The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 and Out - Sleeping On Lions? RESPECT Brock Purdy, Can Penix Be A Star? NFL/ESPN Partnership

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

John dives into the mailbag and answers questions ranging from whether people are sleeping on the Lions, to the obvious conflict of interest for ESPN journalists, and why people need to put more respect on Brock Purdy’s name. Timeline: 7:00 - Chiefs 1 score game stat 11:30 - Why does Licht keep Todd Bowles? 15:00 - Can Falcons overcome their coaching? 19:45 - Rank these running backs 26:00 - Can big money make college programs into powerhouses? 29:45 - Like/Don’t like about podcasting 32:00 - Can Michael Penix be a star? 35:15 - Don’t sleep on the Lions 43:00 - Takeaways from Pete Carroll’s Raiders debut 47:00 - Top 10 coaches 54:00 - ESPN/NFL partnership 58:15 - Texans v Packers Super Bowl? 59:45 - Attending Super Bowl 60 1:04:00 - Can Henderson become the next Gibbs? 1:06:00 - Will Purdy ever get the respect he deserves? 1:08:30 - Which NFL employee would you get beers with? 1:17:00 - Trade for Tanner Mckee? 1:19:15 - Scottsdale recommendations (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) 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.  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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 ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no-nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She can win.

She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any service. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. and we're going straight to the source the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the iHeart radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The volume. You don't need to sink a 30-foot put to score big this weekend. Just fire up the Drafking Sportsbook app

and take your shot at the green. The kind with dollar signs. Whether you're die hard, golf fan like myself, or just in it for the Sunday drama. Draft Kings has everything you need to make the round a little more exciting. Live bets, prop plays, and odds boost. Here's the thing. Are you new to bet on golf?

You can bet on the winner. You can bet on a guy in top five. You can bet on a top 10. My bet last week, I'm going to roll over again. I got Scotty to win, and I parlayed that with Tommy Fleetwood and Ben Griffin to top 10. I think if you want to have a little action on Scotty, he was one missed putt away from being in the playoffs. We know Fleetwood's not going to win, but he's going to be in the mix. Ben Griffin is hot right now.

One other guy, Cam Young. So between Cam Young, Tommy Fleetwood, and Ben Griffin, I like those guys to top 10, and I think Scottie Sheffler gets it done. So any sort of combination with those guys this week I'm fired up on. Take your swing at winning some dough this week. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use the code John. That's code J-O-H-N for new customers to get 200 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks.

Only on Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler. York, call 8778 Hope and Y or text Hope and Y 467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-78-9-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus beds expires seven days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash audio.

What is going on everybody? How are we doing? Hopefully everyone is happening. great day. And I know I am having an excellent day. I actually recorded an interview earlier today with Greg Olson, Fox broadcaster, former longtime NFL player, tied in university. I think we'll play that early next week. I'm actually going, I'm doing Fox Sports One again Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So I'll be down in LA next week, but I'll still be doing podcasts, probably from the hotel room. So nothing will change there. But we'll have great coming out next week. And I thought today I was like, you know, what's going on?

I had some takes. I'm like, you know what it will do? We haven't done this in a while. Just a big mailbag. So I recorded about an hour worth of mailbag questions. Tried to get as many as I could to not go on forever and ever. But we did an hour plus of a mail bag. And that's the game plan.

You guys know the drill at John Middlecoff is the Instagram. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those DMs. Get your question answered here on the show. We're going to post it on YouTube. Probably split it up into two different videos, probably a couple of 30-minute videos. Also, if you're listening on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe, three-and-out feed. We did a golf podcast yesterday. So if you miss that and you like, talked about my experience at Live with Colin, watching Tommy Fleetwood.

We obviously have a bunch of podcasts out this week. Me and Colin did one on Sunday. So we've had a lot of content in the middle of August, no big deal. we're just working and and yeah but before we dive into some football you know i'm going to tell my friends my partners and the official ticketing app of this podcast you want to go to one of these games football is right around the corner it's you know sometimes it's it feels like a slow burn to get to the start of training camp and then once training camp starts all of a sudden you look back you're like god we're two weeks away i mean college football is right around the corner the NFL is the next week after that

in terms of regular season games. So any event you want to go to, any game concerts, comedy shows. Taylor Swift, I just saw was with the Kelsey Brothers, announcing her new album. I'm sure she's, I mean, why wouldn't you do another tour if the last one is that big? So any concert you want to go to, I cannot recommend these guys enough game time. Just take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time, download that app. Create an accountant, use the code John.

That's J.O.H.N. for $20 off for his purchase, terms apply again. Create an accountant, redeem the coach. John, $20 off down the game time half today. Last minute, take its lowest price guaranteed. Okay, let's dive in to this little thing that we call the Middle Cough mailbag. And we will start with my main man, Luke. Big fan of the show. I'm a Chiefs fan.

And Collins' final playoff predictions got my panties in a bunch because he flipped the chargers and the Broncos to win the division based off the Slater injury and kept the Chiefs as a wild card. My question for the mailbag is specifically, why the quote-unquote, one-score game stat for the Chiefs is such a one-sided argument. Everyone says that there's no way they can win as many one-score games they did last year, but what if instead of losing more one-score games, they just aren't in as many and are winning games by two scores instead?

A lot of those games should have been blow-ups, blowouts, and with relatively same defense, a healthy wide receiver group, and tongue-in-cheek, a future Hall of Famer, Josh Simmons at left tackle, I don't see why KC shouldn't be able to pull away from teams that they let hang around. I also think that if you just look at the last, let's say 20 years with good teams or teams that have had sustained success. The Patriots are obviously the best example. You know, the Ravens would be a franchise. You could look at the bills these last four or five years.

You could look at groups like the Harbaugh Niners or the Shanahan Niners or the Packers with Rogers. when you're a good team and you're going to average between 12 and 15 wins a season, right? Let's even 11, right? You're going to have years where the difference between winning 12 and 14 might just be a fumble and a block field goal, right? That's just, that's the way the world works. But you're also the majority of time over the aggregate, you're not playing in games where you're winning 40 to 10. That's not how the NFL work. This is not college football, right?

If you go back and look at Ohio State over the last five years, Alabama over the last 10 years or Georgia. In college, good teams blow opponents out a lot, right? They play in two or three close games during the regular season, and then in theory, the postseason, now the playoffs, is a highly contested matchup. But regular season games for good college teams are blocked. That's not the NFL. You're going to play in a lot of one-score games. I bet if you look at the Chiefs over the last five, six years, they have an excellent one-score game winning record. Why? Because they average like 13 wins a season. So most of their wins are not going to be 38 to 13. I actually don't think it's more with an outlier season. Like a couple years ago,

the Minnesota Vikings with Kirk Cousins, I think the Giants when they went nine and eight, it happens to some franchises and that's like their one good season over the course of like three years. That's not the case with the Chiefs. So I'm with you. I think we probably make too big a deal with that. We have a lot of data. This is not a small sample size. It's like, well, this guy hit 10 home runs in the month of June. He's going to be the greatest home run hitter of all time. And he's like never hits another home run. Like, this is a franchise that like year in, year out since Patrick began as a starting quarterback and whatever year that was, 18. Like, we got a pretty good vibe in a field. Like, this team's going to be good. Now, I think they've

won this division seven years in a row over the course of 10 years. There's going to be a year when you don't win the division, right? It happened to the Patriots. The Dolphins won it in, what was that, 08? Now, Tom Brady tore his ACL that year. The difference in the Chiefs situation relative to that situation in New England for 20 years where I think they basically won the division every year beside that one, that division kind of sucked. Now, the Patriots always made up for it because they handled everyone else.

Your division's good. So Denver's going to be good. The Chargers, even if it's a pretty big blow, like, they're going to be solid. And the Raiders with Pete Carroll are going to be, I mean, the Pete Carroll's last couple years with Seattle, everyone's like, it just sucked. It's like they were winning nine games like making the playoffs. So I think the floor is really, really high on that division as a whole. And eventually, you're just going to have one of those years where if instead of winning

13 games, you end up winning 11, like the Chiefs two years ago, and you don't win the division, you finish second. I do think that's possible. But, like, if I wanted to argue for the chiefs, you'd go, well, the charges lost their left tackle. We're better than them. It's like, okay, Bo Nix, I know everyone loves giving him the circle jerk. And listen, I'm probably guilty of that, too. Like, well, see you beat us.

Let's see you beat us. Can you win this division? Let's see, because I know our guy can. Can you? Big Bucks fan and also a big fan of the show. You have discussed Jason Lyd is one of the better GMs in the league, and I also have a conflicted opinion. on it. On one hand, we indeed have one of the better rosters in the league, and we have been a stalwart in winning the division and going to the playoffs the last five years. But on the other

hand, he just extended Bowles, who, despite having won the division as a coach every year of his tenure, I think we can all agree probably holding the team back. He is a defensive coach, and his defenses are subpar, and we schematically and tactically aren't clever or creative. I will give Bulls credit for bringing a sense of stability and keeping the team even. been keel. But doesn't light deserve some criticism for not seeing bowls just isn't good enough as a head coach? I was ironically here. I sent Jason the text yesterday because there was an article on the athletic. Basically the premise was like we don't draft assholes or debacks. And that's a big reason over the last five years. They have had so much success in the draft building a roster

that is just fantastic. Right. And Tom Brady was the cherry on top. And then they turned it around and then they transitioned to Baker, but Jason is easily one of the best drafting GMs in the league and just a good guy. Like we started talking about other mid-round draft picks. I mean, he's just, he's just an easygoing high-level GM. I don't know the particulars of every organization, and really most organizations when it comes to these situations. But no head coach and no GM is ever extended unless the owner wants to do it. the general manager is not like the CEO of Starbucks in the sense of in the NFL, if a head coach is extended, that's because of the owner, not the gym. Now, I'm not saying clearly Jason likes him. And like you said, Todd's had success.

But that is an ownership call. So like, do I think Jason would fire him based like, why would you? But it's more complicated than just, if you tell me, I'm just using a hypothetical. Obviously he's going to be good. But the first round pick from Ameca, Boku from Ohio State, I might have screwed up that name. But everyone thinks he's going to be good. Baker singing his praises.

I'm excited to watch him. I was just texting Jason about him. They love him. Let's just say he was a bust, and he sucks. Everyone would agree that's on the gym. Jason Light would say that was on me, right? All the previous busts over the years in that organization, since Jason's been there in 2013 are on him, and he would be the first to tell you.

To me, head coaching situations, that's, that's, that's the owner. I also think it's not like he's going to fire him, so I hear what you're saying, but I think it's more complicated than just the GM extended him, because that's not totally how it works, right? Like, Howie and Siriani, obviously Siriani wins the Super Bowl. We all agree, like, Siriani's not as good as these other guys, right? But like Siriana gets an extension, that's not like how he doing the extension. Like that's a Jeffrey Lurie decision.

So I think when it comes to coaches and extensions or firings, not that the GM doesn't have influence, good or bad, but they aren't in control of that one. Those are expensive, even for a quote-unquote, like Todd Bowles is, you know, cheaper than the Tomlins and the McVeys and the Andy Reeds still cost you probably $12, $13 million a year. You know, it ain't cheap. Big fan listening every day, landscaping here in Atlanta. So you're probably pretty hot

because I'm pretty sure it's muggy there. I got a football question and a golf question. I'm a big Falcons fan, and I think we have a lot of talent, but I think Terry and Rahim are objectively underwhelming. Is it possible to overcome them and succeed? How do caddies rank up

from starting cadding to cadding for the pros? It's a good question on the caddies. I think a lot of times there's some element of luck cadding in, quote, unquote, the minor leagues with a guy who then becomes a really good player. And then once you get to the quote unquote big leagues, you just kind of shuffle. It's almost like, how does this guy keep getting opportunities as a coordinator? It's like, well, once upon a time, someone gave him a shot as a coordinator. And then he just kind of cycles in and out. I think it's very, very difficult.

Like, if you gave Rahim Morris and he became the head coach of the Ravens, I think it'd be hard for them to not miss the playoffs. They already have the infrastructure, their guys know how to win, they already have some built-in schemes. He could kind of be the raw-rah guy in front. But when he's the guy creating, like, we've been winning seven games a year, it's time to make the playoffs.

Like, it's pretty overwhelming, and I think it's hard to overcome that. Now, the only way they could is Rahim does not call the offense. And I don't know Zach Robinson personally, and it's hard to put it all on him, cousins just, I mean, physically kind of fell apart last year. As the season went on, it was just objectively bad. And I don't, that to me is not all in the coaching.

But if he's really good and Pennix is really good, I think you could overcome an average GM and an average head coach. But that's asking like, I mean, Pennix would have to be like a Pro Bowl guy. Like can he throw 38 touchdowns? I don't know. I hope so. I love Michael Pennix. Question for the bag.

It seems like a safe bet that Anthony Richardson will exit a game early in the season. If Daniel Jones gets his shot and is half the season Sam Donald had last year, could you see the Colts winning a playoff game? You know what's funny is I was watching Hard Knocks last night on the couch. And if you watch the first two episodes and when they do practice montage, typically Hard Knocks is based on a shitty team, right? And a lot of times they either have like a young rookie quarterback or some veterans bridge quarterback, and it's just an awful aesthetic experience, just watching it.

It's like, this offense stinks. Remember, Jared Goff did it. Last year, Caleb, you can just tell. It's like, this is going to be weird. Watching Josh Allen play, you're like, this is as good as it gets, just watching him slinging around. Looking back at Anthony Richardson, and I, you know, if you've listened to me for a while where I stand on drafting high and taking big swings, I never have a problem.

swinging for the fences. I am pro high in the draft swing for the fences because there is no such thing as a high floor player. Daniel Jones was viewed as a high floor player.

And for the most, you know, relative to the six overall pick, he's been a disaster. But they drafted Anthony Richardson, just like the Niners drafted, Trey Lance, just like in the history of league,

a lot of physical guys have been drafted. Josh Allen was one as well. And they don't work out. For every Josh Allen, there are 10, 15 absolute whiffs. And instead of hitting that grand slam, you strike out. And to me, Anthony Richardson, like, Daniel Jones is starting week one. I would be stunned sitting here after watching that situation unfold in the first

preseason game of him not knowing protections and where free release or free rushers are coming from. Like, it's over. Now, it doesn't mean Daniel Jones can get hurt, play poorly, doesn't mean he won't play. But I wouldn't compare Daniel Jones to see. Sam Donald. Sam Donald is a much more talented player. Daniel Jones comp is like Alex Smith.

Sam Donald's comp is much more of like a, I'm honestly, he's like a poor man's Josh Allen. He doesn't run like that, but he's got an explosive arm. And he, like, Daniel Jones is not some explosive thrower of the ball. His best season ever, I think was like 15 touchdowns. So I guess they could, but I have a hard time seeing a workout. out. Like, might take a couple days ago, like, I'm out. I'm just out on this thing. And I think if you're betting man right now, I think it's going to be a debacle. And I would say my gambling

lock of the year, my lock of the year, is the Texans winning that division. A big fan, fellow ball, brother. My question for the pod is, which of these three guys had a higher peak? Levion Bell, Todd Gurley, David Johnson, or Arian Foster. I feel like they all had particular stretches when they were dominant. I mean, I think they were all, like, all pro players. So I would say was Todd Gurley, the starting running back on the team that McVeigh took to the Super Bowl? Was David Johnson was a starting running back on a team that went to the AFC championship? Levion was starting running back.

I mean, they all played in a lot of playoff games. I personally think when purely healthy, Gurley was the most talented of the group. Aryan Foster was just the ideal zone running scheme guy. I mean, it just, he was perfect for the LaFleur, Shanahan, any, you know, what the Eagles do. Any zone running team, he is the ideal running back. Levion was good with the zone, but he was kind of a hybrid. He could do both.

His style was so unique. To me, Todd was just, Todd was a pretty elite talent. I mean, the dude got drafted 10th overall, the torn ACL. and Aryan Aaron was just Certain running backs are just specific scheme fits and to me

Aryan has to play in the zone and when he did Gary Kubiak Kyle Shanahan we're going to run it right down your throat Hey it's us to Jonas Brothers and guess what we have some big news What's the news?

Huge news We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas We invented a podcast Well we didn't invent it We just contributed to it We're the first people to do podcast Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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 Headwriters. or street or sidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise.

breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Genshin win. I mean, she went down at three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted.

She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

For the mailback, this is Carter. KU Athletics, that'd be Kansas, announced $300 million donation, which will go toward athletics only. Confirmed by a couple different KU reporters. With money like that flowing into certain universities, is there a future where random schools like us, Texas Tech, Arkansas, and ASU become national brands and household names in college football? Or do you think that's going to be impossible? I mean, we've seen it before. Oregon became a household name in the Internet age behind Phil Knight and Nike. And they are going to even take a bigger step.

And I guess they have no chance to go anywhere as long as Nike continues to back them, right? Texas Tech is trying to essentially do that same thing, which Oklahoma State did for a long time with T-Boom Pickens of like, we're just going to buy a team. obviously you couldn't above board do it but it was happening below board to me it's more complicated it's it's easier to wrangle 25,000 in cash together to get a recruit than it is to get hey we want these five guys it's going to cost us two million dollars on average 400,000 a guy in real money that we pay them in direct deposits on a monthly basis like that's much more complicated than handing a guy a briefcase or a bag of cash and so to elevate like it's you can have a really really successful mom and pot restaurant right that does really well even smaller margins in the restaurant business you can be very financially successful if you're one of the 10% of restaurateurs that in a city develops the number one restaurant it's always packed and you make money which is very difficult to do it is much more difficult from a capital standpoint to run a national business

a retail store that's in like 10 different states, right? You just got more people working for it's just more complicated and it takes more money and it takes more support like you got to get bank loans, just a lot moving on. You got to get investors. Whereas a restaurateur, maybe you got 50 grand to put on the down payment and then just kind of go from there and figure it out. And again, I'm not trying to downplay, but there's a different trying to compete with Walmart or Target than there is to like just create a restaurant in downtown.

So, like, that's kind of the college athletics to bounce. And I said this is Josh Pate the other day. When Alabama's AD put out a tweet asking for help, you just, that's a problem. You know who's not doing that? Texas Tech because they got a billionaire supporting them. Arkansas. So, yes, I think we will one million percent see a couple new programs over the course of the next decade. their addition to the national landscape of just being maybe not they're going to become Ohio State overnight

but like they're just in the mix for the next 10 years in the top 15, 20 every single year. And they're going to make the playoffs a couple times. So yes, I would. I would not put ASU with Arkansas and Texas Tech. I mean, Arkansas and Texas Tech have big, big money. ASU is not remotely close on that level. I mean, last year, Kenny Dillingham was begging people for donations. I have no idea if you'll see this, but if you do, message, this is for the pod.

This is not for the pod, but to get your thoughts. I'll just read this out. I won't say your name. I love your show and would love to start my own podcast as a way to one day make a living. I enjoy my 9 to 5, but it's not something I'm passionate about. What I love doing is talking sports, especially football with my buddies. I would love to start a podcast that, has the vibe, guys just talking ball, with a mix of balance takes, hot takes, fan bias, and outside

perspectives. The problem is, I have no actual football experience. I didn't even play high school football, but man, I love watching it, listen to it, and talking about it. I would love to make my work that. You're in the business. What do you like and what do you not like about this? I would say this. There has never been an easier time in your situation to figure out a way to get involved in the world of just talking about sports. This stuff, when I got into it, hell, a decade ago, didn't really exist. You have YouTube, you have Instagram, you have TikTok. Like, you don't need to start of just like, I have a podcast that 100,000 people listen to.

Just create a TikTok account or an Instagram account or a YouTube page and just kind of start throwing your ideas out there. Record some of your podcasts, clip it up, make it a side project, and just see if you can figure out a to kind of hone in on what works and what doesn't work. Who cares if anyone's listening? You already have a job. So just make it a side hustle. At first, most side hustles don't make any money.

And then if you ever gain some traction, you can spend a little more effort and energy doing it. But like you can order equipment off Amazon. You can just get a Logitech camera and put it above your laptop and just start recording stuff and post it to the social channels and just mess around. and then just figure out like how much you actually like it.

Because now you can't be downing yourself about how many people listen or interact like it takes time. You know, it's like Coward just didn't start on Fox Sports One with a show, a podcast company doing all this stuff. You started doing it when no one was paying attention in the 80s, right? Dan Patrick started when no one was paying attention well before he ever got ESPN or whoever, right? And most people aren't Pat McAfee or whatever that have a built-in, like I played in the NFL. So you just, you got to start from scratch and just start swinging your pick. But you get to a point, like, if you really want to try this, it's not you already have a way to make money, start small and just see where it goes. I'm 24-year-old Falcons fan.

And ever since Super Bowl losses fell like a nightmare, trusting Marriota, Desmond Ritter wasn't exactly comforting. But last year, Kirk Cousins actually gave me some of the best football. memories in years, like the Bucks on Thursday Night Football and the Eagles' two-minute drive. I like Rahim. Love our recent draft, and I'm really intrigued by Zach Robinson. I agree. The staff is only in year two, so I know it takes time to fully establish a system. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but is it crazy to believe that Pennix could have a Mahomes-type arc? Sit behind a solid vet, get a few reps, and then blow up in year two. We got a good O line. We have weapons, and the defense is younger and

improving. What are the odds, pulls us into the playoffs? If you're a playoff team, that means I would imagine, I mean, I think the Bucks are winning 10 games, so you probably have to win 11 or 12 to win the division. I guess you could make a wild card at 10. That means Pennix has a good year. And if Pennix has a good year, like you're going to be in a good spot moving forward. Now, I think this is what we talked about with Anthony Richardson being compared to Josh Allen. It's like, we need the next Josh Allen. Like, don't think like that. Because that's never, it happened in basketball forever. This guy's the next Draymond Green.

Now there's one Draymond Green. There's never going to be another guy that's six foot five. They can play defense like that, pass and dribble. It doesn't really happen. He's an outlier player. Josh Allen, all these physical gifts wasn't very good in college. Couldn't even get a Division I scholarship. People thought the fucking bills were nuts for drafting them.

It's like that's an outlier. Usually that guy sucks, right? And the thing with Pennix is like, multi-year starter took Washington to the Natty, dominated. Like, he's a legitimate, like, plug-and-play player. Now, how good, I hope he's good. I enjoy watching him play, but comparing him to Mahomes, I mean, didn't Mahomes as his first year starting throw 50 touchdowns?

Didn't he win the MVP? I think that's his style is a lot different than Pennix, too. I mean, Pennix is a pocket quarterback. Pennix is more, he's much closer to like a Jared Goff, like the way he wants to play. Mahomes' first year in the NFL as a full-time starter, he threw 50 touchdowns. So I would say Pennix throws 30, you're in pretty good shape. I think we've got to be very careful of like this happens a lot during the draft. Like, you know who this guy reminds me of Miles Garrett?

You know who this tied end reminds? George Kipp. Like, no guy, none of these guys, like two of these first rounders are going to be pro bowlers. Actually, most of the good players are going to come from the other rounds. That's how it usually works, unless this is an outlier draft when a bunch of pro bowlers come from the first round, which doesn't happen as often you think. I feel like many people, this is from, I think Xander, Zander Schaftley. Not Zander Schofley, but I feel like many people are riding off the lines because they're losing both coordinators.

but I would argue that the addition of all the defensive players that were injured last year being back is a bigger gain than a loss of the coordinators. Hutchinson looked like the best rush in the league to start last season and him and 10 other guys are coming back from injury. They won 15 games last year with an injured team. Why can't they win 12 or 13 with all these players back? I totally agree. I'm just trying to beat off the main path a little bit.

It's why I'm taking the Packers. Right. You guys have won the division, what, the last two years? Obviously, you got a lot of talent. The offense is loaded. I think defensively, if you got the jimmies and the Joes, you got one of the best edge rushers, you got some young players.

Brandt's a really good player. You've drafted a bunch of DBs the last couple years. Scheme matters, but like the infrastructure, you hired from within, like I bet they're pretty solid on defense, if they're healthy, even with Aaron Glenn leaving. To me, offense, we all. know this. Like when you lose a coordinator, especially an elite coordinator, there can be a massive drop-off.

Even if the players are the same. I think that's where you get like Ben Johnson to Johnny Morton. Like, why hasn't Johnny Morton been a dominant offensive coordinator throughout his career? Everyone keeps telling me how great of a guy is. I'm not just, or I mean, coach he is. I'm sure he's a great guy. Like, I don't know. Ben Johnson is, I mean, one of the best

offensive coordinators we've seen recently. It's like I got Gruden, I got Dan Campbell, I got Sean Payton, like, I love Johnny Morton. It's like, well, why didn't you guys make him your offensive coordinator wrong often? How many times is Johnny Morton? So I guess what I'm saying is he's the guy that makes me nervous. So he's an offensive coordinator right now. He was the past game coordinator the last couple of years of the Broncos.

He was there obviously in 22, with Dan Campbell's talked about this, bringing him back as a senior offensive consultant. He was the Jets offensive coordinator in 2017. He was a wide receiver coach for a long time with the Niners and then the same. I just, that to me, I'd be more nervous about than the defense. They just maintain the same thing. Like, does he run the exact same verbiage and offense that Ben Johnson did? He's clearly not the same.

I mean, pretty, you just watch him talk like cerebral smart guy. Johnny, Johnny Morton's got a little more. more like football guy vibe. I saw you came out to Bowling Brook for the live golf tournament. How did you like Bowling Brook? Also based off the offseason moves, do you think nine wins for the Bears is realistic? Have real expectations for them, but don't want to expect too much. You know, besides just the first hole in the 18th hole, I didn't walk the course.

So it looked like a pretty cool venue. Definitely it was sweet being in the little literally in the sweet, drinking beers, having some food, but I don't have a great feel for the course beside watching them hit down hole one and approach 18. I would say on the Bears, if you tell me they go above 500, above 500, I would say Caleb, you feel pretty good about Caleb moving forward. And you just got some positive momentum.

To me, the number one key for this team is like, do you feel good at the end of the year? And that would be impossible if you win three, four, five games. but could you win eight, nine games and be like, we had the top two or three or four defense in the league. And, I mean, Dennis Allen's a really good defensive coach. And the offense was pretty hit or miss. I think you would much rather choose, you know,

our defense was pretty hit or miss, but our offense was awesome with Ben Johnson and Caleb. You could argue that's the only thing that matters. It's like, you feel good, your head coach likes the quarterback and the quarterback looks good. that to me is more important than you're not win the Super Bowl you're going to win a playoff game probably not either but like does your quarterback look good a lot of falcons fans for the bag as a falcons fan i want to get your opinion on rahim he doesn't call the plays on defense doesn't

call the plays on offense so what is his role other than being the vocal leader time management is clearly not one of his strong suits which is evident from the falcons commanders game last year along with clock management early in the season. In fairness to Rahim, he is no different than a lot of coaches. The Harbaugh brothers, do not call the offense, do not call the defense. Pete Carroll does not call the offense,

does not call the defense. Dan Campbell, not call the offense. There are a ton of quote-unquote CEO head coaches in the NFL, a ton, right? For every McVeigh and Kyle and even, I guess, Andy and Sean Payton, most guys are not doing that. Vrable, doesn't call the offense, doesn't call the defense. Todd Bulls

ain't calling the defense anymore. Or does he? That might be a bad example. But to me, it's more about, like, the structure of what you're looking for. And that's what the Harbaugh brothers have shined at. That's what Dan Campbell was, like, broke the lions through with. Can he do that? Because just being the CEO of a company, like,

think about the CEO of most, most, like, successful companies. They're not, like, Starbucks hired the, dude from Chipotle. Well, guess what? He ain't making the burritos at Chipotle. When Starbucks hires him, he ain't pouring the coffee, right? He's not running an individual store. You are doing macro visionary things for the company. It's no different as a CEO and coach. So, like, do you know what you're doing? Because there have been a lot of CEOs that like, God, I really like this guy. He just wasn't very good at his job. And you just have to wonder, like, is this guy actually a number two and there are just a lot of those guys like robert solid probably just number two

vangio number two and i've said this forever if you're going to be at number two there are a lot of industries where being the number two there's a big paid decrease and you're not even making that much money in the NFL being the number two which means being the defensive coordinator if you're right here pays like four or five million dollars and you bear no responsibility when people get in trouble when people get injured there's There's so many pressures that are not on you. And I've said this forever, even about Ben Johnson, is like, until you get into the firing lines,

and all of a sudden, a defensive player gets a DUI, an offensive player that was your star snaps his leg, a head coach's wife gets sick. You know, all this stuff going on, all that pressure is on you. That's where it's like, you know, now we're going to learn about Dan Campbell. You know what, I know Dan Campbell can handle the pressure. I've seen it. Now, schematically, are they good enough?

That, to me, is the question. But in terms of Dan Campbell, handling guys getting injured, guys getting arrested, guys getting flag, guys, whatever. Unfazed. I have full faith, like, he can handle being a CEO. We know the Harbaugh's, the Pete Carrolls, like those guys. We saw Robert Sala try to be a CEO. Wasn't, because you know what most CEOs need?

They need a lot of experience. Because getting thrust in the main chair, it's where Sean McVeigh, obviously, it was difficult. but like he got to just kind of focus on calling the offensive plays. He had Wade Phillips, calling the defense, and it's like he could kind of be tunnel vision earlier in his career, which now he's able to balance both. But Rahim, like the pressure on them because they spent a bunch of money on Kirk Cousins, the leash is pretty short.

It's why I think if they missed the playoffs, I think everyone's going to get fired. The owner's old. They bungled the quarterback situation that they didn't have to do. So I, you know, based on paying, I mean, their backup makes $28 million. What was your takeaway from Pete Carroll's first game? I know they started the first half slow, but came back in the second half and blocked the field goal from winning. I'd be lying if I said I watched much of that game. I remember sitting on my couch watching the first couple drives and like, it was a preseason game.

I didn't care. Listen, coward, one of his first takes when he got back from vacation was Dan Campbell. and the Lions were in trouble because they lost their two coordinators and he could tell on the Hall of Fame game. Like, I disagree with making judgments based on the preseason. Most of these games, and listen, my take on Shador Sanders is not that based on that performance in the first preseason game, that he's a future star.

My take was simply like, the head coach better be careful because the momentum's already against what he wants to do and on Shador's side. But making plays against second and third. third string players is what you want to do as a player, but that does not guarantee, let alone even translate always to the regular season because it's a completely different sport. There's no, we're not scheming up against anybody. So preseason is really just effort, energy, and what does, what do your backups look like,

right, from a talent standpoint? So judging Pete Carroll off the preseason game, to me, is irrelevant. Like Pete Carroll has 25 plus years of showing you what he brings to the table. I'd be very excited to go from, I think, you know, Pete Carroll's resume is a lot longer than Brable. But I'll never forget, and I was when I left the NFL and I went into radio, I was around the Harbaugh. And they fired Jim Harbaugh and they went to Jim Tom Sula. I'm very, very confident. It is the worst drop-off in the history of the NFL.

Jim Harbott or Jim Tom Sua. I don't think there'll ever be a drop-off and a gap that big between two players. It'd be like going from, you know, Tom Brady to Brian Hoyer. I mean, this is the gap couldn't be any bigger, right? And I think on the opposite end, going from Gerard Mayo to Vrable and Antonio Pierce to Pete Carroll, that's on the opposite end of like ascending up. So how good they're going to be. Listen, I don't know if they're talented enough to, like, win nine games,

but they are going to be way better. And Pete Carroll, we know he knows what he's doing. Now, I do think there are some question marks like, Chip Kelly's got a lot of friends in the media. You know, for a grumpy old guy, he's sneaky pretty good with the media, and everyone loves them. It's like, we sure that's going to work? I've seen Pete Carroll in the NFL.

Or excuse me, I've seen Chip Kelly in the NFL, and it did not work. Now, has he adapted? Is a scheme change? It's going to be a lot different. I would say the Raiders, and this is no one's fault, but they don't have great wide receivers. Now, they got Brock Bowers, who's a stud. You know, Jacoby Myers is a good player,

but, you know, I wouldn't say this is exactly Jordan, Justin, Jordan Addison, rolling out there. So I think you're going to have limitations, especially what Pete came from in Ohio State, or I mean, excuse me, I get Pete and Chip mixed up. But what Chip was dealing with in Ohio State, which he had a. first round wide receiver who went to the bucks he has this other wide receiver would have been a top

five pick this year he had two running backs who both went in the top 35 uh his left tackle has a blown out knee and was drafted in the first round i mean the talent on ohio state was stupid so it's going to be a lot different i'm just i i just not really into chips offense uh in the pros when you can't stack stack the deck so i think that's the biggest question mark with I think defensively, I think energy effort, I think focus. They're going to be a serious NFL operation. Are you going to do another top 10 coaches in the league video like you did last year? I'm not sure what the numbers were, but it seemed like it was a big hit.

I'm curious to see if guys like Sean Payton make it on the list a year after being omitted last year. And does Kevin O'Connell get a spot? That's a good idea, actually. Let me take a little note. I think we did something last year for social and it blew up. I would say that both those guys would be on the list, yes. I mean, listen, Sean Payton is one of the best coaches of the league.

There's no disputing that. It was just hard after the Russell Wilson situation. They had a game where they gave up 70 points. So I did not see that coming last year. I did not. It blew me away. Listen, I'm critical of Kevin O'Connell because I think it's fair to be like, Why doesn't Lamar play better in the playoffs?

Right? Like, why doesn't Kevin O'Connell coach better in the playoffs? Like, that's a fair... Happens in basketball all the time with it. Like, what's up with James Hardin in the playoffs? What's up with it? Like, why doesn't Joe L.N. B suck in the playoffs? Like, you can ask these questions.

And no one likes to ask these questions. That's all I'm doing. Like, I've never acted like I wouldn't want Kevin O'Connell as my coach. But he's had a couple of playoff games with teams that won 12 and, like, 14 games, and lost them both. That's favorites. That happens. That's a fact. I'm not, it's not a opinion. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news.

What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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 I-Heart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments. that never make the highlight reel. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand.

because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down at three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface, because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court-side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Why is nobody talking about the obvious issue with the NFL having equity in ESPN? It's a complete conflict of interest. How can I trust the journalistic integrity of ESPN in its content?

For context, I'm a CPA, an auditor. in public accounting, and I must remain independent at all times from my clients. My independence must be both, in fact, I cannot own stock equity, and in appearance, I can't take favors, tickets, gifts. The NFL ESPN deal doesn't have either. That's because they're not in the journalist business. Journalism, I would say, is dying a hard death. And I think a big reason why is we can't monetize it like we once could.

We used to be able to monetize a lot of things that came with ESPN, ESPN the magazine, ESPN the website. Those don't matter as much anymore. You know what does? The games, which equate to all of the revenue for ESPN and bring the value. It's why they spent all this money on the NBA, and it's why they spent all this money on the NFL. You know why? Because they want those properties on their, and same with college football and college basketball. They want the games.

That's the business they're in. they don't care about someone writing an article about Roger Goodell. Doesn't make them any money. And they're not in the charity business. They're in the profit business. So there's a reason why about a decade ago when the written word started to slow down and a lot of Big Jays got really mad. It's like, guys, the reason newspapers dominated for so long is they were an advertising distribution network.

Well, as humans stopped buying the, newspapers, newspapers didn't generate the same amount of money and didn't have the same power, so they started laying you off. They didn't lay you off because they hate the written word. It just didn't profit anymore. ESPN, their top shows, non-games, are like get up and first take. They have nothing to do with journalism. I've seen a lot of people, and I think the media cares about this way more. I understand where you're coming from because you're in this world of conflicts of interest. You know what the only interest for ESPN is? How do we get more in bed with the NFL? How do we get more games? How do we get a Super Bowl? How do we get more NFL?

That's the business they're in. They're not worried about, hey, Seth Wickersham, who is good, what he can and can't write. That's completely irrelevant. It just is. So the days of like, and I've seen a lot of people, what's going to happen with the journalistic integrity, Do you just see what they're talking about on first take? Like, where's the journalistic integrity? Like, what are we even talking about? This is all entertainment. And they are in the business of getting involved in getting the games.

So you do whatever it takes to get the games. I also think the NFL, for the most part, they don't get mad at people talking about individual teams and honestly, even the individual owners. The only time ESPN had trouble, which rightfully so is they had a lot of journalists rooting for football to go under. I mean, that was a fact. I mean, football is the biggest sport. It's the most profitable sport, even at the time.

And there were a lot of people on their network rooting for it to basically go bankrupt, essentially. And Bill Simmons got in trouble going after Goodell. So when you go after the individual commissioner or the health of the league, but like you can rip on the coaches and players as much you want. I mean, first take does it every day. No one cares. So I actually don't think anything is really going to change from what ESPN has been. But if journalism was more important to the consumer,

newspapers would still be thriving. But they're not, you know? So I think that's overblown. I guess would my overall take be about ESPN's responsibility to journalism? And let's be real. Most, listen, I have, I respect, like, being a journalist and doing it the right way is really difficult. But I would say that most journalists have become activists. So you could argue that a lot of journalism, what used to be 20, 30 years ago, has died.

Got me entertained by golf. I'm from Houston, but I grew up a Packer fan. Thoughts on Texans versus Packers in the Super Bowl. I think the Texans defense is going to be elite. I think their defense is going to be so good. Now, the only question is going to be the offensive coordinator. Can C.J. bounce back. If their offense is solid, they're going to be pretty good.

Obviously, the Packers are going, you know, loves hurt. I think is Jane Reed hurt? They got some injuries right now. It's August 13th. I'm pretty high on the Packers. I'm going to bet them to. I'm going to do like, I was looking at this the other day. I'm going to do a couple different parlayes,

and my go-toes are going to consistently be the Packers to win that division at plus 250, and the Texans are my lock. So the Texans at plus 110 are my anchor. And then I'm going to do like multiple different parlayes with the Packers. I might even throw the Vikings in there too, the Niners to win the division,

the Broncos and the Chiefs to win the division, and I'm going to mess with a couple of those. But I'm going to anchor on the Houston Texans at plus 110. If you said right now, you have to throw an uncomfortable amount of money on one team in the NFL to win the division, and they can't have minus odds, like the bills or the Ravens, right? Can't do that, or the Eagles. I can't bet on those teams. You got to bet a team that has plus odds, right?

It wouldn't even be a hesitation. It would be the Houston, Texas. I think they win that division by several games. Were you around for Super Bowl 50? and I know what the right, and I want to know what the right way is to experience this upcoming Super Bowl 60 in the Bay Area. I'm from Northern California

and would love to go to the home, would love to go home to experience the event if the Niners aren't in the show. Hopefully the actual SF City gets involved and not just Santa Clara. I did, I did my radio show from Radio Row. All the events will be in San Francisco. The only thing in Santa Claus,

Clara was the games, and I think a team stayed down there, and they practically like San Jose. But the Super Bowl experience, which was really well done in the convention center, like right in downtown San Francisco on like 3rd Street. It's like 3rd and I forget the other cross street. I haven't been downtown in years, but it's like three or four streets south of market. Yeah, it's cool. I mean, it's a cool experience. I would recommend it. If you want to go to the Super Bowl experience, it's just fun.

It's just an easy event to just kind of walk around and kind of take it all in. I actually went to that game as well. The Super Bowl, the game is, the game is much more like a corporate experience. I would say the whole week. It's just like a corporate event. It is like a corporate football convention

for the fans and the partners. It's not, if you go, like Chiefs Bills, right, in an AFC championship game or a regular season game or Eagles, Washington. Wherever that game is being played, it's about the football and the purity of trying to win and the fans all there. The Super Bowl's not really like that. Super Bowl's, I feel like it's the NFL's way to say thank you to all their partners. So the reason I went to the game was because I was there with my cousin who worked in the beer business. So that's where we got our tickets from like Miller course.

You know, it's most of the tickets and most of the people were not like, you know, it was Broncos Panthers, but it didn't feel like some huge contingent of, you know, it wasn't like 50-50 Broncos. That's not what it's like. So it's just the game's unique. But that week, especially Thursday, Friday, Saturday, are pretty cool. And I was there in Vegas too. I mean, shit, I've been to, I've only been to,

the game once, but I've been to Miami, I've been to Vegas, I've been to New Orleans, um, Super Bowl's cool. It's fun. Um, and congrats on all your success, moving to Kelly. Love hearing your investments you're into. Do we think? Someone asked me the other day, because I had made a comment about like, hey, I'm, I'm invested in this one stock that is not very pretty, but if it hits, I'm going to be really rich. It was open door, which I'm still in. I've actually added more. I had a day where I was down. 75% and within a week that stock was up 100%. It's the craziest shift and I have a sizable chunk of money

relative to my net worth in the stock. I didn't sell a penny, but riding that, I was actually insecure to brag about it because at the time, I think I was minus 78% when I opened up stock probably a month ago or two months, whenever I brought it up. And I had a couple people like, what was the, what's that stock? you're in that you think it hit big. I was not confident enough to even mention it to anyone else.

Because it could have gone to zero. I'm fucking, I'm like Chris Ballard, hoping Anthony Richardson is the next Josh Allen with Open Door. And then all of a sudden, I don't know if it was in the meme craze, the short squeeze, it's one of the craziest.

Seeing the amount of money I was down to the amount of money I was up, but I was like, hey, I was in this for the long haul. to try to get a 20-Xer, not just a one-exer. But then it came down, and I'm basically up like 10% now. But it was a fun little ride. I would have sold if I would have been early. Like, I've been doing this long enough to kind of be numb to that.

And I thought about it. I'm like, should I just take like some little cash spending money? Do we think Trayvon Henderson has a shot to be the next Gibbs? Did you see his first touchdown ever went for a touchdown? Listen, he's a home run hitter. You get that dude in open grass. he can fly. I think here's the thing with Gibbs.

Gibbs is good at everything. He can run inside, he can run off tackle, and he is a lead at catching the ball. So the way to be Gibbs is you basically have to be able to do it all. And, you know, I would imagine Vrable and those guys now with a month into training camp

have a better idea how he is out of the backfield, catching the football. But I'd also say that, looking at his, he had 27 catches last year. He had 27 catches as a rookie, so he can catch the ball. We know that Josh McDaniels loves throwing the ball to, you know, they had how many running backs they have over the years with Brady that they passed to a lot out of the backfield.

I mean, hell, probably six, seven years ago, maybe even less. I played golf in the Bay Area with Shane Boreen. He was working at the Pac-12 network, and probably for nine of the 18 holes, I was just peppering him with McDaniels, Belichick, Brady, Grong, questions. I mean, he was really, really good. And then he got a big contract to go to the Giants, then he got injured.

But he's a good example. He was really good out of the backfield. He was excellent in the open field as a runner. So if you can catch the ball with Josh McDaniels in that offense, we know that Vrable loves running backs. I don't see why he couldn't be an excellent player. Like Gibbs, he's really fast. Yeah, I mean, I'd be pretty bullish on the guy.

He's a home run hitter. So I'd say that's what him and Gibbs share in common. These past few weeks I've seen quite a bit of media segments dedicated yet again to Brock Purdy. Of course, it's always polarizing. If he goes for something in the realm of 4,000 yards, 28 touchdowns, 12-1 seasons, do you think pundits in big audience legacy media shows

will start to finally credit him as an undisputed top 12 quarterback? I even saw in Sandos, quarterback tears, that Dak Prescott was above him. Jordan Love was as well, which Brock Purdy's had a better start to his career than Jordan Love. That's not really debatable. Yeah, if you wanted to argue that Jordan Love is more physical traits and you're betting

on the physical traits this year, it's like I could hear that argument. But based on the evidence, Brock Purdy's been a better player in Jordan Love. And it's not even arguable when it comes to Dak Prescott. I mean, one of the all-time meltdown guys in the playoffs. but one of the quotes in there was, why do we keep talking about the drafts and his draft status? It's over years ago. All this guy does is make plays on the field.

And I just think that it's, and they also compared him to Baker, Baker's more physically gifted from an arm strength standpoint, but this coach said that he thought that Purdy is just better anticipatory thrower and sees a little bit better. Pretty is really good. Yet everyone shits on him because,

and if Purdy was the third, overall pick and had been Tray Lance, and Tray Lance is just done with Brock Purdy. Everyone would be saying the guys are the top six-seven quarterback in the league, five-six quarterback. But instead, he's the last pick in the draft. Everyone says, he's too short, he's arms sucks, Kyle Shannon. Same thing with Jalen Hertz. And I saw a bunch of people like, God, Jailen Hertz is behind C.J. Stroud and Justin Herbert.

I do not understand why people get so caught up on this. At the end of the day, football is a team game. And if you're an Eagles fan, would you rather have Joe? Burrow in the like in the bangle season well hey everyone anoints my quarterbacks one the best players in the league my team goes nine wins my quarterback throws 45 touchdowns or would you rather be the Eagles where everyone's like hey maybe he's a top 10 quarterback but you have the best team in the league and he won the Super Bowl like this is this isn't fucking tennis or golf it's a it's a team game so

same thing with Brock Purdy last time I checked Joe Montana had Ronnie lot playing defense had Charles Haley rushing the pastor threw it to Jerry Rice to Roger Craig, had, you know, pretty good players. Dwight Clark, you know, barreling down the scene. Like, it's hard to be a good player at quarterback. Like, asked Patrick Mahomes what it was like to be a rookie throwing to Travis Kelsey and Tyree Kill. Probably didn't suck.

If you could have beers with one person currently employed by an NFL team, who would it be? Can't be a player, coach, or executive. Someone you've met before or never met before. Oh, it can be a coach or an executive. Just someone you think would be a lot of fun and an interesting hang. Well, I think you'd have to make two decisions. If you're going to go a player, you'd have to go quarterback.

And I'm pretty confident if I spend time with someone, especially in that setting. I always thought this when I was single. I could punch above my weight. The hardest thing for me to do with a beautiful girl was to get the date. If I got the date, like we were always going to, I was going to be out of that. Okay, right, a home I had on personality. But I was never going to look like Tom Brady walking in the room. But if you got me the one-on-one and went out to dinner, like,

it's going to be a successful if I wanted to be. I was that confident in my ability. I wasn't always confident. Like, sometimes it was hard to get that like her to be like, whether we were in a bar situation, whether it be, especially, you know, internet dating. Like, I'm not Brad Pitt here. I would say the same thing in that situation. So if you gave me a one-on-one over beer,

It's like, we're going to build a relationship and have friendship, right? So it would be either, if you're going to pick a coach, you would want, luckily, I already know some guys, but it would be a guy I didn't know, and a guy is going to have a lot of success, right? I don't know Shanahan, but Shanahan is not a big, like, bullshit hanging out with the media guy, right? So even if I got in that situation, I think it would be a tough nut to crack. I think the two guys would be, if it was a coach, Kevin O'Connell, who, listen, I've been hard. run on him, but Andy Reid didn't win a Super Bowl to. He was like 20 plus years in a league. So it's like, who's to say Kevin O'Connell couldn't have like a 20 year run of being a great coach?

And Sean McVeigh already is one, but like he's 40 years old. He's not going away. And even if he pivoted to like, I don't know, be the analyst for Monday night football, he'd just be a good guy to have. So it'd probably be one of those two guys. From a coaching standpoint, if you went quarterback, you would say, well, why would I overthink this, I could just pick Mahomes because he's not going away, his team's not going away. He's one of the most

famous athletes in the world I guess in America, but like in the sport that we talk about here, so you could go him, you could go, like, I go Jaden Daniels and go, well, what if he just becomes I mean the next superstar? Little risky.

Could also just like, could have a step back year, then maybe solid, but he's never like a superstar. I think I'd probably, it would either be probably Mahomes or one of those two coaches. Would probably be my final answer. I guess it'd go Josh Allen. You would want a player who was going to, and it'd have to be a quarterback, was going to be around for a long time. And a big, good personality, good interview, guy you'd want to be.

Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast. called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.

Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down. Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.

But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear.

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs' tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening. at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay.

Jen she won. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface, because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the Iheart Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

In your opinion, what are the odds a team successfully trades for Tanner McKee of the Eagles this season? I'm an Eagles fan, so I'm biased. But every time the kid touches the field, he looks like a starter. I just would not trade him if I was Philadelphia. Because in Howie's talked about this, no team in NFL history has benefited more from the, I can't spell his name, McKee, from the backup quarterback, right? I mean, Jalen's not a backup quarterback, obviously,

but he was drafted to be a backup quarterback. And then they went to two Super Bowls with him one-one. They also won another Super Bowl with the backup quarterback. So Tanner McKee, what year was he drafted? 23, so 23, 24. He got him under contract for two more years. I wouldn't even give him up for a second round pick. What if Jalen just like broke his leg?

I mean, what if something happened? Like, you could feel like you could keep winning with Tanner McKee. So to me, you wouldn't entertain trading him until next year when it's like, well, we're not going to extend him, so you trade him. I think you keep him. I think 100% he's staying on my team. And then you try to flip him maybe next year. But I'm not giving up Tanner McKee, and I'd be stunned of how he did. Now, if someone offered you a first round pick right now,

it's like this doesn't get much better than that, but I don't think that's on the table. And a lot of teams don't necessarily need quarterbacks, but I don't know if I could do it. And I think the parallel probably to Tanner McKee would be Matt Schaub when he was in Atlanta and Jimmy Garoppolo when he was in San Francisco. So his value to the Eagles right now,

because, listen, they had Carson Wentz fall off cliff and they had you know for jalen to come in and they had cars and wends terris acl so they've been they've seen it multiple ways you just never know now jalen i don't think's going to fall off a cliff playing wise but shit the way he means a runner he'd get injured he's missed games before so i i would not i would not trade him right now unless i got the first round pick which you're not getting right now but like what about next off season what if the raiders give you a second or something you know Might be a bad example, but some team, whoever that is. Question for you.

My wife and I are going to Scottsdale in November. Any suggestions on places to eat or things to do? We will be near TPC Scottsdale. I know you are answered this a couple times. I would say the princess has pretty cool open bar. They have a really good restaurant called La Hacienda in the prince is the hotel on the backside of TBC Scottsdale. It's hard to be the, the really good steakhouses, Dominics, which is in Kierland and Mastros, which is kind of up the street from TBC's Gosteal,

which are just elite steakhouses. If you wanted like a hole in the wall, Guy Fiery, diners, drive-ins and dives, Tom's Thumb is this barbecue joint in a gas station? It's incredible. I get Thanksgiving catered from there. It's elite. So I'd say Dominic, Mastro's, Laha Sienda, slash Prince. Princess Bar and Tom's Thum. Okay, last question.

First, it's an average golfer. I'm curious what type of games, if any games you play on the course. Scramble is fun if you're not worried about your own score. Two-verse-two. We do this game where you kind of, if you're playing four guys, you rotate every three holes with a different partner.

You also play junk like birdies, outside putts of the flagstick, up and down from the sand, close to the pin, stuff like that. which is a pretty easy game. I mean, when I play my brother, we just play a straight up, like match play. If I'm doing a one-on-one,

I haven't done a scramble in a long time. Just by following your podcast for a while, it seems like most of your connections nowadays are within the Niners, Eagles, Chiefs. If given an opportunity, which organization would you want to be involved in the front office decision making for the next five and 10 years?

Chiefs seems to be the obvious answer, but when thinking about Andy's age, Eagles' youth, Kyle's youth, so on, it gets like a tougher decision. Yeah, I mean, I'd look at it. from the standpoint of those three organizations are just in a way, they're just all well-run. You know, I think the Eagles and the 49ers financially, I think they put out like the top 20 teams or whatever, their valuations, which if the Lakers went for $10 billion, the Cowboys,

the Giants, the 49ers, I mean, these are 15, 20 billion dollar franchise. the Eagles would sell for more than the Lakers. And that's not like, I'm not acting like the Lakers aren't some big time brand, but the power of the NFL, their revenue streams. And I think the money that Andy and Mahomes now have made Clark Hunt in the value of that franchise over the last six,

seven years, they're just all, like I know John Lynch, like I've met him before, I've had him on my other podcast years ago. But like I can't speak to how he is as like an evaluator, besides just watching who he drafts. Like, I've been around Veach and Howie.

Like, those guys are really good of their jobs. I mean, really good. I mean, Howie's one of the most dynamic guys in all of sports. Veach just is a really good natural, like, talent selector. And obviously, his rapport with the head coach and Howie's ability to kind of manage the whole thing. I think, you know, the Niners really benefit. Like, Kyle's just really pretty special exes and those guy.

You know, he's one of the few guys. Unless you can nitpick him, and I do. but like he's a really, really talented coach. He's just a coaching lifer, you know, been around it from the moment he could walk. And I think those guys really benefit from the financial backing, the fan backing, the talented guys they have within the organization.

But I think you could say that like, I don't know him personally, but I was texting a buddy in the NFL who works for a playoff team, not one of those teams. Like, what do you think of Brandon Bean? Because I've just seen Barron. Brandon a bunch, like doing different interviews. I've never met the guy.

And the guy was like, I really like him. I was like, I do too. I just think he's, he just kind of got an easygoing vibe, clearly good at his job, has like an low ego vibe, but he also, you know, for example, like, let's use the 49ers. Like Kyle and John are comfortable in front of a camera. And they don't mind, like Kyle doesn't like doing it, but he's good at it if he wants to do it. Like, Sean McDermen, that's not really his thing. So part of Brandon Bean's job, the day and age of guy, like the GM, just sitting in a dark room, watching players is dead.

Trent Balke, love doing that. Just get them in a dark room, you can just watch players all day. It's like, that's not your fucking job. Like, part of Brandon Bean's job is, like, to be the messenger for the bills, because Sean McDermott's not really that big on that. Which is fine. Like, there has to be, if you're in a business partnership with someone else, hopefully they bring things to the table that you don't. we got a lot of people that are involved with this podcast that are strong at social media that are doing cutups that are doing the graphics stuff i can't do any of that you know even

the sales aspect like if you get me on a call with company x i can handle myself but i don't have a connection to get walmart on the phone or Microsoft on the phone so like you need to be in business with other people that the distribution that Colin brings i i I can't create that. So it's like the ebb and flow of a coach and a GM, like Sireani and Howie bring that to the table. Like they balance each other out. And I think you can, the bills are well run.

The Ravens are well run. Like all these organizations, they're going nowhere. They have people that know what they're doing. And they have a lot of money behind it. You know, I think that's part of the problem. I interviewed Greg Olson today and it'll come out next week. And one thing he talked about is like, you're on the phone with some of these teams when you're doing these games.

over the last three or four years. And you can just tell you, like, this team is fucked. People, they just don't know what they're doing. And, like, you just can't fake it because the games happen. And then it's why, like, it is pretty easy for me to be critical of things that I see from a team operational standpoint because I've been around people that know what they're doing. I mean, I'm very fortunate. I didn't know anyone in the NFL, not a soul.

I mean, not a, my dad was a farmer. and the team that hired me had Howie Roseman is the GM and Andy Reed as the head coach. So it's like that is my experience. And then right when I got out, I got to watch Jim Harbaugh be the head coach of the 49ers for two years. It's like so basically my experience in the NFL was just seeing that front and center for my first like five years of being, my first five years being around the NFL, I was around that. So that's kind of like you just watch some of these operations. You're like, I don't know if these people know what they're doing. And listen, everyone, Bill Walsh had shitty games, right?

Belichick had bad, I'm not saying you could have bad, you can have bad season. But it's pretty clear who's good news not, right? And I think part of it is experience and you learn. I would bet on all three of those teams, they're going to be good for a while. I would say, you know, if Andy were to retire, see, I don't think he's going to retire. As long as he's healthy, like he's going nowhere. So you look at their guys like where would Howie go? Where would Andy and Veach go?

They don't want to go anywhere. And where would Kyle go? So it's like as long as you got those guys. I mean, John's important. And obviously they need to draft well. But the star of the 49ers, even with Purdy making $180 million, is the head coach. You know? And Andy was the star of his organization for a long time until Patrick Mahom showed up.

So I would rather have the, I'd rather have my quarterback. front and center, kind of like the Patriots forever, and then have my head coach basically be 1B. But I think all of the organizations are pretty good for us. Okay, we'll end on that. Adios. Have a great day. Talk to everyone soon.

See you. The volume. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what?

We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We have first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it,

but, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel 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, reader 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. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches.

office players and the moment set to find Roland Garris. Jen, she's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lerabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubb's tennis podcast on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. ligamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know.

Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.