Our semi-regular roundtable on sports business reconvenes for expertise from the boardroom: David Samson takes Pablo behind the scenes of Ichiro's viral joke about him at the Baseball Hall of Fame, then John Skipper translates the math from the ESPN negotiating table to the Unrivaled cap table the looming strike over WNBA salaries — and team valuations at large. Plus: foreskin, poppycock, psychedelic pastel paisley, pandering to the people, talking with your eyes... and a haberdashery version of pre-determinism.

• Subscribe to Nothing Personal with David Samson

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• From Pablo's Substack: We're One of the 100 Best Podcasts of All Time (Allegedly)

https://www.pablo.show/p/were-one-of-the-100-best-podcasts

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As the NFL returns, Pablo and Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio are back with more secret documents, a federal investigation, new government names, billions of union dollars, an O.J. Simpson parking space, the world’s largest strip club... and one big "clusterf*ck." Does the OneTeam Partners saga connect to a Game of Thrones-style power play by the NFLPA's shadow boss? Or could the feds be on the trail of an even bigger scandal?

• Part One: The NFL's Secret Collusion Case, Revealed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P42Wq3fmTYg

• Part Two: We Got Another Secret Union Document — and Smoked Out Another Cover-Up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P42Wq3fmTYg

• Read our latest NFL document on Pablo's subscribers-only newsletter:

https://www.pablo.show/subscribe

• Pre-order "Big Shield" by Mike Florio

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Shield-Mike-Florio-ebook/dp/B0FGH43V6D

• Ex-NFLPA boss Howell's strip club expenses sent to investigator (Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45703132/nflpa-nfl-agreed-keep-collusion-findings-secret

• "If he failed, their process failed": Inside the NFLPA meltdown (Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45800610/inside-nflpa-executive-director-lloyd-howell-tenure

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We are living in the era of Peak Cremation, and fans have turned to our true American cathedral as a final resting place: the sports arena. PTFO death correspondent David Fleming reports on a cottage industry for die-hards in the afterlife — from team-branded urns and exploding golf balls to franchises that want the on-field ceremonies gone (and forgotten). And then, of course, we help a woman named Edna spread her husband's ashes... while riding a convertible, on a racetrack, flooring it into eternity.

(This episode originally aired January 23, 2025.)

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⁠https://pablo.show/

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Long before the viral Coldplay concert, there was another — and even wilder — affair caught on camera. Two pitchers for the Yankees agreed to the wildest trade in sports history: They switched wives. And children. And furniture. And pets. David Mandel laments his big-screen adaptation that never was... even though the ultimate passion project could have starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

(This episode originally aired April 30, 2024.)

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Sprinter TyNia Gaither was disqualified for a false start... after the gun went off... for running faster than humanly possible. Was that even true? Do sporting officials really understand how the body works? Or do we simply not understand how to define — and record — a race?

(This episode originally aired September 21, 2022.)

• Subscribe to Vox's "Unexplainable" podcast for more episodes like this, every week

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The viral commercial has a mysteriously simple message: sportsmanship. The child actor has gotten dunked on by NBA Twitter for more than a decade. Correspondent Zach Schwartz untangles a web from Madison Avenue to the Supreme Court to Damian Lillard, in search of a boy named Alex — and the meaning of perseverance.

(This episode originally aired January 7, 2025.)

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Can rockstar sportswriters be friends with superstar athletes? How do you measure a good episode of sports TV? And what's so great about being an old dad? Plus: playing the human jukebox, brokering the Jordan-Barkley peace, writing about Holyfield's ear on deadline... and the word "podcast" as a racial slur.

Further content:

• "Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow" (1997)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1997/06/29/ear-today-gone-tomorrow/3f93d30d-2606-4adc-aeb4-1bf26c9b9bb9/

• "Mission Impossible: African-Americans & Analytics" (2016)

https://andscape.com/features/mission-impossible-african-americans-analytics/

• South Beach Sessions: Michael Wilbon (2023)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdUV2FxatwQ

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If you thought Pablo and Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio set the NFL world on fire last month, wait until you get a load of the "diabolical genius" behind the cover-up... to the cover-up... to the cover-up: Fake injuries, encouraged by one union boss, only to be litigated by the league. Private-equity side hustles, cashed in on by another, only to be selectively edited on social media. And smoke. Lots of smoke.

• Read our newly obtained NFL document on Pablo's subscribers-only newsletter:

https://www.pablo.show/subscribe

• Pre-order "Big Shield" by Mike Florio

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Shield-Mike-Florio-ebook/dp/B0FGH43V6D

• Previously on PTFO: The NFL's Secret Collusion Case, Revealed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P42Wq3fmTYg

• Sources: NFLPA, NFL agreed to keep collusion findings secret (Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45703132/nflpa-nfl-agreed-keep-collusion-findings-secret

• NFLPA head also works for firm approved to invest in NFL (Van Natta and Kahler)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45705432/nflpa-head-works-firm-approved-invest-nfl

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How did a seemingly random super-fan on NBA Twitter know about a federal gambling investigation... before the NBA did? And how does he connect to Carmelo Anthony, Nicolas Cage, Larsa Pippen, Jontay Porter, a legless woman, Malik Beasley, "Madea's Family Reunion," meme coins, and perhaps the greatest play in modern Knicks history? Correspondents Tom Haberstroh and Amin Elhassan join Pablo to run the numbers, grind the tape, and uncover a secret world of penthouse poker games and deleted accounts.

• Subscribe to The Finder with Tom Haberstroh for more on this story

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• Subscribe to Cinephobe with Amin Elhassan

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• Subscribe to Basketball Illuminati

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Does anyone win in a fight between a hockey enforcer and a golfer? Will A.I. impressions ruin comedy? And how many tabs is too many tabs?

For more human-grade impressions: DanSoder.com/tour 

Subscribe to Casuals: https://www.youtube.com/katienolan

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