The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Aaron Rodgers, MLB, Baker Mayfield, Zion Williamson

Episode Date: May 29, 2020

Colin talks about Aaron Rodgers protecting his legacy by playing it safe, why he is for the MLB players over the owners, why he believes Baker Mayfield isn't as talented as some people think, and why the NBA is trying to get Zion Williamson into the playoffs. Guests include Peter Schrager, Ryan Hollins, Michael Vick, and Jason McIntyre. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

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Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 is big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down,

and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild. I mean, it was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all?

You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening to The HARD podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1.

Find your local station for the Hurt at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the IHartRadio app by searching Hurd. To Fox Sports Radio. Oh, it is a Friday. We are live in Los Angeles. This is The Heard. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we are live on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor as always, alongside, kind of 10 feet away.

Our set was built for a virus. We can withstand it because of the way it's set up. It is great to see you. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you? Good. You know, I'm going to throw something out to you right now, and I'm going to tell a little story here.

And this is, part of it is factual, and part of it is a theory. Okay. So stay with me on this. We just watched the MJ documentary. One of the reasons they decided to give this the green light. is because Michael Jordan said as he was watching LeBron James in Akron, celebrating a championship, people finally started saying, is LeBron better than Michael?

It was now entertained. It was considered a real topic. You could watch the debate shows, this network and others. And Michael said, time out. Time out. I make $150 million a year with my brand. I have to fight for my brand. I have to fight for my legacy.

Because folks, how many singers out there haven't had a hit in 15 years? 20, 25, and they can still travel and make lots of money because they had hits in the 70s and 80s. Once you're a star in America and a legacy is created, it is a paycheck for the rest of your life. REO Speedwagon may not sell out 80,000, but they get gigs. And they travel, and so does Black Sabbath or this band or that band, once you're a star, that brand your name is a paycheck. And so it is with Aaron Rogers. Aaron's face name Super Bowl will pay him the rest of his life.

His legacy is important. And I would not blame Aaron Rogers, like Michael Jordan, if he's considering it strongly. And Aaron's smart enough. He knows that he can only control that legacy, mostly while he plays. So yesterday it was very interesting. Matt Lefleur, his head coach, came out. Now, Green Bay's offense has stars. Aaron's a star.

He's a top five quarterback. Devante Adams is a beast. He is unbelievable talent. Aaron Jones, to me, is a terrific running back. But yet, they're not a big play offense. Matt LeFleur, address. that yesterday. One area that we really need to improve upon is creating more explosive plays. We were pretty efficient as an offense. I think we were forced in efficiency, but we were like

23rd in explosive plays. And so I think it does start with the play calling, just maybe taking a few more chances to try to generate, help generate those those plays down the field. The key where there is efficiency, and I want you to remember efficiency. So with Aaron and Devante and Aaron Jones and two offensive coaches, Mike McCarthy and Matt LaFleur, in both cases they're efficient, but they can't make big plays. Efficiency. So this is something ironically or coincidentally, Joy was here, I mentioned two days ago that I see Aaron doing something over the last couple of years. This is what I see him doing, and then I'll explain.

it afterwards. This is me two days ago. Aaron's no longer, he's protecting his legacy. He's not elevating it. Is that Aaron in the last two years has led the NFL in throwaways. Brett Farv was a gunslinger to the end. Aaron is not. He doesn't want to throw picks. And if you look at the NFC and you look at football right now, the risk takers are winning. Why do they draft Jordan Love? It wasn't his efficiency. They drafted him. Every GM I talked to, he's a big risk taker, sometimes too much. Got caught with a little weed.

The way he plays is high risk. It's Patrick Mahomes, risk taker. So here's my theory on why this is happening. And I think it's not great for the Packers, because I think the really good GMs in the NFC and the really good coaches and the really good quarterbacks in the NFL, Lamar and Mahomes and Wentz are risk takers. the very best GMs in the league.

Howie Roseman, Philadelphia, they're risk takers. It's Kyle Shanahan, McVey, they're risk takers. We're in a very risk-taking NFL. It didn't used to be like that. The young GM, the coaches are younger, the GMs are younger, the quarterbacks are starring younger,

and they're all risk-takers. I think Aaron knows something. I think Aaron Rogers knows that Green Bay isn't and never has been a free agent market. he's at a deficit there he can't win he also knows he doesn't have an owner it's not his fault but that's a disadvantage and Aaron looks at it and thinks to himself okay I'm never going to have the hardware of Brady all my contemporaries all my guys I'm group with when you say Elway you think Marino right when you say Elway you don't think of Otto Graham when you say Elway you think

Marino you say Montana you think Aikman you say Bradshaw you think stabler. When you say Brady, you think Manning, and then you start thinking Russell Wilson and Aaron Rogers, and they all play together and Drew Breeze, his contemporaries. Aaron knows. Remember the word efficiency. Aaron knows, I'll never get the hardware of Brady in my group of quarterbacks.

I'll never get the stats of Breeze. I'll never have the likeability, y'all of Peyton or Fav. But what do I curse? currently own in the NFL. Efficiency. Aaron, best all-time passer rating. He throws virtually no interceptions. His career, he's got 364 touchdowns, 84 picks.

He could retire in four years, perhaps under 100, interceptions. He is now consciously or subconsciously playing to protect that because he knows how valuable his legacy is. He would deny this. He would say that's not true. But the numbers don't lie.

He leads the NFL in throwaways the last two years. He just, he doesn't want to throw a pick. His coach acknowledging, I wish we were a little more risk-taking. Aaron Jones, Devonthe Adams, Aaron Rogers, generally above-average offensive line. Their bottom half of the NFL in explosive plays. Well, it's McCarthy. He's gone. Well, it's LaFleur. Really?

Greg Hosell's talked about this time and time again. he's doing his own thing. Is Aaron, again, thinking about it or not, and I think he's smart enough to think about it, we watched Michael Jordan to most, indisputably, the greatest basketball player of all time. Greenlight, a documentary to cement and protect his legacy because it's $150 million a year of shoe sales.

He's like 8% of Nike's sales are Jordan. And I think Aaron realizes. I don't have an owner. Free agents don't want to play here. We tend to be a conservative franchise. We're not going to pay a fortune for a GM. I got my Super Bowl. I got my commercials.

I've got my passer rating. It's the one thing I have over Brady. I got it over Manning. I got it over Favre. I got it over Aikman. I've got it over Marino. I've got it over Elway. And damn it, that matters.

It's millions and tens of millions. millions of dollars going forward. And he is now playing to protect it. Doesn't mean he's not great. It doesn't mean he's not talented. But he is throwing the ball away, won't throw it downfield, won't take risks because it moves him to second or third or fourth in pass-or rating.

Then what does he have? It's a much better legacy for Aaron to retire in four to five years, and this is his legacy. God, he was one of the all-time greats. But, you know, Green Bay never really, and didn't really support him much with defenses. I mean, he never had a world-class head coach. Aaron's the winner.

He wins that. That's a good legacy. You know, the guy just never got top-free agents. You can't blame Aaron for that. I mean, LaFleur, McCarthy, whatever. You know, they never had an owner. Poor guy never had an owner. He's protecting his legacy.

This is exactly why LaFleur talked about it. It's why they drafted Jordan Love. It's why he's led the NFL in throwaways the last two years. Legacy and branding in this country matters. You've got people in country music that haven't had a hit in 30 years. They sell out venues. Because once you're a star in America, the way our business operates, Larry King just signed a $5 million deal to do a podcast.

He's 86. You got to protect those legacies. You've got to protect them. Do what you want. I think Aaron now plays to protect it. more than aggressively build on it. That's my theory. And I keep getting proof and comments that it's true.

So that's how I lead my show on a Friday. By the way, I don't think that yesterday I said I thought it was Mr. Optimism with Baker Mayfield. I don't think that was negative with Aaron Rogers. It's just my theory on what's happening. Do you buy it or not? Yeah, I can buy it. But, I mean, an observation doesn't necessarily have to be inherently negative or positive.

Thank you. It can be up just be. Yeah, if I'm saying it's cloudy, I'm not blaming the clouds. It's just an observation. Right. I'm blaming the weather, man. Nobody's fault. No, but I mean, also, legacy is important.

Legacy and brand. Oh, my God. All that is very important. It's for the rest of your life. If you're very lucky, you just say LeBron. It's a paycheck. Larry King. Right.

I mean, how you are remembered and when you can control it is that's crucial. Yeah. David Letterman. You say the name, you can sell it. All right. Coming up next, pretty remarkable how big Zion is this quickly. Now, we both fell in love with them in college.

I think the kid just pops on television. But the NBA, and they're not telling you this, but they're telling you this, they're screwing around with all this seating stuff just to get Zion in the playoffs. That's exactly what they're doing. We'll talk about that coming up.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies,

and the stories behind the headlines. straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it.

And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on Earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely.

And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast. Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so...

Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes, I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years. from black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor the Fourth.

And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue. to two. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Where's she at?

Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Good to have you in. It is an absolute pleasure. We're sharing more these days, right? Geico's sharing more, too. Geico Give Back, 15% credit car motorcycle policies for both current new customers. Last the full policy term. Go to geico.com slash giveback. info eligibility stuff. So it's pretty interesting. So they're talking now about having a play-in tournament.

They're talking about all this reseeding and play-in tournament stuff. And I think it's a lot of different ideas. But there are suggestions now that the reason they're doing the play-in tournament is just to get Zion into the playoffs. They're not doing this to get the wizards in or the blazers in. They're doing this to get Zion in. But if the Pelicans were an eight seed, we'd just go right into the playoffs. In fact, Sham Sharanya had something moments ago, excellent NBA reporter, said, you know,

over half the GMs want to go straight into the playoffs. They're doing this for Zion. Zion's a TV star. He got proven ratings in college. He added 40% ratings to Duke basketball's normal ratings. 40%. league one game shattered a record. Draft night, the minute Zion's drafted, the numbers go down after he's drafted.

Draft lottery night, it went up because of Zion. And now the NBA is saying, we want to jerry rig this thing. We just want to get Zion in. I'm not surprised. Sometimes people are just stars early. Magic Johnson, to the Lakers, the smile, a 6-9 guard. He couldn't shoot when he broke in. he couldn't really defend.

Not everybody bought into magic. Magic was a star the first day. He was in the NBA. He looked like it. He talked like it. He sounded like it. He smiled like it. He played like it.

Showtime magic. Perfect name, L.A. Zion's a star. But the question is, why is Zion a star? Is it because he is a brilliant three-point shooter? No. The best player in transition. No.

The most polished player. No. It's a combination of power and Duke. He goes to Duke. The numbers explode. It's the number one program. It's the most known, most marketed, and the most well-known coach. I can even spell his last name, and he's got like two Zs in it. Coach K has got his own nickname. And then Zion goes there. Then his shoe explodes. And then there's controversy if he should play. And then we see his smile and we see his game. for all the NBA people,

Janus doesn't move the needle. If he did, why did the Eastern Conference ratings collapse when LeBron left? Kauai doesn't move the needle. Why did the Eastern Conference ratings collapse when LeBron went west? Lillard, James Harden, they don't move the needle. They're just great players. This league has now three current guys that move the needle, LeBron, Steph, Zion.

The reason I couldn't wait to watch Kyler Murray, or Baker Mayfield on bad teams. Because I watched them with Oklahoma. Joe Burrow, LSU, Sam Darnold, USC, Tua, Alabama. I didn't really care about watching Jimmy Garoppolo. I didn't see him play on television. Even though he played for my beloved Patriots,

I don't really care. Lamar Louisville, I saw him 10 times, 15 in college. Trevor Lawrence, we're talking about him now. He plays at Clemson. Go ahead, NBA, and roll your eyes at the power of college athletics. But there's no reason he's this big of a star. He wasn't the number one recruit.

It is his power, his magnetism, and the platform of Duke. Trey Young's a great player, but he didn't play a Duke. He didn't have a controversial college career. Controversy, magnetism, smile, power, and Duke. There's a reason all these quarterbacks, you can't wait to watch in the NFL. I mean, you're really into. They played at LSU. They play at Alabama.

play at Oklahoma, they play at Clemson, they play at USC, they play big college brands. NBA is just jerry-rigging this thing. They just want to get Zion in. It's not just because he dunks it. The whole league, mostly outside of Steph, can dunk it. It's the power of the platform. Joy with the News. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the Herdline News. Well, there's been a lot of reactions to the last dance. We talked about Yesterday, Clyde Drexler. Is somebody mad today?

Isaiah Thomas, Horace Grant, Scottie Pippen, all have had their opinions about how they were either portrayed or what happened with the last dance. And one memorable moment from the last dance was when Michael Jordan laughed at Gary Payton saying that his defense bothered MJ in the 96 finals. And Peyton wasn't as upset with Jordan's reaction as many others would have been. you know I was hot I was thinking about calling him at the time but you know what

that's what I expect out of Mike because I would have said the same thing I would have said the same thing you know me be I'm not going to admit to nothing man I'm not to admit to somebody that deed me up or did nothing I'm not mad at Mike

because Mike didn't have too many games that he nobody beat him up you know what I'm saying he always was dominant and I'm glad he said that because I wouldn't expect nothing else from it I don't expect nothing else from Mike Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan. That's why we're talking about it. Thank you, Gary. Thank you. A real one. The glove. Gary doesn't play around. He's keeping it real.

That is the truth. The truth is Gary likes to talk too. And Gary was not going to admit if somebody got the best of him in a game. And neither is Michael Jordan. He said it right there. He knows Michael. Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan.

Gary could have gotten really upset. Michael Jordan was laughing at the fact that Gary said he deed him up, laughing. But Gary knows that's how Michael Jordan is. And that's how Gary is. By the way, if you look in the media space over the last 10 years, two or three people that have really made it, Dana White is one. Dana never apologizes.

Dana has strong opinions, never apologizes. Because the media is constantly asking you in Twitter to apologize. And Dana's like, no, we're going for it. We don't care about the New York Times. Michael Jordan, everybody wants him to say nice stuff. He's not going to do it. And Gary Payton gets it. Like, to be the man, you don't stop being the man and competing just because you quit.

Everybody in the media is like, Michael's too mean. Michael's like, I'm the man still. And the media is constantly want you to soften your stance and be nicer. And the guys like Dana White are like, no, I'm aggressive. It's what got me rich. It's going to keep me rich. And I don't care what the media thinks, nor does Michael Jordan. He is defending his turf.

And Michael is sweet to the people he's supposed to be sweet. to. His parents. His parents and his daughter and his best friends. And to that point, he wasn't not sweet about Scotty Pippin. He said glowing things about lots of people that he played against. He just feels he's the man. And look, like that was a moment. We were all like, wow, he's really laughing the fact that Gary said that he beat him up. But he knows Michael. That's what I've been saying this whole time. Don't expect people to be different than what you know them to be. Why? That's on you. You're projecting your expectations of what you want them to be. onto that person.

They don't have to oblige you. That's who they are. That's what got them there. They don't have to make you feel better because that's what you want them to be. So the NFL might have to return without fans in the stands. And if that happens,

Melvin Gordon is not worried about it because he thinks he got plenty of experience with empty stadiums while playing for the Chargers. He said, we didn't have any fans anyway. We didn't have any Chargers fans at the game. I'm just going to be honest. Much loyalty and love, but we didn't have many.

So I'm not missing anything. He is now with the Broncos, which is quite a different environment with the fans being in the stands. Denver's a top five. You know, I always said it's the Steelers with the mountain range. Denver fan base is unbelievable.

It's not that they get to the Chargers. It's just you move a franchise to a crowded, distracted city. It's hard to get fans. Well, yeah, and then they're playing in a soccer stadium. They're going to be in SoFi Stadium with the Rams now, so they're going to have a beautiful facility. And yes, when you move a team,

a team that was already kind of having had that reputation of not having a great home field advantage and you move it to Los Angeles with another team that you've just moved to Los Angeles. There's only so many football fans, and there's almost only so many people that can afford to buy season tickets

that's something to consider when you move a team. It's why I really wish they would have found a way to keep the team in San Diego. But he is right about that, though, and it's going to be a little different in Denver. No, I mean, listen, if you're a pro athlete, the Charger's situation was rough. You felt like a road team.

And by the way, it's one time for a game. It was two years. Right, right. It wears you out. I don't think like, I don't think that anyone is, I mean, he's kind of joking a little bit, like taking a jab, but it's also a reality. Nobody's like making it up or picking on the chargers. Like that is just what their home field situation is. So Lamar Jackson had a breakout season and won the MVP in 2019, but his coach, John Harbaugh, is looking for Lamar's to take the next

step in his passing game. This year, he said those corners and those safeties are going to be one-on-one against the receivers, especially on some downfield throws and we've got to make them pay for it, the ability to make them pay for tilting their defense towards stopping our run game is a really, really efficient passing game. I do believe that's the next step in this offense. I really do believe Lamar is going to take the next step. So do I. A lot of people don't. I do. He was ranked 20th in the NFL with 42 pass plays over 20 yards. James Winston was first with 75. He had a 66.1 completion percentage last year. Being able to accurately throw the deep ball and improve on that would, I mean, that's a scary element for Lamar to add to his game.

And Lamar doesn't need to be top three in the league at it because he's by far and away the best at what he does. So I thought he was efficient enough to win last year. No, he kept them honest. Yeah. Right. But to Harborough's point, though, if he can improve on that, say, top 15 or even top 10, that's, I mean, with his ability to run, how do you defend against that? I think is happening with Lamar. I think general managers

who didn't think it would work are now protecting their space here. I hear a lot of doubters on Lamar and my takeaway is fellas, it works. It doesn't look like Brady, but it works. And by the way, what it's opening, it's a little bit of an adaptive move.

It's a little ahead of the curve. Now, I do think he has to develop as a better passer, but he never has to be Aaron Rogers. He doesn't. He is so dynamic. Michael Vic could have won a Super Bowl. He was a good enough passer, but he was so dynamic running,

it changed defensive coordinator's schemes. I mean, it kept them awake at night. But I do find there are people, because I thought he was more project than Star, and I was wrong. He was ready to play. I think there's a lot of people protecting their territory on Lamar. They were wrong. He's way, way better than they thought.

And now it's like, I'm going to build a fence around my argument. Folks, he made significant strides. year one to year two. He's a hard working. Well, that's the thing. I do think that the uniqueness of Lamar is that he put in the work. Oh, yeah. A tremendous amount of work.

Physically, he looked different. Yeah, to take that jump from his first year where he was good and had, I mean, he looked great, but he had to obviously improve on his casting game, which he did. So he put in the work to take that next step. And they fully committed to him. So you could have been wrong on Lamar, but now you're kind of pushing towards, well, it's not going to work anywhere else. It's working.

It's working. But you need Lamar Jackson. You need him and his commitment and work out they also make that work. If you're so great at something, you don't have to be great at everything. Starbucks didn't do commercials for 10 years because they culturally, America, we started just drinking in coffee shops. Everybody, nobody I knew growing up had coffees at four in the afternoon. They created this culture that was, it was a tsunami of coffee drinking.

They didn't do any marketing. They didn't have to because they were so great at creating their culture. Lamar is so dynamic at one thing, he can be slightly better than average at the other, and they can win a Super Bowl. Yep. I think so. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. We don't get Schrager much. He's a very busy guy. Fox Sports NFL reporter and my friend Peter Schrager is joining us via the Cower Global Satellite Network, brought to you by Mercedes Ben's, the best or nothing. All right, let's start on the football stuff. Let's get down to when they're returning.

Big macro picture here, Shreg's. what it looks like in the offices returning where are we at? Big meeting yesterday with all the owners where they started discussing this. And it sounds like they're going to open up facilities to coaches next week, which is a huge deal because as of right now, they are allowed to have some staff, whether it be custodial or whether it be some of the IT guys or even some of the other front office folks in those states

where there are reopenings in the building. But coaches across the board are not allowed back because they want every team to have equal footing. So say, for example, if in Kansas City, Andy Reid is able to walk in the office, we know right now in New Jersey, Adam Gase and Joe Judge are not. They didn't want that. They want everyone to be able to come back at the same time. The word is that coaches will be able to return next week with, obviously, in coordination

with all of the health policies, but also that it would only be 75 people max or less than 50% in the building. It's a very interesting time with these off-season virtual programs, but to at least have the coaches in the building, I know the players aren't there yet, is a great sign for things to come. Okay, so the fourth and 15 rule, I think the onside kick, now that they've changed kickoff rules for safety is kind of useless. It's almost impossible to get an on side kick. You can't put too many guys on one side. You can't get a running start. Onside kick is tough now. I like the proposal, the fourth and 15, give your star quarterback a

fourth and 15 deep in his territory. If he gets a first down, boom, we're ready to go. It didn't even, it didn't make it. It didn't get, it just got, I mean, it didn't even vote on it. So why did it fail? Why did it hemorrhage so bad? It got tabled. So they're going to look at it in the future.

Here are two things I've heard from people with teams that kind of were skeptical on it. One, if you recover an onside kick, as we see here, Youngwee Koo puts the onside kick on. Okay, so say it was recovered by Atlanta. You can't advance the ball past an onside kick. But in the fourth and fifth. situation. If Patrick Mahomes is to throw a 45-yard pass and completed the Tyree Kill, not only do you have the ball and continue on, you get a 30-yard gain out of it. So that was one issue. The other issue is this. There was a voice of concern from the official side of this,

saying, all right, so we're going to deal with a Hail Mary here. Are we encouraged to put the flags away then and let this thing happen? Or are we supposed to call this more strictly? Like, there was no real guidance because it's such an unorthodox situation. One owner, I believe it was Art Rooney the second, called it a gimmick. I think that might be a little bit of a stretch. The truth of the matter is, Colin, like you said, zero out of the last 104 expected onside kits have been recovered. Only ones that ever get recovered are the ones that are complete surprises in different parts of the game. Those ones seem to work.

I think the NFL wanted to add something here to make this more interesting. The voters were not ready yet. It seems like it'll be tabled for a future date. And they'll try to address that, I'm sure. Yeah, there's also a lot of things they're battling right now beyond. this and they rushed the pass interference replay thing in last year. They may have been a little reticent to rush something else in. Let's table it while we deal with the virus.

Peter Schrager joining us. Okay. So yesterday, I think the healthiest relationship you can have in any business, husband, wife, is authentic. You can't walk on eggshells. You just can't. That's a bad marriage. It's a bad boss-employee relationship. You can't walk on eggshells.

You've got to be honest with people. And yesterday, I tend to think in Green Bay, McCall's, Harty and LaFleur. It's a little walking on eggshells sometimes with Aaron Rogers because Aaron can be a little prickly. So yesterday, Matt LaFleur goes on a radio show and he stumbles. Instead of just acknowledging, we like Jordan Love and he could be the future quarterback. He says, you know, it was the next guy to draft and we just drafted him. Except that's not true.

You traded up to get him and it was a whiff. And I like LeFleur. But I do kind of feel like when I read all these quotes in the offseason, there is a little walking on eggshells with Lefleur and I felt it with McCarthy. Is it fair? Well, look, now that we're six months removed or 18 months removed, I think it's, it is accepted as fact that Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rogers towards the end there, there wasn't exactly the same chemistry they had beginning. LaFleur and Rogers, to a man, I know both these guys. They got along last year. They get along now. They had a 13 and three season. I was good.

This pick, though, you can understand if Rogers is prickly over. And yet, Rogers, when he spoke with the media two weeks ago, was incredible. I thought he was up front. He was honest. He said he wanted to be a Packer from wire to wire. Now these are things that are uncontrollable, and maybe that's not going to be how it ends up. From what I've heard from the Packers all along has been that Jordan Love was ranked so high on their board over everyone else that they looked at that they went out and got the guy.

And you'd rather have a quarterback than not have a quarterback. For what happened yesterday in that comment and not acknowledging that you trade it up to get them, sure, that can kind of poke a hole in this. I think the facts, though, remain that the Packers had Jordan Love on their board much higher than the other teams in that area of the draft, and they wanted to make sure that they got this guy because they viewed him that well. The semantics of the verbal, what was said and how it's explained and all the stuff, that's between Rogers and the floor.

And maybe there is some eggshell walking. And maybe there is some healing to be done there in the wake of the draft. and Rogers not being given a head up, heads up on what was going down. But I do think the fact of the matter remains that Jordan Love was drafted in the first round. Rogers has gotten his head around that. And now the two of them need to figure out how this works. Not Jordan Love and Rogers. Rogers and LaFleur because you're right.

If Rogers turns on LaFleur in year two, well, it could be good night, Irene, for that chemistry right there. Tell me what your sources are saying. I had somebody, Rob Ninkovich, a patriot, well-connected, came out and said, Hoyer's going to beat out Stidham. and I think to myself, Belichick wanted to retain an older Brady. He was ready to get rid of him for Garapolo, yet he wanted him with Stidham in the building. I keep hearing how great Stidham is, and my takeaway is, why in the last year of practices, hasn't he blown everybody away? I mean, Garapolo did.

I mean, after the Atlanta Super Bowl, Belichick was ready to move off a younger Tom then than now. What do I know about Stidham? What are you hearing about him? Here's what I hear about Stidham. And it comes not only from folks tied into the Patriots, but also Patriots players that have spoken to me, both on the record and off the record, that last year he was fantastic in practice.

He doesn't get all the number one snaps, usually. But when he did, because Brady doesn't take number ones all the time, he was excellent and he progressed and got better and better. Here's what the Patriots could look like this year. For everyone to think that Josh McDaniels runs an offense and Tom Brady fits perfectly in that offense, imagine an offense that no one expects. and that there's a quarterback who's mobile.

There's a quarterback who might have a stronger arm than Brady. He is nowhere near Brady's intellect. He is nowhere near Brady's leadership, and he is nowhere near Brady as a quarterback. But just from the physical traits, they have not been able to run any of the stuff that you see in, say, Baltimore or that you see, say, in Kansas City. Because Brady, at 42 years old,

is not going to be running around the pocket and running bootlegs and waggles and some of the stuff that they're limited from. Stidham opens that opportunity. Hoyer can't do that stuff either. Stidum, to me, is a project and a true test of what Josh McDaniels can do as an offensive coordinator. Because we only know McDaniels, really, as Brady and Tebow for the most point, and then

maybe one year in St. Louis. And that's been pretty much standard offense, except for the wild stuff that he ran with Tebow for those few starts in Denver. I think that this is an opportunity for the Patriots coaching staff to show that maybe they've got some more tricks in their bag that they haven't been able to do because of Brady's limited mobility. Don't get me wrong. Stidham's not going to be Brady.

They're not going to have as much success as Brady was there. But maybe this presents an opportunity where they can try new things. And that Stidham exhibited that in practice. To Ninkovich's point, I don't think that Hoyer's the guy. I think that Stidham's the guy. I don't think they're sacrificing a season next year. And to say that they're going to put all their eggs

in the Brian Hoyer basket. I don't see it that way. By the way, I like Schrager. So he's usually so clothed. Yeah. But he looks, I like it. You know what you've got. You've got kind of a gonzo journalist from the 70s.

You probably had a- Hunter Thompson. Here I am. I like it. He looks like somebody that works for the Rolling Stones that just was on a tour where he got home last night. I like it. That's very spot on.

He looks really. You're not as polished. I really like it. You look a little rough. Enjoy on this. Joy, what's the reaction there? I said you look very edgy. He does.

He looks edgy. I like it. Yeah. Good talking to you, buddy. I love talking to you. There's Peter Schreger. He is edgy, doesn't he? Coming off tour is like, that's the good description of that.

He works for the Rolling Stone magazine. He just came off a tour and he just, he was partied with the band last night. I like everybody's, you know. Like, you know what? Honestly. Everyone's look. You take the makeup people away.

I'm just a bag of wrenches. Bring the makeup and hair people back. Coming up next. Oh, I'm going to have a list you like, you know, I like lists at the top of the hour. There's a coach saying that Baker Mayfield is way more talented. than Kirk Cousins. It will inspect. But coming up next,

I'm going to do something I've never done, and I'm going to double down on it. Coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending,

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

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sportslice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience

in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you

here on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast.

Learn the Hardway. Open your free Our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lerner, Alamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game.

This linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. A rep. My mama want you to weigh better. What?

Where's he at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Good to have you in. Michael Vick will be joining us on the show today. It's good to have Michael Vick in on a Friday. So through the years, I have not necessarily always been pro player when you come to these, like, labor negotiations. You can't have a league without capital.

The XFL just went belly up. It's not because of the players. Players did a great job. It's because they didn't have capital. People didn't want to lose money. The owners of the league were like, I'm out. It all starts with the owners. They take the big financial risk.

But this time it's different. Scott Boros came out. He represents players. He's a superstar agent in baseball. And he says, don't listen to the owners. Do not take any more cuts. His quote was, players should not agree to further pay cuts to bail out the owners. Let the owners take some.

of the record revenues and profits from the past several years and pay you the pro-rated salaries you agreed to. He represents 71 current players. This year, I am for the players. For three reasons. They are taking the physical risk. We always talk about risk, financial risk for owners. Well, there's risk financially for both people this year, but there's only one dealing with a physical pandemic. That's the players. The second reason is they've already accepted a 50 50% pay cut. Okay, that's enough. Okay, that's, that's real. A lot of people in America are accepting pay cuts. They're not accepting 80% pay cuts, stars in their respective fields. And third, owners won the last CBA. Okay, they want it. The player salaries, they're making a lot of money, but they've

stayed pretty static for the last three to four years. The owners have been making record revenues, and they also make 10 to 15% annually on the equity of the franchise, which they never pay to the players. If you buy a franchise for a billion, it's worth 1.1 billion the next year and 1.2 billion the next year, players never get a part of that. The Texas governor yesterday, Greg Abbott, came out and said, yeah, I'm going to allow 25% capacity in stadiums. The owners are trying to sell to the players. We're not going to have fans. That is nonsense. We are not seeing spiking of infections. We're having multiple tests done, 5, 6, 7, 8 times as many tests. The percentage of people testing positive is going down. I'm not an epidemiologist.

But I know that if you're outdoors and the sun sitting seven, eight feet away, you're probably not going to get it. And that's what you can have in stadiums and put 20 to 25 to 30% of the people in stadiums. So I side with the players. I'm doubling down on it. They're taking the risk. They already accepted a pay cut. The owners already make equity 10 to 15% a year players don't get.

And the reality is the owners are trying to sell you that there will be no fans in the stands. is not going to happen. There's going to be some fans in the stands. So now, does it look good? The owners and the players going back and forth? No. Rob Manfred, this is what he does. He majored in college in labor relations. This is what he does. He was telling people behind the scenes. I was told this about a week ago, it's going to get really ugly. The owners come out. The players came out yesterday, and this is where we're at. And I will say this with baseball and the NBA. The NBA owners voted today, not voted, they took a study. Sharm Sharaana had this. GMs want the season and no later than October 1st. This is really the key for baseball and the NBA.

You do not want to go up against the NFL. You can go toe to toe with the NFL in September. Labor Day is a college football weekend, in fact. We don't really watch exhibition NFL games. We don't. the ratings aren't good. College football owns the first week of September. And let's be honest about it. You're wrapping up your vacations. The first couple of weeks of the NFL, it's still real hot.

It doesn't feel like the football we're used to snowing and wind and cold and all that stuff. So you have a chance, World Series, NBA finals, to get a number you do in September to about October 5th. But when you start getting into the fourth and fifth and sixth week end of NFL football, you're done.

You're done. You're not going to be. able to compete. You have to have like a Yankee Dodger World Series or a Red Sock Cub World Series or you just disappear. So I am for the players in the NBA. I'm for the players now in baseball. I haven't always been.

I don't buy this thing that you know you're league you got to have players. No, what you have to have with any business is capital. Yes, employees matter. I matter, but this doesn't exist. None of this exists without the Murdox in capital. So every league starts with that. And then secondarily

in sports, you have to have television contracts to really make the big kind of money to get the big kind of revenues for the players. So that's where we stand today. I took a total day off yesterday from the media. Twitter, TV, radio, social media. I listened with my wife to music for three hours last night and had a great time. Put my mind at ease in a country that is constantly divided and constantly yelling. Minnesota's situation, it is disheartening to say the least.

Hour two coming up next. One more herd. The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeard radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying,

and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source. the athlete themselves.

Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist,

Kier Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses.

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person.

Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast. Learn the Hardway. Open your free Our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lerner, Alamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. A rep, mom, I'm a one. I want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Ah, here we go. It's hour two. We're live in Los Angeles. This is The Herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening,

we're on IHeart Radio, we're on Fox Sports Radio, and we're on FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me this morning. Joy, how are you? I'm doing good. So a lot of times when people want to argue, I just don't buy the premise. It would be called, I think it's called a straw man argument. You create a premise, an argument, and I don't think it's an argument.

I'm apolitical. I don't talk a lot of politics. I've voted for Reagan. I voted for Obama. I just vote for leadership. The situation in Minneapolis is, I don't buy the premise that it's political. It's humanity. Officer suffocates a man to death.

That's not politics. What happens egregious is disgusting. It's outrageous. And if you go back to 9-11, it was one of the things I remember is George Bush, arm around the firemen, and everybody was on the same team. And we work so well as a country when we're not divided and we're unified. But it always takes tragedies, unfortunately, in this country to put your arm around your neighbor and those people that don't think like you or they don't look like you or they don't always act like you take a deep breath your neighbors are your friends we're facing a pandemic we're facing things we need each other

stop taking sides let's figure it out let's love each other neighbors people don't look like us don't think like us don't know what's act like us there's never been a time in my life post 9-11 we needed to be together more and we did This is the second time in my life. We've got to be together on this. What happened at Minneapolis? There's one side. It's wrong.

It's egregious. It's not political. It's humanity. People are pissed. I'm pissed. You're pissed. Joy's pissed. We're all pissed.

It's not right. People have a right to protest. One. We work better as one. We always have. We always do. Stop taking sides. Put your arm around your neighbors.

People that are not being, people you hang out with or no or agree with. We're in a pandemic. Let's get through it together as one. And that's not political. Any thoughts? Well, yeah, I have a lot of thoughts, but thank you for saying that. I know it's really hard for a lot of people right now

and they've been seeing it over and over again, and it can be very traumatic to keep watching it. And, you know, you see people that look like you being murdered and there's no consequences. So, yes, I'm... paying for George Floyd's family and his friends and, you know, for our country. And hopefully everyone, I agree with you, takes a deep breath and realizes there's only one side and that, you know, they do the right thing there.

And we can move on with our lives altogether. And hopefully this incident, this horrible murder moves us forward and actually projects us into some change. So we don't continue to have these conversations and continue to be traumatized. and put communities through this and families. Yeah. My wife and I listened to music for about three hours last night, and this was a topic of discussion during it. It's so agitating and discouraging that we just said,

let's just listen to music. And we talked about it. And what was funny about it is that we went into this discussion. I said, we were listening to country music and future. And I said, I don't know how many couples in America are listening to hip-pop and country, and we love both. And it's like, and we started getting into this discussion, we're one. You can have many interests and many friends and there can be many views.

What is not acceptable is law enforcement suffocating people. It's not acceptable ever under any terms. And there's one side on this and it's not political. Humanity. Now I'll segue in artistically into sports. Right. Speaking of premises. So I don't want to pick on anybody today.

There's enough agitation. But this is an interesting topic, I thought. So Kevin Stefanski is the new coach of the Cleveland Browns. And I think he's going to work. I think he's better than the last coach. And I think Baker's going to get to the playoffs. And I watched Baker when he was bad. I think he's going to be better.

But speaking of premises, so a coach came out, a scout came out, and said, listen, Stefanski won with Kirk Cousins. He is, I'll just read a quote, he is way more talented Baker Mayfield than Kirk Cousins. Well, I think he's got a better arm. But that's a premise I don't necessarily buy into is that last year, every time I would bring a smart football person on the show, all of them said the same thing. People who had been quarterbacks in the NFL, Baker got into trouble when he thought he was more athletic than he was. So I don't buy that. In fact, I never bought it with Tebow.

I never bought it with Johnny Mansell. I did, there are quarterbacks, Carson Wentz, I've said, that's an athlete, Sam Darnold, that's an athlete, Lamar, obviously, an athlete. Patrick Mahomes is an athlete. I don't buy that Baker's a great athlete. So I thought to myself today, if I just rated quarterbacks, not on stats, I don't care about win loss. That's not what I'm doing here. I don't care about your playoff wins, your completion percentage. if you told me who are the most athletic quarterbacks in the NFL,

and what do I mean by athletic? Mobility, arm, the ability to throw it multiple angles. There's an it quality. You can make losing plays into winning plays. The offensive line breaks down. You make stuff happen where just athleticism, I mean, as I'm talking about this, you can just see Deshaun Watson. People that can overcome a bad play, a bad line.

and I put down because this scout, this coach said that Baker is way more talented than Kirk Cousins. I do think he has a better arm. But I don't buy the talent thing on Baker because I thought last year when he thought he was talented, he got into huge trouble. So here were my 10 quarterbacks that I believe are just the most talented. And you tell me, Joy, if you think I'm right or wrong. Mahomes 1, Wentz 2, Wilson 3, Rogers 4, Lamar 5. Now, Lamar is more talented runner, but I think the combination Aaron running and throwing.

Deshawn 6, Cam 7, doesn't have a current team. We just put our staff put a logo up there. I think Josh Allen at Buffalo, Kyler Murray, and Sam Darnold. It's not win-loss. Sam Darnold last year went 7 and 6 post-mono with an egregious offensive line and a bottom-five receiving court. So, Baker's nowhere near that to me. I wouldn't put him 11. I think I'd probably put Matt Stafford has a world-class arm.

So I, you know, when I, now, I, I don't love, I don't love Kirk Cousins, but he is competent. He keeps getting better completion percentage, passer rating. It gets better. He's coachable. He completes like 68% of his throws. I think last year he was close to 70. So this is, again, I never bought into the initial belief. I didn't buy Baker was a number one quarterback, number one pick.

I just didn't buy it. I thought he was a quarterback. I think he's a franchise quarterback. I don't buy that he's super talented. People kept trying to sell me this on Tebow for years. Baker ran a 4-840. Tebow ran a 4-7-5. Andrew Luck was in the 4-6s.

Cam Newton, I think, was in the 4-5 or 4-6s. And the arm, and the movement, and the size. Kyler Murray, when you look at him, that's really special. Josh Allen at Buffalo, humongous arm, can throw from different angles. They build, literally, they build running plays like Lamar just for Josh Allen to run the ball. He's like Big Ben when Big Ben was skinnier and less banged up. So I, now, I do think Stavansy's going to win.

I think Baker's going to win. I think the Browns are going to win. This is not an anti-Brown thing. But you can't sell me on something. You're kind of arguing with yourself. And I don't buy into the, oh, my God, he's just way more talent. That's not what Baker is. What Baker is, he's got guts, he'll let it rip.

He's pretty aggressive. He can be accurate when he's under control. He's got a pretty darn good arm. But if you think the play breaks down, that's not what he is. He gets engulfed. He cannot run defensive ends. That's where he's not. He may think he is and Freddie Kitchens may have thought he was.

I would argue the opposite. He's not nearly as athletic as people think he runs a 4-8-40. That's slow for a high school quarterback. That's not what he is. What he is has to be redefined. And I think Stafansky will do it. Keep him in the pocket, run the football, play action, and occasionally let him crank it up and throw it deep because he got a pretty good arm.

He blows a pretty good deep ball and he's got receivers to get it too. All right. There we go. I was going to get to an Aaron Rogers topic and I don't even have time. How about that? Ryan Hollins. You know, Ryan Hollins says stuff and people get very mad all the time. He comes on our show.

He couldn't be more pleasant. But every time I go on Twitter, he's mad at. Somebody's yelling at him and somebody's screaming at him. So his thought, I haven't asked him about the MJ, Doc, and I'm sure he'll have an opinion on that. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the I-Hard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

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

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast. podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist,

Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. and we don't know when we've done enough.

Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely.

And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, iHeartRadio app search learn the hard way and listen now do you remember when diana ross double-tapped

little kim's boobs at the vmase or when conier said that george bush didn't like black people i know what you're thinking what the hell does george bush got to do a little kem well you can find out on the look back at it podcast i'm sam jay and i'm alex english each episode we pick it here unpack what went down and try to make sense of how we survived it including a recent episode with mark lamont hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack.

So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Now you're finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the I-Hart. Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game.

This linebacker, this guy walks up to me, he goes, A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. A rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker.

Listen to the Cliffer Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Sunday on FS1 NASCAR Cup Series racing is live from the legendary Bristol Motor Speedway. Catch all the action from the biggest stars in racing beginning at 3.30 Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. And John Goulet, as always, will be gambling. What do you call it, lug nut locks? Yes, that was the horrible name of camp. I made money last night, Colin, so maybe you should listen to my picks. Did you bet Fox Betton made money?

Yes, I had a profitable night betting last night. Wow, good for you. I listened to music and you were degenerate just car racing and no, good for you. A lot of people are. It's amazing what you can find yourself. I was shocked by the number of people betting the match. Like everybody was betting it. Everybody I know was betting on that golf tournament.

It was unbelievable. It was a blast. Betting makes life more fun. Fox Bet, go their bet. It makes it more fun. Like if you have a little juice, it doesn't matter if it's a lot of money. If you have $50 on it and you win, you get dinner's free. Take your wife out for dinner.

That's how I approach gambling. I have a certain amount of money that I'm willing to park with for an entertainment dollar. Of course. And then if that's gone, okay. I have fun and then that's it. I don't get the moralist on gamble. My takeaway is time out. People get, you know, well, you know, people can be, they get too much into it.

My takeaway is people are too much into food. You got to stop eating? People buy 12 cars. cars. They get car collections. A lot of things you can get obsessible. Yes. I mean, the bottom line is it adds juice to a sporting event. I don't even need to put 50 bucks on it. I'm just glorified.

And I'm fighting like mad, pumping my fist for $50 to get a margarita later. Like, it's fun. You're betting car racing. Look at that. Played 10 years in the NBA. He's joining, he gets people all worked up. Ryan Hollins via the Coward Global Satellite Network is joining us tonight. He is wearing a very nice.

crushed velvet. Now, where did you get that coat? That is Stella. Where'd you get it? This is a 101, baby. Oh, you're only going to find this on the opinionated seven-footer, man. Okay, I got it. First of all, I want your opinion on the documentary.

A lot of people felt like it made Michael Jordan more popular. It showed certainly some flaws and some grudges and some pettiness, which we don't see a lot of that with LeBron. That's kind of not how he rolls. What was your takeaway overall on somebody who's played in the LeBron era but watched a lot of basketball in the MJ era? It just reassured me that LeBron James is the greatest athlete that we have ever seen played a game of basketball. I already understood how dominant Michael was, how hard he worked. And if you look at your goat list and you say, who was the most dominant?

LeBron can't question what Michael Jordan did. He was undefeated in the NBA finals. But when I look at the path that Michael Jordan took, when I look at the path that he that LeBron James took, Michael Jordan was, I mean, he was fed into greatness. I mean, think about it. His older brother looked on him in the backyards. His dad was hard on him. Then after that, he goes to North Carolina.

He plays with the top 50 greatest player of all time and James Worthy. Dean Smith, for God sakes, is his coach. Then he falls upon Phil Jackson and goes on to win six championships, two, three piece. LeBron James had none of that. And I understand it, the big fault of what LeBron James, when it came to the media of going and playing in South Beach, all we looked at and all we saw is the decision, and that we saw that he teamed up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch.

But in all reality, LeBron James understood he had to go somewhere and learn how to win. After LeBron James learned how to win what these championships were about, I look at LeBron James, LeBron goes to Cleveland, gets one on his own, and amidst an NBA that's always, changing, moving, competing, and free agency. Michael Jordan didn't have to deal with that.

And the cards that LeBron James were dealt, I'm looking at him again, and I'm having a deeper respect for LeBron James, Colin. Well, no, I totally get that. And I, you know, I've said if that was the last dance, for LeBron, I would call this season the last chance. It's not a good draft. It's not a big free agent year. And the cap is coming down.

There's no, and this is an old roster. So to me, Ryan, this is a, this is a, this is a strange sort of physical break for LeBron. The older LeBron's 17th year just got two months off, and we know he's in an impeccable shape. You know, Anthony Davis, by the way, can be at times brittle. Two months off, he'll be in the best late season shape of his life. I kind of feel like, though, Ryan, there's no free agency help on the horizon.

The Lakers don't want to go over the cap, and it's coming down. It's a weaker than average draft. I kind of feel like this is LeBron's opportunity to get a title. I don't know if it exists in a year from now. Your thoughts? Colin, that's an excellent point. When I look about at LeBron James, a guy that I competed against for my entire NBA career,

and don't talk about that story, Celtics game, where he goes off and he becomes a king, and we were up three-two and thought we had a championship in hand. But LeBron James, we're the same age. I give him a two-year window in which we can still see LeBron James where he was a peak freak athlete, but now he's a great athlete in the NBA. and he's got the mental game.

These are the golden years for an NBA player, right where LeBron James is, because he's still athletic, and he's got the mental smarts, the wherewithal, and the championship experience. Guys, this could be set up any more for LeBron James than win the championship.

Let's be honest. The Clippers were the favorites going into this thing, but with COVID-19, who's it going to favor? COVID-19 is all about LeBron James Y. He's got more experience than anybody in the entire league at winning championships at playing in an NBA finals. Not just that.

LeBron James saw the moments and a guy that you just brought up, Colin, he's obsessive about his body. He probably got a home gym or a wake room, a sign up. Who knows what's going on in LeBron's place? But in all reality, he's working out

and he understands the severity that not anybody. And keep in mind, you know, LeBron James was watching that last dance and said, oh, okay, Michael, I'm looking to one up you, baby. I'm looking to one up you now.

Yeah, I don't think there's any question about that. By the way, There's a lot of things. There's receding. There's a play in tournament. There's start the playoffs. There's all these options now being presented. As a player, if you were playing today, what would you prefer?

Would you prefer seven, eight regular season games to get ready? Let's just go to the postseason. Group stage as an athlete. What do you think is the best for the players going forward? Here's the reality, man. When I played, I knew how important training practice was. and especially when you get later up in age, you value all of the little things,

just going up against physical contact. Going and banging somebody physically in the game and going into a workout, I'm sure all these guys right now that I've talked to are doing non-contact workouts. So by the time you actually get into a game and get contact, that's going to be a week or so of preparedness. Colin, here's the reality.

I remember the Celtics team I played on we made to the Eastern Conference Finals. We didn't start peeking until after the All-Star break. So we were just about three quarters of the way through the season before we actually played our best basketball. These are things that we would talk about in the locker room. So now you've just gone back and reset all of this. So we may see some sloppy basketball. And the one thing you're going to see when the NBA gets started again, the veteran teams, mark my words, the veteran teams will have the advantage because they've been training, they've been working, and it's going to come down to experience in these moments.

while these young guns don't need too much to go ahead and get ready and be prepared, but it's a different type of game. I mean, shoot, some of these rookies probably forgot all the plays in the playbook already, Colin, they're going to be figuring things out on the run. Do you buy, like Shaq said, it'll be an asterisk season regardless of the winner? Oh, man. Listen, I love the big fella, but he's trying to double down on his own championships. When I look at it and remember San Antonio who won the championship within a lockout year,

I don't look at it any different. If we're going to find an asterisks, it's not going to be COVID-19, but the asterisk will be similar to last year's NBA finals because, listen, unless you were a Warriors hater, you were just tired of them or you were a Toronto Raptors fan. We all know last year's NBA finals had a huge asterisk. No Kevin Durant, no Clay Thompson, okay? And then Steph Curry is getting boxed in one, trying within two. So in all reality, unless we see LeBron, Janice, or Kauai go down, there's going to be an

Asterix on the NBA champion this year. Love your red. Excuse me. There won't be unless. Yeah. Love your red jacket. It's great seeing you again. I'd like to get you back into the studio.

And I appreciate you could stop and buy on a Friday for us, buddy. Anytime, man. If you guys get a chance, man, check out the Seven Footers Opinionated podcast. We've got some special guest on there. It's myself and Brennan Hayward. Appreciate you, Colin. All right. Thanks, Ryan Holland, joining us today.

Good stuff. We are moving along. Michael Vick's going to be joining. us last hour. I haven't talked to Michael in a while, so he's going to be joining us on the show. I'm sure he'll have some strong opinions coming up, perhaps on Minneapolis, perhaps on football, and perhaps more. Joy Taylor with the news.

No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Sponsored by Liberty Mutual Insurance, only pay for what you need. So the Packers made a surprising move when they selected Jordan Love in the first round of the draft, and Matt LaFleur insists that Love was only taken because he was the best player left on their board. Okay. And that Aaron Rogers understands the decision.

All right. Talk four times a week whenever we get those opportunities to meet, you know, in those individual meetings. And I feel really good about where we're at. You know, we both understand that this is a business. And, you know, when that whole thing went down, it was just one of those situations where there were a couple guys targeted that had just previously been picked. and Jordan was the next guy on the board.

I could be wrong, but they had other draft picks after Jordan Love, right? Yeah, a bunch of them. So then they had other guys on the board other than Jordan Love. Right. So I could believe that if, A, that weren't true, or B, it wasn't true that they also moved up to get him. So this is something I'm going to talk about before the end of the hour. I'm not a believer in walking on eggshell relationships work. Me either.

This is trying to protect Aaron Rogers. And I'm not blaming Aaron for it. But Aaron can be prickly. He's a star. He's got a lot of power. He's the richest guy in the building. And he's the most talented. This is the classic.

You know, we were going to get him and we loved him. And it's like, no, you're actually, you traded up. You made a gaffe. You got caught making a gaffe. This is a classic. They're trying to constantly protect the relationship. Just be honest. Aaron's had surgeries.

You're looking four years down the road. Right. But there's also strategy to communication, right? like full transparent honesty is definitely necessary in some relationships and other relationships say like you're talking to your child who's not ready to hear something yet you don't have to lie to them but you're strategic about how you communicate with them right now i'm not saying erin rogers is a child i'm actually saying they should be very transparent with them but you also have to be transparent about what you're doing we we know how the draft works you can't say jordan love was the

only guy on your board you had other guys on the board who you took later so they were obviously on your board too. This doesn't even make sense. So it's like it's... I think what they're saying is in their board, they ranked, and the way teams can do it, they just ranked their 225 best players in order. Sure, he might have been the next person on your board,

but you still moved up to get him. So it's not like, oh, he just fell to us. No, no, you moved. You made a trade. You made an aggressive move to get Jordan Love, an aggressive move to get a backup, which tells you something about your current situation with your starter. And that's... And the

You're in. Right, and that's fine, but that is what happens. So there were rumors soon after Cam Newton became a free agent that the patrons could be a landing spot for him. That doesn't seem like that's a possibility this season. And Rodney Harrison told Rich Eisen's show that he wishes New England would have been more aggressive pursuing Cam. I thought it would be a great situation where he could have came in at a reduced salary. He could have came in and really learned a lot about just technique and just the intricacies of, you know, just being on a really great football team

with great guys as far as the offensive coordinator. I thought that would have been a really, really ideal situation for him. He could have came in, competed. Could it help the young guy? The young guy could have helped him? I thought it would have been a perfect situation. I'm just a little disappointed that the Patriots weren't a little bit more aggressive.

You know, just recruiting camp. First of all, they're still paying Brady. Like, people forget this. They're paying like, they're losing 13 million a year. So they're up against the cap, which is weird because you don't think they pay anybody. You know, meanwhile, Cleveland can pay everybody,

and they could have taken Clowny. The Rams seemingly can pay all their stars. The England can never pay anybody. But it doesn't work from a cap situation. And also, and I do believe this, they do want to figure out what the hell Stidham is? Live game action. Right, because so even if they could fit him under the cap,

Cam's going to be the starter there if he goes there. Right, he's not going to be a backup. He's not going to be a backup to Jared Stidham. It's a joke to even say. that you have to say Cam Newton is more talented than Brian Hoyer and Jared Siddem? Of course he is. Of course he is. So if he goes there, he's going to be the starter.

I think that the Patriots are not going to be good this year. I think they're going all in on finding out what Jared Sidham is. And if they have a plan, they have a long-term plan. And I'm just going to ignore what Bill Belichick is. He is a strategy guy. This is what he does. He obsesses over strategic moves. So this idea that we're all just like, oh,

we're going to be shocked by Derek Siddem this year. okay, maybe we will, that's a possibility, on the board. But I think most of us fall into the camp that they're probably not going to actually be that good this year. So bringing in Cam Newton defeats the purpose of whatever your long-term play is. Because Cam Newton is too good to keep you in that lower space. One of the things we love about Michael Jordan's documentary is his belief in himself. Right. Cam Newton sees himself as a starter.

So we should give, I'm critical of Cam, but I think Cam sees himself as a starter. I think he has the physical attributes to be a starter. I can make an argument. By about year two, I wasn't sure Marcus Mariotto was a starter in the league. James Winston, I give him another year, but you can argue you can't really build around him. You can build around Cam. I think the market's small, but the idea that Cam should have taken a massive pay cut, I actually think what Cam is doing is smart.

He's putting all his stuff on social, and he is waiting for somebody to go down, which eight starters will. And then somebody will pay him. But the idea that he should have sacrificed a role, his position, and money to go to New England, I don't buy that. Cam doesn't need to take the first job offer. His market small, but there is a market by September for him to start in a league somewhere. And it will get bigger. Oh, yes, of course it will.

I think there's an average. On average, nine starting quarterbacks miss a game or more during the course of a season. A third of the league gets hurt. Right. So something will be there and somebody, a starter will go down. Now, say it's a starter like, say, Drew Brees, then that's not a situation for him. Or Derek Carr, then that's not a situation for him. So one of those starters might be the wrong situation.

Arizona. That's the one I believe. Right, Arizona or Pittsburgh. So there are spaces for him that he will work. He is going to be a starter in this league again. The Patriots was not the place, though. Finally, the majority of NBA GMs reportedly favor a play-in tournaments by teams near the bottom of the postseason picture instead of a World Cup style group stage this year,

according to Kevin O'Connor or the ringer, about 75% of GMs voted for the play-in tournament when asked to pick between the two. And Shams Sharania added today that 83% want at least 20 teams to be included in the playoffs. Well, that's just more owners wanting some revenue, right? And they want their... Right. So 53% voted to go straight to the playoffs.

53 voted a traditional playoff seating, 47 for reseating, so they're pretty split on how to set up the playoffs. Unanimously, they agreed roster should be expanded for the postseason, and most of them, this is the important part to me, want to end no later than October 1st. Now, that part, I don't agree with the owners on much. That's smart. Get out of there. Take a two-month breather to the next season.

You do not want to be going mid-October, November against the NFL. Forget about next season. You're going to get, you were struggling with ratings and the optics of that this you're going to get clobbered because the NFL owns Sunday, Monday, Thursday, college football on Saturday. Friday's a terrible TV day. So Tuesday and Wednesday are the only night you'll be able to get ratings. You can't sandwich all your playoff games into that. Well, ratings aside, which are obviously super important,

you do have next season to worry about, which is already going to be pushed off significantly from your original start date. So you do have to worry about next season and the season after that. And there's things that happen in between those seasons, like free agency and the draft. Like there are a lot of things that have to happen. So getting the season in if you're going to have it before October 1st is crucial for a lot of different reasons. Yeah. A joy with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. Yeah, I was going to talk about it now. I'm going to push it to the next segment. Apparently, I got a lot of you worked up on my top 10 quarterback list, which I did not think he was marginally controversial. I did a list of not buying into the premise that, Baker is way more talented than Kirk Cousins.

I think he has a better arm, but he ran up 4-840. Athleticism, I think, is overstated. So I did the top 10 most talented quarterback. Didn't say the best. Right. Although many are the best. People are wild pushback on it. I didn't even think it was controversial.

Baker is an overachiever. Yes. That's a perfect word. When I think of Baker, I think of a very, very hard worker. Yes, with a chip on his shoulder. with a chip on his shoulder. Generally, guys with chips on their shoulder, with the exceptions of Tom Brady and Michael Jordan,

who sometimes were like, okay, like you're the best. You don't need to create chips. Yeah, I mean, by the way, this is not, this is the most talented. When I mean talented, offensive line breaks down. Can you make a play? Right.

You got to go, you got to throw it off your front foot, 38 yards down. This is playmakers. I mean, most of the guys on this list are extreme athletes, like premier athletes. I probably put Stafford at 11 because he's got just a cannon.

But that's not the, now, many of them are the best quarterbacks, but I would say the bottom file on that. Right, they're the best because they are hardworking plus extremely talented. But you can be great at something by just working super hard and having not as much talent. Like you say, why do you have Russell third? I think Carson Wentz and Mahomes have A plus arms. Like just generationally, Lway's arm was beyond A. like Andrew Luck was great. He didn't have an A plus arm.

Like I think Wenz and Mahomes, I get the running and then literally Marino level arm talent. Angles, throw it. Russell Wilson's got a good arm. It's not that. Russell's a little more, you know. But his escapability is A plus. Yeah, right. But if you're telling me, I think the first four or five are kind, well, the first six are in their own class. Mahomes, Wentz, Wilson, Rogers, Jackson, Deshaun. Cam was, but he's not healthy.

I think the first six are in their own class. I do think Josh Allen, you don't watch Buffalo games. If you get a load of Josh Allen, you saw him against the Cowboys. If you watch Josh Allen, he's got to have a top three arm in the NFL, and they design run plays for him. Like in the red zone, they'll just say, we're running the football with Josh. Like, he's special. He's a little bit of a wild pony.

I don't trust him all the time on big throws. He's young. He makes mistakes, but talent. I don't think this is controversial. I don't even think it's either. And I don't think that's a negative thing to say either, that Baker is an overachiever. A lot of people are an overachievers.

That's a perfect word for him. That's actually a compliment. Yeah. Yeah, I don't have Breeze on that list. I don't have Brady on that list. They need a pocket. They have a play designed. It's fair to not have Brady on this list right now.

At some point in Brady's career, of course he was on that list. Yeah, I'm controversial when I don't even mean to be. I thought that was obvious. We almost didn't run this. We thought it was boring. Alex was like, yeah, everybody knows that. This is boring. And then we got into a fist fight in the hall, but with masks on.

But the point being is I don't see that as polarizing. And I'm getting all sorts of, you know, you do a list with quarterbacks and it just go high. Well, lists are, lists make lists. People go crazy. Yeah. I saw a list the other day. They had best college football towns, like the coolest towns. It was brutal.

It was people that had clearly never been like west of like Chicago. It was a bad list. There was no West Coast on there. It's like, if, if these people ever. been to some of these, you ever been to some of these West Coast College towns? They're great. I went, I went one time I went to Palo Alto to watch a Stanford game. It's the most underrated tailgating in the world because it's all billionaires.

So I go to the game and I had like a crappy sandwich and these people open the trunk of their car, these old Stanford alums. They have sushi? They had grapes, the size of golf balls. they had like 13 wines from Napa. They had a griller with salmon. And I'm like, it was like a restaurant. Well, I mean, generally when you think about, well, so I'm with you because I think that Miami hurricane tailgates are like, you can't compare them to anything.

No, it's Miami. So you've got complete and utter chaos in the parking lot. So you can't really compare it to anywhere else. But like a Miami FSU, a Miami Gator game or like Miami Notre Dame, like it's, I mean. And there's no other experience like it, right? All right. Coming up next, why LaFleur is walking on eggshells. That's coming up.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending. Opinions are flying. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. and we're still chasing it

and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro.

Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast. Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now.

Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark, Mark, Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know.

I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, ref, Mom, I'm a woman. want you to weigh better. What? Where's she at? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Imagine picking up your smartphone, opening an app, and controlling your grill. You can do that with a rectech grill. They're amazing. RecTechgrills.com. R-C-Tecrills.com. They're absolutely fantastic. The warranties are unbelievable. The customer service with these rec-tech grills is absolutely unbelievable. By the way, John

went to Stanford to a football game and just told me during the break, he could not believe how underrated Stanford was and tailgating. They have the best food in the country and the best wine and the nicest fans. They don't care much about football, but it's the nicest people offering the best salmon, the best wine, the best grapes, Northern California.

It's just, you know, they're just not a ton of them, but the ones there are very gracious. So, I think it's very interesting about, you know, I was talking about this earlier.

I think relationships are healthy when you can argue. If you can respectfully, argue. I mean, I'm not talking about your day-to-day stuff like get this at the store and that at the store. But when you're arguing, you're generally, you're talking about something that matters in life. You're just not blabbing. You'd like argue over kids or finances or your retirement or job opportunities. It's real things. And I think you can have, you can't grow if you have to walk on eggshells because your wife's always offended or you as a guy or two alpha. You, you just want to hear, you know, what makes you happy. And there's a lot of guys like that. I like people.

I think relationships are strongest. Like if I was a president and hired a vice president, the first thing I'd worry about is if I yelled at him, is he okay? Because I'm okay if you yell at me. But we got to have a relationship where I can go, that doesn't work. Let's go. It doesn't work. And I know I can be curt and sometimes I can wear people out.

But that's the key to this thing. And I think in Green Bay, Lefleur walks on eggshells with Aaron Rogers. And I think Mike McCarthy did too because Aaron can get prickly and passive aggressive and go on radio and take some shots and he is a superstar and he is great and he's a first bout hall famer and he's got power and leverage and control the franchise. So yesterday, Matt LaFleur is talking about the relationship with Rogers when they took Jordan Love in the first round. We talk four times a week whenever we get those opportunities to meet, you know, in those individual meetings. And I feel really good about where we're at. You know, we both

understand that this is a business. And, you know, when that whole thing went to, down. It was just one of those situations where there were a couple guys targeted that had just previously been picked, and Jordan was the next guy on the board. Well, he wasn't actually. You traded up to get him, which was an aggressive move, not a passive aggressive move. He wasn't the next guy on the board. You moved up to get him. And that tells us something, although what exactly? It's not worth arguing over. But I think that was Matt Lefleur trying to protect Aaron Rogers. This is why we drafted him instead of just being honest.

He's really talented. He's going to play here eventually. Aaron's getting older. Just be honest about it. Belichick never apologized to Tom Brady for drafting Jimmy Garoppolo. I mean, nobody apologized to Drew Brees for getting Teddy Bridgewater and James Winston. You don't feel a need. Josh McDaniels barks at Tom Brady.

We have visual proof. Bill Belichick barks at Brady. We've been told that. Why? Because they can. because Tom can take it. The way this whole game works is the head coach of a football team comes in. He creates a culture.

He creates a culture. And then he needs his quarterback to buy into it and spread it to the masses. This is what Michael Jordan did with Phil. Remember when they won their first title together and they hugged? And Phil said, you did it the right way, Michael. You bought in. That's what he kept saying. Remember, Doc, you did it.

It wasn't you won a championship. You did it the right way. You bought into my system and you spread the gospel. Tim Duncan Popovich. Duncan took less money. Duncan got barked at practice. Popovich. Duncan did it the right way.

Brady does it the right way. You buy into the culture and then spread the gospel. It's hard to do that with Aaron because he never buys in. I mean, Jeff Saturday said a couple years ago, he'd go in the huddle with Mike McCarthy and roll his eyes. It's quoted. I didn't make it up. It's out there. Aaron does he think he's too smart?

Is he snarky? I don't know. I don't know him. But I never feel there's a buy-in. And so that's why he's led the NFL in throwaways the last two years. He just doesn't like the calls. He didn't buy into it. Greg CoSell has said this for multiple years.

All Greg CoSell does is watch film. He doesn't take sides. He doesn't care. But he said this for years about Aaron Rogers and sometimes the difficulty coaching him. Say what you want about Aaron Rogers. He's super talented. We know that.

He'll be a Hall of Famer. But Aaron Rogers, over the last number of years, has evolved, or one could say devolved into a player that plays a lot outside of structure and outside of rhythm. And when you get a chance to watch the coaching tape as I do, and this is not an interpretation. This is what the tape tells you. He leaves a lot of throws on the field within the timing of the offense that are there to be thrown. And I guarantee that that bothers Matt LaFleur. And given the age of Rogers, and who knows how long Rogers can play, the age of Rogers and Matteloflo, floor clearly coming off last season, having probably pretty much carte

launch at this point, I think he's looking to say, hey, I'm going to start to put this offense together the way I want it to look. And while Rogers is great, I'm a little frustrated with the way our offense plays out. And that was Greg on the Rich Eisen Show recently. This is a real thing. We have quotes from players. Aaron would roll eyes. We have stats.

He led the NFL back-to-back coaches throwaways. We have Greg Kosell tape analyzation. I'm just not a sports guy making crap up. Like we have acknowledgement in the huddle, actual data points, actual film study. And so I think when you're a sensitive player and Aaron can be a little more sensitive, Kevin Durant is, you have to walk on eggshells. And I don't think that's why the Kevin Durant Warriors thing blew up. Like, like, Kerr can go and bark at Dremont. I mean, Kerr and Dremon, I've been told, have gotten into shouting matches.

I had somebody who covers an NBA team that heard Dremon and Kerr, like outside of the locker room. But that's a healthy relationship. Kerr and Dremont is a healthy relationship. Kerr can get after Steph Curry. Phil could get after Michael. Josh McDaniels gets after Brady. That's an incredibly healthy relationship.

You're pissed. Yell at me. We get through it. I've always like bosses like that. I think you've seen me. You're mad? Address it. Let's go. Let's wrap it up. Let's get it done. I don't want this thing hovering over us.

I feel the floor in McCarthy. There's a walking on eggshells. And Jordan Love, he was the next on our board. No, actually, you traded up to get him. You've got to be able to take the yells and the screams and the barkings, Aaron. Or you're not going to get better and you're not going to be in a real relationship. You got to be able to get yelled at. Hour three, Michael Vick, around the corner.

It's The Herd and a Friday. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd. weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. It's great to have you in. Tommy John, ridiculously soft underwear and loungeware, no matter what type of home situation you're working at right now. Tommyjohn.com code herd, H-E-R-D, 25% off. I wear the stuff, wearing it now, love the stuff.

Fantastic. So Michael Vicks, a friend of mine, 13 years in the NFL full pro rolls. He's been going back and forth between Florida and Virginia. I'm going to ask him about, because I know Mike loves golf. I'm going to ask him about the match between Brady and Man. in a second, but let's bring him in via the Coward Global Satellite Network, Mike Vick. So, you know, it's interesting. I saw a story on Baker Mayfield, and he said the other day, he's like, I'm not going to do talk,

and I'm just going to play. And I think it's the right thing to do. And I do think he's going to be successful this year because I think he has the right coach. But I want you to go back to your first year in the NFL. And it doesn't go as well. And Baker's first couple of years, they haven't gone well. What motivated you in that off-season first to second? Was it money?

Was it fame? Was it winning? Like what made you put two extra hours in a day and work? Colin, that first offseason, the only thing I was thinking about was not being labeled with that B word, and that's a bust. I spent all offseason preparing myself in the passing game, working on my, you know, my speed, my acceleration, learning the offense, spending time with my receivers and my running backs. and trying to make sure that I was, you know, in the best shape of my life and mentally ready for that 2002 season. The only thing I never wanted to be labeled was a bus. And aside from money, aside from the fame,

because that all comes with good play and winning, I just not, I did not want to play, you know, three to four years in the NFL and then be looking for a job or a backup somewhere and then bouncing around. I wanted to be that guy. I wanted to be someone, you know, who was respected around the National Football League and things took off of me. And I think it was a credit to the hard work.

But being labeled a bus is something that you want. And it's always going to linger if you're a first round pick. So you have to make sure that you do everything in your power in year two and three to ensure that that's not being tagged upon you or a label that's going to stick to you. I mean, it's just there. It doesn't go. anywhere. It's something that, you know,

it exists around the National Football League and you should be leery of it if you're a quarterback or any position. You know, Michael, it's interesting. I haven't gotten your take when the Packers drafted Jordan Love. I said, I thought it was okay as long as they would have

drafted a wide receiver next. When they got your replacement and they didn't draft a wide receiver, then I get Aaron being like, whoa, come on, you got to get me somebody else. Yeah. And Aaron is older, and he's had surgeries.

But can you defend Green Bay's position, or do you see where Aaron, you know, you wake up in the morning and it's like, what's the point? We can't beat San Francisco. We can't compete with him. We need players. Where do you land on this? Yeah. Yeah, that pick right there was a very surprising to me.

I think Aaron Roger still has a lot of football left in him. I still think he's one of the top quarterbacks in the National Football League, and no one can argue that. And when I think about Aaron's career, you know, the last six or seven years, he just had no help. You know, they don't bring in big time free agents. You know, I haven't had a running back behind him in years until, you know, the guy last year stepped up. And, you know, it's just been tougher, Aaron, and it's going to get tougher. I think he's a guy who can handle having a legit first round backup quarterback behind him.

I don't think that it'll affect him with all the years and all the snaps that he's taken out, you know, throughout the course of his career. But, man, I mean, I honestly can see Aaron playing somewhere else in the near future. When you draft the guy, number one, you know, like they did Aaron when Britain was there. You know, they did it for a reason. And, you know, it's just something that's undeniable. Yeah, I mean, if you're a general manager, you do not want a first round pick not playing for four years. You have to validate your pick.

So Green Bay at some point is going to want to validate the pick. So by year two, you can imagine. them trying to get him some snaps. I want to move to the situation in New England. I saw Jared Stidham play in college. I thought he was good. I didn't think he was special. You're hearing stories now that Brian Hoyer will start over Jared Stidham.

You watch a lot of SEC football. You've seen Stidham. What do you make of him? What is he? Well, I watched Stidham very closely in the preseason last year, and I thought he did a good job of just orchestrating the offense and not turning the ball over. He let a couple touchdown drives, made some mistakes,

typical rookie stuff. And then, you know, I noticed that he had a strong arm and he knew exactly where to go with the football and then a year behind Tom Brady only makes you better. Brian Hoy, I think he'll be a guy to bridge that gap, you know, if they're waiting on Stidham. But I don't think the New England Patriots let Tom Brady walk to let Brian Hoyer start.

I think it's all about Stidham. And his story kind of reminds me of a Tom Brady type of story. Guy not drafted high, wasn't, you know, a guy who was well known or talked about, you know, made spectacular plays in college, you know, just did enough. And I thought Tom was amazing in college. That's why what he's done over the, you know, last 15 years of his career doesn't surprise me. But we'll see what Stidham has, man. And I think this move was made for various reasons.

He's a young guy. He has a bright future ahead of him. him, especially being with Bill Belichick. So, you know, this could be some upside for him. I just don't think Brian Hoy will be the guy starting at the start of the season. You live just north of Miami, so you see some dolphins action. Do a lot of dolphins. Tua is my favorite college quarterback in this draft.

I think there are some instinctive things that you can't describe, and I think that's an it quality. It's not that Burrow and, you know, everybody else can't play Justin Herbert. I think Tua is the best talent of this group. The question becomes, do you play him early? I have this belief that after about four practices, everybody in Miami is going to go, okay, wait, time out. This guy, he's got secret sauce and we're just going to get him on the field.

So that's my guess. When you went to Atlanta, it didn't take many practices before they were like, okay, this guy is special. But you sat for a while. How long do you think Tua sits? Would you play him early? The longest he's going to sit, Colin, maybe a couple of practices when they resume training camp. He might be number two on the depth shot for the first week of training camp. And then from there, he should be number one and take all the reps.

After Kyle Murray and, you know, Baker Mayfield and these guys started, you know, when they was junk, you know, when they was rookies, it's no excuse. And when you watch this guy throw the football, you know, the accuracy, his ball placement, it's undeniable, man. got to play tour early. And, you know, it does you no good playing Ryan Fitzpatrick early in the season in the first couple games, you know, what you may get out of Ryan and taking nothing away from him. He's a great backup. He's a great mentor. And he's done his due in the national football league. But he can help tour more with tour being out on the field and getting the playing experience and then coming to the sideline and being able to, you know, digest everything that just

happen if things don't go well or if it does go well. So it won't be long. I expect to it be the start of week one. I'm excited to watch this guy. And man, just watching throw the football right there. He reminds me of Steve Young. Yeah, he really does. He's a special talent.

By the way, you're a golfer. And I'm watching Tom Brady and Peyton Manning hit it around. And I was totally entertained by it. I thought it was fantastic. Same here. Have you played with a lot of these guys? What did you make of the match? Well, you know, I thought it was, you know, I thought it was very competitive.

Look, I've heard about Pagan's game, and I know he can hit it a mile. You know, I played some courses. Actually one this week that he made an eagle lawn and, you know, drove the grain. And so I could understand that, you know, Tiger's Tiger. But I never heard about Brady in his golf game and what he could do. And watching Tom, you know, Tom can put in a little more. work, you know, but, you know, Tom can put in a little more work. And, you know, it was raining. And I know he's the ultimate competitive. Tom would love to do it over again. But, you know,

the cause and what it was about and being able to raise that much money, I think, you know, it was just, it was something that was definitely needed, man, and it'll go a long way in life. And I'm sure those guys had a great time. It looked like they had fun. Yeah. It's great seeing you, Michael. I love talking to you. So your family's all good? Your wife making sure. Family's all good. Is your wife on? He's all good. Yeah, my wife won't let me out of the house. Won't let me go out and get a hair cut.

I'm growing a little mini-eye fro up under here, but, you know, it's all temporary. I'm enjoying it, though. You know, the love connection is in the building. There you go. That's the way to look at it right there. Love connection is here. All right. Absolutely.

You know, I love talking to you, Michael. Thank you. No doubt. Same here. Anytime. All right. Mike, Vic. Get your free credit score card today, even if you're not a Discover customer,

include your FICA credit score. Check your score. It won't hurt your credit. Learn more. Discover.com. credit scorecard limitations apply. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, a bit of good news for the NFL. They informed each team yesterday that the next phase of facility reopening will begin Monday, June 1st that will allow ticket offices, retail shops, and other customer-facing facilities to reopen as long as they fully comply with state and local regulations. And the league also expects coaches to be allowed back in this phase. We had Peter Stregor on earlier, and he talked about this with us.

It sounds like they're going to open up facilities to coaches next week, which is a huge deal because they want every team to have equal footing. So say, for example, if in Kansas City, Andy Reid is able to walk in the office, we know right now in New Jersey, Adam Gase and Joe Judge are not. They didn't want that. They want everyone to be able to come back at the same time. The word is that coaches will be able to return next week with, obviously, in coordination with all the health policies, but also that it would only be 75 people max or less than 50%

in the building. It's a very interesting time with these off-season virtual programs, but to at least have the coaches in the building, I know the players aren't there yet, is a great sign for things to come. It is really, it's a great thing for the NFL that they are going to be able to do this, because obviously, you know, we've all had Zoom meetings and Zoom conversations. You and I did the show from separate places for two months, but there is a, you know, there is something to human contact and being able to have conversations in the same room in real time with someone.

They can also move forward with other programs and just start getting back to normal. So this is a big step forward for the NFL. So Baker Mayfield said he is entering his third NFL season with a more reserved attitude. But Tiki Barber said on CBS Sports Radio, he's skeptical about the effectiveness of Baker's new approach. Baker Mayfield made himself by having the chip on his shoulder. He made himself by creating adversity with an opponent. He made his way from undersized, unappreciated, transferred to a new school, to number one overall pick, by being edgy, by having a moxie, by having an attitude, by having being pissed

off at the world for no reason at all. And now he's going to calm himself down and do it the old school way? It's an interesting perspective. You don't want to go away from what got you there. But I think that there's a little more to it. I think that Baker, like you said, is maturing a little bit. I think he's starting to learn the game that there is something to manipulating the media a little bit, especially when you're the number one overall pick and you're the

quarterback and you're the face of a franchise. I love his chip on the shoulder attitude, you know, unapologetic nature, because I think you need different kinds of personalities. But you can be that while also kind of keeping a humbleness about you that the other parts of the media want to see. I personally don't care about it, but I do think it does play into the overall expectations

that you have for your team, which is pretty much what the Browns are saying this year. We're done talking. We're just going to go out and play and prove that we are as good as we say. we are. Last year it was, I can't even, I don't want to be like a prisoner of the moment, but that was one of the noisiest, oh God. Like, pre-season situations that I can remember in a very long time.

Well, if you just look at two things, their schedule looks easier to me, and they have a better head coach. Right. And I'll add a third. They figured out their tackle positions. And they added a lot more talent. So it, to me, if you don't think Cleveland, is going to be a playoff team. You've got to give me a lot of reasons. Because I think if you just look at their talent offensively, if Baker just is coachable, this is going to be a wildly productive offense.

I don't know if their defense is still great. They've got a pass rusher I love and a corner I love. Their defensive personnel is hit and miss for me. But in terms of offense, if Baker just is a, I'll set the bar low, 63.5% completion percentage. 26 touchdowns, 12 picks, just a 2 to 1. It's a playoff team.

He doesn't have to be great. If Baker is good, because I don't think he's a Patrick Mahomes talent. He's not going to give you those kind of numbers. But I mean, 26 touchdowns, 12 picks, 63%, pass a rating 92. Boom, you can't look at that roster and say that's not a playoff team. But they just need, and this kind of feels like that this year, they need to establish a culture in a,

Cleveland. An adult. A culture. Quiet adult culture. And it doesn't have to be quiet as far as the fans go. Fans are going to be fans and that's fine. Like, think whatever you think. But the actual team's got to start a culture.

Finally, Connor McGregor is still awaiting his next fight after beating Cowboys Soroni in 40 seconds back in January. But former middleweight champ Anderson Silva recently called out McGregor and challenged him to a super fight at 176 pounds, which Connor accepted. Oh, I love that. Dana White says he hasn't spoken with McGregor about his next fight, and Connor, he wants Connor to remain focused on the 155-pound division. Silva hasn't fought since May 11, 2019.

He's 45. He would have to cut weight because he currently sits at, fights at 185. So he would have to go down, and McGregor would have to put on a significant amount of weight. But McGregor was recently talking about, like, who is the goat of UFC? And he said Anderson Silva was. He put himself at number two, which is kind of an interesting.

perspective from Connor McGregor, but we know we've kind of got a new Connor McGregor these days. This would be an amazing fight. That's a lot of weights for both of them to swing in order to get to that. But Silva was always just an incredible fighter. Yeah, UFC has got

its bearings going now. They've got a handful of fighters I care about. Justin Gaichi is the new guy I'm totally into. So they've got about four to five people I'm genuinely interested in. I thought that card they had about them three weeks ago.

I thought it was so beneficial to the UFC. There was nothing else on. Everybody watched it. But it was great fights too. Oh, it was a great. I honestly thought Joy, it was one of the best top three cards I'd ever seen. I thought it was a great card.

You're absolutely right. They have great momentum right now. If they can continue this and keep putting out, not that they ever lost momentum, but there was kind of a feeling like boxing was making this resurgence. I don't really like that boxing and UFC have to compete against each other. There's room for both.

They're going to be compared, obviously. But yes, there's room for both, and they can both be great right now. Yeah, good stuff. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. It's funny because I'm thinking to myself, was it a great UFC card, or was I so starving for sports?

But the last fight was incredible. It was an upset. Then the heavyweight fight was over. So you got the quick knockdown, you got the champion knocked off. It was just a bunch of different-looking fights. They all had different endings, some quick, some long, knockouts, not knockouts.

So I thought it was really good. And, you know, scarcity helps. I mean, listen, when you're hungry, even a corn dog will do. Oh. No, I agree with you. But I do think there was a good fight, though, as well. Like, I don't think, if it was boring, we would just have it on in the background and not be paying attention to it.

I was totally engaged. Yes. Good stuff. Jason McIntyre's around the corner. Tomorrow's headlines today. one of my favorite segments of the week. With everything going on, you're probably worrying a bit more than ever. Check out mDrivevRelax.com.

Take in the evenings, chill you out, relax you. MDrivevRelax.com for a limited time, 50% off. Live in Los Angeles, it's The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. So people get all worked up. The most vanilla bland thing ever, we were talking about somebody, an NFC or AFC coach came out and said Baker Mayfield's way more talented than Kirk Cousins. And Stafansky, his new coach won with Kirk Cousins.

And I said, I don't really buy that premise that Baker's that talented. He's talented. But the idea, like, talent to me is about, and I said, so I made a list of the 10 most talented quarterbacks in the NFL. Not the best necessarily. Arm, athletic ability. Can you run? The offensive line breaks down. Receiver falls.

Can you make a play? I don't even think this is. Many of you, I guess, are worked up on Sam Darnold number 10. He's 6-4, 225, played behind a... Carried a USC team to a Rose Bowl win that had to fire their staff, has gone to the NFL last year, had mono, went 7 and 6th with a bottom three offensive line and a bottom 5 receiving corps.

He's an unbelievable playmaker. Now, Matt Stafford, I'd put it 11, but Matt can't run around like, Matt's hurt. He's got a better arm than Donald. Now, if Andrew Luck was still playing, I may put him three or four. I love luck. I thought he was way underrated in terms of athletic ability.

But I'm just talking talent. I'm not talking coachability, line of scrimmage, your IQ. I mean, Drew Breeze right now is like an encyclopedia. His brain functions. When you start playing that position for 20 years, like Brady and Breeze, those guys have been doing it so long, it's like, you know, at the end of the career. And by the way, Russell Wilson is just moving. moving into that now where you don't have to think much.

Like you've seen every single defense. Brady said that before his Super Bowl with Atlanta. He's like, you know, I've seen every defense. You can't really throw anything at me anymore. It took Brady over a decade to get to that spot. So I think Mahomes is the most talented guy, arm, leg, mobility, instinct, it. Carson went to Russell Wilson 3, Aaron Rogers 4. Again, Aaron's not quite the runner that Russell is or Carson.

doesn't quite have my home's arm, though he's close. Lamar 5th, Deshawn's 6th. I put Cam in there. He doesn't have a team. I put him 7. Josh Allen, Buffalo is really talented. Kyler Murray, Sam Darnel. Josh Allen's the one I thought we'd get pushed back,

and I'll fight for him forever. I thought Donald was an obvious one. I don't know it was an obvious one. Well, you do love Sam Darnold. Well, yeah, I think he's athletic. He was a linebacker in high school. He's a surfer. I mean, that to me, really, like,

all of those guys are great athletes, too. like that's the part of it. They have the ability to take advantage of their extreme athleticism, which every quarterback doesn't necessarily have. Yeah, Kyler's not quite as tall as I want. Darnold's throwing motion isn't quite as good. Deshawn's

not a natural thrower like an Aaron or Lamar's still working on the throwing. There, I mean, there's very few. I mean, Mahomes is the only one that feels perfect. You get everything. The brains, the leadership, the arm, the running, the mobility, can get banged up a little bit. All right. Jason McIntyre,

is joining us via the phone. We do tomorrow's headlines today. And Jason this week is taking a different tact. He is joining us on our phone. He's doing tomorrow's headlines today based on Super Bowl potential matchups. So let's bring in Jason McIntyre via the phone. All right, this is tomorrow's headlines today, Jay Mack. You take it away.

How are you, Colin? What's going on? I don't know what happened with the technical difficulties, but I'm here and present and accounted for. All right, that's good. So let's go. Tomorrow's headlines today. Let's start. All right.

So the fourth Super Bowl matchup that I want to see the most. I've been spending a lot of time analyzing the NFL. And number one should be obvious, right, Colin? The headline will be New England versus Old Brady. Patriots Buccaneers in Tampa for the Super Bowl probably would be the number one Super Bowl. You could argue of all time, right? You've got Tom Brady leaving the place he's dominated for two decades going to Tampa. and then Grankowski joining him because, of course, neither of them like Belichick at the end.

I just think this would be so fascinating on every level. They actually have a line for this game, believe it or not. Tampa would be an early seven and a half point favorite against Belichick. Now, could Bill get Jared Sidham to the Super Bowl? I don't know that would be a tall order, but this without question would be the number one Super Bowl that we could get next February. Okay, tomorrow's headlines today. Take it away, JMA.

So I do believe that everyone's with me here. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are probably the favorite in the AFC defending champ. From the NFC, it's kind of up in the ear. The headline will be back to back, not so easy, breezy. Drew Brees and the Saints finally breaking through after a few difficult years in the playoffs. How about this? Drew Brees and said he's going to retire. Colin, his final game would be in the Super Bowl against Patrick Mahon.

Holmes, kind of the new superstar of the league, Breeze on his way out. I think that would be utterly fascinating. And remember, we saw John Elway leave with the Super Bowl ring. We saw Peyton Manning leave with the Super Bowl ring in his final game. Could Drew Grease be the next quarterback to do that? That would be an awesome super. Yeah, I think I'd put that number one, actually. All right, tomorrow's headlines today.

What's your third, J-Mack? Now, we could do a – this is kind of a rematch version. You remember what happened? 2013, the blackout Super Bowl in the Superdome. The headline will be Ravens Find a Pot of Gold. I've got Ravens 49ers. Listen, you know I'm bullish on the Niners this year, but I've seen some stuff recently.

You know, Colin, when you do this stuff, when the data changes, you can make changes to your outlook. And I just, I'm pulling back on the Niners a little bit. I still like them going to the Super Bowl. and the rematch of Raven 49ers. They had a great game in the rain last year. And I would love to see Lamar Jackson versus that 49ers defense in the Super Bowl. It would be a really good game if you're into the gambling.

The line on this game actually happening was plus 3,000. Lamar Jackson versus Jimmy G. in Super Bowl 55. By the way, they played last year in Baltimore. It was a little wet and soggy, but it was a very competitive, kind of felt like a playoff game. Tomorrow's headlines today, what would be the headline for the long shot Super Bowl matchup? Okay. So this one, Colin, you've been talking about this guy all week. He doesn't have a playoff win.

I think this would be an awesome matchup would be huge for ratings. The headline will be Philly Special. Baker is two. Now, I know you're on the Baker bandwagon. We like the Browns a lot this year. Okay, a lot of the numbers suggest they're going to rebound. Colin, you're going to love this. three of the last four years, there has been a team that's come out of nowhere and gotten to the Super Bowl.

Remember the Rams? They were 80 to 1. I'm sorry, the Falcons were 80 to 1 when they got to the Super Bowl and lost the Patriots. Eagles with Wentz starting out, they were 50 to 1, and the Niners last year, 25 to 1. The Browns are long shots. Currently 36 to 1 to get to the Super Bowl. I think there's a chance. The AFC had some opening.

We'll see if they can pull it off, but the Eagles are my team here in the NFC. I love that matchup, potentially in Tampa. Yeah, I wouldn't pick the Browns to win the Super Bowl. I still think there's just, we don't know enough about Kevin's DeFansky, and I really do think rookie head coaches, new systems are going to struggle with young quarterbacks this year. Division is tough as well, yeah. Yeah, but I think Baker's going to have a really nice year.

I said before, 26 touchdowns, 12 picks, 93 quarterback rating, 60. That seems within reach. And I think if he has those numbers, they're a playoff team. I do love Colin how he has changed his outlook on social media and being in a million commercials and giving a million interviews. Remember, we talked about him after he beat the Jets in his first game, and I noticed how he was glued to his phone right after the game. And everybody killed me. Oh, my God, just murdered me on the Internet. And here it is, two years later, Baker Mayfield realizing, I don't need to go on social media and favorite tweets that are people,

attacking me or questioning me. I need to leave Twitter alone and put down Instagram and focus on what the task is at hand, which is football, playing on the field, not looking at commercials and leading the league in commercials. Baker, the new outlook. I'm really impressed with him, Colin. He's all grown up. You know, it's funny about this. This is, Joy and I talk about this. We all know in the NFL it happens every year. A good team is not very good. And a team that's bad is shockingly good. It happens every year of my life. I don't buy the Steelers this year. I don't think they're going to be. I think they're a 7-9 team.

I don't think they had a great draft. I don't know if Ben's going to be in great shape. Tomlin wears me out, lack of details. And I think, by the way, their division's too strong. I just think it's just too strong Cleveland, Baltimore. And then I think I have a belief that Miami and Denver are both going to pop. Is that Miami's going to look really well coached. Two is going to play.

There's going to be excitement. There's going to be an energy around him. Flores brought in a lot of defensive. pieces. They're going to be like a nine-win team. And then I think Denver's going to be the shock of the league. I think they have a chance to win their division. I don't love their left tackle, but I think their receiving core, tight-end group and running back group is unbelievable and sensational. Do you have a team that was good last year or the odds-makers love and you don't and a dog you like? Yeah, I'm on Arizona. I really like them in the NFC to pop. I would definitely

take the under on the dolphins. Nine wins. I think they're over under a six. But when I look at Arizona and what they did last year, played the 49ers very tough twice. They had massive defensive issues that they somewhat solved. I love the addition of a wide receiver. I think they can win nine. And I hate going back to my jets, so I won't right now. But that AFC East is up for grabs. I do really like the Brown.

I'm disagreeing with you on the Steelers, a million percent. With two terrible, marginal NFL quarterbacks last year, they nearly made the playoffs. Defense is like a top seven unit in the league. And now you get Big Ben back in there, you know, at 38, having one last hurrah. I saw him shave the beard, always a side of maturity. I like the Steelers a lot as well. All right, Jay Mack, the beach is now open in your little hometown of Manhattan Beach, so use it with discretion, but congratulations.

I know you're a beach guy. Yeah, I'm going to play tennis right now. Hopefully I won't get the COVID on the tennis sport. No, just keep your distance. Keep your distance. Be respectful. Wear a mask until you play, okay? We'll do.

All right. Nice talking to you. So I play tennis last two days. So you wear a mask, you go into the facility, you take it off, you play, you put it back on, you go. Nobody can kind of hang out at my tennis place, but you can play. And everybody is, they're opening up. Oh, wait, time out. Goulet, come again. You can't just throw that out there like a hockey score.

What did you just say? They're opening up restaurants in L.A. County. As of when? I don't know what. They literally just got announced in a few minutes ago. Okay. like, are they opening them up tonight? I don't know if it's open tonight.

Well, you can't just throw out. You just can't just say something like that. I talk to Gavin Newsom. I didn't decide this. You can't just throw it out there. Finally, we got to go have a steak. And then I ask you when and you're like, no idea. It was just announced.

That's like saying baseball is back. When? You can't just give me the first part and not the when. Okay, time out. I have to look. My number of free articles on the L.A. time ran out. I can't look at it. You should subscribe to our media brethren at the LA Times.

That's worth it. They do a good job. I've never read more newspapers. Reading is all I do now. Okay, so somebody in my ear said this weekend. Wow. So sometime this weekend. It's happening, guys.

I'm getting back to normal. Like 30%, 50%, I'm sure, well, I don't know. It won't be more than 50%. They're not going to just let you. My guess is that it will be. Oh, my God. I'm so excited.

Percentage. I'm going to tell my wife right now, book a reservation, because you're never going to get in. The rest of my life, you know, the family's safe, we're doing the best we can. I never realized how much they miss. I like restaurant people. I like them. I like going and hanging out. That's really all I do is go eat.

I just like, I like them. I like the bartenders and the waiters and the food and the owners and the, I just like hanging out in restaurants. Just right on the corner. Just everybody, you know, in England, they have the corner pub. just like my restaurants. All right, Joy, John, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us this week. We'll see you Monday. Stay safe.

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