The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Jason McIntyre on NFL O/U’s, KD Beef, Thin-Skinned Media, L.A. Sports Rep

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

First, Colin explains what part of Dak Prescott’s game Josh Allen needs to weather the upcoming season. Then, The Herd co-host - and host of the Straight Fire - Jason McIntyre joins Colin to discuss his transition from Big Lead blogger to Herd co-host, why the NY Times disbanding their sports department wasn’t surprising, where they agree and disagree on NFL Over/Unders, if CJ Stroud will bust with the Texans, the story of his beef with Kevin Durant, why today’s media is constantly outraged, and if L.A. is an underrated sports town. Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Herd #Volume #StraightFireSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The volume. All right, everybody. Jason McIntyre is going to join me.

Yes, that Jason McIntyre, J-Mac from the herd, is going to join me in about five minutes. As we get ready, a lot of subjects, some gambling stuff, which he's always been into, the New York Times disbanding their sports section, which nobody actually read. All that stuff will be coming up. First, though, presented by Netflix and their upcoming docucus series quarterback, which I can't wait to watch. So, you know, I asked Jimmy Johnson years ago about leadership and what is leadership. And he didn't have an answer for it, but he said Troy Aikman was a leader, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. And, you know, one of the first times I was really impressed with Dak Prescott.

And I wasn't blown away with him. I watched him play at Mississippi State. I thought he was a better thrower than Tebow. But I'm like, this guy, you know, there was a reason he got picked in the fourth round. Dan Mullen once told me, the former Mississippi State coach, they never thought he was, you know, an NFL quarterback. But one of the things that impressed me very early on with him is Dak Prescott's Intangibles and Des Bryant, who basically the Cowboys had to babysit out of college. they had to have a security team, which I'm not sure if Des has ever acknowledged that or admitted, you know, that's just a lot for a team to have to worry about.

That after college, you're not prepared to like stay out of trouble. It was hard for the Cowboys security detail around the clock. And Dak Prescott had to deal with that right out of the gate, goes 13 and 3 as a rookie, and had that puppy hovering over him. And it was, that's the kind of thing that explains Dack Prescott's mental toughness. He's dealt with injuries. He's dealt with criticism. He dealt with the COVID season.

He's dealt with some controversy. And Dack Prescott has always been his very strongest in those moments. He's not an elite arm talent. He's not. He's athletic, but not super mobile. His arm's fine. It's not special. he's accurate enough, but not elite.

He's a B-B-B-plus quarterback. But he dealt with Des Bryant and the neediness and the high-maintenance and it didn't get in the way of wins before the Cowboys finally just said, enough is enough, as they should have. It's going to be interesting to watch Josh Allen with Stefan Diggs.

Now, Stefan Diggs, in my opinion, is a better player than Des Bryant and is not nearly that difficult. But with both Kurt Cousins, and with Josh Allen, after a couple years, you see the theatrics and you hear the concerns. And Buffalo is clearly, if you watch the draft, a receiver, a tight end, free agency,

they went out and got another running back. They're trying to be less reliant on Stefan Diggs. This is where leadership will come in with Josh Allen. Now, Josh is a better athlete than Dak Prescott, bigger arm, more mobile, better athlete, up and down the board. A, A, A, plus, A, A, A, A. But leadership is Dax's strength. And when you can be a great player and a great talent and a great leader, Mahalms or Burrow, that's when you separate.

To this point, we know Josh Allen is a great athlete. This will be the leadership year. Dealing with Stefan Diggs and this drama. And at some point, Tom Brady went to Bill Belichick. When they got rid of Randy Moss, Tom Brady was not shocked by. it. Obviously, Brady had discussions with Josh McDaniels, Bill Belichick, right? Those don't go public, but they didn't just walk in and say, Randy's gone. It's not the way it works. Tom was too powerful. Even though he and Belichick weren't close, you know, they would come to him. Sometimes

you have to take a step back in talent. The best Patriot teams were not the ones with Moss. It was the teams where you had reliable, wide receiver tight-end targets, reliable, choreographed. You knew where they would be talents. So the NFL, the margins are too tight for drama. The noisiest team every off-season is one of the more disappointing teams every off-season. So I'm really interested to watch Josh Allen this year. First time, real drama. a real talented but at times difficult teammate that is crucial to the offense.

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So I remember I lived in Connecticut nine years. ago. And I remember exactly where I was. I was in my driveway. I was on my cell phone. And you and I would talk about once a month about business and stuff. And I said to you, I said, just be patient. We'll work together. I said, I respect you. You like the right stuff. You're not overly dramatic. You have a sense of humor. You probably don't remember this call. But I do. I remember we had a gravel driveway. And so it was probably 10 years because it took us a year to fix it. And all the gravel would get stuck in our tires. So we made it, you know, cement. And I said to you, I said, you're going to, this thing's going to work. Like all these bloggers, most are full of shit. They don't break any stories.

And I had gone to my ESPN bosses. And I said, whoever runs the big lead, he's actually breaking stories. He's not just aggregating stuff. Like, he breaks stories. Do you remember me telling you? and this is probably 10 or 11 years ago that we were going to work together. Can I say I vaguely recall that, Colin? I know we would have conversations from time to time about the industry, the business,

which way it was headed. Could you could already see kind of the tea leaves were shifting, things were moving kind of quickly, but also slowly, the same way cables erosion is happening now. You could kind of see how blogs, which had kind of disrupted newspapers and sports, all of a sudden blogs started to get phased out as, social media pops up. And I could kind of see like, okay, we're making money on the big lead. Things are going well. But yeah, I need to start thinking about what's next for me. What's next in my career. And when you mentioned TV, I was like, well, geez, I didn't go to college for that.

You know, am I going to be prepared? And I think you recall, I recall you telling me, hey, man, you got nothing to worry about. Just be yourself. And that's kind of been a lot of the advice you've given me. Just be yourself. Do you, you do your homework. You're well researched. Be ready when your number's called. You know, I feel like that pinch. in the dugout, waiting for that opportunity. Yeah. And then the coach says, all right, get on deck. You're up to bat.

And you always got to be ready. So the New York Times disbanded their sports department. You and I talk a lot off the air. It's probably our primary discussion off the air. Is either rumors in sports or rumors in our industry. So when they bought the athletic, it was a, you know, it was a, they showed their hand. It wasn't going to be the New York Times Sports Department. The athletic was going to become the sports department.

I think everybody in the industry sort of knew that. I always looked at the New York. Times sports as sort of people a little precious. If you cover badminton, I'm not going to take you seriously. They didn't really like a pair to like sports. So, you know, for a global newspaper, maybe that works. But again, I can think Tyler Kepner did great work with baseball. I read a lot of him.

But I could also think you could see this coming from 100 miles away. They have sports writers. that like write once a month. It's a grinder's world. There's lots of people in our business who are good. They're just infrequent contributors. And as somebody that now owns a company, I need daily or biweekly work.

Were you shocked by the Times move? No, not at all. Like you said, there's these feature writers. That was like the golden position in newspapers, right? Like how you would write for Sports Illustrator. You'd like one piece. It would take you a month to write it. would be your story. And it was like, that's a plum job. Who wouldn't want to work like that?

But you could see the New York Times was kind of trying to zig when the industry's zagging. Like, hey, you want to read about the NBA. That's all over the internet, radio, TV. We're going to give you all the tennis you can handle. We're going to back up the brink truck and unload on golf. And like you said, badminton. And we're going to go for kind of these peculiar stories, maybe about table tennis or what have you. And yeah, they would do great investigative work. But again, it's not the kind of thing, Colin, where it's just sustainable where you write one story, even a week. Like, that just doesn't work. I mean, think about it.

You, when you do the herd, you've got to lead every hour with heavy, strong takes to keep the sports fans coming. And you got to do that five days a week. Like, this idea that writers and journalists could work once a week, once a month, that's just, that's archaic. That stuff does not exist anymore. And, you know, you see where this is headed. Like, this is the New York Times, you know, the one newspaper subscription that's worked.

They just said no to their sports section. It's over. So you got to start thinking about where this goes in five years and 10 years. And it's not a pretty place, obviously. It's almost like a liberal, idealistic tunnel. John Skipper figured this out at DeZone. There's plenty of quotes on the internet where John made some purchases when he was at DeZone. And he figured out touching all the bases is irrelevant.

You got to go after the big stories. It's all anybody talks about. and John Skipper, I don't have them in front of me, acknowledge that, is sometimes, you know, I think sometimes left-leaning journalists feel like they want to touch all the bases and cover the people that don't get love. It's over. Like the athletic.

I go for NFL, NBA playoff takes UFC. You know, there's very few things. In fact, I don't even go to the athletic for UFC. I go to them for NFL, college football, NBA. sometimes, you know, I have places I go for UFC. I mean, I basically have four sports I love. NFL, NBA, college football, and UFC. I'll pay whatever it takes to get it.

And then I don't really count United States men's national team. That's like, you know, that's sort of a, that's our team. And then I like college basketball and I like baseball, but I'm not going to pay big money for them. If they're there, I'll watch. I'll discuss infrequently. But I do think there's some. Sometimes in the journalism world, there's this sense. We're going to cover all the bases.

And it doesn't matter. You've got to cover. You were at the big lead. You didn't, I remember this. You didn't waste a lot of time trying to appease everybody. Take me to your thought process on creating a blog that you sold for seven figures. Well, when you try to please everybody, you please nobody. Because nobody's going to be happy with your work.

I'll never forget, Colin. I would wake up before school every morning, you know, around six, clock on the East Coast. My dad would be leaving for work. He'd pick up the Washington Post from the driveway. And I'd say, dad, you know, peel me out the sports section. And I would look at the sports section and read about what happened in sports the night before. Like, that's how we used to get news. Okay. Now you wake up, your alarm to wake up is probably on your phone. And instantly, you've got a rundown of what happened that matters. And I know there's NHL purists who believe, like, oh, man, the NHL draft was crazy. I'm sure it was. But the number of people who care about that does not

matter to me running a website. People want to know what's going on in the NBA, NFL, college football, and then they want the other stuff like Britney Spears versus Victor Wenbanyama, wackiness like that. They love those wacky stories that anyone can relate to. Listen, I play tennis myself. I'm entering a tournament later this month. I can't tell you the last story I read about tennis. Okay. I don't play a lot of golf. I know a lot of friends who play golf. They don't read golf. Like there is not really a lot of compelling stories in those granular sports. You've really got to, as you told me once, when I got a radio show on Fox Sports Radio, play the hits.

That was like your number one thing. Play the hits. You could lead with Aaron Rogers one day, Cowboys the next day, play the big stories. People care about that deeply. As much as I want a bag on the Houston Texans, you know, I can't open a show with that here on my podcast. I wasn't blogging much about the inferior teams in the NFL. You've got to give the people what they want.

You've also always had an eye, and I've always loved it, but you've had an eye for gambling. You're very good at it. And, you know, again, I try not to be precious. There's a, you know, a sense that, you know, gambling, be very careful about gambling. People can get hooked. The average bet when I worked with Fandul, the average bet was $4. 99% of the people are not betting what they can't handle. Are there people that can't handle that responsibility?

Yes. 30 million Americans are obese. There are people that can't handle bagels. There are people that can't handle alcohol. The disturbance rate or distortion rate for gambling is 1%. It's 6% for alcohol. Lots of people can struggle with alcohol consumption. Not that many people.

You know, the stories are anecdotal. There are people to get lost in it. Overwhelmingly, people bet four or five bucks. That's what they gamble. So you've always been pretty. heady on this stuff. And I want to go to your over-unders in the NFL because you and I are aligned

on almost everything. The one thing we're not, you hate the Rams. Now, I worry about because I have friends that work with them about being a homer, but I've got friends all over the chargers, and I'm always reluctant

to embrace the chargers. But I do think it's a head coach quarterback league. And I think there's four positions you've got to get right. Head coach, quarterback, Somebody in your front five defensively and a big time weapon. And I think the Rams have all of that. I also think they're incredibly young on defense. But that's about Kansas City last year was young on defense.

If you have an elite defender up front, you can be really young in your back seven. Because we talked about this with Wembenyama. Offense is refinement. Defense is blowing shit up. Defense is about fast speed. can you disturb the offense. Young defenses, the Jets have all sorts of young players. They're fast. They get, if they get injured, they get healthier, faster. So I think the Rams tend to be better than people think. What is your, and again, coach,

quarterback, weapon, defensive linemen, like you get those four right, you can have flaws everywhere. What is your primary concern with the Rams? Well, they're clearly top heavy. But I do want to let me preface this by saying, I'm a big Rams fan now that I moved to L.A. Like, yeah, I like them. I root for them. I go to some Rams games.

I know people who are friends with Stafford and vacation with him. Listen, I like the Rams. I've rooted for Stafford. I like Cooper Cup. Colin, this team is, honestly, the Rams are closer to being in the Caleb Williams sweepstakes than the playoffs. That's the reality. I had someone, remember how I've been saying on your show,

give me their defensive depth chart. I don't know anybody other than Aaron Donald. They have, they drafted, I believe, 14 rookies, and they signed 24 undrafted players. 38. I don't know how many are going to make the roster, but Colin, you look at that two-depth chart, two deep chart on the defense, and it is one of the worst in the league. They are super top-heavy with Stafford, who, by the way, had a major elbow thing. And I'm just saying, like, I said on your show that there's a world where Aaron Donald maybe gets traded.

Like, if I'm McVeigh and I was close to retirement, what would you want to do? keep going with this old crew or all of a sudden you start out in two and five one and four it's like ooh wow i don't know what i don't know what we have here and i when i'm looking at over unders i bet the schedule i think that under on the rams is one of the best bets on the board um currently i see it at six and a half Colin i know you like the rams you know less need all these guys like you are way off market now listen that's not the worst thing in the world uh last year at this time nobody had the eagles uh winning the super bowl or going to the super bowl you You know, so, you know, maybe the Rams exceed expectations, but at six and a half, it just tells me, man, that schedule, the age on this team, you know, they could be in a lot of shootouts and being on the wrong end of a lot of them.

Okay. Your most interesting over, you have the Ravens over nine and a half. My concern is of their top nine players, eight have an injury history. Of the Steelers' top nine players, none do. T.J. Watt was banged up last year. But when T.J. Watt's healthy, the Steelers win 75% of their games. but you have them as an over Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Deshawn Watson should be better. There will be an argument by Thanksgiving.

It may be one of the best divisions, if not the best division in football. So where do you get 10 plus wins for the Ravens? So I look at this usually, you know, macro sense. It's NFC overs, AFC unders. That's pretty much how I would lean because the AFC is so incredibly stacked. Why I look at the Ravens, Colin, you know, I know we've made fun of Deshaun. not Deshaun Watson. Lamar Jackson last few years has been hurt. But what's funny is with him healthy, despite how bad the supporting cast has been,

they've been a first place team in November. And all of a sudden, Lamar Jackson goes down and the kind of the bottom falls out. Injuries to the offensive line, injuries to the defense, defense getting old. I like the reinvigoration at offensive coordinator. Munkin comes from Georgia. And some people have broke down on YouTube, some stuff that he used to do, spread offense, even with Stetson Bennett. I know they had a defense that carried him to two natties.

But Stetson Bennett's do some interesting things in the pocket. A lot of pre-snap movement that the analytics guys loves. And there's a world where Lamar Jackson is in play. If he's healthy for an MVP award, he's got the best supporting cast and skill position he's ever had. And, you know, I think this was in a movie or something, but, you know, always bet on Harbaugh. Because both Harbaugh brothers have done a lot of winning. And John Harbaugh is just a winning coach, man. This guy knows what to do.

So I would lean over on the Ravens nine and a half. So one other bet you have that's interesting, you have the Texans under six and a half. And so I have a friend who kind of deals in the world of quarterbacks, college and pro. And he's not judgmental. He travels around. He sees a lot of them. And he was recently at an event where, C.J. Stroud was at the event, Texan's rookie quarterback.

And his takeaway was, I don't get it. Like, I didn't see the juice. He's quiet. He doesn't jump out as a leader. He throws a nice, catchable ball. Ohio State has never had a great NFL quarterback. And my argument's always been, J. Mack, is it's always been. been is that in the SEC, there's six or seven teams with NFL bodies everywhere.

But in the Big Ten, outside of Michigan, every team Ohio State plays is significantly less talented. And you're just, it's an easy college life for quarterbacks. As good as a Georgia quarterback is or an LSU quarterback is, they're facing NFL defensive bodies every Saturday. Big stadiums, loud, lubricated. It doesn't mean. matter how good your offensive line is. Tu is getting banged up. Jalen Hertz at Alabama, you're going to get hit in the SEC. And Ohio State's offensive lines, five star.

Ohio State's receivers, five star. It's an easy life, and it's not a great place to prep for the NFL. And so when my friend told me this, he said, I just, and he's very bright, and he knows this stuff. He's like, I just don't see it. What is your best guess on C.J. Stroud? We both admit, Bryce, his size is a concern. He's probably the number one guy.

There's a lot of back and forth on Justin Fields. There's a lot of back and forth on C.J. Stroud. Generally, there'll be a quarterback that we all sort of go, yeah, he's the best guy. Caleb Williams next year, he's the best guy. Luck, Trevor Lawrence. Right? Like, there's a guy, bro. You thought he was better than I did, but, you know.

He's going to be fine. C.J. Stroud's in that Justin Fields category, the Sam Darnel category, like people are taking sides. What side are you on? Yeah, I'm on the side of the Texans are probably a four-win team. Colin, they were an abject disaster last year. And now you have a rookie quarterback, as you said from Ohio State, which hasn't produced any great ones.

By the way, two years ago, Stroud, you probably had a better receiving cast at Ohio State than he will this year. Remember, Alave, Wilson, Harrison. like he doesn't have those guys in the NFL now. Rookie head coach who is a defensive head coach. And you go on rants probably weekly about how defensive head coaches, that's not your jam in the NFL. First time play caller, I believe.

That is so much newness. And this is the second straight year in free agency where they just go and they just get guys. There's no like, ooh, that's a great buy. That's a great bargain. What value? You don't hear any of that with the Texans free agent moves. The GM in trouble. This franchise is just, I don't see it.

This is definitely an under six and a half for me. I actually feel they're in the basement in the division. It's not that hot of a take, but I think the Indianapolis Colts, with Shane Steichen, offensive guy, we'll finish ahead of the Texas. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

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I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

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Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jay and I'm Alex English Each episode we pick it here unpack what went down And try to make sense of how we survived it

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where we've discussed crack So I'm starting to see that there's a through line We also have AIDS on the table right now So Thank you for finishing that. sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You had this beef with KD.

And it's interesting because I don't get pro athletes reaching out to me, DMing me, but when I go to an event like UFC, they all come up to me. Right? They're all like, hey, hey, hey. Max Crosby and the Raiders and Jamal Murray and, you know, all the guy, all the pro, they'll come over and they're like, I can't believe it. And they're great. I stayed at a hotel in Vegas, four NBA teams there. Players are great. I don't get DMs from anybody.

I mean, literally, women, athletes, nobody. You do. What do you think it was that set off KD and why he came after you? So this wasn't the first time we had really engaged. So I realized back in like 2016, I was kind of on an island defending Kevin Durant's move to the Warriors. Everybody else is killing him. Oh, he's a frontrunner, blah, blah, blah. So I would tag him on Instagram on the stories and say, great move, Kevin Durant.

Here's my take on it from whatever TV show and blah, blah, blah. And Kevin Durant, because he is not encumbered by a wife or children, I don't even think he has a pet. He's got his phone in his pocket at all times, responding, burner accounts. he will reply. And we've had this ongoing discussion for like seven years. I mean, I've got it documented in the DMs. And, you know, he'll reply and we had firm disagreement. I was not afraid to tell him that I thought leaving the Warriors was the craziest thing he ever did.

And, you know, he doesn't love when you say that. But, you know, listen, he's one of the few pro athletes that's going to engage. A lot of them are kind of above the fray and don't care. I almost think, and I don't know if you'd agree, Durant is so pot. committed to being online argumentative guy, that that's like kind of one of his brand layers. And so if he doesn't do that, it's like off, it's not really, it's off brand for him. So he now has to lean into that and fire back, whether it's Jason McIntyre, Colin Coward, Michael Rappaport, Joe Bob, he's going back at everybody because he also has the time.

And he's got a lot of money. He's done great with business since he moved out to the Bay Area for the Warriors. Great business in New York with his agent. Listen, Kevin Durant's dominating. I still don't believe in getting arguments with people on the internet. There is just a no-win situation. I've been blocked by several guys, O'Dell Beckham back in the day. Hated, hated when I was saying, the Giants to trade O'Dell.

I did it on the radio show, tagged him instant block. Baker Mayfield, man, I would not draft Baker-Mayfield, number one. Would not draft him. Tag him, instant block. Like some guys will just block and tune it out. other guys will engage. I don't want it to be my thing. I don't want to argue with athletes.

But from time to time, you get in a dust up. You and I like the same sports. You know, the other thing, obviously I've been in the media for 30 years. I'm never outraged. Like, never. And since I've known you, you're not. That doesn't mean it didn't bother me when the young son went with his dad on the Submarine, that was really sad to me.

It just made me sick to my stomach because all I could think about was, you know, the kid was about my son's age. And I'm like, you know, that egomaniac billionaire convinces his son to go on it. Like, that's the last time I was really just in a bad mood for 24, 48 hours. It really bothered me. But are you ever surprised by how thin-skinned and regularly outraged the media is when they dish out? so much criticism and so much snor-ing. I mean, it's really watching the media be

outraged by like normal conversations everybody has is lacking so much in self-awareness. All we do is criticize. And yet so many people in our industry are so easily offended. I just, I'm taken back by it

regularly. Well, it's weird. When I was growing up, I remember the nightly news was Dan Rather on one network. I think Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, they set the agenda every night. And, you know, my parents would watch it. I would get roped into watching it.

And if you happen to miss it, Colin, you know what? You picked up the newspaper and read it the next day. Now, I was a young kid. I don't remember it being so divisive red and blue at the time. I feel like a lot of that has to do with social media, a certain president in 2016, who was very divisive. opinionists don't really

like you aren't at the ability I don't think you have the ability to piss me off with any take you have because I don't know I'm kind of level headed I know Colin might be wrong he might be right but you know we're all in this business we're going to whiff there's a lot of people who don't take chances Colin because they're afraid

you know they want to be very milk toast right down the middle you and I know who they are they don't want to take any chances to go after people I'm not afraid to go after people I might be right I might be wrong I'm all in on Wenbenyama I've got all my poker chips in the middle. I think he's going to be a superstar. You got a lot of people hemming, well, what about the injury? Oh, you know, 7-5, the feet.

I'm like, I can't sit here worrying, but maybe he's going to get hurt. This dude's going to be a badass. He's going to dominate the league. I'm just telling you, like, three years. By the way, Luca Donchich, year three was like a top seven player in the league. Wembe Nyama's not going to be? So, like, I can't get outraged, but by others, I don't want to be the guy who pushes you to outrage. But, Colin, you do know this. In 2023, you want people loving you or hating you. You don't want them indifferent. As an East Coast guy that has moved west, it's a very distracted town, L.A., the beach, the mountains, Mediterranean weather, there's so much to do. Access to Vegas, 40-minute flight.

What is your takeaway on the sort of cliche that L.A. doesn't care about sports? Explain to an audience member in the Midwest listening in Chicago or a New Yorker or Philadelphia. fan listening to this about your takeaway as an East Coast guy and the passion for sports out west. Good, better surprise you, disappoint you. Where do you land? That's a great, great question. And you, I think, brought up on the herd on Monday or Tuesday, one of those days, that the Atlanta Braves and the South right now are everything.

It's like college football is massive. The Atlanta Braves are blowing up everywhere. And I think they're like one of the only pro games in town. You know, a couple NFL teams down there in the South. but it's like there's just not a lot of options. And as you said out here in L.A., it's like I drive down my neighbor's street and I don't live in a baller neighborhood, but Chip Kelly lives two streets over from it. And like literally there's USC house, UCLA house, UCLA, like it's big, that's the one thing, the college flags. I'm sure you've seen them.

There's a lot of Oregon duck stuff out here. The college football is passionate, but you don't see as much with the NFL. But then again, the Rams just got here after being here in the 80s with. Jim Everett and Henry Ellard. The Chargers just got here five minutes ago after being in San Diego. The Lakers obviously are the show, and the Clippers are trying to crowbar in with money bags, Balmer. But yeah, I would say like right now, from my perspective in the little South Bay area I live in,

right now, college sports is a massive deal. That being said, Colin, I'll never forget. I was playing pickup basketball to gym on, it was like, you know, a January 4th or January 7th, whatever the day was. And I was like, guys, I got to leave early. I got to go watch a national championship. And they're like, the game's only starting now. You can leave in an hour and be home at halftime.

I was like, what are you talking about? I got to watch a whole game. They're like, really? They were surprised. And these are like, it's like a college football area. They were like surprised that I was going home to watch the natty. They're like, oh, I'll pick up the game at halftime. And a lot of that is people just want to live life out here and enjoy it.

I mean, Colin, you and I know, you go to the beach on like a Tuesday at like 1030. and it's not empty. It's not packed wall to wall, but there's people running around, like, not just young people who are unemployed, but like, I'm talking 30-year-old, 40-year-olds. A lot of people own their companies, and they're able to, you know,

go out and get fresh air or 10 a.m. on a Tuesday. Unable to do that now because I'm on the herd and we're live on TV, but I will just say a lot of business owners out here and guys who want to be the master of their domain and master of their universe. And, you know, if that means 11 a.m. breakfast, and by the beach, so be it.

And I'll be honest, that's not a bad life to have. Well, you can just go outside and you're walking on the strand or wherever you are, Venice boardwalk in the middle of the day because you know what? It's your business and it's your time. And time is the most valuable resource we have, Colin, the most valuable resource we have. Yeah, well, the West Coast has always been more entrepreneurial. There's less tradition. There's more small businesses.

And a lot of the businesses out West, tech, you can work remotely, Hollywood and entertainment. It starts later in the day. So, you know, it's a good life, man. It's great to have you on the herd. It's great to have you in the volume. Jason McIntyre co-host, straightfire with Jason McIntyre. All right, get outside, have some fun tonight, bud. Thanks, buddy.

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