The Herd with Colin Cowherd - James Harden, NFL ratings, Andy Reid, playoffs, and social media

Episode Date: January 4, 2019

Colin explains why Houston Rockets SG James Harden is overrated, why the NFL ratings are up, reasons why Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid is underrated, his NFL wild card predictions, and why it's wise to stay off social media. Guests include Mark Schlereth, Kevin Clark, Greg Jennings, and Jason McIntyre. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor, forget the ski sweaters. Oh, you know what? Usually it's freezing in the studio, and everyone has told me not to say anything because it's actually a nice temperature today. Look at you. I got the arms out today. Well, you know what? It's actually nice in Los Angeles today.

It was a little warmer this morning. Yesterday was... I mean, frigid 59. It's back in the 60s, so we're good. It's great to see you. Good morning. Good morning. Had a fun show yesterday.

We have great stuff today. It's such a fun time of the year. So it makes me happy when people join us. We have four NFL games this weekend. We're going to get into that. Kevin, excuse me, Kevin Clark at the Ringer next hour, a great young NFL writer, Greg Jennings, I'm Mark Schler at this hour.

I want to start with this, though. I tell my kids all the time, set yourself up for success. Like if we're going to go on a vacation, even an overnight vacation, I'm like, you know, pack accordingly, take some power bars, take some snacks. Set yourself up for success here. Okay, set you're going to be out of your little routine here. Set yourself up for success. Well, James Harden last night had a huge night. He's on fire.

He's scoring 40 a game. he's the NBA's leading score. And last night, he just went crazy against Golden State. He was amazing. Oh, my God, I can't believe it. And his general manager, Daryl, who I had lunch with about a month ago, who's one of the smart guys in sports, who I really, really like, and his words matter, came out and said, you know, you could argue for him as the best

offensive player of all time. A whole bunch of ways to measure it. But for me, he's in the conversation as the greatest offensive player ever. Okay, let's go back to set yourself up for success. quarterbacks in 2019, 2018, and shooters in the NBA are currently set up for success. Let me give you a football example. Now, we all like Philip Rivers, right? We don't love him, but we like him.

We're not sure he's a Hall of Famer. This year, for the first time in his career, he set an NFL record completing 25 straight passes. The next night, Marcus Mariotta, who the Titans were about ready to ship out, of town completed 19 straight passes. A month later, career backup, Nick Foles completed 25 straight passes. You think it's a coincidence it's this year. Kirk Cousins this year, more passing yards and more touchdowns by a mile over Troy Aikman.

And that's an interesting one to think about because we know, we know Kirk Cousins is a stat monster, but he's not great in big game. Troy Aikman didn't have the stats but was great in big games. And I want you to remember the Kirk Cousins, Troy Aikman thing. Now let's talk about James Harden. Darryl Morris said he's the best ever. I'm not going to compare him to the best ever because that would be Michael, right? You all love Michael or Wilt.

Okay. I'm just going to compare him to one guy, Kobe Bryant, as a score. So when you're a score, does athleticism matter? Yes. Most of the great scores of all timing. Wilt Chamberlain ran track to play Beach, volleyball, Wilts Chamberlain, LeBron James, Michael Jordan could do. Athleticism matters.

James Harden athletically has two moves, one of them is traveling. Kobe Bryant was the NBA's Picasso. Like Phil Mickelson in golf, he's the greatest shot maker of all time. I'm not saying the best player, but Michael Jordan had stock moves. So does LeBron. James Hardin has two. Kobe came down with a blank canvas and just made it up. athletically, it is not close.

By the way, does defense also exhibit and illustrate athleticism? Kobe made all NBA first team defense nine times, second team three times, hardens a defensive liability. So athletically, and that matters as the greatest offensive player ever, it ain't close. Let's talk commitment. Does commitment matter if you're a great offensive player? I think Kareem was committed to the sport. I think Jerry West, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson.

I think Michael Jordan's as committed as any player in league history. Hardin had his jersey retired at a Houston strip club. Kobe's got two jerseys retired at the Staples. Kobe is known as the greatest practice player in the history of the Lakers. And from what I'm told, Magic Johnson would tell you it ain't close. Kobe Bryant in commitment is the most relentless practice player, most intense off-the-camera performer. Only one close is MJ.

Hardin, by the way, was traded out of Oklahoma City because of concerns that he wasn't totally committed. Then he went to Houston and proved it by showing up at a strip club an hour after he'd been eliminated in a playoff series. So does athleticism matter? Yep, not close. Does commitment matter? Yeah, not close.

Now let's talk about, you know, like actual games. What's the greatest playoff moment in James Hardin's career? I'll wait. Hmm. Because Kobe, I got 6, 7, 8, 9 on my mental rolodex right now. Let's go to ERAs. You think James Hardens had it a little easier, never played with a hand check? has played in an era with European centers

who are 7 feet 2 and 109 pounds. They weigh slightly more than a trisket. Kobe Bryant played half his career in the hand check era. And oh, by the way, played when we had centers who were domestic weighed 280 and it was their job to physically punish you if you went to the rim. I don't even need to compare James Hardin

to the all-time greatest. He doesn't come close to stacking up to one player, Kobe Bryant. Let's get back to the Troy Aikman, Kirk Cousins comparison I made. The knock on Aikman was always that, well, I mean, he had a great coach and so many great players around him. Of course, the knock on Kobe is, well, he played with Shaq and he had Phil Jackson. Today, James Hardin is closer to Kirk Cousins than Troy Aikman.

A lot of money. moved to a couple of teams. First one doubted him. He has great stats and has never showed up big in the playoffs. Yeah, I said it. Right now, James Hardin

is a stat monster. Right now, Kirk Cousins is a stat monster. Both are highly compensated. Both have let their fan bases down in big spots. And Kobe and Aikman, though they did have Hall of Fame level coaches and they did have great supporting casts, have never been given the true credit they deserve, much of it with Aikman, because he played with a great running game and a great coach and a great offensive line and a great defense and a Hall of Fame wide receiver.

But leadership, toughness, playing in crisis. Akeman's one of the eight best quarterbacks I've ever seen. I've put that on the screen many times. And Kobe Bryant did have Phil Jackson and did have Shaq and did have the Laker brand. he's also one of the eight best players I've ever seen play basketball. James Hardin is not only, not one of the great offensive players of all time. He doesn't come close to comparing to Kobe Bryant. Let me shift to football.

I just saw this story reading it this morning in the sporting news. That's a fine publication. NFL ratings saw a boost on every channel. Fox, NBC, CBS, Monday Night Football, every single channel. And in fact, the story says the key to it is we've got Mahomes versus Baker Mayfield. These two new stars are. So before I get cynical, I'm in the story business. I'm not in the radio business.

I'm not in the television business. I'm in the story business. I relate stories, tell stories, try to call stories, try to create stories. That's all I've ever done. People that work at newspapers are not in the newspaper business. They're in the story business. The reason the NFL ratings went up, because the previous two years, do you know what the big story was in the NFL? It wasn't a football story. It was a political story, kneeling. This year we had six riveting stories. Let's go over them. People will tell you the reason the NFL the ratings are up this year is

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The reason the ratings are up is because the previous two years, we didn't have a really compelling gripping story. The one we had was about politics more than football. Let's talk about the six stories that we had this year, that you couldn't keep your eyes off. Number one, Patrick Mahomes. Oh, my God, who's Patrick Mahomes?

Left-handed passes, no-look passes. We didn't watch him play much in college. 90-yard throws in practice. Oh, my God. Who is this kid? Let's be honest about it. He's an amazing talent. At this point, a little overvalued.

Andy Reid deserves a lot of credit. He's got great weapons around him. Pro bowlers at left tackle, wide receiver, tight end, and formerly at running back. But the first story this year that helped ratings, oh my God, Patrick Mahomes. The second big story this year, and again, I'm in the story business, was, hey, Baker Mayfield, this cocky kid can play. Mayfield is what TV, radio, and newspapers live off. He's polarizing. Owen 16?

It's a pretty competitive. Brash grabs his junk. Cocky comes on shows like this, talks back. Baker Mayfield is fun. He's one of the first quarterbacks I turn the TV on every Sunday. The third story you couldn't keep your eyes off, and this was more of the car wreck you slow down on the freeway to watch, was John Gruden's massive personnel moves.

He single-handedly made the best. bears the best defense in the league by giving them Khalil Mack, and he made the Dallas Cowboys a viable playoff contender by giving them Amari Cooper. Week to week, you could not keep your eyes off the car wreck known as John Gruden and the Raiders. The fourth great story this year, the Dallas Cowboys roller coaster, three in five to ten and six. You can't pay DAC to, you're going to have to pay DAC. the Amari Cooper edition, beating the New Orleans Saints, an almost inexplicable performance. The fifth big story this year, and I don't think anybody would deny this, the diva drama in Pittsburgh.

The first month of the year, it was all about Labian Bell. That one ended. For the next five weeks, it was all about Big Ben and Tomlin. That one ended, and at the last two weeks, it was all about Antonio Brown. Stars are interesting. They're even more interesting when they're fighting with each other. people can compare them to whoever you want. It was a reality show. And the six biggest story, I know they're not based, you know, on the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean, but it was the Green Bay Packers, man overboard.

First game of the year, Aaron Rogers gets hurt again. He limps around for the next month and a half. He comes back, doesn't get along with Mike McCarthy, eye-rolling, contempt, passive-aggressive quotes, then Mike McCarthy gets fired. six captivating, gripping football on the field stories week after week after week. That is why the ratings are up. That is why football is back. That the number one story in this league is not a political story.

It's a story that is the reason we've always watched on Sundays and Mondays and now Thursdays and Saturdays. On the field can't turn away stories. and we had six great ones this year. Coming up next, I've never been a huge fan of Mitch Tribesky, until this morning. The Bears quarterback, I'm all in. That's next. In L.A., it's a Friday.

The Hurt. Be sure to catch live editions of The HARD weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the I-Hard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the Internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

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And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

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Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. It is great to have you in, Mark Schler, at this hour. Guy I love this time of the year. Now, I have been, I'll pick next hour. I'll pick the games who I like this weekend. I'm definitely going to do that.

I'm not going to have a Blazing 5 today because I wouldn't bet these games, except the Dallas Cowboys I do like. I think the Cowboys are going to beat Seattle by a touchdown, and the line's like one or two points. I have leans for all of them. But I want to start with this. I've not been big on the Bears this year, and this is the way it works, is I'm a sportscaster, my job.

I'm loyal to honesty because my honesty, I had it locally, I had it regionally, I had it at my former company, I have it at this company. Advertisers have laughed, bosses have left, formats have changed. I am loyal to honesty. It travels with me. And when I don't buy into somebody, I didn't buy into Aaron Rogers as a rookie because he was like 6 and 10 and I said, show me something. I know he's got a great arm, FAR one, show me something.

Green Bay fans have hated me since. In Cleveland, I don't necessarily buy in a business. Baker Mayfield for finishing in third place. The other fan base this year that can't stand me is Chicago, and I've said I was never a huge fan of Mitch Trubisky. I didn't like his release. He couldn't win the starting job the year before he made the NFL, couldn't beat out a non-NFL quarterback at Carolina.

I watched him play in college a couple of times. I didn't see it. My executives and scouts who I talked to didn't love him as a thrower. He's a very good athlete. He reminds me of a poor man's Jimmy. Garoppolo. I mean, seriously. I think they almost look alike. They play alike, but I think Garoppolo is a better arm talent. And now I do think Chicago's general manager, Ryan Pace, is brilliant. I think the coach, Matt Nagy is my coach of the year. Historically, it's a kind of dysfunctional

organization. Their defense is amazing. Kalil Mack is the next Lawrence Taylor, but I've never been a Trubisky guy until today. Because I read this quote from Mitchell Tribisky of the Chicago Bears. He said, you know, I got off social media to improve my mental health. He said, why would I let these voices and these distractions get into my head? I got to take care of this football team. So I'm not going to get into social media. So I would like to remind you that the Chicago Bears quarterback who led his team to the playoffs said, I don't want to be a distraction.

Baker Mayfield, who finished third, said, I am the distraction. I love this stuff. Now, Baker Mayfield took a shot at me, called me Grinch. Very hurtful. I cried for several nights. But the point is, I do not believe it to coincidence that of the current quarterback playoffs, Brady, Breeze, Wilson, Luck, Rivers, Lamar Jackson, Trebisky, Foles, and Deshawn Watson, most have very small social media footprints.

Now, obviously, Russell Wilson's married to a superstar, Tom Brady's married to a superstar, and Drew Breeze is a superstar. So they have large followings. But if you follow Drew Breeze, he talks about family. You follow Russell Wilson. He talks about kids. You talk Tom Brady, he talks about his parents and his kids. Those are small, non-elevated, non-controversial social media platforms.

Social media, to me, is sort of a loaded gun. Be very careful. Don't use it after a couple of cocktails. You're going to get in trouble. Mitch Trubisky, like the great ones, is like, I'm out on the. this stuff. I got to worry about this. The quarterback everybody loves Baker Mayfield is, I love

this stuff. That's why when I hear people saying Cleveland is the number one job available in the NFL. I keep saying time out. General manager John Dorsey got run out of Kansas City. Not because

he wasn't competent. He did a great job in Kansas City. Ego couldn't get along with people. owner, Jimmy Haslam, legendary, higher fire, higher fire, relentless, higher fire, impatient. Baker Mayfield, social media potster. This morning I read a story, Josh McDaniels of the Patriots enthusiastically interested in the Brown's job. As Joy said yesterday, I'm officially questioning his judgment. He traded up to get Tebow and passed on Andrew Luck.

This stuff matters. It matters, folks. Jay Cutler had a great arm. Personality was wrong. Aaron Rogers has great talent. Personality is passive-aggressive. Jeff George, best arm in league history. Couldn't get along with people.

Mitch Trubisky, though I think he's an incredibly limited arm talent, is out on social media, meaning I'm in on Mitch Trubisky. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, Colin, it's a big wildcard weekend. Yes. Lots of exciting stuff.

But I got to say, the most exciting thing that is happening this weekend. What? Is Colin Cowherd's birthday? Yay! Oh, yeah. Thank you. I can't believe. Happy birthday, Colin.

Well, young lady, you share the same birthday as my wife. Yes, I do. But that's in a couple weeks, so I still got a couple of weeks. I still got a couple more weeks of my age. Yours is coming up on Sunday. Yes. You're going to do anything special to celebrate. My wife asked me.

She said, what do you want? And I said, how about a big pot of chili? You love you, some soup. Some soup? I love soup. I love soup. I said a pot of chili and want you invite like three buddies over, and we can just watch football and drink beer and have chili.

That's a nice birthday. And have my dog next to me. What kind of chili do you like? Turkey chili. Turkey chili. Well, my wife is vegan, so she'll make vegan chili, which I remind her is just salsa. I don't want to eat a bowl of salsa.

My mom has a great chili recipe. I was telling you about the other day. She makes it every time I come home. I love chili. I love soup too. I'm totally with you on the soup thing. I could eat soup every day. Chili?

Football. Heineken football, my dog. Nice. It sounds like a good birthday. Thank you very much. Happy birthday, Colin. Thank you. We will send you nice tweets that you will not be checking because you will be enjoying beverages and chili on Sunday.

But happy birthday. Thank you. All right. So the Cowboys are nearly unbeatable at home this season. They went seven and one with the only loss coming to Titans in week nine and they'll have a chance to make it eight in one when they host the Seahawks in the NFC Wildcard round on Saturday.

And yesterday, Pete Carroll pointed out some features that are kind of unique to Cowboys Stadium. Yeah. I think the scoreboard may get in the way of the sound. Bounces back at you or something. It's a real glitzy place. You know, when you come out of a football locker room, ready to play football and you go into a nightclub,

You know, it's kind of like, we're in the club, you know, no wait a minute. You know, you got to play ball, and then you come back to the club, and they're all, you know, it's unusual. And then they're right with you, too. Those people are sitting behind, I don't know how they see the game. I don't, it doesn't look like they care. It's an unusual place. That's actually a good thing, I think, because you're actually enjoying yourself at the game as opposed to it was fighting. I have not been there.

It's a great stadium. I've heard nothing but great things about it. I am weighing on a great stadium or arena experience. Yes, oh my. It's very important. Thank you. It's very undervalued how important it is. I always said this, Joy, like in baseball, if you want me to be a season tickle holder, you got to do better than hot dogs.

Oh, yeah. I mean, that's a given. That's a given. I'm annoyed when I go to a high school game and all you've got is hot dogs. Like, step your game up. Come on. This is a great. It is the best stadium I've been to in America in terms of football.

I will say the new L.A. stadium, they're looking at that stadium and elevating it another level. So even Jerry admits that his title of the best stadium football stadium in America is not for long. Yes. And they, well, yeah, but Mr. Jerry was also a big part of getting football in L.A., so I don't think he minds that so much. But having home field advantage for the Cowboys is very important. And I don't think that their earlier matchup will have any reflection on what is going to happen in this game. They're completely different teams, Amari Cooper, Earl Thomas. But like I said, a good in-stadium experience matters.

It does. It changes the whole situation. This is the only game all weekend. I feel strongly about a team winning. I really like Dallas in this game. I think it's close and competitive, but I think I get the better personnel. I get home field. I get the better number one receiver.

I get the better star back. I still think Seattle and Pete are tweaking this. I think there'll be a better team next year. I think they're a young team. I think Seattle's been a great story. I don't think they're a great team. I think Dallas is not only a great story, but has a chance to be a great team. They have better personnel and they're at home.

They're clearly a better team at home. The only thing about the Seahawks that would worry me if I'm Dallas is the Seahawks have that experience in the first season. And Russell Wilson's amazing. Yes. All right. So given the events of the last week or so, Antonio Brown's future in Pittsburgh is obviously very much in question and the odds makers are all over it. Although the Steelers are the favorites, there are another. There are some other teams in the running.

The San Francisco 49ers. The Colts, the Jets, and the Raiders. Colts. Obviously, it has to do with Capspace. I totally, Vegas, I don't think the Colts will go after him. They've got a deep threat. They're building a culture there. I think Levy on Bell is a more realistic landing spot.

And I'm not even sure they like him. They're young. Andrew Luck has set the tone for the organization, which is quiet, reserved. I would take the Colts off that board. I do think the Jets Pittsburgh one, Jets 2. I believe the Jets will make a move for either Antonio or Lavian Bell. That is my gut feeling.

Well, the cap situation isn't as bad as we originally thought. It basically would be a wash for this season. The Steelers? Yeah. I mean, as far as for the future, it's basically the same amount of money if they keep him or trade him for this year. Moving forward, they'd have some freedom in the next two years. So I do actually think that he will be moved based on.

on that. Now, last night was an awesome watch. The Rockets beat the Warriors and a thriller. James Harden hit an incredible three-pointer, it was fouled, by the way, on a double team to win the game for Houston in overtime. 135, 134. He's averaging 42 points per game since Chris Paul's injury.

They've won 11 of their last 12, going from 14th to fourth place in the West. It was a great game last night. Really, really fun to watch. And I think that the Rockets have actually turned a corner. Yeah, they figured them, but it should be noted that Chris Paul's hurt. Well, look how great they're playing without Chris Paul.

Well, that's what I'm saying, but that's not real. Because in a month, he'll be back. So Hardin's getting all these numbers, and everybody's standing around watching Hardin. Clint Capella made some shots last night. But in the end, this is not the team. They're going to have to figure out how to play, because Hardin's not going to get all these shots and points when Chris is back. I don't think it's going to hurt them to have Chris Paul back. That's the difference because they've had Chris Paul and had success before.

So they're going to have to work him back in. He's obviously not going to get the usage that he's getting right now, but he is playing great. And the end of the game, actually, the ruffs are always a conversation with James Hardin. But did you see the Kevin Durant play? We're showing it right now. Yes, yes. Just an unbelievable miss by the refs. I've never seen a call this widely. I mean, what is that?

What is that? Terrible call. It basically just erased all the miss calls that they've ever gotten on James Harden. He's walking out of bounds. Can you imagine if that was an NFL playoff game and that stood? It's remarkable. Kevin Durant even said that they were missing a lot. That's how bad it was.

And then Chris Paul waited on Twitter and said that the refs were doing the Bird Box challenge. Have you seen Birdbox yet? No, have you? Yes. What do you mean? What are you doing? You're a Netflix guy. You got to watch Bird Box.

It's Sandra Bullock? Yes. The very beginning of every time you turn Netflix on. The entire world was watched this movie. It's good? It's good. I'm going to save my opinion for it after you watch it because I want to discuss it with you. Bird Box?

Bird Box, yes. All right. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. A multiple time pro bowler. He's got three Super Bowl rings.

Let's bring him on. Mark Schlerth on a Friday. These big football games. By the way, so take my audience from regular season football, which is intense. Hold on. Hi, hi, Joy. Good morning. Have you seen Bird Box? No, I don't want Bird Box.

Same here. Do you watch Netflix? Hey, they're birdbox in us. I'm like, what the heck said me? I don't even know. Yeah. Well, that's why you got to watch it. So you're in the know.

I watch Narcos, Mexico. Yeah, Narcos, Mexico is a great choice. I watch Game tape. Yeah, that's a great movie, too. I'm a football guy. Game tape all day, every day. In the trenches. I can't stay awake past eight, Joy.

Thank you. That's my issue, okay? So regular season football's intense. Nobody denies that. Yeah. The NFL's got regular season urgency, playoff urgency, Super Bowl urgency. Nobody would deny that.

The NBA, you could argue, it didn't have much regular season. too many playoff series and then the finals this year will be Golden State. NFL, I've heard this before from players. Playoffs are different. Well, if the regular season is urgent, how much more urgent can the playoffs be? So what's different? You tell me, the game is no different.

I mean, once the ball is snapped and you get that first hit out of the way, you're just playing a football game. There's no difference. And, you know, I mean, I've had the good fortune to play in three and start three Super Bowl. So there was no difference. the hype before the game is different. The preparation before the game to some degree is different because of the hype. But the bottom line, once the ball's kicked off, once it's snapped, it's like any other football game you played.

I don't think it's officiated any differently. I don't think it's really, for the most part, played any differently. The intensity is the intensity. If you don't show up on game day, whether it's week one, or whether it's week 17, or whether it's the playoffs or the Super Bowl, you're going to get embarrassed. Physically, you're going to get whipped.

And so, I mean, to me, that's the difference. So I'm going to go through all four games. The game I feel strongest about, I think Dallas beat Seattle. I feel like Seattle's a terrific story. I don't think they're a great team yet. I think Dallas has a lot of great components and could be a great team. I like Dallas. Touchdown, your thoughts.

Yeah, you know, I think Dallas arguably is a better football team. I think defensive line they're better. I think they've got one of the best young linebacking cores, maybe the best lineback and core in football. I think their secondary is really good. I think they're offensive line. I think they have the best just pure running back in football. It comes down to this for me, and I'm going the opposite way.

I'm taking Seattle. Wow. And it comes down to this. Both of these teams are constructed the same way. Yes, they are. They want to run the ball. Nobody runs it more. 55% of the plays for the Seahawks or run plays.

Average 158 plus yards per game. That's what they do, running the ball. But it comes down to this. When you get in that kind of game, you eliminate possessions. So in normal football games, about 12 to 13 possessions, you're down to about nine possessions. In those nine possessions, whose quarterback in the red zone do I trust to make more plays? Russell. Russell Wilson. That's what it comes down to. Now, let me just say this. If they go back, if Scott Linnahan, their offense coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, goes back to Dak Prescott's rookie year and runs, you know, eight or nine design QB runs,

in the red zone with the RPO stuff and the ability to take your quarterback out and run him in design situations. I think that makes them one of the worst red zone teams in football, one of the most more dynamic teams. So if they're willing to put their quarterback in harm's way, I think that levels the playing field. But just based on limited possessions, whose quarterback do I trust to make more plays? I trust Russell to make more plays. All right, let's go to Houston and the Colts. They split their games. Andrew Luck was great against both.

I tend to lean because I love luck. I tend to lean Colts because I think in this moment they're playing better football. In this moment, I don't trust Houston's secondary or their O line. But they just beat them a month ago. I think it's terribly hard in the NFL to face a good team and beat him twice. They just beat them in Houston. The idea of Indy going back to Houston. And once again, I don't think Indianapolis is a great team.

I think they're a great story. So I like the Cowboys over the better story. I like, this is a coin flip to me and what worries me about Indy, I think the story part of them is better than the personnel part. Yeah, yeah. See, I like your way of thinking there. And, you know, obviously I like what both quarterbacks have done. You're 100% right.

I mean, you look at Indianapolis in the last, I think, eight weeks, they've given up less pressures and less sacks than any team in football. It's starting to look like that young cowboy line. Like the year before it became the best line. Right. If you go the year before, you're like, boy, that Tyron Smith and Z. Boy, they've hit on a lot of draft picks the next year. It was the best O-line in football.

And you know, and I look at Quentin Nelson and what he's meant to this football team. One, I mean, the guy's an absolute beast. Two, he's changed the toughness quotient of that football team. Not only is he flatbacked you, then he rubs his undercarriage over top of your face mask, right? Just to let you know, he gives you a walk by, you know, and just let you know who's the boss. I mean, I love it's like a dog, you know, marking its territory. The guy is phenomenal what he's been able to do. That said, crowd noise.

playoff game. J.J. Watt, the resurgence. What a comeback player he's been, just like Andrew Luck on the other side, clowning on the opposite side. I think they get to Andrew Luck enough. Now, I know the Texans' offensive line has been, you know, not very good and giving up 60 sacks, I think 60 plus sacks on Deshaun Watson. And Deshaun Watson's mobile. So it's not like they're giving up 60 sacks to Philip Rivers. Now, sometimes Deshawn

Watson will run himself into trouble too. Now, I understand that. But I just look at who do I trust, I guess, off schedule to make big plays. And Deshaun Watson is like the guy to me going all the way back to his Clemson Days versus Alabama when he was essentially knocked out on his feet in the first quarter that game and came back somehow miraculously won that game. I just, I like the makeup of that football team. I think this is a close. It's a toss-up one for me.

I'm going to take the home team. I'm going with Houston. Okay. So I took the Cowboys, you took the Seahawks. I take close Indy, you take the Texans the next two games around the corner with Mark Schlarith and his thoughts on the Browns

coaching opening in L.A. It's a Friday. It's the Hurt. Be sure to catch live editions of the HARD. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Cold and flu season. Try Vick Sinex nasal spray. Use his direct that lasts up to 12 hours. Vic Sinex nasal spray. It's very

good. All right, Mark Schlarith, three Super Bowls, multiple-time Pro Bowler, knows all about play. So let's go to Sunday's games, early game out west. Out east it starts at one in the afternoon. Chargers in the Ravens, I'll give you my theory on this. Lamar Jackson has a T-bowl quality. The first time you meet him, you don't know what to make of it.

But if you can face him again within a month, he's easier to defend because it's so different than the rest of the NFL. My lean is the Chargers here. I think they have the best roster in the league. They get Lamar's not complex but unique offense for the second time in a month. the Chargers, what say you? I'll go the opposite. We're going opposite on all these games. I think in regards to Lamar, they're interesting.

They're running essentially a triple, like a triple option offense. And when I did their game a few weeks ago, studying their film, now I've eight, 30 years in the NFL, 12 is a player, 18 years as a broadcaster, and I block for a 2,000-yard rusher. I have never seen more gaping chasms in the running game than I ever saw. Like, each one was bigger than the next. I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's a huge hole. oh my, that's the biggest hole I've ever seen.

Wait, no, that's the biggest hole I've ever seen. It's unreal. And what they've done a great job of is their ability on side, on the play side, to get extra offensive players up to the second level. So they're optioning one person, meaning they're not blocking one person, but they're using a jet sweep motion or a tight end across the formation to influence that defensive end that they're going to option, then get him up to the second level.

And if you split the field in half, and if they've got five defenders on this, on this side of the field where they're running toward, they'll have seven blockers, and then they'll be using the quarterback as the runner. I'm telling you, it's a freak show. So everybody says, hey, Tyreek Hill, we saw him once. Now we know how fast he is. Yeah, he's still running by everybody.

Like, this Ravens' offense is so unique, and it messes with your eyes. But that's not even the part that makes them better. That's what we focus on because it's offense, right? And it's unique. Defensively, the Ravens are legitimate. They have kind of Hall of Fame caliber players on every level of their defense.

And when you look at them, I mean, there were number one or number two in just about essentially every category. Historically, they'd be one of the great defenses we've ever watched. They just don't turn the ball over. But when they played in L.A. against the Chargers, week 15, I think it was. No, 16. Week 16. I think Philip Rivers had 160 yards passing, and they had about 60 yards rushing. I think they did about 220 total yards against that defense.

That defense is legit, and we're just looking over it because, you know, of the size show type of offense that they're running. All right. So we disagree again. Philadelphia, Chicago, I'm going to go out in a whim here. I think I'm probably wrong. I would bet Philadelphia, they're plus six and a half points. I think Philadelphia is talented. I think their D-lines the best in football. I think they have veterans in key spots. I think the weakness of the Eagle's secondary won't be exploited by Chicago. I know it's a Sunday night game in Chicago. I know it's just built for Chicago to blow out Philadelphia. There's going to be an upset this week. I'll roll the dice and say Philadelphia shocks

the world. Really? Yeah. So you and I are diametrically opposed on every pick. So you love Chicago? I just think they're like I'm going back throughout history, like the 85 bears and that defense and what they were able to accomplish. In the 2000 Ravens,

you know, dragging an offense along with them for the ride. The 2013 Seattle Seahawks with the Legion of Boom. The 2015 Denver Broncos with the no-fly zone. This Chicago Bears defense, they're legit. They shut everybody out. They're the number one defense in football. And they're listed as a three, four defense, but they really play a five two, meaning they've got

five defenders across the line of scrimmage, giving them one-on-ones across the board. You've got to find a way to double team Khalil Mack with a back with a tight end, either slide protection. It means guys like Hicks are one-on-one, Floyd on the other side or one-on-one. They get these one-on-one matchups, and they just absolutely crush you. They get to your quarterback before you can exploit their secondary. They've got good players of the secondary and the lineback corps as well. They're just a different animal. And it's funny because traveling around the league and talking to people and calling games,

when you talk to guys who play, you know, Vaughn Miller is a phenomenal player. And one of the questions I have because I live in Denver, well, Von Miller, Khalil Mack, you know, pick your poison. I talked to a bunch of offensive linemen, general manager, every one of them took Khalil Mack. He said he's a different, he is a, he is a, different beast. Like the strongest person I've ever played against. Like he'll lift you up in practice. I have one of the Chicago Bears said he has lifted me up in practice with one hand and took both feet off the ground. He's like absolute freak show. So I look at their defense. They shut down the Rams.

They've shut down the, you know, pretty potent offenses that they faced. I think this defense is good enough to keep this game close. They'll make enough plays on the offensive side of the ball with the design of Matt Nagy, who's been absolutely incredible. with Chicago. I think they make enough plays to exploit that secondary. I think Chicago wins this. So it disagreed on all four. All four.

By the way, I know who's going to win the NBA. I know who's going to end up in the national championship in college football. I have no idea. But isn't that the beauty of professional football? I love it. I think this is it. Joy and I have talked about this. Her brother is a Hall of Famer.

You know, you and I are old enough, and Joy, you watched this game for two decades, and I've watched it for three, three and a half. I've never seen a year like this. I've never seen a year where in week 17, we were playing for seeding. Week 17 is a buy week for the good teams. Right. And there's maybe one lousy team that sneaks in. The worst team in the playoffs, you could argue, is the cults are the least impressive.

And they have the best defensive rookie. By the way, Quentin Nelson just made the Pro Bowl 10 minutes ago. and Andrew looks the hottest quarterback in the league. Yeah, all pro. Voted all pro. There's no doubt. He had made the Pro Bowl. Vote to all pro.

A rookie for the Colts. So their best players are often young. I mean, every single team in the playoffs, because I'm not doubting Nick Foles anymore. Everybody's dangerous. Let's shift to this. Now, judgment's a big deal to me. We were talking about this the other day with Joy. You ever meet a woman and you think the world of her and then you meet her husband and he's a dope and you're like,

she's got bad judgment. I think less of her. Or vice-fif. Versa, is that Josh McDaniels in New England traded up to get Tebow. I said the second it happened, he doesn't know what he's doing. He then was Offer the Colts job with Chris Ballard, the best young GM and Andrew Luck, and he passed on that. This morning, he said, according to sources, the Cleveland job's the one he wants. Cleveland is the one he wants.

Am I nuts to think he's crazy? I question his judgment. He passed on Andrew Luck. He wants the Cleveland job. Right. Do you think the Cleveland job is amazing? Yeah, I think the Cleveland job is really good. Do you know who owns that team?

Well, yeah, I mean, you play for Pat Bowling. Right. A legendary owner. Ownership matters. Denver's like the Bentley of the AFC for years. Ownership. Yeah. You trust Cleveland's ownership.

I trust John Dorsey, their general manager, if he's in charge and he's given, you know, he's given the keys to the franchise. That I do trust. I will say this, having called. one of Cleveland's games, several different things. I think their roster is stacked. There has been a benefit to being bad for so many years. They've got a lot of good players.

Defensively, Miles Garrett's great. Larry Ogunjobie. I call them Obi-1 Ogun Joby. Denzel Ward. Miles Garrett. Nick Chubb. Nick Chub. I mean, they are pretty loaded.

They're inside three with Zeitler and Treader and their inside three guard to guard. very, you know, very good. They're just a really, they're a really good roster. I think in Joku, the tight end has got. Terrific. He's just an unbelievable. He reminded me a taller version of a young Shannon Sharp. Yeah. When I was at practice, I was like, oh, my God, the athleticism.

He's a Pro Bowl tied end. Travis Kelsey and that kid in Cleveland will be the Pro Bowl tied in for the next six years. And then I'm telling you, I sat with John Dorsey and I watched Baker Mayfield. And, you know, I was one of those guys. coming out of college going, I don't trust the college system, I don't trust the RPO game, the single receiver reads, you know, and all that stuff. One, incredible mind-wise. Like talking to kitchens, their defense coordinator, he's like, I can give him anything

and I can tag every single route. So when you call, you know, when you call any type of offense, so you're like double wing right, why left motion, you know, and then you get into. to you get into whatever whatever the route combination is. You can tag everyone. I want, you know, I want Y corner, halfback burst, Y corner, and he can tag every X comeback. He can tag every single route.

He doesn't need, you know, most of the time you just give a name to that, like you all go special. You know, you just give the name and everybody has to know what they're doing. He can tag every single route. He knows everything there is to know about the offense. And the general manager goes, hey, I'll just tell you one thing, man. He's a leader. He's got everybody on his side.

and the kids all balls. That's what he said to me. Maybe I should start liking him. Well, I'm telling you what. I gotta go. He's pretty incredible. I know you hate it hearing that. Sorry, man.

I'm not, actually. I did it just to rub it in. 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. Our number two on a Friday. This is the herd, wherever you may be,

and however you may be listening live. I've in Los Angeles. I Heart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me for our number two today. Joy, how are you? Great. Good morning. Kevin Clark in 15 minutes.

Great NFL reporter. Very funny guy from the ringer. He's got all sorts of good stuff. We've got four great games this weekend. I mean, to me, they're all coin flips. I don't feel strong about any of them except Dallas. I do like Dallas by a touchdown. You know, through the years, I've defended.

Andy Reed. And because Andy Reid's done amazing things, and, you know, he didn't have the benefit of having a Brady, Peyton Manning, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman. So whenever people criticize Andy Reid, I just sort of roll my eyes. Bill Belichick before Tom Brady got fired in Cleveland and was 5 and 11 in New England. And then here comes Tom Brady, and it changed Bill Belichick. So I saw a story this morning, a guy on the internet, all 12 of the head coach. in the playoffs right now. All 12 come from the coaching trees of two men, Bill Walsh and Bill Parcells. All 12 coaches this weekend.

Belichick, Garrett, Anthony Lynn, Bill O'Brien, Sean Payton come from Parcells, Pete Carroll, John Harbaugh, Sean McVe, Matt Nagy, Doug Peterson, Frank Wright, Andy Reid, come from the Bill Walsh tree. Now, of course, the difference is Bill Walsh is considered greater than Bill Parcells because

he had Joe Montana. That's the difference. he had Joe Montana. One of the reasons I've always liked Andy Reid is he has elevated, extended, or saved the careers of five quarterbacks. He literally got five different quarterbacks to the playoffs. Donovan McNabb, Jeff Garcia, save Michael Vicks career, Alex Smith, and Patrick Malmes. That's unbelievable.

Now, Belichick gets all the credit because, you know, he wins Super Bowls, but that's because Belichick has Tom Brady. He was fired in Cleveland. But here's what's remarkable, and this is why I've said Andy Reid's the most undervalued coach. Not to say that Belichick's overvalued, but look at the coaching tree of Andy Reed. Look at the resonance. Look at the impact. Look at the influence in the NFL right now.

John Harbaugh won a Super Bowl. You have Frank Reich, probably the AFC coach of the year. Matt Nagy's the NFC coach of the year. Doug Peterson won a Super Bowl. Ron Rivera, Todd Bowles, Pat Shermer, Sean McDermott, who got to a Super Bowl. Ron Rivera got to a Super Bowl. So the difference between Parcells and Bill Walsh, one of them had Joe Montana. And the other had, you know, Phil Sims, Jeff Hostetler, Tony Romo.

Good players, but not Joe Montana. The difference between Andy Reed and Bill Ballicheck, one has Tom Brady and one has had Jeff Garcia. So when you talk about coaching trees, And I think this stuff matters a lot. It's resonance beyond yourself, impact beyond yourself, influence beyond yourself. Look at Andy Reid's coaching tree. It branches. It's beautiful.

It's flourishing. It's a very healthy tree. Look at Bill Parcell's coaching tree. That thing needs watering. That's not very good. His guys have all been mostly busts, except Bill O'Brien, who's been a marginal success. So Parcells have always been a huge fan of. because I think he took less and won a ton.

That's not to say Bill Walsh wasn't great, but if you have Joe Montana, that's an advantage. I love Belichick, but a big part of his legacy is Tom Brady. Andy Reed, like Parcells, has resurrected, saved, elevated all sorts of careers. Tony Romo, ain't Tony Romo, you know, Parcells found him, Parcells groomed him, and then Parcells hands him off to Jason Garrett. So this goes back to why the people that don't get Andy Reid, I kind of roll my eyes. It's like the people that don't get Parcells.

You have to put everything in context. Andy has taken five different quarterbacks, five different quarterbacks to the playoffs. He was not given the opportunity to coach a legend. Here's crossing your fingers and hoping. Patrick Mahomes is his legend. So this weekend, we got four games. And I would say this year, there has been a sense that we have a little bit of revolution going on in the NFL.

You know, the college coaches are now moving to the NFL. And you've got the college offenses all move into the NFL. And everybody's like, man, it's an offensive revolution. And it's really interesting. So let's go to the 12 quarterbacks in the playoffs this weekend. In no particular order, Brady, Breeze, Foles, Gough, Lamar Jackson, Luck, Mahomes, Prescott, Rivers, Tribisky, Deshawn Watson, Wilson. Okay, here's a 12th.

Eight of them are overwhelming. pocket passers. I mean, Philip Rivers couldn't outrun my microphone. He's really not athletic. But of the 12 quarterbacks, eight are what you would call classic pocket passers. Four others, Lamar Jackson, Mitch Trubisky, Deshaun Watson, and Russell Wilson are legitimately they can throw from the pocket, but they're like all-time clever scramblers. So just think about that. So as much as we think there's a massive revolution in the NFL. Eight of the 12 in the opening round are pocket quarterbacks. By the way, three of four quarterbacks that got buys are pocket quarterbacks.

Is that we think everything is changing in the NFL. No, it's not. The two stats that you can tie to winning football in the NFL, ball control, nine of the top 11 teams and 10, time of possession, 9 of 11, made the playoffs. What does that mean? Offensive line, defensive line will win playoff games and get you to the playoffs. The second stat that wins games, steady, low turnover quarterback play.

The top seven teams in turnover differential, meaning they didn't turn it over, all made the playoffs. So I think sometimes we do this in sports, we think, oh my God, it's changing. I can't believe it. The NFL is changing. It is still overwhelmingly a pocket quarterback league of the eight this weekend. Four, only four are dynamic runners. And three of the four with buys are pure pocket passers. And my gut feeling this weekend is Lamar loses, Deshaun loses, Russell Wilson loses. Mitch Trubesky is a heavy favorite to win. I would not be shocked if Philadelphia won. So as much as we think the NFL is changing, you know, I talk to

executives regularly in this league and they all point to three things. Find your quarterback. Okay, that's number one in this league. Find your quarterback. Number two, build both your offensive and defensive lines. And the next thing is, you know, on Sunday, don't turn the ball over. That's the league. Find your quarterback, build your lines, and then on Sunday, be really, really careful with the football. One turnover, max. We'll give you a pick. If a quarterback's challenging defenses, we'll give you a pick.

Don't fumble. No excuse for fumble. It's your ball. Don't let anybody have it. You can have an interception a week. If your quarterback throws 32 times, throws a pick, it means you're throwing the ball aggressively down the field. But this league, everybody thinks he's all crazy and clever and it's being reinvented. It's not. No, it's not. Draft the quarterback, protect him, throws from the pocket, don't turn it over, you'll win your games.

Coming up next, a very clever, very interesting NFL writer for the ringer Kevin Clark. Love having him on the show. Greg Jennings today as well. Don't go anywhere. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending. opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaders to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the question, questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth,

or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two. different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer

them? On hurdle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness. Professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions. to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WMBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you,

but don't ever feel like you don't feel like you don't feel on. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladeki. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. and that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world.

Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polo.

polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with the same, Two kings from entirely different worlds. Just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history.

You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Saturday, it's a huge showdown in Dallas. As Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, take on Ezekiel Elliott and the Cowboys.

in the NFC wildcard game. It all starts at 730 Eastern 430 Pacific Saturday on Fox and the Fox Sports app. By the way, I'm going to throw something that's crazy. So we touched on this yesterday, Joy Taylor. Tom Brady is leading the NFL in Jersey sales. Yeah, it's bizarre.

Okay, now I want everybody to think about this. This should not be taking place. Okay, he's played 18 years. We've all got his jersey. Okay, number one. Second, statistically, it was a down year for him. He has not been in the season the story of the NFL all year.

There was never a week when we glommed on to Tom Brady. They're probably the quietest number two seed in league history. And there's also, you know, half dozen amazingly special talented young quarterbacks. How is Tom Brady the number one jersey seller? and I was thinking about this this morning and the only thing I can come up with, it's very much LeBron, by the way, this morning leads the all-stars in fan voting,

even though, again, LeBron is kind of resting, he's now hurt. I think what's happened is Brady and LeBron are active statues. They're statues that are playing. They're legends and they're playing. Tom was the MVP last year.

LeBron's the best player in the league and it's so unprecedented. I think LeBron and Tom Brady have both had deniers. You know, they always talk about global warming deniers or whatever, climate deniers. There's been these Brady deniers. It's Belichick. It's the system. He plays in a bad division. But Peyton Manning was a rickety old mess six years ago. Aaron Rogers can't stay healthy. Cam's been a roller coaster. Big Ben's a mess missed a playoff again. Andrew Luck got hurt. Garopalo got hurt. The minute he left, New England. And Carson Wentz is hurt.

Is that you get to a point with Tom Brady. It's not a coincidence. Like he's healthy. He's playing. He's a no at home. He won. You can no longer deny. I think part of this jersey sales is he's now become, there's no more deniers. He won. Brady won. System quarterback. He won. He's got good talent. He doesn't. He won. He's had 77 different people have cut a touchdown pass. I think you get to a point with Brady. He's not the most exciting, but you can no longer deny it and he's an active statue playing. Same with LeBron James. like you just can't deny it. Everybody's getting hurt in the league except LeBron James. And I think longevity and health is an incredibly powerful thing.

But this makes no sense. There have been years Tom Brady in his prime wasn't the number one jersey seller. There have been many years. There's never been a year where more rookie quarterbacks and second year quarterbacks were fascinating. And Brady leaves it. It doesn't make any sense. He's down statistically.

There's better young quarterbacks. He was never the story. We haven't. The most improbable game this year was the miracle in Miami. Other than that, the Kansas City win, and that was early in the season, was the only jersey selling moment for Tom Brady this year. And I think LeBron leading in the All-Star voting and Brady leading in jersey sales, they are the two active statues that you just, you can no longer deny,

even if you love Michael Jordan and you love Peyton Manning, Farr, Terry Bratjah, Aikman, they won. LeBron's one. If you want to argue LeBron's not the goat, he's got seven more years in this league. If you want to deny Tom Brady's the goat, look at Aaron Rogers physically. Look at his contemporaries.

Look at Big Ben. Peyton Manning fell apart. Far fell apart, fell apart physically. I can't explain how he is number one in Jersey sales. I just don't, like, how fast are these people going through these jerseys? I think people are also buying one because they know the end is coming.

But don't they already have one? Maybe there's different stitching. I don't get it. It makes no sense. It's like your annual Tom Brady jersey. Tom Brady in his prime when he was the best quarterback in this league with Peyton Manning.

He wasn't this high up. It's really incredible. Joy with the news. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So there are some coaching vacancies and Brown's GM John Dorsey is playing the head coaching surce.

search close to the vest, at least publicly. I'm very excited about this. He may be more active and private, though, according to One News report, because according to the Canton repository, the Browns may like McDaniels, and the feeling might be mutual. So the quote is,

McDaniels is enthusiastically interested in the Cleveland opening. The Browns may have used back channels to indicate mutual preliminary interest. John Dorsey has been good at cloaking whatever he is up to. However, the indications are that McDaniels is a very serious.

Okay. Okay, so let me ask you this. Who's the one organization that Bill Belichick despises? Eh, that'd be frowns. Who fired him? So do you think Josh McDaniels would show that level of disloyalty to Belichick by going to the one place Belichick hates? Well, I think at this point he really can't play the loyalty card because he did commit to the Colts

and then, you know, tip out on them pretty quickly for some. unknown reason. I don't, I maintain I don't understand the McDaniel's interest based off of that and based on the fact that he had an opportunity and it went badly. So if you have an opportunity that doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad coach. Look at what happened with Belichick. But it went badly and then you had an opportunity to coach Andrew Luck. And you've whipped on it. In a situation where you were going to have a huge amount of cap space the next year. And a great, or in two years. In a highly respected young gene. Right. And a respected organization. and you turn that down to go back to your old position,

I honestly don't understand it. The Green Bay move kind of interesting, but then still it doesn't explain why you wouldn't take the Andrew Luck situation. It's almost like we're living in the moment. Does everybody understand this is Cleveland? Aaron Rogers has a coaching spot available. Does everybody get this as Cleveland? I'm not, listen, I'm not saying Baker can't play,

and I'm not saying Dorsey's not confident, but this is Cleveland. I mean, we're all falling in love to the third place finish. Everyone is optimistic about Cleveland. You're probably right. We may be just so excited to get away from their natural dysfunction. Okay, let's ask this. In the history of that division, couldn't you argue the Steelers and the Ravens over the last 30 years have been two of the best run teams?

Right. So do you really believe you're going to roll the dice and say Cleveland for the next decade is going to be well run? And the Steelers and Ravens are going to be poorly run. The Rooney still own the Steelers. And was it Steve Boshetti? What's the guy that owns? the Ravens, one of the best owners in the league? Bashad.

What did I call him? Steve Bushammy. He's an excellent actor. So the Ravens and Steelers are historically IBM. Okay. Cleveland is historically Blockbuster video. So I'm supposed to believe that this is all going to turn around

because of Baker Mayfield? I don't know. I mean, I think it's more than Baker Mayfield. I think it's John Dorsey. And I think it's their the whole staff. the players.

You know, Joy, I always go back to... They have a good roster. Who's in the playoffs this year? Belichick, Sean Payton, Andy Reed, the Baltimore, Ravitt. I kind of go back to the things I trust. I just think Cleveland, if you're going to take all this time to do this coaching search, you need to bring someone in with experience who's been proven. All right.

And I just don't like McDaniels for that higher. So, speaking of the Patriots, when it comes to hate, they are the undisputed champions of being hated in the NFL. Who's that? The Patriots. Yeah, because they win, yeah. This map shows how each state leaned in 2018. Well, you're right, because remember we showed the most hated NBA teams and the Warriors were number one. Look at this.

So this is based off of geotag tweets. So 13 states in total lean toward hating the Patriots, including Florida, which is a Natalie Dolphins fanate. How do you hate the Saints? It's the area, I guess. How do you hate Drew Brees? That's a hard one to hate. I mean. They went through Katrina?

That's a hard one to hate. It's the area. So the first place is the Patriots. Alaska hates the Patriots for some reason. So it's Hawaii. Florida is understandable. Indiana, New York. Why would Alaska hate the Patriots?

I don't know. I'm actually surprised that the Cowboys are third. And they're tied with the Eagles, Packers, and the Saints. I would imagine that the Cowboys would be one, if not two. You know what this shows you? People hate what they're threatened by. Because the two teams that aren't on this. map much are the Cowboys and the Steelers and they've been underachieving for a decade.

And the teams that people hate are Philadelphia just won a Super Bowl. Green Bay's always good. By the way, the Seahawks have been pretty good under Pete Carroll. Well, Philadelphia, the area that Philadelphia has hated is around Texas and the Eagles and the Cowboys have a rivalry, so that makes sense. How in God's name, look at the Northeast. Hating the Jets is like hating a brand muffin. It doesn't even have an identity. I mean, what is, it doesn't even make sense. I don't know. Who hates the Jets? I love that Pennsylvania hates the Cowboys also.

Doesn't everybody look at the Jets on their schedule and go, yeah! It has to do with Billy. We play the Jets. I mean, the Jets are an easy team to just pick on, though. Finally, Kauai Leonard played in San Antonio last night for the first time since being traded from the Spurs to the Raptors. Boy, they booed him. And he was greeted with a sea of booze. Trader, they yelled.

Yes, yes. Every time he touched the ball, he got booze or traitor. And Popovich and Kauai spoke about the boo birds after the game. All right. I felt badly about it. Kauai's a high character guy. You know, we all make decisions in our lives, what we're going to do with our futures. And he has that same right as any of us.

So I felt badly, in all honesty. I embraced it and enjoyed the moment, and it's only going to get me better. Media does a great job to stir people's minds and, you know, influence them that think a certain way. So I already knew how that was going to be the way the media was. He's a good player. That's all I know about Kauai Leonard. He led Toronto. They got beat, though.

But 21 points, 8 for 13. Yes, they did hit beat. But they are without Kauai Lauri. I mean, Kyle Lauerie. Kyle Lauerie right now. And they're in second place without him. But the bigger story to me is the spurs. We always forget about those spurs.

Well, they're boring. They're boring. They're your vegetables, you know. They are. They're broccoli. You know, you ever get a fruit cup and there's the line. Like, I love cantaloupe. I love blueberries.

I love strawberries. They're the greens. green lawn. They're the, what do you call? The honeydew. The melon. The green melon. That's what the spurs are.

The honeydew, yeah. It just doesn't do a... I'm with you there. I have a thing about cantalope and honeydew in the fruit cup. It's filler fruit. It makes you like, you get this fruit cup. You're very excited.

And then you get a bunch of green... It's a great job of stacking all the strawberries and the grapes and the kiwi and the pineapples of the top. And then you get to the bottom and it's just like, it's just like, it's just wet styrofoam. Yeah. Totally agree on that. But it's always there.

Nobody agrees with my NFL picks. At least we agree on the Fruit Cup. We do. All right, Joy, with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. He covered the NFL for the Wall Street Journal,

and now he covers the NFL for the Ringer. He's very good on social media. I really like this guy. His name is Kevin Clark. We've had him on before. Let's bring him on again. I love him. He does something.

I do my blazing five picks, and I take myself too seriously. You have your, what do you call your picks? Worst picks. Of the week. Yes. And they're surprisingly the same as my blazing five. We both get about 58%.

That's gambling. That's exactly. It's gambling. So before I get to the games, a couple of things I want to talk about. Now, we go into this weekend, and if I said to you, who's the mobile quarterback? Everybody would say, Lamar Jackson. You have an interesting story on the ringer about Deshawn Watson. And I said this when he came out.

I said, Nick Saban faced Johnny Mansell a couple times, but it was in a regular season. Nick had six weeks twice to prepare. for Deshawn Watson and could never stop him. You have an interesting story on Deshawn Watson and how hard he is to beat. And if you do, you barely do. He has not lost a game by more than one touchdown since high school. 2013, September of 2013, he lost to Beaufort High School. After that, he has not lost by more than one touchdown since.

The Patriots couldn't do it. Alabama couldn't do it. You know, I think at this level, you have to have some sort of intangible. I mean, we look at Russell Wilson. He has been in terrible situations. Deshawn Watson literally had to drive a bus or ride in a bus across the country to play Jacksonville because his ribs were too injured because he has the worst offensive line in the league. And I think that Deshaun Watson's ability to keep his team in this throughout, I mean, some of those Texans problems, there's coaching problems. The fact that they were able to recover from 0 and 3 to be in a probably a favorite in a wild card game.

Worst offensive line in the playoffs easily. I mean, they were actively harming him. I mean, it was offensive how bad that off the line was. And it was threatening his career. The fact that he was able to turn it around and is probably going to win a playoff game this weekend is unbelievable. And it speaks to everything he's done not only at Houston, but at Clemson and at Gainesville High School in Georgia. You know, it's interesting. I said coming into the season, I thought Darnold, Rosen, and Baker could win now.

I think Darnold's the greatest pure talent, but I knew the Jets had nothing. I said Josh Allen and Lamar, they're not ready to play. So when people say, Colin, you're shocked by Baker, I say, no, no, no, no, no. He's accurate. I never set a bust. I wouldn't draft him. I don't want to be tied to that stuff for 10 years. Lamar's shocking to me.

Lamar Jackson is shocking. Harbaugh deserves respect. So I went and watched Lamar Jackson live. I got to see this thing. What blew me away was his total control of the game. He's playing with a Hall of Famer, probably Philip Rivers, against a good defense. I am shocked by what I'm seeing. Now I said, very draftable.

I would have taken him second, third round. I can't believe he's this good. What do you make of Lamar Jackson? I make that the Chargers have a problem on their hands, and here's why. They're built to stop modern NFL offenses. They're built to stop the Chiefs. They're built to stop the Saints. They've got Darwin James who can do anything back there.

They've got two pass rushers and Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram who can get up the field. They have Casey Hayward, a very good cornerback. well, Lamar Jackson is not the modern NFL. You know, no one has run at the quarterback position like him since 1972. Who's that? Bobby Douglas, I think. Wow. Yeah.

And so you start to look at it and you say, this is a guy who's solving the modern NFL in Lamar Jackson by being completely antithetical to the modern NFL. He's just running the ball. Defenses are getting smaller. Linebackers are becoming more irrelevant to the game. And if you can actually line up and run the ball all the time, you have the definition of a matchup problem. Yeah.

One more thing before we get to the games. You know, there's a lot of openings and there's a lot of coaches. I said this yesterday. The city of New York between the Giants and Jets has had five coaches in five years. And there's this current narrative that Mike McCarthy's too simplistic. He hasn't evolved. And my argument is, is he organized, prepared? Does he have a good work ethic?

Yes, yes, yes. That peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 50 years before me, 50 years after, will taste delicious. The things that he's good at matter. I'm not saying he's got the best cheekbones. He's not hip. He's not lit. He's not cool. But his teams were organized, prepared, massive discipline.

I, and by the way, Aaron Rogers came out of college, Kevin. He had a weird throwing motion. He was junior college kid. He was raw and ad libber. Isn't that Sam Darnold? Like, to me, Mike McCarthy in the Jets feels like, of all the coaching searches, an absolute perfect fit. Am I nuts on that?

So I want to address something. You asked when we looked at the map of hate about who hates which teams, you said, who could possibly hate the Jets? The answer is Jets fans. They hate the Jets. And the reason is because they've made mistake after mistake.

The last time there were eight openings was 2013. Do not look at that list. It is not safe for work. It is bad. And Andy Reid is the only coach who's still there. And when you look at that list,

was the safest coach. We knew what we were getting. The one thing you don't want to do is develop a coach alongside a quarterback. We have no idea of Zach Taylor, the quarterback's coach from the L.A. Rams can call plays. We have no idea. All we know is he knows Sean McVeigh. He can text Sean McVeigh every once in a while. Congratulations,

Zach Taylor. But I just don't know why you would want to take a risk when you know Mike McCarthy can win games. And that's what I understand that you want the higher ceiling, but Lincoln Riley's not coming. Pat Fitzgerald's not coming. David Shaw is not coming. When you're dealing with the NFL pool right now, Mike McCarthy is very high on my list.

All right, let's go to the four games. Let's start with the Colts Texans. I have no strong feeling. Generally, if teams meet again after a team beat them, the better team does win. You feel like there's revenge, but generally teams win for a reason they have better personnel or they're better teams. I don't like the idea that the Texans have the worst offensive line remaining in the NFL. with very little conviction, I would take the Colts and have no confidence. Where would you lean?

I'm leaning towards the Texans, and here's why. We talk all the time about the problems, a great quarterback can solve. You know who else solves great problems? Aside from having Deshaunce Watson, DeAndre Hopkins is a problem solver. If you throw the ball to a covered DeAndre Hopkins, he becomes uncovered. He's almost like shack a little bit. Where you can just throw the ball in his direction and something good is going to happen. He didn't have a drop this year.

No. That's unheard of. And nearly 200 targets. It is unbelievable. And it's just, it's one of those things where I think that that's going to be, I think that home field is. It's real. It's very real.

It's real. The playoffs. It matters. Nobody who's played in the Super Bowl has won a road game since 2012. Well, slow, slow down, timeout. Hold on. Say it again. Nobody who's played in the Super Bowl has played in a road game since 2012 in the playoffs.

Joe Flacco and Colin Kaepernick did it on the same day in 2012. Isn't that amazing? That's an amazing stat, right? How have we just now noticed that? You're just throwing haymakers. Good Lord. So you like Houston. I like Houston because of the little edges.

I think that both these teams, I think they tied and points 58 each in their matchups. I love Andrew Luck. I love Frank Reich. I think that the defense on Indianapolis, they have the, Albert Brewer said it on this show. They have the capability to go forward and be a dynasty because they have a lot of really good young players. But they're a better story than a team right now.

I mean, let's be honest. I agree. I agree. And I just think Houston is ready to win right now. J.J. Watt, I mean, he is somehow, J.J. Watt, one of the most famous players in the NFL, is not getting the credit he deserves after a 15-sack season. So I think the offensive line, if they had an offensive line, there was any good, they

wouldn't be playing this weekend. Right. But everything else favors Houston, Texas. All right. Almost talked me out of my pick. Here's the only game I feel strongly about. Again, I feel the story of Seattle's rebuilding success year is better than the team. I would take Dallas by a touchdown over Seattle.

I think they have better personnel. I think Amari's a real difference maker. Russell Wilson's probably my favorite quarterback next to Brady and luck of all time. But again, I think Seattle's story is awesome. I don't think the personnel. I think it's Bobby Wagner and a bunch of kids. I take Dallas here. So these teams are basically mirror images

except the quarterback and the coach. Both of those things favor Seattle. Strongly. And so when I start to look at it, there's a couple of matchup things. What I'm fascinated with, Bobby Wagner has missed less than 1% of his tackles at the NFL level in his career.

That is unheard of. So now you have Ezekiel Elliott, who is number one in the NFL in yards after contact. That's going to be a matchup, man. That is going to be a... We talked so much about the modern NFL. by Patrick Mahomes, Drew Brees, and all these things that are just bringing the game forward, Bobby Wagner against Zeke Elliott's going to bring it back about 30 years.

That's going to be an old-school matchup that I'm really looking forward to. And so I'm going to take the Seahawks in this one. I saw a stat the other day. Next-Gen stats can sort of quantify what passes shouldn't be completed. Russell Wilson has the best completion percentage above expectation in the entire NFL, which means he's creating hard throws and he's completing them. Tyler Lockett's become a star. He was a slot returner, punt returner.

Nobody projected him to be anything like this. But is it that Tyler Lockett is otherworldly good? No. Russell Wilson can create Tyler Lockett into a star. Chris Collinsworth made a great point. I was watching a football game recently, and Collinsworth said, Russell throws the best deep ball in the league. He tear drops it.

And Tyler Lockett's one of those guys that runs nice fades and nice deeps, and he is a perfect receiver for Russell Wilson. So you like C.L. I love Patrick Mahomes, but when you can play Patrick Mahomes and out deep ball him, you're doing a pretty good job. All right. Let's go to, so we disagree on that. Chargers Ravens. I go to, I think the Chargers have the best personnel in the league. I think playing Lamar twice in a month is the way to beat him. And I don't think it's easy. I would lean L.A. Chargers. I go back to the matchup problem. First of all, I don't know why Wink Martindale, the defensive coordinator for Baltimore,

is not getting more head coach love. Because obviously, the number one thing you want right now is an offensive guru, but I'd rather have a defensive guru than a bad offensive guru. That's a good point. So I don't know why that hasn't happened. What they've been able to do on defense has been incredible.

Marlon Humphrey is a legitimate star. There are pieces everywhere that I'm hugely impressed with. So I think that the talent level and the personality is not as big as we think. That's fair. And then I just, I truly think, I think you made the comparison to Tebow with Lamar Jackson. Well, he's better than Tebow. He's much better than Tebow.

But I'm saying it's sort of an unorthodox matchup, especially in the playoffs, especially early in his career. They beat Steelers. Yep. Tebow beat the Steelers. Yep. On a weird play, you know, broken coverage. Yep. I mean, it's, you know, it is a really hard, I'm sure there's a nightmare going on right now in the practice facility,

game planning for Lamar Jackson. So you, we disagree on everything. Okay. Yes. So far. Okay, so I like the Eagles over the Bears. I say it with no conviction. Listen, Wence is better long term.

Okay, there's a lot of 401K is better long term than Bitcoin. But the timing was right for Bitcoin, and some people made a lot of money on Bitcoin. You used to work at the Wall Street Journal. You know all about stocks, I'm sure of it. I'm going to take Philadelphia here. I like their defensive line. I like their personnel. I like their big game experience.

They're not dynamic at wide receiver, but they have playmakers at wide receiver. and Nick Foles is strangely accurate, incredibly coachable. The staff clearly connects with him. I'm going to go Philly. I'm an analytical person. I like to, I believe in data and all that stuff. But there's some sort of intangible stuff that I believe in. And one of the things that I've always believed in,

I remember a Seahawks player telling us a couple of years ago, when you start to play in really low-scoring games, you get comfortable doing it because you're always one play away from disaster. The Bears just played a game when it was 14 to 9 against the Samson-Sgro 49ers, but they were comfortable the entire game because they knew they were never going to give up a play. I think this will be a 17-14 low-scoring game. It's going to come down to one play. I think the Bears' defense is really comfortable in that environment.

And I do think I will favor the Bears in that situation. I love Nick Foles. I think the lesson of Nick Foles should teach a lot of teams how to build an offense because this is two years in a row now where Doug Peterson has had to build an offense on the fly in December and January, and he's done it really well by stripping everything down except what Nick Foles. Fulose likes. It's a really good coaching lesson. But I'm going to favor the Bears just because of the talent disparity. If this were a fully healthy Eagles team, if the secondary was still intact, I think it's a very different situation. But I also think, by the way, they wouldn't be the six-seed.

But I'm going to go with the Bears. Again, like you, no confidence. So we disagree on everything. It's a beautiful thing. It's the story of my life. Kevin Clark writes for the ringer formerly the Wall Street Journal. He's just fantastic. You can follow him on social media where he's equally brilliant. I love having you on the show. You're a busy guy. Say hi to Bill, and thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me. Coming up next, I'm going to be nice with Russell Westbrook, but something jumped out to me last night. Next, in L.A., it's the herd. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart Radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like.

Dreaded cold and flu season. Try VicSynex nasal spraya. Up to 12 hours. as directed gets rid of that congestion. So I'm watching a little bit. I watched a little Kauai last night, and I watched the Warriors take on Houston, little bits of both last night.

Kauai got roundly booed, did not have a great night, and the Raptors got smoked. And James Hardin had a remarkable night. If you did not watch, here's some of James Hardin against the Warriors. It was one of his best nights. He's on like a three-week streak of just scoring like crazy. Here it is.

Hardin trying to get free. Down to three, down to two. It's a three. James Harden, with two warriors draped on him, finds a way to get this to go down. In the grill of Draymond Green, a former defensive player of the year, James Hardin knocks down his 44th point. Very nice.

I mean, the game doesn't mean a ton now. It's obviously early January, but it was fun, and James, a very good player. And I'm noticing something. The new NBA is very offensive-minded, the three-ball revolution, more possessions, more scoring. All the really good players in this league are having just great years. LeBron, Anthony Davis, Janice, Kauai, Hardin, M.B., Damien Lillard, Paul George, Campbell Walker, DeMar Rosen.

The league is really set up for offensive players. And all the good offensive players in the league are just knocking it out of the park. There's more possessions, more scoring, less rigidity with coaching. It's very pro-player. It's very pro-offense. And there's one exception. And I'm not going to be a hater. I'm going to be a professional here.

Russell Westbrook's numbers, he's the exception. He's the only great offensive talent in the league, and he's having an awful season. Three point percentage last among qualifiers. Field goal percentage, 118th. I mean, it's literally his effective field goal percentage is 133rd in the NBA. I'm not here to be a hater. all I'm saying is something is going on with Russell Westbrook and it is unbelievable. It's incredible.

He's fallen off a cliff. He's no longer their go-to score. He's no longer taking big shots in the fourth. Everything. His free throws are falling off a cliff. He's an awful three-point shooter. He's a terrible fourth quarter shooter. Again, I'm not a hater.

I'm not this. I'm being totally professional. You're not hating? I'm not. You think I'm hating? It says West Brick. I did not create the graphics. I did not create the graphics.

We're going to blame that on the graphics, people. Well, he's shooting a brick. I did not do that. I don't have the talent to do these beautiful graphics. I have no hand in this. It's a little bit of hating. I will agree with you, though. He isn't a terrible shooting slump.

I don't even, I've never heard of this. Ray Allen never had a shooting slump. Kobe Bryant didn't have shooting slumps were like Kobe Bryant had a bad half. It's been bad all season. Do you know his numbers? He has the identical numbers of Markell Fultz, and he's out of the league. They got rid of Markle Fultz.

They have the same numbers. And I told you this. Kevin Durant left. Something happened. He has become a significantly less reliable shooter in the last three years. This year, he's completely fallen off the cliff, and I don't know what the answer is. It's very bizarre. It's he's free throw shooting has gone from 84 to 75 to 64.

To meet, Joy, that's mental. That's all that is. That's not one of those things. Again, if his free throw percentage was fine, he was down on three-point shooting. I would say he had surgeries. He's not getting the push off. He can't hit free throws. I mean, it is, I've never seen anything like that.

This game, this would be like every other quarterback, you know, because the quarterbacks are obviously now completing like 65, 68. this would be like somebody regressing and a quarterback in the league that we all thought was great going down to 47%. You'd be like, what, is it the offensive line? Is it what?

Well, it's so consistent with his shooting that it's got, there has to be some sort of explanation for it. It's mental. It has to be. Think about the two, Mark L. Fultz was a bust. He's a shooter. It was mental. He had what they call the yips. This has to be mental with Westbrook.

It has to be. It's not physical. You don't go from 85 at the line, 75, 64. I don't even know what it is. He was an MVP two years ago. He cannot shoot. God, it's just incredible.

And again, I'm a total professional. There's no hating. I did not control the West Brick graphic. I did not control him shooting a brick that had nothing to do with me. Okay, so I'd like to say my NFL picks this weekend. I'm just going to go over. I don't do a Blazing Five. But this is my picks.

Dallas over Seattle, very simple. at home, better personnel. They're built to win now. Pete's the better coach. Russell's the better quarterback. But if it was just about quarterbacks, you know, that's not what wins playoff games, just quarterbacks. Nick Foles won the Super Bowl last year.

I'm going to take Dallas over Seattle is the game I feel strongest about. I'm going to take, and I feel no confidence, the Colts over the Texans. It's a coin flip. They just beat him a month ago. I think the Colts have these significant. better offensive line. I think they may have the better coach. They are terribly young. Indianapolis's best offensive linemen's a rookie. Their best defensive players are rookie. They don't have a great pass rush, which could help Deshawn Watson get time. I'll take the Colts.

In terms of the Sunday games, again, coin flip, don't feel great about it. I think it's hard for a fairly simplistic running offense Baltimore to beat the Chargers twice in three, four weeks. I'll take the Chargers. Don't feel great about it. do think it comes down to the protection. Philip Rivers, when I went to that game the first time, had no protection. They do have their running backs are healthy now. They have very good deep, threat-wide receivers. If Rivers gets a smidge of time to throw, I think it's the difference in the game, and I think he will. And Sunday, I'll take the upset. I'll take Philadelphia over Chicago. Vegas totally disagrees with me. Chicago's almost a touchdown favorite. I kind of buy into this sort

of Philadelphia, Nick Foles Magic. He's won nine of his last, what, 11th. starts and really only one of those he's truly lost one of his losses with a week 17 loss when they faced a team that rested their starters so he's really in the 10 games he's played competitively he's nine and one for philadelphia he's got juice it's magic and i can't explain it yeah all my my guest disagreed with all of them jason mcintyre gregg jennings next car insurance consider geico 75 years they know what you're doing if you're trying to save money and get a great company to insure your car guyco dot com Hour 3 next.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Ah, here we go, live L.A. Hour number three. This is the Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. I've got to read you this, Joy, Taylor. Listen to this. This comes from Rick Stroud. Rick Stroud's a longtime NFL writer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneer.

Not for the Buccaneers. the Buccaneers. I know Rick, I've known him for years. He says, so Brent Grimes, Brent Grimes is a cornerback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Got a little bit of a crazy wife. They have a podcast together. They're very outspoken. Brent Grimes said in his wife's podcast that he didn't want to play because they asked him to shadow Antonio Brown of the Steelers when they played each other. And he said, I'm only making $7 million a year. And the guys that are asked to shadow him make $14 million of the year on average. So I refuse to shadow him. and that's why the Buccaneers lose, folks.

This comes back to, I mean, be careful who you pay the big money to. And not just in football, basketball, life, Wall Street, any business. You know, but pro sports, you have all these massive contracts. You've got to be careful who you pay the money to. I mean, this is why Bill Belichick pays very few players a lot of money. Stefan Gilmore, the corner, Devin McCordy, the kicker, Tom Brady, gronk. Well, it's just like we were talking about yesterday. And, I mean, we were talking about how boring the Spurs were just a few minutes ago,

but they are consistent. When you think of the Spurs, they have a brand. They have championships to back up their brands. And it's because they have a certain player. The talent is important. But if your character doesn't match the Spurs organization, they're not paying you. They're not even not paying you. You're never going to be a spur. It's like the Patriots way. There's a Spurs way. There's a reason why those two organizations kind of mirror each other. It doesn't matter how talented you are. If you don't have a certain character that matches what we want around our organization, you're not going to be here.

God, that story is ridiculous. So coming up in 15 minutes, Greg Jennings, his thoughts on the games this weekend. Later and best for last on Friday. It's one of my favorite segments we do all week. We do it on Friday for the last 10, 12 minutes of the show. Monday's headlines today, and he'll look at all the NFL playoff games this weekend. It's a lot of fun if you haven't watched it. Stick around.

Well, the Warriors got beat at home last night by this moment from James Harden. Hardin trying to get free. Down to three, down to three, down to two, it's a three. Good! James Hardin, with two warriors draped on him, finds a way to get this to go down. In the grill of Draymond Green,

a former defensive player of the year, James Hardin knocks down his 44 point. James Hardin last night had a huge night. he's on fire. He's scoring 40 a game. He's the NBA's leading score. And last night, he just went crazy against Golden State. He was amazing. Oh, my God, I can't believe it. And his general manager, Daryl Morey, came out and said, you know, you could argue for him as the best offensive player of all time.

A whole bunch of ways to measure it. But for me, he's in the conversation as the greatest offensive player ever. Quarterbacks in 2019, 2018, and shooters in the NBA are currently. set up for success. Let me give you a football example. Kirk Cousins this year, more passing yards and more touchdowns by a mile over Troy Aikman. And that's an interesting one to think about because we know, we know Kirk Cousins is a stat monster, but he's not great in big games. Troy Aikman didn't have the stats, but was great in big games. And I want you to remember the Kirk Cousins, Troy Aikman thing. Now let's talk about James Harden.

Darrell Morris said he's the best ever. I'm not going to compare him to the best ever. Because that would be Michael, right? You all love Michael or Wilt? I'm just going to compare him to one guy, Kobe Bryant, as a score. So when you're a score, does athleticism matter? Yes. Most of the great scores of all timing.

Wilt Chamberlain ran track, could play beach volleyball, Wilt Chamberlain, LeBron James, Michael Jordan could do. Athleticism matters. James Hardin athletically has two moves. One of them is traveling. Kobe Bryant was the NBA's Picasso. Like Phil Mickelson and golf, he's the greatest shot maker of all time. I'm not saying the best player, but Michael Jordan had stock moves.

So does LeBron. James Harden has two. Kobe came down with a blank canvas and just made it up. Athletically, it is not close. By the way, does defense also exhibit and illustrate athleticism? Kobe made all NBA first team defense nine times, second team three times. Hardens a defensive liability. So athletically, and that matters as the greatest offensive player ever, it ain't close.

Let's talk commitment. Does commitment matter if you're a great offensive player? I think Kareem was committed to the sport. I think Jerry West, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson. I think Michael Jordan's as committed as any player in league history. Hardin had his jersey retired at a Houston strip club. Kobe's got two jerseys retired at the Staples. Kobe is known as the greatest practice player in the history of the Lakers.

And from what I'm told, Magic Johnson would tell you it ain't close. Now let's talk about, you know, like actual games. What's the greatest playoff moment in James Hardin's career? I'll wait. Hmm. Because Kobe, I got 6, 7, 8, 9 on my mental rolodex right now. Let's go to eras. You think James Hardens had it a little easier, never played with a hand check,

has played in an era with European centers, who are 7 feet 2 and 109 pounds. They weigh slightly more than a trisket. Kobe Bryant played half his career in the handcheck era, and oh, by the way, played when we had center. who were domestic weighed 280, and it was their job to physically punish you if you went to the rim. James Hardin is not only,

not one of the great offensive players of all time. He doesn't come close to comparing to Kobe Bryant. Let me shift to football. I just saw this story, reading it this morning in the sporting news. That's a fine publication. NFL ratings saw a boost on Every channel. Fox, NBC, CBS, Monday Night Football, every single channel. And in fact, the story says the key to it is we've got Mahomes versus Baker Mayfield. These two new stars are. So before I get cynical, I'm in the story business. I'm not in the radio business. I'm not in the television business. I'm in the story business. I relate stories, tell stories.

try to create stories. That's all I've ever done. This year we had six riveting stories. Let's go over them. People will tell you the reason the NFL the ratings are up this year is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The reason the ratings are up is because the previous two years we didn't have a really compelling gripping story.

The one we had was about politics more than football. Let's talk about the six stories that we had this year, that you couldn't keep your eyes off. Number one, Patrick Mahomes. Oh, my God. Who's Patrick Mahomes? Left-handed passes. No-look passes.

We didn't watch him play much in college. 90-yard throws in practice. Oh, my God. Who is this kid? The second big story this year, and again, I'm in the story business, was, hey, Baker Mayfield, this cocky kid can play. Mayfield is what TV, radio, and newspapers live off. He's polarizing.

Owen's 16 to pretty competitive. Brash grabs his junk, cocky comes on shows like this, talks back. Baker Mayfield is fun. He's one of the first quarterbacks I turn the TV on every Sunday. The third story you couldn't keep your eyes off, and this was more of the car wreck you slow down on the freeway to watch, was John Gruden's massive personnel moves. He single-handedly made the Bears the best defense in the league by giving them Khalil Mack,

and he made the Dallas Cowboys a viable playoff contender by giving them Amari Cooper. Week to week, you could not keep your eyes off the car wreck known as John Gruden and the Raiders. The fourth great story this year, the Dallas Cowboys roller coaster, three in five to ten and six. You can't pay DAC to, you're going to have to pay DAC. The Amari Cooper edition. beating the New Orleans Saints an almost inexplicable performance. The fifth big story this year,

and I don't think anybody would deny this, the diva drama in Pittsburgh. The first month of the year, it was all about Lafian Bell. That one ended. For the next five weeks, it was all about Big Ben and Tomlin. That one ended,

and at the last two weeks, it was all about Antonio Brown. Stars are interesting. They're even more interesting when they're fighting with each other. People can compare them to whoever you want. It was a reality show. And the six biggest story, I know they're not based, you know, on the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean, but it was the Green Bay Packers man overboard. First game of

the year, Aaron Rogers gets hurt again. He limps around for the next month and a half. He comes back, doesn't get along with Mike McCarthy, eye rolling, contempt, passive aggressive quotes. Then Mike McCarthy gets fired. Six, captivating, gripping. Football on the field stories week after week after week. That is why the ratings are up. All right, Greg Jennings coming up. Jason McIntyre, Monday's headlines today around the corner. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app.

Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and no. Nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answers. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsLice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations

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Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenge that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WNBA standout Kate Martin

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The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. and that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything.

Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated, polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth.

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just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a synex nasal spray.

It's cold season. works up to 12 hours. He uses directed. Don't use that thing all day. I'll burn. It's really good, though, if you use it as directed. By the way, guy came up to me yesterday, and he said, who do you got on the games this weekend? I said, I'm not betting any of them. He's like, you don't want juice? And I'm like, no, I just bet the games I think I can win. Like, why does everybody need, like, I don't need, I can just watch football. Why do I need to bet everything? Well, I mean, I don't think we have enough time to explain this, but this is, gambling can become an issue for some people.

Yeah, but could you watch football without gambling? Yes, I do it every week. I don't gamble on sports. Yeah, and I don't bet more than 20, 30 grand a game. I have the problem with gambling, obviously. I just personally don't enjoy the feeling of losing, and it doesn't overwhelm the feeling of winning for me. So it serves me no purpose.

I think there's a lot of people, like they need, like, fantasy or gambling. It's not I can just watch football games and enjoy it. I sit there every Sunday, and I just sit there for nine hours on my butt and watch the games with my dog. And that's just great. That's all I do. I just sit there and watch the games. Well, also, I think this weekend particularly, you keep saying you don't really have a lot of conviction about any of your things this weekend. I want to watch. If you're telling me who I, you know, listen, I like Andrew Luck and I like Russell Wilson and I'd like to see the Charger. I mean, the Ravens have had a lot of success. The Chargers don't have any historic, you know, Philadelphia Bears won. I'd probably be better if the Bears won because I think, you know, Philadelphia won last year. If you're telling me who would be better for the league. He doesn't want everything to be fair. Everybody has a chance.

Listen, I work at Fox. We have the NFC. So if you're asking me who would win, Chicago and Dallas would be good for us. Because the Cowboys are the number one team in the league, and Chicago is a huge city that gets... I would argue that the Eagles and Cowboys would be better. I don't know. They have more of the rivalry. Bears are right in the middle of the country.

It's a bigger city than Philadelphia. Have more fans? You're asking me. Where is Greg Jennings coming out? I will say this about Dallas, and I'm excited for Jason McIntyre, too. What if, I mean, just throw this out there, I don't think it's going to happen. What if Dallas gets smoked? What if the offense can't do anything?

What if it's like 23 to 6? And the Dak Prescott and the Cowboys cannot move the football against Seattle, which, by the way, Pete Carroll is a great defensive coach. Bobby Wagner's as good a football player on the defensive side outside of Khalil Mack in the league. What if Dak just lays a complete egg? Well, oh, my God. If you're a Cowboys fan and you're thinking long term. It's not the worst thing in the world.

It's not the worst thing in the world. It's not the worst thing in the world. fan and fanatic as, I mean, obviously, you're not going to, you would rather them win, obviously, but it could be better because then you can argue that while Zach Prescott is great for the regular season, he hasn't had any success in the postseason, and then maybe it can be more manageable with the contract. Yeah. And the other thing about this weekend is that generally speaking, when you go into the NFL,

and I think people forget this, sometimes if you're a mobile quarterback, just think about this. If you're a mobile quarterback and you're a coaching staff, you may not want to run your mobile quarterback too much in the regular season, right? Because you don't want to get him hurt for the next game. But if I have Deshawn Watson, I have Russell Wilson, I have Lamar Jackson, there is no next week. I was just thinking about that. If I've got a mobile quarterback, I don't want him running in the regular season very minimally. But there is no, I don't, I'm trying to win a game.

No, I don't think you coach in the playoffs the same way that you coach during the regular season. Doing that is what gets you beat. I think you coach, like if I'm Houston. It's elimination game. I can't worry about Deshawn Watson getting hurt scrambling. No. I need Deshawn Watson to scramble. I can't worry about Lamar Jackson.

I would run Lamar Jackson 30 times if it won the football game against the charges. Well, Lamar Jackson should be running because that's what he's a rookie and that's what's gotten them here. Right. So they should not change up the game plan with Lamar Jackson at this point. All right. Joy Taylor with the news. No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

So I'm going to talk right now about who deserves to be crowned this year's MVP for the NFL. In all likelihood it'll be Patrick Mahomes or Drew Brees. I think both of us feel like it's going to be Patrick Mahomes. But one name that's being mentioned is Aaron Darnold, Donald, who finished the season with 20.5 sacks, most ever for defensive tackle. And Sam Farmer of the L.A. Times tweeted some support. for Donald as MVP and JJ Watt chimed in with his own take on the award. He responded

to Sam Farmer's tweets which said problems dropping your head around Aaron Donald as MVP, tape a Rams game and watch him for only a half, most relentless and disruptive player and at least a decade otherwise just rename it's MBQB which

probably could do. Anyway, he responded, C 2014, it's always been an offensive award or 2012. Yeah, no, I mean This is not anti-defense. It is pro what matters more. If a quarterback's touching the ball 74 times a game, then he's the most valuable player.

Don't take it personally, everybody, but there's a reason why the offensive guys win it. They simply mean more. J.J. Watt in his prime. Remember those two, three-year period where he was, he was the Cleo Mac of the sport. His best games, they had a sub-500 record. Like if Tom Brady, if I said to you,

it was 38 of 40, New England wins by blowout. If I said JJ Watt has two sacks, a fumble recovery and a touchdown, Colts could still win by 20. Well, yeah. I mean, 2014 was a historic season for Watt. He had 20.5 sacks and 80-yard pick six, four forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries, including one for a score. And he had three receiving touchdowns. So I'm with you, though. I bet defensive players don't want to hear that.

And honestly, Aaron Donald should be in the conversation, but I would argue that Kille-Mackas had more of an impact overall on his team. So would I. Aaron Donald, the Rams don't play great defense. At least if you're going to be... He's an incredible player. He's a huge part of that defense. But nobody thinks of the Rams as like defensive-driven team. He's a defensive tackle, as John just said in my ear, and they're bad against the run.

That'd be like being the best corner in the league, and your team is 31st in past defense. At some point, you have to elevate your unit to be an MVP. Alan Page won it in 71 as a defensive tackle. Obviously, L.T. in 86 and a kicker Mark Mosley won in 82. Those are the only three that haven't been offensive players that have ever wanted. And I mean, Lawrence Taylor being the last

one, it makes sense. I mean, transformed sport. So unless you're on that level, I don't know how in this stays NFL, a defensive player is ever going to win it. So the Cowboys were nearly unbeatable at home this season. They went 7 and 1, and the only loss came to the Titans in week 9. They'll have a chance to make it 8 in 1 this

Saturday when they host Seahawks in the NFC Wild Card round. Yesterday Pete Carroll was talking about it. It's and he pointed out some features that are unique to Cowboys Stadium. I think the scoreboard may get in the way of the sound, you know, so it bounces back at you or something. I don't know. It's a real glitzy place, you know, when you come out of the football locker room, ready to play football, and you go into a nightclub, you know, it's kind of like,

we're in the club, you know, in a wait a minute, you know, you got to play ball, and then you come back to the club, and they're all, anyway, it's unusual, yeah. And then they're right with you, too. Those people are sitting behind you. I don't know how they see the game. I don't, it doesn't look like they care. I have in such a good time. It's an unusual place.

Yeah, it is. They weren't very good at, the Cowboys were lousy the first two years of the stadium. They were lousy at home. I think they were. It's so, it's such a tremendous facility. You walk in and you're, I mean, upon intended, starstruck. But I do think that their record at home is going to be reflective in this game. And that's that stat that Kevin Clark gave us about teams making to the Super Bowl since 2012,

all being winning at a lot. No team that's made the Super Bowl since 2012 has played a road game. So it's either going to be the Bears, the Texans. I mean, we play real stat or bull stat. That's crazy. That's a nutty stat. I feel like it's talking about gambling. That's something you should pay attention to.

Also, home field advantage in the playoffs means more because the weather in the playoffs have these places is garbage. So certain teams, Chicago's built to play in this kind of weather. So playoff weather, playoff advantage. matters because playoff weather is formidable. Right. So finally, last night's game with the Rockets and the Warriors was a thriller, really fun watch. James Harden hit an incredible three-pointer. It was also fouled on it. On a double team to win the game for Houston in overtime, 135, 134. He's averaging 42 points

per game since Chris Paul's latest hamstring injury. They are playing amazing. I really feel like they've turned the corner. And the refs in last night's game, the rest were always a conversation in any Houston game because obviously everyone is always talking about how James Harden's referee. At the end of the game here, they missed this call with Kevin Durant. If you haven't seen it, it might be the most egregious miss call in the history of the NBA. Look at this. It's a terrible.

It is so unbelievable. There's a ref literally right there. The ball might have hit the ref in the head. Look at how tall Kevin Durant is compared to the fans. People don't understand how giant NBA players are. Look at how long Kevin. look how big Kevin Durant is compared to the average person.

When you go to an NBA game, like I've gone to baseball games and NFL games and I think, you know, Kirk Cousins is as big as me. You go to an NBA game, you forget that Kevin Durant's a seven foot tall guy who just happens to be the second best shooter in the sport. And sometimes you forget that because they're all very tall. You know, there's like, oh,

you know, so that guy's like really short. Oh, no, he's 6'5. Steve Nash works out at my club. So I see Steve Nash twice a month. He's taller than me. Steve Nash during an NBA game. Looks like a shrimp. And he's taller than me, and I'm the tallest guy on my staff. What does that tell?

Well, that should speak more to how incredible Kevin Durant is as a shooter, because he is a giant. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. Super Bowl champ, multiple pro-Bulls, decade in the NFL, Greg Jennings, and a Friday, Fox NFL analyst. This is a great time of the year. What's your best?

Give me a playoff memory. Like Schler said, it's the same thing. said, you know, sometimes the weather's worse, but playoff football's regular season football is no big difference. It is. For players playing, I mean, that's your mentality. It's just another game. I was funny, I was telling my daughter this. She's a gymnast in state meets was a couple weeks back. And she's like, Daddy, how did you? I'm like, honey, it's just another, it's another meat. It's another game. Like for us, Mike McCarthy told us going into Super Bowl 45 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, guys, it's the Green Bay Packers versus the Pittsburgh Steelers. We know who these guys. We know who these

guys are. They know who we are. It's the Super Bowl for everyone else. It's the playoffs for everyone. It is playoffs. Were you nervous? I was not. I was not because I approached it as another game. It's nothing changed for me. My preparation didn't change. My practice habits didn't change. Nothing changed. So when you walked on the field, you weren't nervous? I was not nervous. Isn't that great? It was great. Do you remember the first throw to you? I would think the first throw I'd be a wreck. No, man, I don't. So you don't. I don't.

Has there ever been a game you got nervous for? Not in the pros. Ironically, I never got nervous in the pros. In college, I got nervous because I was a kick returner. I hated kickoff. That's an awful. It's like a car wreck. Yeah.

Punt return was different. Kickoff return is for insane guys that have a lot of screws loose. And you just said they made you do it. Well, I was out there and it's like you got all these linemen in front of you, but they have linebackers running down and defensive backs is, yeah. So, okay, let's just go through the games. Let's start with Colts Texans.

I don't feel strongly about this at all. I would take the Colts because I think they're hotter and I think they have a better offensive line and I think that matters in the playoffs. I feel no conviction you. I'm with you. I like the Colts. I like for those reasons. I like their offensive line.

I like Andrew Luck and what they eliminate what the Houston Texans do best, pass rush. Get after your quarterback. J.J. Watt, J. Vion Clowney, they get after your quarterback. But with an offensive line who protects the quarterback better than any team in the National Football League and a quarterback who now understands, I'm going to protect my offensive line. I'm only going to allow them to pass block for a couple seconds. You put the onus on the secondary of the Houston Texas. Which is so-so. Which is exactly. Outside of Joseph, you can have them. Exactly. And even Joseph, I mean, he's long in the tooth. This is year, what, 13 for him.

So I just like everything about Andrew Luck right now. Okay, on Fox, I'll take Dallas at home. Again, Russell Wilson's one of my favorite athletes in my life. He's a wizard. I do think Dallas has better players and they're at home. If you give me the better players at home, and by the way, Dak is not Russell Wilson, but at home he's really efficient. So I'll take Dallas.

Nope, you're done. You like Seattle. You're done. I like Seattle. Spalleth likes him. You like him. Pete Carroll, let me give you this nugget. Pete Carroll has never lost.

his first game playing in the playoffs. When he gets in the dance, he doesn't lose. So you like Seattle? I like Seattle. I love Seattle. What is there not to love about Seattle? They understand who they are. They're great at what they do.

They've always been a team that has been predicated on good defense and running the football. In the playoffs, if you can run the football and you have a guy who is arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the game, who that's a whole other story in and of itself. Yes, he is. Pro football focused.

Yeah. That was a joke. What did they do? Well, they listen to them at, what, number six or seven on that list? Well, I'm canceling my subscription to that place. Exactly. Do it now. Right?

The second. This second. Okay, let's go to the, so you like Seattle. So Chargers Ravens, it's almost everybody's talking me out of it. I think the Chargers have the best players in the league. They didn't have their running backs first time around. You like the Chargers? No.

No. No, Baltimore Ravens again at home. They're 7 and 1 all time in the wild card round. Jim Harbaugh, again, another coach who once he gets in, he wins. 2 and 0 at home. I like this team. They have identity. They do have an identity.

Their quarterback fits them more than he's not, they're not going to ask him to do anything outside of what we need you to do. Philip Rivers does make mistakes. He makes mistakes. I mean, look at what they did to Philip Rivers in that offense. 10 points. I understand they didn't have their guys. eyes. Okay, this is my only courageous pick. Philadelphia upset. You like Philly. Why do you look at me that way? Is that crazy? Is it crazy?

You like, it's not crazy. Lane Johnson, Jason Peters, Nick Foles, Golden Tate, Alshon Jeffrey, Doug Peterson, Fletcher Cox, Michael Bennett. I get nothing but dudes. I get good players. Yeah, and the bears, they don't have anybody. Cullio Mack and a bunch of ballet carriers. The bears don't have anybody, but they have a defense that, you know, has really stifled quarterbacks. You like this offense? I like their offense as well. Pop gun.

You think this offense is going to drop 208? Is that what you call it? Popgun offense. Who scares you on this offense? Matt Nagy. He's a coach. Exactly. Exactly.

So you didn't mention a single player. No, I can mention a player. Oh, yeah. I can mention Taylor Gabriel. I can mention Alan Robinson. Mitchell Tribisky, I will mention him. Like, you have to count Tariq Cohen. You got to.

You're smiling as you say that. No. Mitch Trubisky scares you. Mitch Trubisky, you can't, he doesn't scare me alone. But with Matt Nagy, understanding who he is and that whole B-U mantra that he goes by, I love it. I love them together. Wow. So what's that, oh four?

No, we agree on the Colts and that's it. Oh, yeah, yeah. God, I have everybody. Joy, I've never had a day. So the only one, the only game he agrees with you is. So of all the guests I've had today, 11 disagreements, one agreement. You and I agree on the Colts. I literally had.

So you're either going to be very right or very wrong. Wow. I'm going to get shelled Monday. Where Colin was wrong. A lot of that on Monday. Okay, let me ask you this. Because you would know this better than anybody. When Aaron Rogers, I want to talk about the Jets job, when Aaron, you were there,

when he came out of college, he had a weird throwing motion, good athlete, not world-class, But good athlete. I wasn't there when he came out of college, but I was there the year after. Okay. So you saw the growth. Yes. So he had weird, quirky, rigid throwing motion, had to be fixed. Came in socially, California kid.

A little odd. He and Farr didn't necessarily click. A little bit of an ad liber could be a little reckless. And then all those years later, Mike McCarthy gets no credit for developing Aaron Rogers, who was not close to a finished product. Sam Darnold, California kid, good ad liber, little reckless. kind of a weird, elongated throwing motion. McCarthy and the Jets seems like such an obvious choice to me.

Am I crazy? No, you're not crazy. I like this simply because he commands respect right out the gate. He understands he will have your most important players' attention at all times. And why is that? Because of where he's come from, who he's coached and his accomplishments, what he's been able to do with those guys. guys under him a la brett farv and erin rogers so when you're looking at a sam darnal you're a young guy

who you can pour into you don't want a young coach and a young guy i like mike mccarthy because he can he can pull from his experiences with erin rogers and bret farv and he can pull from even a young sam darnald and allow him to become who he wants to kevin clark uh from the ringer came on earlier he had a great line he said what you don't want is a develop quarterback getting a developing coach. You want a state, you want like Andy Reid went to Kansas City. Then he can get Patrick Mahomes. Developed.

We know who the coach. I like that. I like that saving a lot. You bring in Matt Rule. You got a developing quarterback and a developing NFL HUD coach. I'm not interested in that. No. And do you like McCarthy?

I love McCarthy. I absolutely love McCarthy. I think my only knock on Mike McCarthy was his complacency when it comes to play calling. You bad at it or didn't care? He wasn't bad. He wasn't a bad play call. I just, when he got up on teams, he was very conservative. Very conservative.

And he just didn't have that. That could be generational. Chuck Knox, Marty. You know. It is a little bit. That's the way they're Bill Parcells. You have to pair yourself when you know, and self-assessment in this league is very important. If you know that that's who you are, you got to bring in somebody on that staff that counters that.

That's going to challenge the play calling and the creativity and the innovation that you put. put out there. Good seeing you. Are you, you're doing speak for yourself today? Absolutely. All right, good seeing you, bud. Coming up next, Monday's headlines today. MDrive is a supplement you should consider. Want to feel more energy,

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Today, seven days a week within the IHeart Radio app. Search Her to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Saturday, it's a huge showdown in Dallas as Russell Wilson and the Seahawks take on Ezeko Elliott and the Cowboys in the NFC Wild Card game. It all starts at 7.30 Eastern 430 Pacific, Saturday on Fox and the Fox Sports app. Oh, my God, I can't wait. My wife's been sick all week, so maybe she won't want to go out and I can just watch the game. Hey, by the way, somebody said the other day I ghosted them.

That's a term the kids used now? Yeah, that's not a kind thing. I don't ghost people. Sometimes people email me or text me, and I just don't want to text back because I've got nothing to say. I'm not ghosting anybody. I'm not hiding. Colin has nothing to say, Joy. Do you believe that?

You should have stuck with ghosting, actually. Because now you're just saying you're just purposely ignoring. No, I just said, if I don't have anything to say, I'll just say, hi. I don't have anything to say to you. You know what? Is this a young person that said that to you? Because that's a young thing to do. I don't ghost.

The older you get, the more. perspective you have on people's time. Yeah, I'm busy. And like someone doesn't respond. You're like, oh, maybe they just don't have time for me. I got more kids than Angelina Jolie. I don't have time. All right, here we're you.

It's Jason McIntyre, founder of the big lead. We do it every Friday where we kind of predict what in the newspaper industry, what the headline would be. So Saturday, Cowboys host the Seahawks on Fox. Monday's headlines today. I mean, Colin, this is a battle of two amazing quarterbacks. I think the victor in Monday's headline will be Franchise Quarter Dack. Yes, I'm taking Dack Prescott over Russell Wilson in Seattle.

I know that there's a narrative building out there that, oh, Dallas can't win in the postseason. Jason Garrett is a choker. Dak was tied for the league lead and fumbles. Colin, you've got to throw a lot of that stuff out. And here's why they're playing at home. The defense is as good as it's ever been under Jason Garrett. it. There's something about the Seattle run defense defending running backs. Have you noticed? Christian

McCaffrey, monster game catching the ball. Even the kid at Green Bay, Aaron Jones had a big game. Todd Gurley has gashes defense. Ezekiel Elliott rested last week in week 17. I'm looking for eight to ten catches out of him. If you're into prop bets, load up on Ezekiel Elliott. Yeah, I don't disagree with you. I do think Dallas has better personnel. They're at home. They're built to win. And Zeke and Zach Martin, by the way, are both rested. Smith as well. Now, the thing to watch here, the real focus is going to be the red zone offense. Seattle

8th in scoring touchdowns. Dallas is 29th. There is pressure on DAC to deliver, and that's why he's my headline Monday. Dallas settles for a lot of field goals. You can't do that. You can't do that. Okay. Sunday, Bears host the Eagles, Monday's headlines today. Oh, boy. Philadelphia fans, they love us,

Colin. I think Monday's headline will be Nick Folds. Oh, got a good hearty laugh. Even Joyce smiling on that one. I can hear the Philadelphia fans angry. Listen, you're talking about, you know, Ray Lewis likes to talk about the Serengetty

and they're looking for the wounded animals. Nick Folls going into Chicago with bruised ribs against the team that ranks third of the NFL in sacks, Khalil Mack. It's not like Nick Folds is mobile to begin with. I think this could get ugly. I went on undisputed this week and said it would be a bloodbath and Eagles fans have killed me all week.

I like the bears a lot here. Sometimes in Vegas, it's almost like they're begging you to take somebody. There you go. The line is bizarrely big. So the line is Philadelphia plus six and a half. Vegas is begging you to bet the Eagles. There's a narrative out there. And again, I keep using the word narrative.

I say it on my podcast a lot. Colin, once it gets out there in the radio, TV, web, people start buying it. Well, Mitch Trubisky's first playoff game. He's going to be nervous. Have you looked at how the Eagles have been shredded by running quarterbacks? Blake Bortals had a good game. Watson ran for 50 yards and two TDs. Marcus Marriota on down the list.

Tribusky averages 6.2 yards of carry. People aren't looking at the game close enough. I like Tribusky here. No concerns about the Bears. Chicago big. Let's go to the AFC Saturday. Texans host the Colts. Monday's headline today.

Okay, so this isn't the sexiest game on the NFL schedule. No. will be Sherlock Holmes beats Watson. Oh, he's loving these. Joy is not liking that one. Listen, the headline writer is kind of struggling

on this one. It's a tough game, okay? Not a lot to go on here. The Houston Texans, I know they've been hot. Colin, you know the last 11 games? They haven't beaten a team with a record of over 500? This is a team. They haven't

beat anybody this year. Look at the opposing quarterbacks they faced. Best quarterback they've beaten. It was Andrew Luck when the Colts gave them the game early in the season with that overtime decision. Yeah, that was the game where they should have punted. I mean, this is just not a good Houston Texans team. Luck, I believe he averaged,

the numbers are staggering. He's averaged almost 430 yards in two games against this joke of a secondary. Well, Greg Jennings said this. The strength of the Colts is their O-line and the weakness of the Texans is their O-line in their secondary. So luck has

time to throw against a really weak Texan secondary. When you look at that offensive line in Houston, Deshawn Watson was sacked 62 times this year. 62. And your buddy, I know you talk to him a lot, the Colts GM. Chris Ballard. He's got to be the GM of the year. Did you see the all-pro two rookies on the Colts

made first team All-Pro? Nelson, the lineman, and Darius Leonard. Dude, that is an amazing draft. This team is set up for the future. By the way, the Colts have nine draft picks and $100 million in cap space. And I was saying this the other day. I don't know if, Joy, you were in the meeting at that point. I don't know. They don't have, because the cap tells you they're going to get four to five players

in free agency and nine draft picks. They don't have 13 spots available. That roster's good. Keep your eye on the Colts trading multiple picks to get a pass roll. That's interesting. That's not inside information. But Chris is such a good drafter. Could he go into it with $100 million in cap space in seven draft picks?

I don't think, what are they going to do with nine picks? They've got their offensive line set. Let me give your listeners a special, okay? After the Colts win this game, they will then go to Kansas City. And lose. Well, wait a sec. Do you remember the last time Andy Reid faced Andrew Luck? No.

They led 38 to 10 in the playoffs and choked. 3810 in the third quarter and gagged. Be careful, Chiefs. I don't love this Chiefs team. Sorry, Kansas City. All right. Sunday, Ravens host the Chargers. Monday's headlines today.

All right. You know I like Lamar Jackson. Of all the rookie quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson is the guy in the playoffs to watch. Monday's headline will be Flacco files for unemployment. He's going to Jacksonville. It's all about Lamar Jackson. I mean, like, Joe Flacco, you had a good run. You got a Super Bowl win.

But Lamar Jackson's the guy now. Oh, in fact, I've heard the Ravens are going to draft later rounds, mid-to-later rounds. They will look because he is fairly small in runs. They're just going to draft every year, every other year, a player that's similar in style. Yeah, and Lamar Jackson, I think he's going to have another field day with this Chargers defense. I know Derwin James has been amazing, right? We say the Chargers have one of the best rosters in the league, but they're not built to handle the run up the middle. Their middle linebacker Perryman, he's out. Their defensive tackle, Corey Legit, he's out. They were both

missing when the Ravens ran all over them last time. Quick note on this Baltimore defense. Two quarterbacks have passed for over 300 yards against them this year. Patrick Mahomes, remember that amazing comeback and Baker Mayfield twice. Does Philip Rivers do anything those two guys do? Not really. No, because he doesn't have the legs. I think Baltimore feasts, I don't think this one's close either.

Okay, finally, Monday night, Clemson against Alabama Monday's headlines today. We've texted about this game a lot this week. It's two good teams, but Colin, how many times are we going to see this? No, I've told my friend Clay Travis, I've told all my college football friends, college football over the last couple years has become a regional sport.

I pulled back my coverage this year and my fall numbers were up 30%. Not only because Joy and I are magical. Amazing. Because I started coming on regularly. But we made a choice as a staff. The sport is getting incredibly regional. The South, now it doesn't even, the North can't compete with the South. And now that leads to Monday's headline.

Listen, Colin, west of the Mississippi, nobody cares about this game. Nobody cares. And like, that's a problem when it's the third time in four years. And I've got more bad news for college football. These two teams are going to be here next year. Tua is back. So we're three of his best receivers and two of their top running backs. And Clemson's quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, he's back.

Colin, this is going to be four and five years next year. The sport has to do something. They have to. I say you expand to eight. At least give other teams a chance to maybe pull the upset. But Colin, are you hearing any juice about money? None. I'm a college football die hard. My initial brand at ESPN was Colin loves college football.

I have pulled back my coverage because it's the NBA and college football. You've got to give me question marks in the playoffs. I got no question mark. Ticket prices are dropping for the game. By the way, ticket prices are collapsing. The ratings last week collapsed. You've been into the game for $100. I don't know that expanding it, maybe if you expand it to an 18.

playoffs and then you change the rules for Alabama recruiting, Clemson recruiting. No, I always have other teams. By the way, no, I always said this. In the NFL, I'm serious about this. In the NFL, the more successful you are, you get the worst picks. I don't think this is crazy. If you get into the final four, you get five less scholarships. Oh, that's a little gimmicky. No, it's not gimmicky. This is what the, this is what every sport does professionally. Five fewer scholarships if you get in. So what it means is if you got in back-to-back years, you'd have 10 fewer players, That's the kind of depth.

That's what Alabama leans on is they have injuries too, but they have so much depth. You'd lose your depth at Clemson and Bama. I know a lot of college football fans are going to see this because you've got a big college football base. They're going to be angry. But the reality is when the Warriors meet LeBron four years in a row, people are like, oh, this stinks. It's so predictable. The exact same thing is happening in college football.

Right now we know the Warriors are going to the NBA finals. How are we not blasting college football saying, geez, Clemson, Alabama again? like Colin. I agree with you. You and I agree with this. We enjoy you. I mean, you grew up in Miami Hurricane territory. You love college football.

I love college football. Look at the NFL. Look at how we're talking about the week 17 games matter. Like it's been an amazing season because we don't know who's going to win the Super Bowl. I'll take Alabama to win by a touchdown. I'm going to go degenerate special. First half under. I think it'll be a low scoring game early.

Joy is totally laughing. But hey, if you heard me out there, I give out winners, folks. Good seeing you, buddy. have a nice weekend car shopping's confusing dealer price list price in price invoice here's what's not go to truecar.com newer you save three grand off msrp see you monday it's the hurt last night a blown call changed a game this morning the internet lost its mind and nobody's telling you exactly what happened that's where sports slice comes in i'm timbo and every episode we're cutting through the noise breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines and we're going straight to the

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