The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hour 3 - The Dynasty

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

Jeff Benedict author of “The Dynasty” sits down with Colin for a deep dive into the legacy of Tom Brady & Bill BelichickSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day in the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. We're listening to Fox Sports Radio. He's a New York Times bestselling author of 16 books, including Tiger, which is a inspiration for the HBO documentary. This one's called Dynasty, and I just finished 10 parts of the documentary. Now, it is interesting, so the book is right here, and I think you need to read the book. It goes so much deeper than documentary. And documentary is going to do The Aaron Hernandez story, the Malcolm Butler story. I understand documentary.

It's expensive to make them. You're going to pick the hot spots. But I want to talk about this because my takeaway on all this is, and I said this earlier, that all dynasties, almost all, are the same. Hard work and vision builds them. Resilience and toughness maintains them. And then power corrupts them. And my takeaway on this book, regardless of whose side it took,

is that Bill could never come to terms with year two, Tom Brubbs. Brady was not year 18, Tom. The league had pivoted to offense, and he was treating him like a kid because he wanted to maintain governorship. He wanted the power. And my takeaway is, Bill, the world changed.

That's not the league. No, that's my takeaway. Is it fair to say your book illustrates more of that than the documentary? Well, it's good to be with you, Colin. Again, obviously in a book, you have a lot more real estate. You can cover a lot more

ground, you can go into things more in depth. In a documentary, you have to make harder choices. And people sometimes are critical of those choices. But I thought here, the whole filmmaking team did an amazing job on selecting which storylines to tell and what to leave out. But definitely in the book, I laid the groundwork, I think, for what is distinct about this dynasty. I agree with most what you said about the course of dynasties. I think what always has separated the Patriots dynasty from all the other football dynasties before them was its length. The Packers, the 49ers, the Steelers, all great dynasties, none of which really lasted more than a decade. Right. And this dynasty is so unusual. And the reason I think we won't ever see it repeat it again

is because it lasted two decades with the same nucleus, the nucleus being Brady head quarterback, Bill at head coach and Robert Kraft at owner. Those three together for so long, if this dynasty had run the course of its predecessors, they would have won three Super Bowls, three out of the first four. They would have had the perfect season that ended with a heart-wrenching loss to the Giants.

And then Brady gets hurt, and he comes back and maybe one or two more years, and then it's over. And if they'd done that, it would be right next to the 49ers and the Steelers. Right. But they stuck around for 10 more years, and I would say the back half of the dynasty is more impressive because what happened at the end, the amount of winning that Bill and Tom did together in the back half of the dynasty, I think is more impressive than in the beginning. And what's harder to see, Colin, is the role of the owner in the back half is so critical, less so than in the first half.

the first half is really about all about bill and tom yeah the back half roberts roll is much more pronounced but yet not visible to the fans to be it had to be yes yeah because they if left to their own devices they wouldn't have stayed together that long uh i said and again i'm not taking sides i think bill's the best defensive coach ever i think this happens culturally in tech in media in entertainment and sports you know like gregg popovich you have to shoot threes he didn't want to embrace it, right? Like you have to. The world's changed. You can't put Matt Patricia at offensive coordinator. It's tone deaf.

But I did think Bill won a Super Bowl in which Tom didn't play well, Rams, and Bill won it. A brilliant coaching moment. And Bill lost a Super Bowl when Tom was absolutely brilliant, Philadelphia. What bothered me deeply

is that Bill demanded accountability, and even in the dock, when pressed, he would not say why he didn't play Malcolm Butler. You don't owe me that, but you owe Tom. You owe your roster. You know Grom. You owe the team that because you've demanded accountability and people are looking for accountability. Why? Talk about that story in the book vis-a-vis the doc, which doesn't go quite as deep and doesn't give you an answer. Right. So when I was working on the book, I mean, one of the

things that I was thinking about and talking to people about within the team is that I didn't realize I learned this even more working on the dock was that there really wasn't anybody who knew what was going on that day. Josh McDaniels, like, I never got an explanation. No, and I think that that's the troubling part is, and Devin McCordy does a really good job of explaining this, is that it's not just that Malcolm Butler took 97% of the snaps that year. It's when you take a guy off the field who's that interconnected with the defensive game plan, and he just disappears. It's not just that he's missing,

but it throws everybody off because they're used to having him in certain places and he's not there. And there's not one person filling in for him. It was like a platoon of guys coming in, nobody really being able to do the job. And I think it was really disheartening for guys to figure out in the end

that no one had been told, it hadn't been explained. And I think it's hard because that's, think about it. They won the Super Bowl before. they won the Super Bowl after. They definitely should have won that Super Bowl. I mean, arguably that team was considerably better than the team that beat the Rams. And yet they lost to the Eagles.

And Tom did have his best Super Bowl performance on paper. The greatest quarterback performance to that point ever, I believe. Yeah, the only reason I don't say that is because I think what he did in the Atlanta Super Bowl, even though the numbers weren't the same. That's the greatest quarterback performance ever in a Super Bowl. I thought, you know, again, I've always liked Robert Kraft, and here at Fox, I do know the power and the importance of him. He and Jerry have great importance in the ownership room. The Hunt family, Stan Cronky.

There's a handful of guys, and Robert Kraft really does a lot of the TV negotiation stuff. So to give, to relinquish that, for owners to say, Robert, you take care of the TV. Yeah. He's a bright guy. And the labor. Yeah, I mean, Robert is really, that's why I always say Jerry Jones can be quirky, but the other owners lean into Jerry a lot. There was a moment here that had they not won that Ram Super Bowl, it almost sounded like, and I want you to go deeper on this. Sure. Robert was ready to move off, Bill. Bill was wearing out everybody. Players to a player were saying, it's no fun here.

Yeah. And then Bill has maybe his greatest moment in a Super Bowl. McVeigh is per play. They can't move the chains. Yes. A dominant offense all year. Do you think Kraft regrets? I mean, obviously he regrets how it ended. But when do you think Robert started having this sense of Bill that he's just terribly difficult, even though we're winning?

Was it year 6-5? Or was it all mostly the Garoppolo move? Bill resented it. When did you start feeling that bubbling, that percolating of animosity? In 2010, and there's one of my favorite scenes in the book, which we couldn't do this in the dock because there's no footage for it. So there would be no way to tell this story in film, but you could do it on paper. In 2010, when Tom Brady asks to come and talk to Robert in private, and he goes out to Cape Cod over the summer and goes to his summer home, and it's not just Robert, it's Robert and Jonathan. Robert asked his son to also come to the meeting.

He asked Tom if it was okay, and of course Tom said yes. And that's when they go out to meet. And the purpose of that meeting is Tom's concerned about his future. Think about this is in 2010. He's concerned about his future and whether Bill will move away from him. And part of that is because he's been there now a decade. He saw what happened to Drew. He knows how he got his job.

He saw what happened to lawyer Malloy, Adam Vinuterry, there's a long list of great players. How they did business. It's how they did business. And Bill had a great track record of moving away from players a little early instead of a little late. And although that seems ruthless and hard, it worked time and time and time again. And Kraft, as the owner, allowed, gave Bill the latitude to make some really hard calls. I don't know that Robert would have made because these are hard calls to make.

But it was Bill's job to make him, and he made him, and he was almost always right. So Tom goes and has this meeting with the crafts, and this is the first time that he asks them to intervene in his contract negotiations. And they do. They get involved, and it's the first time it happens because it's the first indication that things are changing possibly. And then four years later, they draft Jimmy Garapolo. and by the time they draft Jimmy, think of how long it's been. It's been a decade since they've won a Super Bowl. And by that time, this to me was the closest thing to when Bill Walsh goes out and gets Steve Young and brings him to San Francisco and Joe Montana goes nuts.

And suddenly you see Joe Montana do things near the back of his career that he hadn't done in the front of his career. And that's because he had Steve Young right there. and I think Jimmy Garoppolo, I'm not suggesting this was intentional on Bill's part, but I think what it did was it, this is like adding gas to an inferno. Tom's an inferno when it comes to competitiveness. Everything. He's on fire all the time. And this was like, let's just dump some gas on that. And I think this is what Jonathan Kraft talked about.

Most people miss this in the documentary, which I thought was one of the best things said. In the very end of the documentary, he talked about how by now there's a rift between Bill and Tom. They're not communicating that much. The whole organization knew it. Barely communicating. Barely communicating. But what Jonathan pointed out was both guys used the situation as motivation to compete harder, to compete better. It actually drove both of them in their own way, which I thought was a really astute observation from someone on the inside who was there for the whole thing.

that is how it worked with Bill and Tom. Even when they didn't have the kind of coach quarterback relationship that they had in the early days, the relationship was very functional on Sunday afternoons at 1 o'clock. It really was. 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. 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, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

And the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple 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-tapped 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 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. 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 crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you 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 For our radio audience, Jeff Benedict, 16 New York Times bestselling books, TV film producer, executive producer, HBO documentary, Tiger. It's much deeper in the book.

I implore you to go buy the book, which is still selling. The Tiger book is still selling. LeBron book sells everywhere. Istanbul, Canada here, everywhere in the world. These books are, they're fascinating. And if you love the deep dive, which documentaries can't hit on all of it. You know, we all kind of watched 30 for 30s and they were terrific. Yes.

But you just can't cover everything. The MJ doc. You know, Pippin feels like he got slided. Well, MJ had the say. That's right. He did. So that's the way it goes. By the way, Tom didn't have the say.

And I want to point on it. You know, Tom Brady deserves a lot of credit for this, not because he just works at Fox. Yeah. But, and I said this a couple weeks ago, if Patrick Mahomes got a defensive coach, not Andy Reed, that asked him to take financial sacrifices and that never really had outside of Randy Moss one great receiver. It was a lot of Wells Welkers, overachieving elements. Yes. I don't know if Mahomes

would be Mahomes. I came out of this thinking, you know who was kindest toward Bill? Tom. Slater banged on him. Tom Bray, got, you know, typical of Tom, sensitive guy, got emotional. But I think Tom could have brought out the hammer on this. And he didn't. That was my take. Yours?

So my take on Tom, two things. And I don't know if he's watching this interview, but the first time I interviewed him for the book was in his suite at the stadium, and it was right at the start of his second to last season. So this is the season they're going to beat the Rams in the Super Bowl. And in that interview, my first time doing it with him, at the end of the interview, I went in with 20 questions,

which I worked on for a long, long time, and I went over the kind of the ground rules with him. And I told them in the beginning, if there's anything I'm going to ask you, I'll turn the tape recorders off. If there's something I ask you, you don't want it on tape, I'll turn it off. And if there's something you don't want to talk about, just tell me, we'll move on to the next one. And the last question, he answered every question, by the way, and never asked me to turn the recorder off.

The last question I asked him, which I thought was the easiest of the 20. So I thought it would be the least interesting answer was the best answer. And it was about a car accident. And he'd been in shortly after he started, entered into a relationship with Giselle. And he could have been seriously injured in that accident, happened in Boston. It was a miracle that he walked away from it.

And that led to a really emotional answer that went way farther than I anticipated. And he cried when he was answering the question. And so did I. Because it was just so apparent that he was He was, it was so raw, but so honest, and you rarely see people. What was the question? I asked a simple question about what happened that day, because I knew he'd been in a car accident.

But as he started talking about it and reflecting about sort of the, how fragile life is, and he started talking about relationships that matter to him, you could see underneath the athlete celebrity to the heart of who this human is. and it was just very powerful. And the similar thing happened when he came in for the interview for the documentary, where we only interviewed him once for the film. And he was very emotional in that as well. And when he cried during the documentary filming, I did too again. And what I would say about Tom, if you step back,

is I've never seen anyone who's occupied the high road for as long as Tom Brady. and I'm not talking about the high road of performance as an athlete. That's a different road. And he's alone on that road too. That's a road that people like Tiger and Michael and LeBron occupy in their sports. Tom's alone on that road in the NFL. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about him character-wise.

I've never seen, and I don't think anyone watching or listening to your show, can point to an instance where Tom didn't take the high road when he had so many opportunities to criticize someone else. he's never done it and some people accuse him of being disingenuous when he says always says nice things about Bill or this person or that person that's not disingenuous

that's not and it's not dishonest that's someone who's made a decision that that's how they're going to live their life and that if I just think if more people actually went through life that way life would be a lot nicer but it's really hard to do that when you've been through some of the things Tom's been through Like when he went through deflategate, people that he thought were his friends in the NFL saw the opportunity to take a shot and they took it.

And these were people who knew better and used it as an opportunity to undermine all that achievement. There's a lot of jealousy and envy in professional sports. Oh, yeah. And a lot. Someone like Tom is just sort of set up to be hit by people. and that's what I admire more than all the football stuff which I'm an admirer of that but way more impressive to me is that

he's been on the high road for so long and when he's up there you don't see many people like you're on the road and it's like there's no people passing you look at it think about how Randy Moss ended I don't think there's a teammate that's ever taken a shot at Tom that I remember.

Well, I can think of one, Antonio Brown, but that's just, that's, that's just embarrassing. But I mean, he's not really a teammate. Not really.

But you're right about his teammates over 20 years, tremendous respect because of how Tom is. And by the way, what's interesting also is Tom's not easy to play with. You know, he's not easy to be,

he's a great teammate. I'm not saying that, but he's a perfectionist. And that's why when guys are honest, like Grun, talking about his first rookie season, how hard it was to like Tom in the beginning. But then come around, and I think that's one of the things that he and Bill had in common,

was that they were really hard to play for it because the standard was so high. Yeah, I think another takeaway, again, from 30,000 feet, another takeaway when reading your book first, which I always, you know, sometimes with the movie business, reading the book first helps, but then another, sometimes you feel the movie's pithy compared to the book. in here this is your book is so substantial but I did think the documentary um landed well I do too I thought they did a really good job um one of the criticisms was the Aaron Hernandez situation when I thought Ernie Adams who was a lovable figure in this doc everybody knew Aaron was a first round player you could look at his high school and college highlights he was Patrick Chung once told me

I said who's the hardest guy to cover in the league he goes Aaron Hernandez and I cover gronket practice. You can't guard him. He's faster than me and he's a tight end. And I thought in this, and I want to go back to the book that everybody knew he came with baggage. That's why, by the way, somebody would have drafted him. He was just too gifted. And there were moments where Wes Welker says, listen, if you were around Aaron and you heard him talk, there's trash talk, then there's weird, uncomfortable stuff. Yes. Do you point fingers on that? Go into the book on Aaron because I, as a sportscaster, I just come to terms with a lot of these kids come from difficult situation. You're not getting a locker room of 55 perfect people. I don't know what guys

are doing when they're going home. It's not my job. They have families. Did you think the Patriots knew more than they let on, or it really did erode very, very quickly? I think the guy that probably knew the most was Urban Meyer. And Urban Meyer coached him in Florida, he knew that there was more going on than pot smoking. Which who cares, right? I mean, come on. There was more than that in Florida. There were some violent incidents down there. Now, not things with guns, but I mean, there were...

A bartender fight. Stuff like that. I think the Patriots, I did not point fingers in the book at anyone in the Patriots organization. I think they were all fooled. And I think when you think about how sophisticated... We're talking about Bill Belichick, Ernie Adams, Jonathan Kraft, Robert Kraft, sophisticated, smart. seasoned people, they were all fooled.

I mean, when Robert Kraft talks about being snookered and how it acknowledges it. He acknowledges it. I actually give him credit. A lot of people wouldn't acknowledge that they were schnuckered. They were snuckered. And I think that it was so astounding to them when the murder charges first came out, well, not the charges, but when there was a murder and wasn't clear who did it yet, the idea that he could have done it was hard to fathom.

and then when he was brought out of his house in handcuffs, it was still hard to fathom because it is unprecedented. That's the thing. And so I didn't feel it was appropriate to criticize Bill for not knowing. How would he know? Jeff, think about couples that are married for 20 years. They live together, they sleep together, and they have affairs for decades and nobody knows. The idea that coaches know, NBA, it's a small roster.

You got 70 guys in the room. No. It's transitional, new coach. I always say with team, you can know he's a problem. By the way, I could name a player for the Cowboys years ago that was drafted a wide receiver, and they knew get security detail around him. He's a little immature, not a bad guy, but everybody knew Aaron came with stuff. You don't think it's going to go from stuff to murder.

No, and none of the guys in the locker room, the guys in the locker room, there were a few, Dion Branch, Wes Welker, some of the guys that, that knew a little more. They didn't know that much. Yeah, Wes was not a fan. Yeah, Wes wasn't a fan, but Dion knew him really well, and I thought that admission in the film where he says, how did I not see that?

That's the whole point. Dion, none of these guys actually hung around with Aaron outside of football. They weren't part of that. He had his crew. He had his own guys, and none of the players actually were part of that group, and so they really didn't know.

That's not a cover-up. That's not an excuse. It's just it's a really unusual situation and the reason I spent as much time on it as I did in the book was because the Patriots over a 20-year span had things happen that no other team had happened like there is no other team that went 16 and oh demolished the league by the way the same year they were accused of spying on the jets that year they go 16 and 0 and lose the way they lost on a guy pinning a ball against his helmet there's no other team that's had that happen to them

so I think as a writer you have to lean into those things not because you're trying to sully the Patriots I actually think those down moments are what really illustrate the magnitude of what they achieved because they had to overcome things that would have crushed the soul of most organizations

yeah well the best time to read a book like this, which you've got to give it four or five days. If you're flying cross-country, spring, summer vacation, it's one of those things where I don't have, in the football season, I'm so busy. I don't have time to read books. No, but it's like a streaming service in a book. You've got to give this four or five days of your life if you got some time. It's just fascinating.

It makes everybody smarter. Jeff Benedict, 16 books have been New York Times best-selling books. He's a film producer, television. The books have been The Dynasty, Tiger, LeBronhamhamie. is the one that jumps out to me. You got a Steve Young book in there. I could do this for two hours. I could literally sit here for two hours, but we do have some responsibilities.

Bills being paid. Jeff, the book is The Dynasty. Let's show it one more time on the wall. Fascinating stuff. Really, really interesting book and the documentary. I don't push people to other platforms, but Apple TV, I thought did a tremendous job. It to me rivals. All the interesting docs, by the way, in sports all end with turkeys.

turbulence. Nobody's making one on Tim Duncan and the Spurs. I mean, seriously, all the good documentaries have turbulence. Everybody in Hollywood's seeking conflict, this had conflict. Jack and Kobe's got conflict. That's why we chose Gimmie Shelter and the Rolling Stones to end the show. That's great. By the way, perfect, perfect way to end that documentary. Great seeing you, Jeff. Great seeing you, Colin. Thank you. Third. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Pauli Fusco here with Tony Fusco. You know, as the host of the number one rated

Polly and Tony Fusco show, we get tons and tons of fan mail every day. Piles of it. In fact, Tony, why don't you open up one of those letters right now and read what's inside? Yeah, listen to this. Dear Paulie and Tony, your sports takes are the dumbest and most terrible... Wait, not that one. Wait, why? Open this

other one. Dear Paulie and Tony, you suck more than anyone. Not that one. Try this one. Dear Paulie and Tony, you guys are the absolute best. There you go. At coming up with the stupidest takes possible. You know what? Forget what those clowns say. Just listen to the Foley and Tony Fusco show on the IHart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Yeah. 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 I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment.

And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be.

Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. 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 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 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. 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 I-HeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When your business reaches a certain scale, challenges begin to surface. You deserve a tailored solution, and that's net suite.com slash heard, H-E-R-D-J-Mack with the news.

No, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Let's go back to the Steelers, Colin. Pittsburgh Post Gazette is reporting, and this is shocking to me, I don't know. The Steelers plan to sign Russ to a long-term deal at the end of the 2020. He still got it, baby. Listen, the ink-stained wretches at the Pittsburgh Post-Cazette.

Are you kidding me? We have no idea what's going to happen. Like, come on. They don't plan. This is simply PR for Russ to make him happy. after this whole Justin Fields thing. I'm telling you, there is a lot of egos to be massaged in that locker room. So you don't believe the story?

No way. What would they sign? I mean, this is going to be his fourth straight season with a new offense. Okay? Seattle, Denver, Denver, and now Pittsburgh. What? Nobody's going to succeed in that. I don't believe it all.

Now, look at this. Our staff has Steelers' notable offseason moves. They're going to throw it on the screen, I hope. Okay? New offensive coordinator, number one receiver gone. Center Mason Cole's gone. They lose Patrick Peterson, which is. isn't the biggest deal in the world.

And Keanu Neal, there is way too much newness for this team to do anything. I think that's fair. That's fair. I do like Arthur Smith as a coordinator. Why? Because he worked with Ryan Tannahill and made him a number one seed. Four years ago? Okay, fair, fair. How about Van Jefferson? We've been talking about him for years. That's your number two receiver? I don't even know if he's a four. I don't know. I'm out. Sorry, Pittsburgh. I'm out. I'm being too harsh.

All right, next up. How about this team? Arguably worst in the league. The New York Giants, their new backup quarterback. Drew Locke, come on down. He has 23 career starts under his belt. And listen, Daniel Jones is not a good quarterback. So maybe people think Drew Locke has a shot,

but he's not saying that, which is awkward. Daniel Jones is the starter of this team, and that's been conveyed to me. Now, I need to come in and push Daniel to be the best he can be, and that's the role that I've played for Gino. That's the role that I played for Teddy. That's the role that Brett Rippen played for me

when I was the starter in Denver. I've had both sides of this. You know, I've been the guy to push a starter, and I've been the starter that's being pushed by the backups. It's all about making that room as best it can be. And if we do that, you know, sky's the limit for this team. I like that. That's the right thing to say.

It just sounds weird. Well, you can know. I'm here to push him to be a better quarterback. Well, yeah. Daniel Jones is not that good. Well, you can't go in there battling and arguing with it. Well, I agree with that. But the framing, Colin, he could easily say, hey, I'm going to be the improve as a quarterback and be the best I can be.

Well, no, instead he was honest and said, it's been conveyed to me that Daniel's the starter. Why blow up the room? You don't have to blow it up. You don't have to take T and T to the room. Yeah, but if you walk in and go, hey, I'm battling for the job. You're blowing that, you're creating a headline for the New York Post and the Daily News. And when you get to these New Yorks in Philadelphia's and Boston's, you have to be, when you go to the podium, you have to be aware,

you've got dynamite in your hands. These guys are, those are aggressive media markets. Yeah. I guess you can, okay, fine, say the right thing politely to the media. And then behind the scenes, we like, Daniel Jones is trash. I'm coming for that job. Go tell the receivers I will be starting by week five. That's the last thing you do.

You undermine the starter by snarky sneakiness? I'm a Jets fan. I have to take some digs at Giants fans. Come on. It's the end of the show. I thought that Drew Locke is not my favorite guy. I thought he was a total pro. That's exactly.

Again, he's been around the league. He's been the one. He's been the two. And he's wearing his hat forwards, which is... And he looked totally professional. In front of the... You got to be careful in these New York, Boston, Philly, Chicago. These markets are aggressive, traditional.

You've got multiple papers. Multiple sports talk radio stations. People are vying for the mic and the headline. and you've got to be careful on what you say. Why do you think it's fun when I take jabs at that former quarterback who's in New York and then that other guy who has host a show? I love, I love taking the guy on the line. Yeah, but there's a difference is that Aaron Rogers creates a lot of his mayhem.

Well, I was actually talking about Boomerosciason, but... Oh, good boy. He's been a fine broadcaster. Oh, yeah, he's outstanding. Very good. All right. Jay Mack with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd Lie News. Jeff Benedict, wonderful. stuff today by the book. It's really interesting. You know, these, I don't have a time to dive in to one of these four to five day books during the football season. So out of the football season, I read

as much as I can. I watch as many. I watch docs constantly. That you just can't do it during the football season. So if you've got four or five days, you're headed to the beach, you got, you know, spring break with the kids, whatever you're doing. The Dynasty, Jeff Benedict, one of his 16 bestselling books.

We'll see you tomorrow on a Tuesday live in L.A. It's the Hurt. Another podcast from Some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

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