PABLO TORRE FINDS OUT

Have billionaire owners left us in the twilight of American fandom? Are crying Liverpool fans actually the cure for male loneliness? And is the NFL offseason running out of juice? Would you get married during the Super Bowl on Valentine's Day? Plus: Jim Thome's farm adjacency, Regis Philbin analytics, Gerry and the Pacemakers, institutional investors, the worst pandemic crowd... and feeding a sandwich to Stugotz on Microsoft Teams.

• Read "Big Fan" 

• Subscribe to The PosCast

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He's wowed presidents, pro athletes and podcasters. But magicians tell us Oz Pearlman's viral act has crossed an ethical line. Stevie Baskin, after obsessively studying Pearlman's tricks, explains to Pablo how influencers from Charles Barkley to the White House were in on the act — and why he thinks this brand of "mind-reading" amounts to fraud.

• Much more from Stevie Baskin's YouTube video

• Previously on PTFO: The Unwritten Rules of Magic

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do the tech titans of Silicon Valley and the old heads of traditional broadcast television have in common? Answer: they all need to kiss the ring of Roger Goodell. But will the NFL get too greedy in their continued pursuit of maximum return on their media rights? And why is Rupert Murdoch secretly meeting with Donald Trump? The Sporting Class — aka “Rich Guys OnlyFans” — returns…

Read Vanity Fair's Roger Goodell's Hollywood Blitz: Why All the Other Moguls Have to Kiss the Ring

Read Wall Street Journal's Rupert Murdoch’s High-Stakes Blitz Against the NFL

Subscribe to "Nothing Personal with David Samson"

https://www.youtube.com/@npds

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Why is the Bulls legend hawking "the Mona Lisa of sports" as a talking Web3 meme-coin NFT? And who are the secret weapons turning the 60-year-old Hall-of-Famer into a crypto bro, with a last-ditch effort to cash in on The Last Dance? Pablo breaks out the folders for Jordan family friend Wyatt Cenac and former Pippen colleague Amin Elhassan, featuring revelations on MJ's son, Benihana, Lil Hippo... and so on.

• Previously on PTFO: The Last Dance of Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan

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The president may have ended his favorite sport's civil war — by waging a war of his own. But what did we really learn from Saudi Arabia's multibillion-dollar golf experiment? Journalist Alan Shipnuck explains what insiders are texting about but won't say out loud: that golfers are the most overpaid athletes on Earth, that peacetime is suddenly more complicated for the PGA Tour... and that sportswashing is insidious because it works.

• Read "LIV and Let Die" by Alan Shipnuck

• Previously on PTFO: Phil Mickelson, the Pipeline and Trump's (Alleged) 14-Inch Pipe

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The Knicks are surging. But politicians are condemning owner James Dolan and his tax breaks, after our investigation with WIRED. So Pablo tests the limits of facial recognition with his playoff ticket plug Ben Wizner, who just happens to be the Deputy Legal Director at the ACLU — and one of America's foremost experts on modern privacy. Which makes him uniquely (if begrudgingly) qualified to break down everything from spooked NBA journalists and a banned puppy, to Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein connections… to, yes, the Mount Rushmore of whistleblowers.

• Previously on PTFO: We Got Inside Knicks Surveillance — and MSG's Deep State Is Stranger Than You Think

• From WIRED: "The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden’s Surveillance Machine"

• Watch "CITIZENFOUR" by Laura Poitras

• Read "Permanent Record" by Edward Snowden

• Read "Your Face Belongs to Us" by Kashmir Hill

• PTFO Vault: We Found the Secret Rap Album That the NBA's Best Executive Doesn't Want You to Hear

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does Mark Cuban think of Pablo's big Pulitzer Prize win? Did A.I. write that JPMorgan threesome lawsuit? And are the steroid Olympics in fact the Apollo mission of RFK Jr.'s America? Plus: third-tier "Mad Men" characters, self-canonization, the polymath of punch-ups, the lifespan of an inbred beagle... and Zoop.

Further content:

• Pablo Torre left the worldwide leader in sports to start a podcast. It just won a Pulitzer. (Poynter)

• Ex-JPMorgan banker Chirayu Rana files wild new claims against exec (New York Post)

• Inside the Enhanced Games, Where Athletes Compete on Steroids. And Growth Hormones. And Adderall. (Vanity Fair)

• Michael Cruz Kayne: Sorry For Your Loss (Dropout TV)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the Clippers await punishment, their owner is big mad at Pablo — and appears worried about what Aspiration's founder might have told the NBA. So Pablo and David Samson (finally) sit down with a special guest: Lou Manzo, the former DOJ prosecutor who investigated this whole tree-planting fraud in the first place, to go inside the courtroom, comb through footnotes and focus on the end game.

(Additional reporting by Anita Bennett)

Previously on PTFO:

• Part I: The Silent Superstar and the Rotten Apple Tree

• Part II: An Argument with Mark Cuban

• Part III: The Mystery Investor, the No-Show Payday and the "Smoking Gun"

• Part IV: Steve Ballmer, the Other Cuban and the $118 Million Infusion

• Part V: Steve Ballmer's "Inconceivable" Donation, the $20 Million Guarantee and a Head on a Spike

• Part VI: An IRL Showdown with Mark Cuban

• Part VII: The Briefcase, Ballmer's Social Network and Aspiration's House of Cards

• Part VIII: Uncle Dennis, Ballmer's $50 Million Sprint and the Side Deal That Wouldn't Die

• Part IX: Ballmer's Tree Money, the Whistle-Blowers and the Document You've Been Waiting For

• Subscribe to Pablo's newsletter for exclusive access, documents and invites

• Subscribe to "Nothing Personal with David Samson"

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Epstein wasn't just funding women's sports or creeping around campus. Our new files — and Harvard's own audit — show how a billionaire pedophile used the biggest brand in academia to launder his reputation. Pablo and The Harvard Crimson's Dhruv Patel continue their investigation, with exclusive internal files, letters and interviews with athletes who say the university normalized a monster — and skirted accountability, until now.

• Part One: "The Jeffrey E. Epstein Fund for Women's Athletics"

• More from The Harvard Crimson: "Women's Rugby Players Were Told to Keep a $25,000 Gift Quiet. The Donor Was Epstein."

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

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How did an unforgettable donation from the most notorious pedophile in America get past the most prestigious university's self-investigation? And why did Harvard allegedly ask to keep it confidential? Pablo and The Harvard Crimson's Dhruv Patel unearth internal financials, the secret role of president Lawrence Summers, plus new Jeffrey Epstein correspondence — and speak to the team that "never asked to be affiliated with this monster."

• More from The Harvard Crimson: Women’s Rugby Players Were Told to Keep a $25,000 Gift Quiet. The Donor Was Epstein.

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Secret salary caps. Accidental email attachments. Truth-serum texts from owners. Slide decks for ESPN. If anyone knows how to dork-out on billionaires taking your money — and documenting their greed — it's the former NFL Players Association boss who negotiated $100 billion for athletes... and sued the sh*t out of The Shield. With his union now plagued by scandal — and America as unregulated as ever — De Smith enters the studio in Gladiator Mode.

• Read "Turf Wars" by DeMaurice Smith

Previously on PTFO:

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

• Part II: We Sparked an NFL Union Crisis. Here's the Sequel.

• Part III: We Followed the Money in the NFL Union Scandal. So Did the FBI.

• Part IV: We Investigated the Hollywood Cover-Up the NFLPA Ignored 

• Part V: The Silenced Top Cop and the Cabal of "Strip-Club Dreams"

• Plus: The State of the (NFL) Union, with Mike Florio

• The Sporting Class: Are NFL Players Ready to Strike?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode has been aggregated a bunch.

But I encourage you to please listen to the whole thing.

It is a conversation, fundamentally, about information. And how to get it:

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider a paid subscription:

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Thanks,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

PTFO is a show about journalism and also game-show film analysis.

And so it was a special treat when the latest episode of Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars involved not one but two Friends of PTFO:

Mina Kimes and Timothy Simons.

Unfortunately, as Tim found out, he had no idea what he was really in for.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Uranus,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

On Tuesday, we broke the news that The Onion had finally struck a deal — with the help of Sandy Hook families — to take over Infowars from Alex Jones.

A surreal sentence that deserves a full explanation.

This episode, with Global Tetrahedron CEO Ben Collins, is that explanation: of how they (we) got here; his personal connection to Infowars coverage; and why The Onion didn’t give up.

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider a paid subscription:

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

GRAAHAHHGGHHHH,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

What are the business ethics of sh*tting where you eat? Can you be a journalist and an "insider" at the same time? And what happened after the Knicks' owner doxxed the man threatening his arena's beer? David Samson — the Marie Kondo of sports infidelity and the watchful eye of Florida baseball — helps Pablo decode the messy stories of Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel... and James Dolan versus his enemies.

• Subscribe to "Nothing Personal with David Samson"

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does the game-show game clock move so fast? Why do you become 30% dumber when the cameras roll? And is Mina part of a sociopathic conspiracy with Ken Jennings? Plus: Andy Richter, button analytics, the dais height advantage, Daily Double anxiety, tanking board games for your kids... and a Stat Boy cameo.

• Subscribe to "The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny"

• Watch "Nobody Wants This" with Timothy Simons on Netflix

Previously on PTFO: 

• Share & Jeopardy! & Tell with Mina Kimes and Dan Le Batard

• Behind the Scenes of Pablo's History-Making "Family Feud" Adventure

• How "Veep" Predicted Trump, with the Real-Life Jonah Ryan

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The all-seeing eye of James Dolan — notorious owner of the Knicks and Rangers — has been caught in glimpses.

But a new WIRED investigation, revealed in collaboration with Pablo Torre Finds Out, lifts the veil on the Orwellian scope (and occasional clown show) of MSG security: from The Garden and the Sphere to the streets of New York and out across America.

The sales pitch, of course, had been “safety.”

Because “terrorism.”

But for the first time, we hear from spooked insiders; read snooping group chats; scour a second-by-second confidential report; and view the facial-recognition database, itself.

It’s… a lot.

And it is incredibly strange.

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider a paid subscription:

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Knickstape,

Pablo

P.S. You can now watch us over on Apple Podcasts (!)

The notorious conspiracy theorist profited from his vile Sandy Hook conspiracy. Then America's finest (fake) news source decided to troll the world's greatest troll. Ben Collins — who transformed from reporting on the historic Infowars defamation trial to buying out his "ideological enemy" in a Storage Wars-style auction saga — tells Pablo why The Onion committed to the ultimate bit: doing the right thing.

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tracking players. Monitoring kids. Allegedly watching a fan enter the bathroom. The panopticon of notorious owner James Dolan has been caught in glimpses. But a WIRED investigation — revealed in collaboration with PTFO — lifts the veil on the Orwellian scope (and occasional clown show) of MSG security, from The Garden and The Sphere to the streets of New York and out across America. Correspondent Noah Shachtman and Pablo hear from spooked insiders, read snooping group chats, scour a second-by-second confidential report, plus view the facial-recognition database itself — only to discover that paranoid billionaires... are all around us.

• Read the full digital cover story at WIRED

• Subscribe to Pablo's newsletter for exclusive access, documents and invites

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I want to acknowledge that some of you may already be rolling your eyes right now at yet another lib dissecting the UFC and politics and Joe Rogan.

But our guest today, Morning Kombat’s , happens to come with a particular letter of recommendation:

Six years ago, Luke talked to Rogan, on his show, for three and a half hours. They discussed mixed martial arts in granular detail, and it went great. Which is what happens when you’ve been in a relationship with a sport for three decades.

But last Saturday, the same day Vice President JD Vance was in Pakistan, failing to end the war with Iran, there was President Donald Trump at UFC 327, in Miami, alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Hobnobbing with UFC president Dana White and UFC commentator Joe Rogan.

At which point the story that Luke Thomas has been covering — the thing that has now cost him access to the sport he loves the most — became one of the biggest stories in the entire world.

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider a paid subscription:

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Sincerely,

Pablo

Donald Trump's comfort zone. Coercive deals. Saudi funding. In the era of American favor-trading, a company called TKO Group Holdings is dominating the fight game. (Welcome, Zuffa Boxing.) And as longtime MMA dean Luke Thomas dares to explain, UFC boss Dana White may be in denial — and it may not be good for fans or fighters — but it pays to be in bed with a transactional regime.

• Subscribe to "Morning Kombat" with Luke Thomas

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You may be wondering why we’re doing an episode that seems to be about opera.

An understandable sentiment — as no less than Timothée Chalamet told Matthew McConaughey before the Academy Awards earlier this year:

But I didn’t book our guest today, Brandon Jovanovich, simply to get you to care about opera. (Even though sports and pop culture have stolen from the opera house for a very long time, as you’ll see.)

I booked Brandon because he happens to be a former college linebacker whose own dramatic arc is as remarkable as any I’ve seen.

And when this married father of three debuted last year, at the Metropolitan Opera, as Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, Brandon Jovanovich was hiding a secret.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Bravo,

Pablo

We get it: As Timothée Chalamet said, "no one cares" about opera. But you should listen, instead, to former college linebacker Brandon Jovanovich — whose impossible rise from cater waiter to Captain Ahab proves that the artform that used to rule the world has way more in common with sports than you realize. (And that's even before you realize what he's been playing through, onstage.) Also: what a castrato is, Bugs Bunny, actual divas, Modell's and monster trucks.

Further content:

• "Inhabiting Ahab" (Patrick J. Sauer)

• Vote for PTFO at The Webby Awards: Best Sports Podcast + Experimental & Innovation

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we’re not taste-testing athlete weed, wondering if sports are gay, or Hamburgering with Hamburger, we often find ourselves investigating power.

I am endlessly curious about what the richest and most powerful people in America don’t want you to know — from salary-cap circumvention to the pardon economy. And how those tasked with giving a shit about the rule of law have effectively colluded to preempt accountability.

Take, for instance, this article from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:

Which means that I’ve also been thinking a lot about why a sports fan with zero to negative interest in this field of study should give a shit about these episodes.

And the word I find myself organically returning to, over and over again, is the bedrock premise of sports itself:

Competition.

And so on today’s show, our guest is bestselling author and Friend of PTFO David Epstein — no relation! — who is here to talk about what he learned while researching his terrific new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better. And we make something like the selfish case for rules, at all.

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider a paid subscription:

P.S. I recently learned that my Aspiration/Clippers reporting is part of the legendary Prof. Peter Carfagna’s syllabus at Harvard Law School. And so I was invited to speak about these issues at their Sports Law Symposium. It was energizing to be around young people who care!

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Bobble,

Pablo

Whether it's A.I. companies pirating millions of books or NBA owners violating the salary cap, the most powerful entities in America are trying to circumvent laws created to restrain them. Bestselling author and investigative journalist David Epstein (no relation!) makes the case for why rules are not obstacles to progress, but the opposite: the very things that make a society — and a market — free. 

• Pre-order David Epstein's new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As evidenced by our interview with the Honorable Tom McMillen… or the time we taped a secret whistleblower complaint to the underside of the NBA commissioner’s chair in Boston… we’ve been experimenting with how to do live versions of the show.

The McMillen interview, for instance, was taped and post-produced but premiered live on YouTube, which allowed me the personal pleasure of being in the chat with our audience. The Aspiration sequel we did at the Sloan Conference, on the other hand, was streamed live live, without a safety net of any kind.

But this week, we tried doing something else: our first live live episode, from the PTFO studio in New York, in which the people at the desk could react to what the audience was demanding.

And so we called up two of our favorite spontaneous reactors — Katie Nolan and Michael Cruz Kayne — as we waited for a nuclear bomb to drop. (Or not.)

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

WHO KNOWS,

Pablo

America's best documentary filmmaker spent nearly five years making a nine-hour masterpiece for Netflix. Which you'll never see. Edelman sits down with Pablo in search of catharsis — if not closure — in the battle for truth and control over the life story of one of the biggest control freaks ever.

(This episode originally aired March 4, 2025.)

• Previously on PTFO: When Docs Cry 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qi6x3QF-v8

• Subscribe to Pablo's newsletter for exclusive access, documents and invites

https://pablo.show/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As much as we’ve become known for our various investigations — with more to come on that front — I’m happy that this aspect of PTFO has not gone unnoticed:

On this episode, we have the distinct pleasure of introducing two new friends that had not met each other until they walked into our office in New York.

And the docket for our conversation with Desus Nice and Elle Duncan includes, but is by no means limited to:

• Hosting Netflix’s inaugural MLB broadcast

• How dozens of NFL and NBA players got catfished by a guy in Georgia

• An Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System for restaurants

• Our exclusive interview with a squirrel expert

• An old guy who wants to smoke with you

• Choking out a kid at the library

Enjoy.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Welcome,

Pablo

Civilization had a pretty good run. Will the astronauts be the last ones living? Will Jordon Hudson sue Pablo and/or beat him in a foot race? Could Sam Altman be bigger than Madoff and/or complete our curse on A.I.? And is your fiancé in the Epstein files? WHO KNOWS? But we f'd around and took your questions, live. So, come with us if you want to live. So mote it be.

• Vote for PTFO at The Webby Awards: Best Sports Podcast + Experimental & Innovation

• Subscribe to "Casuals with Katie Nolan"

• Watch Michael Cruz Kayne's special, "Sorry for Your Loss" — now streaming on Dropout TV 

• Further reading: "Sam Altman May Control Our Future — Can He Be Trusted?" (Ronan Farrow & Andrew Maran

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It is no exaggeration to say that our correspondent today, film producer Sean Carey, has spent years examining what is, on one level, a pretty simple story.

Because there is no doubt that the murder of Hall of Fame basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian’s longtime confidante and agent, Vic Weiss, was a mob hit.

But the big lingering question we’re here to solve today is a lot more complicated:

Why?

Why did the mob really stuff Vic Weiss into the trunk of a Rolls-Royce — scaring Tark away from the Lakers and, in a Sliding Doors moment, ensuring the future of UNLV (as a program) and Las Vegas (as the new sports capital of America)?

Last week, Vegas just got named host of the 2029 Super Bowl. Weeks before that, the NBA announced that it was exploring an expansion team in the city.

In the last decade, Vegas — once the most dangerous sports city in America — has also become the new home of the NFL’s Raiders, NHL’s Golden Knights, WNBA’s Aces, MLB’s Athletics, not to mention an F1 race, and on and on.

This is the story of the unsolved murder that made it happen.

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider a paid subscription:

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Viva,

Pablo

There was a specific guest star on a seminal television sitcom that has been lodged inside my brain for more than 35 years now.

And if you, like me, grew up watching Night Court on NBC… you may remember this tiny lil character, too:

In this particular episode, a child star named Billy shows up to shoot a TV show in the same Manhattan building where Night Court takes place.

But the more important thing to know is that Billy is a (memorably) tyrannical asshole.

Fairly recently, however, I found out something shocking.

I found out that the actor who played that child is not only someone I’ve known for years now.

I found out that Billy — Corben — is also a kindred spirit.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Gracias,

Pablo

Do we need robot umpires more than we thought? Is Netflix the Yankees of media? What's the best kind of catfishing? And have we finally evolved beyond pizza rat? Plus: Aaron Judge choking, Teanna Trump choking, an old man smoking with a crowd... and the price of free p*rn.

• Vote for PTFO at The Webby Awards: Best Sports Podcast + Experimental & Innovation

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the body of a Vegas power broker showed up in the back of a Rolls Royce in 1979, the new sports capital of America was born. Why the hell did superstar UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian's guy really get whacked? Correspondent Sean Carey unearths police reports, a thrown fight against Sugar Ray Leonard... and a bag man on the skim who re-legitimized Sin City — and proves HBO's hit show wrong.

(Additional reporting by Kris Belman)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is a documentary now? Would you turn against your alma mater? Why did a fan throw a beer bottle at Dan Le Batard's head? And is America just Miami? Child star turned muckraker Billy Corben knows. Plus: Night Court, 2 Live Crew, Jughead Jr., corruption, cocaine... and pool boy cucking.

Further content:

• Watch "The U" and "The U Part 2"

• Watch "30 for 30: Broke" on Netflix

• Watch "Cocaine Cowboys" on Netflix

• Watch "God Forbid" on Hulu

• Subscribe to Billy Corben's Rakontur on YouTube

• Subscribe to "The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz"

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back in 2023, when our staff was still imagining what PTFO could even be, we kept returning to the idea of a podcast that is also a magazine that is also an independent newsroom that is also a YouTube channel that is also a TV show.

The problem: that show had never existed. (And definitely not three times a week.)

But here in 2026, I could not be prouder of what our team has become.

Last month, the Podcast Academy awarded us Podcaster of the Year and Best Sports Podcast. We are thrilled to be a finalist for a National Magazine Award in May (alongside institutions like NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and Spotify). And the latest update, from the world of television, is especially gratifying:

I did not know that it was possible to be two of the four finalists in the Outstanding Sports Journalism category.

It’s a surreal honor.

And it is really cool to see an independent startup competing — as intended — with shows produced by ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox, and Amazon:

There is an alternate timeline, somewhere, in which we made a show with a safer concept. I can imagine that show not requiring a whole team of people who are constantly working their asses off to push the boundaries of what we can get away with in this business.

I am extremely lucky that we imagined this one, instead, together.

Thanks for joining us,

Pablo

P.S. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting PTFO’s journalism:

If you’ve been paying even vague attention to our ongoing NFLPA series, then you know that this all started with the players’ union — led by then-president JC Tretter — celebrating the election of an outsider.

A real businessman, allegedly, who could speak fluent billionaire:

Former Booz Allen CFO Lloyd Howell.

This very special edition of The Sporting Class — featuring former NFLPA president Domonique Foxworth (!), alongside former Marlins president David Samson — pressure-tests the real logic of this strategy… even apart from the humiliating results of said process.

And we find out at least one reason why Domonique did not win the job of executive director (twice).

I loved this episode; I hope you do, too.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Thanks,

Pablo

Domonique Foxworth ran and — Mamma Mia! — lost in last week's secretive election by the NFL Players' Association. As he explains to Pablo and David Samson, unions may be more corporate than ever — but the fight against billionaires has never been more consequential. And the implications may turn nuclear for an MLB lockout.

• Subscribe to "The Domonique Foxworth Show"

• Subscribe to "Nothing Personal with David Samson"

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are living through a tragicomic era of rigged-casino capitalism, where America’s anti-corruption laws are simply not being enforced.

This month, according to Reuters, Margaret A. Ryan resigned from her post as the SEC’s Enforcement Division Director for this reason:

And in February, according to Barron’s, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s enforcement division in Chicago — the agency’s top cops — saw their last remaining enforcement attorney resign:

All of which leads us back to the financialization of sports, at all levels.

And our guest today: Senator Chris Murphy.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Thanks,

Pablo

The last time Pro Football Talk proprietor Mike Florio joined me on the show, it was August of 2025.

You may recall this cursed image from PTFO’s four-episode NFLPA series (which just got a fifth installment, thanks to the union’s former lead security officer, Craig Jones, last week):

Today, at long last, Florio returns to unpack how in the fuck the NFL players’ union got here.

And what the NFL might have been thinking, this entire time.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Confipentially,

Pablo

Kalshi and Polymarket have created a Wild West for sports, war and politics in a shamelessly unregulated era. But the U.S. Senator from Connecticut (and Huskies homer) tells Pablo that it's time to turn back the clock on insider trading, as leagues are "knowingly corrupting" the game. And that a return to the roots of rooting for our home teams (and families) requires Congress protecting against a profit-driven idea of America.

• Previously on PTFO: The Prop-Betification of Everything, with the Forefather of Prediction Markets

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is an episode that was inspired, at its core, by a question we received from a PTFO viewer back on Nov. 26, 2025:

Who funds PTFO?

It took a while for us to get to this, admittedly.

But I think it’s important for everyone to understand.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Gracias,

Pablo

Maximum scandal, maximum secrecy. Now that the NFLPA's game of thrones has sent football back to the future, and new executive director J.C. Tretter back to office, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio says Roger Goodell and the bean-counters at the league office are ready to pounce on an 18-game regular season — and football every night of the week.

• Subscribe to PFT Live with Mike Florio

Previously on PTFO:

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

• Part II: We Sparked an NFL Union Crisis. Here's the Sequel.

• Part III: We Followed the Money in the NFL Union Scandal. So Did the FBI.

• Part IV: We Investigated the Hollywood Cover-Up the NFLPA Ignored 

• Part V: The Silenced Top Cop and the Cabal of "Strip-Club Dreams"

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Tom Junod’s range as a magazine writer is planetary, spanning a 9/11 jumper and Nicole Kidman and Mr. Rogers.

But ever since I saw that 2019 Mr. Rogers movie with Tom Hanks, which was based on the story of Junod’s reporting for Esquire, I’ve been wondering how Tom J. truly felt about how he was portrayed in the film, himself.

Tom Junod saw this movie and sobbed, it turns out.

But it wasn’t because his life story had been butchered.

He was sobbing because there was something in that dramatization that split open a part of his life he’d never sufficiently investigated:

His father, Lou.

Lou Junod was a man whose fictions have now inspired a work of stunning nonfiction, authored by his son, titled In the Days of My Youth, I Was Told What It Means To Be a Man.

The book speaks to how Tom reported some of his best magazine stories, as you’ll see… and what it means for a journalist to really find out the truth.

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber:

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Thanks,

Pablo

How did a firing at ESPN birth this show? Can you be anti-establishment within the establishment? And will the principles of journalism survive, when billionaire principals keep contaminating the newsroom? Dan Le Batard and Human Battery Chris Cote join Pablo for another navel-spelunking edition of Share & Tell. Plus: making Jay Bilas play the race card, a Nazi poker hand with Joan Rivers, the O'Reilly factor, Jared from Subway... and six billboards outside Akron, Ohio.

• Subscribe to "The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz"

• Previously on PTFO: Le Batard's Lost Trump Tapes, Revealed

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From 9/11 and Ali to sharing a bed with Nicole Kidman and outing Kevin Spacey, he was already one of the greatest — and most confrontational — magazine writers of all time. Then Tom Junod decided to investigate his own father's "Mad Men"-Lib of a secret life. What could possibly go wrong? What would Mr. Rogers think? And what the hell was in that briefcase?

• Read "In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir" by Tom Junod

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One of the richest labor unions in America has just elected a new Executive Director: a seven-figure job that serves as the direct counterpoint to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Only a handful of people have ever held this office. And now it comes with a portfolio of total assets, according to the NFLPA’s latest federal filing, of more than $1.3 billion.

The man this union elected Executive Director, in 2023, was Lloyd Howell — who infamously resigned amid a corruption scandal, as reported on PTFO’s multi-part investigative series, last summer.

But it wasn’t only Howell who had to resign. His top lieutenant, former Browns lineman JC Tretter — the ex-player-president who engineered that 2023 election and served as Howell’s “Chief Strategy Officer” — stepped down three days later.

Yesterday, however… as predicted on PTFO… this happened:

I’ve been reporting, since last year, that JC Tretter has been angling for the job of Executive Director this entire time. It’s an essential lens that explains this scandal.

And it’s the reason our guest this week was one employee who refused, in writing, to be complicit with any of it.

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber:

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Sincerely,

Pablo

As the NFLPA plots to restore its scandal-plagued leader to power, the labor group's outgoing lead security officer sits down with Pablo. And Craig Jones — the conscience of a billion-dollar union — does not hold back.

Previously on PTFO:

• Part I: The NFL's Secret Collusion Case Revealed

• Part II: We Sparked an NFL Union Crisis. Here's the Sequel.

• Part III: We Followed the Money in the NFL Union Scandal. So Did the FBI.

• Part IV: The NFL Union Elected a New Leader. We Investigated the Hollywood Cover-Up They Ignored. 

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

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You may have seen us scrutinize the incentives and unintended consequences of legalized sports betting and the rise of multibillion-dollar prediction markets.

We’ve investigated the gambling scandals that threaten the NBA; we’ve covered scams that touch the White House; you’ve heard me interrogate experts and call for actual regulation.

But part of the reason I wanted to speak to a 40-year-old partner at a quantitative hedge fund named Galen Hall is simple.

During March Madness — America’s longest-running prediction contest and also Galen’s “favorite thing in the world” — I keep thinking about these increasingly competitive and allegedly enriching pools of money.

I first met Galen years ago, through friends, here in New York City, where he lives with his wife, Sierra. And when I recently asked him how much he’s won — across all sorts of NCAA brackets and legal wagers and high-stakes competitions — his estimate was more than $15 million.

From various World Series of Poker… to the 2023 Backgammon World Championship, in Monte Carlo… to the record-setting 2025-26 Circa Las Vegas NFL Survivor Pool. Where only five entries — out of an unprecedented 18,718 submissions — made it to the very end.

And Galen Hall didn’t have one of those five winning entries, which shared a $18.7 million pot.

Galen had two of them.

Which is all to say that this episode is a case study in the type of brain that’s wired to dominate a game that so many of us don’t even realize we’re playing.

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber:

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Thanks,

Pablo

You may have noticed that the U.S. government is mixed martial arts now.

In fact, the same day we published this episode, with our returning pals and Tim Miller (of ), FBI director Kash Patel made this announcement:

PLUS: Stephen A.’s campaign, Kristi Noem’s fuckplane, Corey Lewandowski’s halitosis, Chuck Lidell’s workout room, a re-patriated blankie, Benihana, Huggie Bear, Bernie Sanders, Dean Cain, and Frank Ocean.

PTFO does reader-supported journalism. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber:

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Sincerely,

Pablo

He's a hedge-fund exec by day... and a blacklisted sports-betting savant by night. On the eve of your March Madness pool, Galen Hall breaks down his Oceans 11-style strategy that dominated a ruthless, $18.7 million NFL pick-'em contest — including game-theory negotiations with a multi-national syndicate and speaking through the podcast void to "Juicy K." Turns out, optimizing for underdogs across a portfolio of brackets comes down to psychology more than math.

• Previously on PTFO: The Best Bettor in NBA History on How to Solve a Gambling Crisis

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