The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 10/30/2020 - Best of The Herd

Episode Date: October 30, 2020

-The Ravens and Steelers dominance illustrate how bad the Browns truly are-Thursday night was a bad night for the Falcons-The NFL can be broken down into three groups of teams-Dallas Cowboys fans should want to get embarrassed by the Eagles-Some people get what the Patriots are doing more than the media doesGuest: Matthew McConaughey, Award winning Actor Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard,

but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Thanks for listening to The Best of Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday.

From 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1, find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Heard. This is the best of the Heard. with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go on a glorious Friday. Strongest blazing five picks of the year in an hour. This is The Hurd.

Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and right here on FS1, it is Halloween tomorrow. Look at Joy Taylor, my friends. The Queen has arrived. You said go all out I told you I love it I said I wanted you to go all out My original plan was just to wear the red dress

And I had these at home So it was like it was more subtle This is this is the devil and the dude on 92.3 I think I came as 2020 You look fantastic Joy loves Halloween I like 4th of July beers and blowing stuff up

You like It's another good holiday yes So it's an interesting weekend After this weekend, Joy, it's the halfway point of the NFL season, and the trading deadline is Tuesday. So if you're bad after this weekend, it's going to be a lot of trades coming up Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. And I want to talk about a game this weekend. It is amazing. Most people that aren't very good know it and keep quiet.

And people that are good are a little cocky and feel themselves. You understand it. The great players know they're great. The great franchises know they're great. They've got a little bit of arrogance. It's institutional. I get it. But usually the people that are bad historically know it.

So this weekend, the Steelers face the Baltimore Ravens. These are great organizations. Let me give you some numbers that are fascinating. In the last 20 years, two decades, good round number. The Steelers and the Ravens in just the AFC North have combined for four Super Bowl wins, 30 playoff wins. That's unbelievable. And 15 division titles.

That's incredible. Do you know what the Cleveland Browns have done with those three boxes? Zero, zero, and zero. But the Cleveland Browns are constantly upset that people diss them and laugh at them and roll our eyes and mock them and don't give them the respect they so richly deserve. Cleveland is the most over-discessed team in professional sports, the most over-discussed lousy team. We don't talk about the lions on this show. We don't talk about the Bengals much on this show. What about the Dallas Cowboys, Colin?

Well, they have a rich history. They have five Super Bowls. They have some of the best players in league history. have been Dallas Cowboys. They also, in the last decade, just the last decade, they've won their division three times. They have playoff wins. In the last two decades,

Cleveland has the worst winning percentage in the entire sport. And they're constantly upset that we don't give them more press, more respect, more talk. Last week, they barely beat the Bengals, had to come from behind three times in the fourth quarter. And I said, you know, it's impressive. Actually, Joe Burrell is working with nothing. He's a rookie quarterback, no preseason.

What about us? What about you? You're the Bengals. You're the Browns, excuse me. In the last 20 years, the Steelers have had two head coaches. The Ravens have had two head coaches. Browns have had 12. I mean, it's incredible.

It's like the Browns have become like the reality show of the NFL. You know those reality shows? Like couples and families that have their act together, never go on those shows. It's just famous losers. but you do kind of stick around because it's fun to watch them disintegrate and argue over dumb stuff that sometimes semi-famous losers do.

And it's amazing with Cleveland. This weekend, Baltimore is going to play Pittsburgh. And it's just going to be Super Bowl relevance. They're both in the Super Bowl bubble. It's going to be legendary Hall of Fame coaches. It's going to be great quarterback play. It's going to be historic fan bases. It's going to be pro bowlers on both sides.

And yet Monday, when the Browns, you know, probably beat the Raiders, they will wonder why we roll our eyes at it. You know, because two weeks ago you played the Steelers and got housed, and six, seven weeks ago you played the Ravens and got housed. I always wonder, like I know Brown fans think of the Steelers and the Ravens often. Do the Steelers and Ravens, do they ever just look at the Cleveland Browns and just laugh? They have to. They have to just laugh at the Cleveland Browns. Because Cleveland, the Cleveland Browns, the Cleveland are rare. They're pathetic and they have a swagger. They're awful and they put their chest out. And I've got to be honest with you. It's kind of fascinating. I mean, the lions are bad and know it.

Jags are bad rebuilding, know it. Cincinnati's bad rebuilding. They're not cocky. Cleveland's, you know, the Chicago Cubs were losers, but they were lovable. The Browns are obnoxious, righteous, cocky, and historically, the biggest joke in the league. So I cannot wait to watch the Steelers Ravens this weekend, but I'm going to keep my eye on the Raiders and Browns because I know if the Browns win, they're going to demand respect Monday, just like they did for beating the Bengals barely last weekend. So, you know, we've said before, there are good losses and bad wins.

That happens all the time in sports. fans, of course, don't want to hear that. I understand that. For fans mostly, you win, it's good, you lose, it's bad. But last night was what I would call a really, really bad win for the Atlanta Falcons. The Atlanta Falcons have become the Detroit Lions. They're two and six, you know, Detroit's three and three. But they've got really competent quarterbacks. So they're too competent to get a top five draft pick.

Detroit's going to end up winning four or five more games. Atlanta's going to win three or four more games. and they're not going to get a top 10 pick, and they're going to stick with their quarterbacks. It's called NFL QuickSand. See, New England's figured it out. Be great as long as you can. Then when you're bad, tell your players to opt out,

trade players, be awful, get a great quarterback out of college, reboot and be great again. That's what New England will do. Atlanta is in quicksand. They're too competent. Matt Ryan's just too competent at quarterback to win just two games. I mean, Matt Ryan this year, complete 67% of his throws.

98 quarterback rating, 12 touchdowns, four picks. They're two and six, and let's be honest about it. They should be five and three. Three times they've led a game with two minutes or less. They're just too. Matt Stafford is too competent. Matt Ryan is too competent that they're going to win a bunch of games. Atlanta's going to win three or four more games.

Detroit's going to win four or five more games. You're going to look up and you're going to have the 12th pick or the 15th pick and you're going to get a cornerback from Virginia Tech or an offensive tackle from Oklahoma, and it won't change anything at all. And here's the problem with a Detroit and with an Atlanta. You don't have a top five or six great quarterback, but you've got a certainly a top 12 quarterback, so they're competent, and you're locked into their contract, so it makes your job even less desirable.

I mean, the Jets job, if you have the number one pick and all those picks, could actually be very attractive. I could get Trevor Lawrence and 15 picks over the next. year and a half, two years, that's kind of attractive. So I watched Atlanta win last night and I'm like, this is just quicksand. What would I do? What would I do if I was Atlanta? I'd trade everybody by the trading deadline Tuesday.

I'd trade everybody I could, including Matt Ryan, and I'd start over. I'd lose the rest of my games. They're two and six. I would go two and 14. That's what I would do. And then I would have a top three pick. I'd get another quarterback. By the way, if I trade Matt Ryan, I'm going to get two or three good picks.

I would just start over. In the NFL, you want to be really good top five or six team or a bottom seven or eight team and be horrible. And in fact, even a bottom five team. So Atlanta's going to be in quicksand. Detroit's going to be in quicksand. They're going to get a 15th, 18th pick. And by the way, Matt Ryan and Matt Stafford are both still good enough to win a bunch of games in the NFL. They just need, you know, the right spot.

You put Matt Ryan in Indianapolis with a Colts or you put Matt Stafford in Indianapolis with a Colts and that front office and that coach and that offensive line. Those are playoff teams. But I'm watching Atlanta last night, and I'm like, this is a terrible win. You're in quicksand. You're just too darn good at quarterback to not win five games. That means you don't get the quarterbacks. That means you're not going to get Trey Lance, Justin Fields, or Trevor Lawrence. I would sell everything. Everything must go. Liquidation sale. Julio Jones, Matt Ryan, take what I can, lose them all and start over. That's what I would do, because I could I look right now and I look at the NFL, And you've got to beat Patrick Mahomes and Big Ben and Lamar Jackson.

Tom Brady's team is loaded. I mean, you look around the NFL. Who do you have to be? Aaron Rogers, Russell Wilson, Garoppolo and Kyle Shanahan, McVeigh and Goff. That's what you've got to beat to win a Super Bowl right now. Atlanta? I'd start over. I know.

Bad win. I'd start over. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the I hard radio app. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments

in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me,

or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, Follow at Clifford and a TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill,

waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes.

I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Keer Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience

in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses.

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines,

is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. So after this weekend, two reasons it's fascinating.

After this weekend, we're halfway through the season. And then after this weekend, if you're bad, Tuesday's the trading deadline. You can just say, hey, we're starting over. Let's get picks. Let's get rid of some really good players, but expensive. So after this, I think here's where we are in the NFL. There's three groups of teams now.

So the first group is we all kind of admit, this. Most of them. I call it my Super Bowl bubble. Eight teams every year since I was a kid feel like they can win the Super Bowl. Now, Green Bay, Seattle, Tampa, and the Rams and the NFC. I like the Rams more than you do. And then the Steelers, the Chiefs, the Titans, and the Ravens. The second group is too darn talented not to be in playoff contention. Niners, Saints, Bills, dolphins, lions, Cardinals, Bears, Browns, Colts, Eagles, Chargers. They either have the coach the players, the quarterback, but they're going to be around for the next couple of months, banging around for a chance at the playoffs.

And then prepping for the draft, 12 teams. Jets, Patriots, Bengals, Texans, Jags, Broncos, Washington Giants, Vikings, Panthers, Cowboys. Now, two of those teams, the Texans and the Broncos have a lot of good players. Let me talk about Denver for a second. This is what's fascinating about Denver. So they're two and four, and I like them this weekend. But if they lose, if Denver goes to two and five, because they've got six or seven really talented players.

If Denver lost this week, there's a new reality for John Elway who runs the franchise. So John knows I got to win this division. I got to beat Patrick Mahomes. I play him twice a year. I got to face Derek Carr. He's pretty good too twice a year. But now John Elway says, I got to face Justin Herbert twice a year. He looks like a star.

So if the Broncos lose this weekend and go two and five, Mahomes twice, car twice, Justin Herbert twice, no thank you. Do you move off Drew Locke? Do you say to yourself, we're trading pieces, we're getting picks, we're losing games, I'm getting one of these three quarterbacks. Now, it sounds ridiculous, and I think Drewlock is talented. But Justin Herbert is so good. you're like, there are times, was Mahomes this good in his first couple games?

Whoa. So Denver's a really interesting team. Does Elway wake up if they lost this weekend? Not saying they would. If they lost, your two and five trading deadline, and you've got some good players. You've got some good players in Denver, and you're like, you know what? I'm going to move a couple of them. I'm going to lose more games.

I'm going to get better draft picks. That'll be fascinating to me. What do you do with Drew Loss? because he's one of those right now. You think there's something there, but you're not sure. You only got one more game to make a decision on that to move some pieces. Interesting place to be for them. Something else quickly, we were talking about this.

The Dallas Cowboys play the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend. And this is one of the things that I've, even when I was 7, 8, 9 years old, this was something that was obvious to me, that you want your team to win, but there are these rare years where you root against your team to get something. Years ago, I remember I was at the other network arguing with Colt fans when I used to take phone calls. Lose to get Andrew Luck. You cannot as a fan. Yes, you can.

You want to get your next Peyton Manning. This is obvious, right? And I've always said fans are 50-50. 50% of fans you would not want to bump into an arrest area. Like they're just not, you know, they're just breathing, walking, talking, chewing gun, they can't do it. And there's a 50% of fans that are just, you know, they get the bigger picture. There were fans in Cleveland. I argued with them.

I mean, when I used to take calls, you can't lose to get LeBron. I'm like, yes, you can. Like there are these, you know, there are these unique players. And so Dallas does not need a quarterback. They're going to go with Dak going forward. But John Goulet and I, we talked about this earlier. If I'm Dallas, the worst thing you can do this weekend is win with a backup. And Jerry Jones thinks, how about them cowboys?

No, no, no, no. You want Dallas to go out and get absolutely boat raced and humiliated. And it's against a rival. Do you know how angry Jerry was losing to the Washington football team? And it was like humiliating. Two days later, he was yelling at Dallas radio hosts on the air. So this is another division rival. Here come the Eagles.

Even a bigger rival last decade. Just get toasted by him. If you're a cowboy fan 40 to 6, that's when, I mean, my bad, 50 nothing. Jerry flies back in his Gulfstream. And he's like, I'm firing the coach. I'm trading to Mari Cooper. I'm trading to Marcus Lawrence. It's exactly what you should do.

It's not to get a quarterback, but it's to get picks. You are in a rebuild. you're going to keep Dak, you're going to keep Zeke. After that, start moving one or two of your receivers. I'd keep Jalen Smith, but I would think about Demarcus Lawrence. You're paying him a lot. He's not very productive. He's a good player.

But that only happens if Jerry gets humiliated because Jerry tends to be, and I was told this years ago by a really, really, really smart guy, a very, very successful guy. And he said, it's hard to be cynical and a billionaire. He goes, to be a billionaire, you have to be optimistic. You have to be a glass half full because business is so hard. And if you build an empire, there's so many bad days and so many obstacles and so many crazy moments.

You can literally talk yourself out of succeeding. You have to be eternally optimistic. And Jerry is. I mean, he was a wild catter. He was a guy that went seeking oil where you strike out 95% of the times. It's that 5% where you can think you can strike it rich that keeps you going back to the oil fields. Jerry's an optimist.

You have to lose so badly that even an optimist goes, this is unfixable. This is terrible. I literally have to get rid of the coach. And the only way that happens is that the Washington game, it happens again, but worse. So you go out as your Dallas fan and you just get 40 to 6. 40 to 6.

You get on that Gulfstream, you're like, Stephen, give me my tumbler. I can't take this. I'm not doing this again. and Stephen goes, Dad, Amari Cooper to the Green Bay Packers. Dad, DeMarcus, Lawrence, too, the Seahawks. That's what sometimes you have to have it. So, John, what are you hoping for this weekend?

40 to 6. Joy, Joy's the one. She knows the Tua things big picture. It's the way it works. Thank for Tua. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Usually, Russell Wilson always calls it,

playing neutral. You don't want to have highs and lows if you're the president, a quarterback, you're in a big position. And I've always felt fan is short for fanatic. In most instances, most fans get all, you know, they get all liquored up, they get all emotional. And you don't get great emotional discipline from fans because fans go to games to have a good time, have beers, high five, and watch their team win. So very rarely does a fan say something and I think, oh, that's centered and that they're rooting for their teams and for fans this is entertainment you know they they they go to a movie they watch a sporting event to be to enjoy it have a cocktail have fun get loose their lives are tough their jobs are tough usually the media if they don't root and

they shouldn't you know gives you a more kind of centered emotionally disciplined opinion certainly not always the case in politics and sports but it's real this is a very unique situation the fans it more than the media. The New England Patriots made a decision this summer when Tom left. They were going to reboot. Everybody in New England gets it. Everybody in Boston gets it. In between their Sammy Adams, everybody gets it.

It's the media that doesn't get it. The media is like, Bill is too competitive to tank. Well, Steve Kerr's competitive. He wants punch Michael Jordan. He's tanking. Bill's too competitive to be average. for seven years. That's what Bill is. And Bill is too smart to realize you can't win in this league without a quarterback because I'm Bill Belichick and I've won 43% of my games without a great

quarterback. And Pete Carroll's been fired twice without a great quarterback. And Andy Reid couldn't win the big game until a great quarterback. This idea that Bill is just too competitive to take a step back for a year, re-org, reboot, and get a great quarterback is non- sense. He's not going to admit it, but smart people all the time take a step back to take two steps forward. And so, didn't you think it was kind of funny that Julian Edelman has precautionary knee procedure? Eight guys just opted out. Take care of your family first in New England. You feel like that's business as usual? You think if Brady was there, they'd had that precautionary knee surgery? Bill's like, well, he may not miss the season, or he may, it won't matter.

This is the rare instance where the fans get it. It's just a one step back reboot. My takeaway, they're trying to, Stefan Gilmore, they want to trade him. Why? They won't be as good. I mean, they still like him. He still would start for him next year, but the reality, and they're not paying anybody beyond Stefan Gilmore.

It's not like they're not going to have cap space next year, not paying their quarterback. They're not paying anybody except Stefan Gilmore, not even paying any of the receivers. Edelman doesn't make big money. It's a reboot. It happens. It's not, the difference is it's not called tanking in football because like hockey, hockey and football are too physical to tank. Like you have to play hard.

And the players will play hard. But it's called restructuring and rebooting and you take one step back. So I think once again, all these things that don't feel like New England, Julie Nettleman is now having, it's not necessary. It's a precautionary knee procedure. I feel bad for Cam. This is, he's kind of the sacrificial lamb. and all this stuff.

Like, you can't win with this team. And the other questions are, once they get a quarterback, because I think New England's going to beat the Jets twice and lose to everybody else, they may win, you know, five games. They'll have a top seven, eight pick. I kind of feel like they've got to figure out beyond quarterback. They've got to bring somebody in who can draft skill people. We went and looked at their last five drafts.

I'll put it up for our television audience. These are the skill players taken in the last five drafts. You tell me, last three, excuse me, you tell me, do you like any? Any? I do think Damien Harris looks like a very good number two running back. He was a third round pick. But, you know, so I think this idea that a Bill Belichick would never do this and never do that. Bill Belichick is too competitive and too smart to not understand you can't win in this league without a great quarterback. And you're not, Cam at this point isn't and you're not getting one in free agency. You can get one potentially in the draft.

The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, the Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations,

stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right what you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes,

follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jek.

And I'm Alex English. We pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan, Ryan, Korn, Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses.

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you here on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines,

as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Well, we feel very lucky from time to time. We get somebody special on the show. He doesn't see himself as that,

but he's one of the great American actors. Absolutely. And he's got a new memoir called Green Lights, which I got about four or five days ago in the mail, and I opened it up. He kept a journal his whole life. I have a friend who did that. Trace Gallagher is my buddy at Fox News, and I've known Trace for 30 years, and he kept a journal and still does. And I've always been jealous of him.

I try to keep a journal, yeah, but you have to be very disciplined. Well, of course you do, yes. And Trace is, and I'm not. Some ways I am, you know, I eat right and I work out. Matthew McConaughey Academy Award-winning actor is now joining us live. And it's called Green Lights, by the way. So I will tell you right now of all the things I'm jealous of, it's not the Academy Award and all that stuff. It's that you had the discipline to write a journal, and it's not a typical journal.

It's not sad, although there's moments so far of what I've seen, you talk about happiness. And it's not an advice book. This is not what it is. Give people a sense of what this memoir is about because it took a lot of discipline, and I love the way you attacked it to write about it. Well, it's a lot about attack. It's about approach, really, to life. My personal approach approaches that I think everybody can understand in their own lives.

You know, green lights, we love green lights in life. They say yes, their freedom. They affirm our way. They say, go, out of boy, more please, continue. We don't like yellow and red lights in life. They slow us down or make a stop. And though we don't like red and yellow lights, I've found that a lot of my red and yellow lights in life, those hardships and crises,

actually gave me what I needed or later on revealed their greenlight assets of lessons I learned from those hard times. So, you know, we can engineer our own green lights and life by choices we make today through responsibility and accountability and delayed gratification. Also, sometimes green lights just land in our lap with good fortune. So what do we do with them when they do? And then other times, it's just about perspective. I can look at a situation differently than you. I may see this as a red light. You may see this as green light. It's how do we see it? Sometimes a red light crisis doesn't exist if we just don't even give the damn thing credit. So eventually in the rearview mirror, I do believe that all red and yellow lights do turn green.

It's an approach book. You know, it's interesting because in Hollywood, you are rare. You are not cynical. You don't lean all the way left. You're kind of relatable. You love your sports. Your dad was drafted by the Packers. You're kind of a regular guy. In fact, I had years ago, I had a friend that got on a Delta flight with you flying to, you were flying to Austin. He goes, you won't believe who was on my flight tonight. I said, who? He sat next to me. Matthew McConaughey. I said, really? He said, oh, he's talkative, nice guy. He didn't try to hide. It was a late-night flight. And that, by the way, and he spoke very highly of you. And it is interesting. You mentioned recently that you, you know, you feel sometimes you get pushback. And it's funny because you've

really embraced who you are, your sports, your love for Texas. And that's sometimes you feel like an outsider, but yet you're very much an insider. And as I'm kind of rambling here, have you ever sensed that a little bit? You're in the club, but kind of out of the club. Yeah, maybe somewhat. But you know what? Every time I feel like I'm out of the club, I got to be honest with you, Colin, every time I feel like maybe I'm a little bit out of the club, when I go back there, that community and my peers embrace me wholeheartedly. I mean, the one of the one great thing about Hollywood is that you can go out there and be whoever you want to be. The really tough thing about Hollywood is you can go out there and be whoever the hell you want to be.

And too many options can make tyrants of anybody. But that whole industry as overall been great to me. And, you know, I have a lot of good friends out there. I've met some of the most creative and extraordinary people in my life out there. Now, that comes with, you know, some people that have extremely views on to one side of the that do not agree. I think what I said the other day that you were alluding to when I've talked about my faith, you know, I've seen people, everyone's just out there, there's a game to play. There's a game in Hollywood. Do we do our business in the Hollywood game? I've tried to do my

business in the Hollywood game. I've also tried to play my own game in the business of Hollywood. But overall, that industry's been very kind and embracing of me, even though, you know, I know not everyone agrees with some of the things that I believe in. I've kept a pretty doggone good relationship with them and they have with me. You know, we were talking about this, the movies you've done. I loved contact with Jody Foster. Love it. Oh, God, I loved it.

And I have seen a UFO, although I still don't believe in them, but I saw one. Not going to get into it. You know, whatever. Another show? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, no, but I've, Grayland, Washington, I've talked about it, ad nauseum. Okay, wedding planner, Lincoln lawyer.

You love Lincoln Lawyer, by the way, Dallas Buyers Club, Wolfel Wall Street, Interstellar, which is my daughter's favorite movie. But here's what's interesting. So it's very easy now as an actor to do Netflix and Amazon Prime. It's very easy now because it's lucrative and it's very good. But you had just won the Academy Award six, seven years ago. And you're like, you know what? I'm going to go do True Detective.

It wasn't as, it wasn't as fashionable then. It was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, movie stars don't do that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's what you do. Did your agent? They don't go to the small screen. That's right. And I thought, did your agent go, hey, Matthew, I want you to take the weekend off, go fly fishing, come back, think about it. Because people seven years ago, Matthew, they were not doing that.

No, they weren't. You bring up a really good point. So at that time, look, I was rolling. I was doing creative work back to back to back and I was ferocious about it. And I was consistent. I was choosing character and story. F the bucks, I don't care. I'm going for the experience.

I want to choose a role that's going to make me sweating my boots in a story that I'm like, can't wait to turn the page. And that's what Rustin Cole and True Detective offered. So I remember considering exactly what you said, now wait a minute. No one's, you know, I love the script. My agent loved the script. But we said, this is moving to the small screen.

And you're succeeding on the big screen at the highest level. That's not what actors do. exactly right. But I remember saying, well, the story's there. The character's there. I don't give it damn what screen it's on. And my agent, we talked about it for about eight seconds. So there was no weekend of fly fishing. I needed no reset. He agreed. I agreed. We plowed forward. And, you know, that show that we did that Nick Palit Pizzolato created, Carrie Fukinaga directed, myself and Woody did. It is part, it was part of the beginning of the avalanche of so many actors now going to the small stream and how you actually find your best dramas, arguably.

on the small screen and limited series now. The other thing that's fascinating, Matthew McCona is joining us, is Dallas Buyers Club is a remarkable performance. It's an absolutely incredible movie. It's one of those where you're watching it, and you're like, oh, he's going to win the Oscar for this. But it's funny.

I've seen De Niro put on weight. I've seen Christian Bale put on weight. And you're a guy that takes care of your body, in your mind, your soul. That's who you are, okay? Yeah. And then you made a decision, Yeah, I'm going to lose like 60 pounds and be totally unhealthy.

And I thought to myself, you know, everybody just thinks, oh, it's a role, you do it. But you're not your typical actor. And I remember watching that thinking, oh, that's going to take him two years to get back to where you. You can't just eat cheeseburgers and put 50 pounds on. That's totally unhealthy. No. So when you made that decision, that was not just an emotional decision. It was a physical decision you made.

Did you have some before you made it? Did you sit down and think, man, this is going to take three years of my life. I'm going to have to change three years of my life to do this movie. No, all I initially thought was, hey, how can I lose all this weight in the most healthy fashion? Meaning, instead of trying to do it in six weeks, I gave myself five months. And I got on a diet where I was losing 2.5 pounds a week like clockwork. Forget the exercise.

2.5 pounds a week like clockwork. Got down to 134. Oh, Lord. Now, it was only after that that I considered the way back. And I remember hearing stories and talking to a couple of doctors saying, you can't just go out and start eating your cheeseburgers and rush back because you will grow, you will grow back and put on the weight in more of a deformed way. You have to really walk the dog here.

So it did take. Now, mind you, I came out of that. True Detective, I hung out about 165, which was a great sort of younger sort of light fight and weight for me. and I felt really good. Then I slowly moved up to the 175 to 180. And then after that, just as I got back to my fighting weight, which is 188, I went and did this film called Gold where I got up to 221,

which was a hell of a lot more fun than losing all the weight, I'd tell you. But maybe that's the one I haven't quite recovered from because I got these little things back here on the back right and the back left to me that kind of can hold a little water if I'm leaning back a little bit, you know? Yeah, no, I get it. It's much easier to bang out cheeseburgers

and milkshakes. That's the easy stuff, right? Oh, yeah. Hang it out with your kids doing that stuff. Matthew McCona, he's joining us. So you have an interesting saying, and you have said, years ago I thought about writing a screenplay, and I read a book called Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. And he says, name the film before you start writing it. Because everybody that writes a film has a great open and a great close.

but those story arcs in the middle you're going to get lost. So go back to what the name of this. You have an idea. You say, I want to see the movie poster. Yes. So explain your thinking on that. Here we go. And it's a lot of the theme through this book.

Okay. I have, you know, sometimes, and I've been decent at it at times my life, you go off the cliff and you figure out how to fly on the way down. Not me. I like to be, I call it conservative, early liberal late, and those are not political terms. What I mean by what are the rules? Where are we going? What's our direction?

Let's pick our general direction we're going. Let's write the headline first, then write our story to get to it. Before a film, I'll sit down with the producers and directors and go, what's the poster look like? Well, if I'm the lead and it's a silhouette of my face taking up the whole poster, I'm like, oh, this is going to be like a really character-driven. The director's going to, he wants a character-driven story here. Well, if it's a big wide shot and there's me and an army of silhouette, Loweets coming up over the mountain. Well, this is going to be more of an epic story-driven picture.

But what is that poster? Just to give us a little bit of a North Star ahead to. Now, you write that headline. You put that goal in front of you in life and you say, this is where I see myself. Then you write the story to get there. Then you make the movie to get there. The poster changes. The headline changes.

But it's usually similar in the similar vernacular to what you were aiming at. And that's what I mean by, I want to see the poster first. I want to write the headline first sometimes and then write the story to get to the headline. And it gives me just a magic marker out there, a North Star where we can all agree, this is the album we're making. Meaning like if you and I go to play music, but we need to at least say, are we making a rock album here, jazz album or a country album? You know what I mean? Let's have an idea.

Yeah. Matthew McConaughey, the memoir is called Green Lights. I just started a couple of nights ago. Many of you may not know. You know of his work, obviously. I just name many of the great movies. his dad Jim O'Connor he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers

in the 1953 NFL draft and I think both of you you have an appreciation for soccer which I do I tried to buy into an MLS team 10 years ago and I couldn't afford it you have bought into the Austin team which is fantastic again there's another thing I'm jealous of you kept a journal and you bought a soccer team

Austin FC which by the way I think the MLS is a growing fledgling league I know I know owners in it it's a fantastic I think they do a tremendous sport tremendous job but I want to ask you you have athletics in your family. And when you take on roles, you can clearly be physical. Has sports, I'm sure it's helped you in your career.

But is thinking like an actor and an athlete. Has it ever hindered you? Have you ever thought to yourself, I wish I wasn't such a jock. I wasn't such an athlete? No. I've tried to play, you know, use different parts of my athletic ability. I'll say this. I think about athletics all the time in the work that I do, meaning preparation.

I will out-prepare people. I will out-prepare my competition and have many times. That's where the work comes in. You know this. You did your work before this show. You're not working right now. We're playing. When you're live, when you're in the game, you can play only if you've done the work.

So you learn the heady stuff is early. It's like if a team gets a new defensive coordinator. And they're probably not going to be that good if the defense is that complicated the next year because they're thinking about it on the field. And if you've got to think about it, you're a half a step slow and that receiver gets by you touchdown. I don't want to be thinking on the day. I want to be working through my instinct. So I do all my work pregame so I can show up and say, I've got four versions of the truth in this scene. I can call an audible on the go.

Don't even yell. Cut. We're live. Let's go throw at me whatever you want. I'm in the game. I read the context. I know the time on the clock. I know what scene I'm in.

I know where I am in this story. I know where I came from. I know where I'm going. Give me whatever you got. Let's play. Press record. You are currently the, and will be, the Minister of Culture for the Longhorns Basketball and Entertainment Facility. You're a huge Longhorn fan.

I saw you on the sidelines. Years ago didn't want to bother you, USC, Texas, which remains the greatest football game I have ever seen live in my life. Me too. Best game I've ever seen. One of the best dramatic events ever on planet Earth. Hollywood could not have written that script. So I went to that game and I said, give me, I want a ticket. I don't want to sit in the press box.

So I said, I want a ticket to the game. And I'm kind of a USC honk out here, but I always like Texas. I was right in the middle of Texas fans. And I've said this before on the air. It was the coolest group of people. They knew they were at Ollie Frazier. Everybody sitting at that game knew. Okay.

This is last. I've never been to a game where everybody, Texas is like, you're the last team we wanted to play. And the USC behind him, he's like, I don't want to face Vince Young. This is no good. So you were a Texas fan before that, but it is, can Texas get back to? Why can't Texas get back? Why are they not there yet?

Why are we not there yet? This is a great question. We could do a whole show on this. Look, it's many different components. I mean, look, everyone goes through cycles, and we're going through a cycle of rebuilding right now. you know, what Tom's come in and a lot of what he has done that we need to continue to do is this alignment of what we expect. And look, you come to Texas, you know what's expected.

It's you compete for championships. That's the excellence. That's the bar. You are handed the keys to the Ferrari. Here you go. Drive it. And players and coaches need to understand that. When you get there, that's the expectation.

Now, you're going to win a championship every year? Hell, no, you're not. a lot of things go into a season, balls have to bounce your way, et cetera. What do we got to get back? I think this. I think we have to, and this is not just a particular problem in Texas, but I do think it is particular Texas. We got to quit playing in the third person. We have so much media on us.

We look at our proverbial jumbotron because with social media today, who are we? What do we think we are? What's expected? Oh, we won. What's the pressure when we lose? No, forget it. We need to throw all that out and say, F all of that. Put it down.

Let's put our head down, do the work, stick to the process, look up and be objective about what we're doing when the season's over. And if we put our head down on the process and quit thinking about, hey, how are we perceived? I think we get more wins. I think we're back to that place. Now, you have to have the right people in place to do that. I understand that. But we have the personnel. We can get the personnel.

We have the players. and we can get the players. I think in Texas, part of it is we need to understand, hey, you are under the microscope here more than anywhere else in the nation. Now, do we look at that and go, oh, geez, or do we go, exactly. That's why I'm here. Now let's go. You press record world.

Watch us go. We'll look up when the season's over, and I bet you we got a whole lot more Dougia's. By the way, of all the stuff you've done, green lights, you write a memoir, and it's very personal because it's your journal. Was there any point? You know, because this is why I'm jealous of you. Because I cry a lot. Kids, you know, just stuff.

I'm a dad. Like, did it take you back to places? Sometimes I look at my phone because I want to cry. I want to go look at my kids when they were five. Did it take you back to places? And you were like, oh, my God. I totally forgot him. And it took you these wonderfully emotional places.

You know, I tell a lot of my dad's essential. character in this. And, you know, the book is actually two. In the beginning, it says this book is two. The only thing I ever knew I wanted to be and family. And the only thing I ever knew I wanted to be was a father. And a lot is based on because of who my dad was to me. You know, my father moved on in 93. And I've done a decent job of keeping his spirit alive and me and continuing conversations with him through my life and trying to share things with him spiritually. But I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I went back and retold some of the early stories and looked at the diaries of things I was writing as a kid when he was still alive and sometimes we had. And so going in and remembering some of the details of the way he loved me, the way he loved my mother, the way he loved our family, the values that he tried instilled in us, the way where sometimes where I maybe thought it was unfair, but in retrospect, looked at it and go, oh, no, he was really trying.

You go back, you know, and we lose a loved one and our father. And you see that there's a gap between the message and the messenger. Right. And you go, but, and I remember being angry about that gap and going, wait a minute, you didn't really do that, but that's what you taught me. And then I noticed through the diaries that, oh, then I forgave him for that. And then I also said, well, just because maybe he didn't, the messenger didn't act out on the messages he was giving you, Matthew, doesn't mean that the message wasn't good.

So you can still double down that. He wanted you to be a little bit better, a little more evolved, a little bit better of a man, and maybe even a better father. So when I went back in those places, I shed quite a few tears seeing my dad how he loved me, my brothers, our family, and his wife, my mother. And saw how it was hard sometimes. And so maybe he didn't live up to what he was teaching, but he damn sure minute. And I appreciate it in a different way when I went back and looked at it. at it. By the way, I have to ask you about this because my daughter Olivia watched Interstellar about a month ago, and she told me it's the best movie she's ever seen. And I said, Olivia,

it's very complicated. And during the break, before I had you on, I told you. And what did you say about how complicated it was? I said, here, I'm going to give you my number. Olivia, call me so you can explain it to me. It's a very complex movie. She literally talked to me. She me four times about you. Dad, you just can't believe this thing. It's so great. And I'm like, okay, I'll get to it. I've watched like seven of his movies. Just give me time on Interstellar. Matthew, it's been an absolute pleasure. The memoir is called

Green Lights. I hope to see you at a Texas football game, because I love the program. I love what it stands for, and I'm really rooting for Tom Herman. You're a busy, busy man. Put that book up one more time. Matthew, thank you so much for coming on our show today. Colin, thank you. Look forward to see you next time

in person. Hook them this Saturday. Let's go get them. All longhorn games are big games. Great stuff. Thanks, man. Oh, no. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

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You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Cliver Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

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Each episode, we pick a hear, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

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