The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Cowboys Drama, Baker Mayfield The MVP and Urban Meyer stops by!

Episode Date: July 26, 2019

Colin Cowherd explains why the Cowboys shouldn't pay Ezekiel Elliott and expects Baker Mayfield to get MVP votes in the upcoming season. FOX College Football Analyst Urban Meyer stops by to weigh in two of his former players holding out from NFL training camps and FOX NFL Analyst Mark Schlereth talks about the changing culture in the league! Jason McIntyre shares 'Tomorrow's Headlines Today!' and Matt Moseley shares the latest on all of the drama surrounding the Dallas Cowboys!  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to her. He's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the Heard at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeartRadio app by searching Hurst.

You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. It's a Friday. This is The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS1 in Los Angeles. Joy Taylor's joining me. I thought Skip won that Julian Ellman argument. That was a big last 10 minutes for Skip.

Shannon does not agree with me. It's great having everybody in today. Joy, how are you? I'm great. Good morning. Happy Friday. You look like you should be going to a Keith Urban. concert.

I look at you. You look hip. I thought this is very like business-like. I was like a librarian or something. No librarians at my school look like that. I guess I could tell some cowboy boots on it. You're not going to a concert.

You're going to like an exclusive I want the background story on this on Monday because this is we're being fooled here. Well, let's start the show with the Dallas Cowboys. They're having camp and Zeke isn't there. Right. Okay. So I have kind of a rule in life. I'm just going to, this is kind of behind the

curtain. I won't waste too much time on it. What do I buy in life? I buy things that I think are growing in value. I'll buy a home. I'll buy a land. All buy a stock. Because I feel over time they're growing in value. I tend to have a theory on life that I lease my fun. I don't buy a boat. I just lease it. I'll go and pay for the day. I lease my golf clubs. I lease my skis, jet skis. I lease my fun because they're declining assets. Once you get a jet ski, an hour later, it's worth less. Once you buy a car, you drive it off the lot, it's worth less. So I tend to buy things that are accelerating in value

and I lease things that are declining over time in value. That's just kind of my theory. I don't think it's revolutionary. I think that's what a lot of people do with wealth management and with their money, right? I feel the same way about the Dallas Cowboys. DAC, to me, is the land, the stock, the house. He's an accelerating asset.

Zeke is a declining. fun asset. I would pay DAC. Dak is a quarterback. Dak rarely gets hit. That's why Dak can always play. Dak is mature. Dak will get more mature. Dak is good. Dak is getting better. In eight years, Dak may well be twice the quarterback he is today. He is an ascending asset. I would pay Dak.

Even if I got to pay a little too much than I want for the house and a little higher price than I want to buy the land for. a little more than I want to pay my quarterback, I think Dak Prescott is an ascending asset. Now, we can argue about the price on the house. We can argue about the price on the quarterback. I wish Dak would take 29, not 32. But don't kid yourself, he is an ascending asset. Zeke is not.

Zeke is closer to the car. I'm not saying you don't need transportation, but the minute you get it off the lot, it's worth less. Zeeke will never be better than today. Every hit, he's a little less of a running back. And sometimes I have a test in life. Say it out loud. Immature running back, demanding money two years out from a contract

at a position that's not trending particularly well. I think it's an easy decision. I got a bunch of people to pay in Dallas. I'm paying the quarterback first. I'm paying the pass rush or second. they've already paid him. I think I'm paying Amari Cooper in 2019 wide receiver third. Then I'm paying Jalen Smith, the linebacker, great kid, outstanding position.

You need athletic linebackers. Byron Jones. That's how I feel about Zeke. Nick Wright talked about this this morning. There's a lot of mouse to feed, and Zeke is not doing his so-called friends any good here cutting in line. DAC Prescott has made less than $3.5 million in his entire football career. That is less money than Zieg is scheduled to make this season on a contract that he thinks has him underpaid. I do find it interesting what potential locker room politics, even if they're able to keep it quiet, happen if Zique attempts to cut the line almost, where Amari's got one year left, Dax got one year left and has never been paid.

Zeeks got two years left and was the top five pick. People tell you who they are. Maya Angelou used to say this. Believe them. Johnny Mansell kept telling you in college, here's what I am. Me guy, immature, not a guy you want to build a franchise around.

And Cleveland's like, can't hear you. Patriots took Johnny Mansell off their board. Colts took him off their board. Cleveland's like, we can't hear you. We can't see what you're doing. He's telling you who he is. Immature. Me over we.

I mean, Dak Prescott's got more leverage right now. He's a quarterback in the quarterback league. He's like, I'm just going to play. We'll get it figured out. I mean, it's become a wide receiver league more than a running back league. Amari Cooper's like, I'll play. All good. They asked yesterday, they asked Jalen Smith, who by the way, is an unbelievable linebacker

for Dallas in a game now that you need athletic guys in space. Linebackers matter. You know what Jalen Smith said when they asked him about Zeke's contract? He said, quote, I'm here. people tell you who they are. You got to ask yourself when you're paying people, what's their position? How's the position trending?

Are they long-term employees? Do you want them in the building for five years? Do they play well with others? Are they we over me? Don't get me wrong. They're pro athletes. I get they want the money. But if you're asking me today,

deserving contracts before Zeke, I'm paying DAC first. He's the quarterback. I'm paying DeMarcus, Laura, second. They already got him. I'd pay Mari Cooper because there's clear signs that Amari makes Dak a better player. I think I pay the linebacker, Jalen Smith. I don't have to pay Vandrech for three years.

I'm paying Jalen. And the Cowboys were looking for a corner for about eight years since Dion Sanders, maybe 12. They finally got one. Pay the damn kid. It's the NFL. You've got to have one world. Even the Patriots pay Stefan Gilmore. Even the Patriots pay a corner.

You've been looking for 15 years for a corner. You've got to pay Byron. Jones. Great kid, great corner at a position that's increasingly popular. I'll just keep doubling down on this. I think I've doubled down on this nine times this week. You keep telling me you want Zeke, and it's an easy

decision. I think it is easy. I'm paying Dak, DeMarcus, Amari, Jalen, Byron. I'm not paying Zeke. You can get a haul for him. Pay ascending assets. Not declining assets. Lease your fun. Dak over Zeke all day. Let's shift to this.

You know, it would be nice to come to work every day and have a staff that was supportive and not working against me. And this morning, the staff goes out, Oh, look, Baker Mayfield, odds to win the MVP. That's so funny. First of all, it's voted on. So, of course, Baker has a shot, because Baker's got a better story.

This is what MVP's have become. NBA MVP. It's not about value. It's about stats. It's called the MVP, not the MSP, but Russell Westbrook won it. Derek Rose won it. Really, Derek Rose valuable.

Has there ever been a minute of his life, he was more valuable than LeBron James in a basketball court? The MVP is voted on by writers who like stories and romance over reality. Of course Baker Mayfield's going to get a ton of votes. I would be shocked. as long as Cleveland has a winning record, one game over 500, I will be shocked if Baker doesn't finish top two in the MVP.

His story is better. Now, if you're asking me who I think the MVP, the last five to ten years in the NFL, there's three players in this league that I think are way more valuable than everybody else. And again, the word is valuable. Andrew Luck is number one. He's gotten teams to the AFC championship, bad rosters to a conference champion. championship. Number two would be Aaron Rogers. He's gotten bad defenses to a conference championship. Third is Russell Wilson. He's gotten horrible offensive lines into the playoffs. Those are the most valuable players. Patrick Mahomes is gifted, but he's got Andy Reid, fastest player on the NFL,

the best tight end, a very good offensive line. He's great, and don't get me wrong, there's some value there. But Andrew Luck, Aaron Rogers, Russell Wilson are the most valuable players in the NFL. But I'll give you an example of why Baker's going to finish top two in the MVP voting. I'm not saying he's going to win it. It's going to be top two because people vote stories. Here's a great example. Usually, if you have great receivers and you have great backs and you have great tight ends, people would say, well, of course. Of course they're good.

I mean, of course. Baker Mayfield has the first or second best young tight end in football, the best one. the best wide receiving core, easily the best three backs combined. But he's going to be the rare guy that gets credit for that. Why? Rookie head coach, downtroddened Cleveland, Baker's a short two-time walk-on. It's a great story. Baker's a great story.

And MVP's are about stories. I mean, really, you've ever thought Russell Westbrook was more valuable than LeBron James? Where? outside of one city where in the NBA. But he was a better story. Kevin Durant left him, triple double, even though it's not a stat award. Okay. Take Jared Goff. Jared Goff doesn't have a wide receiving core as good right now as Cleveland. Robert Woods is excellent. He's a number two.

Cooper Cup is excellent. He's a number two. Brandon Cook's is excellent. He's a number three. You can't name the Rams tight end. What about Todd Gurley? What about him? Couldn't play at the end of last year. Jared Goff has never once even sniffed MVP talk. Like Baker, he's young.

He's 24 and 7. 60 touchdowns, 19 picks and a pass rating over 101 and got to the Super Bowl when his best receiver was hurt and his best running back couldn't play. Not a sniff. Why? Because Jared Goff is tall and didn't have to walk on. And the Rams are in big, rich, greedy, LA. And Sean McVay is a genius, although the Super Bowl disprove that.

MVP's are about narratives and sports writers vote on MVP, so they vote for stories. Jared Goff's numbers are absurd in his first couple of years. His first year in the NFL, it was man overboard. The fact that he didn't crumble's amazing. He's done nothing but win and get to Super Bowls, nothing, no crickets. Baker's got better tight end. Baker's got better receivers. Baker's got better back, but it's Cleveland, it's Freddie Kitchens, he's a rookie head coach.

We don't. Baker will absolutely be top two in the MVP voting as long, as long as Cleveland has a winning record. And I predict them to be nine and seven, so I'm not shocked at all. It'd be nice if my staff wasn't trying to get me worked up every day. And I walk in there and I'm like, hey, free coffee and donuts for everybody. Oh, look at here, look at here. Time to make some changes. Furiating.

All right, great to have you in today. Packed. I am going to see Keith Urban tomorrow. Pretty amazing concert. You're going to the world's hottest destination outside of Yemen. You're going to Phoenix. Our weekends are divergent. Joy Taylor is joining me.

Urban Meyer, Mark Schlerath, Jason McIntyre today. Coming up next, I've been tough on Mike Tomlin, but why he deserves the contract extension. That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays, in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies,

and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff, nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsLice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlic on the IHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast. Learned. the hard way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing,

we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about when. and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important

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Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app.

Search, learn the hard way, and listen now. What's up, guys? this is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, the Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverton. show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what.

He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid.

He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get to fly. He running up the court, licking his fingers,

why he got the ball, like, you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out. real quick. Oh, yeah. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Okay, so I've been critical of Mike Tomlin through the years, and I've been critical of Pete Carroll through the years because they're the same coach. Big energy, graded a podium, unbelievable vibe, terrific teachers of young football players. Their young players all get better. And they're a little loose for my taste. Teams get a little loose, little chatty, little this, little that. I'm always left feeling like, it left a lot of points on the table. But Mike Tomlin has a new deal.

And even though I've been critical of Mike Tomlin, he deserves a new deal. Listen, here's the reality. You can't look at an all-time great and compare people to him. Take Bill Belichick out of the equation. He never existed. The next four or five great veteran coaches in this league are Andy Reed, Sean Payton, Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll. And for all of them, aren't we all saying the same thing?

Shouldn't they have another Super Bowl? Shouldn't they have a Super Bowl? Shouldn't Andy Reid have a... Shouldn't Sean Payton, shouldn't... Bill Belichick makes Mike Tomlin look bad. That's because Bill Belichick makes virtually everybody look bad. Okay, it's same with Nick Sabin and the SEC. There is no other Nick Saban.

LSU was winning 10 games a year in bowl games. They had less miles. Well, he's not Nick Saban. So they fired him. Now they're not as good a program. You were winning 10 games a year. You just couldn't beat Nick Saban. Who's beating Nick Saban?

One guy in the country is beating Nick Sabin. Occasionally. Dabo Sweeney. That's it. And he didn't have to play him every year in the same conference. It's the same with Tiger Woods. For 10 years, Goulet, you were with me. For 10 years, I was taking calls arguing with people.

Rory's not the next tiger. and Justin Rose isn't the next tiger and Ricky Fowler's not the next tiger and Jordan Spee's not the next tiger there is no next tiger what about Brooks Kepka? He's not the next tiger Tiger. Tiger Woods was 11 years old and signed with IMG. He was 15

and we gave a rip about junior tournaments Brooks Kepka's great at 27 years old you didn't know who he was until he was 26 I mean Tiger Woods at three years old was on TV doing a golf swing at 11 side woman agency and at 15 captivated Jack Nicholas. Brooks Kepka's a late bloomer who's kicking butt.

He'll never be Tiger. So it's unfair to compare him. Take Tiger out. Brooks Kepka is unbelievable. Compared to Tiger? Everybody to Saban. Everybody to Belichick. Everybody to Tiger.

Who's the next? LeBron. There isn't one. Just enjoy LeBron. I mean, the only time in my life where there's been the next and the history of sports. Kobe Bryant was not that far off Michael Jordan. He sounded like him, he played like him.

I mean, that was the only time of my life. You had an all-time great, and a guy came in and you're like, you know, he's about 85% of Michael. I didn't think he was quite as strong as Michael. Didn't quite have the defensive lockdown, not quite as great as Michael. But Kobe was about as good as you're about as close as you're going to get. But when you get these iconic figures, like Mike Tomlin,

you got to get past the, yeah, but I mean, Belichick owns him. Just take Belichick out. You can't get rid of coaches because they can't beat outliers or golfers or college coaches. Nobody's beating Coach K. Roy Williams beats him occasionally. That's good enough. That's good enough. Don't try to get happier than happy.

Mike Tomlin gets you to the playoffs. I just saw this this morning. I think my staff gave me this. He's zero losing seasons. Okay. Again, never had a losing season. of the 12 years he's made the playoffs, and he was 9, 6, and 1 last year

with drama all over his locker room. And by the way, some of it is his fault. But not all of it. Big Ben has his issues, too. It's not all on Mike Tomlin. So again, can we take the outliers out? Stop firing people because the SEC's gone through 77 coaches since Nick Sabin got hired.

Really? LSU was winning 11, 10 games a year. Les Miles was winning bowl games. He just couldn't beat Sabin. Are you better to be? today without less miles? I don't think you are. Nothing against Ed Ors, I don't think you are. Joy with the news.

No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So, O'Dell has been very vocal about feeling disrespected by the Giants after his trade to Cleveland, and he also claimed that he was the reason why the Giants were still featured in primetime games, despite their poor record last season. And yesterday, Eli Manning was asked how he feels about

Odell's comments. I don't think they bothered me. You just kind of shake your head and laugh. You're laughing. I mean, I think those two rings had a little bit to do with by their own TV. We won a few games before he was here. Okay. I mean.

He's getting petty. It's okay. I'm here for the pettiness. I like it. But it's also, he's right about the rings. Can't take those rings away from him. He did beat Tom Brady and the great Patriots in his prime of undefeated regular season. the Patriot team. Odell Beckham had said something in the article. He said, I was the one

getting them on primetime games. The market matters, too. I mean, the Giants are really really popular. The market does play a role in it. However, the Cowboys are the biggest brand in all of sports. And when they were terrible, they weren't getting primetime games. So they're not bigger than the Cowboys. And Odell did play a significant part of that. No one was tuning into those primetime games to see Eli. Like, if we're just keeping it real. I don't care about the rings. And no one else did. either. That said, he also was better with Odell.

Talking about he won a few games. He did. But they were 5 and 11 in 2018 with Odell, 271.9 passing yards, 91.7 pass the rating without him. 222 yards per game, 81.2 pass a rating. He was better with Odell. And while

we're discussing the Giants in their future, Adam Schefter reported about an hour ago. Serling Shepard dislocated his thumb. So he is injured and Corey Coleman also tore his ACL so he is out for the year. Oh, so it's golden Tate and a bunch of hurt guys. So a little thin at receiver there, Eli. That's unfortunate for the Giants. So the Cardinals first overall pick, Kyler Murray has reported to his first NFL training camp. He joins first year head coach Cliff Kingsbury in an offensive style that's been

doubted throughout the league. But despite the critics, Murray is adamant that Arizona's offense will be effective this season. I don't see why everybody thinks that You know, it can't be successful. It's just like any other offense. It's an offense. You know, we work at it, we practice it, and it's our job to execute it. If we don't, then it won't be successful. But if we do, like I said, I mean, you know, I feel like, you know, it works at the college level.

You know, I don't see why I couldn't work at the pro level. So it's our job to make people believe in that. I can't wait to watch them play. I have no idea how it's going to look. I can't wait. You know, this story, gratefully, has died down a little bit because it was all we were talking about for weeks on end, whether they were going to take him and where they're going to do with Josh Rosen, and now we know. But I have real doubts about how all this is going to work out.

I don't know. I mean, as you watch, he does look small. Am I crazy? I mean, again, I don't, the small thing to me doesn't bother me because he's always been small. Like, it's not, he's always been a prospect and he's always been small. There was never an inclination or feeling that he was going to grow. I just don't like the comparisons to Baker Mayfield and Russell Wilson because they have so much more college experience.

And then you can argue, well, they have more miles, but to me, that's not miles. There's a reason why Baker Mayfield was able to do what he's done in Cleveland so far. He was the most accurate passer in all of college football, and that matters in the NFL. And I don't think that Kyler Murray's numbers are that far off. I think it's a lot of new all at once, and I just don't have high expectations for them this year.

Moving forward, we'll see, but not this year. Their division's no piece of cake either. Right. So finally, Caesar Sportsbook released their projected NBA win totals yesterday. The Lakers are set at 51.5 wins. Oh, where's that? Fifth. Thank you.

In the West. Thank you. They haven't won 50 games since the 2010-11 season when they won 57 games. Look who's number two. Okay. But you don't think that the Jazz are championship ready, though, do you? No, I think they'd lose to the Clippers in the Western Conference final. Okay.

No, the Jazz are going to be a great. team. That's what that's that's that's not a no they're going to win lots of regular season games. I just don't think that they're their championship ready. I think I think I think Cesar's palace nailed it. I agree down the I don't have a lot of problems. I don't again I think they've got I would take Houston from three to seven but other than that I like I like Clippers so it's Clippers Utah Houston Denver Lakers. You don't think that the rockets are going to win that many regular season games? I think it's going to take a while to figure that whole thing out. You know it maybe it's the opposite that Hardin and Westbrook will get along great and over the over the over a

time it'll wear each other out, but maybe it is good early. I don't know. I don't think they're going to wear each other out. To me, it comes down to what's going to happen in crunch time in the playoffs. That's always seems to be the issue for the Rockets. They're going to win a lot of regular season games. Look how much stronger the West is than the East. Dallas will not make the playoffs next year. And they still have Milwaukee as the number one team in the league. Milwaukee is absolutely, yeah. Milwaukee and Philadelphia are, even Vegas says it's significantly better than everybody in the East. That feels very fair. And they have a lot of faith in the Celtics, too.

I think the Celtics are going to be a lot better than people think. Utah Jazz. How about that? Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. So Michael Thomas, a very talented young wide receiver, went to Ohio State.

His head coach Urban Meyer will join us in 10 minutes. Michael Thomas is holding out of camp. We're seeing a lot of these guys hold out of camp more than usual. Saints offered him 19 million. He wants over 20. He wants to be the first receiver to get over $20 million. per year. I think this is directly attributed to the NBA. I think everybody watched the NBA off season. Everybody got paid and NFL guys, especially skill guys, look at it and think, let me get paid.

Most NFL guys are failed basketball players. This is fools gold. There's about 2% of NFL guys I'd pay. About 2%. It's about 50%, well, about 35 to 40% of NBA guys I would pay. Over a third of the league I would absolutely pay in basketball. Big money. NFL, I'd pay about 2%. So I think a lot of this is fools gold. Watch New England once again, not get caught up in this fool's gold. They're not

going to pay their running backs. They're not going to pay their wide receivers. So I just want to remind everybody, the teams that spent big money this year, Niners, Lions, Redskins, Jets, Raiders. Now, I do like some of the Niners and the Jets acquisitions, but the Titans spent a bunch of money last year

and it didn't equal a win. The Titan spent a bunch of money last year on running back. And by the way, they won nine and seven. Two years ago, last year they won nine and seven. Didn't mean anything. NFL guys, a lot of these holdouts, they're looking at NBA guys and going, got to get mine, you are not NBA players. They've got 22 starters in the NFL.

You got five in the NBA. Individually, NBA guys mean a lot more. Now, remember DeAndre Hopkins came out when he was watching the NBA free agency. And he said, remember that tweet, y'all think top NFL guys deserve top NBA player contracts? I do in rare instances. But my rule has always been this. This is my rule for paying people if I was in pro sports,

but let's just stick to football. Do your best players, when they are playing their best, translate to wins. So let's look at players who do. Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers, when they're playing their best football, Tom Brady, 48 best passer ratings. The Patriots are 48-0.

Aaron Rogers' career, the 23 highest passer ratings, they're 23-0. So when Tom and Aaron are just spinning it, they win every time. That's a combined 71-0. I'm paying Tom and I'm paying Aaron. Now, I know what you're saying. Call it that is unfair. What about defensive players? All right.

Let's look at defensive players. When Aaron Donald got a sack last year. Oh, the Rams were 10 and 0. And when Khalil Mack had a day, the Bears were 7 and 2. Pay the men. Now let's go to wide receivers. Not as convincing.

And I'm going to give you great wide receivers. DeAndre Hopkins, Julio Jones, O'Dell Beckham, when they had 100 plus yard days, that's a good day for an NFL receiver. Giants, Beckham was 8 and 16, Michael Thomas, the game over 500, same for DeAndre Hopkins. Now, I am not saying quarterbacks are reliant exclusively on receivers, but they are sort of dependent on them. Odell Beckham, that'll probably be 16 and 8 in two years in Cleveland

because they'll have a better quarterback with Baker. So what I would say with riot receivers is use your discretion. If you have a difference maker, there is absolute value there. But the two groups that I see that I'm going to pay, quarterbacks and dominating defensive linemen, those are the guys I'm going to give money to. And I also will give money to one cornerback that can basically force you to throw it to the other side.

side of the field, which helps marginalize your great offense. Wide receivers use discretion. Because when the quarterbacks and the defensive linemen have great Sundays, their teams win. With quarterbacks always, with defensive linemen almost always. Wide receivers. And the other thing about wide receivers, you have to be careful. Now, this won't happen in New Orleans because Drew Brees is a veteran. But you do get instances when you get a young quarterback with a star receiver,

and he feels like he has to funnel the offense through him. Dak is better without Des. Dak now can sprinkle it everywhere. He doesn't feel beholden. He doesn't feel pressure. I got to get Des involved. Now, I think Drew Breeze and Michael Thomas, Drew's going to throw it where Drew wants to throw it.

And I think Michael Thomas is one of those guys with an aging quarterback that there's value there. Drew likes him. Drew trusts him. He's a terrific player. Good hands gets open. But my theory on all this paying is, when your best players have their best games, does it translate into wins?

And so quarterback will pay the most. I'm going to pay a big dominating Aaron Donald, Khalil Mack second. And receivers, they're going to be in a group of about six positions where I'm really going to, I'm going to count pennies here a little bit. I'm going to be tough in negotiations. I'm going to be a little tougher. I can, you know, listen, I don't want to pay DAC 32, but I'm going to have to pay them 30, and it's four more than I want, but I'll swallow that.

Same with the past rusher to Marcus Lawrence. I swallow it. Byron Jones Corner. I'll swallow it. Zeke, I'm going to count everything. I'm going to count everything. All right, good stuff. Urban Meyer, what does he think of Michael Thomas?

He played at Ohio. So Ohio State guys usually do well in the NFL. There are certain programs. Ohio State's one of those programs, maybe as good as anybody. Their stars tend to do really well in the NFL. Doesn't know what's worked that way. And we'll talk to him next. What does he think about Zeke, his guy, Michael Thomas, his guy.

That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source. the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear.

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions

everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. and we're still chasing it

and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro.

Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast. Learn the hard way.

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game.

This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. A rep, mom, I'm a one. I want you to wave at her. What?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. American soccer is about to explode. The World Cup is coming. Ramos sending on to Ernie Stewart the Chip. I'm Tad Ramos. I'm Tom Bo.

On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Polic. I'm not worried about balligan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers,

he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabramos

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple, podcast wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back. Great to have you in. It's my favorite time of the year as we move into August. College football is about ready to start. It starts in late August. NFL camps have opened up.

And two stories right now, Ezekiel Elliott, former Ohio State Buckeye holding out, Michael Thomas Saints holding out, former Ohio State potentially holding out, Zeke. We think he is. We're not sure we'll know by the end of the day. But Urban Meyer coached both. Ohio State players under Urban generally go to the NFL and star. They remind me a little bit of the Miami Hurricanes.

Back in the Miami Hurricanes heyday, they'd be great in college. Sometimes they'd be better pros. That generally is not the way it works, even with Alabama players now. Ohio State guys hit under Urban in the NFL, and Urban is now joining us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Let's start with the Michael Thomas Ziciel Elliott thing. You coached both of them. You know, it's funny about Zeke because even his father admitted Urban coming out of college.

He said he's a young 18-year-old man. He is young. He can be a little immature sometimes. Now you're stepping up, could pay him over $100 million. Would you worry about that was Ezekiel Elliott, who's outspoken, he's playful, he's fun. Do you think money would change him? Would you worry about giving him the world? Well, the thing that listening to your early part before I came on here is that when you talk about Mike Thomas and Zeke Elliott,

we have a saying at Ohio State was that your best players have to be your hardest workers. And that's what I look at as a coach. You know, when your best players are not your hardest workers, when your best players are screw-offs and they really set a bad example, that's the issue to me. But you're talking about Zeke is legendary, he's still in Columbus,

about, we used to call him the best player in America without the ball. He was the best blocker, downfield blocker. I haven't studied that much for the Cowboys, but I know that's any. Same with Mike Thomas. Mike Thomas was the hardest working receiver we've ever had, and we've had some great ones there. So that's the biggest thing.

When I heard you first talking about understanding, without understanding the fiscal responsibilities of each team. I heard you talking about the quarterbacks and the defense alignment. I can't agree more. However, your best players have to be your best workers or you're going to have a bad team. Now, that's really fascinating to know that when you say that. I remember USC had a kid a couple years ago, Juju Smith-Schuster. I had a scout call me and I said,

I've never seen a kid work harder at practice. He had a legendary reputation. So to your point, Tim Duncan had that reputation. Brady's got that reputation. Hard work sends a signal that you. you got the right guy. You know, it's funny about... And we've seen, we've seen, we've seen teams with the great players that don't work hard. And those are usually worst teams in professional sports, certainly in college.

You know, it is interesting when you look at what's happening to football. Passers are now receivers today. I always felt as a kid growing up, running backs were more valuable than receivers. Your last couple years at Ohio State, and I watched a trend in the NFL, if I told you in your first recruiting class, you can have the best receiver or the best running back in America? Who would you take with today's football? There is no question years ago I would have taken the running back without any hesitation whatsoever.

Receivers a lot of times are fill in guys, but that game's changed. And I remember I had a long talk with Coach Belichick one time. We had some issues on defense and giving up the big play. And he was one of the few coaches that starts. from the back end forward. So he's always going to take away your best receiver. And he says a team legitimately can't just run the ball at you consistently

and win the game nowadays. You have too good a D-Lyman. You can scheme up against to stop the run. It's hard to scheme up to stop the pass if the guy's better than your corner. And so I think the game's changed so much. I think this is a space game. I know it is in college,

and I see the trend in professional football too. You know, it's funny. it used to be quarterbacks had to be 6-4 and they had to have a rocket arm but I'm watching Baker Mayfield. I'm watching Kyler Murray. Now you generally at Ohio State

you had the bigger kind of prototypical guys but it is funny to watch what's happening. Should I be concerned? How big is height to you? Because I'm seeing these guys in the NFL now coach. Kyler Murray is like 5, 9 and a half Baker's under 6 feet.

How do you look at quarterback now going forward? Well, I stand behind the quarterbacks for my entire career, and I am concerned. I coached against Baker two years in a row. We beat him in Oklahoma, and they beat us in Columbus, and he's one of my favorite players of all time. I know he planted a flag, I think, in middle of the horseshoe when they beat us, but he's as competitive.

He raises the level play around them, but there's legitimate issues when your offense alignment are six-foot-eight. You have these big defense alignment trying to tear your throat out coming at you, and you can't see. So I think it's a concern, but Russell Wilson's done a great job. Drew Breeze has done a great job. And I think Baker Melford, I don't know enough about the player, Kyler Murray.

I met him at the Heisman this year, and I was a little bit taken aback. He is short, but he's dynamic. And I think that's going to be the coach. To say you're going to run traditional drop-back pass with those players, I don't think he can do it. Yeah. You know, Pat Fitzgerald, you respect him, Northwestern coach, very smart guy. It's a small private school, and he wins a business.

bunch of games. He came out this week and he said, you know, kids are on their devices. College football attendance is going down. And I said, well, I think that's part of it. But I also think part of it is there's too many cupcake games on the schedule. You're asking kids to spend a lot of money and people to spend a lot of money in America. They don't want to watch, you know, Alabama take on, you know, Panera bread or whatever. I don't know. Some school I've never heard of. But here's my point, Urban. I don't want to pick on Nick, but Here's my point, is that I do think coaches are in a tough spot. You want to get bowl wins.

You don't want to lose. But at the end of the day, some of this is consumerism. You can't put a bunch of cupcakes on the schedule. How did you think about it at Ohio State in terms of what's entertaining, what's getting us better, what's easy, what's too easy? You know, Billy Donovan, when we were in Florida, he was my neighbor. And one time we were sitting there and having dinner, and he said, you know, March Madness is out of control. And I'm like, what are you talking about? So you can't lose a game.

Once you get to March Madness, the stress, the pressure, you cannot lose a game. And I looked at him, I said, Billy, what the hell are you talking about? College football coaches at the top five, six programs can never, you're 365 March Madness. So when I was the head coach of Florida, head coach of Ohio State, it was all about win every game. And I could care less about the schedule. I never even thought about it. when I saw that we had to go on the road to Oklahoma, to Virginia Tech, or a tough game on the road, or Florida State when we're at University of Florida,

and I would look at some of the other teams not playing a schedule like that. Yeah, I would always think, you know, why are we doing this? Yet you don't really think of the fan. However, that's the job as an AD. That's a job of people at the, you know, administrative level that you have to do. You have to worry about that. But here's the concern I have. That's supposed to be one of the top issues to get into the college football playoff

and I'm not sure it is. I am not sure that's the number one. Some conferences are playing nine conference games. Some are playing eight. Some are playing FCS school. Some are not. There's got to be, you know, I do believe that has to be looked at in a very neutral voice, neutral eyes, and say, what's the right thing to do?

Four attendance, but also who's going to get in that playoff? By the way, we all know Bamma Clemson, Georgia are going to be really good. And I have a feeling Washington's going to be good. West. You know, Notre Dame old people are pretty good. I think Ohio State, Michigan. I think Michigan's O-Lines pretty good. Ohio State, they're stocked. I got two minutes here. It is injuries are a huge part of the NFL. It's a game of attrition. College, you have 85 scholarship guys. Like when you go into a season, do you look at your schedule and go, okay, here, here, here, here, here? How do you stay focused week to week with 17, 18, 19-year-old kids?

Is that hard knowing they think Ohio State kids know they got better talent than 11 games they'll play? I just actually had a conversation with Coach Day about that and other friends of mine in the profession that, yeah, you have 85 scholarships, but there is a difference between, you know, you'll have, especially, say, the quarterback position, you have to be so cautious. And I've changed over the years. I mean, we used to, you know, inside your, I'm sure you've understood. That's offense, defense line. That's full go, full contact. We used to have 20, 30 reps of it. you have about six, maybe eight, maybe 10 max,

because you're so concerned about the time and effort you put into a player, a guy getting hurt. And you do? When you're in a place like Ohio State, you'll look at your schedule. If you're starting off with Oklahoma, they have FAU and then Ohio State has FAU and then Cincinnati. And they better be careful.

You better not look past them. There's times where I have. I said, okay, we're not going to practice quite as I didn't tell anybody. That was between me and our strength coach. Then I'm going to kind of save it because I'm looking at that I was almost a warm-up to the season. However, you get two scrimmages, usually, before you play a big game. If it's a big game, you have to have those two scrimmages to be ready to go.

If it's not a big game, I would actually use one of those games as kind of a warm-up to continue to get ready and not risk your guys getting hurt. Yeah. By the way, we've got a minute. I want to ask you about Trevor Lawrence Clemson. We'll have to be somewhat succinct. Can this kid live up to the hype? Because he's the best college quarterback I've seen since Andrew Luck.

Can he live up to it? Yeah, I watched him this week. I was kind of studying the ACC, and Clemson separated themselves in many areas and the program that Coach Sweeney's put there. And the fact they've not had coaches leave, that's amazing to me. However, the quarterback's dynamic. He's got a great release. You know, it's a matter of, I don't know him. It's a matter of can he handle the hype?

Can he handle, you know, what's coming his way? You know, we've had Nick Boses, we've had Dwayne Haskins, we've had great ones. And that's legitimate concern. You have to constantly be having conversation. Once again, I don't know, Trevor Lawrence. I understand he's a wonderful guy. But that's real. You become big man on campus.

You become people talking about insurance policies and all that. That does distract you. But he's the best quarterback in college football. Yeah, boy, he is. Andrew Lux, the last kid I saw in college and thought he could play as a sophomore in the NFL. Urban Meyer, we're going to run, have fun golfing coach, and I'll see you soon. Good to see you. All right, Urban Meyer.

Can't wait for college football. That Trevor Lawrence kid is absolutely. Do you see the way that video? It's just a whip. I mean, that's better than a lot of NFL arms. It's going to be fun to watch this. Oh, Lord. And you do got to manage it.

He is only 19-year-old kid, man. Big man on campus is a... Not paying for a lot of drinks when you're that kid on campus. The herd. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like.

This is The Herd. Hour 2, live in L.A. wherever you may be and wherever you may be listening and however you may be listening we're on iHeartRadio Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio FS1 good good good hour

Mark Schlerer stops by Jason McIntyre Monday's headlines today tomorrow's headlines today Joy Taylor is joining us Joy how are you? I'm great I've always felt this in our business

okay Joy and I have worked for a bunch of companies right me more of them because I'm older and I always felt like the two things I want from management. Only two things. Moral, that's your job, not mine. Make people feel important. So when I come to work every day, my coworkers feel important.

I don't pay them you do. That's your job. Second thing is, spot trends. Get out of stuff early and into stuff early. I don't have time. I'm on my treadmill. I'm a player. My job is to score points.

That's my job. Management never tells me what time. I never see my management. I mean, really. I don't see him. My job is to score points. Joy and I are scoring points. We're trying to put points up on the scoreboard.

We can't control morale and we don't have time to be spotting trends. And if we could, we don't have the – we're non-management. We can't do anything. Get into certain sports, out of certain sports, into good contracts, out of bad contracts. I feel that Fox am the luckiest guy in the world. Best management team I've ever worked for. But I talk about this because Sam Presti yesterday, he had a press conference finally. Lost Paul George, lost Westbrook.

Westbrook's talking about one hour from now, but Presti was talking yesterday. He had two comments. Here's the first, Sam Presti. I know that he had used the term mutual. I wouldn't necessarily agree with that because that would infer that we were wanting to trade Paul George, which I think most people would agree that that probably wasn't on the top of our offseason priority list. That's fair. You got a little trap there.

Fair. But he also said something else as if to project push off criticism. He said, quote, small market teams operate with significant disadvantages, no reason to pretend otherwise. This is in no way we cannot be extraordinarily

successful. I'm not saying that. It simply means we have to be thinking differently, finding our advantages by other means. Stop right there. Harden, K.D., Westbrook, Paul, George. All four gone. No titles? One final. Sam, I'm told you're smart and I'm told you're a great guy.

But a lot of that's on you. Let's go back to what I said about management. Paul George, Westbrook, Durant, and Hardin, their job is to score points. Your job is morale. Didn't do a very good job. Your job is to spot trends. Did a lousy job. Eight, nine years ago, League was becoming a three-ball shooter.

I would scream on the air. my former employer in here. John Wall, D. Rose, Westbrook, trade them. Hyperathletic guards that can't shoot. Sell them when they're high before they get surgeries, before everybody figures out,

ugh, that doesn't work in the playoffs. If I can spot it, and I'm just a radio goof, then you better spot the trends, and Sam didn't. He chose Westbrook over Hardin. Jerry West wouldn't have.

Hardin couldn't. Russell Westbrook struggled to start at UCLA. They didn't know what to do with him. He was an athlete, not a basketball player. He got to the NBA. Oklahoma City didn't know what to do with him. They're like, he's athletic. He's not really a great.

He kept telling you what he was. You didn't watch. You didn't spot the trends. Warrior spotted the trends. Rocket sported the trends. LeBron James spotted the trend. About nine years ago, LeBron just started shooting threes.

His game moved outside. Because LeBron, one of the rare athletes that can do what management can do. He could spot a trend coming. Warrior spot. the trend coming. Jerry West spotted a trend coming. Sam Presky. I'll take the hyper-athletic guy who can't shoot over the three guys that can. You could have bailed on Westbrook five years ago, four years ago, three years ago. After the Paul George Westbrook year, I would have traded him then. And I would have gone out and gotten to Mike Conley, somebody that can give me 18 a game

pass to Paul George. This is on Presti. That's your job in management. You've got to spot stuff before it happens. Can't ask players to figure that out. LeBron's very, very, very. very rare that he spotted a trend before management did. But this is, you can't, listen, and I don't think players are without blame. I'm not one of these guys. I think the NBA can sometimes, it's never the player's fault.

But in this issue, you had four great players, you butcher the Hardin Trade, you spotted early that Kevin Durant was a little unhappy with Westbrook. How do I know that? Because I read 32 articles where Kevin Durant had told people privately,

coaches, GM, Westbrook's hard to play with. Then you get Paul George and you see Westbrook unraveling and you could have moved off at then and you just didn't. So that's on you. By the way, shift of this. People don't get football

topic patriots. People don't get smart people just don't get like dumb. Like when Phil Jackson used to coach the Lakers. You know, he was really smart guy and then he'd get conveniently dumb. I'm not criticizing officials. I just made a random comment.

No, Phil Jackson's too smart to get conveniently naive. The New England Patriots do virtually everything well. Except one thing. Man, they are lousy at drafting wide receivers out of college. They're not even mediocre. It stink. Julian Edelman was a rare get, and it took it five years to work. And so yesterday a video came out.

The Patriots went and drafted a wide receiver in the first round. Nikiel Harry from Arizona State. I watched a ton of him in college. He's a very nice player, hard worker, Juju Smith-Schuster, big, strong, tough, physical player, not a burner, doesn't separate, but good after the ball, works his tail off. Belichick called Herm Edwards coached at Arizona State and said,

can he fit into our system? And Herm said, yeah, and I think he'll be a nice player. There was some video out yesterday. everybody's like, oh my, here we go. Tom's finally got a guy. But it's interesting because I was reading an article, Bucky Brooks wrote an article a couple months back on what the Patriots do.

What's the secret sauce behind the Patriots? And they listed five things Bucky said as a former player in Scout. They focused on each player's best trades. They build a roster that features versatile players. They place greater value on intelligence over athleticism. Toughness matters. It's always about the team. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

A lot of football cliches, right? The one thing I'll say about the intelligence is this is where I think sometimes Brady and Belichick, this is why my theory on why they can't get college receivers right. You've got the smartest coach in NFL history. You've got an older quarterback. This is a complex, daunting, overwhelming system. And the one player that is tied to Tom on that field is the receiver. You keep drafting these college guys, and after about two years, when they can't synthesize perfectly with Tom, it's like, we're out of here. Listen, offensive linemen have their own coach, and running back is just a simpler position to play in terms of see the hole, hit the hole.

The defensive player, Patriots draft every position brilliantly. They can't get receiver right. And so I do think when I look at Nikiel Harry, everybody yesterday is like, and I'm like, I'll believe it when I see it. I will believe a rookie receiver can come into New England and be a big playmaker. I haven't seen it in 20 years. They got Edelman Wright, and it took five years. And by the way, he was a college quarterback.

So he was probably better at kind of understanding Brady's kind of mind. This offense is tough. A, on the offense. side. Not on the defensive side. On the offensive side, this offense is rough on young players and it's brutal on young wide receivers. And so everybody's getting hyped up in New England. Nikiel Harry is supposed to be a great kid. I watched him in college. Herm Edward has told me, wonderful kid. But man, I've seen this offense. Brady Belichick chew up. Star college receivers. Chew them up. And they just, it's just, man, Reggie Wayne came into this. Remember Reggie Wayne?

Reggie Wayne went to New England and said, I don't like it. It's just no fun. It's too demanding. This offense, it is just squeezing every bit of that sponge. And I think it's tough on receivers. That's why they go, by the way, they get Chris Hogan was in the league. Wes Walker was in the league. Randy Moss worked because Randy Moss is like a Zavant football knowledge.

Randy comes in and he just instinctively, Randy's one of the, first of always one of the greatest players ever, but he's instinctively, it worked immediately. But Ocho didn't work. Reggie Wayne didn't work. A lot of guys. They basically go get NFL guys who have kind of understand the league. Veterans work a man. I'll believe this when I see it.

I've just seen them just, just, I think it's hard. Because you can't tell me they're great at everything and can't get one thing right. There's got to be a reason for it. And I think the reason why receivers, young ones don't work there, it's just too much. And Tom won't throw to anybody he doesn't trust. He doesn't trust a 21-year-old who he's never seen until two months ago. Believe it when I see it. See, a lot of people are hyping that out.

Not the journalist. That right there was Big J journalism. John, take notes on that. Take notes on that. A lot of people on the hype train on that. Not Uncle Colin. Nope. By the way,

have I acknowledged I'm going to a Keith Urban concert Saturday? Well, it's a loose term for concert. It's a private event that Keith Urban is. performing at. Private, what does private mean? Private meaning it's at what, a ranch? You said it was at a friend's home? Well, I don't know where it is specifically.

It is a private event. But it's not that private. There'll be at least six or seven people there. I'm joking. There'll be hundreds of people there. That's a little bit more. Yeah, it's not on his tour date thing. That's what artists do.

Like Kenny G. Remember Kenny G? Yes. I went to a party once and there was Kenny G. It's not on his tour date. But, you know, if somebody's going to pay a guy a lot of money, and they show up and they, you know, sing and do whatever they do. So I was right.

This is fancy. I don't do fancy events much. Are you going to wear a belt buckle? Oh, yeah. Gigantic belt buckle. The big dollar sign. You know, it's, I mean, it's camp starting. I hold out if I don't get the belt buckle I want.

All right, we've got a Zika update and Mark Schlerth around the corner as well. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, F.S1 and the IHeart Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs,

the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action

with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me,

your host, and your favorite therapist. Kier Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin, Ross because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good

person because you're afraid. Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app.

Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Clifford Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Come on out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the. I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows.

Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense.

And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers while he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Iza, you figure it out.

real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tomorrow, we've got a great MLB doubleheader for you. First baseball's fiercest rivalry rages on as Aaron Judge powers the first place Yankees against Moogie Betts and the Red Sox. Then Jose Al-Tube and the Astros take on the Cardinals.

It all starts at four Eastern, one Pacific on FS1 and the Fox Sports. Yankees' last four or five games evolving crazy. Goulet is a Yankee fan. Something's happening to the Yankees. The Twin Series was nuts. The Red Sogues are crazy. Wasn't crazy as much as a beatdown yesterday. Yeah.

It wasn't great for me. Oh, yeah. They had 27 titles. Boo-hoo. I said the day wasn't great, not the life. Mark Sleruth is joining us. Three Super Bowls, two Pro Bowls. All right, we got, here's news.

Jane Slater was on our show a couple days ago. Does a terrific job covering the Cowboys NFL Network. She goes, my team sources tell me, Zique, not on site for the morning physical, not on site for the conditioning run. I'm also told that while the Cowboys can find him, it doesn't necessarily mean the Cowboys will find him. That's at each team's discretion. So let's talk about this.

There's a bunch of holdouts now that are happening. Michael Thomas, Zeke. First of all, it's tough. You're a head coach. You just want all the good players. You don't want it. You don't deal with this nonsense. And if the Cowboys chose to not pay Zeke,

how does it play in the locker room? Some guys are upset. I want to throw this at you, though. There's a bunch of guys waiting in line to get paid. Nick Wright says, this this morning on first things first. He said, Zeeks cutting in line. Dax's like, well, I've never made any money.

And I'm the quarterback. And I only got a year left. You were a first round pick. You're just a running back. You got two years left. And Nick made a good point. Zeke's kind of cutting in line. Does that matter? Do you think some of the cowboy guys, although Jalen Smith this morning, they asked him about it. He goes, I'm here.

You know, kind of his way of saying, no comment, comment. How do you think it plays with Zeke two years out? Well, I think guys want everybody to get paid. I mean, I think they'll support guys. Certainly, you understand the short lifespan or career span of the running back. Like, you understand that. You know, you always do this where Colin was right and Colin was wrong segment. I was right about this months ago, not on this show, but just in general, my radio show, my podcast.

I was like, you know, Antonio Brown say what you want about him. And I've said plenty about him because he feels like that. guy that doesn't care about winning as long as he gets 10 targets. You know, that's what he feels like to me. Right. But his, call it temper tantrum, whatever it is, he got himself pushed out of Pittsburgh, right? And I said, mark my words, this is going to be the Catholic event that emboldens other guys to say, I want mine too.

And you think about, go all the way back to the last collective bargaining agreement, that's why this one is so important coming up with the NFL and the Players Association. the Players Association screwed the rookies coming in. Yes, they did. They just screwed it. Like, how would you like to not be present and have somebody negotiate for you that has not your best interest at heart? I mean, that's what they did.

They said, hey, let's screw these guys and make sure that they're locked into a five-year contract. Why would you ever play a running back? You've got him, you've got him into, if you draft him in the first round, you've got four years with the player option or with the fifth-year option, and then if you want, you could essentially franchise him for two more years. So you never, if you draft a running back high, what's the point of giving them a second contract? You'll never get a second contract. So the veterans voted that.

The veterans wanted their money. Right. Right. And what happened is, it's funny. Like I always say, hey, man, when I was in college, I used to go to this bar in Alaska called Chilko-Charlie's. Their motto was where we cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you. Right.

Right. I think they thought it was going to be like regonomics. Like it was going to trickle down to everybody. who's going to, hey, we're bathing in cash, make it rain, right? And really what happened is, is it further accentuated the halves and the have-noughts. It's the 80-20 rule. 20% of the guys in the league make 80% of the money. By the way, the NBA has this, too, where Chris Paul makes sure the banana boat guys get rich,

but the middle guys are getting squeezed everywhere in the NBA. So, well, you know who runs these players associations? It's veteran players, and I don't blame them. They're like, I've been in this league 12 years. You've been in an hour. You're paying me, not you. Right. I think the thing that the short-sightedness of that, though, you know, everybody looks at Sam Bradford and says, well, a guy made, you know, $78 million or $100 million or whatever it was.

And he was, and he couldn't stay healthy. And it was, you know, all these different factors that played into that. But if I'm the fourth rounder like, like DAC, and I haven't made any money. And all of a sudden, I can point to a guy who has made a ton of it that was no good and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's where we start the negotiation for contract number two. Like that's where it's important. Yeah, that's why Dax's not going to take a pay cut. The Dax's greatest leverage is, you can say what you want about me on passerating. I've won the division with the Philadelphia Eagles, two of the last three years.

I don't get hurt and I'm getting better. And I kept you on TV. Like, Dax got, to me, Dax got a ton of leverage. Zique is like kind of a pain in the butt. You are a running back. You're cutting in line. Right. You've been suspended.

You went to the principal's office just six weeks ago to talk about your off-field transgression. I think I'd be tougher. I think I'd be tough on Zeke in these negotiations. I think Dak, I'd wrap up tomorrow. I'd wrap Jack up as soon as I could. Like, like, Dak, I agree with you. Doc has leverage. He has leverage.

The position. Right. Zeke, you don't have a whole lot of leverage there. I don't see it. Is he a better player? To me, is he a better player than Dak? Or is he a better player than Amaric Cooper? Yeah, I think so.

But. Better doesn't get you paid. Leverage does. Right. And the other thing. thing is he may be better now, but for how long? That's right. Because the longevity, the long money is on Amari. The long money is on DAC. It's not on Zique. I remember a baseball executive tell me this years ago. This is off topic.

But when he hired an announcer, he goes, I like to hire married guys. He goes, because baseball announcers are on the road 100 nights a year. I like you to have kids, a wife you want to connect to, single play-by-play announcer on the road in Florida. I'm like, well, you know, you know, you. And he literally said, he goes, I look for married guys because it's such a beat down. And so my point is, when you sign a contract with employees, there's a lot of things beyond he's talented. She's talented. Does he play well with others? Is he a long-term employee?

Dack feels like to me I could give DAC 15 years. If you told me Dak is playing in 14 years, I'd be like, oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. He told me Zeek's playing an 8. I'm like, that's a coin flip for me. Long-term employee, I like Dak over Zique. Like if you were, if you were doing, hey, which one's more likely to happen? Dak playing in year eight or DAC being suspended for a year? No, no, Zee, no.

I mean, not Dak. I mean, Zique playing in year eight or Zeeke being suspended for a year? Which one would you put your money on? No, I think there's, listen, we got issues. We got a resume now. Right. Nobody's a victim of their reputation. We know what kind of comes along with both. All right.

So my staff this morning, you know, it'd be nice to have a staff that, you know, helped me. Right. They conspire against me. Sure. It's very difficult. Joy is my only friend on the set. Anyway, so this morning the staff comes in and they're like, oh, look at Baker's one of the MVP front runners.

In your face, old radio jerk. And I was like, yeah, of course he's going to get MVP vote. It's voted on by writers and they like angles and stories. Westbrook's not more valuable than LeBron, but Katie dumped him, so it was a better story. Like, I do think Baker, I think he's going to be an MVP candidate it as long as they can win games. I think he, I think that it's a two-time walk-on.

Cleveland's the Charlie Brown football franchise in the league. Freddie Kitchens is a rookie. I think he's got it. I think he's almost like as long as they're nine and seven. I mean, what do you make it this year for him? Is there a grease fire potential here? Oh, I don't think there's any question that, I mean, it's so much easier to go under the radar than to have expectations.

And there are huge expectations. but not only expectations because from a talent standpoint, Colin, this is one of the most talented teams. You look on the roster, this roster is incredibly talented. Oh, their offensive skill people are, it's the best running back receiver group in the league, the second best young tight end. I'm telling you what, they just have,

they have a ton of talent on this roster. And I said this yesterday on Speak for Yourself. Like, let me just tell you the character drives talent towards greatness. That equation never gets flipped. Talent doesn't drive character. You don't have great talent go all of a sudden, oh, this talent is going to drive my character. You better have great character

that drives talent. And the issue is, is you've got a lot of guys here that I'm not so sure the split between, you know, being a brand and being a great football player. Like, what's more important to you? Like, are you

willing to make the sacrifices so that your teammate can shine? Or if your team teammate shines, do you like, man, I want some of that shine, I'll be a problem. I think Baker is a huge, a huge MVP candidate, simply because if you can manage this roster with a rookie coach and you can divvy up the ball to the guys you have, like, what a job that would be. Yeah. Like, if you can do that job, that is going to be hard.

And there are expectations in Cleveland for the first time, well, 1989 was the last time they won the division and at that time it was called the NFC Central, right? Since that time, the Houston Oilers have won that division since Cleveland won it last. The Tennessee Titans, they play in the South. Oh, the Jacksonville Jaguars have won it. They play in the South. So seven teams have won the division not named Cleveland since 1990. Yes. God. Yeah, they have never won the North. They were the Central the last time they won it. Wow. So, I mean, there are like, there are, to me, some unrealistic expectations, but I understand the talent they have on that roster on both sides of the ball is exceptional.

Mike Tomlin got an extension. I said he's always been Pete Carroll to me. Great teacher, huge energy, creates a culture, a little loose for my taste. There's always an extra penalty. There's an extra story I don't want to hear. It kind of blows up on them once in a while. But they're Hall of Fame coaches. Would you give them an extension?

Yeah, I think it was wise. I think one thing about Pittsburgh in my lifetime and inner circles. You talk to guys in the league. You know, that organization is run. They empower their head coach. In my lifetime, there's been Chuck Noel, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tom. That's it. And mine, too, in my whole life.

Three, three coaches. Three coaches. I live in Denver. In the last six years, they've had John Fox, they've had Gary Kubiak, they've had Advanced Joseph and now Vic Fans. And they had Josh McDaniel before that. Right. So, like, and they won a championship.

And they won a championship. So, you know, my take on this is Pittsburgh paid Antonio Brown. They paid some guys. Those guys were allowed to be a little loose by the head coach, and it ended up backfiring on this organization. And this way is a way of Pittsburgh coming in there and making a commitment to their head coach and saying, hey, man, we are just empowering you. You've been emasculated, some of it you've done on your own.

Now we've empowered you. You are in charge. Take the reins back of this organization. Be the staunch disciplinarian. We hired in the first place. Don't let this thing get out of control and be in charge. And so I think this is their way of saying there's one guy in charge here, guys, and we've empowered our head coach again, and he's not going to screw this up.

It's on him now. And I think the other thing that's interesting about this is he and Ben Rothensberger, these contracts run concurrently now. They do. And so they're married. Like they're tied to the hip. And Ben has been a guy that's had some criticism as well, calling guys out on his radio show. He canceled his radio show.

He's had some leadership problems. So you guys are in this thing together and it behooves us now to be on the same page because this is our kind of legacy together going down this. So I think it was a brilliant move by the Rooney family who have done nothing but created consistent football and a great culture within their organization. They're saying take back this call. and make sure you fix this thing. Yeah, I agree with you.

I think it's interesting how that works. In my lifetime, I don't ever remember saying what I'm about to say. The Steelers are the great sleeper in the NFL this year. Everybody is sold stock. I'm like, best old line maybe, Hall of Fame coach, Hall of Fame quarterback, great owner, great GM, good pass rush. I feel like they win this division going away, Colin.

In my whole life, I've never said, hey, the team that everybody's sleeping on. Right. Is a lot of times we overhyped Dallas. We never overhyped Pittsburgh. I don't know. Like, when have you ever heard anybody say, this is a real dark horse team?

In my life, not once. Like to me, they're in a perfect position. Best O'Line in the division, best quarterback, probably best coach, best owner, best GM in the division. I'll take them. Mark Schlarith, by the way, Schlarith and Evans, weekdays, eight to east, eight to 11 Eastern.

They do a show in the mountains. So I'm not sure how that time zone works out. Six to nine mountain time. So eight to 11 Eastern. Why don't you just share the Pacific Coast time zone? It'd make things so much easier. It's five to eight Pacific. I don't even see, I'm lost.

I have no idea when you're on. I don't either. I don't know. I just, they call me and I come on. All right. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the. The herd line news. Get mountains in your city and everybody thinks they're special. Have their own time zone. Crazy. Odell reported to camp yesterday for the Browns and felt some love from all the fans who were excited about their team's new wide receiver.

And after practice, he said that he finally feels at peace after the trade. I am very just excited to be here. I feel settled in my heart and my mind, my body, so I'm just settled into where I'm at and I feel like I belong. The love is real and it's crazy. And like I said, I just want to be able to reciprocate that. I want to be able to spread it and give it as much as possible. You can feel it.

You don't even have to hear it. Like I told you before, I'm a real impact, so I could feel the hunger and the want to win from these fans. And that's something we just want to be able to showcase and give to them. Is he wearing a hoodie in 95-degree? Yeah, maybe he's got the sleeves cut off. I don't know. I can't do it in the humidity, that northeast heat and humidity.

Camp was filled to capacity over 3,000 people, so you were right about that. He was signing autographs and taking pictures, signed a onesie. There was even a story of a guy who moved from New York to Cleveland just to follow Odell. This is 33-year-old Christopher Ortiz. He's a family of four. He moved to Cleveland from New York to follow O'Dell back on. Listen, he's a rock star. He's a rock star and it's great for the league.

Yeah, and it's great for Cleveland. I mean, this is really good for Cleveland. This is fun. This is what I, people think I always love the bigger traditional powers. I do. I'd rather watch Michigan football than, you know, Indiana football or Purdue football. But in professional sports, when you take a market that has been so beaten and you can give them hope, the Clippers. They just change their franchise trajectory for 10 years.

It's a really cool thing. Yeah. I mean, I don't have any sympathy for Cleveland because I'm from Pittsburgh. So they can lose forever as far as that goes. But professionally, I don't want any duds. I want every team to be at least in the conversation about making the playoffs or be interesting. Like I don't – Cleveland losing every single game in the season does absolutely nothing. I want to turn the TV on to be entertained.

Right. They're very entertaining. And they're very entertaining. And they have potential, which is all the more meaningful. And this, like I said, this is great for the league that O'Dell has the impact that he does on fans. and he seems like he's happier now that he's at camp and he's out of L.A. And it's all about football again. And they can start building that culture that they're talking about.

So speaking of culture, the Steelers and Mike Tomlin have agreed to a one-year extension. We were just talking about this with Slarith. They're keeping him in Pittsburgh through the 2021 season. Tomlin was asked if anything worried him about the short-term deal. And here was his very Tomlin-like response. I love this. Nothing. I really don't think a lot about it, to be quite honest with you.

I focus on the task at hand and if you do that, contractual things take care of themselves. Just so Tomlin. That's the Tomlin response you would expect. He's been with the Steelers since 2007. He was the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl. She won in 2008.

Was he? Yes, he has a 125-66 and one record in Pittsburgh. So overall, pretty successful. And to your point, everyone has sold their Steelers stock. Now, look, I've been watching the Pittsburgh Steelers my entire life, but I will say it was a complete and utter cultural breakdown last year. It was. Seattle had one two years ago.

It was a mess. It was a mess. It was very, everything was unstealer-like. Tomlin was even out of character. I like to see them get back to that. Yes. That aura that the Steelers have, of grit and grind and defense.

I think this is it. I think they're going to be very, very good. I'm interested to see how it works, though, because they have been known for their offense for quite a while now. and they just lost two of the best offensive players in the league in Levy on Bell and Antonio Brown. So all that talk about they were the ones causing the trouble internally and they're the reasons why they didn't win. Well, you missed playoffs last year, so you have nothing but the ability to prove all of that now. Finally, it's camp time.

So there's some holdouts. Melvin Gordon has not reported to Chargers camp. He's holding out for new contract. And they both exchanged proposals, him and the Chargers, but they've not gotten close to a deal. It's now being reported the holdout could extend into the Revenue. regular season and Gordon is willing to miss games to get this done. Not a terrible thing. He stays healthy. Chargers have depth at running back. It's not the world worst thing for the Chargers or Melvin Gordon for him to get maybe 75 carries

less. I mean, in the big picture, I want Melvin. It's better for the Chargers. Melvin Gordon is just, unless he gets the contract he wants, obviously. Yeah, but I mean, if I get Melvin Gordon by week five on, I'm good. That would be interesting if he lasts that long. Philip Rivers was asked about his absence and how it's affecting a team, and he seems pretty confident in the rest of the team's running backs. Yeah, they're going to get a lot more work, and it certainly is a deep position for us, and those guys all love to play and work hard.

So, you know, like I said, I mean, we love Melvin, but we're going to go with what we got, you know, and it's a pretty dang good group. So to your point, that could work out in that he's going to get some rest because they are deep at running back, but. he's going to get money. I think he's going to, I think he's going to get money. Look, holdouts happen every single year. It's not, it's nothing new. There's always going to be somebody that's trying to get paid. This is a tactic that guys use to force their hands. It's just unfortunate that the running back position kind of comes in waves. Like, we go through three years ago,

it felt like running backs are back. Like, you must have a running back. You've got to have a high, high volume, dynamic, multifaceted running back, or you're not going to win. It was Levy on Bell. it was Zieg. You felt like you had to have that. And now it's kind of the pendulum is swinging to now you feel like they're just replaceable. And it may turn out that this year, treating running backs as if they're replaceable,

will show that they're really not. It's just kind of a pendulum swing with the NFL every couple years with running backs. And it just kind of, you hope to catch it as a player when it's on the upside. Yeah. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

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You're a former newspaper guy. Thank goodness those days are over. Yeah. So will the Cowboys give Zeect contract demands? Okay, Colin, I know you've been banging this drum a lot. I believe when the Zieg deal gets done, the headline will be Zeke, and you shall find. Colin, you're doing a great job of cherry picking your DAC versus Zeeke stuff. And I want to hammer this home.

I had the guys build out this graphic for you, okay? What happens when Ezekiel Elliott doesn't play and DAC is a quarterback? Have you looked into this at all? I've been very busy lately. Yeah, DAC is struggling mightily. Look at these numbers with Zique and without him. Dak Prescott's completion percentage down. Look at the interceptions.

10 in 8 games because he's forcing the ball. Zeke is a 3-down back. They need him. All of DAC's stats are down without Ezekiel Elliott. I understand you don't want to pay the running backs. And Zeke has had some off. Two years left on his contract. Again, hey, blame Levy on Bell.

This is the guy who started the trend of, you know, pay me or I'm going to sit out. We're seeing it with Melvin Gordon, who we'll get to. I just firmly believe Zeke is more important to this offense than DAC. You know, you take Zeke out of here. What are you going to do? What are you filling that hole? Three downs. Zeke is in there blocking, receiving rushing.

What do you do? I pay DAC. I pay Amari. I pay DeLorent. I pay Byron Jones. I pay Jalen Smith. So you want to pay everybody except the guy who's led the league in rushing two of the last three years? I don't like these judicial situations every offseason.

It's nonsense. Yeah. So what happened in the playoff game against the Rams? They gave up like 250 yards rushing to C.J. Anderson and Gurley. I mean, look at these stats. Zeeke, by the way, in the first three seasons, has more rushing yards than any cowboy ever. Destroyed Emmett Smith, crushed Tony Dorset.

Like, it's not even close. Those guys didn't have the best offensive line in football. Okay, so you think you could just plug in anybody? I'm not going to anybody is a big gap, but you could plug in a B guy and he would be a A-minus guy with that line. I'll put you on the spot. Are they a playoff team this season if Ezekiel Elliott does not play one staff? I don't know if they're a playoff team with him.

Ah, let's not sell the team. Philadelphia's winning the division. They are. That's true. I don't know if they're playing. They're not making a playoff. with him. Wow, not on the playoffs. I think they're Cleveland.

They're a bubble team. Could. It just depends on injuries. Jerry Jones is going to be lighting up your phone shortly. All right. Well, the Cleveland Browns live up to the hype. Tomorrow's headlines today. We are on the same page with this one. I believe, Colin, by the end of the season, the headline in Cleveland will be, what

Brown can't do for you? Your buddy, Odell Beckham, lighting up social media this week, right? All those awesome catches. Yeah. You do realize that Cleveland Browns are starting a rookie cornerback and a second-year cornerback in Dinsel Ward. That's a young secondary facing Ben Rathesberger

twice. Andy Dalton's pretty good. And their offensive line. Oh, the offensive line, yeah. It's not good and their tackles are considered probably the worst pair in the league. And here's a fun stat about that defense that, you know, did pick up Sheldon Richardson, Olivier Vernon. They missed the most tackles in the NFL last

year, according to pro football focus. They just can't tackle, and then you can't cover in the secondary. It's a lot on Baker Mayfield. Colin, I do also want to add there's this kind of vibe that you can microwave a Super Bowl by adding Odell Beckham and Sheldon Richardson and Kareem Hunt. You know, the Cleveland Cavs got LeBron in the draft and everybody's like, oh, we're going to the finals, we're going to win titles. How long did it take Cleveland to get a title with LeBron? 2003 to 2016.

13 years. Takes time. You're not going to go from 1 in 15 and 016 to all of a sudden winning a Super Bowl. I personally believe, like you, they're a bubble playoff team. The talents are. I just don't think they're ready for the playoffs. Will the Patriots continue dominating the AFC tomorrow's headlines today? New England fans love me because my, you know, allegiances to the Jets.

I believe the headline in New England will be Brady Bunch of losses. Oh, Lord. Yeah, listen, we're going to do something later in the show that's going to be fun about Belichick. But I do believe there are going to be issues in New England. Now, we say this every year, right? They're going to start slow because Belichick doesn't care too much about the month of September. It's an extended pre-season. But, Colin, when you look at this team defensively, who's getting to the quarterback?

They lost Trey Flowers, led them in sacks. Monster on the defensive line. They led the NFL last year in pressures. They don't get sacks. They get pressures, which often lead to interceptions. I'm not too caught up on their sack total. Okay, fair enough. Are you caught up on the Rob Grankowski hole?

You go from the greatest tight end in NFL history to we don't know what we're doing a tight end. They have no clue what they're doing lining up next to their left tackle, who's basically a rookie out of Georgia he missed last year. Any team in that division you like sneaking up? New York Jets. Listen, we're going to do plenty on them in the month of August after I take a little vacation here. But I'm telling you, the New York Jets are loaded.

The Patriots are going to struggle at times this year. Listen, Josh Gordon last year, you know how good he was for them middle of the season weeks 8 through 14? He was one of the best receivers in the league. Yeah, he had a good stretch. He's gone. He's gone. And I just believe at tight end, at receiver, past rusher.

there are some questions. And how did Tom Brady perform in the playoffs? Do you remember? That's move up. Yeah, he wasn't very sharp. He did win the Super Bowl. He made one pass to Grankowski. Tomorrow's headlines today.

How will the Chargers handle Melvin Gordon's holdout? Yeah, the Philip Rivers news today. I mean, that's not good. Philip Rivers just chiming in on Melvin Gordon. And the headline in Los Angeles will be discharged. A little graphic. I hope we don't take some heat for that. But Philip Rivers came out basically today and said Melvin Gordon's great.

And we'd love to have him, but we've got a great stable of running back here. I know, we just played that bite. He was kind of not dismissive, but it was like, we got a bunch of dudes. He did a better job than Baker Mayfield did with Duke Johnson. He made it personal. Yes. Baker made me say like, get in here and like get over it or whatever. Yeah, yeah.

Philip Rivers is a pro. He's a veteran. He's a Hall of Famer. And he said it well. And I feel bad. I can't stress this enough. I feel bad for Melvin Gordon. He's in a tough spot.

These running backs. You know, they take a pounding, they drive you into the ground, and then they just discard you. You know, and discharge is the headline. They're probably going to open the season without him unless Melvin Gordon tucks tail and comes back to the team. I still think there was Super Bowl contended without him. I will say this.

I think with him they win the division this year. I would agree with that. But without him last year, 4 and 0, and they average like 27 points per game. I mean, Keenan Allen is much more important. Look at the depth at running back, Ezekiel. sorry, Austin Echler, obviously, very good. I like the kid Justin Jackson as well. Yeah, I think he's a Northwestern kid.

Chargers have done, I know they're GM. They've done a really good job drafting. But Colts and the Chargers draft really, really well. Add the Eagles to that list as well. Some teams are just really good on track. Patriots, by the way, do not qualify as one of the great drafting teams. They don't.

Chargers do, Colts do, Eagles do. All right, by the way, he'll come on at the end of the show. We're going to do rejected headlines. These are the best of the best. There's some stinkers, and we'll show you some of the all-time worth for Jason McIntyre. Plus, we got some cowboy stuff. Cowboy Camp, we're going there next. Do not go anywhere, Dallas Cowboy Camp.

You can hear us on XM, Sirius, Fox Sports Radio, IHeart Radio, everything next. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart Radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Ah, here we go, hour three. We're live. in Los Angeles. This is The Herd.

Wherever you may be in, however you may be listening. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio. Are we on FS2 right now? That's right. Joy Taylor's joining us. Matt Mosley, 15 minutes cowboy guy. Zeke hadn't shown up to camp. It's good to have guys in.

By the way, I want to touch on something. Russell Westbrook's going to be talking right now. He's a new Houston rocket, so he's going to be talking. He's actually out of basketball season. He's just incredibly joyful. The minute the season starts, it gets all wet, up. But outside of basketball, he's usually great. He's great with the media. It's great at press conferences. Then they give him a basketball and say, win a bunch of games. He gets real tight.

But he'll probably be great at the press conference today. By the way, yesterday, Sam Presti, you know, he just had Paul George and Westbrook and they both left. And he had a sit-down press conference yesterday, Sam Presti. And it makes me laugh because, you know, he said, listen, I didn't want to lose these guys. It was not mutual. They left me. Which is fine. That's fair. The other thing, though, he said, he goes, the Thunder GM, Sam Presti said, as small market teams operate with significant disadvantages. There's no reason to pretend otherwise. It's very disadvantageous to be in a small market.

By the way, blame your league for that, okay, because the NFL's got small markets and they all win. Green Bay wins, Baltimore, wins, New Orleans, wins, Indie, wins, Kansas City, wins. In the NFL, market size is irrelevant because they have a hard cap. basically the NFL says this, here's your money, that's your budget, don't go over it. The NBA has so many goofy loopholes. It's so complicated that the Golden State Warriors had no cap space and yet they still signed the Angela Russell.

The NBA, and I'm not joking, the NBA, and I'll just read you a few of them, the NBA has a mid-level exception, a trade exception, a veteran minimum, a bi-annual exception. a Larry Bird exception, a non-bird exception, a D. Rose rule, a disabled player exception. You can draft Europeans not coming to the United States, and that doesn't work against the cap. The NFL's like, here's your money, don't spend over it. They have a hard cap. What does it mean?

It means you can't keep all your stars. It means it's a real budget. Can you imagine you and your wife have a budget? You have $3,000 a month. I mean, you're not rich people. four. And that's your budget. But the husband says, whoa, wait, wait, there's the Friday

steak dinner exception. I get my stakes on Friday. Wife says, okay. And she goes, whoa, whoa, we have the Rich Carlton Maui vacation every year exception. Okay. He goes, wait a minute. I like watches. I get the buy

monthly jewelry exception. And she's like, okay. And then she goes, I like to shop at Whole Foods only. I have the Whole Foods exception. And then both of them are like, and we have the new Apple product exception. We get new phones. Well, that's not really a budget then. You've created so many exceptions in loopholes.

You're not going to make your budget. The NBA has got all these loopholes. They've got to get the players paid. In the NFL, you pay great players. You don't play average players. In the NFL, there's no exceptions. You can cut bait. Guy underperforms, he's out.

NBA guy underperforms, you're trapped. The NFL allows you as a general manager to make a mistake occasionally. Because, you know, in life, we all do make mistakes, relationships, businesses. In the NBA, you make a mistake with a player. You're just done. You are toast. That puts enormous pressure on a general manager to get every draft pick right. Well, guess what?

In the NFL, I got four years of tape. I still whiff all the time. So, you know, whenever I hear about small market disadvantages, blame the NBA for that. They got so many, I mean, how do the Warriors afford DeAngelo Russell? They already have Clay and Steph in the back. court, they're like, we have so much money left, we can pay DeAngelo Russell. It's not supposed to work that way. The NFL, to me, is better run in terms of cap. The closer you can come to a hard cap, the more parity you create. You just can't keep it. Spreads players throughout the league. They

can't all go to the same team. You cannot have three superstars on one team. You can have two, but then you should be in the NBA, the way it should work, you can have two stars, but then you've got to be a little frugal on your bench. So teams are good and watchable. but not dominant. You shouldn't have a situation where you could, Durant, Steph, Clay, Boogie. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's where you get dynasties.

So it's not the small market thing, because small markets don't work in the NBA as much. They work, I'm going to tell you, they work in the NFL just fine. So a lot of this is structure, and you can say whatever you want, NBA, but Bill Parcell is used to OSA. You have to have a game plan and draft accordingly.

If you start creating exceptions, you're just going to have a roster full of exceptions. All right, 15 minutes, Cowboys reporter Matt Mosley on Zeke Elliott status from Cowboy Camp. Well, well, well, the updated odds for the NFL MVP have come out officially. And my staff thought it was hilarious that Baker Mayfield had the same MVP odds as Tom Brady. First of all, it's voted on. So, of course, Baker has a shot because Baker's got a better story. This is what MVP have become. NBA MVP, it's not about value.

It's about stats. It's called the MVP, not the MSP, but Russell Westbrook won it. Derek Rose won it. Really, Derek Rose valuable. Has there ever been a minute of his life he was more valuable than LeBron James in a basketball court? The MVP is voted on by writers who like stories and romance over reality. Of course, Baker Mayfield's going to get a ton of votes. I would be shocked.

As long as Cleveland has a winning record, one game over 500, I will be shocked if Baker doesn't finish top two in the MVP. His story is better. Now, if you're asking me who I think the MVP, the last five to ten years in the NFL, there's three players in this league that I think are way more valuable than everybody else. And again, the word is valuable. Andrew Luck is number one.

He's gotten teams to the AFC championship. bad rosters to a conference championship. Number two would be Aaron Rogers. He's gotten bad defenses to a conference championship. Third is Russell Wilson. He's gotten horrible offensive lines into the playoffs. Those are the most valuable players. Patrick Mahomes is gifted, but he's got Andy Reed,

fastest player on the NFL, the best tight end, a very good offensive line. He's great, and don't get me wrong, There's some value there. But Andrew Luck, Aaron Rogers, Russell Wilson are the most valuable players in the NFL. But I'll give you an example of why Baker's going to finish top two in the MVP voting. I'm not saying he's going to win. It's going to be top two because people vote stories.

Here's a great example. Usually, if you have great receivers and you have great backs and you have great tight ends, people would say, well, of course, of course they're good. I mean, of course. Baker Mayfield has the first or second best young tightest. in football, the best wide receiving core, easily the best three backs combined,

but he's going to be the rare guy that gets credit for that. Why? Rookie head coach, downtrodden Cleveland, Baker's a short two-time walk-on. It's a great story. Baker's a great story. And MVP's are about

stories. I mean, really, you've ever thought Russell Westbrook was more valuable than LeBron James? Where? Outside of one city where in the NBA. But he was a better story. Kevin Durant left him, triple double, even though it's not a stat award.

Okay. Take Jared Goff. Jared Goff doesn't have a wide receiving core as good right now as Cleveland. Robert Woods is excellent. He's a number two. Cooper Cup is excellent. He's a number two. Brandon Cooks is excellent. He's a number three.

You can't name the Rams tight end. What about Todd Gurley? What about him? couldn't play at the end of last year. Jared Goff has never once even sniffed MVP talk. Like Baker, he's young. He's 24 and 7, 60 touchdowns, 19 picks, and a pass rating over 101, and got to the Super Bowl when his best receiver was hurt and his best running back couldn't play.

Not a sniff. Why? Because Jared Goff is tall and didn't have to walk on. And the Rams are in big, rich, greedy L.A. and Sean McVeigh is a genius, although the Super Bowl disprove that. MVPs are about narratives, and sports writers vote on MVP,

so they vote for stories. Jared Goff's numbers are absurd in his first couple of years. His first year in the NFL, it was man overboard. The fact that he didn't crumble's amazing. He's done nothing but win and get to Super Bowls. Nothing. No crickets. Bakers got better tight end. Baker's got better receivers.

Baker's got better back, but it's Cleveland, it's Freddie Kitchens, he's a rookie head coach. We don't. Baker will absolutely be top two in the MVP voting as long, as long as Cleveland has a winning record. And I predict them to be nine and seven. So I'm not shocked at all. My favorite, by the way, is probably Patrick Mahomes. And he'll be worthy of it. He'll put up massive numbers.

And he's valuable too. Coming up next, Matt Mosley, Cowboy Camp. Zeeke hasn't shown up yet. Fascinating stuff. It's been fun. We've been on this for two weeks. Love it. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode,

we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Keer Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough because people score board watch life becomes about wins and losses steve burns dustin ross because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid because

that's two different intentions bro absolutely and that that's two different levels of trust i want you to just really be a good person join me kear gains is we have real conversations about healing growth fatherhood pressure and purpose on my new podcast learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app search learn the hard way and listen now.

What's up guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast the Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff like being an internet

famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me he goes, hey ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office blue 42. A rep. My mama want you to weigh better. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game.

His IQ is at a level that we've never seen. before. And he knows, without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell-go-go-

the flying he run up the court licking his fingers why he got the ball like after you go through a training camp with that i zahad you figure it out real quick get your ass up and down the court and you're going to get the ball so listen to point game on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts matt mosley's the columnist for dallas news dot com co-host of the doomeday podcast with our buddy edwarder and matt is now joining us he's heading to camp here tomorrow so Zeek is not there. Nick Wright on our network, Matt, brought up an interesting point. He said all these guys, you know, Dax never made any big money, and he's got a year

left, and Zique appears to be cutting in line, like the lunch line at school. He's cutting in line. He's already made big money, less valuable position, two years left, and he sort of cuts in front of Dak, give me my money I'm holding out. I thought it was an interesting analogy. Do you buy that it could potentially in the room create a little bit of a little bit of of unspoken resentment. Yeah, and I think that is such a big brother.

I think they're in touch on an almost hourly basis right now. And again, I am in the process of getting out there. I'll fly out early tomorrow. I need all chaos to continue. The last thing I want is for this to get resolved before I can get out there and get in the middle of this. But I think, Dak, I think if there's any locker room that can kind of hold up, it's this one because of the sort of big,

brother relationship that those two have. I don't see a rift forming there. And even Travis Frederick, one of the spokespeople for the team, and he said, man, I do not begrudge this guy at all. And he needs to handle his business. We won't hold this against him. So you will not hear a Philip Rivers like, we like our guys just the way they are. And hey, we'll miss him, but we kind of like what we have here. And honestly, because it's not true. It's just simply not true. They don't know what they have as backup. So they got like two rookies coming in, and they really don't have anything close to even what the chargers have. So I have a hard time. I mean, I usually root for chaos, Colin, but when it comes to these two in that quarterback room and that offense, they are

in lockstep with each other. So I don't, I don't see that happening. Listen, Dallas would like to keep him obviously. Do you think, you know, but companies tend to worry about precedent. I've heard that before my career. We don't want to do this. It sets a precedent. But they may get trapped. I mean, do you think Zeke, if Dallas said, listen, we're going to wait a while. We love you. We're not going to give you one now. Who has the leverage? Do you think Dallas would hold out and say, well, we're just not going to do it for a while? Well, I don't think, I don't really think either side has the stomach for this, but I think mainly, I think Zeke will give in first on this. I think they're trying to make a statement, trying to put it out there.

Hey, you realize you want to remember how important. I think the Cowboys might reach out to his agent and remind him, we stood by you when you've embarrassed us out there. When you go to the electric dance carnival and you're pushing security guards, we've stood by you two years ago. We went to the wall for you. You hang in here. We're going to take care of you.

We're just not going to do it right now. We're not going to let you jump in line. and I would still be extremely surprised by the time I kind of break camp, my own personal camp. When I head out of town like Wednesday from Oxnard, if he's not there, I mean, I will be absolutely shocked. This seems like a, like a, hey, I mean, Gordon seems like he's dug in a little bit with the Chargers. Right. This to me is a little, remember how important I am to the offense. I'll see you guys here in a couple days.

You know, it is, there are so many mouse defeat here with Dallas. In the city of Dallas, when you listen to sports radio, when you get reactions to your columns on DallasNews.com, obviously Zeeke right now is considered the better running back than DAC would be considered the quarterback. What is the support for DAC, the contract? We all know that if you pay a quarterback 35 million, there's limitations on the roster.

How do people in the city of Dallas feel about DAC going forward? Well, hot better. Romo had such a rocky relationship with fans over time. Now history is sort of going to be kind to Tony with Dak with the winning and the two of the three division titles and kind of knocking on the door of getting done an NFC title game. I think for the most part, I would say he's got like 85 or 90 percent of this community. And then he's got some backers that, boy, even if you try to use some numbers,

like you've been known to do columnist analytics and show some issues with DAC, why you, he's got some people that'll just go to the wall for him. Like, so there's, there's some stuff going on with Dallas and, in DAC that, boy, the critics get, I mean, and again, I have to remind people, I was with this guy coming out of Mississippi State. I was a huge, that guy, like early on. I mean, I had some excitement about the guy. But, Now, when I criticize him and go, hey, should you, should you have a little pause here before you hit 30 million on this guy? Should we have a little pause involved? I mean, it's like I'm a, I'm a bad guy around here for it. So I would say for the most part, media slash fans, he's, he's doing

fine. And when he gets that big paycheck, now again, he'll get the paycheck. And if he goes out and have a bad season, they'll turn on him in a hurry. I mean, Dallas fans love to do that. They They do not ride with you for a long time unless you're a dirk, you know, somebody like that who has long, you know, long time greatness. Yeah. Matt Mosley, columnist, Dallas News, co-host of the Doomed Day podcast with Ed Werder. You know, it's funny. Jason Garrett's one of those guys that he doesn't have a big personality. He doesn't have much of a profile.

I mean, Jerry's profile's huge, Zeke, Des, Cowboys coach, Tom. Landry and Jimmy Johnson Parcell's massive profiles. You know, Jason Garrett to me, I always think he's safe. And then you can go to a message board. He's getting fired every 15 minutes. I always feel like Jerry likes him.

Do you think going into this year? Because they're going to have to pay some people, right? And so that means Jerry's like throwing out big checks for some of these young players. Do you feel like this is a big year? Like many are saying Ron Rivera, Cam this year, big year. Do you feel like Jason Garrett it is?

Yeah, I think it is huge for him. I'm with you. He stayed through years where they've had a lot of 500-type seasons. He's been able to survive because of just the, you know, Jerry thinks of him as another son. He really, and so it's different than that Rivera, some of these other coach. There is so much history. He's been around his organization so long, and that's one of the reasons he feels like he can let him coach into the final year of his contract. He thinks there is a basic understanding.

I think this is a good moment, by the way, for Garrett. I think Zeke not showing up allows Garrett to try to set the tone and keep everything together. And when you see this news conference with Jerry coming up in just a few minutes, you're going to see Garrett will have an opportunity. Now, Jerry will take up most of the space there. You know, he sucks up all the space. But the rest of Garrett on a daily basis, no matter how long this goes, I think this is a really good opportunity for Garrett to keep everybody together.

In fact, I think deep down Garrett is hoping Zeekel stay gone for about two weeks, about two weeks and give him a chance to kind of run the team while all this carnival's going on and kind of show, hey, I keep things together because of the way I am. And my robotic nature will be helpful through all this. So I don't think Garrett deep down is that sad about this potential. hold out. Matt Mosley, good stuff, Cowboy Insider. Good talking to you, buddy. It is good. You can imagine. The hardest thing for me is taking care of word or travel itinerary. My goodness. I've figured out now why ESPN was so frustrated all these years. All right. I'll talk to you soon.

All right, Matt Mosley. You know, it's funny about DAC because you had said something, Joy. If you put Carson Went and DAC's numbers up against each other, you know, Dax's got a lot of Ws, right? And a lot of wins and he's healthy. It's funny about the eye test. We can do analytics and we can talk all the stats and data. But Wence is much better with the eye test. Bigger, stronger. I mean, he's got a huge arm and then gets beat up. Dak, and I'm watching all these highlights as I talk over about DAC, you know, DAC's delivery is, you know, he doesn't throw, he doesn't have the rifle arm. He's not real, real big. When he does run, he's not Russell Wilson. He's not, he's not Brett Fav. Some of this is we don't know what to make it, Dak, because he wins so damn much. But our eyes are telling us,

he doesn't have a great arm. He's athletic, but he's not. Some guys, and this is a cliche, but some guys just, they rise in the moment. Dak tends to be kind of a bigger to the game, bigger the moment. He's pretty good. You know, the eye test is fun, but I like to use my eyes to read the win and loss column because that's pretty clear. Yeah. And, That matters. Jack has more of those. He also plays in the games. I understand that Wentz may be more talented,

but all that talent is useless if you're not available to play. Now, I'm not saying that he's not going to be healthy this year, but if it turns out that he does have another major injury, it starts to be that conversation. Oh, if Carson Wentz has an injury, I mean, you've got to just start drafting quarterbacks. You have to go find another Nick Foles. I mean, you have to. You don't have a choice.

You have to draft the quarterback. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So O'Dell says he's at peace now, but he was very vocal about feeling disrespected by the Giants,

trading him to Cleveland. And he also claimed that he was the reason why the Giants were featured in the primetime games despite having a poor record last season. And yesterday, Eli Manning was asked about those comments. I don't think they bothered me. Just, you know, you just kind of shake your head and laugh. You're laughing?

I mean, I think those two rings, had a little bit to do with a lot of the TV. What a few games before he was here. He does have two rings that O'Dell did not help him get. I think that O'Dell's, O'Dell has a reputation amongst some in the league, and I think Antonio Brown

gets a little bit of this, and Levy on Bell, that they're more just stats guys, and they really don't care about winning. And when he talks about, you know, beating Jerry Rice and all those things, the reaction is negative when Julio Jones says it, it's like, oh, okay, that's just a lot.

goal. You know, it's all about your reputation, but Odell's not telling any lies. I certainly wasn't interested in the Giants for Eli Manning, and that's no disrespect to Eli Manning, who I think is really being done a disservice as far as his overall career goes in the way that the Giants are handling the end of his career. Sequin Barclay obviously was a big part of that as well, but we all want to see Odell. He's a rock star. We want to see what Odell does. He's on everyone's Fantasy League. He's the NBA player of the NFL. He's been, until Saquan Barclay, he's the juice of the franchise last five years. A hundred percent. The juice. And looking forward, it's, it's not looking great for the wide receivers for Eli, at least right now. They have

Corey Coleman injured with a torn ACL. He's out for the season. Sterling Shepard has a fractured or dislocated thumb. And Daria Slayton was their fifth round pick. He has a hamstring injury. So they are outside of Golden Tate, very light. They have Reddy White. Jr. is a rookie, Russell, Russell, Shepard, Cody Latimer, and Alonzo Russell. So they've got some issues there, a wide receiver with all the injuries that they have. But

I think there's a feeling that people think that Eli's going to be elevated this year without Odell and I just don't, I don't buy into that. I know that there's like pushback on saying that you're the reason why people are watching, but sometimes you're just telling the truth and they just don't want to hear the truth

from you. So Cardinals first overall pick, Kyler Murray, is reported to training camp and he joins first year head coach Cliff Kingsbury in an offensive style that's been sort of picked apart throughout the league. But despite the critics, Murray is adamant that Arizona's offense will work this season. I don't see why everybody thinks it, you know, it can't be successful. It's just like any other offense. It's an offense. You know, we work at it. We practice it and it's our job to execute it. If we don't, then it won't be successful. But if we do, like I said, I mean, you know, I feel like, you know, it works at the college level. You know,

I don't see why I couldn't work at the pro level. So it's our job to make people believe in that. You know, it's funny when I watch him, if it works, and let's just say we all, I mean, how, however level it works at, we're like, okay, there's an NFL quarterback. He's not Russell Wilson, but he's NFL quarterback. You know, Joy, it's funny. Next year we have three quarterbacks, really good college quarterbacks,

three. Then we have Trevor Lawrence the year after it, who I don't even care if you need a quarterback, draft him. There's not a lot of teams. If Arizona hits here and Bruce Ariens, I mean, if Bruce Ariens turns around, Jamis, which I think there's a chance that'll happen. Pretty good chance. And if Kyler hits, you know, we were just sitting a couple days ago talking about it.

Who is desperate for a quarterback? Well, in two years for Trevor Lawrence, there could be a lot of things available. The people will move eight picks for him. Right. And I mean, who knows? Like injuries, anything can happen in that amount of time. So who needs it? I'm trying to think just off the top of your head.

Somebody said the other day, Oakland. And I'm like, boy, if we're moving off Derek Carr, we got good quarterbacks in the League. I mean, Derek Carr for my entire life in the NFL, you didn't move off Derek Carr. Right, but we really don't know what to make of Derek Carr ever since the injury. John just said it. Tennessee this year, I mean, Mario's going nine and seven,

but if they just... I mean, Tennessee, like, we don't know what we're going to see from Josh Rosen. I think Josh Rosen is a franchise quarterback, but we don't know we're going to see from Josh Rosen. That may be it. You know, there's some, there are a few franchises. Everyone always needs a quarterback if you're looking at it that way. And also, I mean, the Patriots, like, eventually

they're going to have to draft a quarterback. By the way, you know, it's going to be the most maddening. What if New England gets Lawrence? What if they stock and they give up 15 picks to get him? Don't even say it. That would be terrible. Finally, the Rams

have extended the contracts of head coach Sean McVeigh and GM Lesneed through the 2020-season. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed yet, but McVeigh's extension replaces the first deal he signed in 2017 and it's expected to place him in the top tier of NFL coaching salaries.

which he deserves. He was 24 and 8 in the regular season with his first two seasons with the Rams back-to-back NFC West titles. And obviously they were in the Super Bowl last year. And the 13 and 3 record in 2018 is the second best record in team history. They deserve it. No reason to doubt McVeigh or less need in this situation. It's funny about the Rams. Like when you lose the Super Bowl, everybody bails on you. Like when the Patriots lost to the Eagles, okay, it's over.

All right. And then when Atlanta lost. Okay. And L.A. they lost. Yeah. A lot of people have sold their L.A. stock. I don't know why. Folks.

Folks, Rams are either going to be in the NFC championship or darn close to it. Like they still, their offensive line is getting a little old, but the last two years they've drafted for it. Like Goff, McVey, Aaron Donald, Cooper Cup, Robert Woods, Gurley, Akieb, Taleb, Marcus Peters. This roster's, by the way, really, really good. Yes, I think the Rams and the Steelers are two teams that everyone has. of sleeping on this year. Yeah. And it's like, folks, there's just great players everywhere on these rosters.

Good stuff. Joy with the News. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. Boy, I've been watching some Keith Urban during the breaks. He is really talented. Now, you like NASCAR, Goulet, so I would think you like country music.

I wouldn't say I'm a Keith Urban fan. I'm not as jealous of you going to that. What would you be jealous of? in the country realm let's say Chris Stapleton he's very good I would be jealous of that Chris Stapleton and you Connecticut you grow up uh I mean it NASCAR and country music go I'm not opposed to it I listen to some country music it's not my first choice but I'm okay with it Chris Stapleton would be your guy that would be my guy

I look how you're just associating like oh you like cars so you must love country music well they go hand in hand that is a fair association is it yes I would think That's fair. I mean, it's a stereotype, but it's not wildly. You go to NASCAR events on a Friday before the event, and they'll have parties around. They'll have country bands. That's fair.

If you listen to country music stations, which I have, they'll advertise NASCAR events. Country music's good storytelling. It is good storytelling. It's very soul cleansing when you're sad. It is. It is so. That's a good way to put it.

So the last time you were sad, you put on some Shania Twain and just bawled all afternoon. I don't know. Shania Twain isn't very sad. She's kind of dynamic. Yeah. She's more like empowering Shania. Yeah.

Who is, give me the top five country artists right now in the world. Well, I mean, who are they? Who are the top five? What about? Lil Nas X. Now, that's just a song. Is he huge? I mean, it's the, well, his album is not a country album.

I'm partially making a joke, but he does have the biggest country song in the world ever. Now, Garth Brooks, when I was growing up. Oh, Blake Shelton. Blake Shelton's big. A Carrie Underwood. There you go. I like Miranda Lambert. It used to be Taylor Swift, but she kind of changed her style.

She's pop. You didn't used to be. She switched it up. She changes genre as more than boyfriend. She's all over the place. So she's got, was that a cheap shot? Yes. I'm sorry about that.

All right. What about Dirk's Bentley? Do you remember him? I like Dirk's Bentley. Like Casey Muscle. graves. Oh, especially as early work. Or is that a girl? She, it's a shoe. I'm an idiot. All right. Jason McIntyre's actually back. We do tomorrow's headlines today. And they always make me laugh. He's had some absolute ridiculously bad tomorrow's headlines that we would not put on the air. And we thought it's Friday. It's the summer. So the staff said, here are some of the ones that didn't make the cut. All sorts of stuff. Russell Westbrook just introduced in Houston. I'll give you some of that.

couple minutes. What do you say anything interesting? Well, we're going to watch it together. It's very exciting for audience. So you've never made two appearances on the same show. This is groundbreaking Joey. Jason McIntyre. Now, you come on for a segment called Tomorrow's Headlines Today. We do it on Friday. And we thought of this about a year ago because you were a newspaper guy. And I was trying to figure out something on Friday to end the show that was kind of funny about going into the weekend. And I kind of brainstormed this. And I said, you know, you're a newspaper guy. And so you do it and you do funny headlines about stories. So you did it an hour ago. And today, three of the got a big laugh from me.

Yes. Want to chuckle, three big laughs. So it's a very good day for you. And only people on the internet hated the Patriots one. That was the, you know, you know how it is social media. Right.

But what people understand is we do, this takes a while. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of garbage before stuff gets siphoned out. So what we're going to do today, we're going to call it rejected headlines today. Yep.

So these were the ones that didn't make the cut. So you said the Cowboys will pay Zing. Yes. And your rejected headline was what? Well, there were three of them. Let's start with the headline that hit. Okay, so we used Zeke and You Shall Find, right? You liked that one.

That was good. Yeah, that was creative. That was creative. That was very punny. Right, very punny. That's what we're going for here. Now, the rejected headlines, we're about to show you those. Here we go.

The first one, Zeke it into existence. That's not terrible. I like that, too. You could have gone with that and I would have been okay with that. Maybe we'll recycle that once Zeke starts to tear it up. Okay, so you didn't mind that one. The next one. one not as good. It Zeeks for itself.

Bit of a force. I don't know if I hate that one either. It's bad, but so bad it's good. Bad in a good way. Yes. Okay. And finally, and this one I liked, but it was a little bit much. Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Running Back. I'm a big Star Wars geek. My dad came in town last week. We watched Star Wars together. Obviously, Dallas, Star Wars, running back, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's a little wordy. It's a little bit much. So it was eliminated from the headlines. Okay, so those were rejected headlines. Yes, those were rejected. So now we're going to...

So you said the Browns won't live up to the hype, and the headline was. The headline was what Brown can't do for you? Which is a marketing campaign for who? UPS, I believe. UPS, okay, and then, you know, Cleveland Browns, blah, blah, blah. All right, so here we go. These were the rejected ones. Browns fans, they're going to come... It all comes crashing Brown.

That's not great. Yeah, that's not great. That was rejected. It did not make the cut. one up. Here we go. Baker, Baker, not a playoff maker. And I'm going to say this. Baker Mayfield loves his show, loves you. He does love me. He blocked me briefly on all social media. Now he's unblocked me. I guess he doesn't mind me. Don't beat, don't punish my friends. It was the whole cell phone incident, which was taken out of context, but whatever. Finally, the last one, oh hell, playing on O'Dell Beckham, of course. Now, that was never going to make the cut. I'm probably going to get called to do a glass office for that one.

That's actually pretty funny. It's not terrible. You know, we got a good team of guys coming up with these. Okay. And we're bouncing ideas off each other. I didn't think, oh, hell, was that funny. But okay, let's move on. Okay, rejected headlines today.

You said the Patriots dynasty will end, and the headline was. You know, I'm Mr. Anti-Patriots. Not as much as Rob Parker, but I'm up there. So the headline that we went with, which I liked was Brady Bunch of losses. I think they were a 9-7, 10-and-6 win team. These were the rejected Patriots headlines. Let's start with this one. Patriots.

That's awful. That's awful. That's rejected. That's as bad as anything in the history of FS. That is extremely bad. Patriot not. The next one, a little bit. I like this one, for whom the Belichick tolls.

That's not bad. Classic Hemingway. The problem was, I like Bill Belichick as a coach. He's genius. I mean, the guy's incredible. You would die for him to be the Jets coach. No, he was the Jets coach for a day. We had him and then lost him.

Let's move on. Finally, the last one, Tom and Geriatrics. That's an old cartoon. Yeah, Tom and Jerry, the cartoon. Tom and Jerry At least. I love Tom and Jerry. Well, the cartoon. Joy's liking a lot of these.

Yeah, I'm shocked. Okay. All right. So let's move on from the New England Patriots. Okay. So you said the Chargers rejected headlines today will move on from Melvin Gordon. And the headline was discharged, which, you know, puts in the envelope a little bit.

Okay. So Melvin Gordon is the theme here. These were the rejected headlines. Let's start with this one, Colin. Time to bolt. I like that one. That's better than the one you. That seems like a legit headline.

Yeah, discharge was a little strong. You would see that in a legitimate newspaper. Yes. That would be in L.A. Times headline. Not in J.M.A. Times headline. Okay, permission to steal that L.A. Times. Next up, it's Melvin, not Melwyn. Now, that's really bad.

That is horrific. The guy that came up with that is not sleeping a lot. You know, he's got a newborn baby at home. it's Melvin, not Melwyn, not a good one. Now, finally, I didn't mind this one. I thought this could have made the cut. Cut the gourd, as in Melvin Gordon. It's close to being really smart.

It's almost there. It's very close. That's one of those things. In a headline meeting, somebody would throw it out, and it would just lose to the time to bolt. Yeah, just leave it on the board. Okay. But listen, this is the process we go through.

This is becoming a wildly popular segment. People like it. Wildly. You know, headlines are fun. And if we can get a laugh out of cowher, heard after two hours of Dallas. Cowboys talk, listen, it's a victory. I thought your Cowboys stuff was the best, actually.

I thought those were the best rejected ones. Wait until that gets $30 million. You just wait for those. Okay, so nice job today. Matt Mosy, J. Mack, Mark Schlarith, Urban Meyer was great too. So anyway, Russell Westbrook is now in Houston. Now, I haven't seen this. I have no idea what the video is.

But Russell Westbrook's very interesting. So I know somebody that knows Russell. And he always says, out of season, he's just, just music and fun and fashion and travel and he's just the happiest guy. The minute the season ends, he's like joking and laughing. Every time I see him out of season video at a gym, he's like, everybody's that. Then there's something about the season starts. They give him a ball, and as the season goes on, he gets more and more and more rigid and intense.

So it's off season. It's the first press conference. I imagine he'll be pretty good with this. So here we go. This was his Houston opening presser. Me and Jane's been friends for many, many years since I was 10, actually. We played with each other for many years in Oklahoma City. To be able to win something, you've got a better sacrifice some parts of your game,

and we both understand that. We both understand that we have one common goal, and that's the winning championship. So we understand what we have to do. I'm not worried about it. I know James is not worried about it. I can play off the ball. I don't have to touch the ball to impact the game, and that's the best way.

for me to be able to come back and impact this team as I can do other things on the floor to be able to make sure we have a better chance of winning. It seems very happy. Again, you know what he feels like? Loose. He's kind of just talking. He's loose. It's a rebirth, right?

Well, it's not like he didn't have to carry the entire team in Oklahoma City or anything. That's a fair point. Well, especially the last couple years. It's felt like... He had Paul George, guys. Paul George was third in MVP voting. He looks. He looks happy. We just love to make excuses for this guy. There was a great New York Times

profile of Russell Westbrook a couple years ago and it basically said he's got a huge chip on his shoulder because he was a small guy in high school. It's like 5'9 and then he had this massive growth spurt. No colleges really wanted him and he was set to go to Arizona State and be like, you know, the seventh guy on the team and then

all of a sudden UCLA got in late and grabbed him and he's just had this chip on his shoulder that nobody really wanted. Honestly. He never looks at a great happy in a season. He looks very happy. He looks very loose. I think everyone is wildly overstating the two of them playing together.

Do you think it's going to work, Joy? They've already played together. They've known each other since high school. There's no personal reconnection that needs to happen there. They already have a relationship. But weren't they, they were kind of finding out who they were in high school and young with OKC. Their games have changed. I'll give

you that. I mean, both of them were like, I'm a Hall of Famer. I need to score. But they already all, each have all the individual accolades they could possibly need. It's, it's championship time. I think they're both players of that caliber that realize that it's time to sacrifice. Look what happened in Miami the first year LeBron got there. Yeah, it's got me fun to watch. All right, there's another piece of video. This is funny. So Antonio Brown, he's a showman. It's okay with that. We're seeing more and more of this. Now, years ago, he arrived at a Steelers camp in a helicopter, which that's big. That's a big

entrance. So today I have not seen this video. For our radio listeners, he arrived in a hot air balloon, which they're very popular in Napa. Yes. Oh, look at that. That's terrifying. First of all, I've done that. In the wine vineyards of Oregon, it is terrifying at a certain level. But when you're, anytime you're like 400 feet or below, it's stunningly beautiful. My guy was crazy. And we went up to like a thousand feet and it was terrifying. Look at the video. Look how beautiful. You're how beautiful Napa is. I love Napa from the ground. Antonio Brown always got to make it about himself, doesn't he?

It's always about Antonio Brown. How boring would the league be if there were no Antonio Browns and no Odell's? Well, I don't think it would be boring because a lot of people just like gambling football. Fantasy, don't forget fantasy. Gambling and fantasy are massive. O'Don and Antonio Brown do pretty well in fantasy

too. They do, yeah. I don't think the league would be boring, but I think my takeaway on these guys is always, the league, there's room for different personalities. That's what I mean. The NFL's not going to end without them, but there's always been these two-time stars. Baker's a boaster. Brady's not. Brett Farve said y'all.

Jared Goff doesn't talk. Russell Westbrook's small and runs. Big Ben is big and runs. I mean, if you look at the size personality, Cam is like a fashion icon. And by the way, Brady now is a fashion guy. I just read something the other day. He's got a new shoe line. And some guys, I mean, you know, Jared Goff is basically the most important.

visible star in Los Angeles. I've never seen him. So there's room for different personalities. That's okay. I mean, as long as it's not disruptive to my Ws, I don't care. Okay, so was Antonio Brown disruptive? And will he be to Derek Carr in Oakland?

It feels like a lock. Well, yes, I think Facebook Live takes some gumption. I wouldn't ever do that in locker room. But let's just say this. In the Pittsburgh thing, I always it, first five years, he was nothing, but I paid nothing for him. and I got 70 touchdowns. So I would never regret what Antonio Breff.

I'm a Steeler fan, you just did nothing but take, take, take from that guy. And then for one year, one year you had to give a little. But the first five years of that deal, I got paid nothing and I got a Hall of Famer. So don't complain about one year it went sideways. It was great. All right, we're out of here. Speak for yourself. They're not doing that show today.

I'll be back Monday. Love country music by then, The Herd. One more Herd? The Herd streams 24 hours a day, 7-8. a week within the IHeart Radio app. Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call

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