The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Cam Newton, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, and the CFB playoff

Episode Date: December 18, 2018

Colin discusses why Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton is like Russell Westbrook, why we shouldn't be claiming Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes will win the MVP so soon, the problems with the New England Patriots and why we should trust them, and the possibility of the College Football Playoff expanding. Guests include Drew Bledsoe, Rob Parker, Doug Gottlieb, Derek Fisher, and Joel Klatt. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer 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. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

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What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. you just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to her. He's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio. or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching herd you're listening to fox sports radio here we go on a tuesday this is the herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in los angeles i heart radio fox sports radio and fs one hour from now our herd hierarchy and it is

crazy it is the craziest herd hierarchy we've ever had i strongly believe it uh there'll be teams left out you won't believe, but these are the 10 best teams, in my opinion. In one hour from now, Joy Taylor is joining me as we get ready. Boy, next week is Christmas Eve on Monday and Christmas. Last night, the Saints, it was a, it was a remarkably fascinating game for the lack of offense. I thought it was fascinating, but it was not very artistic. It's very bizarre. It was rough.

It was rough around the edges. And I want to start with this. I'm into winning. I've never been into, you know, a lot of the awards and stuff. But I like winning. Cam Newton doesn't win enough. Cam Newton doesn't win enough. He's never had back-to-back winning seasons, and he's not going to have one now.

That's virtually impossible when you have his talent. Think about this. He's on a six-game losing streak. The Raiders, the dysfunctional Raiders, haven't lost six straight games this year. The Buffalo builds rebuilding their entire offense with the rookie quarterback, haven't lost six straight games. The perpetually dysfunctional Tampa Bay Buccaneers haven't lost six straight games. Cam Newton's on a six-game losing streak.

In his career, Russell Wilson's longest losing streak is two. Andrew Luck, bad coaches, bad GMs, bad O-Lines, longest losing streak is four. Big Ben, four. Aaron Rogers once lost five, but that was his first year as a starter. Tom Brady's had a losing streak of four. Even Andy Dalton and Kirk Cousins drive me nuts. They've never lost more than four straight. Well, he's hurt.

Oh, Camso was a victim. Oh, he's hurt. By the way, same head coach for years, continuity. He's had eight offensive pro bowlers the last seven years. McCaffrey will be nine. The defense has been in the top ten, five of the last seven years. He's on a six-game losing streak. And by the way, they face Atlanta at home on a short week and at New Orleans.

It may become an eight-game losing streak. Cam Newton doesn't win enough. But you know what? It doesn't matter because Carolina is absolutely trapped. Carolina has become the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NFL. They have an iconic superstar in a small market who's hard to coach, doesn't play well with others. He's completely flawed, but he's got that one MVP year and one trip to the Super Bowl

slash finals and they're trapped. And they're keeping him forever until the arm falls off. Carolina and Oklahoma City, small markets have never had the courage to move off the iconic flawed superstar. Local fans would freak out in Oklahoma City. They would completely freak out. Privately, Oklahoma City will tell you they trust Paul George more late in games right now than they do Russell Westbrook. And they know Russell's hard to coach. And they know his style of basketball, which is he can't shoot, so he has to relentlessly,

athletically drive to the basket, meaning more injuries, is not good long term. They had the best of him so far. He's eroding quickly. And privately, Oklahoma City knows it, but publicly, they'll put their arms around him because the fans would freak out. They've already lost Durant

and James Harden. And similarly, privately, I know, because I have it sourced for years. Carolina, Cam Newton drives Carolina people nuts. But they're not going to say that publicly because it's a small market. and he's an icon. And just like Paul George is more trustable now late than Westbrook,

Christian McCaffrey's the guy through a touchdown pass last night. He's more trustable now late than Cam Newton. But they're trapped. I mean, if you look at Westbrook and you look at the six or seven things that have happened to Westbrook, he can't shoot. That's undeniable. He's not a great shooter. He's a great score. He's aging increasingly hurt, very expensive, tough to coach, and relies too much just on sheer athletic ability. That's Cam. In a precision analytics league, he's not really an accurate thrower. He's aging, increasingly hurt, very expensive, tough to coach,

and relies too much on just sheer athletic ability. He's never gotten down the precision thing. And privately, both organizations know they're probably not a Super Bowl, probably not an NBA championship, hard to play with. But they're trapped. They're trapped. I mean, last night was interesting because Carolina got the ball with a minute 44 left. that I'm watching with my wife.

And she says, oh, this reminds me of Brady and Ben the other day. I said, no, it doesn't. Carolina has no shot to score. This is not against that Saints defense. You're not going to do it. And they got one first down. And this is the reality of it. This happens all the time in sports, and we never talk about this stuff,

is that certain markets restrict you. And you get to one of these buffaloes in Carolina and Green Bay and Oklahoma City, and you get one of these farth. Cam and Westbrooks, you are trapped. You are trapped. You cannot get rid of him. And that Russell Westbrook is going to be a Hall of Famer. I'd pay money to watch Russell Westbrook. I think he's fantastic. But now he's past his prime. Now he's expensive, hurt, tough to play with, hard to coach. And Paul George, I trust more down the stretch. And Cam Newton now is hurt more, expensive more, had more than enough support. Well, he's hurt. You notice when you're

rely on athletic ability, when you rely throwing the ball more on, you know, mechanically armed than legs, yes, it's hard for that shoulder injury to heal. Nothing against Cam, but this throw in the fourth quarter was indicative of his night on the final drive. Here it is. 63 seconds remaining. Here's some pressure now on Newton. Von Bell comes in. And that was an awkward throw that was driven low and incomplete. Well, it's the thing about Cam Newton that puzzles a lot of people. He's an upper body throw. He doesn't really step with his lower body and generate power. And when you're

on an upper body thrower like Cam Newton is, you're going to lead to a lot of inaccurate passes. Watch him get all his torque from his upper body. That leads to a lot of inaccurate passes, even though they've all got tipped from Camden there. By the way, you criticize Westbrook, OKC fans go nuts. You can criticize Durant. I can criticize LeBron. My Twitter doesn't explode. I can criticize Brady. I can criticize Rogers. I can criticize LeBer. I can criticize LeBer. You criticize Cam, people go nuts. OKC and Carolina, they're trapped. Westbrook and Cam are going to be there until the arms fall off.

What do I tell you about getting in those mentions, Colin? I try to tell you. So let me shift to this. I'm not into awards. I'm not. But this year, NFL MVP has me intrigued. They do not give out the Oscars in Hollywood in January, February, March, April. Let me, excuse me, let me say it again. They don't give them out in the summer.

They wait until the big movies come out in November, December. Then they give, they wait for the big movies to come out in Hollywood. Then they give you the Oscars. They don't do it in, you know, April, May, June. Nobody's talking about that. College football always wants to hand out the Heisman by week six. They're talking about it in like October. I want to see Alabama play Georgia, Alabama play Auburn, Alabama in the SEC Championship. Can we wait for the big games? In Hollywood, you wait for the big movies. In college football, can we wait to see Alabama actually play somebody not named Citadel?

But the time Tua played in the biggest game against Georgia, he was the third best quarterback on the field. From Jalen Hurd, then Tua. So in the NFL, everybody's given the MVP award to Patrick Mahomes. Why? These are the biggest games. The other day, I was driving home, I was thinking, why are we giving? giving Mahomes the MVP. If they lose to Seattle in Seattle in a driving rainstorm this weekend,

I don't hate Patrick Mahomes, but he'll be 0 in his four in his four biggest games. Valuable, most valuable? I'm not blaming him all for the losses. But I can't give the MVP to a guy that's 044 in his biggest games. let's stop giving out awards in football halfway through seasons, three quarters through seasons. It's a week-to-week league. I mean, every week in this league we're like,

oh, I thought they were good, they're not. Should we have given the Rams a Super Bowl in week seven? Because they look like it. The Rams were the best team in the league through seven weeks. I sold them week eight. They were Bitcoin. Now they've crashed. Can we wait?

Here's who I have for MVP right now. Most valuable player, Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck, working with far less talent than Mahomes, in the last two weeks, has ended a nine-game winning streak by the Texans with a better roster and thumped the Cowboys with a better roster. Philip Rivers has a slight edge over Mahomes for a second because he beat him in Kansas City. And he's won 10 of 11, and he's had two touchdowns in 14 to the 15 games. And their two biggest games of the year were at Pittsburgh, they won, and they're at Kansas City and they won. and Patrick Mahomes has a lot of great stuff, but 0 and 4,

four biggest games that they lose in Seattle. What's the hurry? What is the hurry? I don't understand this. The next two weeks, do you realize this week in the NFL, 14 of the 16 games have playoff implications? For the record, Kansas City won their division last year, and Patrick Mahomes didn't play in any big games.

If they lose in Seattle, they'll be a wild card team. They will have stepped backwards. Come on. I can't give the MVP to that. I'm not going to give an Oscar out in June and July. I'm not going to give out the Heisman in week six because Bama beat Citadel by 90. December football games matter more. Let's let them play out.

right now, Luck, Philip Rivers, and Patrick Mahomes, with two huge weekends left. 14 of the 16 games this weekend can decide playoff ramifications.

What's the hurry? Luck is doing more with less and has won his biggest games. with less talent around him. Coming up next, trust with your wife, your husband, your friends, your family. Trust is underrated. And trust is the reason why the team everybody hates should be favored to win the AFC.

Hi, it's the herd. Everybody knows about the risks of driving drunk. You can get in a crash. People get hurt or killed. But that still doesn't stop everybody. You could get arrested. You could incur huge legal expenses. And you could possibly even lose your job.

We all know the consequences of driving drunk. One thing is for sure. You're wrong if you think it's no big deal. It is. Drive sober or get pulled over. Doug Gottlie, but about 10 minutes. Taylor joining me. We have Derek Fisher, Doug Gottlieb, Drew Bledsoe today. Absolutely great to have you in. And 40 minutes from now, the herd hierarchy, the craziest one we've ever had. This league is so full of parity.

It is, I mean, Saints almost tried to give that puppy away last night, almost tried to give it away twice in the red zone and pulled out a victory. Trust is really underrated. Ask yourself. My favorite quote ever, I've said it on the show. Love many, trust few. Who do you trust with your kids? Who do you trust with your money? Who do you trust to tell a secret? Write down the names. The list?

I'm 50, right? The list is small. Who do you trust? Vegas, Vegas trusts what they've seen. They don't wave palm palms in the desert. It's about lettuce. How can we make more? Want to build more big casinos.

So Charles Woodson came out and said, yesterday about Tom Brady. He's absolutely right. We talk about Tom Brady. I think over the years, we've just been spoiled. We've always seen him come back in those type of situations. I think the hits are getting to him. You see him trying to get the ball out of his hands to avoid taking those hits. I think he's right. Let's admit two things that are facts. Tom is aging. And unless he takes cattle steroids in the offseason, when he goes to Costa Rica, he's not going to be more dynamic. He's aging. He's aging gracefully, but he's aging.

arms not going to get stronger, not going to get more dynamic. Tom is human. The second thing is, we have to agree with. Gronk's probably retiring. Edelman's no longer elite, and Josh Gordon's not somebody to build around for five years. So let's agree on aging quarterback

plus declining assets. What does that mean? It's the most vulnerable New England team in 15 years. But yet, Vegas, in the A.S. has them basically right next to Kansas City in favor to win it. Why is that? Love many, trust few. Is that playoff football is about coaching, they still have the best one,

situational quarterbacking, they still have the best one, and experience. Nobody's close. Let's be honest, you like Kansas City, but most of you don't trust Andy Reed. you like Houston but they never deliver in the clutch. You like the Chargers, but they'll probably miss a key field goal. Let's be honest. Pittsburgh, do you trust Mike Tomlin's game plan against Belichick again?

It's a trust issue. Chris Carter talked about this on first things first. Vegas has them right up next to Kansas City because Vegas trusts New England in January. And they don't trust the rest of the AFC. Here's Chris Carter. I would be naive to think, man, Tom Brady doesn't go out in some type of great fashion. And a lot of it's based on a couple things. Look, all these teams have warts.

All of them do. It's just a matter of which one is going to come out when we get in the playoffs. The Patriot and the Patriot way, yeah, it might not have worked for November. Yeah, it might not be working for December. But who do you trust more? And I can't say right now I trust Patty Mahomes, Andy Reid, Kansas City fan base, scared out their mind. One of their fans right here, pom-pons under the table, kicking and screaming.

Okay? Like, all of them have warts. And what's funny about it is, I like Lamar Jackson. You trust him in January. I like the Steelers. But Joyce from Pittsburgh, I'm not sure she trusts them in January. I love Andy Reid, but most fans are like, can't win in January. I like Houston.

But has there been a team in the NFL? we've been waiting to win the big game more than Houston. So Vegas, and by the way, the Kansas City Chiefs, you know, they're like that guy that goes to the gym and just works on his arms and his pecks, but he has chicken legs. Yeah, their offense, it is top all the league.

And their defense, it's 31st, yeah. Do you know no NFL teams won a Super Bowl with a defense in net yards, lower than 25th, they're 31st. So Kansas City's got that, you know what they, the bartender build, where they go to the gym and they work arms and they work chest and they work shoulders. I look gray. But you can't see their legs under the bar and they got chicken legs.

Don't skip leg days. Don't skip leg days. Kansas City looks really good above the belt. Woo! Flex, fireworks. Bang. They can't tackle. I can't guard anybody. that bartender, once he leaves the bar checking out at night, you're like, oh, you skip

leg day, last 12 years. Gun show, ripped, packs, skip leg day, every day. Here's Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the Heard Line News. I wouldn't limit that to Kansas City, though. A few other teams is Skip Leg Day and, like, class and all kinds of other things. So after watching last night's game against the Saints, the question is no longer what the Panthers should do with Cam Newton's shoulder for the last two games of a lost season.

It's pretty much what they should do with them the next two seasons that he's under contract. He did not look very comfortable throwing the ball. He didn't even attempt to pass that traveled more than 20 yards last night. And after the game, Cam talked about his shoulder. I wish I could say what the injury is because I really don't know what it is either. It doesn't matter how much you push, no matter how much you, like I say, ice, anti-examination. inflammatory as you take, I mean, I've been, trust me, I did it. But at the end of the day, it's not something that hasn't got worse over the weeks or hasn't got better over the weeks. It's

just been the same. And it's just been that. They're not getting rid of him. They're going to resign Cam next year to $30 million a year because that's what he's going to demand and he's going to get that. Well, he has a five-year deal and a $103.8 million extension. He signed in 2015. And it's, that deal set to expire following the 2020 season. Yeah, he's not going anywhere. He really is Westbrook. They will never, ever. How can you, though?

Well, if you have a, I mean, listen, he's not, he's, again, like Westbrook, he's aging and he's expensive. I mean, I think he's in a precision analytic league. Westbrook can't shoot and Cam can't throw accurately. They brought Norve Turner in. It helped for about four or five weeks. Yeah, we really thought things had turned around there. But again, people say, well, he's heard.

And Westbrook's hurt a lot, because that's the story. style of play. Westbrook can't shoot, so he has to drive. I'm not saying they're absolute, because, I mean, they're both from a physical standpoint. They're awe-inspiring. I've never seen a college football player like Cam Newton. I don't think I've ever seen, I mean, people think Iverson's athletic. I don't think he compares to Westbrook, but their styles of play joy, equal injuries. Because Cam's going to... A lot of impact. And Cam's got to move a little bit and run to be successful. And Westbrook's got to drive because he's not a three-point shooter to be successful. So their style of play is not going to make them safer.

Eli Manning doesn't miss a start for a reason. He never, you know, he's never injured. He throws the ball away. They don't do RPO's. He does throw the ball away a lot. A lot. So I think, I think I basically, Westbrook will stay in OKC forever. Cam's going to stay in Charlotte forever. And they're wildly entertaining and they're good talking points. But I think both those organizations are trapped. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how you move on from Cam Newton. I think it's just his one of this. So during the, The Rams lost of the Eagles on Sunday night.

Marcus Peters was involved in an altercation with a fan in his stands. The fan was sitting behind the Rams bench and could be heard yelling at Peters. Marcus Peters got up and confronted the heckler. We're showing the video right now. Yeah. He kind of walks up the steps a little bit, gets in his face and exchanges some words. Sean McVeigh caught wind of the video, as did, you know, the entire internet, and spoke on how he addressed it with Peters.

I saw the video, got a chance to talk to Market. He knows that we've got to be better in those situations and can't allow the, you know, whatever is going on in terms of that dialogue to affect our ability to be focused on what is going on during the game. I wanted to have an understanding what was going on because all I saw was that video, not exclusive to everything else that might have taken place. He and I were able to have that. I like the way that, you know, he was able to communicate to me and I trust that when those situations, if they do arise in the future, that we'll handle it differently. You know, can I, I've always struggled with this as a sportscaster. I don't want my athletes messing around with fans. But I increasingly hate what I see from fans at games.

I believe that all leagues should throw fans out. And I mean, I would have plain-closed security all through stadiums. These teams now are making so much money. You can afford to have 12 of those guys playing and throw fans out. It is incredible how bad it's got. Maybe it's social media. I don't want this idea that you just got to be able to take it. You know what?

At some point, it's personal. There's racial slurs. I'm like threats. Like, these are young men. Joy, if you and I were doing a radio show and somebody was heckling us for four hours within eight feet, I don't blame a 23-year-old kid for snapping. I don't blame them. No, you shouldn't blame a 31-year-old woman for snapping.

I don't understand it. I never have. I know that this is considered part of the game, and a lot of athletes say that that's just something that you have to deal with. I do think it has a lot to do with social media. People feel like they can just, you know, put up no-name accounts and harass people. And then it bleeds over to the stadium. It's gotten worse.

Yeah, it has gotten worse. And whether it's racial slurs or it's just nonstop personal attacks or whatever it is, people think you can't get touched. Quentin Jefferson is about to climb in the stands. It's a defensive tackle. It's going to get real and no one's going to be happy until something actually goes down. The other thing, Joy, is fantasy football turns players into just objects. I think it's fantasy football.

I think it's gambling. I think it's the amount of money that they are paid. You make a lot of money. The amount of money that it costs to go to a game. People feel like it's like a video game or something. These aren't human beings. There are objects. I've got them on my fantasy team.

I bet on them. Your job is to make a lot of money. Shut up and I get to rip you because you're the object I own in my fantasy team. I just, I hate it. It's really disturbing behavior. It bothers me. I've been at stadiums and heard fans say things to players. And part of me would just want the player to go over and deck them.

I mean, it's just somebody who's never had hands on them before. They don't understand the consequences of that. And they won't until it happens. My dad, my dad spanked me. I know. Keep my mouth shut. I got plenty of weapons. Finally, James Hardin continued to upset the internet and basketball purists last night against the jazz. Under a minute to play, the Rockets had a three-point lead.

Hardin drew three free throws on Ricky Rubio after this. I don't know what that is. Oh, I mean, come on. After the game, Rubio and Hardin had some interesting comments about this. You right to play? Yeah. What do you think? I'm not going to answer, but I think 100% of the people know the answer.

What you want me to say? Tell them myself. Yeah, I mean, what's James Harden going to say? It's such an obvious travel. It's ridiculous, Colin. This is a real issue in the league for people. The rough is right there. And this is because we talked about it, Joy, there is been Magic Johnson palm the ball.

Players complain forever. Michael Jordan traveled on all this classic moves. James Hardin is traveling, but it's embedded. The refs, he's an iconic star, so the refs are going to give him this for the next nine years. Everybody in the league knows, it's traveling. By the way, Houston people know. It's traveling. You can't argue with this.

It's so blatant and obvious. I mean, I'm with James, like, I'm not telling on myself either. Like, that is what it is. Like, you got to do what you've got to do to win, but it's ridiculous. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lying News.

Can I just tell you this? So in about, in a couple of weeks, I'm doing a speaking engagement in Utah with Donovan Mitchell and Quinn Snyder in Utah. Well, that's fun. I know. I didn't know how I was doing it with. And last night I got the email. I'm like, oh, my God, it's going to be great. But she love Utah, though.

Oh, I love Utah. I have a place there. I love Utah. But Quinn Snyder was the best high school basketball player in my state when I was a kid growing up, and Donovan Mitchell's great, and a great kid. So there you go. We tend to, you know, Joy and I talk about this. Everybody overreacts to everything.

Wall Street Journal had a story last week about it's the outrage culture. Everybody's outraged about everything. And in the NFL, it never stops. It's the officials. It's the quarterback hits. Now early in September and October, it was, oh, my God, there's too much offense. Oh, my God.

It's incredible. It looks like the Big 12 conference. It's CFL. It's terrible. And my takeaway is just, just, I kept saying, chill out, chill out, chill out, chill out. Weather's going to get cold. It's going to get windy. offensive players going to get hurt.

Defensive coaches eventually figure stuff out. Defense is going to matter. Well, last night you have, you know, Drew Breeze can't move the football. Rams now can't move the football. Cowboys got shut out. Deshawn Watson's come back down to earth. It's like, chill out. But let me give you a theory on sports.

Is that baseball should do all of its rules to help the batter. Because he's throwing a 98. mile an hour object at a hitter with spin, and the batter has no idea what's coming. You should lower the mound, take away defensive shifts. Baseball should always try to help the hitter. The greatest hitters of all time hit 308. All rules in baseball help the hitter. In basketball, the greatest player of all time is Michael Jordan.

He missed half his shots. Basketball rules, they finally figured it out, should always help the offense. and in football, yes, the NFL keeps making the game easier for offensive players. They should. Think about this. Football is split up into 11 guys on offense and 11 guys on defense. Doug Gottlieb and I are about the same size. I'm a little taller.

If for three and a half hours, I got to tackle Doug, he couldn't tackle me. I get a tackle Doug. And I got to do it in September, October, November. By December, I would be healthier than Doug because I'd be tackling him. He can't tackle me. All the great defenses in this league, Chicago, not a lot of injuries. Dallas, not a lot of injuries. Baltimore, not a lot of injuries.

All the offensive teams are explosive. Kansas City, you start going through the good offenses and the Chargers got a bunch of guys hurt and Kansas City's got a bunch of, that's because they've been tackled for three and a half months. The rules in sports should always help offense. it's hard to hit a 98-mile-an-hour ball that's spinning. It's hard to hit a shot in basketball. That cylinder's very, very tiny, and there are seven-footers all around it guarding it.

And in football, one side of the ball gets to tackle the other side. So at the end of every NFL season, we freak out about offense, but many of the great offensive players are hurt. Last year, the quarterbacks, the safest position outside punter, they were all hurt. Aaron Rogers was hurt last weekend. Tom Brady looks tired. Goff looks exhausted.

Carson Wentz is hurt. Aaron's going to play, but he should. Garoppolo's out. And this year we feel lucky that the quarterbacks are not getting hurt. Cam Newton has got an injury that's lasting. Big Ben's never healthy anymore. The bottom line football should be about helping offense. Offense is about choreography and efficiency.

Defense is about big guys who can bench press Delaware, running as fast as they can and tackling those guys. Offenses get hurt over the course of a season. Defense is right now, the good ones in the league. Baltimore's healthy, Dallas healthy, Chicago healthy. By the way, Chargers have all sorts of injuries. They're all in the offense because those guys are getting tackled for 12, 13, 14, 15 weeks. So the NFL's become exactly what it always is.

You get to December and January, the offensive guys are all banged up, the defensive guys are all teeing it up, and the defense has taken over the league. By the way, the Colts story is not about their offense. The Colts in the last five weeks, it's all about their defense. By the way, the Chargers story is not about their offense. The Chargers last eight weeks, but all about their defense. Cold weather, seasons last, the guys doing the tackling, stay healthier than the guys being tackled.

I have no problem with NFL rules helping offense, baseball rules, helping batters, and basketball rules helping shooters. Doug Gottlieb's next, 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 IHeard Radio app. DNA genetic testing kits, 23 and me through Christmas, get 30% off. 23andme.com slash the herd. 23andme.com slash the herd Doug Gottlieb, the Dugger, my friend, college football, basketball,

all things. He's got a podcast, all ball with Doug Gottlieb on iTunes. Good to see you in, bud. Okay. Okay. Let's start in two or three things. Okay. You know, everybody now, if you have an opinion, you know, the blogosphere, you're a hot take. I said this a couple weeks ago.

Let's slow down on handing out Heismans and MVP awards before the biggest games. I don't understand. The Heisman thing, I don't understand. It's stupid. Well, just the whole arcane way in which the voting is compiled. Yeah, let's, it's just, I mean, my goodness, pro bowl voting takes place like in week 13. What are you doing? I don't know.

Okay, so MVP, I'm like, Andrew Locke is winning his biggest games. He's working with less. Why have we handed this thing over to Mahalms? So is that a hot take? No, it's not from somebody who's actually watching the sport, right? I mean, Eric Ebron was a bust when he was in Detroit. Yes. Now he's outside of Ertz with Philadelphia.

He's the best tight end of football. There's the three best tight ends in football. That's because of Andrew Luck. Now look, they've rebuilt the offensive line. Marlon Mack, who had 139 yards rushing. Those are, like, great fines for Chris Ballard. They did a really good job of fixing this thing in very short order. But none of it works without 12, right?

What that guy has done. And look, this doesn't take away from Pat Mahomes and the Wow plays. But remember, Pat Mahomes had the league's leading rusher from last year to start year. They paid $16 million per year for Sammy Watkins, who was the fourth wide receiver of the Rams. He wasn't their best wide receiver. Like, he had Kelsey. He's got Tyree Kill. Maybe the fastest guy to ever play

in the national football. They won the division last year. Correct. So he made a good team and a good offense better. He gave them something he didn't have, and he's a ton of arm talent. But if you want to go with true value, this is like the LeBron statement when Steph Curry won the unanimous MVP. He's like, look, he's had an unbelievable

Do you remember this? Remember, everybody said it was some big thing that LeBron said. So maybe we should just change the name of the award from MVP to best player. Because the first, the Colts lost the first five of their first six games. Well, but it might not. Hold on. He did not, and you're right, he did not, he did not throw a regulation football until training camp had already begun.

Like, we're judging him now. And you're right. I'm not saying he's not having a great season, but do the first six games knock out? No, but the last six games are bigger than the first six. But it's the whole season or it's not. But it's not in the Oscars. It's not. It's not.

It's not. By the way, Bella checks. You got to wins games in September to make your playoff eligible in January. The opposite. Belichick is average in January. The Rams won the Super Bowl in September. Hold on the Rams won the Super Bowl in September, right? The Chiefs won it in October.

The Saints won it in November. And right now in December, the Chargers are winning the Super Bowl, right? Like, they're just different seasons as they've always. Maybe just the name of the award is the is wrong. Listen, you're right. We do actually, we usually give it the best player who's having the best season with the best team. Statistically. Right.

Statistically, it's wins and losses. But it's called most valuable. You are more valuable as a human being. If a wife has a husband that doesn't make much and kids are a pain in the butt and they don't live in a great neighborhood and she sends four kids to UCLA. That's the most valuable mom. It's not the mom who's going to. trust fund who doesn't have like valuable means how important are you? Andrew luck is way more important and valuable. Well look that was the great thing about watching the cults versus the Cowboys,

right? Because are there other issues at play there? Like the Cowboys offensive line is not as good as advertised, right? And their play calling not giving the ball more to Ezekielion, I think, is problematic. But the fact is you watch Andrew Luck and how he performed with average surrounding talent at best, especially at the skill positions. And then you watch Dak Prescott struggle. And Daniel Jeremiah, who works for the NFL network, he calls it tractor and trailer, right? One guy can pull a franchise. One guy's long for the ride.

Dax more along for the ride. Andrew Luck is pulling that franchise. Mahomes has ridiculous talent. You know, my question with Mahomes is we talked about this last week. Some of those throws, it's, it's, you talked about how football is changing. Some of those throws that he makes, they're great in September, in October, November, and maybe even early December. but all it takes is one turnover to change a playoff game.

I like my quarterbacks to look where they're throwing. Call me Zaney. No, I'm not disagree with. I think we went into this with LeBron. Like, LeBron should probably win MVP based up of the change that he gives to each franchise he's at every single year. So it's just the name of the award is wrong. It's best player, best year. Best team.

Okay. I mean, listen, but the actual name of the award is value and we're arguing value. Yeah, so as long as I have to vote on MVP, and it is called Most Valuable. I think Lucks more valuable. Yeah. And look, statistics, if you want to go stats and wins, right now you could Philip Rivers right there. They have the same record. Yes, sure.

Right? They're sitting their same record. He's got ridiculous numbers and he just won on the road. And by the way, I think he threw 400 yards last time against the Chiefs. And they dropped four balls in the end zone. They did. Right? So, but I don't think Philip Rivers is as, I think he's incredibly valuable. I don't think he's done that.

They have a crazy amount of talent when healthy with the Chargers. They don't have that with the Colts. Let's talk about Marcus Peters, goes into the stands, fans drive me crazy. You have a thought about, you know, it's funny. You played sports. Some guys are great when you're winning. They're called front runners. It's like fans.

We live in Los Angeles, and everybody's made fun of Charger fans. I'm actually a Charger fan. Since the Rams left and the Raiders left when I was a kid, I was a fan of the San Diego Chargers. Natron Means business, right? Stan the man Humphreys and in a late suit, Junior Seow. And now all of a sudden, the chargers are the hottest ticket in town with Lamar Jackson coming in town Saturday night on the NFL network. So fans can be frontrunners, but when they call a player a frontrunner, it's different. It means when things are going good, everything's great.

And what I was told, and I think I said it on this show, is, look, if the Rams hit no adversity, they don't lose a couple games in a row. If there isn't any opportunity to point fingers at a young guy like Jared Goff, they'll be fine because they have so much talent. but there is a lack of character on some level that caused Marcus Peters to get jettisoned out of Kansas City. And Akib to leave, it's a reputation. When you're winning, Akib is the best. When you're losing, Denver will tell you. And Dominican Sue, right?

Indomacin Su. He's not just hated by fans. He's not like by front office guys just because he's a mercenary. He does things on his own. And that's great if you're winning. But if you listen to Sean McVeigh after they lost on Sunday night to the Philadelphia Eagles, Every press conference before, he's like a robot. He's like, that's on me.

I got to put him in better positions. He takes all the blame. It's the same press conference, and that was the first time where he was like, look, some of these guys aren't playing like they've been coached to play. He started going. There's some guys that are going astray. The Rams have become an incredibly interesting team because they won the Super Bowl in September. Now, of a sudden they hit adversity in December.

People are pointing out, hey, maybe Jared Gough is somewhere in between a total bust in year one and a superstar in year two. and play calling is an issue. Defense is an issue. Wade Phillips' defenses tend to get picked apart late in the season because the formula stays the same. They don't change. They don't evolve.

Rams are an interesting team. By the way, Westbrook and Cam, I don't think it's 100%, but I do see similarities where they're overly dependent on athletic ability. They don't age particularly well. Neither as analytics come in. One's not a precise passer.

One's not a great late game shooter. I now trust Christian McCaffrey more and Paul George more late. they're expensive. I don't think they'll age particularly well. I said that at the top of the show, and neither wins enough. Cam's got a six-game losing streak. The Raiders haven't lost six straight games. The Bills haven't lost six straight games. Russell Wilson's never lost more than two straight games. Cam loses too much. I've never been a huge Cam guy. We'll point out he did get to his Super Bowl.

He did. He won an MVP, even though he wasn't the best player. Westbrook got to a finals. He wasn't the best player in the league. I like some of the similarities. I do think there's a couple differences there. Look, I'm not in love with Westbrook, but he does give you an amount of effort and competitiveness at the defensive end. He would never watch a football laying in front of him down six in the Super Bowl and say, hey, I got to make a business decision here the way that Cam did. He's handled press conferences poorly like Cam after big losses,

just like Cam did after the Super Bowl. But I think he would give his guts to win a game, whereas I'm not sure that Cam would. We also saw an injured football. Like, look, here's the big issue. no one has ever given a blank slate, right? That's really what John Gruden's trying to do, but even John Gruden's going to have to make a decision with Derek Carr. Right.

You don't, I told the makeup people, I said this all time. I did not give you a blank canvas. Do the best you can with what I'm giving you. And if you can make me appear at least so that somebody doesn't change the channel so we can get back to Joy and Colin, that's great. That's what are you going to do? You're going to get rid of Cam Newton? No, I mean, I think, you got to play around.

It's a lot like Dak Prescott with the Cowboys. You got it. That's what you got now. And unless you can find somebody in the fourth round who eventually you can develop, you know, unless you have a Tony Romo who you can throw in there, like, what are your better options? So you have to put a team around him in place. And the other thing is because Cam has such a unique style that you have an offense suited

for Cam. So you can't draft a pocket passer. And he's going to sit there for three years of practice going, yeah, I'm not an RPO guy. So it's going to be hard to segue out of Cam. That brings me to the Baltimore Ravens. This is going to be fascinating, right? They're going to move on from Flacco. They're going to give it to Lamar Jackson.

And remember, Lamar Jackson's played against the five worst defenses in the NFL, specifically worst run defenses in these last five weeks. So we'll see once we get here late December and January. Long term, what do you do? Do you draft two Lamar Jackson clones? Because you can find those guys in college. Yeah. But if Cam Newton, who is the biggest running quarterback,

I mean, he is, he blocks out the sun. I've stood next to him. He's huge. He's an amazing. He's bigger than your brother who was a defensive end Hall of Famer. No question. He would tower over it. And Jason Taylor is big.

But even Cam Newton has gotten hurt several times over because of the way he plays the position. It's going to happen to Lamar Jackson. How do they support him? Can I give you one last thing? Okay, 30 seconds go. Yeah. You guys talked about fans in the stands and what happens.

Do we not remember the malice at the palace? Bill Burr, who you had on this chair last week, he has a great bit. People should YouTube it during a break. where he talks about Rod Artesse went up there and took out a whole row with one punch. Careful calling somebody up there because someday they're going to come up there and it's not going to be pretty. All right. Great stuff. The Doug or Doug Gottlieb.

Heard. Hierarchy. Hour two next. Ah, here we go. Hour two. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio. And here on F-S-1, Joy Taylor is joining me.

In hour number two, we have Derek Fisher. D. Fish will be joining us, five-time NBA champ. Drew Bledso on the show today. May even get Joel Clad on. Final hour, I'm going to talk some college football. If you like college football, stick around for hour number three today. Well, we do it every Tuesday. We've got about four or five more weeks to do this until the playoffs hit.

We'll probably do it for about three more weeks. It's called the Heard Hierarchy. I give you my 10 best teams in the NFL. We've had a great blazing five-year. I watch a lot of football. 65, 70% of this show is NFL football. I spend a lot of time on this. I have no social life.

Here we go. Heard hierarchy. Time is now. Let's go. The top 10 NFL teams, according to college. Number 10. Rams, I bailed on them big two months ago, and now I think you got a locker room

full of marginally decent guys who are bailing on the team. The defense is allowed 30 plus points and for their last six games. Goff, his arm looks shot, he misses Cooper Cup. He's got the worst passer rating in the league over the last three weeks. It's at 51. And I don't love the locker room component. Going and getting big name guys like Sue Akib Talibu, I do like as a player in Marcus Peters.

And now they're on a losing streak and you got guys going into the stands. This team, we spotted it two months ago. A lot of it's a sales pitch with a new $5 billion stadium coming. I think they won October. I think they're a pretty good team now. I don't even think they're a good team now. I think they're a pretty good team. They're at 10.

Number nine. The Patriots. Listen, I trust them late mostly because I don't trust everybody else. Here's the biggest issue. They're now not dynamic enough to win big road games. The thing I like about them, James White, Sony-Michelle, their running game. The thing I don't like, their front seven defensively, they have one guy who can play. Trey Flowers.

it. It's just a bunch of dudes. Again, they're a pretty good football team. Will they be better in January? Will I trust them if they have a home game in January? Yeah, but they've never won a Super Bowl without a buy, and right now they're not getting a buy Patriots 9. Number eight. The Cowboys, I've had them close to this spot. Lots of things I like about him. I mean, they're 6 and 0 when Zeeke has more than 20 carries. And they're 2 and 6 when Zeke, when Zeke, has less than 20 carries. So it's pretty obvious if you're a coaching staff what you should be doing every week.

Let's get Zeke 20 plus carries. And by the way, their defense is still excellent. They've held six straight opponents under 25 points. So, and that's really an impressive thing, especially when you have a limited offense that gives the ball back to the other team's offense. So Dallas is a very good team. I think they have a low ceiling.

There at eight. Number seven. What do you know? Andrew looks good in December. He's 15 and 6 all time in December. He's really good in December. The story, though, of this team, yes, it's Andrew Luck number one. It's actually their defensive front seven is way ahead of schedule.

Even the people in that building thought were probably a year away defensively. They've held five straight teams under 25. Since week seven, they lead the NFL in scoring defense. Luck is the primary story. they really thought they needed another eight players to ten players from the draft and they have a ton of cap space but their defense is way ahead of schedule number six crazy pittsburgh i mean they are second in the nflin and sacks in the playoffs you play the best quarterbacks i like teams that can pressure the opposing quarterback and by the way the third and pass offense fourth and total offense

Mike Tomlin drives me nuts. Big Ben's a drama king. But again, here's something to remember. Like Dallas, they have not lost a football game this year when they've run for 100 yards. And so against the Patriots, they had some success running the football. So this is not a complicated team. Tom Brady's better with a running game now. Colts are better with a running game now. Cowboys better with a running game.

Pittsburgh's better with a running game. If they can get that consistently, I have them at six. Number five. Raven's my dark horse Super Bowl team. Listen, I didn't think I thought Joel Flacco, you'd have to have him playing well to win a Super Bowl.

I don't think they're a Super Bowl winning team, but I will say this. You can't run on them, and they run on you. The NFL is not about doing a bunch of stuff. It's about having an identity and doing two or three things really well. They've held four or five teams under 260 yards.

that is hard to do in 2018 in the NFL. And they faced all sorts of different kind of teams. And they're holding all of them to about 250 yards. And the other thing is, since Lamar Jackson popped in here, they lead the NFL in rushing. And it's not just lead the NFL in rushing. It's not a running back thing.

Lamar Jackson is ad liban. People don't have a lot of tape on him. I wouldn't want to play Baltimore. I think they feel like the Chicago Bears a little bit. I got no interest. playing in Chicago. I got no interest playing Ravens number five. Number four. Number four. These are my four

best teams in the NFL and I think they're pretty close. Bears. Okay, they lead the NFL and takeaways. They're 10 and O and they can hold you under 24. It's real simple. They can't get into shootouts. They already can't. Mitch Trubisky, they have some decent backs. Alan Robinson, decent

receivers. They don't, you know, Anthony Miller, this is not a star-studded offense. Pro football focus says the right best players are all on defense. They cannot get shootouts. Now, the good news is, you know, this defense, especially if they're playing at home and windy weather, probably won't have to get in a lot of shootouts. There's a certain way they have to play, but I have them at four. Number three. The Saints. At home, if you could guarantee home field advantage, they still have a tough schedule. They've got to play Pittsburgh and Carolina again.

I would put them at number one if I knew they were playing at home. I will say this. They're number one in point differential. That generally means you'll end up in the Super Bowl. but there is a real thing about the Saints that needs to be discussed. They can't throw the ball down the field. I mean, Ben Watson last night, the ageless tight end, felt like their number one deep threat. They do not throw the ball down the field. They have big plays because Alvin Kamar is amazing,

but they got a little hole in their game. I'll put them at three. Number two. I'll put Kansas City an inch ahead of them. Listen, Kansas City lost to the Chargers. Chargers are real good. I do think their defense will be a problem. I do think their defense is a liability.

But I have these final four teams all bunched up. I had Bears, Four Saints, Three Chiefs, Two, and number one. Number one. I think it's the best roster in the NFL and a Hall of Fame quarterback playing the best he's ever played. They've scored 20 plus points in every game this year. They've won 10 of 11. They're healthy defensively. As long as Keenan Allen can come back by the playoffs at wide receiver and Melvin Gordon is back.

It's the deepest roster in the NFL. Well, they have a hole in their game, too. They have no home field advantage, although this weekend will be crazy against Baltimore. But we have been on this joy sometimes because I live in Los Angeles. People think I'm a homer for L.A. teams. Well, and you were in the Chargers' draft room. I was. But I bailed on the Rams two months ago.

Yes. And I embraced the Chargers two months ago. And all the executives in the league that I talked to all the scouts when I asked them, best roster in the league, last. Last year they told me Philadelphia, this year they all say L.A. Chargers. They don't have holes in this roster. Their rookies, Derwin James, and safety is first or second best safety in the league right now. So there is the herd hierarchy.

You know, I was thinking about Cam Newton. And, you know, through the years, you know, people think I'm tough on Cam Newton. But remember this. let's just say you're a salesperson and you're a salesperson for 10 to 15 years. If Joy is a salesperson for 15 years, there's going to be some of those years, she's going to have great products and great management. There's going to be a couple years. She's got crappy management and a crappy product. And then a lot of the years, she's going to have solid management, solid product. But over the course of time, if she's a good salesperson, then it will be exhibited in her sales.

Nobody for 15 years in sales has a great product and perfect marketing. Nobody has terrible products and terrible marketing. Mostly it's slightly above average, slightly below. With Cam Newton, he's always a victim. His fans are, oh, my God, he didn't have this, he didn't have that, now he's hurt. In the last seven years, they've been top 10 defensively five of the seven years. His defenses have been good enough. By the way, he's had in the last seven years, eight offensive pro bowlers,

but the lead average. Christian McCaffrey will be nine. He's had coaching stability. Now they got him, Norv Turner. You can be a victim as a salesperson. Oh, my products aren't good. The marketing's not good. I don't have Viagra to sell. I don't have this heart medication to sell. If you can sell, Aaron Rogers is hurt all the time. Peyton Manning was hurt a lot at the end of his career. You don't think Russell Wilson and Deshawn Watson running around and getting whack Carson Wentz. Listen, he's had better than league average defenses, better than league average coaching stability, better than league average rosters.

They have a really nice roster last night. To-to-to-toe with the Saints. Last night, God, everything was set up for camp. His running back through for a touchdown. The defense made two great stops. He just couldn't make the throws late. Well, he's injured. There's always an excuse for the salesperson

that can't sell their product. Well, the marketing's not good. You know, the product's not very good. My management's not super. Over the course of time, it all evens out. Nobody's always lucky and unlucky. Nobody has every opportunity. Over the course of Cam's career, he's had really good coordinators,

maybe an average one, maybe one year a bad one. But good God, they got pro bowlers. You watched the game last night. They got all sorts of dudes. They don't have a great secondary, but they got all sorts of dudes. You can watch certain teams in this league and say, oh, they're not very talented. You can watch the New York Jets offense and go, oh, they're not very talented. You can watch the Buffalo Bills offense and go, oh, God, they're not very talented.

You can watch the Chargers defense and go, oh, holy hell, they're really talented. You watch the games like I do. Alabama obviously looks better than Kentucky football. Come on, stop making excuses. Over time, everybody gets good, bad, and average in life. In the end, what are you? his passer rating is 9091 completion I think that's the biggest question with Kim.

Nobody, what is he? He's not consistent. He is very hard to pin what exactly what kind of quarterback he is. Beginning of the season, we were like, oh, you know, he's going to stay in the pocket. Norv Turner's fixed it. He's a super talented, iconic, legendary, all-time great college football player who's been wildly inconsistent and at times difficult to coach around in the NFL. let's not make him a victim every 15 minutes. Oh, it's his injury.

Oh, it's his coordinator. Oh, it's his receiver. Oh, I think it's just frustrating because it's like we said yesterday. The league is better when Cam Newton is playing. Yes. He's a good talking point. And he's exciting and dynamic. Yeah, all those things.

It's very Westbrook. The league's better with Westbrook. Yes. It's better with Westbrook. But he's deeply flawed and aging poorly because he's relied totally on athleticism and that's diminishing. And now I trust Paul George more than Westbrook. There's no doubt in my mind. that Cam's good for the league, but he's not aging gracefully because he's relied heavily on

athleticism. Coming up next, D. Fish, Derek Fisher, Drew Bledsoe, too. Coming up on New Year's Eve, the Red Box Bowl kicks off between Oregon and Michigan State at 2.30 Eastern on Fox. Then flip over to FS1 as number 17 Utah battles number 22 Northwestern in the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl at 630 Eastern or catch it all on the Fox Sports app. Isle Winningham at Utah is the nation's best bowl coach. It's not Nick Saban.

12 bowls, he's won 11. That's better than Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Barry Alvarez, Lou Holtz, Pete Carroll, the best bowl coach in America is Kyle Winningham at Utah, and I like him to beat Northwestern. Derek Fisher, five NBA championships, played for 18 years. President of the NBA Players Association at one point.

Ran the Knicks also, believe you have the most playoff games ever played? I think it's LeBron, Duncan, you. I'm going to read this. Hold on. All-time NBA. record holder in playoff games played 259. Wow. Is there anyone?

I'll show you a moment. Roll the tape on this. I'll show the moment and then you react to it. Go ahead. All right. Four tents remaining in the fifth game. Here they go. They get it to Fisher.

He scores. Derek Fisher, scores at the buzzer. You remember that? Unbelievable, man. Yeah, 15 years ago. That's what it seems like that happened fast. But just I didn't even see Genobley right there until I looked at the video after.

And I saw a still photo. And I saw that Genobley was. You didn't know anybody was on you? No. You were always very close to Kobe. Why? And Kobe was acknowledged he was aloof early. And he came into this league as a kid.

He couldn't go out and have a beer. You know, he couldn't go to a nightclub. Kobe was kind of in his hotel room for about five years to start this league. It was a weird situation. You were always tight with Kobe. What connected? Well, I think we, you know, we kind of grew up carrying the baggage, so to speak, you know, of like just being rookies, you know, doing rookie duties, learning how to become pros in this league.

And obviously, talent levels vastly different. But there were a lot of days after practice, you know, we had to stay back and play one-on-one and get shots up and he didn't play a lot of minutes his rookie year. I got some minutes. And so I think starting from a similar place gave us a connection that kind of lasted, you know, for every year after that, basically. You played with Westbrook. You played with Kobe. Where are they similar personalities?

Where are they different? I would say similar personalities in terms of, like, and you mentioned quarterbacks earlier, like, you know, before we came on, like amnesia completely from the last possession. Both. like I don't care if I'm six for 22. I don't remember that I miss 16 shots. Like I'm shooting the next one if there's a shot there. Kobe and Westrick both like that. Very similar.

And it is not necessarily even based in like selfishly thinking, this is the only way that the team can win. But it's also it's a belief in self that a lot of the rest of us kind of struggle with at times. Yeah. And so they get kind of labeled as selfish, arrogant, too much ego. et cetera, when you could look at it in the other way that some of us are not always as confident as we should be. And that's why those guys stick out the way they do. Now, where are they different?

I think that Kobe's understanding of like the nuances of the game and some of the details, footwork, the mechanics of playing basketball, how to efficiently do things and get to certain spots on the floor, get his shot off. He understood those things at a very young age, and it's why he was able to take advantage of just about any defender, any team. A very nuanced player. Yeah. And I think that Russell is starting to learn

how to become more nuanced. I think he's been able to dominate physically and as he gets a little bit older, as the league evolves, and as he starts to look at how will I need to play for us to win a championship and for me to play for another 10 years, he's going to start to have to become more nuanced in his game. You know, Derek, it's really interesting.

You mentioned that. The league's different. I grew up. You could hand-checked. I wanted my college players to be tough and physical. Now you can't touch anybody. It's AAU basketball. Same agents, they're all boys.

They'll get along. If you're scouting and building a team today, like the Lakers or the NICS or the NICS, and you're building a team. When you watch college basketball and AAU stuff, are there guys years ago you would have passed on that now you'd like? Like, what are you looking for in a player today that really matters that years ago you didn't give a rip? Yes, it's a great question.

I mean, I think years ago, things that, you know, maybe didn't matter as much because we weren't so reliant on shooting, quote, unquote, are guys that can just put the ball in the basket. I think they're not as many guys that shoot the ball really well in our league on a consistent basis. So guys that can, I mean, this is why Steph Curry and Clay Thompson and KD have changed the way we see offensive basketball. Like these guys are unguardable.

They can shoot from anywhere on the floor. Can't touch them. And it makes it, it makes everything else offensively. Like irrelevant. Yeah. You can have a, I said this here today, you can have a million flaws in basketball today. Kyle Corver shoots a three. J.R. Smith is crazy kooky.

If you can hit a three in this league, I'm just going to look past everything. Yeah. And it's a talent business. And if you have talent, if you have skill, you can have a career in the NBA. You know, Derek Fisher joining us, Michael Jordan was obviously a great player. And Michael was physically strong. he would guide you around the court with his hand. I've said most great players would be great in any era.

Wilts Chamberlain would have been great now. Wilts Chamberlain was great in the 60s. Michael Jordan, LeBron, Kobe. Tom Brady would have worked any era, right? We all know this. The one guy I wonder about is Steph Curry. Steph Curry weighs not much. And I wonder in the hand check era.

when, by the way, not only the hand check era, you played in a time where if you went to the basket as a guard, there was a price to pay. Right. I don't know 25 years ago. Would Steph have been this great? Would he have been? I'm not sure if his percentages would be as high, you know?

But I do think because of the way he approaches the game, I think he's tougher than he gets credit for. I think his dad taught us some things about how to play the game that a coach couldn't necessarily teach. And I think Steph, which is what makes it, it's hard to compare errors. But had he come up in that era, I think he would have learned what it took to be successful in that era because he's willing to do whatever it takes. First of all, great ball handler and one of the smartest players in league history. Yeah.

So he would have been a successful player. My question is, what do you have been the – I mean, right now when people ask me, who are the best players in the league, and I'm like, okay, LeBron, and then I go to – then I go to Durant, and then I get into this Janice, Steph Curry, Hardin, where they all do certain things. I don't think he would have been a top five player in the 70s. Man. I mean, yeah, top five player.

I mean, that's a hard one. I mean, you're talking about, you know, Lou Al-Sinder, which became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. You're talking about a lot – you know, obviously late 70s, early 80s. into Larry Bird, Magic Johnson conversations. Michael comes in in the early 80s. But again, a guy that I think about, like, say, with Steph in terms

of errors would be John Stockton. Okay? John was a tough SOB, but he grew up in that. And I think that Steph in a similar way, like, had he grown up in the 70s and 80s? He'd have been a little tougher. I think we all

with me, I was born in 74. Had I experienced some of the things that young men and young women experienced in the 50s and 60s, if you want to take it even deeper, we all would have been a little bit tougher. So I like to think stuff would have

been able to make some adjustments and still be great. You know, top five great, I don't know. Yeah. You recently became the LA Spark's head coach. Congratulations. Thank you. You've always been a very academic guy. The Nick stuff. By the way, Steve Kerr almost

took that job. Yeah. I almost, I don't even remember that in your resume. I just literally, like we all, Derek, we've all, Joey and I have been doing broadcasting for a year. We all take a job and people ask us and we're like, I don't know what happened that year. I was in Amsterdam backpacking with a crazy guy. Just, just to just take the Nick thing and push it off your resume. It's all good. Congrats on the Sparks job. Thank you. And congrats on Stopping by our show because for years and years I've had questions about, you know, you coached Mello in New York. Yeah. I've been rough on Mello. and my knock on Mello has been, I'm a big believer in adapting in life.

Okay, you've got to adapt. The game changes. Like technology. Like my wife and I, we have to know Facebook and Instagram because our kids are on it. Right. Is it a fair criticism to say,

Mello's gifted. He wasn't a great adapter. He had his game, and your game is a game, and he wouldn't step back. Is that a fair criticism of him? I mean, I think today, looking back on it, you may be able to say he wasn't able to or willing to, but I think they're also,

one, I would say sometimes you don't adapt or adjust the way you need to because you haven't been forced to. And I think there, with all of the coaching change and the regime change and the inconsistencies once he got to New York, I don't think he was ever consistently forced to become what he needed to for the team to evolve and grow over the years. Is it harder to coach guys today, Derek, they're richer. Average players are now rich. Yeah, I don't know if that part

is why it's harder to coach, though. I think it could be some of that, but I think what makes it harder to coach now is that there's a level of relationship and connection with players that is required to help them be their best.

You got to be their friend? I don't, not necessarily friend, but you still, like, they still have to feel like you care about them. Beyond basketball. Beyond basketball. Didn't used to be that way. I went to work and I went home. Yeah. You were my coach.

Right. Now players want you to care about their life. But one can argue that it should have always been that way. And I think we're seeing it in, even here, as I'm walking around Fox Sports Studios and the campus and you got group fitness classes going on outside. You got a nail truck. sitting outside. You got a cafe that's popping with coffee and food. But office buildings and work spaces weren't that way 10 years ago or 20 years ago. Probably should have been. Probably should have been. And so when we get into this criticism of today's player, I think we have to

be careful not to criticize what we think they should be and appreciate where they are and find ways to adjust and adapt to helping get the best out of them instead of comparing them to something that they should have been before. One more question, Derek Fisher, new coach, L.A. Sparks, WNBA. Lakers are going to go after a big fish. And Clay's going to be out there and Katie's going to be out there. And I like Bradley Beal and Anthony Davis going to be out there. Kauai Leonard's going to be out there.

A lot of guys out there. If I said to you, you're a scout today, what's the best fit for him? Fit. any version of additional perimeter shooting that's why I like Bradley Bealjoy that that has to happen and then I think a longer term future in the middle I mean Javelle McGee has been fantastic

he has he really has but three years five years from now you know then you have to start to look at Anthony Davis or someone that can impact the middle of the court so you have LeBron at a wing, you have great perimeter shooting, and then you have somebody in the middle that's protecting the rim,

making it really difficult for people to score in the paint, but also can run the floor, roll to the rim, and then also stretch the floor with some shooting. So, you know, guys like Anthony Davis start to come to mind as far as the future. L.A. Sparks, new head coach, good scene, Derek. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you very much for having me.

You bet Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herdline News. I don't think Bradleyville's going to happen, Colin. I want that so much I actually I saw him at Florida I loved him very rarely does a kid come out of college

and is a can stroke it I mean a lot of guys have issues but they I mean you know they got their size they got but generally it takes a couple years to get in this league no more classes no more college playing against NBA guys it's a strength thing too I mean you saw that with Lonzo guys wear out he's

well yeah they wear out they're used to call a shorter season and their body still has to develop they're still growing Bradley Beale is a shooter. He was a shooter at AAU. He was a shooter at Florida. He is a knockdown shooter. And I don't think John Wall's always the easiest guy to play with.

And he's still giving you 22 and a half a night for kind of a dysfunctional organization. Well, sticking with the Lakers, we always talk about how LeBron is aging like fine wine. He also likes fine wine. He's averaging near 28, 7 and 8 this season. And last night, LeBron responded to a tweet comparing his stats through his first 30 games as a Laker with his other teams. he wrote, quote, just trying to do my part and get this dubs. Let's keep going. Hashtag Lake Show.

LeBron's stateline as a Laker is better than his time with any other team. Oh, really? That's interesting, Joy. So his first 30 Laker games, his averages are better. Yes. I'll be. That's interesting. We have it right there with the Cavs.

This first time around was 19.8 points. With the heat, 24.3. And with the Cavs, when he returned, was 25.2, and he's averaging 27-7. I don't even get it. I don't understand it. You know, it's almost time to get more free Laker tickets and go watch them again. What a life. They're 18 and 12 on the season and rank fourth in the Western Conference.

Don't they have another road game? They play like Brooklyn here? They play the Nets tonight in New York. So who do you think is the most hated team in the NBA? Warriors. Yes. Jealousy. Yes.

Why? That's the story. Well, a sports analytics firm Z-Code system released this map of the most hated teams by state. And based on this map, the Warriors, have a lot of haters. They have 26 states that hate the Warriors. Utah hates Houston. Yeah, so random. Well, that's because of that series.

I mean, I guess. That's fascinating, Matt. Look at that. Yeah. Who did this? This is great. Z code system. So there's, the Celtics are on there. Obviously, the Lakers have a huge. So Alaska hates the Lakers? What's to hate?

I mean, people, what this map proves out? side of Houston is, which is just, I still demand inexplicable, is that people hate excellence. This is what haters do, right? Haters, the point, the entire essence of a hater is that they attack greatness. Like, if you're a hater, you just, you just hate for no reason. There's no, like, if you appreciate things, you're like, you can look at something and say, okay, I don't like the Patriots, I don't like Tom Brady, but I appreciate their consistent greatness. Right. Like, I don't like, maybe I don't like Kobe or I don't like Shaq. I'm not saying me.

I'm saying a person, right? They may feel that way, but they can appreciate the fact that the Lakers are a first-class organization and have had many championships and consistency. But a hater doesn't like for winners. They don't like greatness. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. That map's great. All over again. This is, what, five years ago, what was it?

Yeah, I guess it's 2018. So four years ago, five years ago, the heat would have been the entire country, minus Florida. and then that would have been the calves. Finally, the Orange Bowl is still a couple of weeks away, but Alabama fans are anxiously waiting to see if Tewa will be able to play against Oklahoma and the college football semi-final. Yeah, what's the story on that?

Well, he went down with the angle injury, you remember during the SEC championship game, but he is expected to be ready to go on December 29th, and Nick Saban spoke about his recovery yesterday. He's doing well. I think he's probably ahead of schedule. He's been able to take a lot of reps. He's been able to throw the ball from the pocket.

He can run. I don't think he's 100% changing direction yet, but he's already going 100% on the gravity treadmill. So, you know, he's been able to practice, and he's made really, really good progress, so we're encouraged by that. They'll win by 20 if he's healthy. I don't know what you do there.

Oh, you play him. Yeah, yeah? Well, I think he's good enough to play. Listen, it's football. Who plays healthy at the end of a season? Everybody's banged up. I mean, it's not like Jalen Hertz is some scrub. No, but they can't, with Tua, they can throw the ball down the field.

I'll tell you, if Tua doesn't play, Oklahoma's going to make it interesting. If Tua does play, they'll win, they'll win 54 to 33. And it'll be entertaining. At least they'll be able to score on Alabama. Because the rest of these teams can't score on him. So Clemson and Oklahoma can score on Alabama. At least that'll be interesting. Yeah, close some points.

Make it a game. All right. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lie News. Thinking about car insurance, go to Geico, 75 years. They know what they're doing.

Geico.com. Geico.com. Make it simple. Save money. Geico.com. Rob Parker next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

Stuffy cold and flu season. Trivixinex nasal spray. congested, directed 12 hours if you're, use as congested. Rob Parker, the FS1 instigator. It is great to see you. What's happening? How are you guys doing? We're doing great. Joy is

off Friday. She's going to go spend Pittsburgh. Very nice with the family, right? Yeah, I have to, of course, you know, dig ditches. I work constantly. You know, I'm working, too, all the holidays. Filling in for Dan Patrick a couple days. Look at that. I'll be doing the odd couple during

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. I'm a worker. So's joy. You know that. I'm taking a good country tour for going to Kansas City first. Yes. It's their whole families from Kansas City and then going to Pittsburgh. Yeah. It's not like you're going to Bahamas. Right. Kansas City, Pittsburgh. You know, you need a little crisp, little snow.

Okay. So Charles Woodson comes out and says with Brady, listen, man, it's catching up with him. And I'm thinking, oh, God, Rob, love that. You already know. He's right on the money. I've been saying this for like three years now. And finally, Tom Brady's paying dividends. But, you know, this is the thing.

He couldn't even throw the ball out of bounds the other day. Come on, Colin, you've got to admit. No, it's funny. The announcers wouldn't say it. Okay, was it Jim Nansen, Romo? They wouldn't say it, but Brady couldn't get the, because they like him. Right. And they want to be respectful, and they're both awesome dudes.

He couldn't get it out of bounds. But if you hear the Patriots, we've been playing this on the radio, Fox Sports Radio, the Patriots play-by-play guys. they're like, it's the worst decision that he's, you know, like the worst throw he's made in 10 years. They called it. And these were the hometown announcers. But if you're a Patriots fan, you've got to be honest with yourself. And here's the problem.

We know if they play at home, they always have a good shot when they've had the buys and they've played at home. Yeah. But on the road, Tom Brady's terrible. I don't even know what other word to use. Tom Brady's had a worst time on the road than Dorothy and Toby. I mean, that's how bad it's been for him. And look at the numbers. 50, look at his.

One in four, 55% completion rate, six touchdowns, eight interceptions, and a passer rating of under 70%. So as he, now I think it's the real thing is that I said this, the Spurs and the Patriots Dynasty, this is how dynasties decline. They don't fall off a cliff. You don't get terrible.

But Duncan and Brady are not on steroid, so they're not going to hit 70 jacks. This is what happens to the dynasty. The star player ages gracefully, and the Spurs couldn't win that big game on the road. They could still beat you occasionally at home, but right now, New England, to me, is not good enough to win big road games against really good quarterback. Is that fair? There's no doubt about it, and that's what people have to realize. That's why this whole idea of them making a run, they've never won a Super Bowl when they've had to go on the road, let alone at this age and how he's playing.

And here's another thing. Here's a nugget for you. Mark Sanchez, in his six-road playoff games, four and two. Tom Brady in his last five, it's one and four. I'm just saying, Tom Brady, when people think about him. Some of the, I would say this, he has been aided. There's no question. That division, Joy talked about this yesterday.

For 18 years, Chad Pennington is the best quarterback Tom's had in division. So Tom has gotten a buy and Foxborough in January. And by the way, he's won a lot of last second games. He would have not have won at Denver, at Indy, at other places. No doubt. And that's why I've always had the dialogue about him being the load as well. What? The luckiest of all time.

Because, Colin, when you add up all the things that have happened, and it doesn't mean he's not skilled for, he's not a great quarterback. But the stars have aligned so many things to make it easy. All I'm saying is you just said it. If you have a buy and then two home games to get to the Super Bowl, don't tell me that's not an easier road than if you have to go on the road and play three games before you even get to the Super Bowl. They didn't luckily get a buy.

Exactly. Yes, they do because they get five or six wins before the season. It's been stars because of the AFC least. Well, they have played in a... They played in a relatively easy position because of the dysfunction of the other three teams in the division. They do play. It's the most dysfunction. division. The Steelers have the Browns

and the Bengals in their division. But they have the Ravens or twice a year a legit franchise. And the Ravens once in a Super Bowl? Every year in December. I know, but Miami, Buffalo and the Jets, they're really dysfunctional. All I'm saying is luck favors the prepared. It's not an accident that they work hard for that

by week. But a lot of stuff has just happened for him. And he's capitalized. I'll give him that. But I still think he's one of the luckiest athletes I've ever seen. By the way, Dak had a rough Sunday. I suppose you're going to beat up on him. He didn't have a rough Sunday. He had a DAC Sunday. That's the real Jack Prescott. And it's the nightmare that most cowboy fans are living. You notice,

Colin, deep down, they want the Cowboys to lose. They do. They want him to lose their last two games, missed the playoffs, so that they don't, Jerry Jones doesn't sign this guy. He's not going to be that guy. He's not the franchise guy. You give $30 million to. He's 25th in passing yards, 20th in touchdown. I mean, go look at it. He's at the bottom on all the quarterback stats. So he's not really that guy that you want to have long term or think you're going to win a championship with.

He is who everybody knows he is, which is every so often he'll win some games, make some throws. But the majority of the time, it's going to be the bad Dak Prescott that you saw get shut out for the first time since 2003, the Cowboys. And we could go through a list of bad quarterbacks who played for the.

Cowboys who never got shut out. Quincy Carter and all these other guys who played, you know, back in the day. But that gets shut out. It is disturbing to get shut out in 2018. It's hard to get shut out. I mean, the NFL, and I agree with the NFL, has made it so you get 14 possessions. Like last night is you had good quarterbacks and it's late in the year. I don't know.

A shut out to me, it is hard to be shut out. Andy Dalton's not getting shut out. you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick's lighting up the board. Right. That's what I'm saying. Finally, I think what the Lakers are doing, Joy just had a stat is remarkable. I think you have to be very optimistic about where the Lakers are at.

They're going to beat Brooklyn tonight. Are they really? Brooklyn's won five in a row. Do not just discount that it's automatic. What are you talking about? You don't, by the way, Joy just told us, LeBron's numbers are better through 30 games when they were in Miami, Cleveland.

This Laker team is young and fantastic. It tells you how much he has to put in. just to be able to win that they need every point and everything from LeBron because that team is not as good as advertised. That's the real. Would you say Brandon Ingram's lived up to standards? No, he hasn't. Okay, Alonzo Ball, he has a good game every once in a while?

Has he lived up to standards? No. Okay, so I'm saying LeBron has to play that hard and put up those numbers. They've been an unimpressive 18 and 12 to me. You've seen the stinkers. You've seen a couple of good games where they've beaten some good teams, but it hasn't been impressive at all. They're not even on pace to win 50 games.

Everybody said, oh, yeah, LeBron's going to win 55 games, being in the Western Conference finals. I don't think anybody honestly can say for sure that they're going to be there when it's all done. Okay, take Golden State out. Who else is there in the West? Houston? All those teams that are struggling and haven't played up the part,

they at least have a track record. This Laker team doesn't have the track record, and they've been playing the last couple. years in meaningless games, and now we'll wait and see. They had a nice run. If you go back and really look at the run that they had when they won those 14 out of 16 and 20, those were a lot of bad teams that line up in the NBA for you. All I'm going to tell you is last year, the difference between the third seed and the 8 seed last year was two games. So very easily, everybody thinks they could be the number two seed, they could be the number seven or eight seed, match up with a

better team in the first round and get knocked out. It's not inconceivable. Don't you, you know, it is interesting about this, though, is that do you think right now today, though, Houston's a mess? Do you think LeBron regrets coming to L.A.? Because I think it's about what he thought it would be. I don't think he regrets it because I always say this. I don't think he came here to win championships.

I think he came here for the lifestyle, his life after basketball, and all that stuff he wanted to get started, which is fine. And if he wins, it's cool. I think LeBron is cool with where he is in his legacy. He won three championships, right? He went to a lot of finals. He's going to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in points, and he has all these other accolades.

And I think if he wins, fine. But if he doesn't win with these guys and nobody comes to play with him, Colin, he'll just say, you know what? I tried to make it happen. It didn't happen. Hour three next. It's the hurt. live in LA, wherever you may be, however you may be listening.

We're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Go, we're not in TV anymore, even though there's a TV camera in front of me, Joy. I was just on Twitter for a second. You know what's weird, Joy? When Hollywood people and media people announce they're leaving Twitter, hey, I'm leaving Twitter, it's getting pretty vile in here, I'm leaving Twitter. Just go. Nobody cares.

Oh, you mean people are being self-important. Hey, I'm going to be leaving Twitter for a while. Help yourself out. Who cares? I'm still on it. That's all that matters. Like, why do people have to announce in Hollywood? I'm so important. Well, I mean, probably because they feel like people are going to, you know, want to plead for them to stay on it. If I left Twitter tomorrow, would anybody care?

I think people who follow the show would care. People like to hear what you have to say. The Ross, our social media guy, would be ticked off. Yes, he would be very massive. I've asked him five times. Can I get off it, please? Why do you need to get off of it? Just don't read your mentions. It's very easy. No, I'm not sitting there all day.

I mean, I know it's tempting, but just put whatever you have out there to say out there and then don't think about it anymore. Who cares? I want to announce it right now just for fun to see what happens. To set off. I just want to go to Twitter right now and just say, hey, this place is too rough for me. I'm leaving Twitter and see what people say. What do you think will happen? I want to do it right now.

Well, first of all, you're going to give our social team anxiety. Okay, I want to do it right now. I'm going to do it in just a second. You want to do in the break? Yeah, in the break. I must go to say, I can't take it. It's just people are so mean.

I'm leaving Twitter and see what the reaction is. I think there will be people who don't want you to leave. And then there will be people who make fun of you for announcing it. And then there will be people who make fun of you for saying that you're too soft to deal with it. In general, I just think that mentions are the place you shouldn't go. Yeah, they'll say, I'm leaving because Baker Mayfield's good, and it'll do a cry emoji. Yes.

So I'm going to announce I'm leaving Twitter. And then like five minutes later, I'm going to have a tweet. You're going to fake retire on them? I'm literally going to do it. And I have a guy on our social team, Ross, who is going to literally throw a tantrum. Oh, he already tweeted about it. He goes, Colin, this is my nightmare. Yeah.

You're going to give them an anxiety attack. All right, 15 minutes, Drew Bledso. Joel Klaatz's coming on later today. I'm going to talk college football for about 15 minutes at the end of the show. The Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney. he's a real powerful guy. He said, we need an 18 playoff. So we'll talk about that.

Let me just start with this. The Saints held off the Panthers last night in a slug fest on Monday Night Football. And look, I've always said, Cam Newton, Uber talented, but he doesn't win enough. He's never had back-to-back winning seasons,

and he's not going to have one now. That's virtually impossible when you have his talent. Think about this. He's on a six-game losing streak. The Raiders, the dysfunctionalers, the dysfunctional Raiders haven't lost six straight games this year.

The Buffalo builds rebuilding their entire offense with the rookie quarterback haven't lost six straight games. The perpetually dysfunctional Tampa Bay Buccaneers haven't lost six straight games. Cam Newton's on a six-game losing streak. In his career, Russell Wilson's longest losing streak is two. Andrew Luck, bad coaches, bad GMs, bad O-Lines, longest losing streak is four. Big Ben, four. Aaron Rogers once lost five, but that was his first year as a starter.

Tom Brady's had a losing streak of four. Even Andy Dalton and Kirk Cousins drive me nuts. They've never lost more than four straight. Well, he's heard. Oh, Camso was a victim. Oh, he's hurt. By the way, same head coach for years, continuity. He's had eight offensive pro bowlers the last seven years.

McCaffrey will be nine. The defense has been in the top ten, five of the last seven years. he's on a six-game losing streak. And by the way, they face Atlanta at home on a short week and at New Orleans. It may become an eight-game losing streak. Cam Newton doesn't win enough. But you know what? It doesn't matter because Carolina is absolutely trapped.

Carolina has become the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NFL. They have an iconic superstar in a small market who's hard to coach, doesn't play well with others. He's completely flawed, but he's got that one MVP year and one trip to the Super Bowl slash finals, and they're trapped. And they're keeping him forever until the arm falls off. Carolina and Oklahoma City, small markets have never had the courage to move off the iconic flawed superstar. Local fans would freak out in Oklahoma City. They would completely freak out. Privately, Oklahoma City will tell you they trust Paul George more.

in games right now than they do Russell Westbrook. And they know Russell's hard to coach. And they know his style of basketball, which is he can't shoot. So he has to relentlessly, athletically drive to the basket, meaning more injuries, is not good long term. They had the best of him so far. He's eroding quickly. And privately, Oklahoma City knows it, but publicly, they'll put their arms around him because the fans would freak out. They've already lost Durant and James Harden. And similarly, privately, I know, because I have to have. have its source for years. Carolina, Cam Newton drives Carolina people nuts. But they're not going to say that publicly because it's a small market and he's an icon. And just like Paul George is more

trustable now late than Westbrook, Christian McCaffrey's the guy through a touchdown pass last night. He's more trustable now late than Cam Newton. But they're trapped. I mean, if you look at Westbrook and you look at the six or seven things that have happened to Westbrook, he can't shoot. That's undeniable. he's not a great shooter. He's a great score. He's aging, increasingly hurt, very expensive, tough to coach, and relies too much just on sheer athletic ability. That's Cam. In a precision analytics league, he's not really an accurate thrower. He's aging, increasingly hurt, very expensive, tough to coach, and relies too much on just sheer athletic ability. He's never gotten down the precision thing. And privately, both organizations know, they're probably not a Super Bowl,

probably not an NBA championship, hard to play with. But they're trapped. They're trapped. I mean, last night was interesting because Carolina got the ball with a minute 44 left, and I'm watching with my wife. And she says, oh, oh, this reminds me of Brady and Ben the other day. I said, no, it doesn't. Carolina has no shot to score.

This is not against that Saints defense. You're not going to do it. And they got one first down. Nothing against Cam, but this throw in the fourth quarter was indicative of his night. on the final drive. Here it is. That was an awkward throw that was driven low and incomplete. Well, it's the thing about Cam Newton that puzzles a lot of people. He's an upper body throw.

He doesn't really step with his lower body and generate power. And when you're an upper body thrower like Cam Newton is, you're going to lead to a lot of inaccurate passes. Watch him get all his torque from his upper body. That leads to a lot of inaccurate passes, even though the ball got tipped from Cam Newton there. OKC and Carolina, they're trapped. Westbrook and Cam are going to be there until the arms fall off. So let me shift to this.

I'm not into awards. I'm not. But this year, NFL MVP has me intrigued. They wait for the big movies to come out in Hollywood. Then they give you the Oscars. They don't do it in April, May, June. Nobody's talking about that. College football always wants to hand out the Heisman by week six.

They're talking about it in like, October. I want to see Alabama play Georgia. Alabama play Auburn. Alabama in the SEC championship. Can we wait for the big games? In Hollywood, you wait for the big movies. In college football, can we wait to see Alabama actually play somebody not named Citadel? But the time Tua played in the biggest game against Georgia, he was the third best quarterback on the field. So in the NFL, everybody's given the MVP award to Patrick Mahomes. Why? These are the biggest games. The other day, I was driving home and I was thinking, why are we giving Mahomes the MVP?

If they lose to Seattle in Seattle in a driving rainstorm this weekend, I don't hate Patrick Mahomes, but he'll be 0 and 4 in his four biggest games. Valuable? Most valuable? I'm not blaming him all for the losses. But I can't give the MVP to a guy that's 044 in his biggest games. Let's stop giving out awards in football halfway through seasons, three quarters through seasons. It's a week-to-week league.

I mean, every week in this league, we're like, oh, I thought they were good, they're not. Should we have given the Rams a Super Bowl in week seven? Because they look like it. The Rams were the best team in the league through seven weeks. I sold them week eight. They were Bitcoin. Now they've crashed. Can we wait?

Here's who I have for MVP right now. most valuable player. Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck, working with far less talent than Mahomes, in the last two weeks, has ended a nine-game winning streak by the Texans with a better roster and thumped the Cowboys with a better roster. Philip Rivers has a slight edge over Mahomes for second because he beat him in Kansas City, and he's won 10 of 11, and their two biggest

games of the year were at Pittsburgh, they won, and they're at Kansas City and they won. And Patrick Mahomes has a lot of great stuff, but 0 and 4, 4, 4, biggest games that they lose in Seattle. What's the hurry? What is the hurry? I don't understand this. The next two weeks, do you realize this week in the NFL, 14 of the 16 games have playoff implications? For the record, Kansas City won their division last year and Patrick Mahomes didn't play in any big games. If they lose in Seattle, they'll be a wild card team. They will have stepped. backwards. Come on.

I can't give the MVP to that. I'm not going to give an Oscar out in June and July. I'm not going to give out the Heisman in week six because Bama beat Citadel by 90. December football games matter more. Let's let them play out. Right now, luck, Philip Rivers, and Parr's. Patrick Mahomes, with two huge weekends left. 14 of the 16 games this weekend can decide playoff ramifications. What's the hurry? Luck is doing more with less and has won his biggest games with less talent around it.

All right, Drew Bledsoe, Joel Clatter on the corner. I'm going to go, Joe, Joey, I'm going to go on Twitter now. I make a huge announcement that I'm leaving it. Because then Hollywood people and media people have to tell you they're leaving it. Instead of just let the door hit you on the way out, nobody gives a rip. So I'm going to go over the top. It'd be very dramatic. I'm very important.

I'm just going to announce this. It's going to drive our social media people insane because they've got to deal with ramifications, but I'm going to make a huge announcement coming up. Let me type this. Can I do it real quick here? Yes, absolutely. This is a no. and boom I just did it

there we go all right let's see how it plays out by the way I have a wine store best cab in my wine store comes from the doubleback winery Drew Bledsoe doubleback.com

it's incredible it's a great cab you're having one of those smoky nights you want to be seductive with your wife pour a big glass of cab big piece of beef Drew Bledsoe started that winery years ago and it is not some celebrity hot shot never hangs out in the winery.

You're at that damn winery all day, aren't you? I was with wine, you know, everybody's got their lot in life. That's funny. It is a great wine, by the way. You've come out with all sorts of different stuff in Walla Walla, Washington, and I go all the time. I actually, I look at your winery all the time

as a picture your beautiful family and your wife and you're looking over the hills. It looks like it's like summer, August, you're looking over the hills in your winery. You picked a great second career. I'm trying to go my whole life and never have a real job. I got to play quarterback for a long time. You know, kind of like what you've done, Colin.

I mean, you just go to sit around and talk sports all day. You never had a real job either. No. Right now, just... Doubleback.com. I've been a member. In fact, I've got a buddy of mine in Portland, Bill. I've got them all signed up for doubleback.

Okay, a couple questions I've got to get to. First of all, people are killing me because I'm like, listen, most valuable? what Andrew Luck's doing in Indy with rookies on the offensive line, best defensive players are rookie, is more impressive than Patrick Mahomes. Kansas City made the playoffs last year. Am I nuts?

When he came into the league, now remember, he was the biggest well, I mean, since like 1993, right? Yeah. And I think people have overlooked what happened because they started out what he wants to play. They need some help to get in.

Yeah, their defensive players are, they're ahead of schedule on defense, and their GM, I know, nobody knows who Chris Ballard. it is. He had a great last two drafts, a bunch of young guys. They're not paying a ton to, and they're going to have a ton of cap space, so I hope they can get Andrew Luck some more weapons. By the way,

it's weird. Carson Wentz is great, and Nick Foles is eight, to me the best backup in the league. But something's happening. Wence gets hurt. Foles comes in, and the offense is better. Explain it to me. Number one, you've got to realize that Carson Wentz, he's not a 10-year vet. He's in his third year.

Yeah. And so missing all of training camp, missing spring, and missing preseason those first few games, that's also coming and be effective. So that's going on there. The other thing that happens, though, to play a little bit better, a lot of times teams will mentally back and win this thing for us. But when the backup comes in, even when somebody has accomplished as Nick Foles. Yeah. You know, I was thinking about this the other day. I never, listen, you guys make what you can make, right? You take a beating, make what you can make. But Aaron Rogers is sitting there, and Aaron's real smart guy. And he knows if he takes 33 million. They're not signing big free agents. He knows that. And Green Bay's never been a big

free agent hotbed anyway. Would there ever be a time in your career? I mean, Aaron makes a lot of money in commercials. You know, he's got a guy that's going to make money post football. Would there ever be a time knowing the way the league is set up that you would say, you know what, I'm going to take a little less money so I have a better offensive line? Or would you not trust the people upstairs to deliver those players and just take the dough. Tommy's playing on an undermarket contract and has for quite a few years, and it's allowed them, what it really does if you take a little bit less, it's not necessarily the agent starters.

It's, now you can pay backups. You know, so if somebody gets, you lose six defensive starters and all of a sudden you have, you have fewer opportunities, you have to go, you know, you have to march the ball 80 yards instead of getting some, you know, stuff really, really matters, and I think it gets overlooked a lot of the time. By the way, I don't love DAC as a prospect. I never love Mitch Trubisky as a prospect, but they're having success. Why are young quarterbacks, all five of the rookies this year, all have had great Sundays.

Lamar Jackson's 4-1, could be 5-0. Josh Allen, who's got a little big band, got a little Drew Bledso, can move around, got a little big arm. Darnold was great Saturday. Baker's had a great month since you left, and Rosen's getting beat up but can play. Why are all these guys working now right into the league as rookies? But you have to realize how different the game is with the plea for young quarterbacks. It used to be when a young quarterback came in, man, they tried to rip our heads off. I mean, I remember the first sack that I took was Bruce Smith.

We're up at, used to be rich at him. I think they've even changed it since then. But Bruce Smith came in and he put his helmet right. Man, he'd been thrown out of the number one, the quarterbacks aren't getting hit as much. And that matters. It's not a toughness thing. It's just where they can't hit receivers in the secondary. Yes.

I mean, I don't know if people even realize that it's changed the way they coach. He's running a crossing route, and he's running through a zone defense, and the quarterback throws it to him. Man, he would, they'd come get him on a stretcher. But now receivers, they just run through zones. They've changed the rules. They don't have that rule anymore because they cue some of these plays. You go back a decade, man, they'd be coming to get some of these guys.

I heard, I heard, it was on a, I didn't hear the podcast. I read about it. I think the podcast was Mike Valente, a Detroit sports cast. and he had, who was that big mussely official in the NFL, Ed Hockley on. And Hockley said, listen, you guys are all complaining about too many flags. He goes, I want more flags. He goes, I'm an in shape guy. I'm in a game.

I'm seeing two or three times a game. A guy get hit. And I'm like, oh, my God, he's not going to be alive. That Ed Hockley said the game is so big, so strong, so fast, he doesn't want to reduce flags. He wants kickoffs to be safer, puns to be safer. over the last month there have been a lot of games where there is laundry flags on every punt upon it where do you go on that what i have often said i'll throw this at you drew that if there is a play and a flag is thrown and that you deduce when the play is over it was away from the

action then you just pick the flag up if it's a holding by a right tackle on a left sweep you just like let's not slow the game down let's not put a quarterback in a second and 30 do you think there are too many flags not enough for the game's violence where do you fall on that and i've heard you talk about it and i feel the same way it's been the most exciting NFL football fun to watch all the quarterbacks are healthy you know i mean that's what you want so the rule changes have been really good i do think at times though and you get a defense down right right so you so you work so hard you get a team so some of the penalties you know to me like a defensive holding penalty, you know, pass

nurse where it's, you know, it's, you know, 10 or 15 yards, rather than, you know, you chuck a ball down the field on third and 20, and a guy hits your guy, and all of a sudden you got first and goal at the one. So, you're going to difficult for the defense. You know what? I think you're pointing to too punitive. Like, let's not make the pass

interference that punitive, where it's a 48-yard penalty, or a defensive holding, you know, let's say if it's third down in 10, it's not an automatic first down. It's third down in five. I agree with you. I think holding, when you get these 10-yard penalties for holding, good God, second and 20.

That quarterback. Yeah, you know, it kills the drive. You know, and you know, as well as I do, they could call holding on every single play if they chose to. And I do think they do a pretty good job of only calling, you know, holding penalties when they're really egregious. You know, but I do think that some of those days, and I just, so thanks for coming up with a punitive word for me. But I do think that some of the penalties, they are really change games. I mean, you know, you shouldn't get a little tickey tag holding penalty in the secondary, and all of a sudden instead of, you know, third and 15, it's a first down.

I think that's too punitive on the defense. Doubleback.com. It is a great, great winery in Walla, Walla, Washington from Drew Bledsoe. They've got a discount right now. He gives us 12, 15 minutes, a couple times in the football season. We love it and appreciate it every time. It is great talking to you. You got to get back to the Northwest and actually come to see us, man.

I'll come for you some wine at the winery. Hey, by the way, I'm coming to Spokane in the next two months. We'll have some wine. All right, buddy. Good talking to you. Thanks, Colin. All right. Drew Bledsoe.

Good dude. Greatest football player in the history of Washington State University. That's something, right? That is amazing. Like, if you were just saying, oh, the best football player in the history of university, how old's the university, 100 years old. Well, I think being the best at anything is a good thing.

Yeah. That is amazing. Drew Bledsoe. Double back. Joy Taylor with the news. No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Like, for example, you might have the best fake Twitter retirement of all time.

That's what's happening right now. Did you clear that up yet? Or are you still letting people do that you? No, I'm not talking to people. How have people responded to it? I'm sure they're like, good. You're a jerk. Yeah, it's got a bunch of people going crazy.

Yeah, people are thinking that you did it because of Baker Mayfield. So a good call there. could come. Let's see what else is going on. The reason I did this is because media is so self-important in Hollywood that when they leave Twitter, they have to announce it. And my takeaway is,

just go. Nobody gives a rep. Twitter will be fine. Help yourself out. Oh, no. No more tweets about how amazing Sam Darnold is. Oh, is that what somebody said? Yeah. That hurtful. That's a lot of Sam Darnal mentions on there. So after watching last night's game against the Saints, the Panthers probably should

consider wrestling Cam Newton for the rest of the season. and also consider what they should do over the next two seasons that he's under contract, did not throw or attempt to pass that traveled more than 20 yards. Who's the backup? Who is the backup for Carolina? I don't know. You know, it's funny. Usually I know the backup quarterback for Carolina,

not to put you on the spot. I don't know who it is. Yeah, I'd probably do that. I'd probably sit him, Joy. I said this here today. I would sit Aaron Rogers. You know, I would sit Aaron Rogers. Why would I want to play Aaron Rogers?

She should sit Aaron Rogers. The season's over. It's over. He needs rest. Yeah. And Cam does too. I don't want Cam to, I don't want Aaron and Cam. Sit him out.

And here is Cam. Taylor Heineke. I had a Heineke light last night last night. Taylor Heineke. Who's Taylor Height? Oh, that's the Wazoo Kid. Who is? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, okay. There you go. I mean, it's, the season's over anyway. It shouldn't matter. Here's Cam talking about his shoulder. I wish I could say what the injury is because I really don't know what it is either. It doesn't matter how much you push, no matter how much you, like I say, ice, anti-inflammatories you take.

I mean, I've been, trust me, I did it. But at the end of the day, it's not something that hasn't got worse over the weeks or hasn't got better over the weeks. It's just been the same. And it's just been that. Yeah, it's Old Dominion. There's the worst backup way of my bad. Yeah.

Old Dominion. I mean, I don't know what you do with Cam Newton. You can't get rid of him. No, no, no. You're going to draft another quarterback. So, like, Cam is the quarterback. Sit him down. He just has to figure out how to work with him next year.

Sit him down. Get him healthy. Let's worry about next year. Let's get it right. No more excuses, though. They've got really good players. They really do. McCaffrey is just terrific.

DJ Moore had a fumble last night. He's a terrific player. Greg Olsen will come back probably for one more year. He may go into broadcasting, but their O-lines is not bad. And I also like funches. The pieces are good enough. You root for Cam every year because the league is better with him playing well. And it's just more exciting.

And he's a superstar. So you want superstars to be playing well and be there in the postseason. It's more stories. It's more interesting. And it's better competition. So during the Rams lost to the Eagles on Sunday night, Marcus Peters was involved with an altercation with a fan in the stands. The fan was sitting behind the Rams bench and could be heard yelling at Peters,

who got up and confronted him. and Sean McVey caught wind of the video as the rest of the internet and spoke about how he addressed it with Peters. I saw the video, got a chance to talk to Marcus. He knows that we've got to be better in those situations and can't allow whatever is going on in terms of that dialogue to affect our ability to be focused on what is going on during the game. I wanted to have an understanding what was going on

because all I saw was that video, not exclusive to everything else that might have taken place. He and I were able to have that. liked the way that, you know, he was able to communicate to me. And I trust that when those situations, if they do arise in the future, that we'll handle it differently. I don't like that. I don't like fans heckling players. I just don't like it at all. I mean, the problem is, is no one's going to be happy until a situation actually happens. Like, until Marcus Peters in this spot decides not to stop right there on the steps and goes over

and grabs the guy, then it's going to be something that needs to be addressed because something actually happened. You know, you talk about malice in the palace or whatever. And this is We're showing video of Leonard Fernett. We had Quentin Jefferson, the defensive tackle for the Seahawks last year, trying to climb in the stands. A defensive tackle gets up in the stands and gets his hands on someone. It's going to be a problem. And the other thing about heckling, I don't like what we're doing to young people,

screaming and yelling at players. These are a lot of young kids. The second thing I don't like about it is if I'm sitting in the stands and I got some drunk loudmouth next to me, it's not good to be in the fans. It's a bad fan experience. It's a bad fan. It's one thing to cheer and roof the team and maybe boo here or there or whatever. but when you're personally attacking and basically harassing someone

who in theory can't do anything about it, it's just pathetic. And in most cases, there's not a face to it because it's a crowd of thousands of people. So once a player can actually single you out, that means that you're really taking it to a whole other level. It's unacceptable. Like the beer,

we're showing the video of Tyrico having a beer thrown in his face. People really treat players as if they're, it's almost like they're like property. Like I paid this, I paid for this ticket. have this seat so therefore I can treat you and talk to you however you want. You make millions of dollars. You're here to entertain me.

So entertain me and I can act however I please. It's just, it's really ridiculous behavior. And I understand you can't have players going into the stands, but I mean, what do you expect to happen? Yeah, somebody's going to do it and I'm going to take this out of the player. I'm sorry. Like, it's enough already. Like these people just, they're not going to be happy until hands are on them.

Finally, James Hardin upset the internet and basketball purists last night against the jazz, and I suppose the jazz as well. Under a minute to play, the Rockets, had a three-point lead. Hardin drew three free throws from Ricky Rubio and a double step-back move, which is kind of unexplainable. And after the game, Rubio and Hardin

had some comments about this particular play. You guys to play? Yeah. What do you think? I personally thought it was a trial. I'm not going to answer, but I think 100% of the people know the answer. What do you want me to say?

Tell them myself Well the official NBA refs Twitter account tweeted an update for us They said the offensive player gathers the ball While on his right foot He then takes a step with his left foot Step one into a hop step landing With his right foot step two

And then illegally with his left foot step three We missed this one It is a traveling violation Yes we know that I like Ricky Rubio I thought that was funny 100% of the people Yes I mean every

knows this was a blatant travel. But the bigger point is there's a constant complaint about how the Rockets and particularly James Hardin are refereed. And this is just another example of how, I mean, the ref is standing right there. Just make the call. Joy Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly. The Big Ten Commissioner, Jim Delaney, maybe perhaps the most powerful man in college football, certainly one of the two or three has said it's time for an eight-team playoff in college football. ball. Joel Clatt is now pushing for a college football playoff. Maybe I'll push back. Some college

football talk next. Joel Clat. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Coming up on New Year's Eve, the Red Box Bowl kicks off between Oregon and Michigan State at 2.30 Eastern on Fox. Then flip over to FS1 is number 17, Utah, battles number 22, North Western in the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl at 630 Eastern or catch it all on the Fox Sports app. Take Michigan State. They're good in bowls and I'll take Utah. Utah, Kyle Hidingham, 12 bowls, 11 and 1. It's better than Sabin. Better than dabble and urban. All right. So I'm reading a story this morning. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney joins the chorus of leaders ready to explore college football's

playoff. This is from The Athletic. That's that subscription thing, right? Yeah. So basically the Big Ten got left out this year until the commissioner's like, yeah, we got to expand this thing, which is pretty predictable. I want to bring in Joel Clatt, lead college football dude at our network, former Colorado quarterback. So let me start with this. Do you think it's a good idea, eight team playoff? Okay, so I don't think expansion is very good.

I think that there's some pretty severe unintended consequences that would water down the regular season. and that's not what we want. I don't want to move towards basketball. Everyone says basketball is this utopian society of postseason. And while March Madness is great, look what March Madness does to the regular season of college basketball. Does anybody care about the regular season in college basketball?

No. No. Of course they don't. So while it wouldn't water down completely the regular season, I'm going to give you a couple of examples of what an 18 playoff would do and would have done this season. First of all, the SEC championship game would not have matter. at all. At all. Georgia wins, them wins, who cares? Why even play it? I guess that's for them

down there. Michigan, Ohio State would have not mattered at all. Now, you could say that it didn't matter because Ohio State didn't make it in, but I would argue that both teams would have been in and the result would not have mattered outside of pride in an eight-team playoff. So those are just two of many examples that I think would ultimately hurt the sport, Colin, because let's be honest, I think one of the things that football, college football has, I think, is that it has the best regular season, the most important regular season in all of sports, across sports, anywhere on the globe. It's the most important regular season. And I'd love to try as best as we can to retain that.

And let me also preface this by saying, not even preface, let me just add on real quick. Colin, we at Fox, I've got no dog in the fight to not expand. Everything that would be good for us at Fox and me personally, would be if they went to eight, because then we would have a chance to get involved. So without a dog in the fight, I still hold this opinion. There's been some conversation out there that it's just the rights holders and it's just certain networks and certain people that hold this opinion. I feel like I break that stereotype because everything that an 18th playoff would do for me

personally and for our network would be beneficial. And yet I still hold this opinion that I think aid is the wrong way to go. But do you think it will happen? that's a great question i'm glad you asked because yes i do believe that that's the direction that is going and i think that the tipping point is uh sitting in that article that you just referenced from the athletic from Nicole arbock who wrote about jim delaney jim delaney i've always thought was the tipping vote if you take a look at like the supreme court there's a tipping vote in a five autonomous in college football the five commissioners are essentially the supreme

court of college football, and Jim Delaney has been the one that's on the fence. You've got the PAC 12 and the Big 12 that have done always clearly in the pro-playoff, pro-must-win-your conference, pro-expansion type of conversation. You've got the ACC and the SEC on the other side of that. Don't bother us. We're going to do it our way. If it's not broke, don't fix it. And Jim Delaney has been kind of the middle vote.

He swung a little bit towards the ACC, SEC at the creation of the playoffs. Now he's more swinging towards Bob Bolsby of the Big 12, which is why I do believe that eventually, I think maybe in the next two and a half years, you're going to start to see the structure outline for an 18 college football playoffs. Devil's Advocate, Alabama, Georgia last year, Alabama, Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, excuse me, last year, year before, next year this year, Alabama, Alabama, Clemson, Alabama. I love the sport. Even I'm tiring of the potential final game. becoming very regional. Devil's advocate. We go to eight. I'm guaranteed a Pact 12 team.

I'm probably guaranteed a Big Ten and a Midwest team. Notre Dame with a better shot to get in. A fun little goofy team to get in. Years ago, it was Boise State. Couldn't I argue just to give, you know, just selfishly to create more

regions, less southern, less same four teams, same two teams now because next year number one and two, Bama and Clemson again. Can I just argue to include more... Parties are more fun when more people get invited to a party.

Eight makes it a bigger party. Okay. And I hear that, and I think that there's a lot of sense in that. That's rational. I certainly understand that argument. I think, though, what I would say is, at your eight-person party, aren't the two coolest people still the coolest people,

regardless of if there's four or eight or 16 or 32? Yeah. I would say there are. Now, you're saying about just interest, I think. Yes, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but just from a regional interest perspective, it's getting very southern. Is that what you're suggesting? Yeah, I mean, and I'm not blaming anybody. They deserve it.

I'm just saying, I think when sports, I don't want Duke winning every year. I like all dynasties are not the same. Tim Duncan's dynasty was boring. USC Pete Carroll was fun. Miami Hurricanes were fun. LeBron and Miami was fun. I think New England's getting fatiguing. Not all dynasties are the same.

Bama and Clemson, it's a little stale. Sure. I don't disagree with that. I certainly don't. I've got some fixes that I think might inject more interest into the sports. All right. Give me two of them. Okay, so real quick, I would do away with divisions in every single conference.

I would put the top two seats in the conference championship game. And then, Colin, all I would say is you have to win that conference championship in order to go. Okay. In order to be selected. That's fair. That way two years ago, think about it, the Iron Bowl would have prevented Alabama from going. See, I think that may be better for the sport. It increases the importance of the regular season.

And in a weird way, it actually increases the access for teams that you were talking about, like the Boise States and the Utahs and the UCFs of current day, because we'd still be throwing one champ out. Now, if you say you have to win your conference in order to go, let's say, let's just say, sake of argument, Texas were to have beat Oklahoma, I think that the committee would have put UCF in over Texas. So I think you're increasing the odds that a UCF gets in, whereas right now, it doesn't matter what happens in those conference championship games. They were never going to put UCF above Georgia, let's say, after they lost. They were never going to put them, you know, above Washington or if they were to have lost their conference championship game, or maybe they would

have. I'm not sure, but you know what I'm saying there. I think you can increase access, you can increase importance. And you can also make the five championship games de facto quarter final games rather than just four on site. I think that you would increase the importance and value of those conference championship games as well. It's a little bit of a roundabout fix to what I think we all would desire, which is more access, more importance on more games and more teams involved. 30 seconds left. Can Notre Dame hang with Clemson? I think they can. Think about it from this perspective, Colin. What's the one thing Clemson is weak at?

Past defense. Yeah, they're terrible. They're wrong through for 400 yards. Yeah. Big Bentley through for 500 yards. And I think Ian Book and Brian Kelly as a combination are very good. I think that Notre Dame will be able to throw the football pretty well. And I think that's the avenue if you're looking for an Irish upset.

That was good stuff from Joel Klat. Set 12 Colorado passing records while at Colorado. I'm just reading that. was one of them interceptions? Just kidding. It was, and don't short me. It was 44. Go to you.

Baker just texted it. He said, what's up? All right, buddy. Good talking to you. You too. Have a good one, bud. All right. Looking for the perfect holiday gift.

How about the original Untuck shirt? Untucket.com. Tall, short, thin, wide, doesn't matter. Untucket.com. promo code Herd for 20% savings. James Jones, former Packerwide, receiver. Friend of Aaron Rogers tomorrow. Nick Wright, too. Fun show. It's the herd. 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. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets. to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicel Life 12 in the

TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite unhumored me with Robert Smigel and friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and

head writer 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.

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, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers 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. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love.

This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.