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Draftkings Network.

Drysidal is top six, right? I wasn't just saying that. He's top six. Where are you on that, Dan? You think, Leon, Drysidal? By the way, Leon, a white guy. Back to you, Dan.

Why is LeBron tweeting at the number one football recruit in the country.

It's weird. Don't tweet accruets. Don't tweet accruets.

I had to tell myself that every day, and I adhere to that lesson. But LeBron can't help himself. Jeremiah Smith, whose cousins, Gino Smith, who was once coached by Shannon Dawson and really excelled on that offense. I don't know who needs to hear that. Maybe Jeremiah Smith. But Jeremiah Smith is a commit to Ohio State. Number one, depending on where you look, number one recruit in the country down here, South Florida Kid, and LeBron tweeted some of the stats that Jeremiah Smith has been putting up. He's like, Can't wait to see him in Scarlet and gray, which if you're Jeremiah Smith, the greatest basketball player of your lifetime is tweeting about you, that's incredible. That's amazing. But if I may just speak to Jeremiah Smith, do we really want to take LeBron James's word for it? I mean, how does this guy get to be an Ohio State fan, too? Look, he's been on the record, and he's told you himself that he would have gone to Duke, not Ohio State. For Coach K, then. I understand there are logistical things going on here, and Brani is his own man, but couldn't even deliver his son to Ohio State.

If Ohio State is so special, like LeBron is leading you to believe, then ask yourself, why wasn't it special enough for LeBron, even in a hypothetical sense, or his very real son?

Stugatz, moving on to my fascination with what it is that the Mannings are doing, the business building that they're doing, using ESPN as a partner, going into business with Mena Kymes on an Omaha Productions podcast, and doing an assortment of things where they are spreading the quarterback royalty that will be the aging of this sport at microphones. It's not going to be the Mannings go away. It's going to be they become voices for the League. Tom braided may do the announcing, may do ownership.

May.

Play again. But the Mannings are going to make the business of football a giant thing. They've got quarterback. The Netflix special has already run out of quarterbacks willing to do it. They're going to do Amman, Ross, St. Brown, the little kid, the little guy in Detroit.

The dad, the guy with the dad. He has a brother. He's a wide receiver. Something Egyptian.

They've run out of quarterback.

Sounds like a faro.

They're on to wide receivers. The name of the show is quarterback.

That doesn't make sense.

The quarterbacks don't.

Want to do it. Can they pivot to football player?

They got Burrow for.

Next year, though. Are they keeping the name of the show?

I don't know. I don't know.

But they ran out of quarterbacks. They went to Mariotta the first year.

These guys don't... I forgot. I don't know that I'd want reality television access invasive in my life if I was Patrick Mahomes or Marcus Mariota. Well, Mohomes did it.

Well, Cousins did it. And Cousins, we found out like, Oh, my God, that's a good dude. I like that guy. So I think it helped him out. Same with Marcus Mariotta. I found myself liking Marcus Mariotta. It was weird.

You watched it? I did watch it. Not like Payton's Places you actually got around to.

This one? I actually got to it, yes.

Now, no quarterbacks are available, but we have another Manningcast, evidently, reportedly springing. Is it going to be at ESPN? It's Kevin Hart now, Stugat. It's going to be Manningcast-adjayd recent where he does his own show. Kevin Hart is fully intent on becoming a billionaire. He will be a billionaire within our lifetime. Kevin Hart, evidently, is also getting into this game.

Wait, he's doing a sidecast for Monday Night Football as well?

How is the Manning cast going? God, Aitken is going to be pissed. Look, we talked about it for a good amount of time here on this show, and you got sick of me talking about it, and I got sick of actually having to watch it for takes, and I stopped the second that ESBN improved its booth and gave me Joe Buck and Troy Ackerman, I haven't even thought about it. Occasionally, it'll pop on social media. But I saw Payton Manning on ESPN's main broadcast with Scott Van Pelt, and he was being interviewed about the game. It was just Scott and Payton. Scott was at the game and Payton Manning was in his studio. Why is Payton Manning talking to me like I'm at a concert and he has to talk over people? He is constantly speaking to people like he's yelling over some other sound that is not there. Why is this still a thing? Does he have to deprogram himself?

I believe this is shouting over stadium- This is him in a huddle. This is his entire life.

This is him.

Screaming Omaha.

Yes, Mike, I.

Told you that Max Kellerman and Stephen A. Smith in their real life have been distorted by you only have an hour of content. You got to talk for two. Go. But Max's wife is like, You talk too much.

Of course, Pete Manning, if this is his identity, is shouting over crowds. And I imagine large cocktail parties where Tennessee Boosters are slapping him hard on the back. He's been doing that for how long? He's such a.

Great man, Joe.

Some loud guy in an orange jacket.

A lot of bottom teeth laughs with the Snifter in their hands.

I.

Have there.

I have them all looking like Jimmy Haslem because they're all Jimmy Haslem.

Payne Manning, since he's.

18- Who's the Samo we got?

-has been warding off guys in Orange jackets with boozy breath who gave a million to the program.

Oh, it's all brown liquor. All brown.

He's been talking over them. Then where does it get quieter? There are 100,000 people in the stadium, and I've got to shout over them so my offensive lineman can hear me. Of course, it's going to distort his personality in old age. He's not going to go to broadcasting school. He's going to be Payton Manning trying to broadcast. He's talking over a crowd. Getting mad at his little brother because he's talking at the wrong times.

Chris loves this part of the show.

Chris's favorite part of The Manning cast is watching how irritated Payton gets at Eli because Eli won't respect the rules of broadcasting. Clearly, Eli's the little brother and the big brother with the bad neck is the champion who would do.

Anything to be perfect. Payton just starts to turn red anytime anyone talks over each other and he gets so in. Then Eli sees it and starts chuckling. It's just great.

Payton hates that Eli has as many championships as he does doing this.

Eli what? Against braided. Hates it.

And it took him to the very end to catch up to him, too. It makes.

Him crazy. Eli reminds him of that on Thanksgiving. Yeah, whatever. You did it your way. Perfect all the time. All right. I won as much, and I beat braided twice. Yeah, and you're unhappy. Look at you. You care about whether this Monday night thing works or not. You wanted to build Omaha Productions. I don't care.

Along.

For.

The ride. I had an Audible too, and I didn't make a production company name out of it.

Is Kevin Hart getting in this.

Business.

Now? He's going to do a basketball one, it seems, for a couple of games on ESPN, too.

Just testing it. Glad that kid's finally getting work.

Lucy, why did you shrug? Why did you make a face?

I just don't want all these alternative broadcasts. I see the value in it, but who asked for this? Who asked for this? I'm not going to watch it. I watched a little bit of the Manningcast last night just because they had Caitlin Clarke on it. It's something to have on when you don't care about the game because you can get some side commentary with it, watch the game. But if you actually care about what you're watching, you're not going to.

Watch the broadcast. What's interesting that I underestimated, because I've spent my entire life advocating for the idea of can someone please create broadcasts that really test the limits on how rigidly we've always been doing broadcasts. Not just throw comedians in the booth and make it entertainment. All my life, I have wanted them to have less respect for the broadcast, not more, to do more clown television behavior and treat it like it's the silly circus that it is. But at every turn, I'm told, No, the familiar thing is the thing that people want. And Mike just spoke to it. Mike has been doing this stuff, both of them, consuming sports and entertainment for a long time. For him to tell me that the Mannings aren't entertaining enough to keep his attention, that just because I don't think Buck and Aitman matter like that. But I may be underestimating how many Mikes there are who are saying, No, they matter like that. I need to listen. I've always thought that Buck and Aitman, if I put someone in there, whoever it is that's the popular 35-year-old guy now.

He would lose Buck and Aitman. And Buck and Aitman.

Are great. It's such a tremendous upgrade over what they had before. Amazing. I mean, no disrespect, but Bucky and Aitman, I mean, they're institutions. I think even the previous, well, maybe not. I know there's ego in this business, but this is a very clear upgrade. The Manning cast, in large part, had appeal to me because it offered an alternative before. Then I realized I didn't like the alternative. But I was seeking out an alternative from a main Monday Night Football broadcast that is a position that is a marquis position in this industry, and now they have the talents in there that.

Reflect that. Steve Levy was doing it before Bucky and Aitman, and he told me and Billy at the Super Bowl, I'm just okay at it. I'm pretty good at it. But Joe Bucky is a Hall of Famer. No, I'm not ashamed that he's replacing me.

Monday Night Football has just done some weird stuff. Like, Brian Greasy comes out. I know he was doing college football games, but now he's on the staff. That's a great job. Witten goes back to the NFL and does not try his hand at broadcasting anymore. It's not the crème de la crème, and Joe Buck and Troy Akeman represent that.

Billy, why were you making a face at Stugat?

I guess he still believes that line from Steve Levy. I do. It was humility.

He was refreshing to hear in this industry.

I'm not upset that they're coming in and they're taking Monday night football for me. They're so good at it.

I mean, he didn't seem upset.

That's the play, because it's either that or you're like the bitter.

Person, right? But it's true. You're being replaced by Joe Buck.

I mean.

Come on. What was that?

What was that? Okay, if you think if you're having an honest conversation with Steve, he's like, Yeah, he's just better than me.

No. So he.

Was lying to him. You think Steve believes that he's not the best in the world?

That he was okay with being replaced. The part that's surprising to me is that Stugart, I would have this wrong. I'd be totally wrong if Mike Ryan is a symbol for Love Sports, loves entertainment, and at this age can be bored by something that's not entertaining. He's been down on the Manningcast since it started while I'm advocating for the idea, man, alternative, similar to the future for the person who doesn't care that much about what's happening on the field. For the person who wants Jimmy Kimmel in the booth or some distraction because he doesn't just or she doesn't just want to watch numbers, fantasy numbers. Here's all my money running up and down the screen. Why are you entertained? No, but this is a different thing now. You're talking about Mike is a consumer of entertainment, but Mike also is someone who's betting fantasy leagues, likes the action, needs to know what's happening in the game, needs to know who's got 43 yards or is over 43 and a half yards. That's where the money is. That's where the most serious is. And I just want to watch something that's the circus, that's a bunch of fun.

It can be my money, but I don't care whether it's third and eight or third and six. I'm just enjoying what I'm watching.

I'm glad it's out there for people. I genuinely am. I know I'm going to come across as a hater, which is largely why I wanted to stop talking about the Manningcast because it's grading on me, too. No one wants to hear that they don't like something over and over again. You do you. I'm happy that these options are available, especially in our industry. I would have loved the opportunity to do more of them when we were at ESPN. I'm happy for everyone that has afforded the opportunity to provide an alternative to the masses. That doesn't make them all good. In fact, for the most part, they're really hard to do. I know when we did them, I felt well. We had to pour ourselves into it. Also, you got very little of actual game.

You got no game.

It was made by and made for people that didn't actually really genuinely follow this and know a lot of the players' names in a national championship game at the time.

But, Mike, correct me if I'm wrong, what you didn't like initially was the quality of the production, right? It was the quality. Because I'm with you. Because Buck and Aitman, it's as good as it gets. It is. It's as good as it gets.

There's a polish there, and a polish there. A lot of the things were they were finding their way through the pandemic, and it was difficult. But ultimately, I just realized I don't like this alternative as much as I like a Joe Buck and Troy Aitman broadcast, say what you will about it, but it just brings a certain Genesee quad to a game. It makes it feel important to me. I like the traditional game-watching experiences, particularly when it's them. I didn't like it as much when it was another group.

That's the part, though, that I feel like I've underestimated because I always thought that Mike was watching The Manning cast as a producer, wasn't even as a fan. I think he was rooting for it, like so for him to bail on it because it's a novel concept. I don't think he did want it to fail or pale in comparison.

It's winning awards. I lost. No matter what I think doesn't matter, I do think that they've made some improvements on the production. But what I think doesn't matter. Omaha is super successful, and that show in itself has won Emmys for what it's doing. So I'm the idiot here. It's a good dismant. No, it isn't. Not for me. I need to be right to end something.