Hour 1: The Fan vs. The Fanatic (feat. Brett Favre's Sister?)

I wouldn’t wish what he’s dealing with on anyone, and with Ariel Helwani in town for this fight I’ve got a real dilemma: I want to be ringside, but the last time I went and Trump rolled in, I felt alone in my own city; do I go to be seen at a big Miami moment or skip a scene I don’t want to be around?

Helwani said something similar when he was here, and it stuck with me too.

Go…and bring a bag of shepherd’s pie; also, for the record, spoon-and-fork is the proper spaghetti move if you’re not wearing a Roman Reigns shirt to dinner.

If you’re twirling pasta with a spoon, get over yourself.

Confession: I only just learned that the little pocket in the check presenter is where the card goes; for years I’d just set the card on top and push it away from my plate.

You opened all those check books and never wondered what that clear sleeve was for?

Here’s the hangup on the fight: it’s my birthday week, I insist on buying my own tickets because of journalism ethics, I don’t like the crowd I’ll be sitting with, and the only reason to go is to be seen.

You’re a principled journalist; me, I love free stuff—no notes.

You’re curious and want to see him get sparked; go scratch the itch.

Take me and we’ll turn it into a fun spectacle; the access gets better when I’m rolling with you.

We’ve got the biggest Thursday night football game ever, a fresh title contender either way, and you’re about to learn plenty about Puka Nacua; Al and Herbie finally got a monster.

First time two eleven‑win teams meet on a Thursday, and the winner likely grabs home field; it’s been a strange year with no divisions clinched this late.

Wild that the top two favorites share a division; one might end up playing every playoff game on the road.

The Rams have three one‑score losses and an offense reminding people who McVay is; he had OBJ cooking in the Super Bowl and now he’s scheming Nacua and Kupp while the NFC West is a gauntlet and the NFC South will still host a playoff game.

Puka’s week got messy: he went on a livestream and blasted refs for chasing TV time, then more controversy swirled, and his brother was arrested in a separate incident involving a Lakers player’s car.

Teams, keep your guys off Aiden Ross; communications can’t let that one slip.

His brother allegedly took the car, then valeted it and got nabbed because the car was tracked; the livestream stuff also feels like an early‑warning pattern we’ve seen before with star receivers.

There were also antisemitic notes around the discourse, and the room got uncomfortable before we moved on.

Bucket time: make a pick, you get one put‑back, seven‑point swing; chaos ensues, lines fly, and the punishment on the board is dressing like a castmate.

The Nationals just hired a thirty‑one‑year‑old GM; were you ready to run a franchise at that age?

Absolutely not; you need lived experience, the temperament to manage up with billionaires, and the ability to delegate without trying to prove yourself on every task.

Baseball chases whiz‑kid math the way football did with coaches, but a GM’s job isn’t a sideline headset; how do the layers change it?

Coaching and front office are different worlds; GMs now often answer to a president of ops before ownership, and juggling that structure takes years to master.

Their setup is striking: president thirty‑five, manager thirty‑three, GM thirty‑one—everyone born after 1990.

Movie corner: do we go with the 1980 big‑cat chaos of Roar, or the obsessive‑fan double feature of The Fan and The Fanatic?

Give me the fanatics; we broke down both on Cinephobe—Ellen Barkin hosts a hilariously unrealistic sports radio show, Jack Black is her producer, and De Niro’s knife‑salesman superfan kills Benicio Del Toro’s teammate to get Wesley Snipes his number back.

Your love of gloriously bad movies is astounding.

Also, how do you hand a fallen teammate’s number to a rival—what are we even doing; call it a slump buster if you want.

We’ve never pinned that on Samson, and yes, Derek Jeter has his own reputation.

And Phillip Rivers? I still say he wasn’t getting cleared to start; uninsurable.