The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Ben Roethlisberger, Russell Westbrook, Raiders, Giants, & LeBron James

Episode Date: March 18, 2019

Colin discusses the latest rumor about Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, why he doesn't like the game of Oklahoma City Thunder G Russell Westbrook, the Oakland Raiders talking too much, why New York Giants fans should cheer for Cleveland Browns WR Odell Beckham Jr., and the latest criticism of Los Angeles Lakers F LeBron James. Guests include Doug Gottlieb, Cuttino Mobley, and T. J. Houshmandzadeh. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What?

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and I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to her. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love.

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You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a pack Monday. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we're live in Los Angeles on IHart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. One hour from now,

one of our better, Colin was right, Colin was wrong segments of the year. We're packed today, Doug Gottlieb, a little on March Madness stuff, among other things coming up later in the hour. Enjoyed Taylor back from a respite in Florida. It was a wedding. A wedding. Yes. Congratulations. Brandon Newman. The Fox family got married this weekend in Sarasota. That is awesome. What a beautiful place Sarasota is. Yes, not the easiest to get to. No. We're discussing earlier. But it's a beautiful.

But when you're in the West Coast, Florida is not the easiest place to get to in general. It's another world, but Sarasota is absolutely stunning. It's great to have you. And you know, Joy is from Pittsburgh, and it seems like the Steelers are in the news more than any NFL team. And again, this morning they're in the news. This is a big claim. One of the reasons I like football, every game matters. College football, pro football, every game matters. There's a regulated violence to it, so you've got to play hard. A left tackle can't take a playoff or the quarterback gets hurt. It could damage the franchise. That's what I love about it. Everybody's all in every play. And in baseball, there's so many games you could take it at bat off in basketball.

You see guys give up baskets. In tennis, you go down three love and a set, you tank it for the next sat golf. You see guys throw their clubs. They're done for the weekend. But in football, you've got to play hard. It's a brotherhood because you get hurt. Hockey's a little bit like that. You'll get hurt. So this is quite a claim. Josh Harris, former Big Ben teammate in Pittsburgh, says he intentionally fumbled four years ago. The video is arguable. Nobody can really prove it, but he said 2014, week 17, we're playing the Bengals up by 10 a minute left. Todd Haley, who Ben hated, called her. run play with very little time left in the game.

Big Ben wanted to kneel. And when the play came into the huddle, Big Ben rolled his eyes. So if you see the play, he then fumbled on the next play. And Josh Harris is saying, you know, Big Ben, to spite Todd Haley, fumbled the ball. Now, Steelers up by 10 minute left. We're going to win the football game. But that would stick. That would be a stench, that's sabotage, win or lose that game.

That is just not appropriate. in football. Again, in baseball, fourth game of a series, up by nine in your division, it's August, you partied too hard, you give up an at bat. I see it in basketball, tennis, golf, you don't do that in football. True or not, you don't do it. Here's the thing. Lavian Bell, it's his fault, Antonio Brown, his fault, Big Ben, his fault, Mike Tomlin, his fault. Here's a thing. I don't need Antonio Brown to be a leader. I don't need Levian Bell to be a leader. I just need him to talented, but I need my quarterback to be a leader. That's not leadership. There's two great quarterbacks in the NFL, and they're both amazing, and I've compared them for years, Aaron Rogers

and Big Ben. They're the only great first ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks currently playing that are called out regularly by teammates, current former teammates. Here we go again with Ben. And this morning, there's going to be people that defend Ben Rothesberger, and they blame it out other people. I don't need wide receivers and running backs to be leaders. That's why I do care about the Wonderlich test for quarterbacks. And I do care about their

family upbringing. And I do care if they have leadership qualities. And I took the claims against certain quarterbacks out of college as screw-offs. Johnny Mansell. Not a grown-up. Baker Mayfield. War me out. That's why. Because this is not a position

to just be talented. Leadership is crucial. Brady's probably the best leader of all time. Not the best arm, not the best talent. Joe Montana, Russell Wilson, guys I like, Drew Breeze. You can like Big Ben and you can stand behind Big Ben. But for once again, Big Ben and Aaron Rogers, teammates are just willing to go public. I mean, listen, I've worked with people that I don't love, but you'd have to be a real schmuck for me to go out and publicly hammer you.

I mean, we've all worked with people we don't like. But when you put it on paper, when you stand in front of a mic, I mean, for Josh Harris, kind of a nobody in the league to do that, there's just too much smoke here with Big Ben. And by the way, I get this. His teammate Josh comes out and he says, great player, but he doesn't connect with teammates. For the record, that's the knock on Aaron Rogers.

And I've seen my entire life great athletes who don't think are great leaders, A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Kobe Brown. Carmelo Anthony, Big Ben. I think they're unbelievable talents. I don't think they're great leaders. I think Jeter's a great leader. Russell Wilson's a great leader. Peyton Manning's a great leader.

Tom Brady's a great leader. There is a gap here. There is a difference. Don't confuse the two. Great talent and great talent and a leader. Jeter was both. Steph Curry is both. Brady is both.

But you can keep defending Ben Rothersburg, but there's just way too much smoke here. and quarterback is not just about talent. You lead the class. You talk in the huddle. You lead the film session. Shame on Ben, if it's true. That's a really, really awful claim.

And if you look at the video, I'm not going to say it's true, but it's not untrue. That's all I'm saying when I see that video. I want to shift to this. Tension is contagious. years and years ago I was on a plane guy was drunk

flirting with a stewardess we're at 33,000 feet it was uncomfortable there was tension on the plane and it was contagious we were all uncomfortable it's a skinny little tube 33,000 feet he was combustible

tension spreads through a family and it spreads through a room. The intense dad on vacation, the unruly passenger on a flight. Russell Westbrook, to me, has never been a championship player because he's too rigid, and it makes everybody else tense and rigid.

This Saturday, Oklahoma City was hosting Golden State, and Kevin Durant didn't play. It was a big game. It's one of those rare half-dozen NBA regular season games, Saturday night feels like, oh, we got a little playoff thing going here. This game matters a little bit. And Westbrook completely melted down like he does in the playoffs, like he often does in the fourth quarter, like he often does against Golden State.

You sort of got a technical headbutted Clay Thompson, 0 for 7. It was a bad shooting night. And you shoot poorly generally when you're tense or you're tired. And Westbrook is never tired, right? here was the sound from Saturday night. Thompson got a block, and then Westbrook takes a frustration foul, then gets hit with a technical, and that's his 16th technical of the season, which means he's going to be suspended unless they rescind it,

which it doesn't look like that's going to be the case in this instant, but he's going to be suspended for their next game. Maybe it's a foul. Get back because you know you're playing against the Golden State Warriors. Every call is not going to go your way, just the way every game is in this league. Mistakes are going to be made across the board. Play through it. He is so tightly wound when you add any little pressure to him,

playoffs, Warriors, fourth quarter, he unravels. I don't hate Westbrook. I hate his game. He's the Little League dad who's always too uptight, one blown call by the umpire. He's into a confrontation with an umpire at a Little League game. Tensions contagious. It's why Oklahoma City melts down in big games and melts down in the playoffs.

He's rigid and everybody else is on pins and needles. I mean, it was palpable in that game. What are you doing? I mean, listen, fans, media, even after the game, dealing with media, local media, people there to give you a back massage and make you look good. It was tense. You got 16th technical. Do you have any hopes of getting that when we send it so you can play?

Monday night. Thanks, question. Russ, were you aware that you were at 15? Next question. Are you disappointed with yourself for picking up your 16th? Next question. Again, if you can't deal with local media, like that heckler fan in Utah, that was on him, not on Westbrook, I defended him.

But this is, I don't hate Russell. I hate his game. Tension is contagious. and any team he's on in big spots, you can just see everybody clenching their teeth, pins and needles. What's Russ going to do? And Saturday night, plus minus mite 18, 0 for 7 on threes, whatever that was with Clay Thompson,

I just don't think he's a championship player, just a really talented one. All right, coming up, Doug Gottlieb this hour, listen, March Madness, brackets come out. who's in my bracket. You really don't. I don't care who's in yours. Let's be honest about this. I've been told this for years by people in Las Vegas who bet college basketball for a living. There's eight teams in every tournament that can win this thing. I think this year there's only six, and I'll give you my six coming up next. One of the things I love about Dollar Shave Club,

they've got everything I need. I want to look, feel, smell my best. Okay, I never have to go to the store. That's because, one, Dollar Shave Club delivers everything I need to my door, and two, they keep me fully stocked on what I use so I don't run out. Here's how it works. Dollar Shave Club has everything you need to get ready and they have this new program where they automatically keep you stocked up on the products that you use regularly. So you determine what you want and when you want it and it shows up right at your door from once a month to once every six months. That's what I do. Dollar Shave Club's got their toothpaste. I use that. You set it up automatically. It can get sent to you. Never runs out. You never wake up in the morning and go, oh God, I don't have any toothpaste.

My mouth is cleaner, fresher, teeth are whiter. They have a handsome discount. More you buy the more you save. Right now they've got a bunch of starter sets. Try any of them for five bucks. Why don't you try the oral care kit? After that, the restock box shipped regular size products at a regular price. So what are you waiting for? Get your starter set. Right now, five bucks. That's it. At dollar shave club.com slash Colin. Dollar. Welcome back. Good to have you in. Doug Gottlieb around the corner. Joy Taylor is joining me. It's the herd in a Monday. We're packed today. So for years and years I lived in Vegas. And when I lived in Vegas, 25 years ago, college basketball was massive. It felt bigger than the Super Bowl. And March Madness and Brackett Monday was gigantic. And the college basketball years ago where NBA guys like Patrick Ewing would come back for a sophomore, junior, senior year. See how good

Zion Williamson is? Can you imagine him coming back for four years? It would just, that's what college basketball was like 25 years ago. It was amazing. Great players and great teams. Everybody came back as juniors and his seniors. Zion Williamson and Duke, it's a remarkable story. I like them to win the tournament and get to the national championship. But one thing I always learned in Vegas was, don't fall in love with the upsets. There'll be a couple in the first run. round. Don't go crazy. Number one, two, three, and four seeds dominate this tournament and that there's only eight teams that can actually win it because you got to win six straight games. You got to have a good coach. You generally have to have a dominant NBA player or a really good score. Good backcourt,

smart guard play helps. This year I've watched there. You know, I watch a lot of college basketball. I don't talk a ton about it because nobody knows who the players are outside of a couple of guys for Duke, but I watch a lot of it. This year, I think there are six teams that can win it and I'll put it right up there for you. Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. I think Kentucky's close, but they're too inconsistent. Sometimes Calipari overcoaches in the tournament. And frankly, they're five and four against ranked teams. I think Michigan State is close, but I don't think they can win six straight games.

I actually, like Michigan, thought they should have won yesterday in a crazy Big Ten championship. I think they have the best game coach in college basketball, and they're built to win. They don't get too high. They don't get too low. I like their demeanor. They're good enough to beat anybody, but they're not talented enough to overlook anybody. I think Michigan is going to, they're getting crushed this morning because everybody thinks they should be a three seed, not a two seat. I think Michigan ends up in the final four.

So I like Michigan a lot, and I've liked them all year. I've told you all year, I think Duke plays Michigan in the national championship. Duke's getting better. That's what happens with freshman teams. But everybody, you know, the more options you give me, they keep adding teams to this. tournament over the last 20 years, but they're not adding one and two seeds. They're adding junk. They're not adding quality. It's like this gigantic menu. If you work in the restaurant business, everybody orders about six things off a menu. If you're expanding your menu, you're not

adding chicken parm. Okay, that's what people have ordered for years. You're not adding a New York strip, a baked potato or broccoli. That stuff's been on the menu for years. You're adding stuff that's new, but it'll never be as popular. And so I saw a story this weekend about millennials, you know, the dreamers and they're changing the world. And the story was that there are so many options now in vacations that millennials, 51% of millennials just go back to the place they went last year. Because there's so much anxiety and so many choices, they just go back to what's popular. And I go back to what matters in college basketball.

Do you have a great coach? Do you have a coach who's been in the tournament? Do you have like one NBA guy? Do you have a smart back court? Are you capable of winning close games, not getting too high, after a win and too low after a loss. These are my six. Duke Gonzaga, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, Carolina. I think Kentucky's close, but I don't think they can win six straight.

And I think Michigan State's close. But in a tournament setting, I don't think they can win six straight. And there you go. There's my six. Doug Gottlieb around the corner. Here's Joy Taylor. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. So LeBron James has played the 15th most minutes in NBA history. And he's the second among active players. He trails only Dirk. Even though he probably isn't too excited to be missing the postseason, he is being very optimistic about this extra time he's going to have. Yeah, you will. Absolutely.

I mean, I've thought about how my summer's going to be. And, you know, it's unfortunate that we're so far out of the postseason right now and looking like we won't be a part of it. So, you know, obviously the first thing that comes in mind is just taking care of my body. I've played a lot of basketball, played a lot of minutes over my 16-year career. So getting an opportunity to have a couple more months to take care of my body and refresh my mind. And my body is going to be very key going into my 17th year.

so looking forward to that. He actually needs a break. I mean, it's a lost season, so he's going to get a break. It's very, I don't think it's completely washed over all of us how weird it's going to be to watch the NBA playoffs without LeBron James. It's been so long. That's right. I mean, even Kobe, I mean, Michael retired. Kobe had dips.

Even the greatest players of all time disappeared from the playoffs every few years. It's like LeBron's been for 15 years our staple in the playoffs. It's definitely going to be weird. But he does need a time off, and we always talk about how much extra wear and tear he's had because he has been in the playoffs and gone so far in the playoffs and obviously the Olympics. It's like he's played so much basketball over his career that at this particular point in the career, it's kind of a blessing in disguise. Like it's not a good thing as far as legacy and our conversation about the free agency period and what's going to happen with them moving forward. You can kind of brand this 20 years from. He does need a break.

20 years from now at a bar, you could say this and say, remember that season when everything went wrong for the Lakers and LeBron? You just say that and everybody would be okay with it. Like you could say, remember when Michael retired for a couple years to play baseball? And you're like, yeah, that was weird. We don't hold it against him. If LeBron comes back and wins a championship, we won't. Or they come back and they're competitive.

If it comes back and it's more of this. Yeah, I mean, if it's four years of this, it's a stain. We're not going to get the same way. So Baker Mayfield is embracing the personality that O'Dell, Buckham, Junior is bringing to the Browns. He was visiting the Brewer's spring training in Phoenix, and Baker was asked about the emotions that Odell will add to the locker room.

You can say the same thing about me. You don't want to tame it. You just let them be themselves and make plays. You know what? That's who they are. When it comes down to it, the guys in that locker room, you're going to love playing with them. And I know from Sequin and Sterling Shepard

and I'm very close with that I know exactly who OBJ is inside the locker room. and who he is to his teammates. And that's the most important thing. People can have their, you know, attitudes and perspective on it. But he's himself and he also has his teammates back. I can't get used. He's a handsome kid.

What's up with the beard? I just can't get used. You're very picky and choosy about your beard. Sometimes you just love the beard and sometimes you're way out. I just, I don't like it. It's just very odd. It's Baker, so you're going to find something to say. I do think it's a lot about what you were talking about

earlier with Rathosberger. You don't need Odell to be a leader. You don't need Antonio Brown to be the leader. You need Baker to be the leader. Thank you. And in this particular situation with this team as it's currently assembled, Baker has to be the leader because he is the emotional drive of that team. He's the battery of that team. By the way, this is going to be interesting joy because at Oklahoma, let's face it, you line up 10 weeks a year and you blow past your opponent. You don't have to be a great leader. You could just be a good player. And then you go to the NFL last year with Cleveland. He didn't even start the year. And, you know the expectations were low. This is the first time Baker is like in the captain's chair of the

plane and you got to make a tight landing here and people are going to bang on you if you don't win the division. It's all on him. It is 100% on him. I'm with you with everything you just said is completely accurate. Last year was he had nothing to do but go up because he didn't start the season. They fired the coach. They fired the offensive coordinator. It was chaos and he still ended up having a great season. So to his credit, I do think that he is capable of leading this team. It is a lot of personalities, and it's a lot of stars himself included, but what's going to be different for Baker and Cleveland is that they're not playing with expectations, whereas for, I don't know how many years, they've had no expectations, so anything good that happens

is like a bonus. You have to win now. They're throwing a parade. They finished third place last year. Like now it's like second place is going to be, by the way, I'll be the first guy to stand up because this is not going to be an easy situation. Rookie head coach. coach, outspoken GM. Jarvis Landry and O'Dell Beckham are challenging players. You got three legit running backs. One will come back halfway through the season. So if Baker can lead this team, I will tip the cap and say,

this is not an easy team to quarterback. I think you could put Tom Brady with this team, and there would be, I mean, listen, you gave Tom Brady a rookie coach, an outspoken GM, and two receivers that want 14 targets. This is not an easy team to quarterback. I don't think it is. I do think that they're going to pull it off this year because I have no faith in the Steelers anymore. I'm defeated.

Finally, Dolphins fans got an interesting St. Patrick's Day surprise. Ryan Fitzpatrick agreed to a two-year deal with Miami. Now, since the announcement, there's been some speculating on how that affects Miami's of the storyline that they're tanking for two. I don't know what that means. They moved off Ryan Tandahill, which moving off Ryan Tandahill for Ryan Fitzpatrick is like, okay? How about this?

They just no longer wanted to be married to Tanna Hill. That I understand. That I understand. And they probably explain to Ryan that this is a temporary situation. They're looking for the guy. And that's probably the situation. Tua doesn't excite me, to be honest with you. I'm not as big as on Tua as everybody else is.

I still think they should make a move for a quarterback this year and let Ryan Fitzpatrick, who is a veteran, teach him how to be a pro. That's what you should do. No, draft that kid at Missouri. If you think you have the guy in this draft. Missouri's got a talented kid. A little cocky, a little reckless, but fun and talented. Draft him and then let him learn from a pro.

Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd line news. All right, let's bring in my friend. I listened to him yesterday doing that Michigan, Michigan State game. It was absolutely crazy fun. Doug Gottlieb the dugger after me, Fox Sports Radio.

Well, let's hit on the one thing that people know you for college hoops. I know you for a lot more than that. But years ago, when I lived in Vegas, it was the heart of you, NLV, and college basketball. Guys like, you know, Christian Laitner would come back for a junior year. It was a different sport. But Vegas guys used to always tell me, listen, there's about eight teams every year that can win this thing.

You need the coach. Is he good situationally? Nice to have an NBA player. He don't have to. Virginia's got now an NBA guy. DeAndre Hunter, yeah. Yeah. You know, guard play tends to matter.

Are you a team that won't get too high, too low so you can get knocked off? These are my six. I've watched all the good, I've watched Duke a lot. I think Michigan's built for the tournament because I think their game coach is amazing. I think Kentucky, Michigan State are close, but I can't see them winning six straight games.

These are my six I like. Is there a dark horse? Is there a team you love? Well, you don't have Kentucky in there. I'm surprised by it. There's five and four against ranked teams. They got better late in the year, but they're kind of. Well, Gonzaga lost to Tennessee and to North Carolina

and beat Duke. Who should win it? Who should win it? I mean, Duke should win it based upon talent and pedigree, but they have basically three guys that can score, no bench, and they can't shoot. But like if I went through each one of these teams, like Michigan, no bench and can't score,

they have to beat you with their defense. Yes. And they're great at point guard defensively and great at center defensively. But, you know, they lost to Michigan State three times because Michigan State was that much better at point guard offensively. You know, North Carolina, I think, has a ton of talent. Yeah, I like them. But Kobe White, their freshman point guard is more of a score than kind of your traditional

Roy Williams point guard. Tennessee and Gonzag, I have questions about their guard play. Virginia, like, don't tell me you're pregnant. Show me the baby in terms of the NCAA tournament. Look, I have Kentucky in my bracket, and I have some of the same hesitations you do. They have youth. Ashton Hagan's their point guard can't shoot, but he's great defensively. They got scores on each wing.

They got scores inside. They defend. They have depth. And as much as you could take shots at John Kagan's. Calipari for only winning one title at Kentucky. He's around most time, more times not, he's around. They're close. I would put Kentucky definitely on that list and probably take Michigan off the list.

What they've been able to do, considering what they lost from last year is nothing short of miraculous. With John Beeline, I just don't think they have the offensive firepower to win for, let alone six games. By the way, great weekend, great job in the Big Ten championship. It was wild, like just fun, crazy. And it's one of these things that we do in my. sport in college basketball is we have a tendency to completely downplay, conference play, and conference tournament play. Like, that stuff is awesome.

And Michigan State won their preseason tournament in Vegas. They won their regular season. They be Michigan three times. And that was an absolute war yesterday to win in Chicago. And nobody cares if they lose their first round game, like what happened when they lost to middle Tennessee going back a couple years ago. All right, I want to go to a couple of NBA things. First of all, I've said I don't hate Russell Westbrook.

I hate his game. there's kind of a lack of self-awareness. He's a very rigid, tightly wound guy. And when you are and you add a little tension to it, playoffs fourth quarter against the Warriors, he completely melts down Saturday. I'm not going to bang on him because he's not a great shooter. He never has been.

You just did bang on him. Well, no, but what I bang on him for, his personality, I was on a plane years ago, guys drunk unruly, and tension is contagious. The uptight dad, the guy in the plane. We've been in TSA where somebody... You are who your best player is. And I watched this meltdown Saturday night.

What did you make of it? Well, I kind of think we keep stoking it. Like, even the, look, the fan should have lost his tickets in Utah. Yes. But the fact is, like, that's not his first run in with a fan even this year. Right. Right. Like, hey, dude, we don't dislike you.

We actually like you. Like, we get into the clothes thing and the shoes thing and the why not and the why not thing. And yet, for whatever reason, he's super, super, super defensive, and we make excuses for Russell Westbrook. We make excuses for the poor shooting. We're like, hey, look, Paul George has been great, so Russell Westbrook must be part of that. He's part of that, but most of it is Paul George has just been great. Right.

I kind of think the way in which most players, most media members, handled the Russell Westbrook in Utah situation is why we see him acting this way. You know, he gets technical fouls. he's supposed to be suspended a game, right? Because he's got more technical files than anybody in the NBA. Like that's not weird. He's just so incredibly defensive in a me against the world guy when the world is not actually against Russell Westbro.

By the way, it's kind of what makes him great. What makes Russell Westbro great is that he's got this chip on his shoulder a mile high. It's why Aaron Rogers ends up from a junior college to the great talent. But sometimes your personality, your benefits become, I tend to be kind of myopic. That can make me a really dopey husband, and sometimes my kids want to strangle me. Westbrook's intensity is what makes him Westbrook, and it's what wears people out. And I just think he's a very tightly wound guy, and you add a little bit of tension to the moment, and it just implodes quickly. There's no question.

I know people that have always been Westbrook fans because of how hard he works and how hard he plays. Can't deny any of that. And his level of a competitiveness on a daily basis, who are now just like kind of done. with the whole thing. The whole tough guy act. Yeah. The whole, you know, the refs are out to get me. The world is out against me. Like, look, he's gotten worse, not better as a shooter.

Normally, when you start to age, you get better as a shooter and worse as an athlete. But he's just, like, look, it creates an amount of tension that is not good for his team. And they should be a legit challenger in the West. Look, the other thing that happened over the weekend, Malcolm Brogden got hurt. He's out

six to eight weeks. I think that changes to the East dramatically. He's an incredibly integral part of what the what the bucks do. And C.J. McCollum, we'll see what happens with may not play for Portland. Might not play either, which makes Portland wasn't going to win the thing, but they would be a nuisance to somebody in an NBA playoff series. Drag it out six, seven games. Here's another story I think that needs to be addressed. We all know Kevin Durant's amazing. But I talked about this with certain guys are great talents, not great leaders. Barry Bonds, you know, I think was a great talent. I don't think Barry was necessarily

galvanized locker room. A-Rod a little bit. both like A-Rod. Whereas Jeter was both. Russell Wilson's both. I think Peyton Manning was great and a leader. You know, I look at Kevin Durant and, you know, Golden State, he'll leave for a couple games. You're wrong. And they're better without him. They're not better without him. They're not. This is the Celtics are better without Kyrie thing. They're not. Listen, the reason they beat Houston was Demarcus cousins for the first time looked like DeMarcus cousins. He played well. He played exceptionally well. And then they beat Oklahoma City because Russell Westbrook imploded. But you would acknowledge it is Steph's team.

Look, Steph is who they want to be. Steph plays. Steph has fun. Like, it's not work to him, right? And that does flow to the whole team, whereas KD is kind of a crumagine. Like, he's like, why is he not happy? But he's a walking bucket, Colin. Yes.

He's the best player in the NBA because he can affect the game at both ends of the floor. And he has a virtually unstoppable pull-up jump shot, right? Like, so I get it. He's not that much fun to cover. and he doesn't seem like he's enjoying himself that much. But there is kind of a mixture there, right? Because Steph is fun.

Steph plays with joy. But Steph also turned over and doesn't really bother him that much. KD wants to tear out your heart and show it in front of you and watch you bleed to death. That's who he is. He really is. Once upon a time, there was a nickname giving him the Slim Reaper that he ran away from. And I thought that was amazing. I thought that was perfect.

That's a great nickname. It is. It's great. He's struggling kind of internally, but they're not better without the best. score in the NBA. It goes to something. Joey and I talked about this. Remember Dan Campbell took over the dolphins as the coach and he was kind of this like, you know, kind of the meat head coach, right? And for like four weeks, the dolphins were amazing. Yes. But over time, the best teachers win. Andy Reid,

Belichick. Kevin Durant, in a short spurt without him, the classroom's fine. But he is the smartest kid in the classroom. Like in the end. So I just changed your opinion? No, you did, but no. I think I did. Because you came in with the premise that they're better without him. Look, here's the thing with Golden State. that I don't know if you've said, but I've said, is I'm not convinced they're actually better with DeMarcus cousins. I don't think they are. Right.

And so, look, anytime Golden State has won an NBA championship, they've won three of the past four, they've done so closing out with Draymond Green with the small ball lineup, right? That's their death lineup. Yeah. Okay, that's not having a big guy. And the reason is you have to hide Steph Curry. You can hide one guy defensively.

You can't hide two. And if they have DeMarcus cousins, now all of a sudden you can't switch every pick and roll with your senator. And oh yeah, by the way, he's kind of a ball stopper offensively. Like there's a reason they went out and got Andrew Bogot, you know, off the scrap heap who's in Australia because he's a great screener, both legal and illegal. He's a great passer and he's a no ego guy. And he fits perfectly with what they have, whereas DeMarcus cousins does not. I think the Warriors still know that they have problems. This weekend's

two wins without Kevin Durant, notwithstanding. I want to talk about Ben Rothlisberger. You know, what I'm finding with Pittsburgh, it's the blame game. It's everybody else's fault. But I don't need Antonio Brown to be a leader, and I don't need Lavin Bell to be a leader. I need my quarterback to be a leader. I mean, I got about 19 examples now with Big Ben people calling him out. Okay, at some point, and I've always said, quarterbacks can get away with more because they're quarterbacks. I mean, if Russell Wilson was a jerk, he could get away with it, right? If you're a defensive end or a corner and you're allowed, you're out of town. But I mean, this claim by a Steeler teammate that four years ago, he fumbled on purpose to spite Todd Haley.

To go public with that, that is not just a singular opinion. That's been talked about among Steeler players. Has it not? There's no question. But I think part of it is we're trying to understand, wait a second, how could this have not landed them a Super Bowl? You had Levion, you had Antonio Brown, and I think this is explained. There was massive dysfunction within that team when they had Todd.

Haley. He didn't like Todd and Todd didn't like him. Right. But I can only point out that like, look, this is what happened when Todd Haley was the head coach in Kansas City. This is what happened when Todd Haley was the offense coordinator in Cleveland. So while if he fumbled on purpose and that is a

that is a dastardly claim that is like sabotage. It is. It's exactly what it is sabotage. That's worse than like changing a play is one thing. Fumbling on purpose and potentially cost your team a chance to ice the game. a completely other claim.

I've never even heard that in football. I can watch baseball guys mailing at bats. I've seen tennis guys down three love just like get to the next set. I've seen golf guys at the turn like, I don't want to play this weekend. I've never even heard this claim. Well, I mean, look, I've heard of some of that in basketball where. Yeah, basketballs. Where guy will come down and, you know, they know time and score.

They know situation. Right. And they'll screw a coach on purpose. Like, oh, this is what you want to run. But I wouldn't hold it. against it for a quarterback? Again, this is, it's one, it's one claim. It is one claim that you're like, man, too close for comfort.

I'll just say this about Big Ben. Whatever we think of him, whatever some of his former teammates think of him, whatever Levion thinks about him, but although Levion hasn't come out with negative statements about Big Ben, Antonio Brown has, the fact is that the Pittsburgh Steelers the crowd said, he's our guy. He's our guy. I mean, look, the GM even said, like, there's 52 other kids in the room, and he's the one adult. I didn't love. I didn't love what he said and the way he said it,

but it's pretty obvious that they know replacing Ben Rathesberger is a lot harder than living with Ben Rathlisberger, so they're going to have to live with some of his quirks. And look, he had, I mean, he's linked to the Trump story. He had the previous deals with women. He had wearing a motorcycle, riding a motorcycle without a helmet and, you know, going over. Like, he's got some stuff in his background. A lot.

But we've all kind of matured, and there is, there's a lot of shrapnel there to pick out with a Todd Haley relationship. and all that said, if the catch rule last year was what the catch rule is this year, they would have had home field advantage, wouldn't have had to play Jacksonville at that point in the playoffs, probably would have gone to the Super Bowl, and Levyon bagged the season, and then Antonio Brown decided he didn't want to show up for week 17, and so he's still your Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback. All right, Doug Gottlie, good stuff.

Your show today will be an enlightening voyage through who to take and who to avoid in the college basketball. We'll talk some NBA hoops as well. And where's Josh Rosen going to go, now, right? Washington off the docket. It looks like Miami off the docket. The Giants or the Chargers? Giants. That sounds like you have insight information. Colin Wright, Colin wrong, top of the hour, Doug Gottlieb, good seeing you, buddy.

Coming up next, the Raiders are talking too much, and I'm not even talking John Gruden. They're just talking too much. That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. If you look in the National Football League, quiet, covert, private is the way to go. There's almost a kind of weird, I mean, it's not analogous to military, but military is far more important than football. But there is sort of a military sense with football that you got a playbook, you keep it quiet, you don't lose that playbook. And, you know, you're part of a real brother.

And that's why in the NFL, if you're in the front office, talk less always. So Mike Mayock is a nice guy. He's a broadcaster. And John Gruden, I get along with John. He's a broadcaster. But these guys are longtime television personalities. And I said this last year with John Gruden, stop talking. You don't need to perform anymore. When you're on television, I'm paid to perform. Be theatrical, give you strong opinions. That's what I'm paid to do. once you're a football coach, you have to get out of that former TV thing and almost go the opposite way, from engaging to extending a conversation to giving me more than I need to reeling it all in, walking to a podium and saying on to Cincinnati.

You just don't hear the best front office people in the NFL talk almost ever. Howie Roseman, Philadelphia, great, I never see him talk. Chris Ballard, you just don't see these guys talk. So Mike Mayock, like Gruden, comes from a long, career in television. Now those two guys are running the Raiders. And Dan Patrick had Mike Mayock the other day talking about that trade that got him, Antonio Brown. Here's the tape. I kept saying we're not interested. We're not interested. We're not interested. And then the Buffalo thing fell through that Friday. And one of their guys reached out to John, and John reached

out to me. And I called Kevin. And Kevin said, would you trade your two? And I said, no. But, you know, we might trade our three. For a three and a five at that point, we were ready to say, okay, it looks like free agency's got to change for us. Okay, now Joy, tell me if I'm overreacting. Isn't that a private conversation? Yeah. You don't really want to reveal what swayed you

and how your strategy was and when you didn't want someone and then you did. Because doesn't that make it look like Colbert, Kevin Colbert GMS Steelers came and Mike swatted him away and Mike got what he wanted? It makes Kevin Colbert look like he lost

this sort of transaction. By the way, it's incidental. Mike's not trying to do that, but Mike was performing. Mike was being a guest on a show. It was a good question. It elicited a great answer. That's what hosts should do. Good for Dan.

But that feels like a private conversation. And people aren't going to want to do business with you if they think your trades are going to end up on radio and TV shows. Well, I mean, look, what just happened with the Lakers and what a disaster that was. In general, when you are moving pieces around and these pieces are human beings, and they have families and they're attached to fan bases and have spent years in a particular place and you have a fan base you're responsible for as well.

You want to keep the inner workings of how those deals are done very, very private. You know, it's like a family. Like there are certain times, your family, my family, we just keep this in the house. It may be disciplined with one of our kids. It may be a fight you have with your spouse. We're just going to keep this in the house.

Nobody in the neighborhood needs to know about this. That doesn't mean it was a terrible. situation. It doesn't mean it's illegal. Or the wrong decision. It's just sometimes just keep stuff in house. And in the NFL, we got a history here. That's the opposite of what the Patriots do. What would Belichick do? He wouldn't talk about another GM, the phone call. That's just a private conversation. And I'll say this. I said this with Gruden last year. Gruden last year was performing. And it's, listen, I worked at a company for 11 years. It took me about a year and a half to get it out of your head. Not that you have grudges, but when you go down a hallway for 11 years and then

you go down a different hallway, if you're in a marriage for 15 years and then you get out of the marriage for the next year, you're in habits and trying to kind of unravel and unpack the way you did things. And I just think they have two TV guys who are now in an NFL situation, and they just talk a lot all the time. I want to talk about Odell Beckham Jr. So Jerry Jones owns the Dallas Cowboys. And Jerry Jones was asked about the New York giant. trading Odell Beckham Jr. Here's his reaction. I'm a big football fan.

I'm a Browns fan because I'm from Cleveland. We took a fantastic wide receiver out of your division, Odell Beckham Jr. How you feel about that? Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now you got to watch you back. We're coming for you. I agree with that.

And I'm so behind the hasums and what they're doing there in Cleveland. Beautiful. And I'm really, when you're in a league, You really want the competition to be there. Yes, Odell Beckham is going to be really good in Cleveland if he can stay healthy. Here's the thing. For all you New York Giant fans, I see everybody taking sides. So glad Odell's gone.

What are you doing? I can't believe you traded Odell. Giant fans, you want to get better, root for Odell Beckham to be great in Cleveland. Not good, great. So good. he's got 15 touchdowns. So good the Browns win the division. So good you can't cover him. So good Baker Mayfield, MVP finalist. Why? It will validate finally to the Mara family. We got to get rid of Eli. You want Odell Beckham to go to Cleveland and blow the league up. Do Randy Moss

with New England. Set records. Because in New York right now, your issue isn't trading Odell. It's that your owner and your GM are trying to convince you. Eli's still got. Got it. When you add Odell to Cleveland and they blow the league up, all you Eli Manning critics can go, told you. Told you. Call right, calling wrong. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

Hour 2 in Atlanta Monday. This is The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we are live on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and F.S. one. By the way, cold and flu season. Try VIX Sinex nasal spray. Works up to 12 hours when you have congestion. Vix Sinex nasal spray. Joy Taylor is joining me on a Monday. It was a very busy weekend.

Some college basketball. It's bracket Monday. You don't care about my bracket. And I don't care about yours. And it'll probably be Duke in the National Championship. And that'll be okay with me because I've watched Duke play 15 times this year. They can't shoot, but they're really good. Joy, how are you? I'm great. How are you? I am good. Well, we do it every week at this time. I started doing this about four or five years ago, and I said, you know, sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong.

But people in this business never admit when they're wrong. Political pundins don't. They just move the goalposts. And I thought every Monday I'll come out and I'll just say last two weeks, last week, here's where I goofed up and here's where I was right. So here we go. Where Colin was right? I told you a year ago, I said, you better draft Sam Darnel Giants. And if you don't, you're going to regret it. Well, let's look less than a year later. O'Dell Beckham's gone.

Dave Gettlement is getting crushed. They have no plan. Eli's shot. There's a division in the locker room whether he can play. And the New York Jets cross town have their guy and are completely optimistic just adding Lavian Bell and feel like they can compete for division. Listen, you pass on a top quarterback prospect. And every single analyst I know, every GM I talk to said,

Darnold was either the first or the second best quarterback. You don't pass up on a top quarterback prospect. The NFL, college gives you one or two a year, max. Darnold was one of the two, three guys that can change your franchise, and aging Eli Manning. And less than a year later, the Giants are an absolute mess. Where Colin was wrong. Zion Williamson came back for Duke.

I said when he got hurt. This kid's going to break everything. every shoe deal ever. He's a once-in-a-decade phenom. Do not risk him getting hurt. It'll tarnish Shashefsky's reputation, Nike's everybody. Boy, he came back. For the record, I love being wrong here. I love athletes that care about, you know, playing. It's not all about money and brand. This kid, though, is going to shatter every shoe record deal for a rookie into this league, and I'm not sure it'll ever be topped, at least in the next decade. I thought they'd sit him out. and I thought there would be too much pressure,

even from Zion Williamson's family, Nike, but he came back, he played great, he's an absolute blast to watch, and I couldn't be happier being wrong. Where Colin was right? Russell Westbrook Saturday night, listen, the fan in Utah is a jerk and should have been kicked out forever,

and I think fans are inappropriate all the time, but my knock on Westbrook is always, he's just too darn rigid, and you add a little tension, a fourth quarter of a playoff, and he just implodes Saturday night, classic example. He's going after one of the, you know, the quietest, most demure, classiest guys in the league, Clay Thompson. What are you doing?

What are you doing? I mean, Clay Thompson and Steph Curry are about as likable as American superstars get. And it showed once again, even after the game, his intensity creates tension in the building and it's palpable. You've got 16th technical. Do you have any hopes of getting that when we send it so you can play Monday night? Thanks a question. Russ, were you aware that you were at 15? Next question.

Are you disappointed with yourself for picking up your 16th? Next question. I mean, he's just a lot of work. Just a lot of work. Where Colin was wrong. You know, I've ripped the Packers forever. The penny pinching, free agent Packers. They have Aaron Rogers, and they never get him a legit.

legitimate defense, but I got to tip my cap to the Packers. I thought they did a great job in free agency. They didn't go out and spend crazy money. They went out and got defensive guys who were really good. Preston Smith, very good linebacker from Washington. He's going to come in and start Adrian Amos for the Bears. Zadaria Smith, another linebacker. They went out and got three starters defensively, got faster and more athletic in the linebacking corps. When you get an Aaron Rogers, that's a once a decade. right? Give them a defense. I mean, I like Tom Brady as much as anybody, but Brady for 15 years at the end of every season, New England has a top 10 defense. I mean, you can't ask Aaron Rogers

to save you year after year. He's 35 increasingly, little brittle. I thought Green Bay had a very good offseason. They got starters, really good players, productive guys who have been in this league, and they didn't spend a fortune. Maybe this is the most they can do. You know, Mike, I'll lower my standards a little, but I thought Green Bay had a really nice free agent week. Where Colin was right? Kevin Durant's good, but am I the only one that notices when Kevin Durant's out, the Warriors are good, they beat Houston, they beat Oklahoma City, both wins were on the road. But here's the point. Whether they're better or not without Kevin Durant, here's the point.

This is Steph's team. I've always felt it's team. They're more fun to watch. The spacing's better. It's more touches for Steph Curry. I think Steph's an amazing guy, and his aptitude, his sense of timing, his sense of self is remarkable. I don't know if there's ever been a superstar like Steph Curry, who is an incredibly giving teammate. But you know what? Sometimes he shouldn't give up so much because when he's freewheeling out there and he's got the hands, ball in the hands, Golden States spacing and flow and tempo, they score more. I'm not saying Kevin Durant's not the best bailout score in the NBA.

But this is Steph's team, and you can just watch how the ball flows when they're not waiting for Durant to save them at the end of the clock. Once again, proving Durant's the better player, it's Steph's team. Where Colin was wrong. For years, I blame Mike Tomlin for 99% of the Steelers issues. But that story on Big Ben coming out that he purposely fumbled four years ago, that's just an indictment. I can't get past that.

True or not true, the video, doesn't do Ben any favors. It's a weird play to say the least, but he fumbled it despite Todd Haley. They had a 10-point lead minute to go against the Bungles, so they had the game in hand. Listen, there's just too many former teammates criticizing Ben. Smoke, fire.

I mean, again, he's a quarterback. Quarterbacks can get away with more. We all know that. That's the way the world works. Mike McCarthy's getting fired. Aaron Rogers is not getting fired. If Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll didn't get along, I can tell you who'd be out of town. It wouldn't be Russell Wilson.

But at some point, we got to stop defending Big Bennett every turn. There's a lot of drama, a lot of passive-aggressive, and this claim against him is ugly. Where Colin was right? The more honest I am, the more hate I get. I've been saying recently that, you know, Buffalo, players don't want to play there. You have to overpay by about 20% for Buffalo to get players. That's not a shot at Buffalo. It's cold.

It's next to Nova Scotia. the NFL agents had a poll this weekend, and they asked the best and worst landing spots for their players, and Buffalo was the worst NFL destination, according to agents, from what their players said. Listen, I've had players tell me this.

I've had coaches tell me this. It's harder to move your wife to Buffalo than it would be Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, or Miami. It's nothing against Buffalo, but it's cold. It's kind of geographically isolated. It's cold. And they have a history of losing. There is a geographic reality

with Buffalo and the agents have players have nothing to gain by saying this but it's true so every time i say it that buffalo's got overpaid to get people it's not because i hate buffalo i'm in the honesty business not in the protect your reputation business where collin was wrong um the lakers may not win as many games as last year let's just put a cap on this uh this is as bad i would have never guess this. They'll get swept by the Knicks. They'll win fewer games than without LeBron. The players they get rid of, like Julius Randall, will all get better, and LeBron won't elevate anybody's game other than maybe Kyle Kuzma. This morning, if I said worst team in the NBA, if I said Lakers, are you sure I'd be wrong? They got swept by the Knicks, who I think we all understand,

are trying to lose. This has been so much worse than I ever thought. It's not just that they're not going to reach 48 wins. They may be the worst team in the league. I think they are. Phoenix, Lakers, that's about it. Where Colin was right? Said a year ago, this NFL free agency,

it's going to start looking like NBA free agency. Is it Philadelphia did it? Rams did it, and they both end up in a Super Bowl. this was a lot of fun. It's a big win for the NFL. But we said this about a year ago. Something's changing culturally. It's like when Jimmy Johnson took over the Cowboys,

made a big trade, and everybody said, hey, trading's cool. You can get better fast. Free agency is now a real business in late February and March in the NFL. It's not going to slow down. Like, this is not going to slow down. This is not a one or a two off.

Going forward, you're going to see teams spend a lot of money. The winner, by the way, is you the fans. because I don't remember in my life the first week of March being more fun to be a sportscaster than last week. Stars, trading teams, controversies, Odell Beckham, Labian Bell, Antonio Brown. The caps moved up. There's a lot of money, and they're spending it. Where Colin was wrong. Well, I said about three weeks ago, I said it's not going to happen anytime soon,

but Russell Wilson and his beautiful wife, Sierra, there's a sense that maybe Seattle isn't big enough for the star couple. Well, Russell Wilson came out this weekend and addressed my rumor, which I acknowledge was a rumor, and said, I'm not sure the Seahawks didn't let me get away. I love Seattle, special place, I won a Super Bowl here. Two Super Bowls, multiple playoff games, everything else. I love it here.

So for the time being Seattle, it feels like you won. Congratulations, feeling that way, but I will still contend that Russell Wilson and Sierra, there are people very captivated by that pair in metropolitan areas on the coasts. And I'll leave it at that. Where Colin was right? The American Alliance of Football, that new spring football league, the AAF,

two good stories this weekend. Number one, CBS has now decided we're going to put some games on our air, a major network, two more games. Johnny Mansell, it's been announced. going to get a tryout for the AAF. They've signed him. Listen, I'm going all in on this. Spring football is going to work in America. I don't want to hear about the XFL. This is not the XFL. I don't want to hear about the U.S.FL. Trump's not involved in this league. Okay, this thing's going to work. Now, it may not be this league. It may be the XFL. That's the Vince McMahon League. They're going to come next spring.

I don't think both leagues survive for 10 years. I don't know if they've survived for three years. but spring football is going to work. Legalize gambling. There's a real hole in February and March the talk about football. And the other thing is this league is perfect for, you know, the Kaepernick, the Tebow, the Mansell, a quarterback that maybe NFL teams, for whatever reasons, are reluctant to sign. This league was built for Johnny Manzo. I said this for years about Tim Tebow.

Go to Canada. You'll win a gray cup. But, you know, there's some stigma among agents sending your guys to Canada, at least in football. So good weekend for them. Very good weekend for the AAF. And the Vince McMahon League, news will be coming about that league pretty soon. Not sure when, but it will. Coming up next, Walt Frazier went out and called out LeBron like ugly.

Like just called him right out. We'll talk about that. Want 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,

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

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

Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search learn the hard way and listen now. 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 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 I-Heart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcast. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer 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 WNBA 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 belong. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladeki. 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Sunday, the Monster Energy Series moves over to FS1 as NASCAR's finest battle around the paper clip in Martinsville. It all starts at 2 Eastern only on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. By the way, March Madness, everybody's filling out their bracket.

Katino Mobley over a decade in the NBA, you were University of Rhode Island. I want you to go back to your college days because the tournament's very interesting. Do I have to? You guys had a devastating loss. You were playing Stanford. Didn't you have a massive lead? It was like 11 points in like a minute and some change. And you lost?

And we lost the game. 11 point lead with a little over a minute and you lost the game. What happened? Tight and anxiety. You know, it's like a, by the way, it's good to see you guys. Good so you could do it. It's like the basketball gods, right? It's like they gave us the luck against Kansas,

and then they just took it away from us against Stanford. I have no clue. I don't, I just, it hurts to this. You know, I've never watched that game. Oh, I get that. It hurts. Oh, I totally get that. That in game six, no, that in game three, I think it was,

semifinals, Western Conference, Clippers, sons. Yeah. You lose a Super Bowl, I don't want to watch it. I wouldn't want to watch my worst segment or my worst show. I totally get it. It killed me. I'm telling you.

All right. So yesterday, Walt Frazier, Lakers lost to the Knicks. Walt Frazier's an iconic 70 star for the New York Knicks. He and Earl Monroe in the back court. And he was criticized on LeBron James after the game or during the game for where LeBron was sitting. Play the tape. When you're in a face of the NBA, I think you should be more a part of your team,

but no matter what is going on. In the public, you've got to be a part of the team. Maybe in the locker room, you're not, but you have to exhibit that type of togetherness in public, folks. And right now we see he doesn't really care. Well, now he is talking to Tyson Chandler. That is a Laker. What do you make at what Walt's saying? Listen, I must start off by saying, listen, Walt Frazier was one of the best, right?

Right. Um, it's, it's a funny thing. It's, when you start getting older as a person, people, they forget there were, you forget you were younger, like that you, you've, one made mistakes. That wasn't a mistake, actually, because LeBron always sits at the end of the bench. He's talking to Tyson Chandler. If you look at the whole, uh, scenario, he got a trainer he's talking to, too. Yeah, everybody's like moving and what do you, what do you want LeBron to do?

you want them to kumbaya with the guys that are on the bench that are literally standing up together looking in the stands i have no clue what you want them to do but it's like Clyde or or Charles it's like guys who really like they just you people you can get caught up in the narrative you get caught up in the narrative and right now the narrative is to bash LeBron everything's his fault that's the thing yeah that that's become the avalanche and my take away i'll throw something i think's a problem think about this this now this is a problem and you can't blame lebron for all this every laker in the last four years that leaves is better de angelo russell is an all-star julius randall career highs brook lopez best shooting year

zubox to the clippers he's their starting center and they're playing great basketball every by the way even like larry nance junior to cleveland it's the best he's ever played to me you can't blame lebron or even luke walton for all that stuff roy will uh uh lew williams had him let him go crushing it for the clippers setting it for the clippers setting in NBA bench record. Right. The Lakers problems, to me, feel inside the building. It's front office.

It's front office. That's nothing to do with LeBron James. That's front office. And because for a while who I love and adore so much Kobe Bryant, he demanded a high standard. So when other stars will come there, it's not easy to play with Kobe Bryant, especially when he demands so much. So it kind of scared a lot of free agents off.

It did. That's a lot of pressure. So don't blame LeBron James for the things he's done. They picked that team for LeBron James. Mind you, they were in fourth place at one point in time before he got injured. But I mean, come on. The narrative now has become LeBron's on top of the world. This has been a bad season.

And so let's just, everything's LeBron's fault. All I would say about that video was he's talking to the Laker trainer and he's talking to Tyson Chandler. He's not mingling with James Dolan and fans at the Garden in New York. So last year, last year when they were playing, remember he had the little water bottle and he was playing around with the New York. Guess where he was at?

End of the bench. He was at the end of the bench. And that team went to the finals. I don't understand it. You got to pick something. It's like Obama with the tan suit. You got to pick something. I remember that.

We used to be tough on our president because of a tan suit. A tan suit. That's a good call. So saying this about Westbrook, I'm seen as a Westbrook hater. There are players who are great talent, but not great leaders. Big Ben increasingly feels like that. Great talent. Not the old is the greatest leader. Barry Bond's had that feel. A little bit of A-rod to that. Kobe. Great talent. Not always great

leader. With Russell Westbrook, Catino, I believe tension is contagious. And when I watch him this weekend, Saturday night, Warriors in town, you add a little elevation of emotion to a game, and it looked like once again Westbrook is unhinged. How in the world do you do that to Clay Thompson? one of the most decent, quiet, non-confrontational guys in the league. Didn't it look like Westbrook just, again, melted down this weekend? I don't. I mean, look at this. Watch this.

Well, yeah, it was great defense. Like, what is that? Well, that's a personal thing between Westbrook and the rest. No, Russbrook's ego. You know, he's, listen, he's like that regardless. if it was Clay Thompson, whoever. Now, the referee missed the call, and Steve France used to do that. Steve Francis.

He used to do things like that where he's so passionate. He kicked the ball in the stands in Utah. Like, you just do certain things. Now, Westbrook always plays with the chip on his shoulder. If you take that from him, then what you have. But my point with Steve Francis is that tension's contagious. Like, Russ is so tightly wound that to some degree, this is why the thunder get tight in playoff games.

It's pins and needles. You know, like if you're in a family, I can't speak for anybody else's family, and this was not my family, but I've heard about families like this where the dad is super intense and the dad is loud and the dad is sort of over the top. And everybody in the house is walking on eggshells because the dad is intense. I feel with Russell sometimes, he is so intense. You kind of as a franchise, coach kind of walks on eggshells. But I think we should pause it for a second when it comes to that.

And the reason why not to interrupt, now the reason why I say as because this year he sacrificed a lot of his ego and his personality for Paul George and the betterment of the team. So let's just wait when the playoffs come and see if he does those things that you're saying because he has a history of that. And usually I always go with the phrases, if you show me who you are, I'm going to believe you. And lately in the past few years, that's who he has been.

But he didn't have Paul D.C. ran off KD. Now you have Paul George. Last year, it was uncomfortable. both. This year, let's figure out what you're going to do. Now, if you start these antics and shooting the ball more than Paul George, and trying to take over. This is what worries me. Before the trading

deadline, Westbrook was fine. He was a good team. And I kept saying, Joey was here. I said, let's get closer to the playoffs. I'm going to judge it because this is just the way Westbrook's DNA is. You start adding tension. Saturday night, playoffs. Fourth quarter, Warriors come to town. Take it personal one-on-one. Opposed a team.

All right. Let's talk if we can. Katie didn't play. and the Warriors go, they beat Houston on the road, and they beat O KC in the road. Who's the best player you ever played with? The best player I've ever played with. That's interesting. Well, on his downside, Chris Weber was amazing. Okay, Chris Weber was amazing.

Amazing, Chris Weber. I want to say Steve Francis was really good. Okay, so those are like big-time talents. Could you make the argument? Because I watched the Warriors the last three years. they're 26 and 4 with Steph and no Kevin Durant. Yet they're pretty average 23 and 15 with KD and no Steph. Now I'm not saying the Warriors are better off without Kevin Durant,

but I look at those numbers. They average 12, almost 11 points a game more when KD's out the floor. When you were playing with Weber and Francis, a great player, sometimes Cotino does a team rely on him like he bails you out the star bails you out and it is you become kind of beholden or dependent on the star to bail you out

did you do that with Francis did you do it with Weber well Francis and I we just traded off a lot it's just that his talent level was so amazing we traded off a lot so not with Steve, but with Chris, because of the offense and where it started at in the high post, Chris dictated the whole game offensively for all of us, so it was easier.

So, yes, you defer to Chris because he was more of the point forward in this offense. I think with Stefan Curry is the most important part of the owner team. Yes. Not the best, but the most important. He's the most important. And then to me, the most important is actually. the most valuable. He's the most valuable one on that team. He's not on that team. They don't do as well as they do. He does so many different things offensively, which causes chaos. Now, in causing

that chaos may not defensively, he may not be great defensively, but mentally it tires you off when you're on the defense trying to chase around this one person and everybody else gets open. That's the key to it. Now, Kevin Durant is amazing. MVP's this, that, whatever, blah, blah, blah. but it was harder for him in OKC. Here it's a cakewalk because you have so many amazing players starting with Stefan Curry. Yeah.

It's interesting. It's like sometimes I find when you have a star receiver in the NFL that you almost feel like you have to go to him. Like there are times I felt like Tom Brady, it's like I get Randy Moss involved. You know, Calvin Johnson in Detroit, is one of the best guys, best players ever. Matt Stafford and the Lions became,

they almost on third down felt like we have to go to Calvon. or it's not good football. He left, they got better. And even the offense got better. So I do find sometimes that Kevin Durant's the best bailout score, maybe in NBA history. He's an automatic bucket. And sometimes you kind of depend on him. Cotino Mowbly, we got to run.

Joy with the News, good seeing you. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Hurdline News. So going into the off season, the Lakers will have just seven players under contract, with the exception of LeBron, everyone on the roster will be playing. on their rookie contracts. And some think that the first season with LeBron being a little rough

has hurt their chances of landing a big star in free agency. But LeBron is so confident about their selling points. Listen, at the end of the day, this franchise wants to win and wants to win big. And the one thing about it, the franchise, they cater to the players. And that's it. And everything else comes secondary. They only want us to go out and perform at a high level and play the game at a high level so we can, you know, be mentioned with some of the great teams that's in the league at that point in time.

Like I said, it's a lot of great free agents this summer. I'm not going to name any names because every time I say something, our organization says something about a specific person we get in trouble. But we have an opportunity to get better. And that's definitely great to know that when you have an opportunity to get better from a personnel standpoint. You get in trouble because there's tampering rules. That's right.

Everybody's picking on the Lakers. Everyone gets in trouble for that when they do that. Anyway, the Lakers have roughly $39 million to spend on another All-Star free agent, like Carrie Irving, Kauai Leonard, Kevin Durants, Clay Thompson, or Jimmy Butler. There's obviously some other strong names out there as well. But I do think that it's pretty obvious that the Lakers have taken a hit as far as their overall pitch goes. Everyone knows the Lakers want to win right now.

I don't think that's confusing to anyone. But any issues that you had playing with LeBron before, I think are intensified now, if that was something that actually you weren't a fan of. Because you're seeing the scrutiny and the pressure that they're under. And then as far as the Lakers organization and putting the other pieces around it, you know, you do need stars to win in this league, that's for sure. And you need multiple stars because you have a dynasty in Golden State and we don't know what's going to happen with Kevin Durant, whether he's going to stay or go there. But even if he does leave, he still have Seth Curry and Clay Thompson and that entire system still in place. Things may change a little bit, but it's not that simple anymore.

You needed a full, well-rounded team to go around your superstars to win a championship in this league. I don't know if free agents really see that that is going to be the case for the Lakers. It's so much more than just the LeBron narrative. Kobe at the end, Michael Jordan at the end, and LeBron at the end. Not everybody wants to play with the icon. Like, by the way, there was a time when Michael Jordan, I would say this with LeBron and Miami. Everybody was like, I'll play with those guys. De Wade, Miami, Chris Bosch.

And Kobe definitely. There was a time during the, you know, the Shaq Kobe thing when guys would take a pay cut. But Michael at the end, they hated him in D.C. And Kobe at the end was driving people crazy. And LeBron, Paul George, passed on him for Westbrook. It's not like Paul George didn't know the resume of Westbrook. So, I mean, I think when you become an iconic star, you know, some guys want to be the guy. And they don't want to be beholden and they don't want to be LeBron or Kobe or Michael's valet.

You know, Kauai Leonard, from all intentions, doesn't appear to have any interest playing with LeBron. It's going to be very interesting. So currently there's no more exciting player in college basketball than Duke's Zion Williamson. He lived up to his label of the second coming of LeBron in the tournament. So far, he missed close to a month, but he returned for Duke's big run through the ACC tournament. He got MVP honors after beating Florida State in the finals. His 21 points and five rebounds in the final game gave him 81 points and 30 boards overall for the tournament. It's the first time to 2009 that one conference has had three number one seeds.

ACC, and he went through them pretty easily. No, he's great. Listen, Zion is, and listen, when the kid went down with a strain and broke his shoe, I got no problem in saying, my guess was you got a Nike, you got a coach Kay's got a relationship with Nike. He wants to make sure that's not too bad. I thought they'd probably just say, you know what? Here's the thing.

If Zion would have tweaked his knee this weekend, everybody will look real bad. He didn't. I'm happy for it. I like the idea of a kid that talented saying, I'm not going to give up on my guys. I love basketball. I love that personally because I still. You know, this is a once in a lifetime literally experience,

like one and done experience for Zion. I would have fully supported him not playing because he is, you know, planning for his future. But I do also love that he's playing. And like I said, this is an experience you're not ever going to get again. If you're injured going into the NBA, you may have time to rehab and then get into your career and you're still going to go number one overall. You know, it's funny.

I mean, he was going to go number one whether he came back or not. Right. I mean, he is such a great player. And he's going to work really well in the NBA. Don't listen to anybody. He's just a baby. His kid's going to be just a fantastic NBA player. But I actually think he's going to get more money on the shoe deal because I think coming back,

it makes me like him more. Like, I would have liked him either way. But there is something to amateurism, and I know everybody wants everybody to get paid. But one of the reasons I love certain basketball players, Magic Johnson loved the game. And Michael loved the game. That is something too. And I think it's a really cool thing that he comes back and he's like, these are my guys. I won't play basketball.

I don't subscribe to that as much just because I do have my other feelings about all of that as far as what these kids do bring to the school. and the money that they generate that they don't get any part of. But overall, I like that he's playing. I mean, it's great for fans. And like I said, it's an experience he's never going to get again, whether it's amateurism or not. And it's good to see him out there and he's dominating.

Yeah, the ratings will be up for March Madness, by the way. They will be up. Because he's in it. Yeah, I mean, there's no question. This kid will literally, if he's in the final four, you're going to have your highest final four in a long time. Yeah. And finally, in the past, the splashy offseason moves

were part of the game plan for the Cowboys with this offseason. They're looking for ways to re-signed Marcus Lawrence, Stack Prescott, Amari Cooper, Ezekio Elliott, and Jalen Smith, among others. And Stephen Jones addressed that problem. He told Sports Illustrated, when you figure out how to pay the pass rusher, the corners, the receiver, the quarterback, the running back, across the board on the offensive line and then try to pay a couple of linebackers, that's when you have to start getting super creative.

And if you go out and do a deal right now that's not efficient, you're starting to take some creative money away that is hopefully going to help you keep Jalen hopefully help you keep both corners. Now, they had a franchise tag, DeMarcus Lawrence, which is the first domino to fall. Yeah. DAC will likely be next, but the Cowboys are going to have to get very creative. Although, I still like their chances in their division.

I do like what the Eagles did this offseason, but we do this every year on paper. Team looks great. You know, there is going to be some pressure back now on Carson Wentz again. So overall, I think the Cowboys are going to figure it out, and Jerry seems to be in when now, as he said. So that's a lot of pieces that get sent up.

There's not a lot of guarantees in the NFL. And I don't think the Cowboys are guaranteed to be a playoff team last year, next year. The guarantees is Kansas City with Patrick Mahomes. It's going to be good every year until Patrick Mahomes is in his 40s. Andrew Luck and the Colts, they know what they're doing. New England's going to be good until Brady retires. Those are my three NFL guarantees. Then there's a bunch of, I think it's going to happen.

Dallas is in the next group of six or seven. I think Philadelphia is going to be really good when Carson Wentz comes back. I think the Rams, as long as McBey and Gaffer there, I can win a bunch of games. And I think Dallas, DAC is good leadership. Dallas is not maybe a top three Mahomes, Kansas City, Andy Reed Guarantee. This is a good team with a bunch of good players. and they got good players in every single unit. Corner, linebacker, pass rusher, O-line, running back, receiver.

They got a bunch of elite players. Right. And as he's saying, they're trying to find a way to keep them all there. Yep. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lie News.

He broke your heart, but you should absolutely be pulling for him. I'll explain that coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays, noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the I-Hard radio app. By the way, when you have a good security system like Simplysafe, things feel a little better. SimplySafe, C-L-A-C-C-L-A-N.com. Free shipping, 60-day money-back guarantee. Simply C-O-L-I-N.com. By the way, Jerry Jellon said over the weekend, you don't need to listen to it again, but he basically said thank you to the New York Giants for trading O'Dell Beckham.

There's a big problem in New York right now. It's not losing O'Dell Beckham. It's that you whiffed last year in your number two pick and you took a running instead of Sam Darnold. And the New York Jets for the next 10 years are going to be in playoff contention. Some years they'll make the playoffs. Some years they won't make the playoffs. But when Tom Brady retires in a year or two, the New York Jets are going to control the division because Miami doesn't have a

quarterback and New York's going to always attract more free agents and players than Buffalo. And when Tom Brady retires, Bill Belichick had a losing record in New England and Cleveland without Tom Brady. And they don't have anybody in the building right now. Forget replace. It should be playing catch with Tom Brady. Jam Donald for the next 10 to 12 years, the New York Jets are going to win the division or be battling for a playoff spot. There'll be a very, very improved team this year.

And the New York Giants had a chance to get him and passed. And they pass because they're a fear-based organization. And they don't want to get rid of Eli Manning. And people in New York are saying, well, well, last year he had his highest completion percentage. And he threw for 4,300 yards. And he has his fewest interceptions in a decade. And the offensive line's no good. that's why if you're a giant fan root for odel beckham to kick arse in cleveland

because it will be your forensic evidence that eli's washed up you know when you do a chemistry experiment you got eli's one element and then baker mayfield's another element and then you have a beaker obj's in that beaker and you add obj to both elements and one's going to fizz out and one's going to explode. And if Odell Beckham and Baker Mayfield are rock stars, and my guess is, offensively, they're going to be very successful. That's your forensic evidence. That's your told you so. Because right now the problem, it's not losing Odell Beckham Jr. It's that your organization is petrified to move off Eli Manning slower than the Colts moved off Peyton Manning. You've got to move off legends. It happened in Green Bay. It happened in San Francisco. It

It happens. You know, you got to move. I mean, Jimmy Johnson had Dan Marino. The old hobbled beating up Dan Marino. I mean, you got to be able to move off people in this sport. You know, you already threw two parades for Eli. Don't need a third on the way out. So, you know, you can talk about Odell Beckham.

If you're a giant fan, you want that kid to go to Baker Mayfield in Cleveland and just kick butt. 15 TDs, 1,000 yards, Baker's MVP, Brown's win the division, because then you can go, C, And we're 5 and 11. And I mean, because the struggle in the building, every time somebody upstairs for the Giants talks, it's, you're out of your mind if you think Eli doesn't have what it takes. Really?

Well, you got to convince those people. They're out of their gourd. And there's one way now because those people are stubborn. Odell Beckham and Baker Mayfield hit it out of the park. They do Patrick Mahomes, you know, Travis Kelsey. They do Randy Moss. Tom Brady. They just blow the league up.

Huge numbers, and that's your forensic evidence. By the way, March Madness, everybody's filling out their bracket. Years ago, I used to tell people my bracket, and then you'd tell me your bracket, and then I realized, I don't care about your bracket, and you don't care about my bracket. But I will say this. CBS did a real nice job on the selection show. They got all the bells and whistles out, hour long, made it straight, easy to follow. Ratings were through the roof.

Best ratings in like half a decade. I think Duke's the best team, but I don't understand people losing sleep on seedings, weakest, strongest. What does it matter? You're going to have to beat her a one or a two seed. Who cares if you're in Duke's bracket or not? Do you think Michigan State, Tom is, oh, at this point in his career, he's not getting a raise, they're not taking away his salary, he wants to win a championship. So he's in a little tougher bracket.

I've always said this about March Madness. The NCAA pays for all of this. They pay for all the hotel rooms. They pay for all the arenas. They pay for everything. It's their wedding. They have a right to seat people at the wedding the way they want to. And if they do a seating, if I'm paying $4 billion for rights,

and I'm NCAA and CBS, and I'm paying all this money. And the NCAA says, in order for us to be able to go to these networks and get all this, it's money. It's our wedding. We're paying for the wedding. If I'm paying for the wedding, I'll decide where people sit at the wedding. That's always been my feeling on this tournament. And if they put Michigan here and a little easier than there, go undefeated, lose fewer games. That's not my problem. Okay. This is television. It doesn't matter. You're all still going

to have to beat Carolina and Duke to win this thing. You ever write, if you're paying for the wedding, to make up the seating chart. And yes, some brackets are going to be a little tougher and a little weaker, but I actually like the idea of coming into this tournament and everybody's saying, you got hosed and my team's got a chip on their shoulder. What I don't want my team to hear going into the tournament is,

oh, you guys got the easiest bracket. I would rather hear, man, you guys got hosed. No respect. Michigan State, you got hosed. I love that as a coach. I don't have to motivate my players. I can walk into that locker room and say, they don't think we're as good as Michigan.

And we beat Michigan three times. People make way too. Bottom line is there's about six teams that can win this thing, maybe eight. Here are my six I think can win it. Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, Carolina. I think Kentucky and Michigan State are close. Do not fall in love with a team that had a great weekend. History shows lots of teams play great in their conference tournament,

weekend and that's the top. And then they go into the tournament and it just goes downhill. Playing great in your conference tournament has never equated to you'll end up in the final four. These are the six teams, Duke Gunzaga, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina,

I think have a chance to win six straight games. Kentucky's close. Michigan State's close. Hour three next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Hour three. We're live, baby. It's L.A.

This is the herd. Wherever you may be. However you may be listening. We're on iHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio. FS1 today. Also, Sirius XM Channel 83. Wow.

There's a lot of places. We're all just like, we're just out in the satellite world. hope you had a great weekend. Joy was in Sarasota, Florida at a wedding. Yes, Brandon Newman's wedding. Buck's family. And I was skiing with my son. Oh. So nice. It's like no clouds and everything. So nice.

We were in different places, right? Truly. You're on the beach. I'm up in the mountains. It's great to have you back. Fifteen minutes, former Pro Bowl wide receiver, T.J. Hushman Zada. You'll address those stealer accusations. Later and best for last, as we move into the draft now, free agency is mostly over. there's a few guys. Randall Cobb's a good player, is not signed yet. Justin Houston's a good

player, Chiefs, not signed yet. Most of the big stuff's done. Most of the mid-range bargains are done. And best for last, we're going to talk about the 10 quarterbacks going in the next year now. These rosters are getting real settled now, who face the most pressure, 1 through 10.

Well, it's a story out today, a pretty damaging story of true. A former Steeler teammate is making a pretty serious accusation about Big Ben. The player is Josh Harris. Former Steelery says, 2014, week 17, we're playing the Bengals. Todd Haley called a run play with very little time left in the game. Ben wanted to kneel.

He rolled his eyes in the huddle. He then purposely fumbles the ball. I had to recover it. At that moment, I knew what kind of person he was. That would be a stench, that sabotage, win or lose that game. That is just not appropriate in football. again in baseball fourth game of a series up by nine in your division it's august you party too hard you give up an at bat i see it in basketball tennis golf you don't do that in football true or not

you don't do it here's the thing lavian bell it's his fault Antonio brown his fault big bent his fault Mike tomlin his fault here's a thing I don't need Antonio brown to be a leader I don't need Levian Bell to be a leader. I just need to be talented. But I need my quarterback to be a leader. That's not leadership. There's two great quarterbacks in the NFL, and they're both amazing, and I've compared them for years, Aaron Rogers and Big Ben. They're the only great first ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks currently playing that are called out regularly by teammates, current former teammates. Here we go again with Ben. And this morning, there's going to be people that defend Ben Rothersberger and they blame it on other people.

I don't need wide receivers and running backs to be leaders. That's why I do care about the Wonderlich test for quarterbacks. And I do care about their family upbringing. And I do care if they have leadership qualities. And I took the claims against certain quarterbacks out of college as screw-offs. Johnny Mansell, not a grown-up, Baker Mayfield, wore me out. That's why. Because this is not a position to just be talented.

leadership is crucial. Brady's probably the best leader of all time. Not the best arm, not the best talent. Joe Montana, Russell Wilson, guys I like, Drew Breeze. You can like Big Ben and you can stand behind Big Ben. But for once again, Big Ben and Aaron Rogers, teammates are just willing to go public. I mean, listen, I've worked with people that I don't love, but you'd have to be a real schmuck for me to go out.

and publicly hammer you. I mean, we've all worked with people we don't like. But when you put it on paper, when you stand in front of a mic, I mean, for Josh Harris, kind of a nobody in the league to do that, there's just too much smoke here with Big Ben. And by the way, I get this. His teammate Josh comes out and he says, great player, but he doesn't connect with teammates.

For the record, that's the knock on Aaron Rogers. And I've seen my entire life great athletes who don't think are great leaders, Arod, Barry Bonds, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Big Ben. I think they're unbelievable talents. I don't think they're great leaders. I think Jeter's a great leader. Russell Wilson's a great leader. Peyton Manning's a great leader.

Tom Brady's a great leader. There is a gap here. There is a difference. Don't confuse the two. Great talent and great talent and a leader. Jeter was both. Steph Curry is both. Brady is both.

But you can keep defending Ben Rothersburg, but there's just way too much smoking. care. And quarterback is not just about talent. You lead the class. You talk in the huddle. You lead the film session. Shame on Ben, if it's true. That's a really, really awful claim. And if you look at the video, I'm not going to say it's true, but it's not untrue. That's all I'm saying when I see that video. I want to shift to this. Tension is Years and years ago, I was on a plane. Guy was drunk, flirting with a stewardess.

We're at 33,000 feet. It was uncomfortable. There was tension on the plane. And it was contagious. We were all uncomfortable. It's a skinny little tube, 33,000 feet. He was combustible. Tension spreads through a family

and it spreads through a room. The intense dad on vacation, the unruly passenger on a flight. Russell Westbrook, to me, has never been a championship player because he's too rigid, and it makes everybody else tense and rigid. This Saturday, Oklahoma City was hosting Golden State,

and Kevin Durant didn't play. It was a big game. It's one of those rare, half-dozen NBA regular season games, Saturday night feels like, oh, we got a little playoff thing going here. This game matters a little bit. And Westbrook completely melted down like he does in the playoffs, like he often does in the fourth quarter,

like he often does against Golden State. You sort of got a technical headbutted Clay Thompson, 0 for 7. It was a bad shooting night, and you shoot poorly generally when you're tense or you're tired. And Westbrook is never tired, right? here was the sound from Saturday night. Thompson got a block, and then Westbrook takes a frustration foul, then gets hit with a technical, and that's his 16th technical of the season,

which means he's going to be suspended unless they rescind it, which it doesn't look like that's going to be the case in this instant, but he's going to be suspended for their next game. Maybe it's a foul. Get back because you know you're playing against the Golden State Warriors. Every call is not going to go your way, just the way every game is in this league, Mistakes are going to be made across the board. Play through it.

He is so tightly wound when you add any little pressure to him, playoffs, Warriors, fourth quarter, he unravels. I don't hate Westbrook. I hate his game. He's the Little League dad who's always too uptight, one blown call by the umpire. He's into a confrontation with an umpire at a Little League game. Tensions contagious.

It's why Oklahoma City melts down in big games and melts down in the playoffs. He's rigid and everybody else is on pins and needles. I mean, it was palpable in that game. What are you doing? I mean, listen, fans, media, even after the game, dealing with media, local media, people there to give you a back massage and make you look good. It was tense. You got 16th technical.

Do you have any hopes of getting that when we send it? So you can play Monday night? Thanks a question. Russ, were you aware that you were at 15? Thanks a question. Are you disappointed with yourself for picking up your 16th? Next question. Again, if you can't deal with local media,

like that heckler fan in Utah, that was on him, not on Westbrook, I defended him. But this is, I don't hate Russell. I hate his game. Tension is contagious. and any team he's on in big spots, you can just see everybody clenching their teeth pins and needles. What's Russ going to do?

And Saturday night, plus minus might 18, 0 for seven on threes, whatever that was with Clay Thompson, I just don't think he's a championship player, just a really talented one. By the way, he just got a little text here. You know, Jordy Nelson's out there for the taking. a great player.

I think he played at like Kansas State or something. Then he came into the NFL with Aaron Rogers. He was terrific. They were like best friends. They cut him. He goes to Oakland. Doesn't work. He's out in the market right now.

Buddy just text me. Patriots and Jordy Nelson. Strong probability. Oh my God. That's got up. Here's a lesson for everyone out there. Don't text Colin during the show. If you don't want to immediately go on

You're just going to have to wait until after the show is over. Well, I didn't say who was from. Just a league source. Jordy Nelson in New England. I got it. Has anybody ever thrown out? It actually makes a lot sense. He's perfect.

Right. Who is that, John? The Seahawks apparently are very interested. I didn't get that text. My source did. Your source isn't close to the Seahawks. It's close to the Patriots. We start and narrow it down.

Very exciting. That wasn't journalism. I'm just telling you out of text. from a friend. Yeah, John said the source on my phone is Bill B. I wish. Coming up next, T.J. Hushman Zada. What do you make of the Big Ben story?

I mean, that is, wow. That is like, hooy, yo, yo. Can you imagine if you would have heard that about Brady? You'd be just like, you guys. It's really outrageous. It's outrageous. That's why I led with it today. It's like, what?

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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.

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over a decade in the NFL. A pro bowler is joining us. So the story out in Big Ben to me today is like jaw dropping where four years ago a teammate Josh Harris is claiming that during a game, Todd Haley called a run play leading Cincinnati by 10 with a minute nine to go and that Big Ben went into the huddle and rolled his eyes because he wanted to kneel down and he and Haley hated each other. So Ben fumbled on purpose, Josh Harris the guy that recovered it. What do you make of that claim? When I first heard that and I read the story, I didn't think it was true. I'm like, who would do that? And then when you watch the video, it's like, uh, yeah, he probably did do it on. I just have a hard time of understanding why. To spite Todd Haley. Like, to spite Todd Haley,

you know what you do? You just nail the ball. You just take a knee and Todd Haley would be like, why didn't he run the flag call? And he'd say, because we're up 10, that's why. Like, Todd Haley can't control Ben Rafflesberg unless he wants to be controlled. Like Ben. Number one, Ben is looking out like, if they recover it, we're probably still going to win the game.

We're up two possessions with just over a minute left, but just take a knee. But these are the type of things that are talked about in the locker room that never gets out that guys talk about, and it's why Rathesberger is frowned upon with guys in the locker room and on that team. You've never been a big Ben supporter.

It's not being a Ben supporter. I just felt the way he handled the situation last year after they played the Denver Broncos and he criticized A-B. I thought he was wrong. And so you start to see little things come out here and there and you're like, ah, why is it this?

Now I see why. Things like this is going, these are talked about in locker room, guarantee. They're talked about in the locker room. They're playing in Cincinnati. It's talked about on a flight back. Bro, can you believe what Ben did? can you believe that?

And so that's talked about. And we're not privy to this information, but the players are. You know, it's interesting. I said this. Aaron Rogers, about two months ago, a former teammate called out what he did in the huddle. And Big Ben was called out because what he did in the huddle. Aaron and Ben to me are the same. Passive aggressive, great talents.

But it was two months ago, or maybe six weeks ago, where Aaron Rogers was called out for rolling his eyes in the huddle. And now Big Ben's called out for, rolling his eyes in the huddle. And they're both great players. I don't think Aaron would stoop to that. But it is funny that with Ben and Aaron Rogers, they're the only two great quarterbacks in the league

where I've got a half a dozen guys that have called him out. Even if you didn't like a guy, to call a guy out in the press, like that's different level discussed, right? Have you ever called out a guy in the press when you played? No. It's like almost unheard of. But I'm different.

I'm the type of person. like if I have a problem with you, I'm going to confront you. I'm going to go talk to you and we can handle it however you want to handle it. We can be very civilized and very respectful because that's how I'm going to approach you. But if you want to handle a different way, I'm fine with that as well. I would never do that. I was always a guy that I thought I could criticize guys to their face because they saw how hard I worked. And if I was wrong, I would accept, okay, you know what?

I don't know where Ben goes from here. Is he going to now be on his best behavior? can he change himself? Can he try to change the narrative of how he's viewed? It's really going to be awkward and interesting to see how he navigates through this. So two times last week a team traded for or acquired a star receiver, Raiders AB, Cleveland OBJ. And I've often said that star receivers are like sports cars. They're flashy, they're fun, but when it gets cold out, they're not as useful.

even Randy Moss in New England. His playoff game numbers were average. His regular season stuff in the warmer weather was unbelievable. But you roll your coverage over playoffs, you take them away. It's crappier weather. You're playing snow, you're playing hail, you play in wind in Foxborough. So are you sure there is something about bringing a star wide receiver to a team that a quarterback feels I've got to get in the ball?

It's like when Kevin Durant doesn't play for the Warriors, the passing's better. You don't feel like you have to have when Ocho was in his prime for Cincinnati and you were there. Did you sometimes feel like Carson, you almost had to feel like on big plays you had to go to Ocho. No, it was different because

this just go back to my situation in Cincinnati was by play call, I knew where the ball was going by coverage. And so I could look at the coverage lined up. and say, oh, the ball's probably going to go here because we're one high, we're throwing a ball here, or we're looking to go here, too high we're going here. We had to win because the ball was coming just by coverage. With that being said, you go to OBJ in Cleveland.

Freddie Kitchens, what he's going to have to do is when you script your first 15 plays, you're going to have to get Odell at least two looks, driver slandry, two to three looks. Even if they don't get the ball, they know by the play call this ball is designed. to go to me. Coverage can change that. But at least they know he's trying to get me the ball because that kind of alleviates the heartache, the, as you would say, the dysfunction that you could cause

because you know they're trying to get you the ball. As long as he does that in attempts to get them the ball early, whether they get it or not, they'll be okay. So Ocho, if Ocho felt you were trying to get on the ball, whether he made the catch or not, it appeased him. Yes, and for the most part, it was, Chad was going to get the ball regardless. I mean, we're going to look to him to get the ball.

And back then, we were throwing a ball so much. Everybody was going to get an opportunity is just a matter of when. And as long, once you've been in the league long enough, you know, my opportunity is going to come. But with Odell there, Jarvis Landry and Joe, and even Calloway, Calloway can play. He'll be in his second year. The receiver in Cleveland, he can play.

They got so many weapons. You got Kareem Hunt. You got Chuck. You got Nick Chubb. You have so many guys that you have to get the ball to. Freddie Kitchens is the standard for Cleveland is here now. If they don't perform, what happens? Because everybody's, they're like, they're Cinderella now.

Everybody loves them. They're the new sports car, as you would say. And they have to perform. Finally, you coach youth sports, and you've got daughters who are Division I athletes, and you are a Division I athlete. And so I'll just, I'm kind of shocked by the number of people who are watching Zion Williamson in the media and picking apart his game. Because I watch him and I think, oh, this is one of the easy ones. Like when you watch LeBron, you're like, oh, yeah, that's good.

He's going to be a star. When you watch Tiger Woods, I saw him in his juniors in Portland. He played a junior. You're like, oh, yeah, guys are going to be great. Bryce Harper in high school hit a 509 foot home run in high school. It's like, when I watch Zion Williamson, I'm like, oh, that's 26 a game in the NBA. that's an all-star. What do you see?

Pretty much unstoppable. All you can do is compete against the competition that you're faced, that you're faced against. And he's dominated. Duke is a different team when he plays and when he does not play. I mean, they're a different team. He's dynamic. He's not only big.

He's quick. He's agile. He passes the ball well. You watch some of the games. Like he hustle backs hard on defense. He's a difference maker. If he doesn't make seven, eight all-star games.

I'll be surprised. Thank you. I'm shocked by it. We do this in the media. We watch a college kids game, and we pick it apart. You can do that about everybody. Everybody has flaws. Every player that's ever played the sport has flaws.

Every player. When LeBron came into the NBA, he had no low post game for like seven years. He developed one in Miami. And by the way, he wasn't much of a three-point shooter, his first four to five years in the league. That's LeBron James. Michael Jordan, for his first six years in the league, didn't pass. Like, was not a good passer. Then started getting guys of all Phil Jackson had a sit down.

What do you want to do? Score 60 and not win or score 30 and win? Right. Like, it's amazing how we pick apart these college kids. It's like Zion Williamson, look at his size and his speed. And by the way, clever, you know, he's just a clever player. I love watching. If Duke doesn't win, I'll be disappointed.

I'll be shocked. I mean, they got four NBA guys. I'll be shocked. If they don't win, I'll be shocked. Good seeing you, bud, joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So LeBron has played the 15th most minutes in NBA history, and he's the second amongst active NBA players. He only trails Dirk. And even though he's probably not very excited to miss the postseason,

he does think the extra time would be good for his 34-year-old body. Absolutely. I mean, I've thought about how my summer's going to be. And, you know, it's unfortunate that we're so far out of the postseason. right now and looking like we won't be a part of it. So, you know, obviously the first thing that comes in mind is just taking care of my body. I've played a lot of basketball, played a lot of minutes over my 16-year career. So I'm getting an opportunity

to have a couple more months to take care of my body and refresh my mind and my body is going to be very key going into my 17th year. So looking forward to that. Basically, this is how I look at it. It hasn't washed over us yet that LeBron is not going to be in the playoffs because even though we know he's not going to be there, we haven't

seen it yet, and it's going to be a different feeling with him not there. No question. One. Two, this is kind of a blessing in disguise for LeBron because he actually is going to get some extra and much needed time off to recover and recoup after a very difficult,

stressful and physically tiring year. I mean, his first major injury of his career, so this is kind of coming at a good time. If they don't end up winning a championship, though, this is going to be looked on very differently than if he does take this

extra time and they come back and get big free agent and do turn this whole thing around and win a championship. Listen, it's not hard to figure out what is, you know, what you see in sports is you see these changes. Like in baseball now, the analytic change is everybody's swinging for the fences because the analytics say strikeouts are not the end of the world swing for home runs. So it's changed the way batters swing in baseball. In basketball, mid-range jumper out.

Got to shoot threes. You know, in the NFL, basically, outside of the Patriots mostly, spread your offense out, big 12 quarterbacks work, a lot of college of the pros. If you look at the Lakers, my biggest takeaway is they have no shooters, and it has become a shooters league. I don't think you can, that's to me, we can talk about all the elements. If Anthony Davis comes, he's not a shooter. I think the Lakers have a problem.

I don't think they can figure out their way in one offseason around. it. They had Lou Williams, gave him up. Brooke Lopez, gave him up. Those were two good shooters. I think they have a real I'm not anti-Lebron. I think they have a huge fundamental issue. Yeah, and as we talked about earlier, their free agent pitch has changed quite a bit

since before this season because they can talk all about how much winning they want to do, but like you said, one free agent is not going to solve their problems. They still have an entire team that they need to make very well-rounded and work around LeBron and whoever that free agent is. So there's still a lot of pieces to put together.

Baker Mayfield is embracing the personality that is Odell. He was visiting the Brewer's spring training in Phoenix and Baker was asked about the emotions that Odell will add to a locker room. You can say the same thing about me. You don't want to tame it. You just let them be themselves and make plays. You know what? That's who they are. When it comes down to it, the guys in that locker room, you're going to love playing with them. And I know from Saquan and Sterling Shepherd and I'm very close with it, that I know exactly the who OBJ is inside the locker room

and who he is to his teammates. And that's the most important things. People can have their, you know, attitudes and perspective on it. But he's himself and he also, he has his teammates back. Brown's going to be fun to watch this year. Oh, God, that'd be great.

They're going to be great. They're going to be so much fun. I thought they were interesting last year. Oh, they were great last year. I mean, they were great to watch. You know, they were fun. They've blown out three or four times, but were in most games,

and there were just a lot of drama. They were fun to watch. I liked them. I know everybody thinks I hate Baker, but does everybody realize I love football? And what I don't like about football is like boring football. Right. Well, that's what we say all the time.

A dud is good for no one. Nobody. It helps nobody. It doesn't help our business. It doesn't help the fans. It doesn't help the league. It doesn't have the players. It helps no one to have a team that is not only consistently boring,

but also doesn't ever win. Like the Brown's being exciting and having the potential to be good is, league changing, actually. Now, now a sudden you have this game on the board that you have to watch. They are now must watch TV. Absolutely. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The Heard Lie News. So it's funny. I've told the story several times. One of the reasons I often repeat stuff is because most of you come in, you listen for 10 minutes, then you go to work. Go to the car wash. You're in and out of your cars. So if I say something, I'll say it more than once. And I've said multiple times, O'Dell Beckham and I talk for about 20 minutes a couple of weeks ago. Some of the stuff I'm not going to repeat.

Some of the things he said are private. There is a reason I kept saying, don't believe the Giants. He's on the trading block. There's a reason I kept saying that because he knew it. I knew it. And my sources beyond O'Dell, Beckham knew it. But it was confirmed in the 20-minute call is that he knew that there were teams calling that teams were interested and he told me,

hey, if I move, I move. I love New York. I love my teammates. I love the players. I love the city. I love the fans. But maybe it's good for a new environment for all of us. But, you know, one of my takeaways with Odell Beckham, it's a real thing for athletes and I think we should all remember this is that you and I, I'm a talk show host. I can do this for 50 years.

And Joy can do what she can do for 50 years. And John can do what he can do, maybe for 20. John just wears people out. But the whole point is, when you're a great athlete, you know, a football player, you got about 12 years to hit it. And when Odell Beckham broke his leg, he can't have another major injury

or the chance to be an all-timer is over. And so when I talk to Odell, my takeaway is a good kid. But there was an incredible sense of urgency with him. that he knows his talent. He knows how good he is. He knows that the window's closing. And once he broke that ankle, Odell Beck, think of your career was 12 years.

Just think of you're a doctor. You're an attorney. You're a teacher. You're a baker. Your career is 12 years. You know you're gifted. And halfway through it, you have a injury. And all of a sudden, you wake up and it's like, oh, crap, I got six years.

left to fulfill my talent. A singer, a songwriter, a football player, it doesn't matter. So one of my takeaways on that O'Dell thing that I didn't say, I didn't talk about before he got traded, there was no question. There was a sense of, hey man, I broke my ankle. I can't do that again or it's over. And there's a real sense. You should appreciate that from athletes. He wants to be the greatest wide receiver of all time. He's not going to end up there probably just because, I mean, Jerry Rice had the benefit of Joe Montana and Bill Walsh. And I think Baker's talented, but Freddie Kitchens is not Bill Walsh. But my take away on it, I totally appreciated his desire to be great.

He really wants to be great. And that may sound selfish, but in the end, I want all my players to be great. And if I only had 12 years through radio and halfway through it, I had surgery on my tonsil and it went wrong. and I knew what I had about six years, I probably wouldn't want to stay with the New York Giants either. I'd probably want to go to a better quarterback into an organization that's got better players.

And right now, Cleveland has way better players than the New York Giants. So for that, I'll always defend O'Dell Beckham. I want my stars. I can live with some ego. I want them to be aspirational. I want them to be all-time great. Coming up, Ben Rothlisberger, is going to face some real pressure this season.

It's going to be different. Levian's gone. Antonio's Brown's gone. They were getting all the blame. I think he'll be incredibly inspired this year. But coming up next, the 10 quarterbacks in the NFL and best for last, who have an extra layer of pressure coming up this year. And it's interesting when you go down the list of guys why they face certain pressures.

That's coming up. One more herd? streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHard Radio app. Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Las Vegas Golden Knights, Battle of Shark tonight, Discover card key matchup. Learn more. Discover.com slash credit scorecard. Limitations apply. Even if you're not a Discover customer, get your free credit scorecard today. Doug Gottlieb, Catino Mobley, T.J. Hushman, Zada, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong on a Monday.

Well, the Big Ben story today, somebody claiming four years ago that he fumbled intentionally during a game despite the offensive coordinators, pretty damning to say the least, kind of a jaw-dropping claim. I don't think I've ever heard that. You have to go back to like the 50s and 60s and Paul Horning or, you know, that whole Green Bay thing, guys suspended. Just odd. But I thought in our best to last today, there are 10 quarterbacks for different reasons that are going to face. real scrutiny this year beyond just winning games. So let's go our 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. In ascending, ascending order of pressure this year, number 10, Lamar Jackson. Number 10. Okay. Joe Flacco's

gone. Bro, it's your franchise. Also, he only threw for over 200 yards once, 204 yards. So this league is not about just throwing on third down. It's the ability to throw when everybody knows you're throwing on first down. Now, everybody's got a year of tape on Lamar, an offseason to digest a very contrarian run first offense. Baltimore likes him, but we'll find out more about Lamar Jackson, number 10.

Number nine. Similarly, Mitch Trubisky. I've compared him often to Lamar. Never going to be a great thrower. I felt when Chicago lost that playoff game, there was a palpable sense that Matt Nagy had done everything he possibly could, smoke and mirrors, to elevate Mitch Trubisky, who is a limited armed talent. He's entering his third season. So is Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, and they are caring teams. Mitch Trubisky 9. Number 8. Dak Prescott, listen, I'd have him higher on the pressure list, but Jerry likes him.

It's a contract year. Cole Beasley's gone. Offensive lines not as dominant as it was. They still need tight-end help. He's got a new offensive coordinator, Kellynne Moore, and a new quarterback coach, John Kittner. Not too much pressure, though, because Jerry loves him. Jerry's going to sign him. It's all now about the number.

Number seven. James Winston, a really talented knucklehead, who's always getting in trouble. gym pro. Nice arm, good size, move a little. Bruce Ariens now is his coach. Well, Bruce Ariens coach, Carson Palmer at worked, Big Bennett at work, Peyton Manning at worked, and Andrew Luck. Everywhere Bruce Ariens goes, the quarterback's have great years. Okay, so now he's got James Winston. And this is a buck's offense. There's all sorts of players here. I mean, Mike Evans is a stud. You don't watch him play a lot because he plays for Tampa. But I think there's, I think

there's real pressure on James Winston. If he can't work with Bruce Ariens and tear it up, they're going to move off him because he's just had too many incidents off the field. Number six. Derek Carr, I'm not sure Gruden loves him. I like him. I'm not sure John Gruden does. Now you got Antonio Brown.

Raiders went 4 and 12. Now, the good news for him, he completed 69% of his throws. He and Gruden, for all the complaining, we're actually pretty good together last year. He had over 4,000 passing yards, 69% completions. But there is a sense now. Okay. I got you Antonio Brown. I got you another receiver from the Chargers.

I'm John Gruden. If you want to be a franchise guy, you've got to light it up a little. I've said I think Derek Carr is very similar to Tony Romo. Probably not a Hall of Fame talent, but there are days when he's really good and there's no way in the world. I'd trade him. There's no way in the world. They're not a guy in college. That's as good as him that I see. couple of years. Number five. Jimmy Garoppolo. First of all, he's been hurt twice.

So one more injury, and you've got to be honest about this. Kyle Shannon and John Lynch are going to have a meeting, and they're going to be thinking, do we pick the wrong guy? He's in year two of a massive contract, and last year he got paid, didn't play. So the downside to making all that money,

five years, $138 million is you've got to win games for us. Now, I like him. I think he's a really talented guy, I think this is what the Bears would hope Mitch Trubisky is, but he's not. Garoppel's got a real arm. And I said a couple years ago, if the Patriots would have moved off Brady, I would have totally understood it. But there's some pressure on this dude.

He's getting paid a fortune, and he can't stay on the field. Number four. Kirk Cousins, second year of a three-year, $84 million deal. Chicago Bears now have a better roster. The Green Bay Packers have massively elevated. elevated their defensive team in free agency. And Kirk's got to win big games. I mean, Kirk is 5 and 13 in primetime games.

It's like Kirk, we love you. And it's funny. You know, Kirk is kind of the classic guy. Well, you can win a bunch of games with Kirk. You may be able to even win your division with Kirk. But when you're paying a guy $84 million at that position, it's not about winning your division. You got to put, you got to put playoff wins up. You got to win those big TV games.

A lot of pressure on him, number four. Number three. Aaron Rogers. He's 35. He's the best quarterback talent, maybe the last seven or eight years. Now, Patrick Mahomes now, maybe the next Aaron. But I think Aaron's the highest paid player in the game now. And with that means you can't pay for a lot of other things. But the Packers did a very good job to elevate their defense in free agency.

Now, they didn't spend a fortune, but Preston Smith's a good, good player. Surprise Washington, let him go. He's got a new head coach, Matt LaFleur, and there's, listen, When you get the coach run out of town, and let's be honest, that's what it felt like. Well, the downside of that is if this doesn't work, if they finish second or third, now everybody's going to point at the quarterback and not the coach. Number two. I love Carson Wentz, but there's a reality.

He's been called out by teammates. He went five and six. The Eagles went five and six with Wentz and five and two with Foles. and the stories that came out is Nick was more coachable and more adaptable to coaching. Wentz is a super talent. He's also been hurt twice. So you get into that thing with he and Garapolo. If you get hurt a third time, I'm sitting there if I'm Howie Roseman.

I got to draft another quarterback. I mean, you just can't put your franchise. And I think Wentz is going to be a home run. I think he's going to end up. He and Patrick Mahomes are the two most talented young quarterbacks to me. Patrick in the AFC, Carson and the NFC. The difference is Mahomes hasn't been hurt

and Mahomes got to the NFC championship and Mahomes absolutely elevates his teammates. To this point, we don't know if Carson Wentz does. Number one. It has to be been I mean, it's just too much smoke, too many stories, purposeful fumble, A.B.,

Lavian Bell, Mike Tomlin. This, by the way, is his last year of the contract. He'll be an unrestricted free agent after that. I'm not saying they would move off him because I think the Rooney's hold of in pretty high esteem. But you do get to a point with Big Ben that it starts to become kind of his legacy. Like I always try to think, what will we be saying 20 years from now? Will you be saying this?

You know, Ben won a Super Bowl. It's just so much drama. And the reason he's not blank, blank, blank, he's just a lousy leader. Now, Ben can change that this year. If Ben has a great year, and then you're like, well, maybe those stories, that wasn't really, that fumble was a, you know, that. But if he has another bad year, he starts getting defined by the bad stuff and not the Super Bowl. And I think that's where Big Ben is at. Car shopping can be confusing.

Here's our list, by the way. Ben Wentz, Rogers, Cousins, Garoppolo Carr, Jamis, Dach, Mitch, Trubisky, Lamar. To me, the facing, by the way, did you notice who I didn't? Yeah, where's Baker? I don't think he faces any pressure. What do you mean? Baker was very good as a rookie. Right.

It's Cleveland. Right. I don't think there's any question. They'll win games this year. You can argue it's a declining division. I could have easily put a ton of pressure on Baker Mayfield. But I thought Baker had a very, very, very good rookie year.

It surpassed expectations. And he's well liked. He is overachieved. If Baker came out and they went, let's just say, nine and seven, he couldn't really clobber him, could you? Can we be honest about this? Cleveland finished in third.

Can we stop thinking Odell Beckham makes him the Patriots? Well, I don't think I even think that he makes them the Patriots, but I definitely think there's added pressure on them this year. All right. So you do. See, I would not Kirk down a few. Kirk Cousins? Yeah.

And I would probably take Mitch out as well. But I think Baker definitely has, at the very least expectations. Maybe I was trying, you know what? It's a new leaf. Maybe I was trying to be fair. Oh. It's the new me. Fair.

Now, it can't be true because I went after Westbrook today. Yeah, that's true. A Kenyon Martin tomorrow. NFL division predictions post-free agency. I'll tell you who I think is going to want all the divisions tomorrow. Post-free agency. Car shopping is confusing. Dealer price, list price.

invoice, a lot of terms. Here's what's not confusing. Save three grand, on average, off MSRP. Yeah, so I'm watching that Laker Nick thing, and I'm watching all that Walt Frazier stuff. Man. My two takeaways from the weekend are, I would have never guessed ever that it would have been this bad for LeBron. It is a complete and utter loss season. It's Andrew Luck's lost season.

It's shocking. Walt Frazier took shots at LeBron being at the end of the bench, a legend, taking on a legend. Listen. When you're in a face of the NBA, I think you should be more a part of your team, folks, no matter what is going on. In the public, you've got to be a part of the team. Maybe in the locker room, you're not, but you have to exhibit that type of togetherness in public, folks.

And right now we see he doesn't really care. I think that's a little unfair. He's talking to Tyson Chandler and a Laker. trainer. I don't think that's fair. I will say this. Cotino Mobley said this. Some of these old guys forget they were young. You know what I mean? It's like I love Charles Barkley, but it's like, man, you guys, how can you leave a good team? Well, come on, Charles. How can you force your way into a trade? Come on, Charles. I love you, but you kind of did that before. Good stuff. Speak for yourself is around the corner. We will see you tomorrow for join the gang in L.A. It's the hurt.

night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And from more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

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And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

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