The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Great Mahomes Panic, Von Miller to Rams Reaction, Derrick Henry Down, Defending Wentz, Bengals Let Down, Mailbag

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

John reacts to the Chiefs getting a lackluster MNF win over the Giants, if there's cause for panic over Patrick Mahomes continued poor play, and why it's clear Daniel Jones just isn't an NFL starter. He also dives into the Rams trading more draft picks they don't care about for Von Miller, if he can still have a significant impact, if the Titans can find a way to win without Derrick Henry, why Carson Wentz's ugly viral pick six wasn't as bad as Twitter said, why the Bengals let down game against the Jets - after huge Ravens win - was extremely predictable, and why the Steelers win over the Browns was all about culture. He also explains why UCLA's hesitancy to fire Chip Kelly shows how unserious the Pac-12 is about football, also answers listener questions in the Middlekauff Mailbag!Subscribe NOW! Make sure you follow John and The Volume on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest content and updates and check out FanDuel for the best wagering and daily fantasy action! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Tuesday morning, might be listening to us on Wednesday. Just watch the Monday night football game, have some thoughts on Mahomes, and the freak out that's going on with the Chief. It's going to be okay. Well, maybe not. But I'll give what I took away from this game and really from their season. Daniel Jones is who he thought he was.

Probably a good backup. We'll dive into the big trade. Vaughn Miller emotionally traded away from Denver to the L.A. Rams who hate drafting. Fly around the NFL. Derek Henry looks like potentially out for the season. Carson Wentz blows the game in overtime. The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Browns. Belichick gets a big win.

We'll fly around. And then, of course, the Middilkoff mailbag. At John Middlecoff is my Instagram. Slide up in those DMs. Get your question answered here on the show. Also, subscribe to the podcast. Three and out. I know many of you do.

Leave a review if you could. That helps with the selling of the show. It's how we do business here on the podcast and the streaming streets. Let's start with the game. And I think sometimes, I think we're overthinking this a little bit. Like, if you're a little overweight, look at your diet. Like if you're eating Ben and Jerry's every night, cut that out.

If you're drinking soda every night, cut that out. I bet you'll lose some weight. If you go, I don't know where all my money's going. I don't know. Print out two months of bank statements. See what you're spending money on that you can't avoid. And maybe you'll have a little more money in your bank account. Right?

Some basic things in life, we just overthink. Yet we'll complain about and we'll freak out about. This team sucks. What is going on with the chiefs? It's over. the dynasty everyone keeps saying that the dynasty is over here's what i know and i've watched the majority of their game i just came right after the game i i didn't i don't have these numbers in front of me but i know from watching them play it feels like at minimum they're good for two turnovers a game

sometimes three or four a couple picks from the homes whether that be his fault whether that be tip balls and fumbles and obviously tonight they had a bunch of penalties there is a reason if you play football, peewees. I don't even know if peewees exists. When I was a kid, peewees, you wore pads. From high school to college to the pros. One thing that coaches consistently say on a daily basis, turnovers, turnovers.

Defensive coaches talk about wanting turnovers. Offensive coaches talk about not committing turnovers. Head coaches talk about winning the turnover battle. because if you win the turnover battle, you win games. If you turn the ball over, it is going to be very difficult. And right now, for all the hoopla about their defense sucking, hint, their defense hasn't been that good for several years. Mahomes, is he regressing?

Here's what I know. Minimum 28 teams wouldn't even flinch, would do anything to get them. Kelsey Hill, still sweet. But they are turning the ball over at what feels like a historic rate. Minimum every game, two or three turnovers. I don't care if you're playing the Giants or you're playing the 85 Bears or the 93 Cowboys or the 2001 Ravens.

It doesn't matter. You could be playing the shittiest team in the league or the best team in the league. If you're going to turn the ball over and you're going to lose the turnover battle, it is going to be difficult. Look at tonight, they drive right down the field to open the game.

He throws a pick. Now, because you're playing Daniel Jones, he throws a pick right back. But for them, in the red zone, you have to score. In the last several years, they've been scoring in that spot. so instead, you know, they get a pick right after.

They come away with seven points. Who knows? Maybe they're at 14 nothing before you even blink. Then late in the game. The game's kind of tight. What happens? One of the best players in franchise history puts the ball on the ground. And I saw a great quote.

There was a fumble this weekend. I don't know if it was on Saturday or Sunday. And a former player tweeted that like one of his coaches once said, he said the coach, I think said in a team meeting, listen, we are going to practice ball security. But I do know. no player in the history of football has ever tried to fumble, right? Sometimes when you drop the ball, it could be a concentration issue,

but for the most part, with fumbles, it's a good play for the defense. Every once in a while, if you're Shady McCoy, you're carrying it like a loaf of bread, for the most part, five points of pressure, guys have it close to their body, the defense makes a great fucking play. Like they're not trying to fumble the ball, but right now for whatever reason, when it rains, it pours, actually it's raining right outside my door right now, but their turnovers are coming in bunches literally every freaking game

and they're losing the turnover battle. Now tonight, they're more talented than Giants. Andy Reid on his worst day is better than Joe Judge on his best day. The Chiefs were not going to lose that game. But it was way closer than it should have been because of the fumble and the picks. And really, I mean, the guy jumped off sides.

Patrick knew he had a free play. But like that's where he's at right now before you realize that he had the free play. You're like, oh my God. Even Peyton was like, Did he just throw a pick? Good play by the DB, but they're just off. And sometimes, and Michael Irvin and Peyton were talking about this,

is a confidence thing. And you kind of see it. Like it's easy from the shoulders down, get your body moving, get it going. A great athlete will figure it out. From the head up, like gaining confidence is difficult, right? It takes a while to get it. But once you get it, you become Kelsey, Mahomes, Hill, Coach Reed, you have it.

But you can lose it fast. And it feels like right now, Chiefs have just lost some of their confidence. They still have three elite players. They still are really good. We're going to learn a lot about them just this next week. Really these next three weeks, right? The Packers, the Raiders, and the Cowboys.

They win two out of three of them. They're right. They'll make the playoffs. If they lose two out of three, they'll probably be in some trouble. Just that simple, especially if one of the losses of the Raiders. The Raiders game's a must, and then they got to win either the Packers or the Cowboy game. It's just period point blank end of story. but the only way they're going to win these games,

they don't need to retool their fucking offense, they're not going to get new players on defense. Their defense isn't that good. It hasn't been that good. They have to stop turning the ball over. Right before I walked in here turning the TV, Peyton mentioned that. They got to stop turning the ball over.

He's got to stop throwing interceptions. When the ball hits their hands, they have to catch it. And when the ball's in their arms, they can't put it on the dirt or the ground. I guess there is no more dirt now that we don't play in Oakland anymore. But if they're going to turn it over like that, every opponent's going to be in the game. I think that's just, that's the Chief's issue.

Turnovers. Other issues they've had before. But if you're not, if you're going to turn it, if they have one turnover these next three weeks, they could win all three of them. But if they're going to average two or three, hell, they could lose all three of them. Coach Reed would tell you that.

Just a reality. And then the other side, you know, the Giants, even bad teams give you pretty good efforts typically on Monday night or Sunday night or Thursday night game. Thursday night, maybe not. but Monday night games for sure. It's a big deal for players, for coaches. We're all watching 15, 20 million people.

They know it. We all know it. It's why for the most part, bad teams kind of slug it out. And the Giants gave good effort tonight. They forced a turnover, right? They make plays. But it's a quarterback league. And Daniel Jones is just kind of a guy.

You know, he can run. He's fast. He actually doesn't have a terrible arm. But for whatever reason, he's not accurate. Whenever he has to be accurate, He doesn't have great pocket presence whenever he has to have pocket presence. And I'm not putting the last drive. When you get the ball back with, you know, with 30 seconds field goal,

like I had no faith Daniel Jones is going to drive. Is Joe judge a good coach? Probably not. But how can I judge him with Daniel Jones? Like I've seen him in enough spots now where their team actually plays pretty competitive football. They feel like they have, they're pretty tough. But they don't win any games.

And if you have a quarterback that, you know, for the most part, it's a bottom five, eight guy in the league. And I know he's played decently at points in times this year. But tonight was a good example. Just misses too many bunnies. Now, I don't expect him to make some Mahomes, Josh Allen like plays, but you have to make just the basic plays. When you get a wide open layup, you have to hit it.

I don't expect you to hit a fadeaway three like Steph Curry. But if you're wide open for a jumper and you're in the NBA, I need you to hit it. Daniel Jones doesn't do that. And, you know, I don't know what the other options. You know, they shouldn't have taken Dwayne Haskins. But Daniel Jones at six, let's face it. The evidence is in.

He shouldn't have gone that high. He wasn't worthy of that pick. You know, to me, he looks like a second or third round pick. That's probably what he is. And he'll not be on the Giants in a couple years and he'll go somewhere to be a backup. Maybe for a guy like Andy Reid, maybe for a guy like Kyle Shanahan. Maybe resurrect his career. But I think his days as a starter is starting to, you know, slowly coming to an end.

He's not a starting quarterback. He's not good enough. He's just not. And when you're not good enough and then the team around you is not great, Your team every year is going to win three or four games. And the Giants are a debacle. There's going to be a lot of, you know, noise about firing Dave Gettleman. That's an easy thing.

Dave Gettelman never should have been hired in the first place. Joe Judge, young coach, depending on what Mara thinks about it, to me, the move. And I'm not going to spend too much time. I'd blow the whole thing up, just completely start over. But it starts and ends whenever you take a quarterback in the top 10 at the number six overall pick. And he becomes, he's not, he can't even sniff being a top 20, player at his position, your team's not going to be that good. You know, like the chiefs think, let's not overthink this.

When you have a below average quarterback on a below average team, what do you get? A bad team. Always been that way in the NFL. A lot going on today on a little Monday after week eight as we head into November. November, December, starts getting cold, and we had a big story today. And I actually had my greatest gambling triumph at Super Bowl 50. And I bet a lot of money on the Broncos. I attended the game.

It was in the Bay Area. And it was awesome. And Vaughn Miller dominated that game. And he was obviously traded on Monday to the Los Angeles Rams. And let's start with the Rams side of this. One, it's abundantly clear. They do not care at all. about the draft.

They don't care. They treat the draft like the Yankees, like the Red Sox, like the Dodgers historically have treated like prospects. They will trade those draft picks to get players that they know that in theory they can plug and play. Now, when they made the mood for Jalen Ramsey,

he was 24, 25 years old, in the peak of his powers. He had only been on his rookie contract. He was still an ascending player. He's an elite player. I understood why they did that, even though it was a bold move. Hell, Matt Stafford, when they threw Jared Goff's contract with two ones, it made a lot of sense. One, Stafford was viewed as an undervalued asset in the NFL.

Not in the sense that you had to compensate the lions heavily, right? But a lot of people in the league, that his best football would be in a situation, if you were the Niners, if you were the Rams, if you were Carolina, these teams that thought they could be good, I mean, the Rams already were, and you get Matt Stafford, you compete to win the Super Bowl. And that was a polarizing discussion. And a lot of people disagree, and I think they're being proven right. Vaughn Miller does not fall in that category. He is a first ballot Hall of Famer. He's one of the greatest players to ever play for the Broncos. One, he's injured right now. I saw him being interviewed on like the, you know,

the suburban that's picking him up to take him to the airport. He doesn't even know if he's healthy enough to play right now. and when he's been healthy this season coming off the major injury last year, he's kind of been a shell of himself. Now, the way the deal worked is the Broncos essentially bought a second and third round pick. They are paying $9 million of the remaining $9.7 million. I like the move from the Broncos standpoint. He's a free agent after this year.

This was going to be his last 7, 8, 9 games, however many he was physically able to play on the Broncos. he would not have been on the team next year. So you trade a guy who is not going to be on your team for a second and third round pick. Easy move for them. It's clear they're not any good. They're four and four. I'll be shocked if they end up winning eight games.

Like they're not going four and five the second half of the season. To me, I would guess they go seven and ten. Fangio gets fired. They blow that bad boy up. Now they have ammo. Easy move from the Broncos. For the Rams, like to, me it has a little bit of an NBA feel. It has a little bit baseball sometimes trades these big names.

It's not often in football, the trade deadline, a guy of this fame and this status within the league from a name value. You say Vaughn Miller, you go one of the greatest pass rushers ever. But he's no longer that guy. Now, maybe the Rams are going. We are just looking to get a situational pass rusher. We're not going to expect him to be like Ramsey or Donald play every single snap, right? If he can give us 15 to 25 snaps a game and a dozen great pass rushes, it's worth it. For this year, it's a short-term play. Because the second and third round picks for a team that from a cap standpoint, spending a lot of money, guess what? Matt Stafford has to get extended. Like Matt Stafford next year is going to get an extension. Now, obviously then you can finagle the

cap. He will actually end up making less money early on in that contract. But Von Miller, probably won't be on the team next year. And hell, he might not even have anything left when he's there. But I have, I admire the mindset. I, like, the point of all this, the point of everything, the draft, free agency, waiver claims, GMs, coaches, players is to fucking win football games. To win the division, to win playoff games. And the ultimate goal is to win the Super Bowl.

That is, like, that's what everyone is attempting to do. So I admire that mindset this franchise has. They got close a couple years ago. It's pretty crazy looking back. They did it with Jared Gough and Todd Gurley's messed up knee, and they were damn close, right? In a Super Bowl, they only scored three points. But it's not like they lost 40 to 3.

They lost 13 to 3. And they tasted it and they want more. That stadium watching the Charger Patriot game this weekend is fantastic. You can say whatever you want about Stan Cronky and his issues with the league and making, helping, he wants them to help him. pay for, you know, moving away from St. Louis, but that stadium is bad ass. It's awesome. The Super Bowl's there this year. They are trying to win it. And it's hard to say they don't have

as good of a chance as any. Now, I don't know, listen, it's hard to find past rushers in general in any draft in free agency. A second and a third is pretty rich, but they just don't care. Like, it just does not bother them. Now, ultimately, that could come back to Biden in a couple years, but they're not worried about that. They take every year, and listen, I'm a, I try to be more of a big picture thinker when I judge these coaches and these GMs, why I've been hard on Kyle Shanahan, that if you would have started, Trey Lance from the jump, by the time we got to November, he would have been much better off. Look at Justin Field yesterday. He keeps improving. But, like, their timeline is a little different than the Rams timeline, right? The Rams kind of

operate like Seattle did last year when they traded the farm for Jamal Adams. Again, different because he's a younger player, but same time mindset. They were just attempting to win the Super Bowl last year. And listen, I think as a fan, as anyone listening to this, that's what you want your team to attempt to do. Win the Super Bowl. Now, will it work out? I don't know.

But I do think easy move for the Broncos. Hey, we'll pay the remaining salary to get your second and your third round pick to get more ammo for a team that we're basically going to blow up. Genius. For the Rams, bold move. It'll be interesting how they use them. again, he's banged up. And his name,

it is, this to me, this move is so synonymous like with the NBA, like later on in guys' career, like, Alan Iverson got traded. Chris Weber got traded. You know, it's like,

well, kind of. You know, these guys are shot. Now, is Vaughn Miller shot? I don't know that, but is, was anyone else even getting close to giving them this much?

I don't know. Like, did the Rams, this to me, this got boom or bust potential. Now, if it works, no one will care. Not a soul will care about the second or third round. Not a soul.

I mean, think about this year. They drafted Tutu Atwell. I haven't watched every ram snap, especially because the last couple weeks they played no-nameers. But as Tutu made them any place? So that they just, that's not the way they think. But this is probably going to be. Part of the reason these trades are not going to happen

and why don't I expect that many big names to get moved, teams don't have cap space. This move would not have been possible if the Broncos didn't pick up the salary. So like the Saints, can they go trade for a quarterback? They don't have any room. Because of the COVID and the salary cap coming back, you have to have salary cap space,

like in theory to take a guy's $3, $4, $8,000 remaining on their contract, especially if he's a big name. You trade in Odell Beckham, well, if he makes $15 million a year, cut that in half. Do you have $6 million in cash space, $7 million in cash space?

Look around the league. Most teams don't. And then a couple of the teams that are terrible, Well, they're not trading for them. So this year, I do think trades moving forward once we get the money going back will happen a lot more. And we've seen them happening the last couple of years. But this is just a weird spot. Right.

This is a team with a brand new GM that's ready to move on from a guy, you know, at the end of his career. And convinced ownership to eat the money to get draft picks. That's kind of what the Houston, Texas did. You know, and the Browns did with Brock Osweiler several years ago. And technically, you know, I think the league has rules. you're not allowed to buy draft picks. In the NBA, you can purchase second round picks. In the NFL, you cannot.

But you can indirectly do it. And that's exactly what they just did. Fandual Sportsbook wants you to get the most out of every NFL game day. That's why they're giving everyone a $10 risk-free bet every week. All you have to do is bet the same game parlay, bet three legs or more, and if you bet doesn't win, Fanduel will pay you back. Up to $10.

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That's promo code Colin. 21 and present in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. Refund issued as non-waddrawable site credit that expires in seven days. Max refund, $10. 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-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jay. 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 y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. 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.

Trip 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.

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Learn how it belonging begins with us.org. Brought to you by the ad council. I guess the other big story of the day in just watching the Titans Colts game back, you know, Derek Henry is going to miss six to ten weeks. And I think there's a chance he misses the rest of the season. You know, to me, six to ten, they're trying to put on a good face like the season's not over. But they just signed a guy in Adrian Peterson that they're, it's weird.

Because usually when a running back gets injured, they're the position that we all go. And I'm the number one guy beating the drum is it's not going to ruin your season because there are so many running backs out there. You can poach guys off practice squads. your backups on your team always like half the guys turn out to be functional when we see them play. But this is a big deal. I mean, this is, and we've been hammering home, one of the greatest blue chip powerhouse running backs we've ever seen. I wasn't alive in like the 60s and the 70s of the football, but it was a running sport unless your name was Al Davis.

And this is what they look like. Then even in the age, you have like Walter Payton. Like this is what this guy was becoming, an all-time great running back. We were going, is this guy going to go down? is one of the greatest running backs in the history of the league. So you remove that guy from this team. And even though A.J. Brown's a star. I know Julio's banged up, but, you know, Taney Hill, they can pass the ball.

But if you look at some of their wins this year, he created them. He did it. I'll never forget the Seattle game when they came back. It was because of him. He is not your typical running back. So to just think that they're going to be able to overcome this. Now, they still are going to make the playoffs. that game yesterday, basically, unless they have an all-time, you know, fall apart end of the season,

they're going to win the division. They've already beat the Colts twice. They're up three games right now. Technically, they're the number one seed in the AFC, but I think that shows you it's pretty wide open. Like, they're going to make the playoffs. But could they have made noise in the playoffs? Hell, they did a couple years ago. When they beat the Patriots, then they beat the Ravens, because this guy was running for like 190 yards a game. And he's the only guy in the NFL that you go, this guy can run for 200 yards a game. Everyone knows he's getting the ball. Everyone knows where it's going, and it doesn't matter.

Now, you might stop him a couple times, but he can have, and even yesterday I think his line was like 25 or 68 or something. Sometimes he has those games, and he got hurt yesterday. Well, if he doesn't get hurt, maybe he goes 30 for a buck, 30, because he ends up busting that 40, 50-yard touchdown. And then it just breaks your back because you go, we have done everything to stop this massive human being and we've succeeded, and then one single snap, he'll run an outside zone, it'll be a crease,

he'll make the linebacker a safety miss, the other guy, he'll get to the angle, and he's just faster than him. So losing that guy, especially having a foot injury, it'd be one thing if he had broke his hand, right, or had, you know, like something happened to his abdominal, I don't know, some upper body, but his, what makes Derek Henry so special is not his size. He's not running guys over. watching Adrian Peterson in his peak, he's probably the last running back

who was truly, it looks like a high school or a college kid, lowering his shoulder on contact and trucking linebackers. That does not happen. Camaras, the McCaffreys, like those type players, they're in space,

they're making things happen. Most NFL running backs are not low, I mean, you lower your shoulder, Zeeke does it too, but you try to make a guy miss, you try to get on a guy's angle. What makes this guy so special is his feet.

He has elite, feet and now one of his foot's broken, you know, or whatever it is. And that's a major problem for a team that has got to six and two. We all talk about how crappy their past defense is, but they figured it out. I think Brable's a

really good coach. And it's just hard to go from Derek Henry in the peak of his powers to Adrian Peterson, who's like 40 years old. Again, I mean, his great shape, who was actually played well later on in his age. But he's never actually been a great

zone runner. So it's not a great fit, but they are somewhat desperate. I can't imagine they don't have a couple guys on the practice squad or they couldn't claim a guy. But it rattles you. I mean, it's for them, it's not quite losing the quarterback. Because if you lose your quarterback, I don't even care if you have Derek Henry, Julio Jones, and A.J. Brown.

If this happened in Tanyhill and he was out for basically the season or potentially 10 weeks, they would be in major trouble. You think you should be able to overcome it. But I think this is the one team where, it does just become pretty difficult. It really does. That sucks. It's just a fan of football.

As someone who loves watching running backs play, that one hurt. That's a pretty big blow. And then on the flip side of winning that game was the Colts. And one of the main stories, I'm going to punt the brakes on one thing, is everyone, we'll get to the overtime interception, but the interception he threw at the end of regulation

with under two minutes to go in his own end zone, everyone on social media was shitting on Carson, wins. Well, if he hadn't thrown a pick six and he had taken a safety, the game would have been over. If he had taken a safety, then they punt to the Titans. They had two timeouts left, but there was a buck 26 on the clock. So even if they called two timeouts, by the time they get it to 1.15, they run that bad boy to like 30 seconds and then they punt it. There's no way they could get down the field and score a touchdown. It would have been over. So in a weird way, he had no choice when he's getting tackled in the end zone. Like to me, that one's on the

coach to run a screen backed up in your own end zone, too much can go wrong. Because when you run a screen, you just let guys go by as offensive linemen, right? You hit him and then he kind of gets a free rush to the quarterback. And if you watch that play when Carson, the other guy kind of comes free who they tried to block, his running back, or maybe it was tied in. However, the screen was set up, he was covered. So he had nowhere to go. He was fucked.

I mean, he legitimately was absolutely screwed. and everyone's like, this is the worst interception I've ever seen. What the hell is he supposed to do? Now, the one in overtime, in a tie game, you have the ball, they both punted back to each other, that was a bad pick. And that obviously costs them the game and potentially their season. Because they win that game, all of a sudden they're four and four. I think their next two games, I talked about it last week on the podcast,

were like Jacksonville and some other crappy team. They would have been six and four. They would have been right back in the mix with splitting with Tennessee. And that one hurts. It really does. And the pick, he had only had one pick coming into that game. But I do not put the first pick. Like, I don't overreact to that one.

Because when you really put the context around what's happening in that situation, where they are on the field, and if you get sacked, it's like, oh, I got sacked in the 30-yard line. He's getting sacked in the end zone. Last time I checked, you know, the referees put their hands over their head, and that's two points, and they get the ball back. And I'm not saying he's even thinking that, but he was desperate. He had no choice.

But the one in overtime, what was crippling? And if you think about it, if the Colts had won that game, let's say Wence drives him down, because never forget, he throws the pick at the end of regulation, they get the ball back, he drives them down the field,

and they score a touchdown. So they win that game, they're four and four, and then the Titans are losing Henry, and instead of them being six and two, they're five and three, all of a sudden you go, God, is this division kind of up for grabs?

I think we would have been saying that. So it's crazy how a loss plus an injury, it's the narrative, and rightfully so, me the word narrative like most narratives are true most narratives are what's actually happening it's what we're saying it's what humans are talking about narratives in society you know the media loves using that term like it's some negative thing like yeah most of them get created like carson went forever there's just narrative he's turnover prone yeah because he throws a lot of turnovers

you know like that's that's a fact you know so uh that that game was pretty bad shit crazy it really was and the other game there was just nuts and i mean nuts is Mike White beating the Bengals. And it just shows you there's a reason good teams consistently win. You know, there's a culture with the Steelers, with the Ravens,

you know, now with the Rams, with Seattle Forever, with Russell Wilson, right? Because winning isn't just about like anyone. Think about like, if you played high school football or high school sports, let alone if you play college sports

or in the pros, it's easy to get up playing a really good team. Like, I know in high school, when we would play a team with like two guys, like that guy's going to play for Pete Carroll at USC, and they got three other Division I guys. It's a big deal.

If you're in college and you're playing Ohio State or you're playing Alabama or you're playing Oregon and you're just a middle of the road, Power 5 program, you're going to give them everything you have. Now, it might not be good enough, but it's easy that week to get up for. I remember when I worked at Fresno State, when we played Wisconsin, when we would play, you know,

any Power 5 program, We played Illinois. We played Rutgers. It was like, that was our Super Bowl. Right? Or Boise State. We didn't always win the games, but that week in practice. You didn't have to give some like, you know, New Rockney speech at the beginning of the week.

Right? It's easy. When I was in the NFL, you played Monday night football, you play Sunday night football, you play defending champs, you play Tom Brady, you play Peyton Manning. Like, everyone fucking knows is a big game. But when you play crappy teams, I mean a team that's just, is this a two-win team? Like when you play the Lions, when you play the Texans, when you play the Jets, like we're humans, right? These players are humans. Hell, these coaches are humans. Coaches are less likely to overlook anything because it's their job, it's their mindset.

But players for sure, you can't help but just, you know, Belichick has been doing this for years. They'll play a terrible team, you know, especially like now, November and December. And the team will be like 1 in 11 or, you know, 3 and 10. And he'll be like, you know, they got the best best best teams I've ever seen. And you look at some of their wide receivers and at any given game, they can score three touchdowns. You look at the satchel,

like, Bill, they have a total of three touchdowns combined. But he can just, he tricks himself because then he has to tell the team. He doesn't have to do that when they're playing, you know, when you're playing Mahomes, right?

I mean, that's, or now they're playing Josh Allen. Like, he doesn't have to give those speeches. But when you play really bad teams, it's hard to be totally locked in. And then when you factor in, like, I know he's not a star quarterback

because he was statistically the worst rookie. He's actually the worst quarterback in the league and he's a rookie. But you get Mike White, so you go, God, they got their backup. They're already terrible. And then their backup quarterbacks coming in. You go, we just beat the crap out of the Ravens. We're going to destroy these guys. And that to me is where the Bengals, like, they're no lock to make the playoffs. They're just not because they're going to be up and down. They've got a young team. They've never experienced success. I say this all the time about admiring successful people that still grind every day. Like Elon Musk, he just works his

ass off. Tom Brady, never stopped. Why are they still working so hard? They have unlimited money. They have unlimited success. It's so easy to work. Like, I've been fired. It was easy that next year to figure it out. It was like, I don't have a choice.

I've never just been a guy like, look in the bank and see $100 million. Am I getting out of bed every morning at 6 a.m? It's easy when you don't have much. It's just harder. In theory, it should be way harder. It's why most people kind of, you know, don't have the, eventually you just kind of pull off the throttle. and it's what was so expressive about the Patriots forever. But part of that was Belichick and Brady.

They never stopped. And then they created the culture. The Bengals, you just kind of start feeling yourself where we're like, we're going to go kill the Jets. All of a sudden, Mike White looks like, you know, he looks like Joe Burrow and then you find yourself in trouble. Now, I know there was a terrible, you know,

a penalty in that game where they called a penalty on the Bengals should have been on the Jets. But still, like they were already in a position where you should beat them by 15 points. I just saw how good you were. I saw you. play the Ravens and you destroyed them.

And then you play the Jets and listen, they can say whatever they want. There is no chance on God's green earth that the players on that team. And I don't even necessarily blame them. Like I don't. I'm not acting like morally superior. Like if I was in their shoes at 23 years old and I was kind of feeling myself, you know, I'm not going to watch as much film this week. I'm taking my girl out for dinner.

I'm going to go hang with the boys. I'm going to play some 2K. I'm going to do whatever I want. Because I guarantee you this. That Ravens week, every single guy maximized every minute leading into that week of preparation, of focus. Again, back to what I said, it's easy to be focused when you're taking on a Goliath and you view yourself at David and you think you're pretty talented. It's another thing when you're like, are we kind of Goliath? And then all of a sudden, David hit you in the mouth and it's too late and you lose the game.

Now, luckily, you know, they're not, you know, five, they're still five and three. They play the Browns this week who are also in shambles. So now you're getting a Bengals team that still thinks they're pretty good, but you're getting a team, the Browns are going to be just desperate. I mean, their seasons kind of on the line. We talked about last week, you know, that final six-game stretch of the Browns. Like, if they don't win this game, like the playoffs are bye-bye. No moss.

It'd be over. And we'll talk about them probably on the podcast for Friday, kind of dive into that game, but they have more on the line than the Bengals. So can the Bengals match their pure desperation? Because the Bengals had it. Desperation would be the wrong word. But they had a focus and a hunger against the Ravens. And they didn't have it against the Jets.

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Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, CliverTaylor 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.

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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. Trip 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.

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White story's cool. You know, and I say this all the time about, you know, backup quarterbacks. I think Tomlin said, you know, on Sean McVeigh with Peter Schrager over the summer. He went on the podcast. I think he said Bonnie Kiffin taught him this,

or maybe Dick LeBow taught him this when he was a young coach that like, you know, coaching anyone on any given game, if you're a coach worth or salt, can get a B player to play, or get a C player to play at a B level. Any game, like you could take a star player, right? I can take Jalen Ramsey, I could take Cahillow Mac,

I could take Devante Adams, and one game situation, these guys are still pros, and I could get a really good game out of a backup. But you cannot, they're just not good enough, and it's impossible to even coach this to maintain that like C minus player

to make them play at a B plus level. You can do it one week. Hell, you might be able to do it two weeks, but you can't really do it for two months, right? That's why once a starting player of a high caliber guy goes out, if he misses the season, you're in trouble, i.e. Derek Henry.

But the hard part about coaching is to get your top players to do it consistently over and over. Can I get elite Joe Burrow? Can I get elite Jamar, Can I get Elite Joe Mixing? Every single game. Because it's just difficult.

And I saw Davo had a good rant like last week. Like anything that happens on the field, personnel-wise, is on me. Every single guy that goes on the field for every single play is ultimately my decision. And, you know, you're either coaching or allowing it to happen. And listen, I listened to Zach Taylor last week with Colin. He was impressive. Seems like a really smart guy. But he's also a young coach.

He's never been through that. So it's it was kind of predictable. even though who in their right mind would have bet on the bangles to win outright. But looking back, like, oh, I could have seen that. You know, I know Stucky loved the Jets in that spot plus 10 and a half. And even I thought, I was like, you know, I don't know, the Jets suck. And then when you're watching the game just on Red Zone, I was like, he was right. Oh, yeah, this is, this makes perfect sense.

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at Discovertheforest.org. Brought to you by the United States Forest Service and the ad council. The other two teams yesterday that just, you talk about culture, and you talk about teams that have guys that can handle the ebbs and flows to seasons. They can handle winning, just like they can handle losing, right?

Handling losing, like, you know, it's why losing teams stay losing. They just get a losing culture. Some of it is like, the lions aren't good enough, right? The Texans just aren't good enough. They're not necessarily losing because their culture sucks. They have shitty players. But, you know, the Belichick, the Patriots lost a couple games. You're like, you know, are they really going to get this together?

They got a rookie quarterback, but they still. got McCordy. They still got Slater. They still got High Tower. It was probably not the same guy. Same thing with the Steelers. You're like, you know, Rathusberger, and I was guilty. I was like, he's old. You know, he doesn't have it anymore. It's going to be tough. But what do they have? They have Mink of Fitzpatrick who's been there for a while. They have T.J. Watt who's been there for a while. Ben's been there forever. You know, even Naji while a rookie comes from a program that just expects to win every single time, every

single snap of every single game. Right. So they have very high standards in that building. and when things get a little rocky, you can't count out championship level mindset. Now, obviously, Belichick has won a lot more in Tomlin, but listen, there's a reason Tomlin has never gone under 500. It's not tolerated there.

They're not losers, you know? Even their war season of all time, when Rotherzberger tore his elbow with Duck Hodges and Mason Rudolph, they still found a way to go 8 and 8. That's one of the most remarkable seasons I've ever seen. And then last year with Old Ben, you know, they were hosting a playoff game

against the Brown. We won. I mean, they won the division, right? The Steelers. That's pretty damn impressive. And then the Patriots to play the Chargers who, like, in theory, the Chargers should be much better. They have a huge advantage at quarterback.

There's not a soul, including Belichick, who would take Mack Jones over Herbert. You factor in Bosa, you factor in Durwin James, you factor in Keenan Allen. I know Mike Williams is banged up, but Patriots kicked their ass. Kicked their ass. and you see last week there's a reason Belichick kept that pedal of the medal against the Jets started getting momentum, started getting the confidence. And they come into that charger game, they just thoroughly out playing them. And really, Mac Jones, a couple throws, like he's Air Mailing, like he was far from perfect.

And they easily could have won that game by 17, 20 points. That was heavily dominated by the Patriots. And now the Patriots are 4 and 4. Are they just pretty solid? You know, are they just, when the dust settles, you look at the AFC, it's pretty wide open. How are they not a playoff team? He's too good of a schematic guy against these younger quarterbacks. And just the reality of the people you play in the AFC is you just get a lot of younger

quarterbacks. You get, remember last year with Cam Newton? They almost beat the bills when Josh Allen was having his historic season. And I think it was a late fumble in that game by Cam that cost him the game. But they were driving to win the game. He can just give young quarterback fits. And his team is very comfortable in awful environments in terms of the weather. So the weather changes clearly in Boston

And then any other games they play outside They will be comfortable in that spot And then Tomlin like yesterday Listen I'm not gonna shit on Baker He's injured he has a torn labor room I can't even imagine the pain Like my brother has one He needs surgery and he's just a farmer slash golfer

And he says sometimes you're just being so much pain And he doesn't have to throw a football So he's clearly not as bad as he's showing this year I don't think he's quite as good as it went last year but he's a solid player. And we can argue all day long whether you'd pay them, I would not, and I don't think they will,

but they're in this season and they're trying to make the playoffs. And a little bit like the Bengals on a higher level, they didn't just make the playoffs last year. They won a playoff game. And for Cleveland, that's a really big deal. And their expectations were sky high. And I heard Schrager say this,

and I could attest, he's like, you know, we reached out me and McVeigh to have Stefansky on the podcast. And he's like, I'm not doing me this offseason because it's not about me. And he just, I think he knew the expectations. I have a couple buddies in the NFL that are buddies with Stefanski.

I got his email. I shot him an email well before training camp and I'd be like, hey, Kevin, I'd love to have you on the podcast, kind of introduced myself. And he responded very politely back like, hey, man, not just not interested, not doing any media. So he was really focused because I think he understood like it wasn't just going to be cool going eight or nine wins this year. The expectations for them were to win like 12 or 13 games.

and on paper they were one of the best teams in the league. Now they have a bunch of injuries and they're in shambles. And they got beat by a team. Like the Pittsburgh Steelers didn't just score 28 points and they scored 15 points. They scored 15 points. It was really hard for the Browns to move the ball. And Rothesberger, say what you want. I mean, and again, I'm guilty because I was, you know, somewhat shitting on his career being over

because he just looks, he's a shell of what he used to be. But he still does have just the capability. ability of one, he's going to be able to play in weather, assuming like his body can hold up. Maybe the weather might not be great for his elbow. But he's crafty. And he's just, he's a better player at 38, 39 than little injured Baker. He just is. I thought he outplayed him yesterday.

He didn't throw a pick. You know, he didn't turn the ball over. And they got a good game from Naji. And they won the game 15 to 10. And now they're in position like, I think if you're betting on that division back to, I know the Bengals beat the Steelers earlier this year. but, you know, and obviously beat the Ravens, I still think the Steelers can be heard of.

And I think the browns, the brownies are in major, major trouble. You know, and part of it sometimes you just have a season from hell, right? You just have a season where guys get hurt and you can't overcome it. And we can't keep saying it's a quarterback league. It's a quarterback league. And hell, we say this a lot where I live about the 49ers. Like, well, the running game was Stefanski and Kyle. Like, we eventually got to throw the ball.

you get in positions, this is what I always say about the playoffs where I question Lamar ever being a star quarterback in previous years because I was like, well, when he gets into like third and seven to third and ten, that is inevitable in playoff games. Can you win? Right? And Lamar's proven he can. He's comfortable in that spot.

Well, right now it's very, very hard for the Browns when must pass situations for them to be successful. It just is. And that's a problem. And I think the problem for them, Big picture is, you know, he's going to get off-season shoulder surgery. So you picked up his fifth year option. Next year, he just plays on it and you just kind of see how it goes.

I think that's the only play. Because under no circumstances, I would sign him to probably the Amari Cooper contract. Would he take five for 20? $60 million guaranteed? Pay $20 million a year? He never would. But I cannot do the DAC, Josh Allen, Mahomes, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rogers, like, you ain't that level. and for a team that's run by

multiple Ivy leaguers, their GM is and their head coach. They're a combination of head coach and GM just in terms of intellect in just a meeting room, talking is as high as it gets in the league. Now, football-wise, I'm not anointing them like the next Bill Parcells

and, you know, George Young or something. But they are very, very intelligent guys. And neither of them picked this guy. So I think Baker, you know, know, I know people, especially Colin, can pick on him a little bit, but it is a legitimate question. Lamar is going to get signed.

You know, I think it's complicated because he's his own agent, but he's not going anywhere. He is the Ravens. Obviously, Josh Allen is under contract. The Baker thing is going to be something that lingers. And I just don't see how this off-season, unless they give him the fakesest of fake contracts and the history of fake contracts, how he gets a big extension. So that game yesterday, the Steelers, you know, kind of out-cultured, I think. thought the Browns because let's not act like you know of course the Steelers beat him they had a bunch

of injuries no I mean the Steelers were underdogs my favorite bed of the week Steelers plus three and a half but just physicality and Ben you know finding a way to play with his mind which is always something that I don't think he ever got that much credit for because that's the way we talked about Brady and Breeze and and Manning kind of his generation even Rivers but that's how Rathesberger if they're going to make the playoffs and keep winning that's how he's going to have to function because he's not going to have these many games. I mean, he didn't yesterday, but he's just not going to have,

you're not going to look up in Rathusberger. Oh, you see where Rottesberger threw five touchdowns and 400 yards? Like, that's probably not their deal. And that's a big reason that, you know, obviously, Naji's a really good player. And I thought he was, you know, a first round level caliber player. But I think no one, if Rathusberger was in the peak of his powers, do you think they'd draft, you know, a running back in the first round?

Probably not. But I think they were able to balance short and long term with Naji Harris. He's going to help Ben, immediately. And he's just probably one of the better players on our board. Right? And he was big yesterday at that sweet touchdown where he leaped over over everyone. And he's, you know, he's going to be a really good stealer. Okay, I wanted to touch on something college-wise. And it has to do with UCLA. There was an article in the LA Times. Momentum is shifting. Chip Kelly is going to get fired.

And let's face it, he hasn't been a good football coach since about 2015. Disaster at the end of his Eagles run, worst nineer season, the history of the franchise, and he's 15 and 25 at UCLA. But, and listen, to me, they're justified firing him. I never would have hired him in the first place. I like Troy Aikman. I respect the hell out of him. But he led the charge with one of the most powerful guys in L.A. Wasserman, and they brought

him there. And it was a mistake from the get-go. But one thing I read in the L.A. Times is they called it a $16 million dollar mistake. stake. And Chip Kelly's the highest paid coach in the history of the program. He makes a lot of money for the West Coast. And I kind of thought to myself, God, the Pac-12 is so far behind. Like, you guys are making a big deal about a $4 million football coach.

Do you know what the going rate is now for top guys? $6, $7 million a year. And obviously, if you want an elite guy, it's $7, $8 million a year. That's the cost of doing business. You can't get mad when you have a lot. a $4 million coach, and he's not that good. Now, obviously with $4 million a year, you'd like to at least compete to be $500,

which maybe for the first time in his UCLA tenure, they'll go $500 this year. Utah just kicked a living, you know what out of him on Sunday. Ran it right down their throat. Chips, you know, he's not a very good assistant coach hireer. When he had a good staff at Oregon, it's because he kept everyone on staff that was on Balati staff. His defensive coordinator, Jerry Azanero,

people I know around Philadelphia, I mean, jaw hit the floor when he named him the defensive coordinator at UCLA. He makes $700,000 a year. It's what I always say, like, I don't think we spend, it is way harder to be a player in the pros or even start in college

than it is. Jerry Azadero making $700,000. There's no other profession that guy would sniff that much money, let alone be it, no other team would hire them to be their coordinator. But listen, Chip should go.

But I think UCLA and some of these programs in the PAC 12, if you want to be competitive, and let's face it, beside Oregon, the conference is not competitive right now. It simply is not. There is not enough talent. If I had to rank the best five programs right now on the West Coast, it would be Oregon, Utah, Fresno State, San Diego State, Nevada.

The PAC 12 is a joke. University of Washington, awful. Washington State actually isn't bad. but they lost their head coach. So they're just, it's just not an ideal situation. They actually probably would have been solid if Roelovich would have stayed.

I watched Oregon State play. I like Jonathan Smith, but their team doesn't really have that much talent. Cal's not very good. Stanford's awful. U.S. season shambles. Arizona State stinks. Arizona hasn't won a game.

Colorado's terrible. Part of the reason the SEC and the Big Ten have pulled away from everyone, they're spending more money. You get what you pay for. in life, especially in competitive, high-priced industries. So some of these programs, money's all relative. $4 million, 10 years ago, was a lot to pay a coach.

$4 million, 20 years ago, an astronomical amount of money to pay a coach. But if you tell me that Lincoln Riley or Steve Sarkesian or some of these guys in these programs are making $6, 7, $8 million, how can UCLA think they're going to get a top-notch guy paying $4 million. It's triple the amount of money it costs to live in L.A. than it costs to live in Norman, Oklahoma. Austin's more expensive than Norman, still relatively cheap, Tuscaloosa, what Kirby makes at Georgia,

Ryan Day and Columbus. You have to be competitive in any industry. You can't get mad when you can't compete when you don't spend the money as the competitive competition. And right now the Pact 12 is living like it's 10 years ago. they need to get in the fucking modern times or they're going to keep getting lapped. Luckily for Oregon,

they're the only program out west. Like UCLA I read as like a multi-billion dollar operation. Yet they pinch pennies with football. Where really they should invest in football and basketball and that be like a marketing campaign for them. We've all read the stories over the years about what Nick Sabin, the value he's brought to that program

in terms of potential applicants every year. UCLA just does not care. They just simply do not care. But then you can't get mad when you suck at football. Because to them, paying $4 million for Chip Kelly was like, you know, hiring Bill Belichick or Nick Saban. And Chip's gone 15 and 25. I could have told you when you hired him. He wasn't going to win there.

He hates recruiting, doesn't fit in in the culture and the vibe. It was an awful fit. And he hasn't had success. But the problem is, like, they're going to try to go hire like a two or three. million dollar coach. And maybe they get lucky because, you know, there are some coaches that grew up in Southern California that might be drawn. Maybe they hit a home run with an assistant coach. But it's very, very difficult to operate under the circumstances of always trying to go cheap. And then when you think you're spending a lot of money compared to your competition, you're still

cheap. Now, I know they beat LSU this year, but for the most part, they're never going to beat LSU. because LSU is always going to have a $7, $8, $9 million coach. It's why the rumors are that Mel Tucker's going to get the job. We just saw how good Mel Tucker was. He just beat Harbaugh in Michigan. Well, where was Mel Tucker before he got to Michigan State in the Big Ten? He was at Colorado. And guess what happened?

Michigan State paid him more money. And guess why he's going to leave Michigan State? Because LSU's going to pay him more money. This is a money game. This is an arms race. And the money is flowing. There's a reason Ohio State Alabama, and now Georgia.

And I know Clemson's having a bad year, but they're going to consistently be fine. Because they spend. Like, for the most part, I know they haven't won a World Series in a decade, but the Yankees are always in the mix. The Dodgers are always going to be in the mix. The Red Sox are always going to be in the,

they're going to spend the money. It's like that in any pro sports. You know, what the A's and Rays are doing, it's very hard. It's very difficult. You have to outthink everyone. And luckily, somehow, the Tampa Bay Rays have the smartest people

alive running their baseball operation. That's not the case at UCLA. And more than likely, it's not the case with the football coach they're going to hire because they're surely going to try to go cheaper and it's going to backfire. Now, hopefully for USC, they're willing to spend, you know,

$7 and $8 million to hire James Franklin, which I still think is a pretty big stretch, but given the bar is really low, it's a huge upgrade for him. But the way they are going to get James Franklin is they're going to have to pay him. They couldn't get James Franklin by offering him five years,

$25 million. He makes way more than that now. Remember a couple years ago when Teper hired Matt Rule? It was like they gave Matt Rule 70 million dollars. Like, yeah, guys. He's making eight and a half in Waco, Texas. Like, if you become $8 million in certain areas, you live like your Warren Buffett or Elon Musk.

You know what $10 million get you in Norman, Oklahoma? You realize you're like in L.A., even if I got $5 million, I got Newsom coming after half of it. I mean, a decent house cost me three, million dollars, let alone the house my wife wants, cost me eight. I got to send my kids to private school. That's 50 grand a year, especially if I have multiple kids. It's expensive.

It's really expensive in Southern California, in L.A. and San Francisco. And these programs just won't pay the money. And then they get pissed off when they lose. It's just, it's why I've converted to be an SEC fan, because I do not fundamentally agree with the way our academic elites out here approach football. when we have the money. Stanford, UCLA. I mean, Washington, these schools have an unlimited amount of cash

because of the power of their university. Like really, an extra $5 million is nothing to them. But these non-athletic people, you know, in terms of like the presidents and the chain, they can't even fathom or understand that, hey, man, you invest a little, you get more. Because they're not businessmen. They're living in academia.

They love the chart, right? They love a good whiteboard teaching and theories. Well, in the real world, Where I live, where you live, theories ain't getting it done. And clearly, Pac-12 football ain't getting it done. Okay, let's go a little Middlecough mailbag at John Middlecopf is the Instagram. Slide up into those little things we call direct messages. DMs.

You can get your question answered here on the show. What should the Broncos do at quarterback? Simeon, Post-Texins, Osweiler, Paxon, Lynch, Case Keenham, Ripon, Locke, Bridgewater. We can't compete in a vision with Mahomes, Herbert, and Carr, unless we get a guy. Well, I think everyone thinks they're going to get, or not going to get, I don't, but they're going to try to get Aaron Rogers. Why would Aaron Rogers go to the Broncos? Why would you leave the Packers?

Why would he leave Matt LaFlor? It just does not make any sense. Now, if Russell Wilson becomes available, could they get involved? Deshawn Watson, it feels like they're not really in Deshawn Watson. I don't know. Not a great, you know, offseason to need a quarterback. Jimmy Garoppel will be available. I don't really think that many people are going to be available.

I don't honestly really know their options. I think they're honestly kind of screwed. Big fan of the pot. I'm sliding into your DMs from my wife's phone because I don't have social media. I messaged you a while back about a book called Fearless. I think I ordered that on my Apple or my audiobooks. I played for Iowa State from 13 to 17

and was wondering if you had a chance to listen to the book. I haven't listened yet. Also, I'm a huge Colts fan, and I know Wentz had an awful interception in the end zone laid against the Titans on a screen pass for the tied in. I thought it was a terrible call by Frank on our own three-yard line. I agree. What are your thoughts?

I talked about it earlier. Like that pick, what was he going to do? He was going to get sacked for safety. And then they would have had to punt back, and then they could have knelt it twice, called timeouts. It would have been 1-10. They could take 40 seconds off so there have been 30 seconds on the clock and then they punt it and they get the ball back with 25 seconds. I mean, I don't think he was thinking that, but it wasn't, I think it was a little over hype.

Now, pick in the in overtime, I think Byard picked it off and went, it was a bad throw. You know, you can't commit a, you can't commit a pick. You just can't. You can't commit a turnover there. Yeah, I don't really know what to say. I don't put the end zone interception on Wents. I put that on the coach. I do.

So I'm with you. You played Iowa State from 13 to 17. I mean, you were a big time division one football player. Were you a walk on or did you play? You know, were you a starter or a special teamer? Either way, it's impressive. I'm not, if you're a special team, that's really impressive. I watched Rudy, actually.

It was on Fox Sports 1 a little while ago. Big fans of the show, lifelong nighter fans from the Bahamas in Chicago for the game, Titos and Soda to get the table. Tailgate started. It was a fun game. It was. The Niners kicked their ass in the second half. But they didn't have Khalil Mack.

Niners should win the game. I mean, the Niners were favored on the road. So nice little win, though. You never apologize for winning in life. Definitely not in the NFL. What do you think people are not giving the Packers more credit for how they've been playing? Look at what they've been able to do with the amount of injuries

and with the amount of shuffling they've had to do with the offensive line. And the number of guys they had to do with the offensive line. And the number of guys they had to, have been brought up from the practice squad. Thank you for your opinion. I think they've been fantastic. I saw a coward last week after the win. He called it the most impressive Aaron Rogers game of his career.

Now, I think from a character standpoint and a grit standpoint, I agree. Obviously, he's had statistically infinitely better games, right? I mean, he's one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. He's had remarkable games. But in terms of, I thought that's as good. Given the circumstances, given the personnel, I'd even include a LaFourable. That's as good as a coach and a quarterback can operate. Now, they screwed up at the end for the end zone,

though I put that on Rogers because I think he loves those gun runs because that's kind of his baby. The floor's offense, get them under center. So I think that was an incredible win. I think they have been fucking awesome since the Saints game. They really have. I mean, Rogers is good as anybody in the league, any position. Devante is same.

Some of the random guys they got playing on defense right now are awesome. I mean, their DPs are making plays, and it's not even like Jair. Alexander's there. They had a couple of guys making plays besides Douglas that I didn't even know who they were. They have the pass rusher

slash linebackers making plays. They just found them on the street. So I give Goudicans a lot of credit. I give Flore a lot of credit. I give Rogers a lot of credit. They've been awesome. I mean, they are, to me, they're one of the,

you know, them, the Rams, Tampa. There's probably not a team in the AFC. Super Bowl or bust. I mean, anything less of the Super Bowl for those three teams, I'd say Tampa, the Rams, but definitely the Packers in Tampa because, you know, can you really be Super Bowl or bust

with Matt Stafford? He's never won a playoff game. Now, the franchise is, but give me Aaron Rogers, Matt Stafford, round two. Tampa, you know, I'm selfish. I like to see Tampa Niners, but we've got a long way to go, you know.

People would call me an Arizona hater. We'll see. I mean, Kyler's already hurt. Kyler's injured. So this is my issue with him. He is a, a remarkable player, but second half of the season again.

He's injured. Now he's going to miss some games. It's hard when you're tiny. I mean, tiny. You can get by in basketball. You know, you can be Mugsy Bokes in basketball. Obviously, Kyler's better than Mugsy Bokes. But you know what I mean? You can be a smaller player in Trey Young

and kick Damian Lillard, kick everyone's ass. In football, you're getting hit at quarterback. It's hard to last. No matter how talented and how fast and how good his arm is, he just gets crushed. So I hope he's healthy. I mean, I, but man, it's just going to be hard for them to sustain without him.

Love the pot. I invest in crypto as well. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Cardano. You like Cardano. What is your take on the specific crypto and why? Don't really have one. I can't pretend. I've invested in Cardano.

Kind of a low risk, high ceiling, just took a swing for the fences. If it hits great, if not, what's. whatever. But I mean, I kind of understand the blockchain stuff. NFTs, I'm not involved in. I mean, I believe that where we're headed, maybe we're way early with some of the stuff. But I don't, like, I don't have a take the reason I do it. Part of the reason I do it is just because it feels like it's inevitable. Everything's going to be based online. I mean, that's just that simple. I don't pretend by any means to be a crypto expert. I'm a crypto idiot. But I want a little skin in the game. I don't like getting left, you know, as a train's taken off and me on the sideline.

I like having a little action. Now, if I miss, whatever. I'm okay. If that goes to zero, I would love for it to go 10x. But I'm just playing. I like the juice. I'm really in it for the juice, not the knowledge. I mean, the knowledge that a lot of the heavy hitters are playing, that's why I got involved.

Now, that Shiba coin, that thing shot off like a rocket. I had a friend that put a thousand bucks. He said he looks two days later. like $6,800. It's like, God damn, you should have put like $10 grand. He would have made an easy, you know, 70 grand before you even blinked. But even he was like, yeah, I don't even understand what's going on. Sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you just hop on that board and you ride the wave and you just see where we'll go. Now, sometimes the wave crashes or a gray white shark eat you. Other times, you rip that wave and you're the surf champion. You're Laird Hamilton. You know, you just, you never know. But, you know, at least you attempted to ride the wave. So that's my crypto speech. week and I will see everybody on Friday.

Actually talk to you on Friday. Peace. The volume. At Walgreens, we know February is the season for L-O-V-E. It's also something sweet for your sweetheart season, or my favorite, wait, that's today's season, or the just found out my kid has a crush season. Good luck, Mom. This Valentine's Day, Walgreens makes it easy to quickly get last-minute gifts with pickup

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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 I-Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with athletes,

creators and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. On the Look Back at it podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's big to me. I'm Sam Jay.

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.

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. Human documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.