The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 & Out - Seahawks Sell for Record $9.6 Billion, Aaron Donald Comeback Rumors & NFL Headlines

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

On this episode of 3 & Out, John Middlekauff reacts to the Seattle Seahawks being sold for a record $9.6 billion, discussing what the historic sale means for the franchise, NFL ownership, and the ever-growing value of professional sports teams. John also dives into the excitement surrounding the FIFA World Cup, explaining why the tournament continues to capture the attention of sports fans around the globe and what makes it one of the biggest events in all of sports. Plus, an expected move in Detroit as Terrion Arnold is cut by the Lions. John breaks down why this was the only move for Detriot and is there a path back to the NFL for Arnold after all these legal issues?. Could Aaron Donald really be making a return to the NFL? John discusses the latest rumors surrounding the future Hall of Famer and whether a comeback is realistic—or simply offseason speculation. To wrap things up, John reacts to Conor McGregor's latest fight, which came to an abrupt end in just seconds, and what the result means for one of combat sports' biggest stars. From NFL news and ownership shakeups to global sports and combat sports headlines, it's all covered on this episode of 3 & Out. Follow John on Twitter, and Instagram for the latest.  All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. The volume. What is going on, my people? How are we doing? John Middilcoff, Three and Out podcast. Let's see if I can still do this. A lot of you guys have been DMing me,

hitting me up, as my mom would say, on the X channel. John, has Colin severed ties with you? Did you quit? Where have you gone? So, guys, it's late June, early July. It's taking a little breather. A little family time. enjoying vacation would be strong when you have a baby but

Lake Tahoe, Newport Beach, just kind of hanging out and hopefully I can still do a podcast because you know you haven't talked this long in a while well I've been talking a lot but just not into a microphone we had a lot going on Seahawks just sold uh Terran Arnold's Story's Wild The World Cup is thriving Connor McGregor that was

It's one of the wildest things you'll ever see Aaron Donald by all accounts is going to come back So the game plan will be podcast today, podcast the next couple days. Not sure if I'm going to do one this Thursday. I'm going to be down in L.A. for, I'm doing the herd on Thursday and Friday. But definitely got a bunch of podcasts this week. And we'll just keep home. Definitely some mail bags.

I haven't, we haven't done one of those in a while. So at John Middlecough is the Instagram fire in those DMs. You guys know the drill. If you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to three now. You'll never miss the show. As well as you can catch us on Netflix. That's where we will be from a video. video standpoint for this podcast, so I appreciate everyone that's watched, and let's just,

let's just dive into some sports. But I do want to start with the Seattle Seahawks, who sold for $9.6 billion. One thing's pretty key in this modern day world of pro sports valuations and franchises. You need a lot of money to get involved. The day, Paul Allen, which, listen, $194 million in 1997, was a lot of money. I remember I heard someone say this the other day like in the really one reality television show and some of the game shows that happened when I was in junior high and high school if you want a million dollars it felt like the equivalent of giving someone 20 million dollars now so a hundred ninety four million dollars ton of money he co-founded Microsoft and obviously he's passed away now but his uh his sister just sold the thing for 9.6 billion dollars which is a crazy amount. of money. I mean, Seattle's not exactly Chicago or New York City

or the Dallas Cowboys. So the evaluations in this league, the safety, your team can suck. You can win zero games every single year and still make money because of the league's television agreements. It's what

makes football so unique relative to basketball and baseball. The NBA salary cap's gone down. Why? Because the local television networks which were a huge part of basketball because they have 82 games are falling apart. The cable networks aren't going to exist. Obviously in baseball, the local inventory is massive.

The NFL is all national games. We don't have local broadcasters. They're only on the radio. So the national television revenue entices guys like this who, from what Wikipedia said, he's worth like $14 billion to want to get involved in the league. Now, he was already a minority owner in the 49ers. Super successful guy. Started some microsystems back in the early 80s.

Came over here from India in the 70s, went to Stanford. I mean, an incredible success story. This was watching a Stanford business talk that he gave. I mean, this guy came from nothing and wanted no part of being employed. Like this guy, once he went to college, wanted to start his own thing. Wasn't afraid to fail. So I admire that mentality. Props to that guy who was crushed in life.

And obviously since Sun Microsystem became an incredible part of a venture capitalist firm that invested in some of the most successful companies over the last several decades in the internet era. So this guy is a cash machine. And I think it's pretty clear by the way this is going to operate. His wife is technically going to be the managing partner. It's like the Waltons who bought the debt. Denver Broncos, they gave it to the son-in-law, Penner, you know, even though the Walton's paid for the thing, but he's the guy, he's the boss, the wife's going to be lost.

It's pretty clear this thing's about his son, who I couldn't find his exact age, but his parent, I mean, this guy and his wife are 71 years old, and his son, by all accounts, is a massive sports fan, and is going to take this thing over, if not now. I mean, there's already been reports. He's going to have a massive role. but this guy's going to be leading the charge. I was thinking about this, though, typically in the NFL,

and I would probably say sports franchises in general, but definitely over the course of the last, I don't know, decade, when NFL teams have sold, the franchises have been awful. Not necessarily the valuations, right? They're all making money, but in terms of the team. They've been an embarrassment.

I mean, a couple years ago, when Dan Snyder was basically forced out, The Washington Redskins had one of the worst brands, not in the NFL, but in the entire league. Changing their name. The owner was a joke. The team always sucked. It didn't matter. It couldn't have been any worse.

And that's usually what comes to market. David Teper, buys the Carolina Panthers. Wasn't exactly rolling. Jimmy Haslam bought the Cleveland Browns. Pretty well documented. And the thing in the NFL, And this is, again, probably true for most franchises, is this guy's from the Bay Area, essentially, right?

His entire time living in America, his home base has been Silicon Valley. By all accounts, his son is a huge 49er fan. In a perfect world, if he would buy the 49ers. They're not available. Josh Harris owns the 76ers, and he owned them before he owned an NFL team. Who do you think he would want to buy?

the Philadelphia Eagles. It'd be perfect, you know, synergy with the basketball team and the NFL team. But guess what? Can't do it. I mean, Jeffrey Lurie ain't selling. So a lot of times you have to buy a team that is in a market that you don't live in. And you have to choose, are you going to move to that market or are you not? And a lot of times, these guys become so hands-on, they move there and they become very, very involved.

Sometimes they don't. But how often do you buy a team? with a Hall of Fame general manager in the peak of his powers and a young coach that is viewed, which is very rare in the NFL on the defensive side of the ball, as the equivalent of like Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVeigh. Obviously, just coming off the Super Bowl, but even if you just remove the Super Bowl,

you would say he is easily one of the best coaches in the NFL. And if you could draft from scratch, right? So obviously you'd have to factor in age. So if you remove like the Andy Reed and the Sean Payton, of all the guys like under 50 or 55 years old, he would go in the top five. Like I said, you usually buy the Panthers, who you're going to detonate the thing,

or you buy the Cleveland Browns, which need to be detonated. In this situation, you don't really have to do anything. Now, we're humans. When you pay a lot of money for something, you're going to want to put your stamp on it. But the Seattle Seahawks, for the better part of the internet era,

have been an extremely well-run franchise. And this is where Paul Allen gets a lot of credit. In the late 90s, Mike Holmgren was the head coach of the Packers, had been to multiple Super Bowls, created the Brett Farr of situation, helped land Reggie White and Free Agency, and became a head coaching star.

He was already a big name because he was an assistant for Bill Walsh for a long time in the 80s. But he paid him in the late 90s, Eight years, $32 million, which I'm pretty sure if we looked around sports was unheard of when it came to a coach. That's fucking insane. Now, you know, these guys are making $15, $20 million. But in 1999, there were probably a lot of coaches making $800,000, making $500 grand.

Definitely the assistants weren't making anywhere near what they make now. So Paul Allen was ahead of the curb. He realized the importance of having a star guy run his franchise. And then after they kind of hit some hard times at the end of the Holmgren era, Jim Mora, it was just kind of a joke. They went out and bought Pete Carroll. And with Pete Carroll, they brought in John Schneider.

And so consistently, that franchise has been good because he's been willing to pay the coach a lot of money. And through that, landed him a general manager that's going to be in the Hall of Fame. So this guy, who now for the course of the last 25 years, maybe even longer than that, has just been strictly investing into companies. Well, what does a good investor do? And because the difference in sports and in business, right, in business,

the Cleveland Browns, bad organization costs a premium. You know, it's like, would it be that enticing? But it's pro sports. They're the only organization, you know, available I want in. Or the Carolina Panthers or whoever, right? where in business, you typically, if you're going to pay a premium for something, you're going to buy an organization that is already well run, that's making a ton of money, and it's just rolling.

And then you just let the guys that you purchase the organization for operate. And you make the profits. You know, I would imagine a lot of people listening to this have known a lot of people, or, you know, a lot of you guys know an individual, someone in your community, someone through a friend who sold. their business to one of these firms. And their business, I had a good friend who's now passed away, but his family, his dad when I was a kid, worked in like the union and they installed cold boxes in grocery stores.

And he did that my entire youth. He was my baseball coach in fifth and sixth grade. I went to college with very close with his son. and then after a certain point probably in his mid-50s he said I don't know I just I'm now the manager of this company working for people he created his own company because he's like I have all the relationships with the people running the grocery stores I know this business inside and out so he just created his own company they're like in his mid-50s and then I don't know how long later they sold the company for millions of on millions of dollars because these VC firms come in and they buy like five of them and then they combine them and they pay you you either you know a lot of times you get an agreement where you stay on for a certain amount of time maybe two years maybe five years whatever continue your payout hit some hit some certain marks and then make even more money and then just get out right where

that's usually how it operates because you want to buy a company that's rolling that knows what they're doing and is making a ton of money well in sports is pretty rare that you just get to, you got to pay a lot, but you get to get John Schneider and Mike McDonald and inherit an organization loaded with young players that knows what they're doing. Typically, you buy the organization and then a year later, you will do anything to find your John Schneider or Mike McDonald. That's not the case here. So for this family, buying this organization, it's about as seamless of a transition as you

can get. And listen, this guy's been infinitely more successful than more than likely I will ever be when it comes to his finances. But my only recommendation would be because I've been following sports my entire life. Let these guys cook, man. Let these guys cook. I'm not saying you can't come in with certain ideas for the business, whatever. That's healthy. You always have to progress and think differently as times change. But in terms of the football side here, it doesn't get any better. And this guy's coming for the 49ers,

who Jed York, when he took over the organization, hit some speed bumps. I mean, obviously fired Jim Harbaugh, which did not age well for a couple years. And the 49ers became an embarrassment. And then he hired the right two guys, and for the last 10 years, his organization has been humming.

They just went on the road with a bunch of scrubs and beat the Philadelphia. Eagles in a playoff game. Why? Because Jed York goes, Kyle John, what do you need? It doesn't mean it's always going to work. You're dealing with human beings. They're your assets, not computers, you know, not buildings, not things that you can guarantee the outcome for a short or long period of time. But when you have John Schneider and Mike McDonald running your operation, you feel pretty good for the foreseeable future. So you never know in these situations. You know, new owners come in, They want to mix things up.

But Paul Allen, who from what I've heard was pretty involved, you know, football, basketball. I mean, incredible, listen, this guy had a lot of money in the 90s and even the late 80s. He purchased, I did the math, the Blazers in Seattle Seahawks for like $265 million combined over the course of like eight, nine years. I think he bought the Blazers in like 88 or 89 and he bought the Seahawks in 97. and because of the agreement and the trust that his sister, he doesn't have any children who got these assets, had to sell within a year of his passing. And because like the league gave him a little leeway,

they got an extra year and it turns out they won the Super Bowl. For that $265 million, he sold the two franchises in 2006 for almost a combined $14 billion. That's an incredible return on investment. The other thing I was thinking is you see some of these owners, clearly, you know, the families that bought them in the 50s and 60s for nothing relative to money now. But even the people that bought it in the 90s or the early 2000s

and you see their returns on the valuations, to get a 10x on a franchise now, even if it's a cheaper franchise like $5 or $6 billion, are these franchises going to be worth $50 or $60 billion in the next 10 years? It's hard to think it's going to get that big. Like, I mean, sometimes timing, listen, I benefit from timing. I'm a podcaster. If I would have been born instead of 1984, 1964, 1964, I wouldn't be doing this.

I wouldn't have had the opportunity. If I wanted to pursue a career in radio or broadcasting or talking for a living, who knows what I would have had to do to make that happen, right? Moving different places, getting radio gigs and places I didn't want to live. live. I don't have to do that now. I can build my own studio and create my own product here and partner up with coward and do things that would not been available 15, 20, 30, 40 forever, up until the last decade-ish. And I feel very fortunate. Just like people that struck it big in the 70s and 80s. If they wanted it on pro sports, they got those teams at relatively low

valuations looking back, right? Because the power of tell. And I don't think anyone could have seen the power of football and the importance of football. I have a theory and I'll just, the World Cup. I saw a stat that 53% of people that watch the World Cup through the group stage and then the first round of the knockout stage. Over half the people that watched on Fox hadn't watched a soccer game in a year. I fall under that category. I don't even know when the last time I watched a soccer game. I do not watch soccer.

I don't pretend to be a soccer fan. But when I turn on the World Cup, it's got a couple things going. One, the broadcast from Fox kind of has an NFL feel. When you watch these games, they feel big. Now, part of that, the NFL field, they're playing in all the NFL stadiums. So there's a comfort level as a football guy when I see, oh, they're playing a Fox Pro. Oh, last night, they're playing in Kansas City, and Patrick Mahomes is there. Oh, they're playing at Sofeyer.

They're playing in Seattle. They play in all the football stadiums. So I feel comfortable like, okay. And then clearly the star power, and as we saw with the U.S. hockey team, because most humans do not watch hockey, if you put USA on the front of the jersey, most of us, despite what social media might tell you, are pretty patriotic and we're going to watch and we're going to root for you. And obviously the way it ended was an embarrassment.

I mean, that goal that the goalie, I mean, that was an all-timer. And we got our, we got fucking warped. But it was cool. And it felt like a cultural moment. Now, there are some things about soccer that if you're a football fan first and not a soccer guy, you're like, why do these guys lay on the ground so long? And in basketball, for example, when you flop and you lay there and you give up an easy layup because you don't get back on defense, who cares?

It's 25 to 20 and now it's 25 to 22. But in soccer, some of these guys, flop and lay there, and then all of a sudden you give an advantage of the other team and maybe you give up a goal, well, you watch some of these games, you lose two to one and you can get your ass kicked. So just laying there and leaving your teammates to dry. I'll never understand. I won't. I think the flopping is out of control. But there is no disputing that when you turn on the World Cup, it feels massive. It feels huge. I mean, that game, they played back-to-back games in Mexico. I forget who Mexico played

in the first knockout stage, but the second game against England. That felt like an SEC game. That felt like Alabama versus LSU. Those games at Azteca. It didn't get any better television-wise. It's part of the reason sports suck so much in 2020. It's like if there aren't fans in the stadium, a huge part of a viewing experience is why college football has become the second

biggest sport in America. because if you turn on Penn State at night against Ohio State, it's fucking awesome. If you turn on Georgia going to Florida at night, the crowd plays a huge role. Obviously, the NFL is, you know, the crowds aren't as intense, I would say, consistently as college football. But the big games matter, right? You watch a game in Buffalo. You watch a game in Kansas City. You watch a game in Seattle.

Like, you feel it. You watch the Browns ever got good. Obviously, the Steelers. like it really adds to the viewing experience. And watching the passion of all these people coming over here enjoying what we bring to the table because holy shit we bring a lot to the table is been incredible.

And clearly the star power, I never heard of this Holland guy. But I might have put a couple hundred dollars on them when they were 16 to 1 to win it against England. Didn't go my way, but I was glued. And watching Messi, watching Mbapé, watching all these. guys, Harry Kane, it's been extremely enjoyable.

And whether you like soccer or not, I think most people would agree, especially in the summer, not much going on. The World Cup has been a massive win. And I think there are a lot of parallels there. And this is one of the NFL's greatest strengths is their games matter. And when your games don't matter, right? And let's face it, regular season basketball hasn't mattered in a long time. You can say, well, it's never mad.

They played 82 games forever. I feel like when I was younger, guys used to care more. When the talent doesn't care, the consumer's not going to care. A baseball game. I've said this forever. Every game that was played today, I'm recording this on July 12th. I don't think there's one pitch that actually matters today. I just, you can't convince me.

Now, you can convince me over the course of a couple weeks if you lose 14 straight games, obviously. I saw the Red Sox won a bunch of games, and they've kind of got back in the mix. So yeah, over the course of a week, but one individual game, it just don't matter. And soccer, all these games mattered. And in football, every game matters. And we understand that.

And in a day and age where we're getting pulled left, we're getting pulled right, we've got a million things taking our attention. You can doom scroll for hours. Like, you got to matter to get my attention. And especially as you get older, you get families, you get kids, you've got stuff going on, you got work. you better be important.

And there is no disputing that when you turn on the World Cup, it feels really, really important. And that's why I think when you see these guys, these multi-billionaires, this guy's a tech guy. Why does he want in on the NFL? Because clearly the return on investment, right, just guaranteed cash flow every year,

a safe place to park your money. But you're part of something big. And you're part of something that matters. And, you know, I've seen some discourse online, these guys aren't from Seattle. You know, will you be a Seahawks fan? I grew up a diehard 49er fan. I fell in love with football and sports

because of Steve Young and Jerry Rice. And that team in 1994, when they signed Dion Sanders, my uncle who lives in Fresno is in the beer business and was in business with Eddie de Bartolo in the 80s. Like my dad loved Joe Montana. I loved everything about the 49ers.

But unlike Bill Simmons, still a diehard Celtics guy, I'm at the point now, don't get me wrong, I still watch the 49ers. I enjoy when they win, but I care about my business first. So if you told me this year, the 49ers could go 0 and 16, and my podcast could triple our revenue,

triple our listenership, and our business could be on a much better trajectory. We're already on a good one, but could go up 10-fold or whatever, I wouldn't even blame. I don't care because this is what matters. This is what pays the bills for my family. And so these guys could be 49er fans.

His kid could be a diehard 49er fan. Guess what they're going to care about this fall? The Seattle Seahawks. Why? Because they're involved. It's their team. It happens pretty quick. And I think this is one thing I'll never forget.

Colin used to say all the time is take the emotion out of it. And I think for everyone listening that is in some form or fashion in the private sector, a lot of your emotion leaves the older you get. I'm not saying from a sports perspective. Like if you don't work in sports, obviously you're big Yankee fan, big Browns fan, big cowboy fan, big whoever, Laker fan. I get it.

But I would imagine most of you, as you've gotten older in the industry you're in, are less emotionally tied to things. Especially when it comes to deals, concrete, whatever that may be. Building, you don't give a shit. You just, you just, and I think that's how all these guys operate.

and you don't get as big as these guys get, these multi-billionaires, with them being that emotionally tied to us. I think they'll pivot pretty easily in Seattle. Now, whether he moves there or not, only time we'll tell. But, yeah, what a sale. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor,

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This kid Jafar Jackson is as good as Rami Malik as Freddie Mercury, and it's as good as Timothy Chamalais as Bob Dylan. And I say that with love and respect for both of those actors. And I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out, I don't know if it's five, six for best actor. 150% this kid Jafar Jackson should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rap Report on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Terry on Arnold, for those, you know, if you just were not on the internet, was released. This is, you know, week plus old now from the Detroit Lions.

He obviously was involved in a situation where he got robbed. A bunch of cash, jewelry. thought the guys that robbed him, him and his buddies, tried to lure them in, and then kidnapped him, pistol whipped him, and now it looks like he's got red-handed and in major trouble. And it got me thinking, this is why drafting is so difficult.

If you missed it, Nick Saban wrote a letter to the judge. And in that letter, he said, Terry Arnold wasn't just a high character guy for me. he was someone that my family became close to, a guy that would come over to my house. Terry on Arnold coming out of Alabama would have been viewed as a good character guy, not as someone who would have been a red flag.

Saban also has a pretty legendary rant, I think, at a coaching clinic, about Henry Ruggs, who is currently in prison, who is another guy that would have been viewed as a good character guy coming out of college. There are so many people in NFL history

that were red flag guys. I saw recently Kyle Long, who now is on CBS's pregame show for the NFL. He's been with CBS for a long time. He is Howie's son, Chris's brother, and once got in a lot of trouble when he was young. He originally started, I think, at Florida State as a pitcher, then went to junior college and had a lot of stuff going on.

You can Google it. And then it ended up in Oregon. and became a guy that was a potential first round pick. And he went to the combine, and he said he told this story of, you know, typically the good character guys, their meetings are easy. A lot of them don't even have that many meetings because teams don't want to give it away. But I looked, and I was there with, he was in Travis Kelsey's draft class, and Travis and I were going to every single team.

Because Kyle Long and Travis Kelsey were viewed as major red first. flags coming out of college. And both of them, Kyle went on to be a pro-baller, injuries derailed his career a little bit and is, you know, a huge part of one of the major networks in America now. And Travis Kelsey is going to go down as the greatest past catching tight end of all time. And someone viewed as a cornerstone leader and tone setter for like a mini dynasty in Kansas City. And Terry on Arnold, who easily could go to jail over this kidnapped. Pistol Whipping situation.

And Henry Ruggs, who is currently in jail, were not red flag guys coming out of college. So when you deal with human beings, and this is what Vanad, who just bought Seattle's going to learn, that's a lot different than investing in Square, investing in Uber or whatever, your assets are humans. And young human beings are flawed.

And making decisions, and we've all heard this a million times. but who you surround yourself with can make or break you, right? You know, your, your, your friend, your close friendships, especially young, can put you down a path towards success and put you down a path toward disasters. I was home, this was not over the last couple weeks, but at a wedding recently, maybe like two or three months ago, And this one guy that we went to high school with, who would have been probably our biggest red flag in our high school, at one point in time I remember hearing years ago,

him, his dad, and his brother were all in jail. And I was at this wedding and I asked a buddy, I'm like, whatever happened to this guy? He was like, actually he was killed. I'm like, how was he killed? I'm like, oh, he's sleeping with this girl whose boyfriend was in prison and got out and came home and caught him and killed him. and as sad as this may sound is I wasn't shocked at all, right?

And I knew early on, like in high school, like, kind of avoided the guy. Even though I liked him. Like, we were, he could easily hang with everybody, but you were hanging out with them. You just knew something could go bad and something could go bad fast. He got in a ton of trouble up until the day he was killed. And then there are some guys that are just on the straight and arrow. and by all accounts Terry and Arnold was a good guy

but in this story that I read on the athletic about the play-by-play of this situation they rented this Airbnb down in Florida and the people that were in the community of the Airbnb kept saying like some of these guys were like what is going on here

but they dealt with Terriott a couple times like I seemed like a nice guy and those people and listen I'm not absolving him from his actions because we all make decisions and as you get older like you have to be held accountable for everything you do no different than getting behind the wheel of a Ferrari or a Porsche or whatever rugs was driving and after boozing and flying 150 miles an hour into person there's consequences and obviously he's facing them now but when you go into these drafts and i'm not talking about

talent like j j jc mccarthy just might not be able to play right j j j j mc rc ral might just not have the ability to throw touch passes, comprehend defenses, and run an NFL offense. By all accounts through two years, that would be the case. But when you drafted JJ McCarthy, you felt pretty good about the guy, right?

The player yet to be determined. That happens a lot. Some guys, you draft high, and they just, they're just not good enough. And sometimes they end up playing for 10, 15 years as like rotational guys' backups. You just shouldn't have just, drafted them while you drafted them. Their talent just wasn't good at them. It wasn't their

character or wasn't their work ethic. It wasn't their decision making. And sometimes you draft these bad guys. I have told the story a million times. I mean, it's not my story to tell, but just because it's a public story. But Tyron Matthew was kicked out of LSU and was probably the number one red flag in his draft, which looking back is kind of stupid. He was just smoking some synthetic weed, but he was a guy that clearly one of the most talented guys in his class. And if he wasn't kicked out of college and that never happened, he's probably going

the top 15. Instead, he goes in the third round. And within a couple years, Patrick Peterson on the Cardinals, like, he's the leader of the team, he's the heartbeat of the team. Then everywhere he went, Houston Texans, can't see chiefs, he's the team captain. So you just never know. You just have no fucking clue. And the big difference too in college,

than in the NFL, you got a lot more free time in the national football league. Because in college, guess what you're doing in the spring? You're on campus. You're working out. You have spring practice. The team has their kind of hands around you. Now, it doesn't mean you can't get in trouble.

But they have way more control over you. In the NFL, even in the NIL era, you have more money, and you have way more free time. And as John Baxter, long-time special teams coach for Fresno State, worked for Lane, work for Harbaugh, used to always say, disposable income and free time for young people can be a deadly combination. And I would add, like, surrounding yourself with morons can derail your life. And by all accounts, Terry and Arnold did not do a good job of surrounding himself with the right people.

Because I saw Houston Texans brought him in for a physical. if I had to guess they're doing the agent a solid to try to make the judge think that like he's got, I think he's in major trouble. My uneducated guess about the law system, just knowing, just seeing some of these charges, I would say he's fucked. And I would be stunned

if Terry Ron Arnold is playing in the NFL in 2020. Another thing I saw is that Aaron Donald it feels like a lock that he is going to play this fall. Aaron Donald is coming back to the ramps. And, you know, basketball's dealing with this, right? They've had, they haven't had a repeat champion in like eight years since the Warriors with Kevin Durant. And for a long time, most of my life in the NBA,

it was like same three or four teams always winning. And the NBA thrived. Like when I was a kid, the Yankees started just rattling off World Series. Guess what? It was great for business. Guess what? Every year you know, Shohei Otani and the L.A. Dodgers are going to be the favorite to win the World Series.

Guess what that makes? Entertaining things to watch. And I think having the Rams as a team, even though they haven't won a Super Bowl in many, many years, but the vibe of, are they just unbeatable? Is a really, really good thing for the NFL. Because they had it for a while with the Chiefs. and everyone I heard this all the time

I'm tired of watching them I cannot watch Patrick Mahal and play another game I'm tired of it even though every time they played they were setting like Cowboys level ratings records so clearly you didn't mind

because you watched and I think the Rams which is weird because they're in this major market in Los Angeles they're a much bigger national story than they all local story I'm now going to L.A. with Colin

I'm actually going this week, going to be on Thursday and Friday, is when you're there, that's a Dodger Laker town. Like the football teams feel a distant third. And honestly, they're not even in the same conversation. The Dodgers and the Lakers are part of the culture in Los Angeles. The Rams simply are not. They play there in an incredible stadium, which looks unreal on the World Cup.

And by all accounts, all the players want these grass fields and all these teams that have turf, they put in the grass fields for FIFA, just have grass. It's, it's, I am pro grass, no turf. I don't understand why these owners get so cheap with the turf. It's just a line item.

It'd be one thing if it was like $100 million to install grass and it was 500K to involve, you know, install turf. That is not the case. Just put in the fucking grass. But a lot of these owners, for whatever reason, push back against it. I think there's a level of ego. They don't want to be pushed

to like do what the players want. But, you know, it kind of is what it is. I just think the Rams are, there is no disputing on paper. You don't get any better. And this is a guy who just, I've seen clips over the years of him working out in his own personal gym.

He looks like just a freak still. So now, can his body, at 35 years old, having played football in a while, it's not like they're depending on them, if he can just give them 20 snaps a game, they are going to be a massive, massive story. And I think that's really healthy for the NFL. We went to Newport for the 4th of July, Newport Beach.

I honestly have not spent enough time there. It is an incredible place. You know, when I go with Colin, we're up near like Hollywood and where UCLA is, that's like Los Angeles. It's like the Los Angeles. I mean, obviously Los Angeles is massive. But when I think L.A., I think that area, right?

Newport Beach is basically this area between San Diego and Los Angeles, which is just beautiful. I mean, as someone that left California and whenever someone asks, like, John, are you ever going to move back? And the answer is no. There's zero chance. If anything, I'm moving east. I ain't ever moving back more west.

That is one area. Like, I get it. I'm going to pay, you know, 50 plus percent of my take-home pay to the government, I'll live by the ocean. We stayed at a pretty swanky hotel. Now, we never went on a honeymoon. We got married, and then basically a month later, she was pregnant. And I kind of looked at it like, you know, let's take a honeymoon with a kid,

which isn't exactly a honeymoon. But it was cool. And where we were staying, someone told me this is the, they have these, I actually went there in 2018 for a Fox, Iheart. We did like a golf tournament with Colin. The volume wasn't even created then. So I had stayed there before, and it was like, this place is cool. And one of the last nights we were there, you know, we were having a few cocktails during the day.

Jack wasn't enjoying himself. But the problem is you always got to put him to nap. He's got a nap. You can't keep him in the sun too long so you couldn't stay at the pool. You know, travel with a baby. Everyone's like, travel when they're young. It's like, travel with a baby is not that enjoyable. It's like it's much easier in your home base,

but you don't want to get stuck doing nothing, so you've got to get out of your comfort zone a little bit. But people, I had someone texting me today, like, how's your vacation been? Vacation? Vacation pre-child's a little different than this version. I wouldn't call this a vacation, but it was enjoyable.

And there was these two Irish guys drinking. and somehow, you know, I had already had a few, we started talking, I ended up sitting down there, and Jack's there as well. And they're like, Jack looks just like an Irishman. Are you guys Irish? I was like, no, I actually don't think so. I think German, Swedish or whatever. And then he's falling asleep and freaking out.

And then I introduced myself, they're like, oh, I'm Connor's manager, and I'm Connor McGregor's boxing coach. So Maria puts, takes him back to the, the room like, you know, I'm going to stay here and have a few. So I end up getting relatively intoxicated with some of Conner's people. Turns out Connor was staying at the hotel. Not in just the area where us peons stay. They have these houses, I guess, on the top of the hill where someone told me that Kobe Bryant, when he tore his Achilles, when he was playing for the Lakers, they rented out

one of these because they're basically like a home. And they got tons of rooms, tons of space. That's where he rehabbed during his, you know, Achilles comeback. And Connor was staying up there. And I was like, I was kind of hoping he'd come down. And like I've said this forever, I'm not a huge UFC guy. Like I don't buy the pay-per-views. Like I follow the sport through social media.

I admire the mentality of the business and how successful they are. But I'm not like some diehard. I don't pretend to be. I don't like, I'm not that into it. Even though, like, I respect the hell out of anyone that's willing to get in the Octagon. And what they did in 2020, they're like, we're coming back. When everyone's like, hide from your shadow. Dana's like, fuck this.

We're fighting. And everyone followed suit. But I just think that I kind of bought in because we're having cocktails. His boxing coach was shithouse. I mean, you talk about stereotypical Irishman boozed up. And we're having a good time. And I was talking about, you know, I went to college with Chad Mendez. and they were saying it Connor respects Chad, even though he beat him.

And I was like, okay, I'm fired up for this fight. And because I don't know what show we've watched on Paramount, but like every streaming service I have it, which I think is a huge benefit. Because I don't know if I would have bought the pay-per-view, you know. But I have Paramount Plus. They're in business Paramount Plus. I just click it in there.

Boom, it's on. So about 8.15, he comes out. All of a sudden Maria looks at me and goes, wait, is that it? is it over? And I'm like, yeah, I think it's just done. And the thing with, I was thinking about this, even if you turn on a terrible football game

or a terrible basketball game or terrible whatever, you know it's 60 minutes long. You know you got three hours to just sit there and watch something. You could watch a blowout of 150 to 100. And you got 48 minutes of basketball. You got nine innings of baseball.

Right? You got two halves and 90s. minutes plus I don't know exactly know how soccer does it but there's always some plus and some extra number with the running clocks but you know in fighting you have no clue and I think like I don't pretend to be some fighting officiado here I don't think I've ever seen anything like that and I think it shows you and this is people ask me whenever we're like back in Lake Tahoe like do you ski I'm like yeah I did when I was like 20 but I haven't in 15 20 years do you do you want to do you want to come some time this went? No, I've retired. I don't want to break my leg. I don't want to

tear my ACL or Achilles. I used to love playing pickup basketball. I played when I was GA at Fresno State. I used to play in this league when I was working with the Eagles in the offseason. I used to play a little bit when I moved back to the Bay Area. Like it was enjoyable. It was just like, hey, instead of just running on the treadmill, let's just go get a run. You couldn't pay me to play pickup basketball. Not any good. but I enjoyed playing, just like a lot of people that aren't any good

enjoy playing. You get a legit sweat. You get to compete a little bit. You get to play. I'm not tearing my Achilles. I remember, like, within the last five, 10 years, Daniel Jeremiah,

NFL Network ESPN, he tore his Achilles playing basketball. I'm like, I'm not doing it. Because as you get older, your body ain't the same. And by no means, am I some Connor McGregor athlete?

But I think a lot of you listening probably agree. That's why a lot of us kind of morph over to golf. That's my one activity. besides working out and stuff in a controlled environment on a treadmill, run outside, hike, whatever. But I'm not doing the sports.

Why? Because my body, I don't want to be on crutches. I don't want to have to go to physical rehab if I can avoid it. Sometimes you can't. But if you can, I'm going to. And you watch Connor McGregor like, his body shot. Can I tell you about my friends at Seat Geek? You want to go to a game?

You want to go to one of these World Cup? games. Actually, a good buddy of my Joey from England said, John, I'm going to the final if they're in the final. Well, I said, you seekeek. You're a baseball fan? You want to go to one of these baseball games? You in Vegas for the Summer League? You want to go to a concert? Anything you want, they have you covered. There are more than 70,000 events listed on Seekkeek. Concerts, sporting events, festivals, you name it. Get out of the house. Go enjoy yourself and save a little money while you're at it, because of course I got a code for you guys. Use John, J-O-H-N-10 for 10% off your next set of tickets at Seeky.

That's 10% off any tickets with John, J-O-H-N-10. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later. Thanks to Seatkeek. Hey, I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, OnCore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music. from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak. Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together.

I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf forades, I'll Believe in Anything, and tattoos all the things she said, and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. Stream encore on IHeart Radio, Crave, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Declaration, which is full of these beautifully rendered sentences and paragraphs, about enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it. Why is it important for the darker part of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution?

Why is it important that Americans know about it? Well, if we don't understand the full context in which our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context in which our nation now finds itself. I'm Rebecca Nagel. Gohyn, Taoadon, Kayetli Gayla, citizen of Cherokee Nation.

Are you guys big Chiefs fans? Hell yeah. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be, and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Michael Rappaport, and my podcast, the I Am Rapaport's stereo podcast is unlike anyone you've ever heard.

We're a variety show. And if you're looking for strong opinions, funny opinions about sports, entertainment, politics, pop culture, and whatever else catches my attention, then subscribe now. This kid, Jafar Jackson, is as good as Rami Malik as Freddie Mercury, and it's as good as Timothy Shamaulay as Bob Dylan. And I say that with love and respect for both of those actors. And I don't know how many Oscar nominations they give out, I don't know if it's five, six, for best. actor, 150% this kid Jafar Jackson should absolutely positively get nominated for his portrayal as Michael Jackson. Listen to I Am Rap Report on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. That kick he had last night, and listen, it's been debated whether he was injured before.

I saw some people pointing out that picture or that video of him taking off his shoes, acted like he was kind of weird on the knee, even though they showed some of his warm-up kicks before he came out, kind of doing those crazy Bruce Lee kicks. But, like, that's what happens when you get old. And Charles Barkley's been saying this since he's been on TV. Father Time's undefeated.

Connor is 37 years old. There's a lot of wear and tear on that body. And you watch that first moment, and at first, live, you don't know what's going on. right i'm just excited just kind of got me interested one just being around those guys and seeing they they kind of got me to believe and then two just the hype behind this fight it's pretty rare he clearly is the most famous ufc fighter in the history of the sport i thought when i was at cal paulie i was around one in chuck lydell he was a calpoli grad he used to train in san luis obis

subispo this is like the peak of his powers in like oh three oh four oh five range and it was cool the ice man and then all of a sudden he got old and he got old fast and then it was just over. That's usually how it happens in sports. Tom Brady is the only guy that I can remember who could play up until an age when you're not supposed to be playing, and I actually look no different.

His arm never failed him. Ben Rothersberger's arm was dramatically different. Drew Breeze's shoulder stopped working. He was throwing like 50-mile-an-hour fastballs. Peyton Manning could barely throw at 20 yards his last year in Denver. That's normal. That's usually how it works for athletes.

Tom Brady, the version of him, is an outlier. Aaron Rogers. Achilles injury, broken arm this year, it would be incredible. If Aaron Rogers can play 17 games besides like your wear and tear of playing the sport, not suffer a major injury. That is not normal at 42 years old.

Like LeBron James. How the fuck is he doing that? And I would say the longer he plays, the more likely, and he's had over the course of the last couple of years, a growing injury, some different things. It's really, really hard to avoid. Why? Because your body ain't the same.

It's very well established at this point in time in human history. I don't care what type peptides, workout regiments, protein shakes you're taking, how well you sleep, how many cold bass and infrared saunas you use. Your body's going to give up at some point in. time or another when you're a high-level athlete. Hell, when you're an average athlete. And so when Connor McGregor, that moment was shocking. And I get why they wrote them.

I was watching some YouTube show, and they were saying that broke a gate. It was like $25 million. The getting price last night was enormous. I mean, some of those people paying the ticket prices. But that's what you get when you buy some of these fights. Sometimes they're boring. It's like Floyd Mayweather versus Oscar de La Jolla, or Floyd Mayweather versus Mani Pacchio.

You're like, that sucked. And sometimes it's like, it just ends because the guy gets injured, a guy can't fight. I have a lot of respect. And again, I don't know, haul away from the man standing next to me. But I do think that a lot of fighters, I get they had fought before a long time ago,

would have just attacked. And you could tell early on he kind of said something was off. And then by the time when the fight was called, he's basically just pointing at him like, What are we doing here? I do wonder how many guys in that situation against someone that famous in the sport of violence would have just attacked and made the referee call it. He did the opposite.

He pointed at him early on and then at the end he's like, I'm not touching this guy. He can't move. But that was crazy. I don't know what else to say. I don't remember an event that was as hyped that. ended as fast. And when I see like, you know, the fight ended in 69 seconds.

The fight literally ended the moment it started because he tried that Bruce Lee jump, you know, 360 kick and blew out his knee. And then some of the videos of him leaving after just in his shorts, barefoot in the back of T-Mobile arena, kind of made me laugh. But, man, I can't even imagine the, anticipation in that arena when Connor walks out they're both in the octagon

and it was like okay I don't know how this is going to go but we're going to get a brawl and then to have the thing just end you're like it's just over what do we do now that had to suck last but not least

not necessarily a dad diaries but I had this thought a couple weeks ago we went home to Maria was in a wedding so we went home a little early and we went up to Lake Tahoe. Some of her close girlfriends and their husbands were there.

One of them stayed, we stayed together. And the others, they had rented a house with their family and we were just all together hanging out for like three or four days. It was a lot of fun. And we drove from Sacramento area. My mom lives in Davis, which is right next Sacramento, up to Tahoe, which is, you know, give or take, no traffic can be two-ish hours. and her mom had bought a car seat so we had a car seat whenever we come home her mom lives probably 45 minutes away from my mom so they're in the same general area and bought us his car seat well for whatever reason the car seat is different than the car seats we have and for those of you with car seat strollers they just in theory they're easy there's always a button and they just collapse but if you don't know the button you're just fucking bending the thing and you can't figure it

it out and eventually you just want to ram your head against the wall. You're like, I don't know what to do. So I put him in the car seat and we load up and we're headed to Tahoe and he screams at the top of his lungs for essentially two plus hours. We pulled over multiple times. She climbed in the back. Eventually we pulled

over. We had to move stuff out of the back so she could sit in the back with him. Nothing worked. And it hit me. If I was an NFL general manager, and I want to do an evaluated quarterback and their mental fortitude. If you could drive for, I'd even put the number at like 75 minutes, but anything, two hours, two and a half hours, three hours, with a screaming baby and not absolutely mentally collapsed, you could handle the Denver Broncos in the fourth quarter.

You could handle Will Anderson coming at you with five minutes to go down four, driving the field. Because I broke immediately. It is this piercing scream that is like anger, pain, you don't even know

because they can't talk. And you're just, you're trying to keep your eyes on the road because you don't want to drive off the mountain. And it turns out when we got there, there was a setting where you could lay it down a little bit farther.

He was kind of a wreck, so it might have been like, borderline child abuse because I couldn't figure out this car seat. So I get on YouTube, I'm watching all these tutorials. Didn't really help that much. He still didn't. He's not a huge fan of this car seat. Because in Newport, we rented a car and they had a car seat that came with the car

and it was the same one and he hated it. He just, whatever reason doesn't fit. I don't know. But if you could handle your shit for multiple hours, I think you can play quarterback in the end. NFL because that is the one thing with crying when especially your first child you're just not used to it like you hear a baby cry sometimes in the airplane or like your friend's baby or whatever but you can always leave you know eventually the plane lands and that person has to deal with it

when it's yours and yours around and he's just crying it's just it mentally tests you and i i'm not proud to say i've broken i've mentally collapsed so maybe what Quessie should have done is put JJ in a car with a baby and just set them from Minnesota to like Cleveland, Ohio, and just see how it went. Put a GoPro in there and just

monitor. I would do that before I did the Wonderlich test. We'll be back all week long. Well, at least the next couple. I don't know if I'm going to do one on Thursday. I'm going to be down doing at Fox for a couple days, but the game plan will be for the last couple days. I've had a lot of people like, did you quit?

Did you get fired? Did they cancel the show? Did you go become a monk? Where are you? I'm like, no, I just took a couple weeks of my family in the middle of July when nothing was going on. And that turns out a lot was going on. So I've watched a lot of soccer. I've consumed a lot of soccer.

But hopefully everyone's doing well and good to be back. The volume. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.