This is the down labor part, sure, we've still got Sparkasse. So Stewart's once again, as we're headed into free agency or we're in the middle of free agency, it's a popular time for us to God gets in the way of negotiations at every turn. And now he is doing stuff that is allowing us to audition others for his role at our most popular time. Our most valuable times to God is doing the dumb shit that requires us to interview new applicants for his job.

Now, I don't think that this guy is available to us anymore. I think he has skyrocketed into the stratosphere and is no longer someone we could have. I think there are times in the last few months or maybe a few years that we could have had him. But Adam Lefko is the host of the NBA on TNT Tuesdays. They start back up February 2nd. He's skyrocketing. Right, because that show, the best studio show in America for many years now has gotten older.

And so what they've done is they've poured some life blood into the youth and the sensibilities with Lefko, with Dwayne Wade, it's a different show than Ernie and Charles and Kenny Smith and Shaq are doing. It's got sort of the vibrancy of youth. And Adam would never say anything bad about that show. That shows the standard, though. The Barkley, Shaq, Kenny Smith, we all know. We all know it's the standard. But Lefko is now rising in this business.

But he also, in some ways learned at our knee in terms of, you know, being given permission to do some of the wacky stuff that they do. So we bring in Adam Lefko now. Are you to big time now to you're not even auditioning. Would you like to replace taggants? You can't do both jobs. Are you just offering him the job without competition?

But what do you need an audition, Mike, like at this point is to at this point? Well, let's do it.

This already taken it.

Did I not come on your program and announce myself as the stewards gods? Now, didn't that already happened years ago? If anything, this is an affront to my sensibilities. Dan, to be honest, I thought I had it.

OK, well, I don't think you should have to audition either, Frank. Also, who is this bearded person that I'm staring at? A supposedly Stukas is the stewardess in Castaway, which Tom Hanks was in, and then he was in that other movie on the Stewarts. Now full circle. Thanks a lot, Østergaard.

OK, so he wants the job. Well, at what point? And I want his job.

So how about a little jobs, what he's learned from sitting next to Shaquille O'Neal that you cannot have too many jobs.

I don't think you can do both of these, though.

What is your schedule like now or not now, but soon? What how crazy is it going to be? You're going to have to move to Atlanta and get immersed in pandemic quarantine basketball.

I am going in about a week and a half. I'm bringing my fiancee with me. This is my schedule. I am going down there. I still to do all my other Bleacher Report stuff in addition to the Tuesday show. And then I cannot come back to New York for the extent of the thirteen shows that we're doing the four or five months. And then when I return, I get married nine days later. So it is. Yeah. You know all about that.

So my twenty, twenty one is about to be wild.

Well be careful that first year. Imagine marriage is the most difficult year of marriage. It is, it is not, it's not real fun.

Voice to God is advice.

OK, well you'll find out very quickly whether this thing is going to sink or swim. It will say as a gag, what's up.

What's an attribute of a sink?

Marriage is working way too hard. In that first year, marriage did not pay nearly enough attention to your wife, which is what you would be doing if you took my job and continued to actually actually let go.

You should know. OK, the reason that we escalated to this point, right, is with the freedoms we have been given. And you will be mortified by this because I believe you can be a better stewards than stewards because you won't make these kinds of mistakes. The reason that you are in this position to replace two gods right now is because we're coming off a segment in which we just got done discussing how often he leaves stained underwear for his wife in the laundry.

And beyond that, he then said during the conversation with his wife, he told her essentially, make me better sandwiches.

So he saw you and he sent her to the kitchen, laundry and kitchen. Twenty, twenty one, fresh off the me too movement. He's on air sending his wife to the kitchen to make him sandwiches after sustaining underwear in a conversation about laundry. I don't mean to insult you, but that's the reason this job is presently available to you, is because he did that in the last segment left go. And I don't think that's something you would ever do either in the laundry or on air.

That has to be a generational thing where, like, I have never expected my fiancee to touch my laundry. I like let alone leave. You have stains in your underwear is my first question. Yeah.

You use wet wipes. Like, here's a lot of ways we don't get to that result. Here's why you can never be me. Because you have them. You but you do we. We all do. OK, we've all had those days, right? He's right. Admit it. Come on, let's go. No, no, no, no, no. Christopher. No, no.

But he's a bad ally for students to have on this because Roy is like everyone else here, rides with, hey, clean underwear. That's pretty easy. It's only Cody's kid that is riding with student, right?

Well, it's only me and Chris that are telling the truth. That's what's happening here. And really part of this job is just what never happened to me.

I think I might throw them out because, you know, underwear is like five dollars and you don't have to hold on to these pieces of cloth for years. These are not seminal moments you're going to pass down to your kids, to God.

We got you. We got you. If you can get a three for six dollars.

Right. If it ever happened. I know. But listen, it does happen. And I just throw them in the laundry. I leave that to my wife to decide whether she wants to throw them away or not, depending on how she walk out like you have killed an animal.

And it's like, what is this? No, no. Well, she she just got done. Just go away. She got done telling us that she just throws it. She doesn't actually look at the hard truths. She just throws it somewhere else and someone else handles it because the guards is paid very well. And so it's not his wife who's actually doing the laundry, it's somebody else. But that she's not actually inspecting the damage. She just knows that it's there.

However, a sandwich does sound delicious. So if she's making extras, I'll take one that sounds great.

So you shouldn't have to audition for this job. But in all seriousness, how many months ago if we had called you and said, hey, Lefko, do you want to be still interested?

I'm very interested. That's so interested in yours. I don't think this is this is behind the scenes thing.

I will never forget getting to go down there with SEMS to finish off the incredible Sims. Sixty nine seventy quarterback Sims list and seeing the universe that you guys had there. And I think that part of the reason why I love NBA on TNT is when you go back stage, that's when you realize why the show works, because there's an energy and there's a love for each other. That's not just the people on camera. It's from like it's from like Ernie down to like the makeup person to the janitor.

Everybody's cool and you guys have that. And so if I can be in two universes at one time, in essence, the Thanos of sports media, I am just accumulating rings. And then eventually one day you won't even hear about my kid.

Be a good dad. I can't dispute that. Right. In terms of because he's he's also very smart. So he could do the act as an improv guy and also give us the high end smart stuff so that every time I started talking about, you know, rifle toting militia on the Kentucky Capitol lawn, I can actually talk to somebody about it as opposed to where we end up, which is two guys going back to shit stains in his laundry.

And this is a dream candidate because he's got all the Northeast fandom, like he can fan out with you. He can do this to gods things. But he's evolved. He also has brilliant social commentary. He's hip, he's young. He has cool, influential friends. Adam Lefko is an upgrade.

And what we won't have to talk about the Jets. What Mike, you're insulting. We don't have to talk about, but we just want the Jets for Eagles. But you'll never be able to do a lot of things. I mean, like, that is wrong.

What you just did, the audience is going to feel like you're cheating on you're disrespecting an upgrade is saying something you could say you could say with no insult to Lefko that he might be able to do the job as well as to God. But to say it's an oh, no, he'd do it better.

No, didn't. I've been married to God for 18 years. And you know what they say the 18th year is the hardest year. It may be doing really nicely married.

Is Mike the one doing the laundry? Cleaning. I'm cleaning up.

I'm cleaning up my hose shit for 18 years with Chris Darden has him doing it more honestly when Lefko can't even admit to a shit state.

I mean, seriously, you just wait. You just say, let go spit out some of his drink. That's because I'm good at what I do go of it. I never spit out anything when you're talking. I do not know.

It comes out the other end. That's the issue. Get there and you're good. It's good. Guy is good. Let go. How how is Dwayne Wade been like. I can't imagine how much how quickly you've fallen in love with that guy because he is such a sweet person. It's kind of strange to see his level of stardom and his specific touch with people like you will not find anybody. Well, his ex-wife. But you won't find many people who have anything bad to say about that.

Dude, he the first time that I ever met him, it was like a dinner. And he was asking me a lot of questions. And I was sitting there going, why are you talking to me so inquisitive? Like, why? Why do you care what I have to say? The other thing I'll say is I learn a lot about people by doing television and doing productions with them and seeing their energy. The downside of NBA on TNT is when you see Charles and Shaq and Kenny out there and you realize that Ernie is the only one that goes to production meetings to keep everybody else very fresh, that becomes intoxicating for other athletes because they go if they're not going, I don't have to go.

Dwayne Wade has gone to every production meeting. We text all the time. He's always sending me ideas. And so there's like the professional respect that I have for him where he really wants to be good at this. But then there's also the part where I think he's like a 15 year old kid because he's like, this isn't how kids talk. And he's intelligent, he's kind. And it does make me a little self-conscious. Sometimes when you're around people like that, you actually question your own worth, which is why I'm happy to be on the same screen as dugouts today to bring myself back up.

But Wade is Wade's a top notch. He does.

He makes you want to be a better person. It's all of it, right? It's the way that he's a father to his children. It's all of it in the absence of a father for himself. And it's the least surprising thing that you could say that he wants to be good at that. And of course, where you find greatness, you will find that kind of will in that kind of intellectual curiosity. He's absolutely mining you for information because you've studied more in this game.

But he wants to be better than Charles and Shaq and everyone else that that stuff. And he's going to be able to do Hielo with you, because it's not just that he won't take take himself so seriously, it's that he will do the he'll do the basketball analysis that'll make it feel smarter. But he'll also do all the goofiness with you because he's going to trust you to lead him into the right places where he can do the goofiness.

He also brings out a different side of Shaq. He brings out an older brother out of Shaq and he brings out someone that Shaq respects. Shaq will have fun if he respects you like that first show. I remember that Shaq hundred percent was testing me. And I remember sitting there going, I cannot be old, crusty. I got to get to the next segment guy with Shaq, because if I do that with Shaq, he's never going to have fun.

But then I saw the way that he interacted with Wade and it created a whole new dynamic there that Shaq was telling me stories in the back about when Wade was a rookie and how innocent he was and how him and Gary Payton wanted to go and spend time corrupting him a little bit. But Wade Wade doesn't falter. The only thing with Wade is he's trying to outdo himself fashion wise. Every show and I don't know how crazy he didn't wear a shirt on the last show.

He was showing the chest and all that. So I'm just hoping we don't get, like, completely naked. Dwayne Wade, in this next upcoming season, love guys like me and me.

And I talked about this last year where I feel like with you and Wade, I am getting a much more comfortable, entertaining Shaquille O'Neal that I am on the Thursday night pregame show with E.J., which is a great job ahead of you. If you guys are pulling that out of Shaq, he just seems more relaxed with you guys than he does with that.

I think he feels like the elder statesman and so he feels a lot more Shawna's takes. But the other thing is Shaq is trying in his brain to go viral at every moment of the day. And if you can acknowledge that and not fight it, then you can actually get great moments. Otherwise, you're going to get Shaq kind of interrupting and being like, what can I do right now? And I on the first show, it was right after the Super Bowl where Shakira looked in the camera, did the tongue thing, and in the commercial break he goes, you should go viral.

And I was like, what are you talking about? You look in the camera, do the Shakira. And I was like, I cannot do that. Like, that's not in my that's not what my role is. Here he goes. OK, so then the next time he does it in the commercial break, he shows me his phone. And every social media account is sharing this video and he goes told you he has viral brain that like, if I could do a show with Shaq, it would just be an hour called Shaq going viral.

And we would just try a different thing every day. That's that's what his brain does. And so I just Dan Patrick told me this when I was getting ready for this of you want to be John Stockton now. I'm a little bit more Stephon Marbury than John Stockton, and I'm trying to work that out. But you're just trying to figure out what everybody else wants and then you give it to them. And so as long as I give Shaq his moment, we're great, because I think on the other show, you know, it's Charles is the God.

He's the greatest to ever do it. And so Shaq plays off him. We're here. I feel like he's the featured guy.

What have you had to do to pull back on your Marbury to be more Stockton?

I think studying Ernie, like I watch NBA on TNT Thursdays, like it's like it's an open book. I take notes because I see how much statistics and how much preparation he does. And I realize that the backbone of NBA on TNT, while there's all this fun happening, is that when it gets back to Ernie, he's going to let you know where we currently are. And I want to emulate that and I want to do respect to that. And so because of that.

It's not it's not about me. I think the thing that I realized was no one's turning on NBA on TNT Tuesdays to watch Lefko. But if I can if I can do this for a while, it's an important thing.

That is an important thing for you to learn right there. That is that is something that is an affliction. So many people with television, ego or television insecurity never learn the fact that you've already learned that you will elevate the star power around you. Lefko, if you simply make them their best selves, you will absolutely have any job you want in this industry.

And I learned that very early on. I was a reporter in Nebraska and my mom called me and said, I think you're better than Brian Williams.

And I was like, this lady is crazy. And that's when I realized, like, the people around you that are like, man, you're killing it. They don't know what the hell they're watching. They just are happy to see you on TV. And so if you just go on there and go, I am a vessel for all these other people to be great, people will realize about me later on.

And I don't need that right now. You know, that's and that's why on the anti stuff, Gotz So maybe I'm not great for the role right now, but that's why I can blend those two together and try to make.

Oh, but it's so much more fun to be Marberry, though. It's so much more fun to be. So God, you don't have to swallow the ego. You could just whip you can undo your zipper and whip it out. Yeah, that's what I did.

And listen, I have thought about standing on the desk. I have thought about just dancing in the middle and just interrupting D Wade and being like, what a you know, like I thought all of these things.

Well, listen, if you're not ready to be to perhaps I can bring Stewart's to you, the original.

Weren't you supposed to sit out this segment while we were interviewing your replacement? In my wheelhouse. OK, I pitched an idea to the genius that is Tim Kiley, OK, the executive man. Yeah, he is. He's been on stupidity, by the way. You have not you're more than welcome to come on anytime you want. So Kylie was on Stewpot. Now, I pitched this great idea to to my friend who's the vice president of Turner Sports, but also he he runs the pregame show on Thursdays.

I'm not certain if he's the executive producer of your pregame show.

I like like he's like the brains behind NBA on TNT that, like, any crazy moment was pretty much TICAS idea.

OK, so the idea was this little Fallica Chris Flick of the bear type setup on the Thursday pre game show where I am off to the side. Right. There's a gambling aspect to it. I am just reacting to what you pitched him, an idea that involves you being on that show.

Yes. Yeah. So, so well. No, no, no. But this is good because this is proof that you can do both. You can do this show Lefko. If you do get this job, you can do. But look at. And so what I pitched to him was I am off to the side. You know, I am doing some gambling, commenting on what the guys are talking about, just spewing hot takes. OK, like a little Stewart's island off to the side.

Now he is working on it. Dad and I are going to have to go on some podcast that he is not aware of it till right now. And we're going to pitch the idea with Charles and Ernie. But a Thursday nights does if they don't want it Lefko. I am offering my services to you on Tuesday night, just so you know.

What is that? It's a pitch. No, leave the room like you were supposed to so that I can just talk to the guy who's replacing you for just getting your amount of your amount of self-interest.

Can I can I just ask a question?

It was to show one last question before Synagogue's gets out of here so that I can interview his replacement.

Stu God. So what if, if and when I get this role, what do I need to know about Dan to get the most out of Dan in the God's chair?

Very small windows. OK, you have to work in the tiniest windows that you have ever worked in in your entire life. So I wouldn't think Marberry I wouldn't think whoever you transformed, I would think Eric Snow. OK, that's what I'm thinking about.

I squeezed Eric Snow's chest. Oh, man. Fourteen years old before a playoff game. And the Sixers, he was signing autographs and I was an idiot kid. And I reached over and I grabbed it and he stopped signing autographs and he said, who squeezed me?

And he walked off the court.

But the Sixers one, you squeeze this as a squeezed his nipple is what you did. They got the finals with that. I did.

And that was my first time where I went. I could be the next to God.

I love statue gods. But in Adam's pitch here, I think Adam could get as Patrick Mahomes because he seems to send him trading cards and they seem to be friendly. So I feel like guest wise Lefko has the leg up on who do you get. Wait a minute.

Why are you friends with Kelsey and Mahomes? How are you friends with these people? Mahomes sent me these glasses.

Oh, man. It's his job. That is a cool. Mahomes line has his statistics on the side.

I mean, I think part of my connection with Mahomes is back when me and Sims were doing the draft mahomes Sims was like Mahola.

The next Brett Favre. And so in my sluggard brain, I was like, we're running with this. And we were like talking about Mahomes all the time. Well, you know, video gets to the agents and all that stuff. And he didn't play for the first year. We saw him at the Super Bowl and nobody was trying to interview him. And so we just hung out with him for a while and we just kind of made a connection.

Also, I think people just kind of like me, which is why I'm a little anti Strugatsky also, even though he's a Jets fan, I can also get to Sam Darnel. So, you know, OK, what time he's coming with.

Yes. Like he's showing right now. Showing up. You're in. You're in. You want to go home. Right. Get right.

Now, let's see if you text a couple of people. We're going to talk to you for about 20 more minutes. Let's see. I'll Lefko can get in the Zoome. Are those Brett Hart glasses?

Well, those are the Mahomes linemen with these the Mahomes O'Kelly's. Yeah. Lefko was the MVP, the unsung hero of the Katie Nolan pandemic Zoome thing that went viral. Speaking of going viral. And I brought in Lefko because I knew he had instant access to these uber famous people. Next thing you know, D Wade's in the zoom, then Travis Kelsey pops in Lefko. Best friends with all.

Oh, well, shouldn't Lefko hold on a second, Lefko? Because I don't report news. I don't want to be Shafter. I do not want to be any of these people. I watch these HBO real sports where they're like, oh, I'm on my phone all the time, but I make it work and I'm like, that sounds like the worst existents ever. How about I just hang out with these guys and drink beers and then never tell the secrets that they tell me that like I would rather be a mod Rashad than Adam Schefter any day of the week.

OK, well, let's do this, Adam, if we can. And this is putting you on the spot because I would like in the next twenty minutes for someone to appear in the Zoome with you while we're interviewing you about other things. So now not only do you have to send out a zoom link, but we'll see how because guys does a little part of interviewing for this job, is that still got a lot of people don't know that two is doing some producing.

He's sort of a a a I don't know what is the name of the pole where a volleyball spins around the pole tetherball? Is it called ball? Like he sort of tethering everything here and producing the show while we're talking? Yes, Billy.

Well, no pressure, Lefko, but Seagate's his latest get was Aaron Rodgers. So, yeah.

I mean, yeah, it's pretty good. You got Aaron Rodgers. You got him last week. Yeah. Don't bring that. We just arrived.

What did you do? There was no Brad. Just Aaron. You had pictures of him.

No extortion. No what what does weight use him. If I had him.

But I didn't have I want to talk some football with you here because you're very good on the subject of football while you're doing this. But one last question about the show that you do. And you guys need to check out the Lefko podcast, wherever it is that you get your podcasts and you need to watch the NBA on TNT on Tuesdays, because they are they are a very worthy you know, I don't know what the word is I'm looking for, but, you know, applicant for heir to that throne, the greatest show in the history of sports television.

It's a great on younger alternative to what they do, having learned and having learned all the things from that show and all the things that they've learned in this business, what can we do better? And I say this, I don't want it to get back to him as any sort of criticism or insult. What would he acknowledge is something that he could probably get better at, that we're going to see him grow?

I think it just comes with time, because I think what what you realize is there's doing television and then there's whapping happening to be on television. And I think doing television is when you go here is the block, here is the block. We're going to go to Kansas, then we're going to go to wait and you wait for your turn. And I think the reason that the NBA on TNT is great is Charles doesn't care. He's just going to talk when he has an opinion.

And I think that's the next stage for all of us, is getting to the point where, like, if you guys could see us backstage when we're just hanging out watching the games and the way we react, there needs to be less.

There almost needs to be less. Television gets in the way of authenticity. It's 100 percent it all the time, though. It's one of the reasons Lefko, all the people who gravitate toward are things at ESPN because it's not like we were actively seeking them out. They're like, what's this thing where I don't have to stand on a marker and go to a production meeting like how can I just go someplace and be my authentic self and have everyone see it?

But then I think they encourage those guys that I think Lefko has gotten the same courage. Why are you still here? Well, because Ernie told me this on my podcast. Okay. That Kylie just said, hey, throw out the notes. Do not look at the prompter and let the people around you be great and let them respond to you and you just tie it all together.

That's what Kylie said to me, too. And I think it's look, I was traditional TV for five, six years. I went through the traditional path. I was in Nebraska then I was in Kentucky. And then I went viral with some YouTube stuff where I was like the first one to drop references in a newscast. And I dropped like forty rap references and forty. Wrestling references, because I just when I'm regurgitating my Twitter feed for people over the age of 60, like this is a waste of my time.

And so you reach a point where you go, how do I create moments? And and that's the evolution I think is I feel bad for the ESPN halftime show NBA, because I know Jalen Rose has great things to say.

There's no time.

Yeah, they have like they have like 15 seconds. And so for me, it's like it if they could really show who they were and really have fun, that would be the evolution of it.

But it no, it's I was watching halftime of the of the ESPN NFL game and they spent 70 percent of the halftime talking about a college football championship. And I was like, why are they even there? And it's I'm so glad that you said Tim Kaylee's name because he texted me after the first show and was just like, I need you to know that whether or not you got the timing right or whatever, none of that matters. All that matters is that you had a connection with them on stage.

And that's that's what really matters. And so I took a lot from you guys. Dan, your ability when someone said one thing that I have stolen from Dan Levitas is when he is interviewing somebody and there was this weird moment, Dan goes, what was that? Tell me what that was. And I think it's awesome because it's people's brains going. They were going to say something and then they're retracting it. And you're a very engaged listener. And so I have definitely tried to steal that from you.

But the other thing that you guys do so well is when a moment happens, you will throw out the rundown for the moment. And I think a lot of people are too obsessed with executing A to Z instead of getting to see and going see is the show make that the show, Adam?

It's the reason I don't like television. I've never liked it. It's too confining. It is so hard. I am guessing that your podcast, no matter how much fun you're having with Dwayne Wade and everyone else, I'm guessing it's more fun to have the space to roam in your podcast.

Oh, yeah. I mean, so I presented an Emmy with Ernie when I first got to Turner and I and so I got to spend the whole day with him and beyond the fact that he's like a saint of a human and like he'll be the guy that like a janitor's wheel in a trash can and it'll be like, I'll got that for you. And you're like, OK, Ernie. Like, that's who he is.

But I asked about these production meetings and he was like, yeah, Charles never sits in. And that's when I went to Sim's. It was like, you're never going to know about the rundown anymore. Like you're not going to know. We're going to take you on a journey and we're going to see what happens. And I think you have to have that producer brain, though, to where you need to know where you're going. And it's not just I'm a reader of things on a prompter.

I'm very I'm very sensitive of being called talent because I think it's kind of a backhanded insults more than anything. Can you tell us what happened to Russell Wilson? What happened to the Seattle Seahawks?

I was going to text Mina Kimes that exact question yesterday, and I was afraid that I was going to send her into an emotional state like I didn't want her to, like, rage on me. I texted this to Warren Sharp, my buddy, and he's like, honestly, I don't know. It's as if Brian Schottenheimer planned for the first five weeks of the year and then was like, what? Figured it out and then never adjusted the rest of the year.

But I agree. It's it's as if the offensive scheme didn't make sense. But at the same time, he looks completely not confident anymore. It all evaporated these last few weeks of the year. Also, I think it's compounded by the Rams have owned the Seahawks and Russell Wilson for the last four or five years. I think that there are something like 80 to eighty five percent in terms of wins. They sacked him eleven times in the two games before yesterday.

But the best thing that happened to Aaron Rodgers was that he got hurt for a year and they fired everybody. The worst part with Russell Wilson is even when they had a down year, they kept everybody and said, we're going to change some things. And I think that Russell has been carrying people for far too long. And I don't think it's Pete Carroll, but that's up for debate. But they need to get in a younger offense of mine because Brian Schottenheimer has never been the guy who even knows about that.

Yes or no, Aaron, Donald is the best defensive player ever.

No. Lety LTM Reggie White were the first two names that came to my mind. I think Aaron Donald can keep going. Remember, we said the same thing about JJ Watt five years ago where JJ, what was up for MVP and had like twenty sacks.

Yeah but Donalds the only one doing it from the middle. Like all the guys you mentioned, none of them are doing it through double teams up the middle.

You know JJ was a little bit but Aaron Donald I think if he, it's all about length of time and all that. But I would put Lety I'm damn. I'm going to. He was to God, just because I read I was reading Bill Walsh's book, and it's like when you realize that the Bill Walsh offense was built because of loyalty and all the rule changes, it's just another level of human out there.

I'm really I'm working. So Kelsey would not be good enough because you got Roger. So Kelsey would be good enough.

Rogers. It's a start. It's a start. We'll take Kelsey. If Kelsey wants to call in, we'll take Kelsey. That be and look, Billy. Of course, Billy. Have you gotten such good guess lately that you have to make the standard error of doing this for your dad and you want to say, OK, we could do that?

Well, Travis, Kelsey is a good guest. Homes in play here.

I mean, Kelsey is probably the MVP, could be the MVP of the NFL this year. Right?

I mean, Kelsey, doesn't he leave? Just wait, wait. Like you or I begin to get.

No, I think we're good with Dwayne Wade, aren't we?

I think we all know I did the baby and ran him out of town. So he's going to get Wade and Kelsey that equals. And Aaron Rodgers, perhaps you could.

Am I allowed to tell Dwayne Wade is on the show or is that going to do this? Lefko say I'm on with Dan Libertador right now. How are you cool with that show or you're not cool with that show? You can you can ask him because I think I think we're good. There was some stuff at the end. I would actually like to have this conversation with Dwayne Wade. I don't know whether he wants to have it on the air or not, but I have I've reached out to to him a few times and heard back from him in a way.

I mean, he's warm and he's a good person, but he doesn't like how it ended the first time in Miami. And some of that, I think, gets put on me because of my relationship with Pat Riley.

I am told here by Roy and the Chad that Wade sent a very nice tweet out on our departure away from ESPN about the show. So proud, highly questionable.

But it's the same guy I know next year.

I think he like, look the way it ended with Pat Riley. I know it wasn't great and I know he didn't like it. But Wade, as you've mentioned, is very introspective and I feel like he's had time to think about it. And I think he realizes that business is business. And I think he's cool now with Pat. I think we're cool now, too. But I haven't other than other than tweeting back and forth with him.

I think Adam just let us know. We'll find out if we're cool or OK. We'll find out.

We'll all find out soon. By the way, you got the zoom link, right? You're good. I'm working on. And we've got things like coming out. No, listen, I know what he has coming up, but I feel like now I'm going to end up booking it for you if you want to tell them, OK, if you want to tell him I'm very friendly with Andrew, his personal trainer down here in South Florida. Just get out.

Just get out of the way. Not playing down here. Just get out of the way in the plane. I would like to you for you to land in a plane outside of the studio as I interview your replacements, just trying to help get Kalsi.

They're trying to help my replacement replacement.

I think Sims would be a good stewards now that I think about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give us Sims one ghost on me. Why are you still here? Will you please leave. Please leave. I wasn't joking. Just please leave for a few minutes so that I could talk to Adam Lefko for a second. Someone famous just. Yeah, but just get out of here. You could come back when someone famous shows up. Please close the door behind you and let me talk to him.

All right. Thank you. Oh, I got a wild card.

I'm going to try here. See, this is very exciting. No football questions for Tom Brady. Tom Brady. What are we to expect from Tom Brady the rest of the way? He just won a game, but he won a game he never had to play in New England. He's on the road. It's the first round. He doesn't get a bye. They beat a bad football team in Washington. Tom Brady. That team goes only as far as Tom Brady is.

Excellent, correct?

Oh, 100 percent. I would also say compare the over 40 year old quarterbacks from what we saw this weekend, Drew Brees, Big Ben, Philip Rivers, Tom Brady, other than the Tom Brady George Blanda photo, which I would have sent to Cody, is the funniest thing of the weekend. He doesn't even look like he's in the same age bracket as those guys. Also, they the way that you beat the Buccaneers that we saw earlier this year was spread the mountain throw.

So Kansas City did it, Los Angeles Rams did it. They played the perfect team for Tampa Bay's defense to look somewhat OK with Hinoki and all that. Now they're taking on the Saints. I think that Tom Brady, with this offense, if everybody is healthy, they were my dark horse. Maybe they make a run, but they got to pray that they don't have to go to Lambeau in two weeks. If somehow the Rams in that defense can upset Green Bay, I think Tampa Bay could be going to the Super Bowl.

I really do. But they did beat the Packers big time earlier this year. It kind of felt fluky. Aaron Rodgers, it was like the weirdest game of the season for him. But I do find it very odd that Belichick is out. Donald Trump apparently is offering him like some presidential medal right now. And if he accepts it, like the world is going to turn on him and at the same time, Tom Brady is doing what he always does.

I have always been a Belichick over Brady guy. But right now the tide seems to be turning because we talked about this was the legacy year. If Brady makes a run without Belichick, does it change the way that you've looked at the last twenty years of that Patriots regime at all? At all? I mean, does coaching matter as much? We just saw the Browns beat the Steelers with Kevin Stefanski in a basement. I thought NFL was the league where coaching was supposed to be the most important thing of all time.

I've had Tom Brady on my podcast. Have you get out of here, please? I know I did. You did the big slamming getting ready and you came back for that. He did. He did.

There he is. Yeah, I did. I did. I had Tom Brady. And people would be so much better than you got them together.

You had. OK, let's do this snow. Yeah. Go ahead and tell the guys that he thought he was coming in here. He thought he was he had the winning hand.

He slammed the door again. Brady and Manning together. Yeah. Brady and Manning together. We got to get Lefko to replace the guards on the left. Go. Aaron Rodgers, what do you make them what do you make of Aaron Rodgers in the 70s when they drafted Jordan Love?

This was this is what we all hoped for, that there was going to be so much anger and so much vitriol and so much of the intelligence that we see from Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers is like a laser beam of focus and to to have turned that perceived slight into another thirteen and three season, getting the only buy in the first round of the playoffs for the NFC and to have a quarterback connection with Davante Adams that I believe is number one in the NFL.

This is what I've always been wondering. I messed up and I wrote off Aaron Rodgers. I did not have the Green Bay Packers making the playoffs this year. I'm happy to admit my faults, but I know that Dan, I feel like you're as fascinated. I got somebody, OK? I need to zoom like, can I have the zoom link? He's ensnared.

Someone got we're not going. And you want me to tell you, is it my arms? Because I'm right here.

I just told you it's not sports. We're going to go out and we're going to go a little bit different. All right. That's fine. Until you're on the line here from Mike.

Are you texting it to me? Yeah, I'm going to text it to you.

What size fish are we talking here, Adam? I don't know if you're going to like them. We're going to find out. He's got meetings. Oh, up. We're going to see if this works. OK, we could do this. This is a very, very exciting.

OK, but Dan Dan, I know that you're you're equally as fascinated with Aaron Rodgers, his brain, as I am. And I had always wondered, I don't know how long he wants to play because I feel like but I also don't know what he's going to do after he gets done playing in the NFL. Like, where do you think Aaron Rodgers goes when he's done?

It's an excellent question because I've thought I've met a number of people that I thought were uniquely qualified to put down the athlete's identity, the gladiator identity, identity, whether it's Robert Smith or John Amaechi or Shane Battier. And every last one of them says when they leave the arena, they think they're equipped for it because they're worldly, they're different. And then they look around and like, whoa, there is nothing in real life that replaces what Sunday's feel like.

There is nothing in real life that replaces what that locker room feels like. Nothing. And so I don't know what he could possibly do that would give him the same kind of juice that that Sundays do.

Your conversation with John Amaechi, by the way, was phenomenal. And I watched him talking about privilege. I watched that that clip like three times. But I interviewed Antoine Pathé last week. Is he just retired and so he's got the links, OK, and and he just retired and he was like the biggest issue for me.

I'd like to introduce you guys to my good buddy, old pal, Gary Vaynerchuk.

Gary V here, Gary.

I just want you to say screws to guys.

That's the main reason you're here, to screw guys as simple as that. No, you're here for more than that.

I love and I talk about my feelings when I see that the four AFC quarterbacks that are left were passed by my New York Jets and back to back drafts when we needed quarterbacks and the sheer anger and zero point zero happiness. I have four Browns are Bills fans like zero point zero, actually negative happiness, Cleveland and Buffalo.

Justin could care less about twenty five years. This the nineteen ninety four that like I'm angry and wish that both teams lose desperately this week.

I love Lefko.

What I love here is that in the interview to replace through gods, you have now found the person to replace me so that they can find me, so that they can finally, through the whole new shake, finally through the chat show so that they could counterprogram against Mike Greenberg, Bart Scott and Shawn Johnson, so they can counterprogram with Jets coverage. And by the way, I'll take this advantage.

Congratulations on an incredible, incredible execution. You know, unfortunately, I work twenty four seven, so I haven't been able to consume as much as if I was twenty years younger. But it's been really fun to watch from day one since I pay attention to all this stuff. And congratulations.

I mean, I love it. Thank you. Who is this guy you guys should be talking to.

I don't know. I don't know how you're back in the room.

When I was going to tell Gary was Gary, you know how this works is a jet fan. Had we drafted those quarterbacks maybe out of the NFL right now and if those other teams drafted Donald Darnel be in a divisional playoff game right now.

So that's here's what is not talked about anywhere close to enough. Mike McCarron is the worst football GM. He makes Idzik look like Wolf like to me. But when the Josh McCown may be my favorite human on earth, however, when he is your quarterback coming into the season and you're the Jets and it is a quarterback league and Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes are on the board, and you decide to not only take a safety, but then this is the best part.

You can take a safety in the second round. And by the way, Marcus Maye is my favorite New York Jets. However, in an offensive NFL where you don't have a quarterback, they decided to go safety, safety and listen. I love Jamal as a dude sitting courtside at Nick games with him was some of the most fun. I love the human. I tried his entire Jets career to convince him to convert to linebacker. I have been proven to be uncomfortably historically correct.

I mean, this is your big get. I mean, I grew up I have never really hit these pitches before this, but every guy I grew up with is Gary. I mean, I get to go.

Go look, listen, Lefko, you are nailing the interview, OK? But bringing in at the end, Gary, the Jets fan, you have soiled yourself at the end of the interview. You've blown it. We're going to have to take on other auditions, other nominations. Gary Lefko, thank you. It was good talking to you, Gary.

We are now Gary. Gary, listen, don't be a Vegas smart, successful guy. Just never heard of you. Thank you, Lefko. We will talk to you. Good to see you, Reggie. It's unbelievable. Thank you, guys.

Adulations on everything. Keep kicking ass. You already have the universe, man. I'm excited to keep going and I hope to hear from you soon. This was a very nice interview experience.

Well, congratulations on everything. We haven't done anything. I mean, we're not working for anyone. We believe we have fired. All we're doing.

All we're doing is interviewing a Justin and Gary that you promised this Kelsey and Mahomes. And you guys, thank you for being on with us. Let go see if I can figure out if you're good with weight or not. Bring him on tomorrow or something. Got it. You got it. It's all the guys look forward to again.