The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 12/04/2020 - Best of The Herd

Episode Date: December 4, 2020

-James Harden is not a #1, he's just a scorer-Baker Mayfield's career is on the line this weekend-The biggest sin in the NFL is happening in Los Angeles-Colin predicts all NFL playoff matchups if they started today-There is an obvious NFL coaching candidate that nobody is talking aboutGuest: Eric Mangini, former Browns & Jets Head CoachBreaks: 11:23.9, 22:34.6 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 IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 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. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor.

It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that doesn't. does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening to The Best of HARD 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 IHartRadio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Hurt with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go on a Friday. We are live in Los Angeles. This is the herd wherever you may be. And however, you may be listening. Fox Sports Radio, Iheart Radio and FS1.

One hour from now blazing five picks. We were 500 last week. Two wins, two losses. One push. Joy Taylor is joining me in a Friday. Week has flown by. I saw the weather report around the country this morning. Eric Mangini's in a snowstorm, worst in 10 years in Cleveland.

I'm very fortunate to be living here. Yeah, I know. My sister posted a little Instagram story of the snow in Pittsburgh. It's crazy. It is nuts right now. I mean, I used to grow up in that. And now I'm like, I can't do that every day. Yeah, I met a friend last night of somebody I hadn't seen in 20 years when we were talking about that.

As you get older, you get more weather cranky. Oh, yes. When you're a kid, you don't even care. College, I don't even remember. remember it. Now, you never thought about it. Every time I would call my grandmother, Russ and peace, she would love to talk about the weather. It's all she wanted to talk about. It's cold. It's warm. It's snowing. It's raining. Well, let's start our show with this. We got a lot of football, but I do want to start with

a basketball topic. So James Hardin, Russell Westbrook, James Hardin didn't work. And Westbrook gets moved on. Now it's John Wall. Story out this morning. And we talked about this briefly yesterday. And now Hardin wants to play with John Wall. He preferred him the entire time. And so now James Hardin has run through two head coaches, a general manager, Dwight Howard, Russell Westbrook, and Chris Paul. Has anybody considered that? In fact, the two best runs of James Hardin's career, I don't think he's a one. I think he's a great score.

The two best runs of his career, one was in the 2012 finals when he was a three to Westbrook and Hardin. And then the other was a few years ago, Western Conference finals, when Chris Paul essentially took over the team. Why are we, there has been nothing, no indication that James Harden is anything but a great score. And I like points, but I'm going to throw a couple things at you. In Wilts Chamberlain's highest nine scoring seasons, zero titles. In Michael Jordan's three highest scoring seasons, no titles. Just because you score doesn't make you a one.

James Harden has shown us no indication he wants to be a one. Ones play defense. Ones have leadership skills. Ones elevate others. Ones get along with stars. It's not about points. I'll give you an example. Magic Johnson was a one.

His career average is 19 points a game. He was never the best score on his team. It was always Karim. By the way, Bill Russell was a one. He averaged 15 and a half points a game. But it was his personality, his forcefulness, his will fullness, his defense, and elevating others. I'll give you another guy that's a one, and this may confuse you.

Dwayne Wade was a one. IQ, alpha, leader, tough, respected. But not all ones are equal. So when he played with Shaq, D. Wade had the self-awareness to step back, and they had two ones. And when he played with LeBron, D. Wade stepped back, had the self-awareness that he was the second best one. Anthony Davis has never been a one. Anthony Davis is the world's most talented, too.

being a one is availability. Anthony Davis is not always there. LeBron's always ready to play. It's availability. It's productivity. It's leadership. It's both ends. It's being verbal.

James Hardin is a score. That's it. By the way, loves scoring. But now he can't get along with Westbrook. He can't get with Chris Paul. It was Dwight Howard. It was the GM. It's two coaches.

Now I want to play with John Wall. We do this all the time. We can, you know, most valuable player, we confuse with best stats. That's not what it's called. It's most valuable player. Most valuable player in the NBA for 20 years now almost has been LeBron James. It was always Michael Jordan in every year. He was the most valuable player.

He was the most valuable guy for the league, for a franchise, for the branding, for his team. He didn't play. They didn't win titles. He did play. They did win titles. But, you know, I look around the NBA and we think, oh, points. Tray Young's going to score a thousand million points in Atlanta. Does that mean he's a one?

No, it just means he's a talented score. And, you know, I look at the ones in my life. Magic was a one. Bill Russell was a one. D. Wade is a one. Larry Bird was a one. Michael was a one. LeBron's a one.

But I'll tell you something that's happened in the NBA, and I think it's hard for general managers. The AAUization of basketball over the last 20 years. Everybody's friends with everybody. Everybody gets along with everybody. Everybody's got everybody's back. What you get is very few people who are kind of old school and willing to be hated. The late Kobe Bryant are going to kind of force their own way.

Shaq. He'd move off teams. Shaq ran Shaq's business. The NBA didn't run Shaq. Shaq ran Shaq. Shaq was a one. He thought like a one. He played like a one.

He was forceful like a one. He could score like a one. He could defend like a one. By the way, Kareem was a one. But then Kareem, when Magic came to town, realized this kid is more of an elevator of others and stepped aside. But I guess my point with Hardin is, how many people has he got to run through before we acknowledge he's just the world's second best two to Anthony Davis? He showed no indication, no affinity for doing many of the things that count as a franchise guy. He just gives you 30 a night.

Great, I'll take it. But I can't build a franchise around that. He and Anthony Davis are the world's greatest twos. They don't want to be leaders. I mean, there's a reason Anthony Davis and LeBron get along so well. Anthony's like, no, no, you deal with the media. You talk. You dominate the huddles.

Anthony Davis told you. That's not my thing. You never felt New Orleans AD was a leader. You just thought he was a great player. All right. So now we get into football. So this weekend, there's an old saying in business that companies move off employees about a year before they tell employees. If your company is sort of over you, they're not going to give you heads up.

They're going to do subtle things, small things, and you'll kind of feel like, I'm getting hints here. Baker Mayfield's career, here it is this weekend. It's the biggest game of his career. Now, you would say to yourself, Cleveland's 8 and 3, everything's going well. Yeah, except when they played good teams like Pittsburgh, they were destroyed, Baltimore, they were destroyed, Raiders, they were manhandled. This weekend they play Tennessee, and it is a precursor to the playoffs, because Tennessee is the kind of team, the new GM in Cleveland and the new coach in Cleveland, they need to beat going forward. Tennessee is a very good team. But like every team in the playoffs, except Kansas City, they're flawed.

and the flaw is perfect for Baker Mayfield. They have no pass rush, and Tennessee is a terrible third down defense, meaning Baker is going to be comfortable. Cleveland will be able to run the football. Baker has to compete this weekend. He could lose in overtime. He could lose close.

But if Baker Mayfield can't compete this weekend, what it's telling you is against the Pittsburgh's and the Baltimore's and the Tennessee's and the Raiders, playoff-level teams, even with all this talent in Cleveland, even when the match-up is perfect. Titans really match up. This is a good matchup for Cleveland because Tennessee's got no pass rush and Baker is bad with pass-rush. And they don't have one.

29 more stacks in the league. They got no pass-rush. So Baker's going to sit in that pocket and be comfortable. And in fact, Ryan Tannahill will be more uncomfortable in the pocket because Miles Garrett's back for Cleveland and Tennessee's O-line's a little banged up. So this is going to be, and remember, if Cleveland wins this week, then they're going to be nine and three, probably a two-game wild card lead. It is a huge.

This is the biggest Cleveland Brown game. It almost secures a playoff spot for Cleveland. This is the weekend. And the matchup, Tennessee is, everybody now loves Tennessee, but they're a very flawed football team. and the flaws work perfectly for Baker. It's going to have time to throw and a running game that works. They will make a decision privately on that flight back or somewhere during the week. If Baker gets rolled, if Baker gets rolled like he did against Pittsburgh or Baltimore

or manhandled defensively like against the Raiders, they're moving off him. Greg CoSell earlier this week talked about the similarities with the Titans and the Browns. They're mirror images of each other. That's why Baker better be able to compete this weekend. Baker Mayfield is still struggling. He's very inconsistent. You can see he plays very fast. There's a frenetic movement to him.

But then he'll also make two or three throws a game that remind us all while he was the number one pick when he came out of Oklahoma. So Buffalo is eight and three, but nobody questions is the quarterback good enough. Cleveland is eight and three, and it is the question. is the quarterback a liability. Baker, this weekend, shut me up. Shut America up. Shut your critics up. Attack Tennessee.

You don't even have to beat Tennessee, but you better be around with three minutes to play. This is your career. This is it. No chatter, no talk, no commercials. This is it. These are the games, Tennessee, a precursor to the playoffs. This will be like a playoff game before the playoffs.

by the way, just to throw this out, I wrote this down, I forgot this. We were talking about James Harden. And again, I like scoring, but it can't just be scoring. In the last five decades in the NBA, you know how many scoring champions have won a title? Shack once, once, and then MJ a few times. That's it. So again, I'm not banging on scoring, but I'm saying you can't just be a score. Yeah, I would also say MJ played a significant amount of defense, and Shaq was a problem on the other end.

as well. Right. You got to do more than just score. I'm not anti-score, but you got to do more than score. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart 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, 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 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 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? where you can find out on The Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. 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 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you 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. 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 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?

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, Keer Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, Our Heart Radio app, search Learn the Hardway, and listen now. So the greatest sin in the NFL is having a great quarterback who has a lot of talent and you waste their talent. I think Detroit has wasted Matt Stafford talent with some really weak coaches. I think Houston has wasted Deshawn Watson's talent. They don't

have a GM or really a full-time coach right now. And that's a real sin in the NFL. But I guess you could say it's not the greatest sin because Stafford and Deshawn Watson are really expensive. And that does limit other things you can do in your roster. The single greatest sin is having a great young quarterback who you're paying nothing for and you're wasting him. And this weekend, is a great example. I like Anthony Lynn. I've met him and I know him. And I do think he has some qualities, some alpha qualities where guys like to play for him. But this weekend's a great example. The Chargers are an underdog at home to the Patriots. The Chargers have the better quarterback, the better pass rush specialist, Joy Boso, the better wide receiver, Keenan Allen,

three highly graded tight ends. They're at home and they're an underdog. Cam Newton has four touchdown passes this year. Justin Herbert had four in one game and not against a stiff. He did it against the Saints. In baseball, analytics have devalued the manager. In basketball, Frank Vogel was fired twice. He gets LeBroni wins a title. The star drives the bus. But football's the coaching sport. We've seen Bill Parcells turn around four teams overnight. We've seen Urban Meyer do it in college four times. If you look at the division leaders right now in the NFL, what a shock. Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll, Andy Reed, Sean Payton, the highly respected young Sean McDermott. It's mostly great coaches.

Many of the wild card spots are filled with really high-end coaches. Brian Flores appears to be really, really good. The Chargers cannot roll the dice with a coordinator here. You cannot be an underdog at home with Keenan Allen, Joey Bosa, Justin Herbert's talent, an underdog to the Patriots. I am, by the way, what happens when you get a quarterback who's talented? On a rookie contract, Jared Goff got to a Super Bowl. Russell Wilson got to two.

Mahomes got to one. Joe Flacco and Cam got to one. The Eagles actually got to one because they were paying whence nothing and foals nothing. The sin in the NFL, you've got a great quarterback. He's young and you're not paying him anything. You do not roll the dice on course. You got to go get a coach. Urban Meyer, Brian Kelly, Bill Belichick, whatevs.

You got to get a coach because the Chargers should absolutely not be underdogs to the rebuilding Patriots this weekend. And they are. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. One month ago today. Exactly. And I do this usually two or three times as we go down the stretch about every three. weeks to four weeks. I'll do this on a show. And I did it one month ago as of this morning, that I take all the teams. If the playoffs were today, who would I like? Who ends up in the Super Bowl?

I'm not going to predict the Super Bowl. I'll wait until Super Bowl week, but I'll tell you where. So let's start with the AFC. Here's the current AFC playoff matchups if they began today. The Colts would be at the Kansas City Chiefs. I think you know who I would like. Kansas City is, I think, the only team in the NFL that plays several different ways to win. Physical, finesse, in front, behind, I would take the Chiefs. The Dolphins at the Titans, I would take Tennessee. I think the Dolphins have been a great story. I do not think they're a great team, and right now, they're not sure her their quarterback is.

It's been a wonderful year, but this is a baby step league. They get into the playoffs. They don't win a road playoff game. I take the Titans. Browns at the Bills. I just think Buffalo is a better football team. I also think Buffalo defensive coach, Sean McDermott, they are very good situationally, defensively,

and I think Allen's better than Baker, obviously. I would take Buffalo to win that game. They're a good home team. Then the bills are at the Steelers. I'll pick an upset. I'll take the bills over Pittsburgh. I think Buffalo does several things very well. I'm not sure what the Steelers do well, and now they're banged up.

They're talented, but what can they lean on outside of sacks? Not much. Tennessee at Kansas City. Too many people are calling for an upset here. Kansas City is a better football team. They'll be at home. And the Titans, let's be honest, as much as I like them this year, they rolled the Colts last week. They also got blown out by Cincinnati. They can be a little hot and cold. I'd take Kansas City. Then it's Buffalo at Kansas City in the AFC championship. I have no problem saying Kansas City wins and probably rolls here. Let's go to the NFC. Arizona's at Seattle. Kyler Murray's beat up. I think this is a coaching and a roster mismatch. I think with the addition of Carlos Dunlap, Jamal Adams Healthy, now Josh Gordon, this Seattle roster's damn good. They're at home, experienced coach and quarterback.

They win this game. Tampa Bay at Green Bay, I think it's a bad matchup for Tampa. I don't think this is a good matchup for Green Bay. Tampa can be a physical team. Green Bay is not. I'll take the bucks. and then I'll take the Rams, even though they go on the road to beat the New York Giants, I do think it's close.

Defensive front for the Giants keeps it close, but I would take the Rams. What do we have after that? Buccaneers at the Saints, Saints win, much like Tampa's a bad matchup for the Packers. Saints are a bad matchup for Tampa, beat them three straight times. Rams go to Seattle. I'm going to take the more consistent Seahawks in this game. And by the way, it'll be close. Rams, Seahawks, there are defensive issues.

Aaron Donald gives the Seahawks the offensive line issues. Rams Seahawks will be a very close game. Jalen Ramsey matches up very well against D.K. Metcalf. It's a close game. I'll take Seattle at home in bad weather. Seahawks Saints, I'll take Seattle. I think they're more explosive offensively. I think the Saints are an excellent football team with limitations over the top.

That is what has hurt them in the playoffs last several years. I'll take Seattle narrowly on the road over the Saints. If we had non-COVID in a full stadium, I'd probably take the Saints. Kansas City, Seattle, the exact same Super Bowl I had one month ago on November 4th. I like Kansas City, Seattle in my Super Bowl today. Winner, I'll give you that on Super Bowl Week. One more herd? 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. The Jets, the Jags, the Chargers, and the Texans. There's four quarterbacks right now, most of them pretty young, that are really good. The Jets are going to get Trevor Lawrence. The Jags are going to get Justin Fields. The Chargers have Justin Herbert and the Texans have Deshawn Watson. They're all going to get new coaches. This is what I don't get. When you have a star young quarterback, get the coach right. Wouldn't you think Brian Kelly's name would be just out there? Matt Campbell at Iowa State, everybody loves him. His claim to fame is he got to an Alamo Bowl. Brian Kelly,

four places he's been a head coach. Win, win, win, win. One big and all. of them. He's been a head coach since 91. He knows how to head coach. If you look right now at the top 10 in college football, only one program is an academic power, Notre Dame. What does that mean? He's having to compete against Bama, Ohio State Clemson, Texas, NM, Florida, Georgia, at an academic power. It's a much more rigorous class load for the average football player. It's hard to win at Notre Dame. I'm not rolling the dice on a coordinator with Justin Herbert and Deshawn Watson. I'm not rolling the dice with Trevor Lawrence, with Justin Field. I don't understand why Brian Kelly isn't mentioned. For the record, well, he's old. No, he's not. He's spent so many days in

wind-blown environments that he looks old. All that wind in Cincinnati and Notre Dame. He's 59. Belichick's a decade older. Pete Carroll's a decade older. And he reads almost a decade older. He's 59 years old. I'm in my 50s. Do I look old? Don't answer that. The point is, Brian Kelly, Matt Campbell and Iowa State. Everybody loves him.

He's never won nine games in a week conference. Brian Kelly goes to Notre Dame. They have games scheduled he can't get out of. Like your Stanford goes there every other year. And I'm not saying Stanford, USC are great, but they're a lot better than the teams Iowa State's playing 90% of the year. And I like Matt Campbell. He may be great.

But essentially what Brian Kelly is, he is. He's Matt Rule at Carolina with twice as much experience. And by the way, Brian Kelly, I know he's not an offensive guy. If you're coaching since 91, you can coach offense. But he's not an offensive guy. Right now, in the NFL, division leaders, four division leaders are coached by defensive guys. Seattle and Pete Carroll, Pittsburgh and Tomlin, Vrable and the Titans, Bill Sean McDermott. Miami Dolphins are not a division leading team, but Brian Flores a defensive guy. stop the idea that, you know, you have to be an offensive guy to win in this league. It's nonsense. That's just not the case. Do you look at some of the greatest coaches of all time? They've

overwhelmingly been defensive guys, not offensive guys. So Matt Campbell is doing a great job at Iowa State. Deserves all the love in the world. Brian Kelly is going to be the second BCS playoff. And again, when he's recruiting against Clemson and Alabama and LSU, it is a Notre Dame is remote, bad weather, religious umbrella, academic workload is very difficult.

I just don't get it. He's had four straight 10 win seasons at Notre Dame. They went 20 years, couldn't find the right coach. I don't get it. Head coach, successful. And by the way, you're going to have to pay him. I mean, he's not, he's not, but I think there's this idea that Brian, you know, he, so many windblown games, everybody looks at him

and the cheeks are red and he's up there and kind of, Maybe he's got an old school personality. He's 59 years old. He's a 59-year-old guy. Guys are coaching the NFL. They're almost 70. I mean, Nick Saban's like 67, isn't he? And Nick Saban looks great.

Nick Saban could coach for 10 years. I don't get it. I'm just not rolling the dice in a coordinator with Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Deshawn Watson, and Justin Herbert. I'm not going with a coordinator. I'm not doing it. And I know what you're, oh, Brian Flores. Yeah, it happens occasionally.

But I like head coaches. You know, I like head coaches. Brady got a guy who had been a head coach, Belichick. Tom Coughlin had been a college coach, and then he'd been an NFL coach, and then the Giants hire. I like head coaches. Urban Meyer's been a head coach a bunch, and Parcell's with a head coach.

All right. Eric Mangini, head coach. I'll be joining us next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. On Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard 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 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 what 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 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 at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped 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 J.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a 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 on 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 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 Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway 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, Tript 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, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way.

Open your free, our heart radio app. Search Learn the Hard Way and listen now. Eric Mangini won three Super Bowls with a Patriots as an assistant. When he was with the Jets, he was the AFC coach of the year. And he is my buddy, Fox Sports NFL analyst. Eric Mangini is now joining us. So you live in Cleveland, which how's the weather there today, coach? How is it?

The worst storm in 10 years. A bunch of trees down. Two feet of snow. Yeah, you're not missing anything. Okay. I said, organizations make decisions before they tell you. And Baker against Pittsburgh blown out, manhandled by the Raiders, crushed by the Ravens. This Tennessee is a pretty good matchup.

They don't have a pass rush. And right now, Baker is 8 and 0 this year with a passer rating over 70. When he's comfortable and they run it, he can win games. If he goes out this weekend and lays an egg and plays too fast, I do think the Cleveland guys look at it and think, okay, what do we got here? Like against the good teams, what do we got? I think it's a huge game for Baker Mayfield to show the front office and the coach. I can go on the road and face a playoff level team and I can go toe to toe with Ryan Tanniel.

That's my takeaway on the Browns this weekend. Your thoughts? Yeah, I think it's the exact opposite way that they should be approaching. The last thing you want is Baker Mayfield thinking that he's got to go out and win the game because that form has been bad for them all season. Look, you nailed it with the passer rating. When his passer rating is above a D when it's out of the 60s, they've won the games.

And every time they turn around, they're giving the ball to a guy who's either running it for 6.1 yards of carry or what is it, like 4.6 yards of carry. Baker has to go in and manage this game, first of all, and not lose this game, because that's one thing that Tennessee is really good at, is creating turnovers and generating opportunities. And that's been a problem for Baker.

So if he'll just go out and get above a D in quarterback rating, they've got a pretty good chance to win this game. And they've got to see that he can do that and do it on a consistent basis. You know, it's interesting. You know Belichick very well. We were talking this week. I can't believe they're five and six. They've beaten Arizona.

They're a fumble away against Buffalo from going to over. time, a play away from beating Seattle. And I look at it and I think to myself, I don't know how they're in all these games. They've got no playmakers. What do you make of Belichick and they play the Chargers this weekend? My guess is Belichick will give a young rookie quarterback troubles. What do you make of the job they have done? I think it's an incredible job and they should have, or at least could potentially have two more wins and we'd be talking about them in a totally different light. But you look at the volume of guys that they had opt out, the volume of guys that they have on IR, they lose their special teams coach, they lose their offensive line coach,

their quarterback gets COVID, they lose their franchise quarterback, they've got all these, all these different challenges. And they also take a quarterback that nobody wanted and find a way to make them very effective. The thing that New England does great is everybody goes into the season with a plan of who they think they're going to be. And then New England realizes who they need to be. And that's why they get better every single year is because they have that brutal honesty. And Bill has that ability to look at his team like that

and say, okay, this is who we have to be, even though it's not what we had hoped to be going into the season. And so many coaches can't do that. They just keep hitting their head against the wall. So you like the Steelers, I'm told, more than I do. First of all, outside of Cincinnati, they can't. can't put anybody away. Now they got Devin Bush out. Now

Bud Dupree's out. So the one part of the team I love the front seven is not as good. They don't run the football. They leave a lot of points on the field. I know. I know they're 11 and no. What do you see? Because I want to know

they do rush the passer. No dispute and that is an absolute asset. But there's not a lot of other things. I think they're going to struggle now to stop the run without two of their best three linebackers. What do you see as a coach about the Steelers? Well, I heard you talking about the Steelers and then not being serious Super Bowl threats. And I disagree completely.

When you look at where they are statistically, the big three, so takeaways, sacks and points a lot. They're number one in all three. And nobody's ever finished number one in all three. Okay, three teams have finished number one in two of those categories. And it was the Legion of Boom. it was the 2000 Ravens and it was 85 bear. So they're pretty good defensively by objective standards. Now you've got a Hall of Fame quarterback and I like Ben Rothersberger a lot.

And maybe I like them a lot more than other people having to deal with them year and year out for so long. They've got continuity as an organization. They've got a head coach with experience and a really good demeanor and approach. and then they have the biggest thing. There's no drama. The Steelers are always conflict diamonds. We're always talking about the issues that they have as a winning.

They don't have this year. And to me, that makes them even a bigger threat. I don't know why you're not on them. I think there is as poised to win as anybody. Yeah. So I'm going to throw this at you with Carson Wentz. So he had a little bit of a backup quarterback complex with Nick Foles there's a stadium outside.

And then they draft Jalen Hertz, meaning in the second round, meaning he's going to be asked about that every week. And I think to myself, listen, I know you're supposed to be above that. But Tom Brady's a goat, and he didn't like Jimmy Garoppolo in the building. I mean, this is the, you know, Howie Long owe his jokes. You can't have two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in the same room. One sucks all the oxygen out of it. I don't love drafting Jalen Hertz in the second round for a quarterback that has to walk past a Nick Foll's statue every week.

couldn't I say they haven't been sensitive to maybe a young Carson Wentz dealing with one of the most vocal, you know, loud, media-driven cities that they haven't done him any favors as an organization. Well, when Tom Brady was dealing with his issue, Tom had had a lot of pelt on the wall and a lot of success behind him. I mean, you can understand his frustration to some degree. Carson doesn't have that. He didn't win the Super Bowl. He's only won two out of the five years that he's been the starter. And if you're all the time have to look at your quarterback and figure out what we have to do to prop him up mentally,

then he's probably not a franchise quarterback. You see him on the field. There's resilience in the way that he plays. But if he's going to be that affected by a guy who's drafted in the, second round, then that's a problem. Now, the reality is they can't move on from Carson Wentz. If this thing doesn't work out, there's going to be a new head coach. He's $59 million in dead money next year. This has to work with Carson Wentz. And, you know, Jalen Hurts to me is more of a bring him in for a series of plays, change the tempo, create something, you know,

a little bit different. He's that type of guy, at least in the short term. By the way, I'm going to throw this out that we talked about this during the break before we went on the air, and I thought you had an interesting point on it. I said, Brian Kelly's been a head coach four times. He's won everywhere big. Notre Dame's got an academic, a rigorous academic load for students. None of the other top ten programs have that. He's winning.

He's recruiting against the Ohio states, the Bamas, the Clemsons, the great programs, the Georges and all this stuff. And I'm like, why is Matt Campbell at Iowa State the hot guy? He got to win Alamo Bowl. I mean, I got nothing against Matt Campbell, but I just don't understand why Brian Kelly's not a topic of common. Hardball is having a horrible year. Everybody's talking about hardball back to the NFL. And your thoughts on Brian Kelly were what?

Well, first of all, I don't think he's not getting the job because of how he looks. As I said, there's a lot of unattractive head coaches. I didn't say it was unattractive. I said he was windblown. Okay, but there are a lot of unattractive head coaches by, you know, fairly objective standards. but it doesn't mean they can't coach. But what I said is oftentimes with college coaches, they are being approached.

Their agents, teams are reaching out to their agents. They're actually talking about opportunities, but they can't let that get out because everybody is going to use it against them and recruit it. They're going to tell the players, look, this guy's looking to leave. He's an NFL. You know, he wants to be an NFL guy. And he saw that to some degree with Nick Saban when he eventually went to Miami and then came back.

there's a lot of talk about, oh, he wants another shot, he wants another shot. And Nick's been pretty, pretty demonstrative about putting that to rest. So I think he probably has been contacted and will be contacted. And smartly, they'll keep it under wraps so it can't be used against them. Yeah, I think he's a really good football coach. I really do. He's a defensive guy like you, but he yet, he's had effective quarterback play. He's not easy on quarterbacks.

He's run through a few of them. But I don't know. I don't buy this thing. You have to be an offensive head coach. I don't buy that nonsense. Brian Flores is great. He's a defensive coach. Sean McDermott's great, young guy.

He's a defensive coach. Yeah, I don't think it's got to be that way either. I think if anything, you're looking at the challenges he's had to overcome in Notre Dame, and you should be really impressed with that. There's a ton of guys that have gone in there and failed, and that's a hard place to win. It's a hard place to recruit, and he's done it. Now, transitioning to the NFL has been a mixed bag with a lot of college coaches.

So there's some apprehension there to say, okay, let's go get that guy and he'll be able to turn around our franchise in this environment. Eric Mangini, have a great weekend. Shovelin snow. Really appreciate you stop by. We'll see you later, Colin. Have fun. All right. I want to say, again, I don't think Brian Kelly looks doesn't matter, but it is.

I think they think he's too old or something. And he's 59 years old. That's all he is. He's 59-year-old guy. Sabin's almost 70, Belichick almost 70, Pete Carroll was 70. It's not what's on the outside, it's on the inside guys. He's fine. I don't even care.

Inner beauty. It's just Brian's always in these windblown games and his cheeks are all red. It's like, you know, he's still a young, vibrant guy. I don't think he looks old at all. I don't even know why he got into this. Well, he didn't even get into an old. Brian Kelly's a handsome man. Stop.

I'm just saying. He's totally handsome. What is the issue? I don't know. Something I said was interpreted is it. It's not about, I think Mangini took it the wrong way. My takeaway is that we never see Brian Kelly's in a jacket. It's a cold air.

He's coaching in Notre Dame. Is that a thing? He's all bundled up. And it's like he's vibrant dynamic 59-year-old guy who's obviously a great recruiter because he's going up at Notre Dame is hard to recruit at. Yeah. It's like isolated, cold weather, eight feet of snow today. I have a friend in law school there.

So it's very hard. Hard. It's hard. They got like Applebee's. You have to get on a train and go two hours to get to a, City, Chicago. It's hard. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite.

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We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-heart radio app. Apple 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.

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