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[Assistant] So while a lot of people attribute the series not continuing past its second season to its poor pacing, animator David Barron voiced a few other reasons which had a bigger effect on the series not being renewed.


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[Assistant] He states that poor scheduling, such as dropping a massive amount of episodes only to go radio silent for a month, really hurt their viewership.


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[Assistant] It also didn't help that the lack of merchandising and marketing was also a major hit to its success. I mentioned earlier that the collectibles market for the series is practically screaming gold mine with the amount of fun and easy, producible swords that could have been made. But the second half of the second season was dropped all at once, online, instead of being aired on TV, really just showed the team that the network wasn't really interested in the series anymore. Baron also mentioned that because of how fast-paced production was moving, by the time audience criticism of poor pacing reached their ears,


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[Assistant] This was originally a concept that he wanted to explore in Season 2, but was unable to due to lack of time. If he had more time, his vision would have been complete in expanding past the television screen and in more ways for the audience to participate, contribute, play, watch, and collect.


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[Assistant] However, interactive games were made. Smartphone games like Shirley U Quest and Magimobile were created, as well as a few Cartoon Network online games like Deadly Darling, The Quest of Towers, Dimensional, Domination, and many more.


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[Assistant] It sadly was too little too late in trying to turn this show into something great and evolve the show itself. Becoming this cartoon that premiered with a lot of potential, it was visually different from everything else on the network at the time. It had some really cool ideas, but couldn't carry on from there into the rest of the series, which would turn out to be more of the same episode to episode. Fast-paced story, rapid joke-slinging, and random swords seem to be the formula. While we have a bunch of side characters and an interesting world to explore, why didn't we do that to begin with?


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[Assistant] It could be a mix of not knowing what to do, sitting on this idea for so long and finally fine-tuning it from the web shorts to a full show just led to not being able to find a direction to take the series in.


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[Assistant] Exactly, the title when thinking back on this really only brings up memories of different


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[Assistant] Cool and weird swords. And the memory of what this show could have been. But let me know your thoughts on Mighty Magiswords. How do you feel about the show's pacing? Which Magisword was your favorite if you did watch the series and had a favorite Magisword? Let me know in the comments. Thanks so much for watching. Like and subscribe. Later.


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[Assistant] Okay, if they know, what's this very first step to fixing a problem? Admitting you have one. Admitting there's a problem.


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[Assistant] When you have a fan base that's in the millions, I think it's safe to say the Browns fan base is in the millions. It's not just here in Northeast Ohio, it's worldwide. Yeah, sure.


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[Assistant] I wanna know that the entity in which I believe


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[Assistant] Are they aware that things are broken? Or do they care?


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[Assistant] Perhaps it was obvious to all who were watching.


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[Assistant] The defense has to go in a different direction. I mean, everybody knew that we were saying in week six that he'll never coach here next year. So that to me was obvious. You don't really need to dig deep into the weeds, perhaps with the other coaches and all of these other decisions that they'll be making personnel wise.


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[Assistant] They want to take a little more time, dive deeper into all things special teams and then make a decision because I'm with you. I thought that, well, if he wasn't fired with Woods, he's safe. But then after listening to them talk, I kind of got the impression that hell, maybe this decision is fluid and they haven't made it yet. It is possible.


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[Assistant] I'm glad you brought up Nate. His piece was interesting to me. He made some points that sort of now with the global view, we've made throughout the course of the season, but one of the things that he really touched on in his piece was


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[Assistant] If you look at the superstars on this team, we all know who they are.


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[Assistant] They're Chubb, Garrett, Watson has to be in that group.


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[Assistant] I would even put Amari Cooper in that group. He had a great deal. And Betonio. Those five guys. Denzel Ward. And Denzel Ward. You're right. Those six guys are the same guy. Personality wise. They're quiet. They're soft spoken. Watson himself said, I consider myself a shy person.


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[Assistant] None of these guys are lead by voice.


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[Assistant] And that to me, when I read Nate's kind of conclusion that that's what, you know, that that's what he sees is what's going on, it led me to believe that, well, yeaah, this is a perfect example of a team mirroring the personality of its head coach. And I'm wondering if the construction of this team


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[Assistant] And we just named the sixth player, and none of them are what you would call leaders. Maybe Joel Botonio might be the closest to that, I don't know. But none of them are guys that you would look at and say, look at that player lead.


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[Assistant] I don't know guys, I just think that the construction of this team, they lack that clear, flag-carrying field general.


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[Assistant] That so many of the great teams have had through the years.


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[Assistant] We're going to get them. Well, Dan Campbell, we talked about Dan Campbell's comment before the Sunday night game.


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[Assistant] Melissa Stark said, what's your motivation? You can't make the playoffs. He goes, I don't want them to go.


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[Assistant] Do you think, Jay and all you guys, do you think that every team needs a Ray Lewis?


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[Assistant] I'm trying to think of like... Lyle Alzato, that goes way back into the 70s. Lyle Alzato would fit that bill. But you know what, you're right, G. I mean, I can't really think...


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[Assistant] And those are the teams in our division that have had the most success, sustained and long term. It's the Ravens and the Steelers and they have those nasty.


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[Assistant] I think our overall point here is, if you look at long term, the teams that have sustained success in this division, it is a black and blue division. It's a lot like the old NFC Central. You have to have those guys


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[Assistant] Do you think that, cause we don't know, they don't tell us, do you think that Andrew Barry and Kevin Stefanski realize this? I think we'll find out.


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[Assistant] There's, if you, if you look at the six best players or at least the name players on, on the Browns team, Chubb and Garrett and Watson and Betonio and Denzel Ward and Omari Cooper, they're all kind of the same personality type. They're not boisterous. They're not, you know, they're not,


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[Assistant] Huge yellers and screamers. They're all kind of that same guy and Stefanski the same thing. You know, not that he doesn't have his moments, but you never see this fire and brimstone that we talked about. This division is notorious for the Steelers and the Ravens who have had the most success have always had those guys, those, those


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[Assistant] Energetic, Ray Lewis, uh, James Harrison type guys. Do you think that this is a construction problem, a roster construction problem that one of your best players


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[Assistant] Okay, Aditi though, in defense of the Steelers and how they may look at this, the bar that you are comparing them to is unprecedented.


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[Assistant] I'm good with that. There's plenty of time to figure out your coaching staff. You, you gotta, you gotta win the task at hand. You know, you mentioned Doug Peterson and I love this during their game, which was essentially a playoff game against Tennessee.


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[Assistant] They talked during the broadcast about how after week eight, when they were two and six, Doug Peterson went into the locker room and addressed the team and said, guys, mark my words.


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[Assistant] It doesn't look like it from where you sit now. This season is coming down to our last game against Tennessee.


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[Assistant] Which is just remarkable to me, that at two and six, I know you're trying to keep your guys up, but you don't say that to a group of grown men unless you firmly believe it. And it's almost like he willed that into existence, and they took their last game as seriously as anybody, maybe but Detroit.


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[Assistant] I marveled at what Detroit did in their last game, but I give a lot of kudos to Doug Peterson for that turnaround and walking into that locker room at the halfway point and say, guys, it's going to come down to the last week of the season.


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[Assistant] We'll talk soon. You know, we talk about the other teams in the division. Historically, the Steelers and the Ravens have had this success.


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[Assistant] One of the alpha dogs on a Ravens team that won a Super Bowl, Bernard Pollard joins us now on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. Bernard, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Uhm, I'm gonna let G sort of bring, introduce you and really talk about how this appearance, uh, came to be and, and, uh, what you're here to talk about.


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[Assistant] There's been a lot of discussion after his monologue took fire and a lot of people saw it. On one side there were a lot of folks saying, hey, uh,


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[Assistant] If the players don't like this, uh, they can look to their own vote when they ratified the CBA.


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[Assistant] How much of that holds water to you? Because obviously you're never going to get 100% agreement. There were a lot of players that didn't want to put their name to that, but the fact of the matter is that's the playing field.


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[Assistant] And they were at the table for the negotiations that set that up.


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[Assistant] What we want to focus on is how this thing gets fixed, because I think it's clear that there are things that are broken. In your mind, being a former player, and De'Qual Jackson, the former Brown, was on with us last week, and he said one of the things that desperately has to happen is there needs to be a sort of consultation group.


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[Assistant] Uh, an advisory board made up of former players.


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[Assistant] That can sit in the negotiations with the current player reps and tell these guys about some of the pitfalls that they don't know are coming in the afterlife. Do you, do you co-sign Dequel's sort of suggestion of that and how do we get this to a place where we're more equitable?


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[Assistant] So Bernard, one of the things that we talked about was the calendar. Because I think it was Dequel talked about that too. He said that


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[Assistant] Oftentimes when these proposals are made and these agreements are going on,


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[Assistant] They're so busy with training camp and everything else, why don't we just start by flipping the calendar? Because the league wants to put the players in that situation. I know they do, but one of the things that I think the NFLPA should insist upon is the termination date of the next agreement.


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[Assistant] Should be February, not August. This way,


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[Assistant] You don't have to worry about a strike either in the middle of the season. You've got six or seven months when the players aren't busy working on getting ready for a season or the next game. They can spend the proper amount of time.


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[Assistant] And they can talk to a, an advisory board made up of former players that can tell them what you just said. Guys, five years from now, life's going to smack you square in the face. And the one thing I'm really, I want to focus in on, and this is mind boggling to me because I've had other players tell me the exact same thing you did.


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[Assistant] Although the league is made up primarily of the one to two to three year contract guys who make far less than your average superstars are making,


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[Assistant] By the haves, by the few that are set for life, no matter how much money. You know, they don't need to worry about $5,000 a month insurance premiums because they're making $100 million over the course of their career.


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[Assistant] How do we make sure that we have appropriate representation from the majority of the players?


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[Assistant] And make sure that their needs are met, not the needs of the superstars and the powerful player reps who sometimes might put pressure on everybody to vote a certain way.


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[Assistant] And you guys organize a board and you go to Demora Smith and you say if you have the best interest in mind of all members, not just the superstars, then why don't you take it upon yourself to create a board made up of former players so we can tell them


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[Assistant] These guys need to know what they don't know and they can learn that from guys that have learned it and lived it. So maybe you guys, the former players get together and organize a wing and you come to Smith and say, we want a seat at the table to make sure the guys playing the game now don't have to live certain ways like we do.


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[Assistant] Off the air, McNuggets will give you DeQuel's number and you guys, maybe that's where the spark starts. You guys come together and you start some sort of movement to get a board of former players to help these guys through the next negotiation because I believe that this is the catalyst for change.


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[Assistant] Demar Hamlin's injury will be the impetus for the league.


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[Assistant] And down the road, I think we should follow up with the quell too on what happens when they get together. Because I do think that that can really lead to change. Jason, am I being overly optimistic and naive? I am. Tell me why.


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[Assistant] I know they do. Which is stunning to me. When I talk to players individually, I always ask myself,


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[Assistant] What was your big takeaway from yesterday? I mean, if you had a takeaway because we had talked earlier at the start of the show how all these guys in the vein of Belichick sort of mastered the art of moving their lips but not really saying a whole lot. What was your sort of


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[Assistant] Takeaway moment or, you know, if they had an overlying statement, what was it that stood out to you?


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[Assistant] Did you want me to do that? Because he spoke out publicly and he was gone.


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[Assistant] One more before we let you go, Mary Kay, and we certainly appreciate your work throughout this football season. It's been a joy and really insightful having you on.


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[Assistant] One of the things that you touched about briefly there is the salary cap position and I know that they're always moving parts to that and guys like Johnson and his future will have something to do with where the Browns sit from a space standpoint.


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[Assistant] But if you had to give this team a letter grade as to how they're positioned with the cap moving into 2023, A being perfectly positioned, F being it's going to be a nightmare, where are they in your view?


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[Assistant] Well, Lindor definitely did. Yeah. Lindor finally returned to the player that he was in Cleveland. I mean, but Correia's are just as good as Lindor. I don't think so. I take Lindor over Correia.


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[Assistant] When you're speculating out 13 years, which was just irresponsible, stupid, and reckless, when you're doing that,


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[Assistant] You're looking for any minuscule thing that could derail that deal.


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[Assistant] Also, Jason, you might know more about this. A lot of these contracts are insured. And it is often times difficult for insurance companies


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[Assistant] To pass the player to that level because in some of these cases, the insurance company is taking a bigger risk than the team and the insurance company may have actually said, we're not safe with this. This is not a good investment.


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[Assistant] No, it's not, but they, you know, he was there last year. I think, you know, they had a lot of issues last year for sure.


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[Assistant] Hey, can I call an audible and go right to the Bauer thing? Because I think that fits seamlessly with the baseball. That is the audible, yep. Okay, because I know we had another 10 minutes.


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[Assistant] Yeaah. Like Rodriguez, if you get a young star that you know is already a star, you want to project out 10+, that's fine.


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[Assistant] And guess what? They're trapped. And at one point they had the two best players in the game or close to it and it was Trout and Pujol and they have done nothing. How is that possible?


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[Assistant] But the guardians, what I've loved about how they've operated over the last 20 years, they have been fiscally responsible to what this market dictates they can do. I don't believe that. They have. Now listen, I don't mean, I don't mean in total money spent.


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[Assistant] I think I'd be a little more concerned, but yeah, even in pictures, you see him once every five days. The reason I say this goes well with Bauer is because this story now, Bauer can be had at a price tag of about $720,000 a year.


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[Assistant] He was accused by a woman of choking her to the point of unconsciousness twice and as well as punching her and scratching her, uh, all during consensual sex. The li- the- immediately the league- Well, I don't know that she- I- that's what he says. What?


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[Assistant] There was never any claims of nonconsensual sex.


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[Assistant] There was an investigation. He was immediately suspended. This was in June of 21. Right, right, right. Hasn't pitched since. He was immediately suspended. MLB said we're gonna look into this. They, they launched an investigation. So too did the LA County, uh, District Attorney, looked into this.


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[Assistant] The judge, after looking at all the facts, denied the woman a restraining order. She had asked initially for a restraining order. The judge said there's no warrant for a restraining order. The judge said he didn't believe that she was in jeopardy because


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[Assistant] I'm not going to cast judgment. It's not my thing. It just seems to be a little, it is abnormal, I think, but, but, but there's been more than one person. Well, I'll get to that too in a second. There has been, but she never filed. She never, she never took it. She just made a claim to a newspaper. That was the other woman never filed any criminal charges.


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[Assistant] The woman, after claiming that she was choked out, Bauer and his attorneys came forward and said, yeah, that happened and here's my phone and here's the text messages between the two of us.


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[Assistant] He, uh, provided multiple text messages between he and the woman. Uh, this episode, by the way, occurred during their second consensual sex, uhm, encounter.


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[Assistant] The text messages said, and these were quotes, give me all the pain and choke me out. Those were words that she used in her text to bow her again.


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[Assistant] Not my thing. I don't understand it. I really don't, but I also, I've been told that this is a thing and that people


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[Assistant] And she just made some claims, some similar claims. Uhm, she never filed any charges, nothing was ever. But that doesn't mean nothing happened. The league talked to her in their investigation. Now, in the course of their investigation, the league said,


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[Assistant] 324 games, two full seasons was what he was suspended. Then, much like the Deshaun Watson case, they appointed a neutral arbitrator to look at all the facts of the case. The neutral arbitrator just came out and said, we're going to reduce the suspension down to 190 some games.


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[Assistant] Basically time served, cause he did not play the rest of 21, he missed all of 22. So essentially, he is now eligible to play Major League Baseball. Where it gets tricky is,


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[Assistant] The Guardians, by the way, are not going to sign him. A lot of bad blood. A lot of bridges burned. But to somebody...


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[Assistant] There are 29 other teams, 28 if you take the Dodgers out of the mix, that are gonna look at this this way. You're gonna get a Cy Young caliber pitcher.


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[Assistant] Who I think most would say is in the top 20 arms in baseball. We haven't seen them in two years. It's very unconventional training methods and whatnot. But they're gonna get them at a $720,000 price tag. Someone, I believe, is going to sign them.


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[Assistant] It's almost the football and baseball equivalent. Yeaah. Because 31 for a baseball player is probably 27 for a football player. Their careers last much longer. Yeaah. The good players can and many times do have.


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[Assistant] I know how I feel, uh, in April when I haven't pitched for six months. And I'm 57. I don't know.


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[Assistant] There was a group of guys on the team that may not have been accepted by everybody else, but it included four or five players.


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[Assistant] Clevengers mindset and some of his problems as rub off from Bauer. I don't know if you buy into that, but.


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[Assistant] And I just, from the very first time I saw him at spring training, I loved his velocity, and I just said, that can't hold up. It was too violent.


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[Assistant] So, odds on angels, would you, would you agree that the Mets might be willing to do that or no? Because they're in New York. Chapman made it through that gauntlet.


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[Assistant] Am I wrong in thinking that there was some sort of friction between Bauer and Frankie?


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[Assistant] Yeaah. He's got thin skin and rabbit ears and that's a bad combo for New York. One other thing that jumped out to me about that piece that ESPN wrote that you talked about.


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[Assistant] Maintains his innocence. Right. And so they talked about how, well one of the things that's going to turn teams off is he's shown no remorse.


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[Assistant] And as I'm reading this, I'm like, wow, the parallels between Bauer and Watson are stunning. Because like Bauer, Watson said, look,


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[Assistant] I've done nothing wrong. These women knew what was going on. They knew what the deal was. And Bauer not only is saying the same thing, but his text messages that eventually the LA County in not pursuing charges said,


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[Assistant] This looks like consensual. It's weird. Yeaah. And it's not healthy. But this is a consensual thing between two adults.


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[Assistant] Now, like Watson, we, I think we touched on this, uh, Monday, yesterday. I think there's some.


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[Assistant] hangover effect mentally with Watson that is affecting his physical. We talked also that Carson Wentz, there's probably something going on there.


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[Assistant] If you're, if you're not strong here, you're done. And I wonder what kind of carryover there would be. Cause you're right, he does carry himself like, you know what? F everybody. I don't care what anybody says or thinks, but we know that's not true. Cause he reaches out and responds to people's tweets and everything else.


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[Assistant] Yeah, as much as that helped him get to where he eventually got, it probably had a lot to do with him unraveling too.


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[Assistant] Oh, we're talking about probably, I think he's a top 10 pitcher. I really do. I mean, not now.


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[Assistant] And he does so very unconventionally. A lot of folks looked at him and this is why he didn't work. Uh, Arizona.


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[Assistant] Was it Arizona that drafted him? Yea, Arizona. That's right. The catcher hated him. The catcher hated him. Well, he was arrogant.


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[Assistant] Long toss. Long toss like a freak. And he was also trying to maximize his arm speed. There's video tape of him trying to throw a ball like 110 miles an hour and all this nonsense.


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[Assistant] But here's what's interesting about that. And Tom House is a guy who also was looked at as this guy's a nut job. And then finally, after a while, even though he was unconventional,


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[Assistant] Not just baseball, football guys were going to house for throwing mechanics. And then they were saying, you know what, he's crazy like a fox. And I think Bauer is the same thing. I had guys tell me when Bauer came into the league, his arrogance,


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[Assistant] His thinking he knew everything was gonna give him a three year lifespan in Major League Baseball. Some of those same people told me that


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[Assistant] Now baseball has widely accepted some of the weird things he was doing and a lot of other guys are doing it now and had success with it.


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[Assistant] It's all turned around and now everybody's saying this guy really knows what he's doing and we need to spread that throughout baseball and guys that are using his techniques are having a great deal of success. All that being said, I, I, I wouldn't want him in my clubhouse.


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[Assistant] But if I'm a fan of a team that is an arm away...


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[Assistant] I am going to want my ownership to look hard and long at whether or not that risk is worth the reward.


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[Assistant] That was concise. You know what they say, 29 teams can think that way. It just takes one. Yea, so there'll be one team that'll give him a shot. You think he'll ever return to stardom levels? I don't, but I don't either. I think the mental side will kill him. He'll still be decent.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, and you know what? A lot of teams have their front of the rotation guys set. You know, these teams that we talk about as contending.


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[Assistant] For a number three or number four, you're not going to find anybody that brings that much time.


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[Assistant] You call yourself the Duke of Knee Jerk. I'll ask Jason a knee jerk question. Does he ever return to what he used to be?


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[Assistant] See, that's the thing. And I, and I wonder, you know, we talked about this with Bauer and we brought it up with Carson Wentz. I wonder if the mental damage is irreversible. Cause to play that position well, you have to be Joe Burrow. You said this yesterday, the greatest answer to any question I've heard asked this year, how long will your window be open? As long as I'm playing.


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[Assistant] I want my quarterback to walk, talk, and act that way. He doesn't walk that way right now. He doesn't talk that way right now. And my fear is he may never overcome those hurdles to be what he once was.


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[Assistant] They were drafted the same year. You know what's wild is, um, watching the championship game last night, Bennett, the quarterback for Georgia, uh, is older than I think nine starting quarterbacks in the NFL. He's older than Lamar Jackson. He's older than Jackson. He's older than Herbert.


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[Assistant] I flipped it on. There was obviously curiosity. I finally turned it off. It was 2-7. Well, I said 42-20.


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[Assistant] That's half the equation. You showed me half the puzzle. I need to know exactly what I'm giving up. It can't be, you know, like,


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[Assistant] In the case of Donovan Mitchell, it's like whatever you gotta give up, you give up.


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[Assistant] Wait a second, time out. I have to ask a very important question, not only to my fellow panel members, but to the audience at large. So please respond by tweet or the message board, whatever it is. Very important question, quick answer. Can you trust a man with a mullet?


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[Assistant] No, I'm not growing a mullet, although my hair is gonna be interesting when you see me on Monday.


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[Assistant] You can't do the goatee. Fat guy with a goatee is a bad look. Even worse than that is fat guy with just a flavor saver.


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[Assistant] There's a few things at play here. Uhm, when you look at Brian Flores, it's very interesting because I think


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[Assistant] Quite often, you know, we've talked about the problem of there not being enough black head coaches in the NFL. And I think, uhm,


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[Assistant] I think part of the reason for that, beyond the obvious, is that often, I believe, that black coaches have felt this pressure to take any job they could get because they would, they're not getting as many opportunities as white coaches. Right. Right? Now I don't know if that's the case at defensive coordinator or offensive coordinator. I think it's less the case.


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[Assistant] the case with head coach. So I thought about that and then I was like, well, but Brian Flores, I think as a DC has, does have a lot of options. Uhm, I agree with Jason in terms of the talent.


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[Assistant] They, they have, the Browns are a good choice. Organizationally, it's not a good choice. However, some of these other franchises we're talking about are also pretty bad organizations.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean Arizona is a disaster. Indianapolis is a total mess. Atlanta's not known as a great organization. Houston, that situation's a mess. We don't, the GM, is he gonna, how long is he gonna be there?


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[Assistant] I think another important thing for the coach, for the DC,


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[Assistant] How much power do I have, right? In Cleveland, the defensive coach is basically the head coach of the defense. Whereas for some of these other teams, he may not have as much power, especially if the head coach is a defensive guy.


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[Assistant] So I think, based on the seven teams you showed, I actually think the Browns are on the upper tier of that. You do. That's how I look at it, but, you know, who knows what those... Gee, you agree with that?


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[Assistant] Could do something with J-O-K as well. I know he had a bad year. Oh, I forgot about him. He'll love his team. You gotta find a way to use that guy. He has a skill set. We haven't used it properly. I would say, looking at the teams again, I mean Denver's defense was excellent this year. Very good. Very good. But their offense is such a mess.


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[Assistant] I know you could argue, well what if Watson doesn't get it back together, something we've talked about, that's possible. I think if you had to ask most people now, more likely to be good in 2023, Deshaun Watson or Russell Wilson, I think almost everybody would say Deshaun Watson.


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[Assistant] To me, it's do they call, do they call, you know, often design runs for the quarterback?


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[Assistant] So was Lamar Jackson. No, but those guys are not elite throwers.


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[Assistant] They were elite. Those guys without their ability to run would not have been great players. Yes, I agree with you on that. The Sean Watson before all this, and maybe it won't come back, okay, but I don't believe that, but maybe it won't.


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[Assistant] They're under the cap with the rollover. This year? No, for 23. Oh, I haven't seen it. I looked at it earlier today.


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[Assistant] There's no denying that the Browns ownership is a clown show and that the Browns are amongst two or three teams probably with the worst reputation in the league. Nobody's denying that. And, and that's obviously a negative.


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[Assistant] However, I do think a lot, at least as of now, yeaah, of course, if you get a chance to go to San Francisco, you'd rather go to San Francisco. If Luad Arumo gets a head coaching job off the Bengals, you'd rather go to the, I get it. But as of now,


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[Assistant] In defense of Schwartz, his defense, like if you look at the, the analytics, there's that scary word again. If you look at the DDO defensive rankings for his defenses the last five years, top six or eight every single year. Yeah. Between his time, uh, in Philly and his time in Tennessee as a defensive assistant.


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[Assistant] The only guy we've heard mentioned that has a relationship with Kevin Stefanski is the guy none of us have ever heard of, and that's this guy Sean Desai from Seattle.


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[Assistant] And this may be unfair. And you know me, I have been the defender of analytics when everybody else is scared of the word. But Sean Desai is another one of these nerdy...


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[Assistant] Analytics guys, and I just feel like we've got enough nerdy analytics guys, we need one guy that's just like, F it, let's go kill the other team.


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[Assistant] But I have always been for, you gotta have both. I've just argued a lot. You and I have argued about analytics, so in those arguments, I'm gonna defend the analytics side because you may have been poo-pooing analytics.


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[Assistant] But getting back, sorry to cut you off, Jason. I do want to get back to your point. I think you made a great point there before, when you said, let's not do this, where if they end up not getting Flores, that we all go bananas. Because the reality of the situation is, even though we've all said we want Flores,


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[Assistant] And, and he seems like the right choice and we hope we can get him. The bottom line is...


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[Assistant] Mike, before you ask something else, let me quickly say that I'm very excited about our overtime topic today. If you are not a member of the ultimate Cleveland sports show, jump on board today because we are talking about the legend that is Odell Beckham on a plane and his bad behavior.


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[Assistant] He's 31. Yeaah, I know. He's 31 at the start of the season. Oh, well, Cokes will be 30. Cokes will be 30. Okay. First of all,


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[Assistant] I just don't think DeAndre Hopkins is what the Browns are looking for. They need a wide receiver. It's got big time speed. They do. I'm not even sure Cooks at 30 years old still is fits that bill, but Hopkins certainly does not. He missed six games for steroids. Is he the same player? I don't know. No, his numbers when he came back were pretty solid.


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[Assistant] But, he also missed time due to injury. He missed half the season last year due to injury.


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[Assistant] How many wide receivers still play at a high level at 32? I mean, or 31. I mean, honestly. So your answer is neither.


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[Assistant] Browns are not in a position to say neither. No, no, no. I think they need to go via. They need to get a speed wide receiver. I'm just not sure either of these guys is the right answer.


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[Assistant] But, Cooks before this year, I don't know if he missed any games. Like, he's always been healthy in his career. He's had a thousand yards, I think every year, about one or two in his career. Like, I know DeAndre Hopkins at his best was a lot better than Cooks, but he's not, he's not at his best.


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[Assistant] The three best teams in the AFC. Talk about it. The Bengals, the Chiefs, and the Bills, who the Browns are way behind those teams right now. All three of those teams have


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[Assistant] You have to. You just have to. Cap in the future be damned. Restructure contracts, do whatever you have to do. They gotta get, they gotta, you know, can't screw around here.


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[Assistant] Well, if the Sean Watson, if your, if your nervousness is correct and he's not the same player he was in Houston.


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[Assistant] By the way, I heard a sport, I won't say who it is, but I heard somebody, a sports talk, talk host, say the Cavs could trade a Coro and a Karras Levert.


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[Assistant] I mean, it could happen. I mean, he's your best player on defense. You're trying to get better on defense. I don't think you'd get better by trading Miles Garrett.


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[Assistant] Hey Maurice, uh, Deshaun Watson, you look at this, you know, he had his moments where he did fine, but overall in six games, he, he was at best to me below average and probably worse than that overall for six games. In Houston, he was always sensational.


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[Assistant] Is there any doubt in your mind that he will be back to sensational next year? Or you have some real concerns, not playing for two years, not playing well in these six games overall, that maybe he's never gonna be that same guy.


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[Assistant] But the interesting, the interesting thing, like what makes the NBA obviously different from baseball and football is when the baseball playoffs start, everybody's got a shot to win the World Series.


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[Assistant] Right? When the, when the playoffs start in football, most, not all the teams, but most of the teams have at least a shot to win the Super Bowl. In the NBA, that's never the case, right? Like, I feel like you nev- No, I agree. No, no eight seed's ever gonna win an NBA championship. Right, like, never. And, and-


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[Assistant] That's true. Alright, listen. So, when I was a teenager playing basketball at the schoolyard with my friends, right, it's a bunch of guys like me. I wasn't that fat then, uh, but I wasn't, I was short, whatever. But, I wasn't very good at basketball. I've never been good at basketball.


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[Assistant] The Niners minus quarterback might have the best roster in the league, but do we think they can win the Super Bowl? I don't. I think they have a very, very good chance to win the Super Bowl.


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[Assistant] I guarantee you, 80% of the fans wouldn't want that. Oh, for sure.


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[Assistant] Would you do it? Let's say at the end of the year. Let's say at the end of this year. Would you trade mobile for LeBron?


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[Assistant] I don't think so. I mean, I know he's not a top 5 MVP candidate, but like, in the playoffs, are the, this, even this year, if, you know, all things being equal, are there, are there 5 guys you'd rather have than him?


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[Assistant] He was hired, Joe was hired, for those who don't know, to be the LeBron reporter.


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[Assistant] Does anybody really know LeBron, besides his family, or maybe? Like, do you guys feel like you really know him? Like, really? Yes, yes.


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[Assistant] Or is it an act, for lack of a better term?


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[Assistant] I was told 60 Minutes did do a story in 2009.


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[Assistant] Last thing I, I'd like you both to answer this real quick. If you had to go, if you got an honest moment from LeBron and you asked him your biggest on, you know, court regret or not necessarily on court, but at basketball decision, whether it's the way he did Miami, leaving Cleveland the second time, resigning with LA, his biggest regret.


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[Assistant] When it comes to programming blocks, you'd be hard pressed to find anything more iconic than Toonami. Not only is there nostalgia associated with it, but there is a legacy that truly spans some generations now that all have their own experiences with it.


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[Assistant] From the style and attitude that radiated from the bumpers and cliffs between programs, to the selection of programs themselves that brought you some of the coolest pieces of media.


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[Assistant] Much like finding so many new programs to get hooked on, Toonami had this ever-evolving feel to it that constantly brought more and more programs to the forefront for you to discover, while offering visuals and aesthetics that invoke both past and present. When you heard the hip-hop inspired beats mixed with the early CG visuals reminiscent of 80's sci-fi, you felt right at home knowing you're going to get some highly memorable experiences through the shows curated for the block.


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[Assistant] But most importantly, at least to me, was the full-on introduction to anime. I want to celebrate what Toonami has meant to me throughout my life growing up with it and the programming that truly made it special. So let's take a ride on the Absolution as we look back through the history of Toonami and see how this programming block rose, fell, and rose again. Welcome aboard the Ghost Planet Spaceship Absolution. Later.


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[Assistant] In the mid-90s, cartoons on TV were at a rising peak for kids across different channels, and kids everywhere were locked into what they were used to always watching. Cartoon Network was looking to add something to their programming lineup that would end up capturing a new audience and hopefully be of interest to those already on their channel. Enter Cartoon Network executive Mike Lazo.


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[Assistant] Who was trying to jumpstart a new project for Cartoon Network that would be focused on action-based animation.


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[Assistant] As he would then grab his friend Jason DiMarco to fully plot this out.


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[Assistant] Both Sean and Jason were heavily in tune with the Japanese animation scene.


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[Assistant] Watching and having a great appreciation for anime, as they wanted to pull from that to bring it to the forefront for Western audiences. Of course, this would be no easy feat to do since pitching bringing over Japanese content that would be unfamiliar to most watching the channel isn't a guarantee of viewership for the network to passively greenlight.


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[Assistant] Mike Lazo, however, was on board with The Vision and wanted to aid with a bit of familiarity that he could offer. Mike had already created a repurposed outlet for the Space Ghost property from Hanna-Barbera.


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[Assistant] Turning it into the odd and fun Space Ghost Coast to Coast, a late night talk show that would be a cartoon aimed at adults that Cartoon Network would pick up as a show to place on their network for late night time slots when the channel's target audience would most likely be asleep.


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[Assistant] Taking from this, Lazo and his production company Ghost Planet will begin building the design of Toonami by first bringing in the character of Moltar.


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[Assistant] But to help build what this vibe exactly is came down to Sean and Jason, who were trying to figure out this whole idea.


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[Assistant] And along came the introduction of another person in the story, Michael Cahill, who would be influential in working with them in these editing sessions of taking hip and newer music sounds, skateboarding clips, and untranslated anime that they would find through local video stores that would import them in to create a reel that encapsulates this moment in time that they're in.


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[Assistant] And boom, the vibe had been created, and the next thought was a host for the whole thing.


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[Assistant] Originally, to fit the tone, they were thinking that it'd be some sort of AI who accompanies a teenage girl, but the cost associated with this would be out of any allotted budget, so this is where the idea of bringing in Moltar fit perfectly. Much like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Moltar was voiced by animator and voice actor Clay Martin Crocker,


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[Assistant] Together, over the next three quarters of the year, this group came together to create what they decided on being the combination of cartoon and tsunami, Toonami. I'll give you the tour later.


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[Assistant] After so much time was spent finding the exact vibe, coming up with the perfect name, and being ready to launch this new action block of animation onto the world,


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[Assistant] The premiere of Toonami on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, 1997, from 4 to 6 p.m., didn't release with the programming that Sean and Jason wanted to bring over. Many roadblocks stopped them from getting their requested shows to play during their new animation block.


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[Assistant] Having access to one initial Japanese production, Voltron. But in saying that, this was the Voltron already brought to the US and edited to suit a younger audience with a lot of original stuff cut from it. But this was a start.


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[Assistant] The network did give them their space to be creative in designing what this whole thing would be, but that doesn't mean it was just smooth sailing through the stars until miracles would happen. Instead, there were worries that each week could be their last week airing Toonami, as Sean would come back from meetings with a level of uncertainty from the higher-ups, with the ratings for Toonami being fine. Not great, just fine.


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[Assistant] Something was needed to really pull in the audience to prove that what they have is truly special, and that opportunity was just about to present itself the following year.


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[Assistant] After only having Thundercats, The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, Voltron, and then Cartoon Roulette, featuring a bunch of older random cartoons being chosen in 1997, 1998 proved to be the year that things would start taking off.


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[Assistant] Having access to the original Super Friends and even Transformers Beast Wars was cool for sure, and even moving on to get Robotech helped out.


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[Assistant] But two programs in particular were about to change the attention Toonami was receiving. First was the English dubbed version of Sailor Moon.


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[Assistant] This led to Toonami being offered to be the new home for Sailor Moon, where it started to get the attention that the network needed to be able to push for more in order to grow. That summer, Sailor Moon helped bring in enough leverage for the Toonami crew to not just ask for, but heavily push for getting Dragon Ball Z to be added into the rotation.


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[Assistant] Both Sean and Jason really wanted to get Dragon Ball Z. It was a show that Sean would wake up early to watch when he was younger, when it would be played only on a local channel early in the mornings, as he had the thought that if he was doing this back then, then there were others like him doing the same.


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[Assistant] If they were able to make it more accessible for a western audience to watch Dragon Ball Z, and play it at a time slot in the mid afternoon on a highly watched network, as opposed to a random early morning time slot on a local channel, this would be huge, and they were right.


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[Assistant] This was huge, as in 1998, Japanese properties and Japanese animation were making their way over to the states, and kids as well as young adults were eating it up.


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[Assistant] The ratings would continue to go up and more people would be tuning into Toonami for a dose of action and more importantly, a dose of anime.


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[Assistant] As we get into 1999, other shows like Reboot, The Powerpuff Girls, and Robin Warriors were added to the mix of programs that would be played. This created a healthy balance of shows from both regions being in this couple hour mix.


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[Assistant] But Dragon Ball Z alone would bring in the eyes that the network loved to see, providing some of the highest viewed broadcasts that made Cartoon Network on a level of viewership more or less to Nickelodeon at the time.


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[Assistant] They even premiered movies on some Fridays with the first being Batman Mask of the Phantasm. While not directly following the anime flow, that is a great movie and I think it fits the vibe. Tsunami was hot and it was getting noticed.


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[Assistant] With some semi-edited versions of Dragon Ball Z movies being played, it began to expose another side of anime to Western audiences who are now invested. What we were receiving to watch on TV were not the original versions of the program. Now, Toonami began pushing some limits, but the key word here is limits. These were still not the uncut versions that are now known.


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[Assistant] But now it's nearly the end of the decade, and in July of 1999, Toonami had a bit of a revamp.


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[Assistant] Who was now voiced by Sonny Strait. Along with this, the setting of Toonami was now aboard this spacecraft called the Absolution.


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[Assistant] As the new host welcomed Toonami fans in with a brief introduction. Calling this the brand new Toonami, but with the mission of staying the same with what to expect. Tom was there to usher us into the new millennium right around the corner, promising the same shows you already like and the same attitude to go along with it.


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[Assistant] Sean and Jason were beginning to both enjoy the success of their programming block, but also deal with the more forceful oversight from their higher-ups. Sure, companies like Bandai would hit them up looking to bring a new version of Gundam stateside, hoping that Toonami is the perfect place to springboard the program to fans, and that's great, but with this much attention, they would be forced to show certain other programs because while they may run Toonami, they don't own it.


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[Assistant] None of this was remotely bad enough in their back and forth to cause a rift, thankfully. And something great did happen, and that was the introduction of Midnight Run.


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[Assistant] Which would play more uncensored and uncut versions of anime, making it a good alternative to still deliver the goods that people wanted in both formats.


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[Assistant] Toonami was being viewed as the spot to connect yourself for celebrating other forms of animation, but through multiple mediums, as they would even get the chance to work with Gorillaz and Daft Punk for their animated music videos, which clearly fit right in and played into the perfect midnight vibe run.


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[Assistant] Daft Punk even brought some of their music videos to premiere first on Toonami, and soon after, Gorillaz did the same thing.


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[Assistant] This led to Toonami taking one hour of their midnight run block to be focused on introducing music in a way that wouldn't interfere with what their usual broadcasts would be, and keep the network happy since it wouldn't affect their ratings directly, being at the time that these would be shown.


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[Assistant] This was influential in the way that people would be discovering music at the time and for a generation now growing up with the curations of art found through Toonami.


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[Assistant] There were people finding their own new tastes from it. Toonami was quickly becoming known as the tastemakers of the turn of the century. As we enter into the year 2000, the explosion of the brand would continue further. While you had stuff like Batman the animated series and Superman the animated series getting some love during the block,


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[Assistant] The explosion of anime was more prevalent than ever. GeForce, Guardians of Space, a few Tenshi series, Blue Submarine number 6, and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing would all join in on the broadcast slate. To upgrade the brand further, we got to experience the first ever TIE.


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[Assistant] Or total immersion event, which would only focus on Tom and subsequently Sarah.


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[Assistant] The first event premiered on September 18th, 2000.


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[Assistant] And was known as the Intruder, and snippets of the story aired throughout the week during the broadcast until the 22nd, where the finale to this TIE came to a close. Each part of the Intruder story ended with a password to play a Flash game on the Toonami website, where you would try and save these other robots as well as yourself from being eaten by this... Intruder.


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[Assistant] Leading to the reveal in part 5 that Tom actually dies and Sarah downloads him and places his data into a new, sleeker body called Tom 2. This taller Tom was now voiced by the iconic voice you may remember Tom for the most, Steve Bloom.


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[Assistant] To add onto this event and get more crowd participation for those engaged with Toonami, there was a phone number listed on the next broadcast to vote for which new engine Tom 2 should get for their ship repairs, and a little over a month later, that decision was showcased, and a few weeks after that, the repairs were done.


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[Assistant] Toonami found a way to keep you engaged with a CG host that gets a really cool upgrade and listens to things that our viewer voted to change how they happen. Plus for now, Toonami received an extra hour for their programming block, running on weekdays from 4 to 7 PM now.


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[Assistant] They were all having fun trying new and different things with Toonami, and this event proved that if they were tasked to make something with the original character of Tom, given a budget and allowed to create a story with him, that they could do it. This leads us to 2001, where quite a few things happened for the Toonami brand.


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[Assistant] As this would be a great way to introduce fans of Dragon Ball Z to the original Dragon Ball series that leads into it. The higher-ups wanted to expand Toonami out and bring it over to a special block on Kids WB, which caused the regular 4 to 7 PM block on Cartoon Network go to a 5 to 7 PM block, to allow time for the creation of this new channel block.


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[Assistant] In July of 2001, this new tsunami block would take over a bit of KidsWB, but had one specific flaw.


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[Assistant] The branding around Toonami works thanks to how greatly it's paired to the content that it houses, and for Kids WB, the anime aspect wasn't there as much. While sure, Pokemon fits the anime bill, it really was taking over time slots that could be used to showcase other programs.


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[Assistant] They also tried to infuse the music aspect of Toonami by mashing up clips from several showcase shows, like Cardcaptors or X-Men, to create these odd music videos called Toonami tracks. While some of these shows could be classified as action, most of them leaned more towards the comedy aspect, and the audience could tell that something was off. This wasn't what they expected from Toonami, and this was becoming a problem for the networks to push other types of shows onto the Toonami brand.


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[Assistant] 300 winners would win a GameCube branded shirt, 150 winners would win a GameCube game, and 10 lucky winners would receive a GameCube along with 6 games. The mainstream attention of Toonami was there.


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[Assistant] The network knew this and the brands took notice. To get deals like this though, the Toonami team was told to make their brand bigger to propose the ideas of what you have to more brands.


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[Assistant] Which led to the idea of this lockdown game in the first place giving viewers a chance to feel like they are actively helping calm out and are a part of the story taking place. It was genius as it asked the audience directly to have fun in a different medium instead of just voting on something arbitrary.


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[Assistant] The real downside of this year, or upside, whichever way you want to look at it, was the ending of the Kids WB version of Toonami. By the end of June, the block went away, and because of this, the main Toonami block on Cartoon Network received its extra hour back.


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[Assistant] Returning to a 4 to 7 PM programming block. The next TIE took place and another game and another sweepstakes with Nintendo happened as well. It was still for the GameCube, but mainly to promote Super Mario Sunshine.


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[Assistant] For 2003, the year started off great, getting to celebrate Giant Robot Week, where anime with giant mechs were at the front of the line with programs.


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[Assistant] This greatly introduced even more anime for those not in the know of some of them.


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[Assistant] Toonami's iconic hip-hop inspired beats were released on a special CD titled Toonami Deep Space Bass. Tom even got a bit of an upgrade bringing him to Tom 3, an even more muscular designed version that can age up with the CG a bit. This was also a big year for the new add-ons for broadcasts.


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[Assistant] They instead delivered an original segmented pilot mini-series for an anime that Sean and Jason produced with Production IG, called IGPX.


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[Assistant] Which surely was different from what fans of Toonami were expecting, but seeing that the minds behind Toonami were doing this was pretty cool. Even if a younger me had no clue that that was the case. But this specific TIE will play into something down the road. 2004 changed things up.


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[Assistant] The move was made to follow the aging up of its audience.


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[Assistant] Thinking that those who watch would prefer a late night weekend production over an every weekday mid afternoon one.


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[Assistant] Sarah received a new look now along with the new voice actress, Samantha Robson, and the newest programs this year were Duel Masters, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Justice League Unlimited, Transformers Energon, Astro Boy, Rave Master, Jackie Chan Adventures, Teen Titans, and Mega's XLR.


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[Assistant] Over the next couple years, things were pretty much the same. Having this special dedicated weekend block and adding plenty of new shows as 2005 brought us DICE, The Batman, the uncut version of Dragon Ball Z,


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[Assistant] Transformers, Cybertron, Yu-Gi-Oh, Zatch Bell, One Piece, Naruto, Bobobo, Bobobo, and the full version of IGPX after it was teased with that microseries back in 2003. So a nice offering of some well-known properties and helping start off a lot of kids in America's obsession with Naruto headbands.


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[Assistant] 2006 brought us Wulan Warriors, the Prince of Tennis, Fantastic Four, World's Greatest Super Heroes, Mar, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and both Pokemon Battlefrontier and Pokemon Chronicle. It wasn't until 2007 where things became interesting enough to bring up, as this would be the 10-year anniversary of Toonami starting.


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[Assistant] It was hiked up, and when the date came around to celebrate it, we were introduced to Tom 4, bringing along two other main robots hanging out with him, Flash, voiced by Dave Wittenberg, and Dee, voiced by Tom Kenny. The year didn't add much new to its already solid rotation of animation, only adding in Mega Man Star Force and Stormhawks, but the future seemed pretty great for the programming block.


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[Assistant] It even celebrated the anniversary with special movie premieres every week in March that year. But come 2008, this wouldn't be the case. With only a few more additions like Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Blue Dragon, and Ben 10 Alien Force, things seemed a bit off.


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[Assistant] The year was going by just fine, but on September 20th at a convention called Anime Week in Atlanta, Cartoon Network dropped the sad news that Toonami was officially going to end, putting two low ratings being the cause. And literally, that same night, Toonami aired their final broadcast.


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[Assistant] With the end of it having a final farewell from Tom himself saying goodbye after 11 years. Hoping you have made some unforgettable memories and to stay gold. And those words were held onto by everyone watching something so special from their childhood and so suddenly before their eyes. And just like that, Toonami was gone. Until we meet again, stay gold.


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[Assistant] Years went by and Toonami did become this distant memory.


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[Assistant] But enter in Adult Swim, another programming block on Cartoon Network that would control the late night and early morning scene with teen and adult programs, making the clear cut at the end of the day when kid entertainment ends and when the older crowd can flip on the channel. Starting in the early 2000s as well, Adult Swim was conceived by Mike Lazo.


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[Assistant] As there is a connection here to leverage one programming block to bring back another.


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[Assistant] April Fool's Day for Adult Swim is always a night full of whatever weird they can come up with, and people enjoy the shenanigans that they pull. But this next one was different, as it could be pulling on heartstrings more than anything. On April 1st, 2012, Adult Swim just played a Toonami block.


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[Assistant] consisting of Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, and other classics that you would find on Toonami, full with the Toonami branding and everything.


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[Assistant] And as fun as this was to revisit Toonami, it wasn't just some joke to do so.


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[Assistant] In fact, it was a secret attempt to get people interested in bringing back Toonami. As social media was really becoming a staple part of everyday life, Adult Swim put the power onto the people to get their voices heard, saying on Twitter that if you want Toonami back, use the hashtag bringbacktoonami. People sure made their voices heard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When Sean and Jason became aware that the April Fool's joke was to play some old school Toonami, they got excited over the fact that this could be a way to revive the whole thing. And then there, they watched as the internet overnight exploded with support of Toonami.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And with that, the hashtag's wanting to bring it back. It was so demanded and so well received that literally the following week, bumpers on Adult Swim stated, we're listening and we're looking into it.


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[Assistant] Cut to May 26, 2012, where Toonami was officially back and on the air. And with that, an onslaught of shows.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a fierce return and the fans of Toonami ate it up, welcoming new fans to join in on it as well.


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[Assistant] It was great all around. Coming into 2013, Tom 5 premiered along with a new but older look for Sarah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For her third variant, voiced by Dana Swanson. Soul Eater, FLCL, The Big O2, Star Wars THE Clone Wars, Sword Art Online, the return of IGPX, and even the uncut version of One Piece started to flood into the programming block. Movies like Akira and Summer Wars were played.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And everything was rolling into 2014 in high swing with not only the announcement that a new TIE was in the works to come out the following year and be a sequel to the TIE Intruder, but even more shows were being added to the slate, Space Dandy, Blue Exorcist, two Black Lagoon series.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Beware the Batman, Inuyasha the Final Act, Helsing Ultimate, Jürgen Lagen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Attack on Titan, Dragon Ball Z Kai Uncut, the original four seasons of Samurai Jack, and the uncut version of Naruto Shippuden. In 2015, however, Toonami was shrunk down a bit, now running from midnight to 3.30am.


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[Assistant] But things were still okay. This year brought the return of TIEs, where we got the Intruder 2 that led to a new overall look for the block. It also led to the Absolution being destroyed and Sarah dying. But she was put into the computer system and now the programming block was hosted from the planet Shogo 162. Program-wise, we got the additions of Kill la Kill,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This led to them getting a new ship, the planet they were on being destroyed, and Sarah getting a new version of herself, this time with little wings.


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[Assistant] During this year, the broadcast time shifted to 11.30pm to start, ending at 3am.


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[Assistant] They did announce another new micro-series called The Sand Whale and Me to premiere in 2017, being a joint production of Adult Swim and Production IG and directed by Mamoru Oshii. For 2017, the length of Toonami started to grow once again, at first getting to start at 11.30 PM once again and then quickly earning that start time of 11 PM, making the whole block four and a half hours now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We also saw the addition of Dragon Ball Super, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, two Tokyo Ghoul series, Black Clover, Dragon Ball Z Kai The Final Chapters, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders, Lupin the Third Part 4 The Italian Adventure, Outlaw Star, and a brand new revived Samurai Jack,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That returned for a final fifth season that was a bit more adult than the original series. There was another TIE titled The Countdown where Tom gets brought to the future by his future self to help stop a corrupted version of Sarah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really building out more of the story that they have been making for Tom and Sarah as hosts of Toonami. As the year went on, more time slots were open to Toonami, but it wasn't until 2018 that it would truly get even bigger. The block earned more and more time slots on both ends, running from 9pm to 4am.


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[Assistant] After more than five years of being back, it has taken over once again, and has acquired the licenses to play way more anime than ever before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My Hero Academia, two different FLCL series, Pop Team Epic, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Diamond is Unbreakable, Mob Psycho 100, Megalo Box, and Boruto, Naruto the Next Generation's, joined Toonami in 2018 as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As 2019 rolled around, Adult Swim was biting back some of its time, as Toonami shrunk back down a bit to 5 hours long, running from 11pm to 4am.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But still having new shows like Sword Art Online Alicization, Lupin the Third Part 5 Misadventures in France, Fire Force, Genlock, Dr. Stone, The Promised Neverland, Food Wars, Mobile Suit Gundam, The Origin Advent of the Red Comet, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Golden Wind, and Demon Slayer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We got another TIE called the Forge, which is where Tom was created, and also killed again, bringing us Tom6, thanks to Sarah using the Forge, and then Toonami got an extra half an hour back, running until 4.30am again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Entering into the 2020s, these time slots would constantly be played with going up and down and up again, but it would roughly even itself out around being a four hour long block from midnight to 4am. From 2020 to present day of making this video, Toonami has continued to add more anime and other shows to their run, and things in general have been running as good as they always have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And was advertised as a non-canonical event that featured the Toonami characters, and it was done in a full traditional anime style.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This carried on for the 2022 TIE that had Cosmos Samurai 2, but right after that ended, the following weeks would air another TIE, this time titled The Return.


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[Assistant] This one was canonical and had Tom trying to come to terms with there being many Toms that exist, when a ghost from the past arrives being the original Absolution spaceship that we know is being destroyed as we see the original Sarah AI from 19 years ago glitched onto the screen.


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[Assistant] As the ship then gets shown to actually be from 250 years in the future, having more powerful capabilities to intergalactically travel, donning the new name of the GPS app solution, Mark 14, as we continue the Toonami broadcasts as usual.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As of 2023, Toonami is still running stronger than ever, having new anime and other shows premiering all the time and just celebrating all that makes Toonami special. Over the years since its comeback, Toonami has been the main hub that is accessible to so many for new and old anime to be presented. It's not just the classics it embraces, but all the new stuff as well.


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[Assistant] Which to some can feel like it takes away the nostalgia factor of it, but to others, this is their first exposure to a lot of this anime. Much like it was to me and to a lot of you back in the day during Tsunami's original run.


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[Assistant] And I think that that feeling and those moments are special.


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[Assistant] Really wasn't a joke. The fans made it possible for the network to actually listen and bring back Toonami, with more support than it ever received initially.


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[Assistant] It wasn't just the programs it played, it wasn't just the vibe that the host segments created.


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[Assistant] It was the all-around encompassing of different forms of media for you to discover. Sure, there was anime, which is a big part of it, but the music created for the show along with the music played during the music video segments really helped shape some new discovery within the various sounds out there. The video game reviews that would happen gave you your own little slice of G4 here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Getting to see a showcase of many different video games and their reviews of them. Mainly put together by Jason himself. And there was always some sort of sweepstakes going on to take place in. And it felt that Toonami was there for one thing and one thing only. You.


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[Assistant] The viewer. To have an experience. Discovering new things to love and build lifelong memories from. Whether you first discovered Toonami during its original run or found yourself getting into it because of its return, the same universal feelings of it can be shared by us all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Toonami was a crucial part of my childhood and I thank it for introducing me to so much from anime to some music and even a few video games. I would love to know your experiences with Toonami as well. When did you discover it and what did you discover from it?


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[Assistant] Tell me in the comments. As always, I've been Jordan Fringe. Thanks so much for watching. Like and subscribe. Later.


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[Assistant] I am exactly 16 minutes greater than Michael Jordan.


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[Assistant] Because even if Wayne Crebet was to beat McNuggets,


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[Assistant] You still gotta put the ball to him. Exactly, but Bull is not an NFL quarterback, so. He's not?


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[Assistant] Yeaah. Usually, out of the break, the ball is humming and it's right there. So it doesn't allow the DB to recover. So does he complete 10? In this scenario, he'll put some air on the ball. McNuggets has a lot of time to recover. He could still make the play. So you're saying no, he will not complete half of his passes. I'm not saying that he won't complete half of his passes, but without having chemistry, I would say out of 20 passes, I give him 5. Can you reach out to Cravet?


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[Assistant] Missed the points. Wow. Now you're too young for her. Wow.


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[Assistant] Hold on, wait, wait a minute. Before you say that, if you, just cause you in a wrestling title, what matters is all pros.


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[Assistant] The thing about Hall of Fame is that obviously I talk to Sherm about this all the time. We go back and forth on players because obviously he wants to get into the Hall of Fame.


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[Assistant] And I, you know, as a matter of fact, I just asked him about this the other day. I just text him like maybe three days ago. I said, you look back on your career. Which one of them bothers you the most that you upset about when it losing that Super Bowl in Seattle?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or not getting defensive player of the year. And he said defensive player of the year. And why? Because when you go to the hall of fame, they look at your all pros. They look at player of the year. They look at all decade teams. They look at stuff like that. If you don't have those


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not, it's not the pro, it's not the pro. Pro bowls are completely irrelevant. Cause that's, that's politics. Oh, there's guys who pay attention. All pros means that you were the best one or two person at your position in the NFL recognized by everybody. If you're judging by like most interceptions. I don't care nothing. Cause you could get into the pro bowl and be the fourth alternate.


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[Assistant] Well let me say this to talk about the Russian title. Do I think they should go for it? Absolutely you should go for it. However, with the steel curtain, I don't think it will happen. But, I will say the only example that I have is actually when I was in San Fran.


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[Assistant] Kittle, George Kittle was about to break the record. I think Travis Kelsey had already broke the record. We played after them and Kittle had a chance.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah. And we was, we was what, five or four, whatever the heck we was. We were trying to get him the record. No way we was going to the playoff. They fed, they kept him in the game. L.A. had already put the backups in. They kept Kittle in the game and kept forcing him to ball because they wanted him to get that record.


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[Assistant] Can I ask Leroy a question? Leroy. Ha, my man. First of all, sorry about that college thing. We not even gonna go there.


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[Assistant] Let me ask both of you a question that's going back to the Browns. If the Browns were to switch up their, their offensive scheme, you know, they were going to more of a spread look with Deshaun Watson. Do you think Nick Chubb will be more, will be better? Cause I know you was talking about Leroy that right now he runs it with tight ends and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Extra full backs. Do you think he would be more effective if they went to the spread? Cause it looks like to me that could be potentially where they go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeaah, so the first play we're gonna do is Denzel and you know, I had to hit him with a little Drake lie. Say 21, can you do something for me? Ha ha! With that being said, Denzel, a little buck eye on buck eye crime. So what we got out of this is the Browns comes out, they run man to man, okay?


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[Assistant] We got man to man, alright, man to man to man. So we get the outward breaking route. We get this tight end slamming down, coming out. We get a little chip here. He gonna sit down right here. We get the dagger concept from number two and number one. Dagger means he's gonna run an over route or what we call a special route and this guy's gonna run a dig.


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[Assistant] But we wanna focus. This is where all the focus is at. And I'ma go to the next clip. He comes out, man to man, gets a nice little press on him off the line. Hold on, I gotta switch clips. Switch clips.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Denzel played a little bit of the guessing game on here. He gets to the top of the route. He feels that due to the stem, because the stem that he got, he took them inside. Usually you get a dig on an inward release. He felt that he would take them inside, but Terry hit him with the little, you know, swipe over and go underneath.


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[Assistant] So the play ends, he does a great job of undercutting it. I will say that the pass wasn't that great, but he undercuts it, makes a great play, high points the ball, and he comes up with an interception. It's hard to see. It is hard to see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I think it's a, it's a nice mixture. So, so for example, that route combination, let me go back, let me go back. So this route combination that they run, they ran,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Obviously they thought that it would be covered three, because if it's covered three, then this special route is going to be checked by this backside linebacker right here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's the whole reason why they run it. But you don't know that they're in man until after they run it. If you line up exactly the same, that's why I say the Browns run three and one, because if it's three,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Boom, this is what you'll get. This linebacker has to get it. This is actually a wide receiver, so he's just gonna take this thing vertical and he's gonna hit him down here. Can't Washington figure that out if they send a guy in motion? They could, they could, but this Washington didn't do that in this particular situation. Don't know why.


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[Assistant] Don't know why, but you have to, so you run man as an opposite of this and they caught him in a position where they thought that they would be in three, they actually were in man and they were able to make plays. So switching it is good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thing, it's the way you play the zone. Because like I say, if it's one receiver to your side, because this right here is a running back. So essentially, even if they were to be in cover three, he could man this thing up. And they can make what we call a stretch call. This guy could come down and play this man. It could be man on this side. But that's that, that's that advanced Seattle talk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think that. I think that you don't want to get caught, you don't want them to know exactly what you in. You have to throw wrinkles in there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For some odd reason, man is their wrinkle. And then on top of that, when we ran man, typically it was down and distance based. If it's like third and two or something like that, yeaah. But you don't really want to go out there and play man 60 snaps because now your guys are dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does. If it's Tom Brady, you obviously, if you're going up against a veteran quarterback in this league that's really good, there really is no disguise because offenses know how to figure out what you're in. Obviously, the Patriots was notorious for sending the guy in motion and figuring it out.


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[Assistant] Let me get to this last play and we can, we can be done with this. All right.


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[Assistant] They got good skill position players, they got good running backs. And with Chase Young back, their defensive line is phenomenal. Unbelievable. Listen, CJ Stroud could be great for there. Anyways, uhm, this last play, so this is actually, we're going to flip it over to the offensive side of the ball. This to me, well, whenever it is, thing shows up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I don't think they would do that. I don't think they would. Because, because right now what they're doing is finding, they're finding some success in whatever they're, it took them, whatever, it's an interesting stat out there since like week seven. I think Earl actually retweeted it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, let me try, let me try this again. Okay, we good. So look, check this out. So this play right here, we gonna flip it over to the offensive side.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Washington are, is actually in what we call an inverted cover two. Obviously, you know, regular cover two, the corners here, he got the flat safety. He's got the half, half corner, but in this particular situation, they took the corner and made the corner to have player. They're going to take that guy to be the flats. These guys are all hook players. That's the dude. And then you can't see the safety, but he right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You want to keep a roof over the whole thing. So the Browns do the, do the very interesting thing. And as a defender, I'm going to talk you all through this as a, as a DB. As a DB, when you see a running back out here at number one, we count that as a non-athlete.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About 90% of the time, he's just gonna run a hook right here. Do nothing. Nothing. Don't even worry about him. If you in, if you was in cover three, you would just say you will alert to this hook player or not. It's buzzer. Hey, come get this China right here because I'm going deep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what they do is they want the corner to be all the way out here. This guy's going to run the fade from the inside. The reason you run the fade on the inside from here is because if you throw the fade, he got a lot of room to the sideline to fade off to. So that's typically why you do it in that situation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, this guy ran this little hook stop right here. Little chip, little sit down and then you got the dig behind it. Play to get him to bite the cheese. He bites the cheese, hit the dig behind him. So that's the concept that you get. Uhm, let me go to the next clip on this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, uh, uh. Switching clips. Alright, we here. So, as you see...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have our, as you see, corner is all the way out of there. You got the guy that took the China car right there. So now he has to hit this hole right here. That literally is the window and cover too. You have to hit the hole. Yeah, you got to hit the hole unless the corner does not sink. Deshaun Watson


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Me and McNuggets believe that this was the best throw he's made in this game, cause he throws an absolute


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what Ryan Day did. He took Xavier Johnson, a receiver, put him in the backfield. They did it with JSC and last year. Put him at running back. Send him directly down the middle of the field. Cause your two people are, your two safeties are playing this. Now you got the middle wide open.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Zone, not even close. Zone, next question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeaah, that was, uh, so that was, I explained it, they had an empty check and everybody didn't see it as empty. They had those two, uh, tight ends and, um, grave digger positions and they said that going into that week that they were not going to treat this as an empty, they were going to treat it as two by one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And everybody wasn't on the same page, so every 10 players played something, played cover 3, Denzel played cover 2, and that's why that happened, so it was just a coverage bust by then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If Matthew Stafford don't make it, it's robbery. I'd choose a lock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wouldn't put staff for nothing. I mean, I staff Slater, excuse me.


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[Assistant] At Tennessee State, I believe. Tennessee State. And then we had, obviously we had Deon at Jackson State. HBCUs is becoming cool. Y'all keep doing that thing. Man, people would love to come play for you guys. What about you, Jackson? Shhh. Because people come. I respected you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want to tell you a story of the old days when people were different from now. We had a certain dog, and she had many fine pups.


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[Assistant] I remember a litter she once had, more than you could count on the fingers of one hand.


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[Assistant] When they grew up, they were the best dogs my father ever owned.


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[Assistant] But they all liked to eat, and they were sleepy and lazy.


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[Assistant] Puppies, as you all know, are meant to be played with by children.


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[Assistant] Our dogs were always spoiled in this way and grew for a while thinking how soft and easy everything is. Nothing to do all day but eat and be rocked to sleep by the young girls.


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[Assistant] But pups grow up and soon must learn to work. In summer they carried packs for us. They quickly learned what their legs were for.


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[Assistant] They carried their share of the burden when we journeyed to look for gulls' eggs, to spear salmon, or to pick berries on the hills.


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[Assistant] Then my father, a patient man and very strong, would take me on his back. As he walked along, he would sing to me.


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[Assistant] I love to go walking far and far away, and my souls are worn through.


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[Assistant] As I pluck the buds of willow that are furry like the grey wolf's beard.


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[Assistant] The waters of the river are icy cold, cold as the heart of the glacier.


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[Assistant] The waters of the river come from far and far away, and flow to the goddess of the sea.


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[Assistant] Sometimes my uncle would come with us on a trek. And he would carry me.


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[Assistant] He was a great talker and told many tales.


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[Assistant] Once he told me a story about a dog who died of hunger because his master was a bad provider. His spirit turned into a wolf and he ate people up. I thought this was a fine story. I asked my uncle, did you see the wolf spirit? And he said, yes, but I gave him meat. Then he went away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can tell you I fed our dogs very well when the time came.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sometimes we carried our packs into the high hills where no man lives.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In springtime, the snow is not gone from such places, and is slow to melt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our dogs would carry heavy loads through great drifts.


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[Assistant] But snow is no colder than the icy water of rivers. Our dogs were learning to stand great hardship, and we were thankful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Swiftly, swiftly they pulled the sled. Brother and sister side by side. The whip cracks. Who is master? Who is the cunning one? The deceitful one. The thankless one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My father was a patient man, as I have told you.


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[Assistant] But often with those young dogs he lost his temper and was angry. He would then use language terrible to hear.


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[Assistant] When the sea is frozen, Netsirk the seal comes up to breathe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Netsurk is shy and is nervous of any strange sound. He can hear your breath. He can see you blink your eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our dogs were great hunters of Netsirk the Seal. They were clever at sniffing for his hiding place. Beneath the ice, Netsirk would hide, but our dogs would sniff him out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My uncle told many tales of her kingdom beneath the frozen ice. She is guardian to all creatures that live in the sea. A seal is a gift from the sea goddess, and only the best hunters receive her gift.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The dogs were taught to lie still to stay apart from the blowholes. Oh yes, the seal has the sharpest ears. If he hears the slightest creaking in the snow, he will take warning and swim away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If Netsirk hears the feet of our dogs or the breath from your nose, he will be frightened. He will then dive to the kingdom of the sea goddess. He knows she will protect him and save him from the harpoon of the clumsy hunter. She asks, are you patient? Does your dog have a sharp nose for Netsirk? Is your harpoon strong and well made?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When a seal was caught, our dogs were anxious to share in the kill.


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[Assistant] We have found the blowhole for you, they say. Therefore, we have a right to part of the catch. A wise hunter will reward his dogs. Dogs that are rewarded are anxious to please and fear nothing. My father was a great hunter. His harpoon was straight and sharp. Our bellies were never empty and we had seal skins to make many things. Hunting was sometimes bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But my father would nearly always bring back a seal. Often he was the only hunter in our village who did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Patiently he waited at the blowholes, coming back sometimes with a bearded seal or sometimes with a ring seal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone would run out to lay claim to a share of the meat and praise the kill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My father was modest and much admired by all the young girls. He told them about the hunt


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He would declare himself quite unworthy of praise.


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[Assistant] That his harpoon was poorly made, and his dogs were useless as the fleas in their coats.


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[Assistant] No, no, his friends would say. Your dogs are the best at finding the blowholes. Your harpoon is envied by all. Then my father would smile and be content.


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[Assistant] Then my mother would cook parts of the seal and serve the guests.


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[Assistant] Then my father would smile and be content.


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[Assistant] As I told you, the hunter did not forget his dog. He borrowed the dog's nose, the dog guided him to the seal, and the hunter was grateful.


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[Assistant] But the hunter was careful not to feed his dog too much, for it is well known that a fat dog is lazy. A dog eager for meat moves quickly and has a sharp nose.


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[Assistant] A dog will keep warm in the snow. Curled up with his nose under his tail, the snow will cover him. Yet he will sleep and rest himself and be eager for the harness.


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[Assistant] The time came for us to leave our village to find new seal hunting on the frozen ice of the sea. The weather was bad and the wind howled about our ears.


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[Assistant] I remember my father harnessing the dogs and loading us with all our belongings on the big sled. We are going on a trek, he said. The journey is not easy. This will be a time of testing for the dogs.


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[Assistant] As soon as we could, we left the old place. The igloos were empty and silent. In a long line, one sled behind the other, we started out. The dogs strained at the harness.


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[Assistant] Surely our dogs are the strongest and best in the land, because they are my father's dogs, and obey his voice.