The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Cam Jordan on Saints-Falcons, Brett Favre scandal, Drew Brees' change of heart

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan joins Mike Silver to discuss the Falcons not taking Jordan in the 2011 Draft, plus Atlanta's recent tendency to allow big comebacks, his love for quarterback Jameis Winston, how team culture has changed under head coach Dennis Allen, why Drew Brees changed his stance towards kneeling during the National Anthem, and the Denver Broncos' questionable decision to attempt a potential game-winning 64-yard field goal last week against the Seattle Seahawks. #volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me.

Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Cliford Show on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcast, And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, CliverTaylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right what you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Conky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner,

we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, we're back at Open Mic, and this is a treat. And I want to go back to the spring of 2011, a long time ago. I had one of my coolest journalistic experiences. there was a young defensive lineman coming out of Cal named Cam Jordan.

He was getting some pre-draft hype. And somehow I got myself invited to what was basically a job interview. It was Cam Jordan, his agent Doug Hendrickson, yours truly, and then Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitrov at a restaurant in San Francisco having a great dinner. And talking about, you know, all things cam the falcons had the 27th pick in that draft so it looked like they might not be able to get them unless they made a move they did make a move but they didn't get them and here you are cam still a member of the new orleans states i'll say clearly they might not have had to make a move i mean

i think about you know where i landed 24th overall pick you know i thought i was going top 15 and it didn't go that way that i thought um Atlanta was talking and i was like you know, Atlanta's not a bad division being. I knew that NFC South was going to be a great division for me. I just didn't know where I was going to end up. Luckily, I ended up with the Saints and we sort of never looked back. I mean, they went Julio Jones. They just, they had 27, they jumped up.

They grabbed Julio. You know, I couldn't blame them. I thought San Francisco. They went out Smith. So, you know, I thought Tampa. Tampa Bay went, you know, they went for a defensive end name, Agent Claiborne, not Cam Jordan. So I just may have overestimated myself.

Well, it is funny how the football gods did this because the Falcons, they went up and got Julio. Okay, we, you know, we get that. He was a game changer. But you ended up on the Saints, and I feel like there's something going on with the Saints and Falcons, like maybe some sort of animosity back and forth. Do you use any of that to fuel you? Are you like, man, the Falcons took me out to dinner and didn't take me? No, I can't, again, I can't blame.

You know, they were Julio Jones. That's going to be, you know, he's going to be a Hall of Famer the moment he decides to wrap it up. You can't argue that. You know, you think about all the D-Line that went to 2011 draft class, is probably just going to go down as the greatest draft class ever in my mind. And you can't really argue. You can argue, which of me, you know, 2014 or whatever it is, Aaron-D-D-D-Lass went in.

I'm sure they've got some great ones. But in my mind, there's no higher class in 2011. Think about the D-Lignment alone that went. You know, you had Von Miller. who is the current sack leader. What he's got 117 sacks currently. You've got, you know, number three overall, Marcel Darius was a nose tackle who had 10 sacks,

multiple pro bowls at that position. I went to Cal so I wanted to be in the bay. I thought San Francisco at 7, but they went, Alden Smith out of Missouri. And you couldn't argue that first ever to 40, like fastest ever to 45 sacks, which I think was only beat out by Daniel Hunter. But, I mean, just super talented.

Then, of course, you go from there, J.J. Watt, you know, three-time D-P-O-Y. You've got Ryan Kerrigan. Probably between the two was Robert. I'm going to say, yeah. So you got Robert Quinn. Then you've got, you know, another two or three. You got Corey, legit. Where was he out of?

Corey was out of University of Illinois. Then, you know, you got Agent Claiborne out of Iowa. and then you had myself, oh, no, they had Phil Taylor from Baylor, then you had myself, then you had Mohamed Wilkerson, and then you had Cam Hayward. I mean, not alone, I'm just saying,

the amount of Pro Bowls just between the D. Lyman doesn't even add in guys like A.J. Green and Pat P. and, you know, Cam Newton. It was stacked now. Julio, yeah. So I want to stay on the Falcons for a second. You opened your season against the Atlanta Falcons.

It wasn't looking good in the fourth quarter. You were down 16 points to the Atlanta Falcons. Right, right. Is there any team you'd rather be down a lot of points to in the fourth quarter than the Atlanta Falcons? I mean, history would say no. If you look at their last Super Bowl appearance and now last game, you'd say if you're down by more than two touchdowns, it's okay. You can scrap your way out.

You can out-tuff them and out-last them. But because it happened to them so early this year, they still have a chance to still piece some things together and figure it out. So by the time we play them, we're going to catch their best shot again. We always just catch the team's best shots. Like whatever we think we're going to break down on film, they always do something that deviates from that plan. You feel like it just is what it is.

We're the saints. We're the big brothers of the NFC South. And whether you're going to admit it or not, year and year out, since I've been here, Carolina, even when they took the division about three years, their target was us. Atlanta wants to beat us and Atlanta wants to win the division even Atlanta going to the Super Bowl

their target was to beat us and at our minds you know, Tampa Bay is another team we got coming up and they're the same thing. I feel like in my mind we're the ones that are targeted. I don't know if there's a rivalry

between anybody except us in Atlanta but in the NFC South we get everybody's best shot for whatever we do. So Atlanta, I look this up since 2020 five times in the NFL a team's been up by 15 or more

and lost. Three of those five are the Falcons. I think their motto would, they're like team motto slogan, anthem that they pump out there is rise up. I think they have to live up to their expectations. Do you let them know as it's happening like in that last week in that moment? Are you like, guys, it's happening again. You're choking. This is what you do or not? No, not at all. We're focused about what the Saints are doing. Now, granted, we have a little bit of animosity that was going on. Sure. You know, they even had a chance where the refs, you know, called Jarvis Landry out of bounds, even though he was inbound. And then they hit us with an intentional grounding from James Winston, when it should have just been a regular clock because he was clearly inbound. But the rough said otherwise, you know, they're just, you know, they're always giving up second chances. And that may cause a little bit more animosity necessary. You know, you know, you had number 89 push shove my guy, Marshawn, and then Marciaan would shove him back. And then he did a whole, I don't know what acting classes he took, but he did like a whole

front flip. Like he was some sort of stunt double. It was impressive, the amount of rotation he got. But, you know, they got them, they gave him another set of downs and they able to do this kick. And then we blocked that too. So, you know, no matter what happens, we know that we can trust our guys in building fight and play all 60 minutes.

So I'm sensing a little animosity toward the Falcons for. you, which I would expect having been in New Orleans for so long, you know, you've been there more than a decade. But, you know, let's go to Tampa because you play them week two. I saw that Todd Bulls apparently told his players this week, hey, guys, it's not a rivalry if both teams don't win. And he's referring to the fact that you've beaten them in the regular season during the Brady era, you know, very resoundingly. But I also know that that playoff game in 2020, which is the most important of all, they were able to take that from you guys

and win the Super Bowl. So does that alone make it a rivalry? I'm going to let you figure that one out. If you win one out of five times, I don't even know what my record is in the last, let's call it 11 years because this will be the 23rd time I played them. But a lot like other teams, I feel like, again, they're targeting us for a reason. And we have to rise to this challenge each and every Sunday. You know, we have to be able to play our best ball because they have

a phenomenal set of weapons on the offensive side with Julio Jones now, with Kyle Rudolph, with, you know, the mainstay of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, you know, littered for a net. And then, you know, James leaves when they bring in the, what, I can't even say the winningest quarterback, but quarterback with six rings at the time, getting his seventh ring with tap. So you replace the number one overall pick with the greatest quarterback, the most accomplished quarterback of our era in Tom Brady. So what else can you do? At this point, we know we have to put up our best game.

We have no room for error. By the way, that Letter Fournett kind of got Michael Parsons on that block when he wasn't looking. I know you've seen the video. It's caused some drama. Yeah, it's a chip. There's been clear times where a running back is slip out and give you a chip. It's a part of the game. You know, if anything, I've seen some up.

or about, you know, we should take the chip blocks away. I'm like, give me back being able to just hit the quarterback and not have to worry about where my hand is placed or if I slapped his ankle where, God forbid, I hit him going full speed and I didn't turn and rotate out of my own way to land on a quarterback. Like, let's just make the game what it used to be. You know, we had Vaughn Miller on this program

and he told a story about their playoff game this last January. They were killing him, and he started trash-talking Tom Brady a little bit. And then as soon as he did that, the comeback started. And Vaughn was like, what did I do? I will never do this again. Have you trash-talked Tom Brady ever? Can you trash-talk Tom Brady?

Like, what's the point? Like, you know, maybe Vaughn can't because he's a Super Bowl MVP himself. But I don't have the accolades to be like, hey, Tom, this is what we're going to do. And he'd be like, yeah, I've won seven Super Bowl range. Tush. Like, there's no one aspect. You could be like, yeah, Tom, you're soft. You're a quarterback.

You're going to be soft. Like, you can't ever be like, yeah, you're not making all the throws. I've shown you I can make every throw. We're going to disguise his defense. I've seen every defense. You have been this league for 23 years now. I'm proud of your dozen. He's been in for 23.

Could I, you know, talk a little trash? I'm sure about maybe some gray hairs, maybe? I don't know. Like, what else are you going to talk to? Like, you're not that fast. We knew this already. Like, what are you going to say? You could be like, you're only going to make 37.5 million a year when you retire off TV.

Yeah. You're only going to eclipse your entire career salary in the first eight years of your analyst deal or whatever you signed. Or you're going to eclipse that with your crypto deal that you signed. Who knows? You know, like at this point, quarterback money has always been different. And we've never really cared, you know. That's not going to help you win this game. What's going to help you win this game is.

is us playing our best ball and we're getting the Saints W. That's all we really care about. Let's talk about your quarterback. You've been a big James Winston fan since he arrived. You publicly campaigned during free agency to get him back. What is it that has made you so excited about James? Come on, I was excited with James.

I remember probably his second or third year in the league. I saw him in offseason. I was talking to him. I was like, eventually you're going. that have to just come and join this black and gold, man. He was like, no, you can come join Champa. Oh, man, like, we got something you don't over there. You know, we've got an OC that'll get you right now.

And, you know, he came over here. He took a year behind Drew, and then he took some time behind Taysam. And then when it was his time, he stepped up and shine even brighter than he was when he was in that red. You know, he was a quarterback who was through for 5,000 yards. And everybody was all, you know, negative about. are like, oh, he threw 30 interceptions. I said, do you know how many, how few of quarterbacks are able to throw for 5,000 yards? There's plenty of quarterbacks get to 4,700, 4,800, 4,500.

But to break that 5,000 barrier, all they may stop. So that being said, you learn from Drew Brees for a year. You clean up some of those mistakes. You learn from Sean Payton. You get with our OC. There's so many things that can happen. It can be great. And I think that he's capitalized on those.

You know, when he's playing his former team, does that, you know, do you think that gets the juices flowing a little bit extra in this coming game? I think so. I mean, for him, it probably will. For us, again, as a defense, we've got to control what we can control. We've got to handle what we're able to handle. We're trying to get back to playing our football, you know, stop the run first because I think this last game with our running back Marriota and running back, you know, Cordero, Patterson. Also, we didn't know what Drake London was capable of, and we knew Kyle Pitts was a wide receiver that has created mismatches. I think that they've done great things over there, and they ended up running for, you know, what, 120 yards on the ground from Corderole Patterson?

That can't happen in our defense. We know better than that. You know, we've got to be able to tune back into what we're great at, and that's stopping the run first and then getting after the pass rush. You've had Dennis Allen as your defensive coordinator. You had him in 2015 to 2021. he was coming off a rough first time stand as a head coach with the Raiders. How has he been as head coach and has it been what you expected?

He's been exactly what we expected. There's somebody that, you know, was going to be aggressive in terms of our defense. And then from there, you knew that you were going to be able to attack, you know, I guess the biggest change would be like, I've never had a defensive-minded head coach. So now I'm just like actually getting the. love that I feel like defense is always deserved, you know, like in practice, if we don't run our stuff right, now it's, hey,

let's run this back. Previous to this, it's like, hey, you know, we'll watch that on film. Or, you know, now we count, I probably make the biggest joke is now we finally count sacks on two-minute drills, you know, like, if you got an officer-minded head coach, they're never going to call them. Two-minute drill, no, that

you would have evaded that. Stop it. Let's stop the madness, you know? Let's just count them for what they are and let's go from there. That's how we're going to get better. So you were denied, tons of practice sacks in the Sean Payton era, it sounds like. Oh, plenty. But that made me better as a pass session. Because, you know, like, if you get a clean one off a tackle,

they're like, oh, they just push it on. That should only amp you up. So it only turns you up that much more. So now when you throw the officer linemen into the quarterback and he looks at you now they have to call the sack, they're upset. They're sick about it. And you love that.

Has it felt different in any other way? Because Sean's such a big personality. you know, has it felt different with DA? Probably not. I mean, as much as, you know, Sean, like, this is the game plan, this is how we want to, you know, as I guess, yeah, I say not as much in terms of the energy that you're going to get off of a quarter of a head coach.

It would probably just be, again, that shift of a defensive-minded head coach versus the opposite of mighty head coach, where, you know, Sean Payton is paying attention to the minutia of the whiteout splits. of, you know, the details of the tight end, whether he's on the ball, off the ball, whatever that is. He's over here like, hey, you're at six yards. You know, you need six and a half or whatever it is. And they're super hyper and focus there.

You got a defensive mind head coach now that's like, hey, linebacker needs to rotate over here. And he needs to be at a 30 where they're, where this is. It's the same focus. Again, now we're just getting a little bit more love. And you've got to love to love. And is Pete Carmichael as offensive coordinator are calling it similarly to Sean? from what you could tell in training camp, going against the ones and stuff. Man, that, she, the only difference you're going to catch for me, maybe,

was when it was that, that melting pot of Sean Pete Drew. And that was, you know, now it's just Pete and James, and I'm sure they got their own little connection. But nah, you're not going to catch any drop off. Like I said, we don't really have drop off. We have nothing but this is how we're setting up to attack this Sunday. We're focused this way and this we're going to go for it. We're not sitting back on, hey, this is a rebuild.

year or hey this is we got to get new to the adjustments here we're we're all we're all cylinders going so uh my daughter natalie and i started a podcast in 2020 uh another caligrad we pass it down and uh one of our very first shows we had you and your father steve jordan uh six time pro bowl tight end for the minnesota vikings for those young ones out there uh pretty pretty good pretty good little NFL player and uh very very smart dude and we had great conversation. And it was, you know, it was right after the George Floyd murder and a summer of unrest was going on. And there was a lot going on. One of the things that struck me, you know, that your dad said was he was concerned at the time that the energy, you know, about fighting racial

and social injustice and police brutality and all those things, that it wasn't going to be able to be sustainable in its form. And he talked about having to do the hard work day and day and day out, which he likened to blocking and tackling, which I thought was a great analogy. I know you've been very involved on the grassroots level since then, and we can get into that. But do you think the energy has changed? Was his concern founded in terms of has it fallen off that momentum that we had that summer? That's a yes and a no. I think the initial reactions were so strong that you want to catch that tight away. But I think that because of those reactions, there was some long-term change that is being implemented at every level now.

You're more aware of it. You're more conscientious of decisions that are being made of your surroundings. And that alone is an effect that you would only hope would happen. There is no such thing that, you know, things are going unturned that, you know, some of these murders are getting thrown underneath the rug. Everyone is quite aware of what's happening. You can't turn a blind eye to it. And that is one of the biggest parts of it is you could like, you know, you point an instance

and nobody would say anything, or you point like, hey, we need help, we need, you know, we need do something, but there wasn't those grassroots organizations get enough attention. And now that they've been highlighted, you know,

I love the work that I've been able to do here with Preston City Corps, teaming up with, you know, teaming up with the New Orleans, New Orleans PD, and just sort of taking these small groups and introducing them to the community leaders, introducing them to what they're going to be available to

within New Orleans itself. And it's just, it's just the small, organizations that's helped build up and eventually it will make a cataclysmic change, but you won't notice it. It will just continue building. It'll hopefully just absorb it to our new societal norms. We don't have to worry about the bull that is happening on the streets at times. We don't have to worry about these policing entities not doing the damn job. And there's a great four-part docu-series for those of you haven't seen it on NFL that ran on

NFL network that details Crescent City Corps and Cam and all this great work. How about in the locker room specifically. You guys had some very open conversations, you know, like I think every team did when all, you know, it was during COVID, so a lot of it was Zoom, but a lot of people said a lot of things. And I know, you know, talking to some white players, it really kind of opened their eyes. They understood it intellectually before, but they didn't really have a, you know, intimate sense of the experience that some of their friends and teammates were living and had lived. Has the locker room changed since then? You know, are these conversations still kind of being had?

Yeah, the conversation is always going to happen. I mean, no matter what you feel about it, you know, as a white player, you're never going to know how it is to walk in the middle of a night in a, you know, in a southern territory. I mean, you know, even as a West Coast kid, I feel like there was some naivity there, just, you know, sort of being, hey, you know, I'm from Arizona, went up to Northern California where, you know, you don't really hear too much about it, you know, you don't, you're not aware of what's really going on. Then you get in the South and, you know, you get pulled over one time.

You fully understand, like, what do you mean? Like, are we serious right now? And you have these situations that happen. And you're like, all right, you know, I do have to be aware where I'm at. I do have to know exactly where I'm going, where, what I'm doing, you know, what I have on me, whatever I'm carrying is, is given off a sort of an aggressive nature, whatever it is, then I have to be aware that I have to humble myself when I'm being pulled over. You know, it's not like I can't just talk the way I want to, whatever it is. But I have, you know, at the end of the end of the day, I'm 6'4, I'm 285 pounds, and I can be a problem if I wanted to be.

And I'm perceived as a problem long before I ever am. So there's a certain way that you have to carry yourself and oppose yourself. You learn that. I guess that's an adulthood situation that I could say that I was able to be shielded for a long bit. Well, I mean, it's, you know, it's nice. You know, I don't have to necessarily have the kind of conversations with my kids that you and your wife, Nikki, do with your son, Tank.

Because as you pointed out to me back then, you know, he's going to be a big black, you know, No doubt. Indeed. He's going to be big. This is what you have to deal with. How old is he now? Seven. Seven. Have you had to have you had to have that talk yet with him? I mean, yes and no. So we've had the talk. We haven't had to go as deep as I think my parents did with me when I was younger. But we've had this talk many times because whenever you get into that public school area and you're that much bigger than the next person, I mean, he's seven, but he looks like he's, you know, nine or ten. You know, he's got a full head on everybody. He's a lean kid, but he doesn't know his own strength. So he's, you know, he played with his friends and they're getting mauled.

So these things are going to be called out, whatever it is, and you have to address them as they come. You know, Drew Brees, your legendary teammate at the time, said some things about his opposition to kneeling for the anthem, and it caused a big controversy. And you took it head on. You talked to him. You talked about it publicly. and, you know, really shared your feelings and perspective. Did things get awkward during that time? No, no, not at all.

I mean, if I've learned anything over my years, is sometimes you get comfortable in your own lane or you get in this idea that, you know, I'm not affecting the outside world. It's like you don't really know what's affecting somebody until you actually walk a day in their shoes. And no matter what you do, you can't walk a day in my shoes. You know, so for him, there was a moment where he, you know, Drew Breeze,

whole family, you served in the military. And he's able to wrap himself up and, hey, this is how I felt about my grandfather, and everything about that. And at the same time, you're deflecting, you know, the, what we've already explained, but we sort of already gone through what we felt was a T moment. So those moments of vulnerability is where you can see change, you can see actual growth from. And that's, you know, that's to be expected. You talk to him and he's not defensive about it. He's open to, you know, whether it's, you know, make a mistake or not, it's, this is what

I said. This is what I had meant. And these are the thoughts that I, that I need to convey to, you know, the public. And from there, you know, there's, again, there's growth. The, whether you, the statements after, words are just words to me, but it was the actions after. It was, it was the money, you put the money where it's about it was putting the time and effort and watching documentaries just putting the time to have these conversations with guys like me with guys like demario or guys like you know malcolm jacin guys like ben watson it was it was the effort after that that showed me that you know you know a person by their actions and by their heart and i know you had family members in the military i mean it's a very it's a very nuanced

conversations yeah i mean everybody everybody has some sort of military connection you know grandpa was in the army uncle in the navy um all served and you know you're proud of it i'm going You're so tours myself, and I love everything that our troops do for our nation. And even talking with some of them, it's like, you know, they understand what the idea for kneeling is. They understand it's not disrespectful. The only, you know, efforts that it seemed to be found at kneeling were people who were adverse to not opening up their ears and, let alone opening up their hearts, so understanding what people's plights were. Have you checked out this story coming out of Mississippi?

Brett Farr, one of the great quarterbacks of all time, is accused of, you know, doing a deal basically with the governor that would funnel $5 million of welfare funds to build a college volleyball gym where his daughter was playing in Mississippi. What are your thoughts on that? What? I think, like, I think I saw Shannon Sharp address it. And it was like, you know, when you're taking welfare dollars, for you're taking money from people who are, you know, are underserved, that's something that you want to have to talk to you and your maker about. Like, we talk about, you know, what we want to do.

Like, everything that, you know, I do is that I see my father do. And I've seen, you know, my teammates do serving the community. It just doesn't fall in line with what we want to do. So if that's what he's doing, that's what he's doing. I'm not even addressing that. I know that I want to help my community as much as I can. I know I want to help, you know, my kids' community. I want to help the surrounding community that I'm in as much as I can.

And taking dollars that you know you've got, just because you're going to take them from a governor or whatever the situation is, just to take them from, you say, welfare. Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? They're supposed to go to where it's supposed to go to. At the end of the day, be a good person. Be a better person of your community.

You know, your dad's one of the great dudes, you know, very active in the players union, went to Brown, has had a great post-football career in the business world. I know he was into discipline and all that, and you guys have a great relationship. He's a competitive guy. He went to six consecutive Pro Bowls. So I know when you went to your first one, he was like, man, I'm so proud of you, son. And probably when you went to your third, he was like, this is so great. You just got your seventh selection, which beats him. Did you get a congrats? Yeah, of course.

In fact, now is just I'm coming in. And it's not a discussion of like if he's going to come in or if I'm going to pay for it now. And that's just on my tab. To be clear, I'm coming in on your tab. And then, you know, he gave me half the DNA to be where I'm at. So who might have, who might have fighting? You know? It just, it is.

He's not, he's not mad that he's in second place now with the family. No, no. I mean, that's what legacy is supposed to do. It's supposed to take one step farther. You know, I expect if take plays football to go, you know, I won't put those expectations on him. But if he goes for eight or nine pro balls, I'm just going to nod my head. I'm just like, you know, and that's why I had him to improve the legacy. And if he decides to be a taxidermist, great.

I guess I'll just be over there looking. for my next my next pill. I'm just hoping he goes to the greatest university on earth and goes to a Rose Bowl. That's the number one consideration right now. You'd say that, but are we even going to have a pack by the time he gets in college? Is a Rose Bowl going to be an automatic bid if you win the pack? Is it going to be a pack? It's going to be, it's going to be, it's going to be what?

Cal and Stanford left? No, Stanford is probably going to hit the Ivy League. Big Ten is going to absorb half the pack. the SEC may take a pack school because apparently traveling is not common sense for anybody. It's going to be a living nightmare. This is my plan, Cam. If it could just be the pack two, say with Arizona and Cal or Stanford and Cal and we keep the Rose Bowl bid, we might win that. We can win the pack two, maybe, although maybe not.

You say that. You know, I got firm belief in Cal this year. You know, hopefully after this year they go back to Nike because it's, I feel like I blame the whole demise of our football program on us being an unarmor. You have to, as Prime said, look good, play good. Play good. Play good. They pay good. And the under armor wasn't paying good.

Either way, I'm not here to knock on the armor. I would stick up for them, but there's been some disconnect between the company and the university. So I think probably I'm going to allow any of that to because, you know, listen, I will say this. you know, Cal has not been to a Rose Bowl in my lifetime, and we've, I mean, we have outperformed on Sundays what we've accomplished on Saturdays for the most part. We still have many of the league's best players, including you, and it's amazing. So, you know, sometime in my lifetime, I will experience that maybe. But in the meantime, on Sundays, I'm very, very proud. You, you know, there's, in the NFC, after one week, people are like, man, the NFC's got nobody.

You know, the Packers don't look good. The Rams don't look good. The Niners got beat by the Bears. The Cowboys got beat. Could you guys kind of like sneakily get in this mix and be, you know, the NFC champs by the time this is all said and done? Hey, I'm going to worry about this week and next week. And by week 14, 15, 16, I'm going to let the cards lay. they may. I'm not going to look ahead because I think that we have a hell of a challenge

in front of us on Sunday. And from there, I don't know. We got Carolina. And then, and then we got London. This is the deepest I've ever known in my schedule. After London, I don't know what happens. I know we got another 10-8-4-by-week. So we're only going to take this one week at a time. I'm going to say we have Tom Brady, Little Fornett, Mike Evans, Julio Jones, Chris Godwin, Russell Gage, Kyle Rudolph, Cameron Bray. You see what I'm doing here. There's just names that have been here, but we have our work cut out for us

in terms of what we have to do on defense. Is there a, I mean, I know you love sacking any quarterback, obviously. Is there a quarterback you just love to hit or sack more than any other? I would like to say I love any and every quarterback equally, you know? As long as they're willing to hold the ball, pat the ball, maybe do a seven-yard to nine-yard drop. I'm willing to love them all and give them big bear hugs on site.

Now, granted, in this day and age, I have to then, immediately after this bear hug, I have to roll mid-air not to land on their shoulders or hips or body because this league is headed towards putting pillows down as you hate quarterbacks. But yes, I enjoy each and every quarterback. And each time, it's like the first time. It's just great.

Is it more of a nightmare having to play against like a Lamar Jackson or a Russell Wilson or a Josh Allen who is going to be moving a moving target as opposed to someone who will sit back in the pocket? Each type of quarterback has their strengths or weaknesses. Against a Lamar, you have, you know, the Marriottas, you know, you have to be able to be aware of where the quarterback is. You're not actually caring about what offensive linemen are doing because you're worried about,

hey, I can't let this quarterback escape and hurt us with his feet. So it takes away from our pass rush moves. But when you're facing a guy like Tom Brady, who has the fastest release in the game and has seen every defense and isn't afraid to check down every play if he has to, like he doesn't get hit much. And there's a reason for that because the ball gets off fast. He's not moving. he's not beating, you know, my seven-year-old in a race.

But what he's not going to do is allow you to get a chance to hit him. So I don't know what's worse. The fact that you can't really have your high-rush, pass-rest moves on a mobile quarterback or you can beat the tackle all you want and know you're still not going to get there to the quarterback. At the end of the day, we're just going to have to do our job. Did you watch the first Monday night game of the season with Russell Wilson's return to Seattle? Of course, of course. You know, you got a, we got a just good Monday night game.

In fact, we'll be watching the Thursday night game tonight. You know, you got to love these games. You learn a lot just like, you know, what I thought was just a regular down from Jamis turned it to be intentional grounding because the referees didn't see Jarvis not going out. You know, a lot like, you know, listening to Peyton Manning on the Manning cast, you know, drop the 36th, what are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing?

with, you know, the Denver Broncos having a minute left and not using it to get whatever. You know, they go for 63-yard field goal instead of trying to get to, you know, a more manageable kick. You live and you learn, but I know we don't talk about it. Take me through that from the Jordan living room or whichever room you were in. If there were a Jordan cast, you know, it's fourth and five. there's like a little more than a minute to go. They got three timeouts. They're at the 46-yard line.

What were you saying? I said, all right. They're going to put it in rest's hands. They're going to, you know, try and make this fourth and five or convert it. You know, they got plenty of time. And then they didn't. And I said, oh, they got a lot of trust in this kicker. That is, this is different.

I mean. And then the, and then he missed. Yeah, yeah. You give a quarterback, a quarter million, a quarter billion dollars. I just figured you let the quarterback do what it. He does best. And I mean, it's not like they hadn't been touching the red zone. They hit the red zone.

They just had, what, two interceptions of red zone and a forced fumble. So, you know, that's their team. Me, I'm just going to worry about what me and my team are going to do Sunday. Did you see the video of Arthur Smith, the Falcons coach, kind of walking out of the press conference? Yes and no. I've seen a couple clips of Arthur Smith. I saw him talking about how he wanted to be a part of media earlier than I need to be. And in the next five years, maybe we'll discuss it.

but it won't be this year. It won't be next year. So you think that afterwards, I have no idea. They didn't rise up to their occasion. So whatever he said, he said, I do know. Actually, yeah, I do know about to run out on your mic. It's about before meetings are happening. Oh, I'll tell you what, Cam.

You are, as always, someone who makes 37 minutes seem like 37 seconds. You're the best. And thank you for being part of Open Mic. And we will see you very soon in person. All right. Perfect. Appreciate you, Mike. Hey.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

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A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast,

The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.