The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Bubba Wallace, Avery Bradley, Seahawks, MLB

Episode Date: June 24, 2020

Colin gives his thoughts on the Bubba Wallace situation, why he agrees with Avery Bradley, why he thinks the Seahawks might interested in Antonio Brown, and why MLB will be interesting this season. Guests include Nick Wright, Emmanuel Acho, Eric Karros, and Carson Palmer. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Great show today. Emmanuel Acho is new to FS1. He'll be joining us top of next hour. A delightful guy, super talented guy. He's the digital superstar in America today. So I met him for the first time yesterday. He's going to be on the show today. Can't wait.

Joy Taylor is joining me. Joy, how are you? I'm great. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Five or six times a year I drive to work. And I know race is going to be a topic. Those are not my favorite days.

But today is one of those days and we need to talk about it. The FBI says the rope in Bubble Wallace's garage had been there since October. that Bubba Wallace was not a victim of hate crime. The FBI report concludes, and photographic evidence confirms, the garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose, had been positioned there since early as last fall. We appreciate the FBI's quick and thoughtful investigation, and thankful to learn this was not an intentional racist act against Bubba Wallace,

the only full-time black driver. It should be noted. a crew member for Richard Petty Motorsports. The sports's greatest legend ever discovered the new Sunday at the Alabama racetrack. NASCAR was alerted and contacted the FBI, which sent 15 agents to the track to investigate. There are four groups of people I believe in America. There are people who are racist, and they have evil in their heart. That's the first group.

The second group are people that can be insensitive. They feel bad. There is not evil in their heart. They regret things they've said or done over their lifetime. The third group are people that weaponize racism daily. They wake up and see it, go to bed, see it, and think everybody should be fired, who's ever said anything clunky in their life. And then there's the fourth group, and I like this group.

They talk about racism where it exists. They're worried about growth and gain. getting better. They talk and we should listen. The problem, of course, in America is all four of these groups exist on every street corner. Go to a street corner in Nebraska, New York, L.A., Minneapolis, Kansas City, Seattle, Denver, Portland, and Los Angeles. All four groups exist. When I first heard the news yesterday, I think, like a lot of you, I was relieved. Thank God. Thank God. this is not true. But for a lot of people, and I was on Twitter for about 10 minutes, and that's all I could take yesterday, it was a, I told you so, I told you so. You told me what?

Racism doesn't exist in America. Racism doesn't exist in NASCAR. Up until two weeks ago, the Confederate flag was the symbol of the sport. And in fact, when they announced it would be banned the reaction by many, certainly not all, but a lot was anger? In fact, the day of the race before it was rained out to the next day, there was a flag flying over the track in Talladega, saying defund NASCAR with a Confederate flag. NASCAR officials acknowledge they were concerned how this would land the banning of the flag in Alabama. We now live in a perpetual world of blame.

I'm right, you're wrong. You're wrong, I'm right. This morning, people wanted to blame Bubble Wallace and last night. Bubble Wallace did not turn anybody in. It was the King Richard Petty's group who did. And if you don't think Bubble White, Bubba Wallace, has a right or has not seen some uncomfortable things in his history as the only full-time NASCAR driver who was black,

I don't know what I have to tell you. Well, but Wallace would have the right to be sensitive, but you can't blame him. He's not the one that brought it up. Well, it's NASCAR! Because they got ahead of it, because they were horrified of the news? I mean, one of the first rules of all these major corporations

I've always worked for is get ahead of a story, don't react of it. Well, blame the media. we weren't supposed to report something NASCAR delivered to us. If the NFL, the NBA, hockey, MLS, or NASCAR delivers a statement, and it's the kind of statement they're probably horrified and embarrassed about, I'm going to trust it's true. Listen, if the Lakers, and this is not analogous to anything,

but if they announced today LeBron broke his ankle and he's out of Orlando, I don't have to get that double-checked. It's not like they want to announce that. But we got to blame Bubba. We got to blame NASCAR. We got to blame the media. Folks, if yesterday was a day that you feel like you won, maybe you're telling me what group you're in.

This doesn't take away how great the race was. It doesn't take away the finish. It doesn't take away these NASCAR drivers supporting Bubba Wallace. It doesn't take away concerns of racism going forward. Takes away none of that. Bubba Wallace, NASCAR, and the media did nothing wrong. And most NASCAR fans, I believe, have good in their heart. Bubba Wallace had a tweet this morning.

He said, integrity. God will always test us to show how strong we truly are, still standing proud and still smiling. Too many people feel like they need to win the moment. It's not about the moment. It's about growth. And for the last, two weeks. Here's the good news. We've seen a lot of it, thankfully, in NASCAR.

All right, let me segue to this. Not unexpected, although I didn't know the situation with Avery Bradley's son, but Avery Bradley of the Lakers has opted out of the NBA restart. He's citing family concerns. There's a very solid player. He started in like 45 games for the Lakers. He's really a good two-way player. He's LeBron's kind of teammate. He's smart. He plays on both ends. You can depend on him. He's not a superstar, but he's the kind of classic guy, the Shane Badié, the Avery Bradley, you know, just the kind of glue guy that plays on both ends that LeBron loves. So once again, LeBron goes into a postseason and it's not quite ideal for him. But Avery Bradley has a son, Liam, six years old, who struggles to overcome some

respiratory illnesses. So right now Avery's not going. Number one, it's absolutely the right move for Avery Bradley. Let's not argue over that. I got kids. It's the right move, period. Number two is, this is the reality of COVID-19. Okay?

We have no idea what's going to go on. One of the things I just think is fascinating about what the NBA is doing is, I don't know what I'm going to get. I mean, my whole life I've watched the NBA playoffs. I know what I'm going to get. The best players will flourish. The veteran players will be more dependable than young players. The refs will mostly swallow the whistle and get out of the way for the stars.

And the best player in the league, be it LeBron, or if it was Duncan, or if it was Shaq, or if it was MJ, Magic, and Bird, they usually end up in the finals. Don't always win it, but they always end up. This year, I have no idea. Are players going to be in shape? I have a feeling some are going to be in great shape. Summer going to be in terrible shape. Is the basketball going to be good?

I could be terrible. Basketball is the only sport. Soccer and baseball, players are often separate. In hockey and football, you can wear masks and lots of padding. Basketball is the sport where you sweat on guys and breathe on guys and talk to guys. Is half this league going to have COVID two games in? It's also going to be basketball with no fans. Part of me thinks it'll be like playground basketball.

Guys working each other one-on-one, it's going to be fascinating. Part of me thinks it's going to be brutal. No fans watching James Hardin and Russell Westbrook and LeBron James. I still believe the Clippers are the best team. I think the Clippers were 11 and 1. I still think the Clippers have a championship-winning coach and a star player. I think the Clippers should be favored. I think the Clippers are going to win the championship.

and none of this changes today. And let's be honest, if money wasn't driven by sports, and that's not bad, but it's driven by sports. If it wasn't, we would have just canceled the NBA season. We wouldn't have forced people to go from bubble to Orlando bubble.

But here we are with a basketball season, about to take place in about a month. And my prediction, it's going to be choppy, at times it's going to be bad, it's going to be unpredictable, It's going to be uneven. And what you saw with Avery Bradley is just the first little domino to fall. All right.

Coming up next, there's a lot of things. Nick Wright this hour, also Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon appear to be in line to go to Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks. And I have a theory why. Because my first thought was, man, that's a little bit of a little bit of a lot. surprise and then I thought, oh, no, it's not. That is coming up. Plus, Emmanuel Acho, introduce you to him, top of next hour. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending,

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And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

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It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win, no matter. what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he

knows, without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has

to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stopped by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers

why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone, it's Ryder Strong,

and Will Ferrell from PodMeets World. And now the Pod Meets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge.

That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it? Yeah. Just because we... Yeah.

We'll be recapping the big conclusion of the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists to a bunch of again we are experts so make sure to tune into pod meets twirled for all our survivor 50 takes listen to pod meets twirled on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts rec tech grills they're amazing founded by grillers for grillers go to rec tech grills with s com controlling your grill remotely from anywhere on your phone you can control it start it, stop it. Check the temperature of your meat. It's good to have you in. It is a Wednesday, Joy Taylor in a couple of minutes. Nick Wright's stopping by as well today. It's great to

have you in. So there's a report this morning, and part of me was surprised by it. That the, there's a strong sense that the Seahawks are going to sign either Josh Gordon, who's been suspended multiple times by the NFL, very, very talented guy, got an addiction issue, or Antonio Brown, who I don't think is the world's best human being. Now, Antonio Brown's a great player. For about a six-year stretch, he wasn't just the best receiver in the league. It wasn't close. His average year was 11 touchdowns, 1,500 yards, and 114 catches. I mean, it was absurd. It's one of the great six-year runs. It's like Randy Moss in his peak. He couldn't guard it. But not a very good human being. So my two takeaways on this are there's a lot of teams that

would like Antonio Brown. But Seattle trusts Russell Wilson because he always does. they trust them and just make it work. Russell Wilson makes everything work. Bad old lines, good old lines, rookies, veterans, Russell Wilson makes everything work. And Seattle's saying, well, not ideal, but he'd make it work.

That's a big tip of the cap to Russell. But I think there's something else at play here. I think the San Francisco 49ers are so formidable that it is forcing everybody in their division. Seattle, the L.A. Rams in Arizona, to take big swings. When you wake up in the morning in that division and you look at San Francisco,

you see what appears to be the best young coach in the NFL, the best tied in the NFL, the best defensive line, and most are really, really young and getting better. You have a better-than-average young franchise quarterback that could be there for 10 years, and the front office appears to know what they're doing. It's scary.

And so the Rams last year took a big swing on Jalen Ramsey. an unhappy player with loads of talent, wasn't always the greatest teammate, and gave up a bunch of picks for him. And Arizona bailed on Josh Rosen and said, we're going to get Kyler Murray, we're going to get this college coach, we're going to go get D-Hop at wide receiver,

and now Seattle is saying, we're not beating them head-to-head roster-wise. San Francisco, this is why 44 coaches have been fired since Nick Saban took the job at Alabama. After about year three, everybody in the SEC said, oh God, this is an avalanche of football greatness. And they started peeling off firing good coaches, like Les Miles. You know, this is why, and you see this a lot of times in sports,

the bills, the jets, and the dolphins. Joy talks about this all the time. After about year three or four of Tom Brady and Super Bowls, it's like people started hiring patriots and building teams just to beat Tom Brady. when you see greatness happen early, it's not hard to see Sabin by year three or Brady by a second or third Super Bowl or the San Francisco 49ers and go,

if we don't get ahead of this, if we don't take some big swings on this, we're going to get buried for the next 10 years because San Francisco's not going away. They just gave Kyle Shanahan another extension. Garapolo got to a, a Super Bowl in his first full year is 21 and 5 as a starter. Bose is better than we thought he would be in the NFL.

George Kittles, unguardable, and all those young receivers like Debo appear to be getting better by the game. So I think at some point there's a nineer fear in that division. You better take some big cuts and big swings and big chances, or you're going to be buried by that nine or avalanche for a long time. Here's Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. Well, Tom Brady continues to work out with his buck's teammates, despite the NFLPA strongly encouraging players not to work out together before training camp. Encouraging. Encouraging. Oh, okay. He met up with a group of at least a dozen players yesterday. He posted pictures to his Instagram of the workout, including one of him standing next to Gronk with a caption,

No excuses. Wow. God, Gronk looks in great shape. Yeah, he does. He does look great. Doesn't everybody look better in Tampa, though? The weather's perfect. You're glistening because it's humid.

You get a little sun on you, you know. Everybody looks better in Tampa. The muscles start to look a little more defined. Yeah. This is kind of an, this is an interesting flex by Tom Brady. Speaking of the muscles being defined. Because they are saying that you shouldn't have these group workouts. Now, he's not doing anything illegal.

So there's no rules. So there's no rules. But there's a suggestion. It's a suggestion. Now, the suggestion is because they don't want a cluster group of players that have working out together to have COVID and then, you know, come into camp and none of them be able to participate in camp. So the idea behind it is actually smart because we're assuming that none of them are getting tested daily before they all work out with each other. Right, right.

And as we know, it's not a, it's not a trust thing. Like, you can get it from anywhere. So it's not like, you know, they're like, oh, well, we're all just quarantining at home. Like, yeah, okay, but your wife goes to the grocery store and your kids go to the neighbors and play. And, like, there's other ways that you can get it besides, you know, being, it doesn't matter how responsible you are. That said, if they're not doing anything legal and it's open. Some people in life are more aggressive. Dana White UFC. The way to stop Dana White from doing something is have a rule. If you're simply suggesting to Dana White, you probably shouldn't have a UFC fight card. Then that's not going to work. George Steinbrenner was one of those. If you suggested to George, he shouldn't do something,

it would not stop George Steinbrenner. Well, the issue with the virus, right, is that you can spread it to other people. So we're assuming, like in the case of Avery Bradley, he has a son who is high risk. So it's not worth it to him to go and play while there's any chance at all that he could bring it home to his son. So we're assuming that everyone that's there has a household that doesn't have a high risk person in their home. So they're willing to take the risk of going out and practicing and coming home and, you know, essentially putting their bodies or their families in that space. Yeah, I mean, a lot of these NFL players are young and single. They don't have families.

Or that as well. And think to themselves, if I get it, I feel comfortable that I'm statistically going to be okay. So they don't, now, again, they could give it to other people. Right. But I think a lot of people, you know, listen, pro athletes, they kind of got the body armor on. I think they're a little more aggressive than the average citizen in America. They're in much better shape than the average citizen. And statistically, they feel like, hey.

Listen, if it's not illegal, like there was a time where group gatherings were shut down. Like, there's no more than 10 people. and then it became just a total stay-home order, don't leave your house unless it's to get essentials. All that is lifted. So if you're not doing anything illegal and you're being responsible and that you're not going to other people's houses

and things like that while you're working out with a group of people, they're not doing anything illegal. This is what they do for a living. This is their job. So, you know, as things opened up, we have to be more comfortable with that. So after months of failed negotiations between MLB and the Players Association,

the plan for the 2020 season is set. I'm so excited. I seriously, I'm 60 games, Joy. I'm very excited about it. I feel like I reached a point of exhaustion with the negotiations. So now I'm like, awesome. Let's go. So the league announces of the players will report to training camp by July 1st.

And the 60 game season will begin on either July 23rd or the 24th. Each team will play in their division 10 times in each of the five interleague opponents in their geographical area four times. So the Dodgers would play like San Francisco, Arizona, and San Diego. Yeah. And then they would play their geographical area. They'd play the Mariners, the A's, and the Angels. And then they would play Texas and Houston. So the Dodgers will go to Houston.

I think it's actually smart. Very limited travel, overwhelmingly regional travel. Yes. This is why I don't think USC Alabama is smart. Like to me in college football, just do your conference schedule. Do not. Yeah, there's no coast-to-coast travel in this scenario. We're seeing, Joy, we're already seeing travel bands country-to-country.

I think we should have more, not travel bans, region to region, but strongly limit region to region coast to coast travel right now. Not stop it, but limit it. Right. So the other notable change of this season is that the National League will use a designated hitter. Yeah. And an extra innings, teams will begin with a runner on second base. So this is going to be a completely different baseball experience than we've ever had in our lifetimes. And similar to what you were saying about the NBA, not knowing what to predict.

I'm here for it. it's going to be a, it's just going to be completely different. And the 60 game season is going to be almost a NFL level of urgency with the amount of game. You can't have a five game losing streak or you're not going to win your division. Last year, the nationals were terrible early and won the World Series. I think there were 19 and 31. You can't do that. You got to start.

You cannot get yourself into a 1 and 8 hole. It just can't do it with 60 games. It's going to be, I mean, exciting is, it's going to be exciting to have sports back, but then to have this sport, which is normally a very long marathon, be such a sprint is going to add to it. Finally, Ben Rathesberger has been back on the field throwing with his teammates as he appears to be on track with his recovery. Mike Tomlin hasn't personally seen Big Ben's workouts, but some of the members of the Steelers staff have. And Tomlin says their medical experts are comfortable with where Rathesberger is and his readiness for the 2020 season. He was lost to an elbow injury in week two last year and had surgery in late September.

So we're getting all good reports from everyone who's injured, Cam to Ben, everyone's on the right track to come back, what you would expect. I mean, if there was a major setback in his recovery, we would probably hear about it. Or they would be making some dramatic move to get someone else in there, say like a Cam Newton or someone else who's on the market. But I don't want to sell all my Steelers stock right now. Well, they're too good defensively.

They're not going to be bad. No, it's not that they're going to be bad. just been so underwhelmed by the amount of potential and talent that they've had over like the last 10 years without the level of a success that they should have had. And I'm just hesitant about this year. Your skepticism is totally justified. And that's right. We're supposed to be, we are supposed to be in the media a little bit skeptical of everything. We both have skepticism on the Steelers.

Yeah. And it's totally warranted. And I've earned the right to be skeptical of the Steelers. We all have because we've seen them in too many big games, have better players and not win games. It also should be noted, it looks like Baltimore has the greatest roster in the history of the sport. They're also in that Antonio Brown Josh Gordon race. I mean, good. Yeah.

At some point, it's not fair. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. A lot of stuff today. I'm going to introduce you to Emmanuel Ocho next hour. He is new here.

He used to be in another network, but he came to the better network, and we can't wait to have him. He's going to be so fun to introduce to you, met him myself yesterday. now my friend, my good friend, Nick Wright, joining us via the Coward Global Satellite Network brought to you my Bersetty's Ben's the best or nothing. All right, Nick Wright, host of First Things First, it's great to have you on. Let's start with the topic of the day for us, the Bubba Wallace investigation. My initial reaction is, oh, thank God, this wasn't what I thought it was going to be. And then the media and then the internet, it's I'm right, you're wrong.

And it became what it is. I turned it off. I wasn't interested. What was your takeaway? on the FBI conclusion yesterday that this, the news had been in the garage for about a year. Yeah, so I had a very, I think similar reaction to you, Colin. And I want to applaud you.

Sometimes I watch your opening rant, and I am, as I think a lot of people driving around in their car at home, I am yelling at you in anger, frustration over the assinine nature of the take. This morning, I, I mean, I text you during it. I thought it was beautiful. I thought was brilliant. I'm proud to call you a coworker today

because I think you keyed on the most important piece of this, which has been the reaction to the FBI's report, which, by the way, Bubba, if you saw his interview on CNN, he was unable to log off Twitter, maybe as early as he should have, or social media, and saw some of the comments, which was the moment this first was reported on Sunday, there was a loud corner of the internet

and segment of the media, that was calling Bubba Wallace, Jesse Smollett, the Empire actor who faked it would appear a hate crime in Chicago, said that either there was never a noose, this was a hoax perpetrated by Bubba or his team to garner sympathy, and that they just knew this was what was going to come out. And then the FBI comes out and says, there was absolutely a rope fashioned as a noose in his locker,

it just appears it had been there for nine months. Those folks are saying, told you so, and right now still tweeting, Bubba Smollett, it's reprehensible. Here is the accepted facts by all parties that care about facts, sequence of events. People can take for it what they will. A couple weeks ago, NASCAR comes out and says, after it's talking to Bubba Wallace and recognizing the moment,

we're going to move into the 20th century, at the very least the 21st century, and we're going to ban the Confederate flag. One NASCAR driver quit the sport because of it. Said, I love the Confederate flag more than I love racing. I'm out. This weekend at Talladega, there was a Confederate flag rally. There was then a plane flown over the stadium, as you mentioned with the Confederate flag. Then people other than Bubba Wallace found a garage pulldown rope fashioned as a noose, according to the FBI.

That was so jarring to them. Folks who've been around NASCAR their whole life, this idea, that's how all the garage pull down ropes are fashioned. Well, it wasn't to the Richard Petty's team because they said, oh my God, someone literally called the president of NASCAR. He went and looked at it, went to go see Bubba, tears streaming down his face because they were so certain this, it was intentional. Now, it is a horrifying coincidence, but I guess a good coincidence, that it was not intentional.

Just nine months ago, somebody tied a noose on that rope. I don't know how to tie a noose. I bet you don't, but somebody did, and they left it there, and it just happened to be the locker Bubba got. But the idea that Bubba Wallace, who didn't ask for this, didn't report this, just went with the information that he got, that he somehow orchestrated this, was disproven by the FBI, and yet folks are still attacking him for it. And I find it gross and disheartening. I do think NASCAR's better for it. And I do think the moment of unity, Colin, NASCAR showed before the, when the race was run on Monday, was a beautiful moment that brought in more fans.

I just wish some of the idiots weren't as loud as they are. Yeah, we agree on that. Yeah, I mean, my takeaway this morning on this is I think NASCAR and I think Bubba Wallace and I think the drivers, I've said this two days ago. I thought they were closer to Nike than NASCAR.

I'm like, okay, let's, if 10% of the fans to 20% of the fans can't deal with the Confederate flag, then you know what? It's time for all leagues to ditch that 20% of fans, market to younger fans, more tolerant people. Like that image is a top. top five image in the history of NASCAR. That does not go away for me.

It absolutely does not go away. Let me segue to this. Avery Bradley will justifiably not go to the bubble. And my first takeaway is, man, LeBron never get, you know, there's always something with LeBron. Somebody's hurt. This is a realistic reason.

I think it doesn't make the Lakers better. I mean, when you heard the news on Avery Bradley, what was your takeaway? Listen, it's a loss. There are two losses, obviously, the Lakers cannot sustain. LeBron and Anthony Davis. But right after them are the only two guys on the roster that are legitimate rotation players that you know the moment won't be too big for.

And that's Danny Green and Avery Bradley. Yep. And now one of them's gone. In the playoffs, Colin, you and I have talked about this, you only need seven, maybe eight guys that you trust, that you're going to play in big spots. Well, one of the guys they know they can trust is now gone. And by the way, I support Avery Bradley 100% in his decision. If I had a six-year-old son, I might not want to leave my kids to go to the bubble,

even if they were all fully healthy, much less one who has some issues that could be complicated by COVID. So no criticism for Avery whatsoever. But it does put the Lakers in a tougher spot. It does put more on LeBron. And they have one of three options. And two of them are fine here, Colin. They'll probably sign my buddy, J.R., which makes me happy, but he probably won't be a big part of the rotation. Option one is Contavius Caldwell Pope replaces Avery in the starting lineup.

That's what they did when Avery missed games. That would be okay. I'd rather him stay with the bench unit. Option two is Alex Caruso replace Avery in the starting lineup. That's the one I would go with. Caruso and LeBron have been one of the best two-man duos in basketball for the last two seasons. He's a very underrated defender. I like that a lot.

Option three is the only one where if they go this way, I'm going to be like, man, Colin and his damn beloved clippers might have an edge finally. And that's if they end up starting Rondo. Rondo has been a negative player for this team. Listen, he's a leader. He's a teacher. He's an instructor of the game, but that's what coaches are for, not players. On the court, he's been bad.

If he ends up getting the starting lineup spot, that's going to be really bad for the Lakers. But if they go KCP or Caruso, I think they'll be okay. So Antonio Brown, who can be regrettable as a human being, Seahawks are interested. My takeaway is, listen, Seattle realizes a lot of people would like Antonio Brown, but Russell Wilson will make it work because he makes everything work. Part of my other take is you look at San Francisco and you better take some big swings here because it looks like they're going to be a pain in the butt for a decade.

And I think they're influencing Seattle here thinking, we don't match up roster to roster. We don't have that defensive front. We don't have that tight end. So that's kind of my takeaway on why people in the NFC West are going to take big swings. Your thoughts? Yeah, so listen, I think Antonio Brown needs to be looked at.

It's two separate issues. One is the person, does he have the capability of staying on a team, his mental health, all of that. And then the other bucket is when he's actually playing how good he is. The first one is a major concern. The second one is not a concern at all. And whomever signs him next, keep in mind, it was a disaster unmitigated for the Raiders. Why? They gave up draft picks and big money to get him. It then was a semi-disaster for New England. Why? They gave guaranteed money to get him. The next team to get him is going to get him for

no guaranteed money and no draft picks, absolutely risk-free. And I'm hoping Seattle's finds him for two reasons. One, because it might convince that archaic offense to finally let Russ Cook throw the football more, not three yards in a cloud of dust. And the other reason, if I'm being totally honest with you, Colin, is as you know, and as the viewers know, if they look over my shoulder, who do I root for? I root for the Chiefs. And A.B. on the Ravens is petrified. I don't know if A.B. is still the best receiver in football, but I think he would be the best receiver for Lamar because where does Lamar thrive? Kind of intermediate short over the middle where AB's one of the best we've ever seen. So yeah, Seattle, A, they do need to keep up with the

Joneses, so to speak, in San Francisco, even though San Francisco's got receiver issues of their own now with Debo Samuel out and Emmanuel Sanders no longer with the team. So I get why Seattle would do it. And for me, I'll pitch in 5,000 of the signing bonus, John Schneider, if you want to make this happen. Like, just keep him out of Baltimore. Yeah, I get that. So it's interesting. You have always been, and you've stayed really consistent on Dak Prescott, is that he's not a $35 million quarterback.

I think I'm a little more of a fan, but be that as it may, this week the Cowboys were caught off guard. Dak says, give me a shorter contract. I want to get back into the market. Dallas is like, no, we want five years. And my thought was, if Carson Wentz continues, to be great, and Daniel Jones continues to get better, and Dwayne Haskins fails, and the Redskins get a really good top college quarterback. You could wake up in a year or two, and Dax's the

fourth best quarterback in your division. But that's my take. You have been a little tougher on Dack than I have been. Your thoughts on him wanting a shorter contract with less guaranteed money. Yeah. Listen, Dack, I think, wants a little bit ever. everything here. He wants on an annual basis to become the highest paid quarterback ever and a bite at the apple as quickly as possible, which is, by the way, it's not that dissimilar from what Kirk Cousins got and from the Vikings, it wasn't the highest paid ever, but one of the highest paid ever's, it was a short contract and it was all guaranteed. Seems like that's the road he wants to go down. Kirk cousin, and by the way, they're a similar caliber quarterback. I think Dax had

touch better than Kirk, but regardless. But Kirk had to actually have leverage to get that. He got franchised twice. He was a true free agent and the market set his value. If I'm Dallas at this point, I have made my last offer to Dak Prescott. If he wants to double back and take one that he turned down fine, I am franchising him this year. If we get to the conference championship game, which we have the talent to do, much less the Super Bowl if you're Dallas, then guess what? He's got you over the barrel. He's going to get the 40 million,

but you probably feel good about it because it's the best season you've had in a quarter century. If that doesn't happen, then I am this next off season. I am franchising him again and I'm trading him for a couple first round picks because there is absolutely

a team out there. If Jalen Ramsey can get you two ones and a three and Larry Me Tunsell can get you two ones and a two, there's a team out there that will give you multiple first round picks for DAC. I cannot tie myself to a quarterback that we all know isn't top five as the highest paid quarterback in the league.

There's a team, Colin, that did that very recently. That teams the Detroit Lions. You remember them? Matt Stafford, what are you going to do? You can't get rid of him. He's too good. He throws for all these yards. We know he's not great.

Made him the highest paid quarterback ever at the time. And they've been in the wilderness ever since because you cannot, at that position, if you're going to pay him like he's great, he's got to be truly great. And I feel like DAC is just a tick beneath that. Good stuff. right first things first good seeing you buddy thanks for coming on yeah you too i'm in l a

next week i assume you're going to talk to your friends that sponsored by mercedes vins hooked me up with a car to tool around the beach for a week so i'll talk to you about it i'll get right on that nick thank you so much coming up next they got great news i just hope they understand it's great news i'll explain that coming up next be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon eastern nine a m pacific 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. Sportslice 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 podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. What's up guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast,

The Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an in that 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.

Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? This Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ.

Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs.

I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reef. he has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too.

Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get to fly. He run up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Ryder Strong and Will Ferdell from PodMeets World. And now the Pod Meets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor.

So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of this show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it?

Like what was just because we? Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion at the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists to a bunch of ha-hoo. Ah, ha, who. Again, we are experts.

So make sure to tune in to PodMeets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirled on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Good to have you back. Tradition is an incredibly powerful thing. I grew up in a small town on the West Coast. I've had the good fortune to live on both coasts and in all four corners of the country. I think it's actually made me a much better broadcaster. I've been in the heart of the South and seen the love and the passion for NASCAR and college football. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, which is football country, college or pro. I now live in Los Angeles where basketball is.

and people like sports but really love their life. And then I lived in the Northeast for 11 years, where baseball and tradition rule. Tradition can be wonderful. It gives us great memories, generation after generation of doing things that feel good for the fabric of our country and the fabric of your family.

But tradition sometimes is odd, and I didn't grow up in an overly religious or traditional family. And when I moved to the East Coast, it was remarkable to me how really, smart people because of tradition would eat things, do things, and watch things that were frankly boring and bad. Baseball's got a lot of tradition, but good God, it needs changes, and it's going to get some of them now. 60 games means more urgency for every game. Hallelujah. A D.H. in both leagues. Hallelujah. In extra inning games. In extra inning games.

They will put a runner on second base to start the inning. So we don't have 17 inning games. Hallelujah. How ridiculous is it? For a sport that is often played, the majority of the games are Monday through Thursday, and everybody has to work tomorrow, that you have people at the ballpark till 1245. Forget the drive home. Forget falling asleep because a game goes into 16 innings.

It's patently absurd. Playoff baseball games have all. often ended at 1.44 in the morning. If I told you I watched the Ravens and the Chiefs last year on the AFC Championship, and it ended at 2 a.m. You'd go, what idiot scheduled the game that late? That's been baseball for the last 20 years. We're getting changes the sport needs.

Too much of baseball is about tradition and habit, and we're doing it because we've always done it this way. I can't wait for baseball. Every weekend series will matter. You can't go on a four-game losing streak. The Yankees and the Dodgers are favored. If they fall four games under 500, it is a sprint to sneak into the playoffs.

I said this years ago to a friend of mine, I said if you came up with baseball, and in 2020, you tried to sell it to investors. So you had like an investor, like a Mark Cuban, these hedge fund guys, these venture capitalists in a room. And you go, I have this sport. Okay, okay. It's really slow.

There's 162 games. Some games last five hours. Does it have stars? Yeah, but they're almost never on TV. They're in the dugout. You'd be like, yeah, I'm not going to invest in it. But if you had those same investors and you brought up, say, MLS soccer and you said the games are really fast, there's no stoppage.

The ball's always in play. The stars are always in the game. The TV camera is always on the stars. and you can score at any moment. Investors would be like, oh, I'll invest in that. In the iPhone era? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's quick. I get the stars on television.

There's no stoppages, 2.45 minute halves. Under two hours. You can do that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, you could do it weekends. MLS would be an easy sell to investors. Baseball would be an incredibly difficult sport for investors. It's slow. Now we're getting rid. of the length.

We're getting rid of pitchers hitting. We're getting rid of the potential for 17 inning games for people you know with a social life. This is going to be great for baseball. And sometimes people, even smart, successful people have to be forced into change. That's what's happening in baseball. And I can't wait. more thoughts on Avery Bradley

and what it does for LeBron James Avery Bradley has smartly wisely opted out of the NBA bubble and some thoughts on Antonio Brown being a Seahawk I think the culture is changing in football and I'm not sure he's worth it. Start your day with MDrive Start.com

nutrition porotene. The best morning shake on the market at MDrive Start.com hour two next. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHard radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the 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. SportsSlice 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 Slices Life 12 in the TikTok podcast. network on TikTok. 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 me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? What? Where's he at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game.

We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson,

we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the fly. He running up the court, licking his fingers Why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Oh, yeah.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone, it's Ryder Strong, and Will Ferdell from PodMeets World. And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV,

who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traders, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough.

Did people not like it? Yeah. Just because we? Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion in the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists to a bunch of, Ha, who. Ha, ha, ooh.

Again, we are experts. So make sure to tune in to Pod Meets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirled on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here we go. It's hour two. We're live in Los Angeles. This is The Hurd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, I'm on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1.

It's going to be a great hour. Emmanuel Ocho, debuting today on FS1. join me in about two minutes. Eric Carroll is one of my favorite baseball guys from McCub and Dodger will be joining us. Joy Taylor is joining me today. How are you, Joy? I'm great. Very excited. Speak for yourself. Emmanuel is a good-looking man whose muscles come through his suit. Don't mess with him. Let me start for a couple of minutes with this. There's a story today that the Seahawks and the Ravens has discussed the signing of Antonio Brown. There are things he's done. I don't think he's always been a great human being.

But in this decade, 2010 to 2020, there was a six-year stretch. I could argue he was the greatest wide receiver in league history, including Randy Moss. I mean, his numbers are insane. He averaged over a six-year stretch, 111 catches, 114 catches, my bad, 11 touchdowns, 1,500 yards. Those are the averages. In one year, he had 136 catches. Another, he had 129. In one year, he had 1,700 yards.

In one year, he didn't have 11 TDs. 15 and another 13 and another 12. He didn't drop passes. He didn't miss games. He was unguardable. The only thing I've ever seen like it is Randy Moss and Brady. Ungardable. Double

teams rolling coverage simply didn't matter. But there's something happening culturally in football that is a thing. And if you look at America, young people have always told us where society

is going. Young people. About 10 years ago, nine years ago, eight years ago, I started noticing something. I follow college football recruiting. Running backs were drying up. The state of California used to have 20 Division I running backs a year.

Then it was down to 12, 9, 8. The state of California has 39 million people. 300 division 1 players. Two elite running backs. Like all cultural changes, the young people lead us. What's cool, what's happening, where are we going? And if you go to a high school football practice now

or a seven-on-seven camp, you know where all the talented players go, quarterback and wide receiver. It's where the touchdowns are. It's where the cool is. It's where the money's at. It's where the fame is at. It's where the it is at. And I'm not sure you need to roll the dice on Diva wide receiver guy.

Three things in sports. I don't think you need anymore. Enforcer in hockey. The game's too fast. If you got some thug beating up on people, he's irrelevant. He gets in the way of the hockey sport. It's too fast now for a guy that can't skate but beats up people. The enforcer's over.

Number two, centers in the NBA. I loved Wilt. First NBA game I watched. My bunk beds was Wilt with a headband, old, heavier wilt. I loved Kareem. I used to do the Skyhook as a little kid. but the world's changed. Centers have to handle the ball and shoot threes.

And the third thing is, diva wide receiver. College football gave us 37 receivers in this draft, and there'll be another 12 that make it that were undrafted. I'm just not sure for a Super Bowl bubble team like Seattle, it's worth the roll of the dice. We'll see I could be wrong. This I know, everything works with Russell Wilson.

drafted, undrafted, Doug Baldwin undrafted star. Lockett was a gadget guy at Kansas State star. Will Disley was a blocking tied end at Washington. They didn't throw to him in college. He became a go-to guy. Everything works with Russell Wilson, and that's why I think Seattle may roll the dice on it.

Well, the next person I'm going to introduce debuts on FS1 later today with Marcellus Weiley. He is the new co-host of Speak for Yourself. and his brother, Sam Acho, has played in the NFL for a long time, I think, eight or nine years. Emmanuel played briefly in the NFL, and then he wisely said, instead of getting hit, I'm going to deliver the hits. And he recently did something that exploded online. It was called Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. It went viral. I saw the Matthew McConaughey pieces.

Oprah retweeted it. And it literally took over the Internet for a black man. about a week and how lucky are we to introduce him to you. Emmanuel Acho now joining us our first in-studio guest in almost four months. Let's bring him out. An in studio guest. And in, you have no idea. And everything.

Everything is Zoom and phone call and in an office building. And first of all, it is great to see you. I want to start. I had seen you on ESPN. I got TVs on all the day, and I had seen you. And my bosses, you know, from time to time will say, what do you think of this? What do you think of that? What do you think of this?

And so, you know, a couple months ago, they're like, what do you think of that? And I'm like, big energy, good-looking guy. I can see his muscles through his suit, hire that guy. That's the goal. That is the goal, Colin. But let me ask you about the conversations with a black man. Yeah. Because, first of all, it takes some courage.

Race is one of those topics where you can be in Christ. incredibly well-intentioned, and the avalanche comes down in you. So the moment the epiphany, you thought, I'm going to do something, and I hope it lands well, which it did. Where was the epiphany the moment? It came out of pain. It came out of anguish. It was birthed out of a little bit of fear, to be honest.

I realized I went to an all-white private school growing up, essentially, majority-white, graduated with 75 people, St. Mark's School of 10. Texas, a private school in North Dallas, adjacent to Highland Park. But then I played ball at Texas, and then I played in the NFL. So I was fluent in white culture, and I was fluent in black culture, and I realized our nation is facing one of its greatest divides ever, which is the racial divide. And so I said, you know what, Colin? Let me act as a bridge, stand in the gap between my white brothers and sisters and my black brothers and sisters,

and try to find a way to at least bring forth some education, because education. will lead to empathy. Empathy will lead to grace. Grace will help with aiding, understanding, and that is one of our biggest issues in society. The first episode, people don't realize, it was never supposed to be a monologue. Remember, it's called uncomfortable conversations with a black man. I had a dear white friend who drove three hours. She was supposed to do it with me. Came from Dallas to Austin, where I recorded the first episode. And then at the last second, she got a little bit of cold feet. An hour before we were supposed to tape, I said, don't worry, it's all good, I'll do it myself. I put my head down. I said, three, two, I looked up.

I stared dead into the lens of the camera. And nine minutes, 27 seconds later, it ended up going viral. 30 million people since viewed it. So it was never supposed to be a monologue. It was supposed to encourage and enhance dialogues. And thankfully, it's done so. And the response and the reception, it's been amazing. You know, it is interesting. I told Joy this today is we have had several of these conversations over the last I would say month. And I drive to work, and I think to myself, I did it this morning. I have a 20-minute drive to work. And I'm thinking to myself, Bubba Wallace, I'm white 56.

Dad was a doctor. Mom was from England. I should not be, this is not my space. If people look at me, jaded, eye roll, totally get it. But it's called The Herd, and I start my show with a nine-minute rant. And for people like me, over the last month, I've said to myself, and I think I've told Joy this, it's listening time. It's not talking time, but I'm a talk show host. Do you sometimes see having gone to Highland Park, which is a very well-heeled, very affluent area of Dallas? It's very, and you've seen people who perhaps are insensitive. They just don't understand certain things they have. Do you sense from people like me who I think I have a good heart, but I can be clunky, I can say things and go, oh, good, hell, that's awful. Do you sense sometimes, and I'm not looking to be a victim here, my

apprehension on race topics. Yes. Phenomenal question, phenomenal point. So, to clarify, so I went to school St. Mark's adjacent to Highland Park. I know some people will be watching and look that up. The issue we face in America now, it's not so much overt racism. What I mean by that, it's no longer, you know, people owning slaves or people saying the N-word. What it is now, is racial ignorance, racial insensitivity. Again, I went to a predominantly white school, so what I got a lot was, Acho, you don't even talk like you're black.

Acho, you don't even dress like you're black. Or my all-time favorite, Acho, you're like an Oreo, black on the outside, white on the inside. Oh, good hell. Those weren't said with negative intentions because they were said by 10, 11, 12, and 13-year-olds. They thought, I don't know, maybe in some weird way they were paying me a compliment.

But what you're saying, when you say you don't talk like your black, you were saying that a black person does not sound educated. And because you sound educated, Emanuel Lacho, you don't talk like you're black. That's the issue we face in society is, is not first degree or second degree racism, but third degree racism, which I read an article and I understood the parallel. It's similar to involuntary manslaughter. It's not as if it is intentionally meant to hurt, but rather by living your life ignorantly, you were unconsciously hurting another person. And that's the goal of these conversations.

And that's the benefit of these conversations is because they help educate. So Bubba Wallace, my initial reaction yesterday was, oh, thank God. It was incidental. Yeah. That's my. I don't think it's a day to celebrate a win, told you so. The Confederate flag was banned two weeks ago. It was met initially by many with anger, which tells you all you need to know.

But what was your initial reaction to it? I think we have to make something abundantly clear. Let's make sure the agenda stays on track. What I mean by that? 2016, Colin Kaepernick takes an E, and for three years, four years, that agenda was moved about a flag. Let's remind everyone, Bubba Wallace did not find the noose. Let's remind everyone, Bubba Wallace did not conjure up this story. Let's remind everyone that Bubba Wallace was told something, and he ran with what he was told, along with us, the media.

Let's clarify that and make that overtly clear. Now, if I can be honest with you, I'm glad it happened. Why? Because America's most segregated sport came together in a way, in a manner, in a powerful act that we otherwise wouldn't have seen. That's a great point. So if you really ask me in the privacy of my own brain and the privacy of my own heart, America's most segregated sport banded together with you saw everyone behind Bubba Wallace in that picture and marching together. They came together in a way we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

So is it unfortunate? Are we a little hypersensitive right now as a culture? Hypersensitive as a society? Of course we are. And rightfully so. But let's make two things clear. It wasn't Bubba Wallace who found it. And secondly, NASCAR wouldn't have come together like this otherwise.

So heck yeah, I'm happy it happened. Simple. Emmanuel Ocho, coho speak for yourself. NFL for three years, University of Texas. He'll debut speak for yourself with our friend Marcellus Wiley. great to have you in today. Let's segue to a couple of football issues. I have never thought, I am

way past when I cover the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was the last team I covered. There were a couple of guys in the locker room that I didn't think were good people. But I always remember talking to the front office and they're like, listen, man, people come from different areas.

There's 55 players, 12 in the scout team. Antonio Brown may at times bother me deeply. But I get the game. this is about winning football games. It's not about perfection. It never has been. I mean, there are people walking past me on the street.

I have no idea what's got. There are people I work with that may harbor resentment or anger toward me. I have no idea. I know some of the things I've seen publicly with Antonio Brown bother me greatly. How do I reconcile that with? He makes my team better as an athlete. And now as a broadcaster, bothered by Antonio, Brown getting another shot or understand it's the reality of professional sports in America?

I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive. It is the reality of professional sports that oftentimes we will look past the players off the, not oftentimes, always. We'll look past the player's character or look past the players off the field incidents for the sake of enhancing the team. But here's what we have to remember. Some things aren't quantifiable. And that transcends sports. As soon as I sign with Fox, joy, she reaches out to me. Carissa reaches out to me. Shannon Sharp reaches out to me. And they're like, hey, it's a family here. We take you in. It doesn't matter how talented I am. What matters is that there's something that you can't quantify, a skill set which can't be quantified, which helps build and boost the overall performance of an

entity. And whether that's Fox Sports, whether that's the herd, whether that's speak. I say that because, A, B, to me, the most talented receiver of the 2010s, period. Yeah. Like, I don't care what anybody says. Dude, I've seen this man beat double coverage time and time again. Dude's a free. But if you're a team like the Seahawks, what do you need them for? I mean, like you said earlier, Russell Wilson makes everybody else already better. Tyler Lockett, top flight receiver to me when it comes to big play receiver.

Was considered a complete gadget guy at college. Kansas State. I played against Tyler Lockett, I believe. He might have been a freshman when I was a senior when I was at Texas. You got D.K. Metcalf, everybody thought he was going to be a bust. Big build, can't run her out. Can't run. Looks like Tarzan plays like Jane.

Yes. Not to me. Look like Tarzan played like Tarzan. And so if you're a team like the Seahawks and Russell Wilson, you don't need AB. Who could benefit from AB? That's the question you have to ask yourself. Well, a team that plays in an obscure city or a team that has, you know, more of a loose cannon head coach. Like, say the Buffalo Bills or the Las Vegas Raiders.

Well, guess what? AB had a chance to play at both of the first. those organizations squandered it. And so I think AB is a freakazoid receiver. Absolute beast. It's just not worth the risk if I was a GM. See, that's my thing. I said that about Baker Mayfield.

I got a lot of heat for that. And I said, he's undraftable to me because I have a rule. I was just talking about this the other day with a friend. My rule in life is I refuse to babysit other adults. I'll babysit children. But I won't babysit adults. I will not hire somebody or work with somebody that I drive home with a knot in my stomach because a 48-year-old co-worker, I have to babysit.

And so that's my problem with Antonio Brown. There is a babysitting element here. That you, Russell, you drive to work or drive home, and you think, I've got to smooth this thing out. It doesn't work for my personality. And think about this for it. This is what people who, whether you covered it, you've been in the locker room, you understand. Even if AB doesn't want to be a distraction, he'll still be a distraction.

he'll still be a distraction because he has to be. The media has now made him. We will make him a distraction. If he goes to the Seahawks, Russell Wilson now has to answer questions about AB. Whether he drops a pass or whether there's a miscommunication and an interception is thrown because AB ran a wrong route or even the quarterback messed up,

it's all going to become a big deal. And that detracts from the growth of the team. So while AB is a freak top flight receiver, and I still think he'd probably be top flight, even at 31, maybe going on 32 years old this season, I still think he'd be a top flight receiver. But if there can be addition by subtraction, there can also be subtraction by addition.

That's really well put. I'm going to steal that. Please do, just cite your sources. Cite your sources. You know, Tony Bennett, the singer, says, you steal from everybody, it's research. You steal from one guy, you're a thief. So I steal from everybody.

Emmanuel Ocho joining us on the radio side, TV side, obviously. So here's, this is something about COVID that's fascinating. So I consider I want to be thoughtful So I wear a mask I go to Best Buy I go to Dick Sporting Goods I go to my grocery store

And then If I see I'm going to a place with older people I think just don't be a jerk Just put it on Yesterday I was sweating I was in the gym And two of the people in there were over 60 And I thought just just wear it

The minute they walked out And there was a bunch of young hustlers I was like okay mask is off Because they had their masks off So again, you're a professional athlete today. You're mindful and thoughtful, and we should wear masks. Japan, by the way, where they have a mask wearing culture, they don't have nearly the COVID outbreak of America. That is their culture.

It's not our culture. We like our liberties and our freedoms, and you won't tell me what to do. And so I look at this, the mask. Would you be comfortable going to camp as a professional athlete? how would you tell me what it's going to be like for your brother and you, Sam and you, the mask culture among football players, basketball players. How does it land? How do you be mindful but not be petrified 24-7 that I'm going to contract something?

In all honesty, I think the athletes, what they'll simply do is you'll abide by the rules. You'll abide by the legislation. But within the locker room, I just don't know that the mass culture is going to really exist. only because as a football player, you're putting yourself in harm's way of several things. Injuries, concussions, really anything and everything that you can think, both physically, mentally emotional.

So I don't know, Colin, I'll be honest, I don't know and really understand how it will affect the game. Let me put this in perspective for the listener and for the viewer. College of the NFL, when you get hurt, if you and I are at the practice field and you roll your ankle at the 25-yard, line. Say you fracture your ankle in practice. The coach is going to blow the whistle, move it up 15 yards, and you're just going to

sit there rolling around. You're just going to, ah, agony, you're just going to be rolling around. And we're going to move it up to the 40 and keep playing. It is not a no man left behind kind of thing. It's honestly a you're getting left behind. That's what's going to happen. That's the culture. That's the culture. It's the nature of the beast. I think that's what's going to happen even within sports and COVID, because it's either we keep it pushing or we stop for everybody. And I don't think that right now, the sports leagues, both college and professional, are willing to stop.

You saw what happened at LSU, even at Texas at these different universities with outbreaks. It's like, yeah, 13 people are in isolation. Anyway, what time's practice tomorrow? You know, that's just how it goes. That's how it's going to have to go if we want to see sports be played. Do I agree with it? Not necessarily, but do we want to see sports be played?

Yeah, for the most part, absolutely. Emmanuel Acho. So I could sit and talk to you all day. You're just fascinating. You're just a star. So a couple days ago, I did something. And in the morning meeting, I think I joined the morning meeting on the phone these days because of COVID. So I said this during the meeting.

I said, oh, this is going to be big digitally. I said college football fans are crazy. It's just crazy. You meant you put a plaque on the wall, everybody goes crazy. So I said there's only really 16 teams in college football from this point forward that can win a national championship. I said the big four, and here's my rule, if you take the best coach in the history of your program, everybody got their best coach. USC got either, you know, John McKay or Pete Carroll or whatever it was or John Robinson, and Bama got either Bear Bryant or Nick Saban. Absolutely.

If you, everybody, Florida State got Bobby Bowden, Miami got Jimmy Johnson. The four best programs in the country are Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and USC. It doesn't matter how good Texas is. coach is because Mac Brown only won two titles. And Darrell Royal didn't win as much as Barry Switcher or Bud Wilkerson. And then I said there's 12 other programs that I think can win a national title.

But they need breaks and they better hope that the guy in their division that's great doesn't have the best coach. And so I put Texas in the second tier. Are you bothered when I say, because I have a reason why I think they're not as good as Oklahoma. I think the city of Austin is

more than just football. I think Norman is football. But I'm going to say it, face. Oklahoma's got a better football program than Texas. Are you deeply bothered by that? Can we do one thing? I don't know if the jib can. Can we just cut to that shot of me smiling in that Texas jersey if we may? Sure. But before I dare respond, because some of my happiest and best moments were in that burn orange proudly wearing the Texas on the front, proudly hooking them. By the way, great. Great. Great. Great. Phenomenal unies. I didn't have the facial hair then, but it's fine. Am I bothered by that statement? I think, I think there's a little recency bias, which is

fine. I think there's a little recency bias. You've seen that Lincoln Riley, freaking first round number one overall quarterback, first round number one overall quarterback, Jalen Hertz. Oklahoma has proven, especially in recent years, to be better than Texas. So I have no problem with you saying that. Now, I think historically speaking, when you think about a man like Mac Brown, who I played for in the college football Hall of Fame, when you think about guys like Vince Young, one of the best college football players ever, not just at Texas, but ever, I don't know that you could put in Oklahoma above Texas if both programs had their best at that time if we were going to engage in this hypothetical conversation, which I'm fine engaging with. But I agree with you on Alabama.

Absolutely. I agree with you on Ohio State. Absolutely. USC? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not convinced. When it comes down to what you're really getting at, though, I'm looking at the recruiting pools.

I'm looking at recruiting pools. And Texas and the state of Texas is clearly a better recruiting hub and a recruiting pool than somewhere like Oklahoma. However, you can't look at what Oklahoma has done the last three years and try to argue that Texas has been a currently better football program. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. Who's the third best coach in the history of Texas? Because I go to the third best coach in Oklahoma. I go to the fourth best coach.

Bud Wilkerson, Barry Switzer, Bob Stoops, Lincoln Riley is the fourth best coach. I think that what Texas is, let me answer it this way. Let me answer it this way. Tom Herman is hopeful, and Texas's fans are hopeful that Tom Herman becomes that third best coach. Darryl Royal Mac Brown. Now, I'm personally putting Mac Brown ahead for several reasons on the field and off the field. I'm putting Mac Brown ahead. after Mac Brown won the National Championship in 2005,

beating SC what he said in the locker room, it stands with me forever. He says, and I wasn't on that team, I came three years later. He said, I hope this is not the greatest day of your life. I want you to go on to be great fathers, great businessmen, great husbands. To me, life is about more than just sports. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. But Tom Herman wins 10 games, wins 7 games, wins 8 games. Texas went all in on that man, mind you, to see consecutive 10 win seasons.

When you have a quarterback like Sam Ellinger, who everybody's saying is a top five quarterback in college football, when you have a head coach like Tom Herman, Texas needs to win 10. That's what I said yesterday. Point blank, period. If they don't win 10, the two biggest boosters at Texas are going to start telling the AD, look for the next guy. But think about this for a second. What people have to remember, it doesn't matter about defense. And yes, I played linebacker.

It doesn't matter about special teams, no matter how much you want to talk about the three phases of the game and how important they all are. Look who was in the playoffs. last year, Joe Burrow and LSU, Justin Fields in Ohio State, Trevor Lawrence and Clemson, and you had Jalen Hertz in Oklahoma. The best quarterbacks

were in the playoffs. No, the sports changed. It's just totally changed. That's what it comes down to. And so if Texas does have the best quarterback or one of the best quarterbacks in Sam Ellinger, you just have no excuse. And so as a Texas fan, as a Texas alum, as a former Texas athlete who always bears the T-ring,

which means you played at Texas and you graduated from Texas. I always wear it because I'm prideful in that. There's just no excuse. And this is me speaking as a college football analyst now. Like you're saying, Texas has no choice. You're going to see Clemson there this year. You're going to see Ohio State there this year. You're probably going to see Alabama because Alabama is just always making some noise. After that, Texas probably needs to get in. I'm with you. Emmanuel Acho, absolute pleasure. Good luck. You don't need it. And I thank you so much for taking the time today to do this. I just feel like I'm sitting next to somebody who's got all sorts of

wisdom, man. How old are you? 29. God, that's just discouraging. God, that is so discouraging that at 29 you have all this wisdom. Hey, man, great talking. It's going to be fun, man. It's going to be fun. I think I have to take a break. I do. We're way back. Worth every second of it,

The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the I-Hard Radio app. 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 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. What's up guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show,

I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rep.

My mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? This Isaiah Thomas. I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds.

Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid.

He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He run up the court, licking his fingers

why he got the ball like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the, iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Ryder Strong and Will Ferdell from PodMeets World.

And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. watched some Survivor.

I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it? Like what was... Yeah. Just because we... Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion of the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists

to a bunch of ha-hoo. Ha-ha-hoo. Again, we are experts. So make sure to tune into PodMeets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirled on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. back. Sorry.

Like I got time to waste now. I got to get this stuff. Here's Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, the best or nothing. Well, there's not a whole lot of high expectations for a lot in Washington this year, except for Chase Young.

And Washington head coach Ron Rivera even compared young skills to those of defensive greats like Julius Peppers and Vaughn Miller. good. He's not quite as big as Julius was. He's built like him. He's a mini version of him. He's got a little bit more, I think, of that initial explosion. Julius was very long, and his explosion was good, but because of his length, it seemed even better than it really surely was. I mean, Julius was phenomenal, and really, this is a young man that can be that type of player. You know, I mean, Von Miller comes in my mind when I watched Chase and I watched him work out, and I watched the tapes that, you know, he's been putting out. So I'm pretty excited about seeing him.

They already have good defensive front choice. So this is actually, they're adding to their team's actual strength. So that's, I mean, the good news is Ron Rivera is a builder of defenses. He inherits with that draft pick right into his wheelhouse. This is like right into what he does. Right. And Chase Young was the consensus best player in the draft. It's just, of course, the Bengals had the number one overall pick and needed a quarterback.

So we're obviously going to focus and lean on, you know, the quarterback conversation. but this was a great, perfect situation for Ron Rivera and for Chase Young, at that matter, because he can have the opportunity to have a great year and be the face of the franchise if Dwayne Haskins doesn't have the year that they're hoping that he has. Now, these are, those are, those are two names to put on Chase Young in his rookie year. The people I talk to in the league, like, they're not afraid to say it. Yeah. He's really gifted.

Like, he's the, there's about one. You can see that he is gifted. And there are certain players. that transition to the league, Jamal Adams, obviously, Jalen Ramsey, who just come right into the league not only are ready to play, but are extremely impactful. This side of the ball is not what we're concerned about in Washington overall and moving forward because we know what Ron Rivera does with defenses.

I feel okay with those comps, even though I try to be hesitant about putting those type of expectations on young players, especially this year, considering what we're all dealing with. But I think out of everyone in the draft, he can, you know, he can bear the weight of having Bond Miller, Julius Pepper, expectations of him in his rookie year. So the Ravens fell short of their Super Bowl expectations last season, but they are still one of the favorites to get there this year.

And defensive end, Clayas Campbell, was traded to Baltimore this offseason. And as he heads into his 13th NFL season, he's excited about the opportunity to finally win a Super Bowl. I mean, you look at Baltimore's roster up and down, and it's talent everywhere. You know, and then throughout the draft we got even stronger in some of the positions where we needed some help. You know, I think, you know, I mean, this is one of those times where, you know, I've been playing football for 12 years and I've been close to a bunch, you know, playing three championship games, one Super Bowl. But I haven't been able to win it yet, you know, and so I feel like, you know, this team, as talented as it is, you know, this is probably going to be the best shot I have.

Well, the one thing they didn't do well last year was Rush the Passer, and Baltimore appears to have addressed the one thing they didn't do well last year. I always like when good dudes and great players on losing franchises at the end of their year, get a pass and E-ride ticket to like a great franchise, it always makes me. It's like, can you imagine you and I, you work your whole career for something and you never get a chance to work for a company you like? Yeah. Like Cleos Campbell's been a good dude and a great player. He finally gets to go to a winning organization. It's such a great situation for him.

And it should be noted he actually took less money from the Ravens than he could have gotten from other interests. teams. They gave him a contract extension through the 2021 season, but he took less money to go play there. So, which, I mean, at this point in his career, as he said, he's played in a Super Bowl, he's played in three championship games. This is an opportunity to play with a team that has Super Bowl expectations. They are a contender.

Most of us feel like they will be there this year. Yeah, most lawyers and doctors aren't taking less money. Memo to fans. Athletes do. All the time. All the time. They take the win over the dollar. Find me another profession in America. That's true. It's not law. It's not

media. And they're always criticized and being selfish and, you know, whiny and they'll make millions of dollars. What do you have to complain about? Like, not only do they do that and take less money, they have the expectations to perform as if they are being paid the money that you assume that they're making. I mean, Kaleas is obviously an all-time great player, Walter Payton Man of the Year. He's a fantastic addition to the Ravens who already had a terrifying roster.

But he's right. There's just talent up and down that roster. Finally, Paul George and the Pacers went through a messy split when he went out back in 2017, and he revealed some details about why he decided he no longer wanted to play in Indiana. He said, I had at the time the best power forward saying he wanted to come to Indian team up with me, and they're like, we're a mid-major, we're a small market, we can't do it, we can't afford that. They didn't want to do it. So I'm like, now I'm pissed because it's like, what am I doing here?

They don't want to win. Totally get it. You know, this is, I've said this before the NBA. Don't blame the players because we have too many teams. Like, you could take off six teams. And I'm not picking on Indiana at all here, Indianapolis. Right. But don't blame the players if they want to play in L.A. and New York.

It's a winter league. Like, don't blame the players when they want to get off a plane to aqua water. Well, I mean, yes, playing in Miami is where I think all of those great free agents should go. But yes, that does matter. But it's also what we were just talking about with Calais. Players want to win. It's not just a matter of just, yes, this is their professional. and yes, this is how they make money for their family,

and it's what they do for a living. But what they do for a living comes with the expectation of winning because it's competition. Yeah. So, yes, it makes your way of life better when you're playing for an organization that you know is taking full advantage of your talent and putting pieces around you to help maximize your career. So, of course, you should take control of it when you can.

Yeah, throw it with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. Dodgers Day is cut. Fox baseball commentator Eric Carrolls. We got baseball, baby. We are all fired up for a 60 game season. Eric Carroll's next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. 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.

SportsClyce brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsClace on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. A rep. My mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves.

I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense.

And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball like, after you go through a training camp with that I said, you figure it out real quick.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone, it's Ryder Strong, and Will Ferrell from PodMeets World. And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV,

who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traders, and we're gearing up for the season finale, of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor.

I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it? Yeah. Just because we? Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion in the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate plea is the finalist to a bunch of, ha, who.

Ah, ha, who. Again, we are experts. So make sure to tune into Pod Meets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirled on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Major League Baseball has announced that the 2020 season will begin on Friday, July 24th, with MLB on Fox returning on July 25th, with Fox Saturday baseball. And we could not be more excited about this great news for baseball fans across the country. Baseball is back. and of course America's home for baseball this summer, as always, will be Fox and FS1.

Eric Carrow's Fox Baseball broadcaster joining us now live at the Cary Global Satellite Network, 14 years in Major League Baseball. Okay, so I like a lot of these changes. I'm for the Universal D.H. I'm for, you know, start a guy at second base, short and season. Are you a baseball purist? Does this bother you? No, I'm excited about it.

And would you say a baseball curious? I appreciate what's gone on in the past. I respect it. But look, I'm open for change. I'm open for tweaking things. And, you know, with what's gone on in our world, there is an opportunity right now for baseball to tweak some things. So we've got the 60 game season. So every game means something.

We've got the universal D.H. We're going to put a runner on second base in extra innings. We're tweaking the rosters. You know, how are people going to approach pitching situations? there's so many different things that I think on paper right now we say well how's this going to work how's that and over these 60 games we're going to see things evolve it may start out hey we're going to approach something one way and then we'll change to another but this is all going to be real interesting yeah you know it's interesting the pandemic part of it um you know listen i i've said

this before if i was a 27 year old great athlete yeah i i read the data i look at it and i'd be all in on it, would you, with all the things you read, living in California and the cases and would you be all into play? So I have to put myself, you know, go back 30 years and getting that mentality where as an athlete, I thought I was invincible. So, you know, do that now, 100% I'm all in. And I have the responsibility. I have to take it upon myself. I've got to be, I've got to be careful. I've got to keep distance. I've got to, you know, follow protocol. I've got to wash hands. I've got it. You know, those sorts of things. I think that, you know, right now, you know, you've got to kind of learn to live with what's out there right now. And I know that if I were playing and I wasn't, and it's all about me, right? It's just about me. It's I don't have family or I don't have kids that may be susceptible to things. You know, no extenuating circumstances all about do I want to play and can I play? I'd be all in. You know, baseball's always been, I mean, I imagine when you played in the game with a hundred and sixty-six two games,

games, you would like break it off into quarters or something. Now it's just basically a sprint. Take me to the mental side of going from the longest league to now it's 70% of the NBA season, only 60 games. Well, so I like the urgency. And I almost like what college football is and why it's so exciting is every game means something. So as a baseball player, you can, you can rationalize things. I get off to a slow start. I can say, well, I've got time to catch up. Or, you I try to pace myself. But this is almost, hey, look it, from the get-go, I've got to be ready to go. And the guys that are ready to go and the teams that are ready to go are the ones that I think,

obviously, they're going to separate themselves. So the mental approach is going to be completely different. And that's what I think, you know, look at it's not going to, it might not necessarily be the most talented team that wins. And it's going to be the team that can adapt to things, the team that really stays the most healthy. and the team that is really committed to one another because, again, you're going to have some protocol and some things that you're going to have to follow.

And you're going to have to be respectful to your teammates. You're going to have to be committed to your teammates, meaning, look at it, I can't be going out. I can't be doing things. I've got to get back to my house. And those things will be interesting. You know, the universal DH, I'm a believer that the more. big, strong athletes that play on my television,

the better sports is. I never, you know, I did play by play out of college. Like, I get the double switch. I get it. But I love the Universal D.H because it's another big stick. You know, it gives guys like you a chance to play another three or four years. Like, as a player, how do you see it? You were a National League guy

for a lot. Right. Because so, you know, but now the American League rules going to be adopted by, uh, adopted by the NL. What do you make of the universal D.H? So I, I, I, I like it. You know, and I like the fact that there's going to be more offense. I like the fact that look at the strategy now is if you're in the National League, there's always that out, you know, the pitcher that you could navigate towards. Well, now you don't have that. So will pitching be a bit different?

You know, do I leave my starters in longer? I want to see more offense. I hope that, you know, the universal DH is something that we see well beyond this season. But again, this is one of those things that whether it's the universal D.H, whether it's the extra inning tweak where we put the run on second, there is going to be an opportunity to do some things that may last well beyond this year. Now, I could make an argument that veteran teams would have an advantage. You know, veteran teams, they know, this will feel like a three-month playoff. Or I could argue veteran players need time.

I mean, the Nats last year, some of their older players. got off to a slow start. Does the shortness and urgency of the season, my gut feeling it helps veteran teams, but veteran players, the Jeter's of the world at the end, are like, no, it takes me to June and the heat to get going. How do you feel about that? So I think if you asked any team in a regular season

or any organization, if you were to tell them with 60 games left in the season that they were in first place, would they go for it? Everyone would say yes. Well, that's the case we have now. So what's going to separate them? I think a lot of what's going to separate them, what have these guys been doing in the offseason, quote unquote, off season these last few months?

How well have they kept themselves in shape? I also believe that how you start the first two or three weeks is really going to dictate, you know, how committed you will be to the season. So if I'm a team, then I start off and I'm, you know, two and 16 or something like that, you know, look at it. I'm probably throwing away the rest of the year. right and and and not that you would ever acknowledge it but the reality is there's going to be a lot of trials and tribulations that you're going to have to battle through and if you've already knocked yourself out in the first two or three weeks you're going to say oh man but if i'm involved and i think i've got a chance and i've started off well and i'm the pirates or i'm the marlins or i'm then i'm like i'm all in i'm ready to go i don't i don't think the veteran versus young i will go back to this the most mature team meaning the most dissoninging

disciplined and the team that was also the group of guys that have kept themselves in shape for the last few months. He had five years in the Biggs with 30 plus homers and 100 RBI, and he's Eric Caros, and he's got a beard now and a little gray hair, but he still looks vibrant and dynamic, and I love seeing you, and I can't wait to watch some baseball. Eric, thank you so much. Hey, thank you, Colin. Be well, bud. All right, one of the really good guys in our biz. Eric Carrow's, 14 years, rookie of the year with the Dodgers, third most home runs in Dodger history.

Thirdmost home runs in Dodger history. Let me guess this real quick. Is Garvey and Ron Say up there? If Caros is third. Most home runs in Dodger history. Ron Say has to be up there, Tacoma, Washington, third baseman, and Garvey's got to be up there. Who am I missing?

See if I'm right, Gula. According to Google, it's Duke Snyder. Oh, come on. That's not fair. I wasn't around for Duke Snyder. And then Gil Hodgion. Come on. You're asking me stuff that's in and like. Ron Say and Garvey, fifth and sixth.

Caros is third. Caros hit more Dodger home runs than Ron Say and Steve Garvey. Wow. Learn something. I got to be nicer to him. Seriously. During Casper's Fourth of July sale, get 10% off your entire order now. Keep cool. The code is keep cool.

Casper.com, keep cool. Excludes bundles. and the element mattress and sales items. Casper.com, code is cool. Hour three is coming up. Carson Palmer. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app.

During Casper's 4th of July sale, get 10% off your order until July 13th. So the code is keep cool. Casper.com code is keep cool. Well, he was a 15-year NFL football quarterback, three-time Pro Boulder, but what he really did, he changed cultures. He changed the culture in Arizona. He changed the culture in Cincinnati. And I've said this about various players in my life.

It's not just about winning games. What do you inherit? And I'm always more impressed with people that go into losing football cultures in through force of personality and talent. They change the identity. They change the way we think of a football place. And Carson Palmer did that with Arizona, and he did that with Cincinnati, which is a, it's a tough road. And he is joining us live now.

I'm not going to tell you where he's at. It's just one of my favorite places on earth. And he fly fishes every day, and I'm incredibly jealous. And he's joining me via the Coward Global Satellite Network, one of the good guys, former pro bowler, Carson Palmer, who would get my Hall of Fame vote. So there's two things I thought about you this morning with Tom Brady to Tampa. First of all, you had Bruce Ariens for five years. So tell me, Tom goes from intense academic Bill Belichick, a defensive guy, to kind of loose fun vertical passing Bruce Ariens. Will it be a hard transition?

What should Tom expect, Carson, from Bruce? I don't really think there's a whole lot of difference between the two. I mean, I know Bruce has a lot more fun, especially with the media. He has more fun probably in team meetings. But as far as somebody that is football, football, football all day. every day. Both those guys are on the exact same page. I mean, Bill and Bruce have a lot in common. They're very focused on the X's and O's. They're both tremendous prepares and get their teams very, very well prepared. So, you know, I know Bruce is more fun and no risket, no biscuit, no

biscuit. And you don't hear Bill say those kinds of things. But I think Tom's moving into an old school football coach, just like the one he came from in New England. So you sat your first year in the NFL, And then your second year, I think Cincinnati had their best year since like the 80s, early 80s. So you had to transform a culture. Now, Tampa's got the talent, but like Cincinnati, they don't have a history of winning. When you went to Cincinnati and you came from USC, you were a great high school quarterback, you won, you won at USC. Now you go to a losing culture. Is there an emotional thing that comes with changing the tide, changing habits?

Was it hard for you? Well, it wasn't as hard for me because I was a young chicken, a spring chicken at the time. And, you know, you look at Tom and at his age, you know, his family situation, the other business ventures he has going outside of football, it can be, it can be stressful and it can be wearing on you physically and mentally trying to come in and totally change an organization's mindset and the way they practice and the way they prepare. So, you know, it's a lot different doing it at 22. than it is at 40. But the thing that he has is he's got six, you know, he is 40, but he's got six Super Bowl rings to come in. He's not going to need to repeat himself when he stresses, you know,

a certain, a long day on the practice field where guys are screwing up. He's not going to have to repeat himself. He's the kind of guy and has the reputation that he comes in and says something once and everybody understands it and the Justin moves on. But it's not easy to do. There's no doubt about it. Moving into a new organization, a new city, a new fan base, all the newness it can be wearing, especially in your 40s.

So you sat your first year. Aaron Roger sat for multiple years. And we just don't give young quarterbacks that very often. Mahomes is very fortunate. Now, I could also argue, Carson, that because of seven-on-seven camps and elite 11 camps, these quarterbacks now come into the league with better coaching, more snaps. But go back to the year you sat in Cincinnati for a year. There's an old saying you can't learn anything whole.

holding a clipboard. Is that true? Or did you learn things? I disagree. I think it's totally, you know, circumstantial. If you have a veteran quarterback like Tua does in front of him and Ryan Fitzpatrick in Miami, somebody you can learn from, somebody that the team can win behind, you know, or you're going into a situation like Kyler Murray did last year in Arizona where he was the guy from day one. I think it was extremely beneficial for me. I sat behind John Kittna, who was the pro, the pro of all pros. I learned how to study. I learned how to work out. I learned how to lead. I learned how to talk in front of a group. Now, those reps are precious. Each rep you get, especially early on in your career, and these

reps that these guys have missed in OTAs and the vet minicamp and all these opportunities, these guys have had to play, they're precious. And you only get so many. But the year I had sitting behind John Kedna and watching him after a win, after a loss, going into a press conference after a loss, all the little small things that I didn't know. I mean, I was coming from Los Angeles and in USC where I thought, you know, I had experienced it all with the media. Well, it's a whole other world in the NFL. So that opportunity I had to sit behind John was tremendous, very, very valuable for me. The biggest thing now is with the new collective bargaining agreement, these rookie contracts are really for maybe five-year deals if you get

tagged in that last year of your contract. When I came out, we were signing six and seven-year deals. So now these players and these organizations, they don't have the opportunity to sit and let these guys sit. They need to see if they can play because their second contract is right around the corner. Listen, we know Joe Burroughs going to have some bumpy starts. Baltimore is great. Cleveland's roster stacked.

Pittsburgh's front seven is nasty. That would be tough for anybody. That'd be tough for Drew Brees or Russell Wilson. So he is going to have some bad snaps and bad games. Go back to the first year you played. How do you bury that? How do you go 17 for 38, two picks and bury it? It was that hard for you because, let's be honest.

He's going to be outmanned physically. He's just not going to have the personnel around him. Yeah, coming off the year he had, I mean, it was, it seemed like he didn't throw an incomplete ball, especially when he got into the BCS championship. So moving from being that dominant of a team and having that. that many great players around you to a team that's now inferior, who they just don't have the horses that the other teams, especially in their division, have. It's a learning experience, but you can't, you can't let it shake your confidence. You have to know going into the year

that you've got to make the best of every rep. There's going to be bad plays. There's going to be bad reps. You've got to learn why you made the mistake and move forward. And Joe seems, Joe seems to me as mature as mature can be for a guy that's coming into his rookie year. It'd be different. if he was 18 or 19 and really only had a handful of reps. But the guy's been in two different big-time college programs. He's played for two different great offensive coordinators, great coaches, and had tons of experience in big-time games. So he's going to struggle at first.

I don't think there's any doubt about that. They're just at the end of the day, when they get off the bus at every stadium they walk into, they're going to have less talent getting off that bus than the other team does. That can change, though. I mean, that was a bad team last year. that's why they picked him number one and had that number one pick. But the one thing about Sinty is Duke Tobin's done a great job bringing in really, really good players.

They haven't kept them all. A lot of their great players have gone on at Free Agency and signed big contracts elsewhere. But he has done a good job of picking players. So it'll be a couple of years before you really see hopefully the Joe Burrell that we saw at LSU last year. You know, I saw a story today, Antonio Brown could be going to the Seahawks. And Russell Wilson pretty much is good enough to make everything sort of works with him. And it's interesting about Superstar wide receivers. I get the value of them. But sometimes I feel like, and you had a Superstar wide receiver at one point, did you ever

feel inclined that I've got to get him the ball? I've got to get him started early. Because I understand the value of having a Randy Moss, but I feel sometimes, especially for young quarterbacks, there's this pressure to get the ball to players. As a quarterback, did you ever sense that with a great player that you kind of felt an obligation to get him the ball? All the time. I mean, you know, Chad O'Soucinko was begging for the ball in the huddle every single play. And it was in the back of my mind. I wanted to get him involved. Now, you know, it's one thing when you've got a guy that just is playing the weak side receiver spot at X, it's easy to double, and it's hard to get him the ball especially early and especially when teams know that you're a young

quarterback or that your system is built around getting one individual player of the ball. So that is no doubt something that was always on my mind. But it wasn't a burden. It was just, man, I feel like I got to get chat involved. I got to get T.J. involved. I got to get whoever it is. Larry Fitzgerald, you know, Larry Fitzgerald was the opposite in the huddle. He never asked for the ball. But I still knew in the back of my mind, I need to get the crowd into it at home. I need to get the ball in Larry's hands. So, you know, it just takes the right temperament for a quarterback. And for A.B., I mean, I I think A. B, going to a situation where he's got Russell Wilson, and if he did go to Seattle, Russell's the perfect quarterback for him. Russell's a great leader.

Russell, you know, Russell doesn't need to feel that way. Russell lets the game come to him. And Russell also is the kind of guy that doesn't really throw things on time. He plays in the pocket sometimes outside the pocket. And there might not be a better receiver in the league at really just making something up and finding a way to get open or finding a void in the defense to get into that hole in the defense and get himself open because Russell very rarely throws things on time. You know, it's interesting.

When I, I've said this before, I think we forget. I feel grateful that I had a smart dad and a smart mom. And obviously that helped me have some success in life. And when I talk about Tom Brady, I say I like Tom a lot, but he did get a great owner. He did mostly have great defenses. He had Dante Scarnicke as an offensive lineman and Bill Belichick. And I've had, and I'm, Carson, I tell you this, I have had multiple NFL players. players say, and they always use you. They said, if you had to put Carson Palmer in New England,

he was built to be a quarterback, but you had to go to Cincinnati and you had to travel and you didn't get perfect situations. You've never really talked about that before. In college, you got the benefit of a great coach and great surrounding talent, but you retired, you seem incredibly happy. But if you ever look back and just giving it a minute's thought that, you know, it's not linear. It was really bumpy. And you have to me a Hall of Fame or anyway. But have you ever thought about if it had been more linear,

one team, one Hall of Fame coach for you? You know, I really don't play the coulda, woulda, should a game. You know, I had the opportunity to play in Sensi with some unbelievable players, players that I'm still great friends with. I was in a very quick in and out in Oakland, where I'm still close with a handful of guys I played with.

great friends with guys I played four and coaches, GMs in Arizona and teammates in Arizona, man, I wouldn't change a thing. I love every opportunity I had. I'll never forget some of the stadiums I got the opportunity to play in, the players I got to play with. You know, anybody could sit back and look at, you know, their career and say, well, I would change this and I would change that.

I don't play that game. I was fortunate to play in the NFL for 15 years. I loved every second of it. There were some bumps. There were some bruises. There were some blown knees. There were some holdouts. There was a lot of things that made me the man and the dad I am today.

So I don't regret anything or look at my career in that light. I look at it as an unbelievable opportunity to play a game I love for a long time. And I wouldn't change a thing because like I said, it made me who I am at this moment. Well, you're just all class. I mean, what a great answer to that. And I just, it's wonderful. And I'm jealous because I fly fish. for the first time in my life

on the Provo River last summer and it was, I did it with my cousin Matt, I could not believe how fun it was and you do it almost every day you told me? Yeah, in about 15 minutes it's 1 o'clock here in Idaho. The bugs are going to be coming off the water. We got a little bit of cloud cover coming in so

the fish are going to start getting hungry. My son Fletch, he's right here next to me. We're about to go put on our waiters and go get in the water. God. That is living right there, folks. That is living. Hope to fly fish with you someday. Carson, thank you so much for taking time for our show. Anytime. Thanks, Colin. All right, Carson Palmer, former Pro Bowl quarterback.

Good dude. I highly recommend this to any people listening to our show. If you can ever fly, I never. I'd salmon fish. I grew up in like a small fishing community. And it's salmon fishing is fun. You go out in a boat with a bunch of guys. I'm telling you right now, fly fishing.

You're just sitting on a river, fish jumping. You got the S river. got mountains everywhere. It's cold. I'm not going to tell you, you do it on a day with a little bit of sun. It is, I've never met anybody that went fly fishing that didn't say, oh, my God, I can't believe how great that is. Do you have to be patient to do it?

Yeah, and I'm not, and I was, which tells you, it's just the, you just, it's the nature and the water. It's the nature thing, and, you know, it's funny, you look at it and you think to yourself, and there's no real skill to it. First hour, first hour and a half, no fish. Matt had nine. So after an hour and a half, I'm like, I've been doing this for an hour and a half. He goes, well, you're doing it wrong.

Bo, boy, boy, show me with my wrist. Eight fish next 40 minutes. Wow. So there's like a skill to it. You can be a good fly fisherman. You just not, it's not luck. Like betting football games. Right.

Get your free credit score card today, but if you're not a Discover customer, they use the FICA credit score. Does not affect your credit at all. Learn more at Discover.com slash credit scorecard. Limitations apply. Joy Taylor with the news. No. No. No.

Turn on the news. This is the her. line news. I don't mind fishing like the icky part of it, you know, like taking the hook out and all that stuff. I just I don't think I'm the patience for it. My brother and my nephews love to

deep sea fish. Oh no, that's fun. That is not for me either. Yeah. It's way too intense. It's very intense. Now, they do it off Miami waters. Yeah, and I can't do the boat. Totally get it. Drama mean needed. Like, I get, I was a deck hand for a year. I did whale

watching trips. And believe me, I've seen a lot of guys puke. Now that is terrifying. Oh, no, I got to. Like it's beautiful when you see the whale, but then you're like, oh my God, that thing is underneath this boat. Like, what if it decides to come up on top of the boat? Last year, Anne and I went to Mexico for a weekend. We had the most fun we've ever had. We just

run in a boat. And we went out there and we were just going to listen to music and jump off the boat and get sun. And halfway through the trip, a pair of whales started going alongside the boat. And we were playing some goopy song and singing. And whale

for 15 minutes followed us in yeah that's where I saw the whales we just did the best whale segment we've ever done this for the show strong strong whale strong whale content so Mike Tyson still he still got it at 53 he recently announced that he would be making a comeback for some exhibition and charity boxing matches and he just posted another video showcasing his workouts it's unbelievable that he's 53 and I don't know Colin I know we've talked about this a couple times. Like, obviously we would watch. I would watch. Oh, God. Oh, yes. I'd watch. With Mike Tyson.

I don't know, like, I don't want to overreact to work out videos. I try to not be that person. But he looks really, he looks really fast, though. Okay, so I want to ask this. Hey, Goulet, why don't you stop giving me hockey scores for five minutes? How old was George Foreman on his comeback? So people forget this.

George Foreman came back in box, right? He was not in great shape. He was built like a big oil canister. And Tyson looked like he's in great shape. And Foreman knocked dudes out. In fact, I think he beat Michael Moore, if I recall, knocked him out. So how old was Foreman? When he came back in 94, he was 45 years old. Okay. And he was in George was not in the greatest of shape.

Tyson looks to be, he's George Foreman, but better shape. I mean, he's 53, so he's a little bit older than when George came back. I'm not saying he's going to be the heavyweight champ, but you can't tell me if he fought Tyson Fury, it wouldn't be interesting. It wouldn't be, I would pay. I got to be honest. I'm 100%. His last fight was when it was 48.

I would pay, of course I'm going to watch it. Of course I'm going to watch it, regardless of the outcome. I think that the first couple rounds would be interesting, but I think that Tyson Fury would outlast Mike just because he's younger. Yes. He's fighting other younger fighters. He has more legs than him. There is a way to fight Mike at 53.

Avoid him for four rounds. Right. It's the Connor McGregor when we had my other fought him. Just let him punch himself out, get to the sixth round. And if he hits me, it's still not going to have. have the vigor of a second round punch. I still think it would be a good fight. I don't think you're wrong.

So LeBron has done more than enough on the court to put himself in the conversation for the greatest NBA player of all time. But Draymond Green thinks it's LeBron's work off the field that will give him an edge in the debate. Arguably the greatest player of all times. You look at his resume, it's flawless on and off the court. You know, the things that he's been able to do on the court, obviously spectacular. But it's, you know, it's more important the things that he's been able to accomplish off the court. And that's where, you know, he gets the utmost respect for me. I would argue that he's not been flawless on the court.

I mean, his finals resume would speak to him not being flawless on the court, particularly, you know, that first year in Miami is the first thing that comes to mind. I enjoyed all of his years in Miami, obviously. But I think the goat debate has kind of wandered into the space that the MVP for the NBA, has gone where you're kind of defining it by whatever you want to define it as. That's right. And it's still a fun debate to have and we're going to have it for probably the rest of time. I still think that Michael Jordan is the greatest to ever do it. But if you're adding in off the court things, that's a bigger spectrum of what the goat really is.

And I guess in some ways we do do that with Jordan because of the shoes. But the shoes is kind of part of what's on the court as well. So it's not entirely off the court. I agree with him as far as Draymond, as far as LeBron being flawless off the court. I think he's the greatest superstar we've ever seen in any sport in the history of planet art. What he's been able to do from the age of 16 until now, managing his business, managing his career, family, building up people around him, his influence on the community. It's remarkable, and that's not a big enough word to describe it. But if we're talking about what's on the court, then we can get into a more of a heated debate.

The NBA has been very lucky. In my lifetime, if you see. said, who are the best players in the league for the last 50 years? LeBron, you know, Shaq, very joyful, Michael Magic Bird. Before that, I, you know, Jerry West, I don't know, Dr. Jay. Right. Karim. Yeah. Lucky.

I mean, just think about that. You've gotten academics. You've gotten global citizens. You've gotten really good human beings. The NBA has been incredible. I shouldn't just say the NBA. I say this all the time. Pro sports is lucky.

Virtually 99% of the great players are people you're totally proud of to market as a league. The NBA is incredibly lucky that LeBron is the face of the league. Zero off-court issues, elevates others, global citizen.

I think part of becoming the face of the league is that you kind of have to have some of that in you, right? Like, you have to... LeBron is naturally very polarizing. Is he? Yeah, I think, I mean, he's one of the most debated athletes of all time. Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean he's polarized. That just means people debate the color of the sky.

Yeah, but I mean, just because you're a great athlete doesn't necessarily mean that you are, or your great doesn't mean that you are polarizing. I wouldn't consider Michael Jordan now, maybe when he was playing, but certainly not now. I don't think that he's polarizing. Like, if you just feel LeBron is better, then you just feel he's better. But it's not like you're outraged that someone is saying that Michael Jordan is the greatest. I think it speaks poorly

of our society that LeBron has seen as polarizing. There's nothing about Laurent that gets me worked up. There shouldn't be anything about him that's polarizing. I agree. But I think he naturally is polarizing. Otherwise, we wouldn't have these elaborate conversations and debates about him all the time. I would argue

that you could make an argument Michael was more naturally polarizing because of the Republicans buy sneakers too, which was kind of a political statement. That in itself, at the time, Right, at the time. But I think since time has now passed, and his legacy and his aura has almost grown and with everything that we just saw with the last dance, I mean, his legacy is so untouchable, Michael Jordan that he, I think at some point in his career, yes, he was polarizing. But I will see when it plays out how history looks back on LeBron. It's going to probably be pretty silly. Oh, I think the history is going to speak incredibly well of LeBron.

Yeah. So finally, Avery Bradley is the latest NBA player to opt out of the season restart in Orlando. The Lakers Guard said he made the decision for the well-being of his family. His son has a history of struggling to recover from respiratory illness. And it's unlikely he would have been medically cleared to enter the Orlando bubble. So he would have had to stay away from him. Hypothetically, obviously, the labor assuming the Lakers are going to go deep into the playoffs, it would be anywhere from three to four months that he would be away from him. Because after the first round of the playoffs, which is essentially two months from now,

or for two months from the start of the season, they will be allowed to start bringing guests in, very limited capacity. They have to be quarantined before they come in. They have to be tested, I believe, for three days straight before they come in. And then once they're in, they can't leave and come back. So it's very complicated.

So he just chose, for the sake of his family, not to do it. I assume that there was going to be players that made these decisions. Obviously, Trevor Areza is not coming back for, you know, family purposes. Everybody's making the right decision. Yeah, and I don't hold it against any player that doesn't want to come back. for any reason at all.

It's just not an ideal situation. The report is that J.R. Smith is the leading candidate to replace Bradley. I think KCP is actually a better fit. He's already on the team. Well, it's tough to replace Avery Bradley. Like he's a very solid player. Like you said earlier, he's a two-way guy. So it's going to be tough to replace him.

But the teams that have the most depth in this situation are going to be teams that have a major advantage, which is why I'm still leaning towards the clippers. We'll talk more about this story on Joy Chat today at 3.30 Eastern on caffeine. Free app go download it and subscribe to the Fox Sports channel. Good stuff. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd Lie News. By the way, on the Bubba Wallace story, I didn't get your opinion.

When it first came out on the internet yesterday, it was, my reaction was, oh, God, thankfully that's not true. How did that land for you? I had the complete opposite reaction. I thought it was the worst case scenario for the situation. Because the situation had become as big as it did, and you had the whole moment before the race, and you had Bubba's interview afterwards, and the attention that the story had gotten, the only positive outcome for me would have been that this was actually a noose, and they found the person that did it, and they're going to solve it and take care of it. How do we not know that there was a noose? Have we not known what the situation was, and they had investigated it, and then we got the story, it wouldn't have been a news. bad but in my opinion we didn't have to know like I didn't need there to be a noose in

Bubba Wallace's garage to know that there's you know a tie of racism to NASCAR that just recently got handled with the Confederate flag like that didn't need to happen in order to satisfy that for me I just didn't think that the public or the media needed to know because when you give there's a certain group of society that's looking for this to be a hoax or not be true right you saw it immediately Justice Smollett, as soon as this came out, like there was a comparison to that situation, which is not true. Bubba didn't report it.

NASCAR put out a very clear statement that there was a news and it was a heinous act and they're going to investigate it. Of course, the media is going to react to it. It wasn't a blurry picture or a random report. NASCAR told us that there was a noose in the garage. So there's people that were waiting for this to not be true. And in this movement, those are the people that you're trying to reach. Like, you don't want to preach to the choir, right?

There's a group of society like the four people that you described earlier, right? Most of those people are hearing what we're saying. They're understanding and they're starting to see and experience and grow empathy towards a situation. It's the people that are really deep in the mud that we're trying to pull out. Yeah. That now are even deeper in it. They've been looking for this. All they needs a little crumb to validate their bigotry and their racism and their All Lives Matter.

like this was a buffet of free meat just served up. And I just felt like because the situation had gotten so public and there was the whole showing of unity and solidarity, it just fed it to them. And those people will be harder to reach now because of the way it all went down. Well said. Appreciate your perspective. Take a break back. You know, it's funny about pressure.

Some of it's self-induced. Some of it's not. Of all the players coming back, I think you'll be surprised. to I think the NBA playoffs, the shoulders that will feel the greatest burden next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the I-Hard Radio app. All right, NBA training camps, Joy, resuming in a week. I want to watch practice, even if it's bubble practice.

So I thought with the league coming up, who are the 10 players in order that I think face the most pressure? And Joy and I'll go through this. So here's my number 10. Number 10. Ben Simmons. Okay, so the 76ers are seen as talented and underachieving. He is viewed as their second best player. Now, he just signed a contract, right?

So, but there's a sense that he's as much a problem as MB. So I'd say Simmons needs to have a good playoff. And I've also wondered, is he focused? I'm not always sure he is. Yeah. So I want to see him deliver. Next. Number nine.

Campbell Walker. Less pressure, but this is, in my opinion, a title team. He has never won a playoff series, and he signed a massive contract, four years, 140 million. It's not massive pressure, but we know he's talented, but you've got to win in the postseason, especially in Boston. Number eight. LeBron. The pressure for LeBron is simply the window's closing on titles. We know he's the second best or first best player ever.

It's not that. It is, I think it's self-induced. It's LeBron saying, I'm in my 17th year. We don't have a lot of cap space. The cap may come down. It's not a big free agent class. This could be my best shot pressure. He's eight.

Number seven. This is Embedd, who is the best player on Philadelphia in the eyes of most. There is a sense that if you're the best player that you set the tempo with the locker room and the locker room in Philadelphia is Ambide and Simmons don't get along. He is not always focused, kind of goofy, kind of a kid, but Uber talented. So I think the pressure is more in Embed than Simmons, but it's clearly on Joel MB2. Number six. Janus, he hasn't won a lot of playoff series.

And this is almost organizational pressure. Last year was the first time he won a playoff series. He won two. And last year, he got a little marginalized against Toronto and Kauai. So no more 6-7 guys shutting down Janus. He needs to come in, play well, and get through the Eastern Conference. He's considered the Eastern Conference best player. You've got to win the East.

Number five. Paul George. I like Paul a lot. He's a very good two-way player, but he hasn't on a playoff series in six years, and he tends to be a guy who comes up under our expectations in big spots. And now you're playing with Kauai who over-delivers in big spots, so we're not going to blame Kauai if things go wrong. Number four. Russell Westbrook. First round exits last three years. and let's be honest. He is unraveled in the postseason. So the visual resume is, he yells at fans, he yells at people.

But he's only four. Number three is James Harden. Because James Hardin's considered an all-time great player. And James Hardin is the guy that Darryl has said, I haven't given him enough players. So I think the pressure's on James Hardin, and he's got a series of letdowns. I think a lot of times we experience.

excuse Westbrook that he's just so hyper-athletic that he just wears out. With Hardin, we don't always think he puts the effort in on the defensive end. Number two. Anthony Davis. They gave away a lot of good young players for Anthony Davis. And they didn't give away those good young players to not end up in the NBA championship round. AAD has won one playoff series. And there's no excuses.

He hasn't played in three months. So this is the healthiest he's been. This is the best teammate he's ever had. They gave up the Lonzo ball, the Brandon Ingrams for him, the Josh Hart's for him. And we know LeBron can win a title. He can't blame LeBron. He's won it with Wade. He's won it with Bosch.

He's won it with Love. He's won it with Kyrie. Number one. I think it's Chris Middleton. This is my theory. He's an all-star in the East. Milwaukee is a smaller non-free agent market. if Chris does not deliver,

we know Janice is going to give you 30 and 10. If Chris doesn't deliver, Janice wakes up in the morning and all the big dogs like Golden State are like, we'll give you Steph and Clay and Draymond. I think Chris needs to have a very good postseason. I'm not asking for 30, but I'm asking for 23 and an absolute Paul George level 2

to Kauai James. So I think there's organizational, pressure. Chris Middleton's got to give me 23 and a half a night. Every night. I agree. I know it sounds crazy, right? All right, great job, Joy. We have a new

co-host over there. I'll be watching today. Marcellus, you better bring her A-game. Better bring the A-game today, buddy. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where

Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. And every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite, unhumored me with Robert Smygle and friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

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