Jessica and Dave Take a Trip To the Shire | Hour 1

There is nothing casual about football season. You can tell yourself you're just going to watch one game, and six hours later, you're emotionally invested in a fourth quarter between two teams you don't even care about. That's what I love about this time of year. The entire weekend becomes football. You're texting friends, tracking games, second-guessing coaches, convincing yourself you saw something before everybody else did. And then Monday comes around, and you get to do the whole thing again. Those are the weekends you remember. And for me, some of the best ones have usually involved some good people, a great game, and a cold Miller Lite. No matter what triumphs are in store this season, legendary game days start with Miller Lite. Cold, crisp, refreshing, that clean finish. And it's part of plenty of memorable football weekends. Make game day legendary. Go to MillerLite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Game time is. It is Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses, setup required, compatibility, and availability varies 18 plus. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. No two football players are exactly alike, and the same is true off the field. That's why State Farm gets to know you, so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. You are listening to the Dan Levitar Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports Network. Now live in all 50 states. This episode of the Dan Levitar Show is presented by DraftKings Sports. DraftKings, the crown is yours. We bring in Jessica Smetana. I'm going to turn into Zaz now. Jessica Smetana. It's infectious. Jess, big doings in the WNBA playoffs. We've got two closeout games tonight, but we want to go back to game two of Liberty vs. Dream. And the timeout situation. Juju wanted to fire Krista Marko, my good friend Krista Marko. I said, hey, that's going too far. Because, again, if I ask the ref, and the ref says, I don't have timeouts, why am I supposed to defy that order and go call a timeout? I mean, this is such a classic officiating cluster F in the WNBA. So, if you weren't watching game two, the Liberty are down a possession while Angel Reese is shooting free throws. She makes both free throws. There's four seconds left in overtime. Important to note, overtime. So, the timeouts are different. There's two team timeouts and one reset timeout in overtime. Krista Marko, who's the head coach of the Liberty, who are now down a possession, has never coached in the WNBA before. One of the big criticisms about his hire was that this was his first head coaching gig, and he was coming in to a team that was in win-now mode with Brianna Stewart. Go ahead, Amin. His first head coaching gig on the pro side. He is the head coach of the Bahamian National Team. Yes, in the WNBA. First WNBA head coaching gig in a league he's never coached in before. And that he brought in mostly a staff that was not very experienced either. So, that has been lingering over the Liberty this whole season as they've been relatively inconsistent, not really playing up to the standard of what fans were expecting of them this year because they let go of a championship-winning coach in Sandy Brandello at the end of last season to bring this guy in. And so, people, you know, Liberty fans definitely on edge about this to begin with. So, Brianna Stewart says in the postgame that the referees told her they did not have a reset timeout. And if you're watching the game live, Ryan Rucco and Rebecca Lobo are just having an absolute meltdown over the fact that Chris DiMarco is not calling the reset timeout. And so, the Liberty don't get a clean shot off, and the game adds the dream win. And so, in the postgame, Brianna Stewart's like, they told me we didn't have one. And in the pool report that came out over an hour later, the referees were like, well, that, we didn't actually, we, no, we told her they had one. That didn't happen. So, contradicted a league MVP, like one of the leaders in the WNBA. And Chris DiMarco, you know, backed up what Stewie said. And then, of course, fans went back and watched the broadcast. And you can see her clearly asking the officials, do we have a reset? And they said, no, we don't. They said, no, we don't. And then, waving her off, saying no. So, the criticism of Chris DiMarco is that, A, you should either know the rules and fight the referees over this and be adamant that you know you have one, or you should have an assistant or someone who's keeping track of this. They do. And you shouldn't, and I'm sure they do. You should maybe go to the scorer's table. Don't inbound the ball until you have this figured out, right? This is the last possession of the game. But I think the bigger issue here is that the entire game was officiated terribly. There were so many foul calls in the first half, and it was absurd. Like, Ryan Howard, her fourth foul coming in the second quarter when she barely touched Sabrina. I don't, I mean, they replayed it five times. You can't see where the foul is. And then, in the second half, the whistle stops. There's nothing. And then, this happens at the very end. So, this entire game was just absolutely, you know, if you watch WNBA games, you know this is an ongoing issue, but I think the real issue now is that you have this pool report that's contradicting what one of the most trustworthy stars in your league is saying happened, and that, to me, is just as big of a problem as the Liberty head coach not knowing whether or not he has a reset timeout. I love the idea of saying, hey, they said you said that they didn't have any timeouts. No, I didn't. And then, and it's like the scene from Role Models where we see the clip, who would believe me, David Garvin, stealing TVs? Like, it's on camera, my man. Like, you can't, you can't fudge your way through that. He's like, how do you know that's me? And then they cut to the audio. It's me. Look at me. David Garvin. Yeah, he's bald. Like, that could be any bald guy. But just zooming out here a little bit, you've got the Dreamer up 2-0 in their series against the Liberty. You've got the Valkyrie up 2-0 in their series against the Aces. And I'm wondering, because I'm not as day-to-day like you, I kind of zoom in and out of all this, but how shocking is it that we're on the precipice of one team that's been awful for a few years now and one team that's been awful for a few years now and one team that's been awful for a few years now and one team that's only been alive for a few years now, beating the establishment? One team had a five-time MVP. The other team, you know, how far removed from winning a championship? Multiple MVPs. Yeah. So how shocking is this potential matchup? I think it's pretty shocking, especially after just the first round of this year's playoffs, where the Fever had the best offense in the WNBA this season, and then they go up against this experienced Las Vegas Aces team, and they get shut down in three games. And, you know, they had a really good season. They had a really good game, too, at Cambridge Fieldhouse, but the Aces were totally in control. And now the Aces are kind of on their heels playing against the Valkyries because, frankly, I think that they just don't have the bodies. They don't have the depth anymore to compete with the Valkyries because they have so many players that are able to sub into their games and contribute, and they have an incredible coach in Natalie Nakase, who, you know, we saw Todd Bowles fall to his knees at the end of the Bucs game last night, and it kind of reminded me of when she was, like, passing. She passed out during the Valkyries game last week and then got back up on her feet like nothing happened. And she's just apparently been described as a basketball sicko, and the Valkyries have done a really good job of having an identity in the WNBA after only two years of their existence. So, yeah, it's pretty surprising. The Liberty side of it is, I guess, like, both games have been close. Game one, I guess, less so against the Dream, but they were just a really bad matchup for the Lynx, who were the number one. Because of how tall they are, how long they are, how good they are defensively, and how much experience they have. But I could see this Dream series dragging out a couple more games because they have been close, and I think that, you know, the Liberty do have that veteran experience. They do have slightly more legs than the Aces do, I guess. I would be surprised if both games were sweeps tonight, given who are on the, you know, the 0 side of the 2-0 lead. I guess. But, yeah, it's pretty surprising. Like, Atlanta's story this season has been really fascinating to watch after they traded for Angel Reese, and she won Defensive Player of the Year, and they have been just a really strong defensive team. Ryan Howard leads the league in steals. It's just a crazy, crazy story for both of those teams to be on the precipice of a Finals. Every WNBA conversation reminds me that the WNBA has the worst collection of team names in the history of people. What? I mean, it is the worst. It is the worst collection. What? No, I agree. Valkyries, Dream, Fever, a team's named after sickness. Quick turn to college football, Jess. You hate the USC Trojans. Okay. Didn't allow for a rebuttal? That's expertly done, Dave Ameshek. If Jess would like to respond, I wanted to talk college football. Give her a chance to respond. No, no, a team named after sickness. Pivot to college football. Shut the door behind you. All right, listen, Jess, your response to my charge that the WNBA is a bad team? WNBA has an atrocious collection of team names? is a great name me too what's wrong with Valkyries it tries to it's a logo Tom Cruise's fake ass oh man what a movie oh Jesus I don't want to talk about Tom Cruise half the teams are have are singular correct which I've raised the grammatical conundrum and you know the Miami Heat I think are the first one to to bring this plague upon us Orlando but the paper be careful what about the Stanford Cardinal probably started touche touche look whose brain is on Notre Dame football never I know I was worried I liked I like the Irish minus 39 with the hook in there I don't know what is going on over there at Stanford uh they are just not a good football team these are my kids speak to that Miami already played them and Sanford's the only 35 to 7 Sanford's like the only p4 team that if they have two of them they're going to be the only one to win the game I don't know what's going on over there at Stanford they are just not a good football two injuries they're toast they they just have zero depth like anytime you're trying to like place a wager on Sanford you have to look to see if ad defensive lineman is out because if they are they're cooked apparently they weren't out in the second half against Georgia Tech because it was amazing I cede my time to Dave Damoschuk I don't know what uh what his name is Pitt does not suffer from that problem they've lost their Heisman level quarterback Mason Heinschel we don't skip a beat the Pitt Panthers roll on oh okay wait hold in Garner or something like that are you taking the Panthers to cover uh tomorrow against the Tar Heels then at home Jess I'm worried sick because I know the deuce era he pulls off some big wins and I think a lot of people don't appreciate him on the banks of the three rivers this is the kind of game that worries me sick we're trying to get down to Miami to to vanquish Mike Ryan's favorite team the one that he wishes for his birthday he'd rather see them win a national championship than he would see any concert in the history of people Jess what do you think Jess would you rather see Notre Dame win the national title or have a time machine that apparently only can take you to a concert from any time in history one time but that means Notre Dame won't win won't win for 10 years won't win for 10 years I'm not but you guys know I'm not like a music person really I mean it's just it's a it's a dumb time weekend in the shire but it is a great cocktail story to be like I saw Beethoven say that again Dave you get to go to the shire like the real shire I know the shire you get to hang out with all the proto like they're all gonna be hanging out there it's built in fact look at her you get to attend Bilbo Baggins birthday party how about that oh my god Bilbo's his 11th birthday that's right it's sort of a lot it's sort of like hanging out down on the field in South Bend with that with their version of a hobbit right 10 years just a little guy running around out there 10 wait I get to live in the shire for 10 years I'm not gonna be hanging out on the field in South Bend with that no like 10 years before Notre Dame wins a championship I mean she's used to the long wait yeah I mean 10 years okay like I'll be 40 that's fine um I I'm glad you're here Sam that was Bill Simmons was your Bill Simmons yeah that's not your Bill Simmons impression they sound the same Elijah would that's a really this is very enticing but I will I don't want to stay in the shire can I go to Rivendell for a couple days oh I like I don't know what's happening making me feel better about it answer the question all right let's go to this so is that a yes I'm gonna put you down as a yes and I'm not and I'm taking back my time from Dave Damoshek delivered by Little Caesars the official pizza sponsor of the NFL right now score two faves just for you with Detroit style slices and sticks it's the biggest duo since Monday nights and football two pieces of Detroit style deep dish pepperoni pizza and four pieces of Italian cheese bread and crazy sauce for just $4.99 only at Little Caesars make your game day delicious with Little Caesars officially delicious down levitar if I may say for a second Miami they were simulating the snap count the entire game and they were clapping at the line of scrimmage and the only thing I want to see clapping are them cheeks on Mrs. Met in my face my shirt all right so that's one thing Jessica it's Madonna they're a bunch of cheaters Dan and you know who should be cheating Mrs. Met on Mr. Met and he can watch if he wants this is the Dan Levitar show Jess last week in terms of college football games a rare uh dip in action not not a really good marquee game there this week though there's big time games and for all the uh the people the naysayers that say an expanded college football playoff means uh the the regular season doesn't matter as much we essentially have some playoff games and we're going to be playing a lot of play in games this weekend Georgia Alabama the winner of that game is going to be heavily favored to make the CFP and a sneaky one is UCLA versus Oregon because if UCLA wins that game find three losses on that schedule what say you about the upcoming weekend um you missed Red River which I think you know Texas is obviously a heavy favorite because Oklahoma's been so disappointing this year but I still think that's going to be a really fun game to watch um yeah I think the the really curious thing about the Alabama Georgia game is that there is a hurricane barreling towards Alabama right now um which is which is not ideal did you see Ron DeSantis refuses to call it by its name because he doesn't like Isaiah's he's like I'm just calling it Isaiah wait no I did not see that um like I've said before and I'll say again we really are missing the a great opportunity we should be naming our hurricanes after great football players hurricane dick hurricane means yo these are great names I'm sorry Jess and that's okay um I'm really interested about Dave Damoshek's Indiana Hoosiers this weekend at Nebraska another Big Ten team that's 5-0 um sorry Willow is really interested in this conversation too um yeah Mike there's a number of really exciting games this weekend uh the UCLA Oregon game I think is interesting because obviously Dante Moore is still out so Dylan Rayola is getting his first start uh with the Ducks um which will be interesting to see UCLA has been an incredible running team like their their rush yard numbers are crazy we went over this on um a show with Lucy this week but um this is another game where it's like I think you know Oregon's defense was a little disappointing to start the year but if they are turning a corner and they're legit this is going to be a really uh great game for them if they can shut down that run game and make UCLA a little bit more one-dimensional um I also I'm I'm really intrigued by some of the Big 12 matchups this weekend there's a couple interesting Friday night games tonight Florida State at Louisville Louisville's been pretty disappointing the last few weeks but they've lost a lot of close games whereas Florida State just beat the crap out of Virginia last weekend and like out of nowhere just absolutely destroyed them um Iowa State at BYU is another game tonight that I think is kind of interesting because BYU's best player they're running back is going to be out for four to six weeks and they host Notre Dame next weekend I think the Friday games are always a little bit weird and wonky um and Iowa State is you know they're not a great team they're a 10-point underdog on the road but they are feisty um they have a running back who rushed for over 200 yards last weekend and through two touchdowns he's awesome dude yeah Aiden flora so uh and also Iowa plays at Washington tonight I don't know how many oh I'll take the under in that one so that's some vintage Big Ten West West football tonight but yeah there's there's tons of great games I agree with you Jess what you're hitting at there do not schedule if you think you are relevant to the tournament the postseason tournament conversation do not schedule any Friday night games weird things happen in those I am worried about the game that looks like a scrimmage in the Big Ten the Hoosiers at Nebraska also you could Loop in Wisconsin to that and it would you would never be able to distinguish between the three teams based on their uniforms but the game that intrigues me you hate uh USC I hate Penn State which team is spiraling even further with a loss in this one I mean that's a that's a fascinating one with Lincoln Riley and Matt yeah in a real bad spot it's getting dark early for one of those two guys it's getting dark early for sure and last Thursday night as Pitt was blowing the game against Virginia Tech which they did end up winning because of a field goal that was definitely not good definitely not good don't do that don't be a weirdo that was obviously good I'll send you some angles Dave um there was a moment where I thought to myself the state of Pennsylvania is so down bad right now with football no one knows how to tackle we have lost the recipes to tackling in football games in the state the Penn State situation is not great I've seen that the ticket sales for the whiteout game which is you know obviously the big game of the year usually costs a fortune to go to they're dropping uh precipitously and it's definitely a game where you know I think I mentioned like Factory of Sadness games a few weeks ago with USC in Oregon being one of them this is another USC game where there's been more hot seat conversations about Lincoln Riley he's obviously been terrible in the Eastern time zone on the road in the Big Ten even in a shootout against Rutgers like three weeks ago um whereas Matt Campbell is all of the things he said after Penn State losses have been the wrong things right like blowing the lead to Wisconsin and admitting that that was you know he called the game differently to to the lead, just not what you want to hear from a head coach. I didn't really think Penn State was going to be that great this year to begin with, but they did have one of the easier Big Ten schedules that they could have asked for. So I think it's been disappointing in that sense. But again, like we talked about with Oregon and USC, it's like stoppable force movable object. With USC, their defense is, again, so bad. I mean, if you watched the Washington game last weekend, the tackling was terrible. They did make a stop at the end of the game, which I think speaks just as much to Washington's offense as it does to USC's defense. But it's just been so bad in these road Big Ten games. And Penn State has just been so underwhelming this season. Rocco Beck was really not great against Northwestern last weekend. So that's definitely a disgusting game. And I like that the sportsbooks are like, yeah, we'll give Penn State a point here. We can't project what is going to happen in this one because the advanced statistic models still like Penn State. They still are pretty high up in a lot of the advanced efficiency data and indexes. But the product on the field has still looked so bad. And USC still great offense, terrible defense. How do you measure for that? So yeah, it's going to be disgusting. Imagine when USC joins the Big Ten, the fantasy, the matchups that we'll get to look at Penn State hosting USC. This is not what let's say that you get this question wrong. Jess, that means that you have to sleep on top of that tower like Gandalf did for one night at least of your life. You have to spend it. You know what I'm talking about. Right. Sauron puts his friend up there, but they jump on. I don't want to get sidetracked with the jumping onto the eagle flying away. But anyway, you get to choose one, which will win the national championship this year. The Big Ten, the SEC, the ACC or Notre Dame. Actually, let's take Notre Dame out because you'll take that. One of those three games, you're going to win the national championship. You're going to take that. One of those three conferences is going to win the national title. Which one is it? Hard to pick against the Big Ten, but I think if you lump Notre Dame in with the ACC, I'll take my bet on Miami or Notre Dame over the SEC or the Big Ten. I agree. You know what? I would just about bet Miami, period, against the SEC this year. Yeah. I mean, I think I honestly do think Alabama has been really impressive to start the year. They've been scoring so many points. Their quarterback looks really good. I do think it's to the point in the in the national conversation, though, where now it feels like Georgia is a little underrated. I don't know if you would agree with me there, Georgia. Well, can I ask you about that game? Because the weather's going to impact it. And I have all sorts of questions about the SEC. I think whoever comes out at the top end at the end of the season is going to be a problem. I think Texas has such great high end talent. But for whatever reason, the games are kind of weird and they never fully put it together. It might be just the head coach. But Alabama looks incredible. Yeah. They have a great quarterback, running game finally looking better. They were terrible last year. And Georgia Socton continues to improve and their defense looks formidable. But Georgia's defense has not played a good offense and Alabama's offense has not played a good defense. We're going to figure out a lot in this game, huh? Yeah, totally. Mike, I think that the criticism of Georgia over the last few years has been like the lack of explosive plays. And they've been better in that regard this year. But also, yeah, you're right. They haven't played any incredibly high top end defensive talent. They're not playing Texas in the regular season. The rest of Georgia's schedule is actually not terrible. If you consider that Ole Miss's defense has looked pretty bad this year. I do think Missouri has, I know you guys are disappointed to hear, has been pretty impressive so far this year. At least they were last weekend against Florida. We're taking the Aggies plus three and a half. Thank you very much. Yeah, I know. I am excited to see that game too. But I think, you know, but Austin Simmons has been definitely better than Marcel Reed. He had some passes in that last game, Jess, that were like, all right, now I see why he was Ole Miss's starter last year. Yeah, and they have good receivers and Texas A&M's been a little banged up on offense and their defense has been a little disappointing. But I hear you on that one. Yeah, I think that this Alabama-Georgia game is going to be awesome in that regard. And I think that what I mean about Georgia being a little underrated now is that Gunnar Stockton is a quarterback that's now had a lot of experience and a lot of playoff experience. And what Keelan Russell is going to have to play against is something that he probably hasn't experienced yet this season. And that's a really aggressive Georgia team that puts a lot of pressure on you and tries to pressure you to make the wrong decisions. Whereas Gunnar Stockton has faced that before. And so in a game where it might come down to a few plays and it might come down to like gross weather and managing the game and field position and not giving up a big turnover, I do think Georgia's just got a little bit more there. But if it does come down to who can make a few big explosive plays, I think Alabama's done that so far this season in a way that's been really exciting and harkens back to teams of years past. I mean, even not that far back, like 2024 when they played Georgia and got up to the big lead. And then, you know, Georgia came back and then they won on an incredible play. But yeah, I'm excited to see this game. I do kind of wish there wasn't a hurricane because the weather situation might make it a little bit less exciting than it would have been. But either way, you know, neither team, like I said, has to play Texas this season, who's the other team at the top of the SEC right now. And if you think those are definitely the three best SEC teams and the most likely to get in the playoff, then this could set up a really interesting SEC championship. So in my Miami Hurricanes chat, someone put in a video of Lucy and she was taking shots at the ACC and I was like, all right, let me get mad at this. And then points were made and I agreed with all of them. But I do think that the SEC is a lot like the ACC in terms of that middle pack and bottom pack, but they've got the branding there. But if there is a second good team in the ACC, from what I've heard from Miami staffers after that, that Wake Forest game, by the way, I mean, Miami glazed Wake Forest pretty good. And for their head coaches say like we out physical them's like, what are you doing, pal? But Wake Forest, I think is legit good. That being said, they're susceptible to the obvious ACC loss, right? This conference just can't ever get marquee. Any results that could help the conference in terms of national perception, the ACC will always do the wrong thing. That's part of the problem. I think part of the problem is like, you know, you have your Louisville who's a top 40 team, but they lose in the most like pitiful ways imaginable. They're, you know, one of the worst teams and penalties, they turn the ball over, they just do a lot of stupid things. SMU is, I believe, still ranked, but they have looked pretty shaky this year and also are extremely turnover prone. Wake Forest, like you said, yeah, they're like top 40 right now in FEI. Florida State is even up there. They have not been terrible this year. And that game against SMU with the power outage at the beginning of the year could have had more far reaching implications on the ACC title race than any of us thought at the time. Clemson, obviously, looks terrible. Mike, you saw that in person over the weekend. Yeah, but their schedule is super light the rest of the way. Like they can absolutely win the rest of their games. And you mentioned SMU. I'm with you. They're down compared to years previous, but Rhett Lashley and SMU just find a way to win the ACC games that all the other teams find ways to lose. Right. That's true. I mean, that's my point about Louisville. Like they should also be one of those teams that has a little bit of an edge, but they just lose a lot of stupid games close. But yeah, I agree. Wake Forest, they're offense has been really fun to watch this year. I think one of the other like somebody's at the door. What's happening? Someone's at the door. Who's at the door? You're forgetting somebody, aren't you? Just because their quarterback doesn't mean they're not undefeated and ranked. You're talking about Wake Forest. Come on. I mean, I think I would I would feel a lot better about Pitt if they beat North Carolina by double digits this weekend and their backup quarterback looked awesome. If that happens, I will. I'm not trying to write them off just because the quarterback got hurt. But a big reason why they were so good to start the year was because they had a good quarterback. It is the most important position for me. They basically had a nice TV window to themselves to showcase and it was a 12-7 game against UCF. So shut up. Awful. That weather though. That weather. That weather changed everything. Enough. Us big 12 folk. We don't like that weather. Shut up. I'll also say you UCF's defense. That's not Willow, by the way. That's a good defense. UCF's defense has actually been. You know about that defense? No, that's not Willow. That's a second dog. No, it's a different dog. It's I don't know who it is. But yeah, my third. I think part of it is that like Georgia Tech's been a really solid like upper tier ACC team over the last few years. They are. They are awful this year. I think the only team that's lost to Stanford Duke is also undefeated. But again, like they beat a pretty terrible Illinois team. They beat Stanford. They beat Tulane, who has not been good this year either. So there's just a lot of like not really exciting teams in the middle of the ACC unless SMU. And again, like they they just love turning the ball over really and keeping keeping games close. But unless SMU does go on a run, like you said, and they also play Notre Dame this year. That's the probably the second best team Notre Dame plays from the ACC behind Miami. So they could definitely go on a run. They could be, you know, 10 win team, 11 win team. But, yeah, it's just there's not that much excitement right now in that middle level, especially if you have a Pitt team with a starting quarterback who's out for the season. I'll tell you where the excitement is. It's with that dog. By the way, I just have to apologize. I used to give Willow a hard time. Willow, not that bad of a dog compared to Ethan's dumbass dog that tries to step up and get on the counter and eat food. Tries to eat everything. I'm like, yo, and the dog doesn't pick up on hints. Willow at least at some point realized. Willow's a smart dog. I'm going to stay away from him. Oh, this dog keeps coming up to me like, hey, we're friends, right? No, we're not. Stupid ass dog. All right. You can catch Jess on College Football Happy Hour with Lucy Roldan and also her weekly Notre Dame podcast, The Echoes, with Mike Golick Jr. Thanks, Jess. Go handle that dog. Hurricane Bilbo. Hurricane Bilbo. He said Bilbo. Oh, man. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. 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Don't have insurance or don't live in the United States? You can still get 10% off your first month. Visit BetterHelp.com slash DLB to explore your payment options. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash D-L-B. Tony, you know that moment at a party or a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks? I know it well. It's usually when I show up, everybody goes crazy. Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Cuervo. I walk in like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuervo is the thing that turns hanging out into. This is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it, but again, it's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it Cuervo. Keep it Cuervo, baby. Dan Levitar. No one would. Yo, Lele, yo, Lele, yo. PJ. Yo, Lele, lele. Dave Demachek. That's pretty good. This is the Dan Levitar Show. What's wrong with you, Dave Demachek? What do you mean? What's your issue? What's your problem? Just tree top you. What's wrong with you? Yeah. I don't have enough time to list all the things, so I just want you to give me one kind of catch-all. I do have to get into a cozy position because this is going to take a while. What's wrong with me? Well, you see, in kindergarten. That's it. I was actually. I was like, wow, this is going to be an iconic BSN. It's going to go for two hours. Buckle up, folks. I couldn't. I can't believe that's the first time that he ever has nothing to say. Here's what happened to me. Here's what happened to me for real. I was loved too much as a child. I was told by my mother. This is the thing. If you are. If you have bad parents who don't take care of you and don't give you some self-respect. Self-esteem, you can wind up in the same spot where I am. My mother told me, you're great. You can do anything. And then I opened the front door and I went out into the world and found it very different from what she had explained. And I felt betrayed by the world. And in the same way, at the same time, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the greatest football team known to man. They're arch rival, the Dallas Cowboys. When they get on the big stage against them, the Steelers always come out on top. You understand, as a young child rooting for and identifying. With the local football collective, how my self-esteem was soaring. But then the 80s started. And then the Steelers fell on their face. And again, I felt betrayed by the world. What? This football league? My team doesn't always win it in the end? And this has landed me where I am, with a complicated sense of self. This is. First of all, that's an amazing answer. Bravo. Yes, it's a great answer. I didn't think the Steelers-Cowboys would be invoked, but great. All right, so speaking of the Cowboys, they lost last night in an embarrassing fashion. Yeah. And this gives me pleasure and joy. Tried to tell people, my buddy T.A. I tried to tell you, number 32 ranked passing offense versus number 32 ranked pass defense. Clev Analytics, once again, these game notes are good, folks. The movable object versus the stoppable force. I don't know which one won last night. But watching it and deriving joy from that. And it got me to thinking, if I say the Dallas Cowboys, who's a team that people love to see in misery more than the Dallas Cowboys? I had no dog in the race yesterday, but I just like watching them lose. I would have said Knicks before this recent run. College rivals. No, I want the most universal. Generally, like the population at large. Everyone hates the Cowboys other than Cowboys fans. Yankees. Notre Dame up there? Notre Dame is up there. Yankees? Yankees for sure. People get joy. I mean, they stink so much over the last two decades now that it's not the same as it was. But the Dodgers. But if you would have come to me. Right now, it's the Dodgers. If you would have come to me in 2000. 2011, when they had still recently been to a World Series and were coming off of winning all of the other ones, it would have been the Yankees. See, this is why the Cowboys are so special. Yeah, Cowboys are top of the heap. It has nothing to do with how good or bad they are. Right. It's just, I like seeing you in misery. People still like seeing the Yankees lose. Not like. Because of what they represent. Well, yeah, I guess. But I feel like that feeling's not there as much anymore. I hate New York. Roy set off, Mike. Toronto Maple Leafs. That's a great one, Mike. The people of Canada. I don't think people in the U.S. know this, but the Leafs are hated outside of Toronto. People. It's really weird how much the rest of that entire country hates that team. Great point by me. You're right. Obviously, the Dodgers, any team that's at the top of the pile, people are going to dislike. But the Yankees are eternally hated. And I got to tell you another one, that really. The Miami Hurricanes. Of recent vintage, obviously the old dogs like Notre Dame are hated and everything else. But the Lakers are in that conversation, too. People really dislike that. Brandon, people also dislike. The Celtics brand. The Germans? Or the country they moved to, Argentina. Oh, yeah. Soviet Union? Yeah. Column A, column B. I think I. Yeah. I enjoy watching Argentina lose more than I watch the Cowboys lose. I'll watch the Cowboys win three Super Bowls in a row again before I want to watch Argentina ever be good again. Amin's the type of hater that I think gets more happy when a team he hates loses and when his team wins. Oh, no. Brazil wins. That's euphoria. I just haven't seen it, I guess. Are there any people in the individual sports that falls into this category? Like tennis players, golfers? I'm trying. I can't think of any. Yeah, no, no, no. Manu. A lot of people don't like Joker. I mean, he has a lot of fans, but the people who don't like him are massive. Yeah, Sinner's got a lot of hate now. Sinner, yeah. What's the deal with him, man? What's really. Someone needs to find out what's going on. Yeah, a certain someone. Bryson DeChambeau, that of golf? Yeah, he's up there. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. The Sinner thing, because we're talking about this, is Sinner. This is the conspiracy theory. Sinner is serving a shadow ban right now. That's why he's at all these tournaments. Because you guys remember, what was it? Was it the Australian Open? Where he took something and it was. He did serve a formal one, but there is a notion. Like, he's disappeared. Yeah. And people are. Yeah, people are assuming that there's some sort of shadow ban. You know who's worked their way into the conversation recently through Deed, or Miss Deed, is Michigan. Obviously, the Jim Harbaugh thing, and then the way their coach goes out at the end of last year, and all that melodrama. And now, the cardinal sin for just football fans' level is, as I said, whenever it went down against Western Michigan three, four weeks ago, the best thing they could have done was for Whittingham to go down and go to the microphone and be like, we're vacating that win. We saw what everybody else saw. For Whittingham? We know we didn't win that game, and we would be on their side now. You would say, they are the righteous team. Instead, they said, well, whatever. It's a win. We're counting it. And now, everybody celebrated when I would knock them off, and that's not going to be enough. People will continue to be delighted to see Michigan lose because of that win against Western Michigan. See, I think the interesting thing is all the other candidates that you guys have set, other than Argentina, they're all rooted in a very specific thing. Like, Michigan cheated. That's why we root against them. The Yankees were good for too long. That's why the Dodgers have so much money. That was the Yankees, too, by the way. It wasn't just that they were good. It was the George Steinbrenner, like, we have more money than you, and F you for not having as much money as us. And that was happening in New York, and that's why the L.A. dynamic of the Dodgers as well. But to your point, like, the Patriots, that was a huge one for a long time, and it was a huge one for a long time. the combination of success. and cheating where you had championships where everybody had to like sort of respect how good they were but in the midst of all of it there were all of these other cheating scandals that existed and a murderer and so because of all of that you had a situation where it was like oh no like we don't like that team i want to see them lose a new one that has invited dislike from most people you guys aren't going to like it it's the florida panthers they have the two cups so some success success brings that on you but their manner of play and their head for being a for for winning via brute force much like the flyers did in the mid 70s broad street bullies they are the modern version of that they're they have announced we intend to kick the shit out of whoever we play physically and the kachuk brothers for all the celebrating that you guys have done you know they're kind of they're kind of prickos uh uh the two of them and then also the florida thing that they are taking away all the canadian farm boys who no longer want to play for canadian teams and instead want to live down in south beach people are resentful of that it all adds up to people but like we're trying to play this game with amin and there's no other example except the cowboys every other example just falls back to something winning related specific like winning or money it's the cowboys cowboys are the only team i actually do think jeremy i think the yankees would be second place here in terms of just like doesn't matter if they've won recently or not people if you're not a yankees fan just kind of root against because they're still like they have not won a world series in a long time i know like it's been a while and so the fact that there are still major yankee haters like especially i i know despite your amazing baseball acumen and memory that we heard about yesterday i know you're not quite as tapped into baseball fandom circles baseball fans were ecstatic to see the yankees swept at yankee i went to i went to game one of the world series in 24 and everyone was like you're going dressed like that to chavez ravine and i'm like yeah and i was so ready for like oh we're gonna have some shit talk and it couldn't have been more dodgers are bad fans they've got bad fans it was it was like where is he gonna get beat you can go to a game wearing another team very hard like that dog they were telling me they were telling me like i was going into like a lion's den wearing a meat only like international soccer or like premier league games no that way you have to worry about wearing stuff like that i don't know if you're i mean in america it was a high profile places as you can go to a game wearing the opposing team and it was killing yeah but it wasn't even trash talk it was just like very pleasant everyone had a good time they knew they were gonna beat you no that was the game freddie freeman crushed that god that was so awesome happy man let me tell you something i i still have the video on my phone he gets up about you know one more out we we just stole game one he hit it and i literally my video doesn't even follow the ball it just goes down because the sound of the bat i knew my friend kevin hench said um after the yankees got swept and he is a diehard red socks guy um he said and he's on that fancy boston sports fan group chain and they celebrated the yankees losing who cares about the red socks all is right in the world so long as the yankees lose too i prefer that an arch rival and the legit hate versus the apathy that i feel the thing the teams i resent most the fan bases i resent most are the ones that don't seem to be the same as the yankees i don't care as much i do love to hate other entire sports towns more than i do to kind of look at the team be like tampa won the title and it feels like the whole season counts for about half now that's a great one mike tony you know that moment at a party or a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks i know well it's usually when i show up everybody goes crazy yeah you usually take all the credit for it but it's because tony usually walks in with queer walking yeah yeah yeah cuervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night it has that effect on people it does you usually take the credit for it but again it's the cuervo effect it's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up hooting and hollering keep it cuervo the cuervo baby