00:00:01
Speaker 1: All right, welcome in What's Right with the Great episode three fifty three. In this episode of What's Right when the Grid is brought to you by boost Mobile, a ton to get to today, some very fun topics, a very serious topic right off the top before we get to any of that, however, let me welcome in demonse. Demonse, great to see you. The major development, it feels like in the ongoing saga of your soon to be a Snake family, which is you added a surveillance camera to the to the incubator. YEP, that's pretty cool. So like, can you watch it from your phone when you're at work?
00:00:45
Speaker 2: I can watch it for my phone when I'm at work. The motion sensor things a little messed up. It just it shows motion when I'm looking for egg motion. But it's like the lighting has changed in the background. So we got to figure out you got a too sensitive. Yeah, but I mean since it was probably good.
00:01:00
Speaker 1: Quick question and then we'll get to the important stuff. Now that this isn't important. Do if you check your phone and there is a snake being don't hatching? I guess you'll leave work?
00:01:16
Speaker 3: Yeah?
00:01:17
Speaker 1: Will you leave work? Here's the thing really close enough that you could just be like, oh, you got to go out for a second, go in and then come back whatever is. I'm very excited about.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: It too, I think. But yeah, no, I would leave it there. I wouldn't leave just because it would need time to come all the way out. If there was a problem, Yeah, there was a problem, I'm leaving like if something Yeah, of course, yeah.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: It'd be it'd be almost criminal if you didn't. And what do we think another like two more weeks?
00:01:45
Speaker 2: Like what's it June August fifteenth, Yeah, so two weeks at the latest.
00:01:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, last last question, So you spent time this weekend getting the surveillance set up, checking on the snakes, all of that. Did you write your little sister a letter?
00:02:03
Speaker 3: Why did you do this? On the podcast?
00:02:05
Speaker 1: I know nobody's written her letters. I send her emails. The only person who's written her letters is my mom, who's written her letter every day. But that's not so. It is what it is. She hasn't written us letters, so you know what, Yeah, it's all good. All right, time now for straight the voicemail. Brought to you by our great friends at boost Mobile, who also bring you this entire episode of What's Right in the great. Here's a serious but uplifting note. Deon Sanders found out while he was being checked. So Deon Sanders has like some vascular issues, which is why he's lost some toes. So he gets checked on that regularly. In the check on that, they noticed something maybe a little amiss, so they sent them to a urologist. They did a check there, they noticed something really amiss and they're like, you have aggressive bladder cancer. He then had his bladder removed, I guess and says he's totally cancer free, and then used his platform to really encourage people to go to the doctor to get checked out all of that, and had an unbelievable quote when uh one of the reporters asked him about staring death in the face, and he said, I didn't stare death in the face. I stared life in the face. And then he had such a Dion quote where he's like, I'm God's guy. It was so funny. It was like such an outrageous thing but also awesome, and he was like, God put me here for a reason to entertain and inspire and teach, and he really believes it. And by the way, if you've led the life Diana is led which is one of the greatest college football players ever, one of the greatest, maybe the single greatest defensive NFL player ever, while also being a pretty damn good baseball player, very successful, charismatic in the media, and then re en venting what's possible in collegiate coaching from the HBCU level to Colorado. And oh yeah, he's got a couple of sons trying to make the NFL. I don't blame him for feeling like yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm I'm special like that. Yeah, in God's guy. But I that's Those are the things from Dion that not only make it impossible not to like him, but you just root for him. And I thought he used that platform really well yesterday. So I like that Travis Kelsey was in Happy Gilmore two. I have not seen it, and now we have a potential controversy. So LaMelo ball it was, you know, posted that he got hot Cheeto tattoo feet. I don't need hot cheet toes it It would be the worst tattoo I've ever seen in the world. The worst. It would be tattooing all five of your toes the exact color of hot Cheetos with little flag above them, and it was put out there by a tattoo artist. Later that day, the tattoo artist said, you know this is we were just trolling. We did do a full leg sleeve on Mellow, but we didn't and he then showed that, but we didn't do the toes. Here's all I'm gonna say, de Wan say, I have two takes on this. One is you know, I like the Raiders just cut Christian Wilkins and they're trying to not pay him is guaranteed money, and it's because a very shaky reporting about odd locker room behavior plus uh not rehabbing his foot, and they're like, you know what you're not You're not good for the team. If I had a up athlete, if I were paying, if I owned a team and one of my players got that tattoo, I would try to avoid their guaranteed money. I'd be like, you can't be trusted in any way.
00:06:02
Speaker 3: Shape for him. I just sat.
00:06:04
Speaker 1: I just can't like, I don't know what we're gonna call it, but we're gonna have a grievance. So but here's the thing, the tattoo artist said, I was trolling. I did give Lamello a leg sleeve, but I was trolling. I just want to be on the record that I am giving it a less than ten but greater than one percent chance that Lamello did actually get those toad hot Cheeto tattoo tattoos. Saw the reaction to the tattoo artist posting it was like, Bro, You've got to tell people that was fake. And he's now just committed to never being shoeless in public again because when we saw when we saw the leg sleeve, I just noticed two important context clues. One, he was wearing socks, so we were not able to see his feet. And to the red in the leg sleeve looks identical to the red well it just the same color. It just is the same shade. So I'm just getting on the record that I am. I think it's unlikely Mellow got the worst tattoo I've ever seen, but I'm not saying it's impossible. So I just I just want to be on the record about that. Does that all seem fair? I know LaMelo is your guy, He's gifted.
00:07:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right.
00:07:40
Speaker 1: Reminder everyone like rate subscribe review uh to the YouTube channel, iTunes, Spotify, hit the thumbs up hit the bell, do all those things. It helps us quite a bit. I want to quickly address right off the top of the shooting in New York City yesterday. It's very scary and incredibly sad thing that happened. So the latest reporting is as follows. A young man who you know pretty clearly was dealing with some significant mental illness and was believed I guess that football caused it, showed up to the NFL headquarters at three forty five Park Avenue with a semi automatic rifle and tried to go to the floor the NFL headquarters are at, went to the wrong floor and killed a handful of people before killing himself. There is this is you know, as bad and as sad as it gets. There was a police officer in the lobby who was killed. There were obviously a handful of innocent people who were killed. And I am not I always feel conflicted to the wrong word. But the guy who the murderer here is obviously a massive villain, but also someone that, at least I don't know, you almost empathize with in a weird way because he was lost, you know what I mean, his brain was broken. Well I don't know why his brain was broken. But his brain was broken and he lost his mind. I'm not gonna do my you know what some of you might expect me to do, which is give a whole thing on my feelings on the accessibility of people, any people amongst those people with documented mental illness, to be able to get those types of weapons. I'm on the record about that, and I don't need to get into it further. And I'm not going to act like I have any there's any real insight over whether or not you know, his mental illness was caused by CT as he thought, as he wrote in his little manifesto or letter or whatever it is, because I don't really actually think that matters a ton in the moment, in the here and now, what I will simply say is, uh, it is an unspeakable tragedy.
00:10:13
Speaker 2: And you.
00:10:16
Speaker 1: I as cliche as this sounds man the and I know I've said this a handful of times before, and it maybe I should have ended the show instead of starting the show with this, and we'll just spend another sixty seconds on it, because I don't have any deep, profound insight, but I felt like an idiot if I didn't at least acknowledge it. It happened in the city I live.
00:10:35
Speaker 3: It happened.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna be talking about the NFL later. There wasn't someone that works with the NFL who was shot, but it looks like he's going to be okay. Just just check on your people and tell him you love him. Not because the someone. I'm not saying, because so some of your people might be in the position this shooter was in. What I'm saying is because man, life can be cruelly random and cruelly short. And everyone hearing this right now, and you know me talking right now, we are you know, we are fortunate in that that that wheel hasn't spun and hit us, and so in the meantime, take advantage of those of those moments. That's always what I think about when something like this happens, just the utter randomness. And when you hear like this guy just went to the wrong elevator, like went to the wrong floor, but it's the wrong floor. I know that sounds ridiculous. The point is just totally random. Just the people who were killed yesterday, it was just totally random. Some a million sequence a million items and a sequence of events had to happen, and now their families, lives are changed forever and they're gone, and so just incredibly sad and thought and if you're the prayer, full type prayers for anyone affected by that yesterday here in Manhattan. All right, Sorry, tough transition, but I did want to do that off the top, you know, as I'm redoing this in my head, should maybe if I was going to actually do it off the top, should I have done it before we did five minutes on hot cheetos tattoos? Probably, but you know what work in progress on the pot at times, Demonse. Let's talk about the boat picture heard around the world.
00:12:29
Speaker 2: Jokic's agent was posted with Maverick Carter and you're you're guy Lebron James on a boat in France. The photo caption was the summer of twenty twenty five is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of twenty twenty six. Very specific you said, this is a zero zero percent chance that he goes over to Denver.
00:12:47
Speaker 3: Why is that? Why can that not okay?
00:12:50
Speaker 1: Because it's not going to happen.
00:12:52
Speaker 3: So let's.
00:12:55
Speaker 1: Well, I'll explain what's up with the caption. But this is one of those. I am going to need the audience to just trust me that when I rarely say I know this for a fact, but when I say it, it's not speculation, and it means I have about something like this information that is not publicly accessible, so to speak. I'm not like reading someone else's report. I know for a fact that the idea that Lebron next off season is going to sign with the Denver Nuggets is pure and utter fantasy. Now, if you want to say it would be awesome, sure, If you want to say he should, no problem. If you want to say it'd be fun, why not all those things I'm here to tell you. And by the way, as me, someone who obviously would like to see Lebron when it you know, every year he has left win a championship, I wouldn't hate it at all. I'm simply telling you it's not gonna happen. So, and I'm here to tell you that caption was not about Lebron, and this is where it is. So that so all everything I have said there is are things I know unequivocally, definitively. I know that Lebron will not be a Denver Nugget next year. I know that that caption was not about Lebron James specifically. I know those things. What I say from this point moving far forward is call it informed speculation, but not something I can say unequivocally I know. So what was it all about? And the answer to that is Maverick Carter, who at times gets I think unintentionally like dismissed as you know, Maverick Carter Lebron's best friend, or Maverick Carter Lebron's business manager. Those are accurate titles, but it far under sells who Maverick Carter is at this point in the sports world and really the business world. And so now listen again, I try to My job's never not to be unbiased. My job is simply to, you know, make sure the audience knows my bias is it is absolutely fair, and the audience should know I consider MAV a dear friend. I can separate that from what I'm talking about here, but you guys should know that, and if you didn't already, and of everyone I know, there's a lot of like internet speculation about my relationships with Lebron and the people you know in Lebron's orbit and Rich and Randy MAV specifically unequivoaled and even though I do a little business kind of with Rich that the person in that circle that I am far and away the tightest with is MAV. And so you guys can have that information, Uh, but it does not impact what I'm about to tell you here. What I'm about to tell you here is MAV has established himself as a legitimate force in the business world. If you were to I don't know that he has a linked in, but if you were to check the board of directors that he's on the long list of them, the people that he has real relationships with outside of inside and outside of sports, and what he has built himself professionally. The reason I say all of that is to say he is not fucking around with this league. He is attempting to build this f one style, traveling, event based basketball league. And so when you see Nikola Jokic's agent, who is also the agent of another dozen or so NBA players and maybe more importantly more than a hundred European basketball players, talk about the summer of twenty twenty five is great, a great time to make plans for the fall of twenty twenty six, that is not about Lebron and Joker playing together. That is, and again this is my speculation. This is not something I know, uh, but this is my read that is about the league Maverick is trying to put together, and the full details on that league are at this point a little hazy. Would that league be trying to directly compete with the NBA? I would, My guests would be no. But again I don't. I want to be very careful on this stuff because I think people will assume on certain certain things, people assume I know way less than I do, which is always fine, that doesn't bother me. But where it can get tricky is if people assume I know way more than I do and they read more into my speculation as reportage, which this part is not. But that was about trying to set up what would be a very interesting new way to present professional basketball and now and this is the blindest of all the speculation. I couldn't help but look at and poor Daniel, our producer, who's a diehard Denver Nugget fan, who maybe started this pod with the hopes that Lebron and Joker were gonna one day play together for the Nuggets, and now in.
00:19:44
Speaker 3: The second, I don't know, Daniel wants them on the Nuggets.
00:19:48
Speaker 1: Well, I Daniel, you can put it in the chat. Well let's see, you know, another season where they don't make Round three, maybe you'd feel a little differently. And so, but regardless, here's who I here's what I do know. Daniel definitely wants Joker on the Nuggets. And yeah, you know, did I watch Joker overcome with emotion watching his horse win that race? And think about you know what, I bet Joker would really enjoy a job where he's not in Denver eight months a year. And if there were a way for him to one day continue to make huge money playing professional basketball while having a lighter schedule and having more and not necessarily being stationed and anchored to the west of the United States for more than half the year, could that be attractive to him? Maybe? And so I think I'm very curious to see exactly what mav tries to build. And I'm very curious as so many of the best players in the NBA start to skew international for how many of those international guys, at some point in their career, or for a year of their career or at the tail end of their career. They might be like, yeah, that that is more attractive to me than the current setup. I don't know, because I don't know exactly what the setup of MAVs thing is gonna be. But it's real and it's coming down the tracks. All right, you wanna the You can ask me those couple follow ups, Demanse.
00:22:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I mean they were on the boat when they were catching fish the boat.
00:22:04
Speaker 1: Don't worry hold on, don't worry about the fish. One you can ask me about, uh, the first couple.
00:22:11
Speaker 3: What I mean, why can't Lebron go to dinner?
00:22:14
Speaker 1: So he can? So this is the thing I want to make clear he could. He's not going to like there. There is the if the Lakers and Nuggets were to have in twenty this year similar years they had last year. Both make the playoffs, you know, both get knocked out relatively early. Uh, and the Nuggets, even though I liked the offseason they had this year, you know, they don't have a ton of flexibility as far as salary cap space and all that stuff. They would of course he could go there. It's just not going to happen. And a reminder to everyone that when everyone was criticizing Lebron unfore opting into the contract that he had signed with the Lakers when they were saying, oh, you know, he could have opted out and signed with anyone for the minimum, and I said, had he done that, he would have been immediately across the board criticized for some fraudulent ring chasing, stacking the deck. You got to see a little sneak preview of that for a few hours this weekend when people thought that's what that caption was about, and the immediate reaction was that would be a fake ring that wouldn't count. Even Daniel wrote in our doc, he can come ring chase if he wants, like he got it. Like so we all we all knew that that would be coming, but we got to see that in very real time here, all right.
00:23:53
Speaker 3: One next one is move on?
00:23:55
Speaker 2: Is it a crime to be emotional, emotionally invested in your hobbies? I mean he cried after this horse from the race. He was like, we can go home now after we won the finals.
00:24:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, the finals.
00:24:06
Speaker 1: No, listen, it's not a crime. This is what I would comp it to. And I don't think this is that outrageous at all. And I'm I'll just come. Even though you know this is going to sound I am not comparing myself to NIKOI Jokic, but I'm using myself as an example. If you work your entire life for something, you obviously love it. If you work your entire life for something and you get great at it, you obviously have a passion for it. But if you work your entire life for something and it is the focus of your life after you know ten, fifteen, twenty thirty years of doing it, a new challenge can all of a sudden be more exciting even without knocking at all. You know what your main thing is and what has been the pursuit of your life. So that's how I view I don't view joke like some of the jokes of like Joker just plays basketball to pay the bills, this is his true love. I don't feel that way at all. But I do feel that this is something not new because he's always been into horses, but an exciting new challenge and something that he hasn't yet mastered. So the reason I said I would compare it to myself is I you would like if I were to ever win a World Series of Poker bracelet, you would see a level of like emotion and gratification from me that I don't think you could ever see from any like broadcast accomplishment. And that's not because like you love like you love your hobby more than you love your main thing. It's because it just activates a different like dopamine and different part of your brain. So that's what I see with Joker. But I do think he has a true passion for his horses. I think he truly really loves loves his horses. And I think there's a there's an extra thing when your hobby involves a living creature, you know what I mean, Like where you feel like you have real relationships. I know this sounds weird, but the anybody that's ever had you know, I've never been, I.
00:26:42
Speaker 2: Think are really feeling feeling animals too, think they're very personal creatures.
00:26:47
Speaker 1: So oh, I would imagine. And I was just gonna compare it to like if your hunting is kind of a bad example here, I'm talking about the sacredness of animals, But I was gonna say, like having a hunting dog, you know what I mean, like a dog that you that yeah, gets the job done, correct. I feel like there's some of this maybe with you with your snakes, But snakes are so different animals.
00:27:11
Speaker 4: Because they're not personal and you can't really like read their emotion the way you can so many mammals like they can't, like like with with.
00:27:22
Speaker 1: Dogs and with horses. Sometimes you feel like you can like read the look in their eye and you know they certainly can rest.
00:27:29
Speaker 3: Their head on your shoulder and stuff. Everybody right, And.
00:27:33
Speaker 1: So I totally I'm not mocking joker at all. I think it's really cool. But I also do think that when there is something you really really love that you literally can't be a part of at all for the majority of a year every year because your job takes you halfway around the world, that uh certainly play into the math on how long you plan to do that job. I do feel that way, and so that's to me, that's the end of the mav Jokers. Agent Lebron Instagram caption, which is just a great July topic. Nothing says summer like long days, clutch plays and firing off a few bets on the game all day with all sorry, not all day, I guess you could, but all with DraftKings sportsbook. As the season heats up, so do The bets and DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered with live betting, home run props, odds, boosts, and more. Whether you're chasing dingers or jumping in mid game, there's always action to be had. Never been on baseball before? Easy pick a guy to go yard, hammer some live odds mid game, or just ride with your squad and hope for the best. No spreads sheets, just vibes and dingers right now available from our friends at DraftKings. How about the Royals on the money line favorites minus one twenty six after last night's tough loss against the Braves or bot This is the one I like Bobby Witt Junior two or more hits, get plus money plus one fifty five. Of course, lines and odds subject to change. Here's something special for first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet five bucks and get one hundred fifty dollars in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code right. That's code right WRIGHD for new customers to get one hundred fifty dollars in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is.
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00:30:11
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk a little NFL before we get to Skinny Luca Demanse.
00:30:15
Speaker 2: In a recent interview with Aaron Rodgers, Kyle Brandt called him the best quarterback to ever play the position. So you've had some opinions on Aaron Rodgers in the past. Yeah, if you ever thought of him as the best quarterback ever?
00:30:29
Speaker 1: Well, so this I there was a point in time where I thought Aaron Rodgers was the most talented quarterback ever, and I still think he's probably the second most now to Patrick. And there certainly was a point in time where I thought Aaron Rodgers at his apex was the highest level the position had ever been played. So I buy, yeah, I buy that, But that is such a huge delta between that and the best quarterback to ever play the position. And this is and I thought, listen, credit where it's due. I thought Kyle did a really nice job in that interview, and I thought Aaron came across as downright charming, and so you know, it doesn't change my opinion on what the Steeler season is going to be like, but I thought that was a really good ten minutes of media. With all that said, this is one of those opinions demon's that I think is not an allowed opinion, And I know people don't like when I say that, So like everyone's entitled to their opinion, certain opinions, like you, there are certain opinions that are so far outside anything that is legitimately arguable that you can't have it.
00:32:07
Speaker 2: So like there is go ahead, God no, I mean you thought he was like the most like why can't how was that one? How can you not even make that argument, it's a take that you can't have. It's I don't wonder you were saying he was the best. You thought he was the most skilled, skilled, skilled player at.
00:32:25
Speaker 1: A point in time, but then someone more skilled came along. So the one guy, right, So you can't be the So here's the problem. The problem is in order to make an argument that someone is let's say basketball for a minute, Okay, there are six people that you are allowed to have the opinion are the greatest of all time, And it might just be five, but I'll extend it to six. And those six are. And the reason that I'm saying there's only six you're allowed, I really think it's only three. But I'm trying to be as liberal as possible with this here is because there is you can point to something as their thing that they were just the best at head and shoulders, you know what I mean. Like, that's that's what I'm hanging it on. So if you want to say Bill Russell's the greatest ever, you can just kind of start and end with the twenty one to zero in elimination games throughout his career, you know, and winner take all games, eleven championships, eight in a row. It's like, okay, simple, you want to argue Wilt, It's just like, dude, average fifty a game and more than forty eight minutes a game in a season, scored one hundred points in a game.
00:33:52
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
00:33:53
Speaker 1: Like the intuitively you understand the argument for it. Kareem greatest high school, greatest college player ever, most MVPs of anyone ever, you know, had the super long career success at.
00:34:07
Speaker 3: All of it.
00:34:07
Speaker 1: The Jordan Lebron arguments we've all had before. We don't have to get into him right now. It's obvious what those guys are. And then the sixth that I would add if you really want to squint hard enough, Magic greatest passer ever changed the game, career cut short due to a virus that you know they had nothing to do with basketball, the instant impact as a rookie being the best player in the deciding game of the championship round. Like, those are the guys. But if someone tries to like make the argument and I'm not, like, I'm not picking let me not even start with him. Someone tries to make the argument Larry Birds the greatest player of all time. The problem is there is not a single thing you can say, Larry Bird's the greatest, not one thing, you know what I mean. If somebody tries to make the argument Steph is the greatest of all time that there is now there is something you can say is the greatest, greatest shooting. But the other gaps in the resume compared to the guys he's competing against, prevent it with Kobe, who some people try to make the case for, the problem is it's very very hard, if not impossible, to make the argument that Kobe was better than the guy that he modeled himself after. And Michael, you know what I mean, Michael hasn't kind of clocked in every category. So how are we you know, how are we getting there? So when it comes to the greatest quarterback ever, what is in twenty twenty five the argument for Aaron Rodgers, There isn't one anymore. His regular season accomplishment with Peyton's got him killed. It's certainly not the winning And if it's just like I tell I test rawability creativity, Mahomes laughed, So like there he has nothing to hang his hat on anymore.
00:36:15
Speaker 3: So it's just.
00:36:17
Speaker 1: Just the world again. Dan Marino might have him in that there's not there. They're for real, like you just have to have there's got to be something that is ironclad about your case, and then the rest you can massage if you want to have a viable opinion. And so I just thought calling Aaron, who doesn't have the greatest stats of any quarterback ever. They're great, but it's not the best. Doesn't have the most MVPs of any quarterback ever. It's the second most. It's not the most certainly doesn't have the wins, doesn't have the raw athleticism of any the most wrow leticism of any quarterback ever, doesn't and no longer holds the title for you know, most natural ability. So how could if you weren't ever the best of anything, how could you be the best? Ever? This is not a viable opinion. And so I know that's gonna sound dismissive, but it's just not allowed opinion. Sorry, there has to be some standards. We live in a As I said to the guy two years ago who was walking his dog, watched his dog go to the bathroom, look at it, and then walked away. As I said to him, I will say, now we live in a society. You have to do your part. Uh, Like there is what are you shaking your head of?
00:37:53
Speaker 3: Help the want this guy society?
00:37:56
Speaker 1: This guy hold on this, I know the that that incident that I'm discussing there is this guy would every day walk two blocks from his house to the block we live on, have his giant or so use the bathroom, and then and then walk back home. And I finally caught him and I was like, you know what, We're just gonna have it out, man, and uh he apologized and then pretended to clean it up and then hurriedly walked away when he thought I was gone. So I did. I chase him down and say, hey, man, we live in a society. I did. I didn't know what else to say. I'm not gonna say like I'm gonna fight you. I'm gonna try to just guild you. You live in a society. Do your part well, do your part man. And in the sports take game, we live in a society. We all have. We can't you can't just come out there with takes that are indefensible. I'm not saying the takes have to be right, but you have to be able to defend them. That's all, all right. Speaking of indefensible. I guess this is semi defensible, but I hate it.
00:39:12
Speaker 2: The Madden rating go ahead, So I don't know about indefensible, but the ninety nine club came out for Baden twenty six. Your guy Mahomes was snubbed. Josh Allen Lamar Jackson are the two eight both have ninety nine ratings. How do you feel about this as this legit? I think it's pretty fair. I think that Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are much more Madden type quarterbacks than Patrick Mahomes is. Like, Patrick Mahomes is more of an improviser. Lamar Jackson's obviously like super fast, and Josh Allen's like a freak athlete. He's huge running through dudes. So it's like, as far as games, like, if you want to play Madden, like you're thinking, like you want to play, you would rather play with Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen.
00:39:53
Speaker 1: Okay, So that's really interesting way to look at it. And if that's the argument, that so be it. Listen, Mahomes coming into this year in the six Maddens post his rookie post, his first year as a starter, he was a ninety nine to four times he was the highest rated quarterback five times. The one time he wasn't, he was the third highest rated quarterback behind Brady and Rogers, and that was after the AFC Championship Game loss to Cincinnati. And he responded by having more yards than any player in the history of the league, winning the Super Bowl MVP, winning the regular season MVP, and having arguably the greatest quarterback season anyone's ever had. So I'm I'm not even mad at Madden. Maybe they motivated him. I actually I want to use this as an opportunity and listen, Josh just won Super Bowl. I'm sorry, regular season MVP had, you know, for a team that a lot of people think thought was not going to be good. Some people who had always been called a Bill's hater for just being right about the Bills then last year thought the Bills could be really good and that person was me, but that it was because of Josh Allen. So it's fine. And Lamar has had basically back to back perfect regular season, So you want to give him a ninety nine rating, it's fine. I actually want to use this time here to talk a little bit about Lamar and the Ravens because I was on Mina's podcast, and she was a gog that I was skeptical of the Ravens, and Mena, you know, said Lamar didn't play poorly in the playoff game, which I find unbelievable, and said that basically she thought I was being unfair to Lamar or the Ravens by not I guess chalking up the same exact thing happening every single year to just dumb luck and said, oh, I didn't know you were a Ravens hater. And this is where as I said with her, I will break k fabe for a moment. I adore Mena times. I know, I call her my rival that I want to vanquish. I think she's outstanding. It's the only reason I went on a podcast with her at seven o'clock New York City time on the night before I was going to the Bahamas for a few days. And I think she does great work.
00:42:57
Speaker 3: But I.
00:43:00
Speaker 1: There are two major points I want to make here. The first one is this, at what point does someone stop being a hater if they are constantly one of the only people provencorrect at what I'm just curious for the for the media and internet at large. At what point does hating transition to accurate skepticism, or is the answering never is the answer? Nope, if the whole world acknowledges this guy is just you know, Dan close to a perfect player, who's had a couple perfect regular seasons, who's just bad timing for these awful moments. And now twenty twenty three, for Lamar, it was an awful game. Twenty twenty four, it was not an awful game. It was a couple really awful moments that ruined an otherwise really good game by him. But I am and so because I didn't think Lamar was terrible in the Divisional round game against Buffalo. What I did think was a guy who was historically good all year about protecting the football having two turnovers in the first twenty minutes of that game made it to where the best grade he could get for the games like a C plus, and especially because they end up losing.
00:44:43
Speaker 3: And so.
00:44:45
Speaker 1: The question I truly have, and the question I truly have for the audiences, is that hating.
00:45:03
Speaker 3: Is.
00:45:04
Speaker 1: And I'll use the Bills thing as an example. Every single year people called me a Bill's hater. Now I was a Bill's troll to a degree, and I said, drop the banner, and I poked fun and I did all that stuff. But I was also right every single time. And then this past year when I thought the pendulum had swung too far in the other direction, and I said, I, actually, the Bills are gonna be excellent. I think they're once again the biggest threat to the chiefs uh. And that's the opposite of hating, And it was just correct, right. So then the and yes, guys, when I say Mahomes at the most yards in the single season ever, that's that's that is exactly the It's exactly what I'm saying.
00:45:53
Speaker 3: It is.
00:45:53
Speaker 1: It's total yards for the full season, everything all put together. The most yards any players ever accounted for was twenty twenty two Patrick Mahomes. So the Lamar stuff, to me is interesting because I it's not only that I don't think I'm a hater, but I think a lot of other really smart people who cover this league are in willful denial because they like him and because they want it to be different than it is, and because and this part I really empathize with, because they detest so much. So many of his original actual haters, the people who said he should change positions coming in the league, or he'd never be any good or any of that stuff, And so all of that has created this very odd world where folks patronize him a bit in a way. They discuss what is the only hole on his resume, but it's the hole that matters the most, which is in that league for that position, how you play in the postseason. And so this is the question that I would just have to everyone, Folks on Raven's Twitter who are mad at me because they think the team is absolutely stacked, and I have questions about its receiver position, and folks in the media that think I'm unfair in my skepticism. Because one of the other things that happened when I was talking again I think mean as that standing with Mina was Stafford came up and I talked about how if I were like I kind of impromptu was talking about how he might be my third pick of any quarterback in the league to have in the postseason that would go Mahomes Alan Stafford, and she seemed legitimately a ghast that I was not including Lamar in the math for that, and I was legitimately aghast that she possibly could include Lamar in the math for that specific question. You could have any quarterback for a playoff run, like, well, I'm not gonna pick the guy who's literally never like shown us that he can do that. It would seem that would seem silly to me. You might be like, well, Josh hasn't shown it. Josh has had plenty of playoff runs where he's played excellent throughout. Just the team wasn't good enough from Lamar. But that's fine. This is kind of an old hat. We've talked about this each the last few years because each of the last few years it has gone exactly like this unbelievable regular season that I look at with a quizical eye because I want to see how it works in the postseason. Then Lamar has one of, if not his downright worst game in the postseason, and then everybody has this moment of clarity for about three days where after the year people are like, damn, Nick was right, without saying Nick was right, and then come this time of year, it's like, no, this will year will be different. So this is my question because Raven's Twitter, Raven's Twitter thinks the team is absolutely loaded, so obviously, like there shouldn't be any excuses there, But my question in the media is this, if it were to happen again, same be to the last couple of years. Is Lamar gonna win MVP. He is the MVP's top two MVP, all of it, and then once again the Ravens don't play to their seed, or don't play to their talent or you know, and it's because of massive quarterback mistakes early in a playoff game that puts them in a hole that they can't quite dig themselves out of. Will this year then be enough? Is it like before the sample is too small or will it still just be ah randomness dumb luck of the playoffs? I find it really fascinating because it is absolutely true that the only thing standing between Lamar and being in the discussion demanse as one of the six or seven greatest quarterbacks of all time is one great playoff run. That's all that's standing between. It's just one because the regular season stuff is so unbelievable. But the only thing standing between him and being in a very unique class of all time athletes in a in a not great sense is deja vu all over again one more time, and it makes this year one of the most fascinating. It makes it makes the Ravens and Lamar one of the most fascinating stories of the season.
00:51:31
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:51:31
Speaker 1: And it also I am I'm really excited to watch it, and I am really excited to see how people react myself included to how this full season plays out. And so like it was, it's back to back years. It's all been right there, all been. And that's one other thing I want to say, because one of the things Mena pointed out was DVOA has over the last quarter century demand the two best teams, the two best five year stretches by any team to not make a Super Bowl are the last five years of the Buffalo Bills and the last five years of the Baltimore Ravens. And the point there that Mina made was, you know, basically, that's an Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes stat and it's that these two teams were good enough to be all time greats. They were just blocked by one of the greatest, if not the greatest duo in NFL history. And I pushed back on that too, because I think the Bills being on that list is a Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes stat because the Bills have lost to the Chiefs five times in this stretch. All r I'm sorry, four times. I don't know that. I feel the Ravens being on that list is a chief stat because only one of those years have the Chiefs been the team to block the Ravens got They haven't gotten to that level yet. So we'll see, and I listen, you believe in the Ravens this year.
00:53:22
Speaker 3: NFL is wide open this year. See what he does.
00:53:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we'll see.
00:53:28
Speaker 2: Uh.
00:53:29
Speaker 1: I have a feeling it will be like every year, unbelievable. In the regular season, they lose a couple of games they probably shouldn't lose that are a little odd, but the it is jaw dropping. And then come the playoffs, we're gonna be like, Wow, this team sure looks different, wonder why? And then but listen, maybe I'll be wrong, Maybe maybe I'll be wrong. All right, this message applies to ninety nine percent listening right now, because that's how many of you can be covered by fast and reliable service on the Boost Mobile network with ninety nine percent nation wide coverage. And if you don't think you deserve a deal, listen up. You've got another thing coming right now. When you switch to boost Mobile. You can get iPhone fifteen with Dynamic Island and a forty eight megapixel main camera for ninety nine ninety nine. That's ninety nine dollars and ninety nine cents for iPhone fifteen on a nationwide five G network. This may only apply to ninety nine percent of you, but I am one hundred percent positive boost Mobile just gave all of us a really freaking good deal. Reminder it's an instore off for thirty five dollars. Device setup female apply requires credit qualification, ID verification, activation on sixty hour plans taxes. Extra five G speeds not available in all areas. Also reminder to you guys like rate, subscribe, review, check out the podcast, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify. I really am trying to get our audio numbers up. If you're watching on YouTube right now, it's really easy. You can just go ahead and you know, click the little follow button or plus button on iTunes or Spotify, and even if you just watch us on YouTube instead, that's fine, but subscribe there as well, that's helpful. And hit the alerts, the thumbs up and the bells and the whistles and all that stuff. All right, let's talk skinny Luca Demanse.
00:55:24
Speaker 2: Luca was on the cover of Men's Health magazine looking very slender. He came out with a quote saying, just visually, I would say that my whole body looks better. How are you feeling about Luca's transitions?
00:55:36
Speaker 1: So a couple things. One is, first, sorry to I pointed this out on TV, and I'm not trying to pick on anybody, but this, to me is one of the main takeaways from the article. Remember I told you guys Ai doesn't know sports and that Ai hallucinates sports. This article got marred a bit by the fact that the author and in it an anecdote about how Luka when he came into the league, had a forty two inch vertical that was measured at the NBA Combine. The problem with that is twofold. One is anyone that's watched ten minutes of Lukadanic at any moment of his career knows he never had a forty two inch vertical. The other problem is Lukadancic did not go to the combine, so there is no place to measure his vertical. So what happened there? The most obvious answer is figured out by some Internet sleuths was if you googled Lukdancich vertical, the top AI result was that Lukadanciic had a forty two inch vertical measured at the NBA Combine, which then links you to an article about Dante Divincenzo's forty two inch vertical at the NBA Combine. But AI hallucinated it. I guess they saw the chu in both names, white guys, the same draft class, and they just made it up. So again, I'm not saying AI can't be used for things. I'm not saying it's not you know, the next, the future, all of that. I am saying, for some reason, AI does not know sports and can't figure it out. That's first thing. Second thing is this my other takeaway from that article demands. I'm gonna read you a line in it which I found fascinating. The facility which is located in the town where Doncic is vacationed every summer since he was a teen. That's important. The facility, which isn't located in the town where Doncic has vacationed every summer since he was a teen, didn't have weights until earlier. This month when he had dumbbells, barbells, weight plates and med balls trucked in. So here's why that's noteworthy to me. Luke every summer goes back to this town in Slovenia and trains. But his training has always just included hooping, you know what I mean. He plays ball and does drills, all of it. Weight training was never a big part of it for him. And so now you guys know, I feel like the go ahead.
00:58:33
Speaker 3: Oh it's just so cool just being able to get a bus of uh weights.
00:58:37
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, of course. But the the I felt that the whiplash effect of you know, Luca's fat, out of shape drinking problem was far too strong, considering that without ever being in peak physical condition, he had one of the greatest opening six year stretches of a career ever. This is where I am contractually obligated to remind the audience that Luka Doncic already has made more first team All nbas than either Steph Curry or Chris Paul and only has one less than Kevin freaking Durant. He's twenty six years old, that's how great he's been. Now, he did have a down year and part of it was he was a little out of shape. He was also sad, he also got hurt, he also got traded, and all, you know, all of those things. So I think that is I think that is important. It's not giving him an excuse. But I just thought twelve months ago today, before Luca got hurt, before Luca got traded, when Luca coming off of finals appearance, nobody thought and he had beaten in round two Shay and in round three Anthony Edwards, and had averaged thirty four to nine and ten in the regular season, nobody thought Shay or Anthony Edwards was better than him. Now I think it's like conventional wisdom that those guys are better than him, and Shae certainly has earned it. I guess Anthony I don't think quite has. But whatever the point I'm making is this, Luca, in non tip top physical condition was already well on his way to being one of the greatest players ever. Luca like this should be the early favorite for League MVP.
01:00:43
Speaker 2: Well you don't, and you don't think of his play style that him being a little bit thinner might affect it.
01:00:49
Speaker 1: So I don't think he's going. Yeah, but I think I think that if he is, I don't think he's going to be skinny. I think he's gonna be lean, you know what I mean. I think if you just replace some of what was fair with the Lakers, yeah, you know what I mean, Like, I would bet he weighs about the same.
01:01:10
Speaker 2: But look, I mean if not more, Yeah, I mean, muscle weighs more than fat. Right, so he looks a lot thinner than he.
01:01:16
Speaker 1: Looks a lot thinner, you know what I mean. So I just, yeah, I don't think you want actually skinny Luca, but thinner Luca. I think what is helpful. And I think that he has taken this You know what happened last year at a heart And this was the thing that I warned the MAVs about after the trade that even if they were going to be right, they're going to be wrong. Even if they were right, that if they didn't trade him and they signed him to an extension, he was just gonna get fat and out of shape and all these things. He by trading him and motivating him and insulting him, they then put this extra chip on his shoulder. Now people can say, why didn't he do it during the year. I don't think you can do this type of thing during a season, you know what I mean, I think you have to this. You need an offseason. And he's about to be playing a ton of ball at euro Basket at for Slovenia and I right now he would be my early season pick to win League MVP next year.
01:02:29
Speaker 2: And if he just torches Dallas every single time they play and it just doesn't even matter.
01:02:35
Speaker 1: God, I just can't wait if that were to happen. Also, by the way, shout out to Marco in the chat watching from Slovenia. Yes, shout out Marco. Very cool. All right, summer's coming in hot. Literally, if there's one thing you shouldn't mess around with this summer, it's your deodorant. Mando deodorant and sweat control is built for this season. It's literally going to be like one hundred degrees in New York City today. Blocks odor all day. Control sweat too. Whether I'm grilling in ninety degree weather, heading to a baseball game, or going for a run or a bike ride, Mando keeps me fresh and dry. It's one of the worst feelings in the world when you realize do I smell with Mando? You have zero concerns because I know I'll smell great and it will last all day. Mando's starter pack which they sent me, it's great, It's perfect for new customers. Comes with a solid stick deodorant, cream tube deodorant, two free products of your choice like mini body wash or deodorant or and deodorant wipes, and free shipping. It's a special offer for our listeners. New customers get twenty percent off site wide with our exclusive code. Use code wright wriight at shopmando for dot com for twenty percent off site wide and free shipping. If you missed the first time, let me tell you again. Special offer for listeners. New customers get twenty percent off site wide with our exclusive code. Use code right at Shopmando dot com for twenty percent off site wide and free shipping. That's shop m A N d o dot com. Please support our show, Tell them we sent you. Mando's got you covered, protect your pit smell grate doing it all right? Demand Before we get the listener questions, let's do Matt stafford here and then we get to the listeners.
01:04:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:04:27
Speaker 2: So Matt Everett has been dealing with some backstre on this and is set to miss another week of camp. You've been high on the rams. Does this affect it at all? I think the guy just doesn't want to go to training camp.
01:04:38
Speaker 3: He's old. Oh old.
01:04:39
Speaker 1: I hope that's it. That would be great, that would be an awesome result. Here if it's just an old guy doesn't want to practice. So here is Before training camp, there was one story of potential contender that hit my radar, and that was the CJ Stroud's shoulder soreness. I was like, ooh, that's something to watch CJ Stroud, you know, like that he wasn't able to do full throwing practice or whatever, like that's something watch. That seems to have subsided. Okay, but it was it hit my radar. In training camp. We've been lucky so far, fingers crossed. There hasn't been the like devastating superstar injury, and there hasn't been the contender that has just been hit with a bunch of you know, contributor injuries, at least not yet. So there have been to me, two major stories out of training camp so far for contenders. One is a positive one. One is a worrisome one. The positive one and people can say this is, you know Chiefs colored glasses, But I'm not wrong about this. The Chiefs rookie first round pick get who was considered a top ten talent, who fell because people thought his knee was not right and he might not be healthy for a good portion of his rookie year. Not only being healthy the first day of camp, but being slotted as the starting left tackle, not competing with Jalen Moore, who they signed to be the left tackle for that spot, and just being their left tackle from day one of camp today to right now is one of the biggest positive stories for any true contender this training camp because if they have that spot locked down, and then you have Jalen Moore, the guy they signed from San Francisco, and Juwan Taylor, the right tackle who's been a bit of a disappointment with Kansas City since they signed him from Jacksonville, competing on the right side, then all of a sudden, the Chiefs offensive line is totally different. So and there was everyone agreed that Josh Simmons had the talent to potentially be the number one tackle in his draft class, but the injury was so worried some he slid. If the knee is at really right, then the Chiefs dealing at taking care of one of the most important and one of the most expensive spots in football by drafting a guy at thirty two is a game changer that's in the positive direction for a contender, in a negative direction for a contender. It's this Stafford story because aside from confidence for your team's secondary, there is nothing positive that comes out of Jimmy G practicing and playing in training camp.
01:07:51
Speaker 3: And you need.
01:07:53
Speaker 1: Desperately a healthy Matt Stafford in order to contend, and I ain't the Rams can contend. I liked now for Devonte Adams. Yeah, it was just like, you gotta be kidding me. I got massive, I got Jimmy G throwing me the wall again. I love Puka, I really like their d line. I obviously love McVeigh. I think DeVante is good as a number two with the Rams, but it all comes undone without Stafford, and Stafford is thirty seven. He got the shit kicked out of him for a decade in Detroit. He has been banged up at times with the Rams. I am it's not the biggest story, but I am not going to ignore it as a potential big story. So it's just something to watch. All right, let's get reminder like rate subscribe review, let's get some listener questions to Monsey.
01:08:48
Speaker 2: Curtis asked, are the Vikings the NFC's versions of the Chiefs great ownership?
01:08:54
Speaker 3: Well run?
01:08:54
Speaker 2: They have their Andy Reid and Kevin O'Connell, and now JJ is looking like the next MA Homes Based off training camp, it is one.
01:09:02
Speaker 1: Of the worst. I honestly think this might be one of the worst UH listener questions ever. Uh, I'm not yet ready to call Kevin O'Connell Andy Reid. Andy Reid, in his first stop coaching, early in his career, early in his tenure in Philadelphia, made four consecutive AFC NFC championship games. Kevin O'Connell UH is zero and two up to this point in his career in the postseason. And those losses have come to Daniel Jones. And who was it last year? Was it was it Jade and Daniels? And I don't know that JJ is looking great in camp. So I I I now where they are like the Chiefs, and that they had a solid starting quarterback and Cousins and then I guess Darnold as well. But they want a higher upside. So they drafted, you know, they drafted a kid and said we're going to roll the dice. But that's where the comparisons sadly end, all right, MS in round one not not to the.
01:10:16
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Brandon asked, Nick, would you say Joker is the player in the NBA in which you changed your opinion the most on just in the fact that you were a big time late to the all time great party on him.
01:10:26
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, uh.
01:10:31
Speaker 3: And yeah.
01:10:34
Speaker 1: I first, yeah, when he just won all the m vps despite having none of the accomplishments, which I still don't love. But but yeah, I mean the he is an all time great and he does have the accomplishments now, and I also find him really endearing. So yes, there's no question is the player I've changed well, and in the other direction, it's hardened because for a long time I was a hardened defender. I was like, you know, it gave and cut him slack because nobody could beat the Warriors, you know what I mean. I thought he was. I thought his regular season dominance was like underrated.
01:11:14
Speaker 3: But then it was just Lamar Jackson, I know.
01:11:18
Speaker 1: I So maybe that's one of the reasons I'm so hard on Lamar's because I got burnt by Harden because I was like, he's not gonna fait, It's not gonna happen every year. But then it, you know, then it did? All right.
01:11:29
Speaker 2: Honestly think James Harden's meltdowns in the postseason or worse than Lamar Jackson's, though I will say that.
01:11:34
Speaker 3: I said they're the.
01:11:35
Speaker 1: Same thing, probably, but yeah, and there's certainly more of.
01:11:40
Speaker 3: Them, all right.
01:11:41
Speaker 2: Uh. Tam Man asked, is there anything Bryce Young can do this season to change your opinion on him?
01:11:46
Speaker 1: Yeah?
01:11:47
Speaker 3: Be good?
01:11:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, if he's good, it will change my opinion of him, that's all. I just don't think he is going to be able to be good for a seventeen game season at his size. That's it. I could be wrong. Yeah, like the games, the games and results matter, so yes, like the guys can change my opinion of him, he has to be good next.
01:12:09
Speaker 2: Uh, Chris ass I was listening to Thursday's episode of First Things First, and you were talking about your heart skepticism being because of his great pieces. Why don't we give the same treatment to Burrow?
01:12:22
Speaker 1: Uh? So here's the thing I think that Burrow does get a bit of the curve of he has these great receivers, but not to the same degree that Hurts has now, and I think that's fair in this regard. Burrow has two great receivers, the best duo in football. Hurts has two great receivers, the second or third best duo in football. Burrows, though, I would say, are better. But then Hurts also has, compared to Burrow, exponentially a better offensive line and exponentially a better running game. So like, that's part of it. But the other piece of it is fair or not. Man For a lot of people, a huge piece of how they judge a quarterback is third and nine. Can he pick it up for me with a dart? And that is the one piece of Jalen's game that people still have some question of fair or not. They have some question of and no one has any question of it with Burrow. So that's the answer to that question.
01:13:25
Speaker 3: All right.
01:13:25
Speaker 2: Next, Noah asked, when you and Danny were doing radio together back in the day, did you ever talk about one day being on TV together or was that never a thought?
01:13:35
Speaker 1: Never thought? He and I both thought we were radio lifers. Yeah, I mean, we certainly always talked about you know, working together and doing stuff and collaborating. But yeah, I mean TV. The TV piece of this is one of the more shocking kind of turn of events of my professional life, to be totally honest, all right.
01:13:56
Speaker 2: Last one Joel asked where did Nick go fish saw the mahis? And want to and what's the story. I'm a bit of a fisherman myself saw fishermen to fishermen, So.
01:14:07
Speaker 1: How did he see the mahis? I'm trying to figure out, did your mom post it? Did he put it on the pot?
01:14:15
Speaker 3: And I was about to say it might have been something possible, you know what.
01:14:19
Speaker 1: I know what it was? The walk in video from First Things First yesterday, That's what it was. And I held up my phone. I was in the Bahamas for a couple of days, uh, and we didn't have the show Friday, and so I went down. I've got to tell I'll end the story on this. I have to tell you this. This unbelieving. So I had an amazing time in the Bahamas. By the way, shout out to the people of the Bahamas who are huge First Things First viewers, like the people they couldn't believe it, like shockingly popular amongst the workers. It was crazy, but so short version of this story as best as I can because I got cause I'm going on the Herd today with Danny actually, which is really cool. A year ago, I won Hanka's Area's charity poker tournament with the Mets. It was at City Field. It's like a one hundred people playing. I won it. Top prize was four days in a super nice suite at Bahamar in the Bahamas.
01:15:20
Speaker 3: Okay.
01:15:21
Speaker 1: I then kind of forgot about it and then found out that that thing was going to expire in like a month, so I reached out to Bahamah. It was like, hey, I have this certificate. I'd like to use it this coming weekend. They're like, oh, that suite that you're supposed to have is not available the days you're talking about, but a different one might be, and blah blah blah. So we go back and forth and ultimately they're like listen, they were super nice and super helpful, and shout out to them. They're like, we can give you the suite for Sunday to Wednesday, but I obviously got to be at work, but your mom and sister could go. So I'm like, all right, I'll go down Friday and leave Sunday afternoon. Your mom and sister can come down Sunday morning, have a little mother daughter four days in the Bahamas, and they can use the suite anyway. Because there's two of them, it's just one of me. I'll just get whatever the cheapest room possible is. And so I went down there for two days by myself, golfed twice on Friday, went fishing. That's where I caught the Mahimi. Gambled eight by myself, who's great. Met a guy named Alan who used to be an investment banker, made a bunch of money and now is a literal treasure hunter, like literally like hires cruise to like scour the ocean floor and he's making a TV show about it looking for a thirty billion dollar wreck somewhere. Like it's really cool. So I had a great time. I didn't pick your mom sister up from the airport. Driving back. We have lunch and then I go to the airport. Your mom then facetimes me and shows me the room that I won in this poker tournament. But I did not set foot in this room. Demanse So hotel room has a pool, table, two kitchens, a theater, a peloton, four balconies, three one, two, three, twenty four hour butlers to help set things up for you. It is. I realized after the fact the reason this was a prize in the charity poker tournament was someone I think who was in the charity poker tournament is a casino whale and gets comps or you know what I mean, like the want you to come down and gamble whatever, and so they hadn't include it. It might be the nicest hotel room I've ever seen in my life. I'm not using it. Your mom and sister. It could make ten people. It's just your mom and sister. You're like your mom to called me, She's like, I texted the butler. He set up a massage and reservations for us, and we're doing this. I'm like, this is unbelievable. They're just living the life. But I do have to say no free ads, but I would do ads for Baha Mar. That place was great. I'd never been there. I'd been to Atlantis a few times because that's where the World Series of Poker is. The World Series of Poker Paradise, same island, but you know, different part of it. I'd never been there. We should go sometime to Monday the next time you come to New York. I because it's a short flight. I'd go again for just two days. It was a ton of fun. I really enjoyed it. No, we'd never been to the Bahamas.
01:18:59
Speaker 3: Oh okay, I thought that was you know, we went to a Caribbean.
01:19:04
Speaker 1: Correct, Well, it's all in the Caribbean. We went to what you're thinking of is Grand Cayman. We went to Grand Cayman, but we didn't go to the Bahamas. But it also has and I didn't take advantage of it, like a massive water park, a bunch of slides. Everything. All right, no more free ads.
01:19:20
Speaker 3: I'm not.
01:19:22
Speaker 1: Lazy river too. Everything. It was pretty sick all right, yeah, uh in short flight from New York. All right, I will say Volume uh and Blue Duck. Folks, let's send this off to the bomber people say this is the one free ad they're getting. I guess they. Let's get a partnership going uh the all right, thank like rate subscribe review, Thank you to Volume, Blue Duck, DraftKings, Boost Mobile, Mando all that. I will see you guys on I'm with Danny Parkins in a little more than an hour.
01:19:52
Speaker 3: What's right
Speaker 1: All right, welcome in What's Right with the Great episode three fifty three. In this episode of What's Right when the Grid is brought to you by boost Mobile, a ton to get to today, some very fun topics, a very serious topic right off the top before we get to any of that, however, let me welcome in demonse. Demonse, great to see you. The major development, it feels like in the ongoing saga of your soon to be a Snake family, which is you added a surveillance camera to the to the incubator. YEP, that's pretty cool. So like, can you watch it from your phone when you're at work?
00:00:45
Speaker 2: I can watch it for my phone when I'm at work. The motion sensor things a little messed up. It just it shows motion when I'm looking for egg motion. But it's like the lighting has changed in the background. So we got to figure out you got a too sensitive. Yeah, but I mean since it was probably good.
00:01:00
Speaker 1: Quick question and then we'll get to the important stuff. Now that this isn't important. Do if you check your phone and there is a snake being don't hatching? I guess you'll leave work?
00:01:16
Speaker 3: Yeah?
00:01:17
Speaker 1: Will you leave work? Here's the thing really close enough that you could just be like, oh, you got to go out for a second, go in and then come back whatever is. I'm very excited about.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: It too, I think. But yeah, no, I would leave it there. I wouldn't leave just because it would need time to come all the way out. If there was a problem, Yeah, there was a problem, I'm leaving like if something Yeah, of course, yeah.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: It'd be it'd be almost criminal if you didn't. And what do we think another like two more weeks?
00:01:45
Speaker 2: Like what's it June August fifteenth, Yeah, so two weeks at the latest.
00:01:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, last last question, So you spent time this weekend getting the surveillance set up, checking on the snakes, all of that. Did you write your little sister a letter?
00:02:03
Speaker 3: Why did you do this? On the podcast?
00:02:05
Speaker 1: I know nobody's written her letters. I send her emails. The only person who's written her letters is my mom, who's written her letter every day. But that's not so. It is what it is. She hasn't written us letters, so you know what, Yeah, it's all good. All right, time now for straight the voicemail. Brought to you by our great friends at boost Mobile, who also bring you this entire episode of What's Right in the great. Here's a serious but uplifting note. Deon Sanders found out while he was being checked. So Deon Sanders has like some vascular issues, which is why he's lost some toes. So he gets checked on that regularly. In the check on that, they noticed something maybe a little amiss, so they sent them to a urologist. They did a check there, they noticed something really amiss and they're like, you have aggressive bladder cancer. He then had his bladder removed, I guess and says he's totally cancer free, and then used his platform to really encourage people to go to the doctor to get checked out all of that, and had an unbelievable quote when uh one of the reporters asked him about staring death in the face, and he said, I didn't stare death in the face. I stared life in the face. And then he had such a Dion quote where he's like, I'm God's guy. It was so funny. It was like such an outrageous thing but also awesome, and he was like, God put me here for a reason to entertain and inspire and teach, and he really believes it. And by the way, if you've led the life Diana is led which is one of the greatest college football players ever, one of the greatest, maybe the single greatest defensive NFL player ever, while also being a pretty damn good baseball player, very successful, charismatic in the media, and then re en venting what's possible in collegiate coaching from the HBCU level to Colorado. And oh yeah, he's got a couple of sons trying to make the NFL. I don't blame him for feeling like yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm I'm special like that. Yeah, in God's guy. But I that's Those are the things from Dion that not only make it impossible not to like him, but you just root for him. And I thought he used that platform really well yesterday. So I like that Travis Kelsey was in Happy Gilmore two. I have not seen it, and now we have a potential controversy. So LaMelo ball it was, you know, posted that he got hot Cheeto tattoo feet. I don't need hot cheet toes it It would be the worst tattoo I've ever seen in the world. The worst. It would be tattooing all five of your toes the exact color of hot Cheetos with little flag above them, and it was put out there by a tattoo artist. Later that day, the tattoo artist said, you know this is we were just trolling. We did do a full leg sleeve on Mellow, but we didn't and he then showed that, but we didn't do the toes. Here's all I'm gonna say, de Wan say, I have two takes on this. One is you know, I like the Raiders just cut Christian Wilkins and they're trying to not pay him is guaranteed money, and it's because a very shaky reporting about odd locker room behavior plus uh not rehabbing his foot, and they're like, you know what you're not You're not good for the team. If I had a up athlete, if I were paying, if I owned a team and one of my players got that tattoo, I would try to avoid their guaranteed money. I'd be like, you can't be trusted in any way.
00:06:02
Speaker 3: Shape for him. I just sat.
00:06:04
Speaker 1: I just can't like, I don't know what we're gonna call it, but we're gonna have a grievance. So but here's the thing, the tattoo artist said, I was trolling. I did give Lamello a leg sleeve, but I was trolling. I just want to be on the record that I am giving it a less than ten but greater than one percent chance that Lamello did actually get those toad hot Cheeto tattoo tattoos. Saw the reaction to the tattoo artist posting it was like, Bro, You've got to tell people that was fake. And he's now just committed to never being shoeless in public again because when we saw when we saw the leg sleeve, I just noticed two important context clues. One, he was wearing socks, so we were not able to see his feet. And to the red in the leg sleeve looks identical to the red well it just the same color. It just is the same shade. So I'm just getting on the record that I am. I think it's unlikely Mellow got the worst tattoo I've ever seen, but I'm not saying it's impossible. So I just I just want to be on the record about that. Does that all seem fair? I know LaMelo is your guy, He's gifted.
00:07:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right.
00:07:40
Speaker 1: Reminder everyone like rate subscribe review uh to the YouTube channel, iTunes, Spotify, hit the thumbs up hit the bell, do all those things. It helps us quite a bit. I want to quickly address right off the top of the shooting in New York City yesterday. It's very scary and incredibly sad thing that happened. So the latest reporting is as follows. A young man who you know pretty clearly was dealing with some significant mental illness and was believed I guess that football caused it, showed up to the NFL headquarters at three forty five Park Avenue with a semi automatic rifle and tried to go to the floor the NFL headquarters are at, went to the wrong floor and killed a handful of people before killing himself. There is this is you know, as bad and as sad as it gets. There was a police officer in the lobby who was killed. There were obviously a handful of innocent people who were killed. And I am not I always feel conflicted to the wrong word. But the guy who the murderer here is obviously a massive villain, but also someone that, at least I don't know, you almost empathize with in a weird way because he was lost, you know what I mean, his brain was broken. Well I don't know why his brain was broken. But his brain was broken and he lost his mind. I'm not gonna do my you know what some of you might expect me to do, which is give a whole thing on my feelings on the accessibility of people, any people amongst those people with documented mental illness, to be able to get those types of weapons. I'm on the record about that, and I don't need to get into it further. And I'm not going to act like I have any there's any real insight over whether or not you know, his mental illness was caused by CT as he thought, as he wrote in his little manifesto or letter or whatever it is, because I don't really actually think that matters a ton in the moment, in the here and now, what I will simply say is, uh, it is an unspeakable tragedy.
00:10:13
Speaker 2: And you.
00:10:16
Speaker 1: I as cliche as this sounds man the and I know I've said this a handful of times before, and it maybe I should have ended the show instead of starting the show with this, and we'll just spend another sixty seconds on it, because I don't have any deep, profound insight, but I felt like an idiot if I didn't at least acknowledge it. It happened in the city I live.
00:10:35
Speaker 3: It happened.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna be talking about the NFL later. There wasn't someone that works with the NFL who was shot, but it looks like he's going to be okay. Just just check on your people and tell him you love him. Not because the someone. I'm not saying, because so some of your people might be in the position this shooter was in. What I'm saying is because man, life can be cruelly random and cruelly short. And everyone hearing this right now, and you know me talking right now, we are you know, we are fortunate in that that that wheel hasn't spun and hit us, and so in the meantime, take advantage of those of those moments. That's always what I think about when something like this happens, just the utter randomness. And when you hear like this guy just went to the wrong elevator, like went to the wrong floor, but it's the wrong floor. I know that sounds ridiculous. The point is just totally random. Just the people who were killed yesterday, it was just totally random. Some a million sequence a million items and a sequence of events had to happen, and now their families, lives are changed forever and they're gone, and so just incredibly sad and thought and if you're the prayer, full type prayers for anyone affected by that yesterday here in Manhattan. All right, Sorry, tough transition, but I did want to do that off the top, you know, as I'm redoing this in my head, should maybe if I was going to actually do it off the top, should I have done it before we did five minutes on hot cheetos tattoos? Probably, but you know what work in progress on the pot at times, Demonse. Let's talk about the boat picture heard around the world.
00:12:29
Speaker 2: Jokic's agent was posted with Maverick Carter and you're you're guy Lebron James on a boat in France. The photo caption was the summer of twenty twenty five is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of twenty twenty six. Very specific you said, this is a zero zero percent chance that he goes over to Denver.
00:12:47
Speaker 3: Why is that? Why can that not okay?
00:12:50
Speaker 1: Because it's not going to happen.
00:12:52
Speaker 3: So let's.
00:12:55
Speaker 1: Well, I'll explain what's up with the caption. But this is one of those. I am going to need the audience to just trust me that when I rarely say I know this for a fact, but when I say it, it's not speculation, and it means I have about something like this information that is not publicly accessible, so to speak. I'm not like reading someone else's report. I know for a fact that the idea that Lebron next off season is going to sign with the Denver Nuggets is pure and utter fantasy. Now, if you want to say it would be awesome, sure, If you want to say he should, no problem. If you want to say it'd be fun, why not all those things I'm here to tell you. And by the way, as me, someone who obviously would like to see Lebron when it you know, every year he has left win a championship, I wouldn't hate it at all. I'm simply telling you it's not gonna happen. So, and I'm here to tell you that caption was not about Lebron, and this is where it is. So that so all everything I have said there is are things I know unequivocally, definitively. I know that Lebron will not be a Denver Nugget next year. I know that that caption was not about Lebron James specifically. I know those things. What I say from this point moving far forward is call it informed speculation, but not something I can say unequivocally I know. So what was it all about? And the answer to that is Maverick Carter, who at times gets I think unintentionally like dismissed as you know, Maverick Carter Lebron's best friend, or Maverick Carter Lebron's business manager. Those are accurate titles, but it far under sells who Maverick Carter is at this point in the sports world and really the business world. And so now listen again, I try to My job's never not to be unbiased. My job is simply to, you know, make sure the audience knows my bias is it is absolutely fair, and the audience should know I consider MAV a dear friend. I can separate that from what I'm talking about here, but you guys should know that, and if you didn't already, and of everyone I know, there's a lot of like internet speculation about my relationships with Lebron and the people you know in Lebron's orbit and Rich and Randy MAV specifically unequivoaled and even though I do a little business kind of with Rich that the person in that circle that I am far and away the tightest with is MAV. And so you guys can have that information, Uh, but it does not impact what I'm about to tell you here. What I'm about to tell you here is MAV has established himself as a legitimate force in the business world. If you were to I don't know that he has a linked in, but if you were to check the board of directors that he's on the long list of them, the people that he has real relationships with outside of inside and outside of sports, and what he has built himself professionally. The reason I say all of that is to say he is not fucking around with this league. He is attempting to build this f one style, traveling, event based basketball league. And so when you see Nikola Jokic's agent, who is also the agent of another dozen or so NBA players and maybe more importantly more than a hundred European basketball players, talk about the summer of twenty twenty five is great, a great time to make plans for the fall of twenty twenty six, that is not about Lebron and Joker playing together. That is, and again this is my speculation. This is not something I know, uh, but this is my read that is about the league Maverick is trying to put together, and the full details on that league are at this point a little hazy. Would that league be trying to directly compete with the NBA? I would, My guests would be no. But again I don't. I want to be very careful on this stuff because I think people will assume on certain certain things, people assume I know way less than I do, which is always fine, that doesn't bother me. But where it can get tricky is if people assume I know way more than I do and they read more into my speculation as reportage, which this part is not. But that was about trying to set up what would be a very interesting new way to present professional basketball and now and this is the blindest of all the speculation. I couldn't help but look at and poor Daniel, our producer, who's a diehard Denver Nugget fan, who maybe started this pod with the hopes that Lebron and Joker were gonna one day play together for the Nuggets, and now in.
00:19:44
Speaker 3: The second, I don't know, Daniel wants them on the Nuggets.
00:19:48
Speaker 1: Well, I Daniel, you can put it in the chat. Well let's see, you know, another season where they don't make Round three, maybe you'd feel a little differently. And so, but regardless, here's who I here's what I do know. Daniel definitely wants Joker on the Nuggets. And yeah, you know, did I watch Joker overcome with emotion watching his horse win that race? And think about you know what, I bet Joker would really enjoy a job where he's not in Denver eight months a year. And if there were a way for him to one day continue to make huge money playing professional basketball while having a lighter schedule and having more and not necessarily being stationed and anchored to the west of the United States for more than half the year, could that be attractive to him? Maybe? And so I think I'm very curious to see exactly what mav tries to build. And I'm very curious as so many of the best players in the NBA start to skew international for how many of those international guys, at some point in their career, or for a year of their career or at the tail end of their career. They might be like, yeah, that that is more attractive to me than the current setup. I don't know, because I don't know exactly what the setup of MAVs thing is gonna be. But it's real and it's coming down the tracks. All right, you wanna the You can ask me those couple follow ups, Demanse.
00:22:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I mean they were on the boat when they were catching fish the boat.
00:22:04
Speaker 1: Don't worry hold on, don't worry about the fish. One you can ask me about, uh, the first couple.
00:22:11
Speaker 3: What I mean, why can't Lebron go to dinner?
00:22:14
Speaker 1: So he can? So this is the thing I want to make clear he could. He's not going to like there. There is the if the Lakers and Nuggets were to have in twenty this year similar years they had last year. Both make the playoffs, you know, both get knocked out relatively early. Uh, and the Nuggets, even though I liked the offseason they had this year, you know, they don't have a ton of flexibility as far as salary cap space and all that stuff. They would of course he could go there. It's just not going to happen. And a reminder to everyone that when everyone was criticizing Lebron unfore opting into the contract that he had signed with the Lakers when they were saying, oh, you know, he could have opted out and signed with anyone for the minimum, and I said, had he done that, he would have been immediately across the board criticized for some fraudulent ring chasing, stacking the deck. You got to see a little sneak preview of that for a few hours this weekend when people thought that's what that caption was about, and the immediate reaction was that would be a fake ring that wouldn't count. Even Daniel wrote in our doc, he can come ring chase if he wants, like he got it. Like so we all we all knew that that would be coming, but we got to see that in very real time here, all right.
00:23:53
Speaker 3: One next one is move on?
00:23:55
Speaker 2: Is it a crime to be emotional, emotionally invested in your hobbies? I mean he cried after this horse from the race. He was like, we can go home now after we won the finals.
00:24:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, the finals.
00:24:06
Speaker 1: No, listen, it's not a crime. This is what I would comp it to. And I don't think this is that outrageous at all. And I'm I'll just come. Even though you know this is going to sound I am not comparing myself to NIKOI Jokic, but I'm using myself as an example. If you work your entire life for something, you obviously love it. If you work your entire life for something and you get great at it, you obviously have a passion for it. But if you work your entire life for something and it is the focus of your life after you know ten, fifteen, twenty thirty years of doing it, a new challenge can all of a sudden be more exciting even without knocking at all. You know what your main thing is and what has been the pursuit of your life. So that's how I view I don't view joke like some of the jokes of like Joker just plays basketball to pay the bills, this is his true love. I don't feel that way at all. But I do feel that this is something not new because he's always been into horses, but an exciting new challenge and something that he hasn't yet mastered. So the reason I said I would compare it to myself is I you would like if I were to ever win a World Series of Poker bracelet, you would see a level of like emotion and gratification from me that I don't think you could ever see from any like broadcast accomplishment. And that's not because like you love like you love your hobby more than you love your main thing. It's because it just activates a different like dopamine and different part of your brain. So that's what I see with Joker. But I do think he has a true passion for his horses. I think he truly really loves loves his horses. And I think there's a there's an extra thing when your hobby involves a living creature, you know what I mean, Like where you feel like you have real relationships. I know this sounds weird, but the anybody that's ever had you know, I've never been, I.
00:26:42
Speaker 2: Think are really feeling feeling animals too, think they're very personal creatures.
00:26:47
Speaker 1: So oh, I would imagine. And I was just gonna compare it to like if your hunting is kind of a bad example here, I'm talking about the sacredness of animals, But I was gonna say, like having a hunting dog, you know what I mean, like a dog that you that yeah, gets the job done, correct. I feel like there's some of this maybe with you with your snakes, But snakes are so different animals.
00:27:11
Speaker 4: Because they're not personal and you can't really like read their emotion the way you can so many mammals like they can't, like like with with.
00:27:22
Speaker 1: Dogs and with horses. Sometimes you feel like you can like read the look in their eye and you know they certainly can rest.
00:27:29
Speaker 3: Their head on your shoulder and stuff. Everybody right, And.
00:27:33
Speaker 1: So I totally I'm not mocking joker at all. I think it's really cool. But I also do think that when there is something you really really love that you literally can't be a part of at all for the majority of a year every year because your job takes you halfway around the world, that uh certainly play into the math on how long you plan to do that job. I do feel that way, and so that's to me, that's the end of the mav Jokers. Agent Lebron Instagram caption, which is just a great July topic. Nothing says summer like long days, clutch plays and firing off a few bets on the game all day with all sorry, not all day, I guess you could, but all with DraftKings sportsbook. As the season heats up, so do The bets and DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered with live betting, home run props, odds, boosts, and more. Whether you're chasing dingers or jumping in mid game, there's always action to be had. Never been on baseball before? Easy pick a guy to go yard, hammer some live odds mid game, or just ride with your squad and hope for the best. No spreads sheets, just vibes and dingers right now available from our friends at DraftKings. How about the Royals on the money line favorites minus one twenty six after last night's tough loss against the Braves or bot This is the one I like Bobby Witt Junior two or more hits, get plus money plus one fifty five. Of course, lines and odds subject to change. Here's something special for first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet five bucks and get one hundred fifty dollars in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code right. That's code right WRIGHD for new customers to get one hundred fifty dollars in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is.
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00:30:11
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk a little NFL before we get to Skinny Luca Demanse.
00:30:15
Speaker 2: In a recent interview with Aaron Rodgers, Kyle Brandt called him the best quarterback to ever play the position. So you've had some opinions on Aaron Rodgers in the past. Yeah, if you ever thought of him as the best quarterback ever?
00:30:29
Speaker 1: Well, so this I there was a point in time where I thought Aaron Rodgers was the most talented quarterback ever, and I still think he's probably the second most now to Patrick. And there certainly was a point in time where I thought Aaron Rodgers at his apex was the highest level the position had ever been played. So I buy, yeah, I buy that, But that is such a huge delta between that and the best quarterback to ever play the position. And this is and I thought, listen, credit where it's due. I thought Kyle did a really nice job in that interview, and I thought Aaron came across as downright charming, and so you know, it doesn't change my opinion on what the Steeler season is going to be like, but I thought that was a really good ten minutes of media. With all that said, this is one of those opinions demon's that I think is not an allowed opinion, And I know people don't like when I say that, So like everyone's entitled to their opinion, certain opinions, like you, there are certain opinions that are so far outside anything that is legitimately arguable that you can't have it.
00:32:07
Speaker 2: So like there is go ahead, God no, I mean you thought he was like the most like why can't how was that one? How can you not even make that argument, it's a take that you can't have. It's I don't wonder you were saying he was the best. You thought he was the most skilled, skilled, skilled player at.
00:32:25
Speaker 1: A point in time, but then someone more skilled came along. So the one guy, right, So you can't be the So here's the problem. The problem is in order to make an argument that someone is let's say basketball for a minute, Okay, there are six people that you are allowed to have the opinion are the greatest of all time, And it might just be five, but I'll extend it to six. And those six are. And the reason that I'm saying there's only six you're allowed, I really think it's only three. But I'm trying to be as liberal as possible with this here is because there is you can point to something as their thing that they were just the best at head and shoulders, you know what I mean. Like, that's that's what I'm hanging it on. So if you want to say Bill Russell's the greatest ever, you can just kind of start and end with the twenty one to zero in elimination games throughout his career, you know, and winner take all games, eleven championships, eight in a row. It's like, okay, simple, you want to argue Wilt, It's just like, dude, average fifty a game and more than forty eight minutes a game in a season, scored one hundred points in a game.
00:33:52
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
00:33:53
Speaker 1: Like the intuitively you understand the argument for it. Kareem greatest high school, greatest college player ever, most MVPs of anyone ever, you know, had the super long career success at.
00:34:07
Speaker 3: All of it.
00:34:07
Speaker 1: The Jordan Lebron arguments we've all had before. We don't have to get into him right now. It's obvious what those guys are. And then the sixth that I would add if you really want to squint hard enough, Magic greatest passer ever changed the game, career cut short due to a virus that you know they had nothing to do with basketball, the instant impact as a rookie being the best player in the deciding game of the championship round. Like, those are the guys. But if someone tries to like make the argument and I'm not, like, I'm not picking let me not even start with him. Someone tries to make the argument Larry Birds the greatest player of all time. The problem is there is not a single thing you can say, Larry Bird's the greatest, not one thing, you know what I mean. If somebody tries to make the argument Steph is the greatest of all time that there is now there is something you can say is the greatest, greatest shooting. But the other gaps in the resume compared to the guys he's competing against, prevent it with Kobe, who some people try to make the case for, the problem is it's very very hard, if not impossible, to make the argument that Kobe was better than the guy that he modeled himself after. And Michael, you know what I mean, Michael hasn't kind of clocked in every category. So how are we you know, how are we getting there? So when it comes to the greatest quarterback ever, what is in twenty twenty five the argument for Aaron Rodgers, There isn't one anymore. His regular season accomplishment with Peyton's got him killed. It's certainly not the winning And if it's just like I tell I test rawability creativity, Mahomes laughed, So like there he has nothing to hang his hat on anymore.
00:36:15
Speaker 3: So it's just.
00:36:17
Speaker 1: Just the world again. Dan Marino might have him in that there's not there. They're for real, like you just have to have there's got to be something that is ironclad about your case, and then the rest you can massage if you want to have a viable opinion. And so I just thought calling Aaron, who doesn't have the greatest stats of any quarterback ever. They're great, but it's not the best. Doesn't have the most MVPs of any quarterback ever. It's the second most. It's not the most certainly doesn't have the wins, doesn't have the raw athleticism of any the most wrow leticism of any quarterback ever, doesn't and no longer holds the title for you know, most natural ability. So how could if you weren't ever the best of anything, how could you be the best? Ever? This is not a viable opinion. And so I know that's gonna sound dismissive, but it's just not allowed opinion. Sorry, there has to be some standards. We live in a As I said to the guy two years ago who was walking his dog, watched his dog go to the bathroom, look at it, and then walked away. As I said to him, I will say, now we live in a society. You have to do your part. Uh, Like there is what are you shaking your head of?
00:37:53
Speaker 3: Help the want this guy society?
00:37:56
Speaker 1: This guy hold on this, I know the that that incident that I'm discussing there is this guy would every day walk two blocks from his house to the block we live on, have his giant or so use the bathroom, and then and then walk back home. And I finally caught him and I was like, you know what, We're just gonna have it out, man, and uh he apologized and then pretended to clean it up and then hurriedly walked away when he thought I was gone. So I did. I chase him down and say, hey, man, we live in a society. I did. I didn't know what else to say. I'm not gonna say like I'm gonna fight you. I'm gonna try to just guild you. You live in a society. Do your part well, do your part man. And in the sports take game, we live in a society. We all have. We can't you can't just come out there with takes that are indefensible. I'm not saying the takes have to be right, but you have to be able to defend them. That's all, all right. Speaking of indefensible. I guess this is semi defensible, but I hate it.
00:39:12
Speaker 2: The Madden rating go ahead, So I don't know about indefensible, but the ninety nine club came out for Baden twenty six. Your guy Mahomes was snubbed. Josh Allen Lamar Jackson are the two eight both have ninety nine ratings. How do you feel about this as this legit? I think it's pretty fair. I think that Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are much more Madden type quarterbacks than Patrick Mahomes is. Like, Patrick Mahomes is more of an improviser. Lamar Jackson's obviously like super fast, and Josh Allen's like a freak athlete. He's huge running through dudes. So it's like, as far as games, like, if you want to play Madden, like you're thinking, like you want to play, you would rather play with Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen.
00:39:53
Speaker 1: Okay, So that's really interesting way to look at it. And if that's the argument, that so be it. Listen, Mahomes coming into this year in the six Maddens post his rookie post, his first year as a starter, he was a ninety nine to four times he was the highest rated quarterback five times. The one time he wasn't, he was the third highest rated quarterback behind Brady and Rogers, and that was after the AFC Championship Game loss to Cincinnati. And he responded by having more yards than any player in the history of the league, winning the Super Bowl MVP, winning the regular season MVP, and having arguably the greatest quarterback season anyone's ever had. So I'm I'm not even mad at Madden. Maybe they motivated him. I actually I want to use this as an opportunity and listen, Josh just won Super Bowl. I'm sorry, regular season MVP had, you know, for a team that a lot of people think thought was not going to be good. Some people who had always been called a Bill's hater for just being right about the Bills then last year thought the Bills could be really good and that person was me, but that it was because of Josh Allen. So it's fine. And Lamar has had basically back to back perfect regular season, So you want to give him a ninety nine rating, it's fine. I actually want to use this time here to talk a little bit about Lamar and the Ravens because I was on Mina's podcast, and she was a gog that I was skeptical of the Ravens, and Mena, you know, said Lamar didn't play poorly in the playoff game, which I find unbelievable, and said that basically she thought I was being unfair to Lamar or the Ravens by not I guess chalking up the same exact thing happening every single year to just dumb luck and said, oh, I didn't know you were a Ravens hater. And this is where as I said with her, I will break k fabe for a moment. I adore Mena times. I know, I call her my rival that I want to vanquish. I think she's outstanding. It's the only reason I went on a podcast with her at seven o'clock New York City time on the night before I was going to the Bahamas for a few days. And I think she does great work.
00:42:57
Speaker 3: But I.
00:43:00
Speaker 1: There are two major points I want to make here. The first one is this, at what point does someone stop being a hater if they are constantly one of the only people provencorrect at what I'm just curious for the for the media and internet at large. At what point does hating transition to accurate skepticism, or is the answering never is the answer? Nope, if the whole world acknowledges this guy is just you know, Dan close to a perfect player, who's had a couple perfect regular seasons, who's just bad timing for these awful moments. And now twenty twenty three, for Lamar, it was an awful game. Twenty twenty four, it was not an awful game. It was a couple really awful moments that ruined an otherwise really good game by him. But I am and so because I didn't think Lamar was terrible in the Divisional round game against Buffalo. What I did think was a guy who was historically good all year about protecting the football having two turnovers in the first twenty minutes of that game made it to where the best grade he could get for the games like a C plus, and especially because they end up losing.
00:44:43
Speaker 3: And so.
00:44:45
Speaker 1: The question I truly have, and the question I truly have for the audiences, is that hating.
00:45:03
Speaker 3: Is.
00:45:04
Speaker 1: And I'll use the Bills thing as an example. Every single year people called me a Bill's hater. Now I was a Bill's troll to a degree, and I said, drop the banner, and I poked fun and I did all that stuff. But I was also right every single time. And then this past year when I thought the pendulum had swung too far in the other direction, and I said, I, actually, the Bills are gonna be excellent. I think they're once again the biggest threat to the chiefs uh. And that's the opposite of hating, And it was just correct, right. So then the and yes, guys, when I say Mahomes at the most yards in the single season ever, that's that's that is exactly the It's exactly what I'm saying.
00:45:53
Speaker 3: It is.
00:45:53
Speaker 1: It's total yards for the full season, everything all put together. The most yards any players ever accounted for was twenty twenty two Patrick Mahomes. So the Lamar stuff, to me is interesting because I it's not only that I don't think I'm a hater, but I think a lot of other really smart people who cover this league are in willful denial because they like him and because they want it to be different than it is, and because and this part I really empathize with, because they detest so much. So many of his original actual haters, the people who said he should change positions coming in the league, or he'd never be any good or any of that stuff, And so all of that has created this very odd world where folks patronize him a bit in a way. They discuss what is the only hole on his resume, but it's the hole that matters the most, which is in that league for that position, how you play in the postseason. And so this is the question that I would just have to everyone, Folks on Raven's Twitter who are mad at me because they think the team is absolutely stacked, and I have questions about its receiver position, and folks in the media that think I'm unfair in my skepticism. Because one of the other things that happened when I was talking again I think mean as that standing with Mina was Stafford came up and I talked about how if I were like I kind of impromptu was talking about how he might be my third pick of any quarterback in the league to have in the postseason that would go Mahomes Alan Stafford, and she seemed legitimately a ghast that I was not including Lamar in the math for that, and I was legitimately aghast that she possibly could include Lamar in the math for that specific question. You could have any quarterback for a playoff run, like, well, I'm not gonna pick the guy who's literally never like shown us that he can do that. It would seem that would seem silly to me. You might be like, well, Josh hasn't shown it. Josh has had plenty of playoff runs where he's played excellent throughout. Just the team wasn't good enough from Lamar. But that's fine. This is kind of an old hat. We've talked about this each the last few years because each of the last few years it has gone exactly like this unbelievable regular season that I look at with a quizical eye because I want to see how it works in the postseason. Then Lamar has one of, if not his downright worst game in the postseason, and then everybody has this moment of clarity for about three days where after the year people are like, damn, Nick was right, without saying Nick was right, and then come this time of year, it's like, no, this will year will be different. So this is my question because Raven's Twitter, Raven's Twitter thinks the team is absolutely loaded, so obviously, like there shouldn't be any excuses there, But my question in the media is this, if it were to happen again, same be to the last couple of years. Is Lamar gonna win MVP. He is the MVP's top two MVP, all of it, and then once again the Ravens don't play to their seed, or don't play to their talent or you know, and it's because of massive quarterback mistakes early in a playoff game that puts them in a hole that they can't quite dig themselves out of. Will this year then be enough? Is it like before the sample is too small or will it still just be ah randomness dumb luck of the playoffs? I find it really fascinating because it is absolutely true that the only thing standing between Lamar and being in the discussion demanse as one of the six or seven greatest quarterbacks of all time is one great playoff run. That's all that's standing between. It's just one because the regular season stuff is so unbelievable. But the only thing standing between him and being in a very unique class of all time athletes in a in a not great sense is deja vu all over again one more time, and it makes this year one of the most fascinating. It makes it makes the Ravens and Lamar one of the most fascinating stories of the season.
00:51:31
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:51:31
Speaker 1: And it also I am I'm really excited to watch it, and I am really excited to see how people react myself included to how this full season plays out. And so like it was, it's back to back years. It's all been right there, all been. And that's one other thing I want to say, because one of the things Mena pointed out was DVOA has over the last quarter century demand the two best teams, the two best five year stretches by any team to not make a Super Bowl are the last five years of the Buffalo Bills and the last five years of the Baltimore Ravens. And the point there that Mina made was, you know, basically, that's an Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes stat and it's that these two teams were good enough to be all time greats. They were just blocked by one of the greatest, if not the greatest duo in NFL history. And I pushed back on that too, because I think the Bills being on that list is a Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes stat because the Bills have lost to the Chiefs five times in this stretch. All r I'm sorry, four times. I don't know that. I feel the Ravens being on that list is a chief stat because only one of those years have the Chiefs been the team to block the Ravens got They haven't gotten to that level yet. So we'll see, and I listen, you believe in the Ravens this year.
00:53:22
Speaker 3: NFL is wide open this year. See what he does.
00:53:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we'll see.
00:53:28
Speaker 2: Uh.
00:53:29
Speaker 1: I have a feeling it will be like every year, unbelievable. In the regular season, they lose a couple of games they probably shouldn't lose that are a little odd, but the it is jaw dropping. And then come the playoffs, we're gonna be like, Wow, this team sure looks different, wonder why? And then but listen, maybe I'll be wrong, Maybe maybe I'll be wrong. All right, this message applies to ninety nine percent listening right now, because that's how many of you can be covered by fast and reliable service on the Boost Mobile network with ninety nine percent nation wide coverage. And if you don't think you deserve a deal, listen up. You've got another thing coming right now. When you switch to boost Mobile. You can get iPhone fifteen with Dynamic Island and a forty eight megapixel main camera for ninety nine ninety nine. That's ninety nine dollars and ninety nine cents for iPhone fifteen on a nationwide five G network. This may only apply to ninety nine percent of you, but I am one hundred percent positive boost Mobile just gave all of us a really freaking good deal. Reminder it's an instore off for thirty five dollars. Device setup female apply requires credit qualification, ID verification, activation on sixty hour plans taxes. Extra five G speeds not available in all areas. Also reminder to you guys like rate, subscribe, review, check out the podcast, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify. I really am trying to get our audio numbers up. If you're watching on YouTube right now, it's really easy. You can just go ahead and you know, click the little follow button or plus button on iTunes or Spotify, and even if you just watch us on YouTube instead, that's fine, but subscribe there as well, that's helpful. And hit the alerts, the thumbs up and the bells and the whistles and all that stuff. All right, let's talk skinny Luca Demanse.
00:55:24
Speaker 2: Luca was on the cover of Men's Health magazine looking very slender. He came out with a quote saying, just visually, I would say that my whole body looks better. How are you feeling about Luca's transitions?
00:55:36
Speaker 1: So a couple things. One is, first, sorry to I pointed this out on TV, and I'm not trying to pick on anybody, but this, to me is one of the main takeaways from the article. Remember I told you guys Ai doesn't know sports and that Ai hallucinates sports. This article got marred a bit by the fact that the author and in it an anecdote about how Luka when he came into the league, had a forty two inch vertical that was measured at the NBA Combine. The problem with that is twofold. One is anyone that's watched ten minutes of Lukadanic at any moment of his career knows he never had a forty two inch vertical. The other problem is Lukadancic did not go to the combine, so there is no place to measure his vertical. So what happened there? The most obvious answer is figured out by some Internet sleuths was if you googled Lukdancich vertical, the top AI result was that Lukadanciic had a forty two inch vertical measured at the NBA Combine, which then links you to an article about Dante Divincenzo's forty two inch vertical at the NBA Combine. But AI hallucinated it. I guess they saw the chu in both names, white guys, the same draft class, and they just made it up. So again, I'm not saying AI can't be used for things. I'm not saying it's not you know, the next, the future, all of that. I am saying, for some reason, AI does not know sports and can't figure it out. That's first thing. Second thing is this my other takeaway from that article demands. I'm gonna read you a line in it which I found fascinating. The facility which is located in the town where Doncic is vacationed every summer since he was a teen. That's important. The facility, which isn't located in the town where Doncic has vacationed every summer since he was a teen, didn't have weights until earlier. This month when he had dumbbells, barbells, weight plates and med balls trucked in. So here's why that's noteworthy to me. Luke every summer goes back to this town in Slovenia and trains. But his training has always just included hooping, you know what I mean. He plays ball and does drills, all of it. Weight training was never a big part of it for him. And so now you guys know, I feel like the go ahead.
00:58:33
Speaker 3: Oh it's just so cool just being able to get a bus of uh weights.
00:58:37
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, of course. But the the I felt that the whiplash effect of you know, Luca's fat, out of shape drinking problem was far too strong, considering that without ever being in peak physical condition, he had one of the greatest opening six year stretches of a career ever. This is where I am contractually obligated to remind the audience that Luka Doncic already has made more first team All nbas than either Steph Curry or Chris Paul and only has one less than Kevin freaking Durant. He's twenty six years old, that's how great he's been. Now, he did have a down year and part of it was he was a little out of shape. He was also sad, he also got hurt, he also got traded, and all, you know, all of those things. So I think that is I think that is important. It's not giving him an excuse. But I just thought twelve months ago today, before Luca got hurt, before Luca got traded, when Luca coming off of finals appearance, nobody thought and he had beaten in round two Shay and in round three Anthony Edwards, and had averaged thirty four to nine and ten in the regular season, nobody thought Shay or Anthony Edwards was better than him. Now I think it's like conventional wisdom that those guys are better than him, and Shae certainly has earned it. I guess Anthony I don't think quite has. But whatever the point I'm making is this, Luca, in non tip top physical condition was already well on his way to being one of the greatest players ever. Luca like this should be the early favorite for League MVP.
01:00:43
Speaker 2: Well you don't, and you don't think of his play style that him being a little bit thinner might affect it.
01:00:49
Speaker 1: So I don't think he's going. Yeah, but I think I think that if he is, I don't think he's going to be skinny. I think he's gonna be lean, you know what I mean. I think if you just replace some of what was fair with the Lakers, yeah, you know what I mean, Like, I would bet he weighs about the same.
01:01:10
Speaker 2: But look, I mean if not more, Yeah, I mean, muscle weighs more than fat. Right, so he looks a lot thinner than he.
01:01:16
Speaker 1: Looks a lot thinner, you know what I mean. So I just, yeah, I don't think you want actually skinny Luca, but thinner Luca. I think what is helpful. And I think that he has taken this You know what happened last year at a heart And this was the thing that I warned the MAVs about after the trade that even if they were going to be right, they're going to be wrong. Even if they were right, that if they didn't trade him and they signed him to an extension, he was just gonna get fat and out of shape and all these things. He by trading him and motivating him and insulting him, they then put this extra chip on his shoulder. Now people can say, why didn't he do it during the year. I don't think you can do this type of thing during a season, you know what I mean, I think you have to this. You need an offseason. And he's about to be playing a ton of ball at euro Basket at for Slovenia and I right now he would be my early season pick to win League MVP next year.
01:02:29
Speaker 2: And if he just torches Dallas every single time they play and it just doesn't even matter.
01:02:35
Speaker 1: God, I just can't wait if that were to happen. Also, by the way, shout out to Marco in the chat watching from Slovenia. Yes, shout out Marco. Very cool. All right, summer's coming in hot. Literally, if there's one thing you shouldn't mess around with this summer, it's your deodorant. Mando deodorant and sweat control is built for this season. It's literally going to be like one hundred degrees in New York City today. Blocks odor all day. Control sweat too. Whether I'm grilling in ninety degree weather, heading to a baseball game, or going for a run or a bike ride, Mando keeps me fresh and dry. It's one of the worst feelings in the world when you realize do I smell with Mando? You have zero concerns because I know I'll smell great and it will last all day. Mando's starter pack which they sent me, it's great, It's perfect for new customers. Comes with a solid stick deodorant, cream tube deodorant, two free products of your choice like mini body wash or deodorant or and deodorant wipes, and free shipping. It's a special offer for our listeners. New customers get twenty percent off site wide with our exclusive code. Use code wright wriight at shopmando for dot com for twenty percent off site wide and free shipping. If you missed the first time, let me tell you again. Special offer for listeners. New customers get twenty percent off site wide with our exclusive code. Use code right at Shopmando dot com for twenty percent off site wide and free shipping. That's shop m A N d o dot com. Please support our show, Tell them we sent you. Mando's got you covered, protect your pit smell grate doing it all right? Demand Before we get the listener questions, let's do Matt stafford here and then we get to the listeners.
01:04:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:04:27
Speaker 2: So Matt Everett has been dealing with some backstre on this and is set to miss another week of camp. You've been high on the rams. Does this affect it at all? I think the guy just doesn't want to go to training camp.
01:04:38
Speaker 3: He's old. Oh old.
01:04:39
Speaker 1: I hope that's it. That would be great, that would be an awesome result. Here if it's just an old guy doesn't want to practice. So here is Before training camp, there was one story of potential contender that hit my radar, and that was the CJ Stroud's shoulder soreness. I was like, ooh, that's something to watch CJ Stroud, you know, like that he wasn't able to do full throwing practice or whatever, like that's something watch. That seems to have subsided. Okay, but it was it hit my radar. In training camp. We've been lucky so far, fingers crossed. There hasn't been the like devastating superstar injury, and there hasn't been the contender that has just been hit with a bunch of you know, contributor injuries, at least not yet. So there have been to me, two major stories out of training camp so far for contenders. One is a positive one. One is a worrisome one. The positive one and people can say this is, you know Chiefs colored glasses, But I'm not wrong about this. The Chiefs rookie first round pick get who was considered a top ten talent, who fell because people thought his knee was not right and he might not be healthy for a good portion of his rookie year. Not only being healthy the first day of camp, but being slotted as the starting left tackle, not competing with Jalen Moore, who they signed to be the left tackle for that spot, and just being their left tackle from day one of camp today to right now is one of the biggest positive stories for any true contender this training camp because if they have that spot locked down, and then you have Jalen Moore, the guy they signed from San Francisco, and Juwan Taylor, the right tackle who's been a bit of a disappointment with Kansas City since they signed him from Jacksonville, competing on the right side, then all of a sudden, the Chiefs offensive line is totally different. So and there was everyone agreed that Josh Simmons had the talent to potentially be the number one tackle in his draft class, but the injury was so worried some he slid. If the knee is at really right, then the Chiefs dealing at taking care of one of the most important and one of the most expensive spots in football by drafting a guy at thirty two is a game changer that's in the positive direction for a contender, in a negative direction for a contender. It's this Stafford story because aside from confidence for your team's secondary, there is nothing positive that comes out of Jimmy G practicing and playing in training camp.
01:07:51
Speaker 3: And you need.
01:07:53
Speaker 1: Desperately a healthy Matt Stafford in order to contend, and I ain't the Rams can contend. I liked now for Devonte Adams. Yeah, it was just like, you gotta be kidding me. I got massive, I got Jimmy G throwing me the wall again. I love Puka, I really like their d line. I obviously love McVeigh. I think DeVante is good as a number two with the Rams, but it all comes undone without Stafford, and Stafford is thirty seven. He got the shit kicked out of him for a decade in Detroit. He has been banged up at times with the Rams. I am it's not the biggest story, but I am not going to ignore it as a potential big story. So it's just something to watch. All right, let's get reminder like rate subscribe review, let's get some listener questions to Monsey.
01:08:48
Speaker 2: Curtis asked, are the Vikings the NFC's versions of the Chiefs great ownership?
01:08:54
Speaker 3: Well run?
01:08:54
Speaker 2: They have their Andy Reid and Kevin O'Connell, and now JJ is looking like the next MA Homes Based off training camp, it is one.
01:09:02
Speaker 1: Of the worst. I honestly think this might be one of the worst UH listener questions ever. Uh, I'm not yet ready to call Kevin O'Connell Andy Reid. Andy Reid, in his first stop coaching, early in his career, early in his tenure in Philadelphia, made four consecutive AFC NFC championship games. Kevin O'Connell UH is zero and two up to this point in his career in the postseason. And those losses have come to Daniel Jones. And who was it last year? Was it was it Jade and Daniels? And I don't know that JJ is looking great in camp. So I I I now where they are like the Chiefs, and that they had a solid starting quarterback and Cousins and then I guess Darnold as well. But they want a higher upside. So they drafted, you know, they drafted a kid and said we're going to roll the dice. But that's where the comparisons sadly end, all right, MS in round one not not to the.
01:10:16
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Brandon asked, Nick, would you say Joker is the player in the NBA in which you changed your opinion the most on just in the fact that you were a big time late to the all time great party on him.
01:10:26
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, uh.
01:10:31
Speaker 3: And yeah.
01:10:34
Speaker 1: I first, yeah, when he just won all the m vps despite having none of the accomplishments, which I still don't love. But but yeah, I mean the he is an all time great and he does have the accomplishments now, and I also find him really endearing. So yes, there's no question is the player I've changed well, and in the other direction, it's hardened because for a long time I was a hardened defender. I was like, you know, it gave and cut him slack because nobody could beat the Warriors, you know what I mean. I thought he was. I thought his regular season dominance was like underrated.
01:11:14
Speaker 3: But then it was just Lamar Jackson, I know.
01:11:18
Speaker 1: I So maybe that's one of the reasons I'm so hard on Lamar's because I got burnt by Harden because I was like, he's not gonna fait, It's not gonna happen every year. But then it, you know, then it did? All right.
01:11:29
Speaker 2: Honestly think James Harden's meltdowns in the postseason or worse than Lamar Jackson's, though I will say that.
01:11:34
Speaker 3: I said they're the.
01:11:35
Speaker 1: Same thing, probably, but yeah, and there's certainly more of.
01:11:40
Speaker 3: Them, all right.
01:11:41
Speaker 2: Uh. Tam Man asked, is there anything Bryce Young can do this season to change your opinion on him?
01:11:46
Speaker 1: Yeah?
01:11:47
Speaker 3: Be good?
01:11:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, if he's good, it will change my opinion of him, that's all. I just don't think he is going to be able to be good for a seventeen game season at his size. That's it. I could be wrong. Yeah, like the games, the games and results matter, so yes, like the guys can change my opinion of him, he has to be good next.
01:12:09
Speaker 2: Uh, Chris ass I was listening to Thursday's episode of First Things First, and you were talking about your heart skepticism being because of his great pieces. Why don't we give the same treatment to Burrow?
01:12:22
Speaker 1: Uh? So here's the thing I think that Burrow does get a bit of the curve of he has these great receivers, but not to the same degree that Hurts has now, and I think that's fair in this regard. Burrow has two great receivers, the best duo in football. Hurts has two great receivers, the second or third best duo in football. Burrows, though, I would say, are better. But then Hurts also has, compared to Burrow, exponentially a better offensive line and exponentially a better running game. So like, that's part of it. But the other piece of it is fair or not. Man For a lot of people, a huge piece of how they judge a quarterback is third and nine. Can he pick it up for me with a dart? And that is the one piece of Jalen's game that people still have some question of fair or not. They have some question of and no one has any question of it with Burrow. So that's the answer to that question.
01:13:25
Speaker 3: All right.
01:13:25
Speaker 2: Next, Noah asked, when you and Danny were doing radio together back in the day, did you ever talk about one day being on TV together or was that never a thought?
01:13:35
Speaker 1: Never thought? He and I both thought we were radio lifers. Yeah, I mean, we certainly always talked about you know, working together and doing stuff and collaborating. But yeah, I mean TV. The TV piece of this is one of the more shocking kind of turn of events of my professional life, to be totally honest, all right.
01:13:56
Speaker 2: Last one Joel asked where did Nick go fish saw the mahis? And want to and what's the story. I'm a bit of a fisherman myself saw fishermen to fishermen, So.
01:14:07
Speaker 1: How did he see the mahis? I'm trying to figure out, did your mom post it? Did he put it on the pot?
01:14:15
Speaker 3: And I was about to say it might have been something possible, you know what.
01:14:19
Speaker 1: I know what it was? The walk in video from First Things First yesterday, That's what it was. And I held up my phone. I was in the Bahamas for a couple of days, uh, and we didn't have the show Friday, and so I went down. I've got to tell I'll end the story on this. I have to tell you this. This unbelieving. So I had an amazing time in the Bahamas. By the way, shout out to the people of the Bahamas who are huge First Things First viewers, like the people they couldn't believe it, like shockingly popular amongst the workers. It was crazy, but so short version of this story as best as I can because I got cause I'm going on the Herd today with Danny actually, which is really cool. A year ago, I won Hanka's Area's charity poker tournament with the Mets. It was at City Field. It's like a one hundred people playing. I won it. Top prize was four days in a super nice suite at Bahamar in the Bahamas.
01:15:20
Speaker 3: Okay.
01:15:21
Speaker 1: I then kind of forgot about it and then found out that that thing was going to expire in like a month, so I reached out to Bahamah. It was like, hey, I have this certificate. I'd like to use it this coming weekend. They're like, oh, that suite that you're supposed to have is not available the days you're talking about, but a different one might be, and blah blah blah. So we go back and forth and ultimately they're like listen, they were super nice and super helpful, and shout out to them. They're like, we can give you the suite for Sunday to Wednesday, but I obviously got to be at work, but your mom and sister could go. So I'm like, all right, I'll go down Friday and leave Sunday afternoon. Your mom and sister can come down Sunday morning, have a little mother daughter four days in the Bahamas, and they can use the suite anyway. Because there's two of them, it's just one of me. I'll just get whatever the cheapest room possible is. And so I went down there for two days by myself, golfed twice on Friday, went fishing. That's where I caught the Mahimi. Gambled eight by myself, who's great. Met a guy named Alan who used to be an investment banker, made a bunch of money and now is a literal treasure hunter, like literally like hires cruise to like scour the ocean floor and he's making a TV show about it looking for a thirty billion dollar wreck somewhere. Like it's really cool. So I had a great time. I didn't pick your mom sister up from the airport. Driving back. We have lunch and then I go to the airport. Your mom then facetimes me and shows me the room that I won in this poker tournament. But I did not set foot in this room. Demanse So hotel room has a pool, table, two kitchens, a theater, a peloton, four balconies, three one, two, three, twenty four hour butlers to help set things up for you. It is. I realized after the fact the reason this was a prize in the charity poker tournament was someone I think who was in the charity poker tournament is a casino whale and gets comps or you know what I mean, like the want you to come down and gamble whatever, and so they hadn't include it. It might be the nicest hotel room I've ever seen in my life. I'm not using it. Your mom and sister. It could make ten people. It's just your mom and sister. You're like your mom to called me, She's like, I texted the butler. He set up a massage and reservations for us, and we're doing this. I'm like, this is unbelievable. They're just living the life. But I do have to say no free ads, but I would do ads for Baha Mar. That place was great. I'd never been there. I'd been to Atlantis a few times because that's where the World Series of Poker is. The World Series of Poker Paradise, same island, but you know, different part of it. I'd never been there. We should go sometime to Monday the next time you come to New York. I because it's a short flight. I'd go again for just two days. It was a ton of fun. I really enjoyed it. No, we'd never been to the Bahamas.
01:18:59
Speaker 3: Oh okay, I thought that was you know, we went to a Caribbean.
01:19:04
Speaker 1: Correct, Well, it's all in the Caribbean. We went to what you're thinking of is Grand Cayman. We went to Grand Cayman, but we didn't go to the Bahamas. But it also has and I didn't take advantage of it, like a massive water park, a bunch of slides. Everything. All right, no more free ads.
01:19:20
Speaker 3: I'm not.
01:19:22
Speaker 1: Lazy river too. Everything. It was pretty sick all right, yeah, uh in short flight from New York. All right, I will say Volume uh and Blue Duck. Folks, let's send this off to the bomber people say this is the one free ad they're getting. I guess they. Let's get a partnership going uh the all right, thank like rate subscribe review, Thank you to Volume, Blue Duck, DraftKings, Boost Mobile, Mando all that. I will see you guys on I'm with Danny Parkins in a little more than an hour.
01:19:52
Speaker 3: What's right