Thee Sam D Podcast

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Thee Sam D Podcast episodes

November 07 Lamar Jackson has no reason to stay in Baltimore
Lamar Jackson has no reason to stay in Baltimore except money, and the Ravens built the roster that makes that true. His 2027 deal carries a $52 million cash salary, an $84.3 million cap hit, and a full no-trade clause, and cutting or trading him leaves nearly $75 million in dead money either way. The Ravens are reportedly willing to make him the highest-paid player in NFL history, but the offensive line, the receivers, and the front office he would be signing back into are the same ones that failed him.
The "always hurt" label is lazy, because Mahomes just came back from a torn ACL and LCL and Burrow has missed time too. The second half covers Jalen Hurts playing in London with a known blood clot, Jim Harbaugh dodging questions at 0-7, Doc Rivers on Giannis and the 2021 Finals game log, and Wemby on promoting gambling and alcohol.

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2 hr 8 min
October 29 Jayson Tatum indeed has a great PR team
Jayson Tatum's line about Jaylen Brown having "a great PR team" is really a shot at the Boston media that protects him, and the box score his own broadcast crew used to pile onto Brown ignores that Tatum has been a top 21 turnover guy for four straight years himself. Brown and Tatum were never actually friends, just coworkers, and this whole back and forth proved it.
From there: why 15 percent of the NBA is hurt right now, Pat McAfee alluding to Charlie Kirk's killing over a corny Utah student video, Dan Orlovsky not knowing what "percent" means on live television, and why the Colts' own numbers say benching Daniel Jones for Anthony Richardson isn't even a hard call.
1:00 Tatum says he knew nothing about the Brown trade on his own YouTube series, and Brown calls cap
2:43 Brown's great PR team line is really about the Boston media, not actual PR
6:10 Scalabrine says Brown demanded a trade on radio, then walks it back on TV hours later
12:34 Tatum's zero-turnover stat line becomes a subliminal shot at Brown
18:16 Tatum's own turnover history undercuts the shot at Brown
24:51 Chat says Tatum and Brown were never really friends, and Jeff Teague backs it up
34:41 79 players hurt is 15 percent of the league, and that's catastrophic
36:00 Today's players might be better, but that doesn't mean they'd beat the 80s
45:52 Gilbert Arenas blames conditioning, Sam blames AAU and travel ball mileage instead
57:32 Pat McAfee gets big mad at Utah students over a harmless impression video
1:05:06 The FBI reportedly advised McAfee to wear a vest, and he alludes to Charlie Kirk's killing
1:10:15 ESPN keeps expanding McAfee's role, but the ratings don't back it up
1:13:52 Dan Orlovsky didn't know what percent means, live on McAfee's show
1:26:38 Daniel Jones' win percentage says the Colts should give Anthony Richardson another shot
1:35:20 Ernie Johnson's retirement opens a succession race for his and Barkley's seats

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1 hr 38 min
October 20 Jalen Hurts left for dead
Jalen Hurts played a full game in London on a confirmed blood clot that the Eagles cleared because they believed activity would help, and eight days later it had spread to both lungs and ended his season.
Sam says the blame doesn't stop at team doctors and Nick Sirianni's non-answers at the podium, it extends to an NFLPA that stayed silent while Hurts pays union dues for exactly this kind of protection, and to a football culture that treats a doctor's clearance as a dare.
He also goes after the loudest reactions to the story, Stephen A. Smith pushing Hurts to be more forthcoming and Michael Robinson's hedge-everything take on NFL Network, for making the moment about themselves instead of the quarterback living through it. Later, Deion Sanders' record at Colorado and a Hot 97 shakeup get the same treatment.
1:00 Prayers for Jalen Hurts, and why Sam says the Eagles crossed a line
1:57 The lead story: Hurts out for the season with clots in both lungs
5:10 The agent's statement, and why a good prognosis is not the end of the story
5:45 Football's military culture and why players hide being hurt
9:52 Stephen A. Smith's reaction, and what Sam reads into it
13:40 Michael Strahan, Chris Johnson, and the double standard on asking athletes hard questions
16:12 Michael Robinson's hedge on NFL Network, and the Google search that undercut it
27:02 The chat weighs in on who should be held responsible for Hurts' clot
28:46 The real timeline, from the Rams cleat to the clot that moved
37:03 Who should be held accountable for what the Eagles asked of Hurts
39:46 Where is the NFLPA, and why fully guaranteed deals still do not happen
52:28 Pat McAfee and the shakeup inside the Colts front office
59:56 Deion Sanders' record at Colorado and Shannon Sharp's pushback
1:07:53 Hot 97, the Desus and Mero breakup, and why social clout cannot save radio
1:29:20 Sirianni's press conference meltdown and the walk back on Hurts' sleep

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1 hr 59 min
October 16 LeBron's 93% Pay Cut and the Fanatics Helicopter
LeBron James took a 93% pay cut, from $52.6 million to the $3.87 million veteran minimum, to sign with the Sixers, and the helicopter flying him between New York and Philadelphia is branded for the league sponsor who used to co-own the team he's now on. Pablo Torre pulled the flight records, the tail number history and the Fanatics paperwork, and I go through what he found: the corporate aviation perk traces back to LeBron's 2024 Fanatics card deal, the chopper's tail number switched to match him a week before he signed, and Topps broke the Sixers news before any NBA reporter did. I'm not calling it salary cap circumvention and neither is Torre, but the timeline is the timeline.
The back half covers ESPN's hand in the Protect College Sports Act, Dominique Foxworth's labor argument against it, and the Brian Flores coaching report his lawyers say is full of racial stereotypes.
1:00 Pablo Torre's LeBron and Fanatics dive goes viral before the show even starts
3:05 Michael Rubin's own MIT Sloan comments on Fanatics and the Sixers
9:17 LeBron's 93% pay cut to go play for the Sixers
11:55 The flight log, a dozen New York to Philly round trips in a week
13:02 Fanatics' corporate aviation perk goes back to LeBron's 2024 card deal
16:11 The chopper's tail number swap, and the scoop that beat every NBA insider
27:40 What would actually make this salary cap circumvention, per Torre
30:02 ESPN's hand in the Protect College Sports Act, per Awful Announcing
40:21 College players have been getting paid for years, NIL just made it visible
42:00 Marshall Faulk's blunt read on the money game at Southern
52:18 Dominique Foxworth on why the Protect College Sports Act dodges labor rights
1:02:01 The unspoken tension between Joe Buck and Troy Aikman
1:07:10 The Brian Flores coaching report and its racial framing
1:18:10 Maryland's club tennis team and the racist imagery in its tournament email

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1 hr 21 min
October 06 You Can Win With Anyone: NFL Week Four Reaction
The referees are the week four story in the NFL, and Warren Sharp's penalty numbers are why. Sharp counts 17 touchdowns nullified by penalty through Week 4, against five in 2025 and four in 2024, and red-zone offensive penalties are at a record 0.61 per team per game since 2000.
The rest of the show runs through the week's games, from the Eagles losing to the Rams after leading 20-10 in the fourth quarter to CeeDee Lamb's 17 catches for 189 yards on 21 targets. I also argue that Super Bowl rings don't measure quarterback skill, using Dan Marino with none and Troy Aikman with three.
1:00 The referees are the week four story
6:43 Bijan Robinson makes the case for a first-round pick
9:19 Josh Allen was not Josh Allen against the Patriots
10:25 The Bears win by running the ball
13:35 The Giants are playing for next year
16:18 The Eagles led 20-10 in the fourth and lost to the Rams
25:57 The Ravens defense can't get home
32:34 Cam Ward has not shown maturity, and the Titans have not built around him
38:16 CeeDee Lamb's 21 targets, and the Texans never adjusted
47:24 The Chiefs at 4-0 look like a machine again
55:37 Super Bowl rings don't measure a quarterback
1:00:10 Five teams are 0-4, and the top prospects have few good landing spots
1:02:21 Texas Tech 29, Colorado 7, and the Jackson State question
1:16:32 The ManningCast lost the pandemic audience
1:24:22 Jalen Brunson's discount didn't help Karl-Anthony Towns

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1 hr 30 min
September 29There is no middle class at Quarterback
The QB market has no middle class, and that is the tell that it is broken. Every starter in the league is either on a rookie deal, on journeyman money, or getting 40 million and up, with nobody sitting at the 32 million average where a normal market would put most of its players. Sam walks the value-added-per-dropback numbers through week 3 and finds Deshaun Watson, holder of arguably the worst contract in NFL history, sitting dead on the median while Justin Herbert and Baker Mayfield sit below it at 50 million plus. The episode opens somewhere else entirely: two Sacramento Kings reporters caught on a hot mic rating Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine, weeks after the Dianna Russini story put every female reporter's access under the same microscope.
00:01:00 Hot mic at Kings media day, and why this is not just a Dianna Russini problem
00:08:44 South Carolina suspends the player it paid 2 million dollars to win games
00:18:04 The Clippers took a torn Achilles back just to end the Kawhi era
00:18:43 LeBron is lying about the Knicks, and he has been lying about them for 15 years
00:29:20 Jaylen Brown is right about Colin Cowherd and wrong about sourcing
00:36:16 If you want everyone to name names, say what happened in Boston with Tatum
00:39:38 MetLife has taken enough ACLs that the NFLPA should be filing a petition
00:43:49 A top-10 pick traded for a fifth, and what that says about Kevin O'Connell
00:44:55 You need a really good quarterback, not an elite one, to win a championship
00:46:15 The QB market has no middle class, and here is the chart that proves it
00:52:26 Three Super Bowls in the entire worth-every-penny tier
00:56:25 Drake Maye was never good, he had the easiest schedule in the league
00:58:39 The extension is automatic now, which means nobody has to earn anything
01:03:01 Week 3 roundup, good games between teams that are not threats
01:04:53 Deshaun Watson is hooping, so Shedeur is not getting the rock
01:15:39 The Raiders are 3-0 and that last Chiefs game might have seeding implications
01:18:40 Aaron Donald came back off the couch to get double teamed anyway

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1 hr 21 min
September 17College sports is in shambles
Tennessee is dropping $280 million on a hotel and entertainment district next to Neyland Stadium while the coalition pushing the Protect College Sports Act, Ted Cruz, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee and now Deion Sanders, tells you college athletes are bankrupting the sport. Big Ten revenue is near $1.5 billion. Miami and Nike agreed to a 10 year deal worth more than $200 million. Ohio State's roster budget runs $54 million. Nobody is broke.
The anti-NIL push is about restricting how much of that money reaches predominantly black rosters, and it keeps getting sold to the public through a rotating cast of black faces: Jay-Z during the anthem protests, an HBCU player, and now Deion Sanders fronting an unpaid ad. Colin Kaepernick's memoir tour lays out that pattern, including Robert Kraft confirming he blocked Macklemore over his Palestine comments. Also in this one: why Ben Johnson's Bears look like themselves in week one instead of a quarter of the way into the season.
01:00 - Ben Johnson commits to the run game from week one
06:55 - Kaepernick's memoir: the NFL used Jay-Z as its black face
22:03 - College sports is a cesspool, starting with Ted Cruz on GameDay
24:00 - Breaking down what the Protect College Sports Act actually caps
28:56 - Tennessee's $280 million stadium hotel kills the broke argument
33:46 - Miami's Nike deal and the Big Ten and SEC's billion dollar years
37:52 - Why student athletes were never really students [chat]
46:17 - Marshall Falk says the quiet part: Southern had no shot against Houston
55:03 - Howard's Kedrick Green becomes the bill's HBCU black face
01:04:53 - The real roster budgets, from Ohio State's $54 million to Boston College's $8 million
01:08:17 - Deion Sanders signs on as the bill's second black face
01:17:00 - Colleges love NIL because it still isn't their money
01:26:41 - NAACP's Derrick Johnson rebuts Ted Cruz on SportsCenter
01:31:19 - Kaepernick: Robert Kraft's Macklemore ban is open collusion
01:34:26 - Leagues cry about betting threats to players while FanDuel tracks bets live on Amazon Prime

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1 hr 39 min
September 04 The Clippers Got Off Light...So Did Everybody Else
Episode 338

01:00 — Kawhi skates with a $700K bill while Uncle Dennis eats a five-year ban 02:34 — The Five Guys theory of cap circumvention: all the toppings free, none of it paid back 04:40 — The league didn't put the blame on Kawhi, so why did the media? 05:10 — The Lakers said no to Uncle Dennis, and that's the only reason Kawhi is a Clipper 06:58 — Ballmer's devil wasn't Kawhi and it wasn't Uncle Dennis, it was greed 09:00 — The penalty sheet: $30 million, a year, six months, five picks 11:43 — Peel back the layers and every one of these penalties is performative 15:12 — Pablo Torre did the work the four-letter network wouldn't do 18:00 — Uncle Dennis asked, the Clippers said yes, and only the asker gets banned 21:30 — Shams' reporting, four companies, and why Kawhi has plausible deniability 31:48 — The worst day in Clippers history was the inside-out warm-ups, not Sterling 35:55 — Kaepernick didn't blow off that workout, he refused to sign away his right to sue 39:41 — Stephen A. heard Howard Bryant explain the waiver on his own show in 2019 50:33 — Sports media is wrestling and Stephen A. is playing the heel 55:33 — Black capitalism doesn't trickle down any better than Reaganomics did 1:01:56 — Four jobs to be number two while McAfee does one show.

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1 hr 13 min
August 25The Browns QB Decision Nobody Wanted to Make
Episode 337
02:17 — Dan Orlovsky's "Browns fans should boycott games" is an empty-calories take
05:37 — Bill Barnwell's "5-for-12" line, and the real question nobody's asking about Shedeur
07:46 — Sam's actual grade on Shedeur: a bootleg Drew Brees ceiling, not a franchise arm
14:19 — Chat check-in: fandom as mental illness, and why Browns fans show up no matter what
22:54 — Why Todd Monken's hand is forced — starting Watson is calculation, not belief
27:35 — Mapping the Browns schedule to the exact week the keys go to Shedeur
40:00 — Inside the Watson contract: the $86.2M dead-cap record and the 2029 vesting cliff
50:14 — Pivot: "the second Nasty Man" — Jed York's trailer-park arrest
56:00 — The Kyle Shanahan comparison: why the owner's story broke in 48 hours and the coach's took two weeks
1:01:18 — Jon Gruden is back in the booth...active lawsuit against the league and all
1:06:10 — Why Sam won't give the Enes Kanter grift any oxygen
1:08:09 — Dae'Quan Wright's return to LSU reopens the "college football was never amateur" argument
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1 hr 18 min
August 18 Stephen A. Smith, Pat McAfee & The Grift Taking Over Sports Media
00:00 — Stephen A. Smith vs. The NABJ
Why Stephen A. Smith’s feud with the National Association of Black Journalists matters and what could happen when he responds.
07:00 — Stephen A. Smith’s Conservative Media Pivot
A look at Smith’s growing presence in political commentary and the financial incentives behind his increasingly conservative positioning.
11:19 — Has the NABJ Lost Its Relevance?
The conversation examines the organization’s declining influence and whether its confrontation with Smith was an attempt to reclaim its place in the media landscape.
18:54 — Pat McAfee Took Stephen A.’s Spot
How McAfee transformed ESPN’s personality-driven sports media landscape and seemingly displaced Stephen A. as the network’s biggest star.
33:21 — The Pat McAfee Grift Gets Bigger
McAfee’s music, political access, ESPN platform, and massive compensation become part of a larger argument about what actually drives success in modern sports media.
37:46 — Why Marquette King Never Got McAfee’s Shot
Marquette King’s similar attempt to combine football and music raises questions about race, access, institutional support, and who gets the opportunity to build a sports-media empire.
43:56 — Dan Orlovsky, CAA and Media Bias
Orlovsky’s unlikely rise as an NFL analyst leads to questions about his quarterback rankings and the potential influence of his representation by CAA.
59:13 — The NFL’s Quarterback Obsession
The episode closes by challenging the NFL’s fixation on quarterbacks, examining the constant movement at the position and questioning whether QB play is really as important as the league claims.

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1 hr 6 min

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