The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd for Apr 06, 2020

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

Colin says nobody knows when sports will be back so don't listen to the doomsday crowdThe NBA will lead the way for how to start playing againThis shutdown of sports will be good for fans long termWhere Colin was right and wrong over the last weekGuest: Rick Reilly, 11x Sportswriter of the year  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 linebacker walks up to me he goes a ref my mom wants you to wave at her what Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Rhett, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Ms. Parker.

Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening to the best of herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday. From 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1, find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeart Radio app by searching Herd. This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowherg on Fox Sports Radio. Oh, here we go on a Monday live in Los Angeles. This is the herd.

Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, all the platforms ready to roll, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1, Serious X-Earth. XM Channel 83, one hour from now. Colin Wright, Colin Wrong, plenty of both. It is great to have you in today. Rick Riley, 15-time National Sports Rider of the Year, joins me in about an hour 15. It is great to have you in today. I thought I would start with something, and I did not watch a lot of television this weekend.

I did not do a lot of social media this weekend. As I've said, dating back to three weeks ago, I think the... mental part of this, the psychological part of this is really, really important. That's why I don't believe we live in a police state. If you want to get in a car and go for a drive in Texas with a cup of coffee with your wife, wear your masks. Go for it. We don't live in a police state. I wear a mask everywhere I go now, and I have for about five, six days. It's the new normal. But here's one of the things, and it just, there's a lot of doom and gloom. Here's a prime example. So I have a phone, do, right? And on my phone, there's a little site I go to every day that gives me the weather in my

little Manhattan Beach, in California. And every 12 hours it changes. I mean, it's something unbelievable. In March, we've had a lot of wind and rain every 15 hours, every 12 hours it changes. It was going to be nice this week. And about three days ago, it was like, it's going to be terrible this week. It's got to pour all week. Didn't look like that about five days ago on my phone. So that's using radar, your local weather person all over America, in most cities in the winter and spring. And when we have real weather, unpredictable weather. Once they go to a seven-day forecast, totally inaccurate. They can get about three to four days right.

The longer it goes, they're inaccurate. That's with radar. Time-tested radar. So excuse me if I don't buy into local sports reporters or national NFL beat guys telling me, football's not going to happen, September 10th. That's over five months away. We can't get it right.

radar helping us with weather four days out. Our government, you don't have to wear masks. A couple days ago, it's urgent. Everybody wear masks. The University of Washington has a COVID-19 model. Oh, they readjusted it today. There's a 45% drop in beds needed in America. Almost half. Everything's changing. This is incredibly fluid. Nobody has any answers. The models are outdated an hour after they're out. The CDC projected 1.7 million deaths to start. Come on. Social distancing is a real deal. Keep doing it. Do it soon. Do it often. But we don't live in a police state. If you want to go for a walk, put a cloth around your mouth in the neighborhood and makes you happy, do it. So everybody's talking about the NFL and if the NFL is going to happen and the NFL's not,

None of us know. Here's what we do know. In Europe, Italy, they have flattened the curve. New York City at their peak appears to be close to flattening the curve. They may have already done it. Oregon's already beaten the curve. Europe hotspots. New York City, these are hot spots.

These aren't like rural Utah, rural Indiana. They've flattened the curve. We also know that by late May, it gets hot as hell in this country in Texas, in the south, by June, July. We know that warm weather can stem the spread of viruses. But I'm not making any predictions. If you want to make a prediction on the NFL, let's get through April and May. Let's just get through it. All right.

Nobody knows. I mean, radar weather people don't know five days out. Our government flip-flops weekly on masks. Don't wear masks. These models, University of Washington models all over the math. I don't believe any of these models. None of them. I just know that social distancing works.

That's what I know. So I wear stuff. Masks in the store I wear them. When I go for walks, I wear them. And maybe I look like a total nerd, but I don't care. That's the new normal. Here's the other thing. Don't let Twitter guilt you into believing that you can't be simultaneously empathetic for those who are dying

and also have a conversation pivoting to the economy. We got to start it back up. Golf this morning. PGA went out and said, yeah, we've got to do some tournaments. No fans, we're doing them. Thank you, golf. To grown-ups, we're pivoting now to real conversations. Twitter wants to make you feel guilty that you don't wake up every morning and think the world's ending,

and you don't care about every single thing and every... I care about New York City, but America is not New York City. New York City is a city in America. That doesn't mean like Plano, Texas is going to be. be New York City or South Dakota is going to be New York City or Oregon's going to be New York City. They don't have the population density or the dynamic subway travel or the shoulder to shoulder living elevators up, elevators down. So I can have empathy for people, but I also realize we need to have grown up conversations on this stuff and people are trying to project like they know stuff.

Our government doesn't. Models don't. Radar doesn't. Who knows? Trump came out yesterday as a president. and said, you know, I think we're going to have a football season. He's a leader. He's trying to be optimistic. I appreciate that. But, you know, one thing I've really realized that the people in the media, I'm not going to name any names, but I know a couple people in the media that live on their phones.

And because they're like beat reporters, and they live on them. In fact, like strangely, on their phone all day. I put my noun for hours. Those are the people that tend to be panicking and making bold predictions and don't have a clue. It is not even April 10th. The NFL season is going to start September 10th. If they have to, they'll get rid of the preseason.

Would any of us miss that? Ooh, the coaches would have to make evaluations without, you know, preseason. College football coaches do it and it works just fine. So I have no predictions. This is what I know. Nobody knows. It's fluid. Summer's coming.

Flattening the curve is happening even in Italy, which had it worse than any American city, including New York, if you count death rate. deep breath, put the phone downs. It's okay to pivot to the economy eventually here pretty quick. Thanks, golf, for doing it. Let me segue to this. Adam Silver is a commissioner for the NBA.

And, you know, they were the first league to come out and say, timeout, we're calling a timeout here. And Adam Silver is, you know, he's kind of a left-leener. And I appreciate him. I think he's smart and progressive, big fan of his. And I think the NBA is actually the key to the NFL. I think it's the key to the NFL.

Because the NBA is the underdog. The media tends to like underdog stories. The media doesn't like power. The media pushes back on all governments and all corporations. They've always pushed back way more on the NFL. The NBA is the underdog.

And so the NBA media is a little friendlier to NBA than the NFL media and the overall media is to the NFL. We kind of take sometimes we're pretty tough on the NFL. We rip the NFL. NBA media, you know, like the baseball media,

sort of romanticizes their sport and protects their sport. So Adam Silver goes in first and says, we're shutting it down. That curried a lot of favor with progressives, a lot of favor with Twitter. Twitter loves to feel smart. Media loves to feel smart. Adam Silver is very smart.

So he is going to get much more leeway than Roger Gidell would get, the guy running the most popular, the most powerful, the wealthiest, the richest, that doesn't really need the media. The NFL is a TV business. They don't need newspapers.

They don't need radio. They don't need Twitter. They don't care. They got five networks bidding on them. NBA's got two and one, I think, I won't mention it, may not be able to afford it going forward because they had March Madness

and the NBA season potentially canceled. So he's going to move back. and he told Trump yesterday, Adam Sovered it, I'd like to start, I'd like to lead us back in, I stopped it, I'd like to lead us back in. This is great for the NFL. Because A, you would be a total hypocrite if you allowed the NBA to come back in the media and didn't bang on them much and then crush the NFL for four months later or three months later or two months later, probably four months later, coming back.

Secondly, if the NBA starts first and has a few missteps, NFL can watch the missteps and go, we won't do that. We will do that. Remember, even when you talk about these people that know the viruses, the, you know, the president of the WHO, the World Health Organization, they always tell you with viruses, it's imperfect. Don't seek perfection. You can't, if you're the NBA or a pro-sports league, seek perfection. There's going to be missteps. Somebody will get the virus. You can't be paralyzed by that. We have 38,000 car deaths a year in America. Should we stop driving? You manage it. You just manage. manage automobile accidents. We have teenagers. One of the reasons Americans live to be 79 and a half and not 80 and a half, like other nations, our teenagers drive. We don't have this national, you know, subway system like other countries, like, you know, that's much more, you know, New York does. But like, teenagers all over the road, driving, car deaths, and we allow it. Do we lack empathy because we let our teenagers drive? No, we manage it. You don't seek perfection. Our roads aren't perfect.

They're old. Our bridges are old. We let teenagers drive probably too early. But it allows them to go places and parents can then work if the kid can drive. And you manage it. So if the NBA goes back in, they'll be given a little bit more leeway. It will not be seamless. It will not be perfect. There will be hiccups. Somebody will catch COVID-19. The good news is it'll be a 24-year-old professional athlete that will have asymptomatic or mild, mile issues. We know that right now. So I think the NBA is going to get a little break on this if they go back first and good for them and good for golf. It's okay to simultaneously care about Americans that have it or may get it or may suffer and also pivot to questions about the economy.

Because you know what's really bad to poverty and 17% unemployment? So I think the NBA, as progressive as it is, could be a real helper to all our sports going forward. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeart Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in.

I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the the people who live them. 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests.

I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch

life becomes about wins and losses Steve Burns, Dustin Ross because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid because that's two different intentions bro absolutely and that's two different levels of trust I want you to just really be a good person

Join me, Keer Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. 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 of 42. Hey, Brett. My mama want you to wave at her.

What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Jared Adano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody!

Please! But there's so much more. mortar me than me. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, hope from a hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, Let it ring twice.

One ring is too scary. Oh, cream a chicken suit. Hey, cream a chicken suit. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrite as part of the Mike Coutura podcast network available on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, so here's the good news as we pivot and work our way through the virus. For years and years, and I've mentioned it, this at the other network, and I've mentioned it here at Fox Sports and FS1 and Fox Sports Radio,

that fans get hosed all the time. The number one investment in the world right now for billionaires, and I read a story about a year ago in this, is sports teams, English Premier League soccer teams, you know, your Real Madrid, your NFL teams, your baseball teams, your NBA team. That's where rich guys, they want to get into those clubs. They all want to get in. Why? because you don't know if Apple, IBM, you don't know,

I don't know if Fox Sports is going to be here in 30 years, I don't know if Netflix is going to be here in 40 years. You know what's going to be here in 40 years? The Raiders, the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Celtics, the Lakers, the Cowboys, the Philadelphia Eagles. Those grow forever exponentially. And they're entertainment. And people like entertainment.

So everything else in entertainment, singers, songwriters, bands, movies. these companies, they disappear into the ether. They don't last forever. Fox used to do movies. We sold it to Disney. You know, it doesn't last forever. Sports lasts forever, especially the big bona fide cowboys, Yankees, you know, Dodgers, the great franchises, right?

They last forever. Your Colts, your Packers, your Saints, they're going to be here forever. So just know that going in. That's where the richest people in the world want their money. Pro sports teams. They're banks. They're banks. banks. It's just money and money and money. And I've always thought once that started really,

really taking place in the last 10 years, because sports teams were not always the best place to invest, but they have been with the international turmoil, the global turmoil we have. Now it's American sports teams or the EPL. That's where rich guys put their money. Rich men or women. And over the course of the last 10 years, when this has become the case, the revenues are driving up so much now for leagues with TV money. Why are we still charging fans outrageous prices? I'll give you an example, hockey. Nobody in America watches hockey.

They don't. I'd say it if we had it. I said it at ESPN. People don't watch hockey in America. They don't. They don't watch it. They go to it. There's a lot of people that love it.

I go to three or four LA Kings games a year. It's a blast. My kids love it. I like it. Wife likes it. She's from Detroit, Hockey City. Ten years ago, when a billion was a lot of money.

Ten years ago, NBC gave the NHL $2 billion. That doesn't count local teams making money on their local radio deal, a local regional TV deal, their ticket sales, their programs, their beer. The league made $2 billion. Ten years ago. Eight years ago. Eight, Canada, where there's no people. I know they like hockey, but it's got 30 million people.

That's eight million fewer than the state of California. There's nobody in Canada. Rogers Communications paid $5 billion eight years ago to the NHL. So $5 billion from a Canadian broadcasting company, $2 billion from the United States broadcasting company, for a sport that in North America, if you add it all up, nobody watches. $7 million. Billion, excuse me, $7 billion.

It's not counting the tickets, the food, the parking, the programs, the merchandising, the, the, merchandising, the, local radio deal, the regional deal. There's so much money in these leagues now. The NFL's got five networks bidding for it. Disney wants it. Fox wants it. CBS wants it. Amazon could want it. We don't even know if Apple and Amazon

and these companies are coming after it. So my takeaway is on this, we're coming out of this virus. A, people are not going to flood back into stadiums. You're going to have to convince them to go. There's not a lot of wives and moms. and dads that are just going to let their kids go willy-nilly to games. Not a lot of moms are going to want their husbands to go willy-dilly games

because you just don't know, right? So it's going to be a trickle effect. You're going to have to convince fans as owners of teams to go to your games. Convince them, not just open the doors, pouring in. Second thing is we're going into a recession. You know, some economic Darwinism coming up here. So no more $5 bottled waters, $14 budlights, $22 per day. personal pan pizzas. Those days are over. If not, they should be. No more $14

bud lights. This has been egregious. I understood gouging fans a little before these TV deals exploded 10 years ago. When hockey is making $7 billion a year, the NHL, hockey, ooh, $5 billion from Canada. I got 30 million people. It's not as big as one of our states. So this is going to create, I believe, a more efficient sports America and a more realistic and a more fair version for fans. You're not going to be able to charge people over the next two to three to four years, $15 for a beer, $52 to park, $6 for a water, $22 for a personal pan pizza. You better have discounts. You got enough money.

This is the world's best place to invest. All these leagues now are only billionaires. It is time the scales tipped back toward fans. You're going to have to convince them to come and coax them to come. And they're not going to have the money to spend $375 taking four people to an NBA game. Days are over. For the time being, those days are over. So that's the part about this where we're going to have a little reboot.

And I think it's much more reasonable and, fairer to the American sports consumer. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. All right, we do it every Monday. Even with no games, I got enough opinions where sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. Rick Riley in 15 minutes joining me. Let's go, John.

Where Colin was right? Well, the Chicago Bears admitted finally on Friday, general manager Ryan Pace said, yeah, Nick Foles, Mitch Trubisky, open competition. Okay, I got nothing against Mitch Trubisky. Bisckey. Joy and I always say this. It's not personal. But he's not a number two pick in the draft. How they picked him over Deshawn Watson. And I thought Deshawn was a B-plus prospect, not an A. He's a whiff. He threw for 3,100 yards last year. That's with Matt Nagy, who I think is one of the really clever offensive play callers in the NFL. In Chicago fans, nobody wants to admit your franchise

quarterback's not very good. And Chicago fans, I think, have reluctantly, privately have acknowledged. We whiffed on this. But the GM who picked him, when the GM who picks a quarterback admits, yeah, we just brought in Nick Foles and it's an open competition. What that tells you, by the way, is Nick Foles is going to be the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears in September. Where Colin was wrong. Multiple stories now. The Miami Dolphins prefer Joe Burrow over Tua and are willing to give up half a dozen picks to get him. I'm more of a Tua guy than a Burrow guy. There's medical concerns obviously, but the people

I talk to this weekend, they are freaking out over to his injuries. Now, I don't think he's going to drop to 20, even 15, but Joe Burrow, it should be noted, is preferred by the people I talk to in the NFL. They like Burrow

more than two. All but one of the people I talk to. Now, they don't think Burrow is Troy Aikman. They think he's Tony Romo, not Troy Aikman. Okay, but, you know, Burroughs getting, Burrow is now overwhelmingly, I would say this, the choice of the NFL executives I talk to. Where Colin was right? Well, late last week, the New England Patriots sourced that they're not interested really in any quarterback.

They're going to go with Jared Stidham, who, by the way, Todd McShay said about Jared Stidham this morning, and he is connected to the Patriots. Quote, Stidham is not ready to be a franchise quarterback in the NFL yet, unquote. That was Todd McShay this morning. So the Patriots released their Hall of Fame kicker. He will be two of their best playmaking, smartest veteran linebackers, and they're going to go with a guy that's not ready. It's not tanking.

It's repositioning. They're going to get three compensatory picks next year for Collins, Van Nuoy, and Brady. They're going to move a handful of picks this year to next year. They're going to go into next year's draft with 14 or 15 picks and trade eight of them to get a quarterback. and somebody's going to bite on it. We were ahead on this story.

Where Colin was wrong. E-sports, people watching people play video games is not my cup of tea, but it got, on Fox, the irasing is getting really nice numbers. I guess it's not just for kids in their basement eating pizza rolls. It looks like e-sports is getting decent numbers. Now, now, now, we don't have anything else right now, so there is, we are sort of confined to our houses and whatever's on that sports will take it.

I don't get it. It's too sedentary for me. I don't get watching people watch and play a video game. I do not get it, but it's done pretty well in numbers. Where Colin was right. Cowboys signed Alden Smith this week. Yeah, Alden Smith that's been out of the league for five years. Domestic violence, drinking issues, real roll of the dice.

Why? this is what happens when you pay people too much and pay people who aren't supposed to be paid yet early. The Cowboys and the Rams are having very similar trajectories. Very, very limited depth, paying a lot of money for a handful of stars, and then trying to swing for the fence to catch up. Alden Smith is what you do, desperate. I'm sorry, it's a desperate move for a team that has paid. too much or is overpaid or paid too early for players.

And as I've said before, the Cowboys and the Rams we saw it last year, the Cowboys are one of their highly paid stars like Amari Cooper, Demarko Lawrence, DeMarcus Lawrence, of being a bad football team, of being second, third in their division. So I thought it was a desperate move by the Cowboys. This is what happens when you pay early and pay too much for stars. Where Colin was raw. I've never seen Aaron Rogers as a guy. who's going to play into his 40s.

I don't think he's as obsessed with football as, say, a Tom Brady, not a knock on Brady, just a reality. I think Aaron Rogers has a lot of interests, music, art, finance. You know, he's traveling. He's just got a lot of interest. But he did say over the weekend of the Milwaukee State Journal that he plans to play into his 40s. He said, I'm not a cliche guy that's going to talk about it year after year after year after year.

He said, but you know what? I got four years left. And if I play at a high level, I'm going to keep. plan. So Aaron Rogers has set it out there to say, listen, I'd like to play into my 40s. I just, I've never seen Aaron as a guy. I think he's committed to football. I would never deny that. And I think he's still very, very good. I've never seen him as a guy that aspirationally needs football. I think he's a smart guy that's got a lot of interest. It's actually good for the NFL. He's a good talking point. Where Colin was right. Jadavian Clowny, still in the market. I like defensive players.

but there's very few in the NFL that I would pay big money for. Aaron Donald, I'd pay big money. Stefan Gilmore Corner, I'd pay big money. You know, Ed Reed in his prime, I'd pay big money. Troy Palomalu. But Jadavian Clowny, again, he's a highlight reel, but he's not a consistent pass rusher, never had double-digit sacks, had some injury stuff.

Look at who is on the market. It's a lot of defensive guys right now. We'll talk about Cam Newton. There's a lot of defensive guys who are talented. People just don't want to pay for them. And also, the defensive side of the football is more physical. You blow stuff up, right? You just put your head down and blow stuff up.

The reality is guys get hurt more. And so the Janabian Clowny on the market, outside of Seattle, not huge interest. Pay for quarterback, left tackle, a great corner. Then there's very few people I'm paying for in the NFL. Where Colin was wrong. Tom Brady, I figured with Tom Brady, he could care less about his number. I mean, Kobe changed his number. LeBron's changed his number.

Michael Jordan's change his number. Tom Brady is not going to change his number. Wide receiver, Chris Godwin, clearly feeling a little bit of heat, decided to give Tom Brady his number. Now, I'm not a sports traditionalist. So I had no problem. Brady going down there and wearing 14 or 10. I'm, you know, Derek Jeter wore two. if he had a worn eight, I'm okay.

I'm not a guy that cares about. If Michael Jordan can change numbers, I'm totally okay with anybody changing numbers, but Brady got the number he wanted. Where Colin was right? Finally, I almost feel guilty because this is too easy, but, you know, we have no sport, so Gronk, as predicted, is probably the single greatest fit

as an athlete becoming a pro wrestler. Personality, goofiness, quirkiness, size, looks, energy, body. In my life, we said, this guy was made for WWE, and he got a title this weekend, the 24-7 championship. Even his name, Gronk,

Rock, the Rock, Stone Cold, Gronk. This one's too easy to take a right for, but in the history of sports, there's never been an athlete that you looked at and went, oh, that's a pro wrestler,

who's faking it as a tight end. He's really a pro wrestler first, who just happens to be one of the three best tied ends I've ever seen in my life. 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

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

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own

experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possess. of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch life becomes about wins and losses Steve Burns Dustin Ross because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid because that's two different intentions bro absolutely and that that's two different levels of trust I want you to just really be a good person join me Kear games is we have real conversations about healing growth fatherhood pressure

and purpose on my new podcast Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet

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

my mama want you to weigh at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker.

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You might know me as that loud guy who yells out help on the internet. Help! Somebody! Please! But there's so much

more to me than that. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the hell. helper myself. And on my new podcast, hope from a hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need

with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary. Oh, cream of chicken suit.

Cream of chicken suit. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrite as part of the Mike Coulthura Podcast Network available on the I-Fart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I called Rick Riley the other day, 11-time national sports writer of the year,

23 years at Sports Illustrated, a sportscaster Hall of Fame too. He's got a new book out coming to paperback. I'll get to that in a second. I called him the other day because I knew he spent about half the year in Italy. and I have a good friend John Henderson, who's a sports writer, formerly at the Denver Post, I think, and he lives now in Rome, so I've been talking to him two or three times a day. So very encouraging news coming out of Italy from my friend John.

And Rick, it lives in California, but also in Italy, and Rick is now joining us. So you were last there in the fall, so obviously this was not an issue. But Italy is a very unique place, Rick. It has an older population. It is very, you know, it's multi-generational living. What was your takeaway on now? There's very, very optimistic news out of Italy this morning, but your takeaway on Italy and how they handle the situation?

Well, it's just so sad. You know, we have so many friends there. And, you know, I know, and I talk to John, too, and he's like, great news today. Only 700 people died. I'm like, John, you know, I know it is kind of good news. In any other moment, that would be a national tragedy. But things are getting better.

What I, my first thought was, we in Italy have so many Chinese tourists. Yeah. And they did so many of them and always in groups of 100 and 150. And also mothers and grandmothers live with their, especially men. Yes. They can be 30, 40 years old still live with their mothers. Yes. And every Sunday, the whole family gets together.

Grandmother, great-grandmother. And I think that's really contributed to Italy. But we're going back as we can because those are great people and they're going to need our help. Yeah. So, hey, golf announced it's reconfiguring the 2020 schedule. You can obviously play golf without fans, although there's nothing quite like, you know, U.S. Open, guy drains a 25-foot pot. But what was your initial reaction to golf saying, listen, we're going to have the Masters.

It's going to be in November. And they're kind of leading the way on this saying, we're going to play. Well, a lot of things, a lot of things. For one thing, playing golf without fans, I mean, I've been out there 40 years. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people behind the green for Tiger just let the ball hit them so the ball stays on green. I can't tell how many times I've seen players where if you and I hit so far in the spinach it would be impossible to get out.

It's all trampled down because of the fans. So in a lot of ways, it's going to be harder golf with fans is going to be really interesting. The other thing is in November, Augusta, having been there in November, I was just checking it it's not 10 degrees cooler and Tiger with his bat back and knees that's not good for Tiger he doesn't well when he gets to sweat and go through

three shirts like he did it at St. Louis PGA so to me that's not a good a good break for Tiger but I'm really glad they're playing it the guy that I think is I wouldn't be a bad

is full because I've been to Phil's house and he has his own driving range 320 yards to the fence. He's got three different putting grains. He's got a bunch of chipping grains. He gets out there and just hits and practices up.

He's got a golf car with a cable, a satellite dish on it so he can watch football and bet. So I mean, he is going to come back pretty sharp, I think, as far as his practice game. Yeah. Now, that's what you're hearing about some of these NBA guys.

You know, the guys that have made tens of millions of dollars that have home gym, You know, I mean, it's an advantage for a rookie kids on a rookie contract that's living in a really nice townhome, but he can't go to the townhome gym. So I do, and I think, you know, it's funny. You and I both, I think you and I both agree. I do think it's important for the NFL to come back, and I do think you could play it without fans. But, you know, I think of you as a kind of a smart, progressive guy, but I'm being told that you do believe the NFL should come back.

Well, getting back to the basketball thing, did you see Steph Curry had to put up his own hoop in his driveway? He did? Took him five hours, and he said he was just flummoxed by the instruction. The greatest shooter in history, and he's having to put up his own driveway hoop. I just love that. This thing is the great equalizer. I would love to see all sports come back with no fans, especially the NBA, because I would love for Marv Albert to be on the table, right?

And DeAndre Jordan's at the line. DeAndre Jordan, 47 percent career future. a free-throw shooter. And Jordan would turn to go, you know, I can hear you, Marv. You have to say that every time? I wouldn't you think it'd be fascinating? Because, first of all, you and I both know

the NFL's better on TV anyway. Baseball is better in person, hockey better in person, but football, for sure, better on TV. So why not? Yeah, and also, I think, you know, I said this earlier, maybe I was too glib, but I said, you know,

local weatherman can't, with Doppler radar, can't predict the weather next week. We're all trying to on April 5th predict what's going to happen September 10th. There's signs today in New York and Italy that there is a massive flattening of the curve. So, you know, week to week, day to day,

I don't know what's going to happen. I think we should just sit back and not make bold predictions for September 10th. Well, I don't know what your definition of massive is, Colin, but New York had a slight, tiny dip. I think everybody in New York says is still six, seven days away. the peak. In Sierra Southern California, they're talking about 10 to 12 days to the peak. So yeah,

I mean, I was dying for sports. I was walking the dog the other day, and I saw, this is kind of creepy. I saw two teenage boys throwing the football in the alley. And I kind of just stopped to watch. I realized my sports brain was starved. And I'm like, you know, I like the redhead. I don't like his footwork. I like his and the other guy, I'm like, I'd like to see him catch it more with his hands and his body. And then I realized they were looking at me like, we need to call social services. No, listen, it's, it is, you know, California living is different than,

like an urban environment like New York. So I've gone for long walks every day with a mask. And, you know, the beach is closed here in L.A. But it is, it is interesting. I'm finding myself enjoying the little things more. I've never spent this much time with my 19-year-old daughter. So there are some things about this that I'm really changed. By the way, I've watched every sports documentary in the last 20 years,

and I watched about a third of them. I've watched all of them now. Oh, I know. Dude, I was thinking about what will I do this first day this is over? And I thought, A, wear a shirt with buttons. Yeah. B, put my watch back on because time means nothing now. I'm going to give the toilet paper a really good spin.

Because right now I'm rationing. like I'm in World War II. And then I'm going to go play golf, run the beach, watch a live game. I mean, I would sell my sister to anybody now to see a Texas Valero open, wouldn't you? I'm really, I'm just not down with watching replays. I've got to see live sports. Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, listen, Rick, and I've said this about the NFL draft. So I talked to a GM yesterday about the draft, and he said, listen, I got to do it from my home because my state's not going to allow social gatherings.

He said, so I'm going to have eight. screens in front of me. If my wife comes in the room to bring me a coffee and trips and unplugs it, I can't make a draft pick. So I think they should stretch the draft out, give teams 10 to 12 minutes per pick, first, second, third round. And I do think, I think the draft will have two to three times the size of the audience it's ever had. I really do. Well, let me ask you this, Colin. Have you thought about this? You don't think some team, maybe a certain one in Boston, might be figuring out how to hack other people's roompeed. Oh, come on. You don't think No.

You don't think there's people like, they can hack your phone right now. Don't think it'd be easy to hack a Zoom feed? Like, what are we going to do? Well. It could be crazy. Let me ask you about this. So speaking of documentaries, you were in the heart of the Michael Jordan years, and ESPN's got this doc on MJ. And I think most people believe he's the most relentless player I've ever seen.

He's the best pure score outside of probably Wilk basketball has ever seen. You know, there was a little. darker side to Michael. He wasn't always a great teammate. How did you, like when I covered Mike, I didn't, I saw a lot of media worship. And maybe I'm just a little more jaded or cynical. I always was like, you know, he's not the world's greatest guy all the time. What was your stance always on MJ in his prime in the glory days? He just wanted to take your heart and rip it out of your heart, even if you were a teammate. I can remember him ruining a rookie because he wanted to play $100 three's, and he would just mock the guy every day, every afternoon after practice and just

take this guy's paycheck. And then, and the guy was ruined. His jumper was ruined because Jordan was mocking him. He would pass people on the shoulder at 120 going up to Dan Ryan. He's just, he's not interested in anything other than killing you. I can remember in Barcelona, we'd go out every night with Bartlett, and there'd be, you know, 100 people following us. And every now and then I'd say, what's Michael doing right? Same thing as always playing cards with his high school buddies. All he wanted to do was defeat you. And so that made him incredibly compelling. I can remember that the season where they won, what was it, 72 games. Yeah, yeah.

There'd be one time, I stayed with him for a week on the road. One time there was a woman hiding in the closet of his hotel room. She had rented it the night before. She had a friend at the hotel who knew which room he'd go in, and she jumps out of the closet to get a an autograph. There was a guy laid down in front of the bus tires so that they couldn't move until Jordan came out and gave him an autograph. I mean, it was madness. So I'm really looking forward to it. And I think that was a no-brainer to move this documentary up. Yeah, you know, it's funny. Who are we talking to last week? And we said, LeBron's great, but I don't think of him as cool. There's a million things about LeBron I love. Michael was the best player, the most decorated player,

the most productive player. He was also the most fashionable player and the coolest player. And it is, you know, like Tom Brady was the most productive, but he's not the coolest. He's not the most fashionable. The only person I can compare to Michael is Muhammad Ali in my entire life. What about you? I think Tom Brady has patented cool. I think he's a coolest guy walking the planet.

I think he's the guy that every man wants to be and every woman wants to be with. But going back to Jordan, I mean, I think. I've covered both Jordan and LeBron, and it's not even close because if you remember, Jordan would, everybody respected the process with him. So you wouldn't talk to him until he's shower. Then he'd go in the trainer's room and put on his three-piece suit, and it would be perfect. And then he'd come out, and he would stand there, and everybody would wait until he said, okay, I'm ready. And then he would answer every question. He was a complete pro.

Now, because we put him on the cover of SI saying bag it, Michael missing a baseball. He wouldn't talk to anybody at SI. But one of his favorite guys was his bodyguard, and he was dying, and he wanted to talk about him. So I talked to him through the crack in the training room door, so no one could see him talking to me. But he could really be a great man with a big heart. Often he could be very petty. I don't know if you remember right Thompson's story about him.

He'd do ads, and he had this woman in L.A. who made him his story. favorite brownies. And so they'd call him to the set, right? You had the favorite brownies sitting there. He would lick all the brownies, so nobody would steal a brownie from it. Oh, God. I mean, you know, that's him. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's funny about, you know, I've said this before, work-life balance. When you look up, if you Google what creates happiness, nobody ever says work-life balance. Like, people that are driven are often very happy. They're often very selfish. I always looked at Michael as kind of a flawed guy, but it's almost like the rock star. You almost have to be to be that brilliant, to be Michelangelo. To be brilliant,

you're flawed, you're often selfish, you know, annoying, obtuse. So I didn't worship Jordan, and I've been very critical of him. I'm as impressed with the LeBron story as I am the Michael story. I think LeBron's easier to be around. Do you, if you could choose one to interview, which is more interesting, LeBron or Michael? Oh, LeBron for sure. I think he's, his life story. His life story, a father in jail, a mother that he admits who had drug problems, who would steal his shoes in high school and take him to sell them.

I mean, he should not have been the great, incredibly charming leader that he is. And yet he is. He takes care of everybody, press, players. he's a leader of the league for sure and Jordan really didn't want that. Jordan really didn't like being as famous as he was. He did it. But I think LeBron embraces it much more. I still think Jordan's the better player.

I think the best passer for sure is LeBron, but Jordan's better defender, better shooter, better in the clutch, more of a winner. But hey, the second isn't bad to Michael. Jordan. By the way, you got a new book out. Actually, Commander and Cheat How Golf Explains Donald Trump, it's the paperback version coming out. Is it tomorrow or Thursday? Yeah, good timing, huh? Tomorrow? Yeah. Perfect time to launch a book. Luckily, there's Amazon. But I had so many stories, Michael. I mean, I call it about Trump cheating that, I mean, people would email me. They'd stop my car.

They would text me. I must have a hundred news stories about things he would do. And it's not a political book. It's just how golf explains a guy. For instance, so I had to write a whole new chapter just about crazy stories. For instance, he makes his caddies carry four-inch green teas in their pocket so that when he hits it in the rough and his opponents on the other side of the fairway, he can tee it up. People are always amazed like they always say, I play with Trump, man, he's good out of the rough. Well, now we know. And there's a million stories like that. And it's available on amazon dot com but i think all the bookstores are pretty much closed yeah i think they are for now are you going you're going back to italy when i mean it looks like i don't really

i don't see how we can put 70 000 people in a stadium now when we know that this thing may come back in the fall how can we do that calling oh i don't i don't think they're going to have football and you say well we'll do without fans but what do you do when the first guy test positive I think we're going to try to go beginning in September through Thanksgiving because they need our help, man. Well, you know, my theory on that has always been, you can't worry about perfection when you're, I mean, like in America, for instance, we know this is not the flu, obviously.

We don't cancel stuff because of the flu. But we have 38,000 car deaths a year, and we don't stop driving. We manage teen car deaths. It's awful. I don't think you can go into a league saying nobody will get it. if anybody could get it and be healthy, it'd be a 27-year-old defense event in the NFL. I don't think you can be paralyzed by perfection when you're dealing with a pandemic. You just learn to manage it smartly, efficiently.

And I do believe we are going to have in the next 30 days, from what I read last night, we are going to have the ability to test people quickly. So you're negative, you're in. You're positive. You're quarantined. And that's five and a half months out. I mean, the one thing about your car crash metaphor is the car crash victims don't fill up the hospital. Right.

So nobody else, you get a heart attack, you get stabbed, you can't get in there. It doesn't kill nurses. It doesn't kill doctors. So, but you're right. You know this is coming again. You know there's going to be contagion in the next. So what do we do next time? Do we shut down the world?

I don't think we can do it again. So there's a thing called vertical quarantine. In other words, you take the most at-risk people. In this case, it would be old people, diabetics, people with heart problems, and you quarantine all them, and you get really strict. It's a law. And then you try to go on with your life. I don't know if it'll work.

I just don't know what choice we had this time, but I think next time we've got to really consider, are we going to shut down the world? Yeah. No, and I think America has generally been pretty good. We make a lot of mistakes and can be inefficient and arrogant, but we're pretty good at solving problems rapidly. We are. That's what we do. We have a dynamic, you know, we've got a dynamic business model. And so we saw. But we didn't do it rapidly this time. We wasted about six weeks. Right. I mean, Korea, South Korea and us had the, they call day one the day when you have

100 positive tests. Right. South Korea and the United States had the same day they started with 100. And look at us. We have now 27% of the world's cases. We only have 4% of the population. So I know you want to believe we're problem solvers. But right now we're kind of a big, dumb country led by a big dumb guy who doesn't seem to want to take the range of this thing. Well, I'm optimistic. I do think we solve problems. I also think we misstep and get into a lot of problems all the time. We do. We do. Rick Riley, 11-time National Sports writer of the year. talking to you. I get these long interviews now because I'm not, you know, we don't have games so I can talk to people for 25 minutes. It was great talking to you. I was wondering. This is

unbelievable. Yeah. Thank you. It's 36 holes of golf in one day. There you go. Rick Riley. Thanks, man. See you soon. 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 SportsSlic. 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, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, 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. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games.

This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor. It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee.

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

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