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This is The Don Levator Show with the Stu Guts podcast.

Staying with baseball for just one more minute as board Lucy and board Jessica and kind of bored Mike Yawning right in my face. Say baseball is not interesting. I will submit to you that what happened last night that they're trying to lure you in with is the storyline of Bryce Harper, who's just 30 years old. He wasn't actually that good this season. Power numbers, but Philadelphia gives him a ton of money. Philadelphia cares about baseball and he fancies himself a Philadelphia guy. Says he likes listening to WIP on the way to the ballpark like he's a young man who's trying to change the swagger of the sport. And they are playing in Atlanta. The 1927 Yankees of offense like this is a historically great Atlanta Braves team. And last night, after innocently, I thought I didn't think it was much of a controversy. Do you realize what it is that Bryce Harper is reacting to when he's staring down Atlanta's shortstop RCA?

Is it true they're playing like the 1927 Yankees, their offense? Because I guarantee you I can name more 1927 Yankees than Braves.

Okay. But it's because you haven't been playing.

I got Acunya Matata and I got Matt Olsen.

Excellent work by you. We can go through their lineup if you like. They have a lot of players that you would like. They are the 1927 how's for Cal doing Yankees? He's not with them anymore. But you saw what happened at second base, right? It was a big deal that Bryce.

Harper stared I saw that on Twitter. That Bryce Harper stared back at a player.

Yes. Do you know what that player did to offend Bryce Harper?

No.

At the end of the previous game when Bryce Harper ran around second base and got doubled off to end the game, that player had the audacity in the locker room to say in Harper cameras caught at a boy. Harper in his second language. He's interviewed in his second language.

I wasn't quite sure on what Samson and Adnan were saying. I just know that he took exception and made it personal.

Attaboy Harper was the great insult that now gets stared down. And WIP has a hero. Paid $300 million because Bryce Harper is a man of the people and he's taking down the Braves in a huge spot with two home runs.

Bryce Harper has become a man of.

The people in Philadelphia. That's crazy because they love what kind of swagger he has. Andy's winning and he's hitting two home runs in a game when they hit six home runs.

Credit to him because he's been the same dude since he entered the league. He is authentically him.

And that was supposed to be a bad contract and it's not if it does that to Philadelphia this time of year. But listen to the sound and what they're laughing at because the stakes keep climbing in the playoffs. Atlanta knows how great I think this is the best atlanta team I've ever seen. All of them. This is the best one. This one without freddie freeman. 104 wins. And I'm telling you, their offense, totally overwhelming. Historic. They are down to one. But when they tied it to save their season, the last play of that game was the center fielder at the fence robbing a home run. Bryce harper's coming around second base. He's doubled off of first. I want to just play for the audience. The sound of that. We don't have the audio or a broadcaster, but I want you to see what atlanta's crowd is recognizing. I've got a historic team and I'm on the cusp. If I have to go down to philadelphia, down two, I'm going to lose this series and people are going to laugh at me. And then a ball is hit toward the wall and you can hear the fear in the crowd and you can hear the spots where everyone realizes that bryce harper has rounded second and now he needs to get back to first.

You tell me if this sound, as just sound, creates the drama and the tension that will explain to you what philadelphia feels like and what atlanta felt like when it went from fear to joy.

It.

And that is proof positive I cannot make baseball interesting to lucy and jessica.

Well, if I'm being honest, I have been watching the series and it has been very exciting, dan. But what has gotten me invested in it is the war online between blooper. And the fanatic, the phillies fanatic. I don't know, what is his name? Fanatic. Philly fanatic. The philly fanatic.

I mean, I'm old, so I don't.

Want to get his name wrong because I know that I don't want to be embroiled in this. I'm on his side.

The philly fanatic is on our screens right now.

Mount rushmore of mascot. Scary.

Well, blooper. Went after him on twitter and it has not been good for blooper. Since he has been blooper.

Kind of looks like a ripoff of the philly fanatic a little bit.

Fan called blooper. A sentient pair of dockers in response. It has been very ugly. So I'm not going to lie. Kind of rooting for the phillies on this one. Watched the game last night and the crowd was awesome. It was a fun game.

There were six home runs, dan, and the history of this is interesting to me. Are you not aware that the philly fanatic is a legend? First ballot hall of fame.

I just didn't know if I knew him well enough to call him just like fanatic or if I had to call him the philly fanatic. Like, is there a shorthand?

Well, you heard roy get indignant back. Well, now I know stopped editing and yelled at you.

The philly fanatic. That's my bad. Any gritty is just gritty.

An enraged roy who's been editing all show and has not smiled one time just rose up and defended the honor of it's. The Philly fanatic.

That's right. I love mascots.

First name, the middle name Philly.

Blooper. Is just blooper.

Blooper is nondescript. He's a Walmart mascot. No one cares about him. He's just a costume.

Why blooper thought and now I don't want to get involved in this.

You're already I don't want either of them to hear me say this.

Why blooper thought that he could go after Philadelphia fans who we have mentioned many times on the show as being very scary people. Big misstep on Blooper's part. Blooper should have not tweeted what he tweeted about the Philly fanatic?

Blooper a little mouthy for something that doesn't have a mouth.

Lippy for something that doesn't have a lip. Yeah. Those things need to keep quiet. What is the Mount Rushmore of mascots? If you could only choose four. Forgive me. I love mascots. I've always loved mascots. I think they're delightful. I don't understand why kids are scared of them. I think they make everything better. Birthday parties, that they're wonderful and they allow you to be a child in adulthood. And Tony hates them.

I don't hate them. I just think they have no place in the sport.

Because they're sacrilegious?

No, just because we got it. You're a guy that runs around okay.

Because they go against God.

What's the top four?

They are very scary.

Well, we know the first two, the Philly fanatic and the San Diego chicken. We got to think about the next two. The San Diego at this point, San Diego chicken's been phased out.

Can. I nominate Big Red, the Western Kentucky Mascot. That's a good I feel like he's a first ballot hall of Famer.

What about the Sanford Cardinal?

No, we don't the tree.

No, not again with the tree. Hold on a second. You guys cannot dismiss history like this party. Roy, you cannot back down. You cannot offer the San Diego chicken. And they tell you, get out of here, and you run for the hills like a coward. You have to defend the San Diego chicken.

Oh, absolutely. That is Mount Rushmore second place.

Sorry.

It's a guy in a chicken. So San Diego chicken got pushed out of the way by Gritty. Gritty in just a couple of short years, has already made the Mount Rushmore. That's true. Gritty's up there.

May I nominate someone for the Mount Rushmore mascot? The only thing that cheered me up after that loss to Alabama on Saturday was staring at a picture of Mrs. Metz and her round mounds, if you know what I mean.

Philadelphia has two of the greatest mascots of all time already with think so.

I think you can say that.

That can't be. Not if you're willing to sacrilege. You're Blasphemous. When you say the San Diego chicken, you just ran him off Mount Rushmore. He's been number one my entire adult life.

Lucy, did you know that the San Diego chicken was even a thing?

No, I had to look it up. And I'm not to be mean. I'm not that impressed.

Well, the San Diego chicken did get tombstone pile driven by Kane.

He invented the entire time. He's the original. He's the OG.

He has a picture with Ronald Reagan on his Wikipedia page.

He was the first high paid mascot. He blazed the trail for all these people, now making $650,000 a year. And you guys disrespect him. Dust in history.

Not to do us Dugats, but, like, what have you done lately?

Oh, man.

Diego chicken.

Who else? The advanced auto parts car battery.

Oh, my God. Are we talking live mascots? Because I saw Bevo this weekend. Very cool.

Bevo's cool. Stealing McBeam. Also new class. Yeah, that's a good one. What's? The Purdue Boilermaker guy. We don't like muscular bound.

No. Why is everyone scared of him? What's wrong with him? Have you seen that little muscle? He's a big freak, isn't he?

He scary looking. The Providence Friar also goes in that same category. Nightmare fuel.

Pistol Pete, oklahoma State. Which one?

I saw a video of Pistol Pete dancing at a wedding like no one was watching, and it was a little endearing, I'm not going to lie.

Sun's gorilla.

Oh, that's the highest paid now, right?

I don't get that one. What does that have to do with the hard to?

What does gritty have to have with the sun?

It doesn't.

What does a chicken have to do with the Padres?

It doesn't.

Lucy, you threw out there that you're getting to see Ralphie this weekend. You said it was cool. Are you sure it's not cruel? I would think that it's very disorienting for an animal of that size to hear that kind of noise at every turn.

No, it felt very cruel the whole time. When I was, like, next to Bevo and the cannon was going off, I was like, this doesn't feel right. But I don't think it's anything I'm powerful enough to change. Well, I'm going to talk to Ron McGill, see what he can do.

But you're also doing this this weekend with Colorado, correct? That's a home game for Colorado.

Yeah. I am so excited to see Ralph. You're going to see the tree also. Just don't bring it up. Don't bring it up. I'm excited to see Ralphie, though. Do we remember when they tried to feed ugga to Bevo?

Yeah, I don't remember this.

Ugga and bevo next to each other is like when you and Stu Got stand next to each other. One very large mascot and one very small mascot.

National championship. Yeah. People try to kill ugga.

We have to have video of that that can't be played.

That's not something that's dissemination. Holmes oh, man.

It's too bad. I thought we got away with something. We could get away with something there because we're talking about mascots. I feel like, Tony, you're in a real minority here in hating against mascots. I don't believe there's an active group of army behind.

Usually, you know, leaders, again stand on their own and go for what they believe in. And not to be cruel, but I kind of dig the live mascot. I like bevo. I like ugga. I like the tiger, the Ralphie.

I like, you like the cruelty?

Not the cruelty. I like the fact that they're there and they're a real mascot, not a fake mascot. Like San Diego chicken. If they had an actual chicken unagaina, running around with a little jersey on, I'd be like, you know what? That's cool.

I like that.

And he could be in the game, right? You have to move out of the way. It's like a home field advantage for San Diego. San Diego.

I like that. You have now said that the San Diego Chicken, the pioneering hall of Famer number one all time mascot, would be better if it were actually a chicken, a hyena let loose during play.

That's kind of what Sir Big spur is.

Don Lebotard punctuate this segment with what is your strike three call?

Strike one would be strike. And then you stand up and you.

Give a good point to the right stugats.

That's same for strike two, but strike three, you get down low, you got your hands behind the catcher. All right? The right arm goes up into the air, and then you finish it with the punch. The right arm flings way up into the air.

I wish I could see that. Audio is great.

This is The Don Levatar Show with The Stugats.

It may not sound like it around here, but I am grateful for the work of this metalark intern. He is busy doing other things, important things that I see on his face. He always looks fancy, fresh. He always looks radiant. He has joy for creativity and life. And I see on his face that this last six months seems like it would be really stressful. I asked him at the beginning of this, I'm like the strike and everything. This seems stressful. And he's like, well, we're fighting for the right thing. And now I learn when I come in today, they tell me everybody's walked away from the table dramatically and throwing up their arms, and that this thing isn't actually resolved. And peace and hope are not here for the actors.

I know the actors were dramatic, but the writers, headed by Mike Scherr, who joins us now, they have gotten their deal done.

I know, but all of this has been stressful, and I feel like I see the stress on his face. Are you okay? Is everything all right? Because now you can get back to work on the important things of giving us stats of the day.

I'm fine, Dan. Thanks for asking. And yes, the talks with Saga after seem to have broken off momentarily. That's fairly typical in these high tension negotiations. I wouldn't read too much into it. It's not a good sign, obviously, but that did happen a couple times over the course of WGA's negotiation with the companies, and cooler heads tend to prevail it's. A little bit of posturing, a little bit of strategy. Who the hell knows? Or maybe they just came to an impasse. But the writers are back to work. We're writing stuff the actors need to get the deal that works for them, and I think they will. I think labor is kind of having a little bit of a moment right now after a mere 40 years of being pounded on and discarded by companies. And I think that SAG is ultimately going to get a deal that they need and that will help them. So I'm optimistic. I don't know. Do I look exhausted and tired? I feel like you're saying it's the ultimate NEG. You're saying like, you look tired.

I might be imagining it just because I imagine that your life has been stressful over the last six months. So maybe I'm seeing it in the place that it isn't.

Let me ask you a couple questions. I haven't been on the show in a while, and these are important questions. Number one, do you think that Mario cristobal should have taken a knee there at the end of the game? And the second question, do you think with another five to 8 hours of on air discussion, this show could get to the bottom of that question? Because I'm concerned that you haven't talked about it enough. As a frequent listener of the show, I don't know if we've covered every angle here. Is it the third worst loss in Miami history or is it the fourth worst? We can we settle this once and for all?

It's the worst loss.

I mean, for god's sake, people, I have lived kind of a stressful life. I'm trying to be entertained. I listen to your show as I walk around the streets walking my dogs or just trying to clear my head. It's nothing. But should Mario Kristobal have taken a knee and how did that affect the program?

Preaching to the choir for days.

It's like five days of this.

Appreciate it.

If they had just not censored me and Lucy, we could have gotten up.

That'S with Mike trying to control the schedule so that we would talk about it less. Look at how it backfired on him.

My God.

Huge upset that you would bring that up.

It's the most discussed topic in the history of the show.

It's not worth it. Yeah, I agree. Move on. Memory of a goldfish.

Are you forgetting the cesta cyclones? Because Mike's been wanting to.

Huge win.

You did forget about the cesta cyclone.

I know you were glued to ESPN three. Yes, it's still around. As the SESTA cyclones got off the Schneider and beat the lifestyle Miami kazoo.

I'll tell you this, though. As a fan of the show and a frequent listener, I'm really enjoying every week listening to Lucy Go talk to college football lunatics on location. That is a delightful addition to this program.

Yeah, well, thank you.

We'll see if you see her more or less.

Well, she's got two trips this week.

And it's not just it's all pending review. All right, I have one quick question before we get to your stat of the day, Mike. And it's just a genuine curiosity, because I know you were a writer on SNL headwriter, right? I don't want to sell you short. It was not headwriter sold you long.

That was McKay was the headwriter.

Oh, yeah, that's the other guy. He's so cool.

Why weren't you ever the headwriter?

Yeah, why weren't you ever headwriter?

Well, McKay was there before I was.

He's a very funny man, very successful.

Maybe the best sketch comedy writer ever. And then the other head writer was Tina Fey. So who should I have replaced?

Yeah, no, they were both better than you. My genuine question is, Mike, he's not wrong.

He's not wrong.

See? He's admitting it. I know that talk shows aren't able to have actors on their shows as the actor strike is still going on. But talk shows occupy this weird writer performer space. And I know that SNL is coming back this week and Pete Davidson is hosting. And while he's also a part of SAG, he is hosting because why my genuine curiosity here is that's performance. I know they're writing these sketches and appearing in them, but how is SNL not crossing the picket line?

This is a very complex issue that I will fully admit, I don't totally understand. Sagafter does not work the way the WGA works, which is basically the WGA has contracts with the companies. When you go on strike, those are struck companies. No work gets done for those companies. Sagafter has a bunch of different kinds of contracts with all these places and they govern different things. And so, like you said, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, they're allowed to come back. Even though they're Sagafta members, they're allowed to come back and host their shows because there's all these weird carve outs for, like, late night and this talk shows, variety shows, all this sort of stuff. So I would assume that SNL falls under those sort of late night talk variety shows that are not technically, that contract is not being struck right now by the actors, which is why they're allowed to do it. The weird thing gets into, like, when a SAG, know, Timothy Chalamet goes on Colbert show, technically speaking, he should not be doing any promotion for a project that is SAG after covered on the other contract. It gets really wonky and kind of hard to follow.

But I think that's the basic idea.

How do you feel about your victory? We haven't been able to celebrate that with you. You did a noble thing. You fought hard on behalf of the future of your writers and you won.

Against you're I'm sorry, I thought were talking about the Drew Holiday trade.

Well, I was going to head there to the second thing that you wanted to talk about, which was oh, was it Drew Holiday or Lillard?

Oh, they're both victories. They're victories of a different sort. But anyway, go ahead.

No, which one was sweeter? No, which one was sweeter?

Well, it depends on whether you're in the hater mood or just the fan mood. Right. If you're in a fan mood, you're like, hey, Drew Holiday is a better player than we've had at that position for the last couple of years. Some might say some might say the final piece of the puzzle. I don't know if I'd go that far, but that was very exciting because that was unexpected. And now you look at that starting and closing five. That's as good as there is in basketball, in my opinion.

Amin doesn't think they've gotten better. Amin called Drew Holiday a corpse. I didn't understand any of that analysis.

He's probably basing that know, the Heat did cook him a little bit in that series last year, and believe me, that's in the back of my mind. But that's a very good basketball player. And you can't look at the Heat roster and the age of the Heat players and say that that's a better lineup than the Celtics starting five.

I haven't been able to say that over the last few years.

No, I have, actually. You always forget that the Celtics won one of those.

What?

Oh, I'm sorry. You're. That the heat. Yes. No, that's true.

Congratulations on your one win over the Heat in the playoffs in my lifetime.

When you always have the better roster.

Yes. Look, that's true. You're not going to get me on this. You know where I stand on this. You know what I have said about the Miami Heat and how I have been right about the yeah, but it's.

Also I didn't like it because it let you off the hook when it came for me drinking your tears. I didn't get to actually enjoy that because it was just a celebratory parade of you actually being right. But I have been super annoyed by the victory lap that Celtics fans initially took with Lillard going to Milwaukee. I was confused by it because it makes Milwaukee clearly the best team in the east. And now if you look at DraftKing sportsbook, you're right there with them in terms of favorites in the east. But by him not going to us, you made Milwaukee a super team.

That's true. However, Giannis is adorable and great. And if you lose to Giannis, you think like, oh, you know what? I love that guy.

That guy's great.

He likes smoothies. That's great for Milwaukee. I want Milwaukee people to be happy. I don't want you to be happy. So, yes, it makes the Bucks better, but it makes you worse. That is a win. That's a net.

Sure. Do you realize how funny it is, though, for you specifically to say yes? Hating the Miami Heat feels to me better than solving the strike.

Yeah.

Look, I'm happy for all of my fellow writers. I'm very happy for our crews and all of the ancillary businesses that get to get back to work and everything else. That's all great, but the Heat taking it on the chin. There's nothing that feels like that's. That's as good as it gets.

You're wearing your Celtics jersey because you now believe that you're no longer afraid of the Heat. You are now somebody who feels like, oh, I'm terrified.

No, you don't get to do this now. You don't get to do this now.

Why? I'm not doing it.

Still, if and when it happens, I get to enjoy it more than I enjoyed it last year.

No. The Heat have officially ascended into the echelon that the Yankees are in for me in baseball, which is I do not celebrate until they are out of.

The playoffs, until they are mathematically the.

Highest rung of the sports ladder. That is the ultimate sign of respect. I appreciate that Mike sure saying that his respect is soaked in so much fear that they have now rivaled the Yankees. He cannot give a greater sports compliment than that.

Yankees have been alone in that echelon my entire life.

Alone.

No one comes close.

That should be a.

Band.

You've actually given me a lot today.

That's unbelievable.

Just be careful. Something called Cole Swider hit five three pointers in the fourth quarter last night.

No. They're raving about him. No, I got to worry about a new they think they're deeper and better than they were with Streus and Vincent 40%.

Sure I pronounced his name correctly.

No, you did. And they're in love with him. They can't wait for Heat fans to see how much better he is than Streuse and Vincent.

I'm sure he is. I'm sure he is. You know what this is like?

It is the start of the day start of the day start of the day it is the start of the day start of the day start of the day it is the start of the day start of the day start of the day it is the start of the day.

It really is nice to be back on the show and nothing makes me feel more at home than the second the segment starts. Watching Jessica pick up her phone and just totally tune out.

What do I do about that? Can you give me nothing?

I'm producing the show. Okay.

There is a recipe for banana bread on your computer right now.

I was looking up the overtime period of the Arizona USC game for my segment with Lucy.

You switched Big Suey.

Okay.

Our whole family was going to go to USC, Notre Dame this weekend, and then we had to unfortunately cancel the trip.

But we were also because they lost to Louisville. Sorry, that was a no.

Terrible.

The weather looks really bad, so we're using that to make ourselves feel better about missing it. But that was the plan. We're going to try to get there at some point, probably now at this point next year. All right, here's your stat of the day. Here we go. This is according to someone I've never cited before. Baseball history dork on? I think Facebook. Somebody sent me a screen cap of this.

Of course. Baseball history. Dork is exclusively on Facebook.

Exclusively on Facebook. It's perfect, right? The Seattle Mariners, a fairly tortured franchise, did not make the playoffs this year. They have in their history this is an incredible stat about their playoff utility in their history. The Seattle Manors have the same number of playoff appearances as they do ruptured testicles suffered by their players. That's five. In 1980, their pitcher, Mike Parrott, took a comebacker off of Minnesota shortstopper Roy Smalley ruptured testicle. Jose Manzanillo had both of his testicles ruptured by Manny Ramirez in 1997. Adrian Beltre not wearing a cup when Alexi Ramirez of the White Sox got him, and then Mitch Hanniger in 2019. There's five total ruptured testicles in the history of the Seattle Mariners.

Oh, no.

And they have three ALCS appearances and two division appearances. That's it. Five total playoff series victories.

That is an amazing stat. I think, Mike sure. I don't know what we're going to do about this. I've been talking about having you as the rest of your internship be. Just go find the greatest stat there's ever been. I thought I gave one of them earlier this week when I said that Jim Harbaugh has more rushing yards than Bo Jackson.

That's a good one.

I've got another one. I mean, Tom Brady never being mathematically eliminated from a game that he took a snap in is kind of crazy. But I also thought I heard a good one this week. Most touchdowns rushing in a season at Virginia Tech. Not michael Vick. Bruce Arians.

Yeah, I've heard.

That amazing.

That's a good one.

It's unbelievable. Are you going to find for us the best stat ever told?

I'm going to try. I don't know when. I've already talked to Pablo Tory about this. We're going to try to find out together what the greatest stat is, but I do have a job that I have to do.

Okay, go get back to it. But real quick before you leave, what was the most joyous of the victories? Not spoken in platitudes because you saved the future for writers, but this had to be a little bit emotional and syrupy. You stared down the Igers and the CEOs of the world, and you got your fair cut. You demanded it, and you got a.

It was incredibly gratifying. I'm very grateful to. The rest of the negotiating committee and the leadership, and Alan Stutzman, who was our chief negotiator, they had a very, very steady hand through this whole thing. They were very good at communicating to the membership what was going on, what we were fighting for, why it mattered. Everybody really got it and understood it. And the guild writers are tough. MFRS man they really gutted it out in a very long, nearly the longest strike in our history, within days of being the longest strike in our history. And it was very painful and very hard. But we came through on the other side, and we got this stuff, not everything we wanted, obviously, but we got the majority of the stuff that we feel like we need to keep writing a viable career. And it was very gratifying. So I'm very grateful to the entire Writers Guild, and I hope that the sagafter gets the same deal.

A piece of metal arc is coming out there the next couple of weeks to be at your side and embrace you. Okay, we'll see you in a couple of weeks.

All right, see you then. Bye, folks.

Don Lebotard well, Charlie sent charlie had.

This Charlie, as far as I know.

So just Charlie's title in my stugats.

How familiar were you at the time with Chewbacca? Like, your upbringing had how much Chewbacca in it?

This is The Dan Levatar Show with The Stugats.

The top tweet on Mike Ryan Ruiz's account that you get for free. This isn't one that you have to pay for. There are thoughts and information and things on Mike Ryan's ex account. I'm going to call it Twitter for the rest of time. Do I have to call it X? I don't even understand why we Twitter. Why did we rebrand that? What's the point behind rebranding that when everyone knows it's Twitter? As Twitter was a place that everyone knew. Why would you change the name of something that everyone knows? Is there a strategic reason for that? Just want to make it checkers the top tweet. That's no longer a tweet. It's an x. It's not a tweet anymore.

Right?

If it's a tweet, it's still a.

Tweet on X. I will match whatever Mike Ryan is being paid to call it Twitter. To pay you to say Twitter.

Dan okay, so it is a tweet on X in which Mike Ryan goes after Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers is not playing football. Aaron Rodgers, over the last few years, has really decided as a personality, to speak his mind. I've seen a lot of interviews with him, and he's advocating for psychedelics. And there are times that he looks super glassy eyed. He is in midlife going on a journey that involves darkness, retreats, and speaking his truth. Now on Pat McAfee, and he is calling Trevor I'm sorry. He's calling Travis Kelsey. Mr. Pfizer. And Travis Kelsey laughs it off and says, I'm not going to do vaccine wars. With Aaron. And then Aaron comes back on McAfee and says, it's not a war. I'd like to debate you. I'd like to debate you on vaccines. And Mike Ryan writes mike Ryan writes on Twitter. Again, not for subscription. This one you get for free. The only time I hear about vaccines now is on Aaron Rodgers'weekly hits. We got it. It was too experimental for the same guy. Footjobbing healing crystals while he blasts the sounds of dolphins bleeping to heal his Achilles. I'm exhausted. You don't like that?

Aaron Rogers is coming out here for the second or third straight year advocating on behalf of Joe Rogan's. America and people are still divided on the vaccines in a number of different ways. I would say to you that I understand anybody who says, I don't trust pharmaceuticals, I don't trust the government, I don't trust doctors. Don't tell me what to put in my body. But when there's a community health scare, I prefer to trust science. And the idea that me not taking a vaccine is something that I am doing under crisis on behalf of a community. I was willing to go down the route of trusting science and the vaccines, but he's out here keeping this as a conversation, wanting to argue Travis Kelsey about it.

It's COVID-19. The 19 is for the year that it started. Okay. We talked vaccines and the pandemic as it raged through America and the world in 2020, as it impacted sports in 2000 and 22,021. Largely, I think we've gotten away from it for the last couple of years. It's about to be 2024. And I think, look, I can avoid it. I can avoid McAfee. It's on while I'm on. But Adam SCHAFTER tweeting it as if it's the funniest thing in the world, mr. Pfizer. And all in the name of engagement. I get it, but enough. I'm just sick of hearing these are the same people that were downplaying the pandemic. It's been three years. What are we still doing? It's not a conversation piece for me. It hasn't been four years at this point. And I don't fault anybody for not getting a booster. I had one booster. I had the J and J one booster. I get it. Fine. Whatever. It was something that I felt like I had to do in the moment in time when all our lives were impacted and people were dying left and right to try to get us back to normal.

We're thankfully, even though this thing is still around, more closer to normal than we've been. And it's a tired talking point. It's not funny, it's not clever. And he's obsessing over it, and it's just in the lamest way possible. He was interesting to me at a time, but he's not interesting. He's not. It's the lamest talking points ever. Like, okay, we're going to keep going now. It looks like he's grifting on the Taylor Swift Travis Kelsey thing in the name of relevancy, and now you're the guy that's just I'll challenge you to a debate. You have just it's lame. It's just lame. It's lame. It's a loser thing to do.

Does Adam Schefter have, like, a contractual obligation to tweet about McAfee? Because a lot of people got really weirded out during college game day a few weeks ago when Adam Schefter tweeted that McAfee had food poison.

I think so.

And then he tweeted this Aaron Rogers comment as if it was like, a news item, but like a funny, non serious one, I think.

Look, there's obviously a corporate synergy aspect to this, but I think Adam genuinely likes the McAfee show, and I like Pat, and I find it charismatic. I'm bored to tears anytime McAfee talks to Aaron Rogers. When Aaron Rogers is not playing, and he's just talking about vaccines the entire time in ways that I don't find funny, and it's just formulaic at this point. I think I have the biggest issue with it in that it's not funny. It's just tired. It's a tired act, dude. It's about to be 2024. I haven't cared this strongly about it for years, and we're still going with this.

There are a whole lot of people who are trying to drag me into this conversation with the pointing out that know, quote unquote, ran people off because of politics. And now you have on a show somebody who's actively and the policy at ESPN has always been, if an athlete is doing it, you can use that as a shield to talk about whatever you're talking.

Here's the actual policy at ESPN, and I'll give you this one for free. As long as it aligns with Norby Williamson's politics, it's okay. And if it doesn't, he'll leak something out to outkick the coverage. We all know what's going on there. He ascends politics change.

That was very direct. You did get that's what it is.

It's about time some that's what it is. That's all it is.

I don't think people see that.

All right, well, we know who his reporter is, we know the numbers that he shares, and we know the policy in place and how it shifts as he amasses power.

But you are out here saying something I don't believe that the audience knows or has any idea what it is that you're talking about as you talk about the virus.

But the hypocrisy therein lies a hypocrisy. It's that people with the platforms are now saying something more agreeable that fall in line with the people that make the content decisions.

The way that the policy would be defended in this instance is if an athlete is doing the politics and it wears a jersey, that is the way that you're allowed to do politics. And Aaron Rodgers, by wearing a jets jersey, that's the argument that would be on that side. It's always allowed in the instances when you're allowed to use the athlete as a meat shield, not when you can show your own politics that McAfee can't talk about the virus, that he can only do it through Aaron Rodgers. It's only allowed through Aaron Rodgers.

I know what the rules were when we were there, and they do appear to be different. I'm not jealous about it. I know why they're different. Because they don't fall in line with the shot collars there. That's the main difference. You want to talk about, like, oh, now we don't have to stick to sports. No, the main problem with us not sticking to sports, it was our views. It was what we were talking about. It wasn't the fact that we were talking about them. It was because us talking about them, us specifically, and our views made people there uncomfortable.

You stared into a camera and gave that one for free.

Yeah, that's very you can get more of that for 299 on X or Twitter.

Well, now we'll get people wait a minute.

If you start talking about that, you know what's going to happen? He's just going to leak something out to Bobby Burwick anyways. Yeah, that's been the move.

You just gave away all the secret.

It I don't know who any of these people are.