The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hour 1 - Lakers vs. Nuggets, Caitlin Clark

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

In this hour of The Herd, Colin looks at how close the Los Angeles Lakers play the Denver Nuggets and comes away with a sizable critique of their roster post-NBA trade deadline. Also, Colin has two NFL teams who wasted their offensive line talent. Plus, Colin admires the resilience of Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark and thinks her style of play and on-court demeanor make women's college basketball more watchable. Finally, Colin dissects some newly proposed rule changes for special teams play in the NFL.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

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Lots to talk about live in Los Angeles. It's the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, thanks for making us part of your day. One hour from now, customary on a Monday where Colin was right and where Colin was wrong. Spent the weekend watching a lot of basketball, some NFL Combine stuff, J-Mack.

And don't be fooled by some outcomes. Warriors last game of the road trip. Don't be too fooled with that. But there was a game Saturday night. You and I had talked about going. I sat home and watched the whole thing, made myself some dinner. You ghosted me when I reached out.

No response. Could have had the phone off and just, you know, watch the game. But the Lakers Nuggets game was fascinating. Okay. And all the Denver Laker games for the last two years, Denver's the best basketball team on the planet. Boston's probably second. But they all look the same.

The Lakers absolutely hang with them. them. And about five, six minutes to go, Denver ratchets up their defense and Lakers don't get as many good shots. And then Jamal Murray and Yokic kind of take over. Saturday night, much of the same. And Denver wins narrowly. And Laker fans were very

upset. They were mad at Darwin Ham. Anthony Davis only had 17 points. The bench didn't deliver. But I actually saw it differently. Let's start with this. The Nuggets have four elite players, their four best players, are all in their prime. Michael Porter, number one high school player, first round pick, giving you 17 a night in the NBA. He went 10 for 10 to start.

10 for 10 in the game. Number four, put Aaron Gordon, one of the better bodies length in the NBA, top defender, had 18, 9, and 5. Jamal Murray did what he always does, 24 points, 11 assists. And Yokic, best player in the world, had 35, 10, and 7, and shot 64%. their four best players are all athletically in their prime. Okay. Go look at the Lakers.

They have one elite player in their prime. One, Anthony Davis. And because of the injuries, many in his career, he's an old 30. LeBron's not in his prime. He's 39 years old, and Austin Reeves is not an elite player. He wasn't even drafted. He's a really good player who is overachieved in the NBA, gives you about 15 a night.

Good player. a four on a great team. But this is what the series should be. It shouldn't be this close. If you go look at NBA champions, NFL champions, World Cup champions, baseball champions, generally the core of the team, the strength of it is overwhelmingly guys in their prime. The Lakers have one elite talent in their prime, Anthony Davis,

who's always been a little hit and miss offensive. tremendously, tremendous defensively. And that's it, and he's an old 30. So the Lakers and Nuggets the last two years have played a lot, 11 times in two years. And the point differential is only four and a half against the world's best basketball team. Why are the games usually that close?

Because LeBron and Anthony Davis are top 12, 15 players in the league, maybe better. And the Lakers have championship length, which is the only way to compete with Denver. The Warriors, oh, and seven against Denver. The Clippers, one and six, lose by an average of nine. The Sons are four and seven and lose by eight to eight and a half points a game. Lakers Nuggets is always close.

And what it tells me is LeBron in year 21 is only missing a dependable number three talent, and they didn't get him at the deadline. Be mad at the front office. Don't be mad at AD. Don't be mad at Austin Reeves. The Nuggets have four elite players. Top high school, first round, best center in the world, best player, Jamal Murray, Kentucky.

These are elite guys all in their prime. Lakers have like half of one in Anthony Davis. It's okay. Anthony Davis talked about it. All Nugget Laker games look the same mostly. Oh, yes, we're getting closer as far as of, you know, the first. you know, I guess, 42 minutes,

you know, or you could say even 44 minutes, right? And then, you know, that last four minutes is just them get into what they get to and, you know,

they make us pay on our mistakes, like I say. You know, granted, you know, they made tough shots. But they get to it every time and you know it's coming

with their great execution team. You tell me, If the Lakers had four elite players in their prime, like, you know, a Shaq and a Kobe and a Rick Fox and a Derek Fisher, and the Nuggets had like three quarters of one, would you expect the games always to be this close? This is what Laker Nugget games should look like. The Lakers championship size can compete with them. Clippers don't necessarily. Suns struggle. Warriors don't match up at all. Lakers lost the way they're going to lose against Denver when you just don't have. have that level of talent with five to six minutes to go in the game.

So I saw this over the weekend. There's a lot of talk about the DAC Prescott extension. Here's what I noticed with the Cowboys over the weekend. Tyron Smith left tackle. Right now the Cowboys and Tyron Smith left tackle are miles apart. And it made me think about this. Have they wasted his career? So when I started watching football was like in the early 70s,

I remember sitting watching a black and white TV, watching Washington lose to Miami in the Super Bowl. The first great offensive line I ever heard talked about was those Miami Dolphins, and they went to three straight Super Bowls and won a couple of them. Then it was the Steelers followed them. Mike Webster, the all-time great center. They went to four Super Bowls, great offensive line. After that in the late 70s, early 80s, the Raiders were legendary.

Announcers talked about their offensive line. They got two Super Bowl wins. And then I think the Washington, remember they were called the Hogs, they got to four Super Bowls. That was a great all-time offensive line. The Cowboys with Jimmy Johnson similarly push people around. Four seasons, three Super Bowls. The only two offensive lines that I can recall that have been stacked with pro bowlers, all pro, hall of fame guys that didn't get consistently to Super Bowls are the Kansas City Chiefs. Trent Green was the quarterback.

Willie Rolf, Willi Shields, Brian Waters, dominant offensive line. Ray Lewis to this day, you ask him the team he hated to play. It wasn't as Steelers, it was Kansas City. Malled teams. But they had Trent Green. And the other is Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys O-Line. Tyron Smith will be a first ballot Hall of Famer, eight-time All-Pro, arguably first or second best left tackle since he entered the league.

Zach Martins made nine Pro Bowls, seven All-Pro, maybe the best guard in league history. And then Travis Frederick had to retire early. A little bit of late Romo, early DAC, five-time All-Pro, may have made 10 if he stayed around. Dominant player retired early. And from that, two playoff wins. Think about this.

The NFC's gotten weaker over the last five years. That's indisputable. even the Detroit Lions, who this year established themselves as having the best offensive line in the league, left tackle, center, right tackle, they, the Detroit Lions, the sad sack of the NFL for 25, 30 years, the Detroit Lions finally have the best offensive line in the league, and they won two playoff games this year. Dallas had a run of about seven, eight, nine years, mostly Dax's career, with three Hall of Fame level. left tackle, center, best guard to ever play. In a weakened NFC, two playoff wins. Now, the Eagles O line, I don't know if it stacks up historically good Kelsey Lane Johnson, but it's been really, really, really good, one, two, or three in the league several years.

They got to two Super Bowls. So you can blame who you want. You can blame the end of Tony Romo's career. People love to blame Tony Romo. You can blame DAC. I would say there's clearly a lower ceiling than you'd. prefer. But boy, Tyron Smith, when I hear the Cowboys are miles apart, you have wasted this all-time

great offensive line. There was a reason they went first-round picks on O-line, because it was bad for years. Tony Romo running for his life. Then late Romo and Dak got an all-timer. Two playoff wins in a week in NFC. Here's Jerry this weekend talking about Tyron Smith, Dak, extensions, and all that. We don't need to, but we can if everybody wants to solve it.

You can. And so how is you get in and get on the same page and see if you can come to an agreement. If you can't, what we have in place works. Dak can play better and he had maybe you could argue one of the best years he's ever had in his career. But the good news is that I'm convinced that he can play better. And I'm convinced that we can do some things better all the way around. And so we're all in. Never going to have an offensive line in Dallas as good as that one.

It's just not going to happen. Washington has never had an offensive line that duplicated that one. either of the Raiders, either of the dolphins, their weakness is the O-line, even of the Steelers, their weakness O-line, happens very infrequently. When you draft offensive linemen high and they all hit, and for Detroit, they have, and they've already produced two playoff wins. With one year having what's regarded as the best O-line in football. We don't talk about them a lot, but they matter.

J. Mack, Colin Wright, Colin wrong in one hour, so the combine was interesting. they are saying, ironically, that it's the best O-line class that anybody's ever seen. Six, seven tackles, multiple interior linemen. Very non-exciting for football fans. But if you need a tackle, Jets, this is the year to need. Well, I don't know. I'd rather take Tyron Smith than drafting some guy, wouldn't you? I mean, Tyron Smith?

No. Excellent. Pro football focus, fourth graded left tackle in the league last year. I mean, yeah, I get you want to draft a guy that early, but Tyron Smith is going to have a big market. bigger than Justin Fields, by the way. Who increasingly doesn't look like he has one. Dak can't be thrilled with this news, huh? You're taking away my star left tackle?

I wonder if we could go look it up what Dak's record is with Tyron Smith and without. Remember there was an Amari Cooper number for years and years, like he missed Amari Cooper, but now that Cidie Lam's the number one. There's been a Lane Johnson one with the Eagles, the right tackle, right? Listen, when Tom Brady went to Tampa,

the one thing Tom talked about with their GM was, You've got to get your tackles right. They drafted Tristan worse from Iowa, and he was a whole, he was like pro bowl level by year one. Also, Trent Williams with Brock Purdy. He missed like, I think, a game and a half or two games last year, and it was like night and day. Like Purdy's like, ooh.

Mahomes only has been routed in one big game of his life, the Super Bowl, when he was missing both tackles. No tackles, yeah. We don't talk about them, they matter. 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. Hey, it's Ben, host to The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallor. It would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey.

You're asking what in God's name is the fifth hour? I'll tell you, it's a spinoff of the Ben Mather show, a cult hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture, if you will, a world where we chat with captains of industry, in media, sports, and more every week. Explore some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen to the fifth hour with Ben Mather on the Iheart radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions,

my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your

podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford. and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast.

I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you all know.

I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple, podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, I've told my kids this, in all my life of doing this, working with salespeople and broadcasters and covering athletes, men and women, the number one trait of successful people isn't where you went to college. You don't have to go to the Ivy League. It's not your contacts on your LinkedIn.

It's not what it is. The number one trait of successful people, I'm absolutely sure of it, is resists. Because everybody steps in it. Everybody fails. Everybody gets benched. Everybody has a bad weekday month year. Everybody. The all-time greats do.

Resilience. Tenacity. And there was a moment yesterday as Caitlin Clark became the all-time leading score men's and women's basketball, a great player for Iowa. She was fighting for a loose ball on the floor. And she kind of pushed an Ohio State player. She got a little feedback, pushback on social media. And I loved it.

And I thought, that's exactly it. That's tenacity, resilience. resilient. She's feisty. Nobody that's great at anything lacks that. And I got to tell you something. One of the reasons women's college basketball to me is much more watchable than 20 years ago is this. It's a little edgier. It's a little tougher. Angel Reese. Caitlin Clark, people taking sides. I like that in my sports. Edge equals intrigue. Edge equals eyeballs. And I think it's a great commodity. I think it's a great trait. Yes, Caitlin Clark can shoot. But Steph Curry also, threw his mouthpiece into the crowd.

Steph Curry can be petty and can be feisty and can talk trash and I'm sorry I like it. Find me all the humble all-time great players. At some point you lose, you get pushed around, there's a loose ball.

Caitlin Clark's going to go into pro-women's basketball and be double-teamed and face older women and they're going to be bigger and they're going to push her around and she'll be just fine. And even women's college basketball coaches now have an attitude. I like that too. I really do. You know, the best women's basketball player I've ever seen in my life. I saw her live once was Maya Moore. And I remember it was

the first time I watched the women's basketball and I'm like, oh yeah, she could play men's Division I basketball. She's got a total latitude. She's cocky. She pushes. She's she's feisty. She had a very aggressive game. And I see little bits and pieces of that with Caitlin Clark. And I really like it. And I think the women's games got an edge to it now. And, And I think it's a good watch. And I didn't feel that way 20 years ago. I felt like there was a massive separation. Man's game is more vertical, a lot more slam dunking and that stuff.

But she's an all-time great player. I didn't never watch Pete Marevich play. My takeaway when I looked at all the numbers this weekend is that Caitlin Clark, I know how much Caitlin Clark scores, right? And she'd been doing this for like three years. Pete Marevich must have been something because he played without a three-point shot. and he set the record in three seasons. So tip of the cap for Pete Marevich,

who I never saw play, but had to be unbelievable. You know, I always said, the player in sports that I never watched that I wish I would have was Sandy Kofax, who they say is the best pitcher ever, but it was just before my time. Had Pete Marevich to that. And congrats to Caitlin Clark.

Not a surprise. Record-breaking call. Here it is from Gus Johnson on Fox. This for college basketball history. There she is. Caitlin Clark on becoming the all-time scoring champ. It's really, like, crazy to think about. Like, honestly, if you would have told me that before my college career started,

I would have laughed in your face and been like, you're insane. And, like, I've always been able to score the ball, but I don't think people really understand how many amazing players have come before me and, like, been able to score the ball and do it at such a high rate and do it for teams that are really, really good. And by the way, again, I think she should be a great WNBA player. I don't know the comp she has because obviously I follow NFL more or NBA more. But I would say this, it's not just her ability to shoot or Steph Curry's ability to shoot.

It's the ability to be resilient and have tenacity and be tough and push back. Because pro sports, she's going to get doubled and pushed and screened hard and coached against. And it's that resilience that will live on and make her a star. J-Mack with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Speaking of stars, how about that guy, LeBron James, Colin?

Decent record hitting a new mark of 40,000 career points on Saturday against the Nuggets. Well, he was good. He was excellent. After the game, he said he was a little bittersweet because the Lakers lost, but he also commented on how far he's come in the league since entering at 18 years old. Besides my family and my friends in my city, and then some people in my city as well, because we even know some of them people. To be quite honest with you,

everybody wanted to see me fail when I got to the league. Everybody was just like it's no way he's going to be able to exceed, you know, the expectations that's put upon him. Just stay true to yourself, believe in yourself, and don't ever get too high. You get too high, they're going to try to knock you off. But at the same time, if you fall, Just like the great later Leah said, just pick yourself up and try again.

There you go, resilience. I don't think people were rooting against them necessarily. Yeah, I don't love that. That's a Jordan thing where, oh, nobody believed in me. They all doubted me. But you know what? If that's the jet fuel you need, I don't, you know, I think the only time, there's two times in LeBron's career where people started rooting against him.

first of all, when he left Cleveland, Cleveland's Burning Stead. They're part of people that said he was the villain in the NBA because I didn't buy that, but people did that. And I do think when he started to challenge Jordan, which is the greatest compliment when you started going, you know, maybe he, like when he won with the cabs and they beat the Warriors.

Coming back from 3-1 against the- And everybody's like, you know, he may be better than Jordan. You have the Jordan loyalists. People love, people wore Michael. They still do. They wear Michael Jordan's shoes. So those two times, when he became the villain, which, by the way, I'm not sure how star players are ever supposed to leave a team. Carmelo Anthony's like, hey, I'm leaving.

I'm going to give you a heads up. Nobody like that. Dwight Howard was like, hey, I'm leaving. Let me give you a heads up. Nobody like that. LeBron's like, made an announcement, gave a million dollars to a boys and girls club. Nobody like that. There's no way for a star to leave.

Everybody's better. But those are the two times I felt. I wasn't, but there was a percentage of people that, like, said, I don't like that guy. Yeah, I think the whole announcement with doing the interview with, who did he do it with? What's the guy's name? Jim Gray, was it? Jim Gray, yeah. So he did like a TV announcement to announce I'm leaving.

Like, I'm sure he would do that over again and probably not do that TV announcement. But I think the longevity that LeBron's had, the greatness, the level he's played at is almost, like it's never been done in the history of basketball. Jabbar was not this dominant. No, Michael in Washington was not nearly a vertical player. He was an average All-Star. 20 points a game. They couldn't sniff the playoffs. And nobody liked him on the team. Like he couldn't. That team was awful. He was selling tickets. I watched him twice.

It was fun, but he wasn't the same Michael. There was no hanging, switching hands mid-air. Like those days, Michael was out. You know, Michael liked to have a good time. Michael gambled a few times, been out. A few times, yeah. He was not the same player at that age. Yeah, his peak, his peak where they won six titles against a diminished NBA. Sure, that was awesome, better than LeBron. But LeBron's career, it's not even close. Did you see this stat, I think Sam Amick had it. 25, 7 and 7.

That's like consistent greatness, right? Not a lot of people have done it in league history. I think 9. LeBron's about to do it for the 12th time. 12th. Jordan's done it once. 257 and 7 is like, I can do everything. I make my teammates better.

Well, I think that's what is indisputable. Regardless of what you think, there's never been a basketball player ever, and this is indisputable, that does more well. Magic was not an elite defender. Michael wasn't really a distributor or didn't have a ton of range on his jump shot. LeBron has developed a three-point shot.

He still beats anybody he wants off the dribble. In his prime, he was a dominant defensive player. Shut down Derek Rose, the MVP. I mean, shut down a smaller, quicker player. And LeBron, the only thing LeBron has never really said, I want to do, and there's a reason for it, is rebound because LeBron doesn't want to be under the basket. He wants to be, because of his speed and size.

He wants you to do that, get it out to me, and I'll start the break. You know where you get hurt? Bang it inside with Yokic and all these big dudes. Who wants to do that? I certainly don't. I know LeBron doesn't want to. Next up, Colin.

Caleb Williams. Some interesting stuff happening at the Combine. You've got to like see through kind of the nonsense, okay? So he did say, I expect to be the first overall pick. Doesn't see any other possibility. He was originally supposed to make his official visit to Chicago before his USC Pro Day on March 20th. Yeah.

But according to Albert Breer, the visit has been rescheduled until after that workout. So overall, I think you could say Caleb Williams is being difficult. I'm not doing medicals. Every single player who's come through has done medicals. He's like, I'm not doing medicals. Is he being difficult to send a message to the Bears that this is who I am, maybe don't know? Well, Marvin Harrison, Jr., viewed as a top receiver, is also, you're getting a lot of this. He's being difficult.

Caleb's going to be the first quarterback taken, Marvin Harrison's going to be the first receiver taken. Because NFL people did not get their way, and because media people during a slow time in sports are looking for stuff, I hear all this. Well, that is, it's sort of like when Christian McCaffrey or Leonard Fernette said, yeah, we're not going to play in meaningless bowl games, and everybody was like, whoa, yeah, it really hurt Christian McCaffrey's career.

Some people don't like new. A lot of people think the Combines going to, way. A lot of people I haven't heard that. Well, I mean, the young coaches now won't go. They're just thinking, I mean, the Rams didn't send their GM or their coach. Like a lot of young people don't go to this thing. They think it's a cocktail party and make connections.

You don't think there's any value in meeting? Even if it's 15 minutes with some of these prospects? I don't think it's a negative. I think you know who you want. When you watch Marvin Harris, I watched Romo Adonze, I watched him play live. I love him. I don't think he's as good as Marvin Harrison. No, no, no. Harrison's

not legal. But Adonze had a weekend. He stood around forever and he did the cone drill three times and everybody's. And I'm a, you know, I grew up a husky. So I should be favoring him, but it's like he's not as good as Harrison. So in the end, you can say, well, I love the way that kid's attitude was at the combat. You know what I want to see? Tape. Okay. Give me his 12 game. I want tape of Caleb Williams. He had one bad game in college. I want tape. It's less about watching the three cone and I get that and the bench press and the hardest throw would look stupid, but whatever. But you're telling me, They get like 15 minutes in a room with these prospects.

If Elon Musk or you pick your billionaire is in town and says, coward, man, I liked your show. I've got a 15-minute window. Can you meet me for a drink? Of course you're meeting him, aren't you? You're based on. So one of these big-time wealthy players. Caleb Williams knows where he's going.

Why does he have to waste his time? He doesn't know where he's going. He's going one. But who's he going to? That's the question. Okay. So any team that moves up, he doesn't need. need to interview with them either.

Oh, really? Why does you... I'm moving up to draft the guy I haven't even spoken with? If you're willing to move up to draft me, we can talk once you draft me. Once you... Colin, that's insane. He's going number one. I agree.

Okay. Who is... Do you want to trade up from me? Listen, man, there's stories... He doesn't need. He doesn't need a market. He owns the market. Chicago's got the first pick, and he's who they're taking.

You're trading up like two or three number ones. to go draft the guy you haven't spoken with? That's your responsibility, not mine. Yeah, that's mine. I want to talk to you at the combine, Caleb. All right. You just don't want to talk to me. I don't know, man.

I don't think that's a great sign. If the Rams called him up and said we want to talk, I bet you Caleb Williams would be available. But if Atlanta did or the Giants did, Caleb's probably thinking I would like to play maybe for a Washington or a Rams. I'm in L.A., good marketing opportunities. Otherwise, I'll go to Chicago.

Wow. I'm into player empowerment. I love what John Elway did. I'm not a huge Ely-Lamannic fan, but I like what he did saying, I'm not going to the Chargers. I want to go here. Caleb, go ahead and do that.

But, like, to not meet with teams that want to meet me. Anytime a college athlete does something different. Yeah. Pushes back on authority, pushes back on tradition. I'm not going to play a bowl game. Go watch the reactions from media people on that. It was embarrassing.

I mean, I came out and I said, the Liberty, Ball? Like Leonard Fernett and Christian McCaffrey haven't earned our respect. Be one thing if it was a quarterback, you know, it's a quarterback. Michael Pennix is playing Texas in the playoff. You want to be available. If you're not in the playoffs, go do what you want with your life. But from the team perspective, this is a, I don't know, $250 million investment to trade up

mortgage future to draft the guy. I'll give an example. I need as much face time. You know who threw in the combine, Michael Pennix. Why? Because many think he's falling to the second round. So Michael Pennix is like, okay. I'm throwing

Roma Dunezay. A lot of people think he's the third most talented between Harrison, the guy to LSU. So he puts the effort in. Now, that may help him over the LSU guy. So it's not a coincidence that the people that really committed to the combine are guys trying to move up from like 13 to 8

or second round of first. That's not a coincidence. But if you're Christian McCaffrey coming out of Stanford, everybody loved him. He's been great in two places. I'm not going to play in the Liberty Bowl. What does it matter? I'm not going to talk at the Combine and give everybody time.

Not everybody. Final story is more combine fodder. Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy set the record for the 40-yard dash at the Combine. Official time of 4-2-1, narrowly beating John Ross. You remember that? Yep. Can I call him a bust? Sorry, John Ross's record, 42-2-2.

Of course, people get enamored with speed, Colin. And I, listen, man, we've seen the Raiders do it. We saw the Bengals do it with John Ross. he was taking two spots ahead of Patrick Mahomes. I know. I'll tell you. Let's not go overboard with the speed, guys. Yeah, he runs fast, not one of my favorite first round prospects.

I know. I think he has to get to the right place. Like John Ross has to get to the right place. But what this first round is is quarterbacks, offensive linemen, and some edge rushers. There's a couple receivers I really like. But you know my theory on it. Size power in quarterbacks is what you draft in the first.

first two rounds, you can get speed. You can. Do you remember we were watching Texas Alabama together? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Quinn Ewers throws a bomb and Xavier Worthy just runs right by the Alabama defender like he was in Quicksand. And we was just like, what happened?

That guy's so fast. So I put him in my mock at like 30, 31. And based on just that Alabama game, I was like, nobody just runs by Alabama defensive backs. I don't think Worthy's a one, but now 4-2-1. I mean, Listen, hey, if Andy Reid can draft him at the end of the second round,

you don't think he's going ahead and grabbing him? I think Tyree Kill is the rare player that's really fast and really productive. I think the league is full of really fast guys. Well, Hill's also like a yak guy. You can do a lot of stuff with him. I don't know that worthy is in that class. Tyree Kill has had Mike McDaniel and Andy Reed. What if he had a defensive coach with a bad quarterback?

No, what if he had Robert Sala. A bad O line and an average quarterback. And I like Tyree Kill, but speed doesn't, you know, Dion Sanders, speed and great. Tyree kill, speed, and great. A lot of fast guys in the NFL that don't do anything. Remember Darius Hayward Bay? Raders, like... Yeah.

There's more of those than there are Dion Sanders. Facts. A lot of fast guys don't pan out. You just draft speed. I'm drafting productivity. How were you in college? Let me go see your six biggest games against your six best opponents.

Wait a second. I was ready to go to commercial, but you're saying productivity? I'm going work ethic. You can have productivity. A lot of guys producing college. A lot of guys work hard. I want numbers. What were you like in your biggest games?

I want work ethic and traits. You got productivity. Well, productivity matters. We'll see who's got a better team. You could have bowedicks. I'll take Caitlin Clark, number one pick. She gets buckets. Fair enough.

Jay Mack with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. There's almost anybody that's productive works hard, right? You'd agree with that. Very few lazy players. Caitlin Clark leads the all-time leading score. It doesn't have much of a work.

ethic. So there was a guy, I think his name was Justin Blackman at Oklahoma State. Do you remember him? Yes, I do. Yes. Superstar in college. I mean, I mean, big time. Jaguars drafted him in the top 10. What they didn't do was their homework. And apparently he was like at the local bar in Oklahoma State like three days a week, just party. Gets to the NFL and total disaster. He doesn't have the work ethic. It was just a natural skilled player. But don't you think that's a rare story? You don't hear that a lot. All I know is if I'm a GM, and I know my jobs on the line for first-round picks, I'm doing all the homework I can. And I want work ethic, and I want traits. Yeah.

And I'm just arguing people who are productive in any field are generally workers. Yeah, Johnny Mansell was pretty productive in college. How'd that work out? Well, we're talking at the professional level. Some people are genetically gifted high school college. They can just kind of, you know, this guy you talked about the Jaguars drafted from Kansas State or Oklahoma State. Yeah, I mean, some guys are just so gifted that at the lower levels of sports, seventh grade, 11th grade, college, you can, you're physically bigger, stronger.

You get to pros, that work ethic thing, you figure it out real quick. Kobe was great, legendary work ethic, first in, last out of the gym. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball.

basketball to college football or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast.

It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at It podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed cracks. I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get ready for the Big East tournament on Fox and FS1. Who will rise up in the world's most famous arena? and take the conference crown. It all tips off March 13th through 16th on Fox. NFS 1. So some people do not like change.

And this weekend, I thought these were really good ideas, and I'll explain them, but the NFL proposed some new kickoff stuff. I thought both made sense. So what did we talk about last week? What the NFL does, which baseball can never do. The NFL is always trying to make it a better TV product. Less automatic stuff, more drama every play.

It's why they changed the PAT. It was too automatic. Team scored a touchdown. You went and grabbed a soda or a beer. You were gone off the TV for seven minutes. Did not see the ads. They want you to watch the ads. Because then advertisers renew their ads on football games.

They want you to stay through the ads. They want ad drama. The new PAT rating show worked. And you all complained about it. So the NFL has two, they're proposing, people have proposed two things. Number one, the kickoffs are going to change. I like this idea. Because right now, slightly over once a game, does a kickoff get returned?

What is it? Automatic. Dudd. They don't like that. So what they're proposing is they're going to move the kickoff up to the 40-yard line. And there'll be a target that a kicker has to kick into. If you don't kick in the target, heavily penalized ball starts for the offense at the 40. You don't want that.

So kickers will pooch a ball downfield guaranteeing about 90%, 95% returns. So kickoff returns will come back into football. But what they don't want is you get in a full head of steam. It's where concussions happen. So it's more of a pooch kick. Players don't get 40 yards to gain speed. and you will get returns. What does it mean?

Less automatic, more returns and more action and more drama. You won't go to the fridge for another Diet Coke or beer. The new on-side idea. I like this too. Under the proposal, teams can only do an on-side kick fourth quarter when they trail. And the kicking team would be allowed to use an unbalanced formation to a increase the chances of recovery. So what does that mean?

Well, last year you had 45, 46 on-side attempts. Two were recovered. Automatic. You don't have a chance. So now the league is saying, we'll allow you, everybody will know what's coming, but we're going to allow you a massively unbalanced line. So what you're going to have next year, instead of 45 onside kicks, you'll probably have 30,

and you'll have 9 to 12 recovered. Less automatic, more draw. more action, more fun. As of right now, the only way you recover an onside kick is if somebody screws up, you don't want that in sports. You want it so somebody makes a great play. You don't want touchdowns to be on screw-ups. You want touchdowns and on-side kicks and great catches and great to be on-great plays.

So if I have an unbalanced line, that gives me an opportunity to increase the percentages that I recover an onside kick. You're not going to the fridge with an onside kick. Now you're like, you're concerned. If you lead in a football game, you're like, we got like a 35% chance to not recover this instead of a 97% chance to recover it. These aren't complicated. The NFL's just like the PAT is trying, and I applaud this even if they fail. Even the NBA has done things like, They came out with a new ball. Probably should have given star players a heads up. They didn't.

But I appreciate the effort of people trying new things. I remember years ago when I worked at the other place, they tried a new phone. And my takeaway was they lost $50 million. At the time they were making $8.5 billion a year. They're an industry leader. They thought, hey, let's roll the dice on this phone thing. It's a write-off. It's a rounding air.

$50 million when a company makes $8.5 billion a year, it's a rounding air. I don't care if it's metaverse at Facebook. Industry leaders should take some swings because the little guys can't afford to. And how do you advance as a society? How do you advance if the big rich people don't take chances? Little guys, regular people can't. So the NFL's the big dog making all the money. They're like, let's roll the dice and make it even a better television product.

Onside kicks, there'll be fewer, but maybe a third of them now. I mean, this year you had 46, 45, and two are recovered. What a waste of time. The PATs for years. Waste of time. They no longer are. It feels like somebody, especially if there's wind, there's a missed PAT every game.

And it will have a huge deciding factor on coaching decisions later in the game. The game becomes more mathy. You start thinking about, oh, do we go for it here? Do we go for two? So the PAT instituting a tougher PAT and in November and December and January when the weather's windy and that PAT gets missed, oh my. Now it's going to force the other team to go for it on fourth down, to go for two. So it doesn't just, it's not just about, it's not just about changing the PAT.

It changed decisions and force teams often to be more aggressive later. There's a payoff later for a missed PAT. Well, the same thing with the onside kick. If people start recovering these things at a 40% clip or a 35% clip, you're going to start thinking about that late in the third quarter. If you're a coach like, hey, we got to go for it here. We got to take some, we've got to be more aggressive. That on-side kick thing, it's no longer a guarantee.

So all of this stuff, it's not just the play. Does it add drama later? There's no question the missed P.A.T. has made the sport more mathy. More analytics are involved. And it changes the way people coach later in games. And that's what, now you're going to have kickoffs return. Used to be able to just say, hey, boot it through the end zone.

Now it's like, no, they have a great kick returner. we have to be aggressive because they're going to return this kick. I mean, when Devin Hester was playing for the Bears, like you had to think about it. Like if the wind was blown the other way and Devin Hester was on that field, you didn't want to kick to him. So all this stuff is going to matter. It's going to force coaches to consider some analytics to be more aggressive, to go for it. The onside kick won't be a guarantee. Kickoffs now are just not knock it through the end zone.

all this stuff pays dividends as the game keeps going and going and going. That PAT change has really created, I think, more aggressive coaching later in games because your kicker can't hit a PAT. Well, let's remember. Let's not forget. The Super Bowl missed PAT was huge. The 49ers, not converting the extra point. It ended up changing the way the Niners had to think fourth quarter and overtime.

Yeah, the Chiefs basically were like, oh, we don't need to go for the touchdown. We're only down three instead of four. And like, oh, just, I can't believe I brought up the Super Bowl. It was a bad, bad beat. Niners were the side. Some people had the Chiefs in the under. Yes, yes. Shocker.

All right, we got all sorts of stuff. You know, I got Colin Wright, Colin Wrong, top of next hour, Albert Breer, combine, all sorts of stuff. Did you see, I don't know if you noticed this? We'll get into it later. So somebody on our staff went to a spring, two spring training games this weekend. He went to a Padre's game. And they have a stacked line. Potteries are a good team with a lot of stars.

He drove right up, walked right in. And the Padres are, they are one of the more talented teams with stars. He went to the Otani Dodger game. By the time he drove up, parking, get in line, 45 minutes to an hour to get to a seat. 20, 30 people in line for a beer. The Otani impact is unbelievable. I'll say it again. They're going to break Major League Baseball attendance records.

The spring training games, he sent me some video. They're not a seat in the outfield. They're not a seat anywhere. This thing is huge. Hour one down, hour two coming up next. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs, 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. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 is big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. It was a wild year.

It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.