The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Nick Wright Part 2, LeBron’s Unbreakable Records, Impatient NFL Owners Hurting QBs, NFL Game/Clock Management

Episode Date: November 29, 2023

Nick Wright, host of “First Things First” on FS1 joins Colin to chop it up!  They dive into LeBron’s eye-popping career numbers and why those records might never be broken (3:00). In the wake of Frank Reich’s firing by the Carolina Panthers, they take a bird’s eye view of how the league has evolved in recent years and why ever richer NFL owners are stunting the growth of young quarterbacks (8:20) Finally, they dissect some late game clock management issues by NFL head coaches and why these are mistakes that competent coaches just can’t make (21:00). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games.

This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen and learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The volume. In the NBA, the games can change in an instant, but no matter how the action unfold. Do you know that Draft King's Sportsbook has you covered?

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See sportsbook.draft kings.com slash basketball terms for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. Okay. You wanted to talk about LeBron James. So, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. So I said on my show today, I said, the Lakers loss wasn't the worst loss in the NBA last night.

The Clippers faced Denver without Yokuch, Murray, and Gordon. They're such a mess. They had all four of their stars. And in the fourth quarter, they were doubled at home. The worst loss of the year. The Clippers are not going to work. And I feel, I legit feel badly for Westbrook. I do.

He was, he actually, Colin, was playing well for the clippers. Played well for them at the end of last year. Played well for them in the postseason. Was playing well this year. It's very, very clear he can still, amazingly, I didn't think he could be a positive, not a superstar, but a positive under very specific circumstances. And he had it with the clippers.

Then they got hardened. It went exactly back to what he was asked to do as a Laker. and that player is borderline unplayable. So I feel bad for Russ. The Clippers did this to themselves. I don't think they're going to be a playoff team. But the Lakers, here's the LeBron thing I want to talk. You ever look at like the old baseball records?

It's like, oh, who has the most complete games in a season? And it's like, oh, this guy had 38 complete games in one year. You look at some of these old records and you're like, oh, like Sy Young had how he had 516 wins. It's like, okay, well, so that's no one's probably getting that. Nobody has done the very simple math yet. But LeBron last night passed Kareem for most minutes ever, playoffs and regular season combined. It's over 66,000. his points record and his minutes record are going to be looked at the way we look at the

the 1920s baseball records they are going to be so far untouchable like i want this is this and this isn't an opinion so let's talk about the points for a second okay and the reason it is is because lebron checked three boxes as an 10 out of 10 of okay how old were you you came into the league. Well, he was basically as young as anybody possibly can be. So that's a checkmark in his favor. How healthy have you been? Well, he's been as healthy as any player ever. That's a checkmark. And how good were you immediately, as good as any rookie's ever been? And then by year two, one of the five best players in the league. So he's at 39,000 points in change. Okay. So let's just call it 40,000 for the simplicity of math. All right? And let's say someone walks into the league.

walks into the league and averages 35 points per game from day one of their rookie year. Okay. And let's say they are incredibly healthy and they play 75 games a year without ever missing time. So, okay, how many years would they have to play? If from day one of a rookie, you average 35 a game, if you play 75 games a year, well, 40,000 divided by 35, divided by 75 equals, oh, all you would have to do to pass LeBron James in scoring is average 35 points per game your entire career, never get hurt, play all every season and play for it. Let me check 15 and a half years. It's in fucking possible.

And that's not even as untouchable as the minute. After last night, he's it 67,000 minutes. Okay, so let's think about that. 67,000 minutes. let's say your team made the playoffs every year. You played deep into the playoffs every year. So let's say you averaged 90 games a season. 90 games a season.

All right. Let's say you played, did 90 games a season. Let's say you played 40 minutes a night. 90 games a season, 40 minutes a night. How many years would you have to play? Oh, only 18 and a half years. years of 90 game seasons, 40 minutes a night, never getting hurt. So, like, I'm not even, I'm not even right now that interested in the goat debate anymore.

I just know that, like, some of these records LeBron is setting, and he set one of them last night, are going to, they're going to look like some of Wilts scoring records. Like, oh, no one can even approach that. Like, and so, I mean, I looked at Janus. Janice is 40,000 minutes shy of LeBron. Like, well, that's then, if you added Michael Jordan's career to Janus's career, that would give you slightly more minutes than LeBron. Like, nobody's going to approach these records.

Nobody's going to approach it. Yeah, I think that's reasonable. So one of the things that, as I look at this NFL season, you know, a lot of people are talking about, oh, the officiating is the way. worst ever. No, it's not. That's a complaint every year. The game's getting worse. No, it's not. The ratings are higher than ever. I totally. I like Tom Brady. But Brady came out and said the game's getting worse. And I said, and this was my take and I want you to react to it. I said, the reason you think the game is getting worse, because almost as a general rule, young people need support more than middle-aged or

older people. Their brain doesn't develop till they're 24, 25, their confidence levels. They're more affected by criticism when you're 17, 20, 23, then you are, you get to my age, you don't give a shit. And I said, what's happened, the global wealth has actually hurt quarterback play. And here's my rationale. So we were growing up, when we were growing up, you could be a car dealer. Larry Miller owned the Utah Jazz, a car dealer with a net worth of $100 million. The poorest NFL owners were like the McCasky, Virginia McCasky, over $2 billion. And by the way, if she owns the Bears, that's not it, because the Bears would sell tomorrow for probably $7.5 billion.

Or yeah, more. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So what has happened is it used to be you would never fire Frank Reich in year one if your net worth was $300 million. I'm not going to write a $12 million check for Frank Reich. But when I'm worth $32 billion, I'll easily write a $40 million check. So who's the loser in the Frank Wright firing?

It's Bryce Young. New coach, new quarterback coach, new staff. By year two. So what has happened increasingly as the owners have gotten wealthier, all these firings are rounding errors. The richer they get, the more secluded they are. the more insulated they are from criticism or punitive action. A bad marketing campaign if you owned a card dealership 30 years ago could half your net worth. Jeff Bezos gets no publicity that's positive.

It doesn't matter. He's worth $60 billion. And so owners fire quicker. Coach is knowing it's coming quicker. Fire coordinators quicker. quarterbacks have to win by Thanksgiving of year two or they get rid of them. Justin Fields in the 70s would get another year. You can't even, that's not even a debate now.

You have to move off him. And so the reason quarterback play is perceived as worse, it doesn't make any sense. It's counterintuitive. There's more camps. There's more coaching. Yeah. There's better quarterbacks. What's happening is global wealth has created from the ownership down, this domino effect

of absolute impatience, and the loser isn't the coach, because he gets the money when he gets, Frank Wright gets the money and goes to the beach. It's not the owner. It's not the GM who gets fired. He gets money and goes to the beach. The loser is the 23-year-old quarterback who's got to play with his seven, Justin Herbert's on his third coordinator and second coach. And about to be on his third coach. So I have actually, I'm not a very different theory.

But in line with what you're talking about, an experiment I always wanted to see. And I've talked with me and Jeannie about this, and we'll never get to see it. But what would the result be if you took a, like, well-known media, like, not God-awful, terrible, but we know he's not a star coach. well-known definition of mediocre head coach. I don't know the example. And I don't want to name a name it seems to mean. But just say whatever the slightly beneath league average while his career was.

And an owner said, I am signing this contract that says, you will be my head coach with full control of your own staff for six years at a minimum. If at any point between now and six years, you get fired, I sign the team over to you. I'm telling you, you have absolute job securing. Would that create by inertia and by the fact that you can make every decision be forward, long-term thinking, all of it, instantly by year three, much. less year six, a top six, top eight coaching staff coach in the league where you're not doing anything impulsively, you're not doing anything that's, you know, robbing tomorrow to pay today because you're worried you're going to get canned. And while everyone else is on the treadmill

of, oh, shit, I got to save my job, you can have the long-term view and install a culture and a system and all of it. I really believe that would be better than what 90% of these teams do. Yes. And what the benefit of that is that you could hire a better staff. I mean, Carolina, 90% of the good candidates will not even, they'll tell their agent, don't call, right? Ben Johnson's not going there. Any of those, no, no chance. But the flip, and in addition, you can build a better staff. I guess, you can build a better staff with your line of thinking and over the course of time the best staff not just andy reed wins spags is a big part of that staff right of so the better staff but also guys that can whatever their culture is going to be

like i don't know for certain i think it but i don't know for certain john harbaw and mike tomlin are in a vacuum tomlin's pretty damn impressive let me use harbill yeah but um in a vacuum a great coach But what both of them had was nearly instant Super Bowl wins, which gave them, at least for the next half decade, 100% job security, which allowed them to install 100% of their system and their culture. And whatever learning on the job they needed to do, they could do with safety and security. And now we look at them as unquestioned great coaches. like there is a level of what if you know you're going to have the gig and you can do things right or wrong the way you want to do it and not have these teams that just massively go back and forth the charges with Justin Irby. They have an offensive coach in Anthony Lynn. He's not good enough.

They hire Brandon Staley. He's about to get run out of town. They're going to do everything they can to hire Ben John. Like, you know what I mean? Just the back and forth everything. So I think, yeah, I do think the lack of patience on NFL coaching staffs is bad for everybody. But my theory on quarterbacks is a different one. And this is where I think Brady got it wrong.

I don't think it's that the play's gotten worse. I think that the top level play is now so fucking good that teams are like, Like in the 90s, Kenny Pickett would be the Pittsburgh Steelers starter for 12 to 15 years. Yeah. I watched Neil O'Donnell play there. You can't tell me that this guy's not as good as him. They went to a Super Bowl.

Okay, listen to this. Aaron Rogers was in his prime. Matt Stafford close to it. Tribisky made the playoffs twice. Yes. In the 70s, he would be Brian's sight for the Brown. He'd start for a decade. Right.

And so what I think is the top level quarterbacks, now that you have some of the best athletes also playing quarterback, whether it be Josh Allen or Lamar or Mahomes who could have played a bunch of sports, Russell Wilson, when he was in his prime, these guys. That teams that have, he's fine, are always looking for the next guy. And the guy who it's like, eh, he's fine. if he somehow gets to year seven, it's got to be pretty good. But you don't want to, they don't get there. Like golf didn't all of a sudden get better,

worse, whatever it is. He's been the same guy. He's super accurate. If he's protected, he's not going to be able to hold him on the ball because he has small hands. And if you get a pass rush on him, it's not going to work out.

But he now has seen so much more football done all these things that those weaknesses are still there. But the strengths are accentuated. Those things are better. But he almost never got another chance. Like when you have these aliens playing quarterback, if you have a guy who's average, you're going to get rid of him to draft the next guy, and that's a lottery ticket, which then leads to a lot of young, raw quarterbacks,

which leads to bad quarterback play. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clever Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from both. basketball to college football or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

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Finally, there are certain things in sports and business that are just hard. and they're imperfect. And there's just no way to generate perfection. And I think in sports, one of those in the NFL is game clock management. So when you get to the end of the game, you've got certain units over the course of a game, players get injured. So players you would have used in sets earlier now can't play. So as games evolve in the NFL, the later they go, the harder they are to manage. Analytics now wasn't really an issue 10 years ago.

Now you have to consider analytics. There's the clock. If you have a young quarterback, they're not as strong at managing the clock. And so you tend to be, I agreed with you on John Harbaugh against the Chargers. Go for it in that situation. I would have gone for it. But it does bring up an interesting... Because I think you're too hard on people for game clock management.

Yeah. I think it's one of those things that unless you played football or you've coached, you don't understand. It's like play by play. How effing hard it is. Andy Reed was, I mean, debased for years in Philadelphia. And then he got Mahomes and nobody talks about it. McVeigh gets clobbered.

Yep. When you acknowledge, and there's probably several analogous options here, that it is one of those things that is probably much harder than people understand. Yes, I acknowledge that. I think that is correct, which is why it just should be farmed out. And I'm not talking about choosing to go for it on fourth down or not. That I do, listen, I think coaches are far too conservative in large part on that. And I understand our broadcasters very often will be like, well, or the coaches after the game will say, well, yes, we knew the analytics, but given the circumstances of the game, blah, blah, blah, blah.

My issue with that is, here's, if that's really what's happening, oh, we know the numbers, but because this guy was out or this or that, we went the other way. How come this my entire football life has never happened? Oh, yeah, we knew the numbers said we have to punt here. But given the circumstances of the game, we said, we're fucking going for it. That never happens. It never in my life has it been like, oh yeah, all the numbers say do the conservative thing, but we're going to be extra aggressive because of circumstances. So to me, coaches are far too conservative.

But that has to be the decision of the head coach. I do believe you can't farm that out. You can give them the information. You can talk to them when it's not during the week. That needs to be your general on the battlefield making that call. The timeout stuff, Colin, the clock management stuff, Colin, is blackjack. And there's only one right way to play it. Let me give you a four instance that I bet, I honestly believe 29 of 32 NFL head coaches would fail this test.

There is a very specific, and it might only come up once a year, if ever, scenario where if you are trailing and you are trying to stop the clock and the other team is trying to run it out, you do not want to call time out on the north side of the two-minute warning. When is it and why? And the answer to that question is, and people listening and thinking they're like, well, let me think, blah, blah. It's very, very specific. If there is between about 242 and 247, exactly that much time, left in the half, and you only have one time out, you 100% should not use it. Because the average play is going to take between two to five seconds. And whether you call your time out there or not, that the, the, the, the, two plays later is going to happen on the other side of the two minute warning.

So if you save it, you can then save 39 seconds on the other side of the two minute warning. If you have multiple, and if people are like, that's confusing, get out a piece of paper and write it down and track it out. I promise I'm right. It's a very unique spot, but you've got to know it. You've got to know the ways to give yourself the best option, a thing that super sharp coaches started to do A couple years ago was, oh shit, if the other team, we have two timeouts and it is second and one, we're going, we're trying to stop them. We're going to pretend to jump off sides and hope they accept the penalty.

Because the odds are they're getting this first down on one of the next two plays anyway. And we just want it to be untimed. Like, Vrable did that. Belichick did that. now coaches have gone to it. There are certain things that if in the fog of war, the head coach can't handle all of it, then hires some kid that played mad in their whole life and figured it out when they were high and 17 years old like I did.

Listen, I do happen to be brilliant, but this is not part of my brilliance. This is part of me gambling on Madden in a dorm for years and just understanding these little quirks. And so I've joked forever before I hired an NFL head coach. I'd be like, we're going to a casino and I'm going to watch you play blackjack for two hours. And if you make one mistake, I'm not hiring you. If there's one time where you're like, ah, I know you have a seven and I have a 16, but I'm going to stay, okay, you're not going to be my guy. Fourth downs are not that black and white. Clock management is. So that stuff, I won't give any order on. Fourth down stuff, like the Harbaugh thing, sorry, I'm ranting, you touched on a passionate point for me.

I think coach is super overvalue going up six points. I actually don't know that in the final 90 seconds, I'd rather be up six than three. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but if you're up six, the other team has to score a touchdown is in four down territory, four down the whole time. You know what I mean? They are going perma aggression. up three, they're going to be a little more conservative. They're going to, once they get in field goal range, they're definitely kicking it, all of that.

And either way, up three or six, a touchdown beats you. So the harball thing I thought was insane. I'm like, you're up three. A first down wins the game. If you need one yard, if you kick a field goal, a touchdown beat you either way. Like that one killed me. Like, I do think coaches far too often. don't just ask themselves the question I would always be asking myself,

which is if I were coaching the other team, what am I rooting for? And if I'm playing Lamar Jackson and I have Justin Herbert, no matter how he's been playing, am I rooting for them to be able to make it to where Justin Herbert never touches the ball again? Or am I rooting for them to put a kicker on the field and guarantee Justin Herbert touches the ball again? Of course I'm rooting for that, so do the opposite. Harbaugh is usually pretty good about that.

I thought he screwed it up Sunday. but it didn't matter. I actually agreed with you on that. All right, buddy. Good show. Mark Cuban, Jim Harbaal, LeBron James, Malika Andrews. Malika Andrews, man. And at least, you know what?

Hold on. I'm going to say one last thing on that, the Malika thing. I want to be... Prescent. Respectful here, because I don't know Malika at all, and she doesn't need me defending her. but the amount of of shit

that women in our field take from these creeps on the internet and then you add to it the amount of like part of the stuff with Malika has a really really that I'm not going to get into

like dark racial connotation about her life and her upbringing that touches close to home for me that I feel really, really is really cruel. I, listen, I don't know if she listens to the volume, everyone should listen to the volume. But if she doesn't, if someone who is listening to this or seeing this is in her circle, please let her know that those of us, her colleagues, that maybe haven't said anything because you're not trying to draw more attention to these creeps on the internet, have her back.

She's a star. and from all accounts, an incredibly hard worker and all these people coming after her for some old nonsense, I think is really, really, really, really gross.

That's it. Social media can be really, really, really gross. I mean, that's the truth of it. Not to me, man. Everybody loves me. It's unbelievable. I can't believe it.

Nobody's ever sent a mean tweet about me. Nobody ever makes fun of my hair, my nose, anything. They're just universally approved. Just like you, Colin. Thank you for having me. I'll talk to you soon. The 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, 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app. or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway

with your favorite therapist and host, Keer Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability

that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.