The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd for Jul 20, 2020

Episode Date: July 20, 2020

Doug Gottlieb in for Colin.Don't listen to the noise, there will be a NFL seasonRob Gronkowski wanting a changeMLB without fans in stadiums.Guest: Senior NFL reporter for MMQB Albert Breer. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild. I mean, it was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart 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.

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This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. What up? Welcome in. This is The Herd, wherever you may be. And however you may be making us part of your day, thanks so much. Live in Los Angeles, I'm Doug Gottlie, filling in for Colin Cowherd. Colin's back tomorrow. We got an outstanding show for you today.

In one hour, I will tell you the NBA's MVP should be. and the true metric for how we should come to that decision. That's upcoming and one out. Let me tell you what we got for this show. Mario Chalmers, hero at Kansas, two-time NBA champ, a teammate of LeBron during those two NBA championship teams with the Miami Heat, will join us in the 2 o'clock East Coast, 11 o'clock on the West Coast hour. Stank, Mark Schlaerth, will join us that hour as well.

man 101. He's so good at growing his lawn in Denver. It actually grows on top of sprinklers. That will get to the upcoming NFL season. Now, Albert Breer, senior NFL reporter for the MMQB will join us next hour. And Jeff Schwartz will join us in 30 minutes, former offensive lineman. And we will get his take on how difficult it will be for offensive linemen to prepare for this upcoming season, considering all of the different challenges with COVID-19 still out there. Let's start there. Let's start there.

By the way, Gronk said something which I feel like is completely and totally accurate and the answer is not always a positive, but it's one in which he's been searching for. Get to that. Man, we got a good show for you.

Saw baseball on TV last night. Yankees, Mets, Cubs, White Sox. Anyone else love the White Sox's new hats? I do. I do. John Rom, who hit an incredible chip shot late in his, I mean, he was running away with it. And that was supposed to be the dagger, ends up moving the ball. We'll get to the John Rom and golf and why what I think is better, what I think is

worse, watching sports without fans in attendance. We'll get to all that. Let's start here, though. Today is supposed to be the day that two NFL teams rookies are reporting. Pat Mahomes, Russell Wilson, Michael Thomas, Richard, Sherman, Drew Brees, J.J. Watt, and many other NFL superstars all took to social media using the hashtag, we want to play to voice their concerns over current guidelines the NFL has in place to handle coronavirus. Adam Schefter reported earlier today via Twitter.

The NFL and owners will be conducting a league meeting at 2 p.m. Eastern as they try to finalize the safety measures, financial agreements, and reducing or eliminating preseason games per league sources. None of these answers are really, really easy to come by. To this point, the only answers we've been provided is they're going to shrink the preseason rosters and shrink the preseason by at least two games. And the prevailing wisdom is, hey, we've got to have a preseason home game for each team so that we can go through the process of whatever level of fans or not having fans or what an NFL stadium looks like with limited fans or no fans to have kind of a dry run.

which I think is reasonable. The biggest critique you're getting, though, is many players and some pundits saying, how did the NFL not have a plan? Can I defend the NFL for a second? Which plan? Like the NBA got criticized, and I criticized them on this very show

for having a plan which, at the time of which was implemented, felt like it was two or three months old. And now feels like it might be the smartest plan. Remember, like the bubble was a plan that came back, that came out early in April. Early in April. But it wasn't until late July, mid-July, when they showed up in Orlando. And there was a time in May and in June we were like, why are they in the bubble when Disney World's open? Why are they in the bubble when Florida has never closed up shop?

Why are they in the bubble? And now you're like, man, don't I wish I was in the bubble? So the NFL, instead of going on dated data, they just sat there and let the world kind of figure itself out. Try to figure out, is this a second wave? Is this not a second wave? What practices actually work? They use time as a great resource. What's that calling always says?

Better to get it right than get it first? And that's kind of what the NFL's done. and to these star players who are asking on social media, like Russell Wilson, hey, my wife is pregnant, I just need to know what's what, I just want to keep everybody safe. Like, that's cool. But trying to embarrass the league, frankly, is not.

It doesn't help anybody. It doesn't motivate anybody. It doesn't start the clock. It doesn't, that's not. Now, look, there are only two possible reasons that the NFL would delay such talks as to what they're going to do and how they're going to do it. The first is to get as much information as possible, which feels like at least 50% of the logic.

The second part, and this is far more devious, is the longer you wait, the less leverage that NFL players have. Like, if they came out with a plan a month ago, knowing that today was the day that two NFL teams were supposed to report, and later this week is when everybody's supposed to report with their with their with their rookies well you give us a month now a sudden we're going to get to jockey and jostle and position ourselves and stick our feet but but now the only thing the NFL players can say is hey look we want to play just you know let's agree to a plan in place whereas NFL teams like look you guys are tired of being at home anyway

college kids are back on their campuses for the most part working out we've seen this work with the NFL. We're seeing it work on for the most part with Major League Baseball. We've allowed them to try things, to be our guinea pigs, and we can figure this thing out. We can check out our revenue based upon different models if we have fans in, if we have limited fans in, if we have no fans in, we can calculate that and come out with an answer. But whatever you do, I wouldn't listen to the noise and I would just assume there's going to be an NFL season. You can sit here and tell me there's more. contact and touching in football than there is in baseball.

I'm absolutely positively not going to argue with that. But there's not nearly as much, you know, sweat being exchanged as there is in basketball. And somehow they're getting ready to have an NBA season. Right. So the fact is, the fact is, we're going to have football. And we're going to have NFL football. Barring some sort of calamity, that's what we're going to have. and how they limit and what they limit

and the act like they haven't been talking the whole time. I love NFL players who are like, man, I can't believe the NFL didn't do anything. It's like, you know, this is a collectively bargained upon deal. There are two sides in any argument, in any discussion, in any negotiation, in any relationship. It's never just one side? It's a two-sided thing.

well, I can't, but this is the, this is the wife who says, you know, we never went on a vacation. We just never did. We have not gone on a family vacation. And this is the husband, the NFL is the husband going like, you know, you can plan a vacation too. Right. Or if the wife is the one that works and the husband's like, man, all you do is work, work, work. And when you have time off, you just hang out. There's no plan.

Like, look, you're at home. You're not working. Like, get on kayak or whatever orbits and figure it out. out. Book something. It always takes two to tango. I mean, and then you get all kinds of stuff. Like, I saw this from

pro football talk. I mean, how about this laughable one? With daily testing and 24-hour turnaround for up to 5,800 samples, the NFL will definitely be consuming resources that could be devoted to the general public.

Okay, so you want the NFL to make sure that everybody is safe, everybody is tested, and you want to know as quickly as possible. And by the way, a 24-hour turnaround is not the quickest turnaround available. Some are, you can get some of these tests back in like 20 or 30 minutes. My brother is coaching a professional three-on-three, four-money pay-per-view event in Las Vegas. They tested the guys two days ago. If you came up clean, you knew, you knew in 25 minutes.

But you have this group of people. of people like, well, we want the NFL to have a plan. We want the NFL to be safe. But whatever you do, when you execute your plan to be safe, you can't use resources that the rest of the public doesn't have. Like, what are you even talking about? How far lost are you? If that were the case, then, well, the public should be allowed to use their workout facilities, their rehab facilities. Heck, why don't we have the public be able to use their practice facilities if they want to play football on a Friday evening, they can just reserve time on the practice field? It's a private business. It's a multi-billion dollar business. They're trying to protect their workforce and they're going to throw every resource they can't have it. And you better believe that if they can do it in baseball and they can do it in hoop, they'll do it in football.

Forget the plover you're hearing about not knowing what's going on. All the NFL did was execute Collins' basic philosophy is it's better to be right than to be first. Now, they had time on their side, and they've used that time. 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 content.

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 SportsSlice 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross

double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way 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.

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now what's up guys this is clivert taylor the fourth and on my podcast the clivert show i'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff like being an internet famous referee we're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this 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, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. You know, I saw this story about Rob Grankowski, he was on a radio station in Boston, and he said, quote, as a player, you always want to see what it's like somewhere else. I thought that before, definitely before playing nine years in the NFL.

And I thought about it when I came out of retirement. This is an opportunity to go and see what it's like somewhere else, to go see what it's like in the NFL on another squad. There's so many players that bounce around to so many different teams. I love my time in New England. There's no doubt about it, but it was another opportunity that presented. It should be that presented itself. But that's Rob Grankowski. I think we can all relate to that, right?

Like a lot of times people leave companies just because you just, you plateau. I mean, I've told people my career trajectory is obviously different than Collins. He had his reasons behind leaving ESP. I had mine. I left previous to him. But a good portion of it was, and this is just kind of the reality, was I loved my time there. When I was there, again, Colin was there. Dan Patrick was there.

Like our radio lineup here at Fox Sports Radio was really their lineup there. And I enjoyed my time. I'm not one of these guys that walked away with any sort of bitter feelings at all. You know, there wasn't, you know, there's this presumption that it was a heavy-handedness. Matter of fact, even my boss now here, I worked with there. So there's a lot of familiarity. And it made it really easy. And that's one of the things that Grunk isn't going to have outside of having Tom Brady is a boss that gets him and understands him, which is one of the things that I've learned. You know, if you go somewhere new, you better go somewhere new that

gets you, understands you. Maybe they've had somebody like you previously. Because otherwise it's just kind of, kind of clunky. You know, kind of clunky. I left ESPN, what is it? How am I been here? Three years over three years? So eight years ago.

Eight years ago. And I was really, really sad and in many ways scared. Like, man, this is all kind of I've ever known. Like, I didn't do a year. huge stint in the minors. I'm one year doing radio in Oklahoma City and doing games for ESPN, then ESPN plus. And then I was off and moved to Bristol, Connecticut after playing ball in France for a month and a half. That was it. So it was a very quick upward trajectory and I worked my way up there and I got to a place where I felt like I was kind of bumping into a little bit of a ceiling.

And I wanted to try something different. And I remember, I remember being. asked a really solid question because at the time CBS was launching radio, I had a TV show there on their cable network and I was going to do college basketball. I remember thinking like, this is the stuff that I have there. I don't have my own show, but it's a bigger platform, but I'm not on the biggest part of the, I started talking myself into circles. And I literally called everyone I respect in the business and they all gave me great advice. They were all unbelievable. Colin was great. Van Pelt was great. Tariko was unbelievable. Toreka was unbelievable.

Unbelievable. Dan Patrick was great. Like you call these guys and you're like, man, I hope they'll like listen and give me some real advice. And everybody had some different advice. But you still, at the end of the day, a friend of mine said, could you go through life watching the NCAA tournament, looking at the big desk at the final four thinking I could have been there.

Right? Now, here's the downside to it. You ready? The downside to it is, I used to be there. It's like you watch and unless you're going to go and stay forever and grow and become a part of that culture, there's going to be a time when you leave that and you're not going to feel the same connection. It's not going to be the same. and that, you know, that, that, that cup.

What is the cup from, from Indiana Jones in the last crusade, the archit from the, what is the cup called? The Holy Grail, right? To me, the final four was my holy grail. Holy grail. It's all I wanted. Right, you could, we talk, it wasn't about money. It was a little bit about where I wanted to live.

But I was happy where I was, but that was my holy grail. And a friend of mine said, can you, will you be able to watch college basketball anymore knowing you could have had your holy grail? And I just like, no, I couldn't. The downside is, now I watch. And I love what I do and who I work for and where I live. And, you know, we have a better radio lineup. We have a great TV lineup.

Like, things are cool. Things are easy. But I'd be lying if I didn't. say I look back at that Holy Grail and think that used to be mine. Right? I look at Rob Grunkowski and this is the old grass is always greener. Yes, who wouldn't love to see what Tampa's like? They got a Super Bowl there.

The weather's warm. You got a coach that doesn't give a flip, you know? I mean, it is cocktail hour at cocktail hour. They are not going to grind in Tampa. He's got Tom Brady who gets him, knows him, will get him the football, read the mismatches and can speak his language in terms of if the lingo is different and how they call a play, Tom can translate to him. That part is easy.

But you're going to a place that hasn't won a playoff game since they won a Super Bowl. They've only had two double-digit win seasons since they won a Super Bowl. You're doing in place with very little culture of winning in a division where in the last five years, all three other teams have been to a Super Bowl. right you haven't won a playoff game since you beat the Raiders in the Super Bowl almost 20 years ago and all three other teams in the division saints are more than five years but could have gone to the Super Bowl in the past couple years so you're going to a division that has other teams with better culture winning culture

winning consistency like like Tampa the Falcons have been up and down and the thing that I do know is that people Love, love change. Who did I love change? But you know what's hard? Transition. Change is great. Transition's hard. And you go from not playing, shortened off season, no real culture of winning. Two guys from a winning franchise, one who hasn't played football in a year,

the other one who throws and plays a different style than what Bruce Ariens has always had. Change is great. Transitions hard. And I do think that this could be a grass is always. greener. Man, I always wanted to get out and see what it was like outside of New England. But maybe there's a reason New England always wins. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays in noon

Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Doug Gottlieb in for Colin, this is the herd. Did you watch golf this weekend? I mean, like, look, Tiger didn't advance to the weekend and that course, I mean, if you've ever wondered what a difference a week

makes, they played at Mearfield Village, a place in Tiger won, I think, times. It's Jack's tournament. But in the one week, you went from like a Muni to like a U.S. open caliber course. Some of it is weather, but some of it is just they grew up the rough and they cut the fairways and the greens and then the pin placements were ridiculously hard. And I mean, it became, you know, par was a joke. So Rom wins. And then I was watching baseball last night. And granted, I have a special affinity for Wrigley, you know, but outside of the fact it was Wrigley Field with the Cubs and the White Sox and Yankee Stadium with the Mets and the Yankees,

maybe it was the way baseball was broadcast and it's regular season. And my man Boog Shambi, for example, on the call of the Chicago game, calling it from his couch in New York. York City with Chipper Jones and Rick Sutcliffe. It was a fun watch, but it felt like we were all watching a baseball. It felt no different. It almost like, all right, this is a parenting thing. You get to an age when you're a parent where you're no longer needed. They really just need you for your ATM card, for your credit card, for your cash, right?

You're like, man, why am I even here? They don't actually need me. You ever been to one of those? Like if I left, as long as I left my credit card open, no one would even know. And that's kind of what's happened with baseball and golf. Granted, playoff baseball, I think crowds are. And, you know, the masters or one of the majors on a Sunday, the tiger roars, the crowds. Okay.

But there are some benefits like in golf. Like you get to, did you guys see what Phil did? Phil had a putted from 78 yards, and then he's miced up. He's like, that didn't work the way I saw it going in my head. You never would have heard that otherwise. Between the microphones picking up on everything, I just, to me, golf might actually be a better watch. Because now it's like a regular golf match. It's still the pressure.

There's just not the people there who are just in the way and they just yell, you're the man. Baseball, like, yeah, a home run ball, a guy catches the ball, kid makes a play. Okay, you miss it. But honestly, did anyone miss? I was watching, I had baseball on, the Sunday night baseball, and it felt like any Sunday night for the last 15 years of my life. Have it on, you watch a little bit, you talk a little bit with your boy about,

about the teams and the players, then you're like, all right, let's go get the meat off the grill. felt very, very normal. 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. I feel like these NFL players, you know, with the stars, the Pat Mahomes is the Russell Wilson's of the world,

the JJ Watts questioning, you know, coming back without answers. You ever notice this? And this is what happens with reporters in the NBA, whether it's Woge, Windy, or Shams. And it happens in the NFL with Albert Breer and all the different NFL reporters, where it feels like they get a group text all at the same time. And then the stories break all at the same time.

Like everybody has the same tweet. That's what it feels like from the NFLPA. It's like they all sent out a little text. Hey, could you all tweet out something questioning the policies and procedures in place from the NFL and complain about it, and they did. Let's get to this. The NBA is Thursday, we're going to have like a Lakers scrimmage on TV, aren't we? Is that right?

Am I looking at that calendar correctly? Yes, Thursday, meaningless basketball returns to your TV dial, which is a good thing. I mean, meaningless in the most loving and adoring way. Better meaningless basketball than no basketball. basketball. But you're going to have, like, if you don't like NBA regular season, you're really not going to like, you know, NBA fake postseason, I mean, a fake preseason. Because that is essentially what it amounts to.

But we will have eight sort of regular season games. And I would guess it's fair to say that whatever awards you have, you probably have to give out those awards for what happened previous to quarantine? Is that fair? Can we, because look, these eight games, they're not going to play guys all out. They're going to use them. The reason those other teams were invited, I mean, I think at least partially, was to get some of the stars like a Zion, like a Damien Lillard,

you get them on national TV. I think that's good for the league. But the real reason they're there is they want to have some exhibition games. You can't just go from not playing for four. months to a couple of, you know, a couple of scrimmages and then, hey, now we're playing the playoffs. You got to ramp it up a little bit. You can't go zero to a hundred.

But if the, if the awards are decided already, Frank Vogel believes that the MVP should be given to LeBron James. In that weekend, LeBron took the toughest assignment in both games. He guarded Kauai and the Clippers game and did a great job with him there. He guarded Janus and the Bucks game when AD was in foul trouble, did a great job in both those situations. Think that weekend was probably a great indicator of or a measuring stick. Nobody impacts

winning more than LeBron James. I do believe that he should win the MVP this year. What's interesting about that, this is, okay, because I like congruent arguments. If Frank Vogel wants to say nobody affects

winning like LeBron James, okay, that'd be fair. Then last year he was awful. Don't tell me last year he was great. And the team was bad because he came back off of injury and they lost to some of the worst teams in the league. The Memphis Grizzlies, the Phoenix Suns, the Dallas Mavericks teams that were trying to be bad, trying to tank, trying to lose, they lost to. So if he impacts winning more than anybody else, then he wasn't doing nearly as well last year. And I do think, though, you're not supposed to take last year into account, right?

that's not how it's supposed to work. It's supposed to be about this season. It's absolutely fair to point out that the Lakers, this time last year, were a dumpster fire. Do you guys remember, do we not recall? Magic Johnson resigned before the final game of the season, so they didn't have exit interviews. There was talk of whether or not LeBron was even all in on trying to win with the Lakers. Could they pull off the Anthony Davis move? Nobody wanted to trade with Rob Polinka.

Oh, he has to hire Ty Lou. Remember that? You got to hire Ty Lou. That's the only guy that can coach LeBron James. Now, only did they not hire Ty Lou and did they hire Jason Kidd? But Jason Kidd was an assistant. No, that won't work. He'll be out for Frank Vogel's job.

That'll happen by midseason. Midseason came and went. What happened? I actually agree. Now, look, the NBA's MVP wasn't really that big a thing for a long time. I mean, even if you go back, remember, Carmelone won the MVP one year, Tick Jordan off. Carmelon was not the best player in the league. Jordan was.

We got this Jordan fatigue. We got tired of voting him MVP. Like, eh, he's already winning all the championships. Do we have to give him MVP too? Barkley won at one year. You kind of sprinkle it around the league. Sprinkle around. It doesn't really, it only mattered in the last five years because, honestly, ESPN had a

all their games and nobody is watching regular season games. And one way to get people to watch regular season games is this one could decide who wins the MVP. So it became who had the best year. James Harden had the best year a couple times over. But because he doesn't garner the spec, he doesn't play defense. His team doesn't ultimately win championships. He didn't get it even though he probably should have won it.

He had the best regular season. So we have all these loaded things with who wins MVP. Because Russell Westbrook got it one year because he averaged a triple double. Well, if averaging a triple double, something that hadn't been done since Oscar Robertson is what means you can win the MVP, well, then he should have won three years in a row. LeBron is not as good a defender as he used to be. He's just not. If anything, there are times where he's the fifth best defender in the Lakers lineup, but he leads. But he leads.

He's not the best offensive player in the league, night in, night out. Nor should he be. At his age, he doesn't have to be. He lets Anthony Davis carry them. at times early and through most of games. And if needed, he goes full LeBron. But if you factor in where they were this time last year, the coaching change, some of the personnel change,

and how that team was getting better. Because if you want to do the, well, he guarded Janice, and he did a great job when Anthony Davis got in foul, so it was like, okay. But nobody could stop Janus when they played Milwaukee earlier this year. Did that game not happen? granted it was at the end of a 14-day road trip. But Frank Vogel makes the smart argument.

Value is who impacts winning the most. And they became the best team in the West and got better and better and better. And at least a good portion of it, probably not all of it. A good portion of it is LeBron James leadership. He is not the best player in the NBA, night in night out anymore. He cannot bring that level of defensive athleticism and intensity. nearly the way he used. Like he's not hardened and shut it down

and not play any defense, but he talks and leads and points guys in the right direction more than does. But leadership is not really something you can measure outside of, not just wins and losses, but wins above what are expected of you.

Improvement above what anybody could have thought possible. And if you ask yourself honestly, you looked at the Lakers roster. Remember, they were supposed to have Darren The whole point was we're going to get Darren Collison to be our point guard. He retired and then they wooed him mid-season and he's like, nah, nah, uh-uh. Kyle Kuzman's been a shell of his former self. He hadn't been great.

You know, Rondo is a shell of his former self. He's been injured and up and down. They don't really have a starting caliber point guard. Avery Bradley wasn't great until the last month before he decided he didn't. want to play here in quarantine. And Anthony Davis has been propped up and had a great year. A lot of it is because of the leadership and the way in which LeBron has allowed him to flourish. I actually agree with Frank Vogel.

I don't think two games as a snapshot is why, but they were on an upward trajectory. They were getting better. That speaks to quality coaching and quality leadership on a team. They were cohesive. were very good defensively. That speaks to leadership on a team. I'm okay with LeBron being the MVP if we go before the pandemic. 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 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J.

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so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so. Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

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This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Doug Gollyman for Colin. Albert Breer will join us in moments from the MMQB. A lot of questions about the readiness of NFL teams. And it's funny. I read Peter King's column today. He toured the Minnesota Vikings facility, and it appears they couldn't be more ready. So why the palaver,

why the open discussion on social media from NFL players? Let's figure it out. Albert Breer, senior NFL reporter, the MMQB joins us. It feels weird to read Peter King's column this morning, his first one in months, where he goes and tours the Vikings facility, and they have all these things all lined up for players to show up.

But then you read on social media and the players like, whoa, there's still so much thing, so much we don't even know about. Why the confusion? Well, I mean, it's not about the rating of facilities, Doug. I mean, I think that that's in place. I think it's more kind of logistics of how a lot of this is going to work going forward. And I think it kind of traces back to some of the recommendations

that the Joint Committee for Health and Safety, you know, which is appointed by both the NFL and NFLPA, have put forward for the league and the union to work off of. And so, you know, they recommended a six-week ramp-up to playing your first game. And that doesn't matter if it's a preseason game, regular season game. Whenever you actually play your first football game, that joint committee wanted a six-week period to get the players ready to get there. And the unfortunate thing now is that you just don't have the time to do both that. and fit preseason games in before the start of the regular season.

So, you know, the existence of the preseason is one thing that's kind of a bullet point to all of this. And then another thing is, you know, the frequency of testing, players want to be tested every day. The owners had at one point proposed three times a week, and they proposed every other day. So that was something that needed to be worked out as well. And I don't think that you can forget the, that's hovering over all this, and that's the economics. And that's how, you know, all that's going to work going forward and how you're going to account for what's going to be, you know, a pretty serious revenue shortfall in 2020 when it comes to the salary cap over the next 10 years.

Yeah, the everyday testing is prohibitively more expensive, right? You're already having the expense, you already having the expense. And though you can create a PR, Doug, it create a PR problem for you too, you know, because obviously with a recent surge in Florida and Texas and California, you know, if there are places that are having trouble getting testing for symptomatic people in the public, then, you know, it also isn't the greatest look to be testing pro athletes every day. You know, and I just, I didn't get me cognizant of that too, but, you know, certainly this is a complicated thing. And it's been become more complicated over the last few weeks as we've seen the virus surge in certain parts of the century.

All right, best guess as of today, do we have preseason games? Do we have a regular season start on time? My best guess is that there will be no preseason games and that the regular season will start on time. Just because the league has been so incessant on, we're starting on time, we're starting on time. And I'm going to go back two or three months, Doug. Like back in April and May, there were teams, and I'm talking about good, well-run teams that were advocating for pushing the season back. because they felt like they didn't know enough and that you could collect more data by watching what happens in baseball, what happens in the NBA, what happens in the NHL, and you'd be able to make, you know, more clear-headed decisions if you started, say, October 1st or October 14th. You know, when that idea was down, it was summarily shot down by the league office.

The league office has been striped about starting the season on time. And really, you have two things here, right? So it's, you know, the start of camp, the start of the regular season, and the preseason, and something was going to have to change. You couldn't, with the acclamation period, make all three of those things happen. And the league certainly seems like it's been more willing to bend on preseason game than it has been on the idea of pushing the starting one of their season back. Maybe some of those teams will start to be heard right now. But I just, I would tell you the history over the last three or four months has been to the league office.

and Roger Goodell's office have pushed back very, very hard on the idea of moving the season back. Okay, so the season starts on time, no preseason games. What are the chances any fans get to see any of these games early on? I don't, I mean, based on, like, here's what I would tell you. If you'd ask me a month and a half ago, what would be the most likely teams to have fans in the stands come September, right? And I'm talking about the beginning of June, I would have told you maybe the falcons, maybe the dolphins, maybe the cowboys, maybe the Texans. And that's just based on the way some of the decision making was going in those states. Now what you see is the places that I think probably would have been most likely to have fans in the stand at the beginning of September, those have become the hot spot.

And so, you know, I remember saying this to people back. You know, in June, I said there was certainly a scenario out there where the dollar, Offins and the Cowboys could have half full stadiums in September, and the Giants and the Jets and the Rams and the Chargers are playing an empty stadium. I think that the pendulum has sort of swung on that a little bit now. And so I certainly think that this decision-making, and right now the way that they've handled it to this point is that those are going to be team-by-team and region-by-region decisions.

But I'd say right now it seems pretty unlikely that we'll have fans in the stance for week one. Could that change in October, November? It certainly could. because the bottom line is the league's going to do and the teams are going to do everything they can to save every last dime of revenue because they know they're going to lose some this year. And so if that means having different rules for one place than another in October and November to try to recoup some of the money, then they'll do that. And that, by the way, is part of the reason why they want to have a single preseason game or two preseason games on the calendar. It's not just putting butts in the seat. It's also that a lot of these teams have local TV deals that basically go down the tubes.

if the preseason is eliminated altogether. Correct, correct. And that's why, but they also need two games, right? So they can get two of those. But I guess one, you can get both sides, local TV could be salvaged. It's actually fast. What about the salary cap? The imminent drop in the salary cap because it's based upon league revenues,

how are they going to remedy that? Well, Doug, no one wants that, right? Like, it's not good for anybody. It's a cap dropped by, you know, 50 or $60 million in 2000. 21. And so, you know, I think the most likely scenario now is that you probably spread it out, but the owners have pushed back against that. And really to lay it out for people, you know, they project the revenue going forward. So, you know, this year's salary cap number was projected on what they thought the revenues would be before the virus hit. Obviously, everything

has changed now. And, you know, this would cause, you know, a drop in the salary cap in 2021 now. And so, you know, if you have $140 million salary cap in 2021 after having, you know, the $200 million cap in 2020, what's going to happen? You know, then roster is going to have to hemorrhage talent. Players are going to lose their job. Long-term extensions aren't going to be worked out. So that's good for no one. So the question is then how do you get it where you can have a flat cap over the next few years? I think the scenario that's most likely all along has been you spread the hit out over.

five years, six years, seven years, whatever it is to make up for what you lose in 2020. And so you can have a flat tap in 2021. The problem with that is that the owners in the league did that one time before. And that happened between 2011 and 13. And a lot of the owners didn't like that. They felt like that was giving the players an interest-free loan. So they would rather have the players feel the hurt with them and take the hit right now via pay cut. Now, if you want to get a step further, the issue then,

of the players become, well, wait a second, I'm already taking the COVID risk. And now you're asking me to take the COVID risk and come out there and play for less? No, like, I'm not going to do that. So that's sort of where the disconnect is. I think ultimately they'll find a way to remedy that, but it's still something that's hanging out there. And I know that there are some owners that really would like to see the players feel the financial burden as they are. Albert Breer joining us, senior NFL reporter from the MMQB.

It's Doug Gottlie filling in for Colin. This is The Hurt on Fox Sports Radio and the IHeart Radio app. Okay, here's some football questions for you. First, apparently there's like dueling throwing groups with Cam Newton, right? Cam is in L.A. He's got some guys. He's filming all this stuff.

He's putting it out, you know, he's putting out all kinds of stuff on his IG. Meanwhile, Hoyer and Jared Stidham are back in Massachusetts. They got their center with him and Muhammad Sanoo and some of the other guys. Like the noise we're hearing is from Cam. We hear nothing from the other side. How is this going to work out in Foxborough? It's kind of interesting, Doug, because I think that part of this is just,

this happened naturally. Cam was throwing in L.A. Before he signed with the Patriots, so he's just sort of kept throwing out there and he's invited some of his new teammates. out there. And, you know, Jared Stim and Brian Hoyer have been throwing in Massachusetts. And so these things, and they're happening across the league, right? It sort of naturally played out that way.

The interesting part about it, though, to me is I sort of think back to some of the guys I know that have coached Cam, that have been around Cam, that have talked to Cam over the last six months. And one thing that became abundantly clear after, you know, we all figured out that he wasn't going to be a panther ahead of him getting cut was he had told people. I'm not going somewhere to be someone's mentor. I'm not going to go do what, say, Joe Flacco wound up doing where, you know,

he's going to sort of help Sam get Darnold out in New York. I'm not going to go be what, say, you know, Derek Anderson was to him in Carolina. Like, he was going to go somewhere. He was going to go somewhere to play. And so I think you can see that very much, this isn't going to be a mentorship between Cam Newton and Jared Sidham. It's going to be a competition.

And I think it's pretty unlikely that Jared Stimm winds up winning that competition. But this has been the ethos of the Belichick program forever that they don't hand anything to anyone and they make you compete for your job. And so I think this is sort of played out in a very natural way. And part of the reason why, you know, Cam hasn't put his arm around Jared Stidham, the young quarterback yet. And remember, those two actually have met before because they're both, you know, they both played at Auburn. They've got something in common there. Both transferred into Auburn, too, by the way. Yeah, they both transferred in.

But I think part of this is, you know, Cam didn't go to New England and put his arm around Jared Sidham and say, here, I'll show you the way. I think he'll be helpful to him when they're in the building together. But right now for both these guys, it's about winning a job. What's the relationship like between Jimmy Garoppolo and Kyle Shanahan? Like my understanding is that it's been fine. For the most part, I know John Lynch and Jimmy and Kyle Shanahan have made an effort to be up front with. with Jimmy about everything. And I can take you back to how all this happened, you know, in March and April.

The Niners, because there are some people on their staff that have connections to Brady, got wind to the fact that, you know, if they wanted Brady, he would be inclined to sign there. Like, there was a good likelihood if the Niners made a run at Tom Brady, Tom Brady was going to the Niners. And so, you know, that was a unique opportunity, obviously. And so Kyle Shanahan and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and. John Lynch and a bunch of other Niners guys said, okay, we're going to sit down and we're going to watch tape of Tom Brady. And as part of the process, they said the other thing we're going to do is we're going to go back and we're going to watch the last three years of Jimmy Garapolo too.

And so after they went through that process and they were up front with Jimmy throughout. And after that process, they made the decision right now we're better off with Jimmy Garapolo in his late 20s than we would be with Tom Brady in his early 40s. as enticing as it is, and if it wasn't a very unique opportunity, they wouldn't have even broached the idea of moving on from their quarterback after a Super Bowl season. They did all the research, and they did the research on both guys. And I think in a certain way, there Jimmy Garoppel probably learned two things. One, it affirmed that the Niners really like them.

And two, you know, it also affirmed the fact that the NFL, you've got to keep winning your job. And so, you know, Jimmy Garoppola goes into 2020, you know, as the firm starting quarterback of the Niners, but with the knowledge that he's got to keep earning his spot with that team. Albert Breer joining us here. Doug Gottlieb been for calling this to hurt. Albert writes for the MMQB. Dak Prescott does not agree to a long-term deal. They try to get something done at the last second. Nothing happens. I've heard some speculate, oh, okay, he'll become a free agent next year. I just see this as, well, we'll do this exact same dance next year. Now that we've had the chance to dust to settle,

what's the general reaction around the league to DAC being franchise tagged and not agreeing to a long-term contract? Jack has a boatload of leverage. And Dak wouldn't have walked away from what he walked away from if there wasn't something enticing on the table, Doug. I mean, they're going to have to tag him again next year at 37 million. And if they can't work out a long-term deal then, then the tag goes up to $54 million in 2022.

too. So, you know, either way, Jack Prescott, you know, one of a couple things is going to happen now. He's either going to collect about $70 million guaranteed over the next two years and become a free agent at 28 years old. Or he's going to collect, I think, somewhere around $123 million, and my math might be a little off there over the next three years and become a free agent at 29 years old. So either way, if you look at this, the Cowboys are going to be a lot of $123 million. to have to beat what Dak Prescott can do by just sitting there and doing nothing. And so I think the likelihood is that they probably have to tag him again after the year. They, of course, can't negotiate a long-term deal again until after the season's over. My guess would be they try to get a deal done.

But so long as Dak plays well and stays healthy in 2020, he's going to have the hammer again going into 2021. Albert Brewer from the MMQB joining us, Doug Gottlieb in for Colin. This is The HARD on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, so what about Dan Snyder? The other big story last week was the Washington Post's expose of treatment of women for the last, you know, 10, 15 years within that front office. All of the men who were accused of wrongdoing by the 14 unnamed and one named woman in the article have either been fired or left the franchise. how in danger is he of losing the right to own that franchise?

So I tend to look at this as, you know, just sort of on precedent, right? And so the precedent we have, and you may know more about the Donald Sterling situation than I do, but that's one piece of precedent we have. And then obviously we've got the Jerry Richardson piece of precedent from a couple of years ago. and the one thing that the Sterling and the Richardson cases have a comment is direct involvement in what was being, you know, in what was being alleged. And so in both those cases, you could point right to the owner and you could say the owner himself, not only brought shame upon himself, he brought shame upon the franchise, he brought shame upon the league, and we got to kick him out of the club, basically. and that was sort of the way that those two worked out. The difference here, of course, is that Dan Snyder,

I think you'd argue has a lack of institutional control, certainly, and that organization is not their first rodeo with embarrassing episodes like this, but was he directly involved, or was he alleged to have been directly involved in what happened in the Washington Post story? No, so I think it's going to be a little harder to pry the franchise away from him.

And so, you know, I'm not saying, happen. I think we saw the way, I believe, in the clipper situation, the players sort of organized against Donald Sterling. It's what to happen with the Washington players. You might see some movement, but right now it doesn't seem like it rises to the level of the Clippers or the Panthers situations. And I also got to wonder this. I mean, as, and you know what these environments are like, do the other owners really want to kick another guy out for what happened in that building knowing they may have some dirt under their fingernails too?

Yeah, no. And there may be some, there may be some. And so that's, I think, part of the equation here as well. Yeah, look, I do, I think the timing is quite curious, to be honest with you with the Washington Post. I'm not saying it's nefarious. But, you know, we spoke to one of the writers and he was like, yeah, this is something we investigated a couple years ago. Nothing. And then, you know, two weeks ago, we started re-investigating it. Now we have this piece. Well, that just so happens to coincide with this push to change the name. And, look,

Dan Snyder's a guy that's rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. And then, of course, you have the minority owners wanting out. You have like, oh, it's essentially a coup d'etat. And I don't think they have the goods on him to make himself because, as you point out, he is not, nor accused of having any sort of direct involvement. And though you don't give them a total pass, it's not to level where you can force a guy to sell a team. Right. And I just, again, like, this is different than firing an employee.

And I think sometimes people, I mean, look, like, whether it's fair or not, the fact of the matter is, like, if you're an employee, you know, you don't own anything, you know, that the boss can get ready to you. When you are the boss, it's a little hard to, for someone to make a move on on what you own. And so, you know, I think that that, I just, again, you know,

you look at the Jerry Richardson situation, look the way the temperature rolls in the Donald Sterling situation. And it's just, it's just so difficult to see where, where, where, where that, where they would come up with the case that, that he has to sell a team. Now, has he been, has his ownership been shaky over the last 20 years without question?

Have there been incidents before that have embarrassed the franchise? No doubt about it. So, you know, I think the argument you can make is that this lack of institutional control has been there for enough time. But then the question becomes, is that enough to take something away to someone own? And I think that that's, I mean, my experience in pro sports, my experience having covered pro sports has been that, you know, in those sorts of cases, owners will be punished by their peers. but, you know, it's hard to see where the other owners will want to set the precedent of somebody having their team taken away. Albert, Beer, MMQB, Albert, great stuff.

Thanks so much for joining us. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline.

And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert 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.

or Street or 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. On The Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's big to me.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. It was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

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