The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - BEST OF: Colin’s BEST TAKES from the Aaron Rodgers saga: Jets to Steelers

Episode Date: August 2, 2025

Relive the entire Aaron Rodgers saga from the day he was cut by the New York Jets to the day he was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Colin Cowherd takes you through the madness and predicts the future for the former Green Bay Packers legend and Super Bowl champion during this NFL season and beyond. Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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So a little pre-Super Bowl news, Jordan Schultz had put it out, and then Jay Glazer followed that Aaron Rogers will not be coming back to the New York Jet. So I've been on the phone this morning with a couple of different sources. And let me just tell you what I've been told. Aaron Glenn, who came from that incredibly strong Detroit Lion culture, and these were the exact words I were told, I was told, he didn't want the player or the person in the building as he started his NFL head coaching career. and that that doesn't necessarily mean Aaron's a bad person. That's not the point, is that for what you deal with with Aaron, you have to be far more productive than Aaron is at this point in his career, which is around the 15th best quarterback in the league.

And again, we all know this. The more talent you have, the more stuff people will put up with. But Aaron now has been dumped twice. This is stuff I talked about eight years ago and got enormous, pushback, even from NFL media people. Aaron's a lot of work. I've known multiple packers who have played with him. He is moody. Depends on what Aaron you get in the building. And Green Bay caught him off guard, and so did the Jets. Glazer's report was he flew all the way to New York and with the idea that he was going to be a jet for at least one more year. And they informed him that

won't be the case. So I'm a little surprised because I thought Aaron played well in the last eight or so weeks of the year. And I do think this is a bad quarterback draft. And so I'm not exactly sure what they're going to do. And Salah and Ulbrook are not the kind of guys really to push back on Aaron. Aaron Glenn's a different cat. He's very intense. He's very bottom line. He's not a compromising guy. And he did not want to start his New York career. with Aaron Rogers in the building. That's what I was told. And I think it, Peyton Manning left Indy and won a Super Bowl.

Tom Brady left Tampa or Tom Brady left New England and won a Super Bowl. Brett Farrve left Green Bay eventually ends up in Minnesota and is a play from the Super Bowl with the Vikings. They had great success. Aaron did not hurt and then a really, really bad season in a division where, you know, New England was bad, and Miami is a little bit dysfunctional and limited. So there are two teams. I just ran into Chip Kelly Saturday, early evening. And we were talking about the Raiders at quarterback before either one of us had this information.

And I think the Raiders and the Colts are the two places, if Aaron wants to play, that would be good fits. Shane Steichen and Indy, I like that roster. I don't think it's a top five roster. but I think it's a good roster and a winnable division. And I think having Chip Kelly, two good tight ends, two offensive tackles, young, their center. I think Las Vegas has Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly. I think that's a very promising landing spot if Aaron wants to play. There are people, I was told, this morning, that are unsure in the NFL if Aaron wants to play.

And only Aaron can answer that. And that could go back and forth depending on the mood. Who knows? I'm not going to try to speculate whether Aaron wants to play or not. I have no idea. Some of the notes I have here is that Aaron Glenn felt so strongly about what he wanted to build. And Aaron Glenn has an understanding that what the Jets don't have and they haven't had for a decade or more is a really good culture. They've had good players.

Aaron Glenn has told people there's a lot of talent on this roster and a lot of it's on defense. I've said this that if you look at all the job openings this year, we may have misgivings about the Jets' ownership and their stability and their impulsive nature,

at least that's how I view them over the last decade. They've run through a lot of coordinators and a lot of coaches. The roster's fine. the roster's absolutely fine. But Aaron now is expensive. And Devante Adams, my guess would be, I asked somebody this morning about Devante Adams, he's very expensive and he came to New York willingly because of Aaron Rogers. So my guess is the Jets, and it's a pretty good guess, would probably cut Aaron and DeBonte Adams,

who's very expensive. He made, what, over $25 million dollars last year? I did not look that up this morning. But this really comes down to something I have hit on and talked about for years and years. And it doesn't mean he's necessarily a bad person. That's not what I'm saying. But I've had enough people in Aaron Rogers orbit that he is, there are, depends on the day and what you get from Aaron. And Aaron Glenn was not going to walk on eggshells.

He just came from Detroit. He knows what culture means. He took over a Jets-like situation where you had some talent, but you went to the last time we talked about the Lions pre-Dan Campbell and what a great culture it was. Like, never. They'd had Calvin Johnson and Barry Sanders and Matt Stafford. They've had really good players. But the culture is the secret sauce for the Lions now, that in their old line and drafting. They've got a really strong, formidable culture.

The Jets have players. Jets have better players today for Aaron Glenn than Dan Campbell had. when he took over the Lions. But after about a year and a half, you were really seeing the value of culture. And Aaron Glenn, he didn't want to start with a player that's older, that's expensive, that Green Bay moved off from.

They didn't know if Jordan Love was going to be the guy. They really didn't know if Jordan Love was going to be it. A lot of people still aren't sure if Jordan Love's going to be it. I think he's really good, bit reckless, but very good. So this has been a theme. in Aaron Rogers' career. I don't think Aaron was difficult early in his career. I mean, if you read the Jeff Pearlman book,

it really laid out that Farrv was not always the most welcoming to Aaron Rogers. They get along now fine, probably because both have had some, you know, turbulence in their careers. Certainly Fav has, and Aaron's, it's been a little bumpy, a little bumpy landing in New York, a little bumpy at the end in Green Bay with management. but I think the Raiders and Chip Kelly would be a pretty good landing spot. I will tell you that I have had now three different people tell me over the course. I had two in New Orleans and one over the last two days tell me,

Shadur Sanders is gaining steam and Shadur Sanders could possibly drop to the Raiders. I think that would be my hunch that they need a quarter. They didn't get good quarterback play. They're not missing a ton. I mean, they're really not. They need a running back and a quarterback and another weapon. There's a lot the Raiders have. I know that division is tough, but if you're Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly and let's say Aaron

Rogers, you're going to have to face Mahomes and Justin Herbert and Sean Payton and Bo Nicks in the playoffs, potentially. You might as well have six games against those teams going into the playoffs if you landed there and succeeded. But I think over the course of time, we have to be completely honest. And I know there's a lot of, you know, Aaron fans, I get it. But when you get dumped twice and are surprised both times, maybe it's not somebody else. Aaron has that quality.

And this has been shared with me on more than one occasion. And he's certainly not the only person that has this, but kind of needs to be the smartest guy in the room. And that can be off-putting to some. But I don't know if he's going to continue his career. It doesn't matter. He's the 15th best quarterback in the league right now. It doesn't matter. The league moves on.

It moved on from Brady and Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. It's certainly going to move on. It moved on from the wildly popular Brett Farrv and Joe Montana. It's going to move on just fine. But they, I'm told that Aaron Glenn, knowing the value of culture, just he made it very clear inside that building in New York that he wanted a clean start, fresh start, everybody headed in the same direction, didn't want to walk on eggshells, didn't want to have to deal with any unnecessary potential drama.

And so I don't know where they're going. They're not going to go get Sam Darnold. I doubt that. But I've said this before. It may not be the strongest NFL draft in the first round for quarterbacks. But I do think Kyle McCord from Syracuse or Riley Leonard are really interesting players. Riley Leonard had a very good senior bowl. I've had multiple people.

They really like Kyle McCord from Syracuse. they see as a starting quarterback in the NFL. But that is the news on Aaron Rogers as we get ready for pre-Super Bowl. You know, it's interesting. I like Kansas City in this game, but, you know, I say this with a ton of conviction. I just, there's two numbers I like a lot. Mahomes is 8-0 against Vic Fangio, and Andy Reid is 33 and 7 off a buy. And the four best players for the Chiefs have all, they've all been in this game.

and several of them have been in it many times. And I like the experience in this spot. But Philadelphia does have a better accumulation of talent. I don't think anybody denies that. But I think the Eagles number one defense somewhat is built on the fact that they faced a lot of bad quarterbacks. The AFC is much better at the top. Whereas the chiefs faced Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and Justin Herbert twice and Boe Nixon and Sean Peyton twice and C.J. Stroud and Joe Burrow and beat Kirk Cousins early. when he was good.

You know, the Eagles faced the New York Giants offense twice and lost to Kirk Cousins and the Saints and Cleveland, Jags, Carolina, Steelers, Dallas with Cooper Rush. I don't think Philadelphia faced as many good quarterbacks, in my opinion, and as many good coaches as the Chiefs defense did. I think the Chiefs, on average, face better coaches and better quarterbacks. Although, you know, both teams face Kirk Cousins. Philadelphia lost to him. Both teams faced Joe Burrow,

but Kansas City beat Kirk Cousins, who was pretty good when both those teams got a shot at him. So not that the Eagles defense isn't good, but my takeaway is if you had the fifth best defense in the NFL and you're playing in the AFC, and you're facing Lamar and Josh and Herbert a couple times, and Stroud and Nicks and Burrow and Kirk Cousins when he was in really good shape,

and some good coaching. That's a handful. So I think it's a close game. I think in the second half, the scoring gets ratcheted up, and the defense is tire out a little bit, and you'll see some really big-time plays. But I think you're going to get a classic Super Bowl. Super Bowl 59.

Jordan Schultz, and then Jake Laser reported, the Jets moved off Aaron Rogers. So for the second time in a couple of years, a team, as Aaron flew out to New York thinking, positively, optimistically it would happen. They moved off him. I think the Colts and the Raiders work. I think Chip Kelly, they have two tackles. They have a center. They have two good tight ends. They need a running back in a receiver. I think the Raiders works for Aaron Rogers. He'd take that over the Colts and Shane Steichen. But, you know, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady

late in their careers leave and have some success. Brett Farved it as well, got to an NFC championship, a throw from the Super Bowl. Are you saying that? surprised that it was just two years of nothing and the second team bailed on him? I'm not, but are you? No, because as the season went on, it got pretty weird between Aaron and the owner. And I listened, you recorded something before the Super Bowl about, you know, this new culture coming in. You know, Aaron Glenn's a former high-level player. So it's like, do I want to deal with some old aging? you know, what's the hardest thing to deal with sometimes in pro sports, an aging former superstar, especially one that's a little different.

You know, Peyton Manning that last year, remember Kubiak and Elway had to sit them down and, like, it was difficult. He took a pay cut. These are tough conversations, but I think it was pretty clear that the Johnson family was over this guy about two months left to go in the season. I wonder if part of the interviews was like, Aaron's done here, which most of these new code, who care? Like, it's not like, okay, fine. I don't need him anyway.

I think the question now is, is he even tradable? Because he's on the books for this year. His cash, you know, his cap hits $23 million. I honestly think they'd probably have to cut him. I wonder if anyone would even trade for them. So it's like, they just cut them.

I think they'll cut them. And then someone signs them for $10 million. I mean, is he, is that what he's getting? kind of a unique because if you think about it, Rathusberger's arm gave out on him, it was clear, but he just ends as a steeler. Manning's arm doesn't work,

wins the Super Bowl, but then no one would re-sign him. Breeze's arm started going, and it just ended. Is he really just going to go play, like, what if the Titans outbid that? And they give him 12 million. The Raiders were only willing to give him,

so he's going to finish his career on the Titans. Because I do think it wouldn't just be those two. I think a lot of teams would be interested just to try to get their franchise. You know, these owners, give them a little oomph. If you've got some caps base, I'll give Aaron Rogers $15 million. If you're the Titans, why wouldn't you pay him?

Yeah, he has a house in Nashville. I mean, let's say, listen, we'll give you two years. You've got a house in Nashville. It's an easy division. And then you have that number one pick. You could trade down, get a bunch of players around him. It's just interesting. I was told that Aaron Glenn,

for the people that didn't hear my pre-super Bowl 15-minute rant, I was told by somebody I trust that Aaron Glenn, coming from a really strong culture in Detroit, wants to mimic that, right? Duplicate that in New York, and he didn't want Aaron Rogers, the player or the person in their room. And they'll say all the right stuff. But in the end, I mean, Green Bay caught him off guard.

The Jets kind of caught him off guard. Aaron has that disease of has to be the smartest guy in the room. I'm going to do my own homework on the internet. And, you know, I think in the end, Aaron, I mean, I could write chapters in a book on things I've heard from people that have been around him. He's a really moody guy. You can get good Aaron or bad Aaron. But in the end, he's just not good enough now. He's probably the 15th best quarterback in the league.

He's just not good enough for the BS you deal with. Like, he's not early to the locker room. He's not optimistic. like Brady to the end, I mean, was just like high energy, high optimism, high standards. I'm not sure Aaron loves the game. I think, you know how you ever work with somebody or you have somebody in your family? And they're like, I work hard. And you're like, dude, hard work is 65 hours a week, not 42.

I think Aaron says he loves the game. I don't see it. I don't see that just unbridled, like just relentless passion for. it. I think Aaron thinks he loves the game, but he doesn't love it. He doesn't love it the way the guys that I see it in pro sports. Sorry to interrupt this great video, but please remember to like and subscribe. Thank you. Now back to the video. I think it'll be very telling that when they cut him, if he's only getting seven, eight, ten million dollar off, he doesn't need the money, right? He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars at this point in time. It was clear

he did not want to get hit last year. Don't blame him. He's 40 years old. So is he going to go play for some of these teams, you know, Pete Carroll calls, the Titans call? It's like, yeah, this might not go well again. Right? The one thing Aaron Rogers has a good feel for, most of his career is what a good team looks like. So this could be really, like, you go sign up for one of these teams.

Best case scenario might be like seven wins. And you, you know, struggled to stay hurt last year on a roster that's going to be better more than likely than one of these teams interested in you. So I wonder if he gets to the point where it's like, am I really going to do a one year for $8, $9, $10 million? It's one thing, you know, the Jets is sure paying him $35 million. If someone was willing to pay him that, I think he would for sure play. But I have a hard time.

If you're $10 million and it's like his best options of the Titans, him just going, I'm just going to go hang out in Malibu and just kick it. Yeah, he's got a beautiful house. I watched that documentary Enigma. It was interesting. You know, I watched the first episode. It was bored out of my mind. I gave it a second episode.

That was better. I gave it like 10 minutes and I turned it off. I'm like, I don't even care. It wasn't for me. Yeah. You're a better man than me. Yeah. Yeah.

So I kind of felt like for the audience, I had to go watch it. But, you know, I just think he's just a different cat. And I think over the last six or seven years, he's gotten to be really high maintenance. but I don't know what the Jets are going to do at quarterback, but I ran into Chip Kelly Saturday night briefly. And this was before I knew the air on news. And my take is that's probably the best place for him, honestly. It's probably the best.

If I was him, I can be closer to Malibu. I saw a headline today that the Raiders might be interested in Sam Darnold. And I actually ran into Sam Darnold at the hotel gym the day I was leaving. And I talked to him again, the elevator. You know, one thing that really stands out to me, I had a bunch of players staying at the hotel I was staying at, ran into, like, Ledany and Tomlinson. I know Lorenzo Neal really well,

so I went up and talked to him about Low Neal, and it's a lot of just good, easygoing guys. Like, you can just have a normal conversation with Ladania and Tomlinson, like, in the hotel gym for five minutes. Or it's like, you know, this is one of the great running backs in the history of the league. Like, I don't know if, you know, the equivalent in some of these other sports would just do that.

But these guys, you know, Sam Darnold, who just had one of the great seasons in the league, He's just BSing with me about where he's going to play golf this summer in L.A. It's just an easy-going group of people. And my theory's always been is they're the most, they have the most in common with normal people because their job is one, they get cut all the time. One, they also get screamed out of their job a lot. Like if it's not going well, you're getting criticized by your bosses like normal human beings do.

And they just communicate very well with non, you know, famous people, which it can be a struggle with people making. making a lot of money. I was just very impressed all the players that I ran into the hotel, just had brief conversations with. Nothing says summer like long days, clutch plays and firing off a few bets, all with Draft King's Sportsbook. As the season heats up, so do the bets. And Draft King Sportsbook has you covered, home run props, odds boosts, whether you're chasing dingers, jumping in midgame, midgame bets are great. There's always action to be had. So if you've never been on baseball before, it's really easy. Pick a guy to hit a home run. Hammer some live,

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agent eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Voidon, Ontario. New customers only. Bonus, bets expire 168 hours after issu. Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how did we, how do we actually come up with the name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.

Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.

But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel,

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Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Speaking of artist, I think if you took any NFL quarterback and said he was more artist, it would be Aaron Rogers. Aaron's very unique. And I tend to believe that people make mistakes, but most NFL reporters. reporters are very, very good. So I'm going to trust the NFL reporter who broke this story that basically Aaron begged the Jets to keep him. And it's interesting because I think we both acknowledge Aaron's smart. You know, he's a bright guy, better than average intelligence, but he's had two franchises catch him off guard letting him go. And it's an interesting

thing with Aaron. Generally, these two things coincide. intelligence and self-awareness. And we think Aaron's smart. And twice he's knocked on the door of the franchise. And they're like, they do the Vegas dealer. Yeah, we're out. And he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What I find interesting about Aaron, if this story is true that he begged to stay,

is that he doesn't get, like he doesn't get his brand. And it's like, Aaron, you're not some dullard. You're not a dim bulb. You're a lot of work, and you're not nearly as good as you used to be. This, whether you're a talk show host or a quarterback, never ends well. When I read that, he was begging to stay or he really wanted to stay. Part of it to me was sad. It's like, Aaron, how do you not get this?

Does that lay out the same way for you? I don't. So Albert Breer then reported that Aaron wanted to stay, wanted and indicated that he wants to keep playing, but that he was not, he did not present it like that he was begging. Rogers doesn't strike me as a guy that would get down on one knee and beg the New York Jets for employment. So I didn't buy the behind the paywall New York Post story that said it was like a man walking himself to the gallows and. referencing ayahuasca. It was like very New York posty. And so I was like, I took it with a little bit of a grain assault.

What I do think is true is that Rogers probably went to that meeting and stayed at his case. I was heard at the beginning of the year. I played much better at the end of the year. And what's your plan? If not me, then who? And they probably don't have a great answer for that right now. So I bet he stated his case. I still struggle to find a team

that makes more sense for Rogers than Pittsburgh. People keep saying Minnesota, aren't they going to try J.J. McCarthy? They traded up in the first round to draft it. And if they think that if they got a great season and seasons out of Kirk Cousins, and then a great season out of Sam Darnold, I would have to imagine that they think

that the guy that they picked they can get a great season out of for very cheap. Well, I want to quickly segue to this. I don't want to spend too much time on Aaron. So there was a story that Jason McIntyre deserves credit. He talked about it like four days before anybody else did, Stafford to the Giants. And I made two calls on it, and it was a real thing. Now, Stafford may just want a new deal and an influx of money from the Rams.

That's probably it. The idea of going from Stan Cronky and Sean McVeigh and indoor football to the Giants, facing Philadelphia twice a year and Jaden Daniels does not feel appealing to me. Just chaos to non-chaos. The Rams are a really well-run ship. But it was interesting.

So when I proposed that, it was amazing. And again, it's fans. So how many people said you cannot give up a first round pick for Matt Stafford? And I'm like, you definitely can. It is a weak draft.

You've been unwatchable. for a decade. Like, you're the GM of the Giants. I press you into a corner. What would you give up for Matt Stafford in a weak draft? Yeah, I mean, I would try to make it next year's first round pick, right? Like, not, don't eat. You got to give up some.

I'm not going to let you get away with that. You've got to give me something this year. Yeah. Then, I mean, listen, I still think Stafford's an arguably top five quarterback in the NFL. I think there's a big four. And then, like, Matt Stafford. everyone was immediately like Jaden Daniels is the best quarterback in the NFC. And I was like, I think I'll still take the 35-year-old gunslinger, like to win a game tomorrow.

I'll still take Stafford over Jaden Daniels. Though Jaden's amazing. So yeah, I think that if the Rams were open for business, they would get a first-round pick for Matt Staford. Even at his age, I use. Now, even though you'd have to redo the deal. Like, he's just too damn good. in a league now. It is all.

And it's the type of thing that you don't go into it blind. Like, you'd be, his agent would be given permission to talk to the team. Hey, are you playing? You know, you're not retiring next year, right?

No, you're playing multiple years? Okay, cool. Yeah. And as long as they have a guarantee that Matt Stafford would sign a contract extension, rework the deal to your point, and play multiple years, I do think that he would get a first round pick.

He's awesome. He's awesome. I don't really get why the range. Rams would want to be out of the Matt Stafford business, though. Like, I watched your segment, and, like, I personally would put up with his wife saying goofy things. And, like, he's Matt Stafford. Well, I think what the Rams are looking at, some of that public Cooper Cup, Stafford, the Rams felt a bit bullied in social media. The wife, Cooper Cup.

It's like, guys, we're really good, we're really good owners. We're good people here. Don't go public. So I think that's part of it. think the other thing you have to look at is take Stafford out. Who are the pocket quarterbacks that you really think can win to Super Bowl over the next 10 years? Goff, and that's mostly because of the O-line, really, of Detroit. The O-line is so suffocating.

It could move the ball against Philadelphia's D-line. The truth is, and they're also looking at, Matt wants four years. They give him two. So I think they want Matt Stafford, but I do think rent a quarterback for a year, because next year's quarterback class is much better, is Aaron Rogers. I think Aaron, if you go to Aaron's last 10 games in New York, at that point, arguably the worst coaching staff, not in Chicago in the league. It was the worst coaching staff.

And he put up like really decent numbers the last 10 games. My take is with McVeigh, if you could hold those numbers for a year, two-year deal, we draft a quarterback. And I also think Aaron has been humbled. I think he'd come, live in Malibu and be like, I'm taking a gift. I have no issue with understanding why Aaron Rogers would want to play in L.A. for Sean McVeigh. That's not a leap.

My thing is if I'm Sean McVeigh, I think Matt Stamper is better than Aaron Rogers. At this stage, I just don't get why the Rams would want to be out of the Stafford business to get into the Rogers business. Like if Matt Stafford forced a trade or retired or whatever, then like, okay, we can have that conversation. But I just, I get to me, all these teams that people are throwing out for Rogers, like the Niners, the Vikings, the Rams. Yeah, that all sounds great for Aaron. I think it's much more likely that it's going to be like Vegas, Tennessee, nobody's. Like I think that that's where it's going to be like, is he going to just play to play and grind out six wins?

Or I don't believe that a Super Bowl contender is calling Aaron Rogers. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. But I don't believe that a Super Bowl contender is ready for him. So I thought it was interesting today where Adam Schaefter was almost annoyed with Aaron Rogers, where he came out and said, pick a team. So I said this on the air today. If you ever tell a corporation, listen, I need more time, I'll get back to you. You have to have the self-awareness to know how that lands to the corporation, especially if you're in a valuable position.

It's a big, F you're literally going back thinking, ugh, what a what a prima donna. And I usually tend to think really smart people have excellent self-awareness. And I wonder sometimes with Aaron, is he the rare, smart dude, doesn't read the room well. I mean, he goes on this darkness retreat in Green Bay and then is shocked when they're like, take a hike. Like, how can you be shot? But here's the thing with Rogers, and there's a lot of it. Do we, he talks a lot, but do we believe anything he says? What do you mean?

He said he didn't have cell service. Like, he's like, oh, and I, like, you live in Malibu in like a $25 million house. You have cell service. Like, it was just, I think that he has a lot of narcissism to him. And he's like, I love the silence. And then he brought a film crew. Like, what do you? These things are just in conflict with each other.

I just, you know what I mean? I think that he is a, so I don't know that he knows exactly what he wants. And I think he loves attention. And I think that he told Mark Schlereth, and Stink has told the story publicly, he did like a week 16 or 17 Jets game. And Sting said that they talked for almost 30 minutes. 20 something was about the running game because Stink's insane. And he was like five or 10 minutes was about his future. And he's like, Aaron told me point blank, like, I'm only going to keep playing if the situation is perfect.

Well, now apparently it's down to the Steelers and the Giants. imperfect. Imperfect. Now, at least the Steelers, to me, makes perfect sense. That one makes perfect sense. He loves Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin loves him. Mike Tomlin, apparently, it's impossible for this guy to have a losing season. Mason Rudolph, Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, Duck Hodges.

It doesn't matter. It's impossible for this guy to have a losing season. So obviously, you're hyperwifference. relevant. The fans care. You'll look good in the iconic jersey. You'll get to play against Joe Burrow. You'll play against Lamar Jackson. The AFC North plays the NFC North this year. So the Steelers host the Packers. They go to Chicago. Aaron will eat that shit up. Like, to me, that makes sense. He can have an expectation of playing in a playoff game and maybe winning a playoff game that Tomlin hasn't done since 2016. they're not going to win a Super Bowl.

But that makes sense. If he comes back and he plays for the Giants, it's just pure vanity. Sorry to interrupt this great video, but please remember to like and subscribe. Thank you. Now back to the video. Okay, so I'm going to argue,

because this was a discussion today on our show. And I said, because I've moved so many times that I get a yellow pat out, pro-de-cons. And I said, I'm going to be, Aaron Rogers. I don't have to move. I get an offensive coach. I get neighbors and a really good left tackle and I'm going to have more juice in the building because the coach and the gym are getting fired. Or they lost Naji Harris and their left tackle. They're completely toned after offense.

I'm old and don't want to get hit and they haven't had a good line for seven years. I'll have really no power in the building. And I'm going to have two guys that are both going to demand the ball and neither one runs a complete route tree. I can make an argument selfishly. Like, every time I've ever thought about moving, my take is, who is my Sven Ghali in the building? Will somebody get me?

Brian Dables work with Daniel Jones. He's worked with Josh Allen. Brian Dable's been around forever. Man, Jeannie calls him one of his best assistants he's ever known. Like, you go into a building with a guy, you can literally be on the same wavelength. I mean, Arthur Smith, does not appear to be likable,

and Mike Tomlin does not appear to care about offense. And you got two receivers who want to be ones. I look at Pittsburgh and think, this is a powder cake. Okay, so two things. One, I could be wrong. I obviously don't know the man. I don't think he cares about moving.

He'll, like, come on. He travels to Tahiti and Thailand, and he lived for, 15 years in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and he'll be fine for eight months in Pittsburgh. I have a hard time believing that that is going to be a determining factor for him. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think he'll be fine. He's a very well-traveled individual.

He'll have as much power in the offensive side as he wants. Who knows, maybe he'll fire Arthur Smith and they'll hire Nathaniel Hackett. He's the offensive coordinator in and of himself. I think he loves Tomlin. I think that they flirted with each other. They wink at each other on the sideline. He shouts him out when he does the McAfee interviews. I think he's got a respect for him.

Conspiracy theory, McAfee today retweeted a video of Rogers talking about Tomlin from like 2021. I think it's happening. I think it's happening. I think he's going to announce it on that show. McAfee is a Pittsburgh guy or a Pennsylvania guy, whatever he is. He's doing some show in Pittsburgh coming out soon. He's calling a Big Night Act. I don't fully understand the McAfee universe, but I think Rogers,

who's apparently making seven figures from the guy, which is amazing. Good gig if you can get it. I think he's announcing that he's going to Pittsburgh with McAfee at his show in Pittsburgh, and he's a stealer. That's what I think's happening. All right. I'm just, no, you're probably right.

I'm just telling you, the stuff that matters to me, which is, don't have to worry about moving, left tackle, offensive coach, great weapon, and I'm going to have power in the building. I'll get a say in the building. Where do you think he wins more football games? Pittsburgh. Yeah. So I guess, okay, and this one of the other thing I wanted to say to you. And this is, like, developing more as my media career continues, I just get older or whatever, I root for interesting. Powder keg? Great. Awesome. It is so much more interesting if Aaron Rogers is in Pittsburgh with Mike Tomlin.

You know what? Great point. I've said it. I had our guys work up a Photoshop of him in a Steelers uniform the day the season ended. Like to me, it's made, obviously, if Minnesota wants him, that's a better situation, obviously. So I see him hold it. I can see him holding out for that. I think they're going to go with Jay J.J. McCarthy. We'll see. And the Steelers would be on national TV six times. They would be hyper-relevant and hyper-interesting. Good or bad. Good or bad. So if he's going to play and we're going to talk about him and he's going to suck all the oxygen out of a room,

I would much rather him do it on a 10 or 11-win team than a 5- or a 6-win team. So I personally am rooting for Pittsburgh. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? huge news. We created our own podcast called

Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about

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Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I want to throw this with Aaron Rogers and the Vikings, the Steelers, the Steelers, you know, the Giants interested.

So I've said before, the Vikings is the obvious choice if you could do it if you wanted one more year with their personnel in their coach. Giants two to me, Steelers, three, I'll get to that in a second. But I went and watched a movie this morning at 1140 called BlackBag. It was Steven Soderberg who's done, he started with Sex Lives and Videotape years ago. Very heady stuff, very quirky, plot twist, fascinating guy. The movie's great. I love that hour 33. I mean, you're in and out of the theater.

It's fascinating. Not a wasted scene. But as I was watching it, I was thinking as I walked out of the theater is that, you can tell how smart an actor is by the directors and the choices they make for movies. Bad, dumb actors end up in bad films and make bad choices. Tom Hanks did not make a bad choice for like 10 years. Now, I know Tom Hanks gets better scripts than the average guy, but, you know, even a movie like big, you know, you're like smart actors choose smarter roles.

And I think this is the ultimate test for Aaron Rogers. Hear me out. So of the teams that want in Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and New York, Pittsburgh's got the best overall roster. The best overall coach is probably in Minnesota. But here's something fascinating about the Steelers. So in five of the last seven years, and I think we both agree, they draft and develop well.

They got dudes. This is a real roster. Five of the last seven years, they've had it, least a three-game losing streak at minimum at the end of the year. And my belief is, as the league has gotten offensively smarter and the culture has changed and defenses are limited, that Mike Tomlin is a raw, raw coach, kind of a motivator. That's why he's such a good as an underdog coach, is that the raw, raw stuff, it doesn't, it doesn't land or stick by Christmas on. It just doesn't. Players have heard it.

and that they're just not a sophisticated team offensively. They can't get the O-line right, which Andy Reed, McVeigh, Shanahan, Gary, Sean Payton. Those guys within a year can figure. I mean, the Denver O'Line sucked. Payton got there. It was top eight, you know, his first year. And that I think if Aaron chooses the Steelers, I think it's a big brand. It's a good roster.

You now have two high-maintenance receivers who want the ball. By the way, D.K. Metcalf is the most penalized receiver since he entered the league, temperamental. You have an own line that can't figure out. They have no sensibility for it. He's sort of an outsider in a kind of a tough blue-collar city. He's an outsider. And if he chooses Pittsburgh, I really think it tells you a lot about Aaron. I mean, I would, I'll tell you, I would choose the Giants over Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh just lost their left tackle. They just lost Naji Harris. It's like the Giants have an excellent left tackle. an offensive coach. Aaron will have power. They have an elite weapon. And by the way, what they need is a running back. It's a great running back draft.

It's hard to screw the running back. I mean, the Giants will take a running back somewhere early. So my take on Aaron is if he chooses the Steelers, he's passing on offensive coaches who clearly every rule advantage goes to that side. And I'm fascinated by the choice he makes. Because I'm, you know, you start hearing things. A lot of people think he's going to Pittsburgh. If you just wanted to play one more year, where would you pick them on?

Are we factoring Minnesota in with these three or just the O's two? Yes. I would be begging Kevin O'Connell to let me be the starting quarterback. Okay. And when I see some of these reports that he needs $30, $40 million, like, guys made $450 million. This is probably going to be his last season. Is he going to go out on the embarrassment that was the jet situation these last couple years?

I, to me, the Giants thing is I can't get with you there. Now, I'm with you. I think the Steelers situation is a little overrated. I mean, they just, they happen to have Lamar Jackson, who's, I don't know, the most unique quarterback we've ever seen, and Joe Burrow, who, when he's on, might be the best quarterback in the league. I mean, you're not outdoing those two teams. And then Cleveland just resigned one of the greatest pass rushers ever.

And for a weird organization, they are not easy to play. That division is really, really difficult. And I'm with you on the Steelers. I thought that that D.K. Metcalf trade was insanity, Colin. When you don't have your quarterback to trade for D.K. Bedcaf when down the stretch of the season, obviously your offense had some issues, but Russell did not play well. Your defense was falling apart. You are not in the business of giving a guy $100 million guaranteed, trading a second round pick.

That's what the chiefs or bill should do. Not a team that's barely getting in the playoffs and getting smoked the moment they get in. That was crazy. I know that was the craziest move when you factor in money and a high draft pick. But I don't think the Steelers and the Giants are that good options. Like I see one, the Giants I don't think would make the playoffs with them. I mean, the Jets were a much better team. And I think the Steelers situation would probably have some parallels might look a little better.

But like the way this season, 9, 10 wins, get blasted by the Ravens or Bills. and what's he just going to retire for? By the way, last year, to my point, last year to my point, the Steelers were an awful team down the stretch. I do think, and I would imagine, you know, Kevin O'Connell, I don't think he's ever worked with Aaron. They're just having long conversations because they go, are we confident that we could win the division

and win playoff games with JJ McCarthy? Because I'm telling you, we've seen it. I know you know this, but like you could win, just because this isn't the NBA when you just put a great roster, like guaranteed to make the playoffs. football, the cohesion and the quarterback plate, Sam Donald threw 35 touchdowns last year. J.J. McCarthy, in 15 games that last year of Michigan through 22, he's never played like that. They did not, that's not, and Kevin O'Connell clearly is much more like McVeigh than

Shanahan. He likes to throw the ball. I mean, he's, that's his, you know, he wants to call 35, 40 passes a game, even when Sam Donald's getting smoked in the playoff games, like Kevin run the ball, he just kept calling pass plays. So I'd be begging Kevin O'Connell. I think that roster, I would disagree with you on the Steelers. I think the Vikings have a better roster today. Now the draft, we'll see what happens. You do. I mean, I thought they had an excellent free agency.

I mean, signed a couple offensive linemen, plug and play a guard in a center, a couple defensive linemen. I mean, their defense overachieved because Flores is such an elite coordinator. Now, so they're bringing a couple more defensive linemen. I would imagine they draft defense. Their offense stacked skill-wise. So, you know, it'd be, I mean, it'd be a little weird, right? if Aaron's career literally paralleled the guy that always drove him nuts far of going to the Jets and the Vikings.

But that division, I think the one thing right now on paper, wouldn't you say the NFC North is the best division in all the football with the bears looking vastly in Peru? Well, I think it's the best division in terms of personnel. I think the AFC West is the best division in terms of coaching with Peyton, Pete, Andy, and Harbaugh. So those are the two best divisions. and I don't think it's a I don't think it's a coincidence. Well, I just, the South is such a huge college football region

that both the NFC and the AFC South aren't very good. I've always surmised that college football is so big in that part of the country that you don't face the same level of pressure that you do on northern teams, like New England, Boston Media, Philly Media, Baltimore Media, you know what I mean? Like Cold War, whether at Pittsburgh, they live, they don't care about college football, they live for the NFL. These NFC, AFC South teams, you're like, we'll keep Todd Bowles again.

If he coaches the Eagles, he'd be gone tomorrow. You know what's funny is probably like a year ago, Maria has a close friend who's really successful girl, UCLA grad, just crushes. She's like 30 years old. She got multiple properties. And she was telling me this, she had this acronym. I forget exactly what it was, but it basically described high maintenance friends. and the moment you become a high maintenance friend in her life,

she's got too much going on, she got a young baby, she's out on you. If I would have told you four or five years ago that we'd be a week into free agency and people like Russell Wilson, Aaron Rogers, like, yeah, well, we'll get back to you here a little bit. It's crazy how, and I think both guys,

if they were viewed, let's use Gino and Sam, are viewed as low maintenance, good guys, everyone likes them, no problems. If both these guys were viewed as just normal humans, like a Drew Breeze or I know he's like super high care but I just mean like normal guys I think they both would have been signed had they would have had a bidding war for these guys because statistically they're still solid they're clearly not as good as they once were but it's like the first question and I've been in these meetings not necessarily with these

individual players but players like this like do we want to deal with this like do we want and their stardom is now bigger than their talent that it's like is this high maintenance worth the headache enough. Look at Des Bryant, disappeared. Dawn. OBJ, disappeared. Aaron Rogers, Russell. Not really interested.

I think, and I'll throw this at you, I love the NBA, but there's some high maintenance, you know, these guaranteed contracts. I think the NFL people, and I've had discussions with NFL people for my entire career, they often reference, dude, that's an NBA. that's an NBA idea. They make fun of the NBA and how much players and employees control

the entire organization. MBEed. Everybody's hostage to MBEED. And I mean, you've heard GMs reference this before. Like, Aaron and Russell are getting into sort of like a little bit of NBA where you're like, this is a team sport. Like, this is about the group and the community.

Not, I mean, when Aaron said, And there's that picture in Malibu where he's got the pod pods on. And I'm thinking every NFL GM is thinking, listen, just make an effing decision. Okay. Like you're not married. You don't have kids. You're not doing much. You're golfing and you're reading Greek mythology.

Like that to me, I listen, I've talked to two GMs and they're like, you couldn't, I'm not interested in there. And I'm like, yeah, but he's still pretty good. and they're like, that just, I mean, Aaron Glenn basically just said, we're just no thank you. And Aaron was actually pretty good down the stretch. This isn't a shot at Aaron. It's what I'm hearing from executives in the league. It's like, no thanks. Well, I mean, look at the Titans.

Their new GM is from the Chiefs. So he's spent his whole time around Andy, Vech, Mahomes, Alex. The guy kind of in this weird position who's like the president, but he's also kind of got a scouting background is a Packer guy. They have no interest, even if they're going to take Cam Ward. Like, you guys get Aaron Rogers, bring him to Nashville for a year, get a little buzz as you're building this new stadium. You haven't heard of peep. It's crazy how, think of the top quarterbacks in the league. Patrick Mahomes, the only maintenance they ever have to deal with is his family.

It's not him. Like, he is. They don't even think about him. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Herbert, Burrow. I mean, Burrow has kind of had to hold their feet to the fire. just historically this organization. If you put Burrow in the Ravens or the Chiefs, he wouldn't be saying a peep.

He's just scared that this owner's going to be cheap. Don't blame him. But I think the league, the star quarterbacks, are just full of guys who are just, you never, the season ends and it's like, I don't know what Josh Allen's doing.

He's just doing, he had a bachelor party at the Tiger Woods thing in Orlando, just with his buddies. And I think Aaron Rogers and Russell, they're different personalities, but I think they both check the same box of like, I don't know if we have the energy. and you're not good enough anymore for us to overlook that

because if you put Aaron Rogers on Minnesota, you know, I could see it going well, but I can also see it weird. Are you sure that you're comfortable with him with JJ in that situation? But I do think they're thinking long and hard, but these guys don't really have options so they can just kind of wait it out and keep talking through it. Yeah, no, I think it's a reality that there's the players now are richer, sooner. I mean, some of these guys now going forward, John, they'll come in multimillionaires out of college.

So you're going to see two things. Guys retire sooner and guys have a little more leverage sooner. And I think the fear on the NFL is we don't want to become pro basketball where basically the employees are running the team. You know, like Kauai showing up at 430 and saying, yeah, I'm not going to play tonight. Like, no, we're not going there. and I think with the NFL benefits, I do think it could get much weirder in the offseason with the holdouts and the hold ends like that. That probably is at the beginning of that. But in the sport of football, unlike, like in basketball, these guys could play 365 days a year if they want to, right?

Pick up games. You can play whenever. In football, the only time you can actually play a game is in the confines of the 17 weeks. And that's the fun part. What Ray Lewis say, you pay me Monday through Saturday, Sundays are for free. The games are really the fun part for the players. That's the problem with the NBA. You turn on the TV.

You never know who's going to play. Even in the NFL, guy making $40, $50 million, he's still going to want to play in the games. Laramie Tunzel, a lot of articles are coming out. Like, you know, he's kind of late to practice. Doesn't always work hard. It's like, well, you don't know that if you just watch the TV because you're like, he's a good player. He said, I'd want him on my team. So the NFL, their weird stuff happens during the week when no one's paying attention.

The games, it's like all the guys want to play. The Aaron Rogers thing has been interesting because, you, wrote the book on him, so you know him pretty well. And I didn't think it's, I don't think it's football. He's fine. He's, you know, somewhere between the 13th and 16th best quarterback. He's fine. I don't think he's quite as committed as the young great ones, and I don't think he moves like the young great ones. He's smart. But when Aaron Glenn came in, and for the second time in Aaron's career, he was caught off guard a little by a team saying, hey, thanks, but no thanks, according to reports that, you know, Aaron had flown cross-country,

meeting with him, and Aaron Glenn was like, we're going to move on. And to me, downgraded a quarterback. I mean, when you write a book on Aaron, you think you have a feel or a vibe for him. I said this the other day. If the Vikings say no thanks, I think he retires. When you look at how the season went and now we're in this. flux period. Are you surprised or could you have predicted it based on the over 100 people you

talked to in the conversation with Aaron? I think I'm not surprised that he, I think the overriding feeling right now is that he still wants to play in maybe two years. I had a friend of his telling me two years a week ago because he kind of feels like this past season, Colin, was a rehab year. And so if he has a good. 20, 25, I really do expect him to try to play in 26. But we'll even play at all.

Retirement is on the table. I don't think the Vikings are going to sign him. That would be the best case scenario. But if you, let's say you put the Vikings roster, or the Steelers and the Giants had an equivalent talent base as the Vikings. Same coaching, same talent. I actually think he picked the Giants because he does really like living in the New York New Jersey area, despite the fact that the Jets thing was effectively a two-year disaster.

I do think if the Giants had a Vikings roster, I actually think he would pick the Giants. He has respect for that organization. They've had good conversations. I've talked to a couple of people with the Giants who said they have no issues with him as a locker room presence, as a personality. They don't care. They think he's the best available quarterback, and they want him. They've made a good offer.

If I had to put 20 bucks down today, I think. he'll be the starting quarterback for the Steelers because I think he prefer the Vikings but the Steelers I think really do want him. They've made that clear and Mike Tomlin gives him the kind of coaching last year, Colin, I've been doing this almost 40 years in the New York market. That is one of the two or three worst coaching jobs I've ever seen in any sport in New York. And so to go from that to Mike Tomlin, if Mike Tomlin coached the 2024 Jets, they would have gone 10 and 7. I'm convinced of that. That was a 10 and 17 that went 5 and 12 with horrific coaching. So I think with the Steelers and with the playmakers they have now and that roster,

and particularly the coaching, I think Aaron can go 10 and 7, maybe 11 and 6 and get back in the playoffs and maybe that's the way to end his career. I think where the giants are right now, because they don't have that roster that we were talking about earlier with the Vikings, he's looking at that saying, geez, do I want to finish my career going five and 12 for one New York team and five and 12 for another? Have you looked at the Giants' home schedule? Let me run these eight games by you. And you tell me, they're going to play nine on the road next year and eight at home. You tell me who the Giants are beating from this group.

Dallas, okay, I think they can beat Dallas. But then they're playing at home, Philly, Washington, Green Bay, Kansas City, the Chargers, the Vikings, and the 49. How many of those games are they winning? Maybe two, if they're lucky, they go two and six at home. Then on the road, they're at Dallas, they're at Philly, they're at Washington, they're at Denver, they're at Detroit. How many of those games are they winning? So I think Aaron is smart enough to look at that and say, do I really want to go five and

12? Even if I play better. And even though I don't think the Jet thing is really going to hurt his legacy, I don't think 10, 15 years from now when he's already in the Hall of Fame as a Packer, people are going to be talking about his experience with the Jets. But if he does that again with a second team, I do think that will hurt his legacy. So to me, if the Vikings aren't interested and they're going with McCarthy

pretty much right away, I think the Steelers make a lot of sense. I think Tomlin is a built-in insurance policy that it won't be a disaster. I think he should do that. I think he'll play better. I think he'll make the playoffs. And that's the way to go out. So I've said this the other day on the show. Obviously, I was in the Northeast for 10 and a half years, but one of the things I observed when I was in the city a lot or near it in Connecticut is that, you know, there's a lot of Yankee and Met fans and a lot of giant and jet fans.

But everybody in New York likes the Knicks. It's just every single friend I had in New York, and many of them, more than the Yankees are giants, were Nick fans first. And again, I'm old enough to remember the Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Earl Monroe. Like I go back to the 70s when nobody won. You know, the Lakers won a title. The Warriors did the Washington. Bullets did the Sonics, the Blazers, the Knicks. And then there were the Pat Riley iterations.

But I always said, God, if Dolan could get out of the way, this city loves its team so much. And I think when the sphere got built for two years, Dolan removed himself. from the facility, I mean, literally, physically, he was in Vegas so often, and it allowed the Knicks to really grow this really strong basketball group. And I think they've made very patient, very sharp moves. I don't think Cat is the future, but I think he was the right move at the right time. But there was a moment between Tibbs and Josh Hart the other day, and McAil Bridges, it was public that he had gone to Tibbs. Hey, we need to play the starters less. You know, young players don't get a lot of work and minutes under Tibbs.

As great as the brief journey has been with Tom, it does feel like, does it not, Ian, to get to the next level, you need two moves. Carl Anthony Towns probably gets replaced with a better defensive big or just like a KD, a greater player, and Tibbs may not be the answer. Or is that me 3,000 miles away guessing? I think it's possible that's the case. I do think Tibbs is good enough to win a championship as a head coach. They lose in the second round again this year.

I don't think he'll get replaced because I think he'll lose to a better team. I think the Celtics are better. And surprisingly enough, I did not think the Cavs would be better, but they are. They just are. Yeah. So if they lose in the second round to say the Celtics, do you fire the guy off that? You're losing to a better team. The Celtics have better players.

The Knicks have improved their roster, certainly, and I didn't think Jalen Brunson. I wasn't sure if he could be the second best player in a championship team when they acquired him. Now I do think he could be one of the top two, if not the best player on a championship team. He's an incredible player, and I think a lot of people in New York were surprised by that. I think where the Knicks are right now is it's kind of funny because Jets fans have been complaining and complaining about Woody Johnson, the owner, for a long time. 40 Johnson hires, and we'll find out if he did, the right general manager and Mugi and the right head coach and Aaron Glenn, he's going to go away and Jets fans will never talk about him. They are, Knicks fans are not talking about Jim Dahl and they have it now for a number of years because he hired the right general manager.

And that was a gamble. Leon Rose had never done this job. He was a very good agent. He had never been a general manager. And early on, I wasn't so sure, but turns out he knows what he's doing. And Tibbs, of course, everybody knew he knew what he was. doing. He's proven that he could be a very valuable piece of the coaching staff that won a championship in Boston under Doc Rivers. And so is he, it's almost like, it's almost like,

Buck Showalter did all the dirty work on the Yankees in the mid-90s, and then he got replaced by Joe Tori, and Joe Tori then won a four World Series. So I'm not saying that the next next coach is going to win four titles in the next five years after that happens. But I think that he's going to get one more year after another second round exit. Maybe the Knicks will surprise us and win that second round matchup with, say, the Celtics, I don't think that will happen. But I do think you're right in terms of the roster. It looks like they're still, believe it or not, after all the moves they've made and what,

five number one picks for bridges and then they made the Cat deal and the Brunson deal was an incredible one. It still looks like they need to make one more move and maybe Cat is a part of that package. but yeah, right now they're in a tough way because of the Celtics being in their way, and now the Cavs had hurtled them, and they sure look like they're for real. Yeah, I think the Hartinstein move, which I think they were kind of trapped. There's not much they could do. I thought he added some real toughness and rebounding that's very hard to replace.

Cat is a more gifted offensive player, but he's not the toughest guy in the league, and he's a poor defender. Hartinstein had this sort of New York toughness, just a fighter on the glass. And it felt like he was just part. He almost felt like he had that Villanova feel. He was just an overachiever and a fighter. And I think sometimes in the NBA, it's not what you want to do. It's what you have to do. And they let him go to OKC.

And it doesn't quite feel like the same team. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called. Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember.

I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas.

And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite.

Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, Help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action.

with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay.

Genschen went. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. John Middlkoff, former NFL Scout. All right, let's do a little NFL. The draft is coming up in a couple of weeks. So I was sitting with a Packer fan the other night having dinner. My wife and I were with some acquaintances in Chicago, and they were talking about Aaron Rogers. And two people at the table said, well, why hasn't he signed?

And I said, well, I think Aaron D. down nose. Pittsburgh's Fool's Gold. D.K. Metcalfe, George Pickens, a lot of drama. They can't get their O line right. They lost Nausee Harris and their left tackle. I don't know if the offensive coordinator is Aaron's type of guy. So I think Aaron, if he thought Pittsburgh was the deal, he would sign with Pittsburgh. And my take on Aaron is he really wants to sign with Minnesota. And Minnesota right now has kind of bounced around and it been a little ambiguous with J.J. McCarthy. injury-wise. But I'll just ask you is, I think if Aaron wanted to sign he would, and I think he knows Pittsburgh's fraught with issues. You know, defensive culture, defensive spending, two high-maintenance receivers, left tackle gone. They've had a battle line for seven years. Why do you think that- Yeah, I remember you had Danny Parkins on probably a month ago and he thought that Aaron was going to sign it at Pat McAfee's deal in Pittsburgh? And at first I thought he was crazy. And then the closer we got, I'm like, yeah, maybe it's going to happen. So I kind of expected him just to announce at that thing.

And then it doesn't happen. And you're like, well, maybe this is not inevitable. And like you said, Kevin O'Connell, I think he said at the owner's meetings, that two things can be true. We believe in J.J. McCarthy. And we'd also not be doing our job if we weren't showing interest in Aaron Rogers. Right. They get a tryout period, at least physically how it's going to look with J.G. McCarthy and OTA.

So if you're Rogers, it's like, well, what is Pittsburgh going to do? even if they, Chador Sanders falls to them. They still wouldn't be interested in bringing me in. They want to win next year. Shador doesn't guarantee that. So he actually has a weird amount of leverage over Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh. I mean, that can't feel great if you're Steelers, like Aaron Rogers. But he has no leverage in Minnesota, which is clearly his best spot, unless OTAs, you know, the coach goes, I don't know.

He still looks skinny. Maybe the offense doesn't look as smooth. Maybe physically he just doesn't look right. So I think he can gauge. if there are reports after, you know, a couple of those OTA practices, which again, I'm not acting like those are the end-all be-all, but from a physical standpoint, we saw him walk the sideline against the lions. He looked like he weighed 175 pounds, and he needed multiple knee surgeries. I understand, and listen, I like the player as well, but you can't go off just one good experience in a preseason game for a team that if you just removed the quarterback for every team in the NFL, Minnesota undoubtedly would be a top five pick of a roster team.

You would take them probably above like the chiefs or the bills, but quarterback matters. Well, they just revamped their – I mean, the Bears and the Vikings, both real upgrades on their O line. So we know we like Minnesota's coach and running back and wide receivers and tied end. They went and short up their offensive lines. So I think it's one of the more attractive places in the league. So to me, if you have any reservations, I also think that – if I'm Kevin O'Connell, I go, Aaron, we want you. And I'd even do it before OTAs, but we're offering you a veteran minimum, no guaranteed.

Like, you've already made $500,400,000, on and off the field. Who knows how much you've made. But we're not guaranteeing you anything. So if things ever get weird or it doesn't fit, we can both move on. You're not cost, if you really want this because you're no dummy, you know this is by far your best opportunity. But like, I don't know what Pittsburgh has even offered them one year, $20 million or something. Like, Minnesota wouldn't even entertain something.

like that. One year, a couple million dollars, and if things don't work after training camp, we can both go our separate ways, but we're not being stuck. But I wouldn't fault them for being interested just because we have seen enough now with, you know, most of these rookie quarterbacks go to really shitty teams, right? So it's like, even if you have a bad year, whatever, Trevor Lawrence's first year with Urban Meyer, he got like a pass. It's happened twice now. A guy's been drafted really high and gone to a team with like legit playoff expectations. Trey Lance was higher than Caleb, but Caleb had pretty big expectations.

And then it was just, it's a lot of pressure, a lot of stuff going on. That is J.J. McCarthy. I know he's a second year player, but he's technically like, you like, play Griffin, right? He didn't play his rookie year because he tore his knee. You're a rookie, you know, on the field.

Like that you can't have much more pressure as a first time starting quarterback that's 22 years old. That's never played. Kevin O'Connell is not Kyle Shanahan. You watch him in those, the game against Detroit and the playoff. He's calling pass a place. He wants to,

He's a McVeigh. He wants to pass. JJ played in a running office. Remember when they beat Penn State? That's right. They didn't pass the ball in the second half. Like the Michigan, handoff, handoff, handoff, play D. That's what he's used to doing.

Yeah, I think there's real concerns there. And I think Aaron's smart to just, I would wait to the drafts over. I want to see where the ships fall. I don't want to get burned like Kirk Cousins. And I'm going to sit around if I'm Aaron. And if I don't get the right offer, I got a $200 million. I think Minnesota definitely is still on the table. So do I.

I want to talk about this, because this got a lot of pushback this weekend. So Tennessee is a very young quarterback, and he was making about $2 million. They were paying him $2 million when he was red shirt. And he was a freshman to not play. And his name is, and I'll just call him Nico. He's got a long last name, and I don't want to butcher it. So I watched him play three or four. I probably watched him play four or five times last year against the better teams.

He was a young quarterback. Not overwhelmed, but not a, you know, misses open receivers. He's not should do or accurate, but he's also not draft eligible right now. He's going to grow. But he's a really nice talent. He's slender. He moves well. He's got a decent arm.

And my take is, so he comes out this weekend and basically doesn't show up to practice and says, I want $4 million. And Tennessee, to their credit, is like, listen, we're not going to play that game. We're going to let him go. And I thought it would have been very difficult to hold out, not show up to practice, and come back. So I think the volunteers made the right decision as a program to say, listen, this isn't going to work. This is a bad vibe. This is bad locker room smell here.

We're moving on. I totally agree with that. But I wasn't necessarily bothered by the move because it is April. And coaches now are fetching 12 to 13. million dollars in college football. So if a top quarterback wants four, I'm like, I'm not going to hate the player. You can hate the system. You can hate NIL. But I think this is, I think this is what we're going to see. This is the way the game works now. I don't think it'll hurt him in the NFL. I think eventually if he has a great ear, people draft him. Everybody needs quarterbacks.

Nobody care. I mean, Caleb Williams had some emotional stuff people didn't like. Johnny Mansell had all sorts of it. There'll be a. team that'll draft him that needs a quarterback. What do you make of the kid doing it? What do you make a Tennessee's reaction? I reject the kid's name, but there's a pass rush around South Carolina, the Gamecocks, who looks like a clowny or just like a, you know, Miles Garrett. In the middle of the season, they're like they had to up what they were going to pay him.

And again, true freshman, he looks like he's got a chance to be like a number one overall pick. I have no problem when you're an elite player renegotiating. happens in post sports all the time. Who holds out in the NFL? Micah Parsons, Nick Bosa, right, Justin Jefferson, Jordan, Jamar Chase. This guy did not have a good year.

I'm with you. I watched a lot of them last year because Tennessee was good and they were in the mix. Had you heard of them in high school? He was one of the highly touted guys in L.A. Oh, no, no. Oh, I think he was the number one quarterback, I believe, out of Los Angeles.

So I watch all those guys tape on YouTube. Again, moves well. lively arm. I thought as a college quarterback, his accuracy was against, and again, I only watched the Tennessee games against the better teams, very hit and miss, down the field, very hit and miss. But again, my takeaway is, okay, he's like a registered freshman. Well, here's my issue with the whole thing is all reports have it. It's his dad. You know, they say pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. Like you said, he got four years, $8 million without ever playing a snap. Where a lot of coaches, Kirby Smart does not give those.

type contracts to high school kids, right? A lot of the top coach, because it's not good business. Tennessee did because I think he was like second or third overall recruiting the class, Arch was one. So, I mean, the hype, the hype was big and that he got paid for it. I think he threw 20 touchdowns last year and only nine of them came in the SEC. He was not good in the SEC and against good teams. So to try to renegotiate off a bad year to me's bad business. And Dan Lanham turned him in essentially like, hey, you're getting played. Yes. And I think some of these coaches, because again, he's not that good. If he was viewed as a camp, if he was draft eligible right now, he's not getting drafted in the top 100 picks. It's all

projection and potential, but not off actual play. And his dad, again, I think it was like 2.2 he was scheduled to make this upcoming year. What if this is one of those? I forget the NBA player, but he like opted out and he thought he could get like $80 million, then it ended up getting like a one-year, $8 million. What if he can't even get a million dollars in the transfer portal? Because Some of these coaches are going to go, well, he's a little overhyped, one, and we're going to try to make a statement for our business. That's why Dan Laning called him. Because they're like, this is insane.

It'd be one thing if he was making $100,000 and like, hey, the going rates of $1 million, a couple million dollars, would totally get it. His dad, by all accounts, leading the charge, someone needs to give that guy some business advice, get Drew Rosenhouse, because I think it's bad business. No issue if you're an elite player. If it's Drake May a couple years ago or Ashen Gentie, guys that could transfer and totally get it. This guy was completely underwhelming, Colin.

This guy was, it's why I think Tennessee and most people, university, they're like, this is nuts. This is just dumb business. Two and a half million dollars to play average football in the SEC. They were a defensive team last year, which is ironic because Josh Hyple's their coach, right? Yeah. Yeah, and if Josh Heifle's the coach, you would think it's one of those things

were like when Shanahan couldn't make Trey Lance work and the Cowboys gave up a four. It's like that's bad GMing. Josh Heifel, you would think, would be able to get the most out of this kid. I think one of the things the NBA,

I never understood this about the G League. So let's not pretend this is the 50s, 60s or 70s where basketball players are all starving, you know, coming into college basketball. They're not. It's a suburb sport. AAU kids, the good players were all getting taken care of.

Even before NIL, kids were getting swag, chefs. They're getting treated great. I have like, yeah. So I never understood kids that went to the G League instead of going and playing for a top six program where you're on television 25 times. I know Zion because he went to Duke. Would you rather take $400,000 for the G League? or $300,000, or take $35 million of free marketing and advertising for Duke. And people say, well, they didn't grow up with a lot of money.

Again, it's a year. You're not asking them to take a seven, eight year hiatus away from money. This is not like this is not, I mean, again, great AAU basketball players are getting taken care of. So I kind of feel the same way about the dad here. I don't blame the kid. But it's like if you have one good year, if you come back to Tennessee and have 30 touchdowns, eight picks, and you move well, you will be a first or an early second round pick next year because there's Arch Manning will go number one. After that, there's about five guys and they're all in the same class.

It depends how the season goes. I just think the dad lacks a certain self-awareness. understand of all of these dads, a lot of human beings would not have any clue or knowledge what to do in this situation. If I was one of these people that had the opportunity to make millions of dollars, and now in this world where I can get real representation, I would have Tennessee, hey, could we get in contact with either CAA Rosenhouse? I'd want someone real negotiating my thing. And I would imagine they're like, well, Carson Beck just got $4 million. Well, two years ago, when Carson Beck had Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers,

a lot of us thought like this guy could be a first round pick. He had a really, really good year. Yeah, I did. I think most of us also thought Miami's kind of crazy. But some of these numbers to get thrown around, no one truly knows what's real or not. It's pretty clear, like it was concrete. This guy signed an $8 million four-year deal.

And if he came back in three years, he will have banked over $6 million in a no-state income state. I don't know where Tennessee, like I don't have a great feel for their roster right now in April. I would guess it's a top 10 roster in college football. And he got a pretty good chance to compete. So we'll have to see where this guy ends up. But it doesn't feel like Oregon and Ohio State are just lined up for the kid.

So if he ends up losing money, not only would it be a bad decision, a football decision, Tennessee's got to be on the short list of great places to be a young quarterback playing football in 2025, right? Listen, I've learned over the course of my life is the young media always sides with the player because it's a good story and all the narrative, they don't come from anything. We don't know that. Again, if you're the number one or two or three high school football quarterback in the country,

you're getting taken care of by a lot of people. So I just think it's one of those situations. I don't blame the kid. And I think when I watched him, I thought, oh, yeah, I can see it. I mean, he's got talent. He's got no fuel. And I will say, he doesn't. That's the, when you watch, like, you can say what you want about Shadur Sanders.

He has a feel. He's an accurate throw over the football under duress. Like, you can tell he's quarterback a lot. And also, Shadur is not a great enough athlete to make extra yards running around. He's had to make hay in the pocket. And by the way, his dad, Dion's smart. He's told that kid. Kid, you want to get rich.

Don't be a runaround guy. Sit in the pocket and throw darts. I mean, Dion knows what the hell's going on. So when you watch Shadur Sanders, you can click. clearly tell that he can see the field. He's super accurate. This kid's just talented. But, yeah, but I, you know, I do think the family needs to take a deep breath because, I mean, if he's great, he'll get drafted. I don't think he's great. I just think he's talented. You know, we talk a lot Aaron Rogers, and I know it's tiring, but, and I really don't care where he goes. If he retired,

great. If he goes to Pittsburgh, fine. They're a third place team. I don't really care. and he has some personal drama situation in his life, so I can have some sympathy for that. I don't really care. That if you were in the league and worked in the league, if he just retired, how would Pittsburgh view him if they were caught off guard? I just don't think they had many other options.

Like, I don't think that they are losing a bunch of sleep over the situation, which sounds crazy. But we have a pretty good sample size now knowing that they think they could get around, I don't know, somehow not having, attempting to get a Joe Burrow, a Lamar Jackson, just drafting quarterbacks year and year out. But at this point in time, Colin, it's May 15th. I mean, what are we doing here? I mean, I think they have to at least have come to grips with like everything's

kind of on the table here. They cannot for a very old school organization. I saw a quote from, I don't think he's the Papa Rooney. He's like the 60-year-old Rooney that said, you know, we don't love playing at night late in the season. It's like, well, that usually means you're good. It comes with the territory. You think Andy Reid wants to play all these night games? No, but it comes with being the Chiefs.

You're the Pittsburgh Steelers. I just think they have gotten to this position where, and it's hard. I mean, look at the Saints. Drew Breeze retires and they're just going through quarterbacks. They try to Derek. That failed. Now they're in this weird position with a 28-year-old rookie. It's not like an easy solution, but they've shown their true colors of like,

their organizational philosophy is run the ball and play defense. that is Bruce Ariens. When Rothesberger was turning into a star, the Rooney family was not happy with them throwing the ball so much. That was when they were winning the Super Bowl. You know, the organizational philosophy does not start with Mike Tomlin. It starts with the Rooney family. Play D, run the ball.

I mean, look, they draft that running back, who I like, the Iowa kid, and they draft the defensive tackle. They've been doing the same thing since well before I was alive, and I think they're going to be doing it well after Tom. someone's gone one day. So I think whether Roger shows up or whether they Mason Rudolph hands the ball to Caleb Johnson and they try to stuff the run with

Harmon and T.J. Watt, like, that's how they're going to play, which is insane. But you could argue even if he shows up. They're going to beat Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson in some of these teams. So it's the bills. What are we even talking about? They are kind of stuck. They're like the better version of the

post-Pa-Drewbury Saints, but it still doesn't get you anywhere. and it leads actually to a lot more animosity where it's like, what are we doing? Like, how often are we celebrating? He's never had a losing season. Yes, we know. He's really good coach. But like, if the organization, we don't pick or go after young quarterbacks,

why don't just draft a quarterback every year in the top couple rounds just until you figure it out when you're in this position? You got to take some swings. Let's just resign Mason Rudolph and trade for this. It's like, this is not going to work, guys. Well, just the fact they keep going back to Mason Rudolph. I mean, it tells you they're just uncomfortable with risk offensively. Well, they tried last year, right? Which was a little out of there.

They're like, we'll get these two guys. And it ended. And you could tell like, that wasn't really our thing. You know, Russell, big personality, fields, got some limitations. But ideally, probably not a starter for us. They didn't like that. And I give them credit for trying what they tried. They punt it on Kenny Pickett.

And clearly they're like, we're not doing that thing again. Too many people talking about their, but now they're waiting on. on Aaron Rogers. I don't know. They're in just a weird space for a franchise that, I mean, what would you say in your lifetime? One of the better run American sports franchises in America?

I thought until maybe 12 years ago, I thought you could argue they were the best overall franchise most of my life. I mean, I started watching football, 1972, but from like 1974, 75 until maybe 10 to 12 years ago, I thought there were in the,

You know, they were in the argument with the Patriots. You know, Patriots had down years, but the Brady years. But I mean, they were just like well run. And now they're, it's, I always find this is fascinating to me. Old, successful people that can't age well. And I, it's, it's just really, really weird to me when you, like, when you see Bobby Knight, I'm not going to do the one and done. Why not?

Do you want to win games? Like, I don't get it. Or Belichick. Matt Patricia is the offensive course. Bill, you're smarter than that. What are you doing? It's fascinating to be all the people in the building in Pittsburgh, and they can't get the offensive line right.

They can't get quarterback right. And they're not, I mean, Kenny Pickett, I guess, was a swing, but it's like, I just, it's not that hard. I think sometimes I underestimate the gap between, like, Sean McVeigh. I did this the other day. The Steelers are the opposite. opposite of the Rams. The Rams spend money on a young, progressive offensive coach. Steelers on an old defensive coach. One team has made the playoffs like seven of the last eight years.

The Steelers haven't won a playoff game in like eight years or something. You know, one team spends no money on defense. One leads the league in spending on defense. One never takes a chance on character guys. Like, they just, they don't put them on their draft board. One makes a living off that. It's, it's, it's almost if I can't quite figure the Steelers out, they want character, but nobody's had more divas and high maintenance offensive guys than the Steelers. They want to win, but then they don't take care of the number one position.

Like, I just, I find them, I feel like there's a messaging issue in the building and, and, like, Omar Khan. my sources don't consider him like a great general manager. Yeah, I know that what was his name? Colbert, the former GM, I think was really, really highly thought of in NFL circles by personnel people. I think people would say that they've dropped off, you know, in terms of that, just the group, Khan and his group relative to Colbert. I would say the other thing is, you know, once the Ravens moved to Baltimore and Ozzie,

and DeCosta was with him the whole time, they had, you know, during the 2000. Now, they had really good teams, but they basically played the Steelers every year. They became their rival. And they copied the way they did things, like toughness, hardcore guys, playing in any environment, toughest team in the league. And now over the last decade plus, it's like, we do it better than you. So we had a front row seat. It's like you're our main competition in business. We know exactly how you do things. Yet we're a little more open-minded and progressive to the way that we scout coach, however, and we've now lacked you. Because that's but it feels like the Ravens are running circles around them.

And hell, the Ravens can't even get over the hump in the playoffs, but they're in a different universe than the Steelers. And then the Bengals, listen, a lot of people make fun of them, but they've hit on some players over the years and getting Joe Burrow changed that franchise, regardless how weird and rinky dink it can feel sometimes. But I do think the Ravens kind of getting their blueprint and then modernizing it, like the Internet version has really hurt. If the Ravens were a little bit more of just a regular run-of-the-mill,

you know, 10-11 win team, but they just had become a dominant NFL team, especially with Lamar, it has made the Steelers look a lot worse. I mean, look, anyone could have had Derek Henry, right? They got him for $8 million. Boom, he goes there, he runs for whatever, almost 2,000 yards, and they give him an extension.

It's like, oh, no-brainer. It's like, shouldn't the Steelers have been all over a guy like that? I mean, they were kicking Najee Harris to the curb, and I just think that the Steelers are just kind of, kind of in this weird spot. They're too well run, and they, you know, Mike Tomlin's too high level of a guy. They're never going to suck. Like, they're never going to have a season where it's like, oh, this is the year they drafted

six. That's just not going to happen. But drafting 16th to 20th every year is not a great place to be either. Because they're doing it basically every year for what, a decade plus? They ever won a playoff game since they beat Kansas City in the second round. I think that was Rathustberger Antonio Brown and Levy on Bell, where their star offensive That's a long time ago, Colin. Yeah.

Well, last 16 years, Ravens, including playoffs, have one of the most games in that division. And that was about, I think Steve Boshadhi bought the franchise 20-plus years ago, but it took them a few years to get it right. And to your point, I think they copied the Steelers model a little bit. I mean, in that cold weather part of the country, there are certain absolutes. Like, you have to be able to run the football. You have to play really good defense. You better have good offensive lines.

You're not going to be throwing the ball down. the field. In fact, I could argue before Zay Flowers, I didn't think Baltimore drafted wide receivers particularly well. They drafted everything else exceptionally well. The Steeders draft wide receivers exceptionally well, but they've had a lot of misses on the offensive line and quarterbacks and other spaces. So it is a weird franchise. Okay, this is just a little bit of a little bit of schedule talk. And that's good. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? huge news. We created

our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys?

I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. the four Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

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

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls. calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking. breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay.

Jenchen won. I mean, she went down at three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface, because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court-side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast on the Al-A.

IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Speaking of social lives, Aaron Rogers got married. I saw he had a wedding ring on, and I was talking about this on FS1 today. In the last year, I've had a couple of buddies who are GMs in the league. And one of the lines I've used in my business for a long time is we're. doesn't work. You can be, you can have an ego, you can even be a little temperamental, you can make mistakes, but if you're weird, eventually companies will move on from you.

And I had a general manager tell me, I was out with him about six months ago, and he said, Aaron just got weird. And he said, and there's a story that McVeigh passed on him, Kevin O'Connell passed on him, he was the Steeler's third choice. And it's, I was writing down a list today of the quarterbacks I would take over Aaron in the league, and there were 16 of them, including like Bo Nix. I'm not paying Bo Nix anything. He's more coachable. He's more athletic. He throws a fine ball. I think Aaron's just got to a point where I think Pittsburgh's about the only offer he had, and reportedly, according to Schaftery, was their third choice. Yeah, I mean, I do think it's pretty bizarre that he signs this contract and he's sporting a wedding ring. I mean, these quarterbacks,

you know, who they're married to is, I mean, they're pretty big stars. right they're like actors NBA stars Josh Allen gets married we all know it not all these guys even married famous people like Josh Allen or Tom Brady they're married to other famous people Patrick Mahomes married to his high school sweetheart Peyton Manning's married to a girl I think he dated in college

who cares this whole thing of like I got things going on in my personal life which I assumed it was negative stuff turns out maybe he was just getting married and wanted to push this off it's just kind of the I've always been pro Aaron Rogers as a player because I thought he was incredible you know, I thought in the peak of his powers, he's one of the best athletes in terms of their sport I've ever seen in my entire life,

which is weird because when you look at the totality of his career, it almost feels underwhelming for how good he was. You know, I think he let down in the playoffs. I mean, they lost a couple years ago at home to Jimmy Garapolo and the 49ers offense. I think he scored 13 points. That can't happen. But I think this whole since, because we knew he was going to go to Pittsburgh. It was just when he was going to sign. But that picture of him with the wedding ring is just, a little bizarre. I mean, there's really no way around it, right? And you've been on this forever? Listen, as someone that got, I got married for the first time at 40 years old. Now, there is a, and a lot of my friends and my brother got married in their late 20s, early 30s, your life is dramatically different, you know? I mean, obviously then you have kids. It is a completely

different lifestyle. And he's just kind of been in this weird spot. Obviously, also as a player, he's no longer the same. His mobility. he's gone. Think about this. He's just not a dominant player anymore. You can argue Tom Brady had a 20-year prime. A 20-year prime. Now, even though he was really good past 40,

I don't really consider it maybe 41, and then the prime ended. But he was still through a great- I'd give him that first year and a half in Tampa. I think he was pretty damn good. 20-year prime. People forget this. Aaron's last year in Green Bay,

they played an, they played an average Lions team at home and lost. And it was Aaron, I think it was Aaron's last, was it his last game as a Packer. And he got outplayed by golf in that game, thoroughly outplayed. Okay, so Aaron,

so that year, if you go back statistically, Aaron was a B plus quarterback. He didn't play his first three years in the league, right? He sat in the bench. His fourth year he started, he went six and ten. I can argue Aaron had less than a 10-year prime.

I mean, because he hasn't done anything in four years. He didn't do anything the first four years. So, I mean, Aaron's prime was about half of ratings. I'd give him 2009 to about 21, 20. I mean, he won the MVP in 21, 20 and 21. Yeah, about 10, 11 years, max. Think about that. Brady's at 20.

And I, and I, so if you really look at Peyton Manning's pride about 14. Usually, yeah, I mean, Mahomes may be one of those 17 days. 18 years. Aaron just, and I think a lot of it was just Aaron. I don't think he was as committed in the offseason. I think he wasn't, you know, I thought he was really good the year he went six and 10, but I didn't think he was, I just thought he was talent and he wasn't a winning quarterback. But I think a lot of that is just, I've always been one of these people. I'm not impressed by people that get jobs. I'm impressed by people that keep them. Like, I think there is, there's a real skill to being LeBron James or Tom Brady or Derek Jeter.

And it's a commitment on nutrition, what you eat, sleep. And I think that's a skill. I think discipline's a skill. Maybe people don't. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe mental health professionals would argue that discipline is, you know, it's not a skill. Anyone who says that not is a moron from the Navy SEALs to our athletes to our CEOs. What are they?

100% it's a skill. And I just look at Aaron's prime. It's half of Brady. And you can say what you want, but that last year in Green Bay, he was a B quarterback, and he's gone downhill since. I mean, he's just a pocket guy now. And he's not even like an elite pocket guy. He's just a pocket guy.

Well, I think when you look at his contemporaries or definitely his peers over his career, because he came in a lot later than Peyton and definitely, you know, definitely Peyton and Tom. He was way more physically gifted than those guys. Those guys couldn't run. Tom and Peyton couldn't run at all. I would say Drew Breeze definitely wasn't a mobile quarterback. and he just had more skills. I mean, I would say Peyton and Drew Brees are known at best average arms, right?

They hung their hat on accuracy. Tom had the best arm of that trio, but those guys worked like they could get cut next year. I mean, everyone you ever talked to that was around those guys, they were discussed like they were Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant or Tiger Woods, their addiction to their craft and how much it meant to them. I do think Aaron really benefited a lot. I mean, Tom Brady goes to the Patriots who, sucked, right? Him and Bill

turned that thing around. Payton went to the Colts who had the number one overall pick, and Drew Brise and Sean Payton showed up to the Saints that were known as the Ains. This guy went to the Green Bay Packers, who were a model franchise for 15 plus years before we got there. And I always think that, like,

listen, him and Devante, sometimes, you know, you kind of make up your own problems in your head when life's going a little too good. And it felt like those two guys, I mean, they have to look back after the couple bumpy years of going, we actually had it pretty good. You know, it can be a little boring in this town,

but we had a lot of success here for a reason. I'm looking up, Aaron, Drew Breeze's career from the first five years with the Chargers and then, you know, that 15-year run or whatever it was with the Saints. If I go back to Drew Breeze, a smaller athlete, you can say his first great year was 2004 with the Chargers. So let me count these years.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 16. I would say Breeze had either 16 or 17 elite years. I mean, and I think Brady's 20 plus. So, and again, this isn't Bash Aaron. It's just when you go, and I've said this before to you, if Stafford won another Super Bowl, Stafford was better in college, he was better early,

he was much better later. If Stafford plays three more years, and under McVeigh, they would be good, they have, I mean, it's, they've got, they've got their shit rolling. If he gets one more Super Bowl, you're going to look at Matt Stafford, and you're going to look at Aaron Rogers, and you're going to have to have a real hard conversation, because that means Stafford's playoff record is going to be significantly better than Aaron Rogers, which is basically 500.

People think I'm crazy when I say this. Stafford has more to gain legacy than any player in the league over the next three years. I will say this about Rogers when it came to Stafford. He was one of his biggest proponents over the years. He was middle and away in Detroit. He's like, you guys don't realize. And obviously the football people held him in high regard, kind of got screwed that he got drafted to this franchise that,

I mean, they're going to be kids right now in Detroit that have no clue how big of a joke that franchise used to be. I will say, I think Rogers kind of morphed a little more into like an NBA player, right? Or like receivers often act. than these quarterbacks. I mean, even Tom, for a long period of time, just kind of shut his mouth, kept his head down, dealing with Bill.

I mean, Peyton, would he have ever gone to Denver if they hadn't cut him in Indy and he hadn't had the neck injury? He just would have played it out forever in Indianapolis. So, yeah, I just think Aaron, and part of it might be the nature of that franchise. You know, you've talked about this. A lot of people have over the years.

There's no owner to really get involved and kind of calm everyone down, even just the basic of like, hey, you want to take my jet with your new wife or your buddies to wherever you want. Just the, you know, the Eddie DeBardo, Jerry Jones, the robber craft, like, kind of taking care of you. There's no, that guy doesn't really exist.

So I honestly think that those guys, and if I was a Packer fan, we'll see how the Jordan Love stuff plays out. But it's like, God, why did these guys make such a big stink? We could have kept it rolling for a couple years. We have a really good coach. It's like, remember when he was having at odds with Goudicans? It's like, what are you actually mad about? with him? Like, what did he do? You know, what are we talking about? And let's face it,

his ego was really, really hurt with the Jordan Love draft pick. Well, looking back, and there been a lot of articles, so was Tom. And what did Tom do? Went out and said, I'm going to dominate and win Super Bowls, and you're going to have to get rid of that guy, not me. Aaron kind of took the different tactic, like, screw you guys, get rid of me. And obviously age, let's face it, in the history of sports, isn't Aaron's career parallel the most guys we've ever watched? Once you get to your late 30s, you get an injury? popped Achilles and you're just never quite the same. And then usually you go to these weird franchises or in this scenario,

kind of a desperate one. I think they have a lot of guys from Cam Hayward to T.J. to Mika that are like serious cats. This has got to be like, wait, we had to wait for you. It's not like you're the greatest things since sliced bread here, buddy. Yeah, I, yeah. I mean, listen, I'm not, this, I think this year he'll win eight or nine games. He'll have 23 touchdowns, 10 picks. He'll be fine.

I'll miss a game or two. But it is interesting. When you look back, I think Aaron views himself as picked on or marginalized by the media. And when you just start looking at Peyton's career and Ben's career and Breeze's career and Brady's career and Elway and Marino, you just start looking at some of these careers. Aaron's prime was just not as long. And some of that's he sat behind far, but I thought he aged really quickly. And you can speculate why he did, but he did.

Hey guys, it's us The Jonas Brothers, I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick, and guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We get to ask other people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know. Tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your performance. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast Deeply Well with Debbie Brown. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart

radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you can. Get Your Podcast. I'm Joey Dardano, and on my new podcast, Hope From a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me.

This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite Wednesdays on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.