The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Eagles Soar, Chiefs "Drop" One, Staley is a Scammer

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

John reacts to the exciting MNF game and how Jalen Hurts continued to give his team a chance to win and  the Eagles showed how good they really are, the Chiefs are likely going to win the AFC but they have some major holes with their team that they haven't had in the past, and John gives his "Good, Bad, and Ugly" from the weekend. Lastly, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment. Monday Night Football Reaction - 6:45 Tom Brady's Comments - 16:47 The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - 18:25  Denver Broncos - 19:55 Brock Purdy - 22:05 The Dallas Cowboys - 24:40  CJ Stroud/Jared Goff - 28:40 Kenny Pickett - 33:04 Mailbag - 45:53 Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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What is going on, everybody, John Middilkoff, three and out. How are we doing? Well, probably not as good as the Eagles, who get a massive, massive win against the champs at Arrowhead down on the road in the rain. And Jalen and the defense and Devante and the tush push and the drops by the Chiefs. Nuts, man. Valdez Scantling, he's the new Nelson Aguilar. So we will dive into Monday Night Football, which for the whole I thought was outstanding. I love a good ugly, grimy, in the just inclement weather.

Like, I like being in my house in about 72 degrees. I had it actually about 69, but I had the fire on eating some Rice Krispy treats. But I like watching football that is just ugly. And that was an old school throwback game, really, really enjoyed it. So we'll dive into Monday night football. We will fly around the league as well. My guy Tommy DeVito, three touchdowns, and some other good, bad and ugly. from around the NFL.

Listen, if you listen on Colin's feed, make sure you subscribe to the three and out. We have a new YouTube channel as well that we put all the three and out content up. So go subscribe to that, just the three and out with me. You can find it on the little thing called the YouTube. I go on with Colin on Sunday night.

It's no longer on my three and out feed. It's just obviously on his feed and the herds feed. So me and him going for close to an hour now every Sunday night. that's a lot of fun talking talking a little lincoln riley and brandon staley so if you want to hear some takes on brandon staley i have a lot of them i guess i'll have some today on the mailbag at john middlough at john middlecough is the instagram fire into those dms but meet me and colin talk for a

while here's the plan this week so i'm going to have this podcast wednesday's podcast will only just be me and stucky we'll just do a gambling preview for thursday and then the weekend and then i'll probably have a little something after the Thursday night games and maybe a preview for the weekend, Ohio State, Michigan, all those games on Friday morning. We'll have a podcast up and also have it on the YouTube feed. So it's Thanksgiving week. I know everyone's with their family. Hopefully everyone's having a great Thanksgiving.

And it's, you know, it's always good to kind of take a deep breath and just have a good time, have a few cocktails, have turkey sandwiches, watch some football, and just enjoy the people close to you. I mean, it's very important, actually. Hopefully everyone's doing that and appreciate. Very thankful for all you guys that listen to the podcast. I really appreciate everybody doing that because without you guys, it just be me talking to a mic for nothing.

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You know what's funny is when I watch games and my mom, we got family in town for Thanksgiving, I'm constantly thinking of what my angle is going to be, especially these instant reactions, what we're going to talk about when it comes to what we just witnessed on Monday night football,

on Thursday night football, on Sunday night football. And when I felt pretty confident, you know, Jalen was playing pretty shitty. It's like, God, the Chiefs were up, I think, 177. Like, Chiefs, do you know who they remind me of? It's like that stretch in the last dance, right? Like the 97-98 Bulls.

They weren't quite as sexy as the early run in the early 90s. Michael Jordan, Scotty, weren't quite as athletic. But they still had Michael Jordan, just like the Chiefs, still had Mahomes. They had Phil. They got Andy. But it was just a little grimeier. It was just a little tougher. but they were still always going to win.

You know, the Patriots, they kind of morphed the opposite way. You know, the 07 team and that kind of run with Randy Moss and West Welker was incredible to watch offensively. But they didn't have the same defenses that they had in 01 and 03 and 04, so it would kind of be like backtracking. Well, this Chief's team, I was like, they're kind of like the late 90s Bulls. And then somehow Jalen, and this is why... and how you become an elite player.

It's what they talk about in baseball with elite pitchers, like a guy like Pedro Martinez or Roy Halliday or whoever the top pitchers are now. A lot of them go like five innings, so it's hard for me to keep track. But when you don't have your A stuff, can you still find a way, at least in my day, to go seven innings and give your team a chance? And tonight you're watching that game. It's ugly. Every first down is contested.

The game was so physical. I mean, there are a ton of premium players all over the field. It's awesome. That's why I watch football. I love, you know, east of where I live, you know, this is not USC, UCLA. This is not Rams versus Colts in a dome. Outdoor, it's cold as shit, it's raining, it's hard to catch. It's just, it's going to be very, very difficult.

I don't care if you got Jalen Hertz and Patrick Mahomes or you got DeVito and Zach Wilson. It was going to be difficult. And then Jalen, who I thought was playing really, really poor. finds away, scores on a rushing touchdown, then they get the ball. I think it was off the Travis Kelsey fumble. They bust a big D'Andre Swift play. He's been fantastic for the Eagles. They hit Devante Smith down the sideline.

He throws a beautiful deep ball. That's the thing. When Jalen is off, at any moment, he can have a big run with his legs, a big play with his legs, whether it's to gain a first down or whether it's to score a touchdown. and he also is an explosive passer. So even if it's not looking great in the short and intermediate game, and a lot of times throughout this season it does not look good. You're like, God, the Jalen that we saw last year who's probably going to win the MVP,

it just doesn't quite look the same. And then a moment's notice, bomb down the sideline, former Heisman trophy winner, Devante Smith, tush, push, touchdown, they take the league. And they never relinquish it. And clearly the Chiefs, who aren't really built at this time, you get in some of these comeback situations, especially in a game like tonight where it's raining.

I mean, that stat, they dropped it early in the game, that the Chiefs lead the league in drops. You're like, yeah, it kind of feels like that. And once they said that in the first or second quarter, I swear to God, there were 10 drops throughout the game after that point. But this is a game that, I mean, these are easily two of the best teams in the league. We all know that coming in. But, you know, it basically came down to who could make a big play in the passing game.

Jalen Hertz did. and Patrick Bahams also did, except his wide receiver dropped it. And right now the difference between those two teams, and I would say I think the Chief's defense is better, the Eagles' offense is clearly more explosive, and while the Eagles defense is not as complete, because I don't think their secondary is as good as the Chief's secondary, their defensive line is dominant.

And at any moment, multiple guys can be all over your ass in the backfield. But like I said, Jalen Hertz completes the big pass to Devon Smith, when Patrick Mahomes did it, his guy drops it. But he's not throwing it to Tyreek anymore. Because if that was Tyree Kill, now part of the reason they're really good and a much more of a complete team is because they made that trade.

And McDuffie, who was all over the place tonight, had some big type plays. They got him because they traded Tyree Kill. So you couldn't have them both, but like that used to be him. And he walked into score. Instead, now it's Valdez Scantling. And he literally hits him in the hands

and it drops to the ground. So listen, the Eagles To come in in that environment To have your quarterback not playing well To be losing, it felt like the majority of the game And find a way to win Kind of symbolizes their entire season They are not showing up

And it feels like you're just watching their A game Yet when the clock hits double zero They have more points than the other team You're like, how the hell do they just pull that off? And part of it is they have a lot of premium players at a lot of different positions. Basically every position that matters. And one thing right now, the Chiefs clearly lack.

Now, ultimately, I think they can overcome it because in the AFC, with all the quarterback injuries, who do they really have to beat? Right? I mean, really, it's the Ravens. And I guess the Browns, but the Browns are going to score on them, no chance. So, hell, they can win that game like 10 to 3.

I think the Chiefs can still win the AFC, but you can see when they play some of these enemies, NFC teams. They don't play the 49ers, but the 49ers and the Eagles just have a little more firepower than them. And in these tight games, when, you know, 24, 25 points is going to determine the outcome, it can be difficult for the Chiefs to get to that number. You felt it today. Now, I understand it was pouring rain, but beside Kelsey, it's kind of a work in progress. You know, Andy Reed several times tonight. The Andy Reid, I know and love, passes it on all downs. But Pachaco's clearly a second best offensive player

skill guy behind Travis Kelsey runs it a lot on first down. I don't blame them. I would too. You just don't have as much faith in these guys which ultimately might not be their downfall in the AFC but I think you watch this team and you go God

they would have to play now where's the game? The Super Bowl. It's in a dome. So the weather means nothing but whether they get home field which it's going to be difficult. The Ravens still have a tough game. So the chiefs. Who knows? I would say it's probably a coin flip between those two teams to get the home field advantage. But the games are going to be outdoors, right? Whether it's a Kansas City or Baltimore,

so it's just going to be difficult for these wide receivers to make place. And just enormous win by the Eagles. Let me say one thing. Sirionic seems like a good guy. Be fun guy to bullshit, talk ball with, have some beers with. And the one thing I respect the most about the Eagles, their highest paid player is just a serious cat. Jalen is not some big, you know, fist pumper, shit talker. He's just very, he's like, he's like Belichick or Andy. There's no ups and downs. You never see the emotion, right? We've all seen that meme over the years of like national championship when he's benched, when he throws the game winning touchdown. His reactions are always the same. The douchey Siriani after one, anytime there's a PBU, he acts like he was Dion Sanders on. He acts like he was Dionne Sanders

on the play. It's like Nick, you're in like seven layers. You're not calling the offense or the defense. You're just, you know, motioning timeout a couple times a game. Let's tone it down a little bit, buddy. And then after the game, him like running around the field, motioning at the fans, I mean, come on, bro. Like that's, that's duchy behavior. I've supported him before, but I thought tonight you're playing the defending champs. It's a big boy game. If you want to do it against the commanders and the giants and the cow let's just fucking act like you've been there before you literally just war on the super bowl against these guys with the late lead i that that to me i want to like the guy and i have liked them i don't know them personally but that's kind of fucking loser behavior

let's just call a spade a spade i don't expect you to act like andy read 24-7 but let's just come on bro come on man you know the eagles man they're they're pretty complete i mean they can like we said they can have their sea game and find a way the thing with the chiefs But those drops are real. I mean, balls are going through guys' hands. Kelsey has a drop to me. He's separate from everyone else. He's allowed to have a bad drop.

Steph Curry can miss a three. But some of these other guys, how are you going to depend on Valdez Scantling? And clearly, they don't have a choice. So that is a little concerning at the highest levels when they're going to play the Ravens. If they get to the Super Bowl against the Eagles or the 49ers, the margin is just much small.

for this team, though they are built. And overall, like I said, you signed me up for a game in that weather, that intensity, I'll watch that 24-7, 365. You can have your, you know, multiple quarterbacks throwing for 700 yards each, five touchdowns, like you take that 7-on-7 BS somewhere else. Throw me back to the 90s and 80s every once in a while and give me a game that's just grimy, ugly, every penalty people are freaking out because it really matters. the Fletcher Cox penalty late

Listen I come from a school like I wish that shit was still allowed to fly But it's not anymore So I that is a penalty I hate it I'm sure many people listening hate it But these are the rules I mean these are kind of the rules we play by I saw I think Tom Brady went on Stephen A's podcast It's got to be quite to listen

And he had a great point he's like I don't understand How an offensive player can be defenseless like isn't it on it's not on them to defend themselves or defenders to defend themselves from the offensive players like it's on them an offensive player going over the middle to protect himself but the rules like they have changed football has changed and it's not just because they think it's cool to do it it's all based on litigation CTE concussions like this is all about money when all else fails in society whether it's sports whether it's politics anything business it goes back to the money.

So these rules have all been dictated by the lawsuits years ago. Not as fun to watch for us purists, but it is what it is. And you've got to be careful around the quarterback, especially. People are like, tweeting me, it's the golden boy. Yeah, it is the golden boy. It's fucking Patrick Mahomes, multiple MVPs, multiple Super Bowls. Like, this is their new star. This is the new Farrve.

This is the new Peyton Manning. This is the new guy that sells for the league. You put them on, you get 30 million people on couches. So yeah, they're going to protect them. But that flag is thrown against, if it's reversed, against Jalen Hertz, if it's Dak Prescott, if it's Brock Purdy, if it's Jared Gough, that flag's getting thrown.

And, you know, God, Fletcher Cox for an old guy, still pretty powerful. But what a game, what a win by the Eagles. That's a hard loss for Kansas City, man. It's one thing to lose. It's another thing when you have to lead the majority of the game, you're at home, for them to come back like that, the way they want it,

that lived up to the hype. I wanted to go around the league, little bit and I thought the way I would do this is a little good, bad, and ugly. We'll just kind of go through some positives, some bad, and then the really ugly in the NFL, some of the stuff that me and Colin at Sunday before the Sunday night game that we didn't get a chance to go over. Obviously the Sunday night game, I mean, you talk about good. Listen, when you give up, excuse me, let's put it, preface, say it by like this, you score 20 points. If I, if you're just an NFL team and you score 20 points, I'm like, you know, you lost by a lot. You're like,

God, we gave up 40 points. Like, we lost 40 to 20. Like, that's an ass kicking. If I tell you, you scored 20 points and you lose by 50, and this is the national football league, not college, not the pros, you would never believe me. No chance you would ever believe me. So when the Denver Broncos lost 70 to 20,

it's hard to take you seriously, at least for the next month after that. So it wasn't just, you know, kicking a guy when he's down. It's easy to make fun of Brandon Staley now. those of us that have been talking about it for three years are kind of exhausted by it. It's like, yeah, I'm tired of this topic. Can we move on? Just fire the guy already. I've been talking about this since like 2021. But when you give up 70 points, 70 points, and you score 20, so you live it by 50, I just couldn't take you seriously. And then they win the game last night and you look up, you're like, the Denver Broncos are 5 and 5?

They're 5 and 5? You've got to give the guy some credit, right? Sean Payton, who I thought was kind of losing his touch, was into all this weird shit, like making guys not wear sunglasses on the sideline and no sweats or whatever his rules were, no backwards hats. It was just in the preseason about all this weird shit. Then the way the season started, then Vance Joseph was Devin's coordinator. And now you look up, they look pretty, they just look like a credible NFL team.

I wouldn't bet on them necessarily making the playoffs. But by any means, I would not have picked them. Hell, I would have picked the Minnesota Vikings last night. If I bet on that game, I would have bet on the Vikings. Would have felt pretty good about it going through. Now, did they get little lucky with Russell Wilson kind of pulling a play out of his ass? Yeah. But part of Russell Wilson, where we're like, where is that guy?

That's what he used to do in Seattle. So that play when he throws up to Sutton, like, that's a little throwback Russ. Throwback Russ is a guy that would make plays. You're like, that was kind of lucky, but he'd just do it over and over. He's clearly not as dynamic as he was in the peak of his powers, but he is dramatically better than he was last year. I would say, you know, definitely much improved from where he was early on in the season. Like, it's kind of working.

Little dink and dunk aspect to him. They're playing better defense. So, Sean Payton, the last several weeks, has been really, really good. Listen, I like Nick Wright. I think he cares a lot about sports, watches all the games, which a lot of people in this business, I definitely don't believe do. They just kind of throw shit the wall, have takes, get some paid, whatever. But he had a take last week that I saw a couple.

come across my timeline where everyone on set like Chris Broussard I don't think it was great it might have been Greg Jennings and Kevin Wilds and all the guys on set were just I mean their jaw hit the floor they they were they were beyond taken back they were speechless because he said if you flip flop Baker Mayfield and Brock Purdy that the 49ers would basically be even better and they would you know could easily win the Super Bowl and the buccaneers would be awful and my issue with that take was In a vacuum, Brock Purdy's a much better player in 2003 than Baker Mayfield. And you watch that game against the Bucks.

Like, the Bucks actually have some pretty good players. Mike Evans still pretty good. Devin White's still pretty good. Vita Vezer is really good. Krista Worse's really good. Like, they got dudes. They got some players. They got a ton of players that the Cowboys, the Eagles,

the Niners, the Chiefs would gladly take and start immediately. Brock Purdy is in a different universe than Baker. But I'm not going to spend much time talking about that because you all are going to agree with me. Here's the reality with Brock Purdy. If we want to argue about him, if you start comparing them to Mahomes or like Lamar Jackson or Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, it's a pointless exercise. The dude started 16 or 17 games in his career. But right now this version of Brock Purdy is a really good player.

Like really good. And relative to what the 49ers won a lot of games with in Jimmy Garoppolo, who was kind of the definition of average. If he had a good game, he'd be like the 11th best quarterback. When he had a bad game, he'd be like the 18th best quarterback. But he kind of lived in that middle ground, somewhere between like 12 and 17. And their defense was really good, and Kyle was good, and they could find ways to win, you know, double-digit games and make playoff runs. This guy's a real quarterback. Now, where he ranks, I don't know.

The way he's played the last two weeks, he's played like a top seven or eight quarterback in the NFL. He's a borderline pro bowler right now in the NFC. Right? there's a big four in the NFC right now. Jalen, Dak, him, and Jared Goff. And I'm talking about not the fake Pro Bowl when a guy goes Super Bowl, another guy goes play golf, and they all tap out, and all of a sudden you look up and it's like Mac Jones is in the Pro Bowl. I'm talking the best three guys in your conference go to the Pro Bowl. He has a very good argument for that.

And he's going to play in some big time games coming up. He's got Seattle, Thursday night, everyone in the country is going to be watching. You're either going to be not be able to move Coma on your couch if you live on the East Coast, or maybe eating dinner right at the dinner table with the game on the background. Everyone's going to be watching. You know, he plays the following week? Philadelphia Eagles. Got news for you.

A shitload of people are watching that game. Pretty sure the following week, if not the following week, it might be in two weeks. He plays the Ravens. So, I mean, he's got Seattle, the Ravens, and the Eagles coming up. Obviously, Eagles first than the Ravens. But I'm not saying he's going to win the MVP, but he's a lot better than a lot of people on TV that I don't think, watch every 49er game. And don't blame them. Like, there's no point in watching if there

are other good games on watching Niners' bucks. I could have told you the outcome before kickoff. There was a reason it was a double-digit spread. The Niners were going to kick their ass. And they did. But if you watched him play, he is throwing bombs down the sideline. He averaged, you know, at one point in time in the game, he was averaging almost 15 yards a pass. Completion. Like, this guy pushes the ball down the field. So many guys in the middle tier, the Derek Carrs, the Alex Smiths. We talk about being like, like dink and dunk guys, he's the opposite. He throws the ball down the field.

So, like, I got news for you. Brock Purdy's is a good player. Right now, this version, Brock Purdy's good. Listen, we can talk shit about Dallas all we want. They're a weird team, right? They've played some good teams, and they haven't found a way to win, right? They played the 49ers, got destroyed, played the Eagles, lost a lot of self-inflicted wounds. When they play bad teams, they destroy you.

if they could ever figure out a way to bring whatever that swag, confidence, just mojo, like the Eagles, they can blow you out if they have to, but they have no problem playing an ugly-ass game and winning. Hell, like the diners right now, they just blow you out. They don't really win these ugly games. No team wins ugly games like the Philadelphia Eagles right now.

Dallas, no team blows you out quite like the Dallas Cowboys. They feel like Alabama when they're playing like Chattanooga. or Alabama when they're playing like Banderbilt. You're like, what's spread there? 40 and they cover. That's the Cowboys when they play crappy teams. What else did we want to hit on?

Got to give Josh Allen his flowers, three touchdowns after his offensive coordinator gets fired. It's always, I don't have inside information there into the dynamics of him and Ken Dorsey. He gave some quotes saying how much he owes to Ken Dorsey. Ken obviously was the quarterback coach before Dayball left. Those situations are always weird, right? It could just be, you know, this is not, you know, in the NBA, for example, the equivalent of Josh Allen would be like a top seven, eight player, right?

It would be a Janus, you know, a big time player, a Max guy, a Kevin Durant. I know these guys have won championships, but you know what I mean. It'd be a guy with a lot of pull, a Luca, whoever, you name the superstar. When a guy like Ken Dorsey got fired in the middle of the season, you would say to yourself, well, he got him fired. But in football, Sean McDermott, you know, and Josh Allen's quote was, you know, Sean told me his logic and I agree. And you're like, yeah, it's a front office and coaching management style, right? So it's hard to truly know, but solid start for Joe Brady.

Now it's Bill's Eagles, pretty big game Sunday. And last but not least, I have no problem. And I've said this before. I remember going in 2014, and I watched JJ Watt play live. I'm like, that's the best player in the NFL. It was week two. He had just came off week one against the Redskins where I think he had like three sacks, like 10 TFLs.

One of the assistant coaches told me from the Raiders that game that one of like the dudes, it was Kyle Shanahan or someone had told him that they thought that was the best game they'd ever coached against, like seeing a player like that live dominate. And JJ finished second that year in MVP, Aaron Rogers. won. Now, granted, Aaron Rogers that year was like 38 and 5. Touchdown interception. I mean, Aaron Rogers is a legitimate MVP candidate. It had a fantastic

year. Is there a lock quarterback that you're like, no doubt about it has to win the MVP? Why can't another position win the MVP? I think Miles Garrett right now is the best player in the NFL. I mean, the Browns, if they win 12 games with the corpse

of Deshawn Watson early on in the season, PJ Walker and a rookie quarterback, and Miles Garrett has 20 plus sacks. And if you just watch them, like you don't need to be some defensive guru to be like, what the hell is that? It's like if you watch Shaq in like 96 on the Orlando Magic,

you'd be like, what's going on here? Honestly, it's like the clip of Shaq in the movie Blue Chips when Nick Nolte goes down to the bayou in New Orleans. And he goes, it's one of my favorite sports movie scenes ever. And he goes into this gym, everyone's soaked in sweat the rim is like wood and there's a bunch of random dudes

and Shaq is dunking on guys blocking shots he looks like a mutant and you know they get him in he hadn't passed the ACT or whatever that's how Miles Garrett looks in the NFL right now so to me he obviously he's going to win the defensive player of the year

and I think sometimes these voters like well he won the defensive player of the year it's like Aaron Donald or JJ Watt remember Aaron Donald some of years be like, that's the best player in the NFL. Just give the MVP to Miles Garrett if none of these quarterbacks have 35, 40 touchdowns. Even if they do, like the eye test, even Jalen. Jalen won the game the night for the Eagles,

or played a huge part in winning the game. He's not an MVP this year. He had a better season last year. Now, he's a winner. He knows what he's doing. But like, I'd have no problem giving it to Miles Garrett. Now let's go to bad. C.J. Stroud and Jared Gough are having awesome years,

right they're just if c j strout gets the houston texans to the playoffs that's an incredible accomplishment i mean i don't even know how you would describe football wise what he did because their team isn't that good now they have clearly a good young coach they do have some pieces but the houston texans even with a million injuries in the afc quarterbacks should not be able to make the playoffs as a wild card that should not happen like the pittsburgh steelers should not lose a wild card spot to the Houston Texans, but it's on the table right now. But he threw three picks yesterday.

Jared Goff did as well. Now, both teams found ways to win, right? Both teams, the Texans a little less. I mean, they had the lead, but Kyler was doing some stuff. The Lions pulled that play, that game out of their ass. Like, the Lions should not have won that. And like Miles Garrett, like, to me,

Miles Garrett, to me, he's like two more games away from just, like, give the guy the MVP. I don't see how you'd argue anything else. I think Dan Campbell, there was a stat yesterday on the Fox broadcast once the Lions won that game. They're not 12-0. They're not, you know, 13 and 2. They're 8 and 2. 8 and 2.

It's the best record for the franchise since 19602. That's the craziest stat I've heard all season. 8 and 2 is their best record. best start since 1960. That sums up the lines. If Dan Campbell,

and it's different in pro football than college, like if you were ever to go like 12 and O at Oregon State or at Kansas State or at some of these schools

you'd be like, it's the best coaching job I've ever seen. It's like when Jim Harbaugh went 11 and 1 at Stanford. Like Jim Harbaugh went 11 and 1 at Stanford. One time when I was on radio

I used to have Bruce Feldman on. He said in all of his years covering college football it's the most incredible accomplishment he's ever seen getting Stanford that good. I mean, they had John Elway in the mid-80s. They went like six and six. I mean, you don't go 11 and 1 at Stanford.

And then they just kept rattling off with David Chott's why people wanted to hire him for being an NFL coach. Dan Campbell, you win 13 games with the Lions. I don't give a shit when anyone else does. He's going to win the coach of the year. The bad, listen, the Bears were winning all game. I'll get the Bears some credit. They're playing really hard,

and they easily could have won that game. but they lost. So it's an ugly loss because it was going to be difficult for you to lose but you found a way to lose and you almost found a way to lose by a lot more. Luckily it was a safety and not a touchdown

toward the end of the game with Justin Fields but ultimately it's a positive. If you're the Bears at this point in time you do not want to win these games. It's pointless but the best way to tank in the NFL which doesn't exist we talk about all the time

it just it's impossible. one's trying is to just give the fans an incredible kind of ride and then lose, right? Because what is the difference of going five and 12 or three and, three and 14, right? Maybe a field goal here or fumble there. Might as well lose those games if it means getting a quarterback or just giving yourself more options. Let's get to the ugly. I watch the majority, I mean, basically every snap.

I was dialed in. I had the sound on. I had one of the four boxes, but I had the sound on the Browns Steeler game. And that was just good old-fashioned at AFC North football. Dude's getting crushed. Miles Garrett crushing people, T.J. Watt crushing people,

Highsmith crushing people. Love that style of football. Was difficult to watch Katie Pickett. I wasn't expecting much of DTR. So when he's struggling or not being able to move the offense up and down the field, no shit. He's, you know, a rookie who I don't have high expectations for. But Kenny Pickett went, first off with the Steelers,

and I think any Steeler fan, anyone that gambled on the Steelers as I did, and anyone in fantasy football that has Warren on their fantasy football team, every time that Tomlin, Canada, who's ever in charge of the running back coach, takes Jalen Warren out of the game for Najee Harris, you want to put your fist through a wall. I had a decent amount of money on the Steelers, and I felt pretty good about it,

especially when they tied at 10-10. I'm like, they're going to win this game. And they kept rotating their backs. Like, stop putting Nashi Harrison. Jalen Warren, this guy looks like a star against one of the best defenses we've seen in recent memory. He's running all around. And they kept yanking him out of the game.

And every time he was in the game, he'd have a 15-yard screen pass. He'd bust a fucking nine-yard run. And then you look at, up, he's coming off the field. I'm all for a guy getting a breather, but it was not your normal breather. It was like, oh, rotating. Stop rotating. Your quarterback stinks. Kenny Pickett was awful. I mean, was really bad. It looked a lot of times, it's one thing to miss passes, which he did. It's another thing, it's like part of Kenny Pickett is has to be, I got a win with my mind.

It was Mack Jones's thing. You can't make bad decisions. You have to know, be on the same page with your wide receivers. You have to master your playbook. And there were countless times where he'd throw the ball and no one would be there. It was like him and the wide receiver are not on the same page. It's like this is, if I'm Tomlin, whether it's Canada, whether it's picket, whether it's a disaster. Now, ultimately, I've seen a lot of people dragging this guy like he's Zach Wilson.

I think he's better than Zach Wilson. He's also playing easily the best defense in the league. So it was going to be difficult. he looked worse, though, than I imagined. Embarrassing performance. Now, what are you going to do? Bench him from Mitch Trubisky. You don't really have any other options,

but that's a rough one because you draft this guy in the first round. It's one thing if Kenny Pickett was like, hey, we just found this guy in the fourth round, we'll figure it out. You draft this guy with this 20th overall pick. You drafted this guy to be, let's face it, your franchise quarterback. Newsflash, he's not. Obviously, a guy who's not their franchise.

Zach Wilson is awful. He really is, he's a pitiful player. he's really, really bad. And sometimes, like, I say this all the time. I think sometimes it's like, you're just talking shit about NFL players. I have nothing but respect. It is so hard to make it to the NFL.

It's not hard to become an NFL assistant coach. It's much more difficult to make an NFL roster, to play special teams for a year, let alone to get drafted high and become a starting quarterback. But then you've got to play and like, are you good enough? And I've seen countless players say this and they're so right,

that if he played any other position, right, if he was a guard, if he was a linebacker, if he was a kicker, whatever, he would never play. But because of where he was drafted and the position he plays, he has gotten probably more chances for a team that has a lot of talent than the overwhelming majority of players in the NFL, including a lot of quarterbacks, would have gotten. But it's become an embarrassment.

Now, they benched him. I would say he's played his last snap for the Jets, but I thought that last year after he blamed, like, everyone else except himself, and then all the other quarterbacks got injured. I mean, they can play Tim Boyle, they can play Vinny Testiverty, they can play, what's his name from Marshall, Pennington. It doesn't matter. Those guys are going to get hurt.

I would imagine we see Zach Wilson again. I think in a perfect world, and here's the problem. Like, they don't have the balls to do this because he's their guy, right? And this is, I never understand this in football. People often say, like, you just said a couple weeks ago, you like this player. Well, yeah, then I've watched the last month and he's not any good. Or you thought this team was going to be good. I did.

And then they're not. So you got to change your opinions, right? If you buy a stock for $100 and you really like it and it goes to $150, you're going to ride that bad boy. If you buy the stock for $100 and you really like it, then all of a sudden six months later you look at it is $20. You're probably not going to be as high on the company. So you're watching Zach Wilson. Like, just cut this. guy. Just cut him. Just remove him. You've already paid him. No one else is going to take him. He'll

never have an ounce of trade value. Like there's no team. The Eagles, the Chiefs, you name it, wouldn't trade him to be their four-string quarterback for a bag of footballs and a cheese steak. No one will touch him. He has caused you so many games. I mean, that was, it's gotten uglier of these last couple weeks. It's really gotten uglier. The guy just runs into sacks. Washington. division games are weird. I love the Bears last week. It's like they're getting eight and a half points, whatever against the line,

division games get weird. It's why, like, if the Cardinals played the Niners this week, I'd be like, that 10 points is too much. You would just Seattle. Like Seattle, that game is going to be tight on Thursday night. Hell, Cowboys commanders. I look, because it's like,

oh, the Cowboys going to blow another team out. Well, division games, I could see it being a close game in the second half. Now, I like the Cowboys to win, but division games get weird. but to get worked by the Giants, to get destroyed by the Giants, who felt a lot like the Bears and the Panthers,

like their season was over. And then you're looking up, because I thought, I was like, you know what, I'm not going to watch much of the Cowboy Panther game. It's pointless. They're going to kill them.

And at first, I did not have the Giant Commander game on. And then all of a sudden, I kind of checked the score, and I threw that bad boy on. The Giants kicked their ass. I mean, worked them. And I've seen several people,

I think Michael Lombardi put this out there. I've met Ron a couple times. He's a Northern California guy, went to Cal. I've always rooted for him. When I met him, he couldn't have been any nicer. High character guy. People really, really like him. Old school football guy.

Not a very good coach. He's got three winning seasons in 13 years. Again, good guy. Doesn't win a lot. Doesn't win a lot. Doesn't win a lot at all. It's pretty nuts. Right?

Because a couple of his playoff appearances have been when his team has been under 500. So it's like it kind of counts, but it kind of shouldn't. I think it's fair to say that Riverboat Ron, or some people I think are calling him because he's no longer as aggressive with some of his play calling on fourth downs. Paddleboard Ron is coming down the home stretch here.

Before we get out of here, I wanted to, Morgan and Morgan, I wanted to give a little shot out here to a player that made it lookies. I'm a mob guy I love mob shows you give me Netflix is just pumping me

gody shows I watched the Sopranos multiple times I didn't watch it live when I was young I've watched it multiple times since Tony is my favorite character of all time I've always

was fascinating when I lived in Philadelphia about mob ties about bodies getting tossed here I just love everything about it fascinating you give me a mob movie I'm watching it that when they showed a couple weeks ago the DeVito family from Jersey like that that is awesome that is cool now

I'm not saying he's in the mob but it kind of feels like that I want him to be hopefully they have some ties but then everyone's making fun of him because ultimately his his kid the family's there watching them it's just god awful you're like this is really who I don't know what their choices were right danieler jones tears ACL tyrod taylor's got who knows what injury he's been out forever so you got you don't of choice. Like most third string quarterback saying exactly, you know,

Eli or Joe Montana here. But to look up yesterday and see Tommy DeVito, now I get some guys were open, not sure Washington knew what they were doing on defense, go 18 to 26 for three touchdowns. I don't care if he never

throws another touchdown in his life in the NFL. I picture, you know, that some of those soprano episodes when like Tony's riding with Chris, it's like Tony's the dad, Tommy is Chrissy

and them just cruising, telling stories about the time that he played in the NFL. I don't feel like this guy's going to play in the NFL for long, but I have been wrong before. That feels like a story that they're going to be sharing with all their buddies in Jersey and just for a long, long time.

Three touchdowns in a divisional game for the New York Giants when you're from Jersey. How does it get any cooler than that? So my Morgan and Morgan player that made it look easy has to go to my main man Tommy DeVito. So if you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to 4thepeople.com or dial pound l.

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,

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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

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You guys know the drill. At John Middlecoff. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram. Fire in to those DMs and get your question answered here on the show. It's just my name. At John Middlecoff. Let's type in the mailback.

My name is Jalen, but I'm a Chiefs and Eagles fan from KC. How the hell does Staley still have a job on the Chargers? They cost me $10,000. I heard, I was listening this morning when I was at the gym to Simmons and Sal, and I have to agree that to gamble on that game, honestly to gamble at this point in time on the Los Angeles Chargers,

I still call them the San Diego Chargers, Brandon Staley, hell, even the Packers at Lambo, you're a bold man. I'm all for getting aggressive. I love a good bet. did not have a great night Saturday night which slowed me down into Sunday. Love to Oregon State obviously they did not come through

but $10,000 on Brandon Saly how the fuck could you do that? How could you feel comfortable? Because here's the thing. The thing with the Chargers and they lose a ton of these one score games they also tend to win some of them. I just would never feel very comfortable

putting a dollar let alone 10K, 100K, whatever. Even the biggest of lock under no circumstances should the chargers lose to the Packers. Especially when Aaron Jones in the middle of the game, arguably their best player, is carried off the field and looks like he's in tears. But when you play the Brandon's daily defense and he can bitch and moan all he wants, stop asking me.

No, Brandon, we're going to continue to ask you. Because when you call defenses, they get first downs. You blow coverages and they score touchdowns. Whether you play the Packers, whether you play Chaparral High School, or whether you fucking play Texas Tech. They would get first downs, and they would get touchdowns on your blown coverages. So the questions are going to,

no one's going to ask, are you going to bench Justin Herbert? Is Keenan Allen? What else are we supposed to ask? There is only one question when it comes to the Chargers. What is your deal, bro? What is going on? It's crazy.

I have nothing personal against this guy. I spotted him as a fraud three years ago. I had buddies that worked with him when he was a young assistant in Chicago, and the one thing I was consistently told. It's not like this guy had bounced around Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Oregon. This guy came from John Carroll. A small school had never worked in Power 5, let alone the NFL.

And I was told this. The moment he got to the NFL was a no-it-all. Acted like he knew everything. And I think when you watch him, I'd say all these years later, but the guy hasn't even been in the NFL a decade. And he carries himself like, you can be a dick. Part of being a football coach, sometimes you have a, to be an a-hole. But when you're going to act like that at press conferences, you better

have some pelts on the wall. You better be Bill Parcells. You know, you better be Belichick. You better be Tomlin or Pete Carroll. Andy Reid could snap if he wants to. You're not allowed to. And I hope the media and the Big Jays, they come with a fucking fury on a daily basis. Every press conference you have, I hope all of the Big Js constantly and never stop asking. The only question I want to know as a consumer, as a fan, and you should too as someone to bet $10,000, will you still call defensive plays? Are you still going to be the defensive coordinator? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that every question moving forward with the Chargers until this guy is relieved of his duties. I don't root against a guy losing his job, even though this guy,

to me there's a difference of like hardworking people losing their job, hardworking coaches losing their job, I do feel for that. There's a difference of a guy who I view as a scam artist in that position who's costing hardworking people like Coach Jay's money, getting up there and belittling the fellow writer for the Los Angeles Times or the Orange County Register who is asking a question we're all thinking, well, if you're not going to get fired and the Spanos says can't even fathom paying you to go away, are you still going to call defense a place? I'm going to keep, stop asking me.

No, Brandon, we are going to keep asking you that question because we watch your defense. and every week we watch your defense and the same thing happens. And it'd be one thing if you were just some random team, you have a top five quarterback. And we view you as sinking the ship. You didn't run into an iceberg. There's not some other external variables. It's you.

So I hope that all the Big Js in Southern California hammer. Continue to hammer it. Will you be the defensive coordinator? I can't get enough of it. You talk about Saly needing to go, and I agree. But what about Telesco? He's been there for 11 years and has nothing to show for it.

Herbert fell into his lap. He absolutely whiffed on the 22 draft, or free agency class. Agreed. And last year, draft, he chooses Johnson over Jordan Addison and Zay Flowers. I'm assuming you watched the game. Oh, I did. I watched all the Charger games. But I've watched the Charger games for 20 plus years.

I like the brand, I like their quarterbacks I was always a Philip Rivers guy I'm a Justin Herbert guy You know it's weird They don't have a big local following They're always a national brand Why? They have star quarterbacks They have star quarterback

You get a star quarterback People pay attention You don't need to be the 49ers The Dallas Cowboys or the New York Giants You give me a star quarterback We pay attention to you right Tampa Bay's irrelevant You put Tom Brady on it

We're all talking about it We're putting you on primetime games That's the NFL works Yeah I would say Tolesco would be in trouble. I heard someone say this and they're right, you don't get four coaches, right? You just don't get four coaches. You got McCoy, he got Anthony Lynn, he got Brandon Staley, you don't get a fourth. That's not the way it work. Usually the rule of thumb is you get two, right? But you don't get four. Now the Spanos, the family, the whole thing's a little weird. But I've always defended Tom Tolesco. I don't know him personally. But I think he's for the most part done a pretty good job. But I'm with you. Like, It's weird. You get credit, I think, for like, mid-round picks. You get Richard Sherman in the fifth.

You get credit for that. You get George Kittle in the fifth. You get credit for that. You get Travis Kelsey in the third. When you draft Justin Herbert at six and everyone, and listen, Tom's got a little, I mean this in a nice way because he's friends with like cowards, the Gottlieb's.

But he's got, like, does he really like these guys or does he kind of know that he needs them to have his back? Like, that's, I'm always torn. Like some people in those spots like Andy Reid or Belichick, you do it so long, you develop friendships. Then there are some guys that know there are certain people you got to cozy up to because you're going to need him during the down times. Some GMs don't give a shit about that at all. They're not looking to make friends. That ain't their deal.

And when I look at him, I go, I don't know him personally. And like I said, I've always supported them. But, and listen, the brand's daily pick might not have been his. choice, but you make moves like the wide receiver move. I mean, the dude dropped it that would have got them, you know, in position, right, to kick a field goal. But Zay Flowers is really good, really good. Jordan Addison, I watched him cook the 49ers.

Those two guys are better than the dude the Chargers took. So, yeah, I would say he's gone. I would say he's for sure gone if they fire Brannis Staley. And this thing with the Chargers, you never know. They are, I truly believe this. I'm not just being funny or whatever. It's a disease when you're super cheap and you have that level of wealth. I always support people that are cheap, that are frugal if you don't have that much money.

Hell, I've never, I have much more money these last five years, but I've never been one that pinched his pennies. I don't have the energy. I was talking about my brother with this. He's come in for Thanksgiving and went to pick up some food and recording this before the Eagles Chiefs game. And we were talking about some people that, obviously, we both know from growing up. And some of the people the way he was describing and put so much effort into like avoid a penny here, $100 here. And it's like the amount of time and energy that you put into that, you can just avoid it. Right.

By just doing something else and making the money. Your time is worth valuable amount of money, right? You have a finite amount of time. So every ounce of energy and time you put in, if you only got $10,000 all, for trying to get that $12 thing down to nine. But when you have hundreds of millions of dollars and you're worried about paying a coach, you'd rather pay a guy seven than 12. I think you're a fucking loser.

I think you're a legitimate loser. And here's another thing. If you're a self-made guy, like Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods is notoriously cheap. It is ingrained into you from when you're young. He didn't grow up with much money. And it is hard to shake that. And I give him a little benefit of the doubt when he's in his 20s.

But once you're basically almost 50, and people still like, he's really cheap, like that's, you've got to change your ways a little bit, right? When you're like not paying for the Navy Seals, when you're buying cheeseburgers, that's a reflection of who you are as a person. And I'm a tiger guy, but there are some stuff out there when it comes to money. Michael Jordan liked that too. Right? I respect Charles Berkeley.

Grew up with nothing, gets money and sees the impact you could have. Right? So I think it's a disease. People don't shake it. And the Spanos is, the difference. difference though is tiger michael they made all their cash dean was handed this from generational you know his grandpa's dad like he didn't do shit he was just lucky that he was a little swimmer when when dad went into mom right so i i think they don't even get enough shit right they really don't

mark davis takes a lot of shit because of his haircut because of his look you got to give Mark Davis credit. It has not worked, but he has tried. Like you go, listen, the Gruden thing was a disaster, but he went after a guy that all these other people wanted, right, from the USC to Tennessee to all the big time colleges to the Colts, he was turning down Ursaid, the glazers wanted to come back. Jerry Jones had sniffed around. He's like, I'll give you $100 million. A couple years later, after that thing blows up in his face, I guess a year later, because he gets fired in the middle of the year for something that's nothing to do with. He gets the opportunity. He gets the opportunity.

to hire Josh McDaniels. Again, complete failure, but at least he tries. He's like, get this guy from New England. It just keeps failing. The Spanos's would fucking throw up before they ever thought of giving a coach a six-year contract. And maybe they go, well, John, look it off. They all fail. Well, inevitably, you got to get one because you keep hiring these cheap guys and the other teams you're playing would send the limo to pick them up so they're on the sideline when the ball kicks off. Because they dream about playing Brandon Staley. Anthony and Lincoln, then good guy, bad head coach. Ironically, better than Brandon Staley.

Mike McCoy, same thing. These are all position coaches. I say this all the time about the NFL. Nothing wrong with being a position coach. If you're a position coach, Anthony Lynn's probably making $8,900,000 to be the running back coach, assisted head coach for the San Francisco 49ers. He's not making $100,000.

He's making, he, fuck, he might be making a million dollars. This is not the NBA or Major League Baseball where it's like, you better be the lead dog, or you get nothing. Everyone's making huge cast. A running back coach in the SEC is making half a million dollars. The money that is flowing in through coaching is insane. But if you

want to get one of the top guys, if you want to have a good coach, if you're watching the Rams Seattle, both those guys are making $15 to $18 million. That's what Sean McVeigh, that's what Pete Carroll makes. If you're watching Andy Reid, he's probably making somewhere between $50 and $20 million. $15,

not $50, $15 and $20. That's what they cost. Listen, Lincoln Riley kind of sucks now, but like to get Lincoln Riley services, you had to pay him $120 million. You want Brian Kelly? $90 million. That's the cost of it. That's the price of admission to get guys that have a resume and that could work. You want Jim Harbaugh? It ain't cheap. This is that, we're not talking about hourly workers, right? It's one thing if I get into something and I need a lawyer, maybe I'm not going to get the top of the top, right? But if I have a company that's worth hundreds of millions of dollars and I get into litigation, if I pinch pennies with a lawyer,

I'm an idiot. Just like, listen, if you have the means, especially like, I'm not a W-2 guy. Anyone listening to this is not a W-2 guy, I would always lean to pay more for an accountant unless they can change, they can make you a ton of money. Right. Hell, even if I am a W-2 guy, if I got a side income, I would always be willing to pay a little more to accountants and lawyers. because in the big picture, they inevitably can make you money. So if you're in the football business and you're not willing to pay premiums for coaches, you're going to lose. You're just going to lose.

That's just a fact. There aren't, you know, $6 million coaches rattling off Super Bowls are national championships. That is just not the way it works. Never has, never will. Who are the most famous coaches? All the highest paid guys. By entire life. from Walsh to Parcells to Holmgren to Jimmy Johnson

you just go through all the guys winning the most It's just the nature of the beast Thanks for putting my question in the mailback Do you think the success of Dobbs even with the Sunday night football loss Is a referendum on the Pittsburgh Steelers They had him for what three years and he never saw the field I look back and think Could he have had three years to build him up but instead regressed with Kenny Pickett

I think it's easy to play this game. I really do. If you look at baseball, it happens a lot. You get guys in the minor league system. And for whatever reason, he doesn't crack through. Maybe you do bring him up for a stint and it doesn't go well. Then all of a sudden, you trade him to the Padres or the, you know, whoever, the Tampa Bay. And he's like an all-star.

It happens all the time in baseball. It doesn't happen often in football. It's a quarterback, right? it's rare. Like even the backup quarterback that gets traded, like in my life, it's happened with Matt Shop, it happened with Jimmy Garoppolo,

where you kind of got to trade a decent amount to get the backup quarterback, but everyone kind of knows. It's pretty rare that a guy, like Joshua Dobbs, can be viewed as his complete random. I mean, as a guy, let's face it, who felt like he's holding on to an NFL career for dear life,

to all of a sudden, I would say, the Tennessee stretch last year, to this year with Arizona, and then Minnesota where you're like, wait, I am watching shitty quarterback after shitty quarter. And this guy, people wouldn't pay this guy like $5, 6 million when a year starts to be the backup. It's pretty crazy. But we're dealing with human beings.

Different franchises have agendas, right? I'll say this, for the Arizona Cardinals, they got rid of Colt McCoy so they could just trade and start Josh Dobbs. And the reason Joshua Dobbs lost his job was, one, they could get value, and Kyler was coming back. Maybe the owner wanted to see the young, you know, rookie quarterback if Kyler couldn't have come back. But yeah, I mean, it's, you don't see it very often the way it played out, that's for sure. Big fan. Questions for the mailbag. As a fan I see when a defense makes a tackle for a loss, especially in third down. The defense tends to run about 10 yards or so.

Why can't the coaching staff teach the offense to line up, get a free play, an outside penalty? Okay, I read that pretty poorly. That was, I butchered the English language right there. What he essentially asked, they get a big tackle for loss, they all celebrate, why don't we get up to the line, snap the ball when they're off, and get a penalty? That's a good question. I mean, we should, that's a good question for an offensive coach.

Because I also think it's probably a little harder in reality than it sounds in a DM. Because if I think about, I get a TFL. I guess a lot of them would happen on a run play, because a sack, but let's say it's a sack. Well, some of my wide receivers might be 15, 20 yards down the field. So I got to run them back. So there's a lot of moving parts. And even on a run play, my wide receivers are in the corner blocking.

That in theory should be easier. But I honestly don't have a great answer for you. Do you think the Chargers should just rip the Band-Aid off now? I'm getting a lot of Charger questions. And Kellan, you know why? And this is what I respect about the NFL. and I told Coward this on Sunday night, there is no tanking.

When you turn on Washington, New York, when you turn on that Packers' Charger game, the Packers, you know, in theory, should just lose out. The Giants should never win a game again, right? Put themselves in the best draft position. This season's going nowhere. But no one's wired like that. Coaches, executives, never talk about losing.

Ever. I've been in a building that's, you know, been four and eight. I've been in another, I wasn't in the building the next year when they actually went four and 12. But no one's ever trying to lose, ever. Maybe that last week you kind of mail it in, but that's just not the way guys are wired.

And most importantly, the players do not give a shit. They just don't care. And in fairness to the players, like, I can be cut at any moment. The overwhelming majority of guys on a field for the bad teams don't have huge guaranteed contracts. And I've been taught my entire life from high school,

through college, because you've got to play college football, even if it's a lower level, but the majority of guys in the NFL are Division I football players. Through the NFL, especially most of the league is not first-round picks. It's a lot of fourth, six, seventh, you know, undrafted free agents, you're told every single rep that's on film is your resume. So, and the other thing is in football, unlike basketball, like James Harden just can't, he can just have a game where he doesn't try.

It's like, whatever. Russell Westbrook can just stand there, not trying. It's like, does it matter? All my money's coming. None of it matters. Same thing in baseball. It's like you can bench me if I'm not hitting well. If I'm making 20 million, I'm making 20. At any moment in the NFL I can get cut you.

And two, if I'm, they put me in the game and I'm not trying. If I'm a detackle, a linebacker, a running back, I will get fucking hurt. So it really hit me on Sunday. There are a lot of variables why the NFL has lapped every other sport. Like the gap is enormous. The gap is so big. The second biggest sport in America by a wide margin right now is college. football. So it goes the NFL that's in a different

stratosphere. College football, I saw this list of the television ratings for two weeks ago. Like Alabama, Kentucky. Alabama, Kentucky. Alabama destroyed them. Did almost 3 million people. For example, there is not one NBA game. LeBron, Curry, this regular

season, maybe Christmas, but not now that the NFL plays on Christmas. It will do numbers like that. If the NBA was doing big numbers, this in season tournament, the whole reason they did it. That's all you'd ever hear about. But it's hard for them to sniff one and a half, two million people to watch their big games. That's with Curry, Janice, LeBron.

People don't watch it. Yet in football, Alabama, fucking Kentucky. And they were like the 10th highest rate of game of that day. Michigan, Penn State did almost 10 million people. The World Series didn't do any over 9 million. Now, I know it was a bad matcher, but still, obviously baseball from a viewership standpoint has fallen in. behind. But like one thing you know is a football fan, even if your team sucks, even if your team

really sucks, the Giants, for example, you're going to watch it every week. One, you know, scarcity of inventory, you only get one game. And two on any given week, it's not even cliche, you know your team could win. More than likely you're going to lose, but like, you Buffalo, like, why am I watching this game? And all of a sudden you're like, we're going to beat the Buffalo bills on Sunday night football. A couple weeks later, we're even shittier. We're playing Washington. Like, God, Washington's is better than us. All of a sudden, Tommy DeVito's throwing touchdown after touchdown and you're like, we're going to win.

And then you win pretty easily. And that's what football has that us as a consumer, we have never had more options. We got a million things to watch. Netflix, Apple Plus, podcast, YouTube's. You can watch anything at any moment. It doesn't matter. Hell, you want to read a book or do you want to listen to the book?

And then, you know, families, like anything in life, people have responsibilities less and less time, especially the older you get. But you know with football, for the most part, it's on Sunday, and you only have to give your three hours to watch your team. It's the greatest television business for a sport ever. There is no duplicating that. The NBA and baseball pushes back so fast, you're like, probably take some games away. They're like, no, never.

Okay, no one's going to watch. No one's going to watch. You're losing viewers, and I'm a die-hard sports fan for 30 years. years. Watch all sports my entire life and the individual sports. I grew up watching tennis. Obviously I love golf, but I've never argued like golf's niche. I mean they struggle to get two, three million people watching. Which is the nature of the business. So do all the other sports now, except football. And I thought it was on full display Sunday with like, God damn. Everyone, you can say, oh, it's been a shitty year. I don't know. It feels like the same as always. And these teams,

man, they just try. They really do. I don't see hard about going to the charges. I just don't see them hang. Will you give a scouts rundown of Jeyer Brown probably spelled the 49ers rookie maybe you did after the draft? But a refresher and maybe how you thought he performed in limited play. Well,

you know, a lot of guys and he was their third round pick from Penn State. You know, when you're a safety or a linebacker or positions like that that go in the third or fourth round, you obviously have people in the building who probably think you're, you know, a top you know, somewhere between

I would say pick 50 and 80. Like you could be a second round pick but you also could be a fourth round pick. You're always going to have a limitation. Whether it's a size component, whether you're a little undersized physically, whether you're short and speed, right? When you go to the combine and you run slow,

fair or not, that determines your market value. The size of a lot on a given street, like my house even was in shitty shit, when I bought it, did a full remodel. Well, the value is still relatively high because my lot is like 30% bigger than everyone in my community except like three other

lots out of, I don't even know how many homes, let's say 800. So like there are certain things that bump things up and certain things that bump things down. And when you run a slow 40, we can say, listen, you're not paid to run 40s in the NFL. But it does factor

in to your evaluation in terms of the market of what I have to pay, on draft day for your services. And he didn't run that fast. If memory serves me correct, I think he ran a 4-6. But he was an extremely productive player at Penn State. I think he had a ton of PBOs. It picks like he was very, very productive with the ball

on one of the best defenses in the country. But a guy like him, if you run a 4-4-2, you probably go in the second round. But he runs a little slower. Again, I'm going this off just memory from whatever six months ago. You know, you follow the end of the third round. And now, you know, Hufunga, terrors is ACL, he's got to play. It's the NFL, right?

Starters go down all the time. And young players, rookie second year practice squad guys, are thrust into positions like that. Hey, John. Should players wear more padding in today's game? I get that it might limit the speed players can generate. But with all the talk of keeping players safe, would it not be the obvious thing to do? Thanks. Have a great Thanksgiving. Also, favorite Thanksgiving side dish. I'm a pretty meat and potatoes guy when it comes Thanksgiving. Just give me my stuffing.

Give me my turkey. Give me a little cranberry. Give me mashed potatoes. Give me whatever greens you have, whether it's peas, whether it's green beans. And I'm good. And obviously, the Hawaiian rolls. And then I'm king of, open the freshly baked Hawaiian roll, put the turrets. Put the turrets. turkey in the Hawaiian roll, put a little cranberry on top, dip that in the mashed potatoes, and then if you have peas, you could even then take the mashed potato part of the dip into the peas, take a bite. I don't think it gets any better. I'm always offended by people that don't like turkey. When I hear, I'm not a big turkey guy. It's like, yeah, that pisses me off. Listen, love red meat as much as the next guy. But I love turkey. I love a fresh cooked turkey on Thanksgiving.

I mean, shit, I like it on Christmas, even though, you know, my brother's more of a prime rib guy. I like prime rib too. But I always, I don't know, I'm just, I'm a big white meat guy. I like turkey, I like chicken. I like it a lot, actually. It's easier on my stomach. Maybe that's part of it, right?

I think red meat sometimes, I don't exactly have the rocks metabolism here. So the white meats are easy on my insides, then definitely feels like some of the red meat. And I'm not some health conscious freak, but I've just thought it was easy. Now there's that after feeling of the turkey get a little sleepy. Have a cup of coffee, right? Have an espresso.

But I'm a big turkey guy. Here's the thing. Like, let's take some knee injuries that we've seen from Jordan Travis this week, the Florida State quarterback to earlier this year, Nick Chubb. Hell, even Hufunga Tories ACL, like, what would padding do to any of this? I don't think it has. these guys, I don't think padding has any ability to neutralize

and slow down any of these violent injuries. I really don't. If you play high school football, they make you wear the hip pads, they make you wear the thigh pads, and they make you wear the knee pads. If you watch a lot of NFL players and probably college as well,

you see a lot of guys with maybe on each side of their leg one piece of the foam padding. I just don't think it has much impact. I really don't. you know, I just, I don't know if it would change a lot. The violence in which someone is running at you head first, shoulder first, if I'm 200, if Fred Warner is running at you full speed, if Miles Garrett is running at you full speed,

there's just nothing that is going to limit their power in the, the velocity of the impact. So I hear what you're saying. Like, in theory, it makes a lot of sense. Why don't you just put some more pads on? But it's not like a hockey goalie. You would want to wear more pads as a hockey goalie. One, to limit the airspace and two,

so you don't get injured or even a catcher in baseball. I just think these lines, I don't think it would limit anything. It's hard to find a major injury in the NFL from contact and go, if he would have just had more leg pads, that wouldn't have happened. It's not like a seat belt in the car or something, right? Met an evil version of you at the Blackjack Table Casino in Wisconsin on Saturday. I wonder what he was like.

Two questions. Why don't you gamble? I do, heavily. I've had to pick my spots as I've had a remodel that has cost me a lot of money. And I just, I don't get all, I can't make a $100 bet on the NFL. It does nothing to me. I don't care. I'm not acting like Jeff Bezos here.

I'm just telling you, for me. to place a bet now, it's hard for me to place non-golf. I can place a $100 bet in golf 30 to 1, right, or even 10 to 1 to win 1,000. I can't place a $200 NFL bet to win $200. It's just, it's a waste of my time, energy, and honestly money. Because if I lose it, it does nothing to me. I have to bet enough where I get juice. So to me to bet, make a bet this worth is going to start with four figures. Now, I'm not saying that's $10,000 or $9,000, but even if it's $1,500,000, $1,500,000. And you start betting four or five games, like all of a sudden you look up, you're 20 grand.

So I go one game at a time because of this remodel situation has been very expensive. But that's just being honestly. But I can't afford to bet $25 grand on a game. But I have to bet enough to keep me going. Like a $100 bet on a football game. It's just, I've been gambling for too long. I mean, I was doing that in college when I didn't have any money.

So I've been gambling so long. that I have to gamble and that there's nothing like it, right? I could bet $5,000, let's say Thursday, let's say I pick one of the games, Lions Packers. If I bet $5,000 on that game

and won, that high of winning it and watching that game, would trump me making, you know, from a podcast, 50 grand in a quarter or whatever. I mean, whatever, right? It would, it would, I don't get any juice from business money.

And I've been doing this now in the, trenches of non-W2 life for close to a decade. At first it is kind of invigorating and obviously it never sucks getting bigger and bigger in terms of money, but it doesn't do anything for me. My juices are unfaced. Honestly, I swear, I'm not saying if someone handed me $50 million, I wouldn't get juiced up, but relative to what I've been used to generating now for a while, even when I increase it, it doesn't do much for me. But there's nothing like gambling. Nothing. There is no high like winning a bet that to me to make the same amount of money that I win the bet to get the same feel would probably have to 100 exit.

So, I mean, I don't know why you think I don't gamble. I fucking love to gamble. It's why I think so many people in the media are such fraudulent. Like you couldn't get them to bet $50 on a game if you put a gun to their head. that 99% of people in the media would never gamble so when I see him promoting stuff you are such frauds you're just such a horror which listen I'm all four it's part of business

but it's like part of this is like acting like you're doing it when you're not doing it at all and I've been gambling since I was 16 sneaking into Cash Creek do you feel Kevin O'Connell feels more free to call his offense with a mobile quarterback like Dobbs

as opposed to Kirk Cousins. I think they were humming with cousins. I mean, calling that offense against the 49ers when he went like 35 and 45, as the kids would say he was in his bag, I just think it's different. And I think part of calling an offense with Dobbs is there were a couple of plays on Sunday night and definitely the week before where he kind of freelances. That's the thing when you get a running quarterback,

a lot of times when it results in a sweet play, the play caller had nothing to do with it. Stuff wasn't there and the dude just runs around. And sometimes when you run around, especially if you don't go past the line of scrimmage, you end up making an explosive play or throw a touchdown. Like the play caller didn't have any to do with that. It's just a player. I would say most things with cousins, you get credit for it.

Like you're a partner with them. When you get a running quarterback, it's not a 50-50 partnership. It's definitely not. Because some of his greatest plays are just completely instinctive making shit happen from scratch. Big fan of the show, been living. listening for a while. I'm a Packer fan and looking at their remaining schedule. They have four winnable games. If they do finish 8 and 9 and Love looks like a solid quarterback, do you see the Packers trading down in the draft and gaining more picks trying to get into the top eight and

grabbing a quarterback? I told Coward this the other night, you got to be very careful when you have performances against the Chargers and Brandon Sayley. That does not define your success. To me, there's a big week for him. Short week, divisional opponent, really good team. You don't have to win, but does he keep looking good? Does he keep... I mean, his numbers yesterday to the two young wide receivers and the two tight ends were awesome. It's like he's playing Brandon Staley.

I don't think anyone knows what they're doing out there. Right, in terms of what Brandon's calling in the defense, I don't think anyone's on the same page. So I think there is a lot of interest as they play. I have to look at their schedule, but... So you got the Lions Thursday. Then you play the Chiefs at Green Bay. then you play the Giants at New York, which while they suck, that's a pretty interesting game.

Then you play the Bucks at home. I watched the Bucks yesterday against the Niners. You know, they do have some good defensive players. Now, Devin White got hurt in the game, but Vita Vaya is really good. They've drafted some young pass rushers the last couple years. You know, some of their corners have just been there for a while. What's his name, the Young Safety for Minnesota? Panthers, they suck, Vikings.

So it's, I mean, does he have multiple double-digit touchdown games? Like, back-to-back games where he threw. rows, 250 yards and a couple touchdowns, maybe three touchdowns in a pick? Or does he have those games where he's struggling to be in like the low 100s and no touchdowns? So I think he still has a lot in the line. He definitely, listen,

a game's a game. And yesterday's game he was really good. But you know, I've seen him early in the season. I don't know. Now he's young, he hasn't played that much. I know he's technically an older player in the sense that he's been in the league a couple years, but he hasn't played. First year starting. So I would say these next, they got six

more games. if four of them he can throw two plus touchdowns so he can get to let's just say that would be let's say he gets to 11 12 thrown touchdowns I definitely think he could make a pretty good case to just run it back another year and draft other players

but that to me would definitely be on the line it's weird like he can look really really terrible and it's part of football right most guys they can have really good games and look awful. Baker Mayfield had some good games and he looked terrible. One throw, it's like, God, he looks like a former number one pick.

Another throw, you're like, that should have been a pick six. Most guys are not Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. So I guess part of it is getting used to. I think it's hard for Packer fans because you're used to Rogers, which, what, 96% of his games are going to be good. Even most games you're losing, he's good. Jordan Love's much more of a normal

quarterback situation. We're like, is he good? Is he bad? Should we keep him? The good thing is, and this is where you guys get credit, no fifth-year option pick up, and you're not paying them any money. So see how it goes. Adios. 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? 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 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. 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 unfills of 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 IHeart 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. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.