LeBron's 93% Pay Cut and the Fanatics Helicopter

Okay, so Pablo Torre is at it again. Let's not waste any time. Pablo Torre, he kind of Soft launch that he was looking at LeBron and looking at fanatics and looking at the whole Philly situation, but now Based off of dropping this clip, what was this earlier in the week, right? This is why yeah, just a couple days ago, and you see it's got over 2. million views in just a couple days. He's dropped a whole episode of his podcast, the Pablo Torre Finds Our Podcast, talking about how NBA owners have contacted him. To let him know that, hey, you should take a look at this whole LeBron flying in with the helicopters in New York and then trooping it to Philly.

and fanatics logo is on the damn helicopter you should take a look at that you had so much energy for Ballmer The Clippers, Tim Tebow potentially running a Christian Ponzi scheme or being a part of a Christian Ponzi scheme. Where's the energy? For your king. Where's the energy for klutch? Look into your man's Michael Rubin and look into your man 's LeBron. So Pablo Torre, not ducking the smoke, looked into LeBron and dropped a whole podcast episode about it. I listen to it.

I try to extract the most pertinent information, the most relevant information from it. Man, there's a lot to get into. There is a lot because Michael Rubin As you see here, this was a clip from, I believe, a couple of years ago, admitted that Fanatics was violating NBA rules. So now the backstory on Michael Rubin, he was part owner. Of the Philadelphia 76ers. He gave that up so he could run fanatics full bar. Okay?

So Michael Rubin, and I have the sound here. Won't play it on the Elon app because of copyright. But we do have the sound Make sure we do have it this week. The bed 's still going. Let's shut that down. Okay, shut that down. Okay, now we have the sound Okay, so this is Michael Rubin from a sports analytic conference at MIT.

talking about how he's so embedded or he was so embedded into doing business with athletes and betting that it kind of made him realize he should no longer be part owner of a NBA franchise. Now that I'm not part of the ownership group, I think I'd say this. I think we were violating every rule the NBA had. You know, you weren't allowed to take bets on. You were, you were. Yeah. Not the other orders.

No, no, I was actually no I'm specify we isn't I'm just a we person, not a me person. But like you're not allowed to take bets on your own team. But I was taking bets on the Sixers. You can't have individual contracts with remember I'm in the sports bet industry. Do you understand how crazy that is? I have 3,000 individual deals with athletes. Um You're not allowed to have uh owners or players that are investors in your businesses.

They're all you know um LeBron 's an investor in our business, Gerald Mead is an investor in our business, James Harter's an investor in our business, Chris Hall, Kevin Durant. Um So I all these guys were investors in a business. So like if you look through the rules of the leagues, it didn't work for me to own part of a team that was holding back fanatics. So you understand that this man was admitting that he was betting on sports while actively being an owner, a part owner, of an NBA team. And he's leveraging his relationships by being a part on a other team, by being part owner of a team in regards to being able to lure in the likes of a Joel Embiid, a Beard, and now a LeBron. I mean, Harden was a sixer. Embiid is still a sixer.

That is, it may not be collusion. It may not be salary cap circumvention, but there has to be something there to where that should not be allowed, to where the owner of a team, part owner or even majority owner. Has a side business deal with a current player on the team that this guy is a part owner of That has to be some kind of collusion in some kind of way because if we strip it all the way back, that is quasi what the Kawhi thing was. Quasi, not all the way, but if we look at it Steve Bomber was investing into companies, and those companies were given endorsement deals to Kawhi Leonard. In theory. In this, the part owner, the owner of a team, has a side business and has deals with players that are on his team through that side business that they're getting paid from. How is that not one and the same?

Like I get it that it's not. It's not a true one-to-one. I understand that. I'm not saying this is salary cap circumvention But this has to be a side-eye. Adam Silver cannot like the fact that Pablo Torre is out here in the streets and he is running down not just players But he's running the money. And when you run down and chase the money, the money never just stops at the player. It always goes back up top to the owners.

So when you do follow the money, much like in the wire with Lester Freaman, when you follow the money, you don't know how high that thing's gonna take you, but it's guaranteed to take you high up. Same thing here with Pablo Torre. He is chasing the money. Kawhi, how much? Clippers were able to afford him all of that? They were able to pay him all of that. Little birdie put in my ear that maybe I should look into this?

Let me start chasing the money. Let me start following the money. Aspiration, planting trees. Kawhi ain't plant no trees. How'd that happen? Okay, follow the money Same thing here where the now former owner of an NBA team is saying, yeah, I had side businesses. Not only was I betting on the sport But I was out here leveraging side businesses with current employees of mine and other luminaries within the same industry of the team that I own.

How is this not a violation of some kind of agreement? How is this not a violation of some kind of CBA somewhere So that's kind of the crux of where it begins. Like, okay, who's to do that on fanatics? Because if you see LeBron 's flying in with the helicopter into New York and then he's commuting to Philly to do the board to do the games and all that But if you look at the plane or look at the chopper, the helicopter has a FN logo on it short for Fanatics. So Fanatics is kind of. Whether they're sponsoring him or whether they're, you know, just loaning it to him or just doing it for promo, whatever the case may be, they are part of this whole LeBron is taking the chopper to games thing. Okay, so he's taking the chopper to games, he's landing in Philly and then commuting it.

The landing strip of LeBron is essentially sponsored. The chopper is sponsored. And again Not to say that that is any salary cap circumvention. We're not saying that, but again, it starts to look a little familiar. You have to kind of understand that you can't just look at that as just that's just normal Now that we know what actual salary cap circumvention is with the whole Clippers, Kawhi aspiration thing, we now have to take a look at every deal And assess of hey, is this blurring the lines too much? Is this flying too close to the sun? That's what we have to navigate when it comes to a situation like this.

Is LeBron flying in on a on a helicopter? That is branded by now a former owner of a team, but a league sponsor Is there anything there? Is the money LeBron is getting from fanatics allegedly to offset the bread that he gave up? Because he took a 93% pay cut to play in Philadelphia. pay cut. How many of you, despite how much money you have, because we know LeBron 's got all the money in the world, he is a billionaire, right? And if he's not a billionaire, he is quickly on the path to becoming one.

Would you ever take a 93 pay cut? Even if I made you a billionaire, would you ever do anything for the love so much that you would take a 93% pay cut? Because that's what LeBron's doing this year. So y'all let me know. But that's just the tip of the iceberg of this whole thing, right? So that's the lay. I'm laying it all out for you, right?

So if we get into the nuts and bolts, I have my notes here. So I'm going to be reading off my notes because it is a lot. I had to listen to the whole pod and do all of that stuff and take my notes. So let me pull up that piece. So based off of that, in the chat, whether you're live or whether you're on the replay, do you think that it's weird at the minimum? Do you think that it's weird? That LeBron has a sponsored helicopter to go back and forth to games.

You let me know Alright, where is that at? Pull that up. Notes. Okay, here we go. All right. So much to break down here. So All right.

So LeBron signed that two-year, $8 million deal with the Sixers, right? So his salary this year is $3. million, which is the vet minimum at this point in his career. Now just last year he made 52. 6 million. So a little bit over 52. million dollars.

So to go from 52. million to 3. 8 this year. That's how you get the 93% pay cut, right? So he's gonna live in New York and commute to Philly. He's gonna commute to Sixers games and practices by helicopter and it is Fanatics branded. Right?

So the flight record shows because they already got those. Could they been tracking this man? Because this is a thing. Like LeBron taking the chopper back and forth between New York and Philly. This is the thing. Flight records show roughly a dozen round trips have been made in one week. So he's in that chopper a lot.

That means a lot of fanatics branding in the sky between New York, Philly, between New York and Philly a lot. And you know when they have the regular season games, that's gonna be epic B-roll. That's going to be epic B-roll of LeBron choppering in and landing on a helipad out there in Philly or showing him taking off. Leave in New York like that that B-roll is gonna be epic. It's gonna be in 120 frames per second or 240 frames per second is gonna be epic, right? So that is gonna be the visual And part of that visual is going to be that part of the helicopter is going to be branded with Fanatics. So it's going to be promo.

Free promo every time Bron's in the air. So already a dozen trips in one week That's a dozen times that Fanatics has gotten promo in the friendly skies So Fanatics is covering the cost of this, right? So they are paying for this LeBron Chopper thing, right? So the quote is the deal we signed with fanatics almost three years ago includes access to their corporate aviation, a feature in many of their deals with their largest ath athletes. So LeBron has a Fanatics training card deal, right? I think that it was established what January yes, January of 2024. Okay, so January of 2024, Brian signs a deal with Fanatics.

Part of that deal is he gets access to corporate aviation. That could mean PJs, but when but now we know for sure it involves a helicopter, okay? So the reason why we can't say it's salary cap circumvention is because this deal was leveraged and brokered in 2024 before Braun was a sixer. This deal was brokered when he was a Lakers. So Again, that's why we can't jump out the window and say, hey, this is that thing just like Kawhi because this predates him becoming a Sixer. But I mean we know LeBron and how it calculated him, Rich Paul, klutch. are like if you just think LeBron decided this summer to become a Philadelphia seventy sixer Knowing how calculated he is, knowing how uh meticulous him and his team are about his decisions and about how he is portrayed in the media.

Do you really think LeBron just decided to wake up one day this summer and decide, yeah, you know what? It's Philly. And oh by the way, the guy that used to run or used to be a part owner of the team, I've already got a deal with him, so I could just chopper wherever I want or PJ wherever I want. That just happens to be a happenstance, a co-winkidink A coincidence. Do you really think that when it comes to LeBron, Ramon, James? I do not. But the timeline is the timeline.

This deal was signed in 2024. This happens in 2026. There is no direct connection point. It could just be a coincidence So now this isn't totally free, right? So LeBron apparently has to declare the value of each ride as income and pay tax on it. So this isn't for the free ski. This isn't like But the Clippers and the Kawhi thing, part of the deal was Kawhi would get access to the PJ, the private jet.

And allegedly he didn't have to report it. Uh let that could be a little murky, but that was part of the innuendo there as just a small lesser subplot. of the whole Kawhi Clippers salary cap circumvention angle, right? So LeBron can't get that off. He has to declare each ride as income and pay tax on it So it's not for the free ski, but because you have to pay tax on it, that could be a write-off. So I mean however you decide what free actually is, that's up to you. So the chopper's tail number, and this is the way the branding comes in, is N6FN.

6 is for LeBron's jersey number, FN is for Fanatics. This is a 15-passenger helicopter and it gets about one mile per gallon. Okay, so this exact aircraft was registered under a different number N223 KR And it has history. It's the chopper that Michael Rubin personally flew to pick up pick up Meek Mill. On his 2018 prison release. So this has been a Michael Rubin thing for a minute. This has been his chopper for a while.

And LeBron is the latest just to get access to it because if he picked this man up, he picked up Meek Mill in 2018. And in February of 2019, it carried LeBron, Robert Kraft, Magic Johnson, Alan Iverson. And Michael Rubin together to a Sixers Lakers game. So LeBron 's been in that chopper before, along with Robert Kraft. Magic Johnson AI in Michael Rubin. I mean so okay, so Apparently the chopper was retired heading into the summer or semi-retired And as LeBron was choosing between the Sixers, the Warriors, the Cavs, and the Heat, he made two appearances at F Fanatics Fest, which is Michael Rubins thing, and they have like a it's like a it's not like it's like Comic Con and Complex Con, all those cons, right? Fanatics fest is basic basically their own convention in New York.

So that FAA records show that the tail number changed. So it went from N223KR to N6FN on July 17th. The same day as LeBron 's second Fanatics Fest appearance. He was not a 76er yet on July 17th. So they preemptively changed the name of the chopper a week before LeBron became a Sixer. There's nothing wrong with that, but it shows, again, this notion that LeBron just woke up and decided, okay, I'm gonna go to Philly. Like it's nonsense.

Uh literally a week before The chopper was already being changed to LeBron 's number. A week later, July 24th, the Sixer signed him. If the news broke not from an NBA reporter, so not Shams. Woj didn't come up retirement to drop a Woj bomb. It wasn't LeBron 's man's Chris Haynes. None of them got the scoop. The scoop was a tweet from Topps.

Yes, Topps, the trading card company. Who owns the trading card company? You guessed it, Fanatics. And they had LeBron 's first seventy sixers card in the announcement. So again, you tell me is all of this just a little is this flying a little bit too close to the sun? It appears to for me, but you know, I fall back because I get called a hater, I get called someone that tries to make something out of nothing, even though years later or sometimes months later or even days later it comes to be that what I was thinking was kind of actually the thing but I'll fall back for now but all of this Seems to be very, very uh convenient. I'll just say that the at the least, okay Let's see what else we got here in the notes.

Uh so Pablo was very much saying he was making sure that he was clear that this is not He's not alleging salary cap circumvention, okay? It just seems to be a funny series of coincidences, which I agree. And that he has heard from people in the league that are telling him or insinuating to him that LeBron was flipped at Fanatics Fest. Because if you come to the Fanatics Fest day one, the chopper still had the old nomenclature. Then just 24 hours later They're changing the name of the chopper to fit your name. Something happened in those 24 hours. Something happened to where the chopper was not named after LeBron.

And then 24 hours later it was. Something happened there. What was it? We don't know. Was LeBron flipped at Fan Fest, at Fanatics Fest? And if he was flipped, What sealed the deal? Because it couldn't have been bread.

He took a 93% pay cut. So what was it? What other stuff could you convince LeBron to take part of? At that point in his career, you're telling this man to take a 93% pay cut, take the vet minimum, you're allegedly the GOAT. We want you to take a base pay minimum salary. Where's going to be the offset of the bread? Because Bron's about his money now.

Don't let him taking the vet minimum fool you. Bron is about his money. So where's that bread coming from? Did they sweeten the fanatics deal Is the fanatics deal that he signed in 2024, did they reopen those negotiations? And if they did reopen those negotiations Is that salary? Can't say it, can't say it, because the guy doesn't even own the team anymore, but obviously he has ties to the team, ties to the organization. He's just enough, he's separated just enough to where you can have an outside deal with him And that bread could be free and clean and clear of your vet minimum salary And that's why my man was talking the way he was, because he knew if he's gonna keep building up fanatics and keep building up the various brands like tops underneath the umbrella of fanatics.

You gotta keep making deals with players and if you're gonna keep making deals with players, it would be it would behoove you to not be part owner of an NBA team. Now that I'm not part of the ownership group, I think I'd say this. I think we were violating every rule the NBA had. You know. Um you know you weren't allowed to take bets on. Not the other orders. No no I was actually no I'm specific we isn't I'm just a we person, not a me person, but like you're not allowed to take bets on your own team But I was taking bets on the Sixers.

You can't have individual contracts with remember I'm in the sports betting business. I know. Um y you know you're not allowed to have individual contracts. You just get so admitted and laugh about three thousand individual deals with athletes Um you're not allowed to have uh owners or players that are investors in your businesses. They're all you know um LeBron's investor in our business, Jerolin Bede's an investor in our business, James Hart is an investor in our business, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant. Um So I all these guys were investors in a business. So like if you look through the rules of the leagues, it didn't work for me to own part of a team that was holding back fanatics It's crazy that he is so boldly and so brazingly speaking about betting on a team.

Have an individual deals with individual players, including players on the team that he part-owned. And the fact that he owns a sports betting company and he's just allowed to be part owner of a team. Like the the the way that this stuff goes off the rails is because the people with the money have been allowed so much leeway and so much grace because these leagues are so in bed with the sports betting companies that someone like Michael Rubin could just swoop in and just own everything and grab pieces of everything and openly admit to betting on games. Now you can't do anything retroactively. To him because he's a former owner. But again, him admitting this, shouldn't this send a sign to the league that they should look into owners betting on games? He said he admitted he bet on his own team.

I don't think that that's allowed. Just like players can't do it, you're telling me owners can. Is that in the CBA? I'm not going to sit here and say I know all the bylaws of the of the ownership and and player perspective when it comes to gambling, but It certainly seems like if players are not allowed to bet on games, and there's been plenty of players that have been caught up in gambling rings with the mafia, all that stuff. You know, Terry Rozier, you know, Jontay Porter, all of it. Malik, uh, what is it, Malik Beasley, right? Malik Beasley, all those dudes caught up Now we have a former owner saying, Yeah, I used to bet on games.

I used to bet on my team. That should send a signal to the lead that they need to investigate, keep the same energy you had for Jon T. Porter. Who's banned for life right there? I think he's banned for life. Can't never play ball again. Terry Rozier gone going away for a long time.

All those dudes that have been caught up, Chauncey Billups got caught up in it, all those dudes that got caught up in it, where's the energy for owners? Now, I don't think owners would be this dumb because again, he didn't admit this until he is now a former owner, right? But where is the is the follow-up? Because if he's brazen enough to just admit it like that, that means to me that he's definitely not the only one. He is not a rogue part owner. To where he's the only one that has placed a bet on his own team And if that's part of the if he's allowed to do that, then salute. Again, another failure by a players association.

This time the NBPA. But if that is not allowed, then where's the follow-up? Where's the accountability? Where is the taking to task the fact that we have an owner who's brazenly enough to just stand here or sit here on the dais and just openly admit it and be very nonchalant about it? That to me is extremely problematic. And if I'm Adam's silver, I am filming because he can't do nothing to him now He's a former owner and he's embedded that the NBA is so embedded with fanatics they can't even do anything about that Too big to fail, Michael Rubin apparently. Too big to fail.

All right, let's see what else we got here on my notes. Okay, so if you want to understand, well then what would make this salary cap circumvention? Like what would You know, LeBron going to Philly, how could this be framed as salary cap circumvention? So the podcast went into good detail about the possible scenarios. And one scenario was If the Sixers owner, who is Josh Harris, told Michael Rubin what perks to include as part of recruiting LeBron, that is salary cap circumvention. That is just overall circumvention, right? Or if there's an undisclosed perk not factored into the sixers cap number.

If it's disclosed, it's legal. So if there's a quiet understanding, a handshake agreement under the table agreement, whatever between LeBron and Josh Harris, or LeBron and Rubin, any of that That is circumvention. That is circumvention, right? But if it is all disclosed within the confines of the country, because obviously it goes to the MBPA, then it goes to the NBA League offices. Everyone is fully transparent above what's in uh about what is in the paperwork. So that would not be an issue. But if there is a under the table agreement, a handshake agreement Then that's where the trouble starts.

That's where the trouble starts. So look man, Kawhi was out here getting the helicopter to get to the crib from San Diego to the Clippers facility in Inglewood. Now we got LeBron being able to live in New York, commute the Philly via a chopper. I'm just saying certain things are starting to look very, very familiar. I'm not going to jump out there and say it's circumvention because we don't have enough information yet. But it certainly are some similarities between Kawhi and the Clippers. And apparently and allegedly with LeBron and the Sixers Alright, so off the heels of that, where we have players maybe maybe not getting paid extra.

So that they could get closer to making their actual value. We have to spin the block on the Protect College Sports Act going on in college because There was some reporting that was done, and it was reported that ESPN, the four-letter network was out here lobbying and successfully lobbying To make sure that their bread was protected in this, the Protect College Sports Act. So not only was this the Protect College Sports Act, but it was the Protect ESPN's Media Rights Act. If you want to believe the stuff I'm about to show you and tell you about. Let's pull up the tweets. And let's go to the article. Okay.

So awful announcing did some reporting Inside ESPN's tangled ties to the Protect College Sports Act, corporate lobbying, on-air advocacy, and political political connections, how ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro secured changes to the bill that protects ESPN 's TV deals. So The TLDR of it is this. There is framework language in this the Protect College Sports Act that has it so That in the future, if conferences pull their money together for media rights deals, it can in essence void out current media rights deals. Now obviously ESPN is a major shareholder in regards to securing contracts with SEC, ACC, and conferences like that. So, and they're their bread and butter. They basically got that package from CBS. And now they have that SEC package and they're running that.

And running that into very, very high ratings numbers every single Saturday. So they don't want their SEC deal to be able to be voided out or taken away from them because they got a really good deal They got a really good deal. Now, the conferences are still making bread. It's not like they got it for the low, but in essence, in terms of being able to build your brand around, we got all the games or all the games that matter. Having the SEC in the college football space kind of leans that way and signals that you got most of all the games that matter every Saturday because of the importance of the SEC. The Protect College Sports Act before Jimmy Pitaro lobbied and got involved, it made it so is that any deal going forward If and when the Act passes, that the media rights deals could be voided out in lieu of new deals that would have been more under the confines of the restrictions of the uh Protect College Sports Act going forward. So basically all the restrictions would come in across the board, including to the media rights deals.

And it would be shared, right? ESPN said no no no no we want the SEC and we want to keep the deal that we got rolling with the SEC. We need to get some language in there. And amend the fact or allow us a pathway to be able to keep the deal that we got going to make sure our bread is essentially not fucked up. Don't take our deal away. We at ESPN. And that's essentially what they did.

And now it starts to make sense why they had Ted Cruz pull up on game day. It makes sense the way that Sabin has been pining so hard to get this thing going. Now he doesn't have a ownership in ESPN, but it's certainly It would it would make sense for him to be a part of the network that has the SEC, knowing his ties to the SEC, right? So it makes sense. Be that as it may, they went into this with trying to make it so that they were not biased. But there is no way to act like you're not biased when the your chairman. Is out here securing and changing and amending laws or bylaws or you know amending legal legislation.

Federal legislation, which is damn near unheard of when it comes to sports. The chairman of a media company is amending federal legislation to protect his company, and that was allowed. Again, just like the LeBron thing, y'all think this is cool? Y'all think he should be allowed to do that? Cause this is a thing that was set up by the orange man. And the orange man pulled in Randy Levine. Um and then Fox uh Fox Sports CEO was also in the mix.

So yeah, ESPN and Fox. Okay, so ESPN has SEC Fox has what? Big twelve? Big ten? What parts of Big Ten? And what else they got? Big 12, Big Ten.

They got they got a good chunk of whatever's left, right? The two biggest media partners when it comes to college football is ESPN and Fox, right? Hard stop. It is what it is. When it comes to what they were able to do, Levine confirmed that ESP SPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks personally told him they were concerned about protecting their existing television contracts. Emails also place Pitaro on the invitation list for an August meeting organized through Cody Campbell's office, the primary backer of saving college sports. So everything is connected.

Everything. There is always again if you follow the money, Lester Freaman, follow the money. ESPN is trying to protect the money that they've invested into securing a SAC contract. Fox is doing the same to protect their contracts and are able to get out here and lobby Lobby federal legislators and allow them to come on their platforms to, you know, propagandize this legislature on their platforms because Ted Cruz again was he had a one-on-one interview on college game day with no opposition to push back on why the college the Protect College Sports Act might not be for the betterment of the game for players. He just got uh he got to sit up there and dispu propaganda, spew talking points And it was nothing. Nobody said anything. Nobody did anything.

There was no opposition. The damn NAACP had to pull up and be like, yo, what is this? Is is this your man 's? Then ESPN had to protect themselves under the cloak of no, we just gave him a platform, we just gave him a chance. Well, okay, we'll give you a chance. Well, you gave Ted Cruz A open platform on a huge stage on game day. You gave the NAACP a Tuesday Sports Center.

That is not the same. But under the guise of unbiased, under the guise of journalism, under the guise of we're fair and balanced. You think just by giving the NAACP a platform, you're fair and balanced. No, you gave Ted Cruz uninterrupted minutes with no pushback, with no anything, on your largest platform. You gave the NAACP a couple of minutes on a Tuesday Sports Center. Asked whether Pitaro or Shanks raised concerns about how the Protect College Sports Act or other reforms would affect existing television deals. Levine told Awful Announcing that they wanted to ensure that their contracts would not be breached.

Changes to the Protect College Sports in mid-September added protections in section 203 of the bill to protect existing television contracts in the event of media rights pooling. Under the legislation, conferences and schools cannot contribute media rights to a collective pool if they are end quote not legally entitled to contribute by reason of an existing contract. including an amendment to such contract, end quote, that restricts the transfer or licensing of those rights The bill further states nothing in this act shall be construed to eliminate, limit, modify, or otherwise affect any right, obligation, or remedy of any party under an existing contract. They protected their money. They protected their chicken, they protected their food. So like I mentioned earlier, ESPN has television contracts with the SEC, the ACC and other conferences. These provisions would preserve its contractual rights even if those conferences joined a collective media rights arrangement.

As you see here, ESPN declined to comment. Fox Sports did not respond. Awful Announcing's request for comment. This is nasty, bro. This is nasty. And it just keeps going. It's so nasty and convoluted how they just want to continuously make it so that players don't get paid They don't want players to get paid.

The minute players started getting paid, everyone got their panties and a bunch. Everyone got nervous, got scared, and was holding on to their children because of the sanctity of college football Once NIL became an actual thing. Even though if you really know NIL was happening for decades prior. Literally decades prior, we all know stories of someone at any level, from high-level D1 to JUCO Down to AAU, down to high schools, where someone got paid to bring their services to a certain institution We all knew it. We all understood that the game is the game. The game is to be sold, not to be told. We all knew what it was.

But now all of a sudden the players get paid and it's announced. It's above board. You don't have to hide it. It's not lurking in the shadows. It's not a duffel bag being dropped off. It's not a car magically popping up in mom 's driveway. It's none of that.

It's straight up, yeah, this player, we give them three million dollars. Oh my god. The sanctity of amateurism, the sanctity of student athletes. It's ridiculous. They've been they've been getting the bag. Jay Williams spoke on it. Ndamukong Suh wanted no parts, but Jay Will spoke on it Even at Duke, they were getting the bag.

Coach K holier than thou, Coach K, even he was part of players getting the bag. Allegedly. And I have some sound from Marshall Faulk, who was on Rich Eisen show leading into the college football season. He's the head coach at Southern. I salute Southern. Shout out to Southern, except for when you play Grambling in the Bayou Classic. You already know what it is.

But Marshall Faulk having a rough go of it at Sut at Southern. I've played some sound from him on prior episodes, but This was prior to the season. This was leading into the season. And if I would have known Marshall Faulk was going to give it up like how he did before the season even started. Southern would have been must-see TV for me every Saturday because he gave it all the way up, not just about college sports or college football in the current state that it's in, but the position that He as the coach of Southern is in. And I think it's very, very important. And I would like for you to listen.

But the back office stuff now is real business. You know, it's not just a stuff that it was back in the day when my college head coach. It's so much different now. Right. And we're talking straight business Like it's it's all business. Uh the kids they look at you and they be like, I want money. Well, you're used to that in real life.

Right You know what I'm saying? That's that's like this that's what that's literally what they do. And uh I just believe that The state of the game right now, it's not its best in college football, but it's continuously getting better. I think every year some new things will pop up And we'll create some rules and fix it and um and put a patch on it. But I am going to say paying the players has really, really help the game. It has. It has.

Why do you why do I'll give you the floor on that? Who has said that? We caught it amateur sports, but it really isn't. Correct. It never has been. Talk it. And I keep trying to figure this out, Rich.

Where Was Michigan and Ohio State and where were they putting all this money? Where was this money going when they weren't paying it to the street? I just can't figure out where it was going. No, and you can figure it out. Like I know you were you're I I'm picking up what you're putting down. Where was it going? I'm just trying to figure it out.

Facilities? It's always a facilities. Yeah. Gotta upgrade the facilities every year. They are still building facilities. Every year we gotta rebuild those facilities. We're s literally allowing these kids to to um to partake in the money's that's being made.

Right. When you look at the playoffs and the money that's being made and that it's just it's unbelievable. The T V deals in con and in college football right now. How do you keep up with the money game though? It's Southern England. How do you how do you do that? Oh well I'm I'm not trying to keep up I'm just trying to get my kids to the money game.

The money game is in the FPS. You gotta be in the power at a power three, four, or five to really make the kind of money. I mean So you I remember you tell this to the kids when they show up. Yes. Yes, Rich. I mean, I remember trying to get to the NFL as fast as possible And now you got guys 29 years old trying to get a year of eligibility in college just because he doesn't want to take a pay cut back to the league. Carson Beck's making less money Beck 's making less money at Arizona than he did when he was at Miami.

Yeah, right. And probably taking as many of the same class number of classes. Exactly. He said didn't he say that uh the week leading up to the national championship game he hadn't been in the classroom in over a year. That's what he said. But I mean that that's what it is. I mean when when guys are partitioning to go back to college.

You know, like school. But that's what it that's what it's all about. I I think it'll all get fixed, Rich. I believe so. I don't know I don't think it's the government that's gonna fix it despite this bill that's apparently gonna get voted on protect college before the Senate breaks. Our government I know that. They're gonna fix football?

I know that. Our government. I know that. So um when it comes down to it though All right. So you you get the gist of it. So Marshall Faulk was was very real. He knows he can't win the money game at Southern.

But his goal is to coach these kids up so that they can transfer And get to a power three, four, or five. He understands the clairvoyance. There is such a clairvoyance and self-awareness and understanding your position Marshall Faulk understands, look, I'm at Southern, I'm at the HBCU. Despite what I may think in regards to the quality of play of the HBCU, there is a perception that you cannot get past, right? Coach Prime, your man's out there in Boulder had a chance to kind of shift that narrative, but he ran to go to Boulder. So the HBCU the HBCU rep Went back to where it was prior to when Prime went down to Jackson, right? So he knows he's not gonna get the bluest of blue chips to pull up.

He knows that. So what he needs to do is to get some two-stars, some three stars, maybe even a troubled four-star. And coach them up, work them up, and get them in position that they could go flip and use the experience that they have gotten from going to Southern and flip that into a power three, four, or five. He understands the game. He knows he can't walk into some child's living room and compete when Ohio State's walking in He knows he can't compete when even Penn State is walking in or even LSU is walking in or even Texas Tech. UCLA, you can't compete. But now if I take this two-star and get them right And maybe add a star or two to that player's rank, okay, now Ohio State's gonna come calling.

Now you might get Michigan to pull up. Now you might get Oklahoma. You might get Texas to pull up and take a look. So you're essentially feeding the power three, four, and five when you're at this level. And I love the fact that Marshall Faulk is being so transparent about it and not trying to run from the smoke because that's what prom ended up doing. But he's not running from the smoke. He's like, no, this is what it is at this level.

If you're trying to build a program and establish, look, Marshall Faulk does not have the same cachet of a prime, right? The reason why I go so hard on Prime is because he had the celebrity status enough to where he could have gotten more four stars. Maybe not five, but certainly some four stars to pull up. An occasional five star to pull up. If he would have stayed down there in Jackson and built that thing into a powerhouse he had a chance. But because he ran on the first thing smoking over there to Boulder talking about the luggage and it's Louie Meanwhile, that Louie luggage is now playing on well one of them's playing on Sundays. I don't want to riding the pond behind nasty man.

That Louie luggage been gone And ain't no type of Louis luggage on them sidelines out there in Boulder. And the people in Boulder are starting to notice that and they're like, well, hey, wait a minute. What happened to the Louis luggage? And that's what it is, because if you can't even build it at a power five. It is way more difficult to build it out of Power 5 in a bottom of the barrel Power 5 to me than building out of HBCU. Because you would have had the extra cachet of it's HBCU. What is the appeal of going to Boulder?

The appeal was the first couple of years prom was there. That was the appeal of going to Boulder when they had two NFL players on the roster Now there's not a lot of NFL talent if there is any on their roster. The recruiting classes have have dropped in rankings lower and lower and lower. So the talent is not meeting not matching up to what it was when he first got there. So what is the appeal of going to Boulder? Cause it's not like, oh, if you work with Coach Prime, he's gonna get you to the league. That ain't the case.

He got his son to the league, one son, try to get the other one in there, didn't happen. So what is the appeal of going to Boulder? What is the appeal of playing for Coach Prama? You're going to learn something that's going to get you to the next level. I don't see any evidence of that But if he would have said that at an HBCU, if he would have said that Jackson, at least you would have had the cachet of okay, you're still at an HBCU repping and you understand what it is when you're walking through the door. At Colorado, you're thinking, okay, I'm at a power five But there's levels to the power five, there's levels to the power four, there's levels to the power three. But Prime is not telling these recruits that.

He's just telling them, hey, power five is a power five. Yeah, but if you're a bottom of the barrel power power five, if you're the lowest amongst the power five, is that still worth it? Or would you rather go down to an HBCU and get it in for a season or two and then flip in the portal? As opposed to being in the doldrums of Boulder, Colorado, trying to figure it out. So many wayward cases of players that have went the boulder thinking that they were going to be a part of something and end up being a part of nothing just because they follow behind some alleged Louis luggage that was not there. Problematic. But salute to Marshall Faulk for keeping it real and being honest.

More honesty in college sports. Lord knows they need it. All right, what else we got? Uh So one one more thing on the color sports side, right? Only because We've heard from you know the Ted Cruzes of the world. We've heard from a lot of I pulled some sound from Doug Gottlieb, but I'm not even gonna get into it because he's so anti -player and as some as someone that was a former player. I don't know why he's on that type of time.

But now he's a coach so he's he's on that he's on that side of the fence but There's been so many voices that are getting press and push that are anti-players in this protect college sports deck because Dion's out here doing commercials, Saban's out here doing commercials, McAfee's co-signing everything because he's trying to get that 60. plus M's, a year bag. Dominique Foxworth, four-letter network. He's not attached to college sports. He's an NFL guy, but he is a Union guy. He is, for lack of a better term, pro-player when it comes to most things regarding labor. So he was on the uh Pubatory podcast and he was speaking about the uh Protect College Sports Act.

And I just want to read you some of the things that he that he spoke on in regards to that, right? Here's a quote from Dominique Foxworth. The problem is not that they want those things in, in regards to the fact that they're trying to put power and put limitations on what players can make, right? So he's saying that the problem is not that they want those things in. The problem is that they want the power to impose those things without the labor having any recourse. And that always goes back to the main point. You want to put limitations onto a workforce, but you don't want to call them employees.

That's not how that works. You can't have a workforce And pay people in accordance to their labor and not negotiate rights for that labor. But that's kind of what this act is doing This act is acting as if the labor is not actually labor. So these colleges and the legislators behind this bill have all the power to just dictate what the labor is going to act according to Which is not how that works in any other part of the workforce. Because the main thing is that like That the whole antitrust thing is what's kind of the underbelly of a lot of this talk And the way that the like the Ted Cruz is of the world, the Randy Levine's of the world, and just that side is saying is that, you know, there's no laws to regulate college sports. How is that the case when the NCAA is an acting entity? Explain that.

There's no laws regulating college sports, yet the NCAA has the power to fine suspend and terminate programs. Is that not law or nah? So just there's a lot of there's a lot of legalese that's being played here, but the fact of the matter is is that As much as the NCAA, as much as the right-wing conservatives want to clean up the sanctity of college sports, this ain't necessarily a straight clean big bank take little bank thing Because if you're trying to now employ college uh college players, aka student athletes, if you're trying to employ them, then you need to have labor laws in place for now your new labor. You can't keep having employees, but then you can't you're you're restricting the rights for them as if they're non-employees. So we're gonna take you from being amateurs. We're going to take you from being student athletes, and we're now going to allow you to earn a salary, but that salary comes with little to no rights as a worker. How's that fair?

How's that fair on any level? Any level. Cause this is going to be like the fact that this was done, and you know, Fox Worth made another good point. Nobody involved with this in terms of college athletes or athletes representation. No one was involved on this committee. The orange man had a committee, and it was about a hundred plus people. And of those hundred plus people, there were not one college athlete And not one athlete rep on that committee.

So we're gonna legislate the game. We're gonna legislate a bill We're gonna take the we're gonna make sure that the that this bill oversees everything in college sports, but we're not gonna have anyone who is actively and currently in college sports be a part of the conversation. I ask you again, is that fair? Does this sound like something that actually has college athletes in mind for the betterment? Or does it sound like an overseer laying down laws to their working class base And I use my words carefully. An overseer using their clout, using their words, using their power, their legislative power, to control the working class. Is that fair?

Because you can't tell me this is supposed to protect college sports Athletes are a part of college sports. What of this, what part of this is cut is protecting college sports or cup protecting college athletes? Who the ones performing in college sports? What part of this is protecting them You're protecting college institutions. That's the real name of the act. Protect College Institutions Act. Because none of this is done with rowing in mind.

None of this is done with lacrosse in mind. You think Jimmy Pitaro would have gone and tried to make sure that his SEC contract was still intact if all he had was the rights to SEC lacrosse? You think Fox would have been running around here tryna lobby, tryna amend this bill, if all he had was big noon rowing? None of this is about college sports. This is all about college football and to a lesser degree college basketball. That's what this is about. So what's gonna happen?

Because at some point, this is gonna have to be collectively bargained. This is gonna have to be a unionized type of deal, even though unions have been eradicated in this country over the last couple of decades, damn near my whole lifetime if I really want to keep it a buck. But you can't get away with having these people be called employees and called labor and they're not allowed to have re representation at the table. That's not how that works. So there's gonna have to be a work stoppage Are you ready to have a college football season with no college football playoff? I have lived my life to where there's been a whole MLB season with no World Series. I have been alive for when NFL went on strike and they had replacement players.

Are we going to get replacement student athletes? Is that when the you know the Hamptons of the world, the Howards of the World, the Grambleys, the Southerns of the world, the Fam Us of the world, they can step up? And be a power five? When the power five is on strike Cause what something's gonna something big like that's gonna happen is going to have to happen. As much as legislature can be pushed through And they're waiting for the midterms to get this through the Senate, I believe. I think it's already passed the house. I could have had that backwards.

I'm not sure. It's already pass one level. It has to get to the second level. If that goes through, as is expected, once the midterms are done, the players have the leverage then. But are these student athletes that are now going to be actually employees are they willing to unite like that? I would love for them to. It would be it would be great content if they do, but that's a sacrifice for a lot of these players, and we've seen how a lot of these players, especially with the portal, And they want it fast, quick, fast in a hurry, they don't want to waste any time.

It's gonna be hard to convince dudes that are now used to a portal system where they can just bounce around from spot to spot collecting bags every step of the way to not hey we need you to sit down for a year. Good luck. Real quick, Fall Lighter Network, sports media, been working in it for almost 20 years, and this type of stuff is very interesting for me. There is quote tension between Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, the Monday Night Football crew Quote, after the athletic reported last month that Buck had reached a new six-year, $108 million deal at ESPN, there has been unspoken tension Between the partners that one has a new contract while the other Aikman has not received a formal offer. Now, this all stems from this past Monday night. Buck, quote, broke the ice on this unspoken tension, and he and Aikman had an argument prior to the Monday Night Football broadcast. Are you ready for some football?

Troy Aikman is ready to get paid and there's been some updates to this story as Aikman is making the rounds. Where is it? Uh man, where is it? Where's the Aikman quote? All right. Troy Aikman this morning. It went on a Dallas-Fort Worth, I'm assuming, radio show about rumors of tension between him and Joe Buck.

Quote, there's probably a time and place for that. I don't know if now is the time. I don't know if it's hard to figure out kind of what happened. I'll broadcast through the season and I'll be a free agent at the end of the year and kind of see what happens. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. And then remember, ESPN has a Super Bowl this year. So Buck and Aikman are going to take us all the way to the end.

Through the Super Bowl. Is there gonna be tension during the Super Bowl as they sign off the air in what possibly could be the end of their relationship? How's that gonna land? The first ever Super Bowl on ESPN and your two commentators are beefing low-key? Or not even high key now that we know it now. It's what week five, week six? And we now know your your Monday Night Football crew is beefing And there's been a lot of turmoil with that whole Monday night football thing, producers being let go or being reassigned.

It's been a lot of stuff. That whole Buck and Aikman thing, they've lasted a very long time together, but they don't have any signature moments. They don't have, they don't have the cachet. that really makes Monday Night Football must see TV, but he is a stallworth. Like he's a he's a cowboy. He's a quarterback. And he is a Super Bowl champion, that carries a lot of weight in the broadcast arena.

So Troy Aikman, if he's not part of that mutt Monday Night Football booth next year, I don't know where they go with that. Maybe they try to get Kelsey in there. I don't know. But ESPN's gonna be they have a lot of stuff to clean up. They have a lot of stuff to clean up there because Aikman is a part of that broadcast and buck with anybody else. Just like we're seeing with Jim Nantz without Romo, he's got JJ Watt in there, and you could tell JJ Watt is not on the level of even a Romo. But because Romo, you know, OWY 'd himself out of a gig, now we gotta deal with JJ Watt meandering through a broadcast with Jim Nantz trying to steer him along the way, so it's not a good listen.

But you know, it is what it is at this point, but I think ultimately when we're looking at this, the sports media landscape The jobs, the commentator jobs, aren't as important anymore unless you have someone who is really good at it. Most of the time it's just a talking head. You're just a person with a mic. But when you have someone that, you know, is either a celebrity like a Tom Brady, like a Troy Aikman, like even a Roma when he flashed and was predicting plays and the shit was working and all that stuff. But then once that wore off, he just became just a another guy. Like he just the predictions didn't hit the same. He seemed to be lazy in his analysis.

It just didn't hit. Now When you have a Tom Brady, it's like, oh my god, Tom Brady, but then you listen to Tom Brady, and you know you get stuff like where 's that clip? I finally pulled it. You have stuff like this when it comes to Tom Brady. Oh shit. Oh no. Excuse me Over three hundred million dollars for a guy to go Oh shit.

Oh no So that that's what Fox is getting for over three hundred million dollars. Oh shit So, you know, it there's not a lot to the gig anymore. Mike Tomlin's killing shit right now, but will they be on the will will they be riding for Mike Tomlin in a year or two? Now again he's on the studio so he's on the booths a little different, but like the cache runs out pretty quick. The main thing is Are you good at the job? Are you competent at the job? And then it's levels to, okay, are you now a star or are you just, hey, you're just gonna total line and that's it.

You're gonna ride that thing out. We've seen it work many different ways. Let's see what else we could get into real quick. So the Brian Flores stuff, it's heavy and it's dense, but we're just gonna get to the nuts and bolts of it and jump right into the racism of it. Brian Flores, the defensive coordinator for the uh for the Vikings, the Minnesota Vikings, former coach of the Miami Dolphins A recruiting firm did a report on Brian Flores 's uh a report, a recruiting firm's report on Brian Flores contains multiple examples of what his lawyers say are racial stereotypes. that NFL teams use when evaluating black coaching candidates. An example of that is as follows.

One of the strengths listed by Cornferry in this report said that Flores is quote, Polished in a good presenter despite growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Same as Mike Tyson He was able to build a strong friendship with a billionaire's son, which gave him opportunities to socialize and learn how to build relationships with white collar and upper class individuals. So Essentially, they're trying to tell you that the man they're they're essentially trying to let you know That the man does not have any cooth, and he had to learn the cooth by hanging out with billionaires and billionaire's son And that gave him opportunities to learn how to build relationships with white-collar and upper-class individuals because, oh my God, he's from Brownsville, Brooklyn If you don't understand how coded and not even coded, how blatantly and obvious or racist that is, we can't talk. We can't have a conversation. Extremely, extremely problematic, extremely problematic. And I don't know what they're supposed to do with this because Flores is under a lot of scrutiny With this lawsuit, he's under a lot of scrutiny when it comes to the fact of okay you made this lambasting uh lawsuit Alleging racism, alleging that you know you were the jobs were held against you, you're not being given opportunities because of the color of your skin. He was taken to task for that.

Now we have actual evidence. Although, you know, this is just reporting and this is just this is not the this is not like a smoking gun type of deal, but this is being reported. This is from his lawyers POVs. So we gotta take that with a grain of salt, right? So this is his side's argument. That they're saying that this is what the recruiting firm found. And his lawyers are laying this out here for us to digest, and is digesting as racism, is digesting as bigotry.

Because if we go into it, where is it? Yeah, the strengths and weaknesses. Uh, let's see. Polished and a good presenter despite growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Like th this is the stuff that was put out there, right? Needs someone strong at the top to rein in some of his worst behavior. He once threatened violence to his GM and made irrational demands during an ownership meeting.

One long-term senior team executive said he may have changed since, but he was the worst hiring decision we've ever made. Another president of a club refused to talk about him. So now we gotta figure this out, because he's only been a couple of places. He's only been in Miami. He's only been in Pittsburgh. And then he was in New England after that. So who is dropping this T about he was the worst hiring decision we've ever made?

I don't think Pittsburgh's saying that. I don't think New England's saying that. This has to be all smoke from Miami, right? He is personal his personality is unpredict unpredictable. So okay, so he has a chip on his shoulder. So in the strengths, the chip on his shoulder is relentless in desire to prove himself. But outside of football, he can be a good person for players to talk to.

I don't know how it's still by the butt is there, but chip on his shoulder is a positive here, but he's also a negative Chip on his shoulder can be a dictator with players, coaches, and can even be a di can even be a difficult with ownership and can be difficult. Take the A out. He can be difficult with ownership That sounds like a patriot to me. That sounds like someone under Bill Belichick. That sounds like someone that was under the Belichick tree. But okay His personality is unpredictable. Not sure who he is going to show up.

Not sure who is going to show up. He failed in how he hires coordinators and staff because he doesn't give second chances or see efforts to improve. This all feels like Miami smoke. This all feels like Miami smoke to me Let's see what else we got. Limited offensive philosophy and doesn't get ahead of the game as head coach. He clashed with the GM and his coordinators. He definitely did clash with the gym because he wanted no parts of Tua.

That's all Tua stuff right there. He can fool you with his polish upwards Has little people skills, lacks self-awareness, and can sometimes exhibit erratic behavior Now here's the tourist stuff. I'm gonna tell you most of this is from Miami Dog. Tua statements have opened the narrative that Brian was, quote, pessimistic and adversarial, and his style, quote, shattered his confidence. Does that sound like a Belichick disciple? It's a resounding yes for me. But speaking of tools confidence, let's get into this clip from Nick Saban Who handed the keys to Tua, which meant that Jalen Hurts had to go sit down.

I find I found this to be very riveting I find this storytelling to be very compelling. I'm not going to watch the full doc, but just these clips of Saban breaking down why he benched Jalen Hurts in the title game Very, very poignant and very relatable to today. I say to him, We need to change quarterbacks. And everybody looks at me like that winner. You crazy? And I said no, we need to throw the ball to win the game. Wow.

Jalen Cannon. Wow. Based on what I see happening on the field. God damn, so you mean the winner? The winner couldn't throw his team to a chip, but Tua could. My God. Thought mans was a winner though.

I thought he was a winner. Like can't can't bench a winner like that. How dare Saban? How dare Saban bench a winner for Tua Tonga Vialoa That is the most damning thing of his career. How dare he? What would make him believe that he could get away with that? What would make him think That he could do that in that game against Georgia back in 2018.

What would make him think he could do that? You know, a winner like Jalen Hurts. I mean, he just went three for eight. With twenty-one yards? That's not bad, right? That's winning football, right? I mean for you know we talk about talent right like Jalen Hurts he's a winner you know a winner doesn't need to he doesn't need a lot of talent around him so but I mean he's at Bama so let's see the guys who we had around him DeVonta Smith okay that that's convenient Calvin Ridley, okay.

Henry Ruggs, okay. Jerry Jeudy, okay. Cam Sims, okay. Bo Scarborough, okay. Wow, all this NFL talent around him, and this man went three for eight. And then Tua walks in, and like you know, Saban said, I want to throw the ball. I'm putting in the QB who could throw the ball, and with that same talent went 14 of 24 for three tutties.

Man, that winner though. I say to him, Hmm, that winner. We need to change quarterbacks. How dare you? And he's a winner. Everybody looks at me like You crazy? You're crazy because he's a winner.

And I said, no, we need to throw the ball. to win the game. Wow. And I think Tua would give us a better chance to do that. Wow. Based on what I see happening on the field. So disrespectful.

So so disrespectful. I mean, but he must have been thinking about that. Must have just been a one-game sample, right? There's no way that he was thinking that for a period of time leading up to that, right? I didn't make that decision in two minutes. Oh my God, no. I made it in two minutes, but I thought about it for two months.

Wow. You don't just make emotional decisions like oh I'm really frustrated that we're not moving the ball right now, so I'm gonna change quarterback. No. It was calculated. All those pros though, how would how were they not moving the ball with all these pros? DeVonta Smith, Calvin Ridley, Henry Ruggs Jerry Jeudy. I mean, how would they not move the ball?

I didn't even get to the running backs yet. I didn't even get to the running backs yet. Najee Harris. Josh Jacobs? They weren't moving the ball. But the guy's a winner though. I mean it had to be spur of the moment, saban, but it had to be.

I didn't make that decision in two minutes. What? I made it in two minutes, but I thought about it for two months. Two months? Months with that winner make emotional decisions like oh I'm really frustrated that we're not moving the ball right now, so I'm gonna change quarterbacks. No. It was calculated.

I don't know how Saban Could have the audacity to bench a winner. How dare he? Fatua of all people? Fatua. Anywho. What else we got? What else we got?

Did y'all hear about the Marilyn story? Did you hear about the Howard H 's? A lot of HBCU talk in this episode. I know my core. I know who raised me. Okay. Um Maryland Club Tennis.

We're set to do a match against the Howard University tennis club team. So it's not like a varsity thing, it's like a club thing. And in an email that they got from the Maryland team, They got this as part of their logo Yes, you're seeing that correctly. These are clan hoods that's baked into the Marilyn logo. And this is the state flag of Maryland, which is part of the whole crest of the logo. And yes, there are clan hoods on this logo. That's a real thing that happened.

They have since been suspended. Uh Howard has released a statement. Let's see if we can pull that up. You know. But the Maryland University of Maryland Club tennis team shared racist material targeting black and African Americans ahead of a tennis tournament this past weekend. That team has been suspended since, but this is what we talk about when when stuff goes unchecked, when stuff goes when we don't have the outrage They can feel comfortable enough to get this type of stuff off. And we have to keep being aggressive and keep checking when they try to get bullshit like this off.

Now, people are talking about way more other things and acting like stuff that's happening in other places are more important than what's going on here, but this is happening right here, right now, in real time. This is not thousands of miles away. This is not across the seas. This is not in another part of the world. This is happening right here. And this is not even at a varsity level. This is just club tennis Even at club tennis, they have the audacity to try to get this off.

Clan hoods? As part of your crest, as part of your logo? And you send that to an email to an HBCU. Okay. Okay. Make it make sense man. At some point it'll get right.

I hope