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Dan Le Batard
Welcome to the Big Sui presented by DraftKings.
Stugats
Why are you listening to this show.
Dan Le Batard
The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBatard podcast?
Zaslow
I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that.
Dan Le Batard
In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just.
Stugats
Walking past tables to grab somebody's fries.
Dan Le Batard
That if they're just there.
Stugats
That hasn't happened to you guys.
Dan Le Batard
I've done it. And now here's the marching man to Nowhere, Fat Face and the Habitual Liar.
Zaslow
This episode of the Dan Lebatard show is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours, Hylia.
Dan Le Batard
Since the Dolphins have won a playoff game, the Patriots have not merely 10 Super bowl appearances. They've got 17 AFC east titles and six Super Super bowl wins. And I will say again, when it comes to the ego of coaches and in general how often people think that they are responsible for their own success without granting the idea that a lot of luck is involved and that you have to have a lot of support. You have to admit that Bill Belichick six years ago could not have imagined a scenario where there's a 10 part docu series that rips him for not being as responsible for those victories as you might think. That also has Tom Brady winning a Super bowl by beating Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and who was the third quarterback? There was three great oh, and Mahomes. And Mahomes, he beats three quarterbacks and.
Stugats
Some of them on the road to.
Dan Le Batard
Win the super bowl. And then after that that the Patriots would get one of his former linebackers and that Vrabel would turn into of the sport's great coaches that they wouldn't need Belichick at all to get back there.
Jeremy
And don't forget with a quarterback that according to legend you told your social media staff to not post about because he's a Tar Heel. But he's doing it with the Patriots and that makes daddy look bad.
Dan Le Batard
So I don't think he's the same quarterback that the stats are rolling around on McDonald. How good he is against quarterbacks who are under 24 years old. I think Drake May is a unique talent at the position, but there are good valid reasons to question how good that Patriots team is. And I wondered. Yesterday I assumed that Patriot fans would fear Stafford more and not want the Rams to advance. But what they should fear is what Seattle's defensive line is gonna do to cave in the right side of their offensive line which is injured because that is incompetence what you have seen from the Patriot offense to advance to the Super Bowl, Rare.
Stugats
Outside of Trent Milford's Ravens, I have.
Dan Le Batard
Rarely seen a team be this kind of incompetent an offense the last two games and get to the Super Bowl. It's not. And. And those Raven teams had to injure Rich Gannon on the road in order to do that by having Tony Saragusa just fall down on Rich Gannon in a way that injured the mvp.
Jeremy
I'm hearing us talk this game out, and I guess the general feeling is that Seattle rolls. Right.
Tony
You know what that sets up for Mike Vrabel?
Dan Le Batard
Live doggy.
Jeremy
I counted out live doggy in the sport's biggest game. I'm just saying.
Dan Le Batard
Wouldn't you think, though, that the Rams were fearing most Stafford? Correct. I'm sorry. The Patriots were fearing most Stafford advancing to the next game, that they would have preferred to play against Sam Darnold than Stafford? No.
Jeremy
No. I don't.
Dan Le Batard
I don't.
Jeremy
I don't know.
Dan Le Batard
Yeah.
Zaslow
I don't.
Jeremy
Yeah. Is that a bad answer?
Zaslow
I. I.
Dan Le Batard
Terrible.
Roy
I don't know.
Dan Le Batard
I. I don't.
Zaslow
I don't know.
Tony
I don't.
Jeremy
I don't see Mike Vrabel and his staff like, geez, I hope it's.
Dan Le Batard
I'm talking about fans. I was talking about Patriot fans.
Zaslow
I think they'd be more afraid of Seattle because we, we know Seattle's defense is great. The Rams defense, yeah, not so good. And the C and the Patriots, like you said, offensively, I struggled against really good defenses these last couple of weeks, so I think they probably would have actually rather seen Ramsay.
Tony
It's also been. Not to be the weather guy, but it's also been the weather.
Dan Le Batard
Right.
Tony
When they played against Houston a couple weeks ago, there was slushy winner remix that they really couldn't get the fuel going.
Zaslow
Score was 10, 7 at the end of the third quarter before it even started snowing.
Dan Le Batard
That's.
Tony
That's the, the. The conference championship game. I'm talking about two weeks ago in Houston, where it was slushing and raining and wet and, and cold. And then the week after, they have another weather anomaly. So it's like you're looking at these two games. It's like, well, you don't have your full offense out there to be able to do the things you want to do. He's the best deep ball thrower in the league and hasn't been able to throw deep ball in.
Jeremy
In two weeks. It is a nice word, Jeremy. I don't know if it was a right word, but it was a nice word.
Tony
Oh, no, it is.
Guest
He did good.
Tony
It's the right word.
Dan Le Batard
Zaz loves and has told us he loves low scoring games. Defense.
Zaslow
I enjoyed that game very much.
Dan Le Batard
Oh, my God.
Jeremy
Yeah.
Zaslow
Did you watch it or are you a big phony?
Dan Le Batard
No, I did watch it. Big phony. I am a big phony. I did end up watching it and. Of course you did. I regretted. I regretted those three hours of my life. Why would you love that game?
Tony
Everybody wasn't snowing Dan. And then it was snowing.
Zaslow
Like, that's like the tale of two games.
Tony
Exactly right. Tale of two halves.
Jeremy
I was hating from the sidelines. And then I saw that single camera shot following Sitam as he's there on the field with his family and his kids are hugging him and he's stretching out and they're just like. It's great cinematography. The camera just swoops around a stadium full of people.
Zaslow
You know about that cinematography.
Jeremy
This is such a cool story.
Tony
And then he throws a dot. And then he throws a dot over to Marvin Mills Jr. For 55 yards. You're like, oh, my God, there's no way it's gonna happen. Sean Payne's gonna do it with Jared.
Jeremy
Stitto with his 90s ass hair.
Dan Le Batard
Oh, wow. Danny Tanner looking there. Guys, I cannot be. I cannot be alone in this room of thinking that game was an abomination.
Zaslow
Nope. Loved it.
Dan Le Batard
And. And. And put me in the weird position of rooting for the Patriots because I did not want Stidham in the Super Bowl. Like, for what? For what?
Stugats
Why would. Why would I want to watch that? Like, that's. You're ruining the entire game for me.
Dan Le Batard
At least this time I can. I can pretend that Vrabel and the Patriots have a chance and I can.
Stugats
Talk myself into all football games.
Dan Le Batard
Are football's crazy that way? I couldn't have done it if Denver had been in the super bowl against either one of those two teams I.
Stugats
Watched in the later game yesterday. The Denver might have slowed and tried.
Dan Le Batard
To muck up a Rams or Seattle super bowl, but they wouldn't have had.
Stugats
A chance with Stidham like that. I'm telling you, there are very few quarterbacks in the history of the league.
Dan Le Batard
That game plan, the way that the Broncos game plan and make the mistake that Stidham made in that situation like.
Stugats
That is you cannot make that mistake like it's. It. You can turn the ball over down the field. You cannot inside of your own 15 yard line. When your defense is playing like that, when clearly the weather and the home field are going to help you later in the game, you cannot make that.
Dan Le Batard
Mistake as a competent quarterback. And Rex Ryan said this morning on get up. That's why he will be a backup the remainder of his career and will never be a starter. But I wanted to ask you about another way to put yourself.
Jeremy
What a.
Tony
Take the guy who hasn't thrown a pass in two years.
Zaslow
Backup.
Jeremy
The career backup's gonna be a career backup.
Dan Le Batard
Get out of town. The thing that I wanted to ask you about Rex Ryan, though, is when he dismisses, he's talking. He was talking about the Sean Payton play and the fact that Sean Payton went for it on 4th and short and failed when he could have gotten a 10 nothing lead instead of a 7 nothing lead. And his defense is obviously exceptional. And that front four is as good as any that has played the game statistically in terms of applying pressure. When he sees his beloved game turn into a different thing where coaches are going for it more and more on 4th and short and he yells about these nerd dudes the way that Tony Dungy does. That lands on me wrong every single time that these dinosaurs keep shaking a fist about how they used to do it because they don't like the change. How do you absorb Rex Ryan being on television and just pounding people with these nerd dudes? Because all they're doing is applying the facts of math and he wants to eliminate them because he's the coach who prefers caveman. He wants to beat you over the head with a club instead of listening to just the probabilities of math. Clearly, Rex Ryan is scared of math and it's confusing to me.
Zaslow
Well, here's. Here's the irony of the way Rex Ryan feels because he want. He's a caveman, okay? And so he doesn't like the nerd boy stuff. The nerd boy stuff is being aggressive.
Jeremy
Super.
Zaslow
It's them wanting to be actually be tough.
Jeremy
And it's short yardage line scrimmage battles. It is actually. It lends itself to the caveman mentality. Rex Ryan, actually, Mario Cristobal became like.
Zaslow
Super aggressive like Rex Ryan with his caveman tough guy. Football does the opposite of tough. He punts on 4th and 1 or he runs the ball so they can use up the clock instead of Darnold throws throwing the ball at the end of the game so they can pick up the first down or going for fourth and shorts. Like the nerd boys are actually the ones playing tough. Guy, aggressive football. Rex Ryan's the coward in those spots.
Tony
And there's not that many cavemen left in head coaching. Right. In the NFL. You look around the league and you're like, there's only a handful of guys that are not going to do that thing. They're not going to go forward on 4th and 1, 4th and 2, 4th and 3. And we're going to see that move over into the media space too where all these guys who played the game and coach the game a certain way now, they're going to just age out. Everybody's going to be like, yeah, that doesn't work anymore. We need is the new people that are talking about analytics, they're talking about going forward on fourth and four in a short yard situation.
Dan Le Batard
The idea that you would age out so close mindedly that you would be like Greg Cody against learning seems to run against what the definition of coaching is supposed to be. The Steelers just hired Mike McCarthy. He is viewed as one of those cavemen, but he has evolved. He was somebody who was changing the way that he was applying his ideas to fourth downs.
Jeremy
It's just bewildering that of all people, Mike McCarthy has been the head coach for the Packers, Cowboys and now the Steelers. These are crown jewel franchises and he is such an ordinary man.
Dan Le Batard
This signaled to me, I thought, a desire to lure Aaron Rodgers into another season.
Zaslow
Wasn't there a schism with McCarthy and Rogers?
Jeremy
I read that book with my ears. I don't think this sweetens the pot for Aaron.
Zaslow
I'm not sure it does either.
Dan Le Batard
Okay. I don't know. I just assumed that. But the thing that was most confusing to me about everything that happened there is how weird for Mike Tomlin to leave without any fanfare, without any press conference, without any interview, without any saying goodbye to Pittsburgh. Like you have a coach who has no losing seasons for 19 years and he slips out a side door and, and I'm not sure what his contract status was like.
Stugats
Did he leave money on the table in order to. So, so he just leaves the job with no fanfare?
Dan Le Batard
The Steelers have had three coaches in their history.
Stugats
How is it possible.
Roy
No, no, no, no. They haven't had three coaches in their history.
Jeremy
Yeah, this is a common mistake that you made. I mean 100 year old teams.
Dan Le Batard
But since the 70s, since the merger. Since the merger.
Roy
I'm not.
Jeremy
I know you're giving me the hand dismissal. I'm trying to help you, pal.
Dan Le Batard
That's not helpful to me.
Jeremy
Yes, because everyone's like, dude's an Idiot. I'm like, no, he's not.
Dan Le Batard
There wasn't football.
Stugats
There wasn't real football until the merger. Like, all the stats are after the merger. Like, it's okay. You want to. You want to cite the 1940s, okay.
Jeremy
I'm speaking for the ops, all right? That's all I'm doing. What did you want the end of season? You wanted the end of season press conference? The way that Tony Donato had it for the Miami Sharks surprises everybody. I'm going to control Albuquerque, and I've signed Willie Beeman as my quarterback.
Stugats
This guy does a good.
Zaslow
It's a game of inches.
Jeremy
How did it surprise everybody in the room? Wait, there's an expansion franchise. Tony Donato's operating it, and he just signed Willie Beeman and he's breaking all these things to us at the same time in front of. In front of John C. McGinley.
Zaslow
These are terrible reporters. Not a single one of them could have had the scoop.
Jeremy
He punched one of those reporters.
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Jeremy
Quick break to talk to you about Miller Lite, a partner of ours. Basically, since our show's inception, Miller Lite has been there for so many great memories, especially recently this wintertime. Lots of trips to Texas, one Arizona, surrounded by friends, welcoming in a new year and toasting that beautiful white can of Miller Lite, my favorite beer and an incredible partner. For almost half of its 50 year existence, Miller Lite has been partnered up with the Dan LeBatard Show. And we could not be more grateful. Some of my most legendary moments have started with let's get some Miller Lights. Whether it be a buddy's house, a watch party at the game, or post game, you crack open a Miller Lite, you take a sip, you look around at your friends and you think, yeah, this was the right call. You're locked into the game, the conversation, the moment, not thinking about what you're drinking. Miller Lite just fits. Legendary moments. Start with 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. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.
Roy
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Dan Le Batard
Don Le there's nothing official and conversations are still ongoing.
Zaslow
Was that a fake chef dirt? Because it was.
Dan Le Batard
It was pretty good.
Zaslow
It was excellent.
Jeremy
I feel like there's legs.
Dan Le Batard
Yeah, I tried at the beginning and then I lost confidence in it.
Stugats
Good.
Jeremy
It was good.
Roy
You got this.
Dan Le Batard
Nothing official. Yeah. So conversations are still ongoing. St it is trending towards Nick Sirianni remaining the head coach. Coach of the Eagles.
Roy
This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugats.
Dan Le Batard
There was an eyeball on the field in any game.
Zaslow
I would have had that scoop.
Dan Le Batard
Dan. It is weird journalist over there. We are so bad at making football movies. Given how popular the sport as well, there just aren't very many. Like you're going to have a hard time. Put it on the poll at Lebatard show. Can you name in the history of film 5 Good Football Movies? An eyeball on the field does not look realistic.
Zaslow
I loved that movie when it came out. Dan. Any Given Sunday book. Shombie used to give me a hard time for my love of that movie. And about two years ago, my son, my older son, I was like, you want to watch a great movie? Let's watch Any Given Sunday. You're going to love this. So we sat on the couch. I didn't see it in 15 years. So we sat on the couch together. We put on about 20 minutes in. We looked at each other like, this movie sucks.
Tony
What?
Zaslow
And we stopped doing it.
Jeremy
No, the movie's great.
Tony
What are you doing?
Jeremy
It really hits the ground Running too.
Zaslow
Sucks.
Tony
You don't like football, do you?
Jeremy
Don't. Man. That's a great movie. It's a great movie.
Dan Le Batard
Can you guys look up for me? Put it on the poll at LeBatard show is on any given Sunday. A great movie. And look up for me whatever details you can find about the ll Cool Jamie Foxx fight off set in that movie. Because I am surprised that football hasn't had more good mov movies made about it in the history of film. I had the same experience. Have you guys had this experience? Can you guys name some of the movies in your life that you've gone back to revisit that you saw at one age and then saw later? Because the movie Warriors I saw in whenever it was the late 70s, early 80s, and then I revisited it 20 years later and it doesn't actually hold up. I had a very bad experience with it watching it 20 years later. Collins showed up yesterday. He was dancing in the huddle before the one good play in that game, the flea flicker that they threw the ball to him. He came, he appeared at the game dressed up as. Is it Cyrus? Is Cyrus the guy that was clicking bottles in the warriors saying warriors, come out and play? Go ahead and show people the footage of Mack Hollins. I had no proof there were any wide receivers in that football game in the early game played yesterday. I can't believe that Zaslo like football game. I did put it on the poll at LeBatard show. Did you like watching Patriots Broncos? There just can't be anybody that liked watching Patriots Broncos. How was that?
Tony
Of course, smash football.
Stugats
What do you mean smash? It was just run the ball. It's smash mouth football, but it's run the ball in the line. Nobody can move. Nobody can see anything. It's stupid. It's a stupid way to decide It's a stupid way to decide who gets to the Super Bowl. A backup quarterback playing, throwing the ball backwards like that. That was not.
Zaslow
Do we know that was a pass or a fumble?
Dan Le Batard
I mean, it was ruled a fumble, wasn't it? It was rul. It was a behind the line.
Stugats
Warriors come out to play.
Zaslow
Does Matt Collins know that that was the bad guy? And that guy lost in warriors again.
Tony
That's a play on. Doesn't matter.
Jeremy
Spoiler alert.
Roy
Yeah, man.
Zaslow
Movie came out 45 years ago.
Dan Le Batard
Did any of you watch Skyscraper this weekend?
Jeremy
Hell yeah.
Tony
Is that the one where the roc peg leg?
Zaslow
Yep. We don't say from the scaffold to the building, and he actually. His trajectory went up with a peg leg.
Tony
Does it have, like, a special, like, hydraulic.
Zaslow
I don't know. That's a good question.
Tony
We can't say peg leg.
Roy
No.
Stugats
What?
Jeremy
Since when I. The great Jeremy Tache sticking up for me.
Stugats
I'm an ally.
Dan Le Batard
We could say peg leg. Guys, come on. Skyscraper.
Zaslow
Great movie.
Stugats
I wasn't talking about the movie.
Tony
Is he hanging out from a helicopter in that movie, or is that a different movie?
Jeremy
I was watching it on.
Zaslow
That's Hobbs and Shaw.
Tony
Oh, gotcha.
Jeremy
I was watching it on mute. What kind of expertise did Seth Rollins bring to the proceedings other than energy? But as it built towards the end, did Seth Rollins have something like. In terms of analysis?
Zaslow
Seth Rollins wasn't in that. Neve Campbell was in it.
Dan Le Batard
Oohlins, for those of you who do not know, because they can't stop getting.
Stugats
Off their skyscraper jokes in the rock movie. That's not what I was talking. I was talking about Netflix doing what is, you know, every five or ten years, we do something like this, where you're going to climb this thing.
Zaslow
We're like, wait, what?
Stugats
A famed rock climber is going. So Daredevil stunt live on television, where he's going to. They had to cancel it the day before. It was supposed to be the day before, but inclement weather, which is affecting everywhere except Miami in the United States.
Dan Le Batard
Made it so that it was unsafe.
Stugats
To climb a skyscraper without ropes or nets. I would say it's always unsafe to do that, but evidently there's weather that makes it more unsafe.
Zaslow
Well, and you got to take into account, Dan, there was a fire, like, in the middle of the building. Now, Rock didn't know because he was, like, higher up, and it was like, the world's tallest building. And also he helped design it. Okay. That's kind of how, you know, he knew his way around. But there was a massive fire, like, in the middle of the building. So maybe that played a role, too, in not being able to climb it.
Dan Le Batard
I am sick watching this. Okay. As I'm watching what he's doing here and seeing the amount of wind that is making. His name is Alex Henold, and he is doing something here that it makes me queasy to watch this because of the height, obviously, the danger. And the only reason you'd be watching it. Correct.
Zaslow
Not his name. His name was Will Sawyer.
Dan Le Batard
Is to see if he'll fall or not.
Stugats
Right. I saw. You had to look that up. You must remember off the top of your head, like, all of the great characters in movie history, Mike Ryan just summoned the name of the coach. On any given Sunday, 25 years ago, you had to look up the rock's character name in skyscraper.
Zaslow
Everyone knows because you mean.
Stugats
I just saw you look it up. I just wanted to be sure.
Tony
The journalist Dan.
Stugats
None of you watch this?
Tony
It was the worst. It was the worst kept secret of all time. Like, nobody. I didn't even know was happening. Nobody said to me, hey, there's a guy climbing up tallest building in the world. I was like, oh, sick. Nobody said that until after I saw that he reached the top. And I was like, okay, he did it yesterday.
Dan Le Batard
When you say bad, poorly kept secrets, I learned yesterday. Not that I didn't totally understand it, but it became a factoid that taught me. Yesterday. I did not know that Patrick Dempsey was a hitman on a television show until seeing the commercial for it during football yesterday.
Jeremy
I need to apologize. It's Tony d'.
Roy
Amato oh, you idiot.
Jeremy
Not Donato.
Dan Le Batard
Got it wrong.
Jeremy
I said Donato. It's d'.
Dan Le Batard
Amato. God, how embarrassed.
Jeremy
I'm pretty embarrassed because other than that, I was nailing my trivia. By the way, Jeremy has an update on the LL Cool J Jamie Foxx fight.
Guest
Yeah, they were supposed to be getting into a heated argument on the sidelines when they were in character, but then Jamie Foxx was getting frustrated because LL Cool J was being just a little too aggressive with him during the scene. So when they went to do a second take, LL Cool J was even more aggressive with him. So then Jamie Foxx punched him in the face, and so he was like, hey, why'd you do that? He was like, you want to see why? And he had a helmet on. And then he stood there in a fighting stance, and so LL Cool J ripped his helmet off and punched him in the face and knocked him out cold.
Jeremy
In his defense, though, Willie was changing the plays in the huddle. He wasn't executing the plays that coaches.
Dan Le Batard
Were calling steaming Willie Beeman.
Jeremy
Steaming Willie Beeman. And LL Cool J was upset because that's eaten into his bonus. Like, why don't you get the ball there? He's changing the plays in the huddle, Coach. And then that fight happened in the sauna where Lawrence Taylor looks terrifying.
Dan Le Batard
Jeremy, can you look up for me if Jim Brown was body slammed during that altercation trying to separate them? Because that LL Cool J tells that story with some pride. Jamie Foxx does not. What do you make of the fact that Mina Kimes, very ardent Seahawks fan, TWEETED this off season after the Seahawks traded Geno Smith.
Jeremy
Qu.
Dan Le Batard
Flat out, this is a terrible move by Seattle. Chances of upgrading are extremely low. End quote. Did you guys hear or see a lot of Sam Darnold supporters at any point? Did you.
Stugats
Who are the.
Dan Le Batard
Who are the Sam Darnold believers and the people who can say, like Mike McDonald does today, oh, Sam shut everybody up. He just had, in the biggest game of his life, the best game of his life, one of the best games a quarterback has ever had under any circumstances. Sam Darnold just had it. You cannot beat Matthew Stafford at his best unless Sam Darnold has that game on third and fourth down.
Tony
It's basically McDonald and Kubiak. Are the two guys going to be like, yeah, I told you so? We saw something in Sam. We knew that it was going to translate into our offense. But if you thought in the beginning of the year that I just saw on ESPN, they were 60 to 1 to win the super bowl. And you look at what they did in the offseason, you're like, all right, you get rid of Geno Smith, you bring in Sam Darnold. This offensive line is young. That's not that good. Their defensive line has gotten better. Their defense is okay. Mike McDonald's gonna do a good job there. But offensively, I didn't know if JSN could be a number one wide receiver. Boy, did he prove us wrong. He's. He's the best wide receiver in the NFL. And you look at, you know, Ken Walker and you're like, ah, he's kind of gotten hurt sometimes. Sam Darnold, you don't know what you're gonna get. If it was Kevin o' Connell in Minnesota, or is it really Sam Darnold? And now with 30 wins under his, but the last two years, most winning quarterback in the NFL, you can. Stands to reason. All right, San Darlen's actually pretty good.
Zaslow
Vikings must feel terrible, right?
Dan Le Batard
I mean, they're not the only ones. There are any number of people who could have had that as their quarterback. When I keep giving you the stat again and again that the Patriots have done what they have done in the last 25 years since the Dolphins have won a playoff game, half the teams in the league could regret not getting Sam Darnold. And all of them could have had Sam Darnold.
Stugats
Even Seattle wanted Geno Smith to come back. Like, that was. That was a Geno Smith call. Geno Smith and Pete Carroll thought that.
Dan Le Batard
It would be something that they could just recreate with the Raiders. And as far as reclamation projects go, that's a super interesting one to me because if you take that quarterback in the top five and you just simply watch him yesterday, you see all the things that you need to see about, oh, that's magical arm strength, that's amazing accuracy. That's pocket awareness. But I'm also used to that coming with three interceptions in a game when I trust it to that. Panicking in the pocket when the pass rush gets ferocious. The stat I gave earlier on the Rams defense, like allowing points on 40% of your drives in the last nine.
Stugats
Games, like that doesn't deserve to be.
Dan Le Batard
In the Super Bowl. Like, you need superhuman MVP play from your quarterback in order to overcome that. The thing to me that's amazing about.
Stugats
Yesterday is it wasn't a defensive game. Seattle's number one defense did not play like that. It gave you no evidence. Anybody tuning in for the first time.
Dan Le Batard
To watch yesterday, what's allegedly the number.
Stugats
One defense in the league? Look, when I watch Denver play, I see a great defense. When I see Houston play, I see a great defense. I'm watching yesterday. No evidence of a good defense, never mind a great defense. Where was the evidence? It's not. They didn't. They didn't bother Stafford. There wasn't like huge pass rush. There wasn't anything about that Seattle defense that gave off special yesterday.
Zaslow
They came up with the big play in the big moment. I mean, fourth down on the goal.
Stugats
With a gimmick, but with a gimmick, they did it.
Tony
They did that.
Ad Reader
That.
Tony
That's a scheme. That's situationally great football. You win in the margin in the NFL. I mean, yeah, you're going to let up a ton of points to one of the best offenses, but in this, in the clutch situations, in the places where you need to get a stop, they were able to do what they needed to do.
Dan Le Batard
You say that, but Parkinson dropped a ball. That would have been that.
Stugats
He would have just run into the. He would have walked into the end.
Dan Le Batard
Zone with the ball.
Jeremy
It's about who wins.
Dan Le Batard
I understand.
Jeremy
About who you think is better. It's about who wins.
Dan Le Batard
I'm not saying it's about who I think is better. And I'm going to again tell you that it's not that I think the Rams are better. It's that I don't think there's any difference between those two teams. And if they played 100 times, it wouldn't surprise me. Each of them won 50 times and.
Tony
In their same division. If San Francisco doesn't you know, work by a power plant, electrical substation, excuse me, and have all those EMF situations. Who's to say San Francisco is not better than both them?
Zaslow
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Guest
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Dan Le Batard
Dan Lebatar Kermit the frog here live.
Jeremy
From Meadowlock Media Studios here in Miami.
Dan Le Batard
Stugats.
Jeremy
The Germans are advancing on France in World War II.
Roy
This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugats.
Dan Le Batard
The thing about the measurements that is interesting to me in that sport is that it's more random than all of the others. Like even, even hockey and baseball, which could be wildly random. The sample size isn't one game. They give you five to seven games to decide something. And Jeremy gave you the stats earlier of what's happened when the Rams and the Seahawks have played, never mind the last three times this season, in the.
Stugats
Entirety of them playing. The difference between those teams throughout their history isn't anything. They are separated this year by, by a fourth down, by a call.
Dan Le Batard
Is the difference that Seattle goes to the super bowl and the Rams don't. And to me that is kind of nuts that both games yesterday and football in general is so close that you can go into any one of the games, change one of the plays and change the entirety of the result. And history doesn't remember any of it because we do simplify it right down to it doesn't matter who should have won, who could have won. The only thing we care about is who did win.
Zaslow
I mean basketball is kind of the only sport where that doesn't apply.
Dan Le Batard
What, like what one game samples? Like you can get to one game samples, but it's a game seven. Like generally speaking we have series as an, as a more accurate measurement, something that at least reduces improbability.
Stugats
It can also happen there. But if I if the thing that's.
Dan Le Batard
Frustrating to me about this conversation today because it's been so normalized, this is how we measured and focused football and it's just how it is that if I gave you right Now, Seattle's up 2 to 1 in a seven game series between the Rams and Seattle. None of you would can't count the Rams out like you just you simply.
Stugats
None of you would do it because there isn't much of a difference between.
Dan Le Batard
What those two teams were this season. And the last time that like this.
Stugats
One at least wasn't fluky. This, this one, this is the one that Seattle was most impressive. And you know what's funny about this? Seattle might have been the most impressive of all of them in the first one, the one they lost because they had four turnovers and we're still kicking a field goal at the end to win the game on the road. So the most impressive one of the Seattle defense was certainly the first one. It wasn't the second one and it wasn't the third one because Seattle's defense over the last month hadn't allowed a 20 yard play in the last month. They were the best defense in the sport like they were all year, but they were not in this game. Like how many, how many people before this game? Nevermind.
Dan Le Batard
Mina Kimes getting it wrong or everybody getting it wrong or me getting it wrong. How many people before this game game would have signed up for the bet? Seattle's defense is going to get ransacked and Sam Darnold's just going to be better than Matthew Stafford because this was.
Stugats
The most lopsided one Seattle had if not for a dumb, unsportsmanlike call. They were up 3120 and could have just handled the rest of the game because there was no circumstance under which the Rams were going to be stopping Sam Darnold on this day. They weren't even bothering him. Like there were no. So there weren't a bunch of dropped interceptions. There was like one bad throw that Sam Darnold made that could have been picked off. This was of, of the games, this.
Dan Le Batard
Was the most impressive one Seattle played.
Zaslow
Can I defend Mina Kimes for a second? All she said in that tweet was, you know, letting go of Geno Smith's mistake. It's going to be really difficult to upgrade. Shouldn't say they're not going to upgrade. No, they were going to. To sign Sam Donald to be really difficult to upgrade. But guess what? They did. They, they surpassed that difficulty on a bargain deal.
Tony
Looks like now, right. If you win the super bowl, what.
Guest
Did they paid him?
Zaslow
I don't think she was wrong.
Dan Le Batard
Well, I just. Well, she was wrong.
Zaslow
No, she thought it would be difficult to upgrade.
Tony
It was difficult, but they did it.
Zaslow
Yeah, it was difficult.
Stugats
They did it.
Guest
So Bill Bellamy says that during that fight, Jim Brown was not body slammed. It was a separate altercation because there used to be chess played on set. And that Jim Brown with some of the young guys who were ex football players, he specifically said a couple of guys who were from Liberty City in particular, he used to get very sarcastic, hey, you sure you want to use that queen here in this situation? And it just started to really rub guys the wrong way. And they had no idea who Jim Brown was. And so ultimately the next day, after one of those times where a guy had gotten frustrated, just as simple as walking up to Jim Brown, picking him up, body slamming him right on set.
Dan Le Batard
I regard the original Longest Yard as the best football movie ever made. But I'm guessing that Jeremy and Tony haven't even seen it. And I'm wondering if it holds up, given that it's a movie from the 1970s.
Tony
The Burt Reynolds one.
Guest
The one with Sandler.
Dan Le Batard
No, that's not the original.
Zaslow
That's a horrible movie.
Dan Le Batard
That's not the original one with McCheezy. No, that's not. That is not the original.
Guest
Burt Reynolds is the original.
Dan Le Batard
Well, Burt Reynolds is in both of them, but Burt Reynolds was the star of the original. And I think Adam Sandler. And who else was in the second? Michael Erwin, Chris Rock.
Jeremy
Chris Rock.
Dan Le Batard
Marvin was one of the.
Zaslow
Ted Cruz, Stone Cold.
Stugats
But.
Dan Le Batard
So Bill Goldberg.
Stugats
So.
Dan Le Batard
But Jeremy and Tony have no idea what the original 1977 longest yard is. Right. Do you think. Do you imagine that it would hold up? Put it on the poll at LeBatard show. Is the original Longest Yard the best football movie ever made? And does the original Longest Yard hold up in 2026?
Roy
Oh, that final scene where Burt Reynolds was going to pick up that football.
Dan Le Batard
Who.
Jeremy
That was tense.
Dan Le Batard
Spoiler alert.
Zaslow
It's not the best football movie ever made. Friday Night Lights is.
Guest
Remember the Titans.
Zaslow
No, the last scene.
Dan Le Batard
Remember the Titans. It can't be. Remember the Titans. You can't fool the district coach champion. That's a legend with a double reverse. 80 yards. You're not even throwing the ball. You're just. You're just.
Stugats
I mean.
Dan Le Batard
I mean, Sunshine. Look, Sunshine wasn't that fast. And the blocking on that play was ridiculous. You can't have an 80 yard reverse as the clock.
Guest
Weird time to argue against. Remember the Titans between living and dying.
Tony
I'm a Varsity Blues man.
Dan Le Batard
You can't be.
Guest
Yeah, little giants. Come on.
Tony
Varsity Blues.
Stugats
You can't be. You can't.
Dan Le Batard
What are you now?
Stugats
You're whipping crew walking?
Zaslow
She's got the whipped cream.
Dan Le Batard
Come on.
Tony
They go out all the place and then all of a sudden it's daytime and they're like, oh, no, we got a game.
Dan Le Batard
Do you know that because of Varsity Blues and somehow the popularity of that movie, that thing that those kids did where they laid on a highway.
Stugats
No, that's the program.
Zaslow
That was the program.
Dan Le Batard
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm.
Zaslow
Great movie, though.
Dan Le Batard
No, no, neither of these.
Stugats
Yeah.
Zaslow
Oh, how dare you?
Tony
What are you doing?
Zaslow
How dare you?
Stugats
Can you.
Dan Le Batard
You think you can name five great football movies? Do you think you. You think that you could come up in the history of film? Because if you're going to give the program great, then you can do it.
Zaslow
The program Are you hurt? You injured?
Dan Le Batard
The story I was going to tell about the program that I confused with Varsity Blues. Both of them had a stereotypical fat guy in them.
Stugats
Right?
Dan Le Batard
Right. Both of them.
Stugats
Both of them use mean.
Jeremy
A down lineman. Yes.
Stugats
The.
Dan Le Batard
The. The high school kids getting drunk. Laying on a highway and allowing cars to drive over them. That was something that kids were actually starting to do. Because of that.
Zaslow
They took it out of the movie. Like I've never seen the movie. I've never seen the version of the movie with that scene. They took it out.
Jeremy
Became an 80s cliche. Hiding under public transit. Who can forget the Lost Boys clinging to that train track as a train roared overhead.
Guest
Head fly with us.
Jeremy
Michael.
Zaslow
It's a great movie.
Dan Le Batard
Boy.
Zaslow
You're on a roll this morning.
Dan Le Batard
Do you think we wouldn't get consensus? I guess we wouldn't. In the. In the room. Roy. Do you have a nominee for what it is that you would think is the best football movie ever made? Because these guys are selecting from the discount bin of slop. Because they are picking all of you. I mean.
Stugats
You can't.
Dan Le Batard
How are you remember the types.
Jeremy
He's trying to be provocative.
Guest
Are you crazy?
Dan Le Batard
Varsity Blues cannot be one of the great footballers.
Guest
This is worse than your Fernando Mendoza tape.
Jeremy
Yeah. He's calling blockers ahead of him as Foo Fighters plays off in the distance.
Dan Le Batard
Yeah.
Jeremy
It's a great movie.
Roy
North Dallas. 40.
Guest
80 for Brady.
Dan Le Batard
Remember the Titans was not slop. And I will give you that. Remember the Titans was a good movie. Not just a good football.
Zaslow
But the last place Despite.
Stugats
Despite its ending.
Dan Le Batard
But I'm with Zaslow on that. The last play. Can I believe I yelled at Denzel Washington about. About that. That.
Stugats
That can't be. That.
Dan Le Batard
I can.
Stugats
That was on the air. I think that. That can't be the way that that game ends.
Dan Le Batard
You cannot fool the legendary district coach.
Stugats
Because all he's doing is yelling. Watch for the deep pass. Watch for the deep. Isn't it? They got one. They got no time left. They got to go 80 yards. And the legendary district coach is yelling. You gotta look out for the deepest. And then they. They trick him with a double reverse.
Zaslow
It's so bad.
Jeremy
You know what prevent defense does? Dan? Prevents you from winning.
Guest
He didn't account for Rev as a blocker. Come on.
Zaslow
Okay. We have the program. We have Friday Night Lights. We have remember the Titans 80 for Brady. You can't give me two more varsity.
Jeremy
How do you like that Jambalaya? All right.
Dan Le Batard
I'm gonna put all of these on the poll, though, it was bad.
Guest
I mean, little Giants.
Dan Le Batard
Come on. I'm gonna give you Friday Night Lights, and I'm gonna give you, Remember the Titans, but it's all I'm gonna give you from among everything that we have mentioned here. Now, the original longest yard needs to go up there, there. And I think North Dallas 40 does, too. But I think North Dallas 40 would also have a hard time holding up. I have a hard time with any.
Stugats
Movies outside of basically the godfather from the 70s holding up.
Roy
Does Jerry McGrath count in this situation?
Dan Le Batard
No.
Roy
Off the move.
Dan Le Batard
Put it on the poll. Does Jerry Maguire count as a football movie? Because I think it has to count as a football movie, and it's a good selection. I think that you've done well. I put Jerry Maguire. That would get us to five, if we're willing to count all of that and not disqualify. Remember the time Titans, because of that last play.
Zaslow
Dan, the program is 80% on rotten tomatoes, man.
Stugats
And, hey, you're wrong.
Zaslow
It's a good movie.
Dan Le Batard
Put it on the poll at LeBatard show. Was the program a good movie?
Stugats
I was objecting more to Varsity Blues.
Tony
Than I was Jon Voight as the coach.
Zaslow
I don't want your life.
Jeremy
I don't get Strokes, Mother Bleeper. I give them.
Stugats
I. I'm gonna argue that Jon Voight has never been in a good movie. I think I have this.
Jeremy
He was in Heat.
Tony
Yeah, he was in heat.
Jeremy
He was in heat.
Zaslow
Deliverance. Come on.
Jeremy
He's the financer with a ponytail. Was he in heat?
Guest
He was in holes.
Stugats
Did someone yell Anaconda at me? They're remaking Anaconda, aren't they?
Jeremy
Yeah, it was already out.
Stugats
Who are they Making Critical flop. Who are they? Remake.
Jeremy
It was with Jack Black and Paul Rudd.
Tony
Yeah, but it's a comedy.
Jeremy
But Steve Zahn is in it, and he was in the original. How about that?
Guest
Wow.
Roy
How about that?
Jeremy
How's that?
Dan Le Batard
I think.
Stugats
Was Jon Voight in one of the Beverly Hills Cops? I think he was in the second Beverly Hills Cop.
Tony
No, he was in Beverly Hills Cop.
Dan Le Batard
Dan, are you sure?
Roy
No, no, trust me. I've seen all four of them.
Jeremy
He wasn't in, I think, National Treasure.
Stugats
Weren't there a couple of biker guys trying to kill Eddie Murphy who answered.
Dan Le Batard
To Jon Voight in one of the Beverly Hills Cops?
Roy
Because I think there were bikers in another 48 hours.
Dan Le Batard
Okay, that's the movie I'm thinking of. Of Jon Voight. So I'll give Jon Voight that hour for you, man. You think? Because I'm. Because I.
Stugats
Because I've forgotten all of Jon Voight's good roles. And somebody shouted anaconda at me when he got spit up by a giant snake and then winked at it while covered in fluid. That's the one that you guys are talking about. He was on his knees, got spit out by a giant snake, and then he wasn't quite dead. Winked and then died.
Tony
He's a showman.
Zaslow
Six inches in front of your face.
Date: January 26, 2026
Location: Elser Hotel, Downtown Miami
This episode of "The Big Suey" is an energetic, round-table discussion that weaves through NFL playoff chaos, the evolution of coaching philosophies, randomness in sports outcomes, and an extended, often hilarious debate about football movies. With their trademark blend of sports analysis, hot takes, nostalgia, and irreverence, Dan Le Batard, Stugotz, Zaslow, Roy, Tony, Jeremy, and a few guests keep the debates lively and laugh-out-loud funny.
“I did end up watching it and… I regretted those three hours of my life. Why would you love that game?” — Dan Le Batard (05:04)
“The nerd boys are actually the ones playing tough-guy, aggressive football. Rex Ryan’s the coward in those spots.” — Zaslow (09:08)
“...the difference that Seattle goes to the Super Bowl and the Rams don’t. And to me that is kind of nuts... we do simplify it right down... The only thing we care about is who did win.” — Dan Le Batard (31:56)
“20 minutes in, we looked at each other like, this movie sucks.” — Zaslow (16:32)
“Varsity Blues cannot be one of the great football [movies].” — Dan Le Batard (38:57)
“So then Jamie Foxx punched [LL Cool J] in the face… then LL Cool J ripped his helmet off and punched him in the face and knocked him out cold.” — Guest (22:50)
“...if they played 100 times, it wouldn’t surprise me if each of them won 50 times.” — Dan Le Batard (27:58)
“An eyeball on the field does not look realistic.” — Dan Le Batard (15:46)
“Clearly, Rex Ryan is scared of math and it’s confusing to me.” — Dan Le Batard (08:10)
“...Jamie Foxx was getting frustrated because LL Cool J was being just a little too aggressive with him...LL Cool J ripped his helmet off and punched him in the face and knocked him out cold.” — Guest (22:50)
“That can’t be the way that that game ends...You cannot fool the legendary district coach...” — Dan Le Batard (39:33)
“I’m gonna argue that Jon Voight has never been in a good movie.” — Stugotz (41:29) “He was in Heat.” — Jeremy (41:33)
As always, the tone vacillates between passionate, nerdy sports analysis and quick-fire comedy, with an easy rapport and habit of digressing into deeply specific, often absurd, pop-culture asides. The hosts and their regulars riff with each other and the audience, offering opinions with confidence (and a willingness to shout about it).
This episode encapsulates The Dan Le Batard Show’s strengths: a heartfelt but irreverent love of sports, an eye for the hilarious in the mundane, and a willingness to dig deep into both controversy and nostalgia. Whether you’re contemplating the role of analytics in Fourth-and-Short decisions or debating the best football movie ever, this episode offers lively conversation, friendly arguments, and plenty of laughs.
Polls to watch for:
Bottom line: If you want a blend of real sports insight, old-school-meets-new-school debate, and some genuinely funny movie arguments—all in the unique Le Batard style—this episode delivers.