeremy]

He made over a billion dollars. Commissioner.

[Billy Corben]

All right, we got to go. I'm sorry, Commissioner, we're ten minutes past time. Thank you for. I appreciate you being respected. Thank you, sir.

[Terry Bradshaw]

All right, bye.

[Billy Corben]

Oh.

[Dan LeBatard]

Oh, Rob, I'm getting cranky. You've seen the books and that drives me wild.

[Billy Corben]

I know your boss.

[Dan LeBatard]

I'm gonna call him. I'll send chills up and down his spine. I'm just a Manfred Boy, Manfred Boy I keep playing coy, playing coy I'm just a Manfred Boy Manfred Boy Evasive.

[Jeremy]

Yo soy.

[Billy Corben]

Yo soy. You got me.

[Dan LeBatard]

Hot. Questioning cheater. You stupid geek. Not here to get deposed. You take a walk with your tough talk. I'll make you kneel. We're corporate partners. I'm just a Manfred Boy, Manfred Boy I keep playing Koi playing boy I'm just a Manfred Boy, Manfred Boy I'm not a Sea League boy. Sea League, yeah. Eat your heart out, Goodell. Don't you call me a liar.

[Billy Corben]

Time to mow through some colors. More, more, more color. We are going to mow through those.

[Dan LeBatard]

Colors like there is nobody business.

[Billy Corben]

Mow, mow, mow mow your boat. That doesn't make sense. Mowing through colors.

[Mike Ryan]

Buddy.

[Jeremy]

Sid, go ahead. You're on with Adam Schefter, NBA expert.

[Dan LeBatard]

Coach of the year.

[Jeremy]

Who you got? Coach of the year.

[Billy Corben]

Who you got right now?

[Chris Cote]

Brett Stevens.

[Jeremy]

All right, Jonathan, go ahead.

[Billy Corben]

Mo. Is Jason Kidd the problem in Milwaukee? Listen, I don't know. They got and young talent takes some.

[Chris Cote]

Time to get together.

[Billy Corben]

I don't know if he's a problem just yet.

[Chris Cote]

I'm not ready to go there.

[Jeremy]

Ryan, go ahead fast.

[Dan LeBatard]

What would you do to fix the Magic?

[Billy Corben]

They've got some issues.

[Chris Cote]

I think I trade Vucevic right now.

[Dan LeBatard]

And I go with Biombo moving forward.

[Chris Cote]

Get what I could for Vucevic.

[Billy Corben]

You're a veteran like him.

[Chris Cote]

They got some parts there that have some value and it's just time to start rebuilding.

[Jeremy]

Kevin, go ahead. Faster.

[Billy Corben]

Will the Bulls make the playoffs?

[Chris Cote]

I like the Bulls.

[Daniel Baldwin]

I think they got a chance to equal it out. I'll say yes.

[Jeremy]

Ty, go ahead.

[Josh Duhamel]

Mo, you got the most all star votes. Who you choosing first?

[Billy Corben]

Kevin Durant.

[Chris Cote]

How about that?

[Jeremy]

That's a pretty good choice.

[Dan LeBatard]

Let's go to Wayne.

[Jeremy]

Wayne, go ahead. Mo.

[Chris Cote]

When are the Kings gonna make the playoffs again? The Sacramento Kings will make the playoffs sometime in about 2023.

[Jeremy]

Let's go to Mason. Mason, go ahead. You're on with Adam Schefter, ESPN's NBA expert.

[Billy Corben]

Mo, how much longer will the first be around?

[Chris Cote]

The Spurs.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, Going anywhere.

[Chris Cote]

They're like the Patriots. They. They never fade.

[Stugotz]

One of those Morning Zoo crew radio interview.

[Dan LeBatard]

Zippy and the Juice.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah, they just scream at you for like 10 minutes.

[Josh Duhamel]

And now you're on with Zippy.

[Billy Corben]

Which one are you? Zippy?

[Dan LeBatard]

It doesn't matter.

[Jeremy]

There's an end there.

[Billy Corben]

A lot of people in America, white privilege at helm. Wait, what? Hangover face. This wacky morning show hijink thing.

[Dan LeBatard]

And the Jews. Oh, Zippy and the Juice stand up and wipe. They're crazy.

[Billy Corben]

You're not allowed to rip our morning hijinks. Morning zoo show.

[Dan LeBatard]

They're zany.

[Billy Corben]

And then use it for content. While you guys wonder aloud whether or not there's such a thing as standing wiper.

[Dan LeBatard]

It's Zippy.

[Jeremy]

I finally got the end in this.

[Dan LeBatard]

New title and the Juice on ESPN Radio.

[Billy Corben]

Chris Sims joins us now. We heard that you had Blake Bortles ranked as the 70th ranked quarterback in the NFL and we just wanted to check in with you to Find out who is 69th and who is 71st.

[Josh Duhamel]

So 69, I'd probably go with Austin Davis, the backup quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks.

[Jeremy]

Right.

[Josh Duhamel]

And then 71, I'm going to go Cody Kessler of the Cleveland Browns. Now, can I put this into context of how I got to this conversation a little bit?

[Billy Corben]

No. So who's number 68?

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 68. I'd have to go with T.J. yates.

[Billy Corben]

Okay. Would you be okay with us calling you every day until we've gotten to number one?

[Josh Duhamel]

Holy cow, that's a long time.

[Jeremy]

Please.

[Josh Duhamel]

I do. I do have a job, but I think we can manage it. I like you and Stugot enough to work around my schedule and figure this out. It's the only pain in the butt is I'm gonna actually have to figure out my next 67 here.

[Billy Corben]

Okay. The 67th best quarterback.

[Josh Duhamel]

It is Cardell Jones, the third string quarterback for the Los Angeles Charger.

[Billy Corben]

The 66 best quarterback, it's Brandon Whedon of the Tennessee Titans.

[Dan LeBatard]

Wow.

[Jeremy]

Wow, man.

[Billy Corben]

The 65th best quarterback, C.J.

[Josh Duhamel]

Beathard.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yeah.

[Billy Corben]

All right, so C.J. beathard, the 64th best quarterback in the world.

[Josh Duhamel]

It is Sean Manion, backup quarterback, Los Angeles Rams.

[Billy Corben]

All right. Have no idea.

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 63 is Jake Ruddock, backup quarterback, Detroit Lions.

[Billy Corben]

Wow. Way to go, Jake. Number 62. Go, baby.

[Josh Duhamel]

COOPER Rush, backup quarterback, Dallas Cowboys.

[Billy Corben]

Wow.

[Jeremy]

Nice. Nice.

[Billy Corben]

Number 62.

[Dan LeBatard]

That's the first time I've heard that name.

[Billy Corben]

Well, the last three names, I've never heard of any of those people. The 61st best quarterback, quarterback in the.

[Josh Duhamel]

World, Nathan Peterman, Buffalo Bills.

[Dan LeBatard]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

You've got Peterman being better than bortles.

[Josh Duhamel]

The 60th best quarterback, Landry Jones, backup quarterback, Steelers.

[Billy Corben]

The 59th best quarterback, Paxton lynch, quarterback, Denver Broncos.

[Dan LeBatard]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

Really? Wow. Number 58, Chris Sims.

[Josh Duhamel]

Matt Castle, Tennessee Titans.

[Billy Corben]

Wow. Wow.

[Jeremy]

Matt Castle.

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 57, Ryan Mallett, quarterback, Ravens.

[Billy Corben]

Wow. All right, Chris, thank you. We will talk to you tomorrow.

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 56, DeShawn Kaiser, Cleveland Browns.

[Billy Corben]

Wow.

[Dan LeBatard]

Whoa.

[Billy Corben]

Number 55, Brock Oswalter, Denver Broncos. Come on. What an honor.

[Jeremy]

Come on.

[Josh Duhamel]

The 54th best quarterback, Tom Savage, Houston Texans.

[Billy Corben]

Number 53, according to Chris Sims, is Brian Hoyer.

[Josh Duhamel]

New England Patriots.

[Billy Corben]

Man.

[Josh Duhamel]

Blowing your mind away out here, guys.

[Billy Corben]

The 52nd best quarterback, Matt Sh, Atlanta Falcons. Wow. Wow. The 51st best quarterback in the world.

[Josh Duhamel]

Chad Henny, Jacksonville Jaguar.

[Billy Corben]

He's got their backup quarterback 19 spots ahead of their actual quarterback. Win the Super Bowl. Right. 50th best quarterback, Mark Sanchez, Chicago. Oh, for the love of God. Oh.

[Jeremy]

For the love of God.

[Billy Corben]

Who's 49th?

[Josh Duhamel]

Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota Vikings.

[Billy Corben]

Wow. That's low.

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 48, Kellen Clemens, Los Angeles Chargers.

[Jeremy]

Oh, get out of here.

[Billy Corben]

Is he still in the league? He's not still in the the league. The 47th best quarterback, Chase Daniels, New Orleans Saints. Wow.

[Dan LeBatard]

Chase Daniels.

[Jeremy]

We're up to number 46. What do you got for us, Sims?

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 46 is.

[Billy Corben]

E.J.

[Josh Duhamel]

Manuel, backup quarterback, Oakland Raiders.

[Dan LeBatard]

All right.

[Jeremy]

E.J. manuel, the 45th best quarterback, Blaine Gabbard, Arizona Cardinals.

[Billy Corben]

Wow.

[Josh Duhamel]

The 44th best quarterback, Drew Stanton, Arizona Cardinals. Number 43, Matt Moore, Miami Dolphins. Number 42, Trevor Simeon, Denver Broncos.

[Billy Corben]

Really? And now the 41st best quarterback, Ryan.

[Josh Duhamel]

Fitzpatrick, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yes.

[Billy Corben]

The 40th best quarterback, Mike Glennon, Chicago Bears.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

The 39th best quarterback, Derek Anderson, Carolina Panthers. Wow. Chris Sims is 38th best quarterback.

[Josh Duhamel]

Eli Manning, New York Giants.

[Billy Corben]

Wow.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

That is low. Every time you come on this show, you create a problem that rattles cages and creates more difficulty in your Life.

[Daniel Baldwin]

Hey.

[Billy Corben]

It's 37th best quarterback, according to Chris Sims, is Gino Smith, New York Y. Oh, my God.

[Dan LeBatard]

Of Eli, ahead of Eli.

[Billy Corben]

You are a genius. Number 36, Colt McCoy, Washington Redskins. Oh, wow.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

35Th ranked quarterback, Brett Hundley, Green Bay Packers.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

Wow. I like it.

[Jeremy]

This list is really getting good.

[Billy Corben]

Now, the 34th best quarterback through Mina Kimes is. I do not condone this, but it is A.J.

[Dan LeBatard]

Mccarron.

[Billy Corben]

What? Wow. Wow. Who said was it?

[Josh Duhamel]

That was me.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah.

[Dan LeBatard]

What?

[Billy Corben]

She doesn't condone this.

[Dan LeBatard]

What?

[Billy Corben]

The 33rd best quarterback in the world.

[Dan LeBatard]

Nick FS, Philadelphia Eagles.

[Billy Corben]

Wow.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

The 32nd best quarterback, Carson Palmer, Arizona card. You limped in with that one. Go ahead and give us your 31st best quarterback.

[Josh Duhamel]

The Miami Dolphins. Jay Cutler.

[Billy Corben]

Wow.

[Jeremy]

Wait a second.

[Billy Corben]

Better than Foles.

[Dan LeBatard]

Cutler's better than the Super Bowl MVP.

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 30, Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chief.

[Billy Corben]

Whoa.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

The 29th best quarterback, Josh McCown, neighborhood York Jets. Wow.

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 28, Jacobe Brissette, Indianapolis Colts. Yep. Before last season started, this is where I would have put like A Colin.

[Billy Corben]

Kaepernick, 27th best quarterback in the universe.

[Josh Duhamel]

Ryan Tannehill, Miami Dolphins.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, very low. Hello. The 26th best quarterback, Tyrod Taylor, Buffalo Bills. All right. Wow. Number 25.

[Josh Duhamel]

Oh, it's a special day. It's Andy Dalton, Cincinnati Bengals.

[Jeremy]

Happy Valentine's Day.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, that's too high.

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 24, Mitchell Trubisky, Chicago Bears.

[Jeremy]

Really?

[Billy Corben]

The 23rd, third best quarterback, Sam Bradford, Minnesota Vikings. Perfect, Billy. Yeah. Great work. Billy. The 22nd best quarterback, Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens. The 21st best quarterback, Case Keenum, Minnesota Vikings. Wow.

[Josh Duhamel]

Number 20, it's Jared Goff. Number 20, Los Angeles Rams.

[Billy Corben]

Whoa. The 19th best quarterback in the world is.

[Josh Duhamel]

Marcus Mariota, Tennessee Titans.

[Billy Corben]

18Th best quarterback is Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys.

[Jeremy]

Wow. Wow.

[Billy Corben]

The 17th best quarterback, Alex Smith, Kansas City Chiefs.

[Daniel Baldwin]

Wow.

[Josh Duhamel]

Bottom. Washington Redskins. I don't know what team he's on right now.

[Billy Corben]

The 16th best quarterback, Jameis Winston, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

15Th best quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers.

[Dan LeBatard]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

The number 14 best quarterback in the.

[Josh Duhamel]

World, Derek Carr, Oakland Raiders.

[Dan LeBatard]

Wow.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

The 13th best quarterback, Philip Rivers, Los Angeles Chargers. The 12th best quarterback in the universe, Kirk Cousins. Yeah.

[Dan LeBatard]

Nailed it.

[Billy Corben]

The 11th best quarterback in the world.

[Josh Duhamel]

Andrew Luck, Indianapolis colts.

[Clinton Yates]

Oh.

[Billy Corben]

The 10th best quarterback in the world.

[Josh Duhamel]

Drew Brees, New Orleans. Number nine quarterback, Matt Ryan, the Atlanta Falcons.

[Billy Corben]

Whoa. Wow.

[Jeremy]

Man.

[Billy Corben]

The eighth best quarterback in the universe is.

[Josh Duhamel]

Big Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers.

[Billy Corben]

Wow. The seventh best quarterback, Deshaun Watson, Houston Texans.

[Dan LeBatard]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

The number six quarterback in the universe, according to Chris Simms, is Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers. Wow. The number five quarterback in the universe, according to Chris Sims of Bleacher Report, is Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions.

[Dan LeBatard]

Bullhead.

[Josh Duhamel]

How you like them apples, Levitard?

[Billy Corben]

The fourth best quarterback in the universe, according to Chris Sims of Bleacher Report.

[Josh Duhamel]

Is Tom Brady, New England Patriots.

[Billy Corben]

Kidding me. The number three quarterback in the universe a quarter, according to Chris Simms of Bleacher Report, is Carson Wentz.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

Yes, sir.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yes.

[Josh Duhamel]

Thirty spots better than his counterpart winning.

[Billy Corben]

Backup super bowl quarterback. The number two quarterback in the universe, according to Chris Sims, is Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks.

[Jeremy]

So who's number one?

[Josh Duhamel]

Number one is the greatest quarterback of all time, as you've heard me say before, and that is Aaron Rodgers. I know you like to refer to Tom Brady as the goat.

[Billy Corben]

Number one is Aaron Rodgers.

[Chris Cote]

I think after your stupid comments, I.

[Billy Corben]

Might know more about quarterbacks. Because guess what? Dave Caldwell isn't making the decision. Idiot.

[Chris Cote]

It's Tom Coughlin.

[Billy Corben]

He's in charge down here now. Wow.

[Josh Duhamel]

He was a little stuck.

[Billy Corben]

Take that.

[Chris Cote]

You put that in your pipe and smoke it.

[Clinton Yates]

Whoa.

[Josh Duhamel]

That's fine. Listen, I'm not going to mess with you, but that's just the way I feel. I studied this hard, but I can also tell you that most of the coaches didn't want your job in Jacksonville last year either, because they didn't want to deal with Blake Bortles either.

[Billy Corben]

That's true.

[Jeremy]

That's true.

[Billy Corben]

Guess What?

[Dan LeBatard]

Most of those coaches are at home.

[Chris Cote]

Right now watching the playoffs as we play Sunday, obviously.

[Billy Corben]

You better watch the film a little closer, Tony.

[Josh Duhamel]

I mean, every quarterback in high school football would have hit some of those throws last week. I watched it.

[Jeremy]

Sims, are you sweating at all?

[Josh Duhamel]

I won't be sweating if I see Tony in person, I promise you.

[Billy Corben]

Right. Sims is right about this. He's got Sean Manion six spots ahead of Blake Bortles.

[Chris Cote]

Dan, he is not right.

[Dan LeBatard]

And first of all, you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

[Chris Cote]

You wouldn't know how to evaluate any football player.

[Billy Corben]

Wait a minute. Baseli, are you still taking checks from the Jaguars? Yes or no? That has nothing to do with conversation.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yes or no?

[Billy Corben]

Answer my question, Baselli. Yes or no? You're taking. You're taking checks personally from Coughlin to do this infomercial stuff? Selling Blake bottles when we all know he stinks? I can't confirm or deny that I'm taking.

[Dan LeBatard]

I knew it.

[Billy Corben]

You've been smoked out, P. I got psella. You wolf, cartoon ape. I got you. How many million are they paying you to be Baghdad Bruski and sell your soul to defend Blake Bortle when you know very well that he stinks? Say it before we get out of here. I want to bully the bully. Bazelli, admit on the paycheck that you have from the Jags that Bortle stinks. Say it. No, he's not great Baghdad Boseli. I am top of the food chain. Greatest you've ever seen. And I just showed it to you last goddamn season. And you took the ball out of my hands and fourth down at the end of the season, and you want me to keep coming back to this bullshit as LeBron James runs his sport like you?

[Josh Duhamel]

Yeah, yeah. That's why you're my mother.

[Billy Corben]

Right there.

[Josh Duhamel]

I agree, okay? 100%.

[Billy Corben]

Please cut it up for me. I just want Chris to hear before he leaves what he sounded like when he said that.

[Jeremy]

I think he nailed it.

[Billy Corben]

Okay?

[Dan LeBatard]

I think also, you know, you're just.

[Jeremy]

Looking at me and you're judging a.

[Josh Duhamel]

Book by its cover a little bit. You're like, oh, there's Johnny. White guy with the hair combed over.

[Billy Corben]

And he's all buttoned up. And what I want to go is, they go, hey, you.

[Dan LeBatard]

I'm from Jersey.

[Billy Corben]

You don't know what I'm all about. So are you or are you not my mother?

[Josh Duhamel]

My mother until the day we die, okay?

[Billy Corben]

You are my mofo. Can we escalate to this to a point where you and I are such mother that I'm tattooing your initials into my body and you're tattooing mine into yours because we're mother like that mother.

[Jeremy]

How about me and. Let's start with me and you.

[Josh Duhamel]

No. No chance am I ever getting anything of you on my body.

[Billy Corben]

No chance.

[Josh Duhamel]

I'm a rookie. I'm in the facility for one of the first times ever in Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers just won the Super Bowl.

[Daniel Baldwin]

A few.

[Josh Duhamel]

Few months before that, I go into Gruden's office, he says hello to me. He goes, hey, make sure you get around and introduce yourself to the veteran players. And I'm like, okay, sure. So I bust into the locker room, I look ahead of me, I mean straight ahead. 12:00, Warren Sapp's locker. I'm like, oh, great. I've been meaning I wasn't wanting to meet Warren Sapp. I stick out my hand, he goes, get the hell out of my face. Don't even talk to me until you've won a game. And just totally knocked the cool out of my walk. But then from there on, made me his rookie Hayes, and I was his cracker. Cracker. That's what he called me. Okay, you like that?

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Dan LeBatard]

And I always had to have a.

[Josh Duhamel]

Can his skull on me at all times. And I had to carry his bags up to his room the day before a game on road trips. And then he would throw a 20 on the floor like I was too prideful to pick it up. And I picked it up every time. But he'd look at me and he'd walk in a meeting room and go, hey, cracker, cracker. And I'd have to throw him a can of skull. Always had it on me. Except one time, and that was a fearful moment.

[Billy Corben]

Wait a minute, what happened the one time you didn't know have it on you?

[Josh Duhamel]

So the one time I didn't have it on me, we're playing the Redskins, and I wake up that morning and I look in my bag and I go, oh, no, I got no Kansas skull. Holy cow, what am I gonna do? And we have team breakfast. And I'm going, okay, well, I'm just gonna wait in my room until the last five minutes of team breakfast. Hopefully SAP's not in there. I'll go in, I'll eat, and I'll get on the bus and try to avoid him. So I hide. He's not in the room. I go down there, I eat breakfast. I'm in the corner, I'm going, oh man, I'm going to make it. And all of a sudden, right as I'm getting done with my meal, comes through the door.

[Billy Corben]

Hey, cracker. Cracker.

[Josh Duhamel]

And he holds out his hand like he wants me to throw him something. I just look at him like a, like a beaten puppy and I just shake my head like no. Oh my gosh. He berated me with four lettered words and just embarrassed me in front of the whole team. But now looking back on it, a great moment.

[Billy Corben]

Terry Bradshaw is with us here again. As Dugat said, Fox and NFL Sunday is where you catch him. Four time super bowl champion. I've seen you nude. We've. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There. Is there any good story that you could tell us from failure to launch and, and you being nude when you did that scene, Was it uncomfortable? Were there what happened?

[Chris Cote]

I would. Okay, here's, here's the story. So the director, Jeff die, I mean mean Tom Day comes to me and says when I read for that part, failure lunch and I actually got it, I did lie. I did get a role to get the role for two. Two movies by reading. But anyway, he said, look, there's a scene where we're gonna have a naked room. And now you have a choice. We know that you're Baptist and a Christian and your family might not approve, but we, we, we would prefer you be a neck and. Or otherwise wear some boxer shorts. And I said, whoa, I boy, my mom and dad would not approve of me being neck. And he says, can we do the box? Well, we won't worry about it. It's gonna be the last day of the shoe. So I go down to New Orleans. I'm there six weeks filming the movie. So we've got the scene in the naked room. And so Tom Day comes to me, says, have you given it any thought? I said, well, you know what? This will be my last movie ever do. And I think it would be really funny fun to be naked in the movie because nobody expects me to go naked in a movie. He says, now we obviously then are going to show, you know, your, your private parts. But he says we're going to shoot this thing and we're going to shoot it low and go up over your butt and then you'll end up behind the fishbowl and we'll shoot and da, da, da da. I said, I. So he says, okay, go back and we're set up. So I go back to my trailer to get my house, my robe and I look on my, on my bed and there's three penis socks. One is about 18 inches long, one is about 12 inches long, and one is about 4 inches long. And I'm looking and I'm going, you have got to be kidding me. I. I gotta pick one of these and put on my. My penis. And I went, holy cow. Now, if I take the big one, everybody in the world knows that that's just. No way that that's possible. I got horses that couldn't fill that thing out. So I said, if I take the little one, they're gonna laugh at me because it's not very long. And I know the wardrobe people are gonna get a gap, gather around, and go, so which one did he go? Which one did he go with? Obviously, I went with the middle one, and I put that stupid thing on. I got up there to do the scenes, and I had a penis sock on. And I've never been more uncomfortable in my life. So when Matthew comes out around, I do my scenes in wearing the penis sock, and they go, cut. Now it's time to turn the cameras around and do Matthew McConaughey. And so they got the camera over my shoulder. Matthew comes in, and he sees me naked. Well, he sees me naked. And we do the lines, and he tells Tom Day, you know, it just doesn't work for me because I had on box. I went and put boxers on. Then by then, he goes, can he, you know, put the penis sock back on? And I went. I told the director, I'm not putting that penis sock back on you. Just tell Matthew that. I'll make sure that he gets the shock he wants. So when he came up and the one take, I pulled my boxers down, grabbed my stuff, and shook it at him. And that's the take that we use. And if you'll look at that movie, you'll see McConaughey doing everything he can not to crack up, laugh, and he gets a cracking smile on his face. That's the story. So that's. To me, that's. That's classic for movies.

[Dan LeBatard]

Yes.

[Billy Corben]

That is the best three minutes of my life. The best three minutes of my life. We will end the interview on that note. Good talking football with you. Terry Fox, NFL Sunday. That was. All right, stand up, everybody. Everybody, you've been working on a movie with Ed Helms and Owen Wilson, right? Jake Simmons. And do you have a penis sock story from there? Do you have a great story from there?

[Terry Bradshaw]

No, no, I didn't get. I didn't get naked. Naked, naked in that movie. It's one of the Few times that I've done television. Movies are movie movies that I didn't get naked in the show I do for NBC. Better late than never. I've already been naked in three shows, totally neck in a nude park in Stockholm. And get this, in the middle of the park, There is about 10 acres for nudity. You can sunbathe out there. And then around the center of the park is all the families with picnic tables barbecuing. And they all stay on the outside and the nude people stay on the inside. So I know. So I went to a. A car or station wagon or something, and sure enough, you know, I just peeled all my clothes off and walked out there and I had a hot dog in my hand they gave me for this scene. And I walked up to Shatner and Winkler and Foreman and they went, oh, my God, you can see this. It's so funny. I felt really good, though, because it's just something about being naked.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah. I've got so many questions, Terry.

[Jeremy]

I mean, hey, I get this.

[Terry Bradshaw]

But being a people person that I am. And with my hot dog, there were two men sitting on a blanket.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, no.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And so I went over to him and I said, do y'all mind if I join? And they said, sit down, sit down.

[Billy Corben]

Wait a minute. You. You are. Wait a minute. Hold on a second. What's going on in your life? I'm. I don't know.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Hey, when you got a body like this, you just got to show it all.

[Jeremy]

That's right, Terry. Hold on.

[Billy Corben]

Terry, you showed up at a. At a picnic where two people were. You had only a hot dog on you.

[Terry Bradshaw]

I had a hot dog. That's it.

[Billy Corben]

No socks, no shoes, nothing.

[Jeremy]

No sock.

[Billy Corben]

Okay. And you just walked right up to him and you sit down.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Can I join you?

[Billy Corben]

Can I join you?

[Terry Bradshaw]

And they said you. Yes.

[Billy Corben]

And.

[Terry Bradshaw]

But being. Being also a giver, I said, would y'all like a bite of my wiener?

[Billy Corben]

Oh, my God, I love you. You're still 12 years old. Terry. Terry, don't change. How is it possible that you're still 12 years old?

[Terry Bradshaw]

I don't know, but I'm glad I am. All right, well, I heard you were.

[Billy Corben]

I heard you were parasailing nude, too.

[Jeremy]

Oh, please say that's true.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Yeah, I took my shorts off. They were cut. Cutting into my crotch. And so I took my shorts off and just pitched them out while I was flying in the air. Not a good moment. Not a good moment, Harry.

[Billy Corben]

Terry, why are you always naked in public? Like I told You.

[Terry Bradshaw]

You got a body like this.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah, you mentioned that.

[Jeremy]

See it?

[Terry Bradshaw]

Okay, well, that's. That's all I have to say.

[Billy Corben]

All right, but hold on a second. Have you had any more awkward penis sock stories? Are you just full naked? You're not even doing anything.

[Jeremy]

Done with the penis.

[Billy Corben]

You're not doing any penis socks anymore. Anymore.

[Terry Bradshaw]

No more penis socks. I don't ever want to put a penis socks on again.

[Billy Corben]

Terry, you've graduated to porn. Like, it feels like you.

[Jeremy]

You.

[Billy Corben]

You are always nude.

[Terry Bradshaw]

No, I'm.

[Jeremy]

I'm.

[Terry Bradshaw]

You know what? I. I live on a ranch, and then we have two bathrooms in the house on our side. I still will get out of the chair and go outside and pee in the yard.

[Jeremy]

That a boy.

[Billy Corben]

Thank you.

[Jeremy]

Why.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Why do I do that?

[Billy Corben]

I don't know.

[Terry Bradshaw]

When I. When I. I had my daughter, I'd walk outside and I'd pee in the backyard, and I didn't realize she was walking with me. She's like 2 years old, and I'm sitting there peeing, and so she says, well, look, I'll pee with daddy. And so she. She tilted her shoulders back and she let her rip.

[Billy Corben]

I let her rip. All right, so she is daddy's daughter. This is what I want to ask you. Thank you, Terry, because. Speak to your inner child. 12 year old. I want to. I want to. I want to know the three oddest places where Terry Bradshaw has urinated.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Oh, man. Oddest places I've urinated. I got caught the other day on the side of a road.

[Billy Corben]

No, you got caught.

[Jeremy]

Gotta go. Gotta go.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Yeah, yeah. Well, they pulled a trick on me. I had to go so bad. When you're 69 and got prostate issues, you. You just pee a lot. And they pulled the car up. All the jerks, my buddies, they pulled the car up in Hawaii. And there I was, standing right there as the car came by. I mean, seriously, I. And then I. I turned around and peed all over my pants.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, three oddest places. You peed?

[Terry Bradshaw]

Three oddest places I've peed. Let me think.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah, we got. We got time.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Here's one. Here's one.

[Jeremy]

All right.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Top of the house.

[Jeremy]

What?

[Terry Bradshaw]

Top of the house. But I was going to pee over the edge, but I ended up peeing in the gutter, which is kind of cool.

[Jeremy]

Okay.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Top of the house.

[Billy Corben]

That's.

[Terry Bradshaw]

That's the one I knew for sure.

[Billy Corben]

That's a good one. How about the sink? Ever in the sink? Ever in the sink of the house.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Oh, of course. Of course. I Peed in the sink.

[Jeremy]

Do you even use a bathroom anymore?

[Terry Bradshaw]

I get this. And. And Kyle is. We had a sink and the bathroom was right outside my door. And I'd get up, my roommate, he'd be asleep and I'd just get up and pee in the sink. Wash it out good, though.

[Jeremy]

Terry, what's the last time you peed? The traditional way. In a toilet.

[Billy Corben]

In a place where. The last time. A place where he.

[Terry Bradshaw]

You mean like, go to the bathroom? I hate to hear that noise, that peeing noise when it hits the water.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Oh, yeah. I don't like that. So I sit down. I have a bad back anyway.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, you're sitting. Really? Terry, Terry, you are so revealing. You just volunteer everything I said.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Well, it's 2:00 in the morning. I'm sleepy. I don't want to stand up there and make all that noise and wake everybody up.

[Billy Corben]

You understand, though, that usually if I say four time super bowl champion, that's a person who doesn't want to be associated with peeing sitting down.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Well, I really don't care.

[Billy Corben]

Okay, very good. Maybe everybody.

[Terry Bradshaw]

Maybe everybody. Listen, listen. Maybe everybody. Everybody else is worried about their image. I think I only enhance mine. Very good. I do things that you and everybody else does. Y'all just don't talk about it.

[Billy Corben]

That's right. I love talking to this dude Keegan. Michael Key has a cool energy about him. I was leaving my office one day.

[Dan LeBatard]

At Sunset Gower Studios and I went.

[Jeremy]

Over to visit a friend of mine.

[Billy Corben]

Who was shooting on the TV show the Newsroom with Jeff Daniels. And I'm looking down the way and I see the beautiful Olivia Munn.

[Jeremy]

She sees me and I see her.

[Billy Corben]

And she beelines for me. Yes. And she comes up, she goes, hi, I'm Liv, and I'm a big fan of your work. And I said, and I'm Keegan. I'm a big fan of your work.

[Dan LeBatard]

And your face and everything else and. And everything else that's standing right here.

[Billy Corben]

I'm a big fan of. And then. And then there's this big kind of hulky, kind of hunky guy standing next to her. I'm not paying attention. She goes, oh, I'd like you to.

[Dan LeBatard]

Meet my boyfriend, Aaron.

[Billy Corben]

All of a sudden, I couldn't care less who Olivia Mun was. I just like, look at the guy. And I go. I don't even say hello. I just go NFC North. And then I. Hello, Murray.

[Daniel Baldwin]

That's the name.

[Jeremy]

How you doing?

[Daniel Baldwin]

I'm good. I don't Know what I'm talking to. But I'm good.

[Jeremy]

You're talking to Stu. You got some golfing today, Mar.

[Daniel Baldwin]

Golf?

[Jeremy]

Yeah. You play golf today, or.

[Daniel Baldwin]

No, I don't play golf.

[Jeremy]

No. No golf. You don't play golf at all?

[Daniel Baldwin]

No, I stopped some years ago.

[Jeremy]

Oh, really?

[Daniel Baldwin]

Yeah, I had issues with my. I had arthritic, you know, problem in my hands. I. Whatever it is, you know, I won't be 81 years old, so.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, that's tough. So what'd you do today? Anything. Anything exciting today?

[Daniel Baldwin]

Yeah, I got my hair cut.

[Jeremy]

Nice.

[Daniel Baldwin]

My dog got his hair cut.

[Jeremy]

Nice.

[Daniel Baldwin]

Picked him up. You know, I. How about your day? Tell me about your day.

[Jeremy]

My day's been great. Where are you in? Philadelphia?

[Billy Corben]

Mary.

[Dan LeBatard]

No.

[Jeremy]

Where?

[Daniel Baldwin]

Philadelphia. I'm in Charleston, South Carolina.

[Jeremy]

Oh, yeah. I love Charleston, South Carolina. It's one of my favorite cities. South Carolina. It's fantastic. I love Charleston.

[Daniel Baldwin]

Well, I'm happy to hear that. Now, you said that, Steve.

[Jeremy]

It's Stu, actually. Yeah, it's Stu's. It's Stu. Yeah.

[Daniel Baldwin]

Stu.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Daniel Baldwin]

Which Stu?

[Jeremy]

Stu. I mean, my name is Stu Weiner.

[Daniel Baldwin]

All right, so now what do we. Where do we go from there with this conversation?

[Jeremy]

Well, I need some help, Murray. I really need some help here. So we have this big campaign going on. I work. I work for espn, okay? And we have this big campaign going on, and we're trying to get this guy down in Miami. The Miami Marlins.

[Daniel Baldwin]

Yeah. But whatever it is that you're calling me about, that's certainly not my specialty, so how about if I'm polite and I just tell you goodbye?

[Jeremy]

Well, hold on.

[Billy Corben]

No, no, no, no.

[Jeremy]

Hold on, hold on. What is your. What is your specialty, Murray?

[Daniel Baldwin]

My specialty is to not, you know, get hustled.

[Jeremy]

No, no, I. Murray, I swear to you on everything that I have, okay? I am. I'm. I'm a nice Jewish boy. I am not here to hustle you. I'm just asking. I just need help with one thing. It's simple, and if you don't want to do it, just hear me out. If you don't want to do it, then we don't do it. Okay?

[Daniel Baldwin]

I don't have a lot of time, but why don't you just get to the point?

[Jeremy]

You're right. You're right. So, mlb.com major, you like baseball?

[Daniel Baldwin]

I follow it. Enough. Get to your point.

[Jeremy]

Okay? MLB.com I just need you to go there, and if you wouldn't mind, vote for Louis Brinson of the Florida Marlins to make it to the NL All Star team. That's all I need. That's it. It's free. And that's all.

[Daniel Baldwin]

I understand. I haven't.

[Jeremy]

I'm not asking for money. I'm not selling anything.

[Daniel Baldwin]

Done that for the Phillies. So I'm not going to. And do it for the guy from the Marlins. Let me say goodbye, Stu. Thank you.

[Billy Corben]

Murray. Yeah, Murray?

[Daniel Baldwin]

Who's this?

[Jeremy]

Hey, Murray, it's Stugatz with espn. How you doing?

[Daniel Baldwin]

Who's this?

[Jeremy]

This is Stugot. I work with espn. How you doing?

[Billy Corben]

I don't even know you. Who do you want?

[Jeremy]

I want Murray. Murray. Murray, you there?

[Billy Corben]

Who is this?

[Jeremy]

This is Stu Goth with espn. Murray, where are you? In an airport. What's going on?

[Billy Corben]

I don't know who's here. I don't know who this is.

[Jeremy]

Goodbye. All right. Murray.

[Billy Corben]

Murray.

[Jeremy]

Murray.

[Billy Corben]

We're now in a full blown war with the Baldwin family.

[Jeremy]

What?

[Billy Corben]

The Baldwin brothers. It has escalated to. To an unreasonable place. I asked which is the fat one. And this apparently set off fireworks throughout the Baldwin Baldwin family. Fireworks that you imagine. The Baldwins, they settle things with their fists even. You know, the brothers.

[Dan LeBatard]

Daniel Baldwin tried to join our show yesterday. We declined rapidly.

[Billy Corben]

Which one did we decide? Daniel Baldwin was 4.

[Jeremy]

The bad one.

[Dan LeBatard]

4. 4.

[Jeremy]

And the fat one. What happened?

[Billy Corben]

Don't do that.

[Josh Duhamel]

What?

[Billy Corben]

What did I do?

[Dan LeBatard]

Fourth one is enough of a.

[Billy Corben]

This is what got us into this mess. This is what got us into this mess to begin with. The Baldwin brothers are all mad at us. Evidently. I don't. I don't even know. Because we don't know the Baldwin. We don't know who Daniel is. And because we think that it has been said that we think all of them are the fat one.

[Dan LeBatard]

So we learned throughout this entire thing through just casual content folks. This is a content factory down here. Oh, yeah. We learned that Daniel Baldwin does a radio show in Syracuse and espn. Syracuse.

[Billy Corben]

Great show. Show.

[Dan LeBatard]

It's a great show. It's a fantastic show. ESPN 97 impeccably produced.

[Jeremy]

Great job.

[Dan LeBatard]

And he does this sports talk show and he led the show yesterday with the drama.

[Jeremy]

This is the Daniel Baldwin Show.

[Billy Corben]

Hello. Welcome to the big show. We're waiting for John to come back in the studio. We were on this show was on from three to four in the afternoon here in Syracuse and downloaded worldwide, of course. And it turns out that because of doing the morning show, we asked the great one, Ed Levine, if we could move this show from 10 to 11 to accommodate Josh and my schedule. And we did. So which put us on against Dan LeBatard show yesterday. Is this yesterday? Yeah, yesterday, the LeBard show was talking. Trash talking. I mean, it. It would be considered trash talking. No, no, I think.

[Dan LeBatard]

No, I think that's just their show.

[Billy Corben]

Who's the fat one is not trash talking. Oh, see, I told you that's where it started. But I. I'm blaming Suds. I'm pretty much.

[Dan LeBatard]

I.

[Billy Corben]

The fat one in the. The one who started it.

[Dan LeBatard]

You did. You did. And he got on you for your Alec Baldwin take, saying that he's never carried a movie. Really?

[Billy Corben]

Wait a minute. That's his own brother's words. I was quoting him from a New Yorker article.

[Dan LeBatard]

Daniel disagrees with you, man.

[Billy Corben]

He disagrees with something his brother said. I don't believe. Look, man, this all started because Alec Baldwin is on, like, my bucket list of guests. I've been wanting to talk to that dude for 10 years. I find him fascinating.

[Dan LeBatard]

I find you've hurt your chances uncommonly.

[Jeremy]

Probably not. Not going to happen.

[Billy Corben]

I find him uncommonly honest. But his other brothers, outside of the usual suspects, there aren't a lot of. There's not a lot of work there that people aren't making fun of.

[Dan LeBatard]

His producer, Daniel Baldwin's producer seems to be on our side a little bit in sort of explaining this, because this is about family right now. You've crossed a brotherhood right now. This is a really strong bond. I mean, you opened his eyes to something about his brother Billy that he had no idea. I think they're pretty complimentary of your brother going forward.

[Billy Corben]

Well, they go back and forth. Come on. They're saying that he's.

[Dan LeBatard]

Billy was the one that always, like, looked like he was waking up.

[Billy Corben]

So Billy's. That's Billy's. The beautiful Baldwin. Billy. Billy was in a movie with judge.

[Dan LeBatard]

With Fair Game.

[Billy Corben]

Cindy Crawford.

[Dan LeBatard]

Fair Game.

[Billy Corben]

Was that here in Miami?

[Dan LeBatard]

Exactly what you're talking about.

[Billy Corben]

Okay, that is the guy I'm talking about. That is the. That is the handsome one. That is the handsome bald one, is it not?

[Jeremy]

Yes.

[Dan LeBatard]

The one who could barely open his eyes.

[Billy Corben]

That's right. Looks sedated all the time. Does Billy Baldwin always look sedated? Put it on the pole, Guillermo.

[Dan LeBatard]

Billy always looks.

[Billy Corben]

Always looks. I've never heard anyone say that. I've never says. 30 years of acting, and I've never heard anyone mention that Billy always looks sedated.

[Dan LeBatard]

I went to the poll after they do polls on Twitter, and it was 85% of the people listening to the show agreed with it.

[Jeremy]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

Maybe I'm just so. So out of the loop that I don't realize how sedated. Billions.

[Clinton Yates]

Wow.

[Billy Corben]

We've got a rebel in their infiltrate. We there. The producer there. That's a young guy who actually knows our show. We've got to protect that rebel. Don't. Don't reveal that to anyone like I just did.

[Dan LeBatard]

But we have all sorts of developments, Dan. I guess we'd like to imagine that there's a group text amongst the Baldwin brothers, and I like to think they're texting about you over the last couple of days. Quite frequently, in fact. Daniel's doing a show today and Alec is joining his show to discuss this war.

[Jeremy]

Oh, no.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, no. I like. I admire Alec. I bought his biography.

[Jeremy]

Right, Daniel?

[Billy Corben]

Daniel's really eager to tell us about his 30 years of acting experience that none of us remember. Huh.

[Dan LeBatard]

Well, I'm not sure if that was Billy's or his. Again, your escort. I think he was talking about Billy. Yeah, he's not talking about Steven. He's not happy with you. But there's even more of an exciting development. You guys and I just got this email like a minute ago.

[Jeremy]

Talk to us. Let's go.

[Dan LeBatard]

Daniel's so eager to join the show and address you man to man that he is considering organizing a conference call of all the Baldwins just to tell you how wrong you are. However, this opens up a whole can of worms because I've learned all the Baldwins sound identical.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, no. Oh, right. But the other can of worms it opens up. Mike, is that. We said that none of the Baldwins were welcome on our show unless it was Alec.

[Dan LeBatard]

Again, not we. You did. I only said no to Daniel. I was a hard no on Daniel.

[Jeremy]

But if Daniel comes with Alec attached, then we are.

[Dan LeBatard]

But how do you know if it's Alec or Daniel? It could be all Daniel. How the conference calls could be. Hello, this is Alec, and I'm also Alec. And I'm Stephen.

[Billy Corben]

No, I'm.

[Dan LeBatard]

I'm. I'm Billy. I'm Stephen. I'm Daniel. I'm Alec. You're wrong.

[Billy Corben]

You.

[Dan LeBatard]

Who said that? I did.

[Billy Corben]

Who's I?

[Dan LeBatard]

Alec, Daniel. William. Billy. Stephen. Doug.

[Jeremy]

He's not that good of an actor.

[Billy Corben]

Doug Baldwin. That's what they say about Doug.

[Jeremy]

Not a fat one.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, God. That's what they say about Doug Baldwin, the receiver.

[Dan LeBatard]

I've lost a lot of pounds. Who said that? I did. Who's I? Steven.

[Billy Corben]

No.

[Dan LeBatard]

William. No. Doug?

[Billy Corben]

No.

[Dan LeBatard]

Daniel. It's Alec.

[Billy Corben]

Alec Baldwin. I did.

[Dan LeBatard]

Everyone else is Fat.

[Billy Corben]

I'm not.

[Dan LeBatard]

Daniel. Fat Steven. Fat Doug Black. What is he on this call for Seahawk? Doug. 30 years of acting experience. What we're doing is very rude. What Dan has done, I can't believe it. Because he's putting everybody in this awkward position where they have to worry about content. And I'm crossing the line where I'm no longer a decent human being because I'm just representing you and your true feelings.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah, him being a joke is your fault. Dan's feelings, I mean, when they're right, they're right. All right, who do I have to apologize to? You guys or the Baldwin? Me.

[Dan LeBatard]

Stephen? No.

[Billy Corben]

Alec? No.

[Dan LeBatard]

Daniel?

[Billy Corben]

No. Which one are you? I'm all of them. The fat one.

[Dan LeBatard]

The Dan LeBatard show with Stu Gotts is on ESPN Radio and the ESPN app, Clinton Yates.

[Billy Corben]

Ryan Hollins. Filling in here on a Friday, we're joined by Josh Duhamel, former star of All My Children, currently going to be starring in the next Transformers film.

[Clinton Yates]

Josh, you're gonna have to forgive me for this, because I'm gonna ask you a real edgy question, okay? But I'm gonna. You're my guy. Okay. Do not forget. You're my guy. You might be on my wall at home.

[Jeremy]

Okay.

[Clinton Yates]

You're my guy.

[Billy Corben]

Love it. You're my guy, too. You're on my wall.

[Clinton Yates]

This hurt my feelings as a real fan, and I know that it wasn't meant to be taken in this way, but I felt like in the Transformers before, there were some robots that said some real. As an African American male, I felt. Said some taken as racist and edgy things or just the way that they spoke was supposed to be, I guess, in a sense of an African American or depict a hip hop culture. And I was like, that is so not what hip hop is. And I'm not saying that it was meant in that way, but it personally, my feelings were hurt. Now, I can't speak for everybody else, but I just felt like it was a bad. A bad take. I don't know if they came off as entertaining, but as an African American, American male, me, myself, I was taken back by that. But I still love the series. Maybe. Can you break that down? I'm sure you've heard about it, too, or had some, you know, possibly some small backlash from it.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, come on, man. I mean, we're talking about robots. How could we possibly make this racist?

[Clinton Yates]

No, no, no, I hear. But what I'm saying is every robot, every character depicts something or somebody or even the hit, you know, the way it was taken.

[Billy Corben]

I understand, I do understand what you're saying. And, and, yeah, you know, there's, there's, there's, there's, you know, that's a question for Michael. I think that, you know, there are certain sort of inflections and certain voices and whatever that could have been taken as. Okay, now you're generalizing. Yeah, so I understand that, you know, but I don't think it was ever meant to be taken personally or, or, or anything like that, you know, but, but, you know, I'm sorry if, if you're offended.

[Stugotz]

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[Dan LeBatard]

Hey Jeremy.

[Billy Corben]

Yes, Mike?

[Dan LeBatard]

Have you ever had a fireside conversation during a football Sunday during the winter? Sure, we don't have a lot of.

[Stugotz]

Fireplaces down here, but I've had the premise of it.

[Dan LeBatard]

I wish I could, but it's South Florida. When it gets down to the 60s, we're like we're bundled up, but certainly no fireplaces. Still too warm for that. But we do have our football Sundays. And one thing that always makes football Sundays good. And I know you've had plenty of experience in your life with this Miller Time.

[Jeremy]

Oh yeah.

[Dan LeBatard]

Miller Lite makes the winter better. It makes football Sundays better. It makes even hand hanging out around you better.

[Billy Corben]

Thanks Mike, that was kind.

[Dan LeBatard]

I appreciate that. You're my friend. When I have a Miller Lite in my hand, pretty much everybody is my friend. Because we are like minded. Because we like beer that actually tastes like beer. Oh, and now the new year. It's the perfect time to have Miller Time. Miller Lite is brewed for taste. People out there, I want you to listen to me and Jeremy, you too. Because you know it hits just different than other light beers. The original light beer since 1975 and still the very best one. Miller Lite great taste. 96 calories. Go to millerlight.com dan to find delivery options near you or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Tastes like Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.