The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 04/04/2019

Episode Date: April 4, 2019

Colin says the Lakers do not have a plan and there is no light at the end of the tunnel for the LeBron era in LA.  He talks about why the Bleacher Report article about the Aaron Rodgers/Mike McCarthy relationship makes McCarthy look really bad.  He thinks Kevin Durant could prove the media right if he chooses to leave the Warriors for the Knicks.  Plus, Super Bowl Champion and former Packers WR Greg Jennings comes in studio to tell Colin how bad it was being around Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy.  Presented by Perky Jerky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, two breaking stories. Here we go in L.A. This is the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Live in Los Angeles on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me. Got a couple of big stories breaking today. Who's a thunk is?

Good morning. Man, man, oh, man. Good morning. Craziness. So we have two stories that are breaking. Let me start with one. One's NBA, one's NFL. Number one, people have been coming up to me for the last, I would say, four to five weeks.

Why are you so anti-Lebron suddenly? Why are you so anti-Laker suddenly? You thought this was going to work? Yep. And this is why I've been so. anti-Laker. Adrian Ward Janowski, the Woj, dropped a bomb this morning. Lakers are a mess. It's a power struggle. The organization right now is not aligned on any level. Jeannie Bus, Magic, Polinka, Luke Walton, LeBron, no connectivity, no plan going forward. Everybody's sort of

aligned for themselves, looking to save their reputation and their job. This is what I've been hearing for the last four to five weeks. This is why I've suddenly, quote, turned on LeBron, suddenly, quote, turned on the Lakers. This is what I've been told. Woge, who does this for a living, covers the NBA, confirms it. This is why I've said, I think the title runs for LeBron are over. I don't see hope going forward. It's a roster with no shooters.

They had two good ones. Lou Williams, Brooke Lopez, they gave them both away. I don't think this is a place that agents are driving young stars. I don't think Kauai Leonard and Clay Thompson and Kevin Durant, although not young, I don't think they want any part of this mess. The Lakers have had the worst record in the NBA for the last six years. They're no longer a well-run organization. Jeannie Bus, second generation, right?

The great dad passes away, hands it to the kids, and the kids don't get along and it doesn't work. And I like Jeannie, but she's not her father. Doesn't have that quite it quality that he had, turning the Lakers into the massive brand they were. Magic, by the way, is not a grinder. This is something I've been told that every summer he goes on a yacht for a month, over in Italy, for a month. Other NBA execs don't do that. He takes his friends, and that's fine, but that's not what NBA exec should be doing in August, leaving for four and five weeks with friends on yachts, and you know, you don't really, and then Rob Polink is an agent, and he'd never been in a front office guy. And now Bob Myers

and Golden State was an agent, but he was also an assistant GM after being an agent. Now he's a very good GM. This is officially a mess. And I'm not going to blame LeBron for this because LeBron wasn't here, then join this situation. It feels too big in celebrity to me, not enough grinders in the room for me, people doing things they've never done before. Magic tried to be a talk show host didn't work. Magic tried to be a head coach didn't work. Magic was a great player. This is another magic move away from his strength, which is playing basketball, which he was remarkable. Now, he's had some business success. But there's, you know, if you've never done something before and then all of a sudden you're put into a big situation to do something at a high level,

it's often a two and three and four and five year learning process. Well, LeBron James doesn't have two and three and four and five years to get this roster right. It's a mess. Kobe's in Rob Polinkazir. Magic's doing his own thing. You know, this is a 16 hour a day job. Magic's not going to put in 16 hours a day for this. And I'm not just playing. and magic. I will say this too. I've been told this by executives. And I talked to somebody close to LeBron James yesterday who got a little annoyed with me because I'm seen as now a turncoat. I'm anti-Lebron. And I said, LeBron's heavy. Tom Brady's great. He was never heavy. Derek Jeter was great. But Derek Jeter was never heavy. A-Rod was heavy in his prime. Brett Farb at the end was heavy in Green Bay. Tim Duncan was never heavy. LeBron's heavy. You got to get the right coach. And he got to

get the players that fit him. And he's got to like the coach. And clutch sports, and they're aligned with him. So you got to make sure you pay attention to clutch sports. And you, not that you give them favoritism, but you better not tick him off. And there's just a lot of moving things. And LeBron is called the king and the chosen one. And it's very intimidating.

And people tend to walk on eggshells. That's not necessarily to blame LeBron. It's his reality. It's not his fault. When you're called the chosen, when you're called the king, you walk into a room. like your boss walking into a party. Everybody gets a little tense, right? Everybody's walking up.

Ooh, the boss showed up at the party. Put your drink down. LeBron's got that effect on teams. Everybody's trying to please LeBron. Make LeBron happy. Make sure he's not mad. The chosen one, the king. So Woj came out.

The story confirms what I've been hearing. They have no plan. They have hope. Hope's not a plan. They hope they land Anthony Davis. That's not a plan. So when people come up to me and say, why'd you turn on them?

I say because stories change and information changes. And what I always say, if your stockbroker came up to you and he said, listen, there's some insider trading going on in this stock. We've been buying for five years. Let's sell all the stock. Would you sell the stock? Yes, you would because you got new information. If you're a pilot, you got in a plane and the pilot said to you, hey, listen, this storm has changed.

We're going to go around the storm. It's going to take us another 30 minutes in the air, but we don't want to go through the lightning storm. What do you want? You want to take the new radar readout or the old one? Okay. The bottom line is we got new information. This thing hasn't worked. Star magic, star LeBron, star Luke, star Jeannie, star Kobe, star Polanka the agent. It's not working. It's not working at all. And there's no shooters on the horizon. It's not working. It is a mess. At this point, it's finger crossing. That's not a plan. That's hope. Hope's not a plan. All right. Second story that broke. And this just broke 10 minutes before the show.

So it's the fastest I've ever read 14 pages of copy. Bleacher Report. It's titled, What Happened in Green Bay? The Aaron Rogers Mike McCarthy wreckage. 30% of this article is stuff we've talked about before. Somewhere between 50, and 70, 75% of the article is stories, and almost all of them make Mike McCarthy look really, really bad. Yeah, Aaron Rogers, looks like he could be a little challenging, but so what? He's a star quarterback. We've known that.

Most of this, whoever was the source or sources, I imagine it's multiple, had it out for Mike McCarthy. They did not want to make Mike McCarthy get off Scott free in this. it feels like to me and i'm not making any claims here i have no idea who the sources are but uh that mike mccarthy has been sort of rallied around uh hey mike we love you and this is like now we're tired of that mike mccarthy gets crushed in this story uh getting massages not showing up for meetings um insecure uh not willing to keep coaches like uh the van pelt coach Alex van pelt who was Aaron's buddy. It looks like at one point, I mean, this sounds pretty harsh, but Aaron Rogers

thinks Mark McCarthy is dumb. It looks like McCarthy didn't evolve. He got full of his own juice and full of himself. And I don't think Mike McCarthy's dumb. He may not be smart enough to deal with Aaron Rogers. That's different. I think there's about five coaches in this league who would be really good with Aaron Rogers. Andy Reed, Sean Payton, Belichick, McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan. not be many more that would be a perfect fit for Aaron. Aaron's really bright. He knows it. He's all football. No nonsense. Intense. A little passive aggressive, but, you know, that happens. That's, you know, that's just my opinion. That's what I see. But I also can't go on the air and expect Aaron Rogers to be perfect. I mean, Tom Brady's not a very great athlete. He's imperfect,

too. Peyton Manning could be robotic and rigid. None of these guys are perfect. I'm not perfect. You're not. Aaron Rogers isn't. This article makes Mike McCarthy look really, really bad. It makes him look like he got it full of himself. It talks about here. He would kind of brag. He was the quarterback guru. Belichick doesn't do that stuff. It compares him a couple of times unfavorably to Belichick. This is a hit job on McCarthy. Now, I don't know Mike well. I will say this. I think, Joy, you've heard me say this before. I never felt they were a perfect match. When I look at Pete Carolyn Russell Wilson, I see this handsome coach, almost 70, chewing his gum, going 100 miles an big for the room. Pete Carroll's got, he's big, he's optimistic, he's got a lot of energy.

Then I see Russell Wilson, who's handsome and optimistic and positive. Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll feel like they fit. And then Tom Brady and Belichick, both incredibly aspirational and driven and kind of cunning and manipulative, they feel like they fit. And then there's Sean Payton, and then there are Drew Brees and their intensity. And they're, you know, both a little intense guys. And they get after a guy. and they fit.

And McCarthy looks like a Pittsburgh cab driver, and Aaron Rogers looks like a model. And they never look like they fit. And when you read this article, it kind of comes off like, these guys were destined to never get along. One guy's kind of a macho guy. And the article, fake Pittsburgh macho guy.

The other guy is super smart, super driven, wants to adapt, wants to evolve, went to Berkeley, super smart. He's very intense, challenging to coach. and McCarthy was just over his head. He was just over his head. And once the talent left and your Greg Jennings left and some of the better players peeled off, McCarthy kind of felt like, hey, hey, this is about me, not the players.

And in the end, Aaron Rogers was like, no, we need more good players. So this is not a good look for McCarthy. McCarthy kind of got out of this relationship without getting clobbered. Aaron took a lot of hits. Aaron's difficult. Aaron's brittle. Aaron's getting hurt. This article is like, yeah, you're not getting out of town here without getting whacked.

So this is not a good article for Mike McCarthy. He gets clobbered in this thing. And it confirms a lot of the concerns that Aaron Rogers would have. Like McCarthy just didn't evolve and didn't adapt like Belichick or an Andy Reader of Sean. Peyton. Fascinating article, Bleacher Report. Some of it, we've known, some of it, one of the excerpts here, I'll read it to you. One person who was then close to Rogers remembers he would regularly call to vent that McCarthy didn't have a clue what he was doing, that McCarthy was a buffoon, that he was constantly bailing. Mike has a low football IQ, and that used to bother Aaron, the source

says. He'd say Mike's got one of the lowest IQs, if not the lowest IQ of any coach he's ever had. that's pretty harsh. That's not nice. That's an intense quote. Yeah, that's intense. There's no coding there. Right. That is not a backhanded compliment.

Yeah, that's a front-handed slap in the forehead. So, it's interesting. But I will tell you this. I don't know how many sources this story had, but they were all lined up against McCarthy. Yeah, this is not a pro-McCarthy article. Yeah.

And I had to bring. through it, but it was hard to find anything good about McCarthy. It was, it's an ugly article. So there you go. That's where we're at today. A woe's bomb and that. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed the game.

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

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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

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Join me, Keir 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 Hardway, 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 was a man. He doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey.

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Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WMBA standout, Kate Martin and rising hockey star, Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't.

Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel on. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs, Gabby Thomas, and Katie Ledecky. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile,

that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win. more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can, like, I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. It's gotten to a point where, you know, I'll have opinions. And then often my sources or the people I know, this probably happens to Joy, will text me to tell me if I'm right

or wrong on my stuff, right? And I think Kevin Durant leaving the Warriors would be a classic mistake. I don't think you ever leave. I say this on my show all the time to all young broadcasters. Chase good management, not money. There's a sea of money if you're talented. There's not a sea of great management. Chase good management. I think Durant would be making a massive mistake leaving Golden State. It's basketball heaven. And all I hear from Kevin Durant, like caribots. I want to play ball. It's the best place in the world to play ball. The coach used to play. The GM used to play. Clay Thompson barely talks. Steph Curry's the nicest star in the league. It's basketball heaven. New arena next year. Super smart city. Durant likes tech. It's literally basketball heaven.

If you're a cattle rancher and you live in Texas, you don't move to Alaska. If you're a surfer and you live in Los Angeles, you don't move to Omaha. Golden State's basketball heaven. This is the perfect play. If you asked LeBron James this morning, you could go up to San Francisco and trade places with Kevin Durant. He'd do it in three seconds. It's the best place in the world to play basketball. I think he's making a massive mistake. But I will say this. I can't believe it.

But there are just too many smart people now, too many connected people texting me, talking to me, saying it's over. Yesterday on our show, Rick Buecker lives in the Bay Area, covers the Warriors, drop this during our show. From everything I've heard, it's done. He's leaving. Yes, he's leaving. It's not a matter of not liking or appreciating what he has. But being there, I can tell you that Kevin Durant has never been fully embraced by the Warriors faithful. It's still Steph's team. It's still Steph, Clay, Dray, Raymond, KD, thanks for coming along and helping us

win these last two. It's a matter of where can I go and I can show I can get this done. Like I can be the centerpiece. Where am I going to be unbelievably appreciated? That sounds incredibly needy to me. I'm going to show. We'll show who. Who are you going to show? Who are you trying to win approval of? I am going to show, if I said that on the show today, is I'm going to sign a tenure contractor because I'm going to show who? Who are you trying to show? Kevin Durant, don't believe words, believe people's actions. I'm faithful. No, you weren't.

Those are just words. That's an action. You're out of here. Okay? His words are, I don't care. Just ball. I don't care about you. I don't listen to the fans. I don't listen to criticism. His actions, if he leaves, are I'm seeking approval. I'm going to show you.

Well, who's you? You're the best basketball player right now in the world. He is better than LeBron James. Right, today, this morning, he's a better player than LeBron. Not saying his resume. He's a better defensive player. He's a better offensive player. He's healthier.

I think he's playing the best basketball of his career and probably has three to four really high-end years left. You make a list from Brett Farr, Packers, the Jets. Make a list, Albert Poulthals, Cardinals to Angels. When you go to a list of players, regardless of their talent, And regardless how they left, traded, free agency. When you go from a great organization to a shaky one, it never works. Saban, LSU to the Dolphins, didn't work.

It doesn't. Spurrier, Florida, kingpin in the SEC, Redskins, disaster. Kevin would be doing everything he claims he doesn't care about. he would be seeking approval. I'm telling you, I think he's going to do it now. I mean, Lee Jenkins came on our show about a year ago. About a year ago, he said, listen, KD's natural DNA is a wander. Durant's still a searcher.

He's still somebody who seeks things out. When I think about LeBron and they've sort of traveled a bit of a similar course where it took them a while to win that first, when they had to go somewhere where it was a little, it was more favorable, right? the odds a little bit more favorable for them. They learn how to win somewhere. I think he's still the kind of person,

just knowing him a little bit and the way he sort of seeks out different challenges. He could seek out something different at some point. Oh, Lord. For the record, the goal for every star in this league is June 15th to be holding the MVP trophy as the confetti comes down from the ceiling.

That's the goal for everybody. He will do it for the third straight time this year. Well, it's what my thoughts have been always on this, but Lee kind of just alluded to it there. What's the difference between LeBron leaving Miami for Cleveland and Kevin Durant leaving Golden State for New York? Because there was a sense that he was going home. But it was, too, a disaster of an organization who had never had any proof whatsoever of being able to put together a team. They had an opportunity to do it around him. But Ken Griffey to Cincinnati, home has. as a unique pull.

I understand that's the only difference, but that's literally the only difference. No, no, no. And I'm saying it's a huge difference. Homes different. Like, I literally... But he also had success there. Like, he brought a championship there.

Oh, no, no. Yes, but again, the home thing's not a little thing. I literally left a major market in television to go to Portland because it was home and my mom was getting older. I literally, I'm a career guy. I literally went backwards in my career because I thought, I want to be closer to the family. Mom's getting older. this feels like home,

home's powerful. Now again, if KD. grew up in Queens. Right. No, I understand that's not his home, but what I would to me, the situations are so parallel because even though New York is not home, it's still New York City and the

New York Knicks. The most profitable NBA franchise in what many considered to be the basketball mecca. So maybe that's not his home. But the impact of bringing a championship to New York City to me is the equivalent of Kevin Durant

going home. San Francisco now, Silicon Valley is now bigger and richer than Wall Street. San Francisco is the new New York in America. It's where all the wealth is. The wealthiest people in America don't live in New York. They all live in San Francisco. But those are the one percenters. I mean, what we talk about all the time? Well, yeah, I mean, what you would consider

all NBA players to be one percenters, but you still have to feel of the people. And we talk about all the time with Lakers fans. What are Lakers fans? Are they really just the Hollywood elite sitting on the court side? Or are they everybody else in the arena? I think this is going to be a disaster. I think it's going to be great for the league, by the way. If Zion, Kyrie and K.D. end up in New York.

I would be like the magic. It would be like the Miami Heat on steroids. It would be like Bosch, Wade, LeBron on steroids. Yes, because it's New York. Zion, Kyrie, New York. Oh, boy. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays, and New Neon, Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific.

Sometimes something becomes what they call a cottage industry. It has become a cottage industry to criticize James Hardin's offense. I mean, James Hardin is the best score in the NBA. He's averaged on like 36 points a game. He's having an unbelievable all-time season. We always liked it when Michael Jordan did that. We liked that when Kobe Bryant did that. But people have a problem with James Hardin in the way he plays,

which cracks me up because it is a lot of ISO ball, but Michael Jordan did a lot of ISO ball. And Kobe did a lot of ISO ball. And we love those guys. But everybody hates James Hardin last night, Don McLean, broadcaster for the Clippers, played at UCLA, NBA. Don't know Don, good broadcaster. Hear him often. Kind of, you know, criticize James Hardin and the Houston offense in his style.

I just feel like Ralph this style, what Hardin does is manipulating the game somehow, like almost like cheating it somehow. And I don't really have a thought beyond that other than I'm watching something that isn't basketball. Like to me, basketball's player movement, ball movement, design. plays, not just a guy walking it up and isolating every time. And that's why I brought up that point earlier that who else could do this? It's not like within the system he's getting all these numbers. The system is built for him. Who else could do this? Nobody! That's why he's great. That's why he's great because nobody else could do it. Michael Jordan could be a ball hog. Kobe Bryant could be ball-centric. Who else could do what Michael's doing? Nobody. That's why he was Michael

Jordan. Who else would do what Kobe could do? Only Michael Jordan. Listen, right now the world's best score, the best one-on-one player in the world is James Harden. And that's okay, because basketball's a lot of things. Basketball used to have centers back to the basket. Now basketball is mostly three-point shooting. It used to be whoever had the most rebounds, won a series. Now it's whoever has the most touches and the better spacing. And basketball's a lot of things. But some of it is ISO basketball. There's about 12 guys in this league that can create their own shot. And James Harden is the best in the world at doing it. He's the best one-on-one player in the world.

And listen, does he manipulate the game a little bit with that little stutter step thing? Yes, and Magic Palm the ball and Michael traveled a lot. And by the way, in baseball, Joe Madden created defensive shifts, and it manipulates offense. And catchers in baseball frame pitches. That's manipulation. and Tom Brady pre-snap can see what you're doing and right up to the last second changes plays, manipulating. Manipulating is part of sports.

It's absolutely overwhelmingly. It's why coaches bark at refs to get the call five minutes later. Sports is manipulating. Officials manipulate. They'll call fouls early in the game to set the tone for later in the game. They're manipulating the game. You see, by the way, when I used to be in Vegas and cover boxing, you would see Sugar Ray Leonard was the best ever.

He would start the round, first 15 seconds with a flurry, dance a round, last 15 seconds, end with a flurry. Why? To manipulate the judges. To go, man, he won that round. He won 30 seconds of it. The beginning and the end. The last thing you saw. Movie directors manipulate.

They always want to have a solid ending so you walk out of the theater in a good mood, right? The hero wins, the villain dies. Yes, James Hardin has a little stutter step that looks like it's manipulating because referees do not want to call traveling every time. By the way, Jerry Sloan, Utah Jazz used to have a theory. Fow the hell out of everybody. But refs don't want to call it. So Utah was incredibly handsy and incredibly physical and fouled every possession. But referees didn't want to go into Salt Lake City and get attacked by the fans because they were calling 75 fouls.

That's why those great jazz teams were average on the road and great at home. Because on the road, refs would call the jazz for fouls because they didn't have the crowd to deal with. Sports is all about manipulation. James Hardin's not as fun to watch as Kobe. He's not as athletic or vertical as MJ. He's the world's best one-on-one basketball player. And he is part of a system. Mike Dantone's system elevates guards.

They all go to him and go get better. Steve Nash was the MVP of the league. Chris Paul's better now. Jeremy Lynn mattered for like 15 minutes. So nothing against Tom McLean. He does a great job and I've listened to him for years. But yes, when he said who else can do what James Hardin can do? Nobody.

That's why he does it. That's why he's James Harden, and he is great. And then we're getting to a point now. It's almost ridiculous. We're just finding ways to criticize him. He's not as likable or as fun to watch or as vertical as these other players. He is the best, I mean, he's the best one-on-one player in the last since Kobe. I mean, Kobe Bryant for about seven years in this league was, I mean, as good as LeBron is,

Kobe was he could shoot a three, could shoot a two, he could do left, he could do right. We've got to slow down on the James Harden hate. The guy's just a great player. he hops a little bit there, but Magic did this for 12 years. He palmed the ball for 12 years. And Michael, by the way, did a lot of back to the basket stuff where Michael would take an extra step. Referees are not going to call superstars for their...

LeBron, by the way, on a fast break early in his career, it took about six steps. I mean, he would just grab the ball and one dribble and you'd be like, I think he took four steps. Riffs aren't going to call traveling on LeBron. By the way, refs hate to call charging on Stars too. Well, Stars get the calls. We all know that. That's the way it works.

There's gray area in all competition. If you want fair, fairs are for fairsills and fried Oreos. I love that. That's my new fair. It's not reality. It's not how it works. And if you're not trying to gain an advantage in competition,

I mean, it's not that commercial where, like, the kid knocks the ball out of bounds and he tells the ref it's out on him. That's not, that's not real. That's not how you win championships. NASCAR is basically all manipulation of the car. You're trying to stay one step ahead of the rest. regulators. By the way, golf, Tiger Woods used to, if you remember this, Tiger, I may not have this right. Tiger would stick around to watch you putt because he knew his gallery would stick

around to watch him and his gallery made noise. So Tiger, like, Tiger would not like put out and leave. Tiger would stick around so his crowd stuck around and you had to deal with his crowd and the cheering and the roaring went like Tiger always used his gallery size against who he was playing against. rules and there's cheating and there's breaking the rules and then there's this there's fair competition and then there's this gray area this manipulation area that only the best care to go in and they do it really well right they manipulate that's how it works that's how sports works and yeah he's got no question hardens unorthodox he's a little manipulative he's kind of the refs would like to call traveling but once they do it once then you got to call it a bunch and that hey he created his own little

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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.

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Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast. Learn the Hardway. Open your free Our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levin this went to a billion dollar fraud.

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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, Leila Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that.

Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel on. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie 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.

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That article on Bleacher Report this morning, it dropped 10 minutes before the show, so I had to speed read and read the whole thing. And my takeaway was, somebody was not happy with Mike McCarthy. And I don't know if it was one source or 20, but they, clobbered McCarthy. My second takeaway is these two got divorced, McCarthy and Aaron. Everybody played nice until two days ago when McCarthy took some subtle shots at Aaron. And somebody in that Green Bay organization said, okay, you want to play that game? Because there were some things in this article about massages that were taking place,

about just one of the quotes was kind of mean. It was McCarthy's a buffoon, said somebody, Mike has a low football IQ. It used to bother Aaron. He'd say Mike's got one of the low. IQs, if not the lowest IQ of any coach he's ever had. I mean, that is harsh. So let me start with this, Greg. You've been outspoken a little bit of both. I mean, Aaron, you've said sometimes did things that bothered you. McCarthy sometimes wasn't, like, for instance, play calling. You didn't love McCarthy's play calling. No, I didn't. I wasn't always in love with it.

Did it work at times? Yes, when we were clicking on all cylinders. But it was, it was an offense that if you were smart, which Aaron obviously is one of the smartest quarterbacks in all of football, it didn't challenge you. You grew stale in that offense because there was no creative and innovative formation variation. And let me be clear about this. A lot of that wasn't just solely Mike McCarthy. Some of it was because of the brilliance, if you will, of Aaron Rogers, where He didn't like a lot of group and cluster formations, bunches. Yeah, Green Bay doesn't run those. No.

And a lot of it had to do with Aaron felt like, you know what, no less keep everybody spread out, stationary, so that my cadence can then show me what the defense is wanting and willing to go to and what they're trying to hold their disguises up. And so that's why the offense kind of looked the way that it did. It's not all McCarthy's simplicity. McCarthy, a lot of it, it's one of those given tastes. It's like, okay, do I appease my quarterback or do I do what's best for the other guys that are supporting my quarterback? Okay, I'll throw a criticism of McCarthy in this, that he didn't evolve, that he had a little bit of an ego,

that he liked to be called the quarterback guru, that some of this was, Mike could be a little fake, tough guy where I'm a tough Pittsburgh guy, but in the end he didn't suspend guys, they didn't find guys. Are those criticisms fair? He got a little in love. He got a little in love. love with himself after the Super Bowl. Is that fair? It's fair to a degree. And the reason why I say that is McCarthy was one of those coaches that he gave his players the benefit of the doubt. Like, you police yourself. Like, I don't need to take your money. He would always say, I don't want to take your money. I don't want to suspend you. I'm not going to be petty, but you guys police yourself. And I think sometimes

that ends up biting you when your number one guy is really going around saying things that are counterproductive to what you're trying to do. He's not echoing what you're trying to get done in a positive manner. That one guy being Aaron Rogers. And again, I'm going to defend Aaron on this side. It wasn't just Aaron that was not going around echoing. It was majority of the guys because you grew stale of Mike McCarthy and his offense and the way he went about things sometimes. You liked him as a person.

As a coach, we thought he was a good coach, but he wasn't the type of coach that was going to just flat out tell you exactly what he was feeling. No, not every time. No, he would do it sometimes. He would be selective, but that just wasn't what he was. One of the criticisms here of McCarthy in the article by Bleacher Report is that in the end, he just didn't work on the Aaron relationship and that he was kind of insecure with a Van Pelt relationship. And he should have kept him. But Mike was insecure about Van Pelt was closer to Aaron than Mike was.

Let's talk about that. Did Mike McCarthy fail? Because I look at Belichick and Brady, and it's not like they're warm and fuzzy. Now, I mean, there's a lot of relationships. I mean, Mike Shanahan and John Elway. worked, but I mean, Shanahan and Elway can also argue. I don't think Tony Dungee and Peyton Manning hung out all the time. But this article makes it sound like McCarthy failed at connecting with Aaron.

Is that fair? That is fair. That is definitely fair. And I think a lot of it possibly has to do with they were on the same side of the ball. He's an offensive quarterback whisperer, an offensive guru, if you will. and you're dealing with a quarterback that can do it all. And likes to add limb. Exactly.

But when you look at teams that have had success, and we always look at the number one team that's had the most success. New England. New England Patriots. Bill Belichick, he's on the other side of the ball. But one thing about Bill Belichick, he's smart. I don't need to have the best relationship with Tom Brady in the building. Josh McDaniels has to have that relationship.

His quarterback coach has to have that relationship with him. My relationship with Tom Brady doesn't have to be what everybody thinks it should be. It's going to be a business relationship. I'm going to manage this team. I'm going to treat him like I treat everybody else. I'm going to let you have the nice, fluffy yet spitfire, bickory relationship with him that true relationships have. And you're going to have to work through that.

That's Josh McDaniel's job in New England. But Green Bay didn't have a Josh. No. They didn't have a Josh McDaniels. No. So it was McCarthy and Aaron, I'll throw this at you. I never felt that Aaron and Mike even looked like a couple. This weekend I was in Cabo and we met a couple and this lady comes up and she's a psychiatrist, right?

And she looked at my wife and I, we walked into her house. She goes, you guys looked like a couple. And I thought, oh, that's nice. I don't know if we are, but we look like a couple. Sometimes you'll see a couple. They look like a couple. McCarthy and Aaron never looked like they'd fit. One guy's like Pittsburgh.

He looks like a retired cop. It's a bottom line. Aaron is a model. West Coast. Hip. Cool. Date celebrities. Like I never thought the personality,

and I said that's on the air before. I'm like, they're winning, but it doesn't feel like a great. Sean Peyton Breeze feels like it works. Russell Wilson and Peter like almost overly optimistic. It feels like it connects. They're both youthful.

Did these guys maybe they just were never built to get along? Well, the reason why it looks like it works with those guys like Sean Payton and Drew Breeze is because they actually want the same thing. They actually want the same thing more than what they want for themselves. Interesting. That's the problem. That was the problem in Green Bay. When you look at Aaron Rogers, you look at Mike McCarthy, they both want the credit. Yeah, do we want to win?

We do want to win, but I want the credit when I win. And in reality, when you're dealing with a quarterback and a head coach relationship or an offense-coordinated relationship, you have to be able to accept the truths. And you know the truth more than anybody else of yourself. And I think a lot of the problem in this article kind of said it right out the top, egos destroyed the Green Bay Packers. When you look at Mike McCarthy, if Aaron had input, he kind of. of buffed that input. He didn't, he listened, he heard it, but he didn't really take to it or listen to it. He didn't want Aaron to have too much power. Exactly. And vice versa. If Mike said something that was meaningful, that had substance, now you got Aaron feeling like, well,

if you're not going to really listen to me, I'm not going to really listen to you. And you sense this. You felt some of this. There's no sense it. I lived it. I lived it. For the record, there's a lot in this article. Are there still other things that have not come out? Is it even uglier than this? I think it's definitely uglier than this. I mean, there's things in this article that I had no, I mean, it blew me away. And that was the whole missing meetings and for the massages and all of that.

Well, you weren't there, though, at that time. I wasn't there at that time. It makes it sound like that's the last couple years. Yeah. But so things like that, that's like, you. Wow. Like it blew me back. Like my eyebrow hair stood up when I saw that. Like, yeah, you can't do that.

That's crazy stuff. So do you buy my theory that they got divorced, they were going to play nice, McCarthy did an interview, took some shots, and Green Bay in the last 48 hours said, okay, you're going to do that. We're not going to play nice because it feels like this is a little bit of a response to that McCarthy. I would buy the theory if I didn't know when the article was written. This article was already being configured two months ago. How do you know?

Because I'm a part of the article. They called you. When they called and they wanted, and again, I'm one of those guys that I'll take heat, I'll take the backlash, but I'm going to put my name on everything that I say. I don't like the anonymous quotes and I can't stand that. I've never been a fan of it. just stand up being man, let me know who you are. But this article was being written prior to what Mike McCarthy ended up saying.

So they've been working on this thing. This has been in the works. It just so happened. But by the way, you've taken some heat from Cheesehead Nation because you are outspoken. I always find funny with Packer fans. Packer fans acknowledge they'll complain amongst themselves about Aaron and Brett. but if anybody else does it. You can't do it.

Right, right. Like they'll go to their message board and they'll be like, you know, Aaron can be this and Brett could be this. But if you go out and say it, it's like you're not loyal to us. It's like you're just telling the truth. The Packer fans can't handle it. That's a problem. Yeah.

And one thing I would say, and I love my time in Green Bay. I thought it was unbelievable. No one can ever take that away for me, fans or anyone. But when you've been in a relationship, when you've been in a family and you've actually lived it, no one can tell you what you know. No, you can't tell me what I know to be true in fact. So what I share, could I share even more?

Yes. But I choose to just share the parts that I think are important for and that kind of shape why we see what we're seeing right now. Like before I ever said anything, everything in Green Bay, you kind of knew the relationship was all kind of helter-skelter. they clashed, but then I started saying things about the leadership and all of this. And then other guys started saying stuff, oh yeah, the leadership is not there really when it comes to Aaron Rogers. It starts to unfold and guys start to say more and you start to get a

bigger picture on what this relationship and what this organization really looks like from the inside out. By the way, it's possible that Mike McCarthy knew this article was coming out and then did the podcast to get in front of it. That's, my friend, is the question. Because if it's been worked on for two months, Mike obviously got called to respond to it. And Mike's like, I'm not responding to this stuff. And they made sure you did a podcast to get out in front of it a little bit.

I could see that. I could see that. But again, it is what it is. It is what it is. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in.

I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite on humor. me with Robert Smygel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman

help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season.

And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was finding. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game 7, Marquis keep coming to you. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love.

This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.