The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Alabama-Clemson, Trevor Lawrence, the Packers, and NFL rumors

Episode Date: January 8, 2019

Colin discusses what was surprising about the Alabama-Clemson Championship game, what the scouts are already saying about Clemson Tigers QB Trevor Lawrence, why he doubts Green Bay Packers new HC Matt LaFleur, and the latest NFL coaching rumors. Guests include Joel Klatt, Peter Schrager, Rashad Jennings, and Tony Gonzalez. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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we are live in Los Angeles, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. We have an absolutely great show today. I was excited about yesterday, Joy Taylor. I think I'm more excited about today. I got a great night's sleep. I got eight hours. I never get eight hours of sleep. I watched that great game last.

night. It was fantastic. Good morning. Good morning. I saw something last night I have not seen in years. Not Alabama losing, not a route. But Alabama makes everybody uncomfortable. Even when Alabama loses, they make you uncomfortable. You have turnovers, you have a lot of penalties.

Clemson was never uncomfortable with a true freshman quarterback. Clemson had one penalty. With a true freshman quarterback, they had no turnovers. Clemson was never uncomfortable. That's amazing. The dynasty's not dead. Nick will continue to win games. But that kid's going to win another national title next year or the next year.

I've always told you the two best NFL quarterback prospects I've ever seen in college are John Elway and Andrew Luck. I am not being hyperbolic here. This kid's number three. And I think he's better than Andrew Luck. He is certainly much better than Andrew Luck as a freshman. I texted three different NFL executives last night. And I said, I posed the question to each of him.

I said, if Trevor Lawrence, 6,6, 220 and Mobile, was available in the NFL draft as a true freshman, all texted back. He would go number one. And they said, Colin, as good as the quarterbacks were last year, he's better than all of them, too. Darnold, Baker, Lamar, Josh, Josh. Two years ago, I was asked to go to a football camp in San Diego. I did. Trevor Lawrence was a junior about to be a senior. It was the 12 best high school quarterbacks in the country.

Nobody was close. Stop trying to convince me, all you college football fans, that your tiny run-around college. college quarterback's going to change the league, bruh. No, no, no, no, no. Trevor Lawrence, 6-6 can change the league. I like Tua. He'll play in the NFL. He's not changing anything.

I like Kyler Murray. He can play in the NFL. He's not changing the league. This kid is an all-time talent. And I don't say that much. I mostly tell you your quarterbacks aren't going to be great. You know how much I like Sam Donald? He's not close to this.

I watched this weekend, Mitch Trubisky, run-around guy. Lamar Jackson, run-around guy. Lose it home. But you know what the NFL is today in 2019 and will be in 2029 and will be in 2039 and will be in 2049? It will be about guys like Trevor Lawrence, who are 6'6, calm, rocket arms, see the field, and pick apart defenses, Alabama's with eight NFL. players on it. This weekend, by the way, you want to know who's meeting in the AFC playoffs? Philip Rivers and Tom Brady. They could not beat a lampshade in a 40-yard

dash. In the NFC, immobile Nick Foles. Drew Breeze, who doesn't run. Jared Gough, who's a statue, and Dak who runs a little. Yes, yes, Patrick Mahomes is really, really athletic, but he's a better thrower than a runner. You keep trying to convince convince me, the college football fan, that you're hyper athletic, cocky, run around the field guy is going to change the league and wreck the league. Now, Trevor Lawrence is what every NFL general manager is looking for today, is going to be looking for five years from now, is going to be looking for 10 years from now. That a true freshman quarterback could go up against an NFL defense, go look at the

NFL draft this year. It's all Alabama guys in the first round. All defensive guys. No turnovers? One penalty? Alabama's going to win games. But you're trying to convince me there's going to be this massive change in college football, massive change in pro football, that we're just going to move now to guys running around and guys running that. That's nice. I like a little mobility. I like that Andrew Luck can move. I wish Eli Manning had some movement and Philip Rivers was kind of athletic. But this league doesn't change folks. I watched Trubisky and Lamar this weekend.

Until they become elite throwers, they're not hoisting any trophies. Big Ben's hoisted trophies. Brady's hosted trophies. By the way, Russell Wilson wasn't hoisting any trophies until he became a pocket passer with also great mobility. Steve Young didn't hoist any trophies until he was initially a pocket guy, a runner, until Steve Young became a runner who was also a great pocket passer. This kid, Trevor Lawrence, this is not being hyperbolic.

This is what the NFL is dying to get their hands on. And he would be the number one pick easily. Last year's draft, this year's draft, next year's, and the following years when he comes out. Dabo Sweeney, good dude. Everybody loves him. Congrats to you. Greatest team ever, no idea. here's a little yabba-dabba-debo.

There was a lot of talk about best ever all year long. We were never in that conversation. But tonight there's no doubt. You know, first 15 and no team to beat Notre Dame and to beat Alabama to do it. This team won 13 games by 20 points or more and led by an unbelievable group of seniors, amazing group. And I'm just thankful to be a part of it. Congratulations.

Not sure to the greatest team ever, certainly in the discussion, have earned everything. And I can't wait to watch Trevor Lawrence for the next two years in college and to be the next superstar quarterback in the NFL. Let's shift to this. So the Packers have hired a coach, Matt Lefleur. For a year, he was an offensive coordinator at Tennessee the Titans. It's no big deal, but they made the playoffs when he wasn't there, and then he got there and the offense got worse. No, it actually did. Total offense, points per game, passing offense got worse.

But he got a job. You know, the young coaches is what you got to hire these days. Got to have a young coach with cheekbones. Good looking. I made two calls on Matt LaFleur last night to NFL sources. You know what they say about Matt LaFleur? People weren't sure he had the stature, the gravitas, and the alpha to lead a group of men

as a coordinator, not a coach. The knock on Matt LaFleur is nobody's quite sure if he can stand in front of guys in an offensive meeting and own the room. That's not as a head coach. That's just as a coordinator. Sean McVeigh head coach of the Rams is getting a lot of guys great jobs

that I don't think are quite ready. By the way, the Rams, I was told, did not want to hire Sean McVeigh. They wanted to wait a year because they didn't think he was quite ready, but they knew if they didn't hire him somebody else would, so they hired him and he's been a great success. But I saw this story yesterday. Cliff Kingsbury is interviewing for the Cardinals and the Jets job. Really? He got

fired at his alma mater in college. You do realize alma maters don't want to fire you. The last thing a school wants to do when you're a legend at the school is fire you, and they had to. He was so bad. Wow, Colin, I mean, it's Texas Tech. What about it? Mike Leach won there. Mike Leach won 85 games and lost 40. Mike Leach won bowl games at Texas Tech. Don't tell me you can't win at Texas Tech. Mike Leach won, but Mike Leach doesn't have cheekbones. He's not a model.

He dresses like a pirate. He's also winning at Washington State. Mike Leach can coach. Mike Leach could win with eight guys, and you have 11 offensively. Cliff Kingsbury is a nice guy, I'm sure. He had Patrick Mahomes, the NFL's MVP. he couldn't win in the Big 12. Come on.

He was 19 and 35 in the Big 12, losing record with Patrick Mahomes, who you keep lecturing me, I'm a jerk for not saying automatically he's the MVP of the league. Folks, there's a huge gap, folks, between knowing football, calling plays and being a head coach. There's a big difference between being a great pit boss at a casino. You could be the best pit boss at Caesar's Palace. And I mean, everybody knows. Bob's the best pit boss. Shirley's the best pit boss.

There's a difference between that and running a casino. Oh, God, I got to worry about food and beverage. I got to worry about security. I get a call from the feds. We got the president coming to town. A big difference between being a great pit boss and running a casino. There is a big difference between directing a movie and running a movie studio. Matt LeFleur called.

plays for one year. What did I miss? Tennessee got worse offensively. Offense, points, pass offense. They went down. And now he's the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. Maybe you've heard of it. It's an iconic NFL brand. Maybe you've heard of Aaron Rogers can be a little prickly tough to coach. Listen, I don't know if it's going to work. I will give you a stat that is rather alarming. By the NFL draft this year, half the NFL coaches, will have been hired in the last two years. Most new coaches don't work. Pete Carroll does.

He's still around. So is Mike Tomlin. So is Sean Payton. So's Andy Reed. So's Bill Belichick. Old guys can coach. Mike Leach dresses like a pirate. Doesn't have cheekbones, not lit.

Congratulations on hiring somebody who people question whether he has the stature and Gravitas, the Alpha, the It to lead a coordinator's meeting. Maybe you've heard Aaron Rogers is aging. He ran a Super Bowl winning coach out of town. Good luck to Matt Lefleur. All right, good stuff today. We are packed. We are absolutely packed.

I, um, so I saw, you know, You know I like Tom Brady, right? Yes. Yes. That goes without saying. Yes, Tom Brady and Andrew Locke are pretty. And Russell Wilson's way up there, although I didn't take him this weekend. Right.

So Tom Brady said something yesterday. You know how we do buy, sell, or hold? Yes. Well, I'm not going to play buy seller hold, but I am going to be a stockbroker next. And a good stockbroker doesn't fall in love with stocks. Doesn't get nostalgic about stocks. He moves on from stocks. He buys low, sell high.

That and what it has to do with Tom Brady and why I love New England over the Chargers, more on Matt LaFleur, more on why Belichick's better than Sabin, don't go anywhere. Hi, it's the herd. You know, we all put off doing things we need to do. I do all the time. I mean, we know we need to organize the garage, but there's always things that get in the way. It's funny how home security can be like that. You know, it's a good idea.

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Simplysafe.com slash heard. Simplysafe.com slash heard. It is great to have you in here. I'm going to read what they call a spot here. Can I do that? It's stuffy cold and flu season. Try Vick Sinex nasal spray. Vicks Sinex nasal spray uses directed. I got to sneak that in there, Joy. We've got to pay the bills here. It's important. No question. It's important. So is Vicks. Okay. I got Joel Clatt in a few minutes. He's got some. great stuff today. Do I ever tell you folks how lucky I am to have this job? How happy I am to how fortunate I am that some of you spend 20 minutes a day watching and listening to this show. Today is one of my favorite days of the year. They've got college national championship. You know I love

college football. I talk a lot more about NFL because it works for my business, but I love college football. I love that game last night. Watched it at a bar with a bunch of buddies. It was great. So Tom Brady is going to play against the Chargers this weekend. And so Tom Brady was on W-E-I-Radio, which is a bunch of angry dudes yelling at people. And Brady goes on once a week and gets off as quickly as he can and goes back to his rational, sane life. So he was on the radio show this week, and he was talking about on Monday about preparing for the Chargers. Here we go. There's an intense pressure.

I already feel it last night after that game ended. I mean, I was up watching film all night. So I had a lot of film to watch, and I was up pretty late. This is the biggest week of the year for me. So I got everything focused on what we need to do. And you can't watch enough film on weeks like this. You can't get enough rest. You can't get enough treatment, get enough training or get enough practice.

It's all about, you know, what we got to do to be at our best for, you know, the biggest three hours of the season. First of all, of the four games this weekend, there was one game I liked last weekend, Dallas. I liked Dallas to win. That was the one I felt strongest about. This week, the strongest game I feel about is the Patriots. Now, I know what a lot of you are saying. I'll be your stockbroker. A stockbroker's job is not to fall in love with stocks.

A bad stockbroker falls in love with stocks. A bad sportscaster falls in love with teams. I don't. I fall in like with teams. I'm always willing to move in and out of teams. And I said this yesterday on the show. I, about week three of the NFL season, Joy, you were here. I came on the air and I said, the Chargers have the best roster in the league.

And all I got was crap. all I got was pushback. All I got was you're a homer. All I got was you're from L.A. I said, no, watch the games. So I bought a ton of stock on the chargers in week three. And I have bought a ton of stock on the chargers. And now you, the public, you saw him beat Baltimore,

and now you want to buy the stock. And I'm here to sell it. That's what good stockbrokers do. Because now they're overvalued. They're an overvalued team. They're not going to win the Super Bowl. They had to stave off a team that could. I didn't throw the football this weekend after dominating them for three and a half hours.

They blew coverages. They dropped interceptions. They had a fumble goal line that wasn't called. They gave that game away at the end and got lucky. You live in L.A. Colin, that's why you like Brady. You're always claiming, you know what I'm loyal to? Honesty. It's the only thing that travels with me.

Doesn't matter where I live. Have you been listening to me for 10 years? You think I favor home teams? I took the Cowboys over my Seattle Seahawks last weekend. I don't do that. some stocks in the NFL I keep in my portfolio for 15 years, New England. Some stocks I sell quickly, Vikings Jags. Some stocks I sell mid-season, Rams.

Some stocks, chargers, I load up on, but then I see the rest of the suckers coming in to buy the stock, and I dump it. And I'm dumping the charger stock, buy, low, sell, high. and I'm going to take the stock I sell on the Chargers and I'm going to buy more New England stock and add it to my portfolio. I've been buying it for years. I think the Chargers this morning are slightly overvalued and I think the Patriots at 4.5 are slightly undervalued.

I like the Patriots by a touchdown. And the reason I like them by a touchdown is because I think NFL football in the playoffs becomes incredibly situational. and I think Tom Brady has a history in these games, especially at Foxborough, of winning the situational battle. I mean, this whole thing about watching film, remember Tom versus time? He's addicted to this. He's not winning because he has the best arm.

He's not winning because he's the best athlete. He's winning because of his film study. I watch tape all day, Monday, all day, Tuesday. You know, Wednesday we practice, Thursday we practice. Friday we practice. I'm going to watch film. And Saturday before the game, I watch film. and then sunny morning I watch film.

I don't know why I can sit here and watch it and, you know, process information quickly, but I can. Running and lifting has been much harder to develop than this. This has kind of been in me. I mean, I could literally, like, just watch film all day. It's like little boys with Fortnite. They could just sit in their room and play Fortnite all day.

That's Tom Brady's version of Fortnite. I think a lot of grown-ups play Fortnite, too, at this point. All right, Joey Taylor, with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Takes a lot of time and dedication to be great. It's not easy.

And then it's a little bit more to be the greatest. Yeah, I mean, if it was easy, Kobe Bryant was the first to practice and the last to leave. There's a lot of guys that are 80% of Kobe Bryant. But they're not Kobe Bryant because first, their last to leave. It's very mental. So with three road teams pulling off upsets this weekend, lived up to its name of being a wildcard weekend.

Only eight teams left in the hunt. Hunt, Vegas has released their latest Super Bowl odds. The Saints are unsurprisingly still five or two favorites. And despite having a first round by, the Rams are now tied with the Chiefs for the second best odds at four to one. I think this is about right. And they believe that Dallas is the weakest team. 18 to 1 odds. Well, Vegas has New England above the Chargers, which is what I have.

Yeah, I think New England at home is better than the Chargers. So Vegas is bored to me. I don't disagree with any of it. By the way, you see they have Philadelphia over Dallas. Yeah. I mean, I can understand that because Philly was there last year. I will just say this. With their quarterback that they won with last year.

I know Philadelphia thinks I hate Philadelphia. They put you in their hype video. I picked the Eagles to beat the Bears last weekend. I am considering picking the Eagles to beat the Saints. It is something I am. No, you think I'm crazy. I'll tell you something. You look at a couple of matchups.

That game's going to be very interesting. I'm not ready to go there yet. It's going to be very interesting. You're going to marinate on it a little longer? Oh, marinate. It's a good while I'm going to marinade on it. So Trevor Lawrence, the hype chain is in full effect. He became the first true freshman in 33 years to win a national championship last night.

Lawrence was unstoppable, 347 yards, and three touchdowns in Clemson's 44 to 16 beatdown of Alabama. And now it is overreaction Monday. Many are claiming that Lawrence could be the best prospect ever. He did have a very great game. Oh, good Lord. It was very impressive. Yes. The most impressive thing about him to me was the hits that he was able to take.

Now, obviously, he's very young, so, you know, he's not going to be wanting to take those hits when he gets to the NFL. But he just really has no fear of staying in the pocket, which is pretty impressive. But according to NFL rules, he cannot turn pro until he's three years out of high school, which means two more years to go. And as we were talking about the beginning of the show, he will likely be the number one pick when he is up. for that unless this was some sort of crazy fluke. But should the NFL consider changing their role? No. Listen, you can't change a rule because Andrew Luck could have come out a year early.

If you go back and look at Andrew Luck, he had a great year. Like redshirt sophomore year, Andrew Luck had unbelievable numbers. He stayed in for a year because he wanted to go to college. Can we stop pretending that college sports are evil, that they don't have any value, that the coaches are all evil? Can we stop pretending that college sports is evil? I just think that it is borderline unconstitutional

to force a athlete to play for free when they are not allow them to have the opportunity to go and make a professional money. Can I say it's borderline unconstitutional that athletes in college are allowed to academically not qualify for schools and still be allowed in

next to all the kids that had to qualify. Well, that's the preference of the school. Not all schools do that. No, even Stanford, even the brain schools to allow having major competitive world-class sports are willing to let. Well, those major competitive world-class sports happen to pay for a lot of the major competitive world-class facilities that a lot of these schools have. But remember, only one sport in college makes money. If you have 47 sports, college football pays for all of them. That's the one we're talking about.

But I'm saying college football has to pay the bills for everybody. They're saying, and again, you can pay players, do whatever you want. but I'm tired of like college sports are evil. No, I don't think that college sports are evil. And I don't think this is for everybody. And also, I think that it's the NFL's option, whether to draft a player or not. Like, I don't think this is the answer for everyone. Like, if a kid comes in and he, in his mind, is ready for the draft and he really needs three more years of college.

And he makes himself eligible and then he's done. That's his choice. But I do think that they should be allowed to choice because you can go and develop and play it on practice squads or whatever else if a team wants to draft you. I feel like that should be an option. I'm not saying that college sports are evil, that it's for everyone. There's very few, very few exceptions. Just because you were able to go straight from high school to college and the NBA, I mean, everyone was doing it.

The best of the best, the best was doing it. So Mike McCarthy was probably not too pleased, the latest update on his prospect to take over the Browns. Cleveland hasn't interviewed McCarthy yet and ESPN has reported the Browns talked with either McCarthy, the Browns talked with either McCarthy or his reps today, but things are on hold for now while the Browns talked to other candidates. dates according to sources. Meanwhile, McCarthy remains very much in play for the Jets. So they have McCarthy on the back burner. For the record, if I was the Browns or the Jets, this is who I would

hire. What do you think is a better fit for him? For who? For McCarthy. Like, what's a better situation for him? Considering the Jets roster right now? The better situation is, well, I can't ever say Cleveland's a better situation because their history is chaos. So Cleveland has better players, but I don't like all the egos and all the nonsense that goes on upstairs. So I will never say Cleveland's the better option over anybody because their history tells me they'll revert. Eventually, they'll revert back to what they've always been. Just because a kid who's been dysfunctional his whole life has a good six months at a job doesn't mean he's suddenly a great performer at work.

I can't trust Cleveland long term. I trust Baltimore. I trust Pittsburgh. I trust Philadelphia. There's a lot of organizations. I trust the Packers. A lot of these are, I don't trust Tampa long term. I don't trust Cleveland.

So I can never just say, oh, Cleveland's where I would go. I would never go there. I do think it's kind of comical that Cleveland has Mike McCarthy. Like, we're just going to check out some other candidates. You just wait right there until you figure it out. I'd be with the Jets. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The He is the voice of college football. Generally, I bring him on 10 minutes every week where Joel Clatt was wrong. But this week, I think he could be right. I think Joel Clat could be right today. What's up? Okay. How are you doing, man?

I am doing. How are you doing well? How are you, Joy? I thoroughly enjoyed that thrashing last night. Listen, that was one of the best performances we've seen from a team in a long time. From Trevor Lawrence. This kid, Clat. You played college quarterback.

You know the position. He's really good, and he's going to be one of the most elite prospects. But what? The hype train's going to low. The hype is in front of the train right now. Listen, he's got to grow. There's some things. And he got away with a few really poor throws in that game by unbelievable wide receiver play.

The catches that Ross were making were- They make those in the NFL too now. They were incredible. You don't buy into Trevor Lawrence. No, no, I buy in 100%. But I'm just saying, like, easy. Okay, time out. Enjoy.

chew, chew, I'm the hype train. Boarding passengers, Joy, would you like to come on the hype train? I would like a... Joe, Platt, would you like to... Chew, chew, chew. I'll get on. Okay, okay. You get on, but you're like dragging your foot on the outside of the train.

Well, you know, I mean, it's like... That's not drag any feet here. I'm sorry. I always forget my phone. Are you there? I leave it, and it's buzzing in my phone. Oh, it's Baker. Baker Mainfield.

Why don't you say to sit next to you? Come on a real show. Oh, he texted. He was like, hey, tell Colin to pump the brakes on. on any quarterback evaluations for the draft. You jerk. I know. I know.

I'm not saying he's, listen, he's tremendous. He got away with a few 50-50 throws because a great wide receiver play. He's going to be the best prospects since Andrew Lump. Thank you. When he comes out, let's just let him be a great college player for a while. Let's not. Let's call him the greatest football player of all time. Let's go with it.

Just full steam. Okay. How about that, listen, Alabama's going to win a bunch of games. Sure. But I will, can I, I'm going to give you up, I'm going to say this. Nick has a reputation, great with players, brutal on coaches. Yeah. And the minute coaches can get out of there, they're out of there.

Yeah, that's true. Okay. Dabo Sweeney's assistants, they don't leave. No, you're right. The difference in these dynasties to me is stark for you. It's very stark for me. And I think that you can encapsulate them with just two words. one is a factory and one is a family.

Thank you. And that's going to sound like I favor one over the other. I'm not. You can succeed both ways. Factories make a lot of money. Sure they do. And Nick is and has created, I think, the best dynasty I've ever seen in college football. I agree. Certainly in my lifetime, maybe ever going back to Wilkinson and what he did at OU.

But it's a factory. But it's a factory. There's no doubt. Just to your point, the data behind that, since they met for the first time for a national championship. So it's been four years. They've met every single year, three of those for a national championship. But in these four games, Nick Sabin, over that course of time, has lost 13 assistant coaches. 13. 13. It's a staggering number. In fact, only Tosh LaPoy and the strength coach are the only two guys that have been with him during that entire time. And by the way, LaPoy is a recruiter,

not an elite coach, and the other guy's a strength coach. And that's right. And on the other side, Clemson has lost, wait for it, two. Two assistants, neither of them coordinators. So every single game, think about this now. In every one of these four games, Alabama has had a different set of coordinators. It went, it was Smart Kiffin, then it was Sark and Pruitt, then it was Dayball Pruitt, and now it was LaPoy and Loxley. And they got out coached last night. And they got severely out coached.

Alabama's special teams were a mess. You fake a kick and the kickers, the lead blocker on fourth and 11? Against a defense that was waiting for a fake. They had levels of defense. It was a terrible call. So by the way, if Alabama's a factory, Clemson is a family. That's the difference. So think about it.

Their coaches stay. They've got the same set of coordinators all four years. They've also got kids that stay in school for their senior year. Imagine if Alabama this year had Duron Payne, Mika Fitzpatrick, and Calvin Ridley on the field. because that's the equivalent of what Clemson had. Their best NFL prospects from last year returned and were on the field for them this year. Why? Because it's a family.

Because it's a family. Again, neither is better than the other. No, no, no. Family can win. Families better. Maybe. You want to work in a family? You want to work in a family or you want to work in a factory?

But here's the deal. I think that when kids choose Alabama, they know they're going to a factory. It's a means to an end. When assistants work for Nick Sabin, it's a means to an end. They're consciously deciding to enter that. factory because they want to be better on the other side. So I don't think one is better than the other. And I don't think this means that Alabama is going to be worse next year or it's going downhill.

They're going to be fine. And we're probably going to be talking about this matchup at the same time next year. I think Alabama and Clemson have totally separated themselves in college football. By the way, SEC, I don't know. Let me glance quickly at the statistics. Georgia crushed, Bama crushed, six and six in bowl games. one in three against the Big 12. It does appear there was an overvaluation of a certain conference.

And here's the thing. Here's the thing. And I know people are waiting. They're like, oh, you're going to dance on the grave of the SEC. No, I'm not. All I'm going to say is that if you're one of those honks that are just constantly touting that conference by the edge of the sword that your best team is winning the national championship and your best teams are better than the other best teams around

the country, then you're going to have to die by that. sword this year because your two best teams got thoroughly thumped in their postseason games. Texas physically dominated Georgia in the south. There's no doubt. That was never, that was like, that was big brother, little brother. And the score was

not indicative of what the game was. Texas dominated the game. By the way, that game last night, here's what amazing. Alabama, this is what they do. They make you uncomfortable. Sure. You turn it over. Many penalties. A true freshman quarterback last night. One penalty, no turnover. That's right.

Clemson's offense was never uncomfortable. And they were never uncomfortable on third down. There were 10 of 15 on third down. Meanwhile, Alabama in those three categories, they had two turnovers, six penalties, and they were only four of 13 on third down. So they were dominated in those instances. Clemson is at least right now,

now they're the Kings of College football. The dynasty has been great for a decade, but now Bama's the challenger. That's the way that it goes. Clemson's returning all their best players. offensively. It was so much fun. I do not dance on graves. I do not believe doing that.

That is not how I... You know what I'm saying, right? If you're going to hang your hat on that hook, right, that your best is better than everybody's best. By a long shot. Then when your best gets dumped, guess what? We're going to rip that hat off the wall. So that's the case right now.

And by the way, the people that are obnoxious are mostly the mid-tier SEC fans that are just riding the coattails of Alabama. Alabama fans, to their credit on social media for the last 24 hours. Very cordial nice. Hey, we got thumped, we got outcoached, all of it, we know it. Classy.

That's true. I like that. That's why I bring you on this show. You're classy. Thank you, Colin. But let's go back to something. Joy Taylor, who I trust now more with football insight, understands the greatness of Trevor Lawrence.

If you are hesitating on him, I'm not hesitating. I'm just saying relax a little bit. Here's the thing. One percent relaxed? Because reps matter in college football. Reps really matter. I've given you this statistic a bunch of different times. If you take the quarterbacks that have won Super Bowls that are in the NFL right now,

on average, they threw a thousand passes in college. They started 30-plus games. This guy needs more time. There were times that he made some poor throws and got that throw right there. He was totally bailed out by his wide receiver on that throw. So what? His receivers are good. You get that in the NFL too.

Like I said, I'm on the hype train. I just said, pump the brakes a little bit. You're in the caboose. Why are you such a fun killer today, Joel? No, Buzz killed clatt. I'm sorry. We're all coming off this amazing high, you know, Alabama. All Alabama haters and SEC here's going to celebrate.

Clatch the guy. Clash the guy. And so it comes on like, technically, there's three more years from experience. You know what? Hey, facts don't care about your hype train. Hey, you know what you are at Christmas? Hey, who's going to clean up the math? Join High. Someone's got to do it.

Someone's got to do it. Well, okay, grandpa. You go back to the hardware store. Wow. Trevor Lawrence is the number one quarterback since Andrew Locke. I said that. What do you mean? I'm throwing the party too.

I've got a party hat on. I'm just in the corner not having drinks. You didn't say it with any conviction. Can I be the sober one at the party, please? Hey, nothing wrong with talking. There's nothing wrong with being sober. I'm seven years sober. You can be fun and sober.

Well, it's a little harder. Trust me on that. But someone's got to drive home. Someone's got to drive this show home. You know the only bad thing I don't get you for a few more months. Are you going to come on for the draft? I'll come for the draft. How about that?

Do that a couple times. Let's do that. Would you do that? I mean, I had to last year because you were sitting out here talking about Baker, even now you're still like, I don't buy Cleveland long term. Okay, he's going to be the rookie of the deal. You're like the handsome brother I never had that I wish I did. You would be like the handsome successful brother that I wish I had that could have guided me through life. Instead, I was out in the middle of the with the lumberjacks doing nothing and just scaling the mountains by myself.

That's because here at the herd, we're not a factory. We're a hashtag family. See, you bring it all together. Joy, you just wrap it all back around. You completely redeemed yourself. There we go. You're awesome, Joel Klatt. Back in a second, by the way,

Gurley versus Sikh, Rams versus Cowboys. Be very careful, Rams. Be very careful. That's next. It's a herd. 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 the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. 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 SportsSlice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

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,

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, Kier. gains is 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. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going from the WMBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain.

It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel like. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs, Gabby Thomas and Katie Ledecki. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me.

And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can, like, I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness.

So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levin this went to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, Just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know.

Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's great to have you. And we're going to have, I like the underdogs last week. Let's talk some NFL. I like the underdogs last week. in the NFL playoff games, except the Cowboys.

Other than that, I like the Colts, I like the Chargers, and I like the Eagles. I like a couple of the underdogs this week. You're not going to have four favorites win. Now, last week I went three dogs and a favorite. This week I think I'm going to go two favorites, two dogs, or three favorites, one dog. I do like New England. I want to talk about the Rams and the Cowboys. That will be a home game for the Dallas Cowboys.

it'll be at best a 55-45-45 Dallas split for the crowd. Could be 65-35 Dallas fans over the Rams. Sean McVeigh is the coach of the Rams. He was talking about his running back Todd Gurley and the cowboy running back hill face, Ezekiel Elliott, and here's what he had to say. When you look at Zeke, I think he's similar to Todd, one of the most complete backs in the league, extremely productive.

I think he's got the ability to go through you or go around you with speed. You know, he's gotten a lot more involved in the past game this year. I think he's truly a complete back. and you could see that a lot of what they do is predicated on, you know, just him getting a bunch of touches. Let me say something, though. I just want to say this to cowboy fans and Zeke fans and Ram fans and Gurley fans. This isn't lasting forever, and I don't think it's lasting this long. Todd Gurley already this year and year four wore down.

The Rams need to draft another running back fairly early, fourth, fifth round, so somebody else can carry nine times a game, and Gurley can carry 18, not 28. These windows are going to close really quickly for Gurley and Zeke. It's just like in baseball. You cannot ask a running back to have 300 touches a year. Zeke for the Cowboys this year. Do you how many touches he had? He had 381 touches.

You do realize all these new rules in football protect the quarterbacks and protect the wide receivers. They don't protect the running back. The biggest collisions in the NFL on virtually every. play are a running back being tackled. You can't touch receivers. You can get thrown out of a game for hitting a receiver. You can't even grab them at the line of scrimmage. You can't touch a quarterback.

They'll throw you out of the games. There are newer rules to soften the blows on running backs. It's just like baseball. If you keep throwing C.C. Sabathia and Clayton Cershaw, 250 innings, you wake up one morning and Clayton Cershaw doesn't have a fastball. And C.C. Sabathia doesn't have a fastball. These windows for running backs close really quickly. Todd Gurley has had the most rushes by far over 150 more than any running back since he entered the league.

I mean, it's not even close. So Dallas this year in the draft is going to draft a tight end. They need a tight end. You know what I would strongly consider their second pick, a running back? And the Rams need a corner and need more offensive line help. I'd strongly consider drafting another running back. Because this stuff doesn't last forever. And I will say this, the Rams are a very smart organization.

Now, I think they roll the dice on some personalities that I would not have acquired. But I will note this. The Rams figure this out very early. Do you realize that Todd Gurley has not had more than 16 carries only once since October 28? Think about that. only one time since late October did the Rams give Gurley more than 16 carries.

So the Rams figured it out. They were like, we got a guy that's wearing down fast. These running backs and these starting pitchers in baseball, you can look at Clayton Kershaw. He's the next Andy Kofax. And the next year, his fastball's gone.

And this Zeke thing, he's touching the ball 380 times a year. You've got to be kidding me. Have you ever watched an NFL game close? like on the sideline. You ever seen the quality of hits guys get at running backs? This thing does not last forever. By the way, interesting about, you know, Belichick and Saban.

You know, Alabama's fine. But here's the thing to remember about the current best coach in the NFL and the current best coach in college, Nick Sabin and Belichick. college sports is all about recruiting. Nick Saban's the best recruiter. Nick Saban will tell you I'm the best recruiter. NFL's not about recruiting. NFL's about coaching.

Bill Belichick's a much better coach than Nick Saban. Nick Saban's personality, which is better than Belichick's, he's a much better recruiter. But once you took away the recruiting advantage for Nick Sabin and the NFL, fired. The bottom line is these college coaches, it is hard to think of a college coach who's a great recruiter and doesn't win. You can't be an average recruiter or a poor recruiter and win in college

basketball or college football. Sabin's a great recruiter. Belichick is a much better coach. And here's the other thing. Nobody wants to work with Sabin long term. Kirby smart's about it. Most coaches go to Sabin. You know, it's Sabinology. It's like Scientology. Privacy is demanded. Verbal abuse is understood. And when you leave, it's like escaping. You know, it's, you get the hell out of Alabama and go make your money elsewhere. But Belichick, guys stay with Belichick, guys come back for Belichick. Josh McDaniels has turned down head coaching jobs to stay with Belichick. Coaches have left Belichick, come back to Belichick. Belichick does not wear out coordinators. They wait and wait and wait until they get a great job. And if it doesn't work out, they often want to come back.

It's Bill that says no, not the coaches. And so, you know, whenever you talk about great coaches, everybody says, oh, this coach does this. That's why I say about Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh got to a Super Bowl. That's coaching. And Jim Harbaugh's turned around four college, three college programs. That's recruiting. The reason Harbaugh is a good college coach, he's a good recruiter. The reason he's a good NFL coach. He's a good coach. Sabin's never proven he can coach in the NFL. He's proven he can recruit in college. And I think, you know, they'll be fine and they'll win a bunch of games. But Belichick's at a different level. Belichick can win with good receivers. He won with Randy Moss. He won with Wes Welker and he wins with Chris Hogan. I mean, he wins with Nate Soder. And this year he wins with a turnstile left tackle. He's

with Corey Dillon, a great running back, and he wins with the rookie Sony Michelle. That's coaching. Belichick's the best football coach in America today, and the next line of great coaches are NFL guys, not college guys. College guy, Dabo Sweeney, love him, he can recruit. That's why Clemson's winning. He can recruit. He doesn't even call plays.

I don't think Dabble's ever called plays. Hour two coming up, Troy Aikman talks. It's The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Ah, this. Hour number two is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening,

we are live in Chile, Los Angeles, High Heart Radio, Fox Forge Radio, FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me in 15 minutes. Peter Schrager stops by. Schrager's got the very latest on jobs. We could have multiple jobs solved in the next 24 hours. So Peter Schrager, Moneyman, Mr. Information. Peter Schroger will be joining us from New York

where the jets are going to hire somebody, and I think it's going to be quick. was going to hire somebody. They may hire, I'm not joking when I say this, there are jobs that could be filled by the end of our show today. So we're going to stay on this stuff. Joy, how are you? I'm doing great. I'm glad we're both wearing blue today. It's bizarre. We've been on a streak

of wearing the same thing. We don't even, that's odd. You know what? It's a psychological thing because we want the viewer to think that we are aligned. But we just kind of get lucky. And we're blue, the color of the Cowboys, and I want to start this hour with this. This is weird because yesterday I was driving home after the show and I was thinking about the Cowboys and just thinking about

topics in my head. And I And I have no idea why, but I was thinking about Dak Prescott, and I thought, you know, he's got about 90% of the qualities of Troy Aikman. And I'll get to that in a second. But Troy Aikman was talking about him yesterday on the ticket in Dallas. It's a radio station. And he said, he texted, Dak, and he said, first postseason win of many. I really believe that.

He's going to be the cowboy quarterback for a long time. He's going to win a lot of games in January going forward. I think it's certainly possible, especially if Dak Prescott has what I think he has, which is self-awareness, which has always been the. most underrated quality of professional athletes. Do you know who you are? Do you know your true talent level? Carmelo Anthony's never had it.

The great ones have it. You know, like, I think Dak has it. Jay Cutler didn't have it. I think Dak has it. Jeff George didn't have it. I think Dak has it. Cam doesn't have it. I think Dak has it.

And so I think Dak's going to win a bunch of games because he has self-awareness and he realizes he's way better off with stars around him than making a few more dollars in Texas without stars around him. But now, we all know that Troy Aikman's a legend in Dallas, right? We all know that. We all understand that. Troy Aikman's an all-timer. We all acknowledge that.

And we all mostly acknowledge, unless you're wearing a pom-pom here, you're waving pom-poms, that DAC has limitations. I would argue to you that they have way more in common than you think. Now, the reason that you are. Troy won Super Bowls and is in the Hall of Fame because he's got a world-class arm. And the reason I think Dax going to win games will never be in the Hall of Fame and probably doesn't win a Super Bowl is he has a pretty average arm. But arm is not everything.

There's been a lot of guys in this league, Drew Breeze has won without a cannon that have won a ton of games. Matt Ryan's won a ton of games. You don't have to have Aaron, by the way, you don't have Drew Breeze without a great arm is one of as many Super Bowls and maybe more in about a month than Aaron Rogers with a great arm. But Troy and Dak share a ton of qualities, and these are the qualities that I think made Troy Aikman. Troy Aikman was tough. He played with concussions. Dak is tough.

Both guys are not concerned about being popular in a locker room. They will call out teammates. They will sign their business first guys. They don't care if they're popular in the locker room. They don't want to be despised by everybody, but they will take unpopular stands. Dak Prescott on the anthem, that didn't play well in Dallas's locker room. He's like, no, I put my heart on my flag at O'Neill. That did not play well on social media.

That did not play well on Twitter. That did not play well in a locker room. And Dak didn't give a rip. And Troy Aikman, you go watch those old NFL films. He will call out teammates. And I mean, he will ride them. He will get in their kitchen. He doesn't care.

Winners aren't trying to. to be popular. Losers are obsessed by it. They're also neither great statistically. Troy wasn't great statistically. Troy doesn't measure up to Montana, Marino, and L.A. But both Dak and Aikman, I would argue, were a calming influence late in games. Troy Aikman was in a locker room with a lot of big personalities. Troy was the grown-up. Dak Prescott's been in a locker room with a lot of personalities, including his owner,

Dax the grown-up. both can take a hit. Both are, I think, situationally, great, late in games. Troy was great in the fourth quarter. Troy had a lot of picks. Troy threw a lot of picks. Troy didn't throw a lot of picks in playoff games, fourth quarter driving for the win.

Dak makes mistakes. Dak skips a lot of balls. Dak misses a lot of open receivers. He doesn't miss a lot of open receivers in the fourth quarter, four minutes to go, got to beat Seattle with a drive. So now, again, there's a reason Troy's a Hall of Famer and has three Super Bowls. Troy had the golden arm,

and Dak does not. But they share, and I was thinking about this yesterday, driving around. It's remarkable how many qualities I like about both. They are grown-ups. They're never trying to be popular in the room. The first sign of a loser is somebody that walks into a party and wants everybody to like them.

Troy never cared. Troy wanted to win games. Troy wanted to win games. And Dak Prescott, when he did that anthem thing, That did not play well with teammates. That did not play well on social media. Grownups don't care about that crap. Grownups don't sit and worry about Twitter.

They got bigger things to do. They go out and they want to win games. And so, Dak and Troy have a lot more in common. They're more similar than dissimilar. The difference, obviously, is Aikman's got an all-time top-ten arm. Let me move to this. So the Chargers, a story came out yesterday. I want to credit the person who wrote it.

Jenny Vrentis, she's very good. from the Monday morning quarterback.com. Jenny's very good. She gives a couple times a year she pops a big story. Not that she's not always good, but she gets mentioned a lot. She's very talented. So she got a quote from a charger that said they knew 60 to 70% of the plays the Ravens were going to run. That's not good.

They could literally see what was coming. And by the way, Tony Romo had a great breakdown of the difference between Philip Rivers, a veteran quarterback and how he manipulates the game. Watch this. And a whistle. Rivers is convinced he got him to jump. This is where a veteran quarterback really makes it difficult. So throughout the game, he lifts his leg, all of a sudden he doesn't snap.

He comes up, but he changes the protection. And the next time you lift the leg, the ball comes. The problem is when you come out of a break with time, you come in there and you go, hey, it's on three now. Wait for that day. I'm not even going to tell you the play. I'm going to fake like we're calling a play, and he got him to jump. Now, Joy, we talked about this yesterday. Fans can't see film study, preparation, and pre-stap manipulation very often.

There you can see it. This is manipulating the defense. And in this instance, you could see it as a fan. This is a big deal. This is why Brady and Rivers are still alive in the playoffs. That's why Breeze is still playing in the playoffs. This is a thing that this is what Andrew Luck does as well as any young quarterback in league history. Here's the thing we found out this weekend.

about the Chargers and the Ravens and the Eagles and the Bears showed this. This is a fact. New works in the NFL briefly. The Wildcat worked briefly. Chip Kelly's up-tempo offense. Never forget this. 10 and 6, 10 and 6. Worked briefly.

The Houston Oilers in the 90s ran the run and shoot. Jack Party, the head coach. Got him to the playoffs. Tim Tebow got to the playoffs. Lamar Jackson, Mitch Trubisky. when you introduce new schemes in a contrarian way to do business, it works in the NFL. It always has.

During the regular season. And then the offseason comes and coordinators look at it and they study it. And then the next season it doesn't work quite as well. And two years later, it's done and it's out of the league. In the end, you got to throw the ball at an elite level. Everybody is looking for the new thing. I get it. It's cool to say, hey, I found this new band.

Hey man, I found this new band. They are the hot new band. But Bon Jovi still makes $100 million a year. Elvis Presley does too and he's dead. The old thing generally still works. You two is still selling out the Rose Bowl. Bon Jovi is still selling out big arenas. I know you love the new garage band, but we're always looking for the new thing.

And here's the four qualities that have always won in the NFL at quarterback. size. It's better to be big than small. Now, there are Fran Tarkinton, Russell Wilson. I'm not saying there's not outliers. Size matters. Ideally, six three and a half is where you'd like to go. Arm matters. There have been guys like Philip Rivers, Drew Breeze, maybe not a great arm, a weird, but ideally you'd like to throw the ball like Dan Marino, Troy Hakeman, Terry Bradshaw, Peyton Manning. You'd like to throw a strong football. Humility matters. You don't think Peyton Manning's humble. You don't think Tom Brady's humble. You don't think John... Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no. They, they know how lucky they are, and they know they need help. John Elway didn't win anything without running back Terrell Davis. You got to have a little humility. I'm not into cocky guy. And the fourth thing is you've got to have a work ethic. Johnny Mansell never had a work ethic. Jimarcus Russell didn't have a work ethic. Size, arm, little humility and work ethic will always work. And you can win games. And you can win games. games without them, but when the Chargers know, according to this article, 70% of the plays that

are coming, and that's because Baltimore is running largely a college offense and largely a running offense. It can win games. It can win a division. Trent Dilfer said it yesterday. It historically, it doesn't win Super Bowls, and it doesn't last very long. You watch your college, I mean, listen, running backs get hit so much, they wear down quickly, and they weigh 245 pounds.

Quarterback run around guy, it can work, especially if we're not paying him much. you can load up the defense. But, you know, there's a reason a bunch of statues are in the playoffs this weekend. Gough's a statue. Foles is a statue. Rivers is a statue. Brady's a statue. Eli's got two Super Bowls.

He's a statue. Ben doesn't run anymore either. Most of the old stuff still working in this league. By the way, Belichick's 67. Andy reads 60. And Sean Payton's 56. Slow down all the new stuff. Some of the old stuff's still pretty good.

Coming up next, Peter Schrager, NFL openings. They're going to be filled, and they're going to be filled fast because in a lot of instances, multiple teams want the same guy. So you've got multiple teams. If the Jets and the Cardinals want the same guy, who's going to step up and make the big boy offer first? Okay, who's going to step up and make the offer?

Some of this stuff's going to be filled quickly. Packers yesterday made their choice. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart 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 Sliced 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, 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. 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, Keir Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? them. On hurdle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WMBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star

Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel on. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladecki. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything.

I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast. Podcasts for wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of I Heart Women's Sports. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth.

He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this. This is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levan this went to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive?

The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The NFC Divisional playoffs take off this weekend on Fox on Saturday, Ezekiel Elliott and the Cowboys, take on Todd Gurley and the Rams. Then on Sunday, Nick Foles and the Eagles battle Drew Breeze and the Saints. It's all happening this weekend on Fox and the Fox Sports app.

By the way, nobody's given Philadelphia shot in this game. Nobody is given Philadelphia shot. Joy, may I ask a simple question? You may? Who said a month ago? of all these borderline playoff teams, who took Philadelphia? You did, but I don't think anyone in Philadelphia hurt. Yeah, people in Philadelphia can't take an occasional criticism. Who took the Eagles to beat the Bears?

You did. My gut feeling is Philadelphia is going to win that game. Are you willing to? I'm not ready to go there yet. I have a right to. I have a right to marinate stuff. I marinate my steaks. I think you should marinate my opinions.

You've got a whole week, you know. All right, let's go. We got breaking news here. and stuff with some of this. And I'll tell you, these teams are competing for the same coaches. They're all competing for the same five guys via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Peter Schrager, NFL reporter. Okay, we may have a little breaking story here with Bruce Ariens. Give me the update on this because this is a guy that was successful in the NFL. And if I have a young quarterback, Bruce Ariens, a very good coach. What are you hearing, Shregs?

Yeah, it looks like Tampa Bay is a destination for Bruce Ariens. Very interesting. interesting deal here. Bruce Ariens retired from the Arizona Cardinals two years ago. Took the year, was with the CBS crew, said, the only job I'd want to consider is Cleveland. Well, until another job came running down the aisle here. But honestly, this is what's interesting with Ariens. They hired an outside consulting firm, and a guy named Jed Hughes is his name. And he was there, and he's supposed to vet all these candidates. And a lot of Bucks fans, people around the league are rolling their eyes saying, you hired an

outside firm for a high six-figure fee and you end up with Bruce Ariens? I mean, is that really something you needed to hire a firm for? I'm told the firm looked into all the different things that could be coming up with Bruce Arons, which means health concerns, different red flags with how his time ended with Arizona, comes up clean, comes out fine. The question is, when can they hire him? Because technically he retired from the Arizona Cardinals, still had another year on his contract. It looks like all hurdles are going to be leaptover, and it looks like Bruce Ariens will be the next Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach.

James Winston, the young cornerback. and I will tell you the connection here. Jason Light, the GM of the Buccaneers, was in Arizona for many years with Steve Kime, the GM of the Arizona Cardinals. When you go to things like the Combine, the owners meeting, everyone just hangs. It's a big hang session.

Bruce Ariens got to know Jason Light very well just from a social setting. When it all came to be, it looks like he will be the next quarterback for James Winston or the next coach for that quarterback, James Winston. Okay, Matt LaFleur, I mean, Tennessee, made the playoffs without him. Their stats offensively went down with him. He goes to Aaron Rogers. He's been a coordinator once. That's a big boy job. Aaron's 35 and has a strong point of view.

What do you know about Matt LaFleur? What are people saying in the league about the new Packer coach? Yeah, I've gotten to know Matt very well the last few years. He was Kyle Shanahan's quarterback's coach in Atlanta, left to be Sean McVeigh's offensive coordinator in L.A. Interesting thing last offseason. So McVeigh was the head coach, LaFleur was the offensive coordinator. The Tennessee Titans say, we want to interview Matt LaFleur as our head coach. McVeigh says, of course, you can go and do that. That's fine. Doesn't get the job, but then they say, we'd like you to be our offensive coordinator.

And in the NFL, you are not usually allowed to just take a lateral move. It has to be a promotion. McVeigh said, if you can make some more money and call the plays there in Tennessee, I'm going to let you out of your contract and go and work for those guys. He does that, and now is the head coach of Aaron Rogers. and the Green Bay Packers. One note on LaFleur, because I've gotten to know this guy. He is not a pushover. I'm at the table a lot of times with Kyle Shanahan and Shaw McVeigh, and LaFle is at the table, whether it be the Combine or someone where everyone's hanging,

and he can bust chops with those guys. He could also talk X's and O's. He goes to Tennessee where Mike Vrable is as, I guess, I want to say alpha of coach as there is, a former linebacker, a macho man, a guy that you really look at the defensive side of the ball, and LaFleur, a 38-year-old guy, was able to go head to head with him and voice his opinion. I say all that to say this, Colin. He will intellectually challenge Aaron Rogers, and Aaron Rogers is not getting a buddy or a doo-boy that he could just walk all over because he's only four years older.

No, no, no. This is a guy who's going to challenge him and every day have something that's going to have Aaron Rogers thinking, okay, how can I step up to that challenge? I think it's a fascinating hire from this point alone. This was the only head coaching job interview Matt LaFleur was given. Just one, the Green Bay Packers, and they were so confident that in the room

This guy was better than Gase, better than McDaniels, a better fit than any of those offensive gurus, that we are going to hire him as our first coach off the board. Really interesting. He got no other – no one else asked for an interview with Matt LaFleur, just the Packers, and he is the first coach off the board. Okay, I'm just going to give you teams. Give me a sentence on who you think the coach is. New York Jets.

I think the New York Jets are either going to be Mike McCarthy, Cliff Kingsbury, or your wild card. Matt Ruhl, who is the Baylor head coach, who is a wilder. card to the highest order. This is the guy that everyone loves in the NFL. Okay, Arizona. Yeah, I think it's Zach Taylor, the quarterbacks coach for the Arizona, for the L.A. Rams, if it's not Kingsbury. I know Kingsbury right now, as we're speaking, Colin, is in Arizona. Last night he had dinner with the Jets and their ownership took a flight.

He's now in Arizona. He's meeting with the Cardinals. I got to say, Kingsbury, I would be very surprised if he doesn't have an NFL head coaching job after the next few weeks. Couldn't win in the Big 12 with Patrick Mahomes, whatever. Okay, Denver Broncos. Talk about it. Let's do it. Let's talk Kingsbury. The guy literally commits to USC. I'm old school. You shake hands, you sign a contract, I'm there for at least a year. And everybody said, well, if the other job, when I got hired at FS1, I had lunch with management.

And I looked him in the eye and I said, I'm taking the job here. I didn't even have a contract. That's what you do when you look somebody in the eye. You just, you commit to people. You commit to your wife, you commit to your boss, you commit to a company. Kingsbury commits for an hour to a college job, and he's flirting around the next hour with NFL teams. You know how much I respect your opinion, and I also respect your take. You are a star at ESPN, and you're leaving to be a star at FS1.

That's cool. Kingsbury is the offensive coordinator of a college team, and he's a chance to be a head coach of an NFL team. That's the equivalent of one of the production assistants at your show coming across to you and saying, Colin, I got this great opportunity to host a show on CBS. And you being like, no, you're a production assistant. You wouldn't let him go? No. You wouldn't let him go? No.

That is some statement, Colin. No, hey, gulets tried to get out of my show for four years. I won't let him go. You know what's funny? These rules are so twisted to me, too. The NFL has to go to USC to ask for permission, and USC and Lynn Swan can say no. What kind of twisted world is this? If the college wanted to hire any NFL person, the NFL can't block them from doing that.

It is a one-way road. I hear what you're saying about commitment in the Josh McDaniel. case, you can make the argument. But if you're talking about a college coordinator job and an NFL head coaching job, I don't even think that's apples to apples. I think that's apples to the greatest orange of all time. I can't compare the two. Okay, finally, you're going to be at the Eagles Saints game. Lucky you. You know, everybody, Vegas, nobody likes Philadelphia. We have an interesting situation here where Foles with the Eagles spreads the ball around a little bit. Wence is the better talent. Foles is winning more, they're going to have to make a decision after this season. If they go to New

Orleans and win, Shrakes. Holy Lord. I mean, they're going to keep wince, right? Even if Foles wins in New Orleans, right? Yeah, I mean, this is the thing. I said, this is where I'm torn. If Nick Foles goes on, and let's say forget New Orleans, he beats New Orleans, beats the Rams of the Cowboys, and then wins a Super Bowl, you can't get rid of a two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback. Like, you can't. You just can't. And, If you're Carson Wentz's case, they love Carson Wentz. And I know those Eagles guys, and their whole mantra to me with this discussion, it's like they won't even have it.

They're like, let's get one week at a time. Yeah, eventually, though, you do have to have that conversation. Yes, yes. Wentz got hurt at North Dakota State. He got hurt with the Eagles once. He's got her with Eagles twice. It's the third time. If Wentz goes on this run, he's 30 years old.

I mean, if Paul's going to, it's not a crazy decision to say, as much as we love Carson Wentz, maybe we go with the other guy. But I don't think it's going to get to that point. I think Carson Wentz is most likely the quarterback of the future. future. But Colin, every single time Nick Foles pulls one of these rabbits out of his hat, and continues to win, that discussion becomes more and more legitimate, and it becomes more and more in Nick Fulz's favor. Yeah, no. And by the way, you were on Patrick Mahomes, way before I was, you kept telling me in camp, you're like, this kid's going to tear the league up.

And you had all this exclusive inside video stuff. I don't even know where you got the handheld stuff. Probably somebody, some covert spy. It's a pruder film. It's like Belichick, was it the Chiefs Practors or something? I don't know. Okay, so you must really love the Chiefs this weekend. Don't you worry a little bit about the pressures on them, Colts House money. They haven't played well in the last month. Andy struggled in the playoffs.

They're a little tight in Kansas City, no? Colin, you want to hear a crazy stat? The Chiefs are 0-N-6, their last six home playoff games. Oh, my God. Home play. The last time they won a home playoff game, their quarterback was Joe Montana. So when I tell you that there is scar tissue and there is doubt and there is fear, this Chief's crowd and this Chief's fan base has so many nerves going into this game. The difference is none of those teams, whether it was Elvis Gerbach or Steve Bono or Alex Smith had this thing of beauty under quarterback.

I'm telling you, this guy under center is the difference maker. I feel like this is the year. They expunge all the demons and they get rid of all the curses. Patrick Mahomes is the first time they've ever had an MVP at quarterback. And if you're the MVP and you're the true future of this franchise, you're going to have to get over a lot of challenges. One of them is this ridiculous history of home playoff losses. I would be shocked, shocked if the Colts came in there and beat them on Saturday.

Shregor, you're great. Thanks, buddy. I love you, Colin. You're the man. All right, take care, buddy. By the way, Joy, what if? What if Goulet signed a brand new contract with me? And then he came to me the next day and said, Uncle Colin, I got a big job offered at CBS. Kuhuai calls you Uncle now. What should I do?

I mean, you let him go. Holy moly. You have to let people move up. I do? Why do we have contracts? So if you came over and I said, Joy Taylor, sign this right here. And you look me in the eye and said,

Colin, I am committed to FS1. And then an hour later, Nick Cannon or somebody comes up and be my co-host on an award show. Well, I mean, an award show. You're not going to let me do an award show on a weekend? Or a big show on TV. That conflicts with this show and I would have to leave this show. You just look me in the eye and then what would you say the next day?

Okay, look. Let's say the scenario is this is clearly a once in a lifetime opportunity. It would change the course of my career and the future of my family. I could be making generational earnings. Like, you're going to keep somebody from that? So Manny Diaz should have to be at Temple and not Miami. Yeah, yes. That's a perfect example.

I'm just asking you. Is that good? You're sad. You have to commit to somebody and not get the ideal job exactly when you want. I don't like what happened with the Colts and Josh McDaniels. I don't think that's the best reflection of things. But to me, Josh McDaniels went backwards. He had the opportunity to be a head coach and he went backwards.

I don't know. I just think you have to let people advance. I want the camera on me. Sam, put the camera on me. I'm going to talk to America. Just put a solo shot. I'm going to talk to America. America, you can trust me.

If I sign a contract with you, America, I'm not going to flirt with somebody else. It's not about... A trust. You and I have a relationship, America. I will show up tomorrow, even if I get a better job offer. It's not the same thing as relationships. This is business. People work very hard for opportunities.

Some people flirt. Some people commit. I don't know. I don't understand the Cliff Kingsbury thing. I'm with you there. Anyway, but... Very annoying. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

Here's another point, though, with that whole thing. Like, you don't want somebody who had a great opportunity somewhere else, and you kept them from that. You don't want them there because they're not going to be fully committed, and they're probably going to resent the situation, therefore setting you up for failure. I just think commitment's a word that shouldn't be uncool. No, I don't think that it's uncool.

I just think in business, people, you only have so much time and opportunity in your life, especially in sports, to make money. and to advance. And these are ones I would argue you have more time than you think as a coach. As a player, you have limitations. But if a player has to be held to a contract,

a coach can't. Well, I mean, that's a whole other conversation. Like, that, I think, should change. All right. So Jason Peters is ready to bring the smoke back to the Saints this weekend. Ever since the Eagles received a very one-sided beat down in week 11,

Peter says Philly is out for revenge. You didn't play well at all. They ran up the store. We got them again. this time they come out it's definitely not going to be the same outcome. Now I understand

wanting to go out and get revenge and, you know, change the narrative of that. They were humiliated. But you can't run up the score in professional sports. Well, yeah. That's kind of whiny. But they were, I will say this, the Saints got great pleasure in thumping the Super Bowl champs.

Well, yeah. A lot of celebrations in that game. 41 point margin of victory. The second biggest of any game in the regular season. That's humiliating as a professional. It's one thing to lose. Nick Saban got humiliated last night. Yes.

The Eagles got humiliated by the Saints. No, all losses are not equal. Like if you played a great game and it came down to one play, you know, it's different than getting humiliated. That was bad. I remember that one. The Saints are eight-point favorites, the largest spread of the four divisional games this weekend. I may do a blazing four. I've never done that before in the playoffs.

I may do a blazing four. this week. I feel strongly about some of these games. I really do. We'll do a blazing five and just cross it out. It'll be blazing four. All right. So there's been a lot of talk this year about if Dak Prescott is a franchise quarterback and if he should be paid. And last weekend, Dak not only led the Cowboys to back to back after last weekend, he led the Cowboys to back to back fourth quarter comebacks with wins over the Giants in week 17 and then obviously the Seahawks in the postseason. He now has nine fourth quarter comebacks and 15 game winning drives.

That's a real thing. seasons. That's a real thing. Is that a real stat? No, that's a real stat. Like, that's not a bull stat. That's a real stat. Dak is absolutely in late game situations, there's a very calming influence. He's a grown ass man.

You and I, we didn't work together at a time, but even as his rookie year, I remember watching him his rookie year, it was like against Philadelphia on the road. And I remember saying on the air, I'm like, I think I'd be nervous in that situation. And he's he had a terrible first half against Philadelphia. He came out in the second half

and he won and I was like, I think that's something. He's very poised. Poised is a good word. He's very poised. I like that in any leader to not get too high or too low because that affects everyone else's energy. And finally, new Raiders GM, Mike Mayock admitted yesterday, would everyone pretty much already assumed to be true that John Gruden will be calling the shots.

And Mayock had this to say about the dynamic between him and John Grum. In all honesty, John's got final say if it ever comes to that. And I have zero problems with that. Now, having said that, I think we're going to come to a consensus. And I like a little yelling, a little screaming, a little fighting for what players you believe in. But at the end of the day, I guarantee you, John Gruden and I are going to know what a Raider looks like and smells like. I don't think we're going to have any issues. What does a Raider smell like?

Well, I mean, Gruden's trying to create his kind of guys. And that's okay. No, I think every organization should have their kind of guys. But that's where I think organizations go wrong. They dropped talents or they dropped a buzz. Miami Dolphins historically have done that. Instead of having a system and an organization that you stick to. This is why the Patriots, I'll tell you this,

the Patriots and the Colts would shock me if they got Lavin Bell. He's not their kind of dude. Like the Colts are trying to- It would shock me less if he went to the Patriots than if he went to the Colts. That's fair. Because the Patriots have a history of getting a player that has a little noise and everything to them. But overall, I would agree with you.

Now, Lavian Bell's of the Bucks. Makes perfect sense to me. I don't think that they'll do any winning there. He may get them a game or two, but overall, that makes more sense. But we knew that John Gruden was going to be making the decisions there. It's his team. But you better get it right. Yep.

A lot of draft picks. Better get it right. Got to fix that defense. Joy, Taylor, with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. Rashad Jennings, the former Raider.

The former Giant is going to be joining us next. Haven't seen him in a while. He's a lot of fun. Be sure to catch line. Editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app.

Absolute pleasure to have a former NFL running back and a good one for the Giants and the Raiders Rashah Jennings, who is already already, a dancing with a stars champion, already in New York Times bestseller, has a new book out called Arcade and the Triple T token upcoming children's book.

So you have done very well post career. You are chopping it up. You're kicking butt. You're taking names, you're inspirational, and I love having you on the show. Appreciate it. Always enjoy it. Oh, you were just great. So this is interesting. So I am always, here's what happens. Oh, we've got to picture your book. Here's what happens. Things get hot. Things get hot on Twitter. And they get hot on social media. And I think sometimes I want to say, hey, hey, hey, hey, old stuff works too, not just the new stuff. Old stuff works too. Be honest,

be humble, work hard. Those have been values for 100 years. So everybody now wants to hire the new young coordinator. Coordinators don't always work as coaches. You have a great example. You work with Ben McAdoo. He was a great coordinator, people thought, with the Giants. Then he became head coach, and it unraveled pretty quickly. So let's start with this.

Why didn't it work? Why didn't Ben work long term? Well, I mean, I got a chance to play under Ben McAdoo for one year. We went 11 and 5. We went to the playoffs. We lost the Green Bay. And then I left. Now, after I left, I think they won three, three games.

Yeah, it was man overboard. Right. Now, I couldn't, because I specifically was not in the locker room. It's hard to tell you exactly what went wrong. But I will say for any head coach, the hardest thing to do is allow your voice to be respected and demanded inside of a locker room. Because you're dealing with 53, grown men. 53 plus actually, grown man that all have different reasons for being there. You have to be consistent.

You have to be trusted. And you have to know what you're doing. And how you handle adversity probably is a big deal too. But the coach is the coach. What you need inside of a locker room is leadership within inside the locker room. And your leaders are not always the most talented players. Like when you were with a giant in that winning season who was a leader? You were a leader.

Who else was? Cruz was a leader. Julio Cruz? Yeah. Victor. Julio Cruz is a kid I grew up with a baseball player. I loved Julio Cruz. That would be one heck of a player.

If you could combine. You remember Julio? He's my favorite baseball player as a kid. Okay, so Victor Cruz was a leader. Yeah. You know, Eli's a leader. Everybody has different ways of leading a team. Some are vocal.

Some are filled with passion. Some are just, all they have to do is look at you. And because of the respect you have for them and the work ethic that they put into, and because they personally know you, Like when you know somebody, when you spend time with somebody, all it takes is a look. That's it. It don't take nothing more than that half the time.

You know, and you go through history and look at some of the most predominant leaders on a football team. And you combine that with a passion and a leader and somebody who's talented, then that's when it's even better. But, you know, sometimes it could be the long snapper who's your leader that rallies up the team. He's an overachiever. buses butt, workout freak, try hard guy. Yes, you need those. NFL's got a lot of try hard guys.

Yes, it does. And the last 13, 14 years, nobody's ever going to buy their jersey, but they are one of the reasons why that team operates the way they operate. Wouldn't you worry a little bit? Now, listen, Aaron Rogers, there's been multiple public spats. He's had family members come out. There have been teammates. Aaron's got a strong point of view. He's now an American celebrity. He's got piles of money. He's got a Super Bowl ring. Aaron's, and I think Aaron would admit this, maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't, that, you know, Aaron's going to tell you what he thinks, and he's got a strong point of view. This is not a rookie quarterback. Do you worry that a young coach learning how to be a head coach is going to have to coach, Big Ben and Aaron Rogers could be two of the strongest voices in the NFL.

Didn't they worry you a little bit? I mean, it depends on the makeup and the attitude of the coach. Now, obviously, if you're dealing with the franchise quarterback, it's a little bit different, you know, than dealing with. with somebody's more impressionable just coming into the league. So first things first, you got to order everything out. I'm sitting down. You got to sit down with the GMs, obviously, the owners. You got to sit down with your best players.

You got to figure out who's the most charismatic and runs the locker room attitude player too. You need to have a meeting with them, right? And set some type of order and respect. Now, obviously, you got to understand that some players going to be them, and they have the golden ticket to be them. You know, Brady's going to go off. And ain't nothing you're going to do about it.

You're going to sit down, wait for him. All right, he's done. All right, go ahead. He's basically an offensive coordinator that could throw a football. So sometimes you've got to let certain things slide. You got to have the awareness as a head coach to realize that. Because you don't want to get trumped in front of your team. Oh, that's bad.

You know, so that's why you've got to have those private conversations. It doesn't scare me unless a coach doesn't understand that. All right. What do you make a deck, Prescott? I mean, it's funny. I said earlier, he shares a lot of qualities with Troy Akeman. Aikman's got the arm. But that's why Troy ends up with three.

Super Bowls in a Hall of Fame ring. Dak is tough. He's all business. When he put his hand in his heart with the anthem, that was not a popular move in the locker room. That was not a popular room on social media. That's a business first move. I'm supporting my team, my owner. One of the things I like about Dak, I don't love his arm.

I don't think he's a natural thrower. But I will say this. There are qualities to Dak I love. When he steps up to the microphone after games, owns his crap, not a finger pointer, not a blamer, Rashad. I think he's going to win a lot of games as long as he doesn't demand $30 million a year. Yeah, I mean, and that's what he has going for.

And plus, you know, you always look at the wins, you blame the team for it, losses, you blame yourself. That's what he does. And you can appreciate somebody at the quarterback position that gets so much praise that's willing to give it and funnel it to the team. Yeah, a lot of people say, you know, he's not flashy. He's not going to give you 400 yards passing or 300 consistently, but he's going to give you wins. And like you said, I don't think he's going to be in a position

where he's going to demand so much money, but he's a good enough quarterback that if you surround his team. You win games. You're going to win games. And the defense coordinator is doing his thing. Yeah. Let me say this. Mitch Trubisky, Lamar Jackson.

And run around a lot. Not great throws. Run around a lot. Rashad, Tribisky. You're a fan I picked the Eagles You pick the Eagles Oh yeah

Lamar Jackson I like him But there's a run around a lot I'm still upset I had the Bears Playing the Chargers in the Super Bowl this year Do you buy these

Runaround quarterbacks Some yeah Not all But some yes Like so Especially with Lamar Coming in Right

You know he's a guy He's obviously the franchise guy I was proven Right going forward He's guy Yeah And so you take him And people are

up and down about him, whether he's going to be successful or not. You got to give a time. Like, you look at Russell Wilson, they said the same thing, you know. Would he be successful? He was. He still is. You look at Michael Vic. He was.

Now, you look at other players, too, though. You look at RG3 and you say, well, what happened? Now, that's what everybody wants to look at is the negative. There's also a positive aspect to a running quarterback that can't, when you can run the football, I mean, that's, That just changes everything that the defensive coordinator has to prepare for. Now, he didn't play the best game. I'm sure he'll say that.

Oh, by the way, outside of Andrew Luck, no quarterback played well in the first half any of these games. There was one quarterback played well in the first half all weekend. One, that was Andrew Luck. Everybody's struggled. That's a machine over there, Andrew Luck. Oh, let's talk. I got a couple minutes. Can I talk about Andrew Luck?

Everybody's ripped me all the time. And I said there's certain things I'm not going to argue about. The earth is not flat. If you think it is, I'm not going to argue with it. you. Okay, dinosaurs did exist. I'm not going to argue. I've been to a dinosaur museum. They did exist. And Andrew Luck's great. Why does everybody struggle to just admit the dude is a machine? Why? Is it because the neck beard? He's not cool. Rashon, what is it? I mean, he was warming up to Dan and Shay. I give him props for that.

But, no, listen, I think it's because it's not, he's not doing anything super overly to to football term sexy. You know, that's what it is. And so nobody. wants to put him on that pedestal to talk about. Because Mahomes is, wow. Oh, Mahomes, that guy, though. He's that guy. Now, who you think had a better season? Mahomes?

Okay, here's what I always say. Yeah, let's hear it is. I can name eight to ten. I can name eight to ten chiefs. You can ask fans. They can name eight to ten chiefs. You take out Andrew Luck, they can name two. T.Y. Hilton and that rookie running back or linebacker.

All my thing is, Luck won almost as many games with a lot less around him and a bunch of rookies all over that roster. That to me is valuable. Now, who's better is a different, but if you're asking most valuable, it's guys who carry less talent. Am I nuts? I mean, not for that reason.

No. I agree with you. That's a good point. Luck is special. I've always been a fan of luck. You know, I think he's especially, I honestly, I hope, I really hope that they pick up Levyon this all of season. They're not going to.

I think it had just set. Green Bay or the cause? You think Labian Bell and Green Bay? Man, it would be nice to see. Do you know Levian? Yeah. What's up with him? I got 40 seconds.

What's up with him? He's a hard working dude. He's going to stay in shape. He's going to put a team in the best position. I think his attitude is going in and want to dominate. You think so? Yeah. Okay.

Sell him for 15 seconds. Sell him. He will come in. He's going to be the top three. best running back in the NFL, regardless of what team he's with. He's going to catch the ball. He works hard. He works hard.

And he has a lot on his shoulder. He wants to prove, period. That's not bad. He's young and he's healthy. That he is. We got to go, but that's pretty good. We've got to go. Okay, here's your book.

Arcade and the Triple T token, Rashad Jennings. You're always welcome back on this show. I just running out of time here. You're always welcome on my show. Appreciate it. Love having you on. Hour three next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd, weekdays,

in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Hour 3, we're live in Los Angeles. This is the herd. Wherever you may be in, however, you may be listening. We're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and right here on FS1. Just got off the phone.

There could be an NFL job being filled very quickly. You're going to give us a hint? I am not in the hint business. Joy, that was the voice of Joy Taylor. You seem almost disgusted with me. I mean, you always do this. You're like, you pull your phone up in the middle of the show, and you're like,

Oh, interesting. Hey, this is journalism. You're doing it right now. What? You're doing it right now. I'm doing what right now? I mean, share. You can't just share information all the time.

I gotta get it, I gotta get it sourced and replicated and duplicated, and I have to have people to confirm my things. This is a Big J journalism works over here at the broadcast journalism school known as Hurd Incorporated. Hey, you gotta break stories and stuff. By the way, congratulations. I walked into our hotel lobby here today

and Joy's name was up there and our name was up there in our show. We were up 20% last year, which is unheard of in cable television. Where to go? Thanks. Thank you. Congratulations to you as well. And are all our people in our studio. I mean, it is because of me, obviously.

You are a huge addition to the show. I'm not easy to work with. All right, in 15 minutes, Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez, later and best for last. We're going to rank the Super Bowl potential matchups. But we got some news. Yes, yes, yes.

We've got some news today that will affect Aaron Rogers, so let me start there. So the Packers have hired a coach, Matt Lefleur. For a year, he was an offensive coordinator at Tennessee the Titans. It's no big deal, but they made the playoffs when he wasn't there, and then he got there and the offense got worse. No, it actually did. Total offense, points per game, passing offense got worse.

But he got a job. You know, the young coaches is what you got to hire these days. Got to have a young coach with cheekbones. Good looking. I made two calls on Matt LaFleur last night to NFL sources. You know what they say about Matt LaFleur? People weren't sure he had the stature, the gravitas, and the alpha. to lead a group of men as a coordinator, not a coach.

The knock on Matt LaFleur is nobody's quite sure if he can stand in front of guys in an offensive meeting and own the room. That's not as a head coach. That's just as a coordinator. Sean McVeigh head coach of the Rams is getting a lot of guys great jobs that I don't think are quite ready. By the way, the Rams, I was told, did not want to hire Sean McVeigh. they wanted to wait a year because they didn't think he was quite ready, but they knew if they didn't hire him, somebody else would. So they hired him, and he's been a great success.

But I saw this story yesterday. Cliff Kingsbury is interviewing for the Cardinals and the Jets job. Really? He got fired at his alma mater in college. You do realize alma maters don't want to fire you. The last thing a school wants to do when you're a legend at the school is fire you, and they had to. He was so bad.

But, Colin, I mean, it's Texas Tech. What about it? Mike Leach won there. Mike Leach won 85 games and lost 40. Mike Leach won bowl games at Texas Tech. Don't tell me you can't win at Texas Tech. Mike Leach won, but Mike Leach doesn't have cheekbones. He's not a model.

He dresses like a pirate. He's also winning at Washington State. Mike Leach can coach. Mike Leach could win with eight guys, and you have 11 offensively. Kay Cliff Kingsbury is a nice guy, I'm sure. He had Patrick Mahomes, the NFL's MVP. He couldn't win in the Big 12. Come on.

He was 19 and 35 in the Big 12, losing record with Patrick Mahomes, who you keep lecturing me, I'm a jerk for not saying automatically he's the MVP of the league. Folks, there's a huge gap, folks, between knowing football, calling plays and being a head coach. There's a big difference between. being a great pit boss at a casino. You could be the best pit boss at Caesar's Palace. And I mean, everybody knows. Bob's the best pit boss.

Shirley's the best pit boss. There's a difference between that and running a casino. Oh, God, I got to worry about food and beverage. I got to worry about security. I get a call from the feds. We got the president coming to town. A big difference between being a great pit boss and running a casino. There is a big difference between directing a movie

and running a movie. studio. Matt LaFleure called plays for one year. What did I miss? Tennessee got worse offensively. Offense, points, pass offense. They went down. And now he's the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. Maybe you've heard of it. It's an iconic NFL brand. Maybe you've heard of Aaron Rogers can be a little prickly tough to coach. Listen, I don't know if it's going to work. I will give you a stat that is rather alarming. By the NFL draft this year, half the NFL coaches will

have been hired in the last two years. Most new coaches don't work. Pete Carroll does. He's still around. So is Mike Tomlin. So Sean Payton. So's Andy Reid. So's Bill Belichick. Old guys

can coach. Mike Leach dresses like a pirate. Doesn't have cheekbones, not lit. Congratulations. on hiring somebody who people question whether he has the stature and gravitas, the alpha, the it to lead a coordinator's meeting. Maybe you've heard Aaron Rogers is aging. He ran a Super Bowl winning coach out of town. Good luck to Matt Lefleur.

By the way, two other things to talk about. Number one, Joy and I got into this yesterday. Josh McDaniels is not going to get the Cleveland job, I'm sorry. told, is not going to get the Tampa job, I'm told, is not going to get the Jets job, I'm told, and traded up to get Tim Tebow and passed on Andrew Luck. Here's the amazing thing about Josh McDaniels, because he was a real hot name. Like a month ago, he was the hot name out there, right? He couldn't beat out Matt LaFleure for the job.

He passed on Andrew Luck. He traded up to get Tim Tebow. Is anybody questioning his judgment? Let me just say this about the Patriots. The New England Patriots was not a great. job before Belichick and Brady got there. Don't confuse great job

with people making an average job great. When Bill Belichick leaves and Tom Brady leaves in two, three years, whatever it is, who says New England's a good job? What? Because the Jets have their franchise quarterback. The Bills have their franchise quarterback.

The dolphins are going to try to draft their franchise quarterback. How do you know you're going to have a franchise quarterback? Boston's got miserable weather, often miserable angry media. Miserable fans will have unrealistic expectations coming off Brady and Belichick. Who says New England's a good job? It's a good job now because of Brady and Melichick. But Kraft's going to be 80 years old, 84 years old, and you're going to have no Brady and Belichick in the room. Like the worst job in the history of radio was replacing Howard Stern.

That was not a great job. Howard was great at doing morning radio on FM radio bands. doing morning radio on FM radio bands is kind of hacky sometimes. Howard made it great. He left. It was no longer a great job on terrestrial radio. You know what I mean? The guy's making the money now are the opinion people like Rush Limbaugh. Do an FM, you know, zoo morning show.

Hey. It was never a prestigious job in radio. Howard Stern made it prestigious. And then Howard left and it's no longer a prestigious job. You know, you want to make money, be Rush Limbaugh, be a conservative guy on FM radio. that's where you can make a bunch of money. Okay, so the idea that the Patriots were a great job from, there was a 10-year stretch that had five coaches before Belichette got there.

They ran off good coaches. They ran off Parcells. They ran off Pete Carroll. Josh McDaniels, I'm just going to stay here in New England. What? What? You passed on Andrew Luck. Now you're passing on Aaron Rogers.

You're not getting. And by the way, his agent Bob Lamont, who's a very respected NFL agent, bailed on Josh McDaniel. It was like that nonsense you pulled on the Colts, I'm out of here. I don't understand this. Last year, you could have coached Andrew Luck. No, thanks. This year, you got to coach Darren Rogers.

You think New England's going to be better than those jobs. You get Tom Brady won't be around. This idea. Listen, coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers is always a good job. coaching Alabama football, Ohio State football, is always a good job. Chip Kelly made Oregon a good job for an hour. That's not a, you know, Oregon, that's a state with no players in it. I'm not saying you can't win there, but there are jobs that are always great jobs.

Coaching the Dallas Cowboys, free agents love to play there. That's always a good job. I think coaching in Philadelphia with the Eagles, the passion in Philadelphia, you've got a great owner. That's always a good job. But just because a job's good for an hour, is the Arizona Cardinals always a good job? Or did Bruce Ariens for an hour make it a good job? By the way, here was Josh McDaniels earlier today saying he's staying in New England,

meaning he's now passed on luck and didn't even get an interview with Don Aaron Rogers. The book is closed. You know, it's always a humbling experience to have an opportunity to interview with anybody for that position. You know, and I was thankful for the opportunity to meet with Green Bay. and always gives you greater insight into another organization and how they do things. It's been very educational for me every time I've gone through it, and I've appreciated every single one of them. But, no, I'm completely focused on the Chargers in our season and finishing it strong,

and I'll be here moving forward. By the way, so either he couldn't beat out Matt LaFleurr, and that's not good news, or he didn't want it. I'm just saying, I don't know the guy. I'm not not you know he obviously knows football but I'm kind of starting to side with joy on this and his judgment worries me

right am I not I mean we don't know what happened with Green Bay maybe I mean obviously he was rumored to be there and reported to be up for the job there but maybe they maybe they didn't want him we don't really know the ins and outs of it but I don't think your first tenure as a head coach if you get fired that's a reflection of who you are as a coach

Belichick, I think, is a great example of that. But him walking away from Andrew Luck. By the way, I hope I did not offend the very popular FM morning DJs throughout America. I grew up listening to Sausage Fingers and Chapstick in the morning on 97.6, Clovis, New Mexico's best rock. So they are very, very talented, very funny. I don't want to offend any FM DJs. They blow up stuff, fireworks in the studio. That's a very authentic apology.

I deeply apologize for that. Hey, you listen to a rock and roll station in the morning and they're blowing stuff up and swearing. It is high comedy. It's as good as radio gets. I love radio. I love morning radio. Okay. Tony Gonzalez, my dream Super Bowl. Joel Clat yells at me all coming up.

One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart 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.

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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. 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, Keir Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way.

Open your free, our heart radio app. Search, learn the hard way, and listen now. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? them. On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going from the WMBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood

that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel on. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladecki. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything.

Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast. Podcasts for wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of I Heart Women's Sports. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness.

So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee. This is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levan this went to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history.

You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Consider using MDrive a supplement. If you want to feel stronger, energy, more drive, start taking MDrive. Go to buyMDrive.com today to refine your prime with MDrive. By the way, Tony Gonzalez is my guest. Here's an amazing stat with Tony Gonzalez, who's going to get into the Hall of Fame.

Second most receptions in NFL history behind Jerry Rice. That is the craziest damn thing I've ever heard. And you didn't even play with great quarterbacks except Matt Ryan. Yeah. That's amazing. Trin Green was pretty good. And you couldn't catch anything the first year. I couldn't.

You dropped 200 balls. A lot of balls. A lot of balls. What you do? It's how you catch them all, though. It's the best thing never happened to me. It was. It was.

It was. Jason Whitlock's called you a borderline bust. He did. He did. And you got mad at him. And that forces you to look at yourself in the mirror. And then you say to yourself, I can take this. I can go this direction or I can go that direction.

or I can go that direction. I went that direction. It was the best thing. I'm telling you, it changed my life to have that type of year. Really? Where you lead the NFL and drop passes. You did?

It changed my life. Seriously, I would not be sitting here if I, I'm so thankful that that happened to me because I was good. I was always getting by on talent. And I probably would have played another, you know, five, six, seven years if I would have just done okay.

But when you go through those type of seasons, get ripped. And you get booed by the home crowd and you get benched. Oh, you get benched in the middle of the game. They're like, come sit down and have a seat. You're like, oh my God. I can't. The way I've been doing it is not working.

I better try something different. I better. And it changed my life outside of football too, which once I changed the inside, the outside changed. Yeah, you're a very emotional guy. That's what I like about you. You're very emotional. Emotional sounds like I'm one of the desperate housewives or something. Well, you're not emotional.

You know, Joey, he is, though. You're very introspective. You think about, you talk about stuff a lot that I like. It's a compliment. You're a deep person. You're very deep. I like that better. Deep is more masculine than emotion.

Yeah, I don't think you're soft. You're not a cream puff, but you're very. It's true implies you're just very, like, loose. By the way, you're going to get announced Saturday before the Super Bowl. They're going to call you at your house, and they're going to tell you your Hall of Famer, and you're going to cry, and I'm going to love you for it. Probably. Actually, I'll be at the Super Bowl.

Because when you're top 15 now. You go to the Super Bowl. You go to the Super Bowl. You stay in a hotel. That's Saturday. I've already gone to run down because they're like, hey, this is how it's going to happen if it happens. It's a very bizarre process. And they knock on your door, and which sucks, too, because if you're also in that room, because

there's other people there that show up and thinking, okay, I got a good shot and then you don't get the knock, then that's where it can be kind of devastating. But you will get very emotional. Yeah, well. God. It'll be, it'll be cool. Little Tony Gonzalez.

And you're going to end up being a Hall of Fame football player. Yeah, that'd be great. Who knew? Who knew? You know, also, when I played Pop Warner football, it was horrible, too. You were? Oh, I was the worst kid on the team. Oh, God, stop it.

I'm not kidding. You on the Broncos. That's like Cindy Crawford. I was ugly in high school. It's like, stop it. Seriously, I was the worst kid. I didn't get any playing time. That's why I always tell the kids, when I go out and do a little speaking engagement,

I'm talking to the kids, I'm like, hey, let me tell you something. When I first started, I didn't even get in. You know, you pay the money, and you're supposed to play at least six plays back then. You couldn't. They wouldn't even put me in for those six plays. Because you were skinny? No, I was non-aggressive. I had no confidence.

I really didn't like hitting people. You're not really. The whole concept of football was. Isn't that amazing? Your life story is amazing. That's why I drink Medello. I do. I drink Madeleau because of you. Oh, thank you.

No, this week at the house. No, you think I'm joking. I drink medello. I'm not even loyal. That's a great endorsement there. I drink your beer because you're feelings. I also drink Mendello. It was pre-Toney's commercial.

It was a very good commercial. The strangest topic I've ever had on this show. Okay, so I want eight quarterbacks left. We got a couple statues out there. We got Brady and Rivers. And we got a couple good athletes out there. We got Luck and Mahomes. We got accurate guy.

We got ad libbyr guy. We got like backup quarterback playing like a starter Nick Foles. We got Gough. If I could say to you today, you're a rookie in the NFL, and you can choose one of the eight quarterbacks left in the NFL to tie to. Who would it be and why? Well, immediately out of those, let's narrow it down first. I'm going to go to the top three would be Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Patrick Mahomes.

Okay, why? Well, because they throw to the tight end. That's first and foremost. Look at Travis Kelsey. He broke the record this year, but then George Kittle broke it in San Francisco, the all-time record from the most yards in one season. But I look at what Drew Brees,

and I'm going to, I'm going to scratch Mahones off just because he's young. Okay, we still don't know. We know he's on his way to playing really well. So Drew Brees or Tom Brady, who do you want to play with? I see what those guys have done with tight ends. Jimmy Graham, when he was with Drew Brees, the numbers that he put up, he was on his way to being, he put up better numbers over that.

great span that Tom Brady put up with Ronkowski. Jimmy was the better tight end at that point according to stats. Yeah, and remember, and that was years ago when you could bang on tight ends. So in today's game, if Jimmy Graham was 24. Playing with Drew Breeze right now? Breeze loves the tight end. I'd probably, you know, those two. It's a coin flip.

Yeah. It's, you know, Sandy Crawford or Christy Brinkley. Yeah, I mean, they're both beautiful, right? Okay, so Tony Gonzalez joining us, 17 NFL seasons. He's going to find out he's a Hall of Flipped. hammer pretty soon. You know, you've, you've stated your case with Dak Prescott. You're like, I don't think he's great.

I think he's fine. You know, you kind of feel like I feel like if he takes a reasonable, if he chooses wins over lettuce, he'll win a bunch of games. If he wants to make $28 million, he's going to win fewer games. Could I argue this, though, that there are qualities, and you played with like five quarterbacks, there are qualities that matter. He'll never have Troy Eichman's arm. he's never going to have Terry Bradshaw's armor Patrick.

Okay, we get that. But there are qualities, maniletics, there are it qualities that matter. And he's off the charts in most of those. Go to your career. We don't love him as a thrower, but I love Jay Cutler as a thrower. I didn't like his human qualities.

I like Jeff George as a thrower. I don't like him as a guy. Would you acknowledge, do you believe it's possible, that Dak will be successful in this league because he's so darn good at a lot. all the intangibles, they'll overcome an average arm. Yeah, and looking at them in the Cowboys franchise, DAC is DAC so far. Remember, this is only year three.

I always say this. It takes players, I know how I did for myself, around three years to really come into your own as a football NFL player. Now, as a quarterback, and just look back at the history, and I think we've talked about this before, it takes quarterbacks five years, four to five years before they really hit their stride as a play. Peyton Manning had a bad year four. Yes, yes.

And literally all of them. Even Tom Brady, when he was winning Super Bowls on stuff, he never put up those Gody type numbers until he got to year 5, 6, 7 around that time. So there's still room to improve with DAC. But as I've seen it right now, Dak is Dak, he's a middle-tier quarterback. Right now, today.

But he does, he's the guy you want for the, he's the perfect quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys because he says all the right things. He's a good kid. His teammates love him. He's going to show up. He doesn't turn the ball over. He's got a lot of really good things going for him.

But you have to keep. surrounding him, which they have, the front office of the Dallas Cowboys. They've been very smart. Jones and Jones. I don't know who you're going to give credit to. Some people say, Jerry Jones, is he picking the players? He's just sitting back. Whatever it is, they're doing something right because they have the best roster in the NFL

under the best youngest roster. I agree with that. I think they're the best young roster in the NFL. Hall NFL. You look at the core players. Now, Philadelphia's got more good veteran players. Yeah. So I think Philadelphia's got more good players.

But I would argue youth. They have like nine young players I love. They have 12 starters under the age of 25. Wow. And a core of, I mean, Amari Cooper, what is he, 23, 24. Zeke. Zeke. The linebackers.

The linebackers. They have that line, the Marcus Lawrence coming up to age. I think he's 26. David Irving. They have a whole bunch. If you're a Dallas Cowboys fans, you better be excited. But this kid, Dak, I would like to see him to keep him proven. And I think he can.

And I hope he can't because I like him, too. I met him in person. I hope he can be that guy for them. Okay, I got to ask you this. By the way, let me read a spot real quick. Cold and flu season. Try Vic Synex nasal spray. 12 hours uses direct that I'm behind on spots.

That stuff works. Don't eat it or anything, but it works. All right. So let's go to this. You're from Kansas City. Like, this is the way it works in sports. And this sounds ridiculous what I'm going to say. And I don't believe in ghosts.

And I don't believe in the ghost of Babe Ruth. But Kansas City has lost our last six home playoff games. Andy reads a great coach, but has gotten a little tight in the playoffs. There is a stigma, a cloud hovering over Kansas City. They go in with the MVP. They go in as a touchdown favorite. Tony, they're going to be tight, right? They're going to play the Colts this weekend on Saturday early.

Indianapolis is playing with house money, Tony. They're not even supposed to be here. Can you see a scenario where Kansas City goes in and gets tight? Well, first off, I believe in ghost. You do? I believe in ghosts. I have a ghost. experience from college.

I'm not going to talk about it right now. A cow? A cow had a ghost. A lady had passed away before I moved in and she used to mess with me. I lived there alone too in a little one-bedroom apartment. She messed with you. Yeah, oh, in the middle of the night. She'd be shaking me.

And then I moved out and I didn't know this. And then I moved out at the end of the year. And the guy's all, yeah, it's a shame that lady before you. She passed away right here on the couch. We didn't even know she was in here for like three weeks. Or we smelled it. Anyway. So that's what happened to me.

So I believe in ghosts. That's a crazy. Time out. You can't just bury that. You literally were harassed by a ghost. What do you mean shake the bed? You're 240 pounds. So, like, if I was taking a nap or in the middle of the night,

I would feel somebody sit on the end of the bed. Oh, come on. I'm not kidding you. This is real stuff here. Tony. America, don't you dare say I was making it up. And it wasn't one of those nights out at a frat party where I came home, you know, with a couple pops in me.

It was, I'm talking, I felt it. And then the middle of the night, I remember one time I was shaking like this and I'm wake up and I'm like what the heck is going on and it scared me. I couldn't go back to sleep and all that stuff. And you were at the time you were the best tied in the college football. Yes. I had the best year of my life being college. And you had a ghost shaking your bed. She didn't follow you, right? Did it follow you?

Did it follow you? No, no, it didn't follow me. She never like mess with me or anything like that. But when you were in the room where she died. Yeah. I'm not kidding you. And other people felt it too. They're like, yeah, something's weird about you.

You know, somebody passed out of my house. You really don't believe in ghosts. No. Gotta believe in goats. Goats. I've fed them before. I've seen them. I love goats.

Anyway, see, yeah, Kansas City. Could they be tight? I think they could be tight. I think they probably, you don't want to, I'm not going to say they should be tight, but looking at what's happened in the past with them, especially with that defense. It's the same thing, 2003.

We had the best offense in the league, the worst defense. I remember this. Peyton Manning came in there, Andrew Lug governor there. We had no punts. Patrick Mahomes is going to play outstanding in this game. There's no way.

they don't score at least, you know, the norm. I think they'll score. But my question is... Andrew Luck, it scares me, because that defense is DBs. They're not playing that well right now. But they're coming off on the week's rest. That's the one, obviously, I'm picking Kansas City for this game because I believe in Patrick Mahomes that he can outscore Andrew Luck.

But Andrew Luck's going to put up some points. They're going to move that ball up and down. This is going to be an exciting game. This is going to be a fun game. Yeah, this is the first one on Saturday. They put this the early one on Saturday, and it's a great. first game. I cannot believe you experienced the ghost.

A ghost. Now, what was her name? I don't know her name. I don't know her name. She lived... So she died in the room that you stayed in. And nobody told you until you moved out. And he wasn't supposed to do that. I heard afterwards that they have to tell you if somebody had passed away before you moved in. That's a California law now, I think, or something.

He didn't tell me. He didn't tell me. It was weird. I don't know. Have you seen one since? Uh, I've... Have you ever been ghosted by a friend on Instagram? I'm surprised you know what that means. That's pretty cool. Why are you surprised? Because you don't strike me as a millennial type guy.

I'm lit all the time. I'm 24-7 lit. I don't even know what that means. Can you twerk? Does he know how to twerk? It's got to stop. Everything is happening right now. I would love to see you twerk.

How about that? Joey just doesn't, we'll have none of this. She's the grown-up in the room. All right, this is probably the best segment in the history of the show. Tony Gonzalez is going to make the Hall of Fame. boo, and there's a ghost hovering around. You don't even believe in ghosts. No, I don't believe in ghosts.

How can you say it? Because when I go to bed, I go to sleep and I don't let my mind take, you know, over. You're a thinker. You go to bed and you start thinking about stuff and all of a sudden you hear this. In the corner of the room, it's probably a match falls down and you freak out. A ghost can't hurt you. I'm not afraid of ghost. I'm not afraid of ghost experience before.

I'm scared of no ghosts. I have multiple ghost experiences, actually. See you guys? Okay, let's just go to the news. A nonsense. All right, Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. They're not scary. Oh, yeah, I got some figure hovering over me at 4 in the morning. That's not scary. I mean, they just haven't passed over to the other side. They've got stuff to do. And you're in their space. Just say hello and keep it pushing.

You're right. Keep it pushing. We're going to talk up a ghosting comments. I got a meta-muse. spot in a couple of minutes. Let's move. All right, let's keep it pushing. Trevor Lawrence, the hype train is in full effect right now. He came the first true

freshman in 33 years to win a national championship game. He was unstoppable last night, 347 yards, and three touchdowns in Clemsons' 4416 beatdown of Alabama. So it's overreaction Monday or just reaction Monday for us because we believe in the greatness that is Trevor Lawrence. You believe

too? Oh, absolutely. He looks like Sunshine. Do you remember sunshine? Yes, yeah. You know who he reminds me of as a football player. I told, I was sitting with a buddy last night, and he said, it reminds me of Drew Bledso. When Drew Bledsoe was skinny, six, five and a half came out of Washington State, this is what Drew Bledsoe looked like. I'm not joking. Drew Bledso is the best player in the history of Washington State universities. When Drew came out of college, this is what Drew Bledso looked like. Just a whip. Just an absolute, and he would throw these sideline throws,

and you were like, whoa, that doesn't look like a college quarterback. Well, you got to love his performance this year. But to me, being able to perform like that on the biggest stage in the biggest game is also important. I mean, you want a winner and that's a big part of what the hype train is going on. And, you know, people are now saying he'd be ready for the NFL, he'd be the first pick in the draft. If he was available right now, he won't be available for two more years. We talked about it earlier that, you know, maybe, well, you don't agree, but that they should be allowed to go and get drafted. And by the way, that rule is actually, an NFL rule. It's an NFL and NFL

PA rule that would have to be changed during the NBA. Yeah, it's not an NCAA rule, it's an NFL rule. It's similar to the NBA one and done rule. That's right. That's their rule. It's an NBA rule, not an NCAA rule. So that's not going to get changed because veterans are not going to give up their spots to

you're not going to vote against yourself. They're not going to do that. So three road teams pulled off upsets during the wildcard weekend. There are only eight teams left in the hunt and Vegas has released their Super Bowl odds. The Saints are unsurprisingly still five to two favorites. And despite having a first round by the Rams, Tornel Tide of the Chiefs, with the second best odds at 4 to 1.

Dallas has the worst odds to win. Feels pretty good. Vegas, I think, kind of nailed it. Saints, Chiefs, Rams, Patriots, Chargers, Colts, Philadelphia, Dallas. By the way, Vegas likes the Colts. Vegas believes something I do. You can't take seasons holistically. The Colts are the hottest team now.

that so that seasons are you knock them into quarters. September, never been Belichick's good month. January is Belichick's best month. So I do think the Colts, I would pick the Colts right now over Dallas and Philadelphia too. I mean, they don't love them. They're plus 1,200, but they got them above the Eagles and the Cowboys who have better players.

Yeah, I mean, I agree with those to that. I really don't know what to make of the Inde Chiefs game. I think I'm more rooting for the Chiefs than confident, because you're right. They are very hot right now. Finally, Mike McCarthy probably wasn't too pleased. The latest update on his prospect. to take over the Browns. Cleveland hasn't interviewed McCarthy yet, and ESPN's reported that

the Browns talked with either Mike McCarthy or his reps today, but things are on hold for now while the Browns talk to other candidates, according to sources. Meanwhile, McCarthy remains very much in play for the Jets. By the way, he's not going to get the Brown's job. I think he's going to get the Jets job. Why is he not going to get the Brown's job? Because I just saw a story from Mary Kay Cabot, who's an excellent NFL reporter. Mary Kay is terrific, and they're going to give that to Freddie Kitchens, the guy who's currently the offensive coordinator, who I do not think is ready to be a head coach in the NFL.

I do not like that. He's been an offensive coordinator for half a season in the NFL and Cleveland because they have low self-esteem and anybody that makes them win a couple games, they think it's the greatest person ever. They're going to give him the job. I don't like this move at all by Cleveland. He's not ready to be a head coach.

That doesn't feel like a long-term move. Freddie Kitchens against Bill Belichick tomorrow. Who you like? I mean, seriously. Sean Payton, Andy Reid, against Freddie Kitchens tomorrow. Who you like? Well, you got to start first with winning your division.

I don't like that move. And I don't know. I don't like that move either. But I do think that Mike McCarthy with the Jets would be very interesting and a good spot for him and for Sam Darnel. Yeah. I enjoy the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. Okay, coming up, there's one Super Bowl matchup. I'm dying to see. I'm going to lay out the possible Super Bowl matchups. And the ones I would like the most, there's some incredibly intriguing matchup. that we could get in the Super Bowl. Like crazy, crazy good.

That's coming up and best for last. 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. The NFC divisional playoffs kickoff this weekend on Fox. On Saturday, Ezekio Elliott and the Cowboys, take on Todd Gurley and the Rams. Then on Sunday, Nick Foles and the Eagles,

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Limitations apply. All right. There's been classic matchups through the years that get nicknames. I remember years ago, Ollie took on Frazier. It was the Thriller in Manila. I remember when George Foreman took on, I was like Jerry Cooney. They called it two geysers. fighting at Caesars.

So there's eight teams left in the NFL, and there's these potential crazy matchups for the Super Bowl that would be, and I'm telling you, it's remarkable how many good and amazing Super Bowls are still out there. Let's go best for last. After almost three hours, Colin apparently hasn't gotten to the point yet. Quit holding out on us, cowherd. It's the best for last.

Okay, how about this one? Joy, the Eagles take on the charge. Chiefs, it would be called the super awkward bowl. Andy Reid would face the team that fired him, his old offensive coordinator, Doug Peterson, and Nick Foles, the quarterback he drafted and revived his career in Kansas City. That would be, Eagles Chiefs would be the super awkward bowl, Andy Reed, against the team that fired him.

How about this? Charger Saints. Breeze against the backup. Philip was Drew Breeze backup in 2004 and 2005. And many thought the more natural passer. And partly due to injuries, the Chargers had to make a decision. And they chose Philip Rivers over Drew Breeze. And by the way, Breeze now has the Super Bowl.

And Rivers has the most passing yards ever by any player that hasn't won a Super Bowl. So that would be crazy. Breeze trying to prove should have kept me, and River's trying to prove, hey, Chargers made the right choice. That would be Breeze against the backup. How about Patriot Saints? Confrontation of a generation. Brady has the Super Bowls and Breeze has the statistical records, many of them.

I actually think this would get the highest rating. I think if you got Brady and Breeze, because I've said this before with Drew Breeze, I've called him one of the eight best quarterback. I've ever seen in my life. And I have Aaron Rogers, Brett Farve and Steve Young right outside of that with like Dan Fouts. If Drew Breeze wins a second Super Bowl, Joy, the argument that Breeze is better than Rogers,

he's going to have more records. I think he already is. I do too, but we are in the minority on that. We are in the way minority. When I suggested it two years ago, people like you hate Aaron Rogers, I'm like, no, they're both great. But if Breeze wins a second Super Bowl, he's got all the stats and he's got the rings.

Okay, how about Patriots Eagles, the rarest of rematches? This would only be the second backed-about Super Bowl matchup ever. And if you remember the last time it happened, Cowboys faced the Bills twice in the mid in early 90s and they crushed them. One of the games was reasonably competitive. The other one was a complete utter blowout. Do you remember that, John? Bills had the lead at halftime the second one, but they end up losing like 30-13 or something like. Yeah, yeah.

So the cowboy Jimmy Johnson just, that Troy Aitman team just buried Marve Levy and Jim Kelly. How about Patriots Rams? Goats versus the Rams. Belichick and Brady are the greatest of all time. And it's a battle really of old school discipline. System against new school, Sean McVeigh, high cheekbones, and the glamour-laden star-driven L.A. Rams. How about Patriots and Cowboys?

The Battle for America. The Cowboys are America's team, but shouldn't the Patriots be America's team? If you've got an 18-year dynasty and the Cowboys in that dynasty don't have Super Bowls and you have the best coach and you're on TV more than anybody and you have the best quarterback, shouldn't, and they're called the Patriots, shouldn't they be America's team? They have some things in their history that are sprinkled with a little bit of controversy that I think. Also, people hate winners. America's got stuff

sprinkled with controversy. Yes, we do. We have plenty. We have had a lot of bad decades. Plenty. All right. How about this? Chiefs Rams. The Battle for the Future. They combined for 104 points earlier this year. And it was the highest redded Monday Night Football game in forever.

And it was, there's no question. It was one of the craziest games of my life. It was scheduled to be played in another country. And then Mexico City. the turf wasn't game ready. Yeah, secure a concert tour. And they moved the teams all over the place and they ended up in Los Angeles, which had a really rough time with fires and a tragedy and a shooting tragedy in Thousand Oaks.

It'd been a really rough, rough couple of weeks in Southern California. And this, for the record, you know, I kind of sold a lot of my ram stock earlier this year. They do get the Cowboys at home this week. And they are favored by a touchdown. And I do think Philadelphia has a chance to be. beat New Orleans. Oh, you think you're going to buy some of that stock back? As a stock broker, I certainly have the option.

Finally, Chargers Rams. The Colin Coward Dream Bowl. The only people that want this are me and the governor, Jerry Brown, in California. You know why? I'm not that I'm a homer, but I think it's funny. If the Chargers win this game, where do they hold a parade? Maybe they have a banquet hall available. That'd be crazy.

It would be insane. Now, it should be noted by week 12, everybody thought this was the matchup. And then all of a sudden it kind of teetered and out of control and didn't work. By the way, I get off to a great start this year with great sleep. Casper.com code heard. In fact, you can go to Casper.com slash wave. That's their new mattress. Code Hurd, $50 off select mattresses, terms, and conditions.

apply. I've been sleeping on a Casper for a long time. Alaska and a Hawaii it says here. There may be certain fees that apply. So all right, there's stuff coming down right now. It looks like Mary Kay Cabot's a very legitimate NFL

reporter. She is reporting that Freddie Kitchens, who is currently the offensive coordinator at Cleveland and has been for, you know, seven games, eight games, is going to get the job. I do not believe. Remember, there are certain franchises in America, the New York

Mets, the Clippers for years, I would call them low sports self-esteem teams. That anybody just tells them they're attractive, they have a little bit of success, they just go crazy. I mean, the Mets, you give the Mets just a little hug and they just

they want to, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns. Do you really believe that this kid can go up against Andy Reed and Frank Rike and Bill Belichick and Mike Tomlin and his division and John Harbaugh and this guy has been a coordinator for six months. Okay.

All right. I don't like that one. By the way, USC got a commitment from Cliff Kingsbury, who I don't know. All reports are he's a nice guy. And reportedly, after he signed the contract there, he's like, hey, I want to interview for jobs. And I don't get it. Like, if you look somebody in the eye and sign a contract, you can leave, but I certainly

don't think you should be interviewing for a job. you know, marriage contract, business contract, coaching contract, you sign a contract, you sign a contract, you give somebody your word. But Schreger says, I'm nuts that even when he signed at USC, he should be interviewing for NFL jobs. Kingsbury is the offensive coordinator of a college team, and he's a chance to be a head coach of an NFL team.

That's the equivalent of one of the production assistants at your show coming across to you and saying, Colin, I got this great opportunity to host a show on CBS, and you being like, no, you're a production assistant. These rules are so twisted to me too. The NFL has to go to USC to ask for permission, and USC and Lynn Swan can say no.

What kind of twisted world is this? If the college wanted to hire any NFL person, the NFL can't block them from doing that. It is a one-way road. I hear what you're saying about commitment. In the Josh McDaniels case, you can make the argument. But if you're talking about a college coordinator job and an NFL head coaching job,

I don't even think that's apples to apples. I think that's apples to the greatest orange of all time. I can't compare the two. Well, I would say this. Listen, this is a very personal thing for me, because I've signed 12 contracts in my life. And I've bounced around the country after my contracts are expired. So I'm very pro-mobility. I've said before, Kevin Durant, going to the Warriors, didn't bother me at all.

I mean, I'm not somebody who preaches, you know, loyalty. I preach mobility all the time. But I do think when you sign a contract and look another person, a man or a woman in the eye, and say, I'm going to work for you, then you commit. And by the way, that's like literally giving an engagement ring to your girl. girlfriend and a prettier girl walks by and you're like, yeah, listen, I still have opportunities. There's a lot of things you can do in life. That doesn't mean you should do them in life.

That's all I'm saying. Do I have any spots to read here or anything else? I'm way back today on that stuff. I got to catch up. All right, Joy, that's crazy. We got a ghost story today. Yeah. There was a lot of nonsense on today's show.

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