The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 08/01/2018

Episode Date: August 1, 2018

Colin talks about Urban Meyer allegedly denying knowledge of a 2015 domestic violence case involving his program. He thinks New York is going to be the next hot spot in the NBA as the Knicks are going after Kyrie Irving. Mike Tomlin is calling out his star players like Big Ben & Le'Veon Bell and, in Best for Last, Colin breaks down the top 10 most interesting story lines going into this NFL season. Plus The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman stops by to discuss Urban Meyer’s predicament. Presented by Perky Jerky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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 Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 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 harmed. you just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to her, 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. Ah, this is The Heard. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, live in Los Angeles,

sponsored by Firestone, Complete AutoCare, Keep Your Car Running Newer and Longer. We have a Breaking News. here on a Wednesday as Joy Taylor is joining me today. Morning, Colin. I will get in a five minutes. We're compiling a lot of information here on the story out of college football, Urban Meyer, Ohio State. A very, very bad look for Ohio State football, Urban Meyer. I'm going to have that in five minutes.

So that's a real story that's breaking. And we're going to compile stuff here over the next couple of minutes. I do want to start with another breaking story today. Mark Stein. credible reporter. I actually recently tried to hire him for my podcast network. A very, very good reporter. Buzz is real. The Knicks are going after Kyrie Irving. They're going to go after him. This follows up other credible reports that Kyrie Irving in 11 months can go anywhere, and he is interested in New York. Okay, all I want you to know is this.

that three weeks before LeBron ended up in L.A., Dante Jones told me off the air, and I promised not to use him as a source, he said, LeBron's going to L.A. Now, I didn't go on the air with that because Dante Jones gave me inside information. I could move my commentary certain ways, but Dante Jones knew LeBron was coming to L.A. and he said it. He goes, I think

I think he's going to happen. It was the kind of thing that a friend tells a friend, right? Stuff information that I wouldn't have. Well, Dante Jones was on our show a couple days ago, and Dante Jones is connected to LeBron and a lot of star players in the league. And here's what Dante Jones said about the next hot NBA city. I think New York is going to be the new hotspot next year because they have a great coach.

The organization is moving in the right direction. I think their culture, that city and the cap space they could have and you could play with who you want to play with. I think that's going to be the new hotspot. I think guys are going to be looking at that very seriously next year. All right. James Dolan owner, worst in the league is why the Knicks have been bad. It's not because people don't want to go to New York City. Don't look at Paul George and tell me, well, he chose Oklahoma City.

He could make a lot more money in Oklahoma City, and Paul George is an outlier. There's always players that do things that other players wouldn't do. don't buy into this. Cities don't matter in the NBA. Here's three things we know that are happening. Players have never been richer in the NBA. Stars like to hang out with stars. And we also have a trend in the NBA where stars are joining each other.

Okay, you can't deny those. Tell me the four cities that stars have joined forces in the last seven, eight years. Miami, Bosch, Wade, and LeBron. Boston, Ray Allen, KG joined Paul Pierce, Houston, Chris Paul and now Mello, Julian Hardin, and San Francisco, Durant joins the Warriors. Miami, Boston, Houston, San Francisco. No Indianapolis in there. No Portland in there.

No Milwaukee in there. No Orlando in there. What cities did they leave? Cleveland. Minnesota. Oklahoma City. We got Boogie Cousins now. Where did he end up?

Silicon Valley like Kevin Durant. Like, don't buy into this. Forbes magazine just listed the most valuable franchises in the NBA. Six of the top nine didn't make the playoffs. Many of them, it wasn't close. Knicks, Lakers, Warriors, Bulls, Celtics, Nets, Rockets, Clippers, Mavs. So these are real stories. By the way, ever notice how often you see Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, and Mello in the finals?

Oh, not actually playing. They're in commercials. you get more commercials. You make more money in major markets. Baker Mayfield played in Oklahoma. Baker Mayfield got drafted by Cleveland. Where did he spend his summer? Here in L.A.

Odell Beckham. Where'd he spend his summer? Here in L.A. So, and don't forget who's got all the cap space next year in the NBA. Lakers, Clippers, Brooklyn, New York Knicks, and the Chicago Bulls. So this story by Mark Stein and Kyrie Irving is a real story. You can read books. They're doing studies. now, small markets are struggling to get doctors.

They're struggling to get kids at a med school. They don't want to live there as much. Society is more mobile. NBA stars are the most mobile. The NBA is a star-driven league. 70% of NBA NFL owners own homes in Los Angeles or New York. Don't buy it. This Kyrie Irving Knicks thing is real.

Now, he'd be leaving a great franchise to a bigger city, Boston to New York. But New York's different. Dolan's probably getting out of the ownership business. This is a real story. Keep your eye on it. But don't for a second tell me markets don't matter. What happens is small markets drafted some really good players. You know, Westbrook and Seattle had Durant.

And they moved to Oklahoma City and Indiana gets Paul George. And yes. And those small markets, Tim Duncan goes to San Antonio and they look like they're dominating the league. But in the end, in an era when stars are joining each other, in an era when the NBA's never been more star-driven and mobile, and in an era when people are joining forces and moving regularly, in and out of sports, don't tell me New York's not viable. Capspace next year, stars moving, they've already moved.

Watch this story on Kyrie Irving and the Knicks. It's a real thing. All right, this is a very, very ugly story. Brett McMurphy, another reliable source. He covers college football. Used to cover it for the place I worked at. They let him go. He's really, really good and he's really, really reliable.

According to his report, Urban Meyer, who after Nick Saban is largely regarded as the best coach in college football. And after Alabama, Ohio State's largely regarded as the second or third best program in America, that the coach Urban Meyer knew about a 2015 domestic violence incident involving an assistant. So Ohio State had an assistant. He was a wide receiver coach named Zach Smith. His wife at the time was named Courtney Smith. Domestic violence. Pictures are ugly.

Urban Meyer denied it. Urban Meyer told the press, I don't know anything about it. This was an utter denial, front of camera, multiple times. Brett McMurphy is uncovered text messages to Urban Meyer's wife, regularly supporting Courtney Smith. Get out of the relationship. According to other text messages, multiple wives of other Ohio State assistance and staffers, wives within the program knew about it. Well, I got news for you.

If my wife knows about something with domestic violence at work, she's bringing it up to me. So is every wife in the world. Urban Meyer, according to these reports, knew, and Urban Meyer went on and denied knowing anything. Now, I don't understand why you would do this for a lot of reasons. One, I've always said, how you treat women kind of defines you as a man. There's a lot of things we think define us. What truly defines us is how we treat women in society. How do we treat kids?

How do we treat women? How do we treat people historically not in power places? I don't understand the win for Urban Meyer. I understand when people lie because they're going to get rich. And they, I don't understand the win here. I don't understand the deception here. I also know this, that in my years in covering college football, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I went on the air and said the next great coach is Urban Meyer.

I said this when he was at Utah. You know, I said, this is your next great football coach. He went to Florida. The knock on Urban Meyer was always this. He does not punish Aaron Hernandez, turned a blind eye to stuff at Florida. Florida. Florida was a mess when he was there. Many off-field problems. Whether they were covered up or not, they were allowed. People stayed within the program. It was a mess. This story now validates people who think Urban's been very soft on really, really egregious behavior. Does Urban Meyer get fired? I don't know. I will throw this out. Regardless of whether it's right or wrong, things that I'm going to mention. do matter. LeBron just left the state of Ohio. The greatest star in the history of the state left. Three weeks later, would they fire the best football coach the state's ever had? In the state of Ohio,

does that play a role in it? Is there now a huge group, a rallying cry to support Urban Meyer? He's been a good guy. This is the first real problem. I don't know. I have no idea. This is Sound of Urban Meyer from Big Ten Media Days, denying he knew anything about receiver coach Zach Smith and the domestic assault, felonious domestic assault against his then wife. In 2015, I got a text late last night that something happened in 2015, and there was nothing unless once again there's nothing. Once again, I don't know who creates a story like that. Okay, so according to Brett McMurphy, his report disputes that comment. And that's where we stand with this.

It is breaking. We're going to have Bruce Feldman on next hour. I don't know what happens. This is really ugly. I don't understand the deception. I don't see the win in the deception. And in 2018, especially in the environment now, this plays really. poorly, it always plays poorly.

But I think you're seeing more punitive action to mistakes like this. 20 years ago, I would have come on a show like this and said, he'll survive it. Ten years ago, I'd say, this is awful. He'd probably survive it. Today, we are taking more punitive action against men in power who overlook or deceive in situations with women. I think this is a major story. I think this is an incredibly damning story.

And I don't understand why there would be any deception here. By the way, the Zach Smith and Courtney Smith are no longer together. It should be noted. And in the text messages uncovered by Brett McMurphy, and again, I'm just reading this live, Urban Meyer's wife, Shelly saying, I'm with you. A lot of women stay hoping it will get better. I don't blame you. Just want you to be safe.

Do you have a restraining order? He scares me. Shelly apparently was a frequent texter to the wife. All right, there you go. That's the very latest we have on it. And next hour, Bruce Feldman will be joining us, our college football reporter of note at this network. Joy, any thoughts on that?

I mean, I'm with you. I don't see the win in lying in that situation. I also, it's impossible for me to believe that he didn't know that it was going on. Well, I mean, I'm just going to speak as a married guy. I mean, just forget being a married guy as being the head coach of a team. team. This is an ongoing situation and then all of the wives know about it. Either you have no control over your program whatsoever and you're completely unaware, which no one believes, or you knew and you ignored it. Yeah, this, this goes kind of falls into my Rick Bettino thing. Exactly. Exactly. It's your job to know.

That is your job to know. If you run the company and you're one of your top lieutenants is in a situation like this. You don't get the leniency of being ignorant in that situation. I just, I think it's, you know, these college coaches, I really, I struggle with the, well, he didn't know. That's kind of your job to know. It's absolutely your job to know. And if you did know. You're the highest paid state, you're the highest paid state employee. Right.

And if you did know and chose to not do anything, then you're, you're liable in the situation. I don't know. I don't know. I just know that the world we live in now, the action against men in power is much more punitive. So we'll see how this plays out. Bruce Feldman joining us next hour. Hi everybody. It's Colin. You know I love perky jerky. So much so I invested in it. Different crazy good flavors. Jamming Jamaican, sweet and snappy, original. Why do you have to choose? There's no fun in that. The new variety pack is a jerky lovers dream. Fans need choices too. Otherwise life and sports gets boring real fast. Try a different flavor. Every game, special offer,

40% off all multi-packs. Please use the code Hurd. It's the best tasting jerky on earth guarantee. Get it at perkyjurkey.com. Code Hurd. Should be noted that the wide receiver coach was with Urban Meyer in Florida, and Urban acknowledges in 2009, he was aware that Zach Smith had been involved in violence against his then girlfriend.

Urban acknowledges that. What he's saying is he didn't know about the same receiver. coach doing it in 2015, although Brett McMurphy is uncovered text saying Urban's wife knew, assistants, wives knew. It was well known within the program. So Urban acknowledges, yeah, we knew of the guy's troubles in 2009. What he's saying is six years later, I had no idea. Texts are unveiling people within the program, wives knew.

Can you prove Urban new? That's different. We live in a more punitive time for men in power. I think if Urban was a struggling coach or an unpopular coach, he would be out of work today. Or he would be suspended. This would be a career-ending moment. But we know the way the world works. Power, Ohio, football crazy, the Ohio State.

Can you absolutely directly link knowledge to the lie? You can say some negligence. Can you find the lie? We've got texts now. Bruce Feldman next hour. in what is really a troubling story, and it just escapes me what would be the benefit of being deceptive in this instance. I'm not saying I don't get deception in life.

Domestic violence, you're already established, you're the highest paid state employee. I don't get deception here. I think it is really ugly and really unfortunate. I want to say this. Another football note's interesting. Mike Tomlin has a reputation as a player's coach. I mean, that's his reputation. I've been very critical of Mike Tomlin.

Last seven years, he's three and five in the playoffs. Only face New England once, so don't tell me New England's the problem. Because New England's not the problem. Seven years, he's faced him once, he got blown out. Okay. Last seven years with a Hall of Fame quarterback, great running backs, unbelievable receivers, elite offensive line, and generally a pretty good defense and pass rush, often playing games at home, they're three and five.

Two of their three wins in the playoffs last seven years, Matt Moore and A.J. McCarron were the quarterbacks. He lost to Tebow. I repeat, he lost to Tim Tebow. When he had Dick Leboe's defensive coordinator and a Hall of Famer Ben Rothersberger in his prime. He lost a Tebow. But it's interesting, and I've been critical of Mike Tomlin, but is he hearing the critics? Mike Tomlin came out yesterday and said, quote, Lavian Bell, I hope he's in better shape than he was last year. There's a story out. Lavian Bell was at a strip club. Personal opinion. I couldn't give a rip. He's in his 20s. He's a pro athlete. He's got money. I don't care. It's pro athletes do that. I don't. They do. I don't care. I'm not being a moralist. But I do think what's interesting is Mike Tomlin coming out and Mike Tomlin blasting a player. You're blasting somebody if you say, yeah, I hope my quarterback's in better shape than last year. I hope my wide receiver and running backs in better shape. He's calling out a star player. And I think it's, something. The AFC, by the way, is wide open. New England's got its weakest roster.

Deshawn Watson's still a baby in Houston in developing. Andrew Lux on a rebuilding roster. Kansas said he's got a new quarterback. The Chargers find ways to lose. The AFC is Pittsburgh's to win. And I think the media has often protected Mike Tomlin. Him coming out and ripping Labian Bell is growth. I think he's now you're from Pittsburgh and Mike Tomlin's beloved. He's got Super Bowls. I totally get it. And if you look at their schedule this year, it is a made-to-order schedule. They have all their tough games at home. They get Kansas City tough game at home. Atlanta Tough game at home. Carolina, tough game at home. Chargers tough game at home. New England, tough game at home. They got to go to New Orleans late in the year. They'll have the

playoffs wrapped up. This is really their year. This is the year for Mike Tomlin. There's no excuses now. You have Hall of Fame owners, Hall of Fame quarterback, Hall of Fame back, Hall of Fame receivers. the next great receiver, one of the five best offensive lines, maybe one of the three best offensive lines in football. I totally agree with you. I think that the window is closing after this year. Because Leveon's not going to be there next year. And by the way, Andrew Luck's going to have better players.

Deshawn Watson's going to have in a couple of years. And Ben will be a year older. Patrick Mahomes could be very good by then. We don't know. Patrick Mahomes is a baby now. He's a cub. So I see this as some growth. We also have a story about John Gruden.

I'm just going to read this. This thing continues to be crazy. We've got an, according to Ian Rappaport, the two sides have no contract talk since February. It comes out again today. John Gruden and Khalil Mack are not talking. There's nothing going on. Max in his final year of his rookie deal. He's a tremendous player.

I think there's some things going on here we're not talking a ton about. One of them is, I think Gruden would like to have him, but the Raiders are the poorest franchise in the league, they don't have $100 million in the bank. They have the poorest owner. They were last in revenue two years ago, and they're even worse now because they're a lame duck franchise. Hi, it's the herd. I talk about Simply Safe home security a lot on my show. It is a great security system, one I use. Got exciting news. Simply Safe is now valued at $1 billion. Okay, we've known these guys for a long time. They were just five guys working together. The founder only started the company because he wanted to help his friends who were burglarized. Now it's a billion dollar company.

They protect over 2 million people. Here's what makes them great. They're comprehensive protection for your home with around the clock professional monitoring and police dispatch. So you get protection against intruders, fires, leaks, and burst pipes. The system is so easy to use. Incredibly intuitive and takes just minutes to set up with simply safe, no contracts, no hidden fees. 24-7 monitoring, only 1499 a month. That is it.

Order now, real easy. my listeners get free shipping and free returns. Visit simplysafe.com slash heard. That's simplysafe.com slash heard. Protect your home and assets today. Simplysafe.com slash heard. Good Lord, this thing changes every day. I swear to you, Joey, this story changes every day.

Report. Baker Mayfield has floored Brown's coaches. The word they used is floored people at the training camp. Again, a week ago, a week ago the coach was like, he's not ready to play. Now he's flooring people. Okay, this is coming from the owner who wants to sell tickets and they're picked for fourth place. I'm going to make a prediction on this. You and I are mostly on the same side on this story. I don't think he's going to be a bust and most of you don't think he's going to be a bust. But I'm going to predict how this story is going to work out.

The Cleveland Brown's owner, Jimmy Haslam, doesn't really respect the coaching industry. In the last 10 years, Tennessee volunteer footballs had seven coaches. He runs that program. Here's what's going to happen with Baker Mayfield. They open up with Pittsburgh and at the Saints. They're going to go on two. And Jimmy Haslam, the owner, is going to come down and say, I think we should start Baker Mayfield. We're at home.

It's the Jets. It's a Thursday night TV game. I want to buzz for the stadium. Hugh Jackson is going to push him back and get his way against the Jets. Tyrod Taylor will start and win. Then they go to Oakland and they're going to lose. And they're going to be one in three coming back home, Baltimore, L.A. Chargers. And Jimmy Haslam's going to lean on Hugh Jackson again and say,

I want Baker Mayfield. And this time Hugh Jackson will be a coach coming off at 0-16 season, who is one in three and he'll cave. And Baker Mayfield will start. home game Baltimore. That is my prediction. Archive it, John, put it on tape. That's what will happen.

Is that when you watch all these stories about Baker, he's not ready. He's flooring people. Not quite ready. Amazing. That's coming from upstairs. Eric Mangini talked about this on our show earlier this week. Jerry Jones is an owner that puts his name on every quote. Most owners don't.

They have directives to coaches. Coaches make moves they don't want to make. and then if it screws up, the owner's like, fired. And the coach is like, you told me to do that. Jerry Jones puts his name on it. Jimmy Haslam doesn't. Mark my words. They'll be 0 and 2.

Hugh will be pressure to start Baker, and Hugh will win. He'll push him off. He'll go, give, we can win this game. They will, but they'll lose at Oakland, one and three coming home, two home games. Steelers are probably 4-0. Baltimore's looking pretty good. It's a division game. you're already a game back of Baltimore.

Few no-shows already. Mark my words. That's what's going to happen. By the way, Baker Mayfield's got a documentary. Part two of it is Sunday. It is incredibly compelling. I want to show you a clip. I tried to show you yesterday.

Do we have that, John? This is Baker Mayfield. Before he came on this show, I'd been very critical of him, and he had the guts to come on this show and confront me, which I totally appreciated. Here's a little minute of this. behind the scenes of this I saw for the first time two days ago.

It's Sunday as episode two here on Fox at three. Roll the tape. I could see my best friend today. I went on Colin Coward show just to be myself. There's been a lot of skepticism about who I am as a person, and I wanted to address a lot of those issues that he keeps bringing it up over and over again. Got the hoodie? Undraftable.

Quoted by Colin Coward. I'm going to leave this on his chair. Oh, it's dirty. Ah, whatever. He doesn't need clean one. I knew he was a Sam Darnold. guy. Let's bring him on. Baker Mayfield. Look at this. He's got a support group. Oh, I got something for you. Quarterly by you, right? Unraftable. That is great. I have a general rule. Don't like my

quarterback showing up on police video. Don't love this. There's a lot of regret to it, but at the same time, that was a rude awakening, just very eye-opening for me. By the way, that's the best answer you've given me in 10 minutes. That's what grown-up say. That makes me like you more. I went on there to prove my point of, you said I was undraftable. Well, I went number one. I'm proud of who I am. I got what I wanted out of it. That was a clip from now part two all the way up,

airs three Eastern on Fox this Sunday. A lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. I did think Baker hit a home run here. We confronted him on stuff. He acted like a grown-up. I didn't like that he had two music people with him, Joy. Have you worn the hoodie yet? Yeah, no, no, I've got it.

Listen, I'm not rooting against him. I don't root for people to fail. I'm critical of Cam Newton. I want to see Cam Newton be great because football is better when quarterback play is great. It's a very common misconception that if you're critical of someone, you are hating on them. Why would I want to see Baker whiff? Oh, because you'll be right. No, no, no, I've never said he's a bust.

I said he's going to be Case Keenom. Yeah, I care far less about being right than I care about having entertaining football to watch. Listen, I want Baker to play forever because he's going to be interesting. Right. And if he becomes great, people are going to go, coward, will be relevant. We are in the content business. Yes, we want to be interesting. We want to be interesting.

Yeah, Lamar Jackson's interesting. I don't want to see Lamar Jackson out of the league in a year. I don't. As long as a quarterback can play, if he can't play like Tebow and you're stringing it along, I get bored with that. Lamar can play. Baker can play. I don't think they're going to be as good as people suspect, but they can play.

They're NFL quarterbacks. All three hours of the herd are always streaming on the Heard channel on the IHeart Radio app. Bruce Feldman is joining me on this incredibly. serious situation. What is the most damning thing to you facing Urban Meyer right now? You know, Colin, when they express that expression, it's not the crime, it's the cover-up. In this case, the crime, the allegations, and everything is really ugly. I mean, domestic violence is obviously a serious topic. But then you go back to that other piece of it, the cover-up. Last week was Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. Urban Meyer and Ohio State had fired Zach Smith the

day before he was going to go to the podium on Monday. And when he said, this, I think this is the hardest thing right now coming out of this that he's going to have to address. 2009, Zach, was an intern, a very young couple. As I do any time that I imagine most coaches are people in leadership positions. You receive a phone call for us. You do is tell your boss, let the experts do their jobs. We're certainly not going to investigate.

It came back to me that what was reported wasn't actually what happened. And so Shelley and I actually both got involved because of a relationship with that family. and advised for counseling and wanted to help as we move forward. 2015, I got a text late last night that something happened in 2015, and there was nothing unless, once again, there's nothing. Once again, I don't know who creates a story like that. And then this recent one was, you know, you press pause. It's something our team lives by, E plus R equals O.

You get an event. You press pause, get your mind right and step up. Press pause to gather information. get your mind right to gather energy and then step up to do the right thing. That's the position that I hold. And that's why we did that. Now, Brett Murphy has unveiled text messages that Urban's wife knew back in 2015. Urban saying I found out about it recently.

What do we know of Zach Smith outside of this story, the coach who's been fired by Ohio State, who also had the incident in 2009. What do we know about him? Well, you talk to a lot of people who have been around the program. they do not paint a very good picture of him character-wise. And some of that had been baggage that I guess that staff had kind of worked around for a while. Now, does that mean because he was a shaky character guy that he was going to be, you know, a guy who had had allegations of domestic violence?

I mean, that's, you know, a separate thing. But I think what you look at here is at Florida, when Urban Meyer got in trouble, it was always giving shaky character guys second and third chances. No question. Those were his players. In this case, it was one of his assistants, and it's also the grandson of the late Earl Bruce, who was one of Urban Meyer's mentors.

And I think showing that clip from last week, which I think is really troubling for Urban Meyer is, with those allegations, and with that story, he looked like he was just not prepared to handle it. And what he does sometimes is, he speaks in absolutes. Everything is a black and white where this could have been a gray area to some degree. And how when he said there is nothing there, you know, in his mind, maybe he's

thinking, well, this was investigated a couple times. There was no charges. But the reality is you can't say there was nothing there when some of this other stuff comes out, especially the documentation, as you mentioned, Brett McMurphy had reported on it. Yeah, his wife, Shelley Meyer Urban's wife. the wife of the director of the football operations there was text from her so you know it's it does not look good for urban mire and ohio state especially in the wake of last week saying you know i just found out about it last night yeah football operations wife his wife listen i'm married you're married uh if stuff like this would happen with the company i ran and i was the highest paid state employee my wife would bring it up to me um what does ohio state do next what happens next in this that's a great question here so we don't know

what Ohio State knew what and when also on this piece of it. And so, you know, will they have some kind of independent investigation to find out what they knew and when? I mean, we saw that with the Baylor scandal, with Pepper Hamilton coming in. We've seen it at other places. As we said, domestic violence is a serious, serious issue. And it is a hot topic issue because of men in power misusing and abusing that power being uncovered in a regular basis. And I've said this earlier. If Urban Meyer was a lousy coach, you know, a lousy coach, I think he'd be fired.

If he was a coach in the hot seat, you'd move him out. This is, we've got a domestic violence narrative right now, men in power, abusing the power. And this falls in this time frame where we're more punitive. We take it more seriously. We are harsher on the men in power who say they didn't know but knew. I mean, it's his job in peril. I mean, Art Bryles didn't last. Rick Bettino didn't last.

We've seen deniers. Well, you know, who also didn't last was Jim Tressel. And Jim Tressel got caught lying to the NCA. That involved, you know, tattoos, extra benefits stuff that I think we sit back and go, that's nowhere near as serious as the issue of domestic violence. But one is lying to the NCA. The other one in this category feels like it more falls into the category, were you being truthful with the media?

That's not the same thing. in a lot of administrators' eyes and certainly the NCAA's eyes. Good point. How was Ohio State going to handle this? I mean, as you mentioned, you have a really, really volatile issue, and I'm not sure what the next step is for Gene Smith, the AD there, or the president in terms of how do they go through the fact finding. And also what other kind of text messages, photos,

what else does the ex-wife have that may come out subsequently? Okay, so we have Urban Meyer's wife with text messages. messages. That's been uncovered. We have multiple assistance wives. Staffers. Yeah, the director of football operations. Okay. So the director of football operations, is that a woman? No, it was, it's the wife of his director of football operations from Florida as well. Okay. So, geez, gut, I don't even want to ask gut feeling. I'm not in the position to call for people's jobs. there's just a lot of things here that make me incredibly uncomfortable. And I told Joy this earlier.

I understand deception when there's a financial windfall. You know, we've seen politicians lie. We've seen CEOs lie. But I don't understand the value of deception here. We had a real victim. Urban Meyer's legacy was established. He's not, there's no reason for him to be anything other than strict and rigid on this situation. I don't get it. I'm confused by this.

Yeah, I am too, especially if something like this is out there and you know it. At some point, you see a guy who is, as I said, this is the grandson of his mentor, Earl Bruce. Does he feel like he's being loyal to him? I get that it is not easy for these guys to speak in front of a podium and talk about personal matters, especially when they are, you know, Zach Smith's never going to coach again. Now, if this stuff is true and with this level of documentation, Zach Smith probably shouldn't coach again. And I think when Urban Meyer is standing there, he's going, look, Ohio State fired him.

But beyond that, it was like, okay, how seriously did you take this? What steps were in place? Because I think now we are, as you mentioned, we're in a new place in terms of how society, and I think rightly so, addresses some of these serious issues. Five years ago in 2009, I think they shrug their shoulders at a lot of this and say, hey, we're going to keep this in house. I mean, you mentioned a lot of the stuff that Baylor got in trouble for probably went on to some degree at a lot of other places

except, you know, these are happening in real time now. And I think that's what's so damning in this case. And it's such a head scratcher, how he went to that press conference and just seemed like he was not prepared to talk about it and address it. And then he created more questions than he answered. Bruce Feldman, our college football guy, I've known. Good seeing you, man. Good seeing you. Catch the herd from noon to 3 Eastern on IHeart Radio and FS1.

We do it every day at this time. We call it 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. So tomorrow marks the start of the NFL preseason joy. The Ravens, Lamar Jackson will see him play. The Bears, Mitch Trubisky.

I'm not sure what to make of him. It was never a guy I would have. drafted over Deshawn Watson. So it marks the Hall of Fame game. So it's fun. Football's back. And I love this time of the year because I love football. So I thought to myself, there's a lot of interesting storylines.

Some I know the answer, some I don't. And I thought, what are the 10 most captivating storylines? Some will end very sadly and poorly. Some could add very heroically and greatly. Here's the top 10 storylines to me in the NFL. Number 10, Pete Carroll, Seahawks, Izzy on the hot. seat. Okay. A lot of people, myself included, think they could end up in third or fourth place. Okay. He's in the last year of his contract and he's getting older.

Cliff Averill came on my show a month ago and said, after they lost that Super Bowl, people stopped listening to Pete in the locker room. They got very political. Richard Sherman bangs on Seattle. He's now a nineer in division. Cam Chance for a great player retired. Earl Thomas is holding out. You know, they lost their star receiver, Richardson. They drafted a rookie at running back in their first round and a lot of people thought it was a reach. I don't know what's going on in Seattle. I don't feel good about the optimism. The Legion of Boom is now the Legion of Bust. It's not a great home field advantage now, and it's not a dominating defense. Now, they have Russell Wilson. I think Pete's a really good coach.

They have Doug Baldwin, a very good receiver. They have Bobby Wagner's a tremendous linebacker, and if Earl Thomas is in camp, he's great. But I think Seattle's a fascinating team. Number nine. What are the Ravens going to do with Lamar Jackson? He's going to plan the preseason. Flacco has been hot garbage for the last three years since he won the Super Bowl. Joe Flacco, his passer rating is 35th in the league below Blake Bortles. He's been bad.

And inside the organization, one of the reasons they drafted Lamar Jackson is they think Flacco can be disinterested and really apathetic in the offseason. He comes into camp out of shape and plays himself in shape. This year reportedly, he's had a great camp. Lamar Jackson, what worries me, even in college with a great offensive coach, he completed under 60% of his throws. I don't think he's ready yet, but he's going to look good in the preseason because he's going to play vanilla defenses, and most of the guys he's going to face in the second half of preseason games are not NFL players, and he is. I think this is going to be a fascinating story all year long. Number eight. Philadelphia Eagles.

Okay, nobody wins the NFC East back-to-back. Hasn't happened since like 2003-2004. Nobody wins Super Bowls back to back. That hasn't happened since the Patriots back in 2003, 2004. The NFC East the Giants are significantly better. Alec Ogletry, Deshawn-Saqaqaqaq, Nate Soulder, O'Dell Beckhamback, betterhead coach. The Cowboys have won 22 games in the last two years. Only New England and Pittsburgh have more, and they look like they're better.

This team's gotten cocky, they've gotten political, they've gotten outspoken, and Carson Wentz isn't ready to play yet. Fascinating Super Bowl. champion story. Number seven. Browns and Baker Mayfield. Listen, he's not ready to play right now. He's not. He shouldn't have been a number one pick. And Hugh Jackson wants to win games, so they bring over Tyrod Taylor, who's a savvy veteran who makes no mistakes and moves the chains. Well, Tyrod Taylor right now is better than Baker Mayfield. But that ownership group, you've got to remember in Cleveland since 1999, they've had 28 different starting quarterback, several GMs, multiple coaches. I think Baker

is a Case Keenum prototype. So I think we should lower expectations, but I think the Brown's owner thinks he's the next John Elway. And I think they're going to rush him onto the field. It's going to be fascinating. Number six. Andrew Luck, missed all the last year, beat up,

finally appears they've got their offensive line, at least guard center guard, figured out. Two of their first three picks, really good offensive linemen. They finally gave him an offensive. coach, Frank Reich, who was the coordinator over there under Doug Peterson with the Super Bowl winning Eagles. They're actually, their personnel isn't great.

They're still in the rebuilding mode. But the AFC is pretty wide open. And that division, do you trust Jacksonville? Do you trust Tennessee? We don't know a ton about Deshawn Watson. Andrew, look, we haven't seen them playing a year and a half. Fascinating. Number five.

What is the youngest coach in the NFL, Sean McVe? How's he going to handle that circus? Listen, he's a 32-year-old guy. And this locker room has more stars and divans than anybody in the NFL, and we're living in Los Angeles. Because Jared Gough doesn't make much, they can go out and get Indomacan Suh and Marcus Peters and Akim Thelib and Brandon Cooks. That's a lot of mouse to feed.

That's a lot of money. That's a lot of egos. Thank God he's got Wade Phillips on the defensive end. They also haven't signed Aaron Donald. How's that playing in the locker room? Because after Todd Gurley, he's probably the most beloved player in the locker room. They're coming off a big year. There's high expectations.

Is Jared Gough as good as he was last year? Or is he closer to what he was his first year overwhelmed? Man, this is an absolute circus. I think they're going to be good. But I think Indomac and Sue and Marcus Peters are one-year rentals. They got kind of a Rondo-Land-Stevenson feel to him. We'll see how it plays out. Number four.

Well, Jimmy Garoppolo had a passer rating of 100. Now his rating is NC-17. He's dating porn stars. I don't know what's going on. We've got Jimmy Garoppolo, 7 and 0 as a starter, 2 and 0 in New England, 5 in San Francisco. Now he's a public figure. They went 138 million for him,

so they are all in a five-year deal. This is a proud franchise that's had Joe Montana, Super Bowl, Steve Young, Super Bowls, Kaepernick controversy, Harbaugh. The Niners have historically been very, very interesting. and there's, you know, Eric Mangini said it earlier. Is he Brady or is he Tony Romo, a guy that's talented but makes the big mistakes in the clutch. I can't wait to watch.

Number three. Raiders right across the bridge, right across the pond. What are they? John Gruden is a successful guy. When he went to the Raiders, he was with the Raiders for, what is it, four years. And they made the playoffs in two of them. He turned Rich Gannon a good quarterback into the league MVP. And they got fired and they went to Tamman won a Super Bowl.

And then he went to television and he was a rock star. He's a very smart, successful guy. But man, he's been out of the sport for 10 years. 10 years. That's a generation of young players. And now he's not talking to Khalil Mack. The division's got Philip Rivers in it. But he's got Derek Karn.

And he reads really good. And John Elway's impatient in Denver. And this is the most combustible division in football and grooms at the top of it. And I frankly can't wait to watch. Watch. Number two. Dallas Cowboys cut, got rid of Des Bryant. I think it helps the team.

Half the people think it hurts the team. Can I just say this about Dak Prescott? 22 wins in two years in a tough division in the better NFC. That's the best in the NFC. Only New England and Pittsburgh has more wins in two years, 22. Nobody in the NFC does. So, Dak can play. Whether you want to admit it or not, the kid can play.

The kid is smart. The kid's mature. The kid is durable. The kid's pretty mobile. The kid's pretty accurate. But now, now it's year three. Desgon, Witten gone. Roble criticizing him on television.

They had a lot of pressure on back. Ezekiel Elliott's back. That clouds lifted. I think the Cowboys are the second most captivating team in the NFL in number one. Number one. The Great Dynasty is it about to crumble. We've got a power struggle. Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, Alex Guerrero, Tom Brady.

Brandon Cooks his deep threat. Gone. Rams. Danny Amandola, great slot. Gone. Dolphins. No backup for Tom Brady. You got Julian Edelman's out the first month.

Gronk only averages last five years, 10, 10 and a half games a season. This is the weakest roster they've ever had. We've got a Belichick Brady crafting that you can deny all the reports you want, but it's not great. It's certainly not as good as it was five years ago. Is the dynasty, like the Spurs and the NBA, is it about with the old veteran head coach about to crumble? 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 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends.

Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me. with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this guy, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Look, quarterback on office blue 42. Dude. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker.

Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, 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 hiring. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow.

Then after that game seven, Marquis come in 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.