The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 & Out - Indiana WINS the National Championship, Saleh named Titans HC, Dad Diaries

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Former NFL scout John Middlekauff reacts following College Football's National Championship Game that saw Indiana defeat Miami 27-21 to win their first National Championship. John dives into how this game sealed Mendoza going number 1 in the NFL Draft to the Raiders in April. Later, John talks about the Tennessee Titans hiring Robert Saleh to become the teams next head coach and how he's not sure if Saleh taking the Titans job is the best move for him. Next, John dives into the Bills firing Sean McDermott. Finally, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment. 04:34 - Indiana-Miami Reaction  26:47 - Robert Saleh named Titans HC 34:45 - Sean McDermott fired in Buffalo 45:44 - Dad Diaries 58:25 - Mailbag Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest.  All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet Use promo code “3ANDOUT20” on https://nicokick.com/zone for 20% off at checkout! 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. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis keep coming to. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets. He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off. And that was the last time I saw him.

Listen to Season 14 of Family Secrets on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. I'm Akela Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 is about both of those things. As I was watching these statues come down,

I was thinking about what it meant that I grew up in a majority black city in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslave people. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The volume. What is going on, everybody, John Middlekoff, Three and Out podcast? How are we doing, my friends? Hopefully everyone's doing well, because I got a big show today. I recorded most of the podcast.

It's weird. You have a kid and he's five days old and your life is just torn upside down in terms of timing and when you're awake, when you're You're asleep. So it's just, I had to record part of the podcast right before the National Championship game. I was like, then I'll do a reaction after the game to Miami. Indiana, obviously won the Natty. And then as I'm recording, Robert Sala is hired with the, for the Tennessee Titans

head coach, which is not something I saw coming. So I'll give my just instant reaction to that. And I also talk about Sean McDermott. The Dad Diaries. I call them the Daddy Diaries. last night. This is not call her daddy. The dad diaries is what I named it. We'll do them again today.

Just my experience of watching my stud wife go through what she went through having a child and being in the hospital for a couple days. So, as well as a mailbag, people have been asking like, Middokoff, did you get rid of the mailback? No. I was having a baby. I just didn't have much time. I recorded about four interviews last week

to try to keep the content chain flowing, but they're like, does Netflix not allow you to do mailbag? Yeah, I can do whatever I want. It was just, I didn't have time. So mailbags still here. Going nowhere. At John Middlecalf is the Instagram, firing those DMs.

We're going to do a bunch this week and probably a lot for the next nine months. So 12 months. I mean, throughout the year. I do them year round. So fire in those DMs and we will keep the content coming. Other than that, obviously the show's on Netflix. You can check that out. Just type in my name.

Appreciate all you that can. Netflix USA. I have to talk to them. get it worldwide because a lot of you guys that are all over the world are mad you can't see we're working i've been taking some notes of some ideas i have and obviously if you listen on collins feed make sure you subscribe to the podcast apple spotify we got you covered and uh let's dive into the podcast a couple things really jump out tom brady's at the game john spitex at the game mark davis is at the game the other rich guys that bought the team with tom bradyer at the game

they're there to see Fernando Mendoza. And early in that game, he got hit like it was an NFL game. Bane's going to be a top five pick. Messador, the other pass rusher, I start, like, is he going to be a first round pick? So I start texting around. He might end up in the second round. He's 25 years old. He's not perfect measurables, but he's a baller.

He's going to get drafted in the top 40, 45 picks. So they have two pass rushers who are going to start on Sunday. one guy's going to be a top 10 pick. They're bringing blitzes. They are hitting the shit out of the guy. And like it, Ohio State, that first play of the game, he's hopping right back up. And I went, they already know they're going to draft him. When you saw that, you went, hell yeah.

Because the NFL is not the Big 12, where you just run around and never get touched. The Big 12 has changed a little bit now with Utah and Texas Tech buying defensive players. But historically, it was the conference where no one never got tackled. Well, that's not the way the NFL is. even the bad teams have pro bowlers on defense. And obviously the good teams have guys that will knock your block off. And you saw CJ Stroud, you saw Drake May, you saw these quarterbacks just getting peppered, Brock Purdy, peppered.

And part of playing quarterback isn't just about running around and making big throws. It's about getting up after you get hit and the willingness to stand in there and get hit. And to me, one thing about Fernando Mendoza is I would say, you know, I know DJ called him Matt Ryan, which I don't, I was in college. Maybe Matt Ryan was a better athlete when he was younger. Remember at Boston College, he had that crazy play on like Thursday night football where he scrambled around. I remember watching it in my, uh, at Hathaway when I was at Cal Poly. That was a street I lived on. threw it across his body game winner. So maybe he was. Jared Goff's never been a great athlete. You know, Dak Prescott was a good athlete. Like to me, he's that type skill set, but mobility's

probably closer to a younger DAC pre the injuries. Arms good, not great. But a lot. But a Elite toughness, very smart. You saw a couple times tonight. His first option's taken away. He's moving with his eyes. He's got guys coming 95 miles an hour off the edge, so he's got to get rid of the football. It's like, this guy's an NFL starting quarterback. And is he Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson skill-wise? No. But I've seen Jared Goff being the NFC championship game. I saw Dak Prescott be the starting quarterback for a team that went to three straight playoffs and won the division two out of three times with Mike McCarthy. right so you could I saw Kirk Cousins win a playoff game on the road

against the New Orleans Saints if you build around a quarterback that is somewhere between like 7 and 12 you can win big the 49ers how many times they got to the playoffs with Brock Purdy so the Raiders were getting a really good player and a guy that you could win with at the NFL level

because I saw him play two NFL teams they're called Ohio State and Miami their entire defense is going to be drafted several guys really freaking high and are going to play for a long time on Sunday and hit like NFL players because they are NFL players. And he was unfaced. And he kept getting up.

And he kept making throws and he kept making big plays. Was he perfect? No. But no, you're not perfect in the NFL. So to me, that game, like I get more out of that game than I do a game where he throws for 400 yards and five touchdowns. I really do if I'm a GM.

And I would imagine SpyTech and that crew with Brady and Mark leave pretty fired up. Because to play, especially in that kind of, conference. Denver, physical-ass team, right? The Chargers, they're Jim Harbaugh's teams for 20 years have been some of the hardest hitting teams in their conference, in their division, in whatever level he was at, right? So, and obviously the Chiefs have kind of built the defensive team over the last couple years. And now they got top 10 picks. So who knows? Maybe they could lean defense and just double down. So the physicality, it just in his own division.

And then you factor in how good, you know, the Ravens have been good on defense forever. The Patriots aren't going away. It's kind of a defensive conference with some big-time quarterbacks. So I do think if you're a Raider fan, you've got to be pretty excited. He's pretty damn good player. Is he like John Elway or Andrew Luck? No. But do you feel pretty good about pulling the trigger?

Yes. And I think we can say confidently, and we've been able to say this for a while, but now that the season's over. Fernando Mendoza is the number one overall pick and will be the next starting quarterback for the Vegas Raiders. And now it's incumbent on them to figure out their coach and figure out the program around him and do whatever is possible to put them in a position to be successful. Because they have a stud tied end in Brock Bowers, who went healthy is one of the most unique players already in the NFL. They drafted a running back six overall who did show some signs of life at the end of the season. And with all the reports come out, you know, I don't know if Pete Carroll and his family kind of were out to lunch.

obviously their offensive line blew and Gentie had to go to Spitex office to watch film. So a little dysfunctional in there. So they got to become, Tom's been used to this. He was around structure for 20 years with Bill. And then even what he got in Bruce Ariens and Todd Bowles and the Tampa operation,

whatever happened there like that, that cannot be tolerated. And you get a little bit of a past year one. It was a complete fuck up. It was Pete Carroll, who's a Hall of Famer. but 75 years old, it was a disaster. It's very, very important for them to get the right guy and just get an operation.

Like one thing that the Ravens have, like this year was a disaster for them. They're still a well-operated machine, and they were three feet away from being in the playoffs. There is a structure within the organization. The Packers for them, kind of disastrous season, structure within the organization, right? That's what the Raiders, that's what Jim Harbaugh brings.

of the Chargers. That's what Andy brought to the Chiefs. That's what Sean Payton brought to the Broncos. It just becomes like Apple, you know, Amazon. It just becomes Netflix. It just becomes just some structured, streamlined, well-run fucking machine that you might have some bad years, but like the Eagles, disastrous season. Still won the division, still hosted a playoff game. If that's your floor, you're in pretty good shape. The Raiders, their floor, they're floor had been literally the floor. It didn't get any lower. It's like unless you dig, you know, deeper into the earth.

Like that was there. It just was too low. So they got to find a way to raise that. And it starts with like, listen, I'm a personnel. That's my background. But the coach changes your whole operation. There has never been an elite personnel guy with a bad coach. It's impossible.

It does not exist. John Schneider who might win his whatever second Super Bowl with his second coach would be the first to tell you. I've had Pete Carroll and I had Mike McDonald right. You have to have a good coach

and a good coaching staff and a good vision from that staff or what they're looking for schematically. So I'm excited. I'm a big fan of Fernando Mendoza. And I also think Signetti is a good example of, you know,

society is so microwave now. Everyone wants it immediately. and maybe this is social media and you see all these young people that are disenfranchised most people early on in their career whatever they're doing it sucks I didn't make any money in my 20s

hell even throughout most of my 30s like life's hard and you kind of got to grind and dig your way out of the mud and figure it out if you do have some talent and a vision and ambition and things you want to accomplish you got to be willing to go through shit

and you're going to see people in your given profession that do do it overnight. And when you become envious or jealous of them and you don't use that as inspiration for yourself, that's a you problem. Because Signetti's a great example of, there's been a lot of Dan Lannings,

Kenny Dillingham's, guys that became rich in their 30s in the sport of football. Kurt Signetti, no one knew who he was outside of James Madison until two years ago. And now he's won a national championship in Indiana in his mid-60s and just signed a contract for $100 million. And he did it the hard way, which I respect the shit out of. He didn't just go from Alabama to then become a coach in the Big Ten or the SEC.

He had to go to schools no one's ever heard of beside their own alumni. And even before he got to Indiana, the worst job in the country, most people viewed it as, and he was winning national championships at a smaller school at JMU. So that success is just a great example of a guy who clearly was ambitious, who clearly had a vision, and just grinded. And you know, before anyone knew who he was and could even point him out of the lineup, I bet he'd be the first to tell you, I don't work any harder now than I did 15, 20 years ago. And it just took me a little longer than I once hoped, but I got to where I wanted to go. And that's the crazy part about life, is you don't know the twist and the turns, but I do.

think if you're willing to just stick with something. I mean, so many people just bounce from thing to thing. And, you know, it's hard when you've like, what, what if, you know, you meet someone, especially my age, like 40 years old. You're like, what are you been doing? They've had like seven different jobs, like three different industries. I'm like, well, it's hard to gain any momentum. And obviously football is a little unique. Like, you just, most football coaches just stay football coaches. But I do think he serves as a good example of like, not everything happens overnight. Like, sometimes you just, it's going to take a while. And I can't even imagine

how fucking sweet it is for that dude tonight to have won a national championship with Indiana. I mean, it's going to go down as truly one of the greatest stories in the history of college sports. And to just dominate, not lose a game. Someone posted a picture on Twitter. I think it's now formally known as X.

But he must be like a season ticket holder. He was at Signetti's first Indiana. a game. And he took a picture from the stands. Now, I don't think the game had kicked off in fairness to the university. It looked like pregame warmups, but there might have been 50 people there. It looked like a Cal Poly, UC Davis game from 25 years ago. And this is the Big Ten brother. So for him to turn that thing two years later into not just a powerhouse, but a program that feels like it ain't going away is a testament to him. And I can only speak for myself.

I'm not the smartest guy. I'm rarely, if ever, the smartest guy in the room tend to be probably the dumbest. And there is just my greatest strength is like my ambition and my willingness to always see big picture and never get too caught up or down when short term things don't work out. I don't know. It's just a quality. Like, I'm not saying that I don't get jealous or envious sometimes when you see things on your phone over the course of my life. but like it's never really fazed me that much and when I see a guy like Signetti

I have so much respect because so many people now you know football has become such a like reality television show with so much money behind it you have all these young people making a ton of money as coaches as GMs as as assistant coaches and more power to them but you see this guy who once famously told Nick Sabin he would take like a division two job

at the time he was making $300,000 working at Alabama's recruiting coordinator, wide receiver coach. He took a pay cut. It's like 140 grand to go coach at IUPI or something. I mean, again, a program I'd never heard of. I'm not from that region of the country. We all have, there are more small schools in the northeast and the south than there are out west.

We don't have a lot of Division II football programs out west. They tend to be Texas on over and then the Northeast. But he was willing to do that because he wanted to take his show. And he took his shot, and it took him a little longer, but he got a shot and he took advantage of it. So in a sport with a bunch of famous younger coaches, college and pros, what a badass. What a cool, genuine story. And I was wrong. I was guilty.

My first reaction to him is I thought he was a clown a little bit. I mean, how could you not? You come from never heard of the guy, start saying Google me. Then they make the playoffs, and then they get curb stomp by Notre Dame. My take was this year you start looking at their schedule. I'm like, they're going to go like seven and five. They're going to come back to Earth. Not only they'd not come back to Earth, they were dramatically better. And I told Coward this. We recorded a podcast tonight. I think they're the best team in the country. College or Pro. Because, you know, we'll see Seattle has a chance,

but there is not another NFL team who is complete as them. Their offense, they can run the ball, their passing game is awesome. Their offensive line is fantastic. Their defense is top notch and their special teams are elite. Like, they're the perfect team. And in college or the NFL, if you have at the highest level a complete team, you got a great shot to win it all. This thing right now in the NFL, every team kind of has a flaw here or there. And even in college football, like, you know, Ohio State's quarterback couldn't really move.

You know, Miami kind of, their secondary was weak. They only had one true weapon at wide receiver. Like, they'll probably be better than there. Indiana's pretty well-rounded of a bunch of. of dudes from random schools who were just ballers. And to me, they were the most well-coached team in the country. And obviously that starts with Sidney. And you can't tell me that he's not better equipped in his mid-60s with all the experience,

all the reps that he has gotten over the course of coaching when no one was watching. When you coach at small schools. And I grew up around a small school in UC Davis that Chris Peterson went to, Mike Bellotti went to. This is a school that produced some people that played football there that went on to coach Division I. And then I went to Fresno State. Now, Fresno State was on a much higher level we were playing at ESPN,

but growing up around UC Davis and then going to Cal Poly, if you coach there, you're coaching there for the love of football. Because beside the town, no one's paying attention. No one really cares. And it is a great place for young kids. people or veteran people to just really master their craft. And I think Jim Harbaugh is a good example. Like he went to San Diego, no one was paying attention until he starts kicking the shit

out of everybody. And 20 years later, he's one of the best coaches in America at the sport of football. So that was cool. I love a good story. And props to Fernando Mendoz, the highest man, props to Miami. Mario did an excellent job. They were a fun team to watch. And obviously, their front was really, really good.

good. Miami's not going away. To me, if I'm Mario, we maybe give it a couple days, but sit down with our staff. Our goal next year is to not only win the ACC, or the ACC, but we need to be one of the top seats. We don't need to play this extra game. Our conference sucks. Our conference blows. We have no bit. We got all the money. We have the recruiting capabilities. We should dominate this conference. We should run this conference. like Sabin ran the SEC for a long time or then like Kirby ran at the last couple years

or Davo used to run the ACC we should dominate this conference and when you dominate the conference you get a one two or three seed and the pass a little bit easier so I mean they had to go through a gauntlet going on the road at A&M playing Ohio State like it was hard

so playing obviously Indiana trying to think who I don't even remember who Miami played and Ole Miss think about three, four games they had to play. You remove one of those games, you do make it a little easier. I know Ohio State won it two years ago, but I do think that buy is a massive, massive advantage.

So to me, the goal of Miami next year is like, it's an embarrassment if we're not in the ACC championship game. It's one thing if we play Notre Dame or, you know, a Texas, an Oregon, a non-conference game and lose it. It's hard. but we can't be losing to these ACC teams. That cannot be tolerated. We need to play like we did in that playoff run

and we will beat all the ACC teams. They will not be able to hang with us. They don't have the resources. They will not have the talent as we have. And we have a lot of ACC games that we should win, like Indiana started winning Big Ten games. 50 to 10. Ruin them.

Take their souls. So I would be a stockholder in Miami moving forward because I think this was a big year for Marry. He's always been a great recruiter, but I do think there was some confidence gained. Like Signetti last year, they made the playoffs, they had a bunch of momentum, they added some talent, and boom, they were off and running, and now their national championships. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet.

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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. And 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. Keith Gianmanca seemed like a mild-mannered suburban dad, but secretly he became someone else, a master of disguise who went on a crime spree. At the time, did it seem like a crazy idea? It seemed very crazy, but I felt so desperate that I felt it was the quickest, easiest way out. Did you allow yourself to think about how it could

go wrong on what that might look like. No, I didn't want to manifest that. I was trying to manifest success. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man. This is going to change my life and my family dynamic forever, because everything that had existed prior in my reality is now untrue.

Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. As long as there's a politics of race in America, there's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War.

To get to school, I had to go down Robert Lee Boulevard. Get to the grocery store. I had to go down Jefferson Davis. Parkway. If you're an historian and you leave out half of what the history is, you're not doing your job. I'm Akila Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 goes deep on both of those things. The fights, the politics, the people who won, and my personal campaign to add something to the Kentucky State House that's actually worth the wall space. We are more than our bodies. We contain essence. We contain spirit. How do you represent that? They are just fueling a fire that is really catching. You'll see what I

mean. Listen to Rebel Spirit season two on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This mental health awareness month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery, and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find clarity,

peace, and self-mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected. We're becoming more individualized, but we actually meet people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole,

this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Before we dive into what I recorded earlier, I do want to hit on the news that just broke of Robert Sala, which my first reaction is sadness. He is the tandem of him and Kyle brings a lot of joy to 49er fans. I mean, it's been pretty good with those two. and he's a pretty special number two.

He's an elite number two. Having Robert Solis, your defensive coordinator, is like Vrable having Josh McDaniels as your offensive coordinator. It's hard to get much better than that because he's an overqualified number two. Now, I don't blame any ambitious person for wanting what they want. Like, we're all wired a specific way. Our brains, some people are cool with just being an assistant coach forever.

There are a ton of them in the NFL. that don't even have the ambition. You guys work with probably a ton of these people and whatever job you work in. People that are cool with their management position or sales job or whatever. Some people are just cool with it. And some people are just climbers.

And they just want what they want. And clearly Sala wants to be a head coach very badly. Because my first reaction, I don't know, Borgonzi personally. I've never met the guy. But my close friends with the chiefs really, really like them, have spoke highly of them. My issue is, and I knew a guy on the tag and staff the last couple of years, that is a dysfunctional place.

That is a real, I've heard their owner is, and the ownership operation is an embarrassment. Now, it is a beautiful place. I love Nashville. I got married there 10 months ago. If life goes well, I would love to own a place there one day. So I am a pro. I totally understand living there. I love living in Scottsdale.

I would never, if I was a football coach, want to be the head of, coach the Arizona Cardinals. I think the Arizona Cardinals job is one, I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole if I were these guys. I think the Titans job is pretty risky. I really do. They have proven to be extremely dysfunctional. Now, Sala, a little like Vrabel, but Vrabel's like an Alpha's Alpha.

Sala's like an Alpha's good guy. You know, and Vrable went in there, just swinging as you know what around, and it worked until it didn't because the owner, like, got offended or something. Like, you're too mean to everybody. Fired him. Well, how'd that go? And I just don't know if they are situated to operate with the ownership they have. And talent-wise, clearly they don't have that much.

The quarterback who I want to like, I mean, I liked him at Miami, I followed him at Washington State. He was pretty bad last year. He's got some physical traits, but is he a good football player? Now, I think if you wanted to counter that, like if I was his agent or his friend or a supporter. I'd be like, did you see what was going on? And I'd be like, fair. It's hard to even judge you in that situation. But that is a job that I don't, when you were going to be a guy like Robert Sala and just have options over the course of the next couple years and be clearly one of the top candidates year and year out, if I'd go all in for the Tennessee Titans, especially

in a division like, listen, CJ was really bad in that game. The Texans are really well run. They are going nowhere. The Jacks, really good coach, going nowhere. Hell, the Colts have good players if they could just get some quarterback play. I find that pretty risky. I really do. And maybe I'm wrong. I don't think he has a relationship with Borganzi. So you're getting into business with someone you don't know that well. It's not like you have unlimited leverage. Clearly the Titans were desperate. They probably paid him a decent amount of money, but Salas already made a ton. When you're already super rich, when you make decisions on money, I would have probably, if I was his friend, be like, listen,

I'm not saying that this Niner thing year and year out, you're going to dominate every year and everyone's going to stay healthy because no one ever stays healthy. But you want to leave for the Titans? You want to leave for the Titans. I just think that's pretty risky. And from a 49er standpoint, it's a massive blow. there's no way. It's a massive blow.

Because when they've had Robert Sala and when they've had D'Amico, everything was impressive in a high-level operation on that side of the ball. From a player standpoint, from a coaching standpoint, just from a vibe standpoint. They tried to replace those two guys for a couple of year run and it was bad. I know one year they made the playoffs, but it was players were complaining and then last year was a joke. Or two years ago.

Not easy to replace. Now, luckily, because of the firings, there are a ton of options. And Kyle's no dummy, like Salah's been in the mix, I'm sure he's got a short list of the available candidates. But Saul was easy. It was almost like getting back with an ex that you really loved, and she loved you. But you knew, like, yeah, we're probably not going to get married.

So this is going to be somewhat short-lived, so you better enjoy it. And luckily, they got to enjoy it. They got to go on that little run with their injuries. But man, it's going to be interesting to see who Kyle hires as defensive coordinator because if you would have said, hey, I lost Robert Sala. I would have been like, oh, the Ravens hired him, the Steelers hired them, the Buffalo hired them. I would not have had on my short list that he would have accepted the Tennessee Titans job.

Maybe I'm being naive. And again, I'm not some hater of like love Nashville. If you told me I had to move somewhere tomorrow, I would move there. So I just think the football team, kind of matters kind of matters love living in Scott's deal I'm a podcaster

would not want to be here if I had to work for the Arizona Cardinals why? Because the owner's a clown and when you get these bad owners and these poor operations and these just it's hard to overcome and the other thing is is Cam Ward any good

because if he's not it's not like you can get rid of him next year who's the number one overall pick in the draft so at minimum you're gonna play a couple years with the guy I think it's a pretty risky hire or I mean a pretty risky acceptance from him. Like it's a no-brainer if you're, you know, them. I would hire Robert Sala too. I think actually Robert Sala is his tenure with the Jets aged better.

And he's probably better equipped for a little, the New York market's not for everybody. He'll be, he'll fit in fine in kind of a smaller operation and a little less, you know, the daily hyperbolic crazy nature of just the Northeast and the sports scene. Tennessee's, I mean, college football is bigger down there than the NFL. But the NFL's big. They're building this new stadium.

It's going to be badass. It's right downtown. Their practice facility is cool. I don't know. I would not have done that if I was Robert Sala. Well, obviously the big story of Monday was the news that Sean McDermott had been fired. And we had talked about it after the game. I think you could kind of see the writing on the wall.

And I recorded it that night, not even quite understanding the level of reaction from the players, who I think spoke to what was on the line. Mahomes was nowhere to be found. Lamar Jackson didn't make the playoffs. Herbert came limping in and has never done anything in the playoffs. You're going through a second year, Drake May, who, you know, the Patriots are a team. They're comfortable playing. They see them every year from a personnel standpoint.

Bo Nix, who had one game of playoff experience, obviously didn't go well against the bills last year. Once you got by Jacksonville, who was arguably the hottest team in the league beside maybe Seattle, that all signs pointed to do, we can win the Super Bowl. I would imagine after they won that game, clearly if they had lost that game, Sean would have been fired as well. I think that's pretty obvious. But once they go into Denver, and then they have a four-point lead late in that game, even despite what had happened, the expectations couldn't have been higher. It was truly for a team that had never made the Super Bowl in terms of this era of the Josh

Allen run. It was Super Bowl or bust. That's how it felt on the outside. That's how it felt clearly inside to them. And that's what led to the coach getting fired because the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over. Football is a very black and wide business. The reason we talk about Nick Sabin's process is because he won like 15 national championships.

No one cares about your process if you're the New York Jets. The media kind of, they're doing the right things, they're taking the right steps. Well, it's not working, right? The process matters. People are intrigued by it when you're Jeff Bezos, right? When you're Bill Belichick, when you're Greg Popovich in the prime of their dynasties, right? You got to win.

And Sean McDermott ultimately didn't win enough. And if you watch the L-Way doc, same thing happened with Dan Reeves. The difference was is he was at odds with the quarterback. Doesn't quite feel like that here, but it's the nature of pro sports. There have been a lot of guys, we've talked about this before, that have got oh so close for several years and ultimately get replaced because the team thinks they need to take the next step. Totally understandable.

I don't even think that logic is wrong. I just do not understand how the general manager doesn't get fired. I mean, I do. He has a PR background. He's clearly a pretty good politician because how can you tell me that Sean McDermott deserves more blame than a general manager and then he gets promoted. But I do understand because if you looked around the league, it's been one giant Joe Pesci meme with the GMs walking their coaches into a meeting when the guy thinks he's getting made and then

they kill him. And that's happening. How do all these GMs from Joe Shane to the dude in Arizona to Andrew Barry, they're surviving all over the league and it happens a lot. These are teams that losing at a really, really high clip. And when you factor in the bills, like, is it a, and Mike Floreo wrote this. Like, we found out that the owner thinks that it's not a talent problem, that it's a coaching problem. They've had two pro bowlers besides Josh,

I think since 2019 of all the guys that he has drafted, Brandon Bean. So I don't quite grasp how you could come to the conclusion that Sean McDermott is worse at his job than Brandon Bean. There have been a lot of things going viral of Brandon arguing with different media members locally in the market about draft picks and things over the years. That doesn't bother me. People get pissed off. They take a lot of pride.

But if you're just judged on wins and losses because that's how the coaches are judged. What's the GM judged on? Well, I like him. He's easy to deal with. He can speak money with me. He can talk country clubs, which I understand. You probably have more in common with the GM than you do the coach who speaks Chinese. because you don't understand, as no one does.

Hell, most scouts don't. True, true football. They don't know the playbook. They can't speak that type language. Sometimes these announcers, you know, Tony Roma or whoever, will say things like, guys, no one knows what robber means. No one watching this.

There's 45 million people, and the percentage of people that can relate to that is really small. Because football is a complicated game. And I think that's why GM survived very often. because when the coaches on an island during the game, on the sideline with his players, losing in devastating fashion, where's the GM? Typically in the owner's suite, eating popcorn, having a Diet Coke, talking who knows what, the masters, money, contracts, things that rich people talk about.

They speak that language, and that's why they survive. But the Buffalo Bills, like the Ravens, these are two of the greatest job openings I can ever remember. MVP quarterbacks in their prime. The difference is when I sign up for the Ravens, I get Eric Dacosta and Ozzie Newsom. It's crazy. Ozzie retired, yet he's still around a lot, works out there every day in the draft room. Last draft, Ozzie Newsom was at the head of the table, not even on the side. But I get an infrastructure there that has been proven over and over with the bills you don't.

Now, signing up for Josh Allen is something any coach would be crazy not to do. And they're going to be a line, you know, sometimes like on Instagram, You see a line. We have this new coffee shop in Arizona. My wife was showing me, and there was this line like a mile long. I don't care, unless the coffee is a fountain of youth, there is no way I would wait more than, I don't know,

15 people for a cup of coffee. I don't care how desperate I am. I would just go to another coffee shop. And I think that's going to be the thing here. But there's going to be a line, and people wait their turn just to try to get an interview for this gig. Is the owner making the call? Is the GM making the call?

That's going to be fascinating. It's pretty clear. Eric Dacosta, Boshadi, you feel pretty comfortable, signing up for that. In theory, the Steelers would be like that instead, but the difference is their roster sucks. I don't know if their front office any good. You get Josh Allen, and you get some good players under contract, right? But I just, I'm at a loss that Sean McDermott loses his job and the GM gets promoted. It makes no fucking sense to me.

I mean, it really doesn't. And I'm not just sticking up because I worked with them. I have a lot of respect for them. I think he's not only a solid football coach, clearly. I mean, resurrected the franchise with Josh, but like a really high character guy. And the one thing you've learned, like, I've become pretty numb as I haven't been in a W-2 job in a decade. So you do deals and in my situation over the past decade, you just kind of become numb. And part of it, I had worked in, I don't even know, corporate America and radio in football, which is a corporate structure.

once you get out in the real world and you know you're negotiating for yourself you just realize how cutthroat the world is and it helps numb you to the business world and i think a lot of people in football the more and more they get fired they become numb to it all and i think the faster you do that the easier it is to kind of get involved but the difference is in football like you have people backstabbing you because that's what it kind of feels like here that how does this happen I don't quite understand. And it's been happening all around the league this year. So it'll be fascinating to watch how this plays out.

They're going to have people lined up for the gig, just like I would imagine the Ravens do as well. I mean, these are great jobs when you factor in the quarterback because that's a make or break thing for your success as a coach. Why did all these guys get fired? Why did Stephansky get fired? Had no quarterback. Why did Jonathan Gannon get run out of town?

had no quarterback. It's not that complicated. Robert Salah, why did they get, their quarterback situation was a disaster. But man, I just, I don't understand it. You know, some things make sense. The Packers assistant GM, I think it might have been a title, VP, something, you know, these titles.

I don't even know what titles mean anymore. But he gets hired in Miami, right? So who's he probably going to hire? Well, Jeff Halfley, who everyone's been ringing his praises, if you just watch Jeff Halfley press conferences, he's really impressive. He hired him. He's an impressive guy.

Makes a lot of sense. You can see how that worked. But I don't see how some... I understand how Eric DeCosta keeps his job. I don't understand how Brandon Bean keeps his job. I don't understand how Joe Shane kept his job. I really don't. If you're basing it on,

you're getting fired because we're not doing well enough on the field. Well, they're a part of that too. They're a huge part of that. You're your partner in crime as a coach. until it comes to making a decision about employment and then they're like, ah, I got nothing to do with it. That was him.

That was him coaching shitty. I'm just up here, you know, eating a Snickers bar, watching the game with you, sir. Just order another Coke Zero. Get me a thing of popcorn. Let me put it in a zen. So, shake my head, man. It kind of pisses me off because

I just don't get it. I really don't. And I think I'm not a huge believer in fairness. Like this is the real world. There's no such thing as fair. You don't like, I don't even argue, there's no such thing as deserve. I remember writing down this quote a long time ago

and the older you get, you realize how true it is. Like, you don't deserve anything. You get what you negotiate. This is not like your family. This is business. So get ready for shady situations. But I still think, I was floored. when I saw that he got promoted.

Because when I get the text that he's been fired, I expect, oh, they blew out everybody. When I see Jeff Halfley's hired, I'm like, oh, yeah, no doubt. Totally makes sense. Right? When Matt Nagy's probably going to be the head coach of the Titans, and Andy rehires Eric B. Enemy, you're like, oh, no-brainer.

Get Eric, who's kind of a, you know, hard ass, get him back in there and ruffle some feathers. Totally understand it. Andy feels very comfortable with him. Todd Munkin going with hardball. A lot of things make sense in the NFL. This one doesn't. I'm sorry, and I'm usually not shocked.

I've been kind of shocked all day that this is the way it played out. I would say, I don't even have a clue who they're going to hire next. I saw people Dayball. I don't know. Who knows what Bean thinks about him? I don't know. I'm just kind of at a loss. I think it's crazy.

Hey, it's us, the 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 podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. 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. 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. Keith Giamanka seemed like a mild-mannered suburban dad. But secretly, he became someone else, a master of disguise who went on a crime speech. At the time, did it seem like a crazy idea?

It seemed very crazy. But I felt so desperate that I felt it was the quickest, easiest way out. Did you allow yourself to think about how it could go wrong on what that might look like? No. I didn't want to manifest that. I was trying to manifest success. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad,

has been living a double life. That is not the look of an innocent man. This is going to change my life and my family dynamic forever because everything that had existed prior in my reality is now untrue. Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed.

And here's something. that should be a whole lot easier than it is. Getting a new one put up in its place. As long as there's a politics of race in America, there's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War. To get to school, I had to go down Robert Lee Boulevard. Get to the grocery store. I had to go down Jefferson Davis Parkway. If you're an historian and you leave out half of what the history is, you're not doing your job. I'm Akila Hughes. In Rebel Spirit, season two goes deep on both of those things. The fights, the politics, the people who won, and my personal campaign to add something to the Kentucky State House

that's actually worth the wall space. We are more than our bodies. We contain essence. We contain spirit. How do you represent that? They are just fueling a fire that is really catching. You'll see what I mean. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself about love or relationship can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery, and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace, and self-mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier.

not becoming more social and connected. We're becoming more individualized, but we actually need people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Before we dive into the mailbag, I mentioned yesterday, we were. were going to do this today. And I called it the Daddy Diaries. I'm not Alex Cooper. It's the dad diaries. I just hadn't slept much. And I did want to hit on a couple things before we dive in the mailback from my experience of having the baby, which is, obviously, for most people,

the biggest day of your life. When you have your children, I think everyone says it's the most important and most magical and powerful day that you will ever experience. And I would say in my 40 years of life. It was the most powerful thing I've ever experienced. And I think I haven't spent that much time in hospitals. My dad's been sick a couple times throughout my life and my mom got sick once. But when you're kind of coming and going as a guest and you're not sitting in there the entire time, especially if they're only there three or four days, you know, your experience isn't it true like you're sitting in the bed or your significant other is sitting in the bed. Obviously your parents are sitting there, but the doctors tell you everything's going to be fine,

even if there's a breast cancer situation or whatever that I've gone through in my life, when the doctor's like, everything's going to be okay. You just kind of believe them and stuff happened to me when I was young and maybe you're a little more naive to the way health and the world works and people passing away so you never know you probably should have a little more fear going in that room. But when it happens to you in your teens, you're 20s, there's almost a naivete or you just can't even. wrap your head around it. When you go into this, you just, I mean, you do have worst case

scenario thoughts in your head. You're worried my wife's getting a C-section, how it's all going to go. And then you go in and you realize it's the biggest day of my life. It's the biggest day of her life. Yet everyone working in there, the, our doctor that's going to conduct the surgery, all the nurses around her, that's a Tuesday. That's another day at the office. And it's just, I was floored how confident and easy, which is totally understandable. I mean, I've done who knows how many podcasts in my life. Thousands of podcasts. Hit records are talking.

Obviously, there's more to it and more prep or whatever. But I don't even think about doing it. And I do think anytime something becomes a job, there's a routine, there's a, it's like anyone that plays golf. If you got 10 people watching it, you start getting a little nervous, ever been to a PGA tour event, especially a big one, they don't even notice it. Why they've been doing it so long? Tiger didn't notice the 10,000 people following them whole to hole after a couple years

because it just becomes routine. And watching these people just go about their routine job and do it at such a high level is something I will never forget. And we had the baby showing her the baby. It's, you know, obviously blood around it. They're cleaning it off and she's got a tarp over her because they're, and the doctor is being asked by the nurse she's originally from texas like if she grew up liking country music and if you know she said she liked garth brooks put her parents like classic rock and maria's face is

like are they really just having a normal person conversation while my my insides are ripped open and it's like yeah they are because that's what they do and it it i left the hospital after a couple days thinking, I need to be a better person because the hospitality is probably the wrong word, but the kindness and just the genuine nature you feel from these nurses. Again, like I said, I haven't spent that much time in hospitals and especially just 48 hours of just never leaving the room or the building and just dealing with these people whose only job is to make sure everything possibly is going well for you is something I will never forget

and a couple days ago I was going to Starbucks and I was just in a bad mood because I'd slept like three hours and like four days and the lady sometimes at Starbucks they're very happy and I kind of wanted to be I was like grumpy at first

I'm like fucking put on a smile these people are working overnight shifts at the hospital and I never saw even close to a frown it was the most optimistic happy place I can ever remember. And the way I would describe the baby experience, you leave realizing, and one thing Maria's always said,

and she's kind of right, is we always talk about as guys, like when you do something, the older you get, it's usually something business-related, taking your risk in life. Or it can be trying to date someone, right, asking someone out and getting aggressive, maybe just fly somewhere to show up, take him out on a date. Your boy did that once upon a time, and now I'm married. But you get credit and we say this, you see it in football. He went forward on fourth down.

That guy has balls. Yet when someone is unwilling to take risks, what do we all say? Big pussy. What a wuss. What a, what a puss, right? That's what we call it. And she says, you know the funny part is? If I kick you in the balls, you go to the ground.

Yet babies come out of this. I thought, yeah, she makes a pretty good point. And you watch her go through this. they are so tough and the motherly instincts to not need sleep to immediately flip the switch of someone that never has had a kid

to then get the kid handed to them while especially in her situation having the C-section or if you go through a regular birth and just be able to bounce back and basically not sleep for two straight days and just try to keep the kid alive you know obviously you have nurse help

when you're in the in the hospital but is unlike anything I've ever seen. And I would imagine like anyone listening to this, the respect you have, not you obviously, if you're married to someone, you should have respect for them. But from a mental toughness and physical toughness standpoint, blew my mind.

She's a fucking rock star. Like, I could never have done that. And if I had been cut open, I wouldn't be leaving the hospital for a while, let alone not sleeping. then the breastfeeding and everything that comes with it and not being able to sleep for more than a couple hours at a time is an eye-opening experience,

which is, I don't even know how to describe it, but it's awesome. It really is. And the one way I would describe the hospital, at least in the baby unit, when people have babies and stay there for a couple days and no one's sleeping, it's like the NFL meets a Navy

seal mission? Because in the NFL, you work crazy hours. And you go to the coffee machine at like 9.30. There aren't many industries where you show up at six or seven in the morning and you're still going four or five days a week for five or six straight months to the coffee machine well after 9 p.m. And there's a line to get coffee. Like that's not normal in most of these businesses, right? I'd even say Wall Street. You have individual deals, but in football, 17 straight weeks of games and starting in training camp, your routine is crazy. So it kind of was a throwback of,

I was going to the coffee machine at 9.30 at night, my first night there with her. And there were multiple people saying, and these weren't nurses. These were other dads, another visitor, just felt pretty normal. And then there's the aspect of like saving private Ryan where all you're trying to do,

this happens a lot, especially in like military movies, but it's true in real life. You're just trying to get the person home. out of danger. It happened to my dad. His brother died in Vietnam and they immediately need to get him home

because the way our military works you can't have two people in the family end. They're both killed in war. I was saving private Ryan thing, right? You got to get them back so the family name can continue.

And you just look at this little guy. You have no experience beside your friends or your family, but now it's all on you. And it's just about keeping him alive. And all you're worried about is, is he breathing? is he breathing?

So you're just constantly kind of poking him, getting to move, putting your finger above his nose to see if air is coming out. And it's unlike anything I've ever seen or experienced in my life. The no sleep factored in the survival of someone else who is seven or eight pounds and can't do anything on his own. But it's definitely the coolest, most powerful thing that you will probably ever go through in your life. and I'm very lucky that my wife

even at a couple hours after surgery they looked at her like are you an athlete did gymnastics when I was in high school she's in good shape worked out the majority of her pregnancy it's like we don't see you are handling this really well you get this big C section and her heart rate was never high

it was like 50 to 60 the whole time and we got let go discharged within under 48 hours even the pediatrician when we were getting talked about discharging came in and had to come back and was like, you were a C-section? It's like, yeah. And so we got very lucky that way. And my son right on Q made sure we were home for well before kickoff of Josh Allen.

But that experience, the optimism, how happy everyone is. I say this all the time, like society, everyone just shitting on it if you get online. Like get offline and just go into the real world. Like most people I run across are really happy or just pretty normal or not screaming at each other, just out in the real world. You see things and when you have a baby, you're just not even on your phone. You kind of get detached. And I've never been to more of like an optimistic place and a more encouraging, helpful situation

than the nurses that are involved. Honor Health in Scottsdale, I would give it a 20 out of 10. It could not have gone better and feel very, very fortunate to have had a baby there because it was as smooth as possible. And he's doing well. He's just sucking on some milk on a daily basis and we'll just keep the dad diaries going. Have some other takes that I will roll into next week. But we'll now talk some football because we'll do a little Middlecoff mailbag. For those of you watching on Netflix, the Middlecoff mailbag, at John Middlecoff, at John Middlecough,

fire in those DMs. Get your questions answered here on the show. And we'll do this, I mean, multiple times a week. So depending on the week, especially with the baby, we might have to fire off some more of these. So make sure you fire in those DMs, need a bunch of your questions as we roll to this big game or the big games on Sunday. This is John. And he spells it like Gruden, J-O-N. Concerning overtime rules. Since any kind of sudden death overtime, isn't really representative of the better team. How about a field goal kickoff? Five kicks guaranteed from different distances and hashes,

a la soccer. And if not sudden death, maybe to determine field position to skill limit extra reps for player safety. The reason that that would never happen is because the coaches hate field goal kickers. The entire sport is predicated on the line of scrimmage, blocking and tackling.

They would never let kickers determine the situation in overtime where you're just having a kickoff. It's just not going to happen. I don't know if there's a right or wrong way to do what they're doing now. I do think it's fair that both teams get to touch the ball. You can even argue maybe you just get one timeout instead of three timeouts. I don't know. I think it's difficult.

I really do. It's not, you know, in baseball, they put the runner on second base in the regular season, because there's 162 games. No one fucking wants to stay up till midnight watching these games. Not a soul. I used to cover baseball and huge baseball fan for decades. Like, once most people get some sort of life, they're not going to stay up at 1145 watching a 13 inning game. And the baseball purist is like, you can't, you're not watching either year's sleep. So you can't really do that in football.

In baseball, obviously, they don't do that in the playoffs. for the mailbag. Congratulations on becoming a father. It's the best feeling. I appreciate you. Do you think, given how good he has been, we are underrating Drake May? I get that he has some fumbles against Houston,

but it clearly was a game where ball control was going to be difficult. Some of the throws he made against what pundits were calling the best defense since LLB were just elite, top tier. We've seen the best quarterback in the league get absolutely dismantled by Houston. I feel like Drake, for the most part, was impressive.

Anyways, I feel like he's not going to get talked about being... I just feel like he's not being talked about seriously enough. I think it's when you're young. Look at Caleb. There was a marketing campaign and a hype machine behind him, which you rarely see. To me, he's probably the most hype quarterback since Andrew Luck. So when it started going well, he gets talked about more than Drake May.

He just does. I think Drake May is getting a lot of respect. I mean, he's right there. There's a chance that he wins the MVP. More than likely, Stafford will, but it's not inconceivable that he wins it. He has his team in the AFC championship and their favorite because of the injury.

So I think Drake May has gotten a lot of love. I think most people will agree he's one of, if not the best, young players in the entire league any position. So I don't think he's getting discounted. I don't. Also, good discussion. These teams that are left, it's like amateur hour.

I was not a Mahomes fan, but now I'm actually looking forward to him coming back so there can be teams that look like it's good in the playoffs and winning. Never thought I would feel that way. I do think you have to really respect. I looked it up yesterday as we saw the turnovers happening in the morning game.

in 22 and 23, in the course of seven playoff games, when the Chiefs won back-to-back Super Bowls, Mahomes clearly didn't have great teams in terms of offense, right? Tyreek was gone. Travis was aging, still pretty good in 22. 23, getting a little older. Their offensive firepower was Juju Smith, Isaiah Pacheco. They were not some Tyreek Hill operation.

But he had two total turnovers in seven games. an interception and a fumble. And this is what I said about C.J. Stroud. And I think Josh Allen, much higher level, but would fall under this, you can't turn the ball over. Unless your team is the Alabama Crimson Tide in the peak of their dynasty, you have to play smart football in the playoffs. The NFL playoffs isn't about the splashy plays always.

It's about not doing dumb stuff. And I think Mahomes in 22 and 23 proved, I don't need to throw four touchdowns a game. I can play smart. I can manage the game. Because he kind of did. And I can make big plays when I have to. But I'm going to be an elite game manager

because my team needs me to not screw up. And these other guys, I mean, it was an embarrassment. It really was. And I don't blame like Drake May or CJ Stroud. If you, if they're going back to pass and you strip the balls they're throwing it, like that's nothing they can really do. But the plays where you're,

you're throwing balls into harm's way. Like, that's just, it just cannot happen in these playoff moments. And Mahalms avoided that for two years. And they won two Super Bowls because he played like that. Do you think the bills, this was a question before we found out that he was fired? Do you think the bill should move on from McDermott? And if so, would Tomlin be a great fit? I think he can help the defense and build a better culture.

Also, I'm moving from the Bay Area from Denver. soon to work, any tips of advice for fun things to do. This is what I said about Sean McDermott. Most people would say, you've got to hire Tomlin, you've got to hire John Harbaugh over him. Hasn't he been beating those two teams? He's beaten the Ravens the last two times he's played him with a team that wasn't as good.

And he's got Lamar, he's got Josh, so it's like the quarterbacks are a coin flip. And Tomlin, two years ago, he beat him by 14 plus points in a playoff game. So I have a hard time just thinking, because Mike Tomlin's like cooler, he's just a bigger personality than McDermott, but based on what, would you just go,

that's a no-brainer upgrade? Now, if I'm Mike Tomlin, I would want the job, assuming I want to keep coaching. Just like if I was John Harbaugh, I wouldn't have wanted that job before I took the Giants job. But this notion that those guys are some upgrade,

I can't say that. Tomlin defense for the Steelers have been bad. So I would disagree there. Now, I think Tomlin would be a splashy hire, but they could just as easily get bounced in the second round of the playoffs with Mike Tomlin as they could with Sean McDermott. Mike Tomlin was doing his playoff winning back in like the 2000s. I don't think he's been winning many games the last 15 years in the playoffs.

Some of those he had peak Big Ben. So I want Mike Tomlin involved in the NFL on the sideline. I think we're better off with Mike Tomlin coaching than we are on him on TV. And if I was the bills, you're not going to do better than Mike Tomlin. This is the problem with firing Sean McDermin. is if you don't get Tom, let's say he goes to the playoffs, or I mean the TV, and I think we could debate, like, upgrade, not upgrade.

You're just going to take Robert Sala? Like, uh, Kuwukubiak? You're going to elevate Joe Brady? You're going to bring Dayball? What is Dave? You watched Dayball this year? So, I don't know, man. I think it's pretty risky.

Now, part of life is you got to risk it. But this one, when you got Josh in the prime of his career, It'd be one thing if you fired everybody It's like totally understand it But to let Bean In what world They were a package deal I'm pretty sure Sean McDermott was hired before Bean

Could be wrong on that But Sean McDermott was the DC Of the team that went to the Super Bowl in Carolina That's how he got the job to Buffalo In 2017 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 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. Oh, 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.

Keith Giamanka seemed like a mild-mannered suburban dad. But secretly, he became someone else, a master of disguise who went on a crime. At the time, did it seem like a crazy idea? It seemed very crazy, but I felt so desperate that I felt it was the quickest, easiest way out. Did you allow yourself to think about how it could go wrong and what that might look like? No. I didn't want to manifest that.

I was trying to manifest success. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad, has been living a double life. That is not the look of an innocent man. This is going to change my life and my family dynamic forever because everything that had existed prior in my reality is now untrue.

Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. As long as there's a politics of race in America, there's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War. To get to school, I had to go down Robert Lee Boulevard.

Get to the grocery store, I had to go down Jefferson Davis Parkway. If you're an historian and you leave out half of what the history is, you're not doing your job. I'm Akila Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 goes deep on both of those things. The fights, the politics, the people who won, and my performance. personal campaign to add something to the Kentucky State House that's actually worth the wall space. We are more than our bodies. We contain essence. We contain spirit. How do you represent that? They are just fueling a fire that is really catching. You'll see what I mean. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shake my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery, and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace, and self-mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming.

more social and connected. We're becoming more individualized, but we actually need people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network

on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I have to push back on your takes on the catch-verse interception and the past interference on the bills. On the interception, Cooks never had control the ball through the catch,

and the rule is if you complete the catch. If McMillan had yanked the ball and it popped up in the air and landing on the turf in the same play, the play would have been incomplete. If Cooks caught the ball in the end zone and the ball fell onto the turf, just like it did there, it would have been incomplete.

I'm not saying that I know the answer, and that should be a catch. I'm just saying, like, he catch the ball, he hits the ground, is he not dead. Complete the catch. Does that take a roll?

I'm not also arguing that the bills lost the game because of that moment. They lost the game when Josh missed Knox fumbled in the first half at the end to give them a three three three points. So the game was not determined by the pass interference. My issue with pass interference in general, I don't like tiki attack pass interference. I don't.

I'm okay with a physical nature of the game. the offensive players just can never get touched. They're fucking called defenseless. Bro, you're running over the middle in the NFL. Defenseless? Think how dumb that is. The only reason they say that is because they don't want to get sued. This is a cover your ass verbiage to avoid CTE lawsuits and concussion lawsuits.

You're not defenseless running over the middle. It's literally like a crossing route. You know, who sits in there? It's like linebackers. It's like, I never feel bad. I mean, it sucks. when someone gets bit by shark and dies. You're swimming in the Pacific Ocean.

Who do you think's down there? It's like, I got eaten by an alligator. It's like, yeah, you went on a safari to Africa. Who do you think lives in the rivers? Right? Not a trout. So I think there's a nature of football that is so anti-defense that I just,

I wish, I give them a little more latitude. I'm also not saying that the bills got screwed and should have won that game. They blew it. There's no way around it. Things could have gone either way. I wasn't up in arms over the catch, no catch. It doesn't, it doesn't.

I have much stronger takes on the regulation than anything in overtime. I do just generally lean when it comes to defensive holding and pass interference, especially in big games. If it's like the Giants playing the Cardinals in December, I don't care. But in a game that's determining who goes to the AFC championship game, I kind of need you to be mauled. I kind of do. I was watching both divisional games and had a thought.

Is there a reason why you couldn't put all four games on Sunday? CBS takes the afternoon window in the AFC and then the 3.30 window for the second and then Fox takes the late window for the first NFC and NBC takes the night game for the second NFC game. That way two teams from each conference that win have equal amount of time. It's about TV windows. They don't want to split viewership.

They want everyone watching one game. This is about maximizing the audience. So, yeah, technically they could. They could have a game in the morning, two games in the afternoon, and one game at night. But they would never want to steal audience away from another game. That's the whole point of the playoffs.

The most popular games in the sport are Sunday night football, Monday night football, Thursday night crushes now, and typically a big Sunday afternoon game. because the game of the week on CBS or Fox, if it's like Bears Packers or Niners Rams or Chiefs Bills, they do a pretty good job of putting other crappy games next to it. So everyone watches the main game.

And if you have two playoff games, if it's like Bill's versus the Broncos and Niners versus Seattle, what are Seattle and Niners fans supposed to do? Like they want to watch Josh Allen play too. So it's, they don't want that. And that's never going to happen. but that's not the way their business model is. And that's not the way...

The television networks pay massive amounts of money. They make a lot of it back in the playoffs. I mean, you're getting 30, 40 million people watching these games. So they would not want to lose whatever the percentage would be. Most people are not me or potentially you that have like three TVs. I still got to build this office. I just having a time with the baby. I mean, I got cardboard boxes everywhere of shelves and pictures all over the place.

I do have two TVs though And I also have a big monitor next to me So it's like But I'm not normal I consume for a living And then talk about it Right most humans have one TV in their living room So they wouldn't be able to

I don't know about you My wife hates picture and picture And honestly on a big TV 75 85 85 inches On YouTube TV The two game option There's too much dead space I'm not getting enough

part of the reason you have a big TV is to see everything. And then when you do the two games, it just kind of diminishes the experience. In my opinion, I don't think it's a coincidence that hours after the bills lost, the Falcons announced Stafansky as her coach.

It's early Sunday morning as I'm writing this, and if Stafansky was still in the market, I think it's plausible that McDermott is out and Stafansky would be interviewing with the bills. If we lose this weekend, we'd like to bring Coach A, B, or C, for an interview, guy yet.

I missed the actual first part. This brings me to the question in a situation like the bills in the playoffs, but with a coach where the seat is warm, do owners make a call to the coach's agent and say, if we lose this weekend, we'd like to bring, I hear what you're saying, how could you fire Sean McDermott for Kevin Stavansky? In what world could you justify firing Sean McDermott for Kevin Stavansky? I don't know one that exists. So I think Kevin Savansky took the Atlanta job because Matt Ryan really liked him.

It's a good opportunity. I don't think the bills could hire Kevin Staphan. I would say that would be nuts. I really would. Maybe I'm too hard on Stavansky. Clearly a lot of people like them, but I would disagree with that move. I really would.

I'd rather have McDermott and Joe Brady than Kevin Stavansky. Question for the mailback. Now the Niners season is over. What do they have to do to make a run for the Super Bowl? I've been saying they've got to get healthy. They've got to figure out the substance. they got to figure out these injuries. That to me is their only goal.

We can't have hundreds of millions of dollars on injury reserve. It can't happen. So, like, we got to add this guy, they got to stay healthy. Nick Bosa, George Kittle, Fred Warner, name me a team that could lose

that level of play. It's impossible. They lost their starting quarterback for eight games. I just think they got to find a way to stay healthy. That just has to happen. to me is beside like, oh, nail this pick, out of guard. If you can't keep your high-end guys healthy, none of that shit matters. And it's been a conversation that's been ongoing now for a while.

They've got to find a way to say healthy. I don't know how. I don't have an answer to that. I don't know if the substation thing's real or not, but they got to figure something out because they have a problem that is worse than everyone else, everyone else in the league. They lead the league in injuries. Always, like every single year. And obviously McCaffrey, I mean, from one football standpoint is like,

Do they need to bring in, find like a McCaffrey right-hand man? Because you can't keep continue at the rate with Christian, who is just getting pummeled. Like, can you find, it's hard. I mean, Christian was the eighth pick in the draft and like a Hall of Fame level talent. But they need to get another running back, who is good? So they can just balance and give Christian like, hey, you're just going to play slot receiver today. Because Christian can do other things. But it's like when he's just getting pounded between the tackles 15, 20 times a game,

Like, it's not going to last. He was holding on for dear life at the end there. With Bo Nicks breaking a bone in his ankle, would the Broncos call up rivers for one last ride. That would be sick. That would be awesome. It's not going to happen. It's much easier to do in a regular season situation.

He knows the offense and he knows the coach. Sean Payton, I don't think he's bullshitting, really believes Jared Stidham. I think Jared Stidham is one of the highest paid backups in the league. He's spoken really highly of it. them for a long time. I personally think it's impossible for a guy to never play. It's one thing to come in at the start of the regular season. It's like games haven't even started. Guy got hurt, I got to jump in. Like Kurt Warner situation. You kind of get a fresh

slate. You're coming in in the middle of late January against a team that, what's the Patriots record? What are they? 14 wins? They got a lot of momentum against Mike Grable. That's a very, very difficult situation. You've been taking number one reps? No, I've been on the practice, or I've been on the scout team for the last four and a half months. Even John Payton's like, I get on Vance Joseph because he rips up our defense for the scout team. So I impossible situation, but really their only option. I don't think you can bring in another person at this point. Stidham knows the team,

knows the players, knows the playbook. Part of Philip Rivers, they didn't just randomly bring Philip Rivers. He knew the place. He knew the coach. He ran the offense in his high school team. If you told me Philip Rivers played for Sean Payton for a couple years, I'd be like, yeah, I think it'd be, you could bring him in, practice, have him get some reps. In this scenario, Breeze, I mean, his shoulder, Bree said he can't even play catch with his kids, so Breeze's shoulder doesn't work.

Philip Rivers doesn't, hadn't work with Sean Peyton. He just got to roll with Jared Stittam, and hope to get a miracle. Because I will say this. and we'll talk about this later this week. If Sean Payton can win this game with a backup quarterback, even if he lost in the Super Bowl, it would be one of his greatest victories in the history of his career. And he's a guy that obviously has had a lot of success,

Super Bowl champion. This would be a legendary win. I think right now, I haven't checked the line today, but five and a half point underdog, should be. You've got a backup quarterback who's never played or hasn't played in a long time. It hasn't started for years because Boe,

mix. So if he's able to rally the troops and win this game, be a pretty big notch on the belt for Sean. It really would. It'd be pretty incredible. Okay, last question. C.J. Stroud is the biggest and most glaring weakness for the Houston Texans, but he is still a decent quarterback, could and should the Texans trade C.J. to the Raiders for the first overall pick and start the clock over and use the cap elsewhere. That's a pretty good question. I would say about CJ he needs to play in though. But like the Texans, the Raiders, if they were to get good, would have to play outside. They'd have to play the Chiefs. They'd have to play the Ravens. They'd have to play the Bills. They'd have to play the Patriots. It's inevitable that you need Denver.

So, CJ's skill set doesn't change for them as it does the Houston Texans. So I would 100% not make that drag. I think both guys coming out of college, Fernando Mendoza gets drafted. head of CJ. And I like CJ. But, or I mean, I did before that game. I do think the Raiders wouldn't say no to that deal. I think the Texans would do that deal. I think the Raiders hang up. The Texans would be like, would the Texans trade a third round pick and C.J.

For Fernando Mendoza. And there's no guarantee Fernando Mendoza's ever as good as CJ. But when you factor in restarting the clock, because again, if C.J doesn't get his swag back in 2006 of playing high-level football, they're not going to extend them. There's too many examples for Casario to go, you can't extend good. Because if you extend good, you've got major problems. You can extend very good. Obviously, ideally, you extend great, but you can extend very good.

Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, right? You can extend those guys. Brock Purdy. You cannot, you cannot extend good. And right now, C.J.'s is good and sometimes bad, but good is kind of his high end now. and the lack of ability to play outside to me is a major red flag, which is hypocritical because I hate the cold, and I could never do it, but most people can't, except a small few.

And those look to me to be like the elite guys. Okay, I guess we'll end on this. I had one more. I have a question for the mailbag. I've always questioned how a college football division one athlete has the time to get a degree and focus so much of time on practice, weights, and film. I can only assume most of degrees are rubber-stamped. I can't even remember a student-athlete was ineligible for grades in college football. Football is a big business even outside the player role.

Why do colleges not have a football degree that aligns with college athletes since that's why most are in college? It would also allow for not so athletically gifted athletes to be able to pursue a career in football outside of playing. Well, I think at a lot of colleges, they have generic degrees that these guys take. At this point in time with the transfer portal, I don't even know if anyone goes to school. But I do think you're underestimating most guys playing at USC, Oregon, Texas are not going to be NFL players. Think about that. Most guys in the power of four are not going to the NFL. How many guys are on a team?

85, 90, right, 100 in college football. How many guys are drafted every year? What was pretty? He was the last pick, 266, 266, and then obviously some undrafted free ages, but how many of those guys never make it to the regular season? So the majority of guys are going to come to the real world. I think a decent amount of guys take school relatively seriously.

Now, it's very challenging, unless you're an Andrew Luck, academic, all-American type genius to take a hard-made, architecture, engineering, medical sciences, some of these are biology, some stuff like that, that's going to be a small percentage. But I think you're going to find a lot of impressive football guys are getting business degrees,

are taking advantage of their opportunity. Because the network they're naturally going to have, leaving college, is going to be better than the average guy they're sitting in class with in business. Now, some people don't get it until it's too late, but I think they're clearly guys, like there always have men that don't go to class and don't give a shit. And some of these schools doesn't matter.

But like if you're going playing college football, the University of Washington or the University of Indiana or Michigan or Texas, USC, like, you kind of realize like, yeah, I like football, I'm good at football, but this, I'm not going to be a pro, which is hard for some guys to understand, but this could change the trajectory of my life. So, yes, there are people, I mean, there are losers in every aspect of society. right and I don't think you're a loser if you don't care about school but if you don't care about school and you're not a good player like I think you're kind of a

moron if you're a guy that's clearly going to the NFL I don't blame you at all for not taking school seriously one bit I mean the whole point of going to school is trying to make money right we're not going to school for them to teach us life lessons in college right that was my parents jobs and my and my coaches jobs and shit in growing up your jobs there trying to get me a degree like and if you're taking these worthless degrees that I also don't feel bad for you when you can't get a job. And that's clearly a major talking point right now in society. It's like, we have a lot of people getting worthless degrees.

I'm like, yeah, there's a lot of college that some could argue is kind of scammy. But if you get specific degrees, especially at these big boy universities, with feeder systems to the big companies and elite alumni status that they present, if you play football at Notre Dame and you're some rotational special teams guy, you're, you're, have an incredible opportunity to change your life. And if you're dumb enough to not take school seriously, like, yeah, it's hard. It's difficult.

Right? It's difficult playing at Air Force. It's difficult being a normal student and an architecture engineer where I went to school, Cal Poly, which is a great engineer. Like, it's hard, yes, it's not easy. You don't just get to drink Natty Lights five days a week and fuck around and do nothing. But you also get the option or the opportunity

to springboard your life to a really high level really fast. So I think a lot of guys and a lot of these programs, I don't know, the transfer portal is probably, I don't even know how grades even matter anymore transfer portal. Because I remember Fresno State getting a guy into school,

whether a high school kid or a transfer kid, even from junior college, the transcripts really matter? How could all these guys transfer? Because all these guys' transcripts are not eligible transcripts. I do not believe it, especially some elite player. Because what if he doesn't even care about school? Why would he?

A lot of musicians don't care about school. You know, a lot of these guys dropped out of college to develop Facebook or you name Company X. Happens all the time. More power to them. You know, school didn't do anything for me in all seriousness. Like, it bored the shit out of me. I'll never forget. I think about this a lot.

I just never stopped looking up at the clock. And this was pre-Iphone. When's this thing going to end? And that goes back to, like, junior high, let alone through college. but yeah I think everyone's different everyone approaches it differently but the smart kids and I don't even mean intellectually smart

I mean the guys that kind of get it or see the writing on the wall take advantage of that opportunity because playing football you name the school North Carolina Syracuse Florida whatever you could be a backup you could be a guy that never played a scout team

a Rudy type and it changes your life much more than the kid just going to school there having his parents pay or take out a student loan. You are given massive advantages. And I think all the high-level programs have done a good job preaching that over the years. You know, obviously, if you're at Bama or Georgia in the prime, right,

you're coming there to try to make the NFL. But if you're playing at, I don't know, UCLA, hey, a lot of guys aren't going to the NFL. But you can get a business degree or whatever your passion is, and you're going to work hard. Your time's going to be tough, especially during the fall. But spring's not that hard. You know that much going on.

Besides some workouts. Most kids on campus workout. Especially in 2025. So that would be my take there. That's a great question. 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'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. 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.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying. You just understood.

That's how personal. gap. Wow. Then after that game seven, Markeep coming to, he's like, you know I love you, dog, you know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your husband is not who you think he is.

Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets. He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off. And that was the last time I saw him.

Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they are? I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man

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