The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd for May 14, 2020

Episode Date: May 14, 2020

Colin is fighting the injustice of the media once again disrespecting Russell WilsonColin is not sold on Jarrett Stidham popping this seasonTua has abilities that you can't explain and that is a trait of star players in all sportsDana White rips the New York Times and Colin defends himGuest: Joel Klatt, FOX College Football Analyst Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart 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 is big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, 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. 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?

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Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Heard. is the best of the herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Oh, here we go. I am worked up. It is a Thursday live in Los Angeles. Doing my own hair. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening.

Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio. Yes, we're back in studio right here, FS1, Sirius XM Channel 83. It is great to have you. Joy Taylor is joining me. We came back to the studio tomorrow. can smell the antiseptic. We are getting our temperatures checked in the parking garage before we're allowed to come up. There's masks everywhere. Even the croissants and the cereals are social distancing. I feel safer here than I've ever felt in my life, to be honest with you. Big Vast studio. Joy is

joining me again. Joy, it's great to be here. I'm all worked up today, Joy. Yes, you are very fired up. It seems to be similar topics that kind of stick with you. So I am, I think, When you think of me, you think there's a guy that fights injustice. That's always been my brand. I'm like a superhero without any powers, right? That's how I see myself. Batman, by the way, for the record, didn't have any powers either. He just had a big budget.

I'm Batman without the butler and without the longtime companion. Make of that what you will. But the point being is Batman was a bat. He couldn't even fly. It was the only bat in the planet couldn't fly. Batman couldn't do anything. He had a good budget. I got a decent budget. So I'm going to fight injustice today. That is my new brand. I am the superhero with no powers. Russell Wilson got hosed again. So pro football focus used to like him came out with the best players of the

decade. This isn't a small injustice either. So from 2010 to 2020, the best players of the decade. Tom Brady's number one. Not a big argument there. Aaron Donald's 2. You're not getting a lot of arguments. Drew Brees is three, Richard, Sherman, four, gronk, five, Aaron Rogers, Von Miller, Julio

Jones, J.J. Watt, Luke Keakley, Joe Thomas, Chris Harrison, that's interesting. Evan Math, Mathis, a guard, Harrison Smith, Patrick Willis, hasn't played in six years. Oh, Russell Wilson's 33rd.

A guard made it over him. Calvin Johnson never won a playoff game and retired early. Patrick Willis, several spots ahead, retired six years ago. Didn't play half the decade. A safety? Four of them. Four safeties. It's interesting.

Rob Grunkowski missed 45 games in the decade and was hobbled, was a shell of himself for the last three years of the decade. Russell Wilson is not even the top Seahawk. Richard Sherman is ahead of him. Not even Earl Thomas is ahead of him. Oh, good hell. Marshawn Lynch is ahead of him. He's the fourth best Seahawk.

Seattle, it should be noted before Russell Wilson, and I'm from Seattle, team I grew up with, was irrelevant before he arrived. They're the most known thing about the Seahawks. was Bosworth getting run over by Bo Jackson. That was like their thing, right? That's what you and you thought of Seattle. The Kingdom and Ross,

uh, Boz getting run over. They were known for great fans and cool uniforms. That was before Russell Wilson. Now they are known as a top five franchise. Well, Pete Carroll. No, Pete Carroll showed up two years before Russell and had two losing seasons.

This ain't a Pete Carroll thing. Pete Carroll was there before. Two years before. Seven to nine, seven to nine. Seattle was still irrelevant. They just had a famous coach. And a good running back and a good defense, not denying it. But Seattle now is one of five really elite franchises that seem to win every year.

New England, Green Bay, the Saints, Baltimore, you know, you get into that kind of Pittsburgh, Seattle. But Baltimore's had down years. We think Pittsburgh mostly has underachieved. And why doesn't New Orleans win those big games late? Really, New England, do you know this, is the only team this decade with more playoff wins than Seattle. New England, that's it. You think Earl Thomas is the reason for that? Maybe I should ask his brother.

I hear they're tight. Anywho, I love Drew Breeze. You know I love Drew Breeze. First ballot Hall of Famer, I call him a top eight quarterback of all time. I get pushback. In this decade, Drew Breeze has four playoff wins. Russell Wilson has nine. Drew Breeze had four losing seasons in the decade.

That's four more than Russell Wilson. And Russell didn't even play the entire decade, but yet Matt Ryan is ahead of him here. Matt Ryan's had four losing seasons. Matt Ryan's had two seasons in his career, passer rating over 100. Russell Wilson's career passer rating is over 100. Matt Ryan went 4 and 12.

Russell's never in his life going to have a 4 and 12 season. Hasn't had even like a bad season. College, NC State, college, Wisconsin, Pro Seattle. 32 NFL GMs, including the one in Atlanta. If Russell Wilson and Matt Ryan were available would take Russell. Russell's the better passer. Russell's the better athlete. Russell's the better playmaker.

Russell makes something out of nothing. Russell can win with bad old lines. Matt Ryan is overwhelmed with bad old lines. And I like Matt Ryan. I consider him a top 10 quarterback. And I love Drew Brees. I consider him a first ballot Hall of Famer. You've got to be kidding me.

You know what it tells me about this? Pro football focus should not be working from home. Pro football unfocused is what I'm calling it this morning. I will give them next hour a chance to fight for their case. This is absurd. And I've said it before. Russell Wilson is the best football player in the world today.

He's not the tallest, doesn't have the best arm. IQ, leadership, playmaking. Russell Wilson literally does things we can't explain. Eight years. Why doesn't even get hit? Lamar Jackson's faster gets hit. Carson Wendz, bigger, stronger, gets hit. Mahomes last year, gets hit.

Russell Wilson does stuff nobody can explain. He never gets hit. He runs backwards. He runs sideways. He runs forward. He faces the Niners twice a year. He faces Aaron Donald twice a year. He never gets hit.

You can't even explain stuff he does. Russell Wilson, 33rd, fourth Seahawk, best player of the decade. And you wonder, I fight injustice. I am now Batman without the butler. I am fighting this cause. I'm not letting it go. It's ridiculous. And he's the only player on this list I've seen so far

that in the last two days was rumored to be traded two years ago to the Cleveland Browns. And his team wants to bring Cam Newton in as a backup. What? It's incredible to me. We do this all the time. Is that if you don't look like everybody else looks like, we don't know what to make of you.

It's kind of weird. You know, Russell's it. He's not the prototypical. This is Lamar Jackson. I'm guilty of it. I'm like he runs more than he passes. But I didn't consider great coach, great owner, great personnel department,

and the league's changing. The running thing works now. You've got to kind of run. So, pro football focus. Russell Wilson, Gronk missed 45 games in the decade, hobbled his last three years, is five. Calvin Johnson, Evan Mathis, Patrick Willis, these are good players.

I'm not denying it. Russell's below all of them. Never forget. Seattle was, and I'm from there, was an irrelevant franchise known for cool uniforms, boss getting run over, great fans. Pete Carroll had a losing record in Seattle. If Russell Wilson isn't drafted, Pete's not in the NFL, not in Seattle. He was getting one more year.

They were paying him too much. Pete's career NCAA baggage at USC, NFL. He'd already been fired twice, two losing seasons. If he doesn't draft Russell Wilson has Matt Flynn, he has a third losing season. He's done. He's now a legend. Okay. That's just where I'm starting today.

And I'm in a good mood. You know what? You know, what do they say? Not all heroes wear capes. You know, I just wear a sports shirt. Somewhere a button down. Somewhere a button down. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays,

at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard 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.

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and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tript 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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as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search Learn the Hard Way and listen now. 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 Jay. 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. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s.

To be clear, 84 was big to me not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, 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 for 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. What's up, guys? This is Clever 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? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. A rep, my mama want you to wave at her.

What? Where's he at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I don't buy into the garage band theory that, you know, we just didn't get breaks or we're not sellouts. The bottom line is YouTube, Jay-Z, Beyonce.

Yeah, they sell out everything because they're really good. If you have talent in America, we'll find you. You will be found. Carson Wentz. You know, you start looking at these guys, T.O. Where did T.O. go to college? Carson Wentz is playing in the Dakotas. It doesn't matter. If you're good, you're going to end up getting drafted. And if you're really good, you're going to get drafted in the first round. I don't believe in this whole, you know, I was really talented, but I never got a break. There's too much money in America. We are the nation of 120 countries in the world. We're the place for capitalists.

There's just too much money in music. There's too much money in football. There's too much money in finance. There's too much money in medicine. We'll find you. You're great. We'll find you. And now with YouTube, you don't even need a budget. You can just have your grandma tape you, put it on YouTube, and we'll find you. The days of sleepers are over.

People will find you. And even if you're at a small place, they'll be a buzz about you. You'll hear a buzz. Oh, there's this kid down. There's this magician. There's this entertainer. So Cliff Kingsbury is the last. latest coach to talk about Jared Stidham.

He just goes on and on about Jared Stidham. I recruited him. Oh, my Lord. Tremendous thrower of the football really comes out clean. Watched him at 16. Ball jumped out of his hand. Very accurate. Cool, calm. Doesn't try too hard around the guys.

He's a natural leader. And I'm like, all right. So let me ask you this. Bill Belichick watched him all year. Tom Brady is now old and expensive. Wouldn't Belichick have said, why are we waiting for Brady? We got Stidham. The Colts bailed on Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck was still a college player.

Bill Belichick, after Tom Brady won a Super Bowl versus Atlanta, had Jimmy Garoppolo. Brady was better than, younger than, and had just been the MVP of the Super Bowl. and Belichick was ready to move off him for Garoppolo. Brady's now older off his worst season in years, and Belichick's like, is Tom wearing a re-sign? We got space for Tom. We'll keep Tom. Belichick watched him the whole year.

He watched him every practice. He didn't blow him away. Listen, it's not like Jared Stidham played in the sticks. He played at Auburn. It's in the SEC. He beat Alabama. The game got a massive rating. We knew who Jared Stidham was.

We watched Jared Stidham. He threw for 18 touchdowns at Auburn. Auburn's got NFL offensive linemen, NFL running backs, NFL tight ends, NFL. It's Auburn, for God's sakes. It's the top 10, 12 program in the country, maybe top eight. They beat Bama regularly. Nobody else does except Clemson. So it's Auburn.

We watched them two years. When he got drafted in the fourth round, were we outraged? We barely even mentioned it. It wasn't even mentioned. Now, perhaps he's a late bloomer, but the idea I keep hearing about all these insiders talking about how Grady is, and my thing is, Belichick watched him for a year and still sat around hoping Tom Brady signed.

Belichick, when Garapolo got drafted, the first year, there was buzz about him. The first camp there was buzz about him. The first preseason there was buzz about him. People were into Jimmy Garoppolo. So much so, Tom Brady went to the owner and said, get him out of here. Brady, there was no buzz about Jared Stidham.

As an old struggling Tom Brady we didn't even suggest Stidim should play. So I never bought into the garage brand band that just didn't get a break. I don't, you know, like, it's like comedy. Oh, this guy was really funny. He never got a break. It's too much money in comedy. Dave Chappelle was 20.

It was 20. And Mel Brooks put him in a lead role for a movie. At 20, Chris Rock, John Stewart, Bill Maher, they're killing it. At like 23, they're. agents everywhere. Tiger Woods had an agent at 11. So I hope Jared Stidham works. But there's not even a buzz

about him. Belichick wanted Brady back. I don't buy it. I want to see it. And by the way, I could argue they have the worst weapons in the league. He's going to elevate those. I don't buy it. And I hope the kid works. I mean, you don't want to see New England be unwatchable. They already have a conservative system. A conservative system, no weapons, and a bad quarterback.

It's terrible football. I love Belichick, the best coach I've ever seen. But when I, when insiders start telling me about somebody and there's no buzz all these years in, a guy that played in the SEC against Alabama, and I think he, one of the years, he beat

Alabama and he got drafted in the fourth round, and we were like, yeah, this is about where he is. Maybe he's the world's latest bloomerate quarterback. But I mean, I can remember very early with Lamar Jackson, very early in college, people are being like, oh, that's Michael Vick. Oh, my God.

a lord and people started arguing about him he's good no he's overrated he's good he's overrated if they're arguing about you there's a buzz about you like that means half the people are like wow and half the people are like oh overrated there's not even arguments about jared stidham nobody's like there's no pro jared stidham or anti jared stidham camp because there's no buzz and i and i and i just kind of tend to leave if you got it we'll find it we'll hear about it if you're not planned be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon eastern 9 a m pacific I saw this where there's a story out that Tua should compete for the Dolphins, Miami Dolphins starting job right now, as long as the medical staff in Miami clears him. One of the reasons I think Tua is the best prospect in this draft is because a lot of what he does, you can't really explain.

It's not quantifiable. And when you get people like that and we have examples of it, it usually becomes great. Let me give you three examples. The first one we've talked about, Russell Wilson. How come he never gets hit? He runs like Lamar Jackson. He runs like Carson Wentz. Eight years in the NFL.

He never gets hit. You can't really explain it. He runs backwards. You're not supposed to do that. He runs. He's shorter than you're supposed to. He never gets hit. There's an instinct with him that nobody else has.

Even Lamar doesn't have it. Wence doesn't have it. Steve Young didn't have it. He never gets hit. when you can't explain it, it's special. Let me give you a second one. Mariano Rivera. He had one pitch.

For 20 years, he had one pitch. It was a cutter. Nobody could hit it. He got old. The pitch got slower. Nobody could hit it. You can't explain it. There's nobody in baseball that has one pitch.

He had one, and he's the most unhittable closer of all time. Batters knew it was coming. Is he got older, it got slower. He had one. one pitch, and it was often better against the better hitters. You can't explain it. That's special. Let me give you another.

Dennis Rodman. Six, seven and a half skinny guy is the all-time best rebounder in league history. How's that possible? He played in an era with a keem and shack and big seven-foot centers. And this skinny guy was the best rebounder? What? That doesn't make any sense. It wasn't like he was the strongest.

He wasn't the tallest. He wasn't the best jumper. He wasn't the most powerful. He hustled, but lots of guys hustled. Larry Bird hustled. A lot of guys jumped into the stands. How is Dennis Rodman the best rebounder ever? You can't quantify it.

Russell Wilson, Mariano Rivera, Dennis Rodman. When you can't qualify it, it's called special. And those people usually become great. Mark Sanchez on the other day. Mark Sanchez, good college player, you know, NFL had some success. Watch his film. This is what he does. And he tried to explain Tua, and he couldn't really explain some of it. Sometimes he can't even articulate what he did on film, and it leaves you scratching your head because it's so good and so fast and so instinctive. You're like, well, how did you know that? And he can't really get the words out. Like, he doesn't even know.

It's almost like he's processing what's happening physically in front of him. And in those nanoseconds, his body's already reacting. He's already making decisions that he didn't even know he could make that quickly, and he can't even talk about it. So I was like, what the heck is that? How did you know? And I mean, it's just, it's uncanny the way he does stuff like that. So it's almost like he's mentally twitchy. It's crazy. I've never been around anybody like that.

Yeah, that's why I think he's special. I think you can explain Joe Burrow. You can explain Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert's a four-point student, big strong kid, family was athlete, it's got a cannon for an arm. He had a really good offensive line in college. I think Joe Burrow wasn't great until he got a great team around. him. He's a good distributor of the football when he has protection, time, and good receivers. Tua, a lot of stuff I can't explain. He's not very big, doesn't have a great arm, didn't have a

huge arm. He's not real big. He's actually, people will tell you, he's not even that great of an athlete. But why was he the number one high school quarterback in the country? He was undersized, didn't have a rocket arm, wasn't a super athlete. Huh? Don't you have to be great at one of those things? Like John Elway, you were like, oh my God, what an arm. Trevor Lawrence, size, arm. What is it? It's the unexplainable, and that usually becomes great. I can explain Patrick Mahomes. His dad played in the majors.

Guy's got a ridiculous arm. He's an all-time armed talent. He also has great weapons and one of the great play designers ever. I can explain the whole Patrick Mahomes thing. I can explain Carson Wentz, 6-5 rocket arm, throws from angles, tough kid, really athletic. I can explain it. I can explain Michael Jordan. I mean, I can explain Michael Jordan.

Huge hands, allowed him to palm it, a relentless work ethic. and competitive to the point of strange. I can, and by the way, had a 40-inch vertical, big hands, super quick. He had big hands, but not huge feet, allowed him to be really quick and shifty. I can explain everything. Magic Johnson, he was a six, nine and a half point. There were no six, nine and a half points. He was just so much bigger than everybody.

And he had the butt, and he backed in, and he had great court vision, and he worked on his game. And he was still at the very end, not a great shooter and not a great defender. but I could explain it. Also happens, he inherited Kareem. That helped. But, you know, when we can't explain you, and there's, you know, Mariano Rivera, it's hard to explain. A lot of guys through the cutter.

I mean, Dennis Rodman, a lot of guys hustled. A lot of six, seven and a half guys hustled. Well, he was skilled. Not really. Couldn't shoot. I mean, you know, I don't know how to explain it. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day,

seven days a week within the IHeart Radio app. Search her to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Let's bring on the cluster, Joe Flown. Fresh off. What's going on, man? I'm all worked up supporting Russell Wilson. I guess.

By the way, when he was at Wisconsin, you're like an encyclopedia for college football. Do you remember Russell? I remember him at NC State. Do you remember how he changed Wisconsin football for a year? Do you remember? Go back in. 100%. to that point.

Now, we've seen it broken. It seems like every single year. But remember, Colin, to that point, that was the most efficient college football season we've ever seen from a quarterback. He set the QBR standard or rating standard for the history of college football in one season. He went in there and was a captain right away. He is the reason, the catalyst, why this graduate transfer rule has become so invoked throughout college football because of what happened at Wisconsin. And they almost went and won the Rose Bowl.

Remember, it was the great TCU team with Andy Dalton. I think Tank Carter was a linebacker that actually beat them in the Rose Bowl, or else they would have been Rose Bowl champions. That was a really good football team. And the reason was Russell Wilson. It was a fascinating year. So I was told a couple of days ago that expect the Pac-12 at least to play a condensed Pac-12 schedule.

No traveling, no out of conference, no out of region. It is going to be condensed if they can get it in the fall. and with California's legislators, Governor, Mayor of L.A., we're not sure that's true. That's right. Your thought on games being played just regionalized, Big Ten versus Big Ten, SEC versus SEC. How's that land for you? Okay, so the first thing is nothing has been decided firmly, and they're talking about all sorts of situations and plans for the season.

I think I would start with this, Colin, and I want to make this abundantly clear. I absolutely believe there will be college football this fall in some capacity. There's no doubt in my mind. It's going to happen. Now, what it looks like, that's what then we get into this minutiae. What does it look like? Are we just going to do conference schedules? I've heard every commissioner and a lot of ADs talk about trying to get to those conference

schedules right away when the weather is warm and when they feel like they have a window of opportunity early in the season to potentially play just conference teams. Like you said, it would reduce the amount of travel. The hard part with that is that there is some large revenue games that are scheduled right now in the non-league. And in particular, Notre Dame is out there looking around, looking at their ACC schedule with their scheduling partnership and what they could possibly do outside of this. Now, I want to go back to where you initially started, which is the PAC 12. And you talk about that they were talking about condensed schedules and so on and so forth. I want to be very clear about this.

Larry Scott does not have the political capital to get that conference to behave as one. Okay. So what's going to happen in the PAC 12, if there's a conference that is most likely to be fractured, one school playing in one state against some other team, regardless of what's going on elsewhere in the conference, it will be the PAC 12. In fact, I've been told by multiple sources that the ADs have had conversations behind the conferences back that would tell each other, listen, if we're unable to, to play via a mayor's ruling, a state governor's ruling. You guys go ahead and look out for yourself.

And in fact, some of the ADs in states that really believe that they will have football have offered specifically the California schools and some have offered even the Oregon schools, the chance to come play home games in their state. So if we make any sort of assertion about what we think that this is going to look like, I think we would be jumping way ahead of where they're at in the process right now because everything's on the table in the PAC 12 and make no bones about it. The ADs are the one driving that bus because Larry Scott does not have the political capital to get them to all behave as one. So I was saying this earlier.

I don't believe in these garage bands that just never got a break. It doesn't matter. The Beatles weren't even from here. You two's not from here. If you're talented today, America finds you and compensates you. Ricky Jervis is not from here. We found him and we love him. I don't buy that Jared Stiddam is this secret sauce.

He got drafted in the fourth round. Nobody was outraged. He played in a massive power with NFL guys everywhere. He beat Alabama. And now all these football insiders are like, oh, he's special. Oh, he's. Belichick was willing to move off Brady after he won a Super Bowl with Garoppolo. Belichick, though, with an older Brady off a bad season, wanted Tom to resign with Jared

stood him there. Is it possible? You saw him play, Joel? He's okay. He's average. And remember, he was a transfer. You know, he started his career at Baylor. Not many people remember that and remember how hard you've been on our boy, the first pick, Joe Burrow, for having to transfer away from Ohio State. But I will tell you this, that there is no secret sauce.

And I think we attribute as sports fans, in particular in the football arena, I think that we attribute way too much secret sauce to New England, right? I think a large reason why Tom Brady struggled is because Bill Belichick, the GM failed him. Who did he have to throw to? Put his eggs in the basket of what, Antonio Brown? Like, you know, what are we talking about? So to a large extent, I think that people view New England and the quarterback position at New England through this lens that they're going to win 11 games and, you know, almost make the playoffs regardless of what happened. with Tom Brady because of what happened with him when he tore his ACL.

Remember when Matt Castle won 11 games, they missed the playoffs. And it was like, oh, my gosh, Bill Belichick's the greatest thing since sliced bread. And he might be the greatest coach of all time. But I will tell you, there's no secret sauce. And Bill Belichick would not have offered Tom Brady a contract, even if Tom Brady felt like that was a bit of a slight, if he felt like Jared Stidham was a better option in no semblance of reality is Jared Stidham a better option at quarterback for the New England Patriots than Tom Brady. Period. Period. You know, you have a baseball career and a football background. So I was saying earlier, there are athletes in my life that do things that are not explained. Russell Wilson never gets hit.

You cannot explain it. Lamar does. Carson Wentz does. MaHolmes does. Russell never gets hit. Mariano Rivera, one pitch. Nobody could hit it for 20 years. That's never happened in the history of baseball. When people have a special ability, and it's not quantifiable, they become great. Dennis Rodman, best rebounder ever. Why? Skinny, 6, 7 playing against seven footers. It makes no sense. I can't explain it.

Tua, I believe, is the only quarterback in this class that does stuff that you can't explain. He's innate. There are instincts here. He's not the biggest. His arm is okay. He's not a great athlete. And he's the number one.

High school quarterback. He comes in as a freshman. He's great. When I see special, all bets are off. Most of the great athletes, they're special. So I think I can explain Burrow and Justin Herbert and Jordan Love. I can't explain Tua. Does that make any sense?

Am I just whiffing here? Well, I think you're whiffing. But I love Tua as a player. You know that. You and I have talked about Tua extensively. I think he is a brilliant player. There's no doubt his biggest flaw, as I've told you before, is that he thinks he's more elusive than he is.

He actually thinks he's Russell Wilson when he's not. And he does get hit and he does get wrapped up from behind, which causes the ankle injuries, which he's had two surgeries on and caused the hip fracture. So that's concerning to me. Now, his play from the pocket is uncanny. It's fantastic. I love his quick delivery. He's smart.

He knows where to go with the football. I would say that he and to a large extent Joe Burrow as well. I mean, they got to throw to some unbelievable players. Maybe the best wide receiver on Alabama's team wasn't even available in the draft. And they still had a couple of guys going the first round from a wide receiver. receiver standpoint. So he certainly was a benefactor of having great players around him. I will, I will tell you this, though, that I don't believe that there's a quarterback, even Joe Burrow, who I'm so high on, you're explaining something that's like unexplainable. And I would call

them independent contributors. It doesn't matter what's going on around them. They will come in and they will perform. I thought Andrew Luck was that level. I thought John Elway was that level. I thought Peyton Manning to a large extent was that level. In fact, you referenced my baseball career just quickly. I was in the Padres organization in the year 2000 and 2001. Tony Gwyn was still there. And one day in spring training, I got, had the opportunity to sit at a table and have lunch with him and listen to Tony Gwynn talk about hitting. And I was looking across room and I was like, nothing about this guy's physical stature would suggest that he's one of the greatest hitters in the history of the sport. And yet,

listening to him talk about the philosophy of hitting and pit selection, the way that he approached each at bat, it was just a light ball for me. Like, of course, his brain, his mind is why he's so great. Later that spring, actually, the Padres did a minor league deal with Ricky Henderson. If you go back, you'll check this out. He was in AAA for a big portion of that spring training. And Sean Burroughs was a third baseman at the time for the AAA team. He got hurt and his arm was sore. He was going to be down for a week. So they just said, hey, kid, from rookie ball, me, go play third base and bat and Sean Burroughs place in the lineup. So I hit second behind Ricky Henderson for a week in spring training in the year 2001. It was one of the most fascinating experiences

in my life. In fact, he would constantly look back at me before he went up to bat as I was walking to the on deck circle and Colin, he would be like, two, three. And I was like, what, what is Ricky Henderson telling me numbers about? And then I finally asked our skipper, Jeff Gardner. I was like, Garty, why does Ricky keep telling me a number before he goes his? He goes, oh, hey, Rook, that's the number of pitches he expects you to take so he can steal second. I was like, oh, I've been out there swinging from my heels, not knowing what was going on, but it goes to your point. You talk about these innate contributors, the greatness that can almost not be measured. We're seeing it the last dance. I saw it firsthand with Ricky Henderson and Tony Gwen watching Ricky steal

bases well into his 40s only because he knew how to. His first step was as powerful and as quick as I've ever seen. Tua is not that, right? I just don't think that he's an independent contributor yet. We haven't seen him go through a college football season unscathed from a health standpoint. So I think that there's some room for him to go and prove it out there in the NFL. He's got some great qualities, but I don't think that I'm going to sit here and say, like, hands down, he's got things that I can't explain because I think that you can certainly get better if you're too. Good talking to you, Clad. I like hearing those old baseball stories. Why don't you put a pipe in, you know, once in a while, and you just sit back on the porch, sit bourbon and talk

baseball stories with Joel Clad. That's an idea for a hell of a podcast, to be honest with you. How about that? Ricky Henderson stealing second base while I'm swinging from my heels. He probably was like, Who is this? Get him out of here. A year later, I was at the University of Colorado. Joel Clat, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Joel. Appreciate that.

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 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 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. 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. suit 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. care gains is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeart radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. 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 Jay. 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 all day, but just so y'all 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 for finishing that sentence.

And, 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. What's up, guys? This is Clever 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, this linebacker walks up to him and he goes, A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue with 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. By the way, I've said this during this pandemic, that strong people are needed, necessary. Vince McMahon, Dana White. Roger Goodell NFL. You've got to push back. Joy and I have talked about this before off air.

There are people that are lonely, sad, isolated that go to social media and they're just negative. They wake up Saturday morning screaming at people. You give them good news, they turn it into bad news. You know, you got to be careful about it. Busy, successful people mostly don't wake up bitter on Saturday morning. Social media is full of it. And so I am here to defend people who I think we need strong people in this virus. I think Roger Goodell is strong.

I think Vince McMahon is strong and Dana White is strong. And I don't think the UFC event was probably perfect. But it's one of the best cards ever. They did a good job. You cannot be paralyzed by this virus. It's just something we're managing. By the way, the New York Times had an op-ed today where they acknowledged. The New York Times acknowledged in their op-ed.

Young Healthy Americans have a fatality rate similar to that of the seasonal flu. spend more time outside. That's the New York Times. They went on to say, we can't stay in our houses. There's a lot of context here in terms of mental health issues. Get outside. Get some sun. Let's slowly open it back up.

Let Americans live. That's the way we have to do this thing, just not hide from it. So even the New York Times. But the New York Times also, Dana White, who I've defended and criticized from time to time, he responded colorfully to a recent New York Times article, criticizing the UFC for not practicing enough social distancing in their post-fight interviews last weekend. There was an article in the New York Times today that was very critical of the execution.

That guy. I'm going to be a shit what that guy thinks, what he has to say or what he writes. Good for him. He's pulling good traffic. Do you not worry about the, like the... I don't give a fuck. Don't give a fuck. I love that.

You cannot be consumed. with how the media, they're not experts on any of this stuff. The media's experts? How many epidemiologists? Even our epidemiologists don't have the answers here. Here's what's going to win. Strong leadership, not consume with blowback, socially distance as much as possible. But Dana White is right.

He doesn't give a blank. And if you run a league, you can't be concerned about what media says. you do your best, you go in, you try to be safe. We're talking about the world's best athletes. The fatality rate is tiny. And, you know, if you're not comfortable with some blowback on this stuff, this is why Adam Silver, about a week ago, finally came to terms with it. Adam Silver was close it down, stay away.

And about a week ago, he went, no, I'm watching the NFL. You got to deal with some blowback on this. There are people that are negative. This is scary. I get it. It's awful. But I appreciate Dana White pulling off an all-time great card. It was a great card in the face of this thing.

And it's going to take more of this kind of resilience to battle it. 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 Slical Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite on humor. 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 head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at a podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. was big to me. I'm Sam Jay and I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year,

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.

84 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 and learn the hard way with your favorite therapist and hosts care 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're 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 Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHart podcast. heat human.