The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Rams are good, Ben Johnson wants his money, FSU wants out of the ACC

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

John reacts to the Rams 30-22 win over the Saints on Thursday Night Football and how the Rams are looking like a top team in the NFC, how the Saints should not have doubled down on Dennis Allen, Derek Carr hasn't lived up to the hype, the Steelers made a massive mistake with Mitch Trubisky's contract, and Ben Johnson is looking to get paid as a head coach. 5:33 - Rams are a top team in the NFC 15:54 - Dennis Allen should not be a head coach 21:35 - The Steelers and Mitch Trubisky 23:42 - Ben Johnson wants to get PAID 28:58 - Aaron Rodgers has been activated 34:22 - FSU wants out of the ACC 37:45 - Peacock has the NFL 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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Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuing. See dkng.com slash football for eligibility and deposit restriction terms and responsible gaming resources. What is going on, everybody, John Middlecock, 3 and Out Podcasts. How are we doing? Probably not as good as the Rams. We're red hot, playing a good ball, and look headed to the playoffs, peaking at the right time. The Saints, on the other hand, sneaky and shambles. They do not look good. Don't let the score fool you. that was a butt kicking. So we will dive into Sean McVeigh, the Rams, the Saints.

We'll dive around the league. A couple quick thoughts on the Steelers. Rogers activated. Ben Johnson, $15 million a year. Peacock officially has an NFL game streaming only come Saturday night. A couple of thoughts there. Other than that, the game plan,

this is probably the last podcast until Monday night. We'll have a podcast Monday night that will come out on Tuesday. Yeah, no Sunday podcast with being coward because it's a little thing called Christmas. But other than that, we'll have a lot of content next week as well. So we won't be slowing down. And let's dive in. But before we talk some football, what I really want to do is tell you about my favorite app in America.

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I could make the argument right now that the Rams are currently the second best team in the NFC. Now, it was way earlier in the season. Dallas Curb stomped them. So if you're just doing your NFC rankings, the Niners would obviously have to be one. I would put Dallas 2 over the Rams, but let's face it, the Rams are playing just as well as like the Lions, which, I got news for you. If you look ahead, I think it's very, very possible that the 3-6 matchup is Rams at the Lions.

Matt Stafford, Sean McVeigh, going on the road to play Detroit. And obviously, Philly right now is in complete shambles. We'll have to see how, if they can get it together with kind of their easy schedule down the stretch. But there is no disputing when you watch the Rams. They have a couple things going for them headed into the playoffs. They have a quarterback who's playing at an extremely high level. a guy who's a Super Bowl champion. And when he's on, like he has been for the last, you know, I don't know, 45 days,

is as good as anybody in the NFL. He's making throws these last three or four weeks like he's 26, 27, 28-year-old Matt Stafford with the Detroit Lions, who, you know, people used to talk shit about because his team didn't win. A lot of it was because he played for the Detroit Lions. Never forget, Aaron Rogers used to pound the table and was like, I think this guy's one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And obviously the Rams thought that.

they acquired them and it changed their franchise. But the way that guy is playing right now and their offense and their defensive unit, I mean, if Rahim Morris instead of being a defensive coordinator was an offensive coordinator and his unit was having the success that's having with a bunch of Aaron Donald and a bunch of random young players, he would be a lot coaching candidate. He's been a head coach before. Easy going. People like him.

Obviously he's had a lot of success with Sean McVeigh, but he's a defensive guy. So I think he's going to get a bunch of interviews this offseason It just it's hard to feel great about defensive coordinators You know feeling confident that they're going to get a job We'll talk about Ben Johnson a little bit later Some rumors that he wants 15 million dollars a year But he's got one thing going for him He's an offensive coordinator he impacts a quarterback

He coaches the quarterback and he calls the offensive plays But Rahim Morse that team is just Listen they're 8 and 7 They feel more if you put them in the NFC South I mean that's a 12-13 win team I know the first final score turned out to be a little closer. Block punt and a couple big throws.

For the most part, the Saints were terrible. That was JV versus varsity, the majority of the night. And those two teams coming in the night, same record. You watch those two teams. They're not even in the same universe. I mean, honestly, the Saints feel more like a 6-7 win team and the Rams feel more like an 11-12 win team. And they deserve a lot of credit.

I was wrong. I thought they were going to suck. What did I underestimate? This is where I got to give the front office and less need. A lot of credit. That team, Puka Nakua is one of the better young rookie wide receivers. I can remember. That guy is a flat out stud.

That young running back, baller. The middle linebacker, 53, now he's a third-year guy, stud. The pass rusher they got from Wake Forest in the fifth round, really, really good player. So they had some core guys, right? All-time great defensive pass rusher in Aaron Donald. Cooper Cup, one of the better players in the league went healthy. And Matt Stafford, obviously a max quarterback. But their ability this offseason, and never forget, last year when they sucked and they had to give their pick to the Detroit Lions because of the Stafford trade, it sucked.

I mean, it's a big, you know, kicking the nuts. It's not ideal to be awful and not have your first round pick, right? Look at the Panthers this year. It's a rough year to go through because you're trying to win these games and you're losing them. And even the benefit of losing those games, you don't even get to reap. But where you do is once you get past Thursday night of the draft, you pick high in all the other rounds. And that's, listen, we're very critical sometimes of successful GMs.

This guy's not drafting well. This guy's not drafting well. It's hard to draft 25th in every round. When you have a team that's winning 12, 13 games, going to the second, third round, or the Super Bowl, you don't have a good draft pick in any round. So when you get that opportunity, and like we said with the Rams,

they did have their first round pick. Well, they're drafted high in all the other rounds. And look at what they did. I mean, Puka Nakua. Now, I know he was a later round pick, but still, holy, canoli. The dude could play for my team any day of the week. I mean, you look at the way Sean McVey looks at that guy. He's in football love.

I mean, you put that guy with Cooper Cup, Kirwin Williams, and the way Matt Stafford's playing in their young offensive line, Ryan Wendell, former Patriot offensive lineman, former Fresno State Bulldog, hired him as his offensive line coach this year. they've been good. And you watch the Rams right now and you go,

whether they end up with 10 wins or not, we'll see that week 18 is against the 49ers. Who knows what's going to be on the line? Who knows? The Rams might have seating locked up by then. They might rest guys. The Niners might not have anything to play for it. Maybe they do.

I don't know. It's hard to predict how that's going to shake out. But clearly the Rams are very, very scary team going into the playoffs. Because if they were to play Philadelphia or the Lions, their offense can light them up like a Christmas tree. And defensively, beside Aaron Donald, you go, who are some of these guys? They play really, really well as a unit.

And maybe in a year or two, we'll be talking about a couple of those guys as Pro Bowl NFL players. And like I said, Rahim Morris, the front office, anytime you can reset your franchise with young players, aka cheap labor, to kind of surround some of your star higher price guys,

it's a great example. And this is why we are so. so hard on the chargers. Coaching matters so much. It was on full display tonight. One guy who has no business being a head coach, he's a good defensive coordinator, shouldn't be a head coach,

and another guy who's a flat-out superstar. And clearly the Rams got very lucky that he didn't take Amazon's money a couple years ago because he's a football junkie. And we're better off, you know, as football fans, with Sean McVeigh coaching because he's a fantastic football coach. And you watch the way his team plays,

how explosive they are on offense, how good he is, his concepts of getting guys constantly open, the crossing routes that he runs, getting the ball in the hands of Puka and Cooper Cup. And obviously, anytime you have a great quarterback, a guy with his talent

who can bail you out of shitty plays, and when the plays are there, he's not going to miss them. And I find them very, very enjoyable to watch. I mean, they easily could have beat the Ravens a couple weeks ago. That was where, I don't know if I'd been,

underestimating them, but I definitely hadn't been taking them seriously. And I watched that game start to finish and I went, holy shit, the Rams are real. And obviously the way they've played these last couple weeks and moving forward, I think they're very scary. And like I said, if I had to make a prediction right now, if you told me the Lions are going to end up at three and they're going to end up at six, that's Monday night football. And that's, you know, the Wild Card Weekend, and that sucks for the Lions. Not saying that the Lions can't beat them. I think they're also very similar,

but I think a lot of people would bet on McVey and Stafford in that game. Obviously, McVey has a much longer resume than Dan Campbell would be Dan Campbell's first playoff game. The Lions, like, listen, it's hard to quantify, but let's not act like they got a lot of experience. They know what they're doing in these playoff situations. That building would get very tight, you know, in a close game in the second half or they were down.

It's not a place that's used to winning because they don't play in these games. So I got that thing circled coming from a mile away And I truly as a football fan Would love for it to break that way Because I think that would be Just a fascinating watch You know one thing that the NFL truly has Is they hit you from every angle

They have a lot of off-the-field drama Coaches getting fired Guys getting traded players complaining Players doing stupid shit But the games matter the most And the urgency in these games is second to none and the storylines in that game with the Stafford trade, Gough, McVeigh, the Lions would just be freaking awesome.

And kudos to the Rams for putting themselves in this position. They started really shitty. And like I said, I strictly bet against like these young players, who are these guys? And it's not often that you can get any benefit a little bit. The NFC is clearly way down. You look at that, you know, the teams vying for the 6 and 7 seed. Let's face it, mainly suck.

But it's pretty clear the Rams. are by far the best group of those teams. You know, Tampa, New Orleans, Seattle, Green Bay. You just go down the list. Minnesota. So kudos to McVeigh. Kudos to the front office. And let's face it, this is a real, real organization right now.

And to me, this year, like any team when you're super loaded with star players and you're humming, you know, has a chance, when you're on, has a chance to win the Super Bowl, right? Eagles last year, the Niners and years passed, even if you don't win it. Green Bay, several years with Aaron Rogers. But what does it look like when no one's picking you? When everyone thinks you're going to stink. When everyone goes, wait, you're starting a fourth rounder, a fifth rounder, a sixth rounder, a fourth and a fifth rounder from the previous year?

Who are these guys? And you coach them up and you develop them. And by the end of the season and the stretch run, they aren't just like starters. They're impact players. It's why in this league coaches get paid so much money. It's why assistant coaches, when they're good, are worth. $7,000, $900,000. It's why defensive coordinator

like Rahim Morris is making $2, $3 million a year. And guys are making that too on the shitty teams. It's why the owners can't wait to get rid of them. And Stan Cronkey should thank his lucky stars that he signed and hired McVeigh back in the day because this is impressive. And the other thing, moving forward, they're not a team that's going to go away.

Now they are equipped with young guys, kind of energizes your franchise. looks like Aaron Donald's having fun out there. Cooper Cups having a blast. Like Matt Stafford, where's he going to go? He might as well just play out the string now on the contract. Maybe this is a real team for the next couple years. And, you know, that's good for the NFL.

And on the flip side, the Saints were in a tough spot. They really were. Just like, honestly, the Rams would have been if McVeigh would have gone to Amazon. Anytime you have a star coach and he just taps out, whether to go to TV, you know, whether just to quit and take the year off, you're kind of fucked. And they had some pox. positive momentum. They clearly like Dennis Allen because he had resurrected their defense. Dennis Allen isn't a head coach. I mean, he's terrible. He really is. Because anytime you're a good

defensive coordinator and you're not a good head coach, the moment I make you a head coach, but you keep your defensive coordinator responsibilities, the defense is going to slip and I'm going to take such a huge step back with my head coach. So it's like it's a double negative, right? I'm not making any strides forward. And I don't blame him for running it back and giving him a chance to see that he could write the wrong from last year. But they doubled down on the wrong guy. And Ted Nguyen, who's written for the athletic, who's, I think a Raider fan, listen,

I'm not trying to bash Derek. I like him personally. He's a really good guy. He's just not a very good player anymore. And the moment, it was like 20 to 14 and the Rams had the ball. excuse me, I think it was 20 to set or it was 27 to 7. I'm getting the score confused. They were up huge.

And he tweeted like, get ready for the Derek Carr hollow stats. And here they came. He threw a touchdown. Then they blocked a punt. He threw another touchdown. He got a two point conversion. Like, he didn't play that well. He just, he's dumping it down on fourth down.

He's throwing it behind the sticks. Like, that just can't happen. And there's a fine balance of. of being a robot and just playing with instincts. Like on fourth and seven, I don't care if I'm getting pressured. I can't throw it to a crossing route that's essentially my checkdown or a wheel route

that is eight yards behind the sticks. My guy is going to have to become like Barry Sanders, make three guys miss and break a tackle, to even give me a chance to get the first down. And he's been doing that his entire career. And Dennis Allen on, I think it was like fourth and five, around midfield, toward the end of the half,

the Rams chose to play defense even though they won the toss. So they were getting the ball coming out of the second half. Well, under the two-minute warning, what does Dennis Allen do? He goes for it on fourth and five. It's like, bro, this just try to get to halftime,

down to score, take a deep breath. What does he do? He goes for it, they don't get it. The Rams immediately go and score. They get the ball out of half. They drive right down the field, and if it wasn't for Matt Stafford's ball slipping out of his hands, they might have scored.

It might have been a 14-point swing. It turned out to be a 10. point swing. And honestly, it felt like the game ended right there. So, listen, I think Dennis Allen is a dead man walking. I think the same situation is a disaster. And the car contract is a disaster. They gave him, you know, essentially $60 million guaranteed. He's guaranteed $30 million next year. He has a no trade clause. So he's going nowhere. What they're going to do is they're going to fire Dennis Allen. They'll probably try to hire an offensive coach. And hopefully that he can, when I say, resurrect Eric, just make him a little bit better than he's been the last couple

years. I think usually when you get into your early mid-30s and you start playing poorly, you see this with Jimmy Garoppolo, you usually don't battle back out. That's kind of who you became. And I think this is kind of who Derek is. He's very average. The problem is they're paying him a decent amount of money. Like listen, we can be critical of Jared Gough. He has his moments, especially outside. But on the aggregate throughout the 17 games, he's pretty damn good. And if you build a good enough team around him, you're a lot to win 12 plus games. And that's what the Lions won 9 last year. They're going to win 12 or 13 this year.

Right. So Jared Goff is a good example of a guy making similar money who's just way better than Derek. You watch Derek tonight, the gap, like I said, the gap between McVeigh and Dennis Allen is the size of the Grand Canyon. You could argue the gap between Matt Stafford and Derek Carr's the same. I know you'll look up and he threw three touchdowns. Like, no, he didn't play that well. He didn't play that well. I've seen Derek play well.

What I witnessed tonight is just not a very good player It's a lot it's hollow stats It's hollow touchdowns They don't actually mean anything They were never gonna win that game But if you just pull up his box score It doesn't look nearly as bad As if you just watch the game start to finish

I think Derek Carr will be one of the main reasons That Dennis Allen's gonna lose his job I see under no circumstances If the Saints don't win the division Which I don't think they will That he's back next year I don't think you can bring him back Give you a little bit of a pass

when the Sean Payton situation happens, you give him a couple years. It's pretty clear. He's, I mean, a below average head coach. And you have no chance, even in a shitty division. They put it up on Amazon tonight. The division's like 22 and 34. That's my thing with the Rams.

If you put the Rams in the Lions division or you put them in the South, I mean, easily they're getting to 10-11 wins. So you put the Saints in the easiest division by a mile. I remember coming into the season, the reason I picked the Saints to win pretty easily, is because you looked at their schedule. They're playing a bunch of bad quarterbacks,

and they're going to struggle to get to eight wins. Think about that. They play Tampa next week in Tampa. I got news for you. I like Tampa in that spot. And, yeah, it's just not a very, very good team. So a little varsity versus JV tonight. One team that just feels like a playoff team that can make some noise.

And another team feels like it's just kind of stuck in neutral, going nowhere. And it probably is going to feel changes when the offseason comes. So props to the Rams for kind of kicking ass and taking names at the right time a year. Okay, let's get into a couple other things. I've talked a lot about Mike Tomlin and the Steelers in the entire situation,

but I was looking at it today because I saw a headline. I don't know if the Steelers announced, if it was leaked, I don't exactly know how the news broke. I just saw that Mason Rudolph's going to start, and Ms. Trubisky is the backup. And I went immediately because we've talked a lot about Mitch Trubisky

that if you make him your backup quarterback, it's one thing if you make Mitch Trubisky your backup quarterback, and your starters like Mahomes or Burrow or one of those situations and you only have like a million dollars or two and you kind of have to go cheap I understand it like you're kind of limited the Steelers paid Mitch Trubisky they gave him a contract extension

this offseason they gave him a signing bonus of 6.9 million dollars 6.9 million dollars his salary this year is 8 million dollars they guaranteed him 8 million dollars. It's one of the highest paid backups in the national football league. Whoever is in charge of that, if I'm the Rooney's, like, who pounded the table for this guy? And listen, everyone makes mistakes. Note every GM, every head coach, personnel mistakes, it happens.

This guy had already been on your team. Like, and I understand the hard part about a backup is for the most part he doesn't play that much. And if you like the guy, and Mitch is a very likable guy. But from a football standpoint, you paid a guy $8 million to back. up a quarterback who was young, who hadn't proven he could stay healthy, he hadn't even proven he was that good. And obviously this year had to play a lot. The moment he started having to play a lot, he gets benched for Mason Rudolph. So to me, if I'm the Roonies, they're playing the Bengals this week, which, listen, there is absolutely no excuse to not win that game. Jamar Chase is now

out. They just lost a defensive tackle to a broken leg or a bad ankle sprain. I forget the exact injury, but this Steeler team is in Chambles. And I had a buddy, in the league text me, probably within the last month, who's like, you know what an underrated part about the Steelers right now? Is they turned over, you know, Kevin Colbert retired, essentially. He's like, their front office isn't great. And one thing that Tomlin always had is a really good front office. And we're seeing all the stories come out about George Pickens,

saying he doesn't want to block because he doesn't want to get rolled up on. All night long, you're watching McVeigh. Just talked clearly to Herb Street now about how much he loves his wide receivers blocking, how hard Cooper Cup, how hard Puka Nakua block. Obviously, the 49ers are defined by wide receivers blocking. To me, the culture and everything is all out of whack. And it starts with the cohesion of the front office, the signing of players. Everything's out of whack in Pittsburgh.

And I think Mitch Tribesky is just a perfect example of that. Like, who the fuck is signing off on paying him $8 million as an extension when he's already been on the squad? just a horrific, horrific personnel move. Okay, let's talk about my friends at Morgan and Morgan. Do you know that getting in an accident is hard? Hiring Morgan and Morgan is easy. 35% of all fatal accidents occur between 6 o'clock and midnight.

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looks the part, easygoing guy. I mean, I can't really take much from the press conference. He was kind of, he wasn't asked about the money, but he was just asked about his head coaching opportunities. He immediately, like, refuses to answer, says you should be talking to Aaron Glenn about that too. He's clearly just a little uncomfortable like any assistant coach is when it comes to talking about being a head coach during the season. but I actually don't think it's that unrealistic.

And even though the agent shot down, we are not asking for that money, all takes a little bit of a bidding war. And think about all the coaching jobs that are going to be open. And listen, I say it all the time. There is no guarantee any coordinator is going to be good. Absolutely none.

Ben Johnson might be the next Cal Shanahan. He could be the next flop. Like, you have no clue. It is so much easier to just call plays and manage the offense than it is to be the head coach. A guy gets a DUI, a guy gets arrested. You know, you're starting defensive tackle shatters his leg.

Your punter gets a concussion. You have to deal with everything. Everything in the organization. You got the owner talking to you. You got the GM in your ass. You got sales and marketing asking you questions. It never ends. You have so many different obligations that the coordinator doesn't.

So it's impossible to even project. Back in the day, when I was with the Eagles, one of the famous stories was the reason they hired Andy Reid from the Green Day Packers, who technically wasn't even the, the coordinator is because they had done a study. There is no guarantee that just hiring the best offensive coordinator equals a good head coach. And we've seen that over the years.

I mean, sometimes special teams coach, sometimes a position coach, sometimes just failed head coaches. Just turn it around. I do think he's going to get an astronomical amount of money, though. Because if Schaefter is correct, then up to 10 head coaching jobs are open. There aren't 10 head coaching candidates. And the other thing, like I mentioned with Rahe Morris, like we've talked about, about before with Brian Flores, who is clearly a really good defensive coordinator, and there are several others, Dan Quinn, a lot of guys. Owners and rightfully so are just going to be inclined

to hire the guy that fucks with the quarterback. Because we've seen Dan Quinn. When he had Kyle Shanahan, he was awesome. When he didn't, he sucked, right? We've seen Brian Flores. He hated Tua. He couldn't interact with his offensive staff. The offense pays the bills in the national football league. I'm not saying a defensive coach can't be successful. And I'm not saying the defensive coaches aren't going to get hired. But just put yourself in the shoes of an owner or GM, you are going to be more inclined to leaned offensively. That's why everyone's going to want Harbaugh.

Right? It's why everyone's going to want this guy. Even if Jim Harbaugh comes to the NFL, he can only go to one team. So let's just say there were eight openings. Ben Johnson is easily going to be the number one candidate in two or three of them. And to me, all it takes and this happens all the time in free agency to gain a bidding process on, you know, your services, it takes multiple teams.

If you just have one team bidding on you, the number is not as high. Well, if you have two or three teams that want you, that number starts maybe at five years, $40 million and can easily, when it's all said and done, end up five years, $65 million. So maybe he doesn't get $15, but I don't think it's out of the realm possibility. You're looking at a $12, $13 million coach. You watch when Ben Johnson becomes a head coach in the NFL. I feel very confident in this, the number is going to be huge. It might not be $15 million a year.

I bet it's closer than $2.15 than it is to $8.5.9. And it's crazy how far we've come with these coaching contracts. But if you go, well, hey, what if this guy is the next Sean McVeigh? Because if he is, then he's worth $25 million. Like, I watch Sean McVeigh tonight. Whatever he's getting paid, he's underpaid. Watch Andy Reid. Watch Kyle Shanhan. Whatever they're making, they're underpaid.

It's why everyone's up in arms about Siriani. Like, what's he doing? Can't call the plays. He doesn't do anything with the defense. How many motivation speeches can you give? I need you to out-scheme my opponent. I need you to motivate and scheme. That's why these offensive head coaches make so much money.

Aaron Rogers. He was activated today to the 53-man roster earlier this week, and they had to cut some random fullback that I've never heard of. And I saw a lot of people, like Ross Tucker, I mean, people that played in the NFL, that covered the NFL, they're like, this is insane. a guy loses his job for Aaron Rogers, who's not even going to play,

who literally said on Tuesday that he's done, he can't play this year? Yeah, of course. You paid Aaron Rogers $75 million, partly because he gave you a haircut. He's your franchise. You clearly are getting an excuse this year because he's injured.

You'll do anything. Obviously, you don't want to just put him on injured reserve, right? Because the 21-day window ends, you have to make a decision on his roster status. You want him to come to practice. every day. Even if he's going to be limited, you want him with the quarterbacks, with the wide receivers, with the offensive line. If that's worth maybe an extra win, if that's just worth his psyche. I got news for you. No one gives a shit about the 53rd guy on a roster,

because at any moment, if there's an injury, he's the first guy to get cut. And this is a good example. He got cut. He didn't just get cut for the coach's son, for the owner's cousin. He got cut for Aaron Rogers. Yes, Aaron Rogers isn't going to play a game. Just like that guy would not have played a game. You were basically cutting a guy who is going to be inactive on game day for Aaron Rogers for a lot of stuff that's hard to quantify. That's the easiest move Joe Douglas has made all season. So some of these NFL people up in arms, and I get it, it hits it home to a lot of guys whose career end with getting cut and they're sensitive to that type stuff, especially with a guy who every game check is a big deal. I understand that.

but that not really the way the world works, right? If somehow they're like, you know, three and out is taking up coward spot. We got to put coward over you. Like, what do you think would happen to me? Bye bye John. I mean, what are we talking about? So sometimes the reaction, whether it be former players or by the media, is just very uninformed when it comes to the business of football.

I mean, like I said, I think that is easily the quixing. The quickest move that no one had to think about that the Jets have made in the last couple of years. So Aaron Rogers is officially now on the active roster, and he will be inactive, obviously, on game days. 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 you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes

of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me

or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?

Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? 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. Thank you finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I guess the last football thing before we dive into a couple other little things is Florida State officially wants out of the ACC. Like, of course they did. when Florida State got left out of the playoffs the ACC officially died

unofficially it had been hanging by a thread officially it's over same thing with the Big 12 everyone knows like oh they're they're going to expand the playoffs it's going to be much more fair you do know when the playoffs get expanded that the SEC

and the Big 10 probably have between 8 to 10 teams every single year in the playoffs they're going to dominate they're going to have like a Google you know, Netflix level monopoly on this thing. And Florida State knows it.

And Florida State knows the only way they can have future success, sustain it financially, is to get out of the ACC. There are a lot of complications. I did a little reading. The clauses, the contracts they have that are ironclad since until

2036, I think they will find a way to break them. And the moment they do, and that damn breaks, get ready for Clemson, get ready for Miami, get ready for maybe North Carolina to join them and go to the SEC. And that will officially kind of end. This has always been inevitable.

The super conferences. That's how it's going to end. Notre Dame and someone else will end up in the Big Ten. This thing's been a wrap from the jump. None of these other conferences were going to be able to keep up with the money rolling into the two big ones. They're going to financially have such a big advantage. They're going to have such a big advantage on the stranglehold of the power

of the playoffs and it's only going to continue to separate. And I know Chip Kelly went on this rant and everyone loved it. I thought it was the stupidest rant ever. Why would Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, LSU and Georgia want 64 teams on the main level?

They don't want to share the revenue. The NFL is 32 teams. 64 teams. Financially, that doesn't make any sense. The only teams that rate in this country are like Ohio State Michigan and whoever they're playing and some of the main SEC teams,

and occasionally if they're good, like the Oregon, Washington, USC's. And obviously, Texas and Oklahoma. Well, they're all playing together now. Why the fuck are they going to want to share it with all these other random teams? Again, I get why he got a lot of credit. And this is, I'm not even trying to take a shot at Chip Kelly.

He's just trying to do the right thing. But financially, it makes no sense. To me, there should be about 40 teams in the top conference and then everyone else. If you want to have three tiers, you know, three, a 40, a 30 and a 30, keep the D1 AA and like the Mountain West level conferences. however you want to do it.

But the 40, however that shakes out, and it's pretty clear how that's going to shake out, the teams that are already in the Big Ten, the teams that are already in the SEC, Clemson, Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame, add some of those. That's it. That's a wrap.

You know, everyone else is kind of S-O-L. It's always been like that, clearly for the last three or four years, the moment Oregon and Washington officially jumped ship. But like I said, it officially ended when Florida State was left out. Because if in the same situation, an SEC team or a Big Ten team

had the same thing happened with their quarterback, they'd be in the dance. They just would. And I think Florida State knows that, and they've known it for a while, but they got to experience it firsthand. Now they realize the ACC's dead. A couple other quick things.

Peacock has a peacock game only on Saturday night. The Bills Charger game, only on Peacock. I currently don't have Peacock, but be it my mom's house, she's a Comcast. she still has old school cable she has peacock free so I'll be able to watch it and my first reaction was this is so stupid

this is such a hurdle for the consumer and the NFL is the most consumer friendly business and then I started thinking I'd be a little bit of hypocrite because I was the one really supporting Amazon Prime though I think Amazon Prime if I polled every single person listening to this

right now are you an Amazon member every single one of you would say yes and the amount of you that have Amazon Prime and that definitely got it over the last couple of years because of Thursday night football would probably be close to 100% if you're listening to this podcast and you're a football guy. And obviously Amazon Prime brings other stuff to the table.

But then I was thinking like, here's the thing. Is NBC the way it's currently constructed and set up going to be around in 10, 20 years? Maybe they know everything's going to be on these streaming services. And I've been saying this forever. Now I assumed that eventually it'll all be like Amazon has one package, Netflix has a number,

another and it'll kind of be shaking out that way. But maybe the NBC game, which currently is the number one television show in America, you know, in the next television deal in 2013 will just be on peacock because we all have peacock. And if we don't all have peacock, if you want to watch the NFL, you will get peacock. And that's essentially what they're doing. They're giving you a little dabble. They will have a boatload of people by the peacock for the day or for the month or however you can short term. But eventually, like, that game will be there. So my first reaction was actually kind of angry. I was kind of pissed off. Because I honestly didn't even, I remember reading about this at the beginning of the season, but it kind of slipped my mind and then I saw Peacock only. I was like, ugh. But listen,

this is the future. And the NFL is going to be on the forefront of this. Part of the reason that they didn't go heavily on the streaming services this last time around because they would have been able to get more money. They were very loyal to their partners. NBC, fall. Fox, CBS. This is going to... Think how much television has changed in the last five years.

I was thinking about this the other night. I was like, me and Maria were looking for something to watch. I was flipping around. I was like, because of the writer's strike,

there's just no television shows. It's like, I've tried to get her to watch Reacher. She's kind of bored. I'm like, you know, it actually's kind of an overrated show. So we're like,

flipping around. I'm like, why don't I just turn on the television? I'm just going to all these streaming platforms. I don't think I did that five years ago. I had Netflix. But my five years ago, but my five,

Five first clicks weren't Apple, Hulu, Netflix, right? They're all streaming service, Amazon Prime. It was always just, I went to the cable box, and I just flipped around and see if a movie or a show was on. So think of how dramatically it's going to change in the next five, six, seven years. So listen, some of us are going to be angry, not myself, but I would have been if I was here and I just would have had to pay for it. But let's be real.

This is how it's all going to be moving forward. And I think like the ACC officially dying, I think the Pro Bowl, now is just completely officially dead. I saw it was announced today that they've added Tug of War. They're no longer really playing the game, right? They canceled the game years ago in pads because it was so terrible. Then they tried to do flag football. It was even worse.

And now they're doing essentially like a bunch of screw around events. I actually don't think it's terrible. Like Tug of War with the offensive linemen. I remember when I was a kid, like Brett Farve, Troy Aikman, Steve Young. They used to get all the sweet quarterbacks and they would have events of hitting moving targets,

who could throw at the farthest. The problem, I think, for the NFL is the Pro Bowl game for as much as all of us people that watch football talk so much shit about it. I refuse to watch it the last three or four years. That last year, when Mack Jones made it

in the flag football game and did the gritty, I was like, this is beyond dumb. Still got millions of people to watch. I saw a clip today of the most watched sports, right? Obviously, it's football. On the average game, the average NFL game does like 9 million people. All the other major sports do under a million people for all the games.

The NBA is like 600 grand. Baseball and hockey are like 2 and 300,000 people. So even the Pro Bowl used to do like 6, 7 million people when it was at its lowest, when it was most embarrassing. So it is hard. You know, your partners pay all this money. and it's hard to get millions of people just to watch Patrick Mahomes throw the football at a moving target.

So I think that you're just going to have to add a lot of different events. I think a strongman competition, I think maybe get the four best guys who are good at golf. It's going to be in Vegas. Play at the win, you know, a little the match style, have that going on simultaneously. You're going to have to do a lot of that and basically just call it like a four hours NFL skills competition.

but it will not be the same. And I think the NFL knows that. They're trying to kind of piecemail it because none of the players want to play. And even when they play, they freaking hate it. And it's just, it became a disaster for the NFL when everyone started making so much money. I mean, that legendary Sean Taylor hit on the punter,

it feels like it's all been downhill from there. And listen, I don't blame the guys. If I was an NFL player, I would not, under any circumstances, even play in a game if there were pets. I wouldn't do it. one, because we're not going to go hard. And two, I can't risk if we're not going hard

and it's football, some weird injury. Right? And then even the flag football thing, it's like it became kind of embarrassing for the brand of the NFL, even though it's actually kind of parallel some of the football we watch on Sundays. But I get it. I mean, I just think more and more,

there's just so much money in the line. You can't convince these players, and I support them. I wouldn't risk any sort of injury doing anything stupid on something that doesn't matter at all. So listen, the Pro Bowl's dead. I wanted to end with this. The bold take of the week.

I've always been good at working out. Working out's not my problem, but my diet for the last, I don't know. I'd say all of 2023 has been pretty terrible. The amount of sweets I've eaten this year has probably shattered records, but I don't plan on stopping now. So my bold take of the week is I plan on not turning down any single item for the next week. I'll be home for the holidays. we're going to be eating big.

I'm going to about three different family gatherings with her family, with my family, with the in-laws, with all sorts of people, and food's going to be flying. And I am not turning down anything. I plan on coming back. My cleanse, my quest toward a healthy body

that is my temple, once upon a time, it no longer is, starts probably about mid... I'm not even starting in 2024. I'll start about Wednesday or Thursday of next week, but starting Saturday. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, I plan on putting on a performance of eating and obviously drinking as well and watching football because we have about 7 million football games Saturday, Sunday, on Peacock Saturday,

Sunday, and then cap it off Monday night, Niners Raven. So my bowl take of the week, I plan on eating everything in sight. Brought to you by Guinness, gather your friends, raise your glasses, and toast to a win. Guinness Traff Stout imported by Diageo Beer Company, USA, New York, New York. Please drink responsibly. The volume. 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. On The Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down,

and try to make sense of how we survived it with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to Look Back at it on the,

the IHeart 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, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show.

This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.