The Big Suey: Cam Newton's Hat Travel Case (feat. Pablo Torre)

Summary

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The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

The Big Suey: Cam Newton's Hat Travel Case (feat. Pablo Torre)

September 12, 2025
From the Elser Hotel in Downtown Miami: Dan Le Batard, Stugotz, Pablo Torre, Chris Cote, Billy Gil, Mike Ryan & guests

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Episode Overview

This "Big Suey" episode delivers a classic cocktail of sports banter, inside jokes, and a deep-dive with Pablo Torre about his explosive reporting on Steve Ballmer, Dennis Wong, and Clippers–salary cap intrigue. Amidst the chaos, the show ponders the logistics of Cam Newton’s iconic headwear and relishes in the absurdities of sports broadcasting and podcasting life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Weekly Show Rituals: Punishments, Picks, & Tree-Planting

[02:02–06:21]

• Punishment Games Update:
  The guys revisit last week’s lost bet punishments, with Chris Cote humorously defending his “Kawhi Leonard: Plant a Tree” penalty by arguing, “I will plant as many trees as Kawhi Leonard has planted... I planted a tree. Punishment paid.” (Chris Cote, [02:44])

  • The crew, skeptical of his “proof” photos, demand more authenticity:
    “That is not you.” (Pablo Torre, [03:18])
    “Is that AI you?” (Mike Ryan, [03:20])

• Football Picks & Bucket Ritual:
  The panel draws teams for their weekly NFL pick-em, with playful back-and-forth and brand plugs (“Thank you, Dentek!” – Billy Gil, [06:21]).

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2. Pablo Torre Deep Dive: Clippers, Salary Cap, Ballmer & Wong

[06:22–14:13, 17:13–26:23]

• Height Jokes & Video Angles:
  Dan wonders why Pablo towers over his podcast guests:
  “Why is it that you look so much larger than Samson in all these videos?” (Dan, [06:22])
  “Thank you for asking. I'm 5'10 and three quarters...” (Pablo, [06:43])

• Reporting Bombshells – Steve Ballmer & Dennis Wong:
  Dan and Pablo break down Torre’s recent reporting about the LA Clippers’ alleged salary cap workarounds, focusing on NBA owner Steve Ballmer and roommate/partner Dennis Wong.

  • Pablo’s most delightful reporting detail? “My favorite one is actually that his name is Dennis. There is another Dennis. There's a different Dennis...” (Pablo, [08:18])
  • Pablo details the depth of his investigative legwork, referencing ethnic expectations and fact-checking rigor:
    “I just don't know if people appreciate what it takes...to investigate an Asian American Harvard graduate who works in the NBA. Like, if I do this, that's how you know it's real.” ([08:18])

• Ballmer’s Roommates & Harvard Connections:
  Harping on 1970s Harvard lore: “Titans of industry allegedly smoking weed for the first time and wondering to themselves, ‘When will we ever own a basketball team…’” (Pablo, [09:16])

• NBA’s Shifting Attitude & PR Fires:
  After Torre’s reporting, the NBA went “from...‘We all love Ballmer’...to the additional reporting makes it such that, oh no, he's ensnared here...” (Dan, [11:19-12:00])
  Pablo details the Clippers’ “last-ditch PR spin” and mocks the flimsy excuse that Dennis Wong invested $1.99 million in a failing company just to “save his daughter's job”:

  • “[That] is insanely nonsensical...” (Pablo, [13:18])
  • “If you were to do that, that's a different potential crime!” ([13:55])

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3. Inside Reporting: Kawhi Leonard, Load Management & Clipper Payments

[17:23–22:22]

• Internet Theorizing: Did Missed Payments Change Kawhi’s Playing Time?

  • “Billy posited that, well, why would he [Kawhi] care about a $1.75 million payment? …no, this is bookie logic. It's the principle.” (Mike Ryan, [17:23])

  • Pablo unpacks verified facts: Clippers were three months late paying a contractually obligated $1.75M to Kawhi, which triggered “increasingly furious” calls from his camp ([18:34]). The payoff came only after Ballmer’s roommate and Clippers co-owner, Dennis Wong, made a suspicious $1.99M deposit into the company at the center of the investigation.

  • Pablo’s sly inference:

    “If I was a Clippers executive...and I had a guy who was [complaining]…about how he wasn’t getting the payment he was legally entitled to, the question then becomes…how voluntary is the pain that you're expressing [for load management] ...That would be an outstanding question for someone to look into.”

    (Pablo, [20:52])

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4. Sports Journalism & NBA Media Dynamics

[21:29–26:23]

• How hard is it to challenge the NBA’s richest owner?

  • Dan speaks to the tooth-and-nail nature of going after Ballmer:
    “If you’re going to go after Ballmer…you have to be super careful, super careful not to get a word wrong. And that’s not the media landscape we’re living in anymore…” ([28:01])

• Pablo Torre’s Philosophy & Mark Cuban Interview

  • “My philosophy is that I've been ready to talk about this. What I'm not worried about once I publish is my familiarity with the reporting.” ([22:22])
  • Pablo and Dan discuss the NBA’s default urge to protect the owner class and how the show's rigorous legal and factual checks create a rare zone of confidence:

    “The last thought I have is just, it was stupid what Steve Ballmer did on one level…he was victimized by a company that he partnered with to try and deceive the NBA. … He was not breaking the law, he was breaking the NBA’s rules.”

    (Pablo, [25:00])

• Journalism Quip:
  “She [my wife] is so mad at me.” ([24:26])
  “The market rate for me suppressing this is probably higher than my all-in career earnings.” ([24:36])

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5. Pod Hijinks: Cam Newton’s Hat, Shaq in the Seats, and Football Giants

[33:09–37:10]

• Cam Newton’s Hats – In-Depth Investigation
  “When Cam Newton flies, do you think he wears his hat or has a massive hat travel box?” (Chris Cote, [33:09])
  Consensus: The hats are valuable ($800 apiece), and he likely uses a travel case instead of wearing one in-flight.

• Size Comparisons: Cam Newton, Draymond Green, and Shaq
  Debate about which athletic giant appears most “formidable" in person.

  • “He would be 6’6, 250, so smaller than most power forwards. ... Would he look bigger than Draymond Green?” (Dan, [36:17])
  • “I think there’s more than just height when it comes to judging how big a dude is.” (Billy Gil, [36:45])

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6. Sports Media Musing: NFL Broadcasts, Humor in the Booth, and TV History

[39:25–44:50]

• Monday Night Football’s Rise and Broadcast Trivia
  Dan shares:

  “Monday Night Football in the early 90s…it was behind The Naked Truth, Suddenly Susan and Carolina in the City.”
  (Dan, [39:25])

• The Future of Sports Broadcast Comedy
  Arguments about whether humor belongs in major football booths.
  “N one of those people (comic color guys) have ended up working because the thing is such a cathedral that you can’t be not serious in the football booth.” (Dan, [44:04])

• Irreverent Poll Topics:

  • “Does Cam Newton travel wearing his hat or does he lock it away in a travel seat?”
  • “Did you assume Baldinger worked out in flip flops?”
  • “Weightlifter who says ‘we were stacking plates, pal’: douche or no douche?”
    (Multiple, [33:33–38:13])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

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• Chris Cote, arguing his punishment:

  “I will plant as many trees as Kawhi Leonard has planted. So I would say that has been paid off already.”

  [02:44]

• Pablo Torre, on ethnicity and reporting:

  “If I do this, that's how you know it's real. I feel like, is the credibility I've earned ethnically?”

  [08:18]

• Dan Le Batard, on Ballmer’s shifting support:

  “The whole mood shift of the board of governors…went from ‘We all love Ballmer’…to…oh, no, he’s ensnared here.”

  [11:19]

• Pablo Torre, on PR spin:

  “The only head of a pin that anybody who wants to spin this has left to dance upon…It must have been to save his daughter's job. And I will you that not only is that insanely nonsensical...”

  [13:18]

• Pablo Torre, on withholding stories for leverage:

  “The market rate for me suppressing this is probably higher than my all-in career earnings. So horrible decision by me…”

  [24:36]

• Classic moment:

  “He would have gotten away with it…if it wasn’t for me.”
  (Scooby-Doo riff, Pablo, [26:25])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:02] Weekly NFL bucket and punishment games
• [06:22] Pablo Torre enters; height jokes and video framing
• [08:18] Deep dive: Ballmer, Wong, Harvard anecdotes, NBA reporting
• [13:18] Pablo eviscerates the “saving daughter’s job” defense
• [18:34] Analysis: Kawhi Leonard payments, load management speculation
• [21:29] Pablo discusses journalism’s difficulty, NBA power relationships
• [24:26] Pablo jokes about the cost of suppressing his story
• [25:00] “He was not breaking the law, he was breaking the NBA’s rules”
• [33:09] Cam Newton's hat travel logistics, athlete size debate
• [39:25] Dan on MNF’s 1990s TV context and rise of football
• [44:04] Debate: funny broadcasters in the NFL

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Tone and Spirit

The episode is fast-moving, irreverent, brimming with inside jokes, and reflective of the Dan Le Batard Show's unique blend of sharp sports commentary and absurdist humor. The Pablo Torre segment balances hard-hitting investigative insight with self-aware asides about podcasting, media foibles, and NBA politicking.

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Listener Takeaways

• Pablo Torre’s reporting on Clippers ownership and salary cap circumvention is shaking up the NBA’s boardroom dynamics.
• The NBA was slow to react because the league and the media “protect the partners”—owners—even as evidence piles up.
• Cam Newton probably owns an $800 felt hat box for travel, and his physical presence is impressive enough to block ringside views from Shaq-level seats.
• The show continues to find comedy in the small details of sports (like Baldinger’s gym footwear and the value of “stacking plates, pal”) while questioning who makes sports broadcasting “funny.”

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If you missed the episode: expect hard laughs, sharp NBA and NFL insight, and Pablo Torre at his fiercely reported, dryly joyous best—plus the mystery of the Cam Newton hat case, unsolved.

Transcript

[Dan Le Batard]

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[Dan Le Batard]

All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Chris Cote]

There.

[Dan Le Batard]

Welcome to the Big Sui presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show?

[Pablo Torre]

The podcast that seems very similar to.

[Dan Le Batard]

The other Dan LeBatard podcast? I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries that if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys.

[Billy Gil]

I've done it.

[Pablo Torre]

And now here's the marching man to.

[Dan Le Batard]

Nowhere, Fat Face and the Habitual Liar.

[Chris Cote]

This episode of the Dan Lebatark show with Sue Gotts is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours.

[Dan Le Batard]

Whose turn is it next? Before we bring on Pablo Torre to select from the bucket because we did a very poor job of getting Jeff Konine of staying on track of me maintaining my point, I lost track of the show there several times.

[Chris Cote]

You guys pointed out that I lost last week. So I want to let the audience audience know that I did already select a punishment because I know that that has been a complaint amongst many people fans.

[Dan Le Batard]

Dan metalark Metal Arc has now hired somebody to enforce that officially. I can't tell you. No, no no no. I'm bringing in somebody to back you up. Jeremy. In the event that you don't have enough backup, we have someone hired. I'll tell you about it Soon.

[Chris Cote]

Okay. Well, in any event, I selected the Kawhi Leonard. And the punishment is I have to plant a tree. Now, I would say in the spirit of Kawhi Leonard and the punishment, I do not plant a tree because I will plant as many trees as Kawhi Leonard has planted. So I would say that that has been paid off already because I planted.

[Billy Gil]

That's not how this works.

[Chris Cote]

So I knew that you guys would protest this, so I went out on my own and I planted a tree. And I would like to show you here the photo of me planting the tree. And this punishment has been paid off. No, I don't believe that's what happened.

[Pablo Torre]

That is not you.

[Mike Ryan]

That's lifeless. Is that AI you?

[Chris Cote]

Excuse me, that is me. That is my raincoat, which you gu have seen me wear many times. That is my blue missions hat that you guys have seen. Let's keep moving. I planted a second tree as well.

[Dan Le Batard]

Pablo's going to be here soon. You need to do the bucket, please.

[Chris Cote]

A one punishment credit because I planted two trees.

[Pablo Torre]

The New Orleans Saints.

[Dan Le Batard]

You don't want that.

[Pablo Torre]

I don't want that.

[Dan Le Batard]

They're at home against the Niners. They're a three point dog.

[Pablo Torre]

Jones.

[Chris Cote]

That was a mistake.

[Billy Gil]

But Kyle Shanahan did want Mac Jones initially in that draft process. Remember? Nice little storyline. Dano.

[Dan Le Batard]

Oh, thank God.

[Billy Gil]

New England Patriots. Thank God the gyms aren't gonna win out there. They did upgrade when it comes to line art. I mean, there's a Dentech bucket.

[Mike Ryan]

I love Dentech.

[Dan Le Batard]

Greg Cody has picked the Dolphins to win this week.

[Billy Gil]

Shocking. All right, here we go. All right. The Kansas City Chiefs super bowl rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles, a point and.

[Mike Ryan]

A half underdog at home.

[Billy Gil]

You know, I'm gonna take the Kansas City Chiefs as a home dog. I know Patrick Mahomes history as an underdog and a lover to retire. I'm always gonna take Patrick Mahomes as a dog. Especially a home dog. Are you shitting me?

[Chris Cote]

All right, now remember, I have a one punishment credit since I planted two trees.

[Dan Le Batard]

Pablo's now there and we're well behind.

[Chris Cote]

I have selected the Lions.

[Billy Gil]

Well, they got the bears. You are bear down, Billy.

[Chris Cote]

I'm bear down, Billy.

[Dan Le Batard]

All right, look, this is what we're gonna do.

[Medical Ad Announcer]

Pablo.

[Mike Ryan]

This is my favorite.

[Chris Cote]

I'm gonna take the bear alliance.

[Dan Le Batard]

Listen to me.

[Billy Gil]

You want me to pick for Pablo?

[Dan Le Batard]

We've screwed. Well, he's gotta do it. Yes.

[Billy Gil]

Okay, so just hang on, Pablo.

[Dan Le Batard]

We're good. Yeah, we gotta. But we also. Pablo is Very busy, and he's got to go from place to place, and we got a finite amount of time with him, and I don't want to waste it.

[Billy Gil]

You're wasting the time right now. Like we could have. We could have all picked.

[Chris Cote]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

What is in your mouths?

[Billy Gil]

Dentek, the proud sponsor of the Bucket.

[Dan Le Batard]

What is in your mouth? You're so busy, you don't know your sponsors. What are you, Balmer? Like you're Silver? Like you don't know your sponsors.

[Billy Gil]

Chris, go to.

[Mike Ryan]

I'm taking the Bucks on the road in Houston. I love what Baker Mayfield's doing. I'm there at two and a two and a half point underdog on the road, but I'm taking them.

[Billy Gil]

That might be a mega break.

[Pablo Torre]

All right, this is for Pablo.

[Mike Ryan]

I'm reaching in. Pablo, you have the option to put this game back, this team back, or keep it. It is the Broncos. They are playing.

[Dan Le Batard]

They're at the Colts and they are one and a half point favorite.

[Mike Ryan]

You can put it back and you're stuck with the next helmet, or you can keep the Broncos.

[Pablo Torre]

Why is Chris so good at talking with Dentech in his mouth? I'll put it back, okay?

[Mike Ryan]

It's because it's so damn natural. That's why you have the Titans. All right, we're bringing this in. You downgrade.

[Chris Cote]

They're hosting.

[Dan Le Batard]

Titans are at five and a half point dog at home against the Rams.

[Billy Gil]

I like them there, though.

[Dan Le Batard]

Pablo, again, have not lost in a year.

[Billy Gil]

We have no way to verify I.

[Chris Cote]

Lost, but I paid off already.

[Dan Le Batard]

So the Arizona Cardinals, Tony, Carolina, they.

[Billy Gil]

Got Carolina at home, seven and a half points favorite.

[Dan Le Batard]

All right, I'll take that. You better keep that. I'll keep that. Thank you. Stop threatening me.

[Billy Gil]

Thank you, Dentek.

[Dan Le Batard]

Pablo, I have a number of questions. I will get to them one at a time. First of all, I need an explanation, please, for why it is that you look so much larger than Samson in all of these videos that I am seeing of your podcast where you are how tall? Pablo, what is your thing?

[Pablo Torre]

Thank you for asking. I'm five, ten and three quarters inches tall.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay, I don't believe that. I believe.

[Pablo Torre]

I believe on my license.

[Billy Gil]

I think he's. Surprisingly, Pablo is.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah, I concur that.

[Pablo Torre]

What? Thanks, guys, again.

[Dan Le Batard]

Put the picture up. Not since.

[Chris Cote]

Not surprising.

[Dan Le Batard]

Not since Billy Gill. Not since Billy Gill sat next to Derrick Henry have we had someone look so small next to someone so large. Although I think J.J. watt has. Is it Iron Eagle or is it Noah Eagle that he was next To. Okay, so he was, he was next to daddy. So this is Iron Eagle versus J.J. watt. If I gave you the three of these, in terms of size disparities, which Pablo, which one wins?

[Pablo Torre]

Pablo, the JJ Watt one looks like it's, it's like the Hobbit technology from Lord of the Rings. Like they're in the same perspective. That's the part that's blowing my mind about that one. The other ones, I'm like, oh, it's just camera stuff. They are like right on the same plane of existence.

[Billy Gil]

When did broadcasters stop using the booster? Because I think Al Michaels famously was always the same size as John Madden on that still shot. And that's just not possible. John Madden felt like a mountain of a man.

[Dan Le Batard]

Pablo, from your most recent reporting, I want to know just which of the details the most. Okay. Was it that Wong has been his college roommate, Ballmer's college roommate, since 1975, or was it discovering that his daughter worked at aspiration from among those two facts in your reporting, which was the more delightful and give me a more delightful one than that, My favorite one.

[Pablo Torre]

Is actually that his name is Dennis. Like, there's another Dennis. There is a different Dennis. There's another Dennis. Who, by the way, Dan, for people who are like, this is just more circumstantial evidence. And there are those people out there. As I wake up this morning, bleary eyed on my couch, having fallen asleep with my contact lenses and fearing retina detachment, which is why I wear my glasses, I was frustrated. I just don't know if people appreciate what it takes for me personally to investigate an Asian American Harvard graduate who works in the mba. Like, if I'm, if, if I do this, that's how, you know it's real. I feel like, is the credibility I've earned ethnically. And so all of it, all of it being that, all of it being a story with like so many stupid on the nose aspects that feel incredibly predictable and for that reason shocking.

[Dan Le Batard]

Was. Was Ballmer roommates with Bill Gates before he was roommates with Wong? Is that you?

[Pablo Torre]

You want, you want to, you want to, you want to recreate the common room of that dorm in which it's Bill Gates potentially. I have to do the fact check again. Whether Gates was in like the same, was in the same room as them, but they were there. Yeah, this is Harvard, man. This was Harvard in the seventies. Think about it. Titans of industry allegedly smoking weed for the first time and wondering to themselves, when will we ever own a basketball team that we will use allegedly to circumvent the NBA salary cap regulations.

[Dan Le Batard]

Be honest here. When you heard Adam Silver speaking and going pretty immediately into, let's see if we can protect the owners here with the way that I speak about this, did you think to yourself, he doesn't know what I know right now?

[Pablo Torre]

Yes, yes. Look, I. The standard for why I publish things, to be very clear, I'm not like the joker. I'm not like, you know, plotting this in a way that's going to get people to, you know, step into the trap I've laid. I'm not a super villain, but I am somebody who only will publish things if I have the fact checking that meets the highest standards of publishing. Like, Dan, the crazy part about this, and for people who don't understand the power dynamic here, on the one side of this story is not merely the commissioner of the NBA, but one of the 10 richest people in the world. On the other side of the story is me and you and our lawyer. So the whole question of, like, when am I comfortable publishing something? It's not that I'm like, holding back everything I got. I'm like, actively trying to confirm this stuff so that in the event of litigation or factual correction, neither of which has ever happened with my show, which is shocking. It's because we did it the right way. And so that's. That's the smile I have, is that I had the smile of knowing that I think I could get this. I think this is a bad look for them because they're not taking the first report seriously. And I don't think they did, frankly. And so then you get to prove and hold them to account using whatever they want to communicate to the public.

[Dan Le Batard]

Oh, I was telling them earlier that the whole mood shift of the board of governors thing since your latest report went from. No, we all love Ballmer. He does great stuff. Everyone likes him. He's on the finance committee. This isn't Donald Sterling at all. This is a guy we all like, and he's good for the league and he helps everyone and he's affable. And he's at the governor's meeting saying, yeah, guys, same thing I said on espn. Nothing here. And then you report what you did and what I was hearing two days before about that governor's meeting and how nice it was that mood has shifted because the additional reporting makes it such that, oh, no, he's ensnared here in a way that's going to be. I don't even know what they're going to try to do, to try to explain their way out of this one.

[Pablo Torre]

I've heard many back channeled attempts that indicate, by the way we've seen since the first report came out, the best they got. So what they're not doing on the NBA Clipper side, if we assume their goal is to shrink the PR footprint of this, what they're not doing is holding back their move. Convincing stuff. We're getting all of it right because Ballmer flies to Bristol Thursday night, the day after, that's how panicked he is. Right? Just observing this again, not the joker, just observing this factually. So what happens next is that we get the best spin and you've seen it and it's incredibly like just paper, tissue, tissue and it's flimsy as if that tissue might be generous for what they're trying to spin. And so the question now of like, okay, what do you do with this one? The only thing I've heard back channel, which makes me laugh very hard, is that Dennis Wong, who is an incredibly wealthy real estate magnate, he wanted to save his daughter's job by putting in $2 million into a company that was valuated, by the way, still at the time of his investment. I don't know if I made this clear enough in the episode. He was investing in a company that had gone into default, that had its independent auditor resigned, that was facing massive seven figure litigation, that was facing probes by the SEC and FINRA, the regulatory agencies. He puts in the $1.99 million conspicuous on its own, and he does it at a valuation of over $2 billion. And so the question is, why would he do this? He was disclosed all of these facts in the paperwork. We have the signature, we have the document. So why did he still do it? And so the only head of a pin that anybody who wants to spin this has left to dance upon. There must have been another reason why he made a disastrous financial decision like that. It must have been to save his daughter's job. And I will you that not only is that insanely nonsensical because the daughter recently graduated from Stanford because the company was broken and falling apart, because Dennis Wong is extraordinarily rich, it doesn't need to save his daughter's job at a broken company that is going into the trash can. It's also the fact to me that if you were to do that, that's a different potential crime. If you're just going to bribe a company to save your daughter with $1.99 million. If in fact that is the argument that anybody wants to go with. So I just don't get it at this point in the story. I just don't get what people are trying to do here, but it seems to indicate that they just don't want to see the story for what it is.

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[Billy Gil]

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[Billy Gil]

Dan Lebatard Pablo leads all of podcasting in reading while smiling.

[Pablo Torre]

If you listen to ESPN Daily, he sounds like he's having the time of his life.

[Billy Gil]

Stugats coming up next. I'm going to tell you, the Savannah Bananas are changing.

[Mike Ryan]

How do you know?

[Chris Cote]

How do you know I'm smiling?

[Billy Gil]

That's how I find my vocal range. Sometimes I just say, savannah Bananas. This is the Dan Levatar show with the stugats. I like how the Internet takes your reporting and starts running with it and does its own version of Twitter sleuthing. Yesterday we saw highly circumstantial evidence of like how Kawhi was very inactive for the clippers prior to December 10th, and then all of a sudden he played 82% of the games. Billy posited that, well, why would he care a $1.75 million payment when he's getting paid 40 million from the Clippers? And my counter to that was no, this is bookie logic. It's the principle. Because if they miss this payment, they're gonna miss all the other payments. I know this is purely circumstantial and not maybe to the standard of your reporting, but what do you make of the theory out there that Kawhi's camp was very upset about this and it forced Wong to make this deposit and then all of a sudden, Kawhi started playing again.

[Pablo Torre]

So one big part of that is comprehensively reported and vetted and fact checked and has not been challenged, which is that September gets paid in quarterly payments, $1.75 million. September comes. This is his second payment ever. Kawhi Leonard's second payment ever. September comes, September goes, October comes, October goes, November comes, and November goes. So this is three months late is the second ever payment. Right. And so the question then is, come the rescheduling of this payment to December 15th, how do they get the money that's the answer of the roommate, Dennis Wong, and the only other, by the way, owner of the team, the only man Steve Ballmer trusts with a share of his most precious possession, Los Angeles Clippers. That's, that's the. Okay, how do they pay it? But the question then is, what's it like for Kawhi Leonard and Uncle Dennis Robertson and the agent Mitch Frankel? Right. Like the representatives of Kawhi Leonard. Because what happens is, what I know is that there are many calls that are increasingly furious because you're three bleeping months late on the second payment. Right? And by the way, Ballmer put in $50 million personally a year ago. And so from a. From a position of. Something is not right here. What I think is safe to infer from all of this is that the people involved with the Los Angeles Clippers were aware that there was a problem. And so then the next question is, if you're Kawhi Leonard and you're a master of leverage to a degree that has been frankly, in excess and more effective in that excess than any other athlete I can think of, where he's extracting all these things from the marketplace of Steve Ballmer and not the Raptors or the Lakers, it turns out, but from the richest man in sports, how do you then make sure that they know you're serious? And so the sleuthing and the connecting of the dots. I'm not doing that. I haven't done that data dive again. This is where I say, you guys, please feel free to look into this. Do your research, do your Googles. I'm not saying this, but I think it's safe to wonder if you're. If. Let's put it this way. If I was a Clippers executive and if I was aware of this. If. Right. These just the conditionals. If I was aware of this and I had a guy who was right off missing the last season for knee problems, I would say at the beginning of the season, finally, he's back. Let's be careful. But would be very hard if that same guy was complaining to these entities about how he wasn't getting the payment he was legally entitled to. The question then becomes the question of load management. How voluntary is the pain that you're expressing to your team as to why you won't play that night? That would be an outstanding question for someone to look into.

[Dan Le Batard]

I will tell you, if you're watching some of what's happening here, the people who are aggregating Pablo, cuz they're 7 months behind on this story are having trouble with the headlines and the first paragraphs because it's such a thicket of stuff when you say reporting something for seven months and when people do not know what it means to have a lawyer listen to Amino Hassan's answers on things, because you have to be very careful. And when you go on David Sampson's pod and you say, quote, I would love to talk about what we reported on Wednesday with anybody, in any setting, under any amount of spotlight that you've got, explain to me how hard the last seven months have been explained to me why it is that the NBA underestimated you, because the sports media has fallen apart in. And no one's asking these questions because everybody's in bed with their partners.

[Pablo Torre]

So when I had Mark Cuban on the pod, who was the embodiment of my philosophy here, right? Like, I had not ever talked to him before. Maybe we had emailed years ago because he answers all the emails in his inbox, but I'd never had a relationship before at all. And he tweets about this as if he has a confidence about what the story is and why it's dismissible. And I respond to him within an hour. We're taping the thing that aired as the Friday episode a week ago today. So that's just my philosophy is that I've been ready to talk about this. What I am not worried about once I publish is my familiarity with the reporting. So. And why. And why I reported it. The thing that people miss, that I think the NBA is only realizing, is that two things can be true. On the one hand, it can be absolutely true that Steve Ballmer was a victim and that he feels victimized. Listen to him on Ramona Shelburne in that interview on the set of ESPN in Bristol. He is pained. What do you mean you don't think he's in Bristol?

[Chris Cote]

Well, it was a point of contention the past couple weeks with some people on the show, where people were saying it was probably in la, because that's where.

[Pablo Torre]

No, but this is the point.

[Chris Cote]

And then people were saying, well, he had to fly across the country. And then. And there's investigating done where Ramona said it was in Bristol, but it was in Bristol because we were right there. So then I was like, well, hold on. If they didn't fly across the country, then how do we know any of what we're being told is true? It was crazy. I said, dude, Pablo's got this unlock. Everybody, like, lock in here. Jeff Conine, pay attention. Stop questioning things. You Know.

[Pablo Torre]

It was in Bristol while he was there.

[Dan Le Batard]

Don't do this anymore.

[Billy Gil]

Billy.

[Dan Le Batard]

Billy. You ruined his last answer.

[Billy Gil]

But you, but you did take that victory.

[Mike Ryan]

You took the victory lap on the episode. And whoever said fly across the country.

[Billy Gil]

Whoever said this made the point. Well, if the flying across country part isn't true, then it might.

[Dan Le Batard]

He's got to get out of here.

[Pablo Torre]

Okay, So I regret, I regret falling into the pothole.

[Billy Gil]

That wasn't the only one that you fell off.

[Mike Ryan]

How tired of this story is your wife?

[Pablo Torre]

She is so mad at me. Allow me to continue the thought.

[Chris Cote]

Does your wife ever tell you why didn't you just extort them?

[Pablo Torre]

I know. So you've got a.

[Dan Le Batard]

You've got a heart out, Pablo.

[Pablo Torre]

You got a heart out. I have, I have a hard out. The market rate for me suppressing this is probably higher than my all in career earnings. So horrible decision by me to just allegedly maybe offer this and say, hey, please make this go away for a low, low price of one zillion dollars. The last thought I have is just, it was stupid what Steve Ballmer did on one level. And he was pained as a victim, truly, genuinely. But the story here is that he was victimized by a company that he partnered with to try and deceive the NBA. That's why this story is so fun to me and so ridiculous. It's that he was using in a non illegal way a company that was completely comfortable, according to all of my reporting, with doing whatever he needed to get around the salary cap. And in that way he was not breaking the law, he was breaking the NBA's rules. And this is the guy who ran Microsoft during the largest antitrust investigation in my memory at least. And so of course he doesn't necessarily care about that if you're to infer that based on his previous fact patterns of behavior. And so the question for him is where did it go wrong? It went wrong when he realized, which was sooner than anybody wants to admit, that this was going bad. And at that point the question is, what did you do? When did you know it? And all of that is absolutely relevant to a larger examination of what this story ends up being in the end. Yes, it is capture convention, per my reporting. Yes, there are questions that there is more at stake here than that when it comes to. So you were partners with the scammers to some extent. What does that mean for the questions you might have asked if you weren't? And that is an interesting question for the federal government.

[Billy Gil]

And he would have gotten away with it.

[Pablo Torre]

If it wasn't for me.

[Dan Le Batard]

Yeah. That I thought was brutal. That would be my constructive criticism to Pablo. I know he's doing the victory lap, but when he said.

[Pablo Torre]

I didn't say that. You just played that.

[Dan Le Batard]

No.

[Mike Ryan]

You have more context.

[Pablo Torre]

I don't think that.

[Billy Gil]

Play the context.

[Pablo Torre]

Listen, that would have gone if it wasn't for me. He would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for me. There's larger context. I feel like.

[Billy Gil]

Yeah. That it was so good that it was so well thought out that he would have gotten away with it.

[Pablo Torre]

If it wasn't for me.

[Billy Gil]

Impeccably produced.

[Pablo Torre]

Why does. Why does the. The replay machine have the. The thing in its mouth too? Why is that happening?

[Dan Le Batard]

Pablo, you've got to go. Anyone want to take a guess why he's want. Why he has to go? He's going to play spades with Maury POV on Nick Cannon's podcast.

[Pablo Torre]

That is confidential information.

[Dan Le Batard]

See you later, Pablo. Good talking to you. Nice seeing you. That's.

[Billy Gil]

Listen to that.

[Pablo Torre]

Please tell my wife that I love her.

[Dan Le Batard]

Thanks, Pablo.

[Chris Cote]

Can't be good.

[Billy Gil]

I assumed it was some form of star bleeping.

[Dan Le Batard]

He didn't even answer the question of what was the hardest thing about the last seven months. He is on a world tour rocketing to fame and stardom because what's the.

[Mike Ryan]

Hardest part of the life?

[Billy Gil]

People texting him to do a NASCAR charter episode.

[Dan Le Batard]

But people do somehow still appreciate good journalism or notice it when they see it. And he's got the story locked down. And the NBA underestimated him and underestimated sports media because sports media has gotten awfully fat in this space for a long time. And before that sounds too blowhardy on behalf of Pablo, I just know how hard that was to do. And it's why no one does it. Cuz it's that hard because it's. You don't. If you're going to go after Ballmer and do this to Palmer and you don't have your shit right. The lawsuit's already on the way. Like you gotta. You have to be super careful, super careful not to get a word wrong. And that's not the media landscape we're living in anymore. And so everything he's done there is scary. And his confidence to me is aspirational because he knows he's got the story locked. And he made the commissioner of the league who we were talking about when he got rid of the last Clipper guy. How he was in charge and the best. And look at all he knows, he made that guy look like he didn't know what he was doing when he got out there. On behalf of, well, let's see what's really happening here. Let's, you know, let's have some benefit of the doubt because his job ultimately is to protect Ballmer, but he's got in his, he's got got in his power structure somebody with so much power and utility because he's good as his jobs with finance and the things that he's doing on behalf of the business. Silver is Ballmer's employee. Like that's how that one works. I know, I know. We give Silver a lot of power. The owners of the power. He's the wall between the owners and us. And it's a wall that doesn't come down often, and it's a wall that Pablo Torre just kicked in.

[Mike Ryan]

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[Dan Le Batard]

Contiguous US only Don LeBatard While there's nothing official and conversations are still ongoing. Was that a fake shifter?

[Chris Cote]

Because it was pretty good. I feel like there's legs.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Dan Le Batard]

Tried at the beginning and then I lost confidence.

[Pablo Torre]

It.

[Mike Ryan]

It was good.

[Billy Gil]

It was good.

[Dan Le Batard]

There's nothing official. Conversations are still ongoing. Sts it is trending towards Nick Sirianni remaining the head coach of the Eagles. This is the D? Ler show with the sts.

[Chris Cote]

When you said his confidence is aspirational, did you mean that as a compliment or that it's fraudulent?

[Dan Le Batard]

I no, I meant that I wish.

[Chris Cote]

That'S the name of the fraudulent company.

[Billy Gil]

Did you do that on purpose?

[Chris Cote]

You didn't do it on purpose?

[Dan Le Batard]

I did not do it on purpose.

[Chris Cote]

Can I ask you a serious question? When Cam Newton flies, do you think he wears his hat or he has like a massive hat Travel box.

[Billy Gil]

I think it's a travel box.

[Chris Cote]

Really?

[Billy Gil]

Yeah.

[Chris Cote]

I don't like you think you catch him in the airport Just not wearing a hat.

[Mike Ryan]

I would assume he's checking a bag that's got like five of those things in there.

[Billy Gil]

Let's ask him.

[Dan Le Batard]

Such a good.

[Billy Gil]

Well, let's ask Jeff Conine.

[Dan Le Batard]

That's a great question. Put it on the poll at Lebatard show. Does Cam Newton travel wearing his hat or does he lock it away in a travel seat?

[Mike Ryan]

That's like the worst type of hat to wear in a plane.

[Chris Cote]

But he's taller than all the seats, so that's not going to be an issue. Right.

[Mike Ryan]

Then you lean your head back and like the thing.

[Chris Cote]

No, but his head is way taught. I get Cam Newton is enormous.

[Mike Ryan]

That's true.

[Chris Cote]

Like he would be the biggest human I think I've ever seen. I could not believe he was a quarterback.

[Billy Gil]

Probably huge. Don't you think he flies private. Like, he probably just puts a hat.

[Pablo Torre]

I don't think he fits in a.

[Chris Cote]

Private jet, if I'm gonna be honest with you. Like, private jets seem very tiny to me and I can't imagine that being a comfortable means of transportation for him. Maybe he buys his hat a seat.

[Dan Le Batard]

Put it on the poll. Do private jets feel very tiny to you? I also want to bring up what he's saying about Cam Newton's size. Yes, he is very large. Probably has a firm handshake. The hats, though, have to be very valuable hats, right?

[Billy Gil]

Yeah. I actually have some reconnaissance on this. My brother in law met the person that designs the hat. They're out of Montana. And like those hats go for like $800.

[Dan Le Batard]

And so how would. It's a good question that Billy's asking and I don't know the answer to it. I don't know if I even have a theory. But when he talks about Cam Newton being large, one of the funniest things to have happened to me around feeling good for a moment and then not feeling good moments later. I had really good seats one time, really good seats to a heavyweight fight involving George Foreman, one of his last ones. And he became the oldest heavyweight champion ever.

[Billy Gil]

The Michael Moore fight.

[Dan Le Batard]

Yeah. And I knew I had good seats and I sat in the seats and I was really excited about the seats. And then Shaq sat in front of me. It's a full place. Like those are bad seats.

[Chris Cote]

Yelp down in front or anything like that.

[Dan Le Batard]

Those become immediately bad seats. You realize that, right? I couldn't see.

[Billy Gil]

It's it back to Cam Newton for a second. I've called him like the greatest goal line weapon in the history of the game. It's pretty irrefutable. Billy's not a small dude. Check out this photo. Stugats is in frame also for reference. Now, the hat may add stuff, but, like, the top of Billy's head is right at Cam Newton's chin.

[Chris Cote]

A brick house, too. Yeah.

[Billy Gil]

Look at those.

[Chris Cote]

Solid.

[Billy Gil]

Look at those shoulders.

[Mike Ryan]

I will say that handshake with Stugats doesn't look great, but I think that might be. It was.

[Chris Cote]

It was just an awkward.

[Mike Ryan]

Hey, buddy, we should host a podcast together. I can, like, just see him there.

[Dan Le Batard]

The things you guys are doing here, though. I understand that Cam Newton looks huge there, but I thought we had already established when he was sitting next to Derrick Henry, that Billy Gill, even though people don't know this is actually Brad Williams. Like, the size of Brad Williams.

[Chris Cote]

That's a second reference to Brad today. What's going on here?

[Dan Le Batard]

I'm just saying we've proven already that you're not size wise when you say he's the biggest human you've ever seen. He would be 6, 6250 pounds. So smaller than most power forwards. Right. So if he were standing next to Draymond Green, Cam Newton would. An undersized defender. Cam l. Cam Newton would look how next to Draymond Green? You think he would look bigger than Draymond Green?

[Billy Gil]

I think. I think there's more than just height when it comes to, like, judging how big a dude is.

[Dan Le Batard]

That's why I said Shaq.

[Chris Cote]

Yeah.

[Billy Gil]

Cam's just got, like, such broad shoulders. That guy playing quarterback is just wild.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Billy Gil]

Unstoppable.

[Dan Le Batard]

You understand the question that I'm asking?

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Chris Cote]

Is Draymond taller than Kim?

[Billy Gil]

No, not taller.

[Dan Le Batard]

More formidable. No, more formidable.

[Billy Gil]

I don't think more formidable.

[Dan Le Batard]

That's what I am asking. I'm making the distinction. I believe I know what Billy's talking about here. I feel it when I stand next to Kim Bo Kamper. He's.

[Mike Ryan]

His girth.

[Dan Le Batard]

That's an old man. No, but I'm.

[Mike Ryan]

That might be the best.

[Dan Le Batard]

I don't doubt gnarled.

[Billy Gil]

I would not want to. I would not want to match.

[Mike Ryan]

But gnarled can help it.

[Dan Le Batard]

No, it gnarled can help him.

[Billy Gil]

Oh, so he doesn't have the flexibility.

[Dan Le Batard]

To actually squeeze the gnarled hands of football players.

[Chris Cote]

Give you a full hand hug if.

[Billy Gil]

He'S got, like, a pinky injury or.

[Mike Ryan]

Like, balding her hands.

[Chris Cote]

No, come on.

[Dan Le Batard]

I mean, not balding her hands. That's a different.

[Billy Gil]

Worked out once next to Brian balding.

[Mike Ryan]

Tell me everything.

[Billy Gil]

Flip flops oh, not surprising.

[Dan Le Batard]

Put it on the poll. Did you assume that Baldinger worked out in flip flops at Lebatard show? Lifted weights and flip flops? Because he's not working out. It's not. It's. It's. It is working out, but he's not doing cardio.

[Billy Gil]

The boys in that gym were not doing cardio. We were stacking plates, pal.

[Dan Le Batard]

Put it on the poll at Lebatard Show. Weightlifter. Who says we were stacking plates, pal? Douche or no douche?

[Chris Cote]

I mean, he called you a weightlifter. I wouldn't take that as an insulting.

[Dan Le Batard]

Weight at the time.

[Chris Cote]

Referred to your Mike Ryan weightlifting.

[Dan Le Batard]

That's what he was doing at the time.

[Billy Gil]

You know, six stacks of 45s. That's. That's what I ate for breakfast that day.

[Pablo Torre]

Wow.

[Billy Gil]

You know who else stacks plates for breakfast?

[Pablo Torre]

Who?

[Mike Ryan]

Mike. Tell me.

[Billy Gil]

Offensive lineman in the NFL. Oh. So many great battles in the trenches today. We get this weekend, we get to see Chris Jones go up against a formidable Philadelphia Eagles offensive line. I got Kansas City in the bucket, and, man, I wish I was in that building in that barn for that game. If you wish you were in the barn for that game, you'd probably check the primary market and find out, obviously. This game at Arrowhead, it's sold out. It's a Super bowl matchup. How crazy am I? Well, guess what? You have an option. You don't have to take that. L. You can download the gametime app and take the guesswork out of buying NFL tickets. You download the Gametime app, you create an account, and you use code DAN for $20 off your first purchase. You get panoramic CPUs. Unparalleled ticket coverage. Game time truly is the best. I use it every time when I buy tickets. Terms apply. Swap, swipe, tap, ticket, Go. I did a Chris Cody there. Swap.

[Mike Ryan]

Swapping it.

[Billy Gil]

Swap, ticket. Go.

[Dan Le Batard]

I don't know how much of the audience knows the facts of the information I'm about to give. Jeremy, I'm gonna assume that you don't know any of the facts that I have here that represent an ancient time in history. Sometime I'm gonna say close to either when you were born. I'm going to say that. Monday Night Football in the early 90s. Okay, Monday night Football with the property that it is today. In the ratings, it was behind the Naked Truth. Suddenly Susan and Carolina in the city.

[Billy Gil]

Caroline.

[Dan Le Batard]

Caroline. Excuse me, I didn't know that show. Caroline.

[Chris Cote]

Carolyn Ray. Have you ever seen Hollywood Squares?

[Billy Gil]

She was an icon. My Fault Sabrina, the teenage witch.

[Mike Ryan]

Okay, now I know who you're talking about.

[Dan Le Batard]

Monday Night Football was a small thing. And at the time, roughly around the time as they were trying to grow the sport over the next 10 or 15 years and grow Monday Night Football and what Thursday Night Football would become, because I do want to talk about the presentation of football that is making them dominate so many nights of the week.

[Billy Gil]

Caroline Ray was not in Carolina in the city.

[Mike Ryan]

Oh, I thought that that's the Caroline you were talking about.

[Billy Gil]

Exactly. Who was in that.

[Mike Ryan]

And we're not talking about sex.

[Chris Cote]

Right. Knows after we said in this room that she was not on that show, Roy was going along with everybody else.

[Billy Gil]

Yeah, but then you said Sabrina. You said Sabrina teenage. She was in that show.

[Chris Cote]

Yeah, I didn't know she wasn't in the other show until we pointed it out.

[Billy Gil]

I thought it was the mom from Back to the Future all of a sudden.

[Chris Cote]

Oh, I know everything.

[Billy Gil]

Was it the mom from Back to the Future that was in that show?

[Pablo Torre]

I kind of felt that.

[Dan Le Batard]

No.

[Billy Gil]

I wanted to be a teammate to you, pal.

[Chris Cote]

Yeah. Okay, guys, acting like you know who Andy Lauer is.

[Pablo Torre]

Please.

[Billy Gil]

I don't know who that is. John Wolf. Don't know who that is.

[Chris Cote]

Music composer.

[Billy Gil]

Okay, look, man, you're getting a little defensive. We try to back you up.

[Chris Cote]

Well, because I go, I plant two trees. You guys tell me that you plant two trees. Two different photos planting trees.

[Billy Gil]

Why do you always try to weasel your way out of.

[Chris Cote]

These are two photos of me planting trees.

[Billy Gil]

What kind of trees? We need to.

[Chris Cote]

I hope there's the other one.

[Pablo Torre]

That couldn't be.

[Chris Cote]

That's a palm tree.

[Mike Ryan]

Tom Cream.

[Billy Gil]

That is Tom Cream.

[Chris Cote]

I don't know what to tell you. I wore that exact same outfit at F1. I recycled it. I said, you know what? It's raining. Let me put on my. You guys have seen that raincoat and that hat here.

[Dan Le Batard]

That's true.

[Billy Gil]

I've also seen that face coaching the Indiana Hoosiers.

[Mike Ryan]

The first one, like, kind of looked blurry.

[Dan Le Batard]

You know the point I was gonna make.

[Chris Cote]

So punishment, sir. So we can agree and move on.

[Mike Ryan]

This one kind of looks like you.

[Dan Le Batard]

I've hired an enforcer. I'll let you know shortly. I'll make an announcement short. So the paperwork is being drawn up on making sure that these penalties do get enforced this year.

[Chris Cote]

Well, I'm all caught up, so I have nothing to worry about.

[Dan Le Batard]

Before. Before Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football became what they became. They were trying to. They were groundbreaking and making it three broadcasters. And at various points before they hired Tony Kornheiser and Dennis Miller, they were thinking about putting Rush Limbaugh in the booth. Booth to do that and create whatever it is that that would end up creating. The reason that I bring all of that up is because these things have gotten so seismic that I believe that we underestimate how hard it is for Amazon to do what they're now doing on Thursday nights. The sprawling nature of it, the fact that you don't have any complaints at all about what their broadcasts are. I saw Jordan Love interviewed before the game yesterday, and I was like. So I. And maybe this is something. They've been doing it recently, but I'm like, I don't remember the quarterback being interviewed before the game. He didn't have anything to say. But it's not something I've seen very much before. And I assume it's because these partnerships are interactive. Have you guys seen that before? Have you seen. I've seen it during XFL games. The quarterback interviewed right before the game. Is that something you've seen before? Is Amazon been doing that for a while? Because it's the first time I've seen it.

[Billy Gil]

I. I guess I haven't noticed that. I don't know. To answer your question, I wouldn't have thought twice about it. But I do think Amazon does a tremendous job with their football coverage. So if it wasn't for what he said about Donovan McNabb, Rush Limbaugh would have basically been Dennis Miller.

[Dan Le Batard]

I actually think that this was thought of before even Rush Limbaugh was. Then later someone who went on espn, they were considering him earlier than that because they were trying to make television around sports. And none of those people have ended up working because the thing is such a cathedral that you can't be not serious in the football booth. That's not allowed anywhere like that. Who's. Who are the funny broadcasters?

[Billy Gil]

Ufc, Joe Rogan, Football games. Well, you said not allowed anywhere. I mean, Joe Rogan kind of broke the model.

[Chris Cote]

Billy Gill, fiu.

[Billy Gil]

That's true. The Duke.

[Dan Le Batard]

I meant football. Specifically the Duke.

[Chris Cote]

Football and baseball. Multi sport broadcast. Pause up.

[Mike Ryan]

He's doing like. He's literally doing what you're talking about.

[Chris Cote]

He wants another answer.

[Billy Gil]

He just always wants to be right. This guy.

[Dan Le Batard]

It's the NFL I'm talking about.

[Billy Gil]

Well, just give him time.

[Chris Cote]

Yeah. Jeez.

[Billy Gil]

Like he's. He's starting like all the greats do.

[Chris Cote]

I got free time now.

[Dan Le Batard]

You got a chance to be Dennis Miller, Billy. It's right there for you.

[Chris Cote]

I mean, if I don't get that, I'm a failure. It's just bit ambitious.

[Mike Ryan]

I would say Iron Eagle brings a lot of humor. I know he's the play by play guy, but I'm telling you, like, he makes a lot of jokes.

[Dan Le Batard]

Agree, agree. He does.

[Chris Cote]

I don't like that.

[Mike Ryan]

I would say of all the play by play guys, he's the one that will like, like, if there's a funny fan. He makes a joke about Kevin Harlan for me, pal. Yeah, I ain't Eagle's.

[Billy Gil]

Ian Eagle is funny, don't get me wrong. But I mean, he is, you know, he is a prototype of a play by play man.

[Chris Cote]

Romo's funny. Not on purpose, but he's funny.

[Billy Gil]

I don't know, Jim.

[Dan Le Batard]

You guys better get me Conine.