The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Peacock Wild Card, London Jags Inevitability, Caleb Williams ‘Process’, Mailbag

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

John discusses the NFL’s announcement that will broadcast a Wild Card game exclusively on NBC’s streaming only Peacock service, if the Jags back-to-back London games proves an eventual move across the pond is inevitable, if any NFL team will ‘Trust the Process’ and NBA tank for USC QB Caleb Williams, and if Matt Ryan can work in the broadcast booth. He also answers listener questions in the Middlekauff Mailbag. Follow John onTwitter, 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.

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

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volume. What is going on? John Middlecock, three and out podcast. Happy Tuesday. Well, it's a podcast, so you really could be listening to this on any day. I'm recording this a little bit after the breaking news, which I'm glad it broke before I recorded. Peacock and the NFL will have a playoff game, the Saturday night wildcard weekend. exclusively on Peacock.

Streaming only. So we will dive into that. I dove into more depth about some of the details of the schedule. Double-headers on Monday night don't love. Thursday night schedule. The Jags, the back-to-back games in London. Is that inevitable? I mean, is that where the NFL is going to send the Jags?

They can say they're not going there all they want. Sure feels not just very likely, but inevitable. so a lot of football talk. Here's the plan. This podcast, we will have a PGA championship preview on Wednesday. And then surely probably more football talk later in the week. Middlecoff mailbag at the end of this show. At John Middlecoff is my Instagram.

Fire in those DMs. If you could, you know, if you feel like it, leave a review on the three and out podcast feed. Make sure you subscribe to that feed. Appreciate everyone that's been listening. check out the volume.com, the merch. Got some go-low hats. They look good. Golf, second major of the year, baby.

Let's buckle up. And any other housekeeping? I don't know. We're live on AMP. Download that AMP app every day of the week. Watch all of our content on YouTube. I'm a good company guy, aren't I? What else?

Yeah, I think that's it. Again, Middlecoff mailbag, fire in those DMs, got a lot of questions to ask at the end of the show. A lot of football talk. Let's have a week. Do you want to go to a game? Do you want to go to a concert? Do you want to do something this summer? Get out of the house. Enjoy yourself. Get some sun. Go to a baseball game. Hell, they're only two and a half hours now. Here's what I need you to do. Go to your smartphone. Go to the app store and download the GameTime app.

Download Game Time. They just happen to be the official ticketing app of this podcast. Type in the promo code John, J-O-H-H-N and get $20 off any pair of tickets. concerts, comedy shows, basketball games, hockey games, football games this fall. You want to go to, I was just meeting with someone in a different business,

and he's like, you know, I'm from Madison, Wisconsin. I'm like, Badger fan, he said, die hard. Well, you want to go to a game this fall? Your family still lives there. They want to go. I got you covered, get you a little discount. Download game time right now.

promo code, J-O-H-N. Well, well, well, we had some breaking news today. and, you know, I'd say it was a curveball. It is the first NFL playoff game that is going to be streaming only on Peacock. And NBC's been doing this for a while, right? They put different content that they own. I'm a golf guy, obviously, so in the past couple years, they own a piece of major golf tournaments, like the players that they've owned major

championships as well before. think they do currently, and they would put parts of it strictly on the streaming service. Now, this is a little unique because it's the only where to find the Saturday night wildcard game is going to be on Peacock. And we talked about it a lot last year with Amazon. This is where it's all headed. Now, a little bit, I was thinking of like an analogy for this. It's probably like swimming, right?

If you're listening to this and you're a parent and you got a young kid, three, four years old, they start taking swimming lessons. They're being held. They got floaties. You know, by the time they get eight, nine, ten, they're doing flips, diving into the deep end, and you don't even think twice about it. It feels like that is what the NFL is doing with these streaming platforms. Over the last couple years, they started dabbing their feet, dipping their toe in.

Now they're full on in the pool. And within the next five, seven years, they'll be in the deep end. and doing flying squirrels off the rock, and not even hesitating. It's inevitable where we're headed. Now, I understand a lot of people have pushed back about internet, streaming services, wherever you may live. I can only relate to the office I'm sitting here right now.

I've had YouTube TV and have had no issues. Now, I pay whatever the max amount of money for the highest speed internet. And wherever I go, house, office, I will continue to do that. So I understand financially, maybe some people, you know, can't afford to do that. But where we're headed now with the way television works, I think in a very, very short period of time, you won't really think about it. And the ability will only increase to get higher speed internet.

Now, when I was a kid, we could not get cable TV where my parents lived. The only way, and we got, I think when I was like probably eight, eighth or ninth grade. Not cable TV. We had to buy the dish. We could have dish or direct TV, but my friends that lived in other places like down the street, they had access to cable. I did not. So there are always road bumps and things you have to circumvent through just eventual progression of a business, which streaming clearly, I think it feels like we're much farther into it than we are. But this is like the NFL now is full steam. ahead. Within a couple years to me, they will have a package on one of these streaming services.

I mean, they already do with Amazon, but when it comes to the playoffs, certainly Amazon, inevitable, they're getting a playoff game. So Peacock, Amazon, there's just no slowing it down. There's really not. If you told me one day, HBO Max or Showtime, and I know some of these companies are either intertwined or owned by the same, you know, main conglomerate. So I might be, you know, cross pollinating here. But like, honestly, it's not that shocking. It's really not. Now, I understand some of you don't have peacock. We'll have to get peacock. I have it because in my condo, I have Comcast, which obviously is in bed with peacock, so it comes free. And I'm still able to stream it. But who knows how long that lasts, if I get rid of that thing, you know, I'll get it.

You know, because I'm not going to miss a playoff game, and neither are you. And I know there are some hurdles when it comes to bars and restaurants. I think that's a major question with YouTube TV, which was easier for them with direct TV. But this is where we're at, man. And there's just no slowing it down in the NFL and all these leagues, really. But I think the NFL has done a really good job of just slowly kept integrating it, kept integrating it, kept integrating it, not like there is just the snap of a fingers. We're only streaming, right? And I've said this forever. a big part of it is the older owners, you know, that are in their 70s, there's a loyalty to that generation that their kids just won't, will not have. There's a, there's a loyalty to my

generation that my parents, we're just on opposite ends of the spectrum. And as those guys pass away, you know, their loyalty to Fox and CBS will just change. Why? Because Amazon, because these other companies, if Netflix wants them, have so much capital. And they have so much money. And clearly the TV deals in Fox and CBS, you know, have been incredible partners and have made everyone a lot of money. But that's where they're bread's buttered. This is a league that is about television and eyeballs. Listen, I've been to several NFL games over the years, a ton actually.

I'm sure many people listening have as well. That is not how they make their money anymore. That's how they makes their extra cash, how they pay for their country clubs and their yachts, how they pay for the operation, the players, the entire league is the games on television. And forever, it was basic cable, really just, you know, the basic channels. And that they've evolved, evolved, evolved, ESPN got involved with Monday Night Football. And now we're at the point where Amazon and Peacock and it's clear where we're headed. And it's just, it's just the natural progression of the times we live in.

I mean, think about Amazon, right? Their schedule, I looked at it before this morning when I was getting the podcast ready. It was like, yeah, it's a lot better. I mean, it really is. They cut out, you don't see the Houston Texans. You don't see the Arizona Cardinals. You don't see the Atlanta Falcons. You aren't guaranteed a Thursday night game, which I understand if I'm in the NFL.

Like, ultimately I get it. I'm just against teams having to have multiple Thursday night games. But they want to have a full slate of games. It's kind of what you got to do. do, you know, and I'm not changing my tune thinking that, you know, they should like two games make sense with the right brands. The Steelers play on Thursday night multiple times. It's not by accident. They're a massive brand. Aaron Rogers. And I saw how Michaels, he's clearly really excited. And one problem last year for Amazon, which like anytime something is new

and the streaming services, a lot of older people that had to get Amazon Prime, you have to slowly acclimate. But the product wasn't great. I love out. I mean, I think by far is the greatest play-by-play guy of my lifetime when it comes to football. You know, as he mailed it in, maybe, clearly he's a bright lights guy. And he had been, now, he chose this, right? He clearly, I would imagine, got a massive raise going from NBC where he was making a lot to go to Amazon. And it felt like he kind of mailed it in. And it felt like Amazon kind of mailed it in. And it feels like I'm talking shit about Herb Street. I'm really not, but he's just, it's a tough job. It's, they should have just hired an NFL person. And the chemistry with Al and Herbie just wasn't

quite there. And it just, it was a bad watch relative to a prime time game. Like, you got to NBC, Terrico Collinsworth. You got to Monday night, you got Troy and Joe. Like, it just kind of felt big. Hell, even Burckhart easily transitioned. He's been doing big games for a while. And Greg Olson was good. Now, we can say whatever we want about Romo if you want to nitpick. them, but like Jim, Jim, Jim Nance and Tony Romo feel big. The Thursday night game, besides just Al Michaels, the name, when you started watching the broadcast, it was pretty bad. And maybe the better games, the better teams, not all these games are perfect. Like, you look at the slate there, I think there's a Panthers bear game.

You know, is Al going to be super dialed for Panthers Bears? You know, we'll see. Hopefully, it's early in the season. But, you know, these streaming services, man, that there's just, it's here. It really is. And I think it's inevitable where we're headed. One last thing on the schedule. I didn't realize this and I haven't talked about it yet, but I was reading a couple articles just on big picture, you know,

kind of angles on the schedule. This happened last year once. And it happened in years past, right, with the COVID year when games got delayed and you had multiple games on Monday night. I think there are four weeks this year where there are multiple. multiple Monday night games. There's a Monday night double header. Now, I'm biased because I usually on a Monday night, a Thursday night, or Sunday night,

I watch the game and it usually leads whatever the podcast is the following day with a reaction. I also think, like, as a consumer, and I try to speak for the consumer, is Saturday, Sunday, we're totally on board with a ton of games all day long. You watch your squad. You keep tabs on everyone else. But I think we're pretty conditioned now. on Thursday night, Sunday night, and Monday night, we kind of get a one-off.

And obviously the NFL knows how to make money, knows how to keep their partners happy. I do think the double-header Monday night is a tad bit. It's overkill. I don't think it's necessary. I don't know who it's serving. I don't see why it has to happen. I don't, part of playing on Monday night football,

a lot like Thursday night football, but definitely Monday night football, you're the only game in town. it's all about you. Even in college, right? If you played the big ABC game or you play the big CBS game or whatever game you're playing sometime on Saturday, even if you got the number one crew on whatever network, there's still other games constantly going off.

Right? In the NFL, you play at 10 a.m., I'm speaking West Coast Times, or 1 p.m., there are other games going on. Now, depending on the week, the amount differs. But if you play on Sunday night or Monday, Monday night football, it's only you. So I'd argue it diminishes. I think it diminishes the product a little bit. Why do you want two games going simultaneously on Monday night? Saturday night, nothing's going on. Or excuse me, Sunday. So it's like if you got multiple TVs, you got an iPad, whatever, no one's working.

I don't care what, for the most part, what job you do, even if you're a grinder's grinder, you know, Sunday, at least half the day. you're kind of chilling, especially in the fall. Where Monday, people work. People go to jobs, people go to school, you get home, you eat dinner. You know, it's kind of a very regimented day for the overwhelming, you know, percentage of people in society. So to change like this, like, I just don't get it. And they're staggered too.

It's not like one game ends and the other one starts. They, there's crossover. I just can't. even if I remove my bias because it makes it more difficult for me to kind of keep track of both games, I mean, I got two TVs, but still, I really just Monday, I've been watching football for four days. I think I speak for a lot of people. Just give me the one fucking game. I don't need to try to be following, you know, one game's in the fourth quarter.

The other game's kicking off. I just don't quite get it. I really don't. I think sometimes the NFL props to them, they're very aggressive as you see with the streaming stuff, as you see with what they've done with Thursday night football, going to London, all the stuff. I mean, they deserve,

they've lapped the other sports. They've had some built-in advantages, but they've doubled down on their advantages, and they've never looked back. And the gap is going to only continue to widen in the foreseeable future. I've said forever, like, when I was born,

baseball was king in like the 80s. And I saw Michael Jordan and, you know, take over the NBA and then be every bit as big as any sport. Now, football for the last 20 years is separated from the pack, but it won't last forever. But it does feel like some of this stuff is a balance, right, to being aggressive and being forward thinking and trying to continue. Because in business, you're either growing or you're dying, and that's just the way people think about it. Yeah, it's like, we can argue all you want. Like, they're big enough, just sustain this. That's not the way it works. But this feels like a little

bit overkill. Before we dive into what's next, do you know that Angie's list is now Angie, your home, for everything home. And as someone who is currently house shopping and who has bought property before you walk in, you go, well, I need to fix the kitchen. I need to want to improve this bathroom. I want to fix some stuff in the backyard. And then you go, well, I don't do this for a living. Where do I even start? Who do I even contact? That's where Angie has 20 years of experience combined with new tools to simplify the process. Over 220,000 pros in their network. They can help you get the best price for your product. They have new projects that are priced up front

and clearly lays out the cost before you buy. With Angie, you can request quotes from multiple pros in your area. The pros in your network are locally based in just a few taps in the Angie app or click on the site. You can have Angie tackle your home service project from start to finish.

Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's A. B-N-G-I-com. 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, Clifford 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.

Another, I don't think I really talked about the Jags who have back-to-back games in London. And I've been asked this before in the mailbag. And a lot of people wonder, do you think it's inevitable

expansion in other countries? I've heard people that cover the league say that one of Roger Goodell's greatest regrets is being a part of a team team that went to Jacksonville. He wasn't the commissioner at the time, but I think he played a large, large role in that. And other people in the NFL clearly regret that.

Tiny market doesn't make much sense. Already got multiple teams in Florida. I don't exactly know the other market you would have gone to instead. I mean, there are other options. But if you'd have a do-over on Jacksonville, you would have a team in Jacksonville, right? I'm seeing all these teams leave Oakland. But if you had a do-over, there wouldn't be a team starting baseball, basketball, or football that would go to Oakland.

just a reality of society in, you know, the 21st century. So Jacksonville is clearly sniffed around. They can say whatever they want. And clearly there's some leverage in regard to trying to get a new stadium built. Part of it is they've been dipping their toe. They've been dipping their toe. Now this is like the next step. Do back-to-back games.

See how it goes. See the logistics. There are always going to be some logistical hurdles, right? If during training camp, you need to bring players. What about guys in the Midwest on the West Coast, long flights? Now, if you're coming from the East Coast, I've never been to London, but, you know, everyone says it's a five, five and a half hour flights. So what the hell's the difference from Seattle?

If I'm, you know, Pete Carroll and John Snyder and I want to sign a couple guys for training camp and they're both in, you know, Jacksonville, Florida. I mean, it's a long flight. So I think you can justify it clearly from a size perspective. It makes a lot of sense. Pretty sure, pretty big area over there relative to Jacksonville. The other thing is, you know, part of the back-to-back games, they're not going to be at the same stadium. You know, ones at Wembley and ones at, I think, Tottenham Stadium on the opposite sides.

So, you know, you continue to build a fan base. Well, the bigger, you know, the faster you expand your league and your sport to people that, you know, may not have that much exposure, you know, they eventually like it and then they eventually start playing it. Think about what happened in 92 with the dream team. Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley. I mean, it's one of the most famous teams of all time. Not just because they beat everyone by 75 points, but because of what it did to the game globally. Now, basketball is a lot easier to operate than football, right? Fields, pads, coaching. They don't, they're not apples to apples. But there is an area that, that is massive that easily could have some people and start playing football in London

and just different parts of Europe that might make some sense. And the NFL once upon a time I was young, had NFL Europa. So I think if I was a betting man, I would say probably 5149 that a team ends up there. And I think the team's pretty clear. Like it's not going to be, you know,

the Chicago Bears moving to London. The New England Patriots packing up shop. It's the Jacksonville Jacks. And I know people have talked about expansion. I don't know, man. I have a hard time. I get you could sell two expansion teams or let's just pick a number, $7 billion.

So $14 billion split them up between the owners, whatever that, I'm no math major, but $400 million an owner. But then you also have to split the TV revenue, which there is a short-term windfall if you expand, but there's also a big picture deficiency of money that you would be getting that you have to split instead of 1.30 seconds, you're splitting 1.34s. So that adds up over a period of time. You also compete television-wise in terms of the rankings of where your game gets put up.

Like if I owned an NFL team, I would much rather move a squad than deal with adding a couple squads, especially now all these teams have so much cash. So that's, again, no inside information feels much more likely that the, Jags, they leave Jacksonville and go to London, then a team expand, the league expands and puts a team there. You know, the Sixers had a pretty devastating loss. And, you know, you see people on Twitter talking a lot of shit about the process. And really, all the process was, it's like a cool way to package.

We're just going to suck as badly as possible for several years and trying to draft really high. And it works. Like, it's not that complicated to just throw a season and try to lose games in basketball. It's much more difficult in the NFL. But if you have a terrible season in any sport, you still need to pick the right player. Like, I saw this, this tweet thread of all the players, obviously, beside Embed, they missed on a ton of players in the process. Now, part of it was they changed over Hinky to another guy. And Hinkie became like this cult hero. but Google Hinkie's draft track record. Fucking dude missed on a lot of sweet players for guys who sucked.

Now, he'd tell you, well, it's just a percentage game, blah, blah, blah, blah, regardless, you were whiffing a lot. And part of sucking and getting a high pick, whether you have the first pick or the second or third pick is then you have to pick the right player. So in the NFL, think about this, for example, the Texas. They have bottomed out the last couple years because I saw Mike Lombardi, he was a big Sixers fan, and just talk about how terrible the Sixers culture is. And I would agree.

When you just lose forever, there's not like a base of winning. There's not a base of with the players, with the organization, the standard. Like, this is unacceptable. This is not okay. Because all these players saw, at least a lot of them did, it was okay, especially their best player. The standard actually was pretty low. So they don't really know a high standard. Like the Miami Heat are a good example.

They're an eight seed. They're in the conference finals. How high do you think the standards are with the Miami Heat? Think about over the years how many times Tom Izzo's Michigan State team was not the number one overall seed or one or one or two seed. They were four. They were five. They were six. They were three, whatever.

And you look up in the elite eight and they'd have the lead headed to the final four. It happened all the time because the standard is so high. And I think in football, you know, you think about the best cultures in the league. To me, Kansas City clearly is number one. They're going on a decade now of winning. The Patriots culture might have been the combination of the two of them. Once you split it up, it ain't the same. But Andy was winning with Alex Smith.

Every single year winning, going to the playoffs. Got rid of him. They took the next step. Now they're going to Super Bowls and winning them. I would put several other teams in the mix of really high-level culture, Eagles, Niners, Bengals. And a lot of it is player-driven, right? player driven. Football's, you know, the coaches have high standards. But in

2003, the days of like Bear Bryant, this is not college football. And Bill Parcells, MF and you 24-7, 365, kind of over. They're just, we saw Urban Meyer came in and within like three months, they're like, this is, this ain't going to work, right? Because a lot of it's on the guys. So think about Kansas City. Where does the standard start? Patrick Mahomes, with Travis Kelsey with Chris Jones for a while with the Honey Badger. You know, the standard is really, really high. Listen, Tyree Kill had some questions over the years off the field, but you talk to anyone, his practice habits, pretty high.

I've been around the 49ers for years. Other guys are so high level. I mean, it ain't a fuck around session at practice. Think about the Eagles. Lane Johnson was like a Hall of Fame player last year. Did everything humanly possible to duct take his body? to keep playing in the playoffs. Super rich, already won a Super Bowl.

You got to drag that guy out the field. Kelsey, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham. Cultures are set as much as we want to think by the coaches. I think in 2023, and you can argue it's always been a little bit like this, but with the amount of money role players get, let alone the stars, it's got to be very, very player driven. It really does. And I think football really benefits from not having to worry about,

you're going to have terrible teams. But the Texans kind of, I mean, Lovie Smith won a game with it. No one's not trying to win. You might just suck. The Bears, the Bears tried to win games last year. They just couldn't.

They did not. The Rams, you think Shaw McVeigh ever tried to lose any of these games? Hell, by the end of the season, Baker Mayfield, and they're beating the Raiders on Thursday night football. You know, because it drives these guys nuts.

But it's just, to me, it's a fascinating kind of dichotomy between the two operations. Because let's face it, tanking in basketball, which makes sense, right? Because one player can, you get the right guy, a Tim Duncan, a Steph Curry, a Kobe, a LeBron. Franchises change. With football, it's really only the quarterback, right?

And how many of those quarterbacks have we seen over the last decade, right, with the number one overall pick? Joe Burrell, Andrew Luck, I think Trevor Lawrence, I'd bet on him, but he's, we'll see a little more work, right? Because you think about Patrick Mahomes, like, he wasn't his number one pick, you know? This year, it's going to be very, very fast. name, right? If you suck in the middle of November and you have two or three wins and you're in the mix for the number one pick, there is no argument that losing is the right thing. It's just hard

to execute that. It really is because no player on your team is going to tap out. And coaches, even if you're like, well, this guy's probably going to get fired, you think he's going to be the guy that keeps losing games and just gets a thumbs up when you tell him to clean out his office at the end of the season. But the Caleb William thing is going to be fascinating. That's going to be a little side project we're going to talk about all year long as the season goes. A couple other quick things.

Matt Ryan, he's unofficially retired. Florio wrote the only reason there's no point for him to say, I'm done because listen, he's not getting another job. No one's bringing him in. His career is over. That if he were to quote unquote officially retire,

the $12 million that the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the Indianapolis Colts owe him would not come his way. So it behooves him to say, listen, I'm going to work for CBS, I'm going to do some studio stuff, call some games, but I'm not officially retiring. We all know Matt Ryan is never playing in the NFL again. To me, the only way that would be humanly possible is a team has a bunch of injuries. They stink and they're desperate and they just need a guy to play. And even then, if you're Matt Ryan, I don't know if it would make much sense for him to do that. Here's the thing that I, and I try to be, I view ex players going into call games as like

GMs view draft prospects. I'm pretty good. I told you Drew Breeze was going to stink. Tom Brady, I'm very on the fence about. I think with Matt Ryan, and I've watched a lot of his press conference over the years, here to heard him interviewed, people I know that know him, love him. I think he's a legit guy's guy. I think there are kind of two versions of this.

I think Brady's the best version, but Matt falls under his category. It's like, they can just be a dude. They can be very relatable despite being worth hundreds of millions of dollars and been super rich now for almost two decades. But when they're just talking to someone, they have a skill to relate. But then they also can go into this mode of when quarterbacks give a press conference, they kind of can turn into a coach. they're not that candid, they're very careful about what they say.

And let's face it, it's kind of bland and boring. And part of being good on television and calling games is to kind of let your personality come out. And here's the other thing. I don't expect players who just finished playing to crush players. I don't, besides the obvious, right? A bad drop, a misassignment. But like, just to be like, this guy stinks.

Like, that's kind of my job. That's the fan's job. I understand players, especially their friends, or this guy is over the hill, this guy is shot. That's how we talk about these guys. That's honestly how the coaches and front office people talk. But I get with players, their friends, they've hung out with these guys, they know their families, they might know their kids. It can be difficult.

So I give them a little bit of a pass the first year or two when they're talking about players. I have a hard time, though, with us the consumer who spends all this time watching these games and more specifically gambling on these games. Like, I never have any hesitation. I try to give younger players somewhat of a pass. Like, it's why I lean being critical on the coaches because it's like a lot of them, one, probably shouldn't have their job. If you make it to the NFL, I got a ton of respect for you as a player.

Just because your coach of the NFL does not mean shit, you know. Not everyone is some legit coach in the league. I promise you that. You could trim the fat in half and no one would notice. and insert guys from college or high school, it would not skip a beat. So I've never, listen,

Matt Ryan, I think it could have a point of difference or any new former player. And it's hard because usually you know a lot of these coaches, but like it's the number one thing we all can see. When there's a dumb call, when guys aren't prepared. You know,

I always lean, it's a coaching league first, less than the players. Like, I blame Brock Purdy's injury on college. she in hand. Terrible play call. You can't have your backup tight end blocking an all pro. And then get mad when your quarterback gets his elbow ripped in half. It doesn't mean Kyle's a village idiot. It doesn't mean Kyle hasn't won six playoff games in the last four years. But that was

an awful call. It's like Belichick makes bad calls, just like Andy is. But it's not even just about the head coaches, the position coaches. It's about the coordinators. Because that's really the game. Now, some of these head coaches now, and a lot of them, especially in offense, are the play caller. But the defensive coordinator, that's how we all talk on the couch. It's why I think Troy Aikman these last couple years, once Tony Romo got that raise, kind of got back to his roots,

like, kind of lets it rip sometimes. And it's kind of more, it's relatable again. And I hope Matt can just kind of let it rip. Because it's hard, like, you're just not going to be good if everything is, you know, candy and rainbows. And just, oh, thumbs up, good job. Keep it rolling. This coach has got a bright future when he's losing by 20 points.

And he was a seven point favorite. So you got to be willing. Listen, I'm not expecting every guy on television to just shit on everyone when they're having bad moments. But if you can't be critical at all, you're just not going to be good on television. Not in 2020. Where authenticity and just a reality, like we've all seen enough football now. We have access to a million games.

Kind of know what it looks like. We've all watched the chiefs in Alabama and Ohio State and, you know, all these guys play enough to know what good, what mediocre, and what bad looks like. You're not shocking anyone. Just because, you know, the dude runs a, you know, construction company, he's been watching football for 40 years, knows what good and bad looks like. Might not know all the anchors, you know, the X's nose that the specific details of every single play, but I know what a well-coached team looks like. If I'm just an average Joe and I've been watching football and I'm 45 years old and I'm a dired football fan, it's pretty clear. I know what a well-coached offense or defense

looks like. And I just, I always get nervous with these, especially his high profile. Drew Breach couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. I knew that was coming because his corporate image. Matt Ryan has a little less like corporate national image, but he's pretty famous and he's definitely pretty rich. I do, I am concerned that he's not going to just be able to let a rip. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human. potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble

stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey, 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. Okay, let's dive into a little thing. we call a mailbag

at John Middlecough is the Instagram fire into those direct messages and get your question answered here on the pot. My Instagram is just my name. Spell it out. At John Middlecough. Two Fs. Eagles only gave me one

when I first got an office, but you know, it's a long time ago. It's not like I still remember. John, what up, man? Jimmy from Chicago. Shy town, baby. Can we just keep it real and say who James Harden is, he's Kirk Cousins. Big numbers with nothing on the line and softer than Charmin when the lights get bright.

Dude folds like a chair when the games matter. At his best, he's a number three on a team. At best. Here's the difference, I would say. James Harden won an MVP and just had seasons where in the regular season, I mean, he, didn't he average over 30 points one year? I obviously dominated forever in Houston. His regular season,

he was a better regular season player than Kirk Cousins has ever been a regular season player. His regular season can look, now it doesn't transfer, and you could argue the regular season in basketball does not parallel the playoffs. It's like a different sport. Where in football, it does parallel each other.

If you're beating good teams throughout the regular season, you can beat good teams in the playoffs. But Kirk Cousins, the knock on him has just been bright lights. not even in the playoffs. It's been to primetime games in his career. Right? So I would say in a weird way, Hardin is a better version of Cousins.

But also in the NBA, and this goes for football too. Kirk Cousins and Dak Prescott, when their careers are over, are going to be so filthy rich, it's stupid. I mean, Cousins has made a ton of money. Right? Franchise back-to-back years,

$85 million, first contracts. 60 million extension. I'm no math major, but probably close over $200 million. I looked it up today. James Hardin has made $300 million. So if he got a $100 million contract, which many expect him to get way more, he's going to end up making $425, $450 million playing basketball. And here's the thing.

In the NFL, you know, if I pay Cousins and Dak a lot of money and I consistently win, especially DAC's a good example. If I'm going to the playoffs every year, there's a lot of value in that, especially as the Cowboys. But I'm never winning a Super Bowl. And I'm not trying to be a dick about it with Dak. I do like the guy.

I have a lot of respect for every time I see him. I've never met the guy personally. But clearly, high-level guy has maximized all his talent, cares a lot. It's like everything you look for. I would rather have Dak Prescott than Kirk Cousins. Even though we can argue their numbers, I'm taking Dak over Cousins.

But I don't think either of being. the top guys in the playoffs. Now, you could argue the NFC, who knows? Maybe the Eagles screw up. You don't even have to play them and you end up getting Brock Perry. I don't know. Obviously, the NFC, in theory, should open up a little bit more than the AFC. But there is value if you win in double-digit games going to the playoffs every single year.

In the NBA, like, I'm sorry, unless you're getting me to the conference championship every year and giving me a chance to win a finals, you pay a guy that much money. It's a waste of cash. Now, props to harden. He's going to be, you know, half billionaire and one of the worst playoff players we've ever seen him, ever. I mean, it's insane. It really is. It's pretty crazy.

Not hate the Lakers. But I'll say this, LeBron James is an incredible playoff player. Anthony Davis. We can talk about he gets injured all the time. When that guy wants to play, holy shit. Nicole Yokic, you watch him the last two years? Last year, I think the Warriors beat him in five. He was incredible.

Draymond Green gave him a hug after they beat him in five and was like, you're one of the best players we've ever played. You watch what that guy's doing right now? It was funny in the NBA and Colin talks a lot about this. It's a hype machine sport. Like it's hard. Like there's no hype machine in football. It's got to keep like you got to produce.

Like you can give me a bunch of hype, bunch of hype, bunch of hype. And then it's like, oh, I watched two a play. You're wrong, right? A bunch of hype, bunch of hype, bunch of hype. This guy's actually not that good. in basketball James Harden and B these guys get so much hype just the hype the hype the shoes

John Morant the shoes the commercials the highlights it's like yeah there's like seven guys I'd want to go to war with like I like Devin Booker a lot someone told me where my office is his mom used to live in the facility I guess he goes to the store right across street from where I'm at all the time to shop and I think he's excellent if I ever ran into him at the store

I'd say you know what you remind me a lot of the Warriors guys the way you conduct yourself the way you play like I think you're going to to win Vic. Not that he'd need me to say that, but I truly believe that. But I've watched the last couple of years, them kind of gutlessly tap out. And sometimes you don't have it, right? And the difference in football, in baseball and basketball is like over the course of a series, you know, if your bad game comes in an elimination game, you know, it doesn't look great. But like in football, ultimately, Cousin just isn't good enough. Like he has, he was a fourth round pick. He has serious limitations

athletically. There's only so much he can do. And then he's kind of robotic that he's not a natural kind of... You know, for example, Joe Burrow is like the best version of Tony Romo. He's like Tony Romo on steroids, way better.

But there's like this instinctive, natural kind of flow to his game. It doesn't all feel... I honestly think it was one of Peyton Manning's downfall why he didn't win four Super Bowls and he only won two. Now he went to a couple more. But Peyton Manning is like the guy,

that, you know, Brady 1-7, Manning won four. If I would have told you that eight years ago, you'd be, I could see it. But there was something to Manning where he's just, in the playoffs, just a little, sometimes, I think in sports, when you think too much, and you could argue this, it parallels any industry. But even if you're an overthinker as a sales guy, as an architect, whatever, you, not everything has to happen immediately, right, at the snap of a finger. Like in football, the ball snapped. You're an overthinker.

A split second could be a pick six, right? An overthinking a drive can ultimately cost you a game of three and out. And I think Cousins has that element of Peyton where he just, he thinks sometimes too much. You watch Patrick Mahomes, he's just playing. You watch Steph Curry. He's just kind of playing. You know, I like my guys to, like, Debo Samuel or George Kittle, they're just like an instinctive element to their game. Dak does have some of that, but Dak doesn't have a great.

great arm. It's why you throw some picks, you know? Now, you can throw picks if you have a hose, but I far have threw a lot of them. They also made a lot of enormous explosive place. So I don't even know. Forget the question now. I've been Randen and Raven for a second. I think Hardin is a better version of cousins, but I think they both, I'm in agreement. They fall under the same umbrella. Okay, let's go to Meg. Fiancé's account. So it's not actually Meg. Two questions for you. First, how far do you think the Vikings can realistically get with Kirkcutta? Kirkaz is a fascinating conversation.

You know what's crazy is sometimes the most polarizing discussions? Like, LeBron, I'm not a big LeBron guy, but I can't say like, he's not good. Like, yeah, he's one of the best athletes I've ever seen any sport. Like, hell, you might not like, you know, whoever, Kevin Durant. But you have to acknowledge, like, he's pretty special. Right? You might not love, you know, whoever. Patrick Mahomes, I don't know who that guy, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, but you all acknowledge.

It's like that second tier of guy that you're just like, how good is this guy? That guy usually creates the most conversation. In basketball forever now, honestly, it's been James Harden. And now it's kind of like Joel Embed, Russell Westbrook. In football, it's always cousins, Dak, Jimmy Garoppolo, Kyler Murray, right, Derek Carr. You're never going to meet anyone This Joe Burrow guy Don't fucking see it

Right You know, Jalen hurts Can't believe the Eagles What were they thinking? Carson Wentz It's the guy in that tier That's not at the top You can even put Herbert there right now

But he's a couple years away From like being in that true conversation Jimmy's been in it forever Derek Carr's been in it forever Derek Or excuse me, Dak Cousins those guys

Daniel Jones now has entered the chat those are the guys because what do you say? Like, this you honest guy man monster you know

hell he lost in the first round you're not going to meet a soul that's like yeah I wouldn't want Janus loser right? I mean it's like in baseball it's a little bit

I'll say this about baseball seeing the Giants win three world series in five years baseball can be a little weird you know, I mean, you need some luck, some specific, like, pitching situations go your way, a pitch hit, guy hits a home run. In football and basketball, like, the top guys usually win.

And the middle tier guys usually disappoint. That's kind of the formula, the history of the league. And then we end up talking, we rank the sweet guys and we argue over like, oh, this guy's two, this guy's one. And then we just scream, hoot and holler over the middle tier guys. you know, I guess they're slightly above middle tier, like the above average guy who's actually good and who's not good. Like ultimately, Kirk Cousins is a really good NFL player.

Now, relative to like Mahomes, Burrough, Josh Allen, right? All the top older guys, Brady Rogers, he's not even in their universe. But relative to, you know, basically like 12 through 32, yeah, he's really good. And remember, their backup quarterbacks. Like, he's a very good player. Matt Ryan was in that for a while So long way away A lot of people are not going to pick them to make the playoffs

And I didn't pick them last year Might as well not pick them again Have you or anyone worked with Anyone you worked with while scouting Ever looked at a player from D3 or D2 That made it to the NFL? I played a D3 level and wondered if that happened Thanks, keep up the work

Well, I'm a West Coast guy Meaning like I scouted the West and, you know, I was at Freszo State, even at Cal Poly. We don't really have on the West Coast, like you do in the South or maybe the Midwest, definitely the Northeast, some of those like D2 and D3 schools. Like, if you're going to play college football out West beside junior college, you're either going to play D1A, right? Like from Montana to UC Davis to Cal Poly, which produces NFL guys for sure, right?

Trey Lance, Carson Wentz. I mean, a ton of position players. not like consistently like every program's got multiple but NFL guys every single year getting drafted D1A or non power five like you're playing in the mountain west where like we didn't have that many D2 D3 options over here now I think around the country if there is like if you were a scout the only way that you would end up at like a D2 school is because there was like a You know, a dude transferred from Cincinnati or a guy left, you know, got kicked out of Georgia, kicked out of junior college and ended up there, some situation like that.

And more likely than not, that guy is going to go to D1A. Right. He's more likely to go to like McNey State or Montana after getting kicked out of like, you know, I'm just picking schools here. Cincinnati or Wisconsin and no other Power 5 teams are going to mess with them than he is to go D2. because those, you know, South Dakota State or whoever, you know, SAC State, who made a little run last year, would come sniffing around. So yeah, I mean, D2's players have definitely, you know, made it in the league,

but it's fewer and far between. I would say, you know, definitely one AA, all those programs. Like when I scouted, I went through them all. This year, the Patriots drafted the dude from SAC State in the third round. So now I think there's a pretty big gap. You know better than me. I mean, I've never watched D3 football. Honestly, I don't have much experience with D2.

D1AA football is not bad. Like the top 10 teams in D1A, I mean, we've seen it before. Appalachian State is now a Power 5, you know, Division 1 program. But, you know, South Dakota State, North Dakota State, Montana, Montana State. Sack State's good. Or they were. They lost their coach. It got the job at Stanford.

But, like, you know, Cal Poly. when I was, I think this is when I went to Fresno State, they almost beat Wisconsin. They had a really good team. So, you know, you can have, I think their field goal kicker missed like four extra points or something.

It was a rough day, but should have beat Wisconsin. From David, what's your best advice for making it living as a podcaster? What are three to five things that need to fall into place to make it work? You know, I, one people have to be able to find it.

So you need a distribution platform besides just loading it on Apple or, you know, YouTube. Now, so many people have podcasts, a lot to get lost in the shuffle. So having a distribution platform, right? I mean, that's pretty big. When you look at the top top podcasts, whether it's, pardon my take or Rosillo or whoever, Colin, you name it. They either are massive brands individually, like Colin Coward, has a, he's at a radio show for decades. So even before he ever started streaming his show and create a podcast network,

like, you think Colin Coward, you think talking, right? Barstool. They have a large network. Rosillo, long time talk show host, links up with Bill Simmons. So I think it's very, very difficult to do it by yourself. If you're going to be like an independent, small guy and to have success, you know, when I first started podcasting, and I have another podcast, it's basically a 49-hour podcast. We had a built-in audience. So, like, you have to have people that are already listening to you because we had a radio show.

I don't know, I don't know if I'm sitting here if I just left the NFL and got a podcast. No way my, it would not be the same situation. So before I ever started podcasting, I was in radio for three and a half years. Then, if you can somehow figure that element out, which is obviously very difficult. You know, you've got to link up with someone. I think, you know, sound quality is big. Consistency's big. Finding what you're, I'm a big believer in, and you, if you've listened to this show, like, and I'm not just going to talk about the Cowboys, talk about the Cowboys. Right. I just talk about what interests me. And maybe that's a slower build to where the podcast ends up one day. And maybe if I did more, I don't even want to say Shock Jock, but just kind of played it like you would have to

for a radio show, you know, I'd get more viral clips or whatever, but I truly don't care. Like, I don't have a take on the Cowboys today. Like, I got nothing to say on the Packers, right? I mean, I don't. I just don't. Now, once the season starts, you gravitate toward the good teams and the big stories, but like, I just try to talk about what I'm excited about. And then I hopefully, and I think, you know, the amount of people listening to the show

and success we've had, people like it. So I would say, find what you like talking about. what you're good at talking about, so you've got to have some knowledge. It's easy for me to talk about football. I've been watching football my whole life. I've worked in football. I read a lot about football. I talk to people about football. That's why I like talking about golf. I play golf. I watch a PJ tour. Gamble on golf. I mean, I just talk about what I like. You know, it'd be hard for me to do like a baseball show. Not that, you know, baseball podcasts or even that successful, but I, like, I don't know that much about baseball anymore. I don't watch that much. I mean, I keep tabs.

to see my guy Bruce Bochy. I don't know, just second best record and baseball, no big deal. Texas Rangers. I'm rooting for the big fella. But other than that, like, you got to talk about what you know. And that doesn't, whether it's sports, whether it's real estate, you know, whether it's whatever. My girlfriend went to this conference with her mom last week. It was like a, I don't know if it was a networking conference, but it was like a conference

for real estate and started talking to a guy who was a big real estate agent and just started a podcast and he transitioned like doesn't even open doors anymore. His podcast makes him more money than he ever made in his real estate agent. The guy was very successful. And it was one of those things that just gradually took off. And, you know, there are still niches that are probably undervalued. Like the football podcast, I'm not saying it because I have one, but there are a million. So it would be very hard if you don't have a distribution platform to just start a football or basketball podcast. It really would. But let's say you were a, you were, you were, you're a big sports fan, but you work in construction,

or you're a real estate guy, or you're a finance guy. And maybe I'm talking out of turn, but maybe there's more of an avenue for some of that, and you can talk sports as well. Because most people I know, like my friends work in normal jobs, we talk sports a lot.

You know, you can kind of intertwine the two of them. That's like, Middlecalf, why are you always talking money and numbers? That's what interests me. I like business. Like I, I subscribe, I'm not Athletic, I still have a free one

from a long time ago. The only newspaper I subscribe is the Wall Street Journal. Now, I'm not claiming to read the thing every day, but I'm more likely, I'm not more likely, I definitely,

I read articles occasionally from the Wall Street Journal. I read no other articles from any other newspapers. Partly because whenever I'm on Twitter and someone in the NFL I follow like post an article

for a newspaper they write and I click on it, I can never read it. I ain't paying for this shit. I was always curious about your playing career. Google didn't have anything. I

assumed with your front office work, you played DB in college. Did you know you wanted to work in the NFL while in college or just loved football? Definitely not a DB level. We don't tell you that, man. Do you know how good, honestly, even to play DB in college, like when I was at Fresno State, hell, when I was at Cal Poly, Asa Jackson, who ended up getting drafted by the Ravens, to be an at a DB level athlete, like relative to America, you are so. such a high-end athlete.

I mean, it's, you might not be like NBA level, but you're a top two or three percent guy. So no, I had my, I love football. I was a sports junkie. I mean, I like sports. Whatever 10 out of 10 is from like, you know, seven, eight years old till through college at like a 14. I mean, I couldn't have liked it anymore.

Now, when I got to the NFL, I worked with multiple. multiple people that, you know, Howie Roseman wanted to be a GM when he was like five. I work with scouts that some guys played like lower level football or didn't even play that just love the scouting. I wasn't like that. It kind of organically happened. I just wanted to work in sports. And it just, I got kind of lucky and things just broke my way. Now, I like football more than the other sports, but I really like basketball for a large percentage of my life. You know, I, I, I, I love golf. Yeah, I'm just a sports guy.

I mean, I just enjoy watching games. I mean, I still do. Hey, John, I'm a big fan of the pod. What are some of your personal and professional goals in the next five years? You know, I'll just say this. I'm not going to be cheesy about this, but I really struggle in the day and age we live in. It's very hard to see the future for a lot of things, right?

Things change so quickly. Um, I, I, you know, it was always in the 80s or the 90s or the 50s. It was pretty easy. Like, I want to do this. And for the most part, those jobs weren't really changing. Like in this profession, like, I want to host a radio show in a top five market. I want to be on TV in a major network. Like, I think those days are kind of dead.

Obviously, those aren't my dreams or aspirations. Uh, I would say one thing non-podcast wise, because I'm pretty confident. We just keep swinging our pick here. this, we're headed in the right place. There are business elements of my life that I would like to own a business. And I have a couple ideas, but that's something in the next five years. Even if it's just kind of a smaller operation, I got a couple LLC ideas that are always in the back of my mind.

But I still, I'm still working them out. But I would say for the foreseeable future, just really, really. keep pounding the pavement on this. And this has been good. Business is booming. Life's going well. But to me, it's hard, like five years. If you would have told me five years ago,

was it, 2003? So that would have been 2018, that I would be doing, I'd be sitting here doing this podcast, having the successes having, like, I wouldn't believe you.

And I never was, like I write short-term goals and things, but I do think, depending on, now, different. But I think in the business I'm in, in terms of this, it's kind of hard. There are definitely golf elements of the golf media business that, you know, I definitely want to take big strides in. But we got a ways to go. We just started the thing last year.

We got some, you know, some stuff in fluid, fluidity deals in the works. So we'll see what happens. But I would just, some people are different. And I know, you know, you listen to the certain gurus about writing down goals. I'm not against that. Some people write down their thoughts. I've done that before and it's worked and I've not done it before and it's worked. Right. I just think you got to sometimes it's cheesy, but coaches say this a lot of like be where your feet are. I do think there's a lot of truth in that.

Now, I always try to be and I think most successful people try to be and I try to be because they are, you know, big picture thinking, but there's a balance to it. Sometimes, you know, you can't just start in a full sprint. Sometimes you got to walk through a job. and then pick up the pace, things gradually take some time. It's weird. Like, I'm not a very patient person,

but I think there's like, to be good at anything, there has to be like an aggressive patience because you got to be, you know, pedal to the metal and moving forward. But you got to realize, like, some things, everyone's, you know, the way their, things break for them

works at different paces. So you can't always get frustrated when things aren't working or something. doesn't go your way. Now, sometimes you can't be naive about it. Like, it might not work and you got to pivot. But like, once you start seeing some signs of progress slash success of financial, you know, improvements, you know, revenue gains, whatever it may be and whatever you do, you know, I think you got to be willing to take it slow is probably the wrong way to put it,

but understand that, you know, this might not happen in six months. But in two years, in two and a half years and four years. It's a fucking thing could be big. I'm watching the NHL and NBA playoffs. There are women doing color commentary

in the booth and it's nice to hear. Are there any women in the NFL media space that you would like to hear in the booth? When I used to have a radio show in the bay,

Doris Burke used to come on. I used to bullshit with her. You know, I used to, it was really cool, actually. Go to these NBA games

and, you know, you get there like three hours early. You can bullshit with people on the sideline or talking to players. It was coaches. It was sweet. And you could definitely

always talk to the broadcasters. I always thought she was really good. And I think most NBA analysts are pretty terrible. I don't watch, I haven't watched much of the NHL playoffs, to be honest with you, to know what you're talking about there, but I believe you. The NFL, no. I mean, I

think the NFL most, you know, let's face it, a lot of analysts are pretty terrible. Men, women, indifference. I mean, it's, it's hard to call a game. It's not, that's definitely something I have no aspiration to do. Doesn't interest me in the slightest. Because I respect the profession and I know a heart of this.

I'm more of a reactor or talk about the games coming up. That's what I'm really good at. I would want no part of it. So when I talk shit about it, it's not because I don't think it's hard. It is. But it's pretty clear the guys that are good and guys that aren't good at it. I don't know off the top of my head any women that I'd want to hear a call a game.

No. But I'm sure they could be better in some. the guys we're rolling out there because holy moly there were some bad ones what would keep the NFL from adding a second buy week extending the season seems like it would be good for business one of the buys could be earmarked

for before teams play their Thursday night game both teams competing off a buy and would make the games better longer to prepare and to make sure stars are healthy to play in the NFL could claim player safety lastly this could take the Super Bowl to the President's Day weekend giving people the day off

after the game doesn't seem doesn't longer season equal more money? Not necessarily because they already got an 18 week schedule, which is eventually going to 20. I think once they go to 20 games, you know, and the preseason games are scrapped, or maybe we eventually go to 18 games. We'll get the double buys.

I think they like the length of the off season, right? They've already pushed the combine back a little bit. I guess you could push free agency back a little bit, the draft where it's at. Yeah, I mean, I, would it shock me if when they add the 18th game, which feels, I mean,

could happen in the next couple years that they add some sort of buy, like you said. The hard part is, you know, the teams that are playing on Thursday night, you'd have to coordinate their buys. I think it would be pretty difficult. Anyone who's read some articles,

it always comes out right around this time when the schedule comes out. It's a pretty complex formula. It's not very easy to do. Yeah, I don't know. I'm the wrong guy to ask on that. I've been listening to RJ Bell for a while who used to have a show on Fox Sports Radio.

He mentioned yourself on his podcast fairly regularly as someone who listens to you. I've known RJ for a long time. Have you ever thought while in the off season or near the start of the year to have him on the podcast to bring a pro gambling to get his perspective? And have you had any conversations with him. If not, I really do recommend having them on. Yeah, I got to reach out to him. Good idea.

Okay, last question. Hey, John, just listen to Sunday mailbag. Thought I'd ask for an opinion. Before working a graduate job at a large finance tech firm in London for a few months after studying in the UK and a semester at UC Berkeley. The money's not bad, but you guys are getting paid double, maybe even triple what we are in those roles. I think he means in the States. It's made me want to move to the states asap. I thought it asked for cities you'd recommend for someone looking to move to the states and never come back. As a Bills fan, I've loved Buffalo every time I've been, but, you know, not much going

on there economically. One stipulation is that there must be good golf courses nearby. We'll be interested to hear your thoughts. Well, I'm a West Coast guy, so I lean, you know, I would lean Vegas or Scottsdale. You know, you could probably make more money in one. of the California, if what you do in L.A. or San Francisco, but the price to live there is astronomical. So the price is in Vegas or Scottsdale, a lot of golf as well. Pretty hot. You know, if you wanted to stay on the eastern seaboard, which is probably your move, I would sniff around Florida.

I think you could go Jacksonville, Florida. I think you could go Carolina, the Charlotte area. I think it's a booming area. A lot of golf over there. So you could go southern, you know, Miami's really expensive for Lodderdale, Jupiter, Orlando, you know, place, I think relatively inexpensive. Could be wrong, never been, read a lot about it. No, there's a lot of golf there. So you could kind of piggyback Florida.

I think Charlotte would definitely be on my radar. Any other places in the south? I mean, Nashville is now pretty expensive. you know, decent amount of golf in my experience. Maybe there's more than I realize. But I think if you're headed west, I'd go AZ or Vegas. If you're going to stay east, you know, I think Jacksonville, Orlando, Charlotte, I think those areas are kind of growing.

If you got a little coin, you wanted to, you know, mix it up. Nashville, not a bad place, but Nashville's not for everybody. Northeast, too cold for me. And like you said, you know, golf weather. Philly's got pretty good golf. Philly's I enjoyed my time in Philly I really did

When I moved there again Probably not But I did understand When I was there Like I get it And I went out a lot I had buddies You know

We had a younger staff So we were hanging out a lot Had a good time I mean I think Philly Is probably one of the more Underrated cities in America You know Because everyone in the Northeast

Is always blowing Obviously New York You know Even Boston D.C. DC is cool. I mean, DC, it was cooler probably. I remember going around like 10 years ago. Now, I don't think I can take the place seriously, just in general. I was thinking this the other day, like Georgia declined to go to the White House. When I was a kid, and for a long period of time,

like the White House visit really meant a lot. Does anyone care anymore? Like, shouldn't, I was thinking about this. Shouldn't a team that wins go meet like the CEO of one of the top companies? Wouldn't you get more out of that, like as a player? Most of these guys are going to go into like normal jobs, wouldn't that be cooler than like going in the White House? Because it's just so polarizing now. It's just they're either going to call you a hater. It's like, wouldn't you be better off, I don't know, going to Apple's campus, you know, meeting Elon and Tesla.

I'm doing something like that. When you get more out of that than you do the White House visit that no one really wants any part of anymore. And it's not even just, you know, these last couple years been for whatever, the last six, seven years. It kind of feels like the whole thing just kind of. become toxic and why don't we mix it up why don't we throw a curveball it's like where are we taking uh the oh we're gonna take them uh we're tim cook's gonna take us around we're gonna see

apples campus you know Elon's gonna show us space X that's what I'd want to do but hell maybe I'm crazy appreciate James on the video my guy holds on the audio and let's have a week people I got I got some pretty sweet golf bets coming up so listen to the Golo podcast. One quick thing, actually. Someone asked me, I don't think I saw the DM, but I saw it within the last couple weeks, about how teams or how scouts, when they go to a program, like if the college teams knows you're coming, there's a pro liaison at every school.

So as a scout, usually, you know, it changes school to school. Some teams you can just show up. But a lot of schools, you let them know you're going to be in the office, right? So you can set up a time to talk to people. So you have to, you know, it's like any job, do some, shoot a couple emails. You know, once you've done it for a year or two, you know all the people and let them know you're coming by. And, you know, there's usually a pro liaison. He's like a lot of times he's the GM or the pro personnel guy on the college staff.

Sometimes it's a coach, but not as much anymore. If you want to talk to the coordinators, if you want to talk to the position coaches, you usually have to reach out to them individually. And same with the academic people, the training people. and you just kind of set it up on your own. And then you kind of typically kind of, for a lot of the big stuff, go around as a group and then individually, you kind of break off and talk to people,

you know, in a one-on-one setting. So it's like, it's probably like a lot of jobs, right? If you're going, if you're a medical sales guy, I'm sure you reach out some of the doctors or whoever so they know you're coming so you can get a meeting. Kind of the same concept. Adios. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy,

Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not. 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 IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.