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This is the Dan Levator show with the Stu Guts podcast. Mike Ryan has returned like adrenaline soaked from his workout. All shoulders is because in protest, he sat out our general fraternizing with Paul Pierce. I don't know how often has Mike.

Ryan boycoted segments before I stood here and talked to Michelle Tafoya, but this is the first time I felt compelled to just opt out.

Oh, man.

Tell me you guys spoke power to truth.

Yeah, I don't know if we did. I think it was a little too chummy, probably.

Oh, you guys were goofing off with that journeyman.

He's not a journeyman.

Oh, he's not?

Come on.

Go to basketball reference.

He's a hall of famer. Who's next?

James Posey. I apologize to James Posey. He's actually a multiple time champion.

Come on. He's a hall of famer. Mike. What are you talking about?

Paul Pierce.

Yes.

Sure.

What?

Yeah. I'm sorry, this is too far.

What are you doing?

Hall of Fame. How do you do that? How do you do that? All the shit that he talks about, Eudonis Haslam and Dwayne Wade and this great city, how he just traffics on him and his legacy being completely overrated. You don't see Sean Marion making the media rounds. He's a one time champion, too. Paul Pierce's career was an utter disappointment. And the big three of Boston was a failure. And yet we give them this gravitas that I don't completely understand. They gripped off the success of a much better franchise that perfected the model. And he just talks shit left and right for years and years and years, and we give him a platform. Ridiculous.

A business partnership is what we've given him.

I'm glad he wasn't here for it. I'm glad.

I think it would have sounded ridiculous. I think it would have been better. I think it would have been better if Mike had been here. Because now it's going to seem like we weren't willing to speak power to truth, that we waited until he was off, and then all of a sudden, Mike Ryan comes on.

Oh, is it? I'm cowardly. I'm cowardly.

Why?

Because I'm talking shit behind back?

Yeah.

Is that what he does all the time?

He talks shit to people's faces?

No, he doesn't.

What are you talking about?

He doesn't. I see these podcast clips. I see these vodcast. He's not talking to LeBron James. He's not talking to Dwayne Wade. He's not talking to Udonis Haslam. No, he's not. Stop giving him credit. He's not some tough guy.

Hold on.

He's arguing with KG, and KG is giving back a very strong argument, and they're going back and forth and tricks straight.

Another overrated.

Oh, my.

Goodness.

We're starting a partnership. Mike.

I love Matt Barnes. I love Jackson. If Paul Pierce comes along with them, fine. But I have my own personal objections. I love this city, and I won't apologize for it.

No, I'm not going to stand for this. Dan. These are my friends that he's talking.

Oh.

That wasn't evident during the interview.

It was a little too chummy. I think that that's fair. I think it was a little.

What's wrong with. Well, because I know people. Now all of a sudden, it's a problem.

No, you made it all about yourself and all about your ninja warrior.

You know when the next spinoff is goofing off with Chris Gatling.

First of all, Chris Gatling, that's astray. Why is he catching a stray?

Yeah, he's an all star, and he's a great journeyman, not unlike Paul Pierce.

Come on.

Paul Pierce was a great journeyman. I'd argue Paul Pierce was one of the best journeymen ever.

Mike, Mike, that's disrespectful. That's a ten time all star, and.

He was a journeyman. They're both. Moses Malone was a journeyman, too. He's the greatest journeyman.

Gottling plate for 19 teams. Look at Paul Pierce.

Paul Pierce, one of the greatest celtics of all time. Man of all time.

Okay. All right.

And it wasn't, like, for five minutes.

What is it?

That franchise has won two titles in my lifetime. Maybe one. Let me go back. I think it's one. What does that mean? What is a Celtic? You might as well say, oh, he's one of the greatest Memphis grizzlies of all time. That franchise has no history.

That whole segment, though, did make me realize something that I was trying to remember that happened yesterday. I mean, you were saying. We were talking about, is pizza the greatest thing? And then Dan said, sex. And then he said, oh, I didn't say sex. Chris said sex. And then Dan said, oh. And then Amin said, also, people falling down. And then I realized that there is a fourth thing that we didn't talk about. That is one of the greatest things, which is watching people get hit in the nuts, because after we watched Amin on american ninja warrior, we watched this video during the break.

Old money Charlie. Old money Charlie. This is comedically perfect.

That sound, that was Roy's voice, I think.

I mean, it's just that sound is somebody running across things that are full speed and landing on his. Yeah, on his package.

Very narrow thing that he.

Thank you, Jessica. What? I better said dick first. The sound you hear is dick first.

Why is he saying, why is the crowd sounding. Oi, oi, oi? I don't remember that.

Okay, but you made the interview all about you and Mike Ryan's not wrong when he says the whole thing was overly charming.

It's Chris catling.

Hold on.

I want to run the 18th one more time. One more time, because I want you guys to notice something like, yes, he falls like a cartoon character.

Yes, you're right. Pause right after the sound on how he just slides, slithers down the wet wall, defeated and broken.

Run right there.

Keep it going, and then run it, slide.

Was he okay after that?

I've never seen an old money Charlie again.

None of us. None of us ever did. You know what's the best part, Mike? And it's the only part that will make you feel better about how I embarrassed us as a company there by partnering with Paul Pierce and betraying everything you care about.

You embarrassed who?

I'll tell you how. Because we were so chummy here with Paul Pierce when Mike Ryan is saying career is a failure, that they underachieved with one championship. And that can be argued. Truth like that can be argued.

They went to the finals twice.

They played a game Seven. They could have won another one.

You call a drese out of bio Adris and he's gone to two finals.

Yeah, but he disappeared in two finals. Paul Pierce played his ass off in two finals, won a finals MVP, if I'm not mistaken. A finals mvp.

Drove, famously faked an injury that he took.

Cowardice that he took back to his hometown of LA, where he gets booed by the.

He had a game winning playoff basket for the Wizards, where he missed so badly, it actually went in and said he called the game, not banks.

That's a legendary. You can't use that one against him.

He was actually pretty quick on his feet there.

He had a game winner in Toronto as a net, where he was after the game. He says, that's why they brought me here. That's why I'm here. That dude is like, I'm not going to take no Paul.

I think there's a part of game, and the part of Paul is all of Paul that actually likes that I don't like him this much, that rebels in the fact that the heat arena will occasionally still chant Paul Pierce sucks. And F Paul Pierce, he leans into it with his asinine comments about that franchise.

You're right in that he leans into it. Dan, like I said, when he was finals mvp, he took the finals MVP trophy, the Bill Russell trophy, to LA and would go out for a week to different restaurants, call for a reservation for two, and then put the finals MVP trophy on the table. That's the second one.

Jessica doesn't love that one.

He was eat by.

He was.

Imagine Brian Cardinal doing this.

At least make a number of times, three. And bring, no.

The whole idea is like two. Where's your second? Is your whole pottery here? And he says, yes. And he holds up the.

So the bits for, like the host, it's for everyone.

It's everyone in the restaurant. And they're like, give it a little napkin. A little napkin.

No one at the restaurant knows the reservation was for two.

Well, they see a table for two.

Maybe there's just an extra chair. It was a reservation for one. The bit only works for the person seating them who's looking at their little computer and sees, oh, Paul Pierce, rezzie two. It's a bad bit, but it's a.

Great picture to have on your social media. If Paul Pierce is just having dinner alone with the trophy.

He's not alone. He's with the trophy. The trophy has a little bib on.

Know if the trophy's wearing like a little bib or like a little tie? That's cute. I'm back in it. That's cute.

I don't want to do a reappraisal of Paul Pierce's career.

The glasses with the mustache, that's a good bit.

Paul Pierce. Mike Ryan is rabid.

He's like dangerous.

Ellie, come on. Mike. Mike. These things are disrespectful.

Mike, I think you should go on. The truth.

This is disrespectful.

These things, his face, you would never call it uncomfortable. You're overrated. No, you're overrated. Your franchise has built its entire prestige based off an era where players had socks with belts on them. I'm not going to do that bit again. It's a tired bit, Paul, to say something repeatedly, and maybe you don't find the truth in it.

Larry O'Brien trophy with socks with belts on it at the table.

Just one sock, though, because he can only wear one.

And a little hat on the head. The ball.

The part of this that is funniest to me. Is that Mike Ryan's boyhood rage? Look, these fires.

No, don't sell me short. I was a grown ass man when I hated him. I have a child now. I'm almost 40. I hate that guy.

He sucks this absolute, what do they call it? Malfeasance.

You embarrassed me.

You embarrassed me right now.

What?

I'm going to go see this guy. He's going to say, hey, man, after.

I got on there, he's got enough people blowing smoke. Maybe that's the name of his next podcast. There's all the smoke and then just blowing smoke.

Here is the best part of all that. I cannot wait until that Ray Allen stuff ends up cooking and Amin's wearing that wrinkled. Damn it.

Come on, Dan, the show's over. Why are you bringing up old shit?

They're going to be like, there's hard times mean he's wearing something from the. So fresh.

What happened to him?

The best part about this is I'm not even wearing shoes. I wore slides.

David Samson mailed it in today.

What's wrong with you?

He's wearing like chunklones. He's wearing like some sort. Look, he's like canadian. He's got socks and flip flops.

Holy shit. That's a lazy outfit.

It's unbelievable.

Iron the shirt, put on sandals with socks.

I just didn't feel necessary to have hard bottom shoes today.

By hard bottom, I mean I've been unfair because I didn't listen to the interview, but I doubt you guys talked about how Whitey Scoog has three more championships. Don Lebotard.

Well, Charlie sent Charlie had this Charlie, as far as I know. So just Charlie's title in my.

You gonna say anything? Stugats, how familiar were you at the time with Chewbacca? Like your upbringing had how much chewbacca in it?

This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugats.

I want to get to the nil news, but before I do so I want to get to Lucy's genuine enthusiasm for what Nick Saban is doing with the rest of his career. Nick Saban said he was too old for Alabama football, too old for the rigors of that job. Both presidential candidates are older than Nick Saban. Lucy's very excited about Nick Saban. On game day. Nick Saban is appointing himself commissioner of all rules. He's saying, I know what's best for college football. He's really going into a position at ESPN, a signature position where he's going to be bear Bryant emeritus as I am the face and voice of college football. Still, even though I'm no longer coaching college football.

I mean, he knows college football better than anyone. He's pretty much beat and perfected the system. I'm very excited for what Nick Saban is going to do on game day. I know he came out a little earlier, I believe this week or last and was like, I'm never going to pick against Alabama. That's just not going to happen. And I really respect the honesty of that. I'm so excited for Nick Saban on game day because I do share a lot of the same views as him when it comes to what the landscape of college football is like, what came out today was that he wants to regulate an IL and be the voice of reason and all that stuff. I'm just genuinely excited to learn. Again, college football has missed the moments of wow, this is what's going on here. This is what makes this team really good. This team really like I'm very excited to have game day be a little more educational.

Let me ask you a question, Lucy. I asked this of Dan. The problem, quote unquote with college football that these old fogeys have, they keep going to nil. But isn't it true that the bigger issue is the freedom of movement? Like them getting paid is less of an issue than the idea of like I don't like it here, I'm moving.

I would say yes. And like when it comes to nil, I agree with you. I don't think that's the big issue. And also the thing with Nil, Bessie, is if you think it wasn't happening before, you are out of your freaking mind. It has absolutely been happening for the longest time and we can just see it now like in front of our eyes. I do think that the transfer portal is wildly unregulated. They've done a better job of here are transfer windows and stuff like this where Nil is contributing to that. But as long as coaches can leave freely, players should probably be allowed to leave freely. It adds this crazy sort of aspect to it. But I think you see with Michigan winning the national championship last year, a lot of those guys on the team had been at Michigan their entire career and you see that having that sort of standard and you grow and develop through a program actually helps you out. So I think it will balance itself in some way, shape or form.

I really think it's because it happened at the same time too that the last few seasons have felt a little crazy. If you're just a casual fan watching the sport.

Nick Saban's still going to dominate it by being. He'll never lose. He lost his last game and Harbaugh ran to the pros. It feels sort of seminal what happened there in terms of Belichick and Harbaugh and all of those guys getting out and changing at different times. College football is crazy. It's really crazy to watch all of the rules change on what you knew and you're seeing the business play out in front of you. In a way, I do think people are a bit startled at everything that's happening and how little government and regulation can keep up with how you actually police any of this stuff.

Do you guys think that Nick Saban would still be coaching if name, image and likeness wasn't around?

He kind of said like when he retired that it was more so his age and just how much more taxing it was to coach. Like 14 hours days work like 1416 hours days during the season.

I'm familiar with what he said. Do you believe him?

Yeah, I mean, he's pretty old.

He is old.

I'm sure there's an aspect to it because, yeah, everyone's jobs got harder if you're a college football coach over the last few years because you're constantly re recruiting players that now can leave without a penalty if they try to transfer somewhere else. Of course, I think there's definitely a lot to be said for how much more difficult the job has gotten, but I do think a lot of people are using it as an excuse to shit on the current system in pretty disingenuous ways.

But yes, that's my point. It's not the fact that they're getting paid that's made it more hard. It's the fact that if they don't like something about you, they can leave without any repercussion. That's the part that's made the job harder because as we've said, the top stars were always getting paid.

Yeah, the coaches have lost that element of control that they've always had.

It's got to take a different approach and coaches have mainly been unified in that. The game has changed and this is not good and there needs to be some control over it. And we didn't really have a dissenting voice within the ranks. And then came Kenny Dillingham over at Arizona State, who has a tumultuous situation over at Arizona State. It's a good job to have in that there aren't many of these jobs, but it's a tough road, a hoe but I loved his quotes and it kind of was illuminating in some degree because he says you're blessed. There's a lot of negativity about it. Yes, but you know how many people want to be a college football head coach? I literally spent nine years of my life doing anything to become a coffee boy. So don't give me the oh, it's hard to be a coach right now. Yeah, it's hard. If you don't like it, then quit. I think we need more of that attitude a little bit because I think certainly Nick Saban has nothing to prove in the game and it would be disingenuous for me to say you turn around and ran away from the sport once the talent pool started getting spread out a little bit more.

But I do think that there is some validity in that. It is suspicious timing and it maybe made your decision a little bit easier because you had a different arrangement.

But why can't it be that both things are true? He's old and the job has gotten a lot more tiring because I can't imagine what it is for Grandpa to be trying to connect with a 17 year old who now has the power because you're changing. Understood.

But Grandpa had all the power and now the power has been dispersed and it's that much more challenging. And I think whether he knows it or not, those are the challenges he's speaking to.

But it's the perfect time to get out. In that regard, he gets out unblemished.

With arguably his best coaching job at Alabama. Because we've seen Alabama teams of yesteryear, that team had no business making the College Football playoff. None.

But it was full of highly recruited players. Like, it wasn't like they were a bunch of scrubs that he coached really well. These were like a lot of five star guys that in certain position groups, they were just not what you expect from an Alabama team that has been recruiting really well. And like you said, there's obviously a handful of reasons why that could be the case. And maybe one of the reasons is like, it took them a while to figure out their quarterback at the beginning of the season, but I tend to believe him when he says that. It's just like, yeah, doing this job for as long as I've done it is really hard. And he didn't retire right after. Like, it's been a couple years of the portal and know he rode the.

Way for a couple of years.

I don't even know if it meant who cares? Like you said, unimpeachable records and he still did it, greatest of all time.

He gave the national champion everything that they had. I just don't think that the free reign that he had over the sport was going to continue. And I thought that was pretty self evident.

Okay. But beyond that, what I would say to you is how rare these exits, these gracefully are. Belichick just got run out of New England. The idea that Nick Saban, best ever, can retire with this timing to a post career that allows him to still be all around it and in it with one of the prime jobs in retirement. Bobby Bowden didn't get to finish like this. Bobby Bowden used to say this, I'm not going to retire. I'll never retire. Why? Because there's only one major event where everyone gathers after you retire, and it's the funeral. And Nick Saban's going to go into another career where he still gets to lord over the sport as the best ever. Nobody gets that ending. Belichick can't even get that broadcasting job now. Nobody gets post retirement. And I still lord over the sport forever, even though I'm getting out at the perfect time.

I am very much looking forward to his analysis and that making a return to college game day, I do think that they leaned a little bit more to the entertainment aspects. I also think part of the problem is no one else really up on there can speak to the ins and outs of the game du jour because Kirk, Herb street has to kind of essentially recuse himself of going all in because he has to be unbiased. So I love that you have a coach's view up there, especially with how Lee Corso has aged over the years. But what I'm not looking forward to is him making every excuse in the book for all of these head coaches because you know that's coming.

Wait, Mike, I'm dumb. Why is Kirk Herbstreet recused from doing.

He can't make predictions on the game, so he stops short because he has to appear unbiased.

But he does give his opinion on pretty much everything.

But wait, how's that different from any other analyst on the show?

Well, they're not calling the game.

He's the lead voice of color commentary on the broadcast.

He does plenty, but I think he's the only one that does it and the rest of the crew. And he's kind of fallen into leaning into more of the entertainment aspects. It's fun to watch, it's light, but I do miss the nutritional aspects of it.

Yeah, bringing McAfee in is really just like oh, this is a party. This is a fun. We're just going to yell, play to the crowd, all that stuff. And we've really lost that aspect of college game day where you're breaking down film. You're learning about these matchups, like, in a more in depth way. Nick Saban is the perfect guy to bring that in. And he's also funny and interesting and he's been great every time he's on tv.

Who used to provide that?

Lee Corso, in a sense. Herb street did it, but he also has those limitations. But, yeah, the college game day has turned into more of a spectacle and I don't want it to be entirely factual and learning and all this stuff, but I really miss that. So I'm excited to have it back.

To the argument that we were making about Jay Day. It's like you want to do higher, you want to do low. And what's college game day gone for? It's like, oh, we're breaking down X's and O's. We're going to see what the pulling guard's doing here. Like, nobody really wants to talk.

Do you want to be educated? Because Lucy's articulating the opposite of what JJ Reddick is arguing.

Something needs to be done, I think, to college game day a little bit because, look, the proof is in the pudding. I was championing the idea that you can't just remove producers and expect the same show. A lot of the producers that made that, the giant that it was, you sure about that? I'm telling you, a lot of the people that helped behind the scenes make that what it was are no longer there. And it's not just the analysis. It's also you lose Tom Renaldi, you lose wojo, and you lose some of those heartwarming aspects, those profiles that were a staple of college game day. And you've put more fluff around it. And the fluff is fun. Fluff is make it a party. The tailgate aspects of college football is a huge slice of americana, but when you lean too much into that, you do start losing ground to your competitors.

I'm with Lucy, though. It's a three hour show. I think you find the balance between the smart and the funny. And Nick Saban is going to just make a lot of these nuts jokes and he'll provide the funny.

He's the rat poison now.

I can't believe that he's going to get this ending, that he's going to also be able to save college game day because Fox, they got urban Meyer, Urban Meyer's the cheap and dirty Saban. There's a quality difference there in what you're talking about on exits and ego. One of the broadcasts is going to have the most credible guy in the world at the center of everything, teaching everybody. Maybe McMaffee will bring something out of him.

And the other guy has a book about character.

Hey, Dan, you think Saban's going to make more money in his new career than he did in his old career?

You guys are underestimating.

He has it written in his deal that as an analyst he gets $1 more. The richest coach, Don Lebotard.

The alley has a bad reputation in general right throughout american history.

But on South beach, someone's always just sitting somewhere smoking a cigarette. You can't go down an alley around here and not see someone sitting there smoking a cigarette.

It retains a pulsating heat from the night before.

You walk by some liquid that you're like, is that water? It didn't rain last night. That's definitely not water. Avoid the liquid. Always avoid the liquids in an alley.

Stugats, I venture, guess that if you were to rake your tongue on the asphalt of an alley, you would die immediately.

I don't think it would be immediately, though. First you'd contract very quickly, right before death, several sexual diseases, and then you would die.

This is the Don Levatar show with stugats.

It can only mean one thing, Dano. It's Thursday.

It's like it's raining. It also.

That's right, Tony. It is Thursday. And when Thursday rolls around, so does the thunder. Yeah, Thursday Thunder is sponsored by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear more about draftkings and all it has to offer throughout the show. Draftkings. The crown is yours, Tony. What do we got?

The association is back tonight, Mike, and we are going with three picks in the association. We're going with a couple of things. One, Josh Green over on points, eight and a half.

Don't know who that is.

Ami, please film it. We are going Cam. Yeah. Cam Whitmore over eleven and a half points.

That one's a made up name. You're not tricking me. That's one of those times where like. And you didn't even notice that I made two of those names up. I'm calling it right now. You've made both of those.

And the last leg, Trey, man over twelve and a half points.

These are not real people.

I love that Mike thought that Alfred Shangoon was a made up person.

Who's picking these for us. Like, I don't know why it is that we would not.

These are the expert picks of juju gotti.

Okay. He has been doing well. He started well, and then he was lamenting at the Super bowl. He was lamenting that it was not going well, that he had made some bad picks here.

He's an excellent gambler, but even excellent gamblers have a bit.

Someone should alert him that he just picked a three leg parlay with totally made up players. Bit of a dry, not real.

We're back on it.

Amin. I'm worried about some things that are happening with Amin when it comes to aging. He's been doing yoga in the studio, taking care of himself. He's flying a lot, and it's cross country, and he is a heroic employee, but his body has taken a beating, and so has his clothing. And you have aged in a way that sometimes you're talking to Lucy and Jessica, and you're startled that they don't know that the 30 year anniversary of blue chips is supposed to mean something to them, because your movie taste now runs so old from childhood that a classic basketball movie that you think is great, that probably wasn't great. They have no care in the world about what an old movie this is.

Well, the reason why is because it's a movie about college athletics. It's about how dirty college athletics is. So I felt like this is a common ground.

Wait, hold on a second. You said the anniversary of blue chips. I thought of Juju's video from all star of the Doritos. I thought of blue chip recruits in college football. It was completely out of context. I am familiar with the movie.

I've seen the movie. I had to watch it in college once, and it was one of those classes you took that you were like, really?

A college class?

Why are we watching this? And we had to write a paper on responsibility. It was a really weird class. Can't believe I paid outstate tuition for that.

Tony, blue chips. You familiar with this?

Of course, Anna.

Okay, so are you doing something on it on xenophobe?

So we reviewed blue chips. That's our latest episode that dropped today. But the big reveal is our guest was Anthony Chicago hall, who played Tony from blue Chips. Tony, that failed tv.

I don't actually know who that is.

Lucy, you gave such a good teammate of support. You really exhibited shock. While not having one single care or understanding of anything, Amin was saying, you are welcome.

You guys are all letting me down in an incredible way. Mike with his Paul Pierce just assassination of character. Now Lucy telling me she doesn't know who Tony from blue Chips is.

I didn't assassinate his character. The man has none.

Quiet.

Come on, Lucy, you remember he was.

Failing tv, and they're like, how does anyone fail tv? It's harder than just watching the tube coach. And it turns out he was the one that was on the take. That was point shaving.

Spoiler alert, that was my pandemic semester, so I don't really remember.

You were in college during the pandemic?

Yeah.

Holy shit, man. I'm old.

Mike learning at home. Didn't retain any of it. Is that right, Lucy? Yep.

Didn't really retain much in person either. Now I work here.

You can't say the man has no character. Mike, you have to scale back the insults. Like, honestly, when do you ever say that someone has no character?

That's subjective. This is my truth.

Okay, I don't want to listen to Mike just do fiction from his mind.

Oh, no.

Let's just do what you did. Glad hand for two segments.

It's not glad handing.

Yes, it was.

It's not glad handing.

Disgusting.

I'm sorry if I have a prior relationship with the person.

We're going into bed.

Do you consider him a friend?

Yes.

Did he say anything about your shirt?

He couldn't see it because the cameras didn't pick up on it.

Yeah, right.

Okay.

Anyways, we interviewed Tony, who has this very seminal scene where Nick Nolte confronts him about, hey, is it true that you point shaved? And he breaks down in tears and he said it was just one game and all that. It's a very, very serious, poignant moment in the movie. Don't do that, Lucy. I don't trust you. Like, she's. Oh, yeah, yeah.

She's nodding her head.

I have zero trust in you.

She is faking it. Lucy is faking any interest. Her interest in this movie is so wildly insincere that I can see that through Lucy's face. She's lying to you.

I do semi remember the point shaving. I remember Shaq's in the movie.

Yes, I remember that.

Anthony, or Anthony Afhony.

Hardaway.

But no, this is a seminal. This is a movie that Amin is watching as a teenager trying to love basketball.

And it's not just that, Dan. It's a movie that. When the stuff that they're talking about is about people getting paid in college, right. The dirty underside of recruiting. And at the time, the movie was very poorly received because people thought they were sensationalizing it, when in reality, it's actually quite muted to what was actually happened in real life collegiate sports. And so it's a funny thing to watch because happy, who is the booster in the movie, was paying all these guys under the table we talked about on the podcast. It's like he's kind of the hero of the movie. He wants to pay Shaq and Penny and all these guys to play, and Nick Nolte's here, like, no, they just got to go and get a free education, and that's enough.

But you're watching it for Cinepho because it has terrible critical reviews, correct?

Yeah.

Because you think that's completely just. The times weren't ready for it.

It's exactly what it is. I'm telling you, because we go through the reviews, and the reviews are all, people like, this is so sensational and bullshit. Whatever. They refuse to believe that this was a movie rooted in truth.

I'm honestly stunned that I have lived long enough for some of the movies. I think one of the 30 for 30s was about the recruitment of Eric Dickerson. But just in general, how corrupt and overt SMU was about this, because they were trying to get Eric Dickerson with, like, an oil mean, that penalty they gave that school. But I'm saying, like, the stuff that was going off at the start, how.

Dare they exist in a major metropolitan city?

It's so great. No, but I'm just saying that we've lived long enough now for blue chips. For blue chips to be a movie that was ahead of its time.

Way ahead of its time. Ahead of its time. To a point where some of the recent reviews we read were, like, by people saying, what's the big deal? Guys are getting paid. I'm like, yeah, in 1993, that was a mind blowing concept. Also, I want to say this really quick, because Tony, in that scene, is in tears, and he tells us the story of how he got to that emotional level. And that was William Freakin, who was one of the most famous directors, has a lot of great movies under his belt, actually came in and slapped him. And afterwards, the studio was like, please don't sue us. And so if you want to hear the full story, Tony tells that story on Cinephobe, wherever you get podcasts.

I feel like even now, people still don't really want to talk about the illegal underbelly of paying athletes. Like, this is still a conversation. Even though now it's happening above board, it's still happening below board, and no one's still.

Blue chips was too radical because someone got a tractor right. Someone's dad got a tractor.

Ricky Rowe.

I believe that that was one of the shocking enticements. And Shaq tractor. A whole tractor. What did Shaq get?

Shaq got Lexus and a bunch of money. And then Penny's mom got a new house played by Alfred Woodard.

Banging house, too.

Banging house with a lawn and a view and everything.

Tony is. Tony is a bit of a talent scout. He is watching everyone in the media. He says, like Nick Wright, he wants to vanquish everyone. He has got a top five list for us of if you miss football, as I know Lucy and Jessica already do, even though I feel disgusting on Sunday nights, it doesn't make me love football less than you.

Church toms.

35 days till UFL Tony's got a.

Top five list of content creators to watch.

It's rising star content creators for the 23, 24 season. So the season that just passed.

So you're giving some awards and telling you to watch them this offseason because they're about to blow up into NFL Star media people.

That's right.

Lucy, are you excited about this list?

Are you going to be on this list?

No, I'm not going to be on this list, but I'm quite excited. Like content. Do you mean like TikTok everything across the board?

Yep. Across the board. Social media, what they do on podcasts, on video, you.

Are you quite excited, Lucy, or are you lying again?

No, I think this one.

She's excited.

Find that paper and I'm going to.

Send it to you.

And you can see how excited I was.

Lucy would be on my list for college football. I don't have that list yet.

Any Olis or we go starting right after. All right, number five.

Me.

Oh, okay. Very good.

Modest. Modest.

Only five. Wow.

I mean, the top five has taken off for doing things that nobody's doing in the space. Mixing up my culture with the NFL. Like, nobody's doing it like me except for four other people.

You know what? I feel like it is modest to go. You didn't put yourself in number one. No, just five.

Just five.

Number four.

Number four. This man who we work with is working harder than anybody else. If it was a hard working list, he would be number one. Ross Tucker.

But not you. You're not working that hard.

Not at all.

No. He works a lot. He has more opportunities.

If it was a hard working list, he's number one. You're not on it.

Is that I feel a lot?

Probably, but it is crazy. Ross Tucker is like 18 podcasts. Buffalo Sunday, morning. He's there Sunday night. He's doing a radio game. It's crazy.

You know what I found out about Ross Tucker is Ross Tucker was in a studio on standby during the Super bowl. In the event, a cataclysmic event happened. They had to kick it over to somebody else that had power. He and Tiki Barber were standing by to resume the broadcast.

Designated broadcaster.

Correct. Draftkings. I'm telling you, Ross Tucker is the hardest working man in the history of keeping entertainment up on his back.

He's incredible and he's just getting started again. Rising star, number three, Cam Newton.

When you bring something to the fold.

Like game changer or game manager, I mean, you're doing big things up and coming.

Number two, I mean, the media game.

Remember, this is rising stars of content creation in the NFL. Number two, Cam and mace.

It is what it is. Oh, yeah, I missed them this weekend.

I mean, when you've got OJ and you're doing things that are number one.

Hello to the world.

Thank you.

Wilcompton Taylor. Wan busting with the boys.

Teeth.

Great teeth.

That list was male. Male and meaty.

Oh, I thought you mail as and he mailed it in.

No, I worked hard on that one.