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Dan LeBatard
You're listening to Giraffe Kings Network.
Stugotz
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Mike Ryan
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Dan LeBatard
Welcome to the Big Sui presented by DraftKings.
Mike Ryan
Why are you listening to this show.
Jeremy
The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBatard podcast? I'm sorry, I'm not gonna apologize for that. In fact, the the only difference seems.
Dan LeBatard
To be this imaging.
Mike Ryan
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. I've done it.
Jeremy
And now here's the marching man to Nowhere Fat Face and the Habitual Liar.
Chris Cote
This episode of the Dan LeBatard show with Stugots is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours.
Mike Ryan
So there was a story that was actually pretty fired up about yesterday was like the topic du jour and we didn't actually get around to it.
Jeremy
I was stunned.
Mike Ryan
I can't believe it. It's the Dan LeBatard show with Sue Gotzen and Dan didn't want to talk about the Jackie Robinson story.
Roy Bellamy
It was on a T form.
Mike Ryan
I don't. This one's easy folks.
Dan LeBatard
If you asked AI over the last 15 years to take everything Dan has passionately spoken about on these airwaves and create a story that was born for him to speak about.
Jeremy
Did he just like what is to.
Dan LeBatard
It or I have no idea what.
Mike Ryan
Show hallmark of a good show. I have good things that I needed to get to and he didn't get to a Jackie Robinson race and sports story that you know well. Blaney was great, was good.
Dan LeBatard
I really enjoyed that interview.
Mike Ryan
While this is an easy topic for Dana in winning the rare winning position where the intersection of sports and Politics, meet. Ryan Blaney was great. He was terrific.
Jeremy
Yeah, I don't even care about nascar. I thought he was interesting.
Mike Ryan
It was. But Jeremy, for the uninitiated, bring him up to speed on this Jackie Robinson story. And there are also friends of the show that got entangled in this, and I'd like to chew on that a little bit as well.
Dan LeBatard
There are so many moving pieces to this over the last 48 hours, but essentially there was a story on a government website where Jackie Robinson was celebrated for his military service, similar to a whole bunch of other military heroes that were celebrated here. And that story was removed from the government website. And when you went to go click on the link to get to that story celebrating Jackie Robinson, the link had been changed to include the words DEI or rather the. The term DEI ahead of. Of sports in the link. So initially there was a backslash and then sports dash, all these different things. For, for Jackie Robinson, the link was actively changed and led you to a page not found. Jeff Passon was the one who first put this out there.
Jeremy
Very mad.
Dan LeBatard
He was rightfully furious about this. Jackie Robinson's history being removed from a government website as a result of stomping out diversity, equity and inclusion. Seems like one of the worst things that we could do in the storytelling of our, our nation's history. And what was really wild is that the statements that Pass in received, and I can pull those up in just a second, basically doubled down on what it was that had happened. Not, you know, acknowledging maybe there was a mistake, maybe there is this. Several hours later, of course, the article was restored because that's what happens. These people try to do everything and if you don't catch them, they'll just keep doing it. So it's up to journalists like Jeff Passen to catch people in the act and force their hand. And so now the article is back, but only after these statements said things like we don't see color, essentially when it comes to Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier, why was it considered dei?
Jeremy
Jackie Robinson because he's black. But like he was. It's not a hire. He was drafted.
Dan LeBatard
Well, no, so. So this part is. Is interesting too, right, Because.
Mike Ryan
Because they mean black.
Dan LeBatard
Well, right, because DEI higher all of a sudden has been like co opted into being something that's negative.
Mike Ryan
The way that woke was.
Dan LeBatard
Yeah. The way the critical race theory was before that.
Roy Bellamy
Like they kind of changed up the acronym on that now in the press release that the Department of Defense, they, they said discriminatory equity ideology.
Dan LeBatard
Oh it's remarkable.
Roy Bellamy
That's incredible.
Dan LeBatard
It's remarkable because.
Jeremy
Okay, so they're saying on it that the reason that it was there originally was because he's black, not that he was hired because the term that Roy is saying there that they're using, it's. That's why it was on the page. Right.
Mike Ryan
Because this discriminated against whom? Jackie Robinson or white people. That's, that's kind of.
Jeremy
They're trying to say it's only included there. But we're only making note of this accomplishment because he's black. That's what they're saying.
Mike Ryan
Well, I mean, Jackie Robinson. Yes. Right.
Dan LeBatard
He broke the color barrier.
Jeremy
Yeah.
Dan LeBatard
That was like he was a great.
Mike Ryan
Player, but also like he was the first to break the color barrier because he was a great player. But that was a big deal.
Dan LeBatard
I'm going to.
Mike Ryan
Huge deal.
Dan LeBatard
I'm going to read his thing, the statements here for you guys and I. And I apologize for the fact that these are somewhat wordy and will be.
Jeremy
Less confusing than the PLG statement.
Dan LeBatard
Probably. So Jeff pass and reached out about the removal of the story from the Department of Defense website. And this was the statement he received back. As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department. Discriminatory equity ideology is a form of woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It divides the force, erodes unit cohesion and interferes with the service's core warfighting mission. We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. In the rare cases that content is removed either deliberately or by mistake. That is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive. We instruct the components and they correct. Sorry. And they correct the content accordingly. But there was a follow up statement just a couple of hours later because that one was obviously dumb. Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson as well as, as well as the Navajo code talkers.
Mike Ryan
Some of my best friends are Jackie Robinson, the Marines. I went to a Jackie Robinson wedding once.
Dan LeBatard
The Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others. We salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country. Full stop. We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics such as race, ethnicity or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the war fighting mission. Like every other American who has worn the uniform. DEI discriminatory equity ideology does the opposite. It divides the force, erodes unit cohesion and interferes with the service's core warfighting mission. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Mike Ryan
I'd be curious if there was like a Ted Williams story, right, that remained up.
Jeremy
Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. Like, I guess I understand what they're trying to say there, but I think it's. I think it's interesting hearing about famous people who served in wars.
Mike Ryan
It's like a huge part of their marketing campaign that is we used to have to draft people. I know that there were wars going around, but historically, not easy to recruit there.
Dan LeBatard
Arguing that that race, that Jackie Robinson story shouldn't be viewed through the prism of race is so insulting to not only Jackie Robinson in his memory, but all of the people who came before him and after him, not only in the military, but in baseball, like in sports. This is truly, truly utterly offensive.
Roy Bellamy
It's almost like they forget why he got court martialed in the first place. He was on an army bus as a commissioned officer, by the way, a second lieutenant. He was told to go to the back of the bus and he got court martial for not doing that.
Mike Ryan
Okay, I know Zaz says, I get what they're trying to say there, and I guess I kind of too like the spin on it. Right. But to ignore race is to ignore a pretty big connection point. Your job is to recruit. Like, ultimately all these branches of the military are actively trying to recruit people to join. And race is a connection point for a lot of people. Jackie Robinson's story might resonate with people that you're actively trying to recruit. They may be black, they may be Latino, they may be white. But it is a story that resonates in part because he was the dude that broke the color barrier. To ignore that fact works against your best interest. If you're actively trying to recruit people.
Roy Bellamy
You know who it doesn't resonate with? Robert Griffin iii, because he went on Twitter last night.
Jeremy
What'd he say?
Roy Bellamy
He said that you need to separate politics from sports and you shouldn't talk politics on sports shows.
Mike Ryan
Well, it's what we're doing right now that's awfully comedic.
Jeremy
Oh, that's because you had people on television yesterday who we're talking about. Right, okay.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Roy Bellamy
Stephen A. Smith.
Mike Ryan
So. So Stephen A. Smith did like a six minute thing on this on first take. You can have your opinions on that, but that didn't really get aggregated all that much. But Dov Kleiman is calling for Mina Kimes to get fired because she did, like, the easiest take on this with her around the horn. Victory time, her Facetime there it was Weird. They went at Mina, and I understand why they go at Mina. They have algorithms for this stuff. They know who does numbers, but they ignore the dude that apparently can talk about. Well, not apparently negotiated in his contract. He can talk about politics with full autonomy over.
Jeremy
Is it possible that's why they didn't.
Mike Ryan
No, no, no. It's not because they go at Mina because Mina does numbers. It's like, if you check Breitbart, they still post about Megan Rapinoe occasionally because they know what gets traction over there. Mina Kimes does numbers, invoking her name and calling this amorphous account because it's not a real person anymore. But they can't actually say it's not a real person anymore because that goes against Twitter's rules, because a guy can't just sell his account. So you have this bot, essentially, that has a whole bunch of different people working on it.
Billy Gil
Aggregator.
Mike Ryan
Essentially, yeah. Calling. No. Well, doing the cute calling. Should Mina Kimes be fired? Question mark. As some people are saying this and it's overly ridiculous and it's totally unfair, and I hope that people dunk on Dove the way that Mina did. But to the Robert Griffin, the third point is, this is a sports story. Jackie Robinson's like one of the first names that comes to mind when you want to talk about sports. This is what is. Like, Jackie Robinson did sports. He did nothing yesterday. Like, he was just. His legacy was just existing.
Jeremy
Anything that involves Jackie Robinson is sports.
Mike Ryan
It's sports.
Jeremy
Anything.
Roy Bellamy
Literally the most important athlete in the history of sports.
Dan LeBatard
It's really amazing. And the fact that he broke the color barrier, and you want to insinuate that, in turn, color has nothing to do with his story. Like, look, Jackie Robinson was one of the greatest second baseman of all time. That's not why number 42 is retired. Number 42 is retired because of what he had to go through. The racial epithets being hurled at him throughout his entire rise into being a big leaguer. And then, by the way, he is one of the greatest players of all time. So those who want to derisively call him a DEI higher. As if, by the way, that's a bad thing and as if he was only included because he was black. You just flatly don't know ball. You people want to side with these dorks that don't know ball, these nerds that don't know ball, that don't know anything about the history of our game, our American pastime. You want to be racist and not know ball. I just can't believe It. I really can't. This is one of the most wild stories and, like, continuing to try to shape this narrative that DEI is a bad thing. Diversity, equity, and inclusion, what that means anymore.
Mike Ryan
They changed it.
Dan LeBatard
But, like, we all understand, right? All of these American individualists what this means, right? Diversity. What's the opposite of that?
Mike Ryan
Wait, Jeremy, I. I feel as passionately about this as you do, but I do want to try to keep it to sports a little bit in that sports was just doing sports. Sports was, in this instance, just minding its own business. It's just minding its own business. And sports realize, hey, there's sports that's being removed. Why is sports being removed? Politics comes over and grabs sports, and it's not the other way around. And trust me, it's hugely frustrating because the same people that tout that line, and I don't know if Robert Griffin III has expressed this before, but I'm watching the Daytona 500, and I'm seeing Donald Trump fly in and take several laps, several laps around the Daytona Motor Speedway. And I can't exactly keep politics out of sports there, can I?
Roy Bellamy
I mean, remember, he did call NFL players sons of bitches for kneeling.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, there's a lot of times where politics gravitate to sports to lift it up. Look, Donald Trump essentially helped. One of the big issues that Donald Trump campaigned on and was successful on and found general consensus even across the aisle was that trans swimmer. That's bad. We can't have guys playing in girls sports. Like, this is the line. And while that is crude, there is general consensus on this topic, even amongst liberals, and is a winning position. So they come to sports all the time to grab their winning positions all the time. Sports has actively been trying to stay out of politics. Hell, even this show has kind of like, we know. We know that you don't like it. So sports is sports. And when politics comes over and grabs sports, sports has a right to clap back, especially on something like this, which is so easy.
Jeremy
I mean, if it was an actor or a musician, you know, black actor, black musician, who they removed from those page, like, Mina Kimes wasn't gonna be using her FaceTime on around the Horn for it. It's because it's Jackie Robinson, and Jackie Robinson is sports. Like I said, in any place where Jackie Robinson is mentioned, that sports.
Dan LeBatard
I saw someone tweet that. The fact that at this present time, Mina could go on the air and basically say, like, hey, Jackie Robinson's historical significance tied to his race and that that would make her A punching bag for the right wing media just shows where we've gone generally in this country. Like it's. It's pretty amazing that just saying that out loud could turn you into some sort of symbol of quote unquote, cultural woke Marxism.
Mike Ryan
And also there are people that are still defending its removal because, yeah, they've just decided to commit to the party line when the party itself has come out and said, my bad, my bad. Like, we got that one wrong. It might have even got a mistake.
Jeremy
Surprising that they did that, though.
Mike Ryan
No, no, it's not.
Dan LeBatard
This is what they do.
Mike Ryan
Man, there've been lives. I was at a town hall last week and there was a marine biologist for NOAA that got fired and her supervisor didn't know about it. She got a crude letter and it wasn't even signed. Did not know who fired her. Went to the superior. This was a worker that had hit all her marks, even attained a bonus because she was so superlative at her job. Her supervisor didn't know about this. I believe there was another scientist that worked on hurricanes that had actually gotten fired in a similar fashion, then rehired, and then a day later fired again. All of this is messy. It's like they're literally typing in, they're taking inventory of what could be lumped into dei, and that is about as crude as it can get. Jackie Robinson, Black Eyed dei. And they're just typing that in and eliminating things. And they're eliminating. They're doing this with people's lives and jobs, and they're just typing in these things into a big machine and just crudely cutting things out. And people like Jeff Pattison and all these other journalists need to keep catching these things. Especially things like, that's a good day for journalism. Yesterday it was, it was a good day for sports. It was a good day for sports. And this was something I think everybody can kind of get behind Jackie Robinson to quote the great Jonathan Zazzle. Awesome. Awesome. This one's easy. They admitted hours later they got it wrong. Why is this a hill to die on still?
Dan LeBatard
Because when you're involved in something that feels cultish, there's no admitting that you're wrong, even when there's admission that you're wrong. I mean, the, the general defense was like, oh, well, you know, they're, they're probably running all of this through an algorithm, and the algorithm made a mistake. Well, then what's your algorithm trying to do? If it's removing Jackie Robinson from the Secretary of Defense's website, from the Department of Defense. It's just really shocking to me that people are digging in their heels on this one and it just feels like a pretty winning position on the other side to go, hey, Jackie Robinson rocks, man.
Mike Ryan
You don't have to dig your heels on this one. Everyone admits like, this was, this was a mistake. We can all move on. You don't need to have a think piece as to why we're right. And you certainly don't have to say, sports stay in your lane here when they were. They absolutely were. And if it wasn't for sports, they would have gotten away with this heinous thing. So thank you, sports.
Dan LeBatard
This is the thing, right, with sports. I mean, we, we. You just brought up, you know, trans athletes, right? And this is why I thought Pablo's episode that he did on. On trans athletes a few months ago was one of the most important things we've done at Meadowlark Media. Because oftentimes what this is doing is using sports as a vehicle to point something out, right? Take it as a minor thing. Oh, we don't want, quote unquote, men playing in women's sports. And you make the trans community this divisive community that you attack, that you bring to everyone's mind, hey, there's this bad thing and we need to stomp it out. And now you can see those same people who initially said this is just about sports literally calling to remove trans people from society. Period. End of discussion. Get rid of them. If you're going to start here with this conversation on Jackie Robinson, in the history of race in this country, it's the same slippery slope and they're doing it on purpose.
Mike Ryan
Division is good. This is an easy place to cause division. And it's. It's not often that they're that. That administration has an overwhelmingly popular position and the sentiment in this country aligns itself more with that view than what is projected onto Democrats, which may not even be accurate. Like I said, within the Democratic Party, there's general consensus and alignment there, but it's just an easy winning position and Dems probably have to find a talking point on it.
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Mike Ryan
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Billy Gil
Context needs to be applied for a.
Dan LeBatard
Joke and context was a plug.
Mike Ryan
We we'd like to rip that out of context. I was going for a thing and you're gonna I have a family. You're gonna pretend here that you don't love Matthew Tkachuk more than you love anybody you've ever loved. I I don't love Matthew Tkachuk more than my daughter. Stugats now. It's pretty damn close.
Zaz
This is the Dan Levatar show with the st.
Mike Ryan
We move on to something of I guess not equal importance, but pretty seismic nonetheless. John Cena's heel turn now John Cena, for many many of you, you know about this, it's basically there was everything before John Cena's heel turn and then everything that happened since. One thing that I can't wrap my brain around, Zaz, is what's in it for Travis Scott?
Jeremy
I'm Very down on this Travis Scott, by the way. Can I also tell you, not only have I been to a Travis Scott concert, but I was on the railing on the floor at a Travis Scott concert.
Tony
Look at me, Lou.
Jeremy
How is that. Look at me, Louie. If I say that I was at a concert, I didn't say I had lunch with him anyway.
Mike Ryan
That is. That is surprising. You were there with your son.
Jeremy
I was there with my son.
Mike Ryan
Well, you should have said, no, I was there by myself. I love Travis Scott.
Jeremy
I don't know.
Mike Ryan
I ride the railing at Travis Scott.
Jeremy
I don't know anything about Travis Scott. My son was there with a few of his friends. I was hanging underneath in the doers lounge, and I thought the show was almost over, so I went out so I can kind of meet up with my son. And I have the all access pass, and I'm just kind of waiting on the rail, which, by the way, no one else is on the floor. I'm, like, the only one on the floor. So everyone saw me. I'm on the rail at the Travis Scott show.
Mike Ryan
Did you have a good time?
Jeremy
And I was. I was. I was on the rail like 30 minutes. The show just wouldn't end. It was. It was really strange. No, I didn't have a good time. It was weird, man. I don't get it.
Mike Ryan
He's got a great energy. He's a good live performer. He's got a new.
Jeremy
Oh, my God. I've never seen a crowd like. Yeah, the one at that show.
Mike Ryan
It's like the new rock show. It's. It's like the new mosh pit all.
Jeremy
The way up top in the rafters.
Mike Ryan
Jumping up, losing their minds.
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Ryan
Pretty crazy in terms of, like, being able to control an audience and command an audience, for better or worse, given Travis Scott's history, sometimes it gets away from him. But being able to put fans in a total uproar and get them to lose their minds. Travis Scott kingdom in the audience. And I know that it's loaded, given his history, but I don't know why he would punch Cody Rhodes.
Jeremy
Yeah, that's why I'm down on him. He punched him right in the side of the. I don't like that.
Mike Ryan
He couldn't even block it. He couldn't defend himself. Cheap shot. That seemed to do some real damage.
Jeremy
Yeah, he had a busted eardrum, apparently. And he showed up to work two days later, Cody. And he had a busted up eye. I'm very down on Travis Scott.
Mike Ryan
Poor Cody. But then John Cena disappears. For a couple of weeks and we don't have any answers for his actions. All we have are questions. So John Cena finally appears. And by the way, I love great idea to have this buildup for WrestleMania really kick off in earnest in Europe. European crowds are the absolute best. They are so good at these wrestling events.
Jeremy
And like, I don't want our big sporting events overseas. I don't like that. I want all big WWE shows overseas. If I can't be at the show, I want it to be overseas.
Mike Ryan
Well, they're just so. They're just so used to their song because of soccer.
Jeremy
It's very.
Mike Ryan
Soccer, yes. Because like their sporting culture is so great where here it's just like, let's go Cena. Defense, defense. Maybe the occasional everybody clap your hands.
Chris Cote
But like you're saying bangers right now. What's wrong with what you're saying?
Mike Ryan
Look, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here, but I do like what Europe does with it where they sing like popular songs and they, they make soccer chants into wrestling chants. Like, it's a great thing. We should, we should encourage that here in the States. But it's really good to for WWE too, because it helps establish clear narratives. And the fans watching at home are gonna take their note from the fans over there in the audience like, oh, Cody Rhodes is actually still over as a babyface. This rare white bred baby face. Perfect crowd, man, it was great. So John Cena comes out and I didn't like certain aspects of this, but it caught me so off guard. Zsasz, because I didn't expect this to be the direction. I didn't expect him to come out in the same, like fruity Pebbles T shirts.
Jeremy
Right? Me neither.
Mike Ryan
I thought he was gonna do something to his look. I thought he was gonna. I mean, his face changed when he got the signal from the Rock. So I thought.
Jeremy
But the explanation worked though, as to why he's keeping the same look, the same colors, the same music.
Mike Ryan
I think it's because they printed a lot of T shirts and they probably decided on this heel turn a little late in the game, but whatever. Like, that's fine, but there's logic here. They can reverse engine. It was just totally expected that, like, okay, we're going to go. We're going to make John Cena the. The chicken shit heel. Okay, that's not exactly. But it makes sense with the long term storytelling because John Cena hasn't been able to win a match on his own head to head. So he resorts to some of the evil. But I didn't like that he didn't mention the Rock. I didn't like that he's going to.
Jeremy
Be on TV again this Monday and the Monday after that. I mean, let it. Let it play itself out over a few weeks.
Mike Ryan
I'm willing to go with this. I think that I was really surprised.
Jeremy
This past week was about. I got a problem with the fans.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, maybe next week Cody Alpha to him. Yeah.
Jeremy
And so maybe next week will be all right. This is why I now love the Rock.
Mike Ryan
This was refreshing in that Cody has kind of been built up by all of his, you know, going up against the Rock, going up against Roman Reigns. He's always been. Every Raw leading up to WrestleMania, was Cody Rhodes getting his ass kicked. There wasn't time for Cody Rhodes really in any of these programs. Like, he's worked some good matches, good programs with Kevin Owens and AJ Styles where he's gotten to be a tough guy. But I really like the dynamic, which is like, Cody Rhodes, I've headlined WrestleMania. Like, you lose all the time. If this is the guy that I'm facing, I'm going to kill you.
Jeremy
And then he called him a whiny bitch, which everybody's going to think is cool. If you call someone a whiny bitch in wrestling, you're. You're the much cooler guy.
Mike Ryan
They go to that. Well occasionally with Cody Rhodes when they really want to hammer home a point. I'm not the biggest fan of it, but I want the storytelling to evolve. But I was so caught off guard by him coming out with his traditional look and by the logic to his turn and not invoking the Rock that I was like, okay, I'm kind of in on this because I'm surprised by it. And it's not often that wrestling surprises people and it's done.
Jeremy
So with this, the part that's also interesting to me is. And you know, there's a meme out there now with the kid who.
Mike Ryan
He Was that a plant?
Jeremy
No way was that a plant.
Mike Ryan
He had the sticker still on the shirt.
Jeremy
No way.
Mike Ryan
I looked like a plant.
Jeremy
What's the matter with you? And you got the kid who was shook.
Mike Ryan
They had the camera locked in when he goes, like. And this kid, like, they talked about that one.
Jeremy
Well, they may have told him, hey, there's a kid sitting right over here. He's wearing your gear. Maybe that's the kid you point out. We'll be ready for it.
Mike Ryan
He's got great seats.
Jeremy
Yeah, you know, plant. And so you got this Meme now this kid who is shook and I'm just thinking, man, because wrestling wasn't like that when I was a kid where I'm a huge Hulk Hogan fan growing up, the age that that kid was in the crowd. And if my hero is now telling me as a kid to go F myself, I like, that's wild to me that kids are probably so sad at what's going on there on my television that I'm super entertained by the logic.
Mike Ryan
Behind a dude that has just been beaten down by social media and fans. Like I can't do right. And after 20 years, like it's finally gotten to me. It actually tracks. And a lot of it's actually happening in pop culture too. We're seeing like Drake fatigue and he's kind of had a bit of a heel turn. Certainly happening in hip hop a lot with some of the other names that we've referenced there for way different reasons. But it does kind of tap into what's going on with pop culture. The guys that were celebrated are now vilified through a lot of their own, in some cases heinous actions. But it's cool to see art kind of imitate life a little bit here. And I'm very curious to see where this one goes. I'm excited. This is fresh. And it's not often that WWE feels fresh. Look, there's a good guy, there's a bad guy, someone gets low blowed. There's only so many things that you can do in the world of wrestling. Turning John Cena heel. We've never. Well, we have seen it before in his earlier days, but not as one, like as a megastar, as the face of a generation of wrestling. So I'm really curious to see where this one goes. And I'm super hyped for WrestleMania season. Are you going out there?
Jeremy
I am not going out there.
Mike Ryan
It's a shame. This one's in Vegas.
Jeremy
I know I'm not going out there.
Mike Ryan
Hang out with all wrestling fans. It's a little bit far.
Jeremy
I mean it's, it's a very long flight. You know, it's two nights. That's it even. I mean these ticket prices, it's, it's.
Mike Ryan
A Super West Coast. Wrestlemanias, by the way, are the best.
Jeremy
They start early in the day.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, they start. Yeah. So you, you're done. The worst part about like leaving Show at like 8:30, it takes you an hour to leave the stadium or like. All right, all right boys. What are we going to be doing now? It's 1am it's hard to catch a vibe there. West Coast Wrestlemania. Yeah.
Jeremy
Let's go out to dinner.
Mike Ryan
Awesome.
Jeremy
Yeah. No, I'm not. I'm not going. I'm not going this year.
Mike Ryan
I'm sorry. Tony, you're looking a little rough around the edges lately. Is this a new look? Are you pivoting?
Billy Gil
I've got a. I've got a bit of an issue, Mike, and I think I need the boys to help me out this year.
Mike Ryan
Justin Timberlake, man in the woods era.
Billy Gil
It's called having.
Chris Cote
Having a newborn. That's what it is.
Billy Gil
Well, no, that, that. But I'm very usual. I'm very regular with my haircut. Right. Like every week, week and a half, I get my fade with a two up top and very clean cruise.
Mike Ryan
Right.
Billy Gil
My issue is that my barber is out of commission for the next couple weeks until essentially another like 13 days.
Mike Ryan
You got to cheat on your barber.
Billy Gil
So I got to cheat on my barber, but I don't want to. Zaz. I know. Obviously it's been a while since you've cheated on a barber, but.
Zaz
Wow.
Billy Gil
More importantly, what do you think about cheating on a barber? Where I've been going to this guy for 13 years? How every. Every 10 days I go.
Mike Ryan
Every 10 days? Yeah, every 10 days. That's like the rule.
Billy Gil
Every 10 days.
Mike Ryan
You're like a. Like a two weeks guy.
Dan LeBatard
Two weeks guy. You nailed it.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Dan LeBatard
Two weeks, three weeks. If I'm really pushing it, because I know I have a, like a TV appearance coming up and I want to get it a little closer to that.
Mike Ryan
Chris, I think you're like a three weeks guy.
Chris Cote
Oh, I'm more than that. Like, I'd say a month.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Jeremy
When I. When I had the good hair, I would wait. I'm at least a month, you know, every 10 days. That's.
Chris Cote
Sometimes I'll even push it like to a month and a half and I'll have my wife clean up my neck. The back.
Roy Bellamy
Do that.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. How do you play it? But you got to go every day.
Jeremy
I do it all myself.
Mike Ryan
You don't say. Yeah. I would have never been able to tell that.
Jeremy
Yep.
Mike Ryan
Big boy Roy also does that.
Roy Bellamy
That's right.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. Roy cuts his own hair.
Roy Bellamy
Yeah. Haircuts apparently are $50 now.
Mike Ryan
Like, dude, they're expensive.
Chris Cote
I just switched barbers some closer to my house, and you can't find one nowadays.
Jeremy
Do you get the shave?
Chris Cote
Yeah, yeah. The full kitten caboodle?
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Jeremy
With like the big blade?
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Jeremy
Are you ever worried, you know, like, you Know, Right.
Chris Cote
I guess if I just got a.
Jeremy
Haircut, it might be over here, dog.
Chris Cote
Oh, no. I mean, right now. I. I haven't. It's not clean at the moment. I didn't go yesterday. But yes, when I do get a haircut, I get.
Jeremy
But you don't get nervous.
Chris Cote
No, I trust them.
Billy Gil
They're professionals.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Jeremy
All right.
Chris Cote
I like that part.
Mike Ryan
I gotta tell you, I read about sharks attacking people all the time. One thing I haven't read about in a very long time is, oops. Barber accidentally killed somebody.
Dan LeBatard
Sweeney Todd.
Mike Ryan
That was the last guy, right? Barber of Fleet street was the last person, and he was intentionally doing it.
Dan LeBatard
Right.
Mike Ryan
The accidental throat slash. Never heard the accident during the shave. That's something that not be on that. I'll go.
Chris Cote
But by your math, we're kind of do. No, that's.
Mike Ryan
That's a good point.
Billy Gil
We're probably doing a place that we wouldn't hear about it. Maybe somewhere across the world it's happening, but you're back in wherever the world.
Mike Ryan
A lot of bad barbers out there.
Billy Gil
Could be America, Portugal, who knows? But the issue is, I'm already grandfathered in with. With a price from 15 years ago.
Chris Cote
We've done this on mystery crate.
Mike Ryan
So how much we've shamed.
Billy Gil
Tony, you shamed me for. For being loyal to a guy for 15 years.
Chris Cote
Like, one of his. Like, it's a good buddy of his, and he's still giving him, like, $15. This guy's, like, losing money.
Jeremy
I understand. Like, you're. You're asking if you should go and. And cheat on your barber. Does your barber think that when he goes on vacation, like, you're just not allowed to get a haircut?
Billy Gil
That's what I'm saying now.
Mike Ryan
We.
Jeremy
We talked about vacation.
Billy Gil
I know. We talked about it too. He's like, hey, in March, I'm going to be out. I'm doing this and that. And I was like, okay, cool. All right. I'll worry about it in March. But now it's March, and now I'm worried about it.
Mike Ryan
Yeah.
Jeremy
Yeah. Somebody else.
Billy Gil
So he.
Mike Ryan
So, Mike Fuentes, what are you paying?
Billy Gil
Don't worry about me.
Mike Ryan
I'm curious.
Billy Gil
I'm not gonna take a quiz says.
Mike Ryan
How much do you think is too much for a haircut? Definitely 50. I'm gonna.
Jeremy
Well, I know what haircuts cost. I take my kids. I mean, if you. If you're a male and you're paying 30 bucks.
Mike Ryan
Hang on. I'm gonna. I wrote down the number that I pay every 10 days. Yeah, I wrote it down here. I'm just gonna slide it over to you on the table. You tell me if that's too much.
Chris Cote
This is including tips.
Mike Ryan
This is including. This is my all.
Jeremy
This is a shave also.
Mike Ryan
Yes.
Jeremy
Okay.
Chris Cote
I bet it starts with a six.
Mike Ryan
Is that too much?
Chris Cote
It's more than that.
Jeremy
That number is offensive.
Chris Cote
What's the first number?
Jeremy
That number is shocking.
Chris Cote
All right, let's work backwards. What's the last number? Zero. All right, good. All right, so 60, 70.
Mike Ryan
80.
Chris Cote
Did I net was one of those three? Yeah, it can't be 80.
Mike Ryan
It was 70.
Tony
Okay.
Jeremy
That. I just told you. Over 30. Now, granted, I didn't say the.
Mike Ryan
The.
Jeremy
The beard, you know, but if you're paying over 30, you're a male. I think that's a lot.
Chris Cote
Mine was 45 before. TIP.
Tony
What do I.
Chris Cote
What do you tip there? 5 or.
Jeremy
Yeah, what do you tip?
Mike Ryan
I go, I. I recently picked it up from 15 to 20. Whoa.
Billy Gil
Yeah.
Chris Cote
I go 15.
Jeremy
I gave us a 40 tip.
Chris Cote
Then I tipped 15 bucks on a 45 haircut. So I paid 6.
Mike Ryan
Look, Rosie's good. You know who goes to Rosie? Ubaldo Jimenez. You think I'm not gonna trust you?
Jeremy
Baldo Jimenez's barber, $70 every two weeks.
Mike Ryan
You said every 10 days.
Dan LeBatard
You won't go. You Baldo.
Jeremy
What is not an acceptable tip for the barber?
Chris Cote
I think. I think they're fine with five dollars.
Jeremy
I get five bucks when I take.
Mike Ryan
My son I recently like. So it took me forever to go from $10 to $15, because it was just like, what I was doing. And then I was like, man, that's. That's pretty bad. Let me get it at 15. And then breaking that routine got me to go from 15 to 20, like, real quick.
Billy Gil
But see, here's the thing, guys. I'm in relationship with my barber. Wait, I'm almost like an affiliate marketer for my barber. It's different with me. I have a different setup. Right. I have so many people that I've recommended to go to him. Oh, they pay a different.
Mike Ryan
So you're like, you, Baldo.
Chris Cote
He has a month. I assume he rents a chair at.
Billy Gil
A place he owns, the barbershop. Five star cuts down in the cross.
Jeremy
Yeah. Why doesn't he recommend a guy? Like, when a doctor leaves town, a doctor says, okay, God forbid something happens, you. You're going to pick up my patients.
Chris Cote
There's just no way when you text him that you're coming in, he.
Mike Ryan
He.
Chris Cote
He sits a little bit.
Billy Gil
I Don't text him.
Chris Cote
I like, I'm going to make a little less money than I'm a primos guy.
Mike Ryan
Not. I'm a primos guy.
Billy Gil
I'm. I'm a five star guy.
Mike Ryan
That's all right. You can be a five star guy. Tell me your price.
Billy Gil
Tell me your price. But what I'm going to tell you.
Mike Ryan
If I drop your name, if I say, hey, Tony Kalada, you'd say, he's not saying it.
Chris Cote
Because Tony's price is nobody else's price. So Tony doesn't want to say it because then everyone's going to get.
Mike Ryan
Because everyone's like, I want the Tony price.
Billy Gil
That's the thing. But you can't always get the Tony price. You got to be there for 15 years. You gotta recommend a certain amount of people.
Mike Ryan
You pay half of what I.
Chris Cote
But his rent has gone up.
Jeremy
I just don't understand.
Chris Cote
That is so messed up. And he's your boy.
Billy Gil
That's my. Again, Chris, you're. You're not understanding the part that me and him have a long standing, but.
Chris Cote
His rent has still gone up over the years. There's no way he's paying less than he was 10 years ago.
Mike Ryan
Everybody's like, this guy's such a great billboard for my business. This guy goes out like, hey, your hair looks incredible. Where do you get your hair cut?
Billy Gil
How many times has he been on the show?
Chris Cote
Once. No, he cut my dad's hair.
Billy Gil
He cut Mike Ryan's hair.
Chris Cote
Okay, so twice.
Mike Ryan
Oh, this was a dude that shaved my head. Yes.
Chris Cote
Twice in 20 years.
Mike Ryan
Terrible job.
Chris Cote
And you've mentioned it like five times.
Mike Ryan
No, he nailed it. I was definitely bald. Just wasn't happy with the results.
Billy Gil
Well, that's more of an issue with the fine bumps.
Mike Ryan
Your boy came back, though. Of course, it allowed me to get some topical treatments on there and slightly attacked its root. No, no doubt there. Was that all that. What I kept telling myself is, there are some people that when they shave it, it does come back stronger.
Billy Gil
That's why sometimes you shave babies heads. All of a sudden, boom. They flow with hair.
Mike Ryan
That's a very Latin thing.
Billy Gil
It is affiliate marketers as. Okay, I take care of my people, they take care of me, and that's how we do it.
Jeremy
I just don't understand. Like, he goes on vacation. He thinks you're supposed to look sloppy until he gets back.
Billy Gil
I. That I haven't really.
Mike Ryan
He's putting you in a bad position here.
Billy Gil
The issue is. So Mike Fuentes goes to the same barbershop I go to. He goes to the guy across from him from my guy Luke. Jj. Now, me and JJ are friendly, but I've never cut my hair with jj so when I got to text Luke, and he's in a different place, so maybe the time zones are off. So I got to text him, hey, can I go to jj? Like, am I good?
Jeremy
Yeah.
Mike Ryan
You want to vet him through your guy?
Billy Gil
Yeah, exactly. And be like, oh, no, maybe. Maybe use this guy or that guy or whatever. Or. Yeah, right. Or go to jj. Right. So I want to get my guys. Like, my doctor is going to give me the opinion and then tell me, hey, go to this specialist. I like this guy a lot. He knows he's doing.
Mike Ryan
How much do you pay for yours?
Jeremy
I do it myself.
Mike Ryan
All the time or all the time. You don't have, like, a black tie event where you're like, I should probably.
Jeremy
No, because I, I shave my head with, with, you know, with. With the, the electric razor, like, straight up.
Mike Ryan
Okay.
Jeremy
You know, the closest.
Mike Ryan
How about on the beard?
Jeremy
Just go all over the place.
Mike Ryan
So you let the beard grow for a couple days and then you.
Jeremy
No, I do it all. I do it all. I, I, I don't use shaving cream and a regular razor anymore. I haven't done that in years.
Mike Ryan
Really?
Billy Gil
Yeah. You just raw past.
Jeremy
Well, no, I'm using electric razor.
Mike Ryan
No, I know you raw dog. The electrical razor.
Jeremy
That's. That's not raw dog. Raw dog.
Mike Ryan
That is raw dog.
Jeremy
No use. I use the electrical razor all over beard and head.
Chris Cote
That implies that some people use shaving cream for electric.
Mike Ryan
No, no, no. Like, no, no. But any topical treatments after the fact?
Jeremy
No, I don't need it.
Mike Ryan
You got to kind of do that. You get ingrown hairs and whatnot.
Jeremy
Do I have any?
Mike Ryan
Yeah, actually. Yeah, you do, actually. Yeah. Like, all across your neck. Unless that's rosacea, which it might be the case, maybe, but it's along the neckline skin day. Like, like there. Like on the. Yeah, you got some. You got some shaving bumps there.
Chris Cote
We don't have to zoom in there. Let's not do that.
Mike Ryan
Well, he's.
Zaz
He.
Mike Ryan
He was. He was lying.
Jeremy
Maybe I'm mistaken. You can't call me a liar right here.
Mike Ryan
He was saying that he didn't get ingrown hairs or shaving bumps and, like.
Jeremy
No, I do it. I do it on myself. Oh, yes.
Billy Gil
Why don't you go full beard?
Mike Ryan
He has over a dozen.
Jeremy
You know why I don't go full beard? I used to, but My. My beard comes in, like, all white now, and I look too old.
Mike Ryan
There's stuff for that. So you can.
Jeremy
No, I. See, I can't do that because then everybody's like, oh, wow, you're coloring your beard. Like, I've waited too long to do that. I should have done that when it started to gray.
Mike Ryan
Fat Joe has an incredible product. He's on the COVID Yeah, he's on the COVID of it. All right, so we'll get away from your hair and back to look. Sports Equinox is happening. Niche sport Equinox is happening, especially down here locally. We have ATP, we've got WTA, we've got Homestead Motor Speedway. But everyone's going to be pretty locked in on March Madness, even though the ratings down here are pretty bad. Historically, always. We don't have a team, we don't have a horse in the race this year. But give me a March Madness set of the day to get me excited for what's on tap.
Zaz
Start of the day. Start of the day. It is the start of the day. Start of the day. Start of the day. It is the start of the day. Start of the day. Start of the day. It is the start of the day. Start of the day. Start of the day. It is the start of the day.
Chris Cote
This is very exciting. And I know you were thinking like, oh, the tournament. I don't know if I'm into the tournament, so I got something. If you're looking to watch a little into the tournament. If you're looking to watch a little less yesterday, you could have. Because yesterday, every single team that was winning at halftime went on to win the game.
Jeremy
Yeah.
Chris Cote
So you could have just watched the first half yesterday and been like, all right, I know how that's. This game's gonna end.
Mike Ryan
Yeah. You actually didn't really have to watch any of it, and you didn't. Like. I know I didn't miss much, but I will be. I will be watching Omair. That's. That's my guy.
Jeremy
It was not a good tournament day yesterday. It was not good.
Mike Ryan
But you're saying the balance of things, it'll work out.
Jeremy
It always balance itself out. Always. And it's the fact that we had no madness yesterday. You'll see you're going to have, like, four or five games today where you're going to have the madness. It always balances out well.
Mike Ryan
The. The Baylor game, they're one and a half point dog. So it's an eight, nine, live doggy. Yeah. You got to think that that game.
Jeremy
Will be close the 89 y some blowouts. You know, wasn't that. That was Louisville and. And Creighton. Right.
Mike Ryan
Another tournament that you know is kind of hit or miss so far is the March Sadness Tournament. Chris.
Chris Cote
Let me remind the people though that that's that of the day. Brought to you by Evan Williams bourbon game days number one, pour Evan Williams bourbon straight bourbon whiskey. Bardstown, Kentucky 43% to 45% alcohol by volume. Enjoy responsibly 21 and over.
Mike Ryan
Go get yourself a taste.
Chris Cote
Ah, so good.
Mike Ryan
So March Sadness polarizing again this year. I think most a lot of the feedback that I'm getting that's on the negative side is from exclusive podcast listeners and I kind of get that because these are fan submitted videos and they're largely visual. You have the fan pointing and stuff. So we'll do a better job of trying to describe what's going on by not stepping on some folks. But do we have any submissions today? Chris? Cody?
Chris Cote
Yes, we have a bunch. Go to our social media. You can vote on all these. Watch all of our submissions. We had matchups yesterday. That voting is done and today we will release the rest of our first round matchups. What we will preview right here. A one seed. We have Matt who's doing a Great Limited fake versus 16 seed, Steven fake.
Mike Ryan
Dan. No one understands how strong Trent Williams is. Dan. 64. Fans competing for a chance to do something everyone knows that you don't want to do. You know we call that, it's called something's gotta give. Bracket busters, buzzer beaters, Cinderellas, upsets, Blue bloods. You know what the B and blue blood stands for? Stands for beep count. You know what the other B in blue blood stands for? It stands for best fan of the show. This is a hell of a video. Speaking of hell, Art Briles Dan. This has been my March Sadness submission. So was that the 16?
Jeremy
That's a 16.
Dan LeBatard
Yeah, the 16.
Chris Cote
Billy and the committee did the rankings but yeah, that's a strong 16. High production quality there for 16.
Mike Ryan
That's not the way that a 1 versus 16 should.
Jeremy
That's a tough break.
Mike Ryan
When it's a 1 versus 16. I should never ask who's the one.
Chris Cote
I mean it was a good limited fake. The trump, Trent Williams, what he did.
Mike Ryan
With his face was definitely on brand.
Chris Cote
For dan and that's 16 seeds beep count. So he's the guy that tracks all the beep count. It's a, A one listener for us, so that's a.
Mike Ryan
But we have, we, we we don't do.
Chris Cote
We don't rank you higher just because we know you to be a good listener.
Billy Gil
We're alive, but it was a good video. It doesn't have to be a 16.
Mike Ryan
I think we have alignment, though, that you should never ask who is the one. See, I'm 1 versus 16.
Chris Cote
We played a couple, like, five seeds yesterday that were not that great. So I don't know. I don't know what's really happening here.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, in retrospect, very confused as to why Dan didn't talk about the Jackie Robinson story.
Jeremy
I came in yesterday, and I was not worried, but, man, this is a day for me to come in. You know, Dan's good. We're gonna do two hours on Jackie Robinson here, you know, and light reps for you.
Mike Ryan
Host has got this one.
Jeremy
Well, no, but that. But that's not the way I want to look at it, because I have to contribute. I'm not here for nothing. And it's like, all right, we do Jackie Robinson.
Dan LeBatard
I guess if you said, jeremy, are we going to talk about Jackie Robinson or foreplay, I definitely would have told you. Jackie Robinson.
Mike Ryan
Jeremy, not only do you tickle the keys.
Jeremy
Good for you.
Mike Ryan
You tickle. Other things I learned yesterday.
Dan LeBatard
Relax.
Mike Ryan
But part of your duties here, your ambiguous, amorphous duties here, is occasionally you invoke your musical talent, and you had a song ready for Dan. Like, we all knew that Dan was gonna go to Jackie Robinson, and then he didn't, and then he didn't, so we never got to play.
Dan LeBatard
Amazing.
Mike Ryan
This song. And is you, Jackie Robinson. You're dei.
Jeremy
And what that means, who knows?
Tony
Whoa.
Mike Ryan
It just means black, Jackie Robinson. DEI is any word for wo. Wa. I mean, that's an earworm.
Dan LeBatard
Ah, come on.
Mike Ryan
Great lyrics.
Chris Cote
There just means black.
Mike Ryan
I'm really proud of you right there. Again, we got March Madness today. Hopefully, we turn things around. It was a tough day for those that were following the acc. And. And listen to our agenda here on the. It was a bad day for the acc. Hand up you Mizzou.
Dan LeBatard
Where did he come from?
Mike Ryan
Mizzou.
Billy Gil
I mean, dude, Mizzou was the easiest call to fade. You said from two weeks ago, this team stinks. This team sucks. And then you. You sing the praises of Bennett Sturtz. You tell me how great Bennett Sturtz is, how he's the next coming of. I don't know who. Jimmer, Fredette, Jack Golke, whoever you want to mention. Okay? The secret sauce, by the way. And then all of a sudden, you go, no, I'm going to go Mizzou and I'm like, dork, you don't know ball, Buddy.
Mike Ryan
Louisville let me down. Will Wade. I thought he had one foot out the door already.
Billy Gil
NC State one foot up Clemson's ass is what he had. Buddy again, you missed that one too.
Mike Ryan
But you know, with the acc, it's North Carolina, it's Duke. We got those two teams today. We're going to carry the conference on our back and we're going to bounce back.
Chris Cote
Get out of here.
Jeremy
Go.
Tony
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Dan LeBatard
Hey friends, it's Jerbear here and I'm here to tell you all about Boost Mobile, which is now a legit nationwide 5G network. So I must take a break from the jokes here for a second and put on my serious voice. Because I would never, ever joke about a 5G network that has invested billions building 5G towers across the country. Not even once. Not even if Mr. Boost Mobile himself asked me to. There is nothing funny about it. Boost Mobile is now a legit nationwide 5G network and also provides coverage across that's 99% of America. Seriously. Visit boostmobile.com or your nearest Boost Mobile store location to learn more. The Boost Mobile network, together with our roaming partners, covers 99% of the US population. 5G speeds not available in all areas.
Summary of "The Big Suey: This IS Sports..." Episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Release Date: March 21, 2025
In this episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, hosts Dan Le Batard and Stugotz delve into a pressing controversy surrounding Jackie Robinson's legacy, the evolving perception of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in sports, and the increasingly blurred lines between politics and athletics. Additionally, they touch upon recent developments in the world of professional wrestling and the ongoing excitement of March Madness. The discussion is punctuated with engaging banter, insightful commentary, and notable quotes from various contributors.
The episode kicks off with a heated discussion about the recent removal of Jackie Robinson's military service story from a government website, which initially happened due to the rebranding of DEI as "Discriminatory Equity Ideology" by the Department of Defense.
Dan Le Batard (03:58): "There was a story on a government website where Jackie Robinson was celebrated for his military service, similar to a whole bunch of other military heroes that were celebrated here. And that story was removed from the government website."
Jeff Passon, a journalist, highlighted this issue, prompting outrage among listeners and hosts alike. Robinson, famed for breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, found his honorable military service obscured under a controversial new DEI initiative.
Mike Ryan (09:52): "If you're actively trying to recruit people, ignoring Jackie Robinson's racial significance works against your best interest."
Dan vehemently criticized the Department of Defense's actions, emphasizing the profound impact of Robinson's legacy beyond his athletic prowess.
Dan Le Batard (08:56): "Arguing that that race, that Jackie Robinson story shouldn't be viewed through the prism of race is so insulting to not only Jackie Robinson in his memory, but all of the people who came before him and after him."
The hosts explored how DEI initiatives have been redefined and often portrayed negatively, reflecting broader societal shifts and political agendas.
Roy Bellamy (05:33): "Like they kind of changed up the acronym on that now in the press release that the Department of Defense, they, they said discriminatory equity ideology."
This rebranding aligns DEI with notions of "woke cultural Marxism," leading to divisions and misunderstandings about its original intent to promote fairness and inclusion.
Dan Le Batard (13:06): "But, like, we all understand, right? All of these American individualists what this means, right? Diversity. What's the opposite of that?"
A significant portion of the discussion focused on how political narratives are increasingly influencing sports, often detracting from the athletic achievements and turning sports arenas into battlegrounds for ideological battles.
Mike Ryan (14:09): "Sports has actively been trying to stay out of politics. Hell, even this show has kind of like, we know. We know that you don't like it. So sports is sports. And when politics comes over and grabs sports, sports has a right to clap back."
The hosts criticized attempts to depoliticize sports, arguing that it's nearly impossible given the pervasive nature of political discourse in every facet of society.
Dan Le Batard (18:41): "This is what they're doing by using sports as a vehicle to point something out... It's the same slippery slope and they're doing it on purpose."
The conversation shifted to recent events in the sports world, including controversial statements by athletes and public figures.
Roy Bellamy (09:10): "You know who it doesn't resonate with? Robert Griffin III, because he went on Twitter last night saying that you need to separate politics from sports and you shouldn't talk politics on sports shows."
The hosts debated the appropriateness of such statements, highlighting the challenges of maintaining neutrality in a highly politicized environment.
Transitioning from broader societal issues, the hosts discussed John Cena's unexpected transformation into a heel (villain) character in WWE, exploring its implications for storytelling and fan engagement.
Mike Ryan (25:06): "John Cena finally appears. And by the way, I love the idea to have this buildup for WrestleMania really kick off in earnest in Europe. European crowds are the absolute best."
Jeremy (30:37): "And like he called him a whiny bitch, which everybody's going to think is cool. If you call someone a whiny bitch in wrestling, you're the much cooler guy."
This heel turn was analyzed as a strategic move to refresh Cena's character and align with evolving audience expectations.
The episode concluded with a lively discussion on the ongoing March Madness tournament, offering insights and predictions despite local team performance challenges.
Chris Cote (45:06): "We had matchups yesterday. That voting is done and today we will release the rest of our first-round matchups... Trent Williams and other strong seeds are in focus."
Mike Ryan (50:09): "With the ACC, it's North Carolina, it's Duke. We got those two teams today. We're going to carry the conference on our back and we're going to bounce back."
The hosts maintained an optimistic outlook, encouraging listeners to stay engaged with the tournament's unpredictable nature.
Dan Le Batard (03:58): Discussing the removal of Jackie Robinson's story.
Mike Ryan (09:52): Emphasizing the importance of recognizing racial significance in recruitment.
Roy Bellamy (05:33): Highlighting the rebranding of DEI to "Discriminatory Equity Ideology."
Mike Ryan (14:09): Criticizing the politicization of sports.
Dan Le Batard (18:41): Arguing against using sports as a vehicle for political agendas.
Mike Ryan (25:06): Praising the European build-up for WrestleMania and Cena's heel turn.
Jeremy (30:37): Commenting on Cena's new villainous persona.
Chris Cote (45:06): Previewing March Madness matchups.
Mike Ryan (50:09): Rallying ACC supporters for the tournament.
This episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz offers a deep dive into the complex interplay between sports, politics, and societal values. The removal of Jackie Robinson's military narrative serves as a catalyst for broader discussions on how DEI initiatives are perceived and implemented within governmental and sports institutions. The hosts advocate for the preservation and recognition of historical legacies that transcend political rebranding, emphasizing the enduring impact of figures like Robinson.
Furthermore, the conversation underscores the inevitability of political themes infiltrating sports, challenging the notion that athletics can remain entirely apolitical. By examining current events in professional wrestling and the fervor surrounding March Madness, the show encapsulates the multifaceted nature of contemporary sports discourse.
Listeners gain a nuanced understanding of the ongoing struggles to balance tradition, inclusivity, and political identity within the sports landscape. The episode serves as a compelling commentary on how sports reflect and influence larger societal dynamics, urging both fans and institutions to navigate these changes thoughtfully.