The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 12/05/2018

Episode Date: December 5, 2018

Colin thinks Aaron Rodgers has too much power in Green Bay and now even assistant coaches get fired for wanting to hold him accountable. He thinks there’s no debate that LeBron is the most impactful player of all time. Plus, Nick Wright of FS1's "First Things First" explains why Kevin Durant is being disingenuous and tells Colin why Baker is different than almost any other QB and that’s not a bad thing. 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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IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1, Joy Taylor is joining me. on a lively Wednesday. I hate to break it to Skip. I think Skip knows this. Lakers win in a trounce tonight. They'll be 15 and 9. Joy, how are you? Good morning. I'm doing great.

We'll get to the LeBron stuff in a minute. I want to start with something. One of my favorite things about this business is when, you know, we broke a couple stories this week, but that's not my favorite thing in the business because I'm not really, you know, I'll break three or four stories a year. Whatever. I'm not a reporter.

You know, I mostly talk and stuff and give opinions. But it is fun when Joy and I talk about something. and we have kind of a belief or a theory, and then the next day it plays out. And it makes you feel pretty smart. So yesterday I spent a significant amount of time on the show saying, the problem with the Packers organization is they have no owner. And because they have no owner,

no other team in pro sports has this. They have no owner. So the star legendary quarterback, Brett Farve or Aaron Rogers, become too powerful. Nobody can hold them accountable. I mean, with Tom Brady, there's a billionaire above him. Drew Brees, there's a billionaire above him.

Eli Manning, there's a billionaire above him. Carson Wentz, there's a billionaire above him. Aaron Rogers, he's a richest guy in the state. He's a richest guy in the town. He's the most powerful guy. I think it's a problem. Nobody holds him accountable. So here's a prime example.

Yesterday, Winston Moss, he's an outside linebacker coach for the Packers. Not even the linebacker coach. We'll just give you the outside linebackers. Not a real powerful guy, right? former player. He put out a tweet, which is completely inoffensive. I mean, nobody would be offended by this.

So he went to Twitter and he put out a tweet, and the tweet says, ponder this. What championship teams have is great leadership, period. It's not the offensive guru trend. It's not the safe trend. Find somebody that's going to hold number 12 and everybody in the building to a Lombardi Stanford. Standard.

That's all he said. That's it. Hold number 12 and everybody in the building to a Lombardi Stanford. Standard. and they fired him. Two hours later, they ran him out of the building. You got to be kidding me. People are walking on eggshells.

They did it with far if they're doing it with Rongers. And here's what's amazing. Belichick has never coward to Tom Brady. Remember a couple years ago it was Brady's birthday? Somebody asked Belichick about it. And Belichick said, well, yeah, it'll be that guy's birthday tomorrow and that guy's birthday tomorrow. He wouldn't even celebrate Brady's birthday.

Belichick never cowers to Brady. Cam Newton's coach called him out a year after the MVP. Remember they said that? He's got to stay in the pocket more. You know, Cam Newton's got to be more accountable. Russell Wilson's coach Pete Carroll called him out this year. He's playing too Lucy Goosey. His teammates called him out in the ESPN magazine.

And John Gruden called out Derek Carr a month after he got the job. Star quarterbacks, star quarterbacks around this league, are constantly held to a standard, have to be accountable, called out by their coaches. not just any quarterback, Cam Newton, Derek Carr, Russell Wilson. I mean, they're called out by their coaches. I remember the former GM of the Colts once called out Andrew Luck for making too much money. And an outside linebacker coach says, we got to hold number 12 and everybody in this building to a Lombardi standard. Ring, ring, ring, hello, you're fired.

What? This reminds me of Westbrook and O'KC and Shack in Orlando. know. Sometimes you get superstars that are so big in a small town that everybody is walking around on eggshells. They call this relationship addiction when there's an uneven power balance in a relationship between a man or a woman. And the woman or the man is addicted to their relationship and will do anything to please their partner because the relationship's uneven. She doesn't, she could do way better, he could do way better, whatever. saw it with Shaq and Orlando. I see it with Westbrook and O'KC. And I see it with legendary Green Bay quarterbacks, Farr of Aaron Rogers, in Green Bay. You're going to fire an outside linebacker coach

after an innocuous tweet saying we should hold number 12 and everybody in this building do a Lombardi standard. That gets a run out? I mean, I got to tell you something. Whoever gets this job, this head coaching job in Green Bay. You better bring in a strong personality like Josh McDaniel. You know, Joe Philbin doesn't have that personality. That's not an even relationship. Philbin's just going to try to make Aaron Rogers happy. In fact, my opinion yesterday is Joe Philbin's not strong enough for the job.

He literally fired that outside linebacker coach because he didn't want to make Aaron mad. That's the problem, not the solution. Somebody needs to make Aaron Rogers mad. Somebody needs to hold number 12 accountable. Okay. Josh McDaniel screams at Brady. Belichick doesn't cower to him. Teammates and a coach call out Russell Wilson.

The coach calls out Derek Carr. I mean, come on now. This is an unhealthy relationship between iconic quarterback and an ownerless organization. And they ran off an outsource. side linebacker coach yesterday because of an innocuous tweet week. All right, tonight the Lakers are going to beat San Antonio, probably handily, and go to 15 and 9.

Outside of the Warriors, overnight, there is no number two in the West. Why not LeBron? So there's been some talk this week about LeBron doing too much. Magic Johnson will show you the quote here on TV, said this week, we're trying to make sure that we watch LeBron's minutes. We don't want to run everything through him because, you know, then it's Cleveland all over again, and we don't want that. And then Kobe Bryant talked about LeBron being too big of a part of the franchise. And Kobe Bryant came out and said, listen, they were struggling.

They got Braun the ball, decided to start playing point, doing everything. That's not the recipe for winning championships, but it's a recipe to keep your head above water. And LeBron responded to both Kobe and Magic saying, we don't want to go too heavy into LeBron because that's not going to win his titles. It may win as games. Here was LeBron. I understand what Magic and Kobe is saying because we want to continue to grow to young guys. Magic and Kobe know who I am. I know who I am.

They know what they're going to get out of me. I played a game seven in the finals and I'm damn there played every minute of it. Last year I played every single game. All right. So tonight, I just want to give people an understanding if you realize what's going on. Because Michael Jordan went six for six, the way sports fans are, you'll never give LeBron the goat. But he is the most impactful player ever. He is oxygen. Everybody else, including Michael Jordan, is calcium. We could all use more calcium.

Doctor never says less calcium. We could all use more calcium. But you can live with a little less calcium. Try living without enough oxygen. I want you to think about this. So the calves made the finals last year with LeBron. The Cavs are now 5 and 18 without LeBron. The Lakers had the worst winning percentage in the league for five straight years.

They are now on pace tonight to win their 15th game 15 to 9 and went over 50. Now I want you to think about this big picture. When you think of all-time greats and impactful the word, impactful, oxygen. Wilk Chamberlain is considered one of the most impactful players of all time.

Wilk Chamberlain. I want you to think about this. Wilk Chamberlain left the Philadelphia 76ers in 1968 and joined the Lakers. The Lakers only won three more games when they added Wilt and the Sixers won 62 with him and 55 without him. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left the Milwaukee Bucks. they were 38 and 44 with him. They were 38 and 44 and actually made the playoffs without him. Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls, 57 wins. With him, he left. 55 wins without him.

The Cavaliers made the finals. They are now the worst team in the league. The Lakers were the worst team over a five-year stretch. They're now the second best team in the West. You can certainly make that argument. There has never been a problem. player like LeBron. Do you realize that North Carolina, even in college with Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan left North Carolina, the Tar Heels. The following year, they went further in the

NCAA tournament without Michael Jordan. He's great. Michael Jordan doesn't have nearly the impact of LeBron James. LeBron James has simply left the Eastern Conference. Ratings are down 20%. He just left, he didn't leave the NBA. He just left the East, went to the West. The ratings are down for all those exciting teams. Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, big markets, right? Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, big markets, Toronto, oh my, down 20%. I mean, Kevin Durant left the thunder.

They went from a three-seed with him to still a sixth seed. Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving stars for the Celtics. Gordon Hayward got hurt in the first game. Kyrie Irving wasn't around for the playoffs. They still got to game seven of the Eastern Conference finals. The great Yannis has never won a playoff series. The great Anthony Davis has won. One.

Folks, all these great players, Will, Jabbar, KD, Michael Jordan, they're calcium. We could all use a little calcium on our diet. a little more. LeBron is oxygen. You can't breathe without him. So when the Lakers go to 15 and 9 tonight, and the Cavaliers finish with the worst record in the NBA,

remember those numbers with Wilt in the Sixers, Jabbar in the Bucks, Michael Jordan with the Bulls in North Carolina, KD with OKC, Anthony Davis, Janus. there has never, ever, ever been anyone even remotely close to LeBron in terms of impact. Baseball has a stat called War, wins above replacement.

Basketball uses it now. LeBron's one, MJ's two, and it is a huge gap between one and two. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart Radio app. Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. This is a story. This week, a couple weeks ago, we broke the story in Urban Meyer.

We told you he was leaving. We were right. We broke it. We broke the story yesterday. He's going to USC. I got good college contacts on this stuff with agents and stuff. I'm not really a story breaker. But I will tell you, there's a story I heard yesterday from two different sources.

Jim Harbaugh has put his name out for NFL teams. Now just hold off before you freak out. Chris Carter also had that this morning on first things first. Here you go. I'm just going to tell you guys a name. Watch out for Jim Harbaugh. Because Jim Harbaugh potentially is trying to get his way out of Michigan. All right?

I got good sources that are telling me not only Green Bay, but also watch out for the Cleveland Browns. He likes the quarterback situations there. And I believe that there is front office people in Green Bay who are enamored with Jim Harbaugh. and potentially trying to get him to come to Green Bay. I've heard the same thing that Harbaugh and Brian Kelly at Notre Dame have put their names out there for NFL teams. Now let me just stick to Harbaugh for a second. Here's what I think is happening.

Here's what I believe is happening. Nick Saban five years ago lost a game to rival Auburn that he should have won. And for the first time in his Alabama tenure at the time, he got pushback. Some of the boosters he was hurting here. A little pushback. Saban thought, the hell are you talking about? You guys were a train right before I got here. So Nick Saban sent his wife to Austin, Texas to look at houses. He called his agent Jimmy Sexton, get the word out, I'm looking, and it freaked Alabama people out. And Nick Saban

had the most leverage of his career. He got his house paid off. He got some investments paid off, and he got a lifetime deal. The minute they doubted Nick Saban, he went looking and freaked out the people at Bama. So Jim Harbaugh, similarly, Everybody in Michigan loves him. They really love him this year. And he loses ugly to his rival, Ohio State. And he's getting a little pushback. People in Ann Arbor, big boosters, athletic director.

And Jim Harbaugh's like, time out. You guys were a grease fire before I got here. You think you get better than me? Harbaugh puts his name out. Story leaks out. And the Michigan people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we love you. We love you. We love you.

Wouldn't be shocked if I saw an extension to Harbaugh in Michigan. I don't think he wants to leave Michigan. Although I think he worked in the NFL and he'd work again. He's a lot better than about half the coaches easily in this league. Maybe not Belichick, maybe not Sean Payton, maybe not Pete Carroll, but he's a good football coach. And his style worked in the NFL. So that's what I think is happening here.

Do I think he'd be a great fit in Green Bay? Well, he's certainly strong enough. I'd love to see it. I'm rooting for it. I think it'd be the greatest thing in the world. I would literally, I would put money in. I would pay for it if I could. I'd buy lunch for the rest of his tenure at Applebee's in Milwaukee for Jim Harbaugh.

I would die to see this happen. He and Baker Mayfield be interesting too. But I don't think it's going to happen. But I think this has a save and feel five years ago. You lose to a rival. You get a little pushback. And when these iconic coaches get pushback, they want to flex and say, oh, you think you can do better than me.

You call your agent or you call somebody to make connections. You get the word out. Then your university, your A.D. Your fans are like, okay, sorry, sorry, I'm sorry. Sorry, Nick, sorry, Jim. Let us crawl back. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Don't be shocked up here in extension for Harbaugh soon. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the I-Hard Radio app. Nobody can be honest these days in sports. Everybody's protecting their brand. Everybody's protecting their money. I mean, Aaron Rogers came out yesterday and literally said, I was as shocked about Mike McCarthy as you.

Oh, good hell. Stop. Kevin Durant's like, yes, LeBron thing's a little toxic, a bunch of fanboys in the media. That's fantastic. Let's go to New York. Nick Wright, my buddy, first things first, be the Coward Global Satellite Network. Okay, Nick, you and I, I mean, we'd be way up there on the fanboy thing. It's like he was taking a shot at us.

What did you make in the comments? This is the second. second thing Kevin Durant called me directly. He called me a blog boy on Bill Simmons podcast by name a year ago. And now I feel like he is saying this directly to

me. I know Katie watches first things first. He's texted a guest on the show mid-segment to respond to some of the things we were saying. But don't get bullied by Kevin Durant here, Colin. Don't all of a sudden say, oh, well, I have been, like, hold on.

And did you just say one of the things your respect about Kevin Durant is his authenticity? Yeah. Which fake Twitter account was he using when he was being authentic? I'm just curious. Like, I don't know. I missed that one. Kevin Durant doesn't want to be, oh, all the fanboys in the media falling the beat writers

fawning all over LeBron. Yeah, I can't imagine what that would be like if the local paper once criticized you and then printed a retraction the next day. Oh, wait, that happened to you in Oklahoma City. I can't imagine what it would be like to have such a lion's grip over the people covering you locally to where the day after you have a fallout with Draymond Green and ask you a question about it. You can look them in the eye and say, do not ask me about that again. And they then do not ask you about that again. This is, Kevin Durant was being very authentic and honest in that moment.

Unfortunately, that I have no reason to believe the authentic honest Kevin Durant that logs on to the green. Graham later tonight will feel the same way. But point taken, Katie, I get it. By the way, we introduced the LeBrow meter yesterday and the Kevin LeBrandt meter yesterday. So our Kevin LeBrant meter, we're showing it now, is very low on Durant coming to Los Angeles. You know, Magic and Kobe in the last week have talked about Nick. They've talked about the workload. And Magic and Kobe are, they're smart dudes.

They get it. And then LeBron said, you know, my workload is what it is. Game 7 in the NBA finals, every minute doesn't matter. What do you make about Kobe and Magic's comments and about LeBron's workload right now? Okay, so I think the comments are very different, actually. I think Magic is talking about minutes and how much he's actually on the court as LeBron is averaging a career low in minutes. Now, I wish people would listen to LeBron. He has said, for the better part of a decade, it is not about minutes, it is about games.

that his body feels the same if he plays 30 or 40 minutes. It's about getting himself ready to play and actually playing. So LeBron is told anyone that will listen, it's better for him to play high minutes but have five to eight games off during the year than low minutes and play all 82. Now, of course, last year he played high minutes and also played all 82, then 22 in the playoffs as he averaged 33, 9, and 9 in the greatest playoff run in NBA history. But I digress.

but that was out of necessity. Kobe is talking about the offense running through LeBron at the end of games. And Kobe, since he's just on a total historical reinvention of his own career, he is talking as if that's something that he thinks is bad for teammates and that if he were on the team, he would give a damn what was bad for teammates, but I'm also digressing once again. I understand the concern that if everything runs through LeBron at the end of games, is Brandon Ingram going to get the crunch time experience?

Is Lonzo going to get the crunch time experience? But the reality is this. The best experience for those guys is the playoffs. And the best way for the Lakers to make the playoffs is to not blow games at the end the way they were the first two weeks of the season. And LeBron isn't Kobe. He isn't Russ, as much as I love Russ. He will look for you at the end of games.

Their last bad loss, the lost to Orlando, a 12-30 start time in Los Angeles on a Sunday, couple weeks ago, 104, 104, late LeBron drives and kicks to an open Josh Hart. He just missed the shot. He will get other guys the ball, but Brandon Ingram was the number two pick of the draft. He has scored more than 26 points once since he left Duke. Lando Ball was the number two pick of the draft. He has, I think, regress slightly this year. Their talent, their ability is their responsibility. These games count now. You cannot be sacrificing games to try to get these guys going.

These guys need to get themselves going. LeBron's the greatest teammate we've seen of this era. He'll find them if they get themselves going. By the way, so an outside linebacker coach had kind of an innocuous tweet, got whacked in Green Bay. He said,

listen, we got to hold number 12, and everybody here to a Lombardi standard, losing his word sucks. And he got run out of the building. I've always said Green Bay doesn't have an owner. So whereas Belichick and craft hold Brady responsible, where Russell Wilson got called out by Pete Carroll and defensive teammates, Andrew Luck got called out by a former GM, Derek Carr got called out by Gruden.

Nobody really in Green Bay holds Fav or Rogers accountable. They run the franchise and everybody walks on eggshells. So the story comes out this morning from your Chris Carter about Harbaugh, who doesn't walk on eggshells with anybody and the Packers potentially. How does that land for you? your thoughts. Listen, there's an old clip from when I was filling in for you one day that has been unfairly edited against me of me saying, I think Jim Harbaugh is the best football coach

in the world. What that clip does not include is that I am saying, if you're not telling me, if you're going to give me, if it's going to be college or pro, you just say he's got to coach football, who do I want? I said Harbaugh. I'll stand by that. I think Harbaugh is excellent. Yeah.

I think Harbaugh would do a good job in Green Bay. I also think what happened to Winston Moss in Green Bay would happen in almost any environment anywhere. If someone who is a not pertinent, not super important employee publicly calls out the single most important employee in a negative way, you're going to get run. You mentioned who called out Andrew Luck, the former GM of the cults, who called out Russell Wilson, defensive players who are,

no longer on the Seattle Seahawks. Like, you can't do this. Like, maybe, like, the president of Fox Sports, Eric Shanks, could send out a tweet being like, Collins opening monologue, weak sauce today, expect better. But I'm telling you right now, the, like, assistant marketing coordinator couldn't. Yeah. You might not get them fired, but I have a feeling there would be some phone calls from people

at CAA saying, um, uh, James needs to go. And so I, like, I don't know. hold that against Aaron Rogers. I just think that's kind of how office politics work, even in the NFL. By the way, I know you like Baker Mayfield more than I do, right? Isn't that like I think he's... I really like Baker Mayfield. Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield, the two future faces of the league,

also known as Colin Cowherd's personal hell. Go ahead. Okay, so... Okay. So, Dak Prescott's won four straight games, not a peep. DeShon Watson's won nine straight. games, not a peep. Andrew Luck's having an incredible year. Russell Wilson may be even better, not a peep. Baker Mayfield, yep, yep, yep, yap, yap when he was winning. This week gets

humiliated, not a peep. Isn't it look like Baker Mayfield is the classic roller coaster guy. Dak, Deshawn, Mahomes. I don't hear anything when they're on long. winning streaks. Baker had two, three nice weekends against cruddy teams and became Howard Stern, got his ears boxed this weekend and didn't say anything. Doesn't that worry you? You know the thing about roller coasters, Colin? They're dope and fun as hell. I got no problem with that. This is just a difference of philosophy, my friend. He is not going to be your typical quarterback. He told us that. He told you that sitting on the couch.

He told the media that a week and a half ago after when he was going good. I've got no problem with it. I've got no problem with someone being their authentic selves, and I think he can back it up. And now, you're right. A lot of these other quarterbacks have been, I don't know who their authentic selves are because they are always, Russell Wilson, the quarterback, Dak Prescott, the quarterback. Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback.

I like that Baker Mayfield is Baker Mayfield who plays quarterback. It will never be the type of thing that you like. You are, this is a very, I don't know if it's a generational difference, there's a philosophical difference between you and me, but this is where our sports philosophies always butt heads. You want your point guards, your quarterbacks, you want them to act a certain way. Yes.

I don't think that's necessary. Again, history says you're right. I think this new generation is going to rewrite that history somewhat. I think Baker's going to be one of those guys. And one other thing on this, you're not supposed to talk after you get your ears boxed. It would be silly if after he played the worst game of his career, he came out and said, I was feeling really dangerous. What, like dangerous, like a bomb that detonates in your own huddle?

And so I don't blame him for not talking when things aren't going. well. I just think he's a different type of cat, and I don't think that's ever going to sit right with you because it's not what you have, what you have always believed is what wins. We'll see if it can win. Good stuff today. First things first, Nick Wright, made me laugh multiple times. I love having you on, buddy. It's great seeing you. You too. Great to see you. Good to see you as well, Julie. Talk to you guys next week. What's up, everybody? John Middlecock, the three and out podcast on Colin Coward's Podcast Network. If you like Colin's show, you will like mine.

I talk all football. Mike McCarthy fired. I have some opinions on that. Let's face it, he had to go. College football playoffs, it wasn't really that difficult. And the Seattle Seahawks, they are alive and well and Russell Wilson's team. The three and out podcast with me, John Middilkoff, wherever you listen to your podcast. For our radio listeners, you may be a little lost.

for our television listeners, you may still be a little lost. I am dressed as Aaron Rogers. And there's a reason I'm dressed as Aaron Rogers because I want to play Aaron Rogers for this segment. For the record, there were multiple mustaches available to me. This felt a little French impressionist painter. So I got rid of that one.

And we went with the one that I think is more Aaron Rogers. slash Andy Reid. But Aaron Rogers had a couple quotes yesterday about the Mike McCarthy firing. And I thought they were ridiculous, especially for a guy that's probably the smartest guy in the league.

Peyton Manning for a long time, you were like smartest guy in the right. Aaron Rogers really smart. So here were the quotes, Aaron Rogers said yesterday, that nobody in their right mind believes. Number one, I was as shocked as you were. I hope I'm not the reason

that Mike McCarthy got fired. You got. ought to be kidding me. Aaron, you ran him out. I get it. And by the way, I defended you. Some relationships get old. It's time to give Aaron a reboot. I defend Aaron. I've been divorced. It's okay. Life moves on. Not every relationship lasts forever. Pat Riley once said, after about 10 years, you should leave. Your voice becomes white noise. So I said that I'm going to play Aaron Rogers, and I want to make this feel like a press conference. And John and Joy are going to asked me pointed questions, that if Aaron Rogers would have been totally brutally honest about this,

would you think less of Aaron Rogers? And I'm going to make an argument you wouldn't have. You read that quote, I was as shocked as many as you were. I hope I'm not the reason. I think less of Aaron for that. If he would have been brutally honest, I think we'd feel better. So let's make it sound like a press conference. All right, start the question. All right, Aaron. What are your thoughts on your only head coach you've ever had Mike McCarthy being fired? Well, it's weird. When you're in a relationship for like a decade, you don't know any other way. So this is going to be different.

Did you have anything to do with the decision on the firing of Mike McCarthy? I think like any relationship, there's highs and lows. And Mike's going to get another job, and I hope I flourish from this point forward. But I think over the course of the last two years, Mike and I have had difference. and I think I wore him out a little bit, and there are days he wore me out. And I think we're both good people, and I both think we'll succeed going forward. But we had an open line of communication with the general manager, and I think it was time for both of us to go a different direction.

Aaron, what do you make of the reports from former teammates that you frequently rolled your eyes at Mike McCarthy's play calls? You know, I've always believed whether it's family or my family, football family. There are discussions and moments that I'm not going to discuss. I will tell you, and I think it was probably visible, there are times I was frustrated.

There are times I look around the league and I think, I wish we did more of this, this, that's that. But again, some of this is on me. I've got my way. I've got my style. I'm not the easiest guy in the NFL to coach. So I don't want a finger point. Here's what I know.

both Mike and I did everything in our power to win in Green Bay and we're good people and I still have great respect for him but it wasn't easy and I think sometimes I was a little immature Aaron you lead the NFL and throwaways by a mile were you purposely throwing the ball away because you thought the play calls were bad I came off an injury joy thank you for the question I throw the ball away more this year, and I thought it was a fairly obvious reason, because I got injured. And more than any year in my career, I've had two shoulder surgeries,

and I got hurt again this year, and I'm turning 35, and I threw the ball away more this year simply because I wasn't going to take sacks. I didn't want to get hit. Some of it was just simply trying to preserve my career. The Cardinals are a strong. struggling, rebuilding team with a rookie quarterback and they beat you at home.

Did you sabotage that game to get Mike McCarthy fired? Sabotage? Every moment of the week between me and this team is about winning. We didn't play well. I didn't play well. Frankly, I haven't played well in a month. I have not played well in a month. And I take full responsibility for that.

Aaron, the world wants to know what's up with the mustache. Is it real? In this instance, it's completely fake. Oh, oops, that was worse. No, this is not my real mustache. I am playing a character. Okay. But generally speaking, if I was Aaron, it would be real.

One last one, Aaron. What do you think of Colin Cowherd? I think he's a fine broadcaster, one of the great voices in American sports. And I wish everybody would leave him alone. Because I listen to him every day. 9 to 12 Pacific, 12 to 3 Eastern on FS1, a great network for sportscasters. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. I have no problem with dynasties in sports.

I mean, I think the Warriors, the Showtime Lakers, the MJ Bulls, the Yankees in the 90s. I don't think dynasties are bad for sports as multiple teams try to knock off the dynasty. I do think in college football you have a problem now. it looks like Alabama Clemson, fourth year in a row, you know, are going to be ending up playing. And I just don't think it's great for the sport. The ratings have gone down in the national championship a little bit last couple of years. I think there's a fatigue that's the same kind of four teams. And the NFL, the parity is absolutely unbelievable.

And, you know, I was thinking about this morning, I looked up, 30 teams are still eligible for the playoffs. And we're going in a week 14. That's unbelievable. There's no baseball's not close to that. MLS isn't close. NBA is not close. College football, college basketball. I mean, we all know Duke's going to be in the final four, elite eight, minimum Kentucky.

NFL, 30 teams are still eligible. Only the Bay Area's Niners and Raiders are out. And of the 19 of the 30 teams, I would call real teams. I'm talking about Ravens. I'm talking about Patriots. I'm talking about bears. You know, you could see a team winning multiple playoff games, right? The big game this weekend, to illustrate the parody in the NFL,

Well, let's take the Dallas Philadelphia game. Now the perception around the league now, the wheels are sort of coming off for the Eagles. At 6 and 6, they're falling apart. And the Cowboys at 7 to 5 just beat the Saints, extra time to prepare for this game. They are humming. That is the perception. And think about this. With four days extra rest and as healthy as they've been all year,

the Dallas Cowboys at home are just a field goal face. favorite over the reeling injured Philadelphia Eagles. That's amazing. And to further give you an example of the parody in the NFL, we sat down this morning and we spent about 30 minutes on this. I said, take the 12 best players in this game. And before we show it to you, it goes, before I put it up there, before you put it up there, it goes, Eagle, Cowboy, Cowboy, Eagle, Cowboy, Eagle,

Eagle, Cowboy, Eagle, Eagle, Cowboy, Eagle. we thought six and six right down the middle. We said the best player in this matchup Sunday is Carson Wentz. He's a quarterback and he's an unbelievable talent. Ezekiel Elliott and Leighton Van der Leyen, Vendresch make out the top three. Then it goes Fletcher Cox, DeMarcus Lawrence, Zach Ertz, who's having a record setting year at tight end, Lane Johnson, Zach Martin, Jason Kelsey's rated as the number one center in football number

nine linebacker of the Cowboys Jalen Smith, Amari Cooper and Malcolm Jenkins as safety. Six and six and six. The first one's an eagle, the last one's an eagle, and it's Cowboys and Eagles, all through it. It's a three point to three and a half point line.

Meaning if it was in Philadelphia, Vegas is telling you it's even. Because teams get three points for playing at home, most of them. I think New Orleans may get four, L.A. may get two. Basically, it's a coin flip game. And just think about this.

If Dallas loses and his 7 and 6 and Philadelphia wins in the 7 and 6, it will shatter all the momentum Dallas has. It will take away all the equity built by the Cowboys with the Saints win. And this is why the NFL is four times more popular than college football. A big part of it is simply this. On any given weekend, a team that is on front of the team that is on full, fire, just beat the Saints, extra rest at home is a coin flip over the Super Bowl champs who finally have a winning streak, who are reeling, who are a mess in the secondary, who can't get the Golden Tate thing right and have lost two running backs.

That is an incredible, incredible thing. And by the way, when we all, we did these listings, Fletcher Cox was our fourth best player. he's the second highest rated defensive lineman in the NFL only behind Aaron Donald, and DeMarcus Lawrence, who's one spot behind him, is the highest rated player for the Cowboys, according to pro football focus. Van der Leads the NFL in Solo Tackles. So we went down and we looked at numbers, pro football focus, where do they rank? And give or take a spot, that's the best 12 players, six and six.

One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Every sportscaster sees, has a worldview. And I am kind of a, I don't like nonsense. I like common sense. I don't like a lot of celebration. I think there are positions in sports that require leadership skills.

Now, I don't think there's a lot of them. I do not think there's a lot of them. Like in soccer, a midi or a midfielder, you're going to control the pace of play. You can't get out of position. You can't be too emotional. You have to be at times cautious, then at times aggressive but not too aggressive. Point guards in basketball. You control the tempo.

Quarterbacks in football. And people often say, oh, you pick on Baker-Mayfield. No, no, no. I pick on a certain personality in the NFL. I was brutal on Mansell. I was pretty brutal on James Winston. I've been brutal on Cam. And I'm brutal on Baker-Mayfield.

They have nothing in common. One's tall, one short. I mean, one looks like a model. Well, I guess Baker's an underwear model. The point is, I pick on personalities. And so Andrew Whitworth yesterday was talking about his young quarterback, Jared Goff. He is a tremendous kid. He really is.

And I have been just blown away at the humbleness and just the attitude he has every day to just come to work and be. unmovable and you can't really affect him in games. There'll be moments where I'm like, oh, no, that's a bad, bad play or a bad situation. And he just like, he just like, all right, man, let's go the next one. And you're just like, what? You know, for a young quarterback kid, I mean, it's unbelievable. And yeah, I mean, he is a tremendous kid.

And this is what I go back to. Of the 12 division leaders in the NFL, 11 have non-chatty quarterbacks. Wilson, Deshawn, just don't talk. Brady, Breeze, 11, 1 of 12, current would be playoff quarterbacks are in the media a lot, and that's Big Ben. And 6-6-270 transformational talent, that's my knock on Baker-Mayfield. Jared Goff's a star quarterback in L.A., not a peep. Deshawn Watson's one-nine straight, not a peep. Russell Wilson's having his best year ever, not a peep.

Andrew Luck, Reborn, not a peak. Brady, eight Super Bowls, not a peep. Baker Mayfield had three back-to-back good games against atrocious defenses, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Kansas City. He was in the news for three weeks. He got clobbered this weekend against Houston, and he goes and hides. That is an inconsistent personality. That is my problem.

And by the way, I had this discussion yesterday with somebody in our business. And he said, you know, like players don't respect fans because they know, players know that you'll always be there for them. And the players don't like the media because we're critical thinkers and sometimes cynical and we ask questions. We're like the IRS. We're not built to be liked. We're built to audit. Right. We're built to hold you in check.

And but the truth is, is that the questions I ask about Baker are, are. are the same exact questions every GM did. Okay. And Cleveland doesn't have a history of getting the right quarterback. You can overlook James Winston's college weirdness. And you can overlook Johnny Mansell's college ego. But the history's on my side is that uneven personalities don't last 12 years. They can win rookie of the month, RG3.

but Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, Jared Goff, Brady, Breeze, Watson, Wents, Patrick Mahomes. I'll tell you another guy. The greatest example of this is Dak. I like very little about Dak's arm. It's not strong. It's not very accurate. I don't think he throws guys open. Dak is a completely limited thrower.

Baker's not a limited thrower. He's got a better than average arm, wildly accurate, perfect. release can sit in the pocket and throw 28-yard darts all day. This will be interesting going forward. Watch Baker, who has tremendous quarterback skills as a thrower, but I don't like his intangibles, and Dak, who is completely limited as a thrower, but I love his intangibles. I mean, literally, he's been swimming with the Zeeke controversy, the Jerry stuff, Jason Garrett. You never hear a peep from him.

Baker is a significantly better quarterback prospect than Dak Prescott. That is not arguable. One of them simply throws a much better football. But I'm going to make a bet with you that over the next eight to ten years, Dax's going to win a lot more football games. And Dax's not going to be in nearly the trouble. I googled Baker Mayfield this morning. Not a peep.

Not a single story about him talking. When he was winning, yep, yep. Three picks, hides. It doesn't work that way. Those guys never last. They never, ever do. 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 headlines. 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 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 home. 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? Time out. Look. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Brett.

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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 talking. 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. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

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