The Herd with Colin Cowherd - HOUR 2 - NBA, offense

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

The NBA needs to do something about stars missing gamesThe importance of offense in the NFLGuest: Sam Amick Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Nick Wright just texted me. He was outraged with my proposal that put Andrew Wiggins' first team all NBA. I think it's genius. I vote calling for president. Colin for president. Rolls sleeves up. Let's get to work. No, all I'm saying is sometimes as a parent, this has had. I know parents that have done this. They've canceled vacation to make a point with one of their kids. And it ruins it for all the kids. But to make a point, they say, okay, vacation's out. And you think, oh, that stinks. That's what called, that's called parenting, hard parenting. The NBA's got a problem. The commissioner's acknowledging it, and there's no easy way out. And so my takeaway is,

I love the NBA. But I have been watching for the last three years, the league is normalized. star players missing 20 games. It's not even a thing now. And I'm like, well, how do you correct it? Adam Silver said, I don't know what to do. And I said, it's very easy that certain things matter to players. They do want to win scoring titles. They do want to be all-stars.

They do want to be all-NBA. They do want to be MVP. Not eligible unless you play 85% of the games. Now, I was going to go to 90%. And then I thought, you got to give a guy to miss 10 or so games because he gets hurt. Like, you do. or you have back-to-backs. There's a lot of travel.

It's different than other leagues. But I think it's a good point. I mean, if you were a quarterback in the MVP race, and you miss five games. Like Aaron Rogers won MVP this year, he missed one game due to COVID. Right. If he missed two games, I don't think he would have won the MVP. Like, that's just two games in the NFL.

Yeah, no. The numbers that he would have had to put up in order to win MVP after missing two games would have been astronomical. That's right. all time. That's right. So I don't think it's outrageous. In the NFL, if you missed that amount of time, they would not vote for you for MVP. You weren't available enough. That's right. And so, you know, to me, it's one of those things where, and you know, I put it up. I put it first team second. First team's fine, except Andrew Wiggins feels not right. But Andrew's a very good player. Not

going to be a Hall of Famer, but a very good player, probably the third, fourth, best warrior. But what do you do? So if you give me a problem, sometimes the solution initially is a little choppy and messy. Well, sometimes you have to overcorrect for a problem that has snowballed so far in the other direction. That's a great point. Sometimes you have to go so far and be so punitive to get everybody back to the middle. Yeah. So I was thinking about this the other day about, so during the pandemic, I know you're all, I think I'm obnoxious when I talk about the L.A. you know, living here and blah, blah, blah. I'm not the only one that likes to live here. And they also lose people. We've lost 160,000 people in L.A. County in the last

couple years. Why? Now, we have 10 million people in L.A. County. So it's like 1%. Why? Because the housing market, it's super, super expensive. And during COVID, COVID was really hard on New York, L.A. and Chicago. It was really hard on small business. Big corporations survived it, but small businesses in New York and Chicago, you know, Atlanta in these big cities, especially sometimes liberal cities, they had more regulations, really hard on small businesses. And it's unfortunate. But people do want to live here. They make choices all the time. And so Anthony Davis and LeBron James have a lot of power, right?

But Anthony Davis admitted this yesterday. He said, I love L.A. Yeah. By the way, he wanted to come to L.A. And this just, this is what's happening. So during the pandemic, the state of California had a $75 billion surplus. other states were going broke. Now, 40 states can't pay their bills every year.

They need a federal check. Kentucky, Tennessee, smaller states, right? California has to give a check to the federal government. So does New York State. I think Illinois does as well. So we have the fifth biggest economy in the country. So the economy is good here. It is though in the last two years it's separated from America.

It's separated from New York. It's separated from Texas. It is the gap between California economy because of Zoula, and Netflix and all these pandemic surging businesses has given us sort of a windfall. In fact, in California, they're talking about the governor giving everybody that owns a car $400 checks to pay for gas. That's when you got a surplus. So Anthony Davis said, I love L.A.

And my takeaway is, you can now use this as a bargaining chip. And I'll give an example of what's happening. So I think of New York and Boston as great American sports cities. Line up, who is the fourth biggest sport star in Boston today? Now, Jason Tatum's very big. Patrice Brugeron is very big. Nathan Uvaldi, the pitcher. Those are stars.

Who's there for? Marcus Smart? Jalen Brown. Go to New York. Aaron, Judge, Katie, Kyrie. I'd make the argument, Jacob de Grom. New York. Who's their fourth star?

When I'm talking stars, I'm talking either massive marquee Marquis guys. If they walked in a mall, they would get a crowd or they're all-stars. Think about not only California separating in the economy during the pandemic. Look at what has happened in the last four or five years, stars often choosing L.A. I'm not even going to include Clayton Kershaw, who's the best left-hander, maybe since Sandy Kofax. I'm not going to count two or three Dodgers or Angels who could be all-stars. Look at the number of stars right now. just in Los Angeles. In football, almost 10.

Aaron Donald, Cooper Cut, Matt Stafford, Jalen Ramsey, Bobby Wagner, O'Dell, Joey Bosa, Justin Herbert, Cleo Mac. Baseball, Shohei Atani, who I watched pitch last night. Good God, does he throw hard. Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Walker, Bueller, Trey Turner. Julio Urius, a great. He won 20 games last year. LeBron, Anthony Davis.

Paul George, a six-time All-Star, Coi Leonard. We're at 20. There's another four to five. I'm not even counting Mike Williams, who is a You know, I'm not even going to count. He just got a zillion dollars. I'm not going to count Clayton Kershaw. I'm not counting Westbrook, who's obviously a first ballot hall of famer.

This is where they want to play. Bobby Wagner had choices. This is where we wanted to play. This is where Paul George, Kauai, Anthony Davis, LeBron. This is where they want to play. Or Carmelo Anthony. Yeah. They chose it.

Lakers have to use this as leverage. All right. You go play in New Orleans. You go playing all these. You go play in Philadelphia. See, if you like that. the winter. We don't have one. So I mean, I'm to the point with the Lakers is you have older players, LeBron, who love living here. You have rickety players, AD, who loves living here. Lakers facilities,

Clippers facilities are nice. So my thing is, I'd start using that leverage. I'd take your franchise back. I'd use it. Because athletes now, LeBron almost doubled his net worth in five years. moving to this city. He came here. He was worth about 400 million. He's worth about 850 million now. Like he has doubled it. It's not because of his salary.

It's because of his businesses. As entertainment and athletics converge, it's exploding what's happening. Streaming services, production companies, podcast companies. A lot of it. Silicon Valley in the state. Use it as leverage.

Sam Amick, NBA writer, senior writer for the athletic. So I came out with my theory. Adam Silver says, I don't know what to do with players not playing. And we showed this earlier. I said, no All-Star games, no awards, no scoring titles. 85% of games on the schedule have to be played. That'll give you a two-week injury.

Otherwise, bonuses for scoring titles out, All-Star Games, out. Now, here's my first team based on that criteria. It's not terrible. Trey Young, DeMar de Marderozen, Jason Tatum, Yoke, it's the MVP. Now, Wiggins, you say, oh, now by the second team, it gets a little cringy for those, but again, they meet the criteria. Lamello, Anthony Edwards, Tobias Harris, Julius Randall, Carl Anthony Towns.

And you can go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, how do you solve it? Like, how do you, to me, players have bonuses. It means a lot to be all NBA. It means a ton to be MVP. Sam, when the commissioners, like, we have a major, I know the owners, I know the owners, I know one NBA owner, they are beside themselves. It is a massive problem. What does the NBA do?

Honestly, I love the philosophy behind your idea, Colin. I feel like the percentage threshold would probably have to be lower. And maybe that's how that's negotiation, right? You've got to start high and work your way from there. Because those teams you just showed me are a little crunchy. And to Joy's point earlier, though, you do change is prompted and insompted. inspired sometimes by, you know, kind of making the other side feel the pain. So if you had one year of pretty tough to kind of take all NBA teams, maybe that gets it done. In general, I'm with you.

I think that, you know, participation matters a great deal. I've always been that way when it comes to voting for MVP and all these different awards. The other thing that kind of speaks to availability is that we always talk about, obviously, shortening the season. And the league will, I don't think, ever do it. But we saw during the pandemic when they went to 72 games that there was a value that came with that. So, you know, that's where the players are going to look at them and say, you want us out there a higher percentage of the time, then, then, you know, put us on the floor less often. So we have the playoffs starting in a week from tomorrow, play in game Tuesday.

Phoenix is the best team I have seen in the league. Right. The chemistry is fantastic. Now, they're not always a great three-point shooting team. Do you think Phoenix is vulnerable at all in the playoffs? Honestly, I don't, and I wrote about this today. I mean, everybody's got their foibles and their weaknesses, but I do think we are overlooking how dominant they've been, just to throw a little bit of a historical stat at you, Colin. The teams that have been up at least seven plus games on the rest of the field,

the second best team in the league, since the merger, ABA, NBA, in 1976, all seven teams that had at least a seven game cushion between the second best team have gone on to win the championship. The sons are right now up eight on Memphis, and to me that does matter. They're far and away the best team in the league. More importantly for me, and I've been around them a decent amount lately, you hit on their chemistry and the way they bond and kind of the camaraderie. This group is kind of running deep together.

They're special on the floor. Chris Paul being back is huge. Devin Booker obviously great. Aiden kind of out to prove that he's worth that max deal. To me, it's the sons and everybody else. Yeah. I still buy Milwaukee. I think they have a great culture.

I do think when you win a title, everybody pulls back a little in the regular season. When Brooks Lopez was out, I thought it was clear. They missed his size. I think Chris Middleton, I trust more now than I did a year ago. I think Yonis is, I think Milwaukee, I don't think the chemistry is nearly as good in Philadelphia or in Brooklyn. Is Milwaukee your standalone Eastern favorite to you? Boston is up there. The Robert Williams injury is massive,

so that takes some of the shine off where you feel like their ceiling is. But the Celtics defense, I'm a sucker for playoff time. Show me the defensive metrics and the numbers. That's going to get you pretty far in the postseason. But Milwaukee, and having covered them closely all through the finals last year, talk to Janus a couple weeks ago. That energy that you're alluding to is 100% intact with Janus and the whole group.

they are to some degree coasting through this regular season. The Brooke Lopez absence was big. They got depth when it comes to the front line now, which matters a great deal. A lot of these teams in the last couple of years have been tripped up by not having enough backup bigs. And they're really good in that department with Bobby Portis. And I mean, Sergei Baca can't even get on the floor right now. So Milwaukee is good. And they do have that thing that comes with winning a title, right?

You don't wonder what it feels like and how you get the job done once you've done it. So what would you do? I mean, you can fire Frank Vogel. I was, Joe and I were talking about this theater. I saw Frank Vogel take Roy Hibbert, George Hill, and Paul George, and give the Heedles fits for four years. I think he can coach. I saw all the old teams in the bubble erode, and the Lakers were the only old team

that played great. I don't think Frank Vogel is the issue, but whatever. Right. The NBA, unlike the NFL, where you can really go bad to pretty darn good in like an off season, you can go from bad to great bingles in like two seasons. It is hard to trade your way out of this mess. Is there light at the end of the tunnel for the Lakers? No, I really don't think so.

You use the word leverage earlier, talking about the L.A. market. And every point you made was on point. Had me kind of wanting to leave my home in Sacramento and go buy a place in L.A. and double my own net worth. You know what I mean? But you also, in terms of the NBA and the way it actually operates, you know, you say leverage, you've got to have levers when it comes to the salary cap, when it comes to actual, you know, options within the construct of the CBA to improve your roster.

And right now, for the Lakers, when you sit there and map out a way out of the darkness, those levers do not exist by and large. A lot of the options available to other teams, not just being cap restrained, but the way they are structured makes it really, really hard. I'm wondering now, we don't know what will happen with Russell Westbrook, of course, but talk to a lot of people in the last week about their opinions just from other teams. And there's part of me that says they almost need to write it out and try to run it back with him next year

and then build around him because the danger for them, I know LeBron's coming up on, you know, the end of this incredible career, but you can't be out there just giving up more first-round picks just to get off Russ's $47 million and not taking, you know, the future into account. So that's where if you're Rob Polinka and Kurt Rambis, you know, who are running that front office, this is not an enviable offseason by any means. Sam Amick, the athletic. He's got an article on the Sons.

We're kind of conjoined on that. Fun to watch. Great seeing you. Have a good weekend. Thank you, Colin. Appreciate you. You bet. Yeah, no, it's how do you stop an issue?

Like, the NFL is a great example. They had a catch problem. It was driving all of us crazy. Roger Goodell came on this show, and I'm like, Roger, Mr. Commissioner, I don't know what the hell's a catch in your sport. Like, he acknowledged it. When a commissioner goes, it is a problem. They usually fix it very quickly. And so by the Super Bowl, the NFL, the Eagles Patriot Super Bowl, they tweaked.

it. They gave like the Eagles a couple of catches. They wouldn't have been, you know, a month earlier. So when Adam Silver's acknowledging this is a problem, he's hearing it from all the owners who are his bosses. And they're like, now, there are guys, like Devin Booker's really close to the line. And I don't think of him as a guy skipping out. But, but my takeaway is you take away all star games, all NBA, all awards, MVP. It's gone 85%. I was going to do 90%. But then you're not being fair. Guys do get hurt in sports. Like, it's okay. okay to miss a game or two in the NFL. It's okay. If you miss 10, 11 games, because literally you ripped an ankle up, I'm going to give you that. But what is the equivalence mathematically to missing two games in the NFL? Because I think that would be the ultimate cutoff for being

qualified for MVP, maybe not for all pro or even pro bowl. But for MVP, I don't think voters are giving the MVP to a guy that's missed three games. So I think that's the threshold. So whatever mathematically that would translate to the NBA, I think, is fair. But yes, I mean, even if you are injured, even if you're missing games due to injury, you're not playing. So even if the greatness that you have available on the court when you are available, if you're missing that many games, I agree with you, you shouldn't qualify. But I also think you have to overcorrect something that, by the way, didn't just happen

overnight. This has been a slow build. It's been like, because Popovich started this a long time ago. Right, right. And he got fined for it. Yeah. No, David Stern and Adam Silver are very different that way. Stern was much more of an iron fist.

I know people that were in negotiations with David Stern. He was a yell or a screamer. Now, but David also, not that he saved the NBA, but it was really teetering on the financial abyss. And so I think he always felt a little bit of ownership on the league kind of saving it, whether that's vanity, ego, whatever, he was right. Adam takes over a very healthy financial league. And I think he's very pro player. that. I think he's become the permissive parent a little bit. Listen, I in my life have taken

advantage of bosses that I think I can take advantage of. We all do that, right? It doesn't matter how good of a person you are. If you know you can do things that you want to do without being, without having any punishment for them or repercussions, you're going to do that. My stepdad was a hunter and we had guns in the house. And he, all he had to say one time is, You never, ever open that cabinet. And my stepdad was my little league coach, but he could be mean and he was big. And he was like, never go. He never had to say anything.

I was like, all right, I'm out. Like Adam Silver needs to come out and say. See, you were a good kid. I think it was a good kid. But, you know, I was always fascinated. There were guns in the house and I'm a little kid. And you're always looking at him. And he was like, his name.

Yeah, we had guns in the house too, but I just didn't. You don't mess with the guy named Irvin. But no, you're right. No, I just think that you have to put, you have to overcorrect things once they start to get out of control. Maybe that sounds very punitive right now. And maybe it is. But you have to put something in place that is going to correct this course that we're on that does affect fans. Fans have been complaining about it forever.

Well, it's not fair. You put your kids in the car. In Milwaukee, you drive an hour and a half to get to a box game and Yannis and Middleton aren't there. And they're very expensive tickets. The most expensive pro tickets. I'm not anti-MBA. I'm anti-stars not being available. I would shorten the league.

Listen, the first two things I would do as any commissioner is get rid of about four teams. But I just don't think that I think that's a harder thing to do. Asking owners to give up revenue from games. See, okay, that's a great point. I don't, I think it is hard. It's embarrassing that it's hard. So these owners. Well, yes, but we're talking about, I mean, we're just just giving up money.

People don't like to give up money. Okay, but I'm an owner. And I'm Adam Silver and I go, okay, you bought the team for 800 million. It's now worth $4 billion. You're doing good. Colin, this is America. More. We don't go backwards.

We crush and destroy. But look at the new TV. It's not going to happen. It doesn't matter. They're not going to give up games. I'm with you. I would like for there to be less game because I would like for it to be more urgent. It would be better for the sport long term.

But, you know, it's very easy for us to sit here on this set and do this. They're not going to give up games. I do think that your solution is actually very viable. That is something that could actually happen. Giving up money, no. Billionards don't usually sign up for that. I'm throwing money in the streets every day. They don't even pay taxes.

They're going to give up from gay. No way. 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. Tomorrow, one of the most famous rival reasons Sports is on FS1 as Xander Bogart's and the Red Sox take on Aaron Judge and the Yankees. Baseball is back tomorrow at 3.30 Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app.

I was just thinking of this, Joy, Taylor. Yes. So if you consider the big five leagues in America, NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, MLS and NHL, I don't mind problems as long as you can solve them. So the NBA, their big problem right now is stars sitting out of games. That's a solvable problem. Encentivize playing games. NFL has an issue.

Minority coaches suing the league. Pretty easy to solve. Stop being racist. Major league baseball in a more distracted society, the pace of play, there's lack of hits. There's a lot of things you could do here to tweak baseball. Get rid of the defensive shift. You don't let hockey, people sit in the crease. In basketball, you can't sit in the key.

get the defensive shifts, play your position. I don't want Bryce Harper only hitting a home runner striking out. I want them on the bases too. So lower the mound, six inches. It's been raised or lowered 25 times in baseball history. Lower the mound, more hits, defensive shifts, get rid of it. We want more base runners, more activity, more plays at the plate. MLS.

Quality is their big issue. Well, it's getting better. The quality of MLS is way better today. It's like women's basketball. You've seen a leap in a decade. Like women's basketball, they dunk during games now. MLS, we got guys now playing overseas. Those are all solvable issues.

The only league with an unsolvable issue is NHL, relevance. It hasn't been relevant my entire life. You can't solve it. Most of us don't play it. Most of us don't watch it. There's nothing you can do about it. Hockey's got an issue, relevance. I don't even talk about it after the Stanley Cup.

I watch some Stanley Cup playoffs. But the numbers aren't there. Every other league has a solvable issue. Even college football's attendance has been dropping, and I've argued it's too regional. One of the ways to solve it was solved this year. Miami hired a big time coach. USC hired a big time coach. I think Texas has a big time coach.

We'll see if Oklahoma does. And you can win outside of the SEC. Now, Oklahoma and Texas are eventually moving to it. But it does matter that Miami and USC sort of urban centers, when they were rolling, and college football was getting bigger ratings. And so almost all this stuff is solvable. Even college basketball has had a one and done issue. Like nobody stays, they had huge ratings this year.

So legalized sports gambling has been great for all sports. We're watching more games. The ratings are all going up. We don't bet hockey because we didn't play it. We don't get it. We don't watch it. And it also has something that I've talked about for years. It's got two half times.

It's the only sport in America with two long intermissions. That's something. I always said the strength of soccer for non-sports fans. 45-minute halves, no commercials, two hours, starts at four. Honey, we can go to dinner at 610. But hockey's the only sport that has a problem that's not going away. Everything else is solvable. Joy Taylor with the news.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Let's go to college football in, shall we? Yeah, let's do it. Many people were surprised that Brian Kelly decided to leave Notre Dame for LSU. Whoa. But he kind of confirmed what I believe you said about why he was,

he left Notre Dame for LSU. He said, I felt like I did everything I could do at Notre Dame. And they felt like they did everything they could do for me. And so here we are. I felt like that was what I was looking for was student athletes centered. And I wanted to see that piece. And we didn't seem to be on the same path as to how that was going to get accomplished.

Yeah. You can get more great players into LSU. First of all, warm weather, stronger conference. The boosters are financially willing to go further. LSU is built to win a national championship. Notre Dame is built to be really strong. But there are limitations. It's a academic center.

It has got the religious overlay. It's also cold weather and in the middle of nowhere. It is absolutely, there are seven or eight programs in America. It is easier to win a lot of games. And one of them is LSU. Absolutely. He also admitted that he made frequent requests for more resources and improvements at Notre Dame and they weren't fulfilled. And he cited the fact that LSU's practice facility has its own nutrition center, dining hall, and a chef dedicated to the football program. He asked for similar upgrades at Notre Dame.

These massive college football programs now, in order to stay competitive with recruiting, you have to have a state-of-the-art facility. Yes. Like, it sounds good and a lot of boosters and alumni get caught up. in like the brand and they're nostalgic about it. Yeah. And it's just you have to understand that if you have a top level player and they're walking into Alabama, what they're walking into. Like you can order food off an app on your phone.

Right. Unless you has a chef for the football team. Like there are levels to this. And you're, you're just going to have to do so much more to recruit a top kid. You're going to really have to sell them on you're getting a degree from Notre Dame. Like Pete and Brian. Brian Kelly is really underrated.

Yes. So Notre Dame after Lou Holtz left, went through about five coaches. He's the one, not only did he go and win, it got better and better and better. He played Georgia twice. The Georgia team that just won a title. He played them twice in two years. And those games with four minutes left were undecided. And I'll tell you right now, I was wrong.

I never thought Notre Dame would get to that point. I'm a college football addict. I look at the recruiting classes. The fact that he got them. within a whisker of Georgia, which to me, Georgia is the only team in the country. LSU and Georgia are the only two college football programs in the country in the last 10 years that have played Alabama in the last 10 years. And I have thought at least one or two of their teams had better players than Alabama.

The LSU team with Joe Burrell had more good players. Georgia last year had more good players than Alabama. It was close. But Notre Dame does not have LSU talent, Georgia talent. It doesn't. It's not a knock on a North Carolina. name as a schooler or as a program. It's a great school.

There are limitations. Yes. And there are things that you have to overcome when you are in recruiting. And recruiting is the lifeblood of college athletics. That's just what it is. You have to have better players. You can overcome in moments. But if you're going to have a sustained program like that, recruiting is very important.

By the way, we're Tigers fans this year for the next sleep. Oh, yeah, because you have a cousin. My nephew, yes, Mason. And Arizona football fans and UM fans. Well, we'll sneak in USC where we can. So there was a report last season that DeMar DeRosen was going to join the Lakers, and they acquired Russell Westbrook instead. DeRosan thought it was a done deal.

But it turns out he might not be too upset that that fell through. A report from ESPN recently said, I talked to someone from DeRosen's camp when DeRosen was in town in L.A., and the impression that I got from his camp was that DeRosen felt that the Lakers were sort of in disarray. They didn't really have a vision. They didn't know what they were doing. That's from young My Suk from ESPN.

Yeah, you said this yesterday and it's true. What are they? That's a great way. If I say to you, Milwaukee, what are they? Yonis driven, defense first. Phoenix, fast, youthful, athletic,

Golden State for years. The center of three-point shooting. What are the Lakers? Nothing. They don't do anything well. And they haven't had an idea. identity for a long time. It's not just a LeBron thing. That's why I think the fix for the Lakers isn't just with LeBron and AD and Westbrook. Their brands, really I think since Kobe left,

has really been very confusing. Are they young? Are they a legacy team? Are they a cornerstone of the NBA? Yes, the brand internationally is still massive. They still are the LA Lakers, like the New York Yankees, like the Dallas Cowboys. But what is your identity? Well, this is great because we just did a Notre Dame story. Brian Kelly talks about this. His first five years at Notre Dame, he was just trying to get better players. It wasn't until Brian Kelly said we had to kind of switch things up. Harbaugh did it this year.

Harbaugh said we've got to become something, not just more good players. And so Georgia, for all their offense, is defensive led. Alabama, Sabin and his prime defense, he has pivoted to offense. The Dolphins just pivoted as a franchise to offense. when Brian Kelly said, we're really going to be more about offensive line, power football, Notre Dame got really good. I don't care how many good players you have. What are you?

We can have a million broadcasters. Fox News dominates cable. Like them or not, they are something, and we all know what it is. I think that applies for anything in life. Like if you're going to be very successful at anything, you have to have a vision. You have to be, you have to decide what it is. way to be. Uber, Tesla, Amazon, Fox, the Lakers, LeBron. Like, what are you? If you can't describe, even for a show, like we hear this in Hollywood all the time, you should be able to describe a show

in just a few words. And they get it. And you know what it is. If you're just trying to piece together an explanation for your organization, you don't have an identity. And that's what I think the Lakers really need to examine. It's not so much about LeBron or AD or Westbrook or the rest of this roster or Frank Vogel, what are you going to be moving forward? Yeah, Uber is a consumer controlled transportation company. Taxis, they control you. Buses on their time. Uber is consumer controlled transportation. We'd never had it. Trains, there's a schedule. Buses, there's a schedule. I mean, if you pitch me a company, you got to be able to give me like two sentences or I'm out. Yeah, you start looking up, like, and then maybe it's like, you don't know what it is. And that doesn't

work. That's not a sustained program for success. So why receivers are getting all the money now? A lot of it. Joy, a lot of money. So Stefan Diggs signed a four-year extension worth $104 million with the bills. But when you look at his actual contract, it's really quite... No, no. He's one of the four or five I would pay. Stefan Diggs, his contract is, and by the way, Buffalo's really well-run. It's very good contract. But even yearly, isn't it like $14 million? Yeah. I can live with that for Stefan Diggs. Absolutely. Well, Debo Samuel reacted to that news and said, okay, then. He also removed pictures of the Niners from his Instagram and unfollow them on social media

and looking for a new contract. Now, here's the thing. I do think there's a handful, just like quarterbacks, there's a handful of receivers. There's a handful of quarterbacks that I would pay. Jamar Chase. I would pay Jamar Chase. I would pay Stefan Dix. Cooper Cups gotten into that.

Cooper Cup. I actually think I would pay Debo Samuel because of the amount of things that Debo does. Like, Debo is a very unique player. He is extremely physical. You can use him in a lot of different ways in the offense. He's very reliable. I do think like anything else, the market's going to correct itself. There are going to be receivers that get paid that get overpaid.

But I think that happens with anything in the NFL. We saw this with running backs for a while, too. Running backs were getting insane contracts. Yeah. And it corrected itself. Maybe then too much. people were like, oh, you don't need a running back at all. Like, no, you do need a good running back.

But you also have to balance that with a solid offensive line. So maybe this is a correction because of the amount of money that quarterbacks are getting and we've seen the results of, say, having a Jamar Chase with a Joe Burrow. Yeah, I mean, it is a copycat league. And when Cincinnati gets to the championship with a bunch of good receivers, I think a lot of this, I mean, I'm serious. I think the Bengals are driving some of this. We're like, their O line was bad.

Their quarterback came off an injury. Their linebackers weren't great. They have a coach we're not sure as good. But the quarterback and weapons were amazing. And I think the Bengals, people are going, you don't have to be perfect. No. But I do think that, well, would they have been in the Super Bowl without Jamar Chase? No, but not having an offensive line cost them in the Super Bowl because of the Rana Sachs.

It should have cost them against Tennessee. Right. And they overcame that. Now, Debo had 1,400 receiving yards, six receiving touchdowns. But he also added 365 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns. Listen, he's one of those. guys, if I had to pay him, I would pay him all of it up front. Yes.

Because I think in three years from today, he's not the same player. Can I get two great years out of him as I pursue the Super Bowl? That's the key with him. Pay him up front, but I don't want to get into a four or five-year deal with Debo Samuel. The problem is the Niners have less than $2 million. Well, they can get rid of Garapolo and now they're in the 20s. Well, yes. When does that happen?

Does that happen before the season when someone gets injured? Who knows? But Debo is just in a weapons league, a guy like Debo with the diversity that he has on the field is somebody that I would agree. I think you pay him up front. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herdline News.

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Radio, FS1 and the IHeart Radio app. Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallor, along with my trusty sidekick, David Gascon, 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 Mallor 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. Favorite store, Fairdi got good news, their best stuff, best selling legend sweater shirt back in stock, all new colors, top quality. Go to Fairdi brand.com. Use the code heard 20 for 20% off. Listen, there are decisions in all of our lives that are difficult. But there is some stuff.

Each of us have things we know, you know, as a parent, there are just certain things you shouldn't do with your kids. You know, we know in our businesses there are certain things you can't do. It's very obvious in professional football that you have to have a top 10, 12 quarterback if you really want sustained success. Dan Campbell doesn't get that, which is amazing, because it's actually tied to his employment. If he doesn't get one, he won't be employed in three years.

He said yesterday, I don't think the Lions need an elite quarterback to win. First of all, Jared Goff's pretty good, but he's not elite. He goes, I don't think you need it. And those guys are special. It'll give you a better chance. But no, I don't believe you have to have one of those guys to have sustained success. All right, name all the coaches employed for over six, seven years that are average at quarterback. None.

Mike Zimmer just got fired. There's three real obvious signs in professional football that quarterback's about 75 to 80% of the game. Number one, the best quarterback won every division last year. That's kind of an obvious one. Second thing is, the best defensive coach in the history of the sport and the best coach, Bill Belichick, could not force a single punt against Josh Allen. in Buffalo's last 14 possessions. Couldn't stop him.

And the bills don't have a great running game or a great O line. They couldn't stop him. Not once. Belichick, defense, not once. And number three is, of the top five rushing teams last year, none won a playoff game. In fact, three of the four top rushing teams didn't make the playoffs. This is why Mike Zimmer was fired and Big Fangio was fired and why Pete Carroll's about to be if you don't get how valuable quarterback is, you don't get it.

It would be like being a sports radio host in America and saying, yeah, football's popular, but I don't have to talk the NFL much. No, over 50%. I didn't used to talk 50% NFL, 60%, and then the world changed. And that started pulling away from other. leagues and legalized gambling, and now we just watch it more than anything, and it's not even close. So this is where I feel bad for Lions fans, because Detroit actually has a pretty good offensive

line. They've got some interesting players. They have a great young tight end, excellent young wide receiver. D'Andre Swift is a remarkable young running back. Their offensive line is good, but they don't score that much because a quarterback's pretty average. That's it. Their running back's top five.

Their tight end, I think, is top five or six. I mean, they've got a couple of really nice. Amaran St. Brown was a great rookie receiver. They're all fonts in line. Penae Sewell. They got two good tackles. They got a lot of good offensive pieces. It's just not great at quarterback. There you go. And that's not a shot at Jared Gough. But, I mean, you saw the Rams. The minute he left, Stafford comes in. It's a whole different ballgame. I mean, prime example, take the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Good God, the roster stacked. They were seven and nine before Brady got there. Won a Super Bowl, the first year, a pandemic year. I mean, Tampa's the greatest

example. They just added an old quarterback. You saw the Chiefs and Packers play last year when Aaron didn't play and Jordan Love did. It looked like the same Packer team. One player was different. And it's not like Jordan Love

wasn't tall enough, he's 6'4, strong enough, 6'3, athletic. I mean, Jordan Love was a great college quarterback. He's a big kid. He'd been in the system. Just that singular change, Green Bay couldn't move the ball. had the little the whole playbook changed.

So if you can't figure this out, I can't help you. There's nothing I can do. It's just, it's, you're done. So show yourself to the door. It'll be in a couple years.

But if that's how you're viewing things, it's not, it's not that difficult. Football's hard. It's not that hard. I mean, there was a time where you didn't. That is not the case anymore.

Yeah. And it's just the shift of the lead. A prime example. You have to pursue one and done players in college basketball. Correct. Gonzaga does, Baylor does, UNC does, do all the teams in the final four do. Villanova doesn't land them a lot, but you have to go after the one and done's because they're going to end up being on the teams that you face in your conference. So Mike Shishowski, you know, Bobby Knight never embraced it.

That's why he has a very sad last 10 years of coaching. Coach Shishvsky pushed back on it and then acknowledge. I started facing the one-and-duns. They were on Carolina, and I couldn't beat them. And so, like, there's certain things you just have to. You have to be a great recruiter in college football. There's no exception. There's no exception.

You don't even have to be a great coach. No. You have to be a great recruiter. Yeah. And now with the, there's just stuff that's really obvious. And I really think the defensive coach is Belichick, I think, is struggling with this. I think Pete Carroll is. I think Fangeo.

I think Mike Zimmer. These are smart guys. It's why I don't love Todd Bowles with Tampa. have gone with Byron Leftwich. It's just the world has changed. The NFL's given the middle of the field to offense. The rules have given the middle of the field. Used to be defense my entire life.

Now it's the offenses. Can't touch anybody. These wide receivers, they'll all go over the middle. You can't stop anybody. Belichick didn't force one punt in the last two games against Josh Allen. Belichick, hour three. 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, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not.

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. On the Look Back at a Podcast. That was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. 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. I mean, 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. A win is a win. A win is a win.

Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Cliford Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Cliford Show on the IHeard 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. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.