The Revolution of Stavros Halkias Will Be Vindicated

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out, I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. If they destroy the Lakers, guys with Kobe back tattoos are going to start f***ing, like, the proletariat revolution, I think. Right after this. How different is this whole setup from what your previous setup was? I mean, dude, we were in my spare bedroom in Astoria for two years, you know? Like, we had, this is insane. This is, like, when people came in, they could not believe where the studio was. We've upgraded since then, but yeah, I mean, we did some big episodes there. It was really, the funniest one was Blake getting out of a f***ing black car in my neighborhood in Queens. And just look, like, I was on the balcony, I saw him be like, what the f***? Like, I saw him be like, even though I, like, warned him it's an apartment, it was really funny to see him just, like, look. Like, look around, and I'm like, dude, up here. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah, now we have a f***ing hilariously legit setup. I'm just feeling the groove inside of it. I mean, it feels like a child sitting in, like, trying an adult's shoe on. I'm like, there's a lot more room. Yeah, dude. It's a very powerful automobile you're at the helm of right now. Try and keep up. I don't know if. Too much horsepower. I don't know if I should be able to drive this vehicle. Too much horsepower. Give it your best. Give it your best shot, buddy. Don't worry. It is really good to have you in your own studio. Yeah, yeah. It's good to be had. Honestly, it is nice to just be here. It's annoying for you to come here. You know what I mean? Like, I don't have to go to some other studio. This is where I'm here anyway. So, yes, it feels like I did you a favor, but this is actually cutting down on my commute quite a bit. Have you sat in this couch before? First time, and I really like it. I think, you know, we're giving the guests a good experience. Someday you'll be flipped. You'll be on Stavi's World. You'll get the guest experience, but you'll be the first ever guest on Stavi's World to have hosted a podcast from my chair before even doing the show. So, congratulations to you, my friend. What is in your Tumblr? I'm on some Throat Coat right now. I had a wild weekend. I've been, you know, promoting my special Uncle Stav. Please watch it on Netflix. We spent the first week in the top ten. We were up against some stiff competition, too. What else? Who were you trying to knock off that list? Well, I, the last time I. Who were you most furious at when you were like, this f***ing show? There was like eight. There was like literally like three generic murder documentaries came out, and that's. In streaming, that's the 96 Bulls. Like, women, for some reason, love to be scared about murder. Their favorite genre is like, what if the worst thing of all time happened, but it happened to a different lady, and now we're going to get the killer through forensic evidence years later. And one of those came out. Alex Earle's show came out. The last thing that locked me out of the top ten for good was Monday Night Raw. I woke up Tuesday morning out of the top ten, courtesy of Roman Reigns. I was bumped out. We're here to chat. change that that's right i'm gonna get the f***ing pablo bump if the clippers thing is any indication about three years after you report it i will be top 10 on netflix you too will be vindicated yeah some crazy lead time on the tory bump it's like it takes about two and a half years there's a there's a there's a whole like stegosaurus nervous system thing going on it's like you touch the tail and then eventually the brain will realize i think something happened here yeah how does it feel we can get back to me but you got to be on a victory tour right now you got to be on a victory lap we have both been on that's true parallel tours that's true it's been for me and i think genuinely to be very sincere for a second the feedback that i receive out in the street has changed interesting wow because people are are saying stuff like and this makes me so warm and fuzzy inside they say thank you for your reporting wow isn't it i mean look i love that you're doing it but it's so funny that you're the the only journalist in america is for f***ing bulls**t sports you know what i mean you're doing great work and i appreciate it but it's like you know a couple other motherf***ers looking at just straight up investment banks instead of like you know what i mean and like private equity instead of when it intersects with sports would be nice but you know i do think this might be the only way we teach people about how bad private equity is i need a caveat even as i say what people say to me that like i am not a war photographer right i'm not actually in gaza i am i am there's a place they are literally killing journalists you're doing fine i am sitting in a very deep yeah chair right now upholstered ikea by the way is that right yeah yeah yeah you get cost effective cost effective but feeling expensive yes exactly right kind of the opposite of sports that's right that's true yeah everything everything costs so much money it f***ing sucks every fanatics jersey like if you if it gets wet it melts off you even like gimmick sports like the savannah bananas are starting to charge too much to see them now it's like everyone gouges you at every level but i do think like i mean it is funny we were talking about earlier obviously it sucks that the clippers cheated they should not have done that but it's so funny that the the owner getting in trouble is the only one that cares to figure out a way to pay more money to his players and every other f***ing owner is like ah sorry we got to play hardball with like our f*** it i mean i remember when the ravens wouldn't pay lamar and i was like what the f*** are you idiots doing just f***ing do whatever he wants well two parallel sort of stories we were investigating at a time was this one with the clippers and the salary capture convention stuff with koi leonard and then on the other hand it was the nfl pa and nfl collusion scandal yeah making offers to lamar jackson which is so f***ing insane he's so good it's like the guy was a f***ing mvp already his career is actually very equivalent to peyton manning in my opinion where it's like they were both started their careers as insane regular season uh quarterbacks i think josh allen's mvp belongs to lamar i think that was a complete bulls**t like josh is a great player but lamar was better in that regular season and to me the idea that that would never have imagine if peyton manning at the same time in his career was up for free agency there's no way they're everybody would be f***ing dying to pay whatever whatever they could but so anyway it is it is just it's funny that the incentive structure in sports is like the owner that tries to pay the player more than he's worth uh is banned from the 200 billion dollar palace that he created the only guy using computers to improve the fan experience and not spying on them he has to f*** are they spying they are doing they're doing facial recognition okay all right i take it back at the end of the day he's still the one of the richest guys he did run microsoft microsoft during an antitrust totally totally he crushed a bunch of little computer programmers on his way to the clippers that's true he was ruthless in his own little little zone for sure but the question of like why fans can care about fundamentally class consciousness yeah because they are huge sports fans is real like it is it is something that i feel every day and you are you're gonna be on a stage somewhere at some point addressing a rally yeah i don't know about that but the but the whole but i'm thinking of like who else is on this yeah yeah who sees this no really can i be honest the two things that i think might because i think it's clear that what's f***ing us up is like private equity and and money taking over these things that are all products that are awesome right let's sports is the easiest one but the the one i've actually latched on to recently i think goes hand in hand with sports is fast food because everybody understands that wendy's has gotten sh**ier the spicy chicken sandwich now uses shredded lettuce exactly right there that is private equity that is someone saying we don't want a fresh head of lettuce that costs more money so we're gonna get you bagged sh**ty lettuce and i know that in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal but people will notice jersey mike's was bought i think two years ago it started to get sh** it was one of the it was the best sandwich chain it's getting sh**ier because some d**khead who's never f***ing spread mayo in his life decided oh no actually instead of a sandwich this is now a commodity right it's a commodity it's a commodity it's a commodity and what's important is that by turning the the buyer experience the consumer experience sh**ier i some d**khead that's never made a sandwich gets a billion extra dollars right i was just looking up so blackstone blackstone of course acquired a controlling majority stake in jersey mike subs in early 2025 for approximately eight billion dollars insane insane those people don't give a f*** about sandwiches the before and after i mean you're right there are only so many active fan communities totally it'll be like this is what it used to be like this is how much salami i was getting and now look at this and now i think with sports so for me i think this laker the latest lakers thing is like now we're starting to get a sports bubble because i don't think the lakers are worth 11 billion 12 and a half 12 and a half whatever it was and the people buying it aren't f***ing private equity it's it's the good kushner get the f*** out of here there's no good kushner what the f*** are we talking about and these people see these as assets i mean the guy who the guy who sold it to them didn't do really. And then just when and because an opportunity came up, somebody offered him so much money. He was like, and he's like, he was selling like the way he even bought the team seems to be off people's pensions, right? Yeah, we did an episode about this. And it is worth listening to even though I will, but on the front end, yeah, on the front end, it's about insurance companies, right? And immediately, if you're thinking about how you communicate with fans, you're like, Okay, this is a problem. We're leading with insurance. But in effect, it's Mark Walter owns insurance companies, insurance companies take money, the nest eggs from America's parents and grandparents, right? They entrust it to a very wealthy, in this case, individual who owns a bunch of institutions. And the idea is you take care of this with risk averse investments. We are safe. Yeah. And instead, what he did, according to our reporting and a federal investigation is yeah, he was not disclosing I'm lending this to my other entities so I can buy sports teams for record prices. Yeah. And it's either that, it's either scams, it's either basically like, soft Ponzi schemes that are like, hey, if it all works out, we all keep our money. But if it doesn't work out, you're that I own the Dodgers, right? Or getting like shadowy money from Saudi billionaires. It's either way, whatever we're doing is evil. And the only thing that's jacking up is these prices. And now people who don't love sports are buying these teams because it's the best it's something for their portfolio. And I don't want this to happen. I don't want there to be a sports book. I don't want I love I truly you know, I love hoops. I love football, baseball, you know, shout out to the Orioles, but they're so clearly important to the fabric of our society. But I do think if one of these fucking billionaires ruins a franchise, you might have like, Goomba in like, football fans reading Karl Marx. Like, if, if, if they can destroy if they destroy the Lakers guys with Kobe back tattoos are going to start getting like the proletariat revolution. I think I think that's the closest we're getting to clash consciousness is fast food and sports teams. And I hope they don't get ruined. I really hope not. But it is fucking crazy that and that's the thing. It's like, none of these guys care. None of these guys actually give a fuck. I grew up a Yankee fan. And the idea that I romantically am remembering George Stein. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's a great example. It's like that guy gets cared so much about the fucking Yankees. You don't want some guy who bought a team because he looked at a chart and said, oh, teams have appreciated in value 200% since 1990. No, I want a guy who loves the loves fucking hitting dingers. I want a guy who loves when a beautiful spot. I want a guy who sees a beautiful spiral and it makes his card. I don't want a guy who sees like, fourth quarter projections going up and he's like, Yes, this is awesome. So I don't know. I'm worried about too much money in sports because it seems to be the only thing that's appreciating in a way that at least has some great value in our society. But we're getting to the point where it's even overdoing that. I think yes, my fear is that we are I'm watching what's happening with like AI and the detachment from revenue that the valuations of these companies are demonstrating. And at a certain point, you need to actually justify the price. I know it's like, I don't really know about economics, but isn't running a business supposed to be you create something useful and get paid for it. Not like you convince a bunch of dumbass rich people to keep giving you an endless font of money. Because you're just doing the Theranos thing. AI is like Theranos on fucking steroids right now. It's so fake. It's a mix of like, we improved some existing computer programs. Like we made Photoshop better. We made Adobe audition better than Microsoft paper clip. Yes, the clippy Yeah, clippy has some new skills now. Right. And some of that is good. Obviously some computer was, you know, but they've combined everything into AI anything on a computer now they claim is AI. That doesn't mean it's a sentient being that's going to fix all our problems and also like, you know, I do like how the two choices in front of us are a this whole industry might wreck our economy. Yeah. Or B, we're all gonna die because of Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's either a version in which this isn't a real product. And we've all over invested in this. Of course, it's that meme that I keep on thinking about where it's like Nvidia and open AI is a surge projector plugged into itself. Yeah, it's like paying right endless circle of roundtrip money. Or this is actually you know, Terminator two. Yeah. And we should it's the Great Depression or it's Skynet. Those seem to be or things keep getting slightly here. That's the best case scenario is just like, slightly here. But anyway, who knows I just it just that Laker sale was really strange to me. But I just like the idea of like, a guy as you put it, who is a Baltimore Ravens fan totally, actively becoming furious that there is a class of people we have made more billionaires than there's ever been before. Yeah. And this class of people is constantly just making their favorite television show worse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. They're doing the homework. Yeah. And that's why sports ends up being this venue to actually have conversations that apparently, I don't know if you've heard of it. I don't know if you've heard of it. But apparently, I have a finger on the pulse in ways that none of the real life does. Yeah, that's true. Because AI is kind of opaque on purpose. And no one really knows what's going on behind there. But you can see if a hot dog costs $9. Now, if you have kids, you can't afford to take a family of five to go to an Orioles game, Ravens game, whatever, like, it's getting worse and worse. I mean, those two, shout out to them, they make a great fan experience. But other franchises have a real big problem, where it's like people who are just sort of like, these scumbag owners that own eight different, eight different teams across eight different leagues, all different cities. It's like, you obviously don't give a the other part is that all these private equity firms and the sovereign wealth funds, they are buying shares in multiple teams. Yeah. And I hate that. And it used to be, by the way, it used to be that these were not allowed in sports by rule, because the leagues knew what was the risk, of course, you're going to get people who aren't here for winning, but for profit, who are not invested in the way that the fans are invested. And then they said, we're going to let them in, but they're gonna be capped. So it's like 20%. Right. And but at the same time, you can own multiple shares. And then it's like, okay, well, guess what, now Apollo Global Management owns some of the Yankees. And I'm like, we were all comfortable with the Yankees being an evil empire unto themselves. Totally. The idea of welcoming in the Jeffrey Epstein, coaching tree is unbelievable. The guys currently suppressing the Epstein files own 20% of the Yankees. Who asked for this? Yeah, no, I know. It's insane, dude. It's like a sports team should try and win games and do a great fan experience. That should be their two things while turning a, you know, decent profit. But it shouldn't be about constantly making more and more and more money. And I think that's how businesses are too. It's like, you know, the, the Costco hotdog, the Arizona ice tea, the keep it 99 cents, keep it two bucks. It's all the dollar store where it's actually $15 at the checkout aisle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally advertising this as one thing and every fee and every, you know, everybody gets swallowed up by fees, but, but there's another argument. I think that's really important that I think you also embody, which is why I'm also excited to talk to you about this. Yeah. Which is that having a view of class consciousness does not mean that you are taking yourself a vow of poverty. No, of course not. And I think this is the big with the DSA and the, in the entire politics of all of this, it's like, I see that you are supporting taxing the rich and yet you live in a nice house. I know. I, I hate that shit. Cause it's like, no, I'm tax me. I'm I don't deserve all this money, right? Truly my please tax me. Just don't give local police districts grenades. Don't give them rocket launchers and don't give it to the IDF. Give it to kids. Give it to hungry families. Let's get a social safety net. And yes, I think you should be able to make an awesome business, make a product and get rich off of it. What you shouldn't do is buy eight other people's great businesses and then slowly turn them shitty, become a completely destroy something. A lot of people love so that you can like a scavenger, strip it for parts until it's a shell. It's a shell. It's a shell in itself. But you end up having $5 billion. Like to me, I don't think Brian Gregory should exist at all. I think you should, you should get to like, even the stock. Sometimes I'm like, what the fuck is the stock market? So it's like, so let's say you bought shares in John Deere and they had a great year. Some kid who does never put a, you know, put together a tractor. Why don't the guys who built the tractor get the extra money? Why don't they get the extra revenue instead of just an investor had nothing to do with it, except happy. To have money. These people are actually building this thing. And, and yes, that's the thing I can't stand where people are like, Oh, socialist, but he has a, you know, but he fucking, you know, supports public healthcare. Yeah. It's like, Oh, you're a socialist, but you make a lot of money. It's like, yeah, dude, my point is just take some of my money and give it to people who don't have it. I'm not saying never make any money. This is like this giant lane in politics that is so wide open. And the lane is what if we all wanted to make $999 million? Yeah, totally. What if we just stopped $1 short of a billion? We're not even saying take away the ability to go to Bohemia Grove, whatever the f*** you weirdos want to f***ing do. Just, can we have healthcare? Can we start there? Because, yeah, I mean, that is such an insane amount of money. It's hard for people to, it's hard for me to visualize. So, like, Steve Ballmer, when I was trying to visualize this, he has $174 billion, one of the 10 richest people in the world, depending on Microsoft stock. He's the largest individual shareholder, I believe, of Microsoft. I was trying to envision, like, why are all. So, another thing that's happened is that all these NBA owners now, I have felt a realignment there where they're like, oh, this annoying investigative reporter actually might be doing something that we have interest in because we feel class solidarity against a dude with $174 billion. Wow, that's f***ing hilarious to think about. Literal billionaires are afraid of his wealth. That is the irony. Ballmer, I wish, owned any team that I loved because he has so much money and he's willing to do whatever it takes. I know. To win. As long as the federal government does not undo his plan of free agent acquisitions. Right, exactly, exactly. then this could go great. Exactly, exactly. It's like, that is the irony, too, is that, like, we don't have a free market. We have a market stacked to get, like, that guy could, like, even sports, sometimes, like, LeBron is so underpaid, right? So many players are underpaid, and that guy, Ballmer, if allowed to operate in a free market, would destroy these other guys. He actually is the exception to the rule. Most of those guys, even rich as f***, wouldn't want to spend their money. Well, and I think the sort of visual image of a guy with $174 billion against someone with a few billion. Three bill. Yeah, exactly, versus a normal person. Another thing that I want to experiment with in terms of political messaging is, what if we changed billion? We should just not. We need to come up with a word that doesn't rhyme with million. Sure. Because I think the rhyming thing is, like, one letter off. Oh, sir. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's not at all. Right, because we go to thousand to million. Those are completely different. We feel that jump so viscerally. That feels different. Million, billion, you kind of, like, maybe mishear it. You're like, oh, is million or billion I lost? I didn't really hear it. Totally, totally. And it's like, what do we call that? The Republican Party is so good at coming up with the death tax. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And these terms. Sure. And I just think how we even classify how much money we're talking about. We're doing a favor to the people who have it. Yeah. And we just. Quadrillion. Can we just add more syllables? Quadrillion sounds. Kajillion? Kajillion. Now we're sounding fake, though. Now we're sounding little kid. Quadrillion is the right middle ground, but it does, unfortunately, is tied to a number. Yes. And so we can't use that because that's just not what it is. But it sounds way more impressive than even billion or trillion. Trillion is starting to get there. Trillion started to get there, but man. You know what it is? Billion should be trillion, and trillion should be quadrillion. We should lose billion. Billion, because it rhymes. Billion rhymes too cleanly with million. Yes. Like a guy, like a dentist with a f***ing $3 million house with $10 million in the bank or whatever, that guy is effectively has zero dollars compared to even the $1 billion guy who. That guy is scared of somebody like Balmer, let alone someone like Musk or, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A bunch of money in Saudi Arabia. Those guys don't just declare how much money they have. That's another thing. It's like, I think some of the richest people in the world probably just don't. Let you know how much f***ing money they have. They also all just borrow money. They have enough money that people will lend them money. They're taxed differently. They are never spending their own money effectively. Like, the levels of wealth are beyond. I mean, and again, this is all stuff that I've come to learn because you study sports enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And how money is flowing, and you realize, oh, it's what's happening in the larger economy. Where is private equity and sovereign wealth fund money also very prominent? In politics. Politics, entertainment. Entertainment. Anything that costs a ton of money, who, you know, you just. If you need to make a movie, if you need to run a sports team, that just costs a lot of money. People with a ton of money are going to figure out how to get involved with those things. I think that it's very funny that we're also talking to you after you attended your first college football. First college football game. I think I, like, I tailgated and never made it to a really s***ty Terps game way back in the day. When I was in college, they were bad when I was in college. But yes, my first actual college football. My first actual college football game was this week. I'm actually feeling the effects of. I had fun for the first time in, like, weeks. A friend of mine has a hookup over with the Longhorns, and we just got a big-ass crew together. And he was like, come on down. I have, you know, I have some friends in Austin. Made a little weekend out of it. Got a hotel, swam in the pool. You know, I've been promoting the special the last couple weeks and for the next few weeks. So I was like, f*** it, a little weekend vacation. And I ended up seeing one of the sickest games of all time. It was crazy. That comeback was f***ing insane. So you are. You are our new college football correspondent. Yes. And on your first assignment, what did you find out? College football is f***ing awesome. Number one. Sick as f***. And what I have admired about college football is that they figured out a way to. Every week, there's one playoff game. Every week, there's one game that really f***ing matters. And it was kind of insane to be in, what, week two or week three of the season? And it was. The atmosphere was a f***ing playoff. I've been to. I've been to the AFC Championship. It was that atmosphere. It's f***ing crazy. And I got to see an insane comeback. It was one of those things. What was the emotional swing inside of that building? Starts out so hot. Everybody's so pumped. But that game started with those really fluky plays. I mean, immediately, they turn the ball over. Texas turns the ball over. That takes some f***ing air out of the stadium. And then that f***ing weird interception where it bounces. And then even the next drive. Arch hit somebody. Like, they dropped what would have been a pretty clear touchdown. And so, the vibes were like, there was no moment. Like, it felt so dead. And I kind of felt like, f***, am I part of the jinx here? Because it was like, my buddy who had the hookup was Glenn Powell, who went to Austin. He deserves to be there 100%. But he's a nice guy. We worked on a movie together. He invited me. You know, there's a bunch of, like, people in, like, movies and s***. I'm like, oh, f***, did we do the, like, Taylor Swift. And Haim Sisters in. Are we Apollo Global Managers? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, should we be doing wordplay t-shirts in the front row? Like, are we putting a, like, celeb jinx? Are we, like, doing a Hollywood jinx? I was like, they let me shoot the f***ing t-shirt cannon. I was like, it was just the best, one of the most thrilling moments of my life. Any sporting event, there is no one more excited than the person who might get a t-shirt. Dude, yes. Oh, my God. Having that power, I felt like God. People are like, here, please. What was your strategy? What was your strategy for operating the t-shirt cannon? So, they made it pretty dummy-proof. Basically, I just had to crank. It goes, thump. It feels so powerful when it leaves. And you feel like you had control of it. But, you know, just trying to spray evenly. Yeah, you're distributing. Change the distribution. Let me throw a couple. You know, that was nerve-wracking. You don't want to throw a duck. I like that you were operating the t-shirt cannon as an ally. I'm making sure that all underrepresented groups are. I was seeing it as, like, I'm giving, like. a humanitarian aid. Like, that's. Because a gun, a cannon is usually very negative. You're killing people. I saw it as a positive cannon. A cannon that's dropping, like, you know, I don't know, f***ing oatmeal or whatever. Literally giving clothes to the needy. Giving clothes to the needy. To the needy. Absolutely. So, but into the third quarter, I mean, dude, beyond dead. Truly. Because Texas looked good, but they had a couple flukes. And then Ohio State, to their credit, were doing a really good job. Every time it felt like, "Uh-oh, here comes a little momentum," some back-breaking play would happen. And it felt f***ing strange, but. I mean, I remember even that in the fourth quarter, you're saying, like, "All right, get a score here, and it's a ball game." But you don't really believe it, you know what I mean? And then it happened. The stakes of when you're not merely, like, feeling, "Man, this is a bummer because it's so much more fun if the home team wins." It's the walk home, the walk afterwards, it's just like everything is now, it's now sad. And you're gonna be blamed for this. People will be like, "This fat f***ing idiot. They let him, what the f*** does he know about UT?" Like, it's like, "Why was he throwing the T-shirts? He's a, that's why we f***ing lost. We've gotten, we've gotten too f***ing woke." You know, like, that's what would have happened if they lost. But now. It would have been you and that photo of all of the South Asian students being blamed. Yes, yes, yes. Totally, totally. Which I thought, which is so funny because it's like, how are you so racist that today's Republican Party is like, "Whoa, dude, chill. They're just going to college. I remember thinking, I saw the band, and it was like, truly the most diverse group of people I've ever seen, right? Like, ever, in any context. It was like, yes, so many different, there's a lot of South Asian kids. There was a lot of like. Kids who learned to play musical instruments growing up, it turns out, are a rainbow coalition that also want to enjoy football. Exactly, exactly. But yeah, that guy, that's so funny. That guy, like. But that photo is just like, one of the kids in the front is wearing a literal cowboy hat. They're all running the place. That's the playbook that you guys told them to run. That's assimilation 101, right? In fact, like, you're right. I didn't even consider that where you could see that from a different perspective and be like, these kids have completely sold out to America, right? Like, if my cousin see me with a cowboy hat. But that, I mean, that's so clear. I mean, obviously, that guy's so stupid and racist. That could be Greek people. He wouldn't say a thing, right? My dad doesn't speak English that well, right? These kids are probably truly more American than me in many ways. Because I was raised to not truly love america like my my dad was like i'm here because of your f***ing mom the second i get a little money we're going back to that paradise of greece by the way while an economic collapse is happening my dad's like f*** we should be there right now i'm like why no one my generation has a job he's like still it was a mistake so like i bet you those kids all love being here whatever but of course it's just purely about skin color for these f***ing idiots so you know but again it it was good to see that there is a line because even other texas republicans were like come on man chill i kind of want to go to more college games because i mean that's the thing about being at those games it is not about the actual gameplay it is like being in a crowd cheering things on it's about truly human connection you're just chilling with people who we all have this in common from like you know somebody's 75 year old conservative grandfather to some like 19 year old non-binary filipino kid you know playing the tuba you know what i mean like everyone here is like it was this awesome like you and that's again the beauty of sports the uniting factors and that's why it's keep outside money out of it keep people who don't want anything but winning and fan experience keep them the f**k out of it you know what you should even f**king lose money on a sports franchise because it's a f**king privilege to be the owner of a f**king sports team i'm tired of us never seeing being rich as a privilege there's only 32 whatever teams that's a f**king you're lucky to have that and it should be seen as a public service i think you should f**king you should only be an owner it should be almost like especially if you're taking municipal f**king tax dollars yeah you should have a sports citizenship test that's a f**king great idea they should have to do like medium level bar sports trivia like just like who won finals mvp when your team won that's it yep who was it you know name four post-season awards name one sixth man from your franchise like that it can be multiple choice who is this who he played for every every yo that would be advanced if an owner passes who he played for he automatic or her gets to you know we want the we want the voting rights act but it's just inside the mbas who he played for totally oh my god yeah right now i will tell you i have heard enough stories about the people buying these teams and the consortiums that go in they would not pass that that would be awesome they would not pass if we televise owners sports citizenship test that would be the most that would be the highest rated show of all time what they do is they're like the nfl players at the combine yeah yeah make these motherf**kers run that would be fun too make them dress like they're at the combine make them f**king wear f**king little shorts and compression shorts with like a number written on with their net worth written over it that would be awesome they're doughy rich guy bodies i know i'm fat as well but you know it's nice to i just like the powerful taken down a notch and so their physical prowess and their sports knowledge would be nice but they gotta you gotta at least speak the language speak the language absolutely be an actual sports fan i wonder how many i mean if we went down the list how many owners are actually sports fans it's a good question well i think the reality is that because the incentives around these things are either the financialization of them or you get to belong to the most exclusive country club in america that's really what it is right you get the idea of well i've always wanted to be cool and now i get to buy the thing that is the coolest thing and all we're saying is tell me what the five positions on an nba yeah yeah yeah totally absolutely how far are you from the videos that you post yeah what's up um it's ronnie uh i'm out here mnt bank stadium in the back i'm sneaking in i'm technically not allowed to be here because the last time the ravens gave me free tickets uh coincidentally two super bowl rings went missing and coincidentally a security guard did find them in my purple cameo cargo pants i was saying it's a coincidence there's a raven said i'm banned for life from mnt bank and if i ever come back they will call the police um that don't matter to me though because a baltimore raven fan a true raven fan is not afraid of getting arrested i was not missing this game for nothing you know the ravens are gonna win 100 to nothing lamar's gonna have eight touchdowns the defense five pick sixes and i'm gonna drink 100 beers let's get ravens we're going to super bowl baby how do you explain that person versus you yeah it's interesting because you the character ronnie has really taken on an insane life that i never could have fathomed my entire career is like this right this like you just start doing something for fun and somehow i became like the unofficial ravens mascot to the point where the ravens are just like shout out to the organization that's how cool they are truly that a completely foul-mouthed over-the-top caricature of their dumbest type of fan they embrace that they get it enough to embrace it which is awesome and the secret sauce is when the thoughts that the dumbest guy in the fan base and my personal thoughts align that's the truth because like the care it's look it's also pretty formulaic i'll be honest i'm not gonna do it every week anymore because it's just like a little ironic racism a little ironic sexism or homophobia uh over-the-top accent a mentioned joe flacco say some say a weird perverted sex thing that the guy is in to sneak that in where people like wait did i hear that right that's the formula right if anybody wants it it's it's open source the ronnie formula is open source feel free i would it would actually i would love to like hand over the mantle to unofficial ravens fan to somebody else now i'll always home opener season opener i'm gonna do it playoffs i'm probably gonna do big games where something horrible or awesome happens you're like we're playing the browns i'm not doing a video and when we're playing the browns and you know in week six or whatever although maybe because the thing is with the browns are so fun to make fun of i know someone is in trouble when my mentions start populating with investigate this and it's just a photo of the owner yeah like oh yeah the revolution is is brewing yeah by the way that is what i foresee is that like ronnie is the person who will be calling for the revolution ronnie becoming not a ravens fan so much as an avatar of class consciousness that guy is going to take a lot for that that's a good that's a good way to think of it because that's going to take a lot because i do think there's something is going on now where it's like well i'm culturally liberal fiscally conservative you'd hear that all the time yes we're getting the opposite a lot we're getting a lot of people now who are like i am culturally conservative and fiscally liberal i want universal health care i want this stuff and i care a lot about my medicare premiums and uh trans girls not playing softball like there are people like that's their top two issues and that's our politics are bizarre right it's the realignment yeah and which is which is scary is like if one populist fascist gave people health care and was like but still immigrants and gay people are the problem they would win in a f***ing landslide it's so scary and that's why it's like i hope democrats stop being the f***ing d***less cowards they've been the last 20 years and actually offer some policy to people and aren't trying to like hide behind propriety and all this other bulls*** they're still trying to be centrist it feels like which is so such such lunacy um but you know fingers crossed they actually give people something to vote for in the most gimme election of all time if they try and go corporate you know soulless corporate centrists again they are marching us towards fascism because at some point someone's going to be like you get health care and we round up immigrants and like that's going to be f***ing scary dude that unfortunately is a really winning political message right now absolutely and i'm happy that at least fascists are as tied to health care money as centrists are i'm so glad that fascists are currently captured by corporate interests literally dude if yes i i that is when they learned how to run the ball and throw it yeah yeah yeah we're really f***ed but in the meantime ravens are going to the super bowl you know what i mean like no matter what your politics are it feels so awesome to watch a guy to watch people tackle each other shoot threes hit home runs just and that's the other beauty of sports it's like when sports aren't on you kind of have to think about what to watch gotta be like oh should i f***ing catch up on widow's bay i hear that's good should i f*** you know should i watch some movies i got home last night and i was like f*** what should i watch didn't need to think about it monday night football was on you know there's something so beautiful about sports just being when basketball comes back every night whatever the game i'm throwing on league pass and whatever best game is on getting getting lightly stoned and just scrolling through league pass one of the best things a person can do literally it's what saved me when i moved to new york and i had the most depressing years when you first move here as a comedian it's so depressing because even if people think you're funny it takes like years to get regular spots like there just isn't enough stage time there's the best comics in the world live here and especially back then when the money on the road wasn't as crazy the best comics weren't gone every weekend like they are now and so when i moved here it was some f***ing horrible open mic. I would hang out at a club and hope to God Dave Attell didn't show up and I could get his spot or whatever. And if that didn't happen, I would just be like, well, today f***ing sucked, but I can still get home and catch the late games. I can still watch the Sacramento Kings. And getting high and eating a f***ing pint of Ben and Jerry's and watching the second half of the late games on League Pass for two years of my life was the most happiness I ever felt. It was awesome. There is no better political message than consider the power of a product in which the Sacramento Kings help a person's mental well-being. Hey, Young Deere and Fox was fun to watch, man. F***ing fast as s***. I believed in that team. Stav, thank you for being so hospitable. Thank you for being an avatar of, I think, the future of a political movement. I don't know about all that. That maybe, that maybe, you know, in some ways, gonna have to delete some Instagram videos they posted before. But may reflect the evolution that this country needs. No, we're not deleting anything. This is how we got here. We're done deleting. We all used to say f***ed up stuff. All right? What do you want from me? We all grow and change, but that's how we got here. But, yeah, thank you, buddy. Thanks for having me. Everybody, please watch Uncle Stav. Yes. On Netflix right now. And the true crime reign of terror. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess now, watch it. Who gives a f***? And tires. We were number one for a while there. Watch tires. And Tony, if you can catch it at some point. You have so many things. A lot of things. This is a crazy summer. But, yeah. And listen to Stavi's world. Pablo will be sitting here at some point. Stavi gets ripped. Yeah, Stavi gets ripped. We're coming back. It's gonna be a little while. Give me a second. But we're good. New season coming up. Legitimately congratulations. It is so delightful to see that you have become this. Thanks, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I appreciate it. Congrats to you, too. They didn't sweep it up. They didn't sweep it under the rug. I was gonna say. They didn't gaslight you into thinking you're f***ing insane. And it almost worked. It almost worked. It almost worked. ESPN being like, f*** Pablo. He's a f***ing idiot. He can't even read these reports. And everybody's like, yeah, f*** that piece of s***. And then two weeks later, you're vindicated. But it was close. You know what? They'll get you the next one. The next one, you will go crazy. The ball was circling the cylinder. Yeah, it really was. That was the most f***ing bong, bong, bong shot of all time. But it went in. But thanks for having me, dude. Thank you for having me having you. Yeah, you got it. This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out, a Metal Ark Media production. And I'll talk to you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.