Transcript

The Indiana Hoosiers are National Champions | DLS

From LeBatardShow · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 2 h 40 min · 30,790 words · 520 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "The Indiana Hoosiers are National Champions | DLS", an episode of LeBatardShow published January 21, 2026 (2 h 40 min, about 30,790 words). It mentions 25 people, works and ideas, including Roy Bellamy, Indiana Hoosiers, Miami Dolphins, Jeff Hafley, Super Bowl.

Who speaks in this episode?

  • Roy Bellamy (Panelist / on-air personality (superstition scapegoat))

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 15:00: Roy Bellamy, Trent Green, Indiana Hoosiers, Cotton Bowl
  2. – 30:00: Alabama, Roy Bellamy
  3. – 45:00: Alabama, Cotton Bowl
  4. – 1:00:00: Jeff Hafley, Miami Dolphins, Troy Aman
  5. – 1:15:00: Fiesta Bowl, Super Bowl, Jimmy Butler
  6. – 1:30:00: Dylan Brooks, Chris Whittingham, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  7. – 1:45:00: Derek Brooks, Alabama, Victor Wembanyama
  8. – 2:00:00: Jimmy Butler, Alabama, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl
  9. – 2:15:00: Super Bowl, Brad Williams, Fiesta Bowl
  10. – 2:30:00: Super Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Jimmy Butler
  11. – 2:40:12: Roy Bellamy, Super Bowl

Notable quotes from "The Indiana Hoosiers are National Champions | DLS"

  • Let me hear you say football is back. This high is wild and out of control and we're going to ride it every week till we reach the Super Bowl. No need no check down. Give me…
    about Super Bowl · at
  • See Baylor there. What I'm talking about though is the visit to Ann Arbor several weeks before. I thought Trent Green and Von Dunar put together a really great effort there…
    about Trent Green · at
  • You are Miami to lose at the end that way. about as close to a championship as you can get. Indiana played the game you needed them to play and you couldn't win it anyway…
    about Indiana Hoosiers · at
  • Okay. Before the Canes even get the kickoff, he said, Here comes the Carson Beck interception. And I'm sitting at Dead Flamingo a couple of miles away, shocked, flabbergasted that would even come out of his mouth, that he.
    about Roy Bellamy · at
  • Enormous credit. This was a successful season. It was a watershed season. They make their first playoff. They win the Fiesta Bowl. They win the Cotton Bowl. There's just no…
    about Fiesta Bowl · at
  • Particularly blown away with how great Mendoza was. If you saw him against Alabama and Oregon, you would have been.
    about Alabama · at
  • My lifetime I have seen a Miami Dolphin head coaching hire dwarfed by a football game. you've got the Dolphins getting Jeff Hafley. I cannot confidently comment on this beyond…
    about Jeff Hafley · at
  • Obviously this GM thinks what he was doing was enough for him to be the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Cody, what are your thoughts here? Because being on good on Zoom…
    about Miami Dolphins · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Roy Bellamy — Person · Panelist / on-air personality (superstition scapegoat) · 4 mentions · first at
    Becomes the comedic villain of the episode after predicting a Carson Beck interception before the final drive; others blame him for ‘jinxing’ the outcome.
  • Jeff Hafley — Person · Referenced coach (NFL hiring news) · 3 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in an NFL segment about the Dolphins hiring him as head coach; discussed via Diana Russini’s reporting about interview performance and leadership traits.
  • Trent Green — Person · Referenced athlete (historical college football anecdote) · 2 mentions · first at
    Used in a long Indiana-football history monologue about past seasons and a controversial PI call vs Michigan; frames Indiana’s long arc to relevance.
  • Troy Aman — Person · Referenced athlete (name likely misspelled: Troy Aikman) · 2 mentions · first at
    Cited in a concussion comparison story (Netflix Cowboys doc) to frame how a QB can play while impaired and not remember the game—used to contextualize Beck criticism.
    Backup? And then what he does on I told you this earlier in the Netflix documentary on the Cowboys. Troy Aman played an entire NFC Championship game that he does not remember…
  • Jimmy Butler — Person · Referenced athlete (NBA injury news) · 5 mentions · first at
    Mentioned briefly as a news item Mike Ryan saw before sleep (ACL tear), used to underline a ‘not a lost night’ dark-humor beat after Miami’s loss.
    I honestly like the last thing that I saw before I went to sleep was a news item that Jimmy Butler tore his ACL. So, not a lost night, but Oh, no. Oh, what? You're not super What.
  • Desmond Howard — Person · Referenced athlete (historical Michigan anecdote) · 1 mention · first at
    Appears in the Indiana/Michigan story as the receiver on a disputed pass-interference call; supports the ‘refs assisted’ grievance.
    Didn't need to be assisted by the referees. That was really what was stuck in my craw there. There was a PI on third down to Desmond Howard and it was clearly an uncatchable…
  • Elvis Gerbach — Person · Referenced athlete (name likely misspelled: Elvis Grbac) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as Michigan’s QB in the disputed PI anecdote; transcript spelling suggests an extraction error.
    In my craw there. There was a PI on third down to Desmond Howard and it was clearly an uncatchable ball. Gerbach threw it into the stands and yet the flag was on the field. We…
  • Chris Whittingham — Person · Referenced person (show staff; not materially discussed) · 2 mentions · first at
    Not substantively featured in the provided excerpt; likely present as part of the show ensemble but without a clear quoted contribution here.
    Past Dirk Niski, sixth on the all-time scoring list. Where do you put him among all-time greats? I thought Chris Whittingham had a great point when he just said this version of…
  • Von Dunar — Person · Referenced athlete (uncertain identity; likely misheard/misattributed) · 1 mention · first at
    Appears only in an Indiana-at-Michigan anecdote paired with Trent Green; identity cannot be confidently resolved from transcript alone.
    See Baylor there. What I'm talking about though is the visit to Ann Arbor several weeks before. I thought Trent Green and Von Dunar put together a really great effort there…
  • Dave Schnell — Person · Referenced athlete (historical Indiana QB) · 1 mention · first at
    Used as a comparison point in the Indiana-football history monologue (predecessor QB) to contextualize program-building years.
    In the NFL, but as an Indiana who's your quarterback, that was about as good as I had seen up to that point. I'm not saying that he ultimately was more talented than Dave…
  • Bill Mallerie — Person · Referenced coach (historical Indiana coach) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the coach who was building Indiana’s program during the era being reminisced about; supports the long-history framing.
    Saying that he ultimately was more talented than Dave Schnell, his predecessor at the position. Dave Schnell was very good himself for a few years there as Bill Mallerie was…
  • Brad Williams — Person · Referenced person (unclear identity from transcript) · 5 mentions · first at
    Not meaningfully discussed in the provided transcript context; likely a mis-extraction or a name collision with another Brad Williams.
    Going to slay and now it is dead, never to be seen because an interception got thrown at the end. Brad Williams is going to be here in a second and I wanted to wonder with Greg…
  • Dylan Brooks — Person · Referenced athlete (name likely misspelled: Dillon Brooks) · 2 mentions · first at
    Not substantively discussed in the provided excerpt; likely an extraction artifact or brief aside outside the shown context.
    Were picked. We weren't even supposed to make the playin game and now we having one of our best seasons. So, shout out to Dylan Brooks, Devin Booker, and those guys. they're doing a hell of a job.
  • Derek Brooks — Person · Referenced athlete (not materially discussed) · 2 mentions · first at
    Not substantively discussed in the provided excerpt; likely an incidental mention or extraction artifact.
    Cooper's fishing tournament about two months ago and I saw Derek Brooks, one of the most amazing men I've ever met in my life. He sends me a text when we get Coach Gillesh. He…
  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — Person · Referenced athlete (not materially discussed) · 1 mention · first at
    Not substantively discussed in the provided excerpt; likely an incidental mention or extraction artifact.
    Above Bill Russell. will Kareem when we talk about the greatest ever, Kareem should be in the conversation.
  • Victor Wembanyama — Person · Referenced athlete (not materially discussed) · 1 mention · first at
    Not substantively discussed in the provided excerpt; likely an incidental mention or extraction artifact.
    Year run where he was the most he could outrun everybody. He could out jump everybody. but yeah, but man, I hope Victor can stay healthy. I want to play for you the sound and…

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

  • Miller Lite — Product · Mentioned product · 1 mention
    Popular beer brand often consumed during sports events.

Concepts & topics

  • Pell Grant — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    I'm trying to help. Like the Pell Grant thing like that I didn't do the Pelgrant thing.

Places & events

  • Super Bowl — Event · 17 mentions · first at
  • Fiesta Bowl — Event · 5 mentions · first at
  • Cotton Bowl — Event · 3 mentions · first at
    Season. It was a watershed season. They make their first playoff. They win the Fiesta Bowl. They win the Cotton Bowl. There's just no situation on earth where I'm going to…

Full transcript with timestamps

Football is back. Oh my. We waited for so long. We're so damn excited that we put it in a song. No need no checkouts. Give me big hits and quarterbacks. Keep your fantasy team from falling off the track. Football is back. Whether on the ground or through the air, when the chips are down and you throw a prayer, when your team is primed and on the hunt, it's full contain you refuse to punch. When the shoulder pads and helmets crack, that's how you know that football is back. Let me hear you say football is back. This high is wild and out of control and we're going to ride it every week till we reach the Super Bowl. No need no check down. Give me big hits and quarterbacks. If you say this game the best, I'll say the cash.

Football is back. Football is bad time. Football is bad. Football is bad. Jacking about going to the Copper Bowl. It was a fine reward for a nice season to go and see Baylor there. What I'm talking about though is the visit to Ann Arbor several weeks before. I thought Trent Green and Von Dunar put together a really great effort there against the mighty Wolverines. I know Desmond Howard and Elvis Gerbach had other ideas, but they didn't need to be assisted by the referees. That was really what was stuck in my craw there. There was a PI on third down to Desmond Howard and it was clearly an uncatchable ball. Gerbach threw it into the stands and yet the flag was on the field. We all saw it. We all have two eyes. I thought it was a ridiculous thing. I, you know, Trent Green, who knew where he was going to go in the NFL, but as an Indiana who's your quarterback, that was about as good as I had seen up to that point. I'm not

saying that he ultimately was more talented than Dave Schnell, his predecessor at the position. Dave Schnell was very good himself um for a few years there as Bill Mallerie was building the program up and those those were some good times. I mean 83 and one is nothing to turn your nose up at.

Let's go Dammer. Get out of here. Where did you go Dan? It's enough. You just been you just been talking to yourself all night. Everyone here

Dammer back here. Take five. Take five. Is sleeping sour pusses. He's done 12 straight hours. I believe we've violated a assortment of federal and labor crimes by making Damash just work all night talking into the YouTube abyss uh about Indiana football. I can't believe this sentence. Indiana football completing the greatest college football season ever played. Uh just crushing if you are Miami to lose at the end that way. about as close to a championship as you can get. Indiana played the game you needed them to play and you couldn't win it anyway because you got a blocked punt and an assortment of small undercut you.

But I do think that all of that is something that should be celebrated. Like I'm not going to sit here and nitpick about a delay of game penalty or the kicker or messing up a decision in a game between two great teams and one of them had to lose. Uh I do wonder and Carson Beck said that his ears were ringing at the end. That hit he took on second and 15 that got a penalty. I don't think he was right after that. And I do think it needs to go into the math on he throws his first interception after that. The first turnover of the game, right? Mendoza didn't fumble at all this season. Correct. He he went the entire season without fumbling one time.

Fumbling and losing it. A lost fumble. Yeah, lost fumble. Uh, crazy game, crazy night. But let me get your thoughts here as we go to a bunch of people who were at the game. Uh, Tony has said he's never forgiving Roy Bellamy.

What happened with Roy? We'll get to that in a second. We'll get to that in a second. But Tony was telling me before the show, I'm going to be on my deathbed and I'm going to say in 2026 Roy did that thing and wherever it is is the beyond. I'm never going to forgive them.

I can't and and I'm forgi, you know, I love to forgive people. I can never forgive Roy.

Uh Roy said at the beginning of that drive, Roy doesn't speak very much. And he said at the beginning of the drive, here comes an interception.

Oh boy. Before the Canes even before the Canes even got the ball, might might I add. Okay. Before the Canes even get the kickoff, he said, "Here comes the Carson Beck interception." And I'm sitting at Dead Flamingo a couple of miles away, shocked, flabbergasted that that would even come out of his mouth, that he would even think that thought. Okay.

Lucy Lucy Lucy thought that thought. Lucy, yeah, to be fair, I think everybody thought that thought.

I've seen this before. Lucy doesn't trust Carson Beck. What are your thoughts, Greg? Because I'm not I'm not going to sit here and criticize and be overly critical of the University of Miami for losing a game against the team that took on all comers this season and dismissed everybody. They took out everybody. Like Notre Dame's about the only one they didn't take out.

Yeah. I I don't think there's any form of loss last night that wouldn't haunt and hurt Mario forever. Like he's never going to get over last night. But I think this one hurt even more because they except for a couple of notable exceptions. They played Mendoza very well. He didn't he didn't alone be

and and Sarat and but but the and it wasn't just the interception toward the end of the game that crushed everything. It was the the punt block uh touchdown they gave up. It was a missed makeable field goal. They could have won that game despite never leading in that game. and and that's going to haunt Mario forever. But to your point, I give them enormous credit. This was a successful season. It was a watershed season. They make their first playoff. They they win the Fiesta Bowl. They win the Cotton Bowl. There there's just no uh uh situation on earth where I'm going to criticize Miami today more than I'm going to praise the season they had.

Indiana hadn't won a bowl game since the Copper Bowl in 1991. Hadn't won a bowl game of any kind. Zazzlo, you were there. And to to Lucy's point, Beck only has six losses, but the reason he has this reputation and the reason Roy said that and the reason Lucy feared it is because four of those losses, he's got a chance to win it in the end of the game and throws an interception. That's what happens. And so the latest one, obviously the most crushing.

That was uh that last night was one of the best sporting experiences I've ever had in my life. I I have nothing nothing but praise for that that Hurricanes football team. I think the Canes fan should be so proud. Like short of winning the whole thing, this was an incredible incredible season. It could not have gone any better. I I couldn't have imagined a scenario where the Canes did not play their best game, did not play a perfect game and would have a chance to win last night. They didn't play close to a great game and they were right there in the end. I had such a great time. The Canes fan should be so proud that like just all heart all heart and guts that Canes team and it's such a bitter finish for the Canes fan. I saw kids leaving the stadium last night crying, you know, and I'm like, man, you you should be just so proud of this team. It was a great great night. I was so happy. And of course, the only, you

know, the only regret, if you will, is so close. We were all so close to an all-time moment. And just just so so close.

Well, we got the alltime moment for Indiana. You see the stats. This is going to be hard to explain to people who only see the box score when you say, "Hey, Mendoza had one of the greatest runs of all time." And the stat sheet says seven rushes for negative eight yards. Uh because that was the only time he used his legs in any meaningful way. Uh Pat Kugan, the center for Indiana, said uh best defensive line I've ever seen. And he says, "We knew it going in." But holy, because

I was surprised Indiana was able to run the ball as well as it was as well as they did. But I was also surprised that Miami didn't win a game in which Mendoza looked like that. Didn't look like the Heisman winner.

No, he had. But he made the Heisman play. He did. Not only the 12 yardd run, which was epic. Balls called by

fourth and five twice on that drive. fourth and five. He had two 19yd completions, one on fourth and five, one on third and long. Those three plays, those two completions and that run were why he won the Heisman Trophy.

That's what Mendoza did this season though. If you look at the Iowa game, if you look at the Ohio State game, there were several stretches this year where he did not look that good. And so, but what was really the difference in this game and this entire season for Indiana is he was able better to any than anybody to take a game where he looked bad and the second you needed him to do something remarkable, you knew he was going to do it. It was automatic.

It was one of the all I'm sorry, Dan. It it was it it's one of the all-time great college football plays you've ever seen.

Uh that is correct. He referred to Tibo as Mr. TBO after the game. That was Tiboesque. I want to bring in Mike here uh because

Mike, did you watch a game last night? I want to talk about the idea that Beck says after the game his ears are ringing. You saw on second and 15 he gets hit in the chest. It's called a roughing the passer. He hits the back of his head on the turf and around here we were asking who's the backup. We were asking is this going to come down to the backup? And then what he does on I I told you this earlier in the Netflix documentary on the Cowboys. Troy Aman played an entire NFC Championship game that he does not remember because of a concussion. And I want to ask you, how fair is the criticism of Beck when he's telling you after the game, my ears were ringing. And the decision he makes is to throw to Marian who's got one catch for six yards and was fairly useless in the entire game. throws into double coverage when there's plenty of time and that's not a good decision and underthrows it.

Yeah, he got up wobbly. I think it's safe to question whether or not he was right. Uh that's not how you beat the cover two. It wasn't a good decision,

but it's safe to criticize. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Like there were six plays in that game that, you know, Indiana as advertised they execute and they made all those plays and Miami didn't. the the block punt, the missed field goal, which is 50 yards, you know.

Well, the block punt, by the way, Tony, you can't field that at the five, which of course leads to the block punts.

H Tony Malachi Tony can do whatever he wants. Like, we're good with him. Yeah. Like, shut up. Uh Bowman, just forget like not whiffing on a block. Like, what the hell was he doing? Like, you're punting out of your end zone. Like, that's one that that honestly hurts the most. Uh those back shoulder throws and the RPO's had us in hell. Like those are one v one plays. I will say for all the Mendoza love like he did make the mistake. He did throw the pick six. That was a tailor made house call.

I don't remember that. Ethan, it bounced off of Ethan Oconor's hands. It was at their 40 yardd line. That that was a house call and we we didn't make that play. And you got to make every play. Miami I'm fully confident that Miami's best beats Indiana's best and Miami just had procedurals penalties and

tackles. So many mishackles. Look, I Mendoza is like a tough as nails kid, too. Like they they kept they they had us in hell with the RPOS's, but he was being punished for him. And they they stopped running it a little bit in that second half uh because of the punishment that he took. But one thing about Mendoza, I think he's going to be a really good pro. He's accurate. That's a pro throw that he dares you to stop and you can't stop it. I think he's got pro wide receivers, too. But he is tough, dude. Cuz we were hitting him hard.

Very hard. Signetti said after the game, which puts Signetti in uh on Mario's hate list forever, he said there were at least two roughing um penalties that should have been called that weren't. And and he pretty much said uh Miami played a little bit dirty on his quarterback. Really?

Yeah. Yeah, he did. I mean, clearly early in the game, he catches one under the chin several uh mo several beats after the ball is out of Mendoza's hands. It's unquestionable that he that the that the Miami defense was instructed put a lick on this guy.

But but in in the parade of reasons why M can be extra crestfallen by last night is that Miami outgainained Indiana in total yards despite running 17 fewer plays. Miami's defense uh held Indiana to four and a half yards uh per play which is not much when you have the Heisman winner and that kind of a ground game. So Miami did not play a bad game. They just had two or three or four crucial things go against them.

The fourth and five calls uh is a combination of coach and quarterback coming together at the very top of the history of this sport to beat Miami because of what Signetti was calling in those situations. A radio guy for the Washington Huskys tweeted this. a two-star quarterback scrambling for the national championship winning touchdown on fourth down in his hometown against his hometown team after winning the Heisman for the most losing program of all time while his mother with multiple sclerosis screams for joy from her seat is possibly the limit of how good sports can get. And it was uh amazing to watch those two teams after a pretty dreadful first half put on a second half that made half a game a game for all time. It It made half a game a game for all time because of everything that was happening at the end. And you can't ask for more.

If you're Mario Crystal Ball, then my highest paid player has the ball in his hands at the end. And we've got a chance to to win the game because Indiana has finally done the dumb thing of giving the game away on second and one with a false start when they don't do that. Like that that team, do you know how ridiculous it is for that team not to lose fumbles? Like they don't they don't they don't make mistakes and they sure don't make dumb ones. And so a false start on second and one when all they needed we don't get the classic ending.

We don't get the Beck interception. We get a bit of antilimax because the the the Hooers ran for nine yards on first and 10 when the Hurricanes knew they were going to run the ball to get second and one. Then they get the false start. And so Miami gets the gift the gift of Signetti in that spot saying, "I'm going to kick the field goal on fourth down. I'm not going to go for it." Even though Miami fans were terrified that he was going to go for it because he ends the game on a single play with the ball in the Heisman winner's hand. And the other thing too, like man, two times where you're on fourth and five and it is a crucial moment. He calls timeouts that he probably should have saved for later in the game to like figure out, all right, boys, like what do we got here?

And it ends up being Mendoza to Becker. What's his name? Becker to in in that play where you're like, who is this guy? Where did he come from? If you're not watching Indiana, you don't know this guy.

Indiana didn't know him two months ago. Indiana did not know who that was two months ago.

That's right. Sirat was injured. That required Becker to go in there. Bottom line is you guys were Beck. We were Becker. That's all. Uh, no. Uh, the the fourth and five run iconic for all of time obviously, but really look at it as Fernando gets to roughly the line of scrimmage. He's lost at C. He has to cut back across uh the it looks like he's stuck. It looks like it was a bad play call and he makes the play with his legs with the cut back.

He's done that all year. Like this was Fernando Mendoza's game. This was why he won the Heisman this year. I honestly think Curt Signetti did not have his best game. I thought he was kind of sloppy with his timeouts, just the management of it, play calling, all of it was like this was not the Kurt Signetti that we've seen throughout the playoff, but it was really Fernando Mendoza who saved his ass.

Uh you say this, but if you look at that stat line, that is one of the worst stat lines he's going to put up because he's not going to make the mistake of throwing interceptions. So if I told Mario Crystal Ballal, look at the box score here. Look at Sirat and look at what it is that Mendoza does in this game. He says that's a win. Like that that that he would have taken that before the game if I'd offered it to him.

He threw he threw the interception. We just didn't catch it. But it's like really not like people kind of look at this. I think a lot of people have watched Indiana in the postseason and did not watch Indiana in the regular season. This was not a Heisman year where where we were particularly blown away with how great Mendoza was. If you saw him against Alabama and Oregon, you would have been. He had several games like that this season where he did not do much, but in the moments where you needed him to be the best player on the field to win the game for you. He did that against Ohio State. He did that against Iowa. He did that against Penn State. That is why he won the Heisman. I didn't come in thinking that this would be the F Fernando Mendoza is better than everyone else on the field. He just is like he's like so pure college football. Like that's what he is. And you saw that yesterday. Kane's fans are mad at Carson

Beck today. I don't know whether I mean Kane's fans are going to be mad because they lost and the standard and the expectation is win all the time, make me feel good all the time. But I really think that the uh the entirety of this season and that result is above criticism. I don't believe that losing to that team that ends the best college football season there has ever been.

Not best team. Not the best team, but the best season there's ever been. And not the best team just because it's all 25 year old guys who aren't draft picks.

I gotta tell you, like in terms of I've seen a lot of good teams in person. Savings, Alabama, Clemson, like that's as good a team as I've ever seen in person. Like they they're just really good. Like I was stunned. I know Miami, especially in the second half, had had some success at the line of scrimmage. I was really impressed. Like at pregame, I was looking like, god damn, we're much bigger than these guys. like how is this going to how is this going to play out? And everything that I've seen and heard about Indiana came true. Like they just execute. And the the flabbergasting thing was that Mendoza threw that pick six, we dropped it, and that they had the the false start on that second one, which I was like, what? How? At that point, you start thinking like maybe we can do this because it was like a a spaceship landed.

You were 40 yards from doing it. You had 50 seconds, plenty of time to score the touchdown and you got the result that you wanted where Indiana was gassed at the end. The last two drives Miami being able to score quickly and uptempo offense with wideopen receivers when Mike I don't think there was a more surprising thing to me in an evening of surprises than the first three quarters every damn pass Beck threw was being touched by an Indiana defensive back.

Yeah. How were receivers never? He was all he was throwing into tight windows accurately and everybody was always covered in a way that I haven't seen all season.

Dude, 5 foot n D'Angelo Ponds is a freaking sick player. He I I said, "Can we stop throwing at this guy?" Like, he was unreal. Um refs let them play. I was good with that. Like I I like that type of game. They they get there and they they force the the refs to think about it a little bit, but that's what they do. They execute. Their timing is exceptional. They're a really good, fantastic football.

I I I think both things are true. I think you can say Miami might well have won that game if not for a turnover with 44 seconds left. But you can't take uh an iota away from a 16-0 team that had a plus 21 turnover ratio, the best in the nation. I mean, Indiana richly deserves the championship at Celebration. But when Mike says it was six plays, right? You got two plays on fourth and five. You've got uh a blocked punt and you've got a field goal hitting an upright. Those are the four for me that I'm like, "Okay, those are game swingers. I don't know if you want to put an extra."

Third down to Becker was crazy. That was like everybody in the building knew what was coming, including our corner. And it's just like, can you stop this?

Yeah. Uh Becker's unbelievable. I don't know. That guy just like became Jordy Nelson or Alec Pierce or any other white wide receiver you can think of.

Did anyone see a replay of the the deep pass that they said hit the ground? Uh hit the ground like hell. Yeah, it hit it obviously hit the ground like the Marian. Yeah, it obviously hit the ground. So, let's play here the sound last night. A bit of a stunner. Mike, you were not here. Aslaw, I want an etiquette ruling here from everybody in the room because uh Tony says he will simply never will ever forgive Roy Bellamy for this. This is before Miami gets the football with uh no timeouts and less than two minutes left in the game. Here's Roy Bellamy out of nowhere.

He's again he's very very careful about when he uses his words. All of us were confused when this came out of his mouth. Like that kid with a false start. He'll never let it go ever.

Did Roy just whisper an interception's coming up? That's how he usually works. He screamed.

Why did you do that? It sounds so right. I hate it. Billy Corbin. No timeouts. Length of the field. It is a lot of time, but that last drive that Miami had was uh it went against everything else that was happening in the game. All of a sudden, you had receivers running open down the field like

at least we have a lot of timeouts. Hey, I can't have that. What's up, guys? Open.

Go ahead, Tony. What do you got? Why would Roy say that? Why would Roy say that?

I don't know. It's evil. No, he's doing the reverse. Borderline evil. No, that's No, no, no, no. Okay, listen. You guys are a little bit ahead of us. I'm taking out my headphones. You guys can put me in picture and picture to see what happens on a delay. I'm sick right now. I don't even want to talk. I'm done. This is a big drive. This is a big drive. This is a big drive. Okay. Put it on an Guju. Is it good analysis that Tony just said this is a big drive?

He ain't wrong. Two minutes national championship. Roy saying that there was going to be an interception by Carson Beck on this drive. You haven't said that much during this live stream. What an odd thing for you to choose to say.

I forgot already. Thank you for reminding me. Miami will not forget, Roy. Mike will never forgive you if it's

It's called reverse psychology, man. Jeez. Come on. 15 seconds on the play clock. 14 13.

Oh. Oh. Oh my god. SEE? Victory lap two. the national champions of college football.

Of all the things to say, of all the things to say. I know. You say that. You say that. You say that. You say that.

What's the crowd like, Tony? It's Look at Roy. Good work over there, guys. This is brutal.

I came in here today and muttering under his breath in the eating area. Wow. Lewis is saying, and I'm quoting here, in the crucible of life, I don't ever want Roy with me. And I asked him like, why are we in a crucible? And then he starts yelling at me. Last night was a crucible.

Last night was a crucible, man. Last night was literally the crucible of life. And we're all in the foxhole together, okay? There's ammunition raining down. Roy says, "I'm out of here." It starts running the opposite way. The rest of us are going forward. He's going backwards. Can you imagine? Can you? We're all there together and HE'S GOING THE OPPOSITE ROAD. WHERE YOU GOING?

As bullets rain down. We were charging up a hill with bayonets and we LOOKED BEHIND US AND THE OTHER DIRECTION.

HE'S HAULING ASS IN THE MESH HOLE. BUT you'll survive the foxhole if somebody in there says 30 seconds prior to the bombs dropping. We should get out of here. Something bad's about to happen. I THINK ROY

THE POINT. THAT'S WHY WE HAD ZAZ boots on the ground. Zaz was giving us the updates at 30 seconds ahead, which I liked because it was going well. And then he does that. Dan, the one thing you can't do is say the I word when you got a final drive for your life. Okay, this was for our if you ask Mario, if you ask the guys in that lock that locker room, that was a drive for your life.

Well, Mendoza said after the game, I would die from my team. That was something.

If you looked at his right arm, it was uh it was that's a raspberry. It was damaged.

Damaged. We were playing a game back here. How many members uh of your family would you be willing to kill off to not suffer the indignity of last night again? My dad's dead.

Well, your dad played the bongos in here. He was playing the bongos after Indiana touchdowns. He was doing so with delight. I see that the troll doesn't fall far from the tree. He was really had I've never seen so like like straight up like no respect for that guy. Uh Roy joins us now from remote. And when I say from remote, he's in hiding. He's in the federal witness protection. That's a mess hall, Dan. The rest of us from the foxhole still.

He is not welcome around Crucibles or welcome back in Miami right now given what it is that he did.

It was a wild thing to just casually say while you're sipping your coffee, Roy. Yeah. Muttering under his breath. He just I could see the the ripples on his coffee of of the hatred being caused coming out of his nose and mouth as he talked about not wanting Roy at the Crucible of Life to be with him.

Dark morning. Lewis is just like casually spitting out Morrisy lyrics like as he's sipping his coffee.

Uh Roy joins us now. Uh Roy, do you have an explanation? Have you given it some thought? Do you regret your decision or are you just happy that you got the prediction right?

Well, first of all, I'd like to say hello Lucy. uh miss you. Uh second of all, uh don't blame me for this loss. If you want to blame anybody, you can blame the kicker for missing the uh kicking the ball off the upright. You can you can blame

I'll leave Carter Davis out of this 50 yard for having his punt blocked. You can blame the DBs for dropping interceptions. And you can you can blame Carson Beck for, you know, that interception that

And what happened just before that? A person said words. A person said words on an air on a on a live stream and you know words carry weight, Roy. You know that more than anybody. You know that. And you know I love you. But I'll never forgive you. I'll never forgive you. I'll go be at my deathbed. You may be dead. I may be dead first. It doesn't matter. I'll be on my deathbed and I'll never forgive you for that.

Roy, you know about those words carrying weight. Yes, I do. Okay. So, you knew that MANY OF THEM. EXA.

EXACTLY RIGHT. WHICH IS WHY IT MEANS MORE. OKAY. That you said what you said. The SEC

BEFORE WE EVEN GOT THE BALL. BEFORE WE EVEN got the ball, you said, "HERE'S AN INTERCEPTION." YOU DIDN'T SAY IT ONCE. YOU SAID IT TWICE SO PEOPLE COULD HEAR YOU. CUZ IT WENT UNDERNEATH THE RADAR. And then you said it again.

Tony, it was the most logical conclusion to this game. Of course, he was going to get intercepted.

No, absolutely not. You knew it was going to happen. No, the most logical thing was he's going to have another incredible drive. Malachi Tony's going to make a play and they're going to score with six seconds left and win the damn game.

That's not how the world works, Tony. Sorry. Just how can I forgive him? You're not sorry. You don't have to forgive him. I don't blame you for not forgiving him.

I I need a t-shirt that says I stand with Roy. I love the idea of superstition so much. Sports superstition. I think it must have started with not talking about a no hitter in the fifth inning and on. It's the most ridiculous thing in the world. And with all due respect to all of the intelligent people in here who actually believe in superstition but can never explain why I stand with Roy. Uh we're going to get to an off road with Lucy Roodin in just a second, but uh I understand that you guys had some press box experiences worth recounting.

We saw somebody get tackled by five security guards who was posing to be media one. He was wearing a Miami jersey, so that kind of gave it up.

I SAW THOSE TWO GUYS WALKING THROUGH THE LUNCHROOM RIGHT AFTER YOU CAME AND SAID hello to me. Yes.

No, no, no. It happened way later in No, but I saw those guys. And he had like a Wait, was it the guy with the white jersey?

No. No, because he didn't have a press pass. So, I was in the ox press box that I'm not a big time gal. They didn't let me in the main one.

That's all right. Which was better because I got Cody, were you in the main press box? Did they honor the legendary columnist?

I was in the main press box, but the times have changed, Dan. I know you're not in press box as much anymore, but the uh the traditional media has been shunted into the shadows. Uh we were the Miami Herald and and other big local outlets were in the number five press box, which is not the main press box. Here's the thing. The main press box now is given over to, you know, self-help podcasters and and Tik Tok influencers and pitbulls, astrolog the the the the Miami Herald is in the end zone. Okay, we were lucky. Dave Hyde uh made the work out of a janitor's closet. An open bottle of Fabuloso spills on his podcast right on deadline.

I mean, times are tough. Podcast. Uh, times are tough. I meant his laptop. It spilled all over his podcast.

That, too. Two and a half hours sleep. Thank you. So, what happened? There was a fight. We've got Cody on two.

Thank you, Z. Thank you, Zlo. First of all, quit. Quit your gap in. I was in the stands. They basically put me in the stands. I was in a Miami section.

Okay. But this guy, he's in like the media area with the camera. He clearly does not have a credential and he's wearing a Miami jersey and somebody

Yeah. giveaway. Yeah. Somebody reported him. I guess I wasn't me because I didn't see him. And the security went to bring him down and then he was like, "No, like I have a ticket. I'm supposed to be here." And they they were like, "You don't have a credential. This is like media." And he starts screaming at this cop who was a woman. And I was like, "Whoa, I do not like the vibe of this." And he kept yelling at her, "Don't touch me. Don't touch me." She was not touching him. I was right there. I saw the whole thing.

And then he starts yelling at her and he's like getting in her face and then the other cop comes up and he's like if like he's like she keeps touching me and he's like I can see that she's not touching you. We're all watching her not touch you. And he was like I'll touch you. Like I'll touch you. And so then he put on his like little meta glasses because I think he was going to try to film it and he was like fine I'll show you my ticket. And the lady was like no I've been asking you for like 10 minutes to show me your ticket. And then he was like no I'm not leaving. So they had to pick him up by his arms and carry him out. And then he started fighting and then they all tackled him to the ground and he didn't make it to the second half which honestly probably worked out for him.

That's a bummer. That's a bummer that he doesn't get to watch the second half. He missed a good second half.

It was epic. It was really cool. I felt like I got the most like uniquely like Miami in their home stadium playoff experience.

We've got Diana Rousini coming up later in the show. Charles Barkley as well, but let's together go off-roading.

Yeah. Hello. I'm with Channel 6 News. Not really, but I'm here to inform you that IU is going to stomp Miami tonight. Go Hoogers,

Dan. It took the Miami Hurricanes playing in the national championship game for me to finally go to a game at Hard Rock. And as you can see, it went well. watching Dan talk about the different types of Cubans, right? And how we're the we are the types of Cubans that will eat your face off. All right. And we're hoping we're hoping that they take Mendoza and they eat his face off tonight

cuz I've been a season ticket fan since I was 17. I'm 58 now. So, this is huge for me. I've been waiting for this since 2001. Go Kings.

How much bad football do you think you've sat through in your lifetime as Indiana fans? Well, for me it would be it would be 46 to 50 years somewhere in that room.

It's been a lot of mediocre football. I'll say you weren't there with us two years ago. You don't understand the pain that I watched when we went four OT's with Akran. You could find a ticket on on the ground at the tailgate. Yeah. At the tailgate and get in for free.

Did you ever in your life think you would see Indiana football compete for a national championship?

Never in my life. No. As of a year ago, not a chance. But at the beginning of this year and as of a week ago, we were a bunch of us were in Atlanta. Truly the greatest day of my life. And that's I have a wife. I have children. And maybe we cut that. Let's cut Let's cut that one. Actually,

you have the most unique outfit on I've seen all day. What is this this fit for?

Well, rooting for both Indiana and for Miami because I have a fourmonth-old grandson born in Miami and a two week old grandson born in Bloomington, Indiana.

Wow. Okay. So, this really is a house divided. Is there a side you're leaning to more?

No. No. How can I pick among my favorite grandchild? My grandparents have been able to do that pretty easy with me. Your grandson has never known Indiana to be a bad football team.

Oh, good point. The earrings, the necklaces. My women are ready for the game today. Best outfits I've seen the whole day. Can we explain them and how we put them together?

Okay, we went military style because we're here. We're going to war. It's do or die. The Hurricanes are going to get it done and we're going to claim the victory.

You've got the best hat, helmet, contraption I've seen all day. Can you explain to our viewers what you got going on here?

Hi. So, we have the Miami Cuban theme going on. It's a funnel. You pour your capaces or your vodka. Is there a world where I could see one of these in action? Is anybody willing to take a drink?

One more row over. There's already someone in action with it. If Curtnetti was here right now, what would you say to him?

THANK GOD. Thank God you came to save us. Changed all of our lives. He put Indiana on the map.

What he's been able to build has been incredible, especially in the two years. And so I'd say I hope you stay until you want to retire. Never go anywhere else.

Let's build you a statue and just please never ever ever ever ever leave. Will you guys build Mario Crystal a statue if he wins this game?

Uh no, no doubt. I mean, we got concrete in the truck. We're going to be forming it up after the game.

Have Indiana fans have they been nice? Very nice. They've been extremely nice. I gave one of them a slider earlier. Gave them some scuba, some sauces. They've been They've been great.

Have you been nice to them? Yes. For now? I don't believe you. Have Miami fans been nice?

Haven't seen too many. Had police officers making fun of us earlier this morning. They were like over the loudspeaker in their car. We were getting chirped. So Miami fans are so kind. They're so nice. They would never say anything rude to us.

Enjoy your trip. Good luck. Good luck. Good luck. Have a great day. Good luck. Other than that, they've been not nice. This trip was brought to you by DraftKing Sportsbook. Download the DraftKing Sportsbook app today. The crown is yours.

Love Dan Levit. I love the Dan Leatard show. I I didn't realize this is what it was uh what it was right now.

I don't look like Dan Leard. Thank God. This is what born and raised Miami looks like.

We deserve to be here. A lot of people counted us out. We kept the faith. We knew we belonged here. And here we are. We're going to claim the victory. We're in our hometown and we're going to get it done. Go Hurricane. We got some cars over here.

Despite what my behavior shows, I am sad for the Miami fans in the office. I can empathize what it's like to watch your favorite team lose a national championship game. I've been there twice. But I just wanted to say this is why I love college football because you get stories like Indiana, the greatest turnaround from any team ever. From the losingest powerboard team in college football to the national champions, this sport is awesome. What a great season. I started to cry at the end because I'm so grateful I get to do this. Thank you for another wonderful year. I'll see you.

Well, I'm going to be on the show today. So, after this, this episode of the Dan Leard Show is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours. I actually don't think there's been a proper reckoning because everything's been moving so fast. Y'all should be embarrassed.

They're physically superior and the last two games have fooled America. Take a lesson from very recent history. Y'all have been saying the same thing for 3 weeks. It's the exact same thing I've heard about the four picks against Louisville and the SMU game going into College Station. I heard the exact same thing going into the Cotton Bowl. They better clean it up if they want to play Indiana. Okay. All right. Anybody at all in media want to say, "Hey, I'm done doubting this team. Spot the ball. Let's see what's going to happen." Their worst game was Louisville cuz he threw four interceptions and he wouldn't stop throwing deep. That quarterback looked like this quarterback to you. What world am I living in where Miami at home is a touchdown underdog against Indiana?

WHAT? I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR NIL MONEY. It's still Indiana. There is not a thing in the sport that stands up to what they have on the offensive and defensive lines.

I think you're going to maul them on the lines. I really do. I just think like maybe I'm owed an apology

by everyone. I think I'm entitled to one. You think I owe you an apology? Yes. I stand by all of that. Like great season. Beat Florida, beat Florida State. Beat Notre Dame. Beat Ohio State. proved Texas A&M proved a lot of the haters wrong. Like ran into one of the greatest seasons of all time and had an opportunity to win the game at the end. Like I know we do this thing where everyone just dunks on the team that lost, but this was a great season for Miami and I think one thing is very evident is this coach takes his lessons from his adversity and Miami is going to be around for a long time and that pisses everyone off. What's the big takeaway more globally as we go forward?

all the complaints over the last 6, eight weeks about the structure of the 12 team tournament, I think the committee ultimately got it right except for, and I wonder how different the tournament goes if you replace Alabama, who had no business being there, as it turns out, with Notre Dame. I do think ultimately it's pretty interesting. How are we supposed to assess college football teams going forward? Because I traditionally said, well, you have two losses if you're the you. You don't control any claim to being in the tournament. you you lost two games along the way. You may or may not sneak in. I wonder what what that means.

There are 12 playoff teams and six that could actually win the championship. Like there were all sorts of teams in the playoff that can't and shouldn't be in a playoff to win a championship. I

I just don't like talking about that sport with a certainty because a lot of people shared that opinion and Miami wasn't in that group of six teams.

But no, but James Madison, Tain, Alabama, Oklahoma, those are not teams that could have won the championship. I

I get it. I I hope that this postseason its legacy is like this Big 10 SEC bull comes to an end. Uh because like Notre Dame

Big 10, I'm sorry. Like I I took out Ohio State along the way and was right there with with Indiana and everyone said this was a team that lost to SMU, you know, like I I I think that a lot of that stuff is bogus. We were touting it all season long and I just hope we don't repeat the same mistakes when there's a situation like Oklahoma and Alabama reputationally just getting in. And I think Notre Dame probably the the conversation was just so driven by Notre Dame versus Miami that Notre Dame was asleep at the wheel and didn't get to like propagandize their own case against those lesser teams.

Look, we have had two years of this expanded playoff. We do not have a big enough sample size for them to keep adding teams. Like I I watched all the bowl games and there was not a set of teams that I was like, "Yeah, I really wish I got to see them in the college football playoff." I never thought we should go to 12. I thought we should go to six or eight, but 12.

Like, how many more? How many more would you add? I mean, obviously you can't make

No, but I'm saying like how many teams you want 162 24 and it is and it's my conference who's campaigning for that,

right? That's not what I'm saying. like how many teams didn't get a shot at the playoff that you think like should have been a playoff team?

It would have been Notre Dame. The what I'm the So I know like the sort of Big 10 SEC conversation, it's everyone is having it. They're talking about a lot, but I do think it's important in the sense that

the SEC got so many teams in the playoff and the SEC all their great teams that were all these wins that made it so Alabama got in, lost in their bowl games to teams that shouldn't have been that good. Tennessee lost to Illinois. Missou lost to Virginia. both Tennessee and Missou did not have a win over a team with a record above 500. So I do think it's important to have these conversations of like, hey, is this conference really as good as you think it is? Because Greg Seni is the most active hand in college football. And if he's out here trying to convince you that seven teams belong in the college playoff from the SEC and you can look at the SEC sample size in front of you and see, you know what, Iowa outplayed Vanderbilt that entire game. Yeah, maybe this isn't the best conference in college football and next year we can avoid an Alabama or an Oklahoma getting in over a like a Notre Dame team that

was much better than both of them. I think we can all agree the best two teams in college football played last night. Yep.

Right. Like we have we have a lot of the times in these playoffs where you look at a team and you're like, h TCU probably shouldn't have been there or like Washington a couple years ago was okay, but like they kind of got run out of the building. These two teams deserve to be there. The two best teams in college football.

I think the only other team that you would make a case would be miss and Miami beat them.

Miami beat them. Yeah, I I'd make a case for Ohio State and and Notre Dame can watch what happened and be like, "Oh my god, how close were we to winning the championship? We are as good as anybody."

Texas&M, too. My my concern is replacing the James Madison's and two lanes with elites protecting elites. I think that's where it's going to track is ultimately you see that James Madison took up a slot that that we should have had. We're Notre Dame, right? Alabama, right Miami. That is my concern as uh as a a man of the people.

I believe James Madison played Oregon better than Texas Tech did. So I believe James Madison won a national championship last night.

The like the issue with two lane and James Madison both being in the in the college football playoff doesn't really have that much to do with the college football playoff. It has more to do with the way that the ACC structured their because like Miami played in the national championship last night, but they were not ACC champs. That was the Duke Blue Devils, which is just a little bit funny. And so like that was more an ACC problem which should get fixed. Obviously, they're doing like weird some teams have eight conference games, some teams have nine conference games. We'll just let them figure it out on their own. Let's give them a year just to like get it together, go to college football rehab, and just like collectively decide. But the group of five argument, which I know is an argument that's also been had a lot, that Indiana team was made out of so many group of five transfers. So like James Madison

literally did play Oregon closer than Texas Tech did. So like that is not the issue. It is simply just the way that the ACC structured their championship game which made everything go crazy. Anybody else have a problem with what's in the news cycle, which is like the Big 10 and SEC can't come to an agreement about how the college football playoff expansion would go? Like, wait, they're in charge. They like, okay, they literally are. They kind of are. They legit are,

right? But Miami runs through a whole lot of them and we're we're just like waiting for those other conferences to tell us like what this is going to look like going forward.

This Big 10 wants 24 teams. That is such it's it's crazy. Like, all right, look, I I guess like you want to put more teams in the tournament. I guess that

now that's when the regular season will officially be watered down. We'll see. I I think that a way to mitigate that would be like get rid of these bowl games like as part of the playoff like have home field matter in the postseason and then you can start arguing that, you know, the regular season matters again. But I I I'm a little uneasy with the SEC and their dying reputation still calling the shots.

All right, we've got Diana Rousini here waiting patiently for us. She's the senior NFL insider for the Athletics. She's the host of the Scoop City podcast. Uh I don't believe that ever in my lifetime I have seen a Miami Dolphin head coaching hire dwarfed by a football game. Uh you've got the Dolphins getting Jeff Hafley. I cannot confidently comment on this beyond being bored by it. Last eight coaches the Dolphins have hired don't have any head coaching experience. If I was going defensive coach, I would have gone Chris Schula.

Diana, welcome. Uh, what are your thoughts here? This is just the Green Bay guy hiring the Green Bay guy, correct?

No, it's not. Because I I thought the same thing as well when when this started and I and I got word that that Miami was really all in on on Jeff Halfley pretty early after that first interview with him. Um, and that that wasn't because the GM is doing a hard sell job behind the scenes. He he apparently really blew away everyone that's been part of this head coach search. Uh, so with with that in mind, Halfley interviewed at other jobs as well. And it it was pretty overwhelming how much feedback I received on how good he was in a room, how good he was even on Zoom, which is really hard to do, I think. Um, and it's almost every opening had interest in him. And when you talk to people in Green Bay about him and you talk to players, it's all this like ability to lead, ability to connect.

He's good at calling defenses. And all right, let's put that to the side. That that's part of this. And then there's just this other thing going on right now with all these head coaching openings and it's there's a lot of openings and really not a lot of superstars in terms of these coaches. So I I think what you're seeing now is coaches that are at least showing that potential to live up to some of those bigname guys that we're seeing right now because you know owners are sitting back and they're watching the playoffs, right? And they're seeing Ben Johnson do what he does. He saw Liam Cohen do a fantastic first year job.

Kyle Shanahan. I don't know what that was, but he was able to figure it out and get them this far. And of course, Mike Vrabel in New England. And I think they think that maybe one of these guys has it. And and I think that's how we got here. But I actually think it's a good thing, Dan, that the GM has an understanding um of who this head coach is because with that ability to understand what he can bring, at least you have some confidence cuz sometimes you you just don't know. I've had owners tell me it's one of the hardest things to do is find the right head coach based on just what he says in a meeting. Cuz some of these guys are exceptional at presenting and selling and showing their leaders. But what happens when things go wrong? What happens when the Bears are picking apart your defense in the second quarter and the self-inflicted wounds are mount are mounting? What was Jeff Hafley doing on the sideline? And

obviously this GM thinks what he was doing was enough for him to be the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Cody, what are your thoughts here? Because being on good on Zoom has to me next to nothing to do with winning football and also all these guys are kind of salesman in disguise,

right? Diana, I am curious. The the Dolphins last uh hire with previous NFL head coaching experience was Dave Wanat in 2000, who also was the last Dolphins head coach to win a postseason game. Now they're hiring a guy whose Green Bay team didn't have a particularly good season on defense and and and epically caved in the fourth quarter against the Bears to be eliminated. What about Jeff Hafley is so good? What about it? What about him makes you optimistic that the Dolphins maybe have hit hit a home run this time? Yeah. So, I I think for Miami during the search process, which Troy Aman, as we know, has had a very big hand in all of this. Um, they've really been looking for a personality that's going to instantly set a culture and hold players accountable. I think that was some of the problems that were rubbing people the wrong way uh in the in the previous regime, right? Like, you obviously see Mike McDaniel now doing

the the tour and and he is getting a lot of opportunities. I can tell you that. like every team wants Mike right now. But but putting that aside for Miami, some of those things were not working for Steve Ross and and he believes that Halfley here is going to be the guy that the players are going to respect immediately. Uh he's a first-time head coach. We obviously saw him at Boston College. Uh he's been in the NFL before, but I I will say like all I can go by myself as a reporter is just what everyone around him is telling me. and and it's it's really hard to find anyone take shots at him, especially now at a time where it's so competitive, everyone's so nasty, everyone's gossing gossiping about everybody because everyone wants the edge. Um, but all the feedback I got on him is just he's going to be able to start this thing from day one, no questions asked. Hey there, Diana. Um, curious about how confident,

what percentage you would put on the chances that the Steelers actually would trade Mike Tomlin. They control him obviously through the next year, but I I mean, if you're Buffalo or Cleveland even, wouldn't you at least kick the tires and check the likelihood of that happening? The possibility?

Yeah. No, no, for sure. There's definitely some back channeling going on right now in terms of those conversations. But the word in the league right now is is Mike Mike needs a break. Like he he it's it's it was never even about Pittsburgh. It was needing to just step aside and just be away from it. Um, I kind of I always tell a story that every time I see Mike Tomlin, the first thing he says to me every time I'm like, "Hey, what's up?" So, I'm tired. I'm tired. You know, and like if that's how you're leading conversations with people you haven't seen in like six months, you're probably tired.

But, you know, we're talking about these Zooms. Why What is up with What is with your shots today? Why Why do I look weird? What's going on there? You don't look weird. You look lovely.

No, I don't think I look Maybe you know what it is. I was up until 2:30 last night because the Tennessee Titans made a hire at 11:30 because everyone loves to hire at weird hours. Um, just collecting information. So, this is probably me just being tired. So, yeah. T Tennessee, by the way, that that's an interesting one. You hire Robert Salah in hopes of what Miami just did, right? That you're bringing in the culture guy. You're bringing the man of the people, the leader. Um, and they did it without an offensive coordinator in place. Yet, you've got the number one overall pick at quarterback here who obviously needs coaching and he needs the right offensive mind around him and they hired Salo without that. Like, that's something, you know? I I don't know where he'll land, right? Because you've got a bunch of OC's out there right now.

You got Brian Dable who's meeting with the Philadelphia Eagles at this moment. Um, you've got Arthur Smith who was just in Pittsburgh who's available. Um, perhaps maybe some 49ers guy. You got Klay Kubak,

Mike McDaniel. You got you got Mike McDaniel, but Mike's getting some other opport he could get a head coaching job in all this. Um, you got Tampa all over Mike McDaniel right now. Um, so there

I'd hire him if I were Buffalo. Okay, Buffalo is a whole another thing which we're working on now. uh because they were in meetings all day yesterday. Um while I can tell you ownership and even some of those decision makers in the front office had a sense that if they weren't going to win this game against the Broncos that they were going to make moves. Like that wasn't the biggest surprise. Um I didn't really get a sense that they had a plan in terms of who was going to replace Shawn. Um because they're obviously late, right?

Because here we are, what is it? January 20th, Tuesday. Most teams are deep in these second visits with these head coaches. Um, so they've got a lot of work to do. Yet, that is the most coveted job right now. Like, if you're Kevin Stfansky, aren't you sitting there like, "Why didn't I just wait?" Like, "Why didn't someone tell me this?" Because I would have loved to coach Josh Allen.

Well, Diana, how does McDermott get fired, but Brandon Bean gets promoted? It's the uh it's it's the best narrative in football right now. Um you you should hear head coaches talking about this. Uh just from a it's like for whatever reason, I don't know if it's relationships that are built. I don't know if there's just trust from what a general manager brings in terms of knowledge that supersedes a head coach, but there's something about general managers that just lasts longer. Look at Chris Greer in Miami, right? Like every head coach will point this out. There's something about general that position where you're just given more wiggle room. And sometimes it's as simple as just you spend more time with the owner.

I don't know a lot of head coaches that hang out with the owner that are on the phone with him or her a lot. Most are just grinding, coaching, you know, dealing with the players, dealing with all that. So I I think that's a benefit. you get a personal relationship and some real personal where they become almost family. Um, look at New York, right? The Giants seemed like they were related to Joe Sheen at some points. Um, and they're not. And and now Joe Shane appears safe, right? As he's going to become the general well, as he remains the general manager with John Harbaugh getting formerly introduced today as the head coach. Dan, are you again, you have not interrupted me once and this is I just want to say thank you. This is lovely.

Wow. Uh, Robert Sa and Liam Cohen twice a year. Duvall, now we're talking. Dan, I didn't even think about that. Uh,

that's a good one. Rob Salah, fine defensive coordinator. If there was a a front office that you trusted a little bit more, maybe you can make sense of this. I think everyone's a little puzzled by the hire given um what they need on offense and they they have the number one overall pick. H how does Chad Brinker look at himself in the mirror? Thi this guy is so bad at his job. All you need to do is look at the New England Patriots. This is an organiza. For those that don't know, Ran Carthon was a former GM of Tennessee. He brought in Chad Brinker. They fired Ran Carthon. They promoted Chad Brinker.

They've been a disaster. I don't know what kind of fairy dust this guy has over the organization. But Mike Vrabel was fired by these front office people. Mike Vrabel in one year has shown you he was never the issue. What is this reputation that they have over there in Tennessee around the league? This is a puzzling hire to me.

Well, first of all, you missed probably the most important piece of the timeline, which you it was good. But remember when John Robinson, the general manager who was with Mike Vrabel was fired. They went through a general manager search and Vrabel was asked his opinion about these candidates. And when he met Ran, he liked him a lot. he just didn't think he was ready for the GM job. He recommended assistant general manager. And the owner said, "No, I like him." And the reason why she said that is because she didn't want Mike to have ultimate power, right? And and that is always a worry for some owners. They wanted to make sure they've got a balance. And Ren was not ready. I think that's pretty obvious. And Chad Brinker was then brought in to fix the fact that he showed in a very few in a very short period of time he was not ready. And then they completely went the other way and fired Mike Varel because in their

mind the ego of him and that's them not not the the reality I believe um was going to hurt the franchise. And now here they are and they're back in the business of trying to find identity, find culture. And I get the Robert Salad draw but I mean I don't even know if you could call it a diet Mike Vreyel. Like I don't I don't even know if it's a Mike Velite. It's It's got some good characteristics. Salah is a leader. He's energetic. He loves this game, but if they were trying to look for something like Mike without the ego, that's they didn't get that either. Um, so yeah, I look, I think this is an organization that is really trying to lean into Mike Burggoni and hope that he brings something here and and there seems to be a lot of belief and confidence cuz Mike remember too Matt Naggie had the inside track on this yesterday. I was I wrote a piece already that Naggie had the job. Like it it was

it this thing was moving and then Salah walked in and he blew the doors off in the interview and he's got great presence and like I get why Robert Salah probably won that room over. Um

I hate that so much. I hate it so much. I know Jason Taylor everybody relax. It's Chad Brinker's doors that he's blowing down. No, no, Dan. I want to ask you this cuz I did have a head coach ask me this the other day. I swear he's like how important do you think it is that I like look really good in the interview like do you think I do the suit like do you like I make obviously you get the haircut whatever he's like do you think that matters I said yes this is business of course if you are looking polished walking into a room with a female owner right for this example let's say like absolutely look your best like who who's going to hire a slob Um, so I know we joke, but

the Kansas City the Kansas City Chiefs and and Bob Crow. It's crazy that Tom Moore asks you your opinion on the matter.

Andy Reid and Bill Bellichic slob up the interview. They're neither one of them's great on Zoom. Like I really do think this stuff of killing the interview is just a a grand stupidity from people who don't know what leadership actually requires.

Dan, hold on a second. There was that one time where Cliff Kingsbury was in that modern house on draft day and we were like, "That guy knows what he's doing. I don't know what it is, but he gets it.

Salah is pretty handy. Exactly. Like that that I think that's part of this. And look, Salah Sal's a big dude. Like he and and he has a plan. He does like he wanted this job badly. And and while I'm sure, you know, Jed York and Kyle Shanahan probably hated the fact that Salah was I'm sure prepping prepping a lot for this interview while they're in the playoffs. Um, I think that that, you know, for for him, look, a year ago he got fired. We were writing pieces about how he lost the team and uh all the cultural issues they had in New York. So now he's got a a second shot here. But we could probably have another conversation, too.

Did he pick the right place for him to have this rebirth to to get back in the game? I don't know. Is is this good ownership? He just went for Woody Johnson. So, you know, we're we'll see how this plays, but right now we still got the Pittsburgh Steelers looking for a head coach, the Cleveland Browns, the Buffalo Bills, the Las Vegas Raiders. You guys obviously saw Tom Brady there last night and that whole force. Uh, and the Arizona Cardinals.

Uh, Greg Cody on two and a half hours sleep just stifled a burp in order to get you this question.

I did. Did I? Excuse you. Wow. Yeah. Seriously. Uh, Diana, I want I want to detour from coaching for a second. So Bo Knicks is suddenly erased. It's your team, Jared Stidum. Can Denver with that defense still beat the Patriots and have a chance to win the Super Bowl?

Yes. Uh, no. Let me answer AFC first. Yes. I think there is no human being on this planet more insane than Shawn Payeyton in these situations. He I I don't think I I don't Look, he wants Boon Knicks out there, but it's not like this building fell apart once Bon Knicks went down and they don't think they they can win. I remember this summer um they were telling me about STDM and I remembered his days obviously in New England and I'm like what? like, "Oh, I I'm glad that you like him, but whatever." You know, and New England, if if you guys rec I don't know if you recall, but during free agency, New England was trying to get Jared Stumm back to New England. So, there was like a little bit of a of a war going back and forth uh in negotiations to try to get him and Stumm picked Denver. Um, so I I do think a little bit of I love this matchup from a from even just starting at the top here. you've got two head

coaches who who are lunatics when it comes to tapping into what their team needs and what motivates them. Um, so I think if anything, this works in the favor of Denver. They are looking at this as we're we're going to have to overcome this and that's how they like it. And look at Shawn Payton's history. Look at the times when Drew Brees wasn't in when he was in New Orleans. Uh Teddy Brussi, right? I think Shawn won almost every single game with backup quarterbacks. Uh Taesm Hill, another one. He knows how to prepare them and I do believe he does a good job of making sure that everyone steps up knowing that Jarrett Stidum doesn't have a lot of experience as a starter and in an AFC Championship game against a hungry Patriots team that has a vibe about them. I was with them on Sunday night that's kind of like, holy crap, we're here. Why not? Let's just go for it all.

You're underestimating that when you say he doesn't have a lot of experience. It's four starts, none of them in the last 748 days. She's the senior NFL insider for the athletic. She's the host of the Scoop City podcast. Always a delight. Thank you, Diana. Thank you for being on with us.

Thanks, guys. So, getting back to the topic dour, I will try to soothe some Hurricane fans here and Malachi Tony as well.

Malaki uh by putting up a photo of uh Malachi Tony being consoled by Ed Reid in a giant baseball cap. uh who popularized this? This was several years ago. Yeah. Several years ago this was popularized and I haven't seen them since. They they sold for a while these giant hats and Ed Reed is trying to bring it back. But I literally haven't seen one of these hats in about three years.

They're still popular, but the best part about traveling to these things is a lot of people will go to the game and wear them, but they're too big to fit in their luggage. So you will see people in the airport with those hats on, like sitting on their plane with those hats on. I I legitimately haven't seen one in several years. I laughed out loud when I saw that Ed Reid was wearing one during the ESPN interview with Clinton Portoris where I'm like, "God, I those there was somebody who was selling them who was making a lot of money with the uh with the copyright of them. I don't remember who it was because you just mentioned is that is that the origin? Is that ground zero on it?"

I remember seeing him be like, "This is a really really huge hat. Why does Brian Robinson have this?

It's so stupid looking. It's a baseball cap that's what what would we say? 10 times the size. Five times the size of a normal baseball.

25 times the size. Probably like 600 times. It's enormous. No, it's not. We should get Zaz.

600 times as a hot air balloon. You're wearing a hot air balloon on your head. I love how he probably had it on forward at one point, but for this big speech, he's like, "You know what? This is

cuz he's got to get closer to him." The problem is the brim is so big that he has to get closer. I'm going to flip the ridiculous hat around and have a real talk. Let me let me see again. Let me see Malachi Tony

walking down uh the the tunnel here. Malachi Tony was great in that second half. And he did have to flip it backwards and it looked ridiculous. Six feet long sticker across the away from the hall. He can't talk to him.

You can't have a serious conversation with anybody wearing that hat. I'm sorry.

All right. I can't get Mike to laugh today. There will be getting no Mike laughter today. Uh Mike, how did you sleep? Greg Cody uh comes in complaining 2 and 1/2 hours of sleep. Uh uh that night, right? I'm assuming you turn off all your televisions. You're not uh consuming any of the coverage, right?

I'm not really watching anything. I wanted to hang out with my friends, my hurricanes friends. Like we went out a little bit afterwards and

you watch the heat. I I honestly like the last thing that I saw before uh I went to sleep was a news item that Jimmy Butler tore his ACL. So, you know, not a lost night, but

Oh, no. Oh, what? You're not super What are you doing? What am I doing? I'm super pumped about it.

What about the Bob fight? You had to have seen that. Oh, I saw I saw I saw a video of the Bob fight. Yeah, that's that sucks about Jimmy Butler. Who could have thought that his body would wear down?

Uh yeah, I'm not really consuming it. Uh I you know I I was trying to put on a brave face and be the energy guy. And that's usually not my uh not my forte when I have a devastating loss, but it was very evident that I was faking it because when I came home, it all it all came out. And uh yeah, dude, I uh spend all my free time, all my free money, all my free effort on trying to get to where Indiana got last night and it was devastating and I cried and I'm really sad about it and uh I hope to never feel that pain again. Uh, you cried when upon the incident?

No, I mean I I I did like sit in my chair. I was I was rocked. I couldn't get up. I had Next thing I know there was confetti everywhere and you know it was brutal. Uh I shook it off. Uh there were some Kane's fans on the way out doing Kane's chance and you know I this was a great season it for like to you got to keep in mind like this was like a three and a half month thing of like trying to prove that we were worthy.

You proved it. Uh yeah and that's what I was trying to tell myself and we went through some teams that I properly hate. Um, but yeah, you you were that close. Like we allowed a punt block on when Indiana's in punt safe coverage. Like what the man rules kicker, that's why.

God damn it. You know, we were we were right there. And uh I care about the the Miami Hurricanes athletic program more than I care about anything that isn't related to me. And uh yeah, it it really sucked. I cannot really articulate how painful that was. And it sucks when you finish second. You feel like a big-time loser because the eyes of the world are on you and everyone's teeing off on you, making fun of you and you're trying to have the right perspective and that you had a good season. The vision is working. All your time and effort is working. I had a lot of people while I was like crest fallen in my seat, not really knowing where I was at the time thanking me for, you know, hey, thanks for fighting for us. Thanks for what you do for the program. And that that did like soften the blow. But yeah, man, I am wrecked inside. I want to die.

Oh, do you think this will make it feel any better? S seeing your father do this.

Five yards. They just went down the field. And here is Mike Ryan's dad uh to celebrate the touchdown that he celebrated prematurely before uh with the Bongos.

One more time. You're Mike Ryan is going to be mad. Mike Ryan might murder him and you for letting it happen.

Can't wait to call him Junior. Mike, what is uh what is second place for you on most devastating loss of your life? Because what you're describing, I imagine there's a gulf between getting home and crying and whatever finishes second place here because uh to to be that close is the part that's crushing, right? You lose to miss and it doesn't feel quite the way this does. You lose to Ohio State, it doesn't there there's very little that can feel quite this way. Maybe you're at the one yard line and you fumble or something, but it's about as close as you can be.

Yeah, I I I guess the only thing that's close is uh Battlecourt Spring Final 2024, losing to the Rote Renegades.

Yeah, memorable. What about your favorite pro football team signing Deshun Watson on purpose?

That honestly, Dave, great shout. Great shout. Like in terms of like my soul left my body, like who am I? What is my personality? You're absolutely right. the the acquisition of Deshun Watson did end a chapter in my life. That is absolutely the second most painful loss of my life. And also the Fiestable because we got cheated out of number six.

I I I've gotten to the point in my life where as a sports fan, yes, the the winning is obviously the most important thing, but I I want the moments. Like really everything about my life moving forward is I just want moments. I want individual moments that make me feel good. And and that's the part for me that that is the toughest to swallow last night is not that they lost, but you're you're envisioning it that oh my god like they have a real chance to score here at the end of the game and it will be a forever moment. That's the part for me that's the toughest to swallow. Not just that they lost, but we would have had that moment, that feeling for the rest of our life.

Yeah. So close. I don't know. I didn't I didn't think the universe would afford me that kind of happiness and joy. Uh did you see

I thought they were going to do it, man. The the dude that actually pulled down the interception is Glenn Sharp's nephew. Glenn Sharp was a corner that was on Chris Gamble in the Fiesta Bowl uh when uh Terry Porter threw that flag.

Wow. Who cares about anything? Sports is stupid. Like what do we do? Like why are we like what m what?

But also Mike, you said it yesterday. They're the best. They're the best. But sports are stupid. You said it yesterday. The the the universe died a trillion years ago. We're living in its echo. Like, who cares? Who cares about anything? We're all going to die and I'm going to be on my deathbed. MF and Roy.

I care big. I love big. And when it happens, and it will happen, it will happen. It's going to be the greatest day of my sports fandom. I know we're going to we're going to figure this out and we're going to get there. And I mean, how can you not feel great about this head coach and the trajectory of the program? I feel like this is the start of something. Uh, I'm not going to put all the business out there. Mark Fletcher, who made news uh because he he swung on.

Yeah. What happened there? That kid must have said something, right? Uh anybody that knows Jeremy, you know Mark Fletcher from his time in high school. Mark Fletcher is as high character an individual as you will meet in college. And moments before that, he was being super classy with Fernando Mendoza. They had a nice moment on the field.

I was wondering which of those came first. Uh cuz I was imagining him having an altercation and then like a minute later like the most genuine nice

Good game, man. Mark, if Mark Fletcher is swinging on you, you're the problem because that is like not who Mark Fletcher is. If if you did something, you did something like super disrespectful get hit. You know about that, Dan. Talk to

him with a you down warranty. Uh but uh maybe someone will put it out there, maybe some of those teammates, but Mark Fletcher, I got word of like the speech that he delivered to the team after that loss. Mark Fletcher is coming back next season. I told you the story after Middle Tennessee State, Mario Chrisal took like a couple of boosters and for whatever reason I was there. I had no business being there and he said a couple of names and Ruben Bane and Mark Fletcher were guys that would turn this program around and he's going to finish that story and I hope it's in Las Vegas next year. Mark Fletcher is a great guy. I know a lot of people are decontextualizing what happened. It's an ugly moment obviously swinging on somebody, but that guy is as high character and individual and he's a reason this season turned around. uh that video, that moment, and that uniform uh will camouflage for the

country how high character an individual he is. And we will be accused of all manner of bias for just simply knowing a little more about him than you do. Uh when Mike says it's the start of something at Miami, he's not wrong, but it's the start of something more at Indiana because they have a momentum now uh in the portal that's even better than Miami's and they have a stability now. That night uh wins a thousand recruiting wars. Obviously, you have to get money as well, but Indiana's no longer a doormat. This is the hard part, getting to here and the momentum of here. They will do nothing but build on this. agree with that. But like I said to you last night, Dan, and I think that listening to Zaz and to Mike and to pretty much everybody in here, it it would have Sorry to paraphrase SEC, it would have meant more I feel like for Miami fans than as much as it has meant obviously to IU level, you're

100% right. There there was, as I as I kept saying, there was no downside. If you lose, there was no precedent either way. Okay, so we we had the Heisman winner. We went into this thing undefeated. We beat Oregon twice. We beat Iowa beat Ohio State. I mean, you know, for real, the vibes would have been very similar if you remove this reality. If they would have gone, you know, nine and three and won the Rose Bowl, you would have thought, well, I mean, a once in a-lifetime thing for the Hooers fans. But you guys have the downside, and I really do. As much as nationally, I kept saying, and I I kind of stand by it. Um Dan touches on the fact that the U has maybe a negative rep, but largely I think that Football America looked at uh IU as having just beaten the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics and now just have to finish it by beating the Fins and the U was the Fins. That was not supposed to be the challenge that it

ended up being. Um but for you guys clearly for how you perceive yourselves as now a blue blood I it it is striking to me um I don't think the the nation see senses it as much as you guys are are feeling it. Well, Crystal Ball volunteered after the game that and and rightly so. That there's absolutely no guarantee that just because they were great this year and reached the final that that's a given next year. And reflecting that, you know, the immediate championship odds for next season are out already. And I was a little surprised to see Miami as low as tied for 10th in the betting odds. And that all depends on on how they score in the portal with a new quarterback. So, I think the U is back, but there's no guarantee that they're going to maintain this level just because they got there this year.

Dave, would you give your championship to Mike Ryan right now? I give him well wishes

for 2026. Miami is playing a home game for the championship. Do you people have no sense of history of what that means? Miami wins that game always. You've never seen this. This This is how in holy hell am I living in a universe where the world has made Miami an overwhelming underdog to win A HOME GAME IN MIAMI.

I understand why people are gassing Indiana up. They've been incredible. That stat where Mendoza has eight touchdowns and five in incompletions

and the cheating part, right? I'm not I'm not going there, but Miami's prepared. Here's the play. Indiana cheat this

right behind right right and yes I've heard that leard whimpering right outside right outside. No revenga right up right up the middle. It's going to be second and three all game. Dan's going to complain about the tush push over here, but he's going to love it when those Canes get eight yards because their offensive line is just throwing Fletcher eight yards.

I was right about everything. There are two teams in this game. They're going to spot the ball and Mass is going to kick ass.

We've got a very skinny Charles Barkley there. He's half the man that he used to be. He loves himself some hockey. You guys want to show some footage again of Babski and the goalie fight from last night? Because a couple of times Charles has come down here to watch the Panthers win a championship and I did not know that our friend had such an interest in hockey. Welcome Charles. It's been too long since I've seen you.

Hey man, you never called me and asked me to come on the show. You know, I'll come on the show anytime you want me to.

Well, I appreciate that. Uh but but when you were in Miami for those uh Stanley Cup finals, uh you did not come anywhere near where I was uh when I was looking for you

cuz they play out and down. Is it sunrise? Yeah, it's it's the Everglades. Hey, let me tell you something, man. That was so good last night. I didn't see the hockey fights after the football game. I love that, Dan. And that, you know, people ask me why I love hockey so much. I said, yo, man, they they have a code of honor. You never have to worry about guys out here doing load management. They just want to win the Stanley Cup. Hey, who are you kissing back there?

That's Jorge Sadano is consoling. Hey, Jorge Sadano. I I don't call him Jorge because I I'm not bilingual.

What's up, Chuck? That was Hey, what's up, brother? Hey, man. That was a hell of a game last night.

I know. I was there, man. It was It was uh It was a great game. It was tough at the end for uh the folks down here, though. But uh yeah,

you had a great year. Can I say you have a great year? Yes. Cuz dope. You know why? Cuz I don't want all these punk ass reporters and clowns talking bad about me like they did that lady in Jacksonville who had a moment of humity. You know, think about that, Dan. The the Jacksonville had a great year. They won four games last year and we got so many punks on television and on radio now cuz I I don't get into the social media stuff if you know Dan I don't do social media but I start looking and it was a big story brew and I'm like people are is this woman serious? She's supposed to be a journalist. Have we got to the point now where you just have to be an idiot or a fool or a jackass to be on television or podcast or something? Now you can't have you I can't tell the Hurricanes you had a great season.

You can. But I'm I'm curious though how this is going over at ESPN that you continue to call people who work there punks, idiots, fools, and jackasses.

Well, they can fire me. Hey. Um, I I'm I got Hey, Dan. I got seven years left on my contract.

And you said you were retiring. I am. So I They listen. Uh, Dan, I'm 100% retired. But if I can do something just a little bit stupid, so they have to fire me, they'll have to pay me for the whole seven years.

That'll be fun to watch. Watch Chuck and the Inside the NBA crew as part of NBA Saturday prime time on ABC this Saturday. Uh, this Saturday, January 24th. The Knicks were booed at home. Were you often or ever booed at home?

Dan, I played in Philadelphia. You You know, I tell people, and I don't mean any disrespect to any other fan base. Boston, New York, and Philly, they are different fan bases. They're going to hold you to a high standard. I flicked over to check on that game last night cuz I was trying to watch the football game, but I want to see the Pistons against the the uh Celtics. Um and then I saw that, wow, this got they're down 30 at halftime. This is not gonna be good. I really didn't know anything about the boo the booing until I was watching Sports Center later. But damn, if you're down 30 at halftime, which there's never there's never excuse to be down 30 at halftime at home, you deserve to get booed.

Uh, how has the season been so far for you and the switch over? Uh, Chuck, you guys aren't on as much as I would like to see you because I can't get enough of that show, but you've also said several times like they're not going to work me to death. I'm not going to allow it at this age. So, how's the transition been for you?

It's been great. Uh, and Dan, we've complained. We've only been on ESPN, I think, four times in three months. We did like the first two weeks. We were off all of December to Christmas and we're off into all of January until the 24th. Uh, I don't like that at all. Uh what when what I was talking about working all the time because I man I love watching basketball. I'm not going to do all these damn shows. That that that's that's the part I'm not going to be on ESPN one two three disportes uh Nacho Echo whatever they call it. Uh I'm not going to be doing all that. I but

I wish that we had have been on more during the first half of the season but I just checked the schedule. I think we're on Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday. So, they're going to start making up uh some of the days, but I wish in in in December. We only work one day in December, Dan. That was Christmas Day. And we only working one day in January basically, and that's the 24th, I think, maybe whatever next Wednesday is. But I wish we had have worked more so far cuz cuz it's been great. The guys at ESPN have been great. Uh they've been great, but like I say, we'll know more after we get uh schedule he heavy the last half of the season.

Uh put it on the poll, please. Juju at leard show. Are you presently watching ESPN Nacho Echo? Uh Durant has moved past Dirk Niski, sixth on the all-time scoring list. Where do you put him among all-time greats? I thought Chris Whittingham had a great point when he just said this version of Durant with all of the changing of teams and everything that the way he chose to do it is the worst possible way that he could have done it for his legacy if he had given him all the options. The way that he chose to bounce around, this is the worst version of his career that there could have been in terms of legacy impacting given that he's one of the greatest scorers ever.

Well, I 100% agree with him because the reason the reason he had he's been he hadn't been close to being successful. I mean, we had him here in Phoenix. I mean, he lost in the first round in Jersey. And first of all, every basketball person knows this, Dan. You don't go to New York and play for the Nets. You go to New York and play for the damn Knicks. Come on, man. I mean, that's that's basketball 101. When people say he's going to New York, I'm like, "Woo, this gonna be great. He's going to the Knicks." He went to the Nets. That's the first strike. Then he goes to Phoenix and he loses in the first round two years in a row. And now he goes to Houston. And my Phoenix Suns got a better record without him. That's a a damning indictment. The Phoenix Suns have the same record basically as the Houston Rockets. Uh, shout out to the coaching staff, Matt Ishbia, the owner, Devin Booker, and let me tell you

something, Dylan Brooks. He reminds me of Draymond, Dennis Rodman. Um, now they're going to drive you crazy sometimes.

You you you didn't mind being a villain. I didn't not being a villain. I'm talking about a guy who's going to go over the line. Um, I'm talking about a guy you have to have on your team to be successful. You can have all the great player. I've always said this, you can have all the great players you want, but you got to have a crazy person that sets the tone for the team. And let me tell you what Dylan Brooks is doing for my Phoenix Suns is incredible. Dude, we were picked. We weren't even supposed to make the playin game and now we having one of our best seasons. So, shout out to Dylan Brooks, Devin Booker, and those guys. Uh, they're doing a hell of a job.

Do you have a precedent? Can you think of a precedent uh like the one with John Morant where you've got a guy being advertised as the face of the league and now you can get him in the discount bin?

Uh, that's a great question. But he's in a discount bin because of his own actions. Dan, you know, he, you know, we as players, we are the stupidest people. When I mean that, I don't mean stupid, stupid. I mean, like, it's never our fault. You know, the reason John Moran is in the discount aisle, the same reason Trey Young was in the discount aisle, there self-inflicted wounds. Yeah. You don't think the Atlanta Hawks wanted to build around Trey Young for 15 years? You don't think the M Me Memphis Grizzlies want to be have J Mor on their team for forever, but it's self-inflicted wounds because now you got to make business decisions because these guys make so much money now.

You can't pay a guy 60 70 $80 million and we going to be mediocre. Uh but all the wounds was self-inflicted. John Morant, everything he's did to put himself in the discount aisle is because of his own actions, plain and simple.

Charles, the All-Star game starters were announced last night and for the first time, LeBron did not get the votes to be an all-star starter. So, the only way he makes the game now, the coaches have to vote him in. Is it possible the coaches don't vote LeBron an all-star?

Well, let me say this. I think Adam Silver, who I love and respect, made a huge mistake. Listen, man. Quit screwing around with the All-Star game. Make it international against the US. All this you play a team, you play a team, and all this other stuff. I've been saying for 10 years, the the international team against United States team would be a perfect scenario. The reason they don't want to do it because the international team will kick our ass. That's exactly why they won't do it. I mean, probably the the top four, five players in the NBA today are are international players, but it would be great. We don't have to win. It's kind of like the Olympics. I don't think it'll be the worst thing in the world if the United States didn't win. I think it'll be actually a boom if another country won. I think it'll be a boom for basketball if another country won. But I think the All-Star game is

screwed up. We need to go international against American. Number one, LeBron didn't deserve to make the All-Star team. But let me say this. I think he's he's close to the end. I think we need to find a way to get him in there because I Let's be honest, it's probably his last Allstar game. Uh uh but he didn't deserve to make the team. He's not playing like an allstar. But if this is his last year, if this is his last year, I think we need to find a way to get him in the game. I think listen, I think Adam S should go to LeBron, say, "Hey man, is this your last year?" And then if it is like we we need to make sure your last year you're in the all-star game. Uh because he's done so much for the game.

Uh I told you he's the third best player I've ever seen play behind Michael and Kobe. He's never really gotten into trouble. Uh I admire him. I respect him. But listen, man. Uh if this is his last year, I hope he that they found a way to get him in the game.

Are championships the measurement there for you, Charles? Because when you put those three guys in that class, I want to put Jokic there. I want to say that Joic is uh among the best players that there have ever been in the sport. But the sport is changing so much that I feel like I'm going to say that about Webyama in a couple of years.

Well, Dan, first of all, you 100% correct. Jokic. Now, these three, in my opinion, outliers. But then, you're not going to tell me you think uh and first of all, Joker is the best player in the world today. You're going to tell me he's betting uh Wil, Bill Russell, Kareem, Shaq, Hakee. I said it on the air. He's We don't appreciate how great he is. We don't appreciate how great he is. But I said, I'm not putting him above Bill Russell. Uh will uh Kareem Kareem when we talk about the greatest ever, Kareem should be in the conversation.

Uh but he never gets m Kareem should be in the conversation. But also, as much as I love the Joker, you're not going to put him out there against Shaq and Hakee, are you? Come on, Dan. Stop it. He's the best player in the world today. Don't get me wrong.

I mean, Charles, I know this generational stuff is tough, right? I know it's difficult, but Babe Ruth would have sat there watching 100 mph fast balls with that big bat. And at some point, Shaq and Michael Jordan are going to generationally be passed by evolution, are they not? At some point,

not those guys like Babe Ruth might get passed, but Michael Jordan won the slam dunk competition. So if you're good enough to win the slam dunk competition, you're one of the most athletic guys on the planet. Like, yeah, all these guys are athletic. That don't mean that Shay Gillis Alexander, he's not overly athletic, is he? But he's he's he's right there with the Joker for the best player in the world. I mean, I love Shay Gil, but you don't say, "Wow, he's really really athletic." Uh uh Kawhi Leonard, the the one day a week he plays, you can't tell me he's overly athletic, but he he's one of he's gonna go down as one of the best air players ever. So, and listen, the only question about Victor is his health. You know, Dan, have we ever and I hate saying this cuz it sounds stupid, but it's true. Have we these guys who are that tall, have we ever seen any one of them stay really healthy for like 10 years of excellence?

I mean, it's such a freak of nature to be that tall. And I love that kid. I hope I hope he's able to stay healthy because he's

How was Wilt able to do it? Well, I I I think Will was only like he's closer to Shaq height, like 7 foot 71.

This guy This guy's 75 76. Yeah. Yeah. But I will say this, and I've said this before, Shaquille O'Neal is the biggest human being I've ever seen in my life. I him being able to play 20 years is one of the greatest accomplishments in sports history. Like me and Kev McKill used to always say, the first time I met you kill, I'm said, how can a dude that big run that fast and jump that high? for his body to hold up for 20 years. I know at the end he didn't have a lot left, but he had a 10 to 15 year run where he was the most he could outrun everybody. He could out jump everybody. Uh but yeah, but man, I hope Victor can stay healthy. Uh I want to play for you the sound and see if you've gotten any better at saying the name of the twotime uh NHL champion uh goalie for the Panthers,

Sergey Babka. Well, you know, uh, first of all, let me explain. Go on. Hey, hey, hey, Greg. Cody, it's good to see you, brother. Great, Greg.

Thank you. I apologize for laughing at you mispronouncing Bob Brown. No. Hey, hey, that's no big deal. I'm gonna explain to you why. Cuz you know, when you're going to do a hit on television, you get to the game early. And I'm on spring break at that time.

So, I was in the Hey So I was already in the Sergey vodka before I got to Babroski.

Nice. You know, I had already started drinking before the game, Dan. So I was thinking Babroski and Baki. So

that's exactly right. I was already in the vodka already. I'm not going to go to a hockey game and not drink Dan.

Yeah, fair enough. Put it on the poll at Levitar show. Are you going to go to a hockey game and not drink? Uh your uh the your betting uh the University of Miami and Indiana last night. Did you bet the game and how much did you win or lose?

I got beat like a drum last night, Dan. And I went I I went it was a big number, too. Uh I had because they tricked me

because I'm going tell you what I was thinking and I made two bets. I went to the sports book and I called my bookie. So I bet big twice. So, I got my ass kicked twice. I said, "Man, my aunt Coach Crystal Ball has done a hell of a job. They got a great defense. Why are they getting seven and a half to eight and a half?" I just I think Indiana's going to win the game, but man, they they tricked me into betting on Miami uh

on the money line. I mean, you covered you covered, but what you you bet Miami to win. You bet Miami on the money.

No, no, no. I I I took Indiana. Indiana didn't cover. Okay. So, who tricked you? What happened?

Well, the book the line said take Indiana because they're not going to blow out Miami. You know, it's same thing about three weeks ago. I says, I think Indiana's better than Alabama, but they're not gonna win by more than a touchdown. You know, you're trying to figure all this stuff out. But I says, "Well, I think this going to be a good game." But why? Because the line dropped from 8 and 1/2 to 7 and 1/2. Cuz I played golf yesterday and it was 8 and 1/2. By the time I got to the sports book, it was seven and a half. I said, "Oh man, it's uh" So I I just I I overthought it. Uh I should have gave Coach Crystal Ball more credit. Uh but man, you know what? Hey, that's gambling, brother. That's gambling.

Our our crew here is a little confused. Mike and Tony are a little confused by what happened to your bet. And we don't understand why you would need to make two bets. Why it is you'd go to the sports and also call your bookie. Is it because you had drinks while you were playing golf?

Sergey Baba? No. Because I was really confident that Indiana was going to because I thought I said man this should the line the line should be closer because Miami's got a hell of a team and they're playing at home. That's what I was thinking. So I just bet twice. I just bet more. So, but I didn't bet I bet twice. I just bet more and I lost more twice. So, uh but did I I did the line tricked me. I said, "Man, they they dying for us to bet on Miami cuz Miami to me, they shouldn't have been getting seven and a half." I mean, they won all those games.

They were playing at home, but they just tricked me. Damn. Plain simple. It sounds like you're a bad gambler. Who's tricking you? Is your bookie just telling you no, don't do that? I think who's tricking Charles Barkley?

Well, there's no such thing. I tell people there's no no such thing as a bad card player because when you go to the casino, if you get good cards, you're a good damn gambler.

Damn right. I I YOU KNOW, I ALWAYS love when people say, "Are you a good card player? Are you a good gambler?" I said, "Pends on if I win or lose." When Hey, no. Nobody when when the when the dealer's giving you all these good cards, nobody say, "Man, you a good gambler." They're like, I said, "No, the dealer's giving me good cards." And when I call my bookie, I bet. When I win, man, I took the right side. When I lose, I took the wrong side. That's gambling, brother. Uh, put it on the poll at leard show. Should your bookie be trying to talk you out of the bet you're trying to make? Uh, Charles, uh, true or false, Shaq still cannot name three Pistons.

You know, in fairness to Shaq, in fairness to Shaq, the Pistons only been relevant. No, we've been on TV a long time. The Pistons, number one, great win last night, but they only been relevant. That's like that stupid game we play who he play for.

That game's not stupid. It's awesome game. I'm not watching bad teams play, man. Listen, the only player I know on the Washington Wizards is damn Trey Young and CJ CJ's in Atlanta now. Um, the Sacramento Kings. I know Dear Rosen and Zack Lavine and uh the Murray kid.

Yeah, I DON'T WATCH BAD BASKETBALL. IT MAKES my head hurt. So, the answer is no. He can't name Three Pistons. Oh, let okay. Let me Okay. Um, let me name something for you, Dan. Um, USF. We just stole y'all coach at Auburn. Coach Galash. I'm happy to have him at Auburn.

And the quarterback. And the quarterback. Name me another player for USF, Dan. He's in your damn backyard.

Oh, I watch so many USF games and I'm just watching uniforms and Okay. Okay. So, you're watching uniforms. Okay. I know the quarterback and the coach and I'm really excited by coach Gillesh. I'm g tell you something. Uh, one of my great people I admire is Derek. Um, damn, I forgot his name.

You admire him though. You admire him though. Yeah, he's good. I love him. Wait, no. Oh, I got it. Derek Brooks. No, I really but I never seen Derek Brooks, but I was down in Tampa at John Cooper's fishing tournament about about two months ago and I saw Derek Brooks, one of the most amazing men I've ever met in my life. He sends me a text when we get Coach Gillesh. He says, "Y'all got a real one, Chuck." And uh if I get the seal of approval from Derek Brooks, I know we got a great coach coming to Auburn, and I cannot wait to support Coach Galesh. Charles, Shaq gets mad sometimes on the show, like when you guys are busting balls. Do have you ever gotten actually You ever gotten actually mad

in a game? He fought Shaq, which is No, but I'm talking ABOUT ON THE SHOW. NO, the only problem I ever have with Shaq and you and he hates Dan. He hates Dan. You all know that, right?

Yep. We've gotten the vibe. So Shaq is one of those guys and it's not a good trait. He can dish it out, but he can't take it. And me, if I'm going to dish it out, I got to be able to take it. So I get mad when people are sensitive. You can't give people junk. First of all, that's the best part about playing any type of team sport, especially the NBA. the bus trips, the plane trip, we ride each other. Unbelievable. But Shaq can dish it out, but he can't take it. That's his only weakness because he's a really, really good dude, but he can't take criticism.

That's why he hates me. I've only because I've said I don't understand why he's so sensitive. He's one at life and I don't understand. You just said something that's harsher criticism than any I've ever leveled at check.

Yeah, but I don't think it's a criticism. You got to be able to take it if you're going to dish it out. I mean, that's that's just life 101. You can't just give people a hard time and not be able to take it.

Do you have a player right now in the league that you've pissed off the most this year? Because you don't mind pissing people off. Is there an active player right now that you that's on your ledger where I really got this guy angry with something I said?

Well, the the guy who hates me uh is probably Kevin Durant, which is fine. I mean, we don't we don't have to be I don't have to be friends with any of these guys, you know. Kevin Durant's a great player. He's one of the best scorers ever. You know what's really funny? You said that quote from another guy earlier and he probably gonna tweet at me because I agreed with what he said. But you know, it's so funny. He he hits the game winner against the Suns. He's like, "Yeah, I really want to stick it to the Suns. They threw me away." I'm like, "Dude, we we traded 10 draft picks. We gave you $60 million a year and we got swept in the first round of the playoffs. You want us to keep you around? Like like what what do you expect? We had to reset. I'm like, wait a minute. They didn't throw you away. We traded five or six number one draft picks.

Then you wanted Bradley Bill. We went out and got Bradley Bill. We lost in the first round the first year. The next year with you, we got swept. And then this year we got a better better record than the Rockets. And you still mad? What you mad at? Facts. We're better without you. Don't get mad. Those are just facts.

Uh, watch Inside the NBA. It's the best sports studio show there's ever been. And NBA Saturday prime time on ABC. Uh, Chuck, it's always great seeing you. You always

Hey, Dan, can I say something before we go? Yeah, but I know what you're gonna I know what you're gonna say. I don't know what he's saying.

I know. I know what he's gonna say. Yes, Dan. I'm not going to say that anymore. Dan, I just want to say this to you, man. You know, when I first met you, I told you what a big fan I was. Uh I I and I said, "Yo, because I do I think most of the guys just want to get clicks and just want to be in the limelight and say stupid stuff." I said, "Dan, I like you. You and Tim, uh call it what is it? Call us.

Lot of respect for him. Yes. I said you two are my favorite guys because I know when y'all say stuff that don't mean y'all right. Like I don't think I'm right all the time, but I ain't never going to say anything to get clicks. So anytime you call me, you stole my girl Leah, too, which I'm not happy about. Uh Leah Ball, uh Bruce Pearl's daughter who's a saint. You stole her from me, but I'll forgive you. But I told you, man, I got so much love and admiration for you and Tim Kasha. But I want to say this about you. The best thing you ever did for me was hooking me up with your mom. Man, that lady is a saint. We text back and forth all the time. She always, you know, I used to give Ernie a hard time cuz white people always texting you pictures of their grandkids like you give us give a damn.

Uh I I I always used to give Ernie a hard time. I said, "Ernie, I know your grandkids are cute. Quit sending me pictures. Now I got grandkids." Ernie calls me. He says the white Charles Barker sends my I sent his wife grand picture kids all it's the greatest thing ever being a grandpa but your mom when I go a week without sending pictures of my two grandkids which is the greatest thing ever happened to me. She sends me a text like I better get a a picture soon. So the best thing ever you ever did for me Dan was hooking me up with your mom. That lady is a saint and she's going to heaven because of you and that fat old daddy of yours.

There it is. I knew that was coming. You said it wasn't coming and I knew that was coming. You were going to hammer my fat old dad. And evidently you hooked up with my mom, which is not something I knew. Charles, good to see you. Uh nice to see you as always, sir. Good to see that smile. And good to see that you're healthy. You're you're taking care of yourself. Skinny as I've ever g Hey, road.co. Road.co. Go get some zepound all you fat people out there. Road.co. Zepbound.

See you later, Charles. Nice. Love you guys. Be safe. Uh love you too. Uh so Mike Ryan is back there and he's he's hiding in the corner and the guy that we quoted earlier was Chris Whittingham. Uh he was having trouble with some of the names there because uh your legends and your heroes are aging. And Derek uh I forgot his name.

One of the great people I admire is Derek. Uh uh yeah, I didn't I didn't want to interrupt the uh the conversation about Derek. what's his name? But I I I regret not getting to float my all-star replacement idea to Chaz Barkley, which is, by the way, this US versus the world.

What's whoa? Who cares? What? What? What are the stakes for the world? What what what does the world care? Let's play for all of us against the strange. Um,

here's what we do. The All-Star games, allar games are outmoded. They don't care. Forget it. instead one-on-one tournament,

right? That sucks, Tony. Come on. That sucks. You wanted to hate play kick OF THE COURT WITH EVERYBODY.

YOU LIKE IT, TONY. 611 7IC on Anthony Edwards. Oh. Oh, I can't. You You break it up into four into four categories. You go like 611 and above, 610 to, you know, 68 and so and on down. That'd be great.

No, nobody cares about one-on-one. Here's what you do. Well, nobody cares about THE THE ALLSTAR NOW.

HERE'S WHAT you do. A game of horse. Bring back horse. It's getting lame. Let's see how lame we can make.

Let's Let's work through this, Greg. How many people are playing? Is it all the Allstars trying to make the same shot?

It's one-on-one. Maybe guys just doing the threeman weave down the court down. You create a short a shot. When I played horse, the the go-to shot was you stand behind the basket.

I put it over the top and put it right over the top. Yeah, that's a good shot. My dad used to make that shot a lot in horse. And then I became better than him. That was easy.

This is a great idea, right, Dan? Thank you. Uh yeah, give me uh Indiana uh minus 7 and a half. No. What? You want I should take Miami? What? I don't like I don't know which way to go here.

That seems like a lot of points. I'm going to take Indiana. How How is Miami getting so many points? I'm going to lay the points.

Give me the Hooers. It's uh it's not a terrible idea, but uh after that particular game, fix the NBA All-Star game is not the topic matter that I really wanted.

That was a that was a head spinning appearance from Charles Barkley, I have to admit.

Tim Kashaw, Dannipa, it was a stunner, right? It was a It was a stunner in all Tims.

Jeremy was smiling at the Jimmy Butler highlights. I'm just We got him. Jammy's enjoying the injury more than anyone here. That's not what happened. Super pumped.

That is not what happened at all. I'm not super pumped. You are super Tiger Woods fist bump. THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED.

TIGER ON 18 IN AUGUSTA. That's what's happening inside. You can ask anyone who was in that room last night when I saw I was not excited.

Psyched. That's not true. It's okay to be psyched about that. No, it's not. HE'S A BAD GUY AND HE GOT WHAT WAS COMING.

He left the villain. That's what you think. IS WAY OUT OF TOWN AND LEFT THE VILLAIN.

I know why you're doing that journalist. You have three Emmys. You're on the Heat broadcast. You publicly cannot say that. But I know what's inside of you.

And it is pure unbridled joy that Jimmy Butler tore his ACL. You can shake your head all you want. You can shake your head all you want. Three years from now, you're going to be like, you were dead on.

Let's show Jeremy's reaction last night to the injury. Oh, it's his fist bump after he did. I don't think that that's right to do. Mike Ryan has put his name on uh enjoying that and that's not something that we should be doing,

right? That's super classless. Uh you can have that as a private thought. Just don't speak it into a microphone. Keep your honesties to keep your honest Why

did you do that, Jeremy? Come on. You're a good every You're a good guy. You have a good reputation. I mean, not amongst Miami people, but like everyone knows that you have a good heart. You're entitled to be like super pumped about this.

Mike and Tu are too honest. I like you though, Jeremy. Uh, Mike, we're all pieces of inside. Come on. You're pumped.

Put it on the poll at leard show. Are we all pieces of feces inside? I think that's almost literal.

Even Jeremy, you can add that to Jeremy really cares about what people think. Trust me,

I do so much. I care so much what people think. Uh, well, Mike was just informing me before uh that interview started. He's like, "I just can't believe how much a new generation of University of Miami fans hate you." And I'm like, "I'm used to this. It's been 30 years I've been doing this with University of Miami fans as people nationally associate me with being too pro Miami." That's it's sort of uh

But those were older heads like for like people in their 20s to be like, you know, f Dan Levit. It's pretty shocking what's happened. Like, yeah, I don't I don't we we need to do some fixing there with your reputation because like

I was all over the city trying to make trying to make Dan's name great again. I'm trying to help. Like the the Pell Grant thing like that

I didn't do the Pelgrant thing. I know. But that was a reputation for you and like you could always tell like the certain Miami Hurricanes fan that is always going to hold that grudge over you.

Lucy, you know about that Pell Grant? No, but I do have an idea for you. You can just mark Cuban it and be like, "Hey, I'm going to give a ton of money to Miami. I'm gonna buy you guys a player." Because Mark Cuban did not give any money to Indiana last year and now he's got this real nice little Indiana.

We paid for Tyler Van Djk around here. We We got a refund on that. He didn't show up.

I can't believe we did that. That's so crazy. Yeah. Do you think they even tried to steal Tyler Van Dyke? That was a thing. Uh we uh have been talking here uh recently about the number of prayers from Mendoza and others that uh God and Jesus have been getting here recently. And obviously our show able to get Andy Garcia at halftime when I requested Kuwanimo last night. Also able to get a direct line to the Lord here. You know, people think being the Lord and Savior is easy work, but this time of year, my entire day is ground to a halt because of playoff football.

JC here. It's just impossible to keep track. Like, like look, I have this email from January 7th, 2013. Dear Lord, we've worked tirelessly in your name all season. We're just one game away from our dreams coming true. Please help us keep the Alabama run game in control and emerge healthy and victorious. Love, Manteo, Notre Dame linebacker. Like, I just saw this six months ago. Yeah. Yeah. It's Jay Dog. JC the Redeemer.

No, they're both good options. Yeah, I know. They're both really good options. It's going to be

I'm such a big fan. Do you mind if I take a selfie with you, please? No, I can wait. I can wait.

Hey, uh I got to run. Yeah, I know. Another one. I got to stop going outside. I don't know what I'm doing. When it comes to this game,

hey, uh Mr. Christ, do you have the results for the championship game already? You know, with all the extra work these days, sometimes you just need to relax, unwind, and that's how you get to a decision.

You really thought I was going to let my boy Fernando lose? Happy New Year, everybody. 2026 is already getting off to an incredible start because you want to know how I rang in the new year? It was with a bunch of friends in a Dallas hotel lobby bar order ordering a bunch of Miller Lights because that's how you do it. That's how you make special memories. Miller Lightite has been by my side at many special football memories this year and hopefully we get to write a few more memories with Miller Light. Some of my most legendary moments have started that exact same way. A buddy's house, a lobby bar, a game, no big plan. And then you crack open a Miller Light. Take a sip and you look around and you immediately recognize that you made the right call.

You're locked into the game, the conversation, the moment, not thinking about what you're drinking. Miller Lightite just fits. Clean finish, refreshing, brewed for taste with simple ingredients like molted barley. And at 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces, it never weighs you down. Legendary moments start with Miller Light. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerite.com/dan to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Lightite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly.

Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Billy downfield. And the Hooers of Indiana are your national champions in football. We were still alive on the final drive. The hurricanes had managed to survive. Then in our own stadium, we just fell flat. Still, it can't be denied that the you is back. Oh, it's a [ __ ] that we lost, but the you still back. Can't be argued. It's a matter of fact. You can [ __ ] all you want. We're still better than you. Everyone but the hooers from IU.

Come on, Carson. Go in deep. Here we These guys won 13 games this year. Got to the playoffs for the first time in Miami history.

For you. Won the Cotton Bowl. For you. For you. For you. Still bad. won the Fiesta Bowl.

They're the best thing that's happened to Miami in over two decades. Uh Mike, you should know that I would have won back in just a few minutes all of those M fans because the rant was written. The rant was going to make its return and it was written and it was going to slay and now it is dead, never to be seen because an interception got thrown at the end. Uh Brad Williams is going to be here in a second and uh I wanted to wonder with Greg Cody because I think I can say this since football became popular. I don't believe there has ever been a Miami Dolphin head coaching hire with less fanfare than what it is that I saw yesterday because of the timing of it. You're talking about the biggest football game in 2025 years played in Miami and the Dolphins are announcing their head coach then. Uh I don't think that it matters, but it is weird that you usually want the hope of and now we got the new answer and it

just was buried yesterday. Yeah, it wasn't voluntary. The the dolphin didn't want it that way. I was speaking with a a Dolphin official in the press box last night and what happened was first of all they had to fulfill the Rooney rule. Uh they had to interview two minority candidates.

Have they done that? They hadn't done it until the last one was at like 400 pm yesterday. Okay. So, they were late doing that. And before they did that, they couldn't hire anyone else.

The Hadley news came out like right after that, I think. Exactly. And and what else happened was somebody I'm told somebody who didn't get the job leaked the news that it seemed like Halfley was going to get the job. Okay. So when it was then leaked to the media, then all the, you know, Sheffer and all these reports come out and then the Dolphins, they have no choice but to confirm it at 8:12 p.m. like in the middle of the first quarter. They're confirming. So it was a weird circumstance that forced their hand.

Oh, I didn't even I didn't even see that the Dolphins actually confirmed it, which would make sense because, you know, I was watching the football game.

Yeah. So were so were most people. So, it it it did not work out the way they wanted. Believe me, they would have liked to have uh announced it and introduced him uh later in the week for sure.

It kind of came off like a fart, right? Because my wife got the alert on on ESPN. And she's like, "Dolphins hire Jeff Haly." And I'm like I'm like she he's like she's like, "Is that a coach?" I'm like, "Yeah, he's a Green Bay Packers defensive." She's like, "Okay, I lost interest." But like everybody's asking me like, "Who is this guy?" And I'm like trying to have like I'm trying to explain the the nuance of yeah, he's a first- time head coach. The defensive coordinator, you know, the Packers defense has been kind of good. They got Michael Par. But it's like nobody really cares. It's loco Dan. What like you and Diana were talking about a little while ago that the thing that seems to carry the day is who's good at PR, who's good in an interview. Bellich is not that.

and more recently Liam Cohen was a laughingstock in his introductory press conference and so was Nick Seriotti

a couple of years ago. So yeah, it's a it it's uh it's loco that that would be the case. But you made the most important point or what I thought was a striking point yesterday, which is if they're going after a defensive coordinator in Miami, there's a more obvious name. I mean, Chris Schula to me, you hire that, you immediately create something that would have made a noise even during the championship game.

It would have been a more popular hire. Uh, I'm not sure it would have been a better hire. Uh because because we can't know how good Halfley's

Well, we can't we can't know. But all things being equal, as I think they are with young defensive coordinator whiz kids like in terms of us not knowing how to do the analysis on the Mike McDonald's of the world before they get hired where I only hear Mina and no one else celebrating that. Like as far as those things go, you absolutely win the off season if you do the popular thing of going with the defensive coordinator who has a name that people have heard of.

Yeah. I also think it's fair to note Chris Schula has had fewer head coach interviews than Halfley. I mean, there's a reason for that. Halfley's a little bit older, I believe, uh, a little bit more experienced at what he's doing. And, um, there's a reason the Dolphins liked him. The the my only hesitation with this hire is that I don't trust the Dolphins. is that I I nobody can know whether Halfley's going to be good or not, but you have almost 20 years of track record that the Dolphins aren't very good at hiring a head coach.

I got to meet him at ACC media days a few years ago. Nice. Here's my take. Certified sweetie pie. Super nice guy.

Oh, good. Not very tall. I don't like that short king. I need No, I need a I need a I need a solid walking. I need a guy about 65 and a half.

You can't tell on Zoom. Although Joe Filman was tall. Yeah, that's true. Cam Cameron was as well. Put it on the poll at leart show is halfly certified cutiepie.

Sweetie pie. Sweetie pie. Where'd you get cutie from? Transition. Sorry, sweetie pie. Uh, speaking of short, uh, last time Brad Williams was on with us. What? You were mad last time. You were upset last time you were on with us.

Well, yeah, because you said keep it short. Now, I'm about to come on with you again to finally talk about a meaningful NFL team. You know, an NFL team that plays football in January and into February. And then you guys are like, "Ah, yeah, short guys. Don't trust them. Hate short guys. They can't coach. They can't be a leader of men." What do you know, Tony? You threw invisible footballs. That's your bonafites right there.

If I would have thrown real ones, I would have made the team, buddy. Uh, I'm sorry. Is there not a pro alete that that you could tell that you could be better than in studio right now? Is there no tell that you could back down? Holy God, I can't I I can't win on this show. It's just I try to come on. I try to bring a little flavor and then you guys just ah you guys with the short bit. If that joke was any dead and be related to Dan

Brad, you you you have a new uh podcast. Jesus Christ. Uh you're on that's on the podcast. You're going to want to have to select the right microphone for when you're recording.

Yeah. All right. This is uh Take it from a an industry vet. All right. Don't be short with him

again. What is this? Not Is it not picking up? It's got a green light on it. It It It's working.

You just sound tiny. You sound tiny. You sound like you're in a submarine where you know

Check out Heighten Babel new podcast Brad started. I thought it was Jesus Christ. I thought the name of the podcast was Jesus Christ from from the way Mike Ryan described it.

Jesus Christ. I I I think you should have Mark Norman on the show to have him talk about sports. I think that would be better than to down the Miami game.

Uh you are our Broncos correspondent. You finally been elevated. Congratulations on that. Stidum hasn't started a game in 750 days and uh has started all of four games his entire life. How do you feel about the good news bad news of you beat the Bills but now you've got a problem in that you're not going to win the Super Bowl? There is no circumstance under which you're going to win the Super Bowl.

So when the Broncos beat the Bills, I immediately had to go on stage in Gley, Colorado, and the news had not broken yet, literally about Bo Nick's ankle. So I walk on stage in Gley, Colorado, 1,800 people. Everyone's going crazy. Everyone's happy. And then when I got off stage, I literally had my tour manager and my opening act on the side of the stage going, "You should look at your phone." And I thought someone died. I literally thought like, "Oh god, what happened to my wife? What happened to my mother? What happened to my kid?" And then I get off and it's much worse than that.

So you what? explain to us the level of Crest fall. And my guess is you've probably not had something that felt exactly like that where you've won the game against Josh Allen in dramatic and spectacular fashion and then that is the worst news you can get. Correct. That's there's no worse news than that.

That is the worst news. The only other way it could have been worse is if they said like, "Well, we've gone back and since Bo Nicks broke his ankle, now we're going to make the Bills win so they can move on so there could be a team with a good quarterback." But I have hope in Sty. I have hope in Jared Stim. He's been in that years. He's been in the system for three years. He's the highest paid backup quarterback in the league. There's a reason why Shawn Payeyton likes him. He is not Bo Nicks. Let's be honest. He is not Bicks, but I believe he is a comparable backup. And this is very similar to the 2015 Denver Broncos that won the Super Bowl because Payton Manning had the planner fasciitis and we had to win some games with Brock Osweiler that year to actually move on and and get to the playoffs. So, eerily similar defensive centered team, not focused so much on the quarterback. So, it's not great news, but I have some

hope. Uh, put it on the poll, please. Do you believe in Styi? Uh, because, uh, I I really am having a hard time finding a comp for what happened with Shawn Payeyton where he's coming at the press conference. His players have left. He doesn't want them to learn from someone other than him that Bo Nicks is out. So, he feels the need to have the press conference that wrecks Brad Williams night as soon as he gets off stage.

Can we can Can we have Timbo like do a little Mr. Miyagi over Bo Nick's ankle. Just something. Give me a couple of throws. I don't know. It It It was truly heartbreaking and I don't have a comp for it either, Dan. I don't know anyone that's gone that high to that low that quickly.

I remember Magic Johnson one time they made it to the finals and he he had torn his hamstring and so he couldn't play in the finals and then they got swept. But uh Bo Knicks isn't that obviously, but if you're enthused about the Broncos, your chances of winning the Super Bowl are now over. Like you can have your hope about this weekend in a home game. You're not beating the NFC team with this as your quarterback.

Well, at minimum, Brad, I think that Jared St. Sorry for the pessimism. If you were to win this game, I do think Jared Stithm stands as the worst starting quarterback uh in the Super Bowl era. And I'm sincerely David Woodley, the late David Woodley from LSU in Super Bowl 17. Uh Trent Der is off is often volunteered. He's the wrong answer. Rex Grossman deserve Caleb Haney. The comp would be Caleb Haney would have had to start that Super Bowl, Super Bowl 45 against Pittsburgh um 15 or so years ago because Jay Cutler tore his knee and it would have been had uh had BJ Rajie not pick six um Caleb Haney towards the end of that game, it would have been Rothllessberger and company versus Caleb Haney.

Yikes. I feel deprived as a football fan, too. Drake versus Bo would have been great.

Rambling. That was good info, though. I agree. He said Super Bowl 17. Got to get out. Not bad at all. Caleb,

the people are FIGHTING BACK. THEY WANT ME TO STAY. Dave should No, you still got to go. Uh, you can be hopeful, but uh, my guess is you're faking it.

I mean, we've seen this before with Jeff Hostettler. He won a Super Bowl with the Giants. We've seen it with Nick Fos beating the Patriots. Nick Fos had a great tweet, by the way, about how the Patriots notoriously come up short against backup quarterbacks. So, I love that by Nick Fos. So, we've seen it before. It's It wouldn't be the craziest thing in the world, but uh yeah, hope is not

Wait a minute. YOU'RE GOOD WITH FO YOU'RE YOU'RE good with fo saying come up short, but I say it and you get mad at me.

Well, he's not talking to me. I'm not standing next to Nick Fos and he's holding me up like a prop. He's not doing that. Dan Leard, you have me on your show presumably for my uh great football analysis, not for my microphone, but for my great football analysis. And then you immediately go to short jokes. It's ridiculous. And we've broken bread together. Dan Levitar, you've coming out. You You come out to Los Angeles. I met your wife. Your your wife is impossibly more attractive than you. I don't understand that. I don't understand how you guys have gotten two $50 million deals from DraftKings and she can't afford lasic surgery. I don't get this. But at the same time, I I I I like he doesn't he does not have me right next to him telling me the short joke. You have me and you go right to the short joke. Lame comedy.

Hey Brad, does your uh beanie have a horse's mane on the back? Yes. And it's fabulous.

It is fabulous. I kept seeing orange hair in the back. I was like, I know he doesn't have orange hair. What's going on back there?

Uh this is my announcement that I am part of the brony community. I I I I'm now joining the bronies.

Jesus. You knew he didn't have orange hair, Tony. You knew that. I knew you didn't have orange hair, buddy.

For Brad Williams tour dates, go to Brad Williams Comedy.com. Zaz, my dad, and myself saw his show a couple weeks ago. Great show. He's also got a new podcast, Heightened Babel. Check it out.

Uh, good seeing you, Brad. Thank you for making the time. Always appreciate you enjoying insulting us and being insulted by us. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Go. Go Broncos. We just we did shut him down cuz now everybody wants the Broncos now to go away. Like there's

Oh, it would be a nightmare if they won. Nobody Nobody wants that in the Super Bowl anymore.

What do you MEAN YOU WANT THE BRONCOS TO GO AWAY? YOU WANT THE PATRIOTS YOU WANT THE PATRIOTS?

HONESTLY, YES. YEAH. I want a quarterback that's not STDM. You want You want Bill Simmons to just be talking about how this is the greatest Boston team of all time?

He makes good points. That's fair. It is a good point. Yeah. St him, guys. Let's not lose. All right, I'M BACK HERE. JUNIOR, I'M TELLING YOU, EVERYBODY, listen up, cousin S. That's what's going on. Listen,

I just want to say that was my We got it. We got it. We got it. We got it. We got it. We got it.

I just wanted to quickly uh say that I think and I don't bring this up because Brad Williams is on. I I just think that was small of you, Dan, to send me off like that after what happened last night. I understand you're bitter, but but small. MY GUY, WHAT IS THIS? What is this betrayal? Is Lucy gonna get me next? Lucy, do you do you have any short jokes?

No. The energy in here is really negative right now and I just need there's a lot going on.

Uh, see you later, Brad. It's always nice seeing you. Thank you for making the time, sir. Uh, Greg Cody, uh, I have not heard enough from you today as the legendary sports columnist of the Miami Herald after, uh, I'm I'm trying to think history of Miami sports uh, most debilitating losses because uh, the University of Miami now has two of these and there's not going to ever be anything worse than you have the best roster of all time and you're losing to Ohio State. you think you've won and there are fireworks in the sky and then there's a penalty flag on the field.

That happened a couple of times last night, by the way, where there was a flag on the field all of a sudden to sort of neuter so what had been enthusiasm. um your thoughts on historically where to put this in the history of South Florida where uh we wake up this morning and you could feel a city a bit hung over uh a bit sad from wanting to believe, wanting to hope, daring to hope, and then coming up uh forgive the expression that short.

Um I think it's probably the one one of the one or two most heartbreaking defeats and and part of the reason is that um had waited so long. Miami won its five national titles in an 18-year frame. It's been 24 years since. So, that puts in perspective how long the wait has been. I I think an analogy I would use is is Dan Marino's one and only Super Bowl in 84 um where they got their ass kicked by San Francisco. We didn't know at the time he'd never go back to another Super Bowl, but that was crushing because Marino was at the top of his game. he was going to be the guy who made the super made the Dolphins a Super Bowl champion for the first time since the early 70s under Schula and it didn't happen and that was at the time very heartbreaking.

Okay, so that that's an interesting comp, right? Because I do believe it would have hurt less if Miami last night had lost by four touchdowns. It hurts less than that because you're right there and I know that the noise the next day would have been unpleasant. The game would have been less interesting. you wouldn't have been interested in the second half at all. And that was an all-time second half. But there's something uh cruel about that, right? Losing uh losing when you're that close when there are pieces happening at the end that keep giving you this hope and you're watching the last few seconds thinking that the highest paid quarterback in the sport, somebody with seven years of experience, is going to have his faculties about him. isn't going to have his ears ringing from a hit he took, a late hit that he took, or an excessive hit that he took and isn't right on the last throw of the game

according to himself by his own words. Yeah. And and if they lose a lopsided game, it's easier to rationalize the loss. It's easier to give Indiana credit. It's easier to say it wasn't our time. But the way they lost last night, that's going to haunt Mario forever. I guarantee you.

Maybe not viscerally true. In fact, retroactively, isn't the worst loss in Miami sports history, the loss in the Orange Bowl to the Patriots in front of Super Bowl 20? Marino and company in the Orange Bowl had just beaten those Bears. So, on the fast track in the Superdome, it stands that they would have had a great shot at taking them down.

Uh, but it wasn't for the championship. It wasn't for everything with a minute left. Like I I'm really having a hard time outside of the Ohio State Fiesta Bowl, which obviously if you've got if you've got fire Oh, that's a good one. Like that was in the

Now granted first round. It's first round, but you had it's your it's your rival. You know the team's going to be broken up that the ball bouncing on the rim. There's a certain cruelty to the heartbreak by being that close. And there were so many plays yesterday that the the result is an inch, right? A a back shoulder throw that's just in bounds. A couple of third and ones. Malachi Tony before the blocked punt, he got uh to fourth and one. He needed another yard to make that not a blocked punt. There were there were seven things in that game last night. If they go a different way, we're having a different conversation today.

And all the things worked out for Indiana and that's been their forte all season, which is why they're they had one of the greatest seasons of of all time. I would say like greatest

been doing this for 20 years and the only other time that I felt like today which was like I don't want to go to work and talk to people and have them go at me was like when the Heat lost to the Mavericks

JJ because we were so like it was us against the world. Yeah, it was we were the Heat Show there.

But they were never really in that game six. You never felt it that night, you know. I mean Dwight had that shot go off the back uh back iron there and we blew game five like they were shadow boxing that and just like it was a shell shocking experience and it was super embarrassing. This wasn't so embarrassing because Miami had a great

Wasn't embarrassing at all. No, no, but it you know still sings. Yeah. I don't want to be here.

Uh it can sting though. But I think I have it right when I say there's zero shame in it. uh you you I don't even know if today there is anywhere that I could tune in even into the most negative parts of Miami and hear people that we need to blame in situations that feel helpless that hurt. There's usually just a great need to blame. I don't think you can fairly blame much of anything that the Hurricanes did last night. You're quibbling with hair spplitting. Like there's no shame in losing to that team that way. I mean, we gave up a punt block for a touchdown when the opposing team was in safe coverage.

Okay. And they had a false start on second and one when they could have won the game by quarterback sneaking it won the season.

Yeah. But we lost by six and that was seven. I think it would be cruel, literally cruel to to blame the Hurricanes as the main emotion coming out of this, to blame Carson Beck even. Um, I I think they had a great season and I think that should be prioritized. If I were a Canes fan right now, I would feel really good. I would feel a trust in Mario Crisal to to work the portal again and and I would feel like the U is back. You know, you don't have to win everything to to be back. If if you get to the college football player for the first time and you plow through three good teams to reach the championship,

Chris fixed it. He fixed it. It's the second worst loss in Kane's football history. It's not going to top the Fiesta Bowl in 2002. It's the second worst Kane's loss in their football program's history. It's worse than anything any loss from the Marlins.

George Teague. Well, that's the other one that I would throw up there. But yeah, I I

What about Vinnie versus Penn State? I would think that that would be one or two in the fatigue.

That's a good See, that one's an excellent one. That That one's excellent for all the same reasons except for in that game, everyone knew Miami was better. Jimmy Johnson knew Miami was better. Jimmy Johnson still haunted by that game because he wouldn't stop throwing the football and it was his fault.

That's why you're sick. But that's why you're sick about it. When you're supposed to win and you don't, that to me seems like it would hurt.

That's a good one. Yeah. Like it's worse than any Marlins loss. It's worse than any Panthers loss. I think it's worse than any Dolphins loss. I do. U the Heat have a couple that you throw in that range, too. So, it's it ranks pretty high among our our sports history. Is it worse than the Dolphins losing to Kellen Winslow senior's uh Chargers?

Was that divisional round uh in uh the Orange Bowl when they convert the hook and lateral and at the like Kell Winsow blocks a field goal? Is it is it worse than do you remember we're going back a ways here. Is it Is it worse than that?

I don't think it it it is because that's not a championship game. See, I put the stakes of last night in a whole different category. That's why a a first round Heat playoff loss that that you alluded to earlier, I don't put in that category. Last night was for everything. Last night was for history. And and to be that close and and denied, I think is a whole different level than anything that precedes it.

If it matters, Dan, the Dolphins lose in Cincinnati in the Freezer Bowl, same as the Pretty Boys from SoCal. The Chargers did uh the following week against Ken Anderson and company.

Was that Was it the divisional round that the Dolphins lost that game? It was it was in that crazy year strike uh the strike year where you had the super playoffs or whatever they called them. Very strange.

Entertaining. Yeah, that was the Woodley uh Super Bowl. That's right. AJ Dwey. Mhm.

Time now for Amin's weekend observations. It is time for to share his game notes.

No one in the media will tell you what happened better than my boy. A mean. Weekend observations is brought to you by Miller Lightite. Legendary moments start with a light. Weekend observations is also brought to you by letting a mean know that weekend observations will be moved to another day the morning of. Got up early on the rare day off because my kids didn't have school only to find out about oh 20 minutes before. Hey, by the way, we're punting it.

Thanks a lot, guys. Shout out to our times, Daddy. I know. Who could have predicted it would BE A BUSY SHOW YESTERDAY? HUH? I WONDER IF WE COULD HAVE SAW this coming from Oh, maybe more than 20 minutes before I was supposed to go on.

Do you have the right microphone selected? I don't know. Happy MLK day. Happy MLK day indeed. Now, now Jeremy's got me in my feelings. Is my microphone selected?

You sound better right now. You sound a little bit better. Not much. Dave, we'll have to come back on this super playoffs. Oh, that's much better. That's much better.

So clean. Then full disclosure, I watched nothing but NBA basketball all night until halftime of Heat versus Warriors. Then I flipped on the Canes game just in time to see the game sealing drive. Chris Cody, how close were we to the prophecy?

Kane's down six. Marching down the field less than a minute ago. I sat there saying, "Holy [ __ ] it's going to happen. They're gonna score to tie the game and Mario's gonna go for two.

God, would have said that. So close. This is all Dan's fault. Broncos Bills a thriller. How about that? Mim's junior catch. You guys didn't even talk about that yesterday. Now he knows what housewives and girlfriends all over the world feel when they roll over and get poked in the back. Mims, this is why I'm hot.

Hey, Zaz looks like a line cook at a waffle house in the Redlands. That joke was from yesterday.

Pretty bandana. That's great. A mean's been down. Yeah, the Redlands. Yeah, specific kind of Waffle House. You don't get this in Metro Miami.

Josh Allen channeling his inner Patrick Mahomes with that scoop throw under pressure. Now all he needs is an annoying wife and an even more annoying brother and he will have come for all of Mahome's stuff. Well, that in a Super Bowl, I guess.

Nothing says NFL playoffs like Jason Staithm. Stumm. No, Jason Staithm. I don't know if you saw the Jared

the intros. Jason Staithm was doing Oh, my bad. I'm sorry. Beekeeper. James Mulvaney.

My bad. Misconnection. You are the guy in all white who locked eyes with me. I was Carson Beck with 44 seconds to go. Niners should have forfeited immediately after the Shahed kickoff return for a touchdown. Wasted everybody's time. Congrats to the NFL in coming out and taking a stance for genocide. Eagerly awaiting their pay the teachers even less campaign. You guys see that? They find my my boy because he had stopped genocide on his face. That's a finable offense. Stopping genocide.

Personal message. Dave Damashek was born to be a muppet. AFCON is over. What in hell? What? What the hell?

What the hell just happened here? My point. Tell me he's not a muppet. The way he talks, the way he moves around, the voice.

WHAT? WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? I DON'T I get on an airplane and fly across this country to have a nice conversation with people who I thought were enjoyable and now this.

Hey Lucy. Hey. Appcon is over. Going to miss my dad screaming at people to pass the ball. Congrats to Congrats to Sagal. Big time win on hostile ground. I don't know if you guys saw this. A lot of shenanigans going on in Morocco. Sio Manet. Class act. RIP to Danny Benavante. Very funny local comedian who passed away recently. You will be missed. Actor, activist, filmmaker Jesse Williams has a new documentary on Hulu about how Dr. Martin Luther King was an avid basketball player. He's out there getting buckets and with a shirt and tie on, wearing hard pockets.

Now I want AI to simulate a massive one-on-one tournament of historical figures. Can you imagine MLK crossing up Trump?

Oh, Abe Lincoln would be great in the post. Oh, yeah. Especially with that hat. Or

how about Obama hitting Fidel Castro with the step back. Then he finds Bernie Sanders on the wing for the weather. Tony, would you play against MLK one-on-one?

I 5'7. I mean, I'm dominating MLK in the post. Sorry to say that after MLK did, but I'm just saying a foot taller almost.

John Morant, 24 and 13 in London. Greatest infomercial possible. Shout out to Jerry from the tire shop at my local Costco. You're a real one.

Yeah. Tonight's a big game. You guys know how I know tonight's a big game. How's that?

Because Master Tesion is in studio. Oh, wait. That's from yesterday also. Sorry. Some of these are pre-arranged. Let me Where's new material? New material. Oh, here we go. Shout out to the cameraman who put a Bella Danger on the screen in the middle of the fourth quarter comeback. No doubt a discerning gentleman who's a fan of great titles like Pure Taboo, Kink University, and Anal Destruction 4. Anyone a fan of Lesbian Hospital Affairs? That's a good one, too.

Who is she? Yeah, who is she? I don't know. Zaz was asking this morning. Who is she?

Greg. Cinnaphobe episode 296, Dead Man on Campus. Starring Mark Paul Gosler aka Zach Morris from Save by the Bell. There she is. Who is

Alison Hanigan aka one time in band camp from American Pie and a young Jason Seagull. Miss Cass is a jock with an anger problem. Did you guys have that rumor in college that if your roommate dies or commits suicide, you get a 4.0?

No. I'm sorry. I was laughing because Greg Cody just said at the mic ah after Chris told him who that was. So like what just happened there was my own private

lesbian hospital affairs. I'm an innocent. Keep up. Anyone delighted that Jimmy Butler to his ACL is going straight to hell?

I thought you, not me. Speaking of hell, our briles. Those are the weekend observations.

Going to hell. I've been in hell. Uh, thank you, Amin. Uh, nice seeing you. I'm sorry that we uh did the poor planning thing and uh insulted you yesterday. I WAS INSULTED TODAY, MINUTES AGO. Even

uh Pablo Pascal as a muppet is with us here in the corner. Uh uh Kermit, who's Pablo Pascal?

Uh Pedro, excuse me. Uh Football America. Football America. Stan thing threw me

is Monday and Friday. Uh this super playoffs that you were speaking of before confused a whole lot of people here. I don't know what the super playoff

there was a there was a strike in 82 and so they expanded the playoffs to eight teams a conference and which was you know wild stuff and um so just looking at the game I'm sure you don't care about the matchup now basically

they call it the Super Bowl they called it the Super Bowl tournament I don't know why they attached that name to it but they did

uh does Greg Cody have any recollection of this as our local historian We had a few instances on our recent episode where Dave was in and Dave just goes into like the old like you remember this Miami game and my dad is just nodding along and you can tell that he's not really following the specifics.

Well, for you guys noteworthy is that the Dolphins got the rematch against the Chargers after the Orange Bowl uh you know the the battle of the Bavarian kickers. U von Shaman losing out to Ralph Benerska in 81 but in 83 in 82 you guys house

he's making this up right? No, no. In ' 82, they had there was a strike. They had replacement players for much of the season. It was an eightgame season. The Dolphins replacement quarterback was a guy named Kyle Mackey. And and somehow they wound up going to the Super Bowl after an eightgame regular season.

Well, I'll tell you what it you know, I think he had five career interceptions. AJ Dwey had three.

Yes. In the rainstorm off of Dick Todd's right arm. That's right. I think that was a 14 nothing.

Richard Todd. Richard Todd. No one called him Dick Todd. Also, I just did. I did.

Uh, Lewis, do me the favor, please, of just putting up before the end of the segment here, Ralph Bernerska because he just mentioned Uve von Shaman against Ralph Berska and the best fact that I've got for you on Ralph Berska who later went on to host Wheel of Fortune.

What? You beat me to it, Dan. I got a camera on the spell. He's like I can see his mouth like

but was Sjack on strike? Was like like how did Ralph Burka become Wheel of Fortune host?

He outdid Aaron Rogers. All right. YEAH. You haven't been tested. Our minds, bodies, and spirits have been in hell since Halloween. You're walking into an asylum.

DAN LEARD, TELL ME THE BIG GAME THAT A MARIO CRYSTAL COACH TEAM has not shown up for since he's been AT MIAMI. I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU. I think they're actually going to be shocked at how not home gamey this is going to feel for Indiana. They thought that they were going to fly into this home because no one on my plane is a Miami fan. It's crazy. And they're going to be hit in the mouth by not just a football team, but by the crowd. The same folks picking you have been pouring dirt on our grave for two and a half months. We're still standing.

Miami is going to average at least four yards a rush. Miami matches up really well here. I think Miami is going to go on 14 play drives. I think Miami is going to lean on these guys. They present a matchup problem that they haven't really encountered. And I think we're going to see a team wear out over the course of the game. I think uh styles make fights and this is a really good matchup and it's going to be a difficult one for Indiana. I think I think Indiana's going to know right away they're in for a fight and I think Miami wins. Go Canes.

We're forged in fire and been fighting for our lives longer than you've mattered. See you in a week. Spot the goddamn ball.

All right, I stand by it. I will be beating it. THE NUMBER SIX GOES. How do I get put in the parade of gas bags just reading a quote from Mike Ryan? None of those were my words. None of them.

You said it. It's unfair. Jeremy, you were secretly delighted last night, weren't you?

Secretly. Midway through the second quarter, he's like, I'm going to get going on the montage.

Greg, do you have a back in my day? It's Tuesday. Uh, no. I I just didn't have time. I've been a little busy lately. Uh, can you guys get me uh as much uh Ralph Berserka uh information as you can here?

So, again, hold on. Let's let's rewind this for a second. Who are these people?

They're It's Uve Von Shaman and Ralph Berska. U Von Shaman. Dig up a picture of Uve Von Shaman. He was quite a looker. That was a professional athlete. You have to keep in mind as you stare at his bald head.

Is it Ralph or Ralph? Ralph. Ral. Oh, hell yeah. Ralph Shaman. Ral. Sweet. Let's go. Uh, can you find out for me though why he was hosting Wheel of Fortune? Was Pat Sjek on strike? What was happening that made Ralph Bernerska be the host of Wheel of Fortune for a very brief period of time? It was a very strange thing and I'd like as much information on this as you guys can get me.

Passion Project is everyone just going to look at me and no one's going to look this up because I'm sure it's not that hard to find whatever it is that uh that Ralph Bernerski didn't host for very long. Uh, incidentally here,

is that R O L F? Uh, I think it's just one F. One F. Yeah. U, I was remiss in not mentioning this yesterday, so forgive me for this. Uh please.

He had ulcerative colitis. Good for him. Inspirational story. Forgive me for not mentioning this. Yesterday, uh, Stugats, uh, returned to live radio yesterday, 3 to 5 Eastern, Fox Sports Radio on 270 affiliates. You should check out Stugatsson Company. Uh, he is building out an empire and he's going back to his first love. I've expected him here for months. I don't know why he's not here. Uh, hopefully we'll get some clarity on that uh, soon. We do not have clarity. I expected him back this month. Uh Tony, what did you find on Ralph Bernerska?

So in 1989 he hosted Wheel of Fortune for a short period while Pat Sjack left to do a version of his own late night TV show. Um about six months worth of Wheel of Fortune for Ralph Bernerski.

Uh can you guys imagine that? Like I don't even know. I I really don't know who I can put as a kicker in the modern game with a funnier name as the host as the random host of Wheel of

Sebastian Janikowski than Ralph Ralph Bonerska. Did people know he was a kicker? Like oh that guy. I I know who he is.

No. No. Like who's this guy? No. No. If you think kickers ARE NOT FAMOUS NOW, I had an idea actually. Uh I I didn't pose it yesterday and I meant to. Uh I really failed in this regard. Uh Xavier Lucas was out for the first half of the game yesterday because of the targeting call in the previous game. And given the general anonymity of football players inside the uniform. I was actually thinking what if they just put Xavier Lucas in another uniform and didn't tell anybody that it was Xavier Lucas and everybody like me. Holy [ __ ] That guy's

Who is that guy? Just put him in a different uniform that no one has seen play all season. And don't tell anybody.

Organ's kicker is named Attakus Sappington. Oh, that that name I've heard. That guy's nice.

Y Sappington. What a name. Attakus. I love that guy. Uh Lucy, uh the game last night because one of the things that was most wrong that we got most wrong around here is wasn't really a home game for Miami in terms of the feeling and the energy of the crowd, right?

Yeah. I I feel like I said that I thought there would be a lot of Indiana fans. To me, we were up top, so we got to kind of see like the overhead. It looked like 6040. I did not expect this to beif I mean 5050 was probably closer to what maybe I thought it would be but I never expected it to feel like entirely Miami because the thing with Indiana fans is one that they have a wealthy you know alumni alumni base they have a top 10 business school also they've never been here before so like why would you not splurge and get this you know ticket I thought it was a great crowd I think it was interesting of like walking around the stadium before the game you could feel the difference in the sections where Miami it was there was an intensity to it of just like kind of knowing how much this game meant and whatever and Indiana was like we're just here and this is awesome and life is great. It was very different vibes.

Look at Tony back there. He will never forgive Roy Bellamy. I don't know if there's anything that we've taken from today more than uh Tony promising us that 60 years from now he will still not have arrived at forgiveness for Roy Bellamy for

never. I said never like I will never forgive him. Look at that face, Dan. As the ball's in the air and all of a sudden number 22 is intercepting it and I'm just thinking interception's coming here and I'm like, I'm going to never forgive him. Uh, do you guys I don't know if you find it funny, but do you find it interesting in in the way that history forgets the details that uh you may remember going forward the way that that game ended and it'll stick to Carson Beck forever that he's got six losses in college football and four of them he had the chance to win at the end and threw an interception. But the fact that very possibly he was concussed and he's telling you my ears were ringing.

Okay, my I'm I'm taking snaps and it's not crowd noise. It's not anything else. The fact that history will forget that in that moment, you've got a quarterback who's quite possibly impaired making a decision that ends up being a the totally wrong decision to make. You do not throw to that receiver in double coverage in that spot. Marian took the blame for that, which I I don't even know what he's doing there. Like he said he never saw the ball and that he's supposed to go and contest the play. Quiet as it's kept, Puka Nakua got the Rams to advance because he played defense on a throw that would have been intercepted against Carolina.

He said that interception was all on him. Marian said the interception was all on him. But I'm I How do you do this? We're We're famously bad at concussion talk. We become doctors and we do diagnosis. But when on second and 15, you're getting the penalty that is showing you on video. Oh, he's hit the back of his head there on the turf and now he tells you his ears are ringing. That's an impaired quarterback. And I I wonder uh whether those details matter at all. They don't. Right. History forgets all of them.

Yeah. I I think it matters in the immediiacy if Carson Beck admits that he may have been woozy.

He kind of did. He was woozy. He doesn't have to admit it. The way he got up made it obvious wobbly. And and everybody was like, "Let's still roll with concuss Carson Becker."

Spoiler alert. If the Patriots go on to win the Super Bowl, it will be a footnote that they beat the backup of the Broncos to get to that Super Bowl.

Well, let's talk about this for a second. It's not just merely that they've had the easiest schedule, which the Patriots did this year. Go look at just their the history of good fortune here that they've had the entirety of the season, which is nuts. But all of that stuff gets forgotten. Nobody Nobody cares at the end if it's an imperfect measurement system. It doesn't matter.

I don't discount what Diana Rossini said on this show earlier today. I think that that that the the Broncos now have more incentive than they did if that's possible. I think the defense is good enough. I think New England is overrated enough based on their schedule. It wouldn't shock me in the least for Denver at home minus five or plus five and a half to win that game over.

I'd be pretty surprised. I mean, it would be shocking. It really I don't think it would be.

It will definitely come up as a factor that I think is one of the most overrated things mentioned in sports. the advantage that Denver teams have at home. Oh, it's the thin air up there. Then why don't they all go undefeated? Why don't they all have remarkable home records? They don't. Spoiler alert. Once again,

I don't think that's how spoiler alerts work. I don't think that uh I was spoiling you looking up their career their their uh their records to disprove my point. I am right. They none of them went undefeated at home in any given.

Aren't they like eight and one at home? I could be wrong. That's off the top. I'm talking about the nuggets in the abs. You you you get my larger point

in the what? Sure. Can I jump in real fast? If you think you've got the boldest take of the week. We want to bring that segment back. Prove it. Call 305486. Gots.

Also, per Jeff Passen, the Miami Marlins are acquiring right-hander Bradley Bllock from the Colorado Rockies for a minor league pitcher.

Block was DFA by the Rockies last week. This will give Miami additional pitching depth after trading away Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers.

I'm still confused by what happened on that phone call between Barkley and his bookie. I know.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "The Indiana Hoosiers are National Champions | DLS"?

Roy Bellamy (Panelist / on-air personality (superstition scapegoat)).

What is discussed in "The Indiana Hoosiers are National Champions | DLS"?

In order: 0:00 Roy Bellamy, Trent Green, Indiana Hoosiers, Cotton Bowl; 15:00 Alabama, Roy Bellamy; 30:00 Alabama, Cotton Bowl; 45:00 Jeff Hafley, Miami Dolphins, Troy Aman; 1:00:00 Fiesta Bowl, Super Bowl, Jimmy Butler; 1:15:00 Dylan Brooks, Chris Whittingham, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; 1:30:00 Derek Brooks, Alabama, Victor Wembanyama; 1:45:00 Jimmy Butler, Alabama, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl; 2:00:00 Super Bowl, Brad Williams, Fiesta Bowl; 2:15:00 Super Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Jimmy Butler; 2:30:00 Roy Bellamy, Super Bowl.

What is mentioned in this LeBatardShow episode?

25 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Roy Bellamy, Indiana Hoosiers, Miami Dolphins, Jeff Hafley, Super Bowl, Alabama. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Indiana Hoosiers are National Champions | DLS"?

The episode runs 2 h 40 min; the transcript is about 30,790 words in 520 timestamped sections.

More from LeBatardShow

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.