The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - MNF Barnburner, Changes in Carolina, Trouble in The Big Apple

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

John reacts to the MNF Bears "exciting" win over the Vikings and what's the future for the staff in Chicago, is Justin Fields a starter in the NFL, despite looking horrible against Chicago, Joshua Dobbs should still be considered a top backup QB in the league, with the Panthers having major coaching changes, what does the future look like for Bryce Young, and does everyone in New York hate Brian Daboll. Lastly, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment. MNF Reaction - 4:57 The Vikings - 11:00 Carolina Panthers - 15:05 Problems in New York - 25:30 Mac Jones is really bad - 31:00 Should people look into QB's W-L record - 32:10 Pump the brakes Pittsburgh - 37:20 Mailbag - 43:50 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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How are we doing? Just watched a little Monday night football. What a game, some may say. Probably not many, but we'll discuss Fields, Josh Dobbs, Frank Reich fired by David Tepper. The Giants have some. some drama, some other stuff going on around the NFL we will dive into. So a lot of football talk coming up, as well as the mailbag at John Middilkoff.

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Game Time, official ticketing app, promo code John. I'm not going to spend too much time on this Monday night football barn burner. I don't know if you could quite describe it like that. It was a rough watch. There's no way around it. The NFL has been discussing flexing this game for a long period of time. It is difficult logistically. You know, we talk a lot about the fans and travel.

A lot of it is the team, you know, to find out that you have to change your travel setup up from Sunday to Monday is not easy. This is not baseball or basketball where you stay in cities consistently on the road. In football, you're there and you're back. And you set up these travel six months in advance. So I know they've discussed it and I eventually think we'll see a game or two. And this would be the type game that they gladly would because let's face it. No offense, Bears fans, and I know none is taken. And Vikings fans, ever since cousins rolled out, or was ruled out with the torn Achilles, you're rolling out Joshua Dobbs, who a lot of respect for it, and we'll dive into him in a second.

This game is a morning game on Sunday morning, right? And sometimes you get these late in the season on Monday. Now, listen, I can make fun of this game all we want. I looked, there were five NBA games tonight, and there were six NHL games. So we can talk shit about this, and I would. I mean, this was a rough watch. Everyone agrees. But if you combined the viewership of all 11 outings in the 11 outings

in the other two professional leagues in this country, they would not equal the amount of people that just watch that game. And honestly, when the numbers come out, it might not even be that close if you can combine it all the viewership. So we can shit on it, we can make fun of it, we're all watching it.

So we just, I got to find ways to enjoy it and I got to find ways to talk about it. And I think when it comes to the bears, it's not very difficult to discuss. Because I get on, uh, on X as my mom calls it. She's like, you got the X app? Like, yeah, mom. You mean,

Twitter. It's a good rebrand by Elon. He's even got my mom calling it X. And everyone is just always up in arms. For some reason, I follow several Bears radio hosts, you know, just Bears fans. And everyone's always bitching and moaning about the head coach, who is now 7 and 22 in his career. Troy Aikman tonight, you know, Iber Fluse was a longtime cowboy assistant, was waxing poetic about keep him around. He's a good coach. He lost 14 straight games. He might be a good defensive coach.

He's not a good head coach. The offensive coordinator is clearly not very good. And the quarterback, let's face it, isn't very good. Here's a reality. None of those guys are going to be there next year. Not a fucking soul. They're going to have the number one overall pick. To me, the only question is,

Ryan Poles in the press box with his ear pods in. And to me, is he listening to the game? broadcast, meaning the radio broadcast from the Chicago side, or is he listening to his coordinator's call plays? I don't know. Fascinating question. But those guys are all done. It's over.

This team fucking sucks. This quarterback isn't that good. Listen, Iber Fluse, destined to be a coordinator for someone. Getsy, no clue, don't really care. Do you know what Justin Fields is? He is a guy that another team. Atlanta, New England, maybe the Raiders. There are a lot of teams out there that are going to come around free agency

and then aren't going to potentially have a high enough pick. Maybe they don't like the guys that are going to be there when they draft or have a pretty good idea enough to feel great about not doing something in free agency. Well, look around the free agent quarterbacks. There aren't going to be any good ones. The best one by a mile is going to be a 36-year-old coming off of torn Achilles, which I would imagine Minnesota, maybe they do a, smaller deal coming off of Achilles, keep him around.

But who knows? But teams are going to be hesitant to pay anything of substance with the guy with that injury. To me, Justin Fields, can I just get the guy on basically a one-year contract? No one's picking up his fifth year option for like a mid-round pick? Because to me, that's kind of what he is. And I'm not guaranteeing my starter. That's where he's played his way out of it. He is no longer viewed around the NFL as a starting quarterback.

If you want to be good. it doesn't mean if you're given situation that he can't win the starting quarterback job. But like, we're all watching it. He's just, he's closer to a running back, but not really because he can't hold on to the fucking football. Great athlete, big arm, I loved him coming out of college. I was wrong. We can blame the offensive coordinator all you want. I don't think if you put him with Andy Reid or Sean McVeigh or Kyle Shanahan that he would look like some really good player.

I think he kind of is what he is. He's just a raw, toolsy guy who's not a natural quarterback. And you feel it when you want, he holds the ball too long, throws to the wrong spots, pretty inaccurate. Now, he can make some wow plays.

He can make some fantastic plays on the move. He's actually really good throwing across his body to his left, but he's not going to be the quarterback in Chicago next year. Zero chance. Obviously, they've played themselves

out of it a little bit with their pick, but it doesn't matter. They have Carolinas. So Caleb Williams, who, listen, Drake May, who I was high on was not good down the stretch of the college football season. His stock is trending down. Caleb Williams is going to be the starting quarterback next year for the Chicago Bears.

To me, the only question is who's going to be the coach? Because I would say Harbaugh should be all over this. But look who they typically hire. Assistant coaches that don't cost that much relative to a guy like him. So I don't have that much faith that he's going to be the coach. So I would say, I don't know. I have no clue. But I know that Iberfaluse is not going to be.

and I know that Justin Fields is not going to be there as well. So we can argue all day long every time the bears are playing, God, this and that, and Justin Fields and the scheme and the coach, who cares? It's all irrelevant. And on the Minnesota Vikings, in football it's not that complicated, right? There are your star players, which in a league full of one percenters, right, such a small percentage of people in college football, ever make it to the pros. Just like a tiny percentage of people in high school ever make it to play.

division one college football. So it's the elite of the elite. And then in that group, there is a group that separates, right? The star players, the all pro level guys. And the gap between them and the rest of the field is pretty wide, right? The gap between Mahomes, Josh Allen, Herbert, Lamar, Jalen Hurts, like that group, all the really good players, relative to like the 23rd best quarterback in the NFL is fucking wider than the Grand Canyon.

And then the gap between the star players and the backup quarterbacks is just dramatic. And any time that you force a backup, whether it's your linebacker, whether it's your guard, whether it's your slot receiver to play in a given game, they can play well.

You could start a backup on a given game and he could give you two sacks or score two touchdowns or have an interception and a force fumble. Like they can make plays. Happens all the time. But over the, course of a season, if I have to start a backup over and over and over again, it will not work.

And that guy will get exposed. That's the reason he's a backup. And I think you see that with Joshua Dobbs, who to me is a fantastic backup quarterback if I feel very good about my starter. If I'm Andy Reid, if I'm the Bills, if I'm the Ravens, if I have any of these teams, if I'm like the Eagles right now. Marcus Marriota is their backup. I would much rather have Dobbs. But part of the comfort he gives me is, let's face it,

if any of those guys go down for the season, we're all done. Like the likelihood of ever having Brock Purdy as your third string quarterback and being able to have injury after injury and still being able to make the playoffs

is an outlier situation. It's crazy that that happened. That is not normal. Usually your backup quarterback is just a random guy. And ideally, he only has to play a game. Maybe two starts, right? Like Chad Henning for Patrick Mahomes.

Keep the ship above water for when Mike's starter gets back. And to me, that's what Joshua Dobbs is. So everyone making fun of him that he's running? No, he's had some good moments as the starter with Minnesota and with Arizona. But the more accumulation that the other team gets a film on him, and the more that he has to play, the more he's going to be exposed. Football one-on-one.

I don't think any less of Joshua Dobbs just because he throws 10 interceptions on Monday night football. He's going to have those games. That's what any backup quarterback in the NFL will have. And when you see these guys around the league who, you know, some people

have been starters, like Derek Carr. Derek Carr got paid a lot of money to be good on the Saints. He's no longer any good. To me, he's trending to be a really good backup. He's no longer a starter who you feel good about. Now he would be on the high end of backups. Baker Mayfield, another example. Baker Mayfield is a backup. Now, he's starting every game, but just because you start every game doesn't mean that like truly you would be a starting quarterback on a good team because you would not. If you were, your team would be good. So I got a lot of respect

for Joshua Dobbs, everything he's done this season. And like tonight doesn't make me feel any different about him. If I was a team next year and had a highly paid quarterback, I would love to try to get him for two or three million dollars to be my backup quarterback. Because again, if that guy goes down for the season, my season is over. But if Jalen Hertz rolls an ankle, or like last year, when he missed a couple games and Dobbs as my backup quarterback, I feel good about it. I feel good about him in the locker room. I feel good about him on the field. I feel good about his knowledge in the playbook. I think he's clearly one of the best backups. Okay, let's start with the Panthers and everything that happened the day with Frank.

And it had been brewing for a couple weeks, Jay Glazer, who has been talking about it on Fox, that his seat was getting really hot, and basically that, you know, he was in trouble. And this was a couple weeks ago. And then we learned this morning on Monday morning that he was fired. And I saw this study. At first I got a theory. There was a study that's making the rounds on the inner web about good looking people. and how they're more likely to make more money.

And you would think like, God, good-looking women make more money than ugly women. It was actually about men. Good-looking men make more money, which kind of makes sense, right, in any field. I'm not talking like acting. I'm talking in any field. I don't know exactly how this study was done.

Maybe it was based on jawbone. But I was like, yeah, I could see that. And I kind of was thinking, I kind of have a theory that, you know, former players that become head coaches have this ability when they walk in the room

to just have a lot of alpha have a lot of just machismo that even if you were a super rich guy there's like intimidation might even be the wrong word but there's just like damn that is a dude

like if you ever been in a room and Mike Vrable or Jim Harbaugh walk in you're like god damn that's a fucking that's a big dude right there. And you just kind of stop and look, right? And I think you've seen two coaches, one who was just fired today and another guy that's going to get fired, they both kind of have

that as well. Like Frank Reich is a big dude. So when he walks in the room last year with David Tepper, or I guess it was earlier this year, and David had just blown everyone out, right, and needed a head coach, even though his resume in recent years had been pretty ugly. And Frank is not like part of Harbaugh and Mike Vrable and even Ron, there's kind of like this red ass craziness to him. That's not frang, known as a super nice guy. But he does have this like walk in the room. He looks the part.

So if you're this guy worth billions of dollars, you see a guy, the guy you just fired Matt Rule does not look the part. You did not give the job to Steve Wilk. So you're kind of looking, you want a guy with a little NFL experience. My theory is when you're a former player, you're a much. much more likely to get that second opportunity very fast. And we've seen it. Obviously, Vrable is good.

Harbaugh is good. Ron Rivera is not. He has three winning seasons in 13 years. But he got fired and then immediately got another job. Because when he walks in the room, like for an owner, it's like, yeah. And especially when you're an articulate, come from a good school. I mean, Ron's a cow guy. I don't even know where Frank went to school, but he just kind of feels like a smart,

intellectual guy. He stinks. he is a terrible, terrible coach. Whenever I hear people trying to defend him, I go, Frank would be one of the last guys I would want as my coach. Great guy. I'd want him around my quarterback, maybe as a position coach. But to be my head coach, I've never seen it.

When he got hired, when Josh McDaniels tapped out, he had never, he wasn't getting head coaching interviews. Hell, John D. Filippo at the time, their quarterback coach was the guy in the mix. So I've never quite understood it. It was baffling when they made the hire. Now, I'll give Frank this. He hired a lot of good assistants.

Spent three years around Duce Daly. He's easily one of the best assistant coaches I've ever seen. Honestly, might be the best position coach I've ever been around. Now, when I saw they fired him, it pissed me off. But I do, when I take a step back, take a deep breath. I get it. He fired Duce Daly and Josh McCown. Well, who are those guys?

Those guys are Frank guys. Right? So part of it is like those guys are going to be loyal to Frank. Don't blame you. That's the way, you know, loyalty works, right? Be loyal to your family. Be loyal to your business partners. Be loyal to the people who bring you up. I get it. But I think David Tepper has no freaking clue what he's doing right now. None. Great investor. Historical amount of money made. He paid cash for the team. His business story is incredible. But I've seen a lot of people. I've seen a lot of people. people saying he's he the modern day Dan Snyder. And I kind of laugh at that. If you Google Dan Snyder, because I was in like junior high when he bought the team, Dan Snyder made his money very, very early. Dan Snyder was loaded in his early 30s. Pretty sure he bought the Washington, they were Redskins at the time, like 35 years old.

Could be a little off on my age, but he was young. So if you get rich really early and you're crazy, like, Mark Cuban was crazy, got his money early. David Tepper is 66 years old. He's been rich for a while. When he took over this team, he had been around the Steelers for a long period of time. Now, part of it is maybe when he was around the Steelers, and listen, anyone who has mentored from someone who's successful, just because you look up to that guy doesn't mean you agree

with everything they do. And part of it is like, they hired Mike Tomlin. It worked. He hired, like, I can't blame him for fire. I can't. Frank is awful. He's not a very good head coach. That's objectively speaking. He's won 13 games the last three seasons as a head coach. No one ever is going to get fired in back-to-back seasons in the middle of the season. Urban Meyer lasted more games than this guy. Now, is David Teper the reason that they drafted Bryce Young? Because if that's the case,

like, that's a shit show of an organization. They tried to hire the Lions offensive coordinator last year. He told him the kick rocks he wasn't interested. So why would he be interested now? To me, a lot like the Bears, you need to blow this thing up. But it's a lot easier to blow up the Bears when you got one top 10 pick and the other number one overall pick. Plus, you got some good pieces. Got some defensive linemen. You got a corner. You got DJ Moore. You got some stuff to work with. Carolina has little to nothing to work with. In a quarterback that, let's face it, looks tiny. Like the conversation now, I was thinking about this the other day watching the Houston Jacksonville game.

It's not CJ versus Bryce. CJ has nothing in common with Bryce, especially today. It's like CJ, would you rather have CJ Stroud or Trevor Lawrence? That's the conversation I was thinking today. And I was like, if you factor in the contract, CJ's in year one, Trevor's, you know, in your three, so you're going to pay him sooner, I'd rather have CJ Stroud. So the conversation between the two guys, now would CJ look as good with Frank and that offense?

No. but no one could dispute if you just watch the two guys who you'd rather take and if it is true that coaching staff wanted CJ remember Josh McCown looked at him at the pro day

like we got to talk about places to live or places to eat I forget exactly what he said but everyone's thought like they're going to draft CJ Stroud and then the owner gets involved because when you're super rich and old you usually think you know a lot

even if there are times you don't we all know people or I would imagine most people listening that have some form of wealth not billions of dollars, but it might just be a small business owner that's doing well that does not need help from anybody makes decent coin.

I would imagine if that guy's in a 60s or 70s he's not Mr. Progressive when it comes to ideas in terms of his business. Why would he? He knows what works. So that's what makes it very complicated for these guys. David Tepper's like, I just fucking paid $2 billion in cash. I remember when he bought the team,

sold like $780 million with the Apple stock to pay for the transaction. You think this guy is going to look at these football coaches or a general manager that's been scouting and beating the bushes for the last 10 years? Like they know more about just operating than him, even though he should. And in football, the best organizations hire someone than let them cook. What's Jerry Jones' biggest mistake? That his ego got in the way of Jimmy Johnson, right? Like, why did Bill Walsh have a mental breakdown because Eddie de Bartolo was in his ass every single day. Say what you want about the crafts and Belichick and that situation right now. It's ugly. It really is. But for 20 years, once Bill proved, like, I know what I'm doing, they were hands off. They let him do whatever he

wanted. You want to trade Logan Mankins. You want to trade Richard Seymour. You want to trade. He did moves over and over that people were like, is Bill freaking insane? And be like, well, he's got four Super Bowls. Let him do Bill Belichick. And by the end, people were like, okay, let him do it. And that's why they won a lot. Now, most teams are going to have that level success? Of course not. But the only chance you have

as an NFL operation is to hire the right people, which is hard. I saw an athletic headline. This just proves that owners don't know what they're looking for with head coaches. Of course not. It's no different, like, general managers know what they're looking for with

quarterbacks. This is a human business. If it was up to David Teper to acquire a company, like I saw a quote that he had like six months ago. He put a lot of money in Uber. You knew who copied him? Your boy right here. Do you do turn, you know, decent amount of money into about 30% more? Your boy right here.

Guess what? It's still going up. Uber's been by far my best investment over the last six months, all because I was reading this finance article and David Teper put an astronomical, amount of money. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to follow his lead, and I did it. And it's worked out pretty well, because I have a lot of stocks that are in the tank. But when it comes to the football stuff, he's fucking clueless. He is. I, you know, most people in his situation probably would be too.

And I know he's getting quoted on Twitter, screaming F words, like, I don't blame him. It sucks. Pay all this money, and you're a laughing stock, it can't be easy. He's used to paying a lot of money and then getting more money back. That's not the way this works when it comes to football. Okay, the Giants. I got a text today from a buddy, and he said, have you recorded your podcast yet? I said, I have not. So I'm going to record the bulk of it after the Monday night football game.

He's like, are you going to talk about wink and dayball? I was like, yeah, I think I was going to. I'm probably going to, you know, wink, big ego guy, you know, button heads. I could see it not being easy. And he's like, pump the brakes, bro. You're way off. And listen, I'm not one. this podcast, 99% of it is opinions.

And a decent amount of them are based on things that I hear and I shape my opinions off the league. This was just legit information. I don't know anyone with the Giants. Know nobody with the Giants. Don't have any inside information there normally. Like, so when I talk about them, it's all just watching them from the outside.

So when I saw the report that Wink and Brian Dayball hate each other, I just said, well, you remember Wink and Harbaugh got after it. They let him walk. He wanted a lot of money, but Wink's an older guy, very good, big ego guy. Maybe there's button heads. And he said, let me tell you this. That coaching staff can't stand Brian Dayball.

The defense of coaching staff despises Brian Dayball. They think he's a clown. And yesterday, he's like, look at that video that went out. When Dayball, who's, you know, this is not, this is what I'm being told. which I say it's very credible. That Brian Dayball, pretty into Brian Dayball, and, you know, might be one of the first guys out the door, take some cigar breaks during the workdays,

and he's a guy, and this has been reported, that he constantly is MFing the coaches. It's one thing, if you are a screamer and a yeller, to yell at younger coaches, or even some of your position coaches, it's another thing to constantly yelling and motherfucking wink Martindale. And he definitely, from what I was,

told does that. So those guys can't stand because they say that's all he does. He doesn't offer any solutions. So he's just screaming and he's not actually saying like what he wants them to fix. And it's one thing, this is not something that just happened either this year when they started losing. I was told it was awful last year. Like that building can't stand him. I'm telling you. And I was like, God, I didn't know that. I just Brian Dayball from the outside, bald guy was kind of rooting for him. You find out this is his style. But then, To the players, he kisses nice because he doesn't want to revolt. So the players have no issue with him, but the coaches, not good.

And when you watch that video, what did he do? Throws the ball to him, knowing the camera's on. There was no bro hug. There was no embrace. Like when you really watch it, you go, is this kind of contrived? If anything I heard, I bet Wink is even more pissed that he did that to him. So this situation, and this, listen, this goes on all around the league. a lot of assistant coaches don't like their head coach.

But when you're a head coach, and listen, football is an aggressive sport, whether it's players, players, players coaches, coaches, coaches. It's uncomfortable constantly. That's not abnormal. Belichick, Nick Sabin, keep people on their toes. But they know everything they're talking about. So when you start screaming at people, which is, you know, some coach's style, you better not just scream to scream

like well what do you fucking think we should do you're the boss? Tell us right? And then when they don't think you know they start thinking you're a fraud and I'm just telling you this thing in New York is a little weirder than you think I didn't know much about it. I hadn't even thought about it honestly didn't care just because they'd been so terrible

but when I hear this like it's gonna be awfully interesting how this thing ends because if that's your reputation right Listen, Belichick had a reputation for being a disaster, right? But people, players wanted, when I say a disaster, meaning like, this is going to suck. This is really, but you know what you were guaranteed for 20 years to fucking win and change the course of your career as an assistant coach, as a player? Anyone associated with that organization. When I don't think you're any good and then we're losing, absolute train wreck.

And that's really what the Giants have been. and if they're not playing Mac Jones yesterday and part of it is this you start screaming at the defense who now for two years has been pretty good your offense is the disaster but he doesn't even call the offense so I don't know

some of this stuff I'm hearing on Brian Dayball is not great and that story that I don't know who put it out Jay Glazer or someone I think has a lot of merit to it animosity from what I've heard is not even close to strong

enough of a way to describe the situation. Heard is bad. Heard, it's really bad. And listen, there are probably other situations around the NFL that are the same. It just hasn't leaked out. And you're talking about people that make a lot of money, big egos. When you lose, man, you can't hide it. You can't.

It's one thing when you win, you just keep your head down. You keep swinging toward the next game. When you lose, that comes to a head. And I think we're seeing that happen. Like, that didn't leak randomly. Someone wanted it out. And I'm telling you, that defensive staff, if they were let out of their contracts yesterday, they'd be gone. They'd be running to the hill so faster head would spend.

A couple other things around the league. One thing I felt pretty good about coming into the season, and I've just, I've nailed. Listen, I've missed on some takes, and I'm going to miss on many more, but I've never liked Mack Jones. And I said that Mack Jones was going to get everyone fired. And it's gone even worse than I thought. I mean, I saw a lot of people that cover the team calling it his worst half ever. That feels strong to me, but it was pretty bad. He's not any good.

Now, we can say it's his confidence and Bill messing with him. When you're not good enough, you don't deserve to have your handheld. When you don't show any promise or any hope, I don't just have to build up your confidence. This is the pros. This is the big leagues. As a rookie or whatever, when I'm trying to build you up and figure out what you have, 100%. but after a while you have to show something. Like this is a two-way street.

So Bill last week, splitting the reps and practice, I don't blame him at all. Now, still going with Mac Jones, like maybe he can catch lightning in the bottle. He can't. He's not any good. He's God-awful. And like Justin Fields,

he's not going to be on that team next year. And I think it's pretty clear that Bill Belichick is not going to be on that team either. Listen, quarterback win-loss records. Like, they always say that the win or the loss, like your win-loss record is not a quarterback stat. And if you're a good player and you play for a long time, I kind of push back on that.

Eventually you're going to be a winner. You can have a rough season. But if you're a good player, if Justin Herbert is who Justin Herbert we think he's going to be, even with the Chargers, he's going to find a way to win games as they change coaches, right? And yesterday is a good example. Josh Allen lost the game.

I was thinking a lot about this. day. I technically could have played a little better because he threw the pick, but he was fucking incredible. And that game is going to be an L on his record when his defense screwed him twice. That final drive in regulation, I never understand when in a situation where, especially if it's a bad weather game, and they got to drive the field just to get in field goal range, when you start playing very, very conservatively in like a prevent defense, you're just giving play. and you're just giving free yards. And if they have a couple timeouts and they can get 30, 40 yards pretty quickly.

And when you're playing a team with good skill guys, all it takes is a broken tackle. All it takes is a missed, you know, a juke in space for a 10-yard gain to turn into a 23-yard game. And all of a sudden I flipped the field. So I hate it when teams change their defensive strategy just because they're scared. And then that final drive, like, he put him in position. He completed a ball to digs that got knocked out. Obviously, him and Davis weren't on the same page on that play. I don't know exactly who was wrong.

But either way, you can't watch that game and go, that guy's not a superstar because he is. And part of football is like, you need a good defense. If your defense sucks and you're lighting up the other team, like one thing Jalen has is, His defense just periodically makes some plays, and obviously he's a stud. Just a lot like Josh Allen, he is just a superstar, and you just have faith in him that he'll figure it out in every single game. He's honestly, the more and more I thought about it, I think he's my favorite player in the league.

Just in terms of, I love everything he stands for, the way he conducts himself. There was that video of when Elliot hit the field goal. He didn't even budge. He feels like he never selling it. Even the game winner, he just kind of looked at the crowd. I love that. Maybe it's like an homage to the way my dad raised me to be. I have a lot of respect for the way he operates, mentally and physically.

I mean, when it's just not going well and he's kind of limping around, he just fucking finds a way. Jalen Hertz is a certified badass. And that game, same with Josh Allen. That game, those two quarterbacks were basically the complete opposite of what we watched tonight. Last but not least. If you're a Bill's fan, if you're a Cowboy fan, if you're an Eagles fan, if you're a Niners fan, if you're a Patriot fan that remembers the good old days or a Bronco fan when Peyton Manning was, you know, the quarterback, can you imagine celebrating a game where it's like, listen, I know we scored 16 points, but we had 400 plus yards of offense.

I was thinking about it when, let's use the Niners, for example, because I watched them so closely. whenever they score 16, 17 points, which they did a couple straight games against the Bengals and the Browns and the Vikings, no one talked about the yards. Because it didn't matter. Why can't we score more points? Red zone turnovers, red zone inefficiency.

Like, what happened? Just purdy against the Bengals, for example, threw for like 350 yards. But they scored 17 points. It's like, all we talked, 17 points, 17 points. The Steelers wanted to throw a party because they accounted for over 400 yards of offense. You guys scored 16 fucking points.

I mean, how could you be excited? Like, listen, the point of the NFL, find a way to win, you don't get style points, but they are doing way too much celebrating. I don't feel any better about that. I don't care how many yards pick it through for. I don't care how much better this new coordinator is. If they're going to struggle like they have been

to score 20 points in every game, they're going nowhere. Now, if they can convert, 450 yards into 27 points moving forward, then yeah, we're talking about a different team. But like what the hell changed against Cincinnati Bengals? scored 16 freaking points. They were one of four in the red zone. I just, if that's where you're at, and I would imagine most Steelers fans aren't like super happy.

I mean, they're happy that Canada's gone, but aren't just anointing the franchise because they found a way to be productive from the 20 to the 20 yard line. but I think we need to pump the brakes until we get 25 points up on up there on the scoreboard. Let's get to the player that made it look easy, Morgan and Morgan. And I just talked about him,

but I'm going to talk about him again. No player that I remember can look, and maybe it's this year because he's been banged up, maybe it's a Super Bowl hanger, I don't know, but maybe it's the new offensive coordinator. consistently as bad early in the game. I mean, Jalen Hertz,

I can't count how many games I've watched this season in the first half where you're like, what are we doing? Where is the Jalen Hertz that we saw last year? What is going on? You're like, God, is this,

did they screw up? They pay them too much money? But his body language never changes. It was like, miss the play. I'll just walk over there. He'll talk Siriani. It'll sit on the bench

and he'll put his helmet back on. I'll come back out. And then you look, up, they've won the game, and he's accounted for five touchdowns, two on the ground, walk in the game winner. How the hell did this guy do that? There is something to be said. And listen, his adversity is unique, right?

He went to Alabama and then transferred to Oklahoma. So his football world, right, is, it's not like he had to walk on at Oregon State and then he transferred to Texas Tech or something. I mean, this guy wasn't football royalty when it come to college. But he was benched for Tuotongavailoa. He did have to transfer to Oklahoma. So he had adversity in his life. That is not disputable.

First class football adversity, but it was legit. And then he was drafted in the second round and was not named the starter by any means when he got to the NFL. And where he started at and where he is now is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. It truly is. Because let's use Josh Allen, who we were just talking about him with because they just played.

be like, well, Josh Allen improved a lot from college. He was taken seventh overall. You take a guy seventh overall, you think the guy could be a star, which he has become, but they believed in it. Not a soul thought that about Jalen Hertz. There wasn't one NFL draft board, not one, including the Eagles, that had a guy as a first round grade. The guy wasn't even viewed as a first round player.

So to become, and most people, like let's face it, I was not alone thinking the guy, you know, he's really more of a running back. I mean, early on in his career, that's what he looked like. And he's become such a potent deep ball thrower. He's just so consistent as a player in terms of just every game you know what you're going to get. It might take a minute for it to get there, but you know it's going to come. He's just a badass. I mean, he truly is.

If you like the NFL, even if you're a cowboy fan, a Giants fan, a Niners fan, or whatever, and you want to hate the Eagles, you got to respect this guy. I can't have any more. Honestly, he earned even more my respect in that game on Sunday. In the rainstorm after they had just won a Big Chiefs game. They got the Niners game coming up. Even if they blew the Bills game, it's not the end of the world. He just refused to let them loose.

And when you watch the Eagles now, he refuses to let them loose. Morgan & Morgan Player of the Week, Jalen Hurts. 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 for thepeople.com slash john. dial pound law, pound 529 from yourself. That's F-O-R-the-people.com slash john or pound law 529. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.

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

A win is a win. I don't care what 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?

Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s.

To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so 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. So, Oh. Thank you for finishing that sentence.

Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, let's dive into the mailback.

Easiest way to get in. Instagram, my name, at John Middlough. Fire in those DMs. Get your questions answered here on the show. We'll start with Liam. Mailbag question. Saw your tweet about David Teper. Might have been a little angry that he fired my guy, Deuce Staley,

who is easily one of the better assistant coaches and running back coaches in the league. Now, we talked about it earlier. I get it, but it makes me angry. It just does. Because Deuce left the Lions, Dan Campbell was his guy, to go be closer to his mom who was aging. And who knows how much longer she was going to be around. He went there for family.

God, it ticks me off still. Who do you think will reign in the NFC South in the future? Who is the top team in the division going forward? Well, I think it's wide open. Right? Let's face it, the Saints are a debacle. They pay Derek a lot of money, and he's just not good anymore. Might be the offensive coordinator as well.

The combination doesn't work. Dennis Allen's not a good head coach. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers need to reset the franchise. They really do. They know that. They're eating a bunch of money this year. The Carolina Panthers. no work i mean they don't even know coach in the Atlanta falcons you know definitely i would say a

quarterback away from being a lot better than they are but it's how do you get that quarterback you know i mean it there's no guarantee that you just snap your fingers and get that guy now if somehow this offseason kiler murray becomes available could they trade for him could they move up in the draft and draft a guy high but if they do that there's no guarantee he'll be any good so i i would say TBD with not a lot of good options. And I think anytime that you're in that position, it's a problem. And that division right now is in a quarterback situation where they're just not any good. Cam Newton was started there for a decade, right?

You had Drew Breeze a starter there for 15 years. You had it in Atlanta, Matt Ryan, a starter there for 15 plus years as well. Like you lose those guys. It's hard to hit the reset button. And this is typically what happens. Long time listener. First time reaching out. Question.

During the NFL season, if a team is facing a sub-500 opponent, do they attempt to use some sort of time to try out new run plays or pass route concepts? While you never want to totally overlook a team you expect to be bad, look at how Arizona put Dallas on their ass. Do teams do this? Hey, I've got this new scheme we've been working on to practice. Let's try it Sunday. I actually think you're less likely to try.

try things that you potentially could use. Like if you're a playoff team and you're playing a team that has a couple wins, right? Let's just say you're the Eagles or the Cowboys or the Niners. And you're in this hypothetical situation playing the Carolina Panthers. I think you're less likely to bust things out and more likely just to run what you always run. You leave the bust out stuff.

Like the Niners and Eagles, this is a week when they bust some stuff out. In two weeks, the Cowboys versus the Eagles, that's a week when you try to bust some stuff out. Bill's desperation against the Eagles, you don't do it when you're playing the fucking Jets. If any, especially, you go into the game, you have to prepare in any game, because I got yelled at when I first got in the NFL from making fun of bad

teams to an assistant coach when I was like, I think, handing out the injury report or the weather report. And he kind of scolded me, you cannot act like that in this league. And I agree, you can't act like that going into a game. No one ever anointed more teams, coaches, and schemes than Belichick in the Brady years when he would play the worst teams imaginable, and then he'd just go on a 10-minute diatribe in his press conference about how great they are in special teams.

Like, what is this guy talking about? But he had to psych himself out. Now, once you get in that game and you're up 25 to nothing, you're not going to run some double pass or maybe some new ideas with blocking schemes with your offense. Same thing with defense, right? If you can just play your base defense and beat the team, there's no point to start doing some stunts or maybe some blitz concepts or some different coverages to put that out there for your upcoming opponents that matter. Now ultimately, I think sometimes we overthink football.

You know, it's just a game. Do I got better players and my go-to place? And sometimes can my player pull a play out of his ass? Right. Obviously, the NFL is a scheme-oriented sport. But like at this point in time, if you're playing the Chiefs, the Ravens, the Cowboys, the Niners, the Eagles, like, kind of know what they do. you know what their strengths and weaknesses are all of a sudden one of their players isn't going to do something completely different more than likely and expose you not saying that it can't happen

but you got a pretty good idea coming in like what Chris Jones, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelsey and their DBs like to do I know Lamar's strengths and weaknesses like I know what Debo and Iuk the rafts they like to run right now you can have a wrinkle or two but I think sometimes that gets

a little overvalued at the highest level These teams know what's going on. Right? If I'm playing the Eagles, like, I got a pretty good idea what Jalen likes to do. Loves that quarterback sneak up the middle. Hell, they pull offensive linemen. Love throwing the go routes.

Jalen in the quick game isn't terrifying me. I'm not saying that he can't hit those, which he will with ease. But to me to stop the Eagles, if I'm the Niners this week, it's all about how do we slow down his first down runs, not like on first down, but like if it's third and seven,

either just he scrambles for a first down or design runs up the middle and two how do we limit their explosive place. I mean it sounds basic but that's fucking what they do on offense. I recently heard your pod where you said look at athletes a lot like stocks. I'm the co-founder of a startup that allows athletes to sell equity in their career and values fans get to invest in it the same way like Apple or Google in a federally regulated marketplace. My team and I would like to chat. You know, listen, I'm not all for entrepreneurship, and that sounds like an interesting idea.

I wonder how difficult that would be to actually monetize. Right? But shit, if you got in Patrick Mahomes, that rookie season when he was the backup, be like getting in into video. A big shout out to Three and Out. Appreciate you. I found you from listening to The Herd, and I find myself excited to listen. Don't tell Coward.

I love a show too. I enjoy your move down to Earth Takes, and the profanity is refreshing. I love your takes on Ranocale. This is just positive. positivity about me. I'm not going to hate it. Kellen Moore, I guess this was just, wasn't even a question. Just positive. I appreciate you, Matt.

I think the winner of the NBA midseason tournament should get a guaranteed 10-seat in the playoffs. Thoughts. I don't have many NBA mid-season tournaments be lying if I've watched much. I get back to, you know, they are manipulating it, rightfully so, trying to boost television ratings. But I just, I have a hard time

putting any value into it. So my take on that would be no. You can't just pull something out of your ass. I just, at least the play in tournament, a lot like the seven seeds in the NFL or the new wild cards in baseball, you have to win games over the course of a season. Like you have to earn your way there.

Just playing a couple weeks. Honestly, the in-season tournament is just a tournament while the regular season's going on. Like, I'm sorry, Adam Silver, you're not the EPL. This isn't soccer. So I have a hard time valuing And I've heard other people say this Automatic 6 seed or automatic

You know top 10 seed like no No chance Call me grouch Call me old man on a cloud But you can't just pull something out of From nowhere that has never happened in this sport And get a playoff spot I can't get behind it

You want to give them money which they are Even though giving $500,000 To a guy making $50 million Is not as great. crazy as it sounds. Now, I've seen a lot of players say it's cool to go to their two-way players, but I'd be lying. And I'm not trying to be a hater here, but it's hard for me to get too emotional and really have a take about the end-season tournament. Kind of apathetic at this point. My question is, do you think that Joe Burrow could be the next Andrew Luck in terms of injuries

due to the sacks? Luck was sacked 115 times in 55 games. Burrow sacked 148 times. And in 52 games. In the playoffs, luck was sacked 11 times and Burrow sacked 29 times. Well, I hear you in the sense that they both, you know,

obviously Burrow had a major knee injury early on in his, was that his rookie year? It would have been his rookie year. That was offensive line related. I have a hard time putting this hand injury on the offensive line.

Now, big picture, you can't take that many hits. Right? And Burroughs more athletic than like Brady and and Peyton, right, who to me, like him, Mahomes, I mean, even Josh Allen, like if you watch Josh Allen against the Eagles and you can't go, this guy has the opportunity to be one of like top 15, 10 quarterback of all time, long way to go. Then I don't know what to tell you.

Like he's just, he's like my John Elway. Patrick Mahomes is just, to me, probably the best quarterback. I've seen of his generation, obviously. You could argue one of the best ever. He's already up there with like Peyton, a couple of, MVP's. I know Peyton won like four or five, but Rogers won four or five, but he already has multiple Super Bowls. And he just consistently dominates the NFL and he's like 27, 28. Well, to me, Joe Burrell has a chance to be right there. I would say one thing that Peyton and

Brady do that those guys don't do because they're all kind of have some mobility. Obviously Josh has the most. Mahomes and Burroughs are great examples, guys that can move, but really look to throw. You have to just get down. And I think one thing Brady and Manning did is they hit the fucking ground. No one's questioning anyone at that level's toughness. These guys are so elite, all tough guys. You can't play quarterback at that level without being a tough guy. But you can't take the unnecessary hits.

Now, some of it's obviously not on him, but I think that's one thing big picture he's going to have to learn to do is just avoid some of this stuff. And I think the hand injury, I have a hard time putting that on anyone except just wearing terror and injuries, unless I'm missing something. I haven't seen a video where he got slammed on his hand. could be wrong. You know, don't try to balance my time of just Twitter and internet, and that's usually where you find stuff like that.

But I haven't seen anything like that. So again, if I'm wrong, shame on me. But I wouldn't go there quite yet. But yeah, it's definitely, it's okay to say, Burroughs injuries are a concern. Burroughs injuries are a concern. Shattered his knee, came back, flying colors, team of Super Bowl. Right? A couple years later, season ending hand injury.

So however he gets it, I don't view him quite like luck Because part of, I feel like luck took more shots Again, I know the statue just gave me, but just from the eye test, It felt like he physically got hit more often than Joe more violently Maybe the league was a little more violently early on, you know, 14, 15, 16 Let's face it, just seven, eight years later, it's a different NFL I mean, look at Dremont puts a guy in a fucking chokehold and gets spent in five games The NBA, I grew up on it, be a technical

and a thumbs up. Okay, big fan of three and out, long time. Listen, I'm a big believer in Purdy, but it does seem fair to want to see him play well and come from behind situations. More often before we put him in the elite tier with Mahomes and Burrow. Do you think he is capable of it and more of a Kyle issue than we've seen this year? Or is it possible limitations with experience or other things that have prevented Purdy from getting it done? I will say he led them to a field goal range against Cleveland and Moody missed it. Well, like, that's, you just threw out two names there. Patrick Mahomes, who like already is like entrenched as a top six or seven quarterback of all

time and he's not even to his 30 or 30th birthday yet. And Joe Burrow, another guy who looks like he's headed to be a top 10 quarterback ever, health permitting. So look who we're comparing him to. 18 months ago, think about that. I'm recording this on November 27th. Brock Purdy was 2003.

Brock Purdy was drafted essentially like May 1st, 2022. So we're talking 18 months. This guy was drafted in the last

pick of the seventh round. That's who we're talking about. So comparing him to like, Burrow, that seems insane. Mahomes won the MVP a second season. Right?

And was his first round pick? Joe Burrow was the number one overall pick. This guy was viewed as like a not even a backup. helped by the fucking 49ers. The 49ers had paid Nate Sudfeld

$2 million guaranteed to be the backup. Pretty just beat him out. And I don't even blame him. Like they needed a backup. You can't depend on your seventh rounder. This is where I get uncomfortable with comparing him.

In a vacuum, Brock Purdy's a really good player right now. He is thriving on the 49ers. Comparing him to like Hall of Fame level guys is unfair to him. Now, in a couple years, more than fair.

Right? To start nitpicking him. But right now he's a fucking seventh round. picking the shit out of everybody. Gino Smith makes to sign for $60 million. Brock Pardy ran circles around him. So, yes, has to come back. But they're not in comeback situations a lot

when he's the quarterback. That's like one of the problems because they blow everyone out. And when they were against Cleveland, he let them right down. This is a big game against Philly. Philly should be exhausted this week. They play Kansas City in a knock-down drag-out

Monday night game in cold weather, tough conditions. six days later they play the bills who are desperate as a you know what in a driving rainstorm in an overtime game and they pull both games out. Credit to them. Incredible to watch. Like that team knows how to win. Like the diners should fucking put a hammer on them this week just because they run out of gas.

Honestly, I wouldn't even blame Philly. Much more important this week for the diners than the Eagles once the Eagles won that Bills game. but if they are in a situation where they're like down five in the fourth quarter, yeah, it's on the quarterback and on the coach. Like Kyle Shanahan has never come back down a touchdown in the fourth quarter as a head coach. Never happened. It's kind of crazy.

So like, I think he needs to figure that out as well. I have faith pretty can figure it out. Is it really believable that Harbaugh didn't know what was happening in his own program? I live in the Louisville area and when you know what hit the fan with college basketball, everyone here kept saying, Rick Patino didn't know anything. I think he's talking about the hookers. I find it impossible to believe that these coaches who literally eat, sleep and breathe, their sport are clueless about what's going on in their own program. Oh yeah, and Michigan wasn't good and didn't even come to pay gym until Connor got hired. Wasn't good was strong.

They were underachieving. They were winning, you know, nine, ten games. Now they're winning 13, 14 games. So I think there are a couple things going on. For example, I had a buddy talked to a college coach the other day and he said, and I've heard this a million times, that program was using NIL before NIL ever existed, basically saying that team was paying guys under the table. And forever in the SEC, and I've seen Danny Connell tweet this, they've been cheating their ass off for fucking decades. And listen, I've never had a problem. And listen, I've never had a problem with handing a kid 50, 100 grand, give him a car. I don't care. It's what in my world we call capitalism. It's what we call what you have to do to be successful. You do whatever. It's not breaking

the law. That's an NCAA issue with a bunch of overeducated loser administrators who you wouldn't fucking trust to walk your dog across the street. But this notion that like there are these outlier situations, for example, the Rick Patino thing. They got some hookers on campus. These are 17, 19, year old guys. Like, who cares? Like, I'm on phase by all. What do you think's going on with a 20-year-old at Louisville or at Kentucky or Duke? This is one of my issues.

I like Jay Billis a lot. I really do. But he's talked forever about players not getting paid before now. It's like, Jay, you cover college basketball, which is not only way more corrupt than football because there's less premium assets, right, with the players. the top 10 guys are so valuable. Recruits in college football are very risky. There's a million fucking players.

Like the best running back in the country, one of them is arguably a cow right now. He went to Norco High School in L.A. Any team could have had him. But he wasn't the biggest recruit. Now like Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, they'll probably try to pay him this offseason to get him to transfer.

In college basketball, that rarely happens. The Steph Curry stories, it's usually his eye on. Anthony Davis, usually the top recruits or the top draft picks. And they have been paying, it's one thing in football for me to get a player if I'm at Alabama back in the day, 60 grand. Most people aren't offering them huge cash. We're in basketball, 60 grand, their family would hang up on you. And these college basketball programs have been doing shady shit.

When I think basketball, in the high level of college and the NBA, I think two things. Basketball women. I'm sorry, that's just part of the deal. And I'm not bothered by it, but I think it's very disingenuous. When people talk about, like, oh, I can't believe, can't believe what? Everything was fucking. John Wooden had a bag man. He was a lawyer in L.A.

So, Jim Harbaugh, cheating. You ain't cheating, he ain't trying. This is football. This is Mike Elko just got $7 million a year for five years. There is so much money in the line, you do everything. I don't know what industry you're in, but every industry I've ever been a part of, everyone's pushing the envelope. With football to radio to now with. podcasts. There's a difference between pushing the envelope and quote unquote breaking a law.

Because if you can't go to jail, then whatever. If you ain't trying someone else will, turn on any of these shows about these successful companies. It's going to make you a little uncomfortable what they did. But guess what? They did it for a reason. It's usually why they got to the top. So that he had some dude, some Marine in Iowa, Nebraska, like I'm sorry. I just watched Michigan with their a 37-year-old former, I was like, how old is this guy? He's younger than me.

The interim coach, Sharon Moore, beat Ryan Day. Clearly, they don't have signals or anything, and if they did, Ohio State clearly changed it, beat him straight up. Now, Ryan, they played him well. But an interim coach who was filling in for Harbaugh, who's at home, you know, eating a sandwich

and drinking whole milk, Beat him. Straight up. So, like, remember when Brady and Grigsin was like, oh, they're deflating the ball? And then Tom Brady and the Patriots fucking destroyed everybody. So it's like, if you can't back it up, if I catch you cheating and you were literally a fake, like Millie Vanilly. So it's like, wait, you can't actually sing. Some of you guys are going to be too young to know what that reference is.

But like it was completely not his voice. He was just lip syncing. Complete fraud. Right? Like Enron. Complete fraud company. Bertie Madoff. Ponsi scheme.

Right? But if you don't think fucking Google or Amazon or Chase Bank or fucking whoever, the Patriots, the Niners, Bama is doing some shit that's like, eh, it's probably not above board. You got your head under the sand, man. We live in a world where you're either playing the game or you're getting played. And if you want the action, it's usually on the edges, right? It usually gets a little hot in the kitchen.

Sometimes you get burned. Now, they got caught. You know, part of pushing the envelope. If you get caught, then you got to deal with the consequences. consequences. But I have a hard time to be like, is he no, no or didn't know? I don't know. Like, all these players historically in the cheating scandals in college sports with paying players, there was always like a separation between the head coach. So it's like the head coach never handed anyone the money. The head coach, it's why what's his name, Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee,

got in trouble because his wife was handing people cash. You deserve, there's a moron tax in life. You think Nick Saban has ever handed anyone cash in a bag? Of course not. You think Bama has ever paid? I'm talking pre-NIL. People a shitload of money to come to school there. What do you think? Georgia, Ohio State, USC?

Come on. Of course they have. That's why they dominate. You think they want to lose? Fuck no. Right? If you got the funds and you want to win, the world's your oyster.

But if you get in trouble, that's on you. Do I think that he specifically told him what to do? Probably not. Do I think that he had some idea what was going on? Yeah, I do. Do I care? Not one iota. Do I care that these basketball players forever got paid hundreds of thousands of dollars? Of course not. Does it bother me a little bit when people that are in the nope acted like it didn't happen? Yeah, it does. Because I think it's very, it's like we live in this giant Fugazi. No one ever wants to say anymore what's actually going on. It's crazy. It's what bothers me the most about society and just politics in general. Let's just call fucking Spade Spade. It's okay. No one cares. That's why I hope football just breaks off from the NCAA. Stop listening to those people. Just do what you got to do, make it about money, and let's just be numb to it and play football.

And maybe that's the wrong way for the health of the sport big picture. But that's where we're headed. That's where we're headed. Because that's the way the big boys have always treated it. right football comes first football has always come first at Ohio State at Michigan at LSU at Alabama at Georgia at Texas

they just they care and when you care a lot about something whether anyone listening to this knows if they're an entrepreneur if they work at a company they'll do whatever it takes they'll do whatever it takes and sometimes that's doing something that isn't allowed you know I don't know Ethan Strauss put this in an article the other day.

I followed him on Substack. Peter Goober, the Hollywood executive, he's now co-owner of the Golden State Warriors, basically has a famous quote that just, and this encompasses sports, this encompasses business, this encompasses life. There are no rules,

but break them at your own peril. And I kind of, I've always lived like that. I've never been a big rule guy. If I cut colored within the envelope, fuck, I wouldn't be sitting here. I promise you that.

I'm not talking about breaking laws and going to jail. I'm just talking about pushing the envelope. If you're unwilling to push the envelope, you're going to get lapped. It's just a fact. And Harbaugh is willing to do it. No different than Belichick's willing to do it. No different than the Astros.

Obviously, there are different levels of it. Stereoi, you name it, right? How many people do you think you're going up against in business are on a PED, or on, some form of something. And I don't mean like you're not playing football again. I just mean maybe

some sort of enhancer to give them energy. Like not everyone's just drinking coffee. He's like, how's this guy working all the time? Well, probably not just, you know, lemon water. Hey John, long time miserable charger fan.

Assuming Staley gets fired during or after the season, who do you think the chargers should look to hire? I'm not opposed to giving Kellan a shot, but with the Spanos being cheap, I'm terrified we're going to hire another guy over his head. Well, I think the big question now is do they fire Telesco?

And I would imagine they do. But to me, that is the game-changing question when it comes to the Chargers. Because are they starting from scratch? Are they going GM coach? Would they hire a coach that talks down to their GM in the hierarchy? I don't mean like literally professionally. Right? Because before they've had AJ Smith, they chose him over Marty.

Now they've had Telesco, who's obviously in charge of personnel. The coach is not. That's a huge question. And until we know that, it's hard to know. Do they want a package deal? I don't know. I think they're really at a crossroads. And listen, I make fun of them a lot for being cheap because that's what their history says.

I didn't make that up. That wasn't my take. Everyone knows that. But I think the question now is you invested all this into Herbert. Are you willing to go the extra mile? or are you just going to keep being the butt of people's jokes? And the butt of people's jokes, like the Raiders were the butt of people's jokes or the Browns for a long time

because they always sucked. It's like, what is going on here? The charges are the butt of everyone jokes because like, how do you not win more? Like, you've got good players. All the good teams would want your players. How does this happen? And the answer is, it starts with ownership.

This crossed my mind this weekend, and I'm not sure there is a plan in place to address it, but somehow came to reality. What would the college football playoff committee do if Army or Navy were somehow to go undefeated into their week 15 matchup after the playoff field had been announced? Always had the same thought for

if either team had an outstanding player emerge as a Heisman candidate, ballots would be due prior to the biggest rivalry game of that player's season. Obviously neither team would really be in the mix for the 14th playoff, but with the 12-team playoff, you never know. Both these teams absolutely suck right now, but they did each flirt with the rankings in the teens and ranges of the 2010s. I think there are some things in life that you could argue are so far-fetched that you just do a, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

If that's ever the case, an Army or Navy was in the mix as an undefeated team, I think with a 12-team playoff, maybe they'd just throw them in. if one team was legitimately undefeated, but it doesn't feel like they've even come remotely close to that. And obviously they both suck right now. I also think that depending on their schedule on a given year, because they're both independents, right? I think you could just make the argument like you don't deserve it.

Like if San Diego State went undefeated, like they're not going to the playoff. And I think one thing's clear. And I saw them interview Jonathan Smith. I think when he got to Michigan State, not like the actual press conference, but just he got up the plane, some reporters were there,

and they asked him how long he was thinking about this. And he essentially said a long time. And I think ultimately what he meant was the moment we got asked out of all these conferences, I was done at Oregon State. And this is a guy that played at Oregon State. Think about that. He played quarterback at Oregon State

and then became the head coach there. This was his alma pack 12. They were paying him like five million bucks. but like it's over. I think non-power-5 teams are done. The separation, when I saw that Elko got set, they paid someone $75 million to go away and they gave their next coach $7 million a year.

The separation with the TV contracts of the Big Ten and the SEC and even the ACC and the Big 12 is going to wipe, like Fresno State, San Diego State, how are they going to exist? Because even if they do get a good player, do you know what I would do? if I'm Oregon or USC or Texas or Alabama,

I'm going to fucking take them. I'm going to cut the check. I'm going to, what can they give you? 75 grand? I'll give you 250 grand. And a scholarship to play on TV with everyone watching. It's just over. I truly, and listen, I am a product of D1A.

I got my start in football at Cal Poly, who's obviously, you know, D1A is a low level, relative to what we're talking about. But Fresno State, changed my life. And when I was at Fresno, Pat Hill took a lot of pride, anybody, anytime, anywhere. In the conferences, there were five conferences, you could schedule, we played with Wisconsin. We played, who do we play? Wisconsin, Cincinnati, who else did we play that was really good and big? I mean, but over his tenure, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ohio State, Kansas State,

you name it. He would play any team that would play him. USC, UCLA, we played UCLA. Those teams to me with the 12 team playoff, I wouldn't even play these non-power five teams. I just think they're all going to play each other. And the television revenue, which is paying for everything, like the NFL would never play the XFL or the UFL. They just play each other.

They keep all the revenue themselves. Why would you want to share any revenue? Like Auburn, they lost in New Mexico State and they paid them $1.5 million. Why wouldn't you just, in the future, even if you're going to lose that game, you don't pay anybody anything. You're just like, let's just do a home-and-home with fucking Arizona.

Why would you play a, team that's not on your level. Those days are done. I think those schools, and I'm telling you, I'm not saying this out of joy. Without Fresno State, there is no chance on God's Green Earth. I just, I'm sitting here right now doing this. No chance. None.

Without that program, who knows? Because I graduated in 2008 into the financial crisis. I didn't even know it was going on. Why? Because I lived in this football world where I was just a G. I didn't make any money anyway. Couldn't even tell you that it was happening. I mean, I kind of knew, but I didn't, it didn't impact me.

Not that it would. I mean, I made $12,000 working for Fresno State. But that set me on a path ultimately to where I'm sitting here, whatever, 15 years later. And I just think those programs, that program was way healthier than, than now. Because we had so many NFL players. How would Fresno State have been able to keep Ryan Matthews? Derek Carr, Logan Mankins, that they couldn't. Most of the best players on those teams,

and this speaks for all these little programs. It's going to be hard, honestly, for the mid-tier Power 5 teams. Like if you're Kansas State, how do I keep you if I'm Georgia or Ohio State or Michigan and I want that player? I can't. Hell, if I'm Michigan and you're playing at Iowa,

it's like, hey, you want to come here? Ohio State. Hell, that happens now. So I think the big picture I think Navy and Army And honestly I think this should happen I think those teams Navy Army And I I'm a

No one Grew up at a house that cared about America more than mine So I am pro I have nothing but respect For the guys that play ball there And I've been to that game When I worked for Philly I think my second year

Obviously I don't know where It kind of goes back and forth Between like the Raven Stadium The Eagles Stadium I went, it was cool as shit. It was awesome. But, like, those teams should not make the playoffs. I'm sorry.

They just shouldn't. And I think there should just, if you're not in the Power 5, to me, my solution would be simple. Once they do this realignment, and they're going to end up realigning more, but the Power 5 teams only play the Power 5 teams. You don't play anybody else. And then if you're not in the Power 5, but you're not D1 to Belay, right, the Fresno States, Boise States, Army navies of the world, you just play each other.

and Oregon State, Washington State are now that. And do you know what sucks is Oregon State and Washington State deserve better because they tried it football? Oregon State's coach was the last six years is a baller. That guy, Michigan State, I'll promise you this, will not be that guy's last job. I would stake my claim, Jonathan Smith's going places. Once upon a time, Washington State was in shambles.

And I'll never forget watching the press conference. had this AD who used to be the, I think the CEO of like Pizza Hut, business guy, rare in college athletics. Most of these guys are want to be business guys. They're fundraisers and they get taken to the woodshed by Jimmy Sexton. I forget the guy's name, but he was asked when he was going on a coaching search. They said, are you going to use one of those committees to help you find a coach? He said, yes, we have a committee.

It's a committee of one and you're looking at them. And a couple days later, Mike Leach was their head coach. So over the last decade, we've seen Mike Leach turn Washington State into just a legit program. In Jonathan Smith, win eight to ten games at a program that I got news for you has no business going above 500. So those teams, because, I mean, the Big Ten was not going to offer them, just got fucked. Like, they care about football. They really try at football. And they have consistently won at football.

But they're screwed. I mean, it pains me to say this because I grew up in a town. UC Davis is obviously not athletically on that level, but kind of similar. I knew a lot of people that farmers, construction workers,

like blue-collar people that were educated, they had college degrees, and they went to schools like Washington State and Oregon State. I feel like I know those people, even if I don't know them all. And they're just fucked from an athletic standpoint. It's over. It's over.

Last year they were making, I think, like, 35 plus give or take million dollars from the conference. Well, the Mountain West pays five. They're going to have to fire a lot. Like, the athlete, it's just done. And it sucks. It's not fair. And honestly, I got a little emotional watching football this weekend. The Oregon State Oregon game and the Washington State Washington game.

Those games will never happen. The Civil War and the Apple Cup will never happen again. Like the Egg Bowl, the Iron Bowl, those are going to continue. Ohio State, Michigan. like those aren't going to stop USC, UCLA. Those games, like, I've been watching football for 30 years. I grew up on those games. I grew up watching these programs.

And part of the cool part about having the underdog is sometimes they beat the big dog. I remember when in the driving fog rainstorm, Oregon State took down USC on like a Thursday or Friday night in the peak carol era. You know, I've seen Washington State when a lot of upset big games. It sucks.

It does. And honestly, it kind of hurt. Even though I get it, I understand. understand, grow or you die, you got to adapt, things change, business fucking, it's part of the deal. Right, but it did, it was sad. It was sad. But it is what it is.

Of all you. 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 helped make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Street or Scy Idle 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. 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. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.