The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Nick Wright on Surprise NFL Predictions, UFO Evidence, Politics

Episode Date: August 2, 2023

First, Colin explains why baseball needs to shorten their marathon season to create the urgency the NFL creates immediately in Week 1. Then, First Things First co-host - and host of the What's Wright? podcast - Nick Wright joins Colin to discuss summer movies, the similarities between Tom Cruise and Aaron Rodgers, why MLB needs to shorten their season, if recent congressional hearings on UFO’s should be getting more coverage, which hot button issues they would fix first, their biggest NFL Week 1 upset, their surprise team that will exceed expectations, and which team will underperform, and Nick’s most shocking prediction for the season. Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Herd #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The volume. All right. Hi, everybody. Welcome in. About once a month, my buddy Nick Wright stops by. We're going to talk about everything, including UFOs, where there are multiple reports that non-human, non-biological elements were captured. But first, my first job out of college was doing baseball play by play.

So I used to read baseball America. That was like a Bible for me. And I spent a couple of years doing minor league baseball. Sport is now more international, which is good. So is basketball. So is soccer in America. But you can lose track very quickly with global sports. If I stop covering the NBA within three years, you know, there'd be a third of the league that I didn't know.

It's such a young league. It's so transitional. And baseball's like that. So whereas the NFL is a domestic product, if you watch college football, you could just drop in occasionally to the NFL and keep track. And so that's one of the challenges of a global sport, you know, hockey, baseball, basketball, they're global. There's just a lot of movement, a lot out of the country.

We don't watch the minor league system of those sports like we do college football to the NFL. The second big challenge with baseball is there's no urgency, that regular season games simply on a nightly basis don't matter. and go to a restaurant and look around. People are on their phones. Go to a store and look around. Go anywhere and look around. People are on their phones.

They're distracted. We have a very distracted population. So you have to create urgency to get people's attention. NFL and college football, World Cup, Final Four. This is where baseball really loses out. There's no urgency. I'll give you an great example. Even though you think of the NFL,

NFL as a 17 game schedule from 16, used to be 14, then 16, now 17. Just think of how important week one is in the NFL, Buffalo and the Jets. Aaron Rogers goes down and the Jets kind of get thumped. You have a different story. Now, game two for the Jets, if you look at their first six games, is must win. O and two reduces your playoff chances significantly in the NFL. O and three, you're done. Owen Ford's impossible.

basically. Or if Buffalo loses, based on last year's anemic ending against the Bengals, the Stefan Diggs drama, and the Jets clobberum, Buffalo, Sean McDermott, there's real heat in that building. You know, another game, Cowboys at Giants. Mike McCarthy is the play caller. What if the Giants defense already top 10 in the league hammers Dallas for three hours. They can't get anything going. Giants went ugly, 2017. Dak doesn't have a good day. A lot of pressure. Can't run the football. Kellen Moore's gone. Mike McCarthy is getting hammered. Many believe he's already on the hot seat. So those, I think one of the upsets in week one potentially is Philadelphia going to Foxborough.

Shane Steichen, the brilliant offensive coach, left to take the Colts job. We think Philadelphia is going to be great. But Bill O'Brien and Mack Jones, we don't know exactly what it's going to look like. one of the great defensive coordinators probably ever Bill Belichick against a new young offensive coordinator for Philadelphia, you just don't know. And suddenly, you look at Philadelphia from a different lens, right? So I think one of the things that I really appreciate about the NFL, and I'm worried when they added a game, do the game still matter? Week one is so big for the Jets and Bills, so big for Dallas and the New York Giants.

So go back to last year. Russell Wilson, in Denver, poor Seattle, Gino Smith. Nathaniel Hackett can't figure out the clock. Utter chaos for the Broncos. Hackett, from that point forward, is hammered. Seattle and Gino Smith, week one, the victors in the trade. It never changed. Seattle, Pete Carroll, Carol, had been clobbered by everybody, including myself,

in the media, looks like a genius. All of a sudden, this young team with four or five great young draft picks is playing over their skis and they rode that emotion to a great season. And the Broncos never recovered and got massive heat starting in week two. So, you know, the truth is when you have a sport as popular as the English Premier League or the NFL, narratives can add pressure to a building. O-1-1, Aaron Rogers, let's say, you know, we already question the Jets offensive line. The bills have a great front seven, tons of pressure.

Aaron gets sacked three times, hurried 12 times, throws a pick, under duress. I mean, now you got Robert Sala. Aaron's going to get a little snippy potentially. O-line was already the issue. You know, if New England and Buffalo win and Miami win, now you're in the cellar. it's what baseball so desperately needs. I've said this. I love that they added a pitch clock.

I love they got rid of the defensive shift. Until you chop off 30 to 40 games and create urgency, baseball will struggle with this. Regular season games don't matter. In a very distracted population in 2023, you've got to create urgency. If you don't, people don't watch. All right, we bring on Nick Wright first things first,

this podcast, What's Right with Nick Wright. So, um, first of all, first of all, I'm interrupting you. First of all, since you keep making fun of my hair, I pulled it back. I'm where I got a ponytail just for you because you keep making fun of my hair on television. It's very hurtful. And I listened back to our previous podcast, which was the first one I had done with you while I was drinking. I drank a couple glasses of wine while I were talking. I thought it was outstanding. So I've upped it to a nice glass of Lobos tequila. Shout out to our first. friends at Lobos, you're always drinking during these pods. I know that. I know what a little sauce collins sounds like. So I figure this should be dynamite. But now go ahead. Hey, I saw Oppenheim

on Sunday night. Have you seen it yet? So I am not. I'm, I was trying to get someone in my family to go with me, but it's three hours long. No one will go with me. So I'm just going to have to go by myself. But I want to see, so I want to see Oppenheimer. And you know, my favorite movie trilogy, you know, multi-series is Mission Impossible. Same. And I haven't seen Mission Impossible yet either because I'm such a nerd. When I knew it was coming out, I had to rewatch the whole six leading up to it to really fully prepare. And so I finished that this weekend.

So I know everyone was talking about doing a Barbie Oppenheimer double feature. I want to do a Mission Impossible Oppenheimer double feature and just be blacked out for seven hours. Be amazing. Yeah, no, I'm the same way. You know, Tom Cruise is fascinating that he basically has saved theaters and now, I mean, for about seven years. He's the last great movie star. And because of the Scientology, a lot of people, my wife included, are just out, just will not even consider talking about him. But he is really, really interesting.

in that he's been very real about his beliefs on psychology and Scientology. And that authentic belief has not at all hurt him in the theater. So it's interesting. It's not hurting him at all. It hurts his reputation. But people could easily cancel or protest him. And many hate him. And my takeaway is if this is how popular he is with Scientology,

how popular would he be or is Scientology like Twitter that story that it's like 1% of people that actually care about it well I think it also he this is gonna sound I don't know this might be bad he was almost grandfathered in as call him an odd guy before people started getting really under the microscope for stuff and so it would have it feels like If he would have come out with all of the things that we learned about him 20 years ago, 18 months ago, it maybe could have gone really bad for him. But we've known this about Tom Cruise for so long. Yeah.

No, people cared briefly and then didn't. And he is such a dynamite talent. And that I think people, I think people typically can separate the art, from the artist to a degree. Like there, and then at some, there's different lines for different people. And then there, so for, for a long time, I would have told you my favorite musician ever was Kanye. Kanye and it, there was at no, you know, for a long time, Kanye was odd or a little annoying or whatever. And then at some point, he went to me six steps beyond the pale and the art to me,

the music, got considerably worse. And I'm like not, you know what I mean? I'm not worth it. Tom Cruise is still awesome in every movie he makes. Yeah. And has been like the same level of weird guy since I was a kid. It feels like, you know what I mean? For how long ago was he jumping on Oprah's couch?

25 years ago. Yeah. And so, yeah, I mean, there aren't very many movie stars. Like, you know, Will Smith and Tom Cruise, probably two biggest movie stars. Will Smith, not exactly a normal fella. up there punching people at the Oscars. Like, so I don't know. Well, it does prove that mostly the noise doesn't matter.

Cruz is the most criticized actor in Hollywood for his personal views has zero impact. And that you and I have discussed this. It really doesn't matter what people say about you on social media. You either create a show that's entertaining or you don't. Nobody cares. It just didn't care. So, and this, I think where it matters is if the people let it affect them. I think that, I think it becomes somewhat almost circular in that I think the folks who get criticized by the anonymous masses and then it changes how they act or what they do, then it does matter because then they're not, you're not getting the same person really.

Like, for instance, we talked about Aaron Rogers on your show and on my show today, where I will give him credit is he, for a guy who historically, I think, was quite thin skinned. He has not, he has leaned into some of the non-football things that he has been heavily criticized for and not run from it at all and simply said, yeah, I think my biggest critics are the people who could benefit the most. from the things I do. Like I said that to Peter King. He was like, one of his favorite lines. And again, I'll give him credit for this. It's a smart line. And I think there is some wisdom to it.

He says, I wish people were less judgmental and more curious. And, you know, so I don't judge him for the ayahuasca or the darkness retreat. I think some of his views on modern medicine are potentially dangerous. And I'm not a big fan of that. but I he does not run from that and because he doesn't run from it like how much can it actually affect him and the answer is not really much at all so um you know it's it's interesting when i was talking about if you go anywhere in america we're a very distracted society people are watching their phones all the time and because of that um you have to create urgency uh as a talk

show host as a league NFL, college football, March Madness, World Cup, Olympics. If you watch what people watch, they'll watch March Madness Women's Final Four this year, did very well, is that increasingly you have to create urgency. We all have sports takes that are out there. My sports take has been for years that the time of baseball, the time of a baseball game, is overrated. ratings have gone up slightly, attendance slightly, with a shorter game, a significantly shorter game, like 30 minutes less. Yeah.

And the attendance is up 6% ratings 9. This is my sports take and I'll never stop saying it. Baseball should lop off 40 games, 20 per owner, and August 1st. Two reasons. It creates more urgency, though not ideal urgency. but there's an opportunity here. Sean McVeigh ruined the NFL preseason. By not playing starters and going 8 and O,

the following year, half the league's coaches, and within two years, virtually all of them that aren't named Belichick or Tomlin, stopped playing starters in the preseason. August is now completely uneventful and uninteresting. It is why- And the NBA typically is done by then. The NBA, like this year, day might get traded,

but the NBA is more June, July, and then there's nothing going on. August is wide open, and baseball could own it. Instead, they'll start the playoffs in October when college football goes in a conference. Everything's happening. It's over. It's over. So that is my, and I know I'm putting you on the spot, that is my sports take that one of the great gifts, I'm going to ask for years, one of the great gifts of the NFL has been the willingness to

constantly evolve. They moved their free agency period. They extended the draft. They moved draft to cities. They're constantly evolving. They're a TV show. So my big sports take and we're in that business is baseball can really rebound. Numbers go significantly up by taking 40 games out of the schedule. So now I say to you, give me a sports take that may be out there, but you absolutely. I've got two. One, I'll give you the NFL one. I'll give you the NFL one. that is not so far out there. And then the NBA one that's really far out there. The NFL one that's not so far out there,

I debuted for the first time ever, one of the very first times I filled in for you. So it was like six years ago or seven years ago on FS1, which is the NFL was, this was before they had added the 17th game, obviously. And they were trying to negotiate. Should we add 17? go to 17 games, 18 games, and this international schedule.

That the NFL, the week that college football ends, should have the college football regular season. You know what it is? So that week, before the bowls begin, should have NFL international week. Every team has eight home games, eight road games. You extend the season by two weeks because, well, now we're already at 17 games, but follow me.

Every team gets two buys, your regular random buy, and then a buy that's either on the front end or the back end of your international game, and here is the key to it. The international week, there are games in 16 different cities around the world, Monday through Sunday, throughout the day. So Monday afternoon, there is a game in Jakarta. or, you know, I'm making it up. Monday night, for the time zones to work, there is a game in Cape Town.

Tuesday afternoon, there is a game in Tokyo. Tuesday night, there is a game in, I guess we'd have to go in the other direction, maybe, forget the time zones for a moment, but Barcelona. And that for a full week, from the time you get out of work to the time you go to bed, there's a football game on and then Sunday there's three games big games there is no competitive disadvantage because everyone has eight home eight road one international game if your international week game is on the Monday Tuesday Wednesday side your extra buy is the week before so you can acclimate if your international week game is on the Thursday Friday

Saturday side your international your buy is on the back end so you can recoup rate in that regard. And you have a full week where there is professional football on every day and you touch basically every continent. You do it at these soccer stadiums are already there. And I think you could sell each game to a different network for a few hundred million bucks. And I think it's, and if you extend the season by two weeks instead of one, Super Bowl Sunday comes the Sunday before President's Day. So we already have a three-day weekend built in for all of us that following Monday. So that's the added benefit.

That's my NFL idea. I still think they should do it. I think if you're trying to really go international, just focusing on London and Europe is a missed opportunity. Like you can do games, you know what I mean? There are major, you can do games elsewhere. The NBA one is you want to add. urgency, you have one G-League team that is essentially your G-League All-Stars that is an awesome

team. And you only really need that one team for one year. And the team that finishes dead last in the league is relegated to the G-League for a year. It is the European soccer model of relegation. That if you have the worst record in the NBA, the next season, you are not in the NBA. You are in the G League. And that G League team, everybody moves up. They all get minimum contracts and they see how they do. Now they almost assuredly would then be the team that finishes last.

So it would really every other year, though, but at a minimum every other year, there would be an NBA team that gets sent down for a year. You know, no more of this throwing seasons away, you are getting relegating. You are getting banged down a league if you finish dead last. That would make the end of the NBA regular season

as captivating as the conference finals. Because if it was like, holy shit. The next. The Houston. Well, yeah. I mean, think about it. It's like, wait, the Spurs might get win Benyama

or they might get sent to the G League and be out of the league for a year. year. And so what it would mean as far as teams are trying to compete. And then you could maybe tweak it to where that it only happens if a team, you know, you have to finish last and not win 22 games or something. You know what I mean? Like, hey, if everyone wins at least, if everyone goes at least 24 and 58, then nobody gets relegated. But if you're truly awful, you're banged down a league. That's not like my, you know, I didn't create that idea. that, you know, the Premier League sends down four teams a year.

Four teams go down, four teams go up. And it's, you know, it's a pretty successful popular league. I think that would create massive urgency. And I think it would be unbelievable theater. 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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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. This is a place for raw,

unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space.

For honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right what you need to be. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. You are puzzled or dismayed by the lack of UFO coverage. And yeah. Yeah. So I, first of all, do not believe in UFOs. I think what happens is, much like cell phone technology, where like Norway was ahead of us, we don't always have the best ideas.

That's, first of all, there are people that have like this whole thing about no exhaust. If there was exhaust with any of these Pentagon pieces of video, then we would know it's not outside the galaxy. Is it possible that some other country, by the way, like China doesn't treat its citizens well. They spend every penny on weaponry. Is it possible that a Russia or a China, a non-ally, went out and created a- Is ahead of us? Yeah. That's the first thing.

Second of all, there are so many satellites in the air now. Many of them Elon Musk created. There's just more in the sky, more moving, more blinking. And it's very easy for something like even a plane going overhead in Los Angeles. I'll sit there, have a cigar and show my wife and be like, what is that? And then she's like, after 10 minutes, she's like, oh, oh, it's a helicopter. So I think there's two things. People could be ahead of us.

And there's just more crap in the sky. It would also help if one legitimate person, you know, like Bill Clinton came out and said, yeah, we got UFOs. It's always like a whistleblower who heard from another whistleblower. So that's my take. Now, I want you to take from there. you do believe in UFOs apparently. No, hold on. Oh, wait.

Well, hold on. I want to be very clear about what I believe in. I, I, if I am not a deeply religious person and I feel like it's almost man, if you're not a religious person, then it is just almost logically impossible that we are the only intelligent life form in a universe that the expanse of it is it's beyond our own mental comprehension. There are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on every beach in the world. So there are trillions of stars in the sky. Our sun is just one of them.

So the expanse of it, so I do I believe there's intelligent life form out there past us? Of course I do. It's impossible to not believe that. Now, that is a giant leap from there to they have visited. us and they've stopped by and there's, you know, you oppose the landed. I don't know that I believe that. What I, what was so concerning to me was not that I'm convinced aliens are here. What was concerning to me is the United States Congress had a hearing. The people testifying were from the Navy, from other branches of the military. They were not.

Some whackadoo, you know what I mean, coming out of off a bender, they seem to be like reputable people. They clearly believed that they had either seen or had some contact. Again, they could be wrong. Their testimony didn't concern. What concerned me was, no one cared. What concerned me was I went the next day to the New York Times homepage. It was not, I scrolled to the bottom, Colin. There wasn't a fucking story.

It wasn't there. They had a long thing about the Appalachian Trail. They had three articles on Trump, two on Ukraine. They had two, they had columns about diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, all of this. Nothing on our Congress people. interviewed our military. They said, we have the UFOs,

or UAPs, as they called them, didn't have an article on their front page. I went to the Washington Post. It's like, all right, maybe the Times is late. I don't know. Washington Post had one article.

The headline was, uh, Congress hears that UAPs have visited Earth. Americans react. And I'm like, this is not, I'm not saying the movies of real life.

But I watched Independence Day as a kid. And you know what was reassuring about that? It was not that Will Smith was going to kick the aliens' ass, but it was. The aliens showed up and everybody came together. It was like, this is an existential threat. We all need to set everything aside and unite. So what scared me was it seemed to be a bit of a canary in the coal mine for.

do we as a general public have the capability anymore if something major were to happen to set everything down to turn off like to get off our apps to stop yelling at each other and be like oh we all need to pay attention and pull together for a common good and I don't know that we can't I saw, it was the same thing that the Times, I think it was the Times this morning. It might not have been the Times, rather than Wall Street Journal. I don't know. But one of their polling, one of the major reputable polling things, ask the question, is it hotter than normal this summer?

And the answer, whether you said yes or no, lined up directly with your political affiliation. I know. I'm like, oh, we might just be fucked here. Like, even it's like, hey, what's the weather like? And the answer is, well, how do you vote? Because it's saying it's hot, seems awful liberal, and saying, ah, it feels the same, is awful conservative. And that's, and so people, so that's what, it wasn't so much that I'm convinced aliens are here.

It was, if we get the, you know, the alarms go off and all of a sudden, the president of the United States is on TV and is like, Um, there's an asteroid. It's 72 days away from hitting us. Would we all be like, all right, everybody stop? How are we going to fix this? Yeah. Or would we spend the first 68 days being like, that's peaceful of it.

No, he's not full of it and just yelling at each other. That's what concerned me about the thing. Do we still have the capability to pay attention to important things and come together? And I don't. I'm not convinced we do. I don't know. So I am. And I think one of the testimonies that were a great country is that we don't have real problems.

I'll give you an example. I love this take. Let me hear this take. Yeah, yeah. When the biggest controversy right now in America is a president's son. Like, tell me the last president who didn't have an idiot somewhere in the family. They all do. Trump, Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan.

That's not a real controversy. doesn't affect me. If I was running for president, there's three things I would be concerned about. The biggest problem is guns. Secondly, crime rates are much lower than the 80s. Los Angeles crime is constantly discussed, much lower than the 80s. Homelessness is an issue in major cities, but not moderate-sized cities or small towns. So those get a lot of play. The gun issue is the number one issue in America. Assault rifles should not be around. Nobody's got any courage to go after it.

I'm not saying that's not an issue. But crime is elevated. A figment of the media's... Absolutely. Homelessness is largely a big city issue. Nobody I know gives a shit about Hunter Biden. It's just a weird, disruptive, chronically troubled family member. Also, can I say something real quick on that?

That'll only interrupt you. Because I want you to be able to finish. I don't think you can believe Biden is incompetent. You can believe he's, you know, too old. You can believe he's, you know, his social welfare programs. There's a lot of fair bangs on Biden. I like the guy a lot, but I totally get the criticism. I don't think anyone actually believes the guy's corrupt.

I don't think they believe it. I don't think they're like, you know, Joe Biden, he's been on the take for 20 years. I just don't think they believe it. And that's why the Hunter thing doesn't hit him. Because I think if people actually thought Joe Biden's got 200 million in, you know, and I mean, stashed away in the Caymans, this could be a big thing, like the corrupt son. But I think people look at Joe Biden and there's a lot of fair criticisms. I don't think they think this guy has been, you know, while he was vice president,

and it was cutting a billion dollar deals. I just don't think people actually believe it. But go ahead. So you were saying about what the real, we don't have real problem. Sorry. So go to Venezuela, go to Russia,

go to Europe, go to Mexico. You can go to a lot of places in the world. There's 210 countries. There are real problems. Our problems are overwhelmingly, heavy media saturation and discussion around things that get attention,

but are overstated. crime, things that we are grappling within California, a humanity issue, what to do with the homeless. It's not easy. It feels better today in L.A. than six months ago. I think the mayor, Karen Bass, has done a pretty good job, but they spent $20 billion and it got worse. It's a real issue.

It is a big city issue more than an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Austin, Texas issue, or a small town issue is that I do think that we avoid trouble. We thought we had a banking crisis. It lasted two weeks. We thought we had a housing crisis. It lasted three weeks. The stock market's up. Unemployment's the lowest that's been in my life. Inflation, gas prices. We're actually the only two things that worry me are guns and what the hell is up with our debt. It's like a trillion dollars. If I had $100 million debt. I could not sleep at night. I don't understand the debt.

But my point being is, I'm not saying all these discussions are manufactured. But the truth is that we really hum along. We survive four years of weaponizing social media Trump. This is a formidable country that overcame a corrupt president. So I think that, listen, I think your general, I like the optimism. And I think your general, you know, truth of the matter that, hey, man, there are a lot of places that are in way worse shape. And we, that part, I tend to agree with. We are in lockstep that the, the guns thing is it's a crisis in two regards.

One is just the raw numbers of people we lose to gun violence versus every other. It's, it's staggering. It's staggering. But, but it, it touches all of us, even if we've never been around a gun in our lives, because it does hurt. When you went to, maybe it didn't happen for you. It does happen for me. When I go to Oppenheimer, there will be a moment before the movie starts where I scope out

the exits in my surroundings. things because the movie theater is on the list of places in my head where I'm like, there could be an incident here. And I think that does have a real tangible effect on quality of life. So I'm with you on guns. I do think there is a housing affordability. I don't want to call it crisis, but major issue which manifests itself in homelessness. Yes.

Right. So those are real major issues. my my concern for the United States, not like the well-being of the country, my concern is our biggest issues are too long of a runway for us to truly address, which is I don't think the majority of people my age are going to have no chance of retiring because they're not like people used to be able to make a decent living. And at the very least, you buy a house and you've paid it off by the time it's your retirement age. And if your house is paid off and you have Social Security coming in, you're not going to be able to like go on European vacations, but you don't have a lot of

You have a little bit of money put away. And then when you're 65 or 70, if you want to retire, you can. Nobody my age is not, shouldn't say nobody. Very few people are buying homes. And pensions don't exist anymore. And so I do think we are approaching, but we won't feel it for 30 years, a generation of 70-year-olds where it is either we have to really expand the welfare state, which people hate doing or are we okay with people just work a lot you know the majority of

americans working till they're dead yeah and so that to me is like a real a real concern that is a that is a tentacle of the housing issue you know what i mean of the fact that it's very difficult i also think i don't know your take on this and i know we are off the board here so i apologize um i wish that Junior college was not stigmatized. And I wish it was pushed, I want to say push, but talk to a kid, it was told to kids that this is a great option. If you're not trying to be a doctor or a lawyer and you're undecided on what you want to do,

having your first two years of college be essentially free while you figure out what you want to do. And then after that, there is no shame in a sense. state school at all is like I'll use my son as an example. My son, who you know, he works with us at Fox. He's a great kid. Does not have a college degree. And there was a time he played, he went to junior college to play basketball, didn't end up getting a D1 scholarship.

And I obviously would have paid for his college, but he was never really into school as much as he was basketball. And there was a time in his life, and I hope he doesn't get mad at me for, you know, saying his business, or I think he was down on himself a bit because he didn't have, you know what I mean? He didn't have that. And I told him before he moved to LA, I'm like, buddy, you're 24. I was like, you don't have a degree.

But so many of your peers who do have $150,000 worth of debt that is going to hang around their neck until they're 35 or older and won't necessarily even use their degree. and I think for a lot of young people, junior college to a state school and then having the freedom of movement and mobility that comes along with not having, you know, high five figures or six figures in debt is the way better return on investment option. But I feel like junior college is like, thought of as like, oh, something went wrong for you. You know what I mean? Like, oh, you're not that bright. And I think the student debt thing's a huge problem for young people in this country. You got a hundred grand worth that, Colin, if I had $100,000 with the debt when I came out of Syracuse, could I have taken an $8 an hour radio job?

Of course not. But I could because I didn't. And that was the best job for me. Like there's a lot of kids that can't even do really what they want to do because they got to start working on that debt immediately because they were pushed to go to the best college possible, which is, you know, exorbitantly expensive. I think that's a huge issue, huge issue. Okay. Back to sports, but I like that whole thing. I really enjoyed that.

For the record, the elitism of college, I think people are now acknowledging that college is a lot, not that it's superficial, but so much of it has been glamorized as essential. And increasingly, I think people realize that vocational school, your own path, entrepreneurship is fine. I think in the last three years, I've really sensed that people are kind of like East Coast people who are more tradition driven are really into the prep school stuff. I've spent my life out west, very entrepreneurial.

I've never once asked a person where they went to college. I could care less at the volume. Are you good or not? So before we get sports, this is, I'm going to throw this at you. This is my favorite. I hope in my lifetime someone. conducts this social experiment. Say you are a very well-to-do person and you have twins.

And they are identical twins, so the same DNA. And one twin, we'll call him Ryan. Ryan, you are going to, from first grade on, go to the single best private school available to us, the single best college available to you, and we're paying for all of it. You're going to graduate with no debt at all. Your brother, Brian, is going to go to the local public school, then the local junior college, then the local state school.

And when you both graduate college, Ryan, you get all the connections, the prestige of the Ivy League degree, all of it. and Brian, you get all the money we spent on his education. Go. Ryan, you have all the prep school, everything, the Ivy League degree. Brian, you went to State University and public school. Here is, let me do the math, 50 grand a year for 16 years. Here's $800,000 cash to start your life. I think there is a strong argument to be made that the kid with the 800

grand and still a degree is probably has a head start on the kid who went to all the, you know, did all of that and see who does better because I do think that, I do think there's an argument to be made that families with money that are sending their kids to these prep schools or whatever would be better off holding that money and giving it to their kids when they graduate. But okay, now to sports. Go ahead. Yeah.

The advantage for the kid that goes to school isn't the school. The greatest advantage where I would lean to the kid going to school are as connections. The people you meet. Exactly right. The network that you make. Yes. And the people you meet, 100%. That's exactly what I believe.

So I sent my daughter to a very rigorous private junior high when I thought I could live in Connecticut, you know, forever. And we didn't do it for the academic. She's a great student. We did it for the connections. everybody in our town that was connected sent their kids there Kingswood Oxford in West Harper, Connecticut. We didn't care about the education. It was sixth grade.

It was 43,000 a year. We did it for connections. We're like, if we live here for the next 30 years, she's going to know everybody in town. And we'll go to college at Cornell with some. You know, we were like, I've said this about Stanford. It's Stanford, it's hard to flunk out. They don't want you to. They always say that Cal's easier to get into.

they try to flunk you out. Stanford's impossible to get into. Nobody flunks out. They don't want you to. But it's the connections of Stanford that are truly better than Cal. Stanford's got, no, not that Cal lacks for grobitas.

But I tend to believe, I'll give you an example. Years ago, they did a study. A guy out of the University of Chicago did a study. And he was concerned that it was sort of pithy and insignificant. It was a study on luck. So what he did is he was,

went out and he wanted to find a hundred lucky people and a hundred unlucky people, they viewed themselves as lucky or unlucky. And he found them. And so for a year, he tested them, he called them, he followed them. And what he found is luck didn't exist. But the unlucky people were introverts. They didn't create inertia or manufacture relationships. and the hundred lucky people were simply extroverts, talkers, social, lubricators.

And over the course of a lifetime, you're in a bank line, a grocery line, a parking lot, a party, a restaurant. Hey, let me take your number. I want to show you, oh my God, my cousin did this. Hey, let's connect. And over the course of a lifetime, extroverts create momentum that introverts. I buy that. Do not. And so I tell my kids, I tell my kids, talk, ask questions, be social, do things.

You will create a snowball effect of your life. I went last night out to a little club that I'm a member of. I got into the greatest discussion with a kid that lives in London. We exchanged numbers. He was in the financial sector. he gave me some great advice on something. He gave me a great travel destination. I gave him a guy he needs to call in regards to his career over cocktails.

And he texts me today. I text him back. So I think the opportunity for wealthy people to get their kids in the right social circle. In the right rooms. That I 100% agree with. No. And by the way, I am not. I mean, I'm a, if my whole little rant there made it sound like the, you know, that, oh,

let me be clear, I, if it makes it sound like I'm saying, you're crazy, if you're spending a bunch of money on sending your kids private school, you know, I live in New York City. I say my kids private school. You know what I mean? So I, it feels like it's almost because I can, it's almost obligatory, but I do what, I do just second guess myself. You know what I mean?

I do wonder what it would, you know, what if you, if you, if the moment you get, get out of college, it's like, hey, you can buy yourself a house cash and have money left over to start a, you know, a small business, what that does. But now we didn't talk in 45 minutes. I haven't let you ask me anything about sports. So I'll shut up. Go ahead. Sorry.

The cocktails. Okay. This is what I'm saying, man. Cocktails with Colin. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

Either way, the podcast's superhuman. Human documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm 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. This is a place for raw,

unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space.

For honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Big sports topic here. Okay. I noticed this on vacation that everybody's basically has figured out, who's going to win their division and finish last. We're just arguing about second and third,

Chargers, Broncos, Jets, Dolphins, Ravens, Steelers. You know, everybody knows. Oh, that's interesting. Sure. Because the league has become such a quarterback-centric league. The best quarterback wins the division. Chaos at quarterback is four. And then we argued Tua Rogers,

Pickett Lamar, Russell Wilson, Justin Herbert. So there's a lot of predictability in the predictions. So I'm going to ask you, but there's going to be. to be an upsetting week one that is a shocker. I'm going to tell you mine. And then there's going to be a team that's a shocker. So I'm going to give you my upset. Shane Steichen goes to Indy. We don't know what the hell that offense is going to look like in Anthony Richardson. Jacksonville has got some new pieces, Calvin Ridley. They come in very confident as a heavy favorite. It's a division

rival game on the road. And we have no idea what Shane Steichen. who with Justin Herbert and Jalen Hertz turned them into superstars, is that the Colts are going to upset the Jags in week one. Colts are not a good team. But you can be good for three hours in week one when the locker room is still convinced you're a really good team. Bad teams have a lot of fight for about five weeks until they're 0 and 5 or 1 and 4.

So my upset of the week, I'm going to go with it. Colts shock the world and beat Jacksonville. What's yours? Okay. So I don't think that's terrible. I obviously love the Jags this year and Trevor Lawrence. If I were to pick a major week one upset, again, even though I do not believe in this team or this quarterback at all, with a whole offseason to prepare, with the real thing that is a Super Bowl hangover. Is it impossible to believe Bill Belichick and the Patriots at home beat Philadelphia?

That's not impossible to believe. And people freak out and Philly will be fine. They have too much talent. And I don't think New England's going to be any good. Like, I shouldn't say any good. They're not going to be a really good team. But that's that I certainly like, here's the thing. That's the Patriots getting five at home.

And that to me feels like that there's real value there in the Patriots money line. Because if that, maybe they lose by 21 and it's like, oh, Mac is not going to be good. The Patriots, you know, whatever. But if that's close, they can win that game. A thousand percent they can win that game. And for Philadelphia, there is the, I think the, the, I think the, real hurdle of everything is going to feel a little slow motiony until later in the year which wouldn't exist if they were in the AFC there is, as you were talking earlier in a different

way, the sense of urgency of there's too many good goddamn quarterbacks. Like we better not screw around here because there's going to be some great quarterbacks that are on our heels or ahead of us. In the NFC, the Eagles got to be like, okay, there's us, there's San Francisco, there's Dallas, and then who are we talking about? A Vikings team who we annihilated last year and then fell, you know, so I think that that would be a week one upset.

Again, I haven't really dove into this entirely. I'm trying to look at the other ones. that would make sense. Go ahead. So I think we both picked one because that was my second choice, by the way. That was my second choice. Yeah.

Oh, that's fine. Okay. Now you have to have a wow prediction on a team. Okay, like somebody's going to shock us. I'm going to argue Carolina. So I think Frank Reich is really good. They built an excellent staff. It's a bad division.

I don't trust the coach of the Saints. They have an excellent front seven. The corners are good, but beat up, and they're now healthy. They ran the ball effectively last year. The O-Lon is young and emerging, and Bryce Young is really smart and capable.

He may have a lower ceiling, but he'll be good in week one. I think week one, week two, week three, you're going to look at Carolina. And you forget last year. That defense was nasty. I think Carolina has a chance to win their division. That is my wild pick.

Okay. So I, my only anti on that is I don't like tiny football players and Bryce Young is tiny. That's my concern. It just in a general belief of just

so I'm not going to tell you the team but if I were to tell you a team's first handful of games are against the bears, falcons, saints, lions,

Raiders, Broncos, that is their first, what was that, five, six games? Green Bay. Could they get out to a great start? I think the answer is yes. Do I think that that team is, there is going to be a bit of a deep breath sigh of relief that the Aaron Rogers stuff is just done with? Do I think there is going to be a real chip-all?

on their shoulder of, man, this guy sure love it. Almost the, the person who's, you know, spouse left them. And then you see that the spouse and, you know, is giving interviews talking about how in love they are with their new person. Like, hey, I was great to you. Like, and like a little bit of, oh, really? I think LaFour is a good coach. I think that division is open in this regard.

I think the Vikings are good. I think the Lions are good. I don't think there's a great team. And the Lions, you know, everyone gas to the floor on the Lions concerns me a bit. So I think Green Bay being, you know, a nine win, 10 win team and maybe finding a way into the playoffs because in the NFC, finding seven playoff teams is not easy. So I think Green Bay is a viable thing. I want to kind of turn it on its head because everybody, I shouldn't say everybody,

people talk a lot about who's going to do the team that jumps up and shocks people. It's like, oh, man, they're good. We rarely put out there, who's the team everyone thinks is going to be good that is going to fall fall. flat on its face. I think it's going to be the Jets. I think that people have, and the Jets, it's the exact, by the way, same reason. The Broncos were my pick for that last year, and I was right, but it's a lot of the same recipe, a wide receiver core that is wildly being all of a sudden overrated. People last year were talking about the Broncos were like, oh my God, all these

weapons. And I'm like, I like Jerry Judy fine, but in the wide receiver position, it's never been better than it is right now. He's not even close to one of the 10 best in the league. And then I, and then it was like, oh, no, all these guys that people are talking about the Jets weapons, like they're great. Garrett Wilson had an awesome rookie year. Okay, Alan Lazard was a below average number two with Green Bay last year. Hardman's, they're three. And so if we're talking about weapons just in the AFC, Cincinnati's is better, the chargers are better, the dolphins are better. I would argue the Raiders are better.

The bills are right in line with them. So they're running backs coming off in ACL. They have two left tackles. One has barely played in two years because of injury. The other is 38 years old, literally 38 years old and Dwayne Brown. I don't think the coach is great. the Jets and also the other thing for the Jets is while the end of the year is very soft, how are the Jets who are keep in mind on a six game losing streak from last year going to react

if they start, what are they going to start when it is Bills, Cowboys, Patriots, Chiefs, and all of a sudden big game against the Broncos, then Eagles. That first six games, you have the bills, the cowboys, the chiefs, and the Eagles, and your easy games are the Patriots who have beaten you for seven years in a row every single time. And then the Broncos, that all of a sudden is a blood feud because your dear friend, Sean Peyton, went scorched earth on them. That is not an easy opening six. So I think the Jets are the team that is not going to meet expectations.

This was fun. We did an hour, almost. We did 50 minutes. You got to think about which team's going to sometime either on the volume or on the show. You don't have to tell me now. I think Philadelphia is going to be good, but nine win good, not 13 win good. I think they're going to be in a dog fight with Dallas for the title. I think they're pulling back.

And by the way, Shane Steichen leaves. They lost multiple linebackers. O lines getting... Jonathan Gannon leaves. Yeah. They, O lines old, still good, but it's older. They faced a conveyor belt of awful quarterbacks. Awful.

Terrible. And then they got a broad pretty break in the playoffs. It's like... And every good quarterback after week two lit them up. Every single one. My takeaway is Philadelphia is really good, but they don't feel like the bully. you know, the Broad Street bully, that former Flyers team.

They don't, like last year, they were beating teams like a college team, beating teams by 30. Yeah. I think they're going to be in a lot of close games. I think Dallas can line up with them. I think there's a lot of teams that can line up with them. And I think Jalen Hertz is terrific, but I think he'll pull back. And I think he'll have to play from behind occasionally. I mean, I love Jalen.

But good God, when you play with a 20 point lead in the second quarter, it's just a different environment than trailing late in the third. It's a different position. So I think Philadelphia is good, but doesn't look nearly as good as last year. I think that's the I by the way, I by the way agree with that. I am. I'm going to say this. Hold on.

You can keep this in, but don't have your people put this specific thing on social. This is a special thing for you, for me to you, for the people that made it at the end of the point. podcast. I am 90% sure. I'm obviously picking the chiefs in the AFC. It's going to be hard to pick against a team that's literally going to win three straight Super Bowls. So I'm going to go ahead and go with them. In the NFC, I really think I'm picking Dallas. Like, I don't think

the Niners, like I just, I don't think the Niners can, you can't just have nobody's at quarterback for every year and just have it work. At some point, it's got to just bite you. And the fact that your guy, Mike Silver's like, hey, Trey Lance, he's throwing 120 passes. They might cut him. I'm like, are you? What? And Shannonhan's like, hey, I'll turn Sam Darnold into Steve Young.

I'm like, okay, I picked the Niners to go to the Super Bowl last year. I'm not doing it this year. So I'm not doing the Niners. And the Eagles, I thought were a good, but not great team last year that got hot, had, you know, they had more sacks than any teams to stay. Bears. Are they going to duplicate that? I don't think so. The quarterback thing is real. So if it's not Niners Eagles, who is it? Like literally, am I picking Geno Smith to go to the Super Bowl? No. Am I picking Jared Gough to go to the Super Bowl? No. Am I picking Kirk Cousins? No. I know it's

become very invoked to say Justin Fields, one of the five best quarterbacks in football. I'd like to see him play five great quarters before I'm ready to say that. So we're running out of teams. I think I'm going to pick the Cowboys, which is so weird because I'm not the corner of people in sports media that are either, I feel like 85% of sports media is well established pro or anti-cowboys. And then there's a handful of you, me, a couple others that's like, I, you know, I find them interesting, but I don't love them or hate them. But I think I'm going to pick them to go to the Super Bowl. I just think I am. I just, I'm running out of teams in the NFC. So I think Chiefs Cowboys Super Bowl, highest rated ever.

where Mahomes going for back to back? Cowboys in for the first. It would be a diet. Chiefs going for 20 and O versus the Cowboys. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. That's a little hyperbolic, but, oh, I don't know about that. I don't know about that.

Last time the Chiefs were the defending champs, they lost one game all year. They lost, well, they lost two because Mahomes rested in the final week of the year. But they were 14 and 1. and then rolled into the Super Bowl and they had to play the first ever road Super Bowl against Tom Brady and shit went awry.

But, I mean, they almost did it a few years ago. We should do this again soon. I loved it. Good seeing you, buddy. You too. I almost finished my drink. I love you. I hope you enjoy.

I'm thinking about pulling this out on TV because I said, I'm not cutting my hair until the Chiefs lose. So it's going to be years. So I'm going to have to be able to pull it back or something. I'll see you later. New House looks great. Volume.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On The Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down,

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