The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 08/03/2018

Episode Date: August 3, 2018

Colin says Lamar Jackson isn't ready to play in the NFL yet but will get his shot soon because he's an exciting player the fans want. He thinks the Cowboys are headed for a divorce with Ezekiel Elliot in a couple years. Plus, former Browns and Jets head coach Eric Mangini talks about some of the NFL rule changes and why the league has one right and one very wrong. 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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Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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.

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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, Mark keep coming 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.

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This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. This is the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1, the herd sponsored by Firestone. Complete auto care, keeping your car running newer and longer. Joy Taylor's joining me on a Friday. All fired up. We are officially in football. season. I can talk football now for six months every single day. And I love it, Joy. And I know your

brother playing the NFL. You know your football college of pro. There's a great time for us right now. It is. Good morning. Jason's actually, he's in Canton right now for a Hall of Fame weekend. I'll be joining Shannon. That'll be great. So let me start with this. I've been saying it's about Lamar Jackson. I rushed home to watch him. Just like I used to rush home to watch Tim Tebow. And I've said, Lamar Jackson's a more talented version of Tim Tebow. And all I get to pushback. All I get is pushback. And I say, no, no, no, you watch what's going to happen. Baltimore and Denver were proud franchises with Super Bowls and getting very frustrated with their head coach on the hot seat. Both guys were overdrafted. Both guys are projects, not prospect. Tim Tebow

was a project. He was never a prospect. Lamar Jackson's a project. He's not Sam Darnold. He's not Josh Rosen. You watched them last night. He's not even close. He's not even close. He's not even close. First of all, first two times he gets the ball, he scrambles. Third one hands off, three and out. Next time he gets the ball, second drive, scrambles. Took him until a sixth play until he threw a pass. By the way, it was 0 for three to the left side, three for three to the right side. So right now he's way more comfortable throwing to one side of the field and running to the other side of the field. That was way more bad than good. He's not close to RG3 at this point. He's not. Forget Flacco. RG3 is not as good as Flacco. Lamar's not even close to RG3, and it won't

matter. It never mattered with Tebow. People forget how bad Tebow was. Tebow was terrible. He was on fourth string in Denver. They still put him in first year. Why? Because he was fun. He was new. It's a proud fan base. The coach was on the hot seat that tried something new. They went into a losing streak and let's put Tebow out there and Tebow was terrible. By the way, Tebow was terrible a second year. But it didn't matter because you were crazy in love with a guy. Fan is short for football. It's like Donald Trump. If you like Donald Trump, his approval rating right now. It's like 50%.

I mean, it's a lie a day. It doesn't matter. People like him. If you love somebody, your kids, your president, your backup quarterback, you don't care about data. You don't care about it. When Tim Tebow was tearing up the world, he liked Lamar was a first round pick.

I was like, he's not ready to play quarterback in the NFL. Saturday Night Live did a skit. Funniest thing Saturday Night Live's ever done that's related to sports. And it was the most honest and accurate thing ever done in the history of Saturday Night Live in sports. Do you remember this? Here's the thing, okay? If we're going to keep doing this, you guys got to meet me halfway out there. I mean, let's face it, it's not a good week.

If every week I, the son of God, have to come in, drop everything and bail out the Denver Broncos in the fourth quarter, okay? I'm a busy guy. So, wait, wait, you're only helping in the fourth quarter? Yeah, yeah. Have you watched the game film, Tim, of the first half? I mean, come on, three for 16. You know, I can throw better, and I'm 2010 years old, huh? Oh, God, Tebow was awful.

And it didn't matter. Matt Prater, the kicker, and the defense was winning games. It didn't matter. You didn't like the coach. You didn't like the starter. You wanted something new, flashy, and fun. Listen, Lamar Jackson, with the best offensive coach, arguably in college football, as a three-year starter,

completed less than 60% of his throws last year. That is a three-year starter with Bob. Batrino in five of his games last year as a three-year starter with Bobby Petrino, an NFL coach coaching in college. In five of his games, he completed 15 passes or less as a three-year starter in college with Bobby Petrino, not even in the best conference in the country, six times he rushed for as many or more touchdowns than he passed for in a game. Lamar Jackson's not ready to play in the NFL as the starting quarterback.

he's not as good as RG3. He's not close. He looked nervous. The best moments were when he ran just like college. He's a project. He's not a prospect. He was overdrafted. He was a second or a third round guy that he'd give a year and a half to two years of development. And then I think he can, you know, become something. And everybody's going, Colin, that's not fair. It's totally fair. Folks, think about how Big Tebow got without Twitter, without Instagram. I checked on Twitter last night. Lamar was pretty awful. And all I heard was, we got a new starting quarterback in the NFL.

Welcome to 2018. He's not even close to RG3. Nobody was tweeting about RG3 last night. In fact, I call RG3 RJ7. He's on like his seventh version of RG3. Look at Baltimore's schedule. Now, September, they're going to win some football games, but you get into that October and,

November and I see the Saints and Carolina and Pittsburgh and oh at Tennessee. November. Here comes Lamar. And by the way, what's funny about this, stats didn't matter with Tebow. They didn't matter. He'd be six for 17. Back then there was email. I'd have 5,000 emails.

He is the next Tom Brady. People were comparing him to like Brady and I'm like, He's six for 17. Denver with Tebow and Lamar Jackson with Baltimore have a lot in common. You got a coach in a hot seat. You got huge rivals in your division pulling away at the time from the Broncos, pulling away now from Baltimore. A popular college quarterback gets overdrafted.

I mean, Tim Tebow was really overdrafted. Lamar Jackson was slightly overdrafted. You have a fan base getting restless. And here you have a young quarterback who runs right now better than he throws. and he's new, flashy and fun, and he's hope. He is hope. And now add Twitter and stir. Lamar Ball is what we may be calling him by November.

Things now just don't make sense. Stats don't matter. Data doesn't matter. We like who we like. And now it's just amplified adding social media to it. the tsunamis in the avalanches, just pray that you never end up at the bottom of the mountain with an avalanche or a tsunami on Twitter. Of course, Lamar's not close.

I've never thought he was close. That's why I keep calling him a project. I never call him a prospect. Sam Donald's a prospect. Okay, Baker Mayfield's a prospect. They'll play this year and they'll be able to move the chains. They'll be able to go. No, no.

This is a project. This kid should not play for a year and a half. Maybe next year, end of the year, put him in, have some fun. But man, last night, as predicted, on Twitter, I'm already seeing, yeah, man. I'm like, are you watching this game? Are you, I mean, Joy, let me just ask you, did he look like he was ready to start in the NFL? No, he looked very raw. Raw is what sushi is.

You know what I didn't like in the, I think it was in the third quarter where he went for that run that everyone's flipping out about? it really looked like RG3. Like I'm like, slide, slide. Yeah, oh, he got popped. Lamar got popped his first time he went for a run. I don't want to see another RG3 situation. But unfortunately, that's who's mentoring him there.

All right. Okay, this weekend, they're calling it the most talented Hall of Fame class ever. Randy Moss, Brian Erlacker, Terrell Owens, and Ray Lewis, Just four of them. They're saying it's the greatest Hall of Fame class ever. Of course, T.O. is not going to show up.

Never forget this about movies. A good, solid movie can be ruined by a bad ending. And, by the way, a good solid movie can be called excellent with a great ending. Usual suspects. This is a good movie. Great ending. People now say, great movie. Not really.

Great ending. T.O. and Randy Moss had a ton in common. They really did. They both played about 218 games. They both played for five teams. They're receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, teams, almost identical. They both came with some baggage.

They were both from the rural south. They both went to smaller colleges than you think their talent would land them in. But Randy Moss this weekend and today, you watched them last night feel so much bigger than T.O. Because the lasting image of Randy Moss will be this weekend in Canton, Ohio, humbled, emotional, perhaps crying, thanking people. And T.O. will look small and petty and immature somewhere in Chattanooga. I'm sure it will be a charming festivity, but pouting and petty.

America forgives often, but to be forgiving, you have to be willing to have some humility. Randy Moss has all sorts of baggage. T.O. has all sorts of baggage. They were both remarkable talents, same part of the country, same stats mostly across the board. But Randy Moss this weekend is joining another team. We'll cry as he does and will let us. celebrate with him. T.O. will be holding out. Yep. A good movie can be ruined by a bad ending. And as Randy Moss steps to the podium and speaks this weekend and his son speaks for him,

he will look bigger than ever and will forget the times he drove us absolutely crazy. And we'll think about T.O. and his pettiness. And he will never look smaller when compared. to Randy Moss. 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. All right, I saw this story, and a lot of people are going to think it's nothing,

but it's something. The Cowboys, Ezekiel Elliott, facing a million-dollar lawsuit over a January 2017 car crash. Okay, Ezekiel Elliott at the time, said, no big deal. I've been in bigger collisions, but Ezekiel Elias now has a list.

And that's the key word here. He now has a list. Initially, he called out coaches at Ohio State. Then there was the Mardi Gras situation, the inappropriate situation, Mardi Gras with a woman. But now it's not just one in college and one in the NFL. That would be fine five or six years in. Kids are young.

I understand that. But now we've got the incident at Mardi Gras. We've got an allegation of assault at a nightclub. He got into a five. the assault against the woman allegation, a car crash lawsuit, pulled over for going 100 miles an hour. Folks were two years in. We haven't started year three yet. He's now List Guy.

By the way, Johnny Mansell was Incident Guy, then he became List Guy. He now plays in Montreal. James Winston was Incident Guy and became List guy. Where is James Winston? Suspended. I've been tough on James Winston. I've been tough on Johnny Mansell because they were incident. You can have an incident or two.

But when you become list guy, you're in trouble. Rick Patino had an incident or two. Rick Patino then became list guy. Oh, Kentucky basketball scandal. Oh, a fair with his trainer's wife on the staff. Oh, a brothel on campus. Then he's a list guy. Coaches that end up list guys end up out of jobs.

Hopefully Urban Meyer isn't becoming a list guy. Okay, once you become a list guy, you've got an expiration date. OBJ is now becoming a list guy. You will not have a relationship with Ezekiel Elliott in Dallas in 10 years. You won't have it in five or six years. Des Bryant became a list guy, incident in college, couple in the NFL, and another outburst. How's Des Bryant doing? How's James Winston doing?

How's Johnny Mansell doing? how's Rick Petino doing? By the way, how's Urban Meyer doing? It doesn't seem like a big deal. It's just a million dollar lawsuit. No, no, no, no, no. Two years in, I count five, maybe six incidents. Once you compile incidents, one after the other, you become list guy.

Ohio State coaches calls them out. Domestic violence, allegations, Florida and Ohio, throwing a punt. punch of the nightclub, removing a woman's top at a St. Patrick's Day party. Now a lawsuit. And it ain't going to end well. Never does. List guy never ends well. You don't think it's a big deal. We're two years in. We are two years in. Haven't even started year three yet. And we got another story. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. So it's time to say, nice job NFL. and oh here we go again NFL in the same segment so let's start with the nice job NFL so the last kind of like 10 12 years we didn't know what a catch was we didn't know what in the world a catch was and very early in last night's game we had a situation that we've been living in the last 10 to 12 to 15 years and here's what happened and here's the call you're really looking does he has he has

control before the ball hits the ground. That's the whole point of this play, and it looks like you can make an argument either way. Can you say he definitively does not have control, is the question? And in that case, you got to go stand. And what about hitting the ground? Boy hunting the ground. If he has control first, he kept control after he hit the ground, he's good. Whatever the official ruled on the field, if it's not absolutely clear and obvious that he made a mistake, go with the ruling on the field, put the ball in play, and move on. Well, remember, the ruling on the field is a catch. After reviewing the play, the ruling on the field stands.

There we go. First down. Slow clap, NFL. Congratulations. That's a catch. Secure the ball. Knee down. I don't care about the ground.

That's a catch. For the last 12 years, this is what the NFL did. Now, my staff hates when I do this. But for the last 12 years, here's my phone. I've got possession of my phone. I've got possession. If my phone hit this table, take a solo shot on me, the NFL said that, Collins lost possession. Well, I didn't lose possession.

The phone's right here. If it hit the table, hit the field, I lost possession. No, this is losing possession. Okay. So the NFL for last night, the NFL said, Collins got his phone. Oh, it hit the grip. Well, Colin still got his phone. Even if it moves in my hand a little bit, I'm not losing possession, right?

I know everybody hates this. But if I have my phone and it hits this and I still have, even if it jiggles a little bit, I've got possession of my phone. The NFL for 12 years, that was Terry McCauley, former NFL ref. They finally figured out. Now, remember, they cleaned this up in the Super Bowl last year. There were two huge plays in last year's Super Bowl. And this is when the NFL really got it right.

They cleaned it up in the Super Bowl. Here's the first one, where the ball is juggled, but it is called. and it should be a super it's called a catch because even though the ball wiggles he has possession he's got the bot to catch foot down foot down now the ball placement moves he never loses possession that's the right call they did it earlier or later i forget if it was before after zach ertz here's the one over the middle this is also the right call touchdown he has the ball he has feet down, he is established, that's a touchdown. It should be.

I don't care that the ball hits the ground. I don't want different rules at the goal line than at the 24-yard line. So they started cleaning it up last year. And, I mean, America does this occasionally, Joy. America does this. They lose their minds and they try to convince us of something that's good is bad. We did it with prohibition. You could drink in America.

You could go to a local bar and have a gin. and then America said, whoa, prohibition. You can't drink alcohol. And we had people making bourbon in their bathtub. And then people finally went in America. Wait a minute. What's wrong with people going out and having a shot of whiskey at a bar? That's what prohibition was.

Obviously, it's okay to go down to a local watering hole, a pub, and have a beer with a friend. It's good, social lubrication. It's wonderful. Every neighborhood should have a nice pub. But for a while, America said, can't have pubs. Beer is bad. And people started making jubrication. gin in their bathtubs.

And then America figured it out and went, what are we doing? This is crazy. This is nonsense. That's what the NFL did. Here's a catch. No wait. No wait.

It hit the ground. You wiggle. Last night, they hopefully figured it out. Okay, now, okay, here's the bad news. Joy, there's never a day with just good news. Here's the new confusing rule. So we got the catch rule apparently figured out.

The new rule. that is going to be controversial. It is called the helmet rule, and let me read it to you. NFL owners in May approve the new rule, the helmet rule, which states it is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent. It applies to all players all the time in the field. It wants to be the leader of the NFL in bucking the trend on some of the violent stuff of football, okay?

So we saw this last night. We got some tape on this, I believe. Oh, boy, here's our new catch rule headache. It's called the helmet rule. You almost have to be a contortionist to avoid this. Yeah, but I think if you look at the verbi drill, I don't see this player lowering his head to initiate contact with an opponent. It looks like he's trying to drive his shoulder.

He's got his head out in front. It's up a little bit. I think this is just not a foul. What they've been told to do is just throw. In the preseason, just throw. They're going to take a library of plays and try and hopefully by the time we get to Philadelphia, week one, they'll have a really good understanding of what they want as a foul and what it is. Okay, this is the NFL's latest mess.

This is going to be for the next 10 years until they clean it up a real mess. Players are confused. Refs are confused. Terry McCauley is saying a former NFL ref. They're just kind of kind of figure it out during the preseason, get a library, a catalog of hits, sit down for a week or two and go, okay, that was a bad call, that's a good call, that's a bad call. You know what this reminds me of? and this is the reality of what we're seeing here.

When any time you're changing something and we are watching it live, you see the warts. Right now in the NFL with a helmet rule, you as a consumer of fan are seeing how the sausage is made. It's ugly. This is what we've had post 9-11 with airport security. You've watched them live as you stand in line into the airport, change the rules. Shoes on, shoes off. TSA, now they have something called clear. If I take my son, I don't even go through security.

I go to this little door on the left with a plastic shield. Can I have shampoo? Yeah, if it's this big. What if it's that big? Not sure if it's that big. Can't have water. I know that for sure. Unless it's in a small tube.

What about my belt? Well, you've got clear. You can get through. TSA, absolutely fine. How old is my son? 12? He goes here. My son's 14.

He goes there. I ever stood in line in an airport and thought, like NFL refs, TSA people? Is this a full-time job? This should be a full-time job. I'm confused. I'm at an airport. But that's what's happening with airport security.

You're watching it live. That's why lines are so long. That's why there's confusion. That's why there's frustration. You're watching them correct it with new data, new fears, new threats, new technology. You're watching it live. And you're seeing the warts. And the helmet rule is similarly, you're seeing how the sausages make.

They don't even know. Players confused. Rebs are confused. The announcers, Al Michaels, and Chris Collinsworth are confused. I think they'll figure it out. What's up, everybody? This is John Middle Cop from the Three and Out podcast, brought to you by Colin Coward's Podcast Network. If you like Colin Show, you'll like mine.

Former NFL Scout, I talk a lot of football. This week, I talk about NFL viral videos. I talk about is Jimmy Garoppolo overrated? And touch on why I think Sam Darnold has some special qualities. Again, subscribe. You can listen wherever you get your podcast, three and out with John Middukoff on the Colin Coward Podcast Network. This is a story. I love this story.

The story I'm going to talk to you about is about not being a rat. It's about not being a snitch. And everybody these days is a rat. I work in the media. Everybody's covering their butt 24-7. They're leaking stuff to this media guy. They're leaking stuff to that media guy. They're gossip into that media.

you guy. I work around nothing but rats. But I'll tell you who's not a rat. Tom Brady. According to a new book, the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell offered Tom Brady a million dollar fine. Tom, pay a million dollar fine. All you got to do is come out and throw Johnny and Jimmy under the bus and you can play. Here's the excerpt regarding to Flategate in a new book called 12 the inside story of Tom Brady's fight for redemption. Goodale demanded Brady state publicly that former Patriot equipment guys John Jostremski and Jim McNally had purposely tampered with footballs even without his knowledge.

Brady refused to. He said, hey, I'm not going to ruin these guys for something. They, I believe they didn't do. This is not a small thing. We live in a time now. These would have been the easiest guys to throw under a bus. There are a couple of guys might as well be working in back at Costco. Johnny and Jimmy did it.

Those guys did. I didn't do anything. Johnny and Jimmy did it. And Brady wouldn't do it. By the way, Lance Armstrong blamed everybody. Roger Clemens pointed fingers at his trainer. Rick Matino, it's my low-level assistant coach. Ryan Braun and baseball, it's the testers problem.

That is the current climate in America. Blame somebody else. You're a victim. I can't believe it. I've been cornered. This is outrageous. I'm a victim, Lance Armstrong, Roger Clemens, Ryan, Bron, Rick Patino. I don't know, says this football coach. I didn't see it, says this basketball coach. It is the easiest thing to do. That is the current culture in America. Be a rat. Be a snitch. That is what everybody does now. And Tom Brady wouldn't do it. And by the way,

Deflate Gates going to ding his legacy. It is. They're going to mention it when he retires. Deflate Gate. is going to give more people when SpyGate is combined with deflategate, those guys are cheaters. And Tom Brady, I mean, come on, every NFL coach, bad record, who's Pete Carroll blamed this week? Ah, get rid of this coordinator. Get rid of that coordinator. I got to get a new coordinator because it's not my fault.

It's the coordinator. Tom Brady didn't. Tom Brady's worth $300 million. He could have written a fine, blamed a couple of Johnny's and Jimmy's, and he wouldn't do it. That's why Tom Brady. is a great America. He's just a real one. If you want to make America great again,

there's your next president. Even Belichick said as the quarterback. Yeah, even Belichick's like, not me. Robert Kraft, not me! It's Tommy. Tommy's like, Tommy could have, by the way, Tommy could have thrown those guys under a bus,

and he didn't. I mean, it is Boston. You know what? You know what happens in Boston? and everybody's squealing to the cops. Departed? You remember the movie? Everybody's connected to the cops.

You know the greatest line in movie history? I'll butcher it. I can't say it because there's a swear word. I can't. It's the Alec Baldwin. Remember the Alec Baldwin line about how he treats cops? He goes, it was Mark Wahlberg. He said, I feed him blank and keep him in the dark.

They're like mushrooms. Cops are like mushrooms. I feed them blank and keep them in the dark or something like that. Okay, I'm all worked up. God, he is a great American. He really is a great American. It's really remarkable when you look at how long. I mean, we forget because I think everyone was so excited to finally move on from that story,

but how long that story dragged out. Oh, God, two years! And all the opportunities that Tom Brady had to just clip it. Barry guys. He wanted to keep his reputation intact. And all he had to do was blame it on these two equipment guys. Wouldn't do it. wouldn't do it.

I mean, we got a lot of politicians in America today are firing left and right. Somebody else's fault. I'm a victim. Not Brady. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app.

Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. We have Eric Mangini back, two-time coach, head coach, Browns, Jets. And I'll get to the Randy Moss thing because you know Randy Moss well going to the Hall of Fame. I want to start with Lamar Jack. And now, now, listen, let me state my case. He's better than Tibo, who I never thought was a draftable quarterback.

And by the way, that was an unpopular opinion years ago when I was at ESPN. I'm like, this is not an NFL quarterback. I didn't care that he won. I said the same thing with Johnny Mansell. He's not draftable. Okay. So Lamar's draftable. I don't think he's ready to play.

Last night you watch him. And, you know, obviously very frenetic. He was playing a little hot. I get that. appears to be better on the right side than the left side, a little more comfortable, runs too much for my taste. He's not a huge athlete like Cam or Ben that can take the hits,

and he does get hit on like Russell Wilson. A lot of people are saying, I think he's going to generate a lot of excitement. But you could watch that game last night and go, oh, Lord, he's not even close to RG3. What did you see with his interception, for instance? Well, before we go there, the first thing is he's a rookie quarterback in the first preseason game,

and it's hard. It's hard being a rookie in the NFL. it's really hard being a quarterback in the NFL. This is the second half of the first preseason game. There's no game planning involved whatsoever. And RG3 should be way ahead of where this guy is. All I was looking for last night was how was he operationally? Were there false start penalties?

Did he fumble the snap? Did he control things that way? And I thought that was fine. In terms of his overall performance, so much is made about the interception and the throw that he made. But there's a lot of good stuff. that happened on that play as well. I can show you right here.

Let me see it. Let's take a look at this. Because it's not the end of the world like most people think. So on the interception, what they were doing is they had a fade route on the outside. They were taking the fullback. He was going to go down in the middle. And then they had a little hook route down here to the left. And he goes through his reed progression.

He's looking to see where the corner is. The corner's on top, don't throw the fade. He doesn't throw it. If there's a safety in the middle field, don't throw the fullback. He doesn't throw it. So now he knows his read is down here to the left-hand side. The throw's not great, but the wide receiver could help him a lot too. There's plenty of separation between the corner and the wide receiver right here.

The receiver should push up two more yards, but he starts to throttle down early, so the corner throttles down. Now he's supposed to break it downhill, but instead he breaks it flat. He breaks it flat, which again allows the defensive back to come up and intercept the ball. So the receiver could definitely help him. Now, all that being said, if he throws it anywhere on the outside, part of the receiver's body. It's not an interception. But in terms of the read progression, that was good. In terms of the help that he should be getting from wide receivers, especially if he's playing with the first group, that's going to be better. But to sit here

and look at that one interception and say, okay, this is the end of the world. It's not at all. It's not at all. How much value do you even put as a coach into preseason games? We would use preseason games like practice. And it would ramp up to the third preseason game. But depending on where we were in the install, that's what we do. So defensively, if we were in the heavy zone install, then we'd play a whole game in zone. If we were in the heavy blitz install, we made blitz the whole game. It had nothing to do with who the opponent was.

It was what we wanted to work on. It was the things we wanted to achieve. Sometimes you throw shots because you're not going to throw shots during the season, and you want to establish tendencies that are false tendencies. You mix and match personnel. Now, when you get to the third preseason game, there's an element of install. It's much more of a true pattern.

And you're teaching guys how we're going to conduct business during the season. But this is one of five for these teams. Yeah, this team plays five. Five. So when you're dealing with five prison games, you don't want to get people hurt either. You've got an extra opportunity to get guys hurt. So I think is this start perfect for Lamar? No, but it's not going to be perfect for any of these rookies.

Let's talk about two things that happened last night. First of all, for the last 15 years, the NFL said that if the ball hit the ground, you lost possession. Now, my argument, I always use my phone argument. Here's my phone. Even when it hits the desk, I've got possession of my phone. The NFL, when I grew up as a kid, that was the case. Then for the last 12, 15 years, they said, no, Colin lost possession of his phone, even though I have my phone. Last night, I think the NFL's going back to the more common sense rule, play the tape.

You're really looking, does he have control before the ball hits the ground? That's the whole point of this play. And it looks like you can make an argument either way. Can you say he definitively does not have control is the question? And in that case, you've got to go stand. And what about hitting the ground, ball hitting the ground? If he has control first, he kept control after he hit the ground, he's good. Whatever the official ruled on the field, if it's not absolutely clear and obvious that he made a mistake,

go with the ruling on the field. put the ball in play and move on. Well, remember, the ruling on the field is a catch. After reviewing the play, the ruling on the field stands. There we go. First down. Okay, I like the call, did you? Yeah, I like the call.

With all these rule changes, they're in the spirit of trying to get to the right answer. But there's going to be a bunch of stuff that comes up this year with a new rule where guys are going to look, people are going to look back at moments and say, well, that shouldn't have been a catch. That obviously shouldn't have been a catch. And then we're going to start debating, is this the right? answer. To me, as long as there's consistency from staff to staff on how they call it, the group of officials to group of officials, then you can coach off that. Then you can teach off that. When it becomes one set of officials calls it more aggressively, one set of officials

calls it less aggressively, and you go into a game and games are decided by an element of subjectivity that you can't anticipate, that's when it becomes an issue. Now, I think they're going to solve this. Here's the new helmet rule. Let's roll the tape, Sam, on this. You almost have to be a contortionist to avoid this. Yeah, but I think if you look at the verbiage rule, I don't see this player lowering his head to initiate contact with an opponent. It looks like he's trying to drive his shoulder. He's got his head out in front. It's up a little bit. I think this is just not a foul. What they've been told to do is just throw. In the preseason, just throw. They're going to take a library of plays.

And hopefully by the time we get to Philadelphia, week one, they'll have a really good understanding of what they want as a foul and what it isn't. That sounds like what you're doing as a coach. They're just, this rule, to me, is the catch rule. They're figuring it out and we're just watching them figure it out. Yeah, this is like installing a new defense. You think that it's going to work one way, but you've got to try it against a lot of different sets. You've got to see how it really works. And then you've got to go back and say, okay, this works, this doesn't work.

and they're going to over-call it during pre-season, and that's always the case. It's a little bit like a new employee where they may check the expense reports a bunch of times to make sure that, you know, they're not doing something down the line to send a message. To me, this is the same thing. They're going to call it a ton of times.

They're going to get back together and say, okay, this works, this doesn't work. Now, the issue is how it eventually plays, how it eventually plays out during the course of the season, because games are going to be won and lost based on the enforcement of this rule. And this is why Roquan Smith, the rookie linebacker for Chicago, apparently,

was working on the words. He's like, can you take guaranteed money out if I get called on that? Yeah, and look, I've won games because of rules. You know, the tuck rule is a great rule in my mind. You know, a lot of people feel the tuck rule is a poor rule, but it depends on, you know, where you stand

depends on where you sit. So I thought that was a good adjustment. Now, but other people, or there's been other times when I was a head coach the bronze, remember they used to have the, if you forced a guy out of bounds, but his feet would have been in bounds. Yes. Then it was a cat. I lost a game because of that rule in Cleveland.

So some games you're going to win because of the rules, some games you're going to lose. But the learning of how to enforce this rule is going to affect people's futures this year. By the way, Randy Moss and T.O. It's supposed to be both of them there this weekend in Canton. T.O. won't be petty. Randy will be. will celebrate. He'll be humble and grateful. It'll be amazing.

You've got a Randy Moss story, which I think is funny. Not funny to me. Okay. I've always thought Randy was better than T.O. Not only this weekend by showing up, I always thought he was better. But if you go look at their numbers, there's touchdowns, receiving yards, teams, baggage.

There's a lot of similarities. Give me your Randy Moss story. How great was he? So I learned a very hard lesson. He had gotten, Oakland moved on from the Patriots. moved on. Didn't really have much production in Oakland, didn't play during the preseason. At all.

And so you're thinking, I mean, how big a threat is this guy really at this point? And you were opening with a, you were the Jets coach. Yes, we were opening with him. So we had a little bit of defense catered towards them, but not really, not what you would normally do for a guy of his stature based on the performance that he had, the no performance in the preseason, and the limited performance in Oakland. and he comes out and hangs 180 yards on us. And it was unbearable to watch.

And it was one of those lessons that if you're dealing with a Hall of Famer, even if they've had some downtime, you better have a package in place just in case that pops back up. And we were not prepared. And he was catching balls in double coverage. You know, he was between a corner and a safety. There's a backside safety. He goes up high points that takes it away.

just, by the way, it is, again, we show the numbers. Randy and Tio are very close. I think Randy's better. And I think he's, I think Randy's more coachable. I always thought Tio was a handful.

I think Randy's actually, from what I've understood, Randy was actually very, very willing to be coached. Friends of mine in New England said he was great to work with, incredibly smart, understood not just what he had to do

offensively, but how defenses were going to play. And then he was fantastic. that way. Now, T.O. was a pretty special guy, too. I remember the Super Bowl that we played against him when he was with Philly. And he was hurt. They said there was no chance that he could play. Not only does he play, but we did account for Tio. We had double coverage on Tio, and he still caught a ton of ball. Yes. And was hard to deal with it. He had a great Super Bowl. It was one of the most impressive performances that I can remember from an athlete, especially based off of what he had to. to do to play in that game. So you were told in that Super Bowl, when you beat Philadelphia, you were told he wouldn't play. He was not

going to play. There is no chance with this injury that this guy would play. But we factored that he may be able to somehow figure it out. But during the course of the week, you're thinking there's no way this guy's going to play. Because he didn't play in the NFC championship. And then you're thinking, okay, even if he does play,

how effective could he possibly be with this injury? And he was outstanding. By the way, Tom Brady, it came out in a book. and we don't have much time. Could have snitched on the two guys that John and Jimmy in Boston? Word is that they didn't snitch on him. Okay.

I have a hard time with the book. Like, where are we getting this information from? Why are we validating that this is actually all the inside scoop? This is exactly how it went down. Like, I have a hard time believing that they were able to get inside the building and get all of this inside stuff that nobody else seems to be able to get. but somehow they figured out a way to crack that code. Sounds like fake news to me.

I refuse to use that term and validate that term. But I do have a hard time seeing that. What are the wise guys where? I get asked that from time to time. The answer is the new gear from theherdnow.com merchandise store. We are now officially open for business. We have all the apparel, diehard herd fans need to represent the show. Go to theherd now.com.

If you don't, that's a you problem. And that's a you problem is one of our shirts. Check it out. Theherdnow.com. Theherdnow.com store is open for business today. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

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You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis keep coming to him. He's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball.

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