The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Lakers, Patriots, NBA, Russell Westbrook, where Colin was right & wrong

Episode Date: July 13, 2020

Colin discusses why the Lakers can't win the NBA title, Bill Belichick being less strict after Tom Brady, a possible problem with the NBA, where he was right and wrong, and Russell Westbrook testing positive for Covid-19. Guests include Doug Gottlieb, Mark Medina, Bruce Feldman, and Greg Jennings. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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One hour from now where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. Doug Gottlieb. We'll go inside the NBA bubble. Bruce Feldman, college football's in big trouble. Greg Jennings, the former Packer, joining us too, and Joy Taylor, alongside as always. Joy, how are you? Great. It's happening.

They've entered the bubble. This weekend we had NASCAR, UFC, MLS, kind of golf. So we had four things. I mean, I sat around, and I watched the Michael Jordan documentary again, episode nine. It was actually, it was the first time in three months show. I watched sports.

Like there was, you actually, the MLS stuff. I like, by the way, piping the crowd noise. I'm sorry, it's hard to watch soccer with no crowd noise. I need a little crowd noise. I didn't mind it. I didn't mind the Inter-M Miami game with no noise. So we actually had sports this weekend. So I want to start the Monday show with this.

I like change. I've told you before I didn't grow up in a traditional kind of family and traditional go to church on Sunday, dinner on this day, go to this camp every summer. So I'm all for, you know, over the course of my career, I've changed directions, changed jobs, change bosses several times. I'm good with it.

But I get, a lot of people aren't. When LeBron James decided to come to Los Angeles, much like when Michael Jordan decided to go to the Wizards, it was not the best basketball move. We knew it wasn't the best basketball move. He could have gone to Philadelphia. Instead, he went to Los Angeles. Well, Jeannie and Jim Bus, the owners, didn't get along.

The front office was unsettled. It's since been, you know, torn apart and rebe. built, and the roster wasn't very good. The Lakers were a bad team. Owner, front office roster four years before he got here. And Philadelphia, here's the starting five he could have inherited in Philadelphia. That's a championship team potentially. LeBron, J.L.M.B., Dario Saritz, J.J. Reddick, and Ben Simmons.

That's a lot of good players. I got news for you. That's beating Boston and that's beaten Milwaukee. The third best player on that team is probably Ben Simmons. The second best player on Milwaukee is Chris Middleton. So that team is getting to the NBA finals. Win it? Not sure.

Get to the finals. But LeBron chose business over basketball. And I support him because LeBron had achieved so much. 99% of you are never going to allow him to be MJ. So he finishes second greatest all time. And the business stuff in L.A. has gone through the ceiling. It's been better than I thought.

I'm told by people close to LeBron. He loves L.A. His kids love L.A. His family loves L.A. The billionaires have lined up to support LeBron. His net worth is now $750 million. He's close to being a billionaire. And the businesses are unbelievable.

And, I mean, his legacy has been formed. He's first or second best basketball player ever, so I support him. But this morning and yesterday, when I see the story that Rondo is hurt, he's not winning a title. The clippers in the same building are healthy, rested, and go nine to ten deep. So now Avery Bradley's not around, he's a starter, and Rondo's not around.

He's a real high IQ rotational playoff guy. This is not a championship team. And LeBron deep down knows it. Last two years, basically it's been LeBron, Anthony Davis, and just a bunch of stuff. and this is the downside. This is why I think Kevin Durant, who doesn't have Michael Jordan's legacy yet, he doesn't have LeBron's legacy,

is making a mistake choosing Brooklyn. You're not choosing Brooklyn for basketball. You may be choosing it for happiness. You're not choosing it for basketball. Less of a coach, less of a point guard, less of a roster, less stability, less winning, less of a culture. You're not choosing Brooklyn for basketball.

You're choosing it for other stuff. So it's a little bit of a cautionary tale. But in the course of Michael Jordan, I got it. He was the best player ever. He was exhausted. You watched the documentary. I mean, it's like every championship was just you know, Michael was the best player in the world and he was being tackled for years. And I totally support LeBron

and I totally get it with LeBron. He's number one or number two all time, depending on how your worldview of basketball. He's not fall into three and for the twos he's not going to one. He chose business. This is the downside of choosing business. Brady chose the Buccaneers. He chose it for football. Look at the roster.

I mean, go look at how Vegas changed Tampa Bay with Tom's arrival. Tom chose it for football. Receivers, tight ends, coach. Peyton Manning chose Denver. They had Hall of Fame corners, great pass rushers, very good receivers. Peyton Manning went football.

And maybe basketball and football cultures, they are different. I mean, basketball players make so much money off the court with shoes. Once you get a few titles, what do you care? go do the business thing. It's fun. But this morning, no Avery Bradley, no Rondo, Clippers go nine deep, totally healthy. Paul George saying, this is the best I felt

in years. The championship stuff is over. When you choose business over basketball, you need a bunch of breaks to win in basketball. And the West is so good. The point guards are so unbelievable in the West, and now you lost your two best defensive guards.

Rondo and Avery Bradley. I like Alex Caruso. Come on. He's never proven anything in the postseason. KCP's talented. I don't trust him in the postseason. Again, Caruso and KCP are nice. Bradley Rondo, I've seen be great when it matters.

The downside to choosing business over basketball, I don't think LeBron's losing any sleep, but what you're seeing with the Lakers, you're witnessing it. So this weekend, very interesting. So this weekend, Cam Newton is very prominent on Instagram. and he took to Instagram, and he's all fired up and he's all in, and it's highly entertaining. Here's Cam on Instagram.

They ain't never seen this Cam. They ain't never seen them. You want to know how I know? They ain't ever seen them. The forgotten Cam, no. They don't know. Tired of being sick of tired, Cam. It felt like I was just left to die.

But that's... That's not surprising. What is actually shocking is that Cam Newton, who has never taken a snap for New England, Cam Newton, who's in a fight to be the starting quarterback in New England, got a hype video from the Patriots. Watch. Add to the highlight reel that one. He's going to be difficult to defend.

Now that is shocking. This is the best kind of divorce. New England is acknowledging, we need to lighten up a little. And Tom Brady's like, they need to lighten up a little. This is the best possible divorce. You have great years. You grow tired of each other. And neither side gets rigid.

You still talk nice about each other. Whenever anybody asks, you're like, oh, Tom was the best. Those guys are great. you know when Belichick does the Hall of Fame speech for Tom and Tom does the Hall of Fame speech for Belichick. You're going to be like, how lucky was I? It was the luckiest thing in the world. But New England is acknowledging.

We've got to lighten up a little bit. And Brady acknowledge, listen, I need weapons. I'm 43 years old. I love Julian Edelman, but I need weapons the way I can't win like this. And so Brady's like, looks over the rosters. He peruses all the opportunities and goes, Wow, Tampa's going to make my life a lot easier. And it's fascinating.

And I give Belichick credit for this. My entire life, it started when I was a kid. I've seen legendary coaches, guy named Frank Cush in Arizona, great coach for Arizona State, get rigid. It never ends well. Bobby Knight, it never ends well. Woody Hayes, it never ends well. I mean, those guys were, I mean, you're talking Bobby Knight was the basketball coach. in America. My high school basketball team ran Bobby Knight's offense. Rid doesn't work because

there are certain industries that change a lot. Sports and football changes a lot. You can be a legend Mike Ditka one day and out of date, out of sorts Mike Ditka the next day. You can't fall into these cliche traps. And Belichick's like, it's time to lighten up. We're going to have a quarterback that moves. We're going to give him a little hype video. And that's messaging to the rest of the league. What that really is by New England, it's messaging to free agents. It's messaging to players. We see you.

We hear you. We're going to lighten up. Hey, our system's still hard. This is no day at the beach. We're very demanding. But you can spike it. We'll give you a little hype video. And to me, it's the best way for legends to age.

Mike Shoshchevsky did this. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Belichick and Shoshchewski are two of the smartest coaches of my lifetime. Mike Shishchevsky had all the trophies and all the money. Coach at Duke, reputation. And then all of a sudden, the one and done came out. Guys like Bobby Knight got real rigid. And then all of a sudden, Mike Shishowski watched John Calapari. He's like, well, listen, I'd rather have the one-on-duns on my roster than get beat by him. And after about two years, and Mike initially is like, nope, this is our tradition. We want kit. Mike Shishvsky went, you know what? times have changed.

I got to adapt. I got to lighten up. And guess what? Duke remains incredibly relevant and can go out and get a Zion Williamson. And they can tell them, listen, if you're great, you can go after a year. We won't hold it against you. That matters. And that's what New England is selling to the market.

Hey, we can be fun to. We'll promote you. We're rooting for you. We let gronk be gronk. Now, we didn't like the table dancing during the middle of the season. We have certain standards, you know, gronk falling off a stage or a party boat. But I think the messaging by Belichick and New England is very smart and very clear.

Hey, it's not digging ditches here. It's hard. We're not Bruce Ariens, but we can have fun too. And I think it's a good message. All right, good stuff. LeBron is saying no to the political messages on the back of the jerseys, at least the one the NBA is furnishing, the pre-approved messages. I've got some thoughts on that.

This hour, next hour we go inside the NBA bubble. Colin Wright, Colin Wrong, start of next hour. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

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learn more. Nice to have you in top of the hour. 50 minutes from now, 40 minutes from now, actually, Colin right, calling wrong. So the NBA is going to allow players to put messages on the back of their jerseys. And they're pre-approved. So you can put messages among the, you know, 20, 30 potential messages the NBA would allow you to do. And LeBron said, eh, I'm going to pass. You know, whether I agree or not, and I don't have any strong feelings either way,

LeBron, I think, is above, bigger than, beyond putting a pre-approved slogan from the NBA on the back of a jersey. I always agreed with our former president, Barack Obama, who said activism isn't a tweet. Action is activism. I think symbols and messages and slogans don't really change anything. Maybe they can activate a movement. I don't know, but I think it's about feet on the ground if you want change, not just saying stuff on social media. and here's LeBron's explanation for not choosing a social message on the back of his jersey in the bubble. I actually didn't go with a name on the back of my jersey.

And it was, you know, there's no disrespect to the list that was handed out to all the players. I command anyone to decide to put something on the back of their jersey. You know, it's just something that didn't really, you know, seriously resonate with my mission, with my goal. I don't need to have something on the back of my jersey for people to understand my mission or know what I'm about and what I'm here to do. Yeah, I think that's kind of understood, right? Like he's doing stuff. We see it. We've seen it. He's been a leader. No biggie. I do think it's kind of fascinating what is happening. I had a discussion this weekend with somebody in the NBA and they said, you know, I worry that we're becoming exhausting to our fan base. You know, when I think of MLB, I think of baseball.

When I think of MLS, I think of soccer. When I think of NHL, I think of hockey. When I think of NFL, I think of football. When I think of the NBA, I think of basketball, and a close second is politics. That doesn't bother me. I'm not triggered by politics. I'm a moderate. I'm an independent.

I voted both sides. I'm socially left. Fiscally, moderate, sometimes right, sometimes left. Don't love a ton of regulations, so you'd probably say I'm a conservative. But I like some regulations, so you'd say I'm a moderate to a liberal. It's never really mattered to me what you brand me. But I do think I used to work at a network that let a lot of shows get political, and now they're all gone, and so are the hosts.

There are a lot of people that go to sports and don't want politics. I'm not one of them. I don't really care. But I've said before, I'm not traditional. I didn't grow up in a family that taught politics or religion. We didn't even go to church. We didn't have the classic Sunday dinners. I've moved a lot.

A lot of people can't struggle with it. I like change. It's different. It keeps me on my toes. But I don't think I'm everybody. Charles Barkley talked about the current state of the NBA. Here he is. What's happening now, we turn it into a circus. You know, we're going to spend all our time instead of talking about racial equality and racial justice and economic justice. We spend all our time word about who's kneeling and who's not dealing. What things are being said on buses. What's being said on jerseys, I think we're missing the point. We need police reform.

We need prison reform. Those are number one and two things we need to focus on. But the media, you know, we all got a job to do, and they're going to spend all their time on what's on somebody's jersey and who's kneeling and who's not kneeling, and that's going to defeat the purpose. My concern is this turning this thing into a circuit instead of trying to do some good stuff.

So I can agree with both Barclay and LeBron James. What I think is fascinating is the NBA, and this is not a little thing was down double digits in ratings this year. And it was a really fascinating year. Kauai's a clipper, Anthony Davis to the Lakers. There was like a lot, Russell Westbrook and Hardin together.

It was like a lot of really interesting stories. I don't think I would, I'd been into the NBA like that in years. It was like the classic Batman and Robin. Everybody had a duo. It was fascinating. And the numbers tanked. I don't know why.

But is it because the audience, the consumers, think it's too political at times, you can certainly make that argument. I think it would be ridiculous to say that's 100% why, but equally ridiculous to say it's not some of the reason why. The NBA is taking a stand. We're anti-guy in the White House. We're going to be on the right side of history. Whether you agree or not, it's a fascinating stand and one I have never seen a professional sports league make. I got no problem with LeBron not doing it. I know where he stands. I know what he's about. But I think,

Markley also adds interesting perspective. Let's care about the stuff that really matters. I don't think names on jerseys do. And when the best player in the league says, I'll pass. Maybe that says something too. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

Well, Colin, we're reaching the end of a very, very long road. What roads are? Back Prescott. Oh, but it's getting close. So close. How close? Two days. Okay.

Right. Zach Prescott and the Cowboys have until Wednesday to get a long-term deal done. Midnight or noon? That could matter. I don't know if that's true. It's a whole other day. I don't know exactly what time of the day the cutoff is, but it is Wednesday. So on Thursday, it will be over.

But it doesn't look like there will be an agreement in place by then. The Cowboys are reportedly not close to a multi-year contract extension with Zach. If the two sides are unable to reach a deal, he will become the first quarterback in franchise history to play under the franchise tag and it will be for 31.4 million in 2020. That's a good number though. That's a good franchise tag number. When you don't know what the cap is next year, like you look at that number and think, what if the cap comes down $12 million? Like I read a story this weekend. They're borrowing from other caps. Like the number could come way down and 31 could be a really healthy number. Yeah, like a real number.

So it's 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 3 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday. So 3 p.m. Eastern is noon here. So we will know, the last hour of our show on Wednesday will be DAC Talk. All DAC Talk all the time, which is what it's been for the past, I don't know, 18 months. I'm kind of disappointed. They haven't gotten a deal done. But that is a good number. Like you said, I just don't understand what the plan is with Dak Prescott.

And I never have. So, Dak Prescott is gone next year. and you're just going to ride into the sunset with Andy Dallon? Well, I could be wrong on this, but I always feel like you get the quarterback taken care of and figure out the other stuff. Like Kansas City is like, we'll get Patrick done, we'll figure out Chris Jones.

Dallas has done the opposite. We're going to pay everybody, and then at the end we're not sure what we do with DAC, which is the opposite of what I would do. It is the exact opposite of what I would do as well. By the way, the Seahawks did this is Russell Wilson. Russell, rumors came out, I'm not happy. They pay Russell, and then in about a month,

if you recall. I'm sure you do. They figured out how to take four draft picks, turn them into 11. Like, you can always figure out how to get around the rest of the stuff. You got to get the quarterback right. And I just don't, I don't know what else Dak has to do. Like, I don't think that Dak Prescott is on Patrick Mahomes level or the Mar Jackson level, talent-wise. But he's done everything that's been asked of him as a fourth round quarterback. He's more than overachieved.

Kept the organization stable. Yes. Won the games he's supposed to win for the most part. Yes. And he did all that on a fourth round rookie contract. So you had the space to pay other people during that time, which you obviously did. A few more days of it, I guess we'll find out. Two days from now.

We've got two more days in this. It's been so long. So the Washington football team announced today that they will be retiring their current nickname and logo. This decision comes 10 days after beginning a thorough review of the team name. In an official statement, Washington said Dan Snyder and Ron Rivera working closely to develop a new name and design approach for their. team. It's unknown when those changes will be revealed, according to Sports Business Daily. They report that the announcement of the new name has been delayed because of trademark

issues. This was my favorite, my favorite team growing up. So this is my favorite team. So because I thought they were Washington State when I was like six. There's a long story. I've told it before. It's boring. But I didn't have an NFL team when I grew up. Okay, we got one in 77. So at 77, I was like 13 years old. I was a grown up, you know? But when I was a little kid, I thought this was my team because I would watch the games and I knew I was in Washington State and they were called Washington. And we had a state capital that looked like the White House in Olympia. So this is my favorite team forever. And guess what?

I slept fine this weekend. We're okay. Like there's going to be real changes made in America. Some are hard. Police unions are hard to just, you know, disassemble. Police reform is going to be very, very difficult. Here's what's not changing nicknames. This is an easy one.

The team is not going anywhere. They're in there. You know what they really need? a new nickname and some would argue a new owner. That's what some would argue. This may be, maybe this is the catalyst for the change that needed to happen there. Look, I've been against this name for a very long time. This isn't new to me.

I'm glad that they're making the change. It's unfortunate to me that it took this long and this much influence, money-wise, to get it done because let's be serious. That's what finally forced their hand, which often is what happened in these situations. But the team's not going anywhere. Fan bases have been through worse. you know, when they take the entire team out of your city. Well, I mean, Greg Toohey's a producer for our show.

They had the Oilers, and then he woke up one morning, and they didn't have the Oilers. St. Louis? Yeah, like I get. San Diego. Cleveland going, oh, I love the Browns. They're in Baltimore. Yes. That's something to be really frustrated about. basics during his training.

You know, it just felt like when I was five years old again, just went back to square one, you know, trying to get my body to where it needs to be, get my fundamentals back to square one and start from there. So, yeah, it was just like starting over at five again, and it was a great process. I learned it all over. You know, my wife and I had this discussion yesterday. We were talking about our kids and how it's been really difficult for kids because the messaging is no school.

And I'm like, you know what? this is a time where the truly focused will rise. You've seen this in the NBA. What did you do with your time off? Legendarily, LeBron's supposed to be in this incredible shape, and Zion's in great shape. Anytime the world unravels a little bit or your business unravels, it's really a testament to, okay, everybody, you know, like Joy,

if we walk in and we have food and we have space, anybody can do a show on Monday during the NFL season. Right. Can you do a show, a sport show during COVID? What do you do with your time now? When I watch the NBA and some of these players who have literally used this three months to get in the best shape of their life, I'm like, that tells me so much beyond this time. That tells me who they are as people that Zion and Yokic and LeBron, they're legends. They're going to be legends.

And it's very easy because we're all going through something similar. Obviously, we're not trying to stay in NBA shape, you and I. But everyone is dealing with challenges right now. and whatever your business is, you have to pivot and find ways to make it through. But it's very easy to slip into just... Well, there's no question. Just unravel. Unravel.

And I don't blame anyone who does, because this is a lot of pressure and a lot of anxiety, and it's very easy to just let all of the negativity and anxiety overwhelm you. I think it's great that he's done this. He was working with his stepfather when he wasn't rehabbing. So he was literally like going back, like he said, just going back to being a kid, just in his driveway, working on fundamentals of basketball, just staying in shape. and he looks completely different. And it's going to be exciting to see it

if he can get them into the playoffs. Yeah. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. You know, when you get to the NBA playoffs, we saw this with Toronto last year.

It's amazing that it becomes very much situational basketball. Smart basketball players become very, very important. Toronto had a bunch of smart players. They didn't have that. They had one great player and a bunch of good players, but Toronto was very good situationally. They could get a basket. They could make a stop.

And it's, you know, playoff basketball is inches not feet. Everybody's equally rested, equally prepared. And Doug Gottlie of joining me now, brought to you by Mercedes Ben's the Best or Nothing, Coward Global Satellite Network. And I don't think Rondo's close to what he was. I don't, Doug. But he's a rotational player.

He's something to. me and now I'm like, okay, no Avery Bradley, no Rondo. And I'm like, okay, now it's more on Alex Caruso. Like, it feels like a real issue for me, right? There's no question this is a real issue for the Lakers. Look, on one hand, I think there was always, and you and I discussed this at the start of the season, there was at least at the very top in terms of the head coach, a lack of belief in Alex Crusoe, did not play the first game of the year.

got the sweats against the clippers. But as the season developed, he became their go-to backup point guard and a guy who LeBron was comfortable closing with. On the other hand, when you get to the playoffs, a lot of it's about what have you done previously and whether you want to go with the playoff Rondo or the fact that, you know, people at Staples Center have seen him win a championship before. Granted, with the Boston Celtics and that was, you know, like a decade ago. But, you know, Rondo has the reputation.

And not having him does put more on Caruso. Not having Avery Bradley puts more on Caruso. It also gives them one less shot creator. Look, I think that they played Rondo too much. And the truth is, had Darren Collison signed with the team, they likely would have cut Rondo. But again, that's not factoring in that they didn't have Avery Bradley. Every Bradley was playing the best basketball of his Laker career over the last month. That's why the team was playing better.

Al Caruso continues to develop. So now changes their rotation, changes who they is. are. And though Rondo on his own getting hurt doesn't kill the team, I think Rondo combined with Avery Bradley not getting on the plane, this is not as good a Laker lineup as it was previously. Now, there's one last thing, I know being long-winded. Kyle Cusman was not having a good year. Right. And so the one thing we're not factoring in is if Kyle Cusma used that time, as you pointed out, to figure it out, to get his game together. And he's anywhere near what they thought he could be. Now a sudden the Lakers could be as good or better.

but losing two point guards, granted, two backup point guards, one starter, one backup in April Bradley and Arunda, and that hurts the Lakers heading into the bubble. You know, it's interesting. There are basketball players who I think are unbelievably gifted. I've been watching this league like you for a long time, but they're not necessarily winning basketball players. They're just gifted. I've been very critical of Westbrook, although I've said I'd pay to watch him play. He may be the best athlete in the league.

He's insane. I mean, he's just ridiculously athletic. but the Bleacher Report ranked their top 100 basketball players in the NBA and they had Westbrook 22. And I thought to myself, I don't know if I'd have him that low, but they are telling you it's a shooter's league, dude can't shoot. Is it absurdly low or has the league kind of figured out now, listen, athlete doesn't equal great basketball player or winning basketball player? Well, there's a couple parts to it. I will tell you, and granted I'm not in the bubble. the rumors in and out of the bubble about Houston mysteriously not having Luke and Bamute,

James Harden, and Russell Westbrook, and no real explanation as to why they're not there yet. Leave a lot of people to wonder, why aren't they there yet? What does Houston know that the rest of us don't? That's the first thing. In regards to Westbrook, and is he ranked too low, if you go buy stats and you and I do not buy into the triple double. But if you simply go by stats, he's the greatest player of the 21st century, right? We hadn't had since Oscar Robertson, a guy average triple double, he does at three consecutive years. But a lot of that was because pace of play, the ball dominance in terms

of his usage rating, and it's different with guards rebounding because you don't have a power forward anymore on the basketball floor. Sometimes you don't have power forward to our center on the basketball floor anymore. And there's long-caraming rebounds. It's not necessarily as greatest statistic as traditional rebounding used to be. So I was never in the he's a top five player or he should win the MVP, even when he averaged a triple double. I think 22 is probably a little bit low, but while he's crazy athletic, you're right, he doesn't shoot the ball well from three.

And he's not nearly the defensive player that his reputation would lead you to believe. Though he could have been a great defensive player, he just doesn't play defense all. that much. He's not the same guy with four knee surgeries. He's a really, now, their dynamic, if he plays because they play without a center, he essentially is their one driver. He and James Harden and everybody else spaces and shoots threes. And in a small sample size, it may work some. Do I think he's 22nd? Seems a little low. But I also think it's the world telling you that his inefficiency as a perimeter shooter is being noticed by a lot of people in the NBA. So I thought it was something. I've watched a lot of legendary coaches get stubborn and rigid.

The Woody Hayes, I mean, even Popovich feels a little stubborn sometimes, and it never ends well. Belichick has the approval of everything in New England. And it wasn't Cam's Instagram video this weekend. It was the fact that New England created a hype video for Cam, hasn't played a game, is in a quarterback battle. And it felt like to me New England saying, hey, you can have fun here. The world's changing.

You can have some fun. We'll promote you a little. That's what it felt like to me. And I will say this. I've seen a lot of legends get rigid, and they go down the tube, right? I kind of felt like Belichick was acknowledging. The world's changed. I got to lighten up a tad.

Am I wrong on that? So Belichick was editing IG video over the weekend? I'm saying that Belichick has his hands on everything. That's why I don't buy all these. I don't know what happened with the video in Cincinnati. Belichick's touching everything. you think he told them to shoot the Cincinnati sideline? I think Belichick knew of it. Absolutely.

I don't. Look, do I agree? I don't think Belichick is as rigid as you would be allowed to believe, right? Like, they let Gronk be gronk. Tom Brady, as much as he says he's having fun more, they did let him have the TV 12. Did I think it was curious that a guy in a quarterback battle suddenly has a hype video when he hasn't taken a snap, we don't know how healthy his arm is. Sure. But I also think that, look, Cam is very Instagram popular. He's like the football version of an IG model. And I tend to think that this is the Patriots, whoever's running their social media department, kind of a tip of the cap to these videos, which are really cool and do get you excited. And frankly, the Patriots have been lame for a long time, and this makes them kind of cool.

But do I think that Bill Belichick suddenly, Ben, he's like, sure, with the IG video, I don't ever think it even crossed his desk, across his mind, to be totally honest with it. All right. By the way, are you on the DAC signs a long deal or DAC knows franchise? Which side do you on?

I am in the, if I'm the Dallas Cowboys, I make him play it out. If I'm in Dak Prescott, I sign that thing. Because we don't know what's going to happen with the salary cap. I mean, salary cap's likely to go down over the next two years, and then it's going to spike back up in the 10%. variety. If I'm the Cowboys, I kind of let them play this thing out. Sure, it's going to eat up a bunch of salary cap, but I'm not sure we don't just stay Pat, don't change. And just because

now NFL teams, I'll tell you, cost certainty is even if you're overpaying slightly, but I think you're overpaying massively for Dak, Prescott, no matter what Pat Mahomes contract will tell you, if it's me, I stand Pat if I'm the Cowboys. If I'm Dak, I sign that thing because the salary cap is likely to be deflated over the next couple of years. Yeah, potentially by a lot. Doug Gottlieb, the Dougger Fox Sports Radio after our show. Doug will talk later this week. Thanks, bud.

Anytime. By the way, he kind of gave a mysterious answer to the rockets. That was kind of interesting, right? I should have followed up on that Westbrook. None of the guys in Houston, the stars have showed up yet. What's going on there with Houston? They're very analytical. Is there some sort of analytical thing going on with Houston?

Are they saying to themselves we'd rather train in Houston then ship them to the bubble? That's interesting. That's not what I took from that. What did you take from that? What did you take from it? Wait, time out. Don't tell me. Okay.

Did I just miss something totally? I think so. Whoa. I mean, I'm not implying anything. Okay, wait, time out. Well, who? Did I, Goulet, did you care? Why would you not be going to the bubble right now?

Okay. Got to take a break. Okay. Goulet, are you looking at it? Did I miss something totally? Apparently. Am I like the guy that walks into the room? Everybody's got tucks on and I got

brown slacks here? Yes. Really? Yeah. I mean, it's the first thing. Because I usually... I did not even think about what you were saying just now. Usually my X-ray vision sees through analytics and to the truth, I apparently

with totally. Yes. Okay, we'll discuss that next. Okay. It's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning.

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By the way, this is now officially Colin Wright, Colin Rogg at the top of the next hour. My show over the last three or four months has not been as structured as normal, mostly because we don't have games. And so I'm just, this is basically a podcast on television. And so Doug Gottlieb said something as I was talking to him. He said there's a lot of stories out there about Westbrook and Hardin and why aren't they in the bubble. And my takeaway was immediately is, oh, the rockets have always been, you know, kind of that they kind of feel like they're a little smarter than everybody. And they're like training their starboard. players are training in Houston for an extra 10 days. So therefore, when they go to the bubble, they're not worn out emotionally. And I thought, oh, that's just the way Houston would think. And Darryl Morey, like, let's train them in Houston. There's no proof that that bubble is going to wear people out emotionally. We want our guys ready to go.

And then Joy Taylor said, that's not what's happening. So now, Joy, tell me how, what you read into the story. I mean, I don't, that's, I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying that was not my first thought when Doug said that. I had no thoughts about why they weren't there. I just assume everyone is going to go when they're ready to go, when they have to be there. What was your first thought with Doug?

Well, why? I mean, we're in a pandemic. So you think they have? I don't think they have that. I'm just thinking that sounded like that's what Doug was implying that that's kind of the rumor. Yeah. Okay, so we looked it up. This is a quote from the coach Mike Dan Tony this morning on Hardin and Westbrook.

Quote, these are things that people are dealing with. We're not going to get into why, why not? They're on their way. So does that feel like COVID? Now, Hardin is a legendary night owl. But there's nothing open right now. It's a night owl. Are strip clubs not open?

Oh, I don't know. I don't think so. I would imagine not. I've never been to one. So now bars were briefly open. Yes. Yes. I believe they're closed down now as well.

Westbrook's not a bar guy. Westbrook's a workout guy. Yeah. All right. I mean, but you don't need to go to the bar or to the strip club. if the strip clubs were open in order to. Well, yeah, that you could get it. You could just party with friends.

I live in Los Angeles. There's restaurants open. Or you could just go to CVS. But like we don't know where people actually get it. So we're like trying to guess and figure it out. And again, I personally, me, Joy Taylor, am not saying that is the case. I'm saying that that is what I read into when Doug said that that's what the,

like the people are concerned. There's rumors. All right. I'm actually surprised that wasn't the first conclusion you came to. When I think of Houston, I just think of analytics. So I thought, oh, they're trying some New England. That makes sense, though, that if it's not mandatory to report right now, that you would keep the team out of there for as long as possible. Yeah, like my whole thing on this, if I ran an NBA team, and I've said this before, I always try to personalize these stories.

Like, how would I run a team or how would I coach? And that's just the way I kind of try to figure out what I'm going to say about topics. Like, if I was a coach, what would I do? If I was a GM, what would I do? when I go, for instance, if I have to go for a speech, maybe once twice a year, somebody pays me money for a speech, I fly in day of. I just want to live my life, get in a plane, boom, do the speech, get in a plane, come home. Right. I don't want to move.

I don't want to make it as natural as I can. I don't want to get into a hotel. Think about it. Overthink about it. Do I get anxious? Oh, my God, I'm changing my ritual. I literally want to do this show. I got a flight.

I got a Salt Lake City speech or a Seattle speech. get in a plane, do the speech, come home. And so what I'm thinking is Houston, all into analytics, had done some sort of analytical study on this, that really we're going to train most of our players at home. The less time in the bubble, the less emotional strain away from their loved ones, will fly you in, you win.

They'd figured out that nine fewer days in the bubble was better. Maybe. I don't know how long they have to quarantine before they can start working out in the bubble. so if they've timed it out where they're not going to lose a lot of time quarantining once they get to the bubble before they can actually start playing, I don't know. I think Doug's innuendo is right. Because the way Dan Tony said it, he was kind of being covert.

Like he was hiding something. He wasn't very direct. It was very ambiguous. I mean, I don't know what the, I guess it would be kind of dramatic for people to find out that they had tested positive if that was the case. You know, I go back, I really go back and forth on this bubble. Like, part of me says, listen, man, my wife and I have been over the last four months, have seen each other, you know, six days a month.

I mean, we've been separated for separating the kids and everything. And it's been really good because when I do see her, it's great. It's just party time, have more fun than ever, never loved her more. And then the part of me thinks if I was an NBA player, I have been with my family and my kids, and I love kids, but kids are a lot of work, and you've been with them four months, and there's no school. Part of me thinks some of these guys are like, actually, I could use a little me time and basketball time, and the NBA is going to do a good job on this. Eventually, the rooms, the food, the entertainment, it's going to be good. The NBA is not

going to go cheap on this stuff. And then there's part of me that thinks, good God, we're asking like nine weeks of isolation. Well, every team is not going to make it through the whole. Okay. Look at this. What? I can't see what you're seeing. Shamm Sharaana. We bring him on the show. Yes. He just tweeted Westbrook tested positive for COVID. So there you go. So my analytical

nonsense. Women's intuition. Says Westbrook just announced himself to test positive. Yeah. That makes sense. Why it wouldn't be in the bubble? All right. I just wasted eight minutes of your life right there. None of my stuff was even worth it. It's just stupid.

Well, it's COVID sports talk. You just get through it. All right. Colin Wright, Colin wrong. First hour down on a Monday. Yeah, Westbrook just announced it himself, by the way. He's got COVID. Hour two next, 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its moment. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in.

I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

SportsSlice 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 Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?

Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find him. Find out on The Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversation. with so many incredible guests. I'm talking.

Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses.

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person.

Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show,

I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama wants you to wave at her.

What? Where's she at? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Ah, hour two. Live in L.A. This is The Hurt, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1.

Joy Taylor is joining me. Mark Medina will be joining us, NBA writer, from the bubble in 15 minutes. Bruce Feldman later this hour. I ran into an administrator in college athletics yesterday. They don't feel good about college football. I just tell you that. there's a lot of apprehension about college football, which bums me out because I'm a huge college football fan.

You know, I've come to the point on all this stuff. If you give me some NBA, if you give me the NFL, you know, if you literally said roll the dice, you can get all of them back, or potentially none of them, or if you just said NBA works, NFL works, I think at this point I take that. That's kind of my optimism on it. College administrators I know do not feel great about this right now. a lot of lack of optimism, which bums me out.

Joy Taylor is joining me. Joy, how are things? I'm good. Russell Westbrook, tested positive. For COVID, that's why they're not there yet. Yeah. So he announced that. Yes, he tweeted it. So, all right.

Well, he's probably the best shape of any NBA player. He's probably the strongest per pound per pound strongest, most fit NBA player. Yes. Have you ever seen him play in person? Yes. And he's unbelievable. He has a, you know, I've told you this before, there are certain athletes. Jordan had this.

I think this is why Jordan likes Westbrook. That I've had friends in my life who can drink hard for three straight nights, play 36 holes of golf in humidity, and get up the next morning and crush it. And I'm like, no, I can't do that. Like, whatever genetic composition I got, like, I need naps. And I needed them when I was 24. Like I can go out and have golf. I'm going to golf this coming up Friday, Saturday.

I'll golf, but I got to get a good night's sleep. And then I got to go shower, cool off, take a nap. Like Russell Westbrook, his genetic composition is God gave him a battery and you don't have to replace it. He just has more voltage in his battery than any player in the NBA. That's a great way to describe it. I mean, it's just incredible. E is just, now, the downside is sometimes he's so relentless. And I don't really blame him for this.

Like, it's hard to turn that off. Like, it's, like, when you're that Michael Jordan, I think over time, Phil Jackson convinced him, stop scoring 60, score 30, take breaks, pull back. And it's hard to convince people of that. Because you can score on everybody. You do get past everybody. Well, it's like you said, when you have a great voice, you want to sing all the time. It's, like biblical.

Right. And it's so, I think it's hard for players like Westbrook. They're like, no, I know it's minute 41, but I can blow right past him. And he can. Whereas, whereas I think most players pace themselves because they have to pace themselves. So here we go. It's called Colin Wright, Colin wrong. I'm a lot of both on Mondays.

We do it every week. Here we go. Where Colin was right. I have been pushing back in a year with Dak Prescott. I've said, listen, I don't know if he's going to sign a contract. But every time a cowboy reporter would come on and say, it's a done deal, I'd be like, oh, Jerry pays everybody. Don't tell me it's a done deal.

Well, we're two days out from the deadline, and according to a story this morning, they're not close. So I don't know. He may sign it, but I never bought into this. Oh, it's a done deal. Jerry's paying pass rushers, running backs, guards, tackles, linebackers, early, wide receivers. Jerry's not dumb. He's been in this league for 30-some years. You've got to get the quarterback thing figured out.

So I don't know if it ever gets passed a franchise tag, but I never bought into the, it's done. It's just a matter of signing the contract. Jerry pays everybody. There's a reason he's holding off on this. He doesn't know what the cap is, and they like, not love, Dak. Where Colin was wrong. I thought the only prediction I've made on sports, Joy as a witness in the last five months is the SEC will play football.

That's going to happen. It defines them. Greg Stanky's their commissioner. And like yesterday, day before, It does not sound optimistic. We put a medical advisory group together in early April with the question of, what do we have to do to get back to activity? And they've been a big part of the conversation, but the direct reality is not good.

That is quite a statement that when the SEC is acknowledging, we see the results, we see the issues, and this morning it's not good to even put that out there, tells you he is deeply concerned. And I figured they would just put their head down and bulldozed through this thing. That's not the case this morning. Where Colin was right? I said with Patrick Mahomes, the second he signed that contract, I said he just wants to take money off the table.

He's a smart kid. He's a smart kid. He just wants to have better players around him because he knows, potentially with Andy Reid, he can be an all-time legend. The next day, he confirmed it. not only gives me the security that I've always wanted, but also allows opportunity for the team to be great around me the entire duration of my career.

And I have full trust that things will get handled the right way as we go throughout this career and that we will be in a position to win a lot of football games and hopefully win a lot more championships as my career goes on. Listen, too many people in the media nitpick Mahomes and his agent. as we said Patrick's a get it guy he knows with Andy Reid he's going to be in the conversation

for greatest of all time you take a little less money you end up with better defenses this takes real intelligence do you want to throw 40 times a game and have to win shootouts that's called Andrew Luck

he retired early do you want to throw 31 times a game and throw on play action with a better offensive line then you do what Patrick McHomahombs did. You take a little less. Where Colin was wrong. The Patriots, yes, the Patriots, despite the fact that Cam Newton has never taken a snap

and is actually in a quarterback battle to start, released a hype video this weekend. First of all, I've always thought it's a weird fit. But they are all in on Cam, the video, hyping it up. I've been wrong a lot on the Cam New England story. Where Colin was right? The Big Ten and the PAC 12, as I predicted last week, have bowed out of non-conference games. I said this about two months ago, eight weeks ago on Twitter.

USC Bama was a pipe dream. It wasn't going to happen. My sources told me USC was not comfortable facing somebody from another conference. They had no idea what their practice schedules were, what theirs would be, and they felt it was unfair to their student athletes. So this has been a long time coming. I've been told this by multiple administrators, Big Ten, Pack 12. If there's a season, shrink it, make it regional. If you can take an occasional bus to a game, do it.

But this idea of national travel, when you don't know how often the Big 12 or the SEC are practicing, You could throw your kids into a game and they have 30 less practices. So we nailed this one early. Where Colin was right. Fight Island was a massive success. The UFC put on another successful and captivating fight card. From the very beginning, we've said this. You got to be willing to take some heat on Twitter and the media when you're battling COVID.

Nobody is perfecting COVID. Nobody can avoid COVID. We are all in a race, including schools, to manage COVID. That's all we're doing with this thing. We are managing a health crisis. And I thought from the very beginning, the UFC and NASCAR and the SEC are more aggressive. They don't really care about social media nearly as much as, say, the NBA or politicians. And once again, they pulled it off with a great fight card.

where Colin was raw. I was adamant I would crush Joel Clatt. I ran for president of college football against Clatt on Friday. I had an excellent, excellent set of ideas. Clat came on my show wearing a red, white and blue golf shirt, and, you know, people fell for that. He was very patriotic. On my own show, I was crushed by Joel Clatt,

even though my platform was common sense and relatable, clat, you know, red, white and blue, whatevers, and crush me. Where Colin was right? Well, the NFL rules have certainly made wide receivers more valuable. Nobody, no reasonable person could argue that good perimeter weapons are important, but they're still overrated. And yesterday or last week, 50 NFL executives, GMs and scouts and some coaches and a couple of players were polled.

The NFL executive poll on the top 10 wide. receivers. Three of 10 have already been traded. Only one has a Super Bowl ring, and it proves my point. You can be crucial, but I'm not building around you. Now, for years, I called wide receivers icing on the cake. You can't live on icing, but they make the cake better. I still believe that to be true. When you looked at that wide receiver list, there were a lot of injuries, a lot of trades, unbelievable individual talent, which I would never deny, but you can't build around him. Where Colin was right? The college business sports model is a house of cards, and last week, Stanford canceled 11 sports.

This is something I've been on for some time. They're the first of many. When you have 36 programs and 33 either lose or hemorrhage money, it's time for a rebroad. boot. I'm not angry. I'm not sad. It's a long time coming. You are seeing colleges now drop double-digit sports. Why? Because they won't have their football revenue. It is ridiculous. Every university should have a football program, if possible, and then six other sports, both for men and women, and then give women an extra one at the end because of Title IX because of football, that's enough.

There's a difference between losing a little money and having 36 sports programs, which is what most university has, with national travel. National travel. I have friends who have kids playing hockey and soccer. They're all over the region, the country. Nobody's at these games. It's time for a reboot. Football, six or seven other sports.

I would favor basketball, soccer, and then go whatever regional. works for you, but it's a long time coming. It's been a house of cards for a long time. And I say that as somebody who really likes college sports. Westbrook, Russell Westbrook, has COVID. Russell Westbrook announced that. James Hardin has not announced anything, but Hardin and Westbrook are not in the bubble yet. That's factually correct.

Yes. It may be a situation where they were working out together. and Hardin's quarantined. But I don't know. I don't know anything. I based my assumption off of what Doug was implying. And then that turned out to be true. All right.

So Dugger had a little scoop ramma there, a little scoop. Mark Medina's in the NBA bubble. Some players complaining about food and hotel rooms. We'll check in with him next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the trial, 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 questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with a little camp? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we picket here, unpack what went down,

and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'allon, I mean, at this point, this is the second episode where we've discussed, correct. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite

Therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

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

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

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

Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Tonight, catch the MLS is back tournament live on FS1 with a huge doubleheader. First at 8 Eastern L.A.FC battles the Houston Dynamo.

Then the L.A. Galaxy take on the Portland Timbers at 1030 Eastern. All the action is on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. So I got stuff to watch tonight. You do? You know, actually this weekend, I watched, on Saturday I watched some MLS. I watched UFC in the Jordan dock with a buddy. He made ribs, by the way. I never, I didn't grow up with ribs.

I have ribs like once a year. Oh, my God. I'm so jealous of people that grew up in the Carolinas. Yeah, what kind of style of ribs? I got baby back and then I got whatever the other ones are, the ones that were drier. And I didn't grow up with ribs. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. We had seafood.

I had clams outside of my door. Crab, salmon. I grew up in Westport, Washington. I mean, that's delicious too, but ribs are special. Oh, my. Did you grow up around ribs? I didn't grow up around ribs. Pittsburgh?

But I had ribs growing up, yeah. Oh, my God. Gouli, I grew up. What did you grow up around? Nothing. And my mom was a vegetarian, so they were not ribs. I'm going to say, I sat there and I'm like, man, I'm jealous of people in Missouri. Yeah, ribs are like the opposite of a vegetarian meal.

Your mom was a vegetarian. My wife's a vegan now. It's just, it's a struggle every day. I'm pretty sure that might be illegal in Pittsburgh. Yeah, like be a vegan? Yeah. It's just not going to work there. It's not available now.

Here we go. He arrived in the end. NBA bubble yesterday. I'm so excited to talk to our buddy via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Mark Medina, NBA writer USA Today. All right. Okay, let's just set the scene. You're sitting obviously in a hotel room. Our audience is watching. Mark, great to see you. Set the scene. Tell me what your life looks like now. What can you do? What can you not do? Where are you at? Yeah, Colin, good to see you. I'm in Orlando at the Coronado Springs Hotel. That's on the campus of the ESPN Wild War of Sports Complex where all 22 NBA teams that are participating.

are on site. Now, what I can do, what I can't do, I got in yesterday and I'm going to be under quarantine for at least a week and I'm being subject to daily testing. I got tested last night, but basically I have to get tested every single day. And so as long as those tests continue to be negative, I'll be out of quarantine at the end of the day next Sunday. But, you know, there's really not much I can do even when I'm out of quarantine. What I'll be able to do is go to practices, go to shootarounds, go to the arenas once the season starts July 30th. But this is not normal in today's world. So I won't be able to, you know, be able to meet NBA folks at the hotel for coffee or

dinner or any of those things that were normal back in the day because of just what's, what everything is going on with COVID. Okay. So Westbrook officially has tested positive for COVID-19. Your reaction to that? Well, it's interesting. I think on one hand, the NBA designed the resume season this way to allow players that might test positive for COVID, enough time to get back for the NBA season. So right now, you know, Russell Westbrook still has a chance to come back for the Rockets once the season starts for them, July 31st.

But I think this is much different than it was when teams were starting to test players on June 23rd, because when those players tested positive, they still have time to. go through the two-week quarantine and be with their team when they went to Orlando starting last week here. Russell Westbrook has to wait until he's out of quarantine. Then when he gets to Orlando, we'll have to get tested again and assuming it's two consecutive negative tests, he'll then be able to start practicing. But look, guess what? Russell Westbrook might have been taking care of his body really well, and he's one of the fastest point cards in the NBA, but he's going to be behind the eight ball in terms of his conditioning and rustingness, just. the season's about to start. But I guess if nothing else, at least for the Rockets, it's not

one of these either season-long absences or something that will keep them out for any games at this point. Well, it is the Laker roster, I felt at the very beginning of the season, the Clippers were building a roster to beat LeBron and the Lakers. Multiple wing players can guard LeBron, Paul George, Kauai Leonard, Patrick Beverly for brief times, the Morris athletic wing, again, eight, 12 minute tonight, they can take turns guarding LeBron. The Lakers are an old team with two stars. You cross your

fingers on Kyle Coosma playing well. Not a ton of depth. A little old for me. Some disparate parts. Now Rondo's out. And between Avery Bradley and Rondo, I look at that and I think, good God, the NBA Western Conference is nothing, if not the Guard League.

And they've just lost two guards. It feels like they'll be fun. I'll be watching. I'll be I think the Rondo Avery Bradley combo deal out takes them out of the title window. What say you? I'll say this. I don't want to diminish those absences because they're significant. But here's two things.

As long as LeBron James, Anthony Davis are healthy and not significantly rusty, they're still a championship contender. I think number two, this is going to be the theme for what all teams are going to be going through. And obviously, you don't wish any bad news. in terms of injury or health on anyone. But teams are bracing for the reality is that they're going to go through this right now. So there's no question. If you're looking at the LA teams, yeah, the Clippers have more depth.

They're in a better position right now. But because of the messiness of this situation of, you know, guys not going to be in the greatest shape since they haven't played since March, anticipated injuries, anticipated positive COVID tests, every team to some degree is going to be lacking depth. And I think for any team in the NBA, as long as their star players are healthy, they still have the fighters chance. I think once you get to that point where those guys are casualties, that's when the picture starts changing. What did you make a LeBron deciding not to put anything in the back of his jersey? The NBA had some pre-approved messages. LeBron's like, listen, it doesn't fit my mission.

I don't think anybody doubts LeBron is, you know, he's on the right side of stuff. But what was your takeaway? Yeah, it was interesting. I don't think there's any right or wrong answer for any players that want to have a message or in LeBron James case doesn't want to have a message. But I didn't understand why he wasn't in the loop on this or, you know, the suggestion that he was saying that, you know, the players union didn't run different suggestions by him and other players. That part befuddles me. But as far as how players decide what they want to do, I think at the end of the day, day, whether you have a message on your jersey or not, the things that players are more concerned about is how do they take that next step into providing tangible change. I think at this point in time with what's going on in the world, everyone's aware of the issues that they're talking about. And now it's about, okay, what initiatives can they be a part of to address some of these reforms. In LeBron's case, you know, he just formed a group to help increase voter turnout,

fight voter suppression in the minority communities. So what other things can players, teams, and the NBA do to help with some of those changes or anything else regarding police reform or racial inequality in general? By the way, what, you know, Rondo just said the food's no good. Or who said the food's no good? One of these NBA guys, and I'll be honest with you, I like hotel food. So when I go to a hotel, I turn the, air conditioning down about 66 degrees, and I order hummus and salmon, and that's what I eat for seven days and watch movies and, you know, documentaries. So give me an update on the Disney food. What did you have to eat this morning? Yeah, I had like an egg sandwich, a few, you know,

a few pieces of a croissant. Look, like, I can confirm what Rondo says. The food's not great. I've been a seasoned traveler. I've been in much more luxurious hotels, have better meals. but at the end of the day, who cares? We're in the middle of a pandemic, and I'll just take it that I'm at least able to travel again. I hadn't been traveling since February when the NBA was having All-Star weekend in Chicago. So I'll take it.

I mean, whatever inconvenience there are, of the food not showing up on time, or it's not the meal that you'd like, it really doesn't matter. Okay, look at the, see, that's a guy that's just handling it. Sometimes you just have to realize with COVID, we're all just like, life's not perfect. It's just not, I mean, I drove by an In-N-Out burger yesterday.

It was 40 cars long. I'm like, oh my God. Good seeing you, Mark. As always, thanks, bud. Yeah, good seeing you guys. And be well, be safe. All right, you too. So Russell Westbrook does have COVID.

He announced that. We're not speculating. Westbrook announced that. So, I mean, it's just, it's the reality. You know, it's funny. I was talking to, I've talked to a lot of friends. Obviously, it's been brutal for restaurants. The restaurant business is not going to look the same.

it's rough for airlines, really rough for airlines. But it is remarkable. There are some changes happening. The one that has shocked me, real estate is booming in many areas. I read a story yesterday. So I used to live in Connecticut. And Connecticut's one of those states where it's just been trending down for about 15 years. And what's happening with COVID, people feel trapped in New York and their small apartment can't leave.

And Connecticut, and I'm really happy, the. The economy is popping. People are moving because in Connecticut, you get two, three acres. In fact, there's a lot of communities, West in Connecticut. You can't buy a home unless you buy two acres. Like, that's part of it. So that turned off a lot of people forever. They want their house.

They don't want two acres. Now everybody's like, two acres. I can buy dogs. So animal shelters, people are buying more animals for their kids. That's amazing. So animal shelters are increasingly empty because people are buying animals. I know somebody that owns a pool service out east. He's like business is booming.

Everybody's spending time around their family more. People are building pools. They've thought about it for years. No, we'll go on another vacation. They're like, forget it. Let's build a pool. Part of it is it is forcing us to do things that we probably should do anyway, which is more family time, more around people you care about, make the family stronger.

And it is remarkable. It's awful for restaurants. It is awful for the airlines. It's bad for casinos. It's not good for sports. It's not good for our company or the one I used to work at. But there are businesses out there. If you're connected to home,

there are some businesses that are flying through this and doing a really amazing job for people. It's amazing how many people I've talked to from a landscaper guy to a pool guy. And they're like, people have decided in America, home is where it's at. Also, a lot of people are working from home as well. That's right.

So you might as well be comfortable. So exactly. You might as well buy a pool table and hang out and have parties at home. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Before I get to the story, I'll just read Westbrook's announcement.

He said I tested positive for COVID-19 prior to my team's departure to Orlando. I'm currently feeling well, quarantined, and looking forward to rejoining my teammates when I'm cleared. Thank you all for the well-wishes and continued support. Please take this virus seriously. Be safe. Mask up. hashtag why not. Yes, mask up, please.

I'm not lecturing anybody. Just wear a mask. Do it. It's not difficult. So obviously 2020 will be an unusual season in the NFL, especially for rookies. But Mike Tomlin is encouraged by his newest Steelers continuing to work hard as hard as they can despite this year's challenges. Their life is going to be defined how they respond to those things. And not only in the short term, but the long term.

And it's the same thing that I'm talking to my rookies about right now because there are a lot of reasons for NFL rookie in 2020 to fail. I'm looking for guys that are committed to excelling in spite of this. Excel might be setting themselves up for successful careers. And it might not show in the form of statistics in 2020. It's a very good point. I think we all have to be very aware of how we evaluate rookies this season. No, it's maybe take the harshness level down.

a little bit. You know what I saw yesterday? I had just I sat for two hours, Joy, and I watched hard knocks with John Gruden. And one of the rookies now, we know Excel was Max Crosby. Yes. And he ended up having a, I mean, he was like, you know, Eastern Michigan football player, lower round guy. He had like

10 and a half sacks. He was a home run. And it was interesting. They followed Max Crosby, and they didn't know he was going to be that good. And he broke his hand. And it was remarkable to watch him. He loved football so much. He broke his hand in a game. And literally at halftime said, oh, I still want to play.

Just wrap it up all play. And I thought, that's how you make a team in the NFL. Like, that's how you make a team. You're not going to be as good. You're not going to be as tight. This is really hurt younger players. But if you love football, Zion loves basketball. He's like, all right, I'm going to get the best shape in my life.

You're telling your organization a lot about you by what you do with your inactivity over the last three or four months. And, you know, to Tomlin's point, this is the football stuff, the stuff that you're going to learn in camp, the skills, the playbook, the interaction with your teammates, we all know that's going to be set back, right? There's nothing you can do about that. There's only so much you can learn on a Zoom call, right, before you actually go out there and apply it on the field. So all of those things that are going to hurt rookies

as far as the development goes. But the one thing you can control is coming into camp and coming into the season in the best shape that you can possibly be because that's on you. Like there's things that are out of your control, but whatever's within your control, do it to the highest level. Zion showed that, and a lot of guys who've come back for the NBA,

of gender. They took this time to really focus. And within this time, too, like, you know, we were seeing memes and jokes about like, oh, you always wanted this time to go write your book or whatever. But it is still hard to get motivated to do it even if you do have this time that you've always asked. When you have nothing but time

and a refrigerator in front of you, it's hard to stay away from it. I mean, seriously, I find myself the wheels come off every night at six. You're a grazer anyway. I'm a grazer anyway. So I'm like, literally, I don't go, like, I go to the grocery store and I limit what I buy, because if I put And if I have a refrigerator full, I can't. I'm just opening that thing every 20 minutes.

The wheels totally come off. You don't go to grocery store hungry, right? You're not supposed to go to, you're supposed to always gamble hungry. So when I go to Vegas, when I go to the tables, I'm starving. So you don't stay long. Yeah. So if I win 11 hands, boom, sea crest out. I go eat.

Never go to a grocery store hungry. Yes. Because you'll make buys based on that double fudge ice cream looks fantastic. You should go to a store full. So you buy smart things. You buy the things you actually need. Right. So the Patriots are going to look a lot different this year with the addition of Cam Newton.

Offensive lineman Greg Van Roten is now a member of the Jets, but he spent three years with Cam and Carolina. And he thinks that the pairing with Cam and Bill Belichick could make things very challenging for the rest of the league. It is definitely terrifying to think about if Cam Newton's healthy and he's in a Belichick's offense, you know, in my division, it's going to be, it could be a long year for the other team. because he's a game changer. You can stop the run from him, but then you've got to defend the fast. And if you can stop the pass, well, then you've got to count for the run.

So it's basically pick one thing and he'll do the other. And then you couple him with Belichick, who, you know, only cares about winning. And Cam really wants to prove himself. So it's definitely a recipe for disaster for the rest of the league if they can figure it out. Obviously, a big factor in this is Cam's health, right? So we're assuming that Cam is healthy and is going to stay healthy throughout the season. He's right. A healthy Cam Newton is a great NFL player.

We just haven't seen Cam healthy in a while. And in a new system with Bill Belichick that's designed to put you in the best position for whatever it is that you do. That's what Belichick is the best at. Figuring out the situations that you can excel in and putting you in those situations, making sure that you're fully prepared. And generating a certain amount of animosity towards anyone who's ever said anything bad about you. which clearly Cam is riding that wave right now. Look how it's so interesting for a radio audience. You can't see this.

Look at how big Cam is. When you watch these videos, Aaron Donald is trying to hit him and comes up to his shoulder pads. Like Cam, Cam's a more athletic big band. Like when Big Ben broke into the league, I remember talking to Eric Allen in the defensive back. And he was like he palmed the ball. Like he would do pump fakes with one hand.

There's nobody does that. He was like a Nerf ball for Big Ben. He was to be doing stuff. It was like flag football when you face Big Ben. He goes, I got burned by him so many times. Cam's doesn't even look like NFL quarterback. But Cam also has the running ability that Big Ben doesn't have. And similarly, Ben is coming back from an injury, and we're not really sure what he's going to look like.

Exact same thing. He's just coming back to the same team he's been with his whole career. So, yeah. I mean, I don't know what to expect. Either do I. No idea. But I can't wait to see it. No, it's interesting.

The two teams, I'm fascinated by this. year, both connected to Brady. Brady and Tampa, and the team Brady left Cam. I thought Stidham was going to be a snooze. Won't be able to take my eyes off this. So finally, Paul George had shoulder surgery during the offseason last year, and

it had been a lingering issue all season long, but the time off during the shutdown gave him an opportunity to fully heal. He said he's no longer, he no longer has any shoulder issues and is feeling great, and that the entire team is 100% as they get ready for the season to resume their second in the West, five and a half

games behind the Lakers, obviously, the Lakers are going to be without Avery Bradley, and now Rajan Rondo has a fractured thumb, and it's going to be out for six to eight weeks. You know, I was thinking about this. I think the Clippers are going to win the title, and I think they're going to sweep teams. If you're in this bubble,

you just want to be, you want to make it as quick as you can. Right. You know how, like, during the regular season, sometimes NBA teams with a 2-0 Lee just don't show up? I don't think you're going to have that. I think guys want to get there, win and get the hell out.

You watch, like, the Milwaukee's and the Clippers just roll through teams. sweep teams in four, get in, get out, get home. I think the Clippers are, I don't remember a team in the NBA playoffs. Miami got close one year with LeBron and Wade and Bosch. This is the deepest NBA team. I don't remember an NBA team where I thought could go literally to the ninth guy. There's almost a second starting five feel to it.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, I think they're going to, I think they're going to sweep and roll through a lot of these teams. Well, right. And usually when it comes to the playoffs, I don't get too crazy about the depth. of a team because you're not really going to be relying heavily on your eighth or ninth player in the playoffs. This is a completely different situation. And the clippers are perfectly built for it. They were just, well, that's what worried me about the Lakers to begin with, because while

the top two players for the Lakers, I think, are better than the top two or three for the clippers, Anthony Davis is not really a reliable player when it comes to whether he's going to be injured or not. Now, in this situation, obviously, anything is up in the air, at any moment, obviously, in the bubble. But I pick the clippers at the beginning of the season. I'm going to stick with them. But again, I have no idea what to expect on how this is all going to play out. Good stuff. Joy with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Live News. Bruce Feldman, college football, hanging in the balance. He joins us next. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. 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. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls,

we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsLice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim?

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

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

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations

with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough.

Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross. Because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely.

And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Cliver Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff.

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

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. He's covered college football for 25 years. Bruce Feldman, Fox Sports College Football Reporter. Also a writer for The Athletic is joining us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. All right, let's start with this. Big Ten, Pack 12. Conference schedules only.

All right, what does that mean, Bruce? Colin, I think what it really does is I think if you listen to some of the language, especially Kevin Warren, the commissioner of the Big Ten, but also Gene Smith, Ohio State's AD, Gene Smith's probably the most powerful AD in the country. And the language he used when they announced this, he talked about when you look at the trajectory and our behavior in the country. And he said, it's just on a, it's a really downward trajectory. And I think his feeling was very disturbed, very alarmed.

And the conversations I've had with ADs and coaches behind the scenes and a lot of it, people have not, they'll tell you something, but it's not like they're going on record putting their name on it. Gene Smith put his name on it. And I felt like this was, hey, there's a great. who is basically trying to shake people and go and, hey, you got to take this more seriously. And that is a tone that I've heard a lot from folks around the country. Now, why they went to conference only at this point is because they can manage the protocols, the testing, if there's going to be an attendance policy, some of those things.

It also gives them the flexibility if they're going to have to juggle the schedule because there could be some makeup games that are needed. They may have to push pause at some point in the season. And if you have a national longer schedule as opposed to just a conference only, you don't have that flexibility. So this was the big 10 and certainly then the PAC 12 saying, you know what, we need to rein this in because we don't like the direction it's going in and we need to be more flexible. By the way, I'm okay with spring football. It's not ideal. But again, you just figure it out in life.

I'd rather have some college football than none. when you talk to your sources on spring college football, where do they land on that? Well, I think when some people get stuck with it, they think, well, it's either going to be, well, we could play in the fall or we could try to play in the spring. The people I talked to said, it's not about like, this is more towards the last resort. But if you're faced with the idea of you're either going to have to try to play spring football and you juggle some challenges from weather, how's it factor in for the NFL draft process, in terms of, of playing a lot of games on back-to-back seasons with the bleeding together. But if you're faced with that versus the prospect of you would have no college football season and no revenue from all of 2021 academic calendar year, that's not a pleasant option.

That's something where they're going to say, hey, we're going to try to shoehorn games in because the other thing you have to keep in mind, too, and this has come up with a bunch of the people I've talked to in college athletics is there's also a mental health component and the structure that a lot of student athletes get from. being part of college athletics and college football. And so the idea of, hey, we're going to have something in the spring, even if it's an eight game schedule, you would still have a chance to get some of the TV money and the revenue that they would be lacking.

And that is dramatically impactful to not have that money. And then on top of that, if you're talking about, well, you're going to have a lot of the stars that Trevor Lawrence is and the Justin Fields who are going to sit out because they're going to try to get ready for the draft. The reality is, yeah, that could be a bunch of kids at Ohio State. Clemson and a few schools, but for the most part, there's going to be a lot of schools that won't have any players who are going to say, hey, I'm a top 50 draft choice. I'm going to sit out and take my chances. I mean, use the example of LSU that the five number ones they just had.

None of those players would have been first round picks if they didn't play this past year. So there's a lot of guys who need the opportunity to have that film to take their chance. So I think it's really complicated, but if that's the only realistic opportunity, you're going to probably see spring football. By the way, Joel Klatte theorizes that not many coaches are going to get fired this year, college football coaches, because there's no money and that there's going to be real restrictions on what you can buy out in terms of contracts. I saw a story last week where Nebraska Scott Frost is on the hot seat, and my takeaway is he's great, and B, Nebraska fans need to realize they're an eight-win program, not a 12-win program. What was your takeaway on that story?

Yeah, I don't buy the Scott Frost hot seat at all. And first of all, he's only been there two years. Second of all, he did a phenomenal job at UCF. You got to give people chances to succeed. I mean, two years is not enough time to flip a program. And as Joel said, I definitely agree with that. I don't think with the financial hits that everyone is going to be taking, especially college athletics, you're not going to have the money to not only buy people out, but then to bring a new staff in.

It's just not going to work that way. And you're certainly not going to do it for a coach who's only been there two years and you got a lot of money on the back end. Now, is a guy like Will Mustchamp maybe in South Carolina? Would he be on the hot seat? Possibly. But I think these other ones we're looking at after two years, they don't have the money to make these moves. I mean, look what happened at USC this past year before the pandemic.

My sources said it was going to cost USC between $45 and $50 million to make the coaching change of getting rid of Clay Helton and his staff and then bringing in a new staff. Again, and that's before the pandemic. There are no easy answers here. So when a lot of people thought this was going to be a busy winter on the hot seat and the coaching carousel, it's going to be the opposite now because of everything that's gone on in the country. About two minutes left. I ran for college football president last week against Joel Clatt. He wore a patriotic golf shirt and crushed me.

But I had five ideas to make college football better. One was only one cupcake so the SEC can't schedule three cupcakes. I don't know if you heard about my excellent platform. no neutral site games, only one non-power-five, everybody plays 10 conference games, no expanded playoff, four's enough, only 12 great bowl games. Any of those jump out to you? Well, the number three one is a tough one, because I think you'd have a lot of people. David Shaw would pat you on the back.

A bunch of coaches would say, hey, yeah, we love that. The problem is the SEC doesn't want to do that. When the SEC is a huge power broker in the sport and they don't have to do it, they're not going to have the same number of conference games. And one of the challenges I think you have is when people are talking about, and this kind of could come up in the spring football cases, oh, we're worried about the health of the players. And when you're making the schedules longer, a lot of people in the SEC would argue, okay, we're going to give our younger players and maybe our guys on the depth chart a little more chance to play in that weekend in November where they play the FCS schedule opponents. But I think that's the hard part is there is no centralized leadership. so you can have such variance between, say, the PAC 12, the Big 10 versus the SEC.

But as long as the SEC keeps winning national titles and also gets big attendance numbers, they can make their own determination and it's hard to get them to get in line. Who would you have voted for, clatter me? Can I abstain from this? I don't like my Twitter. You know what? I'll vote for Oliver Luck. You get Oliver Luck on the ballot.

I will vote for him. I think he's available, by the way. Bruce Feldman. Good talking to you, buddy. Good seeing you, Colin. Thanks for having me. Yeah, he's abstaining. That's how I felt about the last election in America. I was kind of abstaining. He just says, you know... No vote is still a vote. You know, it's... On Clatt's site, I got crushed.

But, you know, that's a mail-in ballot. My site was legitimate, and I was very narrow. I was in it to the very end. It could have gone either way, and I lost... Even heard followers wanted Clat over you. You know what? I'm very honest and truth is hard for a lot of people to handle. Carsheel.com, summer breakdown's coming. Oh, they're expensive.

Go to carshel.com code herd. 10% off, hour three next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHard Radio app. Working from home or on your fitness. Fitness. Fitness. Use Raycon Wireless earbuds earbuds.

15% off. Raycon.com slash herd. They're great, they're discreet, they're stylish, I wear them, they're awesome. Joy Taylor with the news. Turn on the news. This is the herd line

news. The Warriors struggled a lot this year and finished their season with a league worst 1550 record. But Steph Curry is optimistic that it's down here will help them turn things around in the future. Crazy here. My hand injury Clay being out all year,

Draymond in and out of the lineup with injuries all year, a lot of new young guys, but this could be a blessing in the skies in terms of this next three, four year run that we want to have, you know, get rested, get healthy. We'll obviously be watching Orlando and taking that, you know, all that in, but come next season,

whenever that starts, we'll be ready. Still best back court offensively in the history of the game. They're not going anywhere. And they work well together. Curry and Clay like play really well together. What a break they got, huh? Huge. I mean, it looked like a complete disaster with injuries. It's like everything else, Joy, like USC decided to play only conference games in football.

So they got to skip Notre Dame and Alabama. It was the two best coaches. It's like some people have gotten massive breaks on this. Well, I mean, the NFL, just the way, just the time of the year that it happens. They got a huge break. to get the Super Bowl in and the Combine before everything happens. The draft, the free agency, the combine, they got all that stuff. I mean, I mean, like, imagine if you had to call up the Super Bowl because of this.

Like the Super Bowl, we were able to do the Super Bowl the whole week, do the combine, and then shutdown happens, find a way to do the draft. Free agency isn't affected by. So the Warriors have a new arena. And instead of the drudgery of 41 losses, it's like after. after about 15, 20 gifts. Oh, we're going to cancel the season. Well, think about this also when it comes to their injuries

and having this season kind of effectively off. They five straight finals appearances. They played 105 playoff games. Over season. Over the five straight finals appearances. Yeah. So they needed rest. Yeah.

I mean, it's like it really is. Well, that's what I think about LeBron. God, LeBron is carrying this franchise. Like, you start. That injury last year was very. it wasn't normal for him. It's telling. He's aging. It is. But yeah, think of how many playoff games he's played.

We just consider a LeBron season to go all the way to the finals or deep into the playoffs. That's just what we expect. But that's a lot of extra games that every other team is not playing. It's wear and tear on your body that we don't even consider. So Bleacher Report listed who they thought was every NFL team's most overpaid player based on production in 2019, as well as projecting how they will do in 2020. Okay. And Ezekiel Elliott was the player chosen for the Cowboys with an average annual salary of 15 million.

Oh, I don't. That's, he's the most overpaid cowboy? Well, he's averaged 96.5 rushing yards per game in his four NFL seasons. But that number was only 84.8 in 2019. And they've won just one playoff game in the Zieg era. But he's still an elite blocking, catching, and running back. I mean, I do not agree with this assessment. Yeah, like, that's not.

The offense runs through Zique. If he had a down year, that's fine. That doesn't mean he's overpaid. Yeah, I mean, Dallas's problem is they have too many big contracts. This one also makes DAC better. Like, I could make an argument, Amari Cooper's like the second highest paid receiver. He's probably the 12th best receiver. I could argue that.

Nobody puts Zieg out of the top three running backs in the league. No reasonable person does. No, and Zeek's ability, really in reality, makes everyone on the offense better because that threat, of Zeke as a receiving running back, keeps the defense honest. This is not a contract. Of all the people on the Cowboys, the contract's kind of like,

is that worth it? Zeke, even within a down year, is not the one that I'm like, yeah, you shouldn't have paid him. He also blocks for deck. Yeah, so that, that, he is not close. I mean, you can argue now,

Tyron Smith, who signed a 10-year contract and is going to get hurt, and as good as he is, that contract now doesn't look as good as it did years ago. How about DeMarcus Lawrence? DeMarcus Lawrence is the third highest paid defensive player in the NFL five sacks last season. Yeah, I mean, that's probably, and I like him, but he's overpaid now.

I don't know. This list seems kind of mean. I'm thinking about it. Yeah, Zika. It's not like these guys didn't earn their contracts. Like, you can have a down year. There really are. I mean, to be honest with you, Joy, there's not that many terrible NFL contracts.

No. I mean, we bang on Jimmy Garoppolo and Kirk Cousins. I don't really, I don't, now listen, there's been some quarterback, Rock Osweiler's like. Bad contract. That was a bad deal. But for the most part, if you're paying your quarterback, I'm okay with whatever you're giving them. Like, you should pay the quarterback.

That's why I don't understand the DAC situation. When you say most overpaid NFL player, I can't think of one. Now, there have been guys in the NBA, and I don't want to pick on Otto Porter, but I saw his contract and thought, that's a lot of money. for Otto Porter. Like, that's a lot of money for a, on a championship team, he's your fifth best player. Chris Middleton, Max Deal, I'm like, I think he's kind of a BNBA player. I can't think of it.

Yeah, but certain teams do just have to pay. Well, you get trapped. Milwaukee got trapped with Middleton because if they didn't pay him, then who's Janus's? Right. You've got to keep somebody around there for it. It's very rarely in sports that I'm looking at a contract. Like, that was a really bad contract. Baseball's got some egregious ones.

Well, yeah. But they also, they're there for a million years. every dollar is guaranteed. So, yeah, those. Robinson Canoe for the Mariners, like, that's not going to work. And three years later, he was gone. Like, that was John Carlos Stanton and the Marlins. You're like, when the Yankees brought him in, you're like, you already have him.

It's called Aaron Judge, and he's nothing. Why would you pay for that contract? You're getting it free with Aaron Judge. He's the same player, but better. But the Yankees have, like, an unlimited amount of money. So the UFC debuted on Fight Island this weekend with UFC 21. The main event, Kumaru Usman, and Jorge, Mazvedal battled for the welterweight title.

Oh, God. I actually enjoyed this fight. I know a lot of people felt like it was kind of boring and it was, you know, up against the, up against the fence a lot. Mosvidal's style is, the problem with Uzman is once he gets you on the mat, you know, but he did a good job of staying off the mat. He did. Mazvedal did.

So he took the fight with only six days notice. I know. Opponents Gilbert Burns received a positive test, so he had to step in. He was staying in shape, but he obviously wasn't preparing for Usman. So I thought, I actually, after the. the first two rounds, I was like, I don't, I don't know if Mazvedal is going to go the distance in this fight. So I was actually impressed that it went, went the distance. And I know everyone wanted a little more, a little more electricity, but that's all he could do.

O'Sman was a better fighter and in better shape. He was prepared for that fight. You step in for six days. Like, I'm just glad it wasn't, wasn't over in the first round. Yeah, my takeaway was Aldo needs to end it. Like that career, good career, it's over. I really thought that the The ref was going to stop that earlier. I mean, I know he was still technically protecting himself. And he is a champ. So you always give, you always give like the legends. You give an extra 30 seconds.

But it was like not competitive for about a minute and a half. It was hard to watch. It got really ugly before. Big brother, little brother feel to it. You're like, all right, call it. Yeah. But overall, I thought the car was great. It was, it lived up to the hype for me.

I know they wanted a more, a more exciting, you know, title fight for that. But like, I thought it was been in Masmeda, put on a good fight. It's a sweet science. Every fight's not going to look the same. Right. Some guys have styles that are not as... As exciting. But also, he took that fight with six days' notice.

Yes. Connor McGregor's fascinating. His style is fascinating. A lot of guys aren't that... You know, you're not going to get... Well, that's like the complaint about Mayweather fights a lot of times. Like, he's such a defensive fighter. Oh, it's boring.

That the fights go all the way. Oh, they're boring. It's not a knockout fight, but, like, you have to respect the different styles. Oh, Mayweather's fight are boring. Canello can bore me to tears, too. Mayweather and Connell... I know they're good, but wake me when it's over. That's how Salazar.

Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. Fox Sports NFL analyst. Greg Jennings is joining us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. So I'm interested. Oh, by the way, Greg, I've got to read this.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Greg recently won. Mr. Minnesota's men's physique division, which means he is now a professional and can compete. professionally for money. Does this mean you have abs or something? Hold on. Time out. Hold on. Let me see this. What in, are you, are you, are you a bodybuilder? I am not a bodybuilder. I'm in the game of bodybuilding. I'm not in that division. So basically what this is is, it's broken down into divisions. You have what you see with myself in board shorts, which is considered the men's physique division.

Then you have classic physique physique, which is a little shorter shorts. And then you have what everybody thinks of when they think of bodybuilding, the boy, the male bikini bodybuilders. But yes, this was a novice division. This was to get my pro card. So I won novice's first time competitors. And I won the overall as well. So it was a great experience, learned a lot. and looking forward to my pro-day view.

Now, let me ask you, when's the last time you had a Twinkie or a corn dog or something that was actually good? I don't eat that stuff anyway. So, you just eat carrots? You've been very disciplined. I just, I've always eaten pretty clean. The thing that was hurting me was I didn't eat enough.

So the desserts and all that craziness, I've never been interested in that anyway. So it was relatively easy for me to get on the, nutrition meal plan. Let me suggest an occasional piece of cake. I'm just telling you right now it's a hell of a life. I may not look like you, but it's a great life. All right, let's segue.

You don't like frosting anyway, so cake without frosting makes no sense. Who needs icing? What's the point of life? So I was actually shocked. Cam hasn't taken a stamp for the Patriots, and they actually said, you know what, we're going to do a hype video. And I thought, Belichick's saying, you know what, the world changed a little bit. we can be a little fun here. We want to send a message out to the league. We can be a little fun here.

That was my takeaway on what that hype video meant. What do you think? Yeah, I don't really think it had anything with them trying to be fun. The culture is set. Look, Belichick is all about doing your job. I think this was more along the lines of this chess game that Bill Belichick has always played when it comes to how to run a team and how to sustain success. He understands if it works out with Cam, which you have a play. who feels slighted, who feels disrespected, who is motivated, who's not going to come in entitled, and he possesses all the talent in the world, if you can get him to bottle that up and then it comes out on the field of play and it benefits you not only as an individual coach, but as a team and an organization, then possibly this might be the long-term deal for you.

This might be your destination. So we want you to come in here feeling like, look, we've embraced you. We don't want you to be disgrunt towards us. Don't even think about your contract. That's just to get a foot in the door. Think about what we can be, and we're going to embrace you as if this is going to be your long-term home, if it works out for both sides.

Interesting. You know, interesting story last week. So Mahomes signs a contract, and a lot of people were critical of him. And they said, you know, he could have gotten a better deal. Could have gotten a better deal. And Rob Parker came on my show, and he said, listen, if I'm Mahomes, I take the most money, I can take, and I tell everybody else, you figure out left guard, right guard, cornerback.

I'm taking the most money. You guys have never shown an ability to win Super Bowls without me. And that was the opposite of what I thought, which is if you have confidence in yourself and think you could be an all-timer, take a few less dollars and have a defense. You don't have to be in a shootout and throw 42 times a game and become Andrew Locke. And literally, you're not surrounded by anything. But as a professional athlete, Rob Parker says, take. what you can take. You have no... Listen, the bottom line, it's not your responsibility. Do better at

drafting and find good players for little money. I didn't think about it that way, but I think I couldn't crush a guy for that. Where do you land on that with Mahomes? That's it. You have to force the organization to do their part. And their part and a part of their deal is to draft well. We've seen the Kansas City Chiefs. The reason why we're enamored with the personnel that they have is because of the way that they've drafted. It hasn't, they didn't acquire all these players via trades and free agency. They've drafted really well. So if they continue to draft well, they're going to do their part.

But I'm 100% with Rob Parker here. You take as much as you can get as a player. All this, you know, take less for the sake of the team. Well, when you're done playing, No one's going to think about the dollars that you didn't take and say, you know what, because you didn't do that, let's give you something more as you walk out the door. No, they don't think like that. And so you have to maximize your opportunity while you're hot. And Patrick Mahomes is the hottest player in our league, and he will be the hottest player in our league for quite some time.

So the Washington team name, and we were saying earlier, there are changes in America that will be harder. Police reform is not as easy as many make it sound. You have very strong police unions. There are budgets, billion dollar budgets. Those are hard things to change, and they take time. And then there's nicknames. Just get rid of them. When you played in the league, Washington, the nickname, did it make you uncomfortable?

What do you make of the change? It's taken a while, but it happened very swiftly once FedEx, their chairman said, change it. What's your takeaway in the whole thing? You know what? to jump on what you just said, when I played in the league and hearing the name,

Washington Redskins, to be 100% honest, I never considered it. And this is why it needed to be changed, because until it became a highlighted situation for the masses, for all of us who don't really understand the Native American background and history

and what that word and that term means, like in the slur of it, and the meaning behind it, you have to be progressive and you have to advance with the times and understand that our nation is in the most sensitive place when it comes to racism and ethnic group awareness and sensitivity. And if you're not on the side of that,

you're not on the side of progression. And so to your point, when I played, and even up until maybe even two years ago, I never really even considered it. because it wasn't a problem for me. And I think right now we have to be real as people and understand just because it's not a problem for us individually. And it doesn't impact us in our circle and our bubbles. That it doesn't mean that it doesn't impact another group of people.

And we have to be mindful and respectful of that. Well said. So, you know, we were, was that Joy, was that Bleacher report who had that thing on the most overrated players in the league? Yes. Okay. And most overpaid players in the league, and they had Zika on there. And my takeaway is very few NFL players are overpaid. I can look at baseball guys all day. I can look at a handful of NBA guys and say, that's way too much money. In the NFL, I can't think of an overpaid player. I literally can't. But it's interesting with Dallas, Greg. They've paid everybody except DAC. And the general managers I've always talked to have always done the opposite. You pay the quarterback. and figure the rest of the crap out later. Are you shocked that we're two days from the deadline with Dak and the Cowboys, and we got nothing today in a contract?

I am shocked that we have nothing on the contract side of a quarterback who has proven that he can hold his own. Like, Dak Prescott, he's a proven quarterback at this point in this career in our league, and you would think that he would have been paid by now. And to the point of players being overpaid, I laugh at that because as a former player, anytime we would see a player who we felt like didn't kind of earn that or just got paid, like, what? He got what?

You're like, no way. How did he? But you also understand that, hey, you got to get it. And if they're willing to give it to you, kudos to you and applause to you. So I don't think that any player is overpaid because of 10. team has to make the decision to say this player to us is worth it. And I don't know what anyone else may think his value is, but we think their value is X and we're going to pay them that. So I think every side is typically walking away feeling pretty good about where they're at.

I want to see that video you walking around in your gym shorts with abs and stuff. So like, you got to be honest, when you, you never wake up in the morning and think, oh my, I would just like a big pudding. Like not a day in your, of the year for you. You never eat poorly. When's the last time you had bacon? No, no, no, hold on.

Hear me out. So it's not that I don't think about the things that I desire. But my kids said this the other day. They were making sugar cookies. And I love sugar cookies. It's probably the only dessert or sweet that I will truly engage in consistently if I had the opportunity to. And my daughter said,

Daddy, we call them sugar puffs. And I was joking, but I said, you know what? I was eating my meal. And they know what it looks like. It's rice, chicken, and cucumber or ground turkey and noodles or whatever. And I said, you know what I call this? I call this abs. So you have puffs, you have sugar puffs, and I have abs.

So, I mean, it's what you want and what you want to look like and what you want to present. And to each of zone, I don't knock anyone. I have cheat meals. I'm all for it. Yeah. You ever have a cheat meal, Goulet? Most days of my life. I don't go that far.

Good seeing you, Greg. Likewise. Appreciate it. All right, good stuff and congratulations. All right, my NBA title bubble is coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Geico offering an extra 15% off on car motorcycle, SUV, RV policies. Got to sign up by October 7th.

Go to Geico.com to check it out. So I always do during the course of the year about every two or three, four weeks, I do a Super Bowl bubble in the NFL. And I always feel there are seven or eight teams that are inside the bubble. Then there's like four or five that are their playoff teams, but they're missing a component. They're missing a component. And so in the NBA, I've never felt there's eight teams that can win the championship. There's usually like three to four teams that can win a championship.

Then there's a bunch of teams on the outside of the bubble. They're missing a component. There's a hole in their game. And it's the kind of problem, which is going to eliminate them from NBA championship. championship contention. So best for last today. I'm going to give you eight teams who's in the bubble and who's outside the championship bubble. Here we go. Denver, outside the bubble. They're a bizarrely young team. Paul Millsap is the only player on the roster 30-year-old. Really well-coached. Great at home. They're just incredibly young. Also,

Yokich lost a ton of weight. Is he the same player? Because his big refrigerator body was actually wildly effective. They're 20th and points per game. If Jamal Murray is off, they become really Yokic-centric. They don't have a third or a fourth guy. I feel like can get to 25 points a game. They're outside the bubble.

Houston Rockets? Outside the bubble. They just don't play a ton of defense. Westbrook and Hardin are wildly entertaining. They're both bad. defensive players. They just don't put in the effort. That's a big part of it.

They're not going to make big stops, and that's really crucial in the NBA playoffs. And they also shoot the most threes in the NBA, but are 23rd in percentage that are not highly efficient. They are outside of the bubble. Philadelphia 76ers. Talented, but I put them outside of the bubble.

I don't think they're a championship team. Here's the thing about this team. Great at home, atrocious on the road. 10 and 24 on the road, which tells you, like a young team with chemistry issues, when everything's comfortable at home, sleeping in their own bed, they're great. You get them out of their comfort level and relationships and commitment and communication become key.

Mess. They're also below 500 against the top five teams in the east. They got a little bit of a Mike Tyson quality. They're good against bad, but when you really inspect them up close against good teams, they're really average. Los Angeles Lakers this morning, I think they're outside the bubble. I think Avery Bradley and Rondo are two situational players. They're out.

I almost wonder if you try to talk Avery Bradley back into the bubble, if the NBA will have an exception on that. I think this team was old to begin with, and they're very, very LeBron and Anthony Davis reliant. But now the West is known for great point guards and great smaller wings, and you can't lose Avery, Bradley, and Rondo. And I don't think Rano is a great player. I think they were phasing him out.

but now you become very dependent on Kyle Kuzma. I don't know if Kyle Kuzma's never had a playoff game. I don't know what I'm getting with Kyle Kuzma. Out of the bubble. Toronto Raptors, close, but out of the bubble. Let's be honest, Kauai Leonard, to me last year was the best. Get a basket and get a stop player in the NBA. And it was Kauai Leonard that got them past even Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference.

Pascal C. Occam is a very good player, but I don't think he's there yet. Well coached. But in the six games against elite teams in the East, they were one in five. Smart, depth, veterans, nice mix of young guys. But you can't take the best, get a bucket, get a stop guy in the league. I don't think you're a championship team. Milwaukee, inside the bubble. Pretty easy.

Dominate average and are very good again. good. 34 and 5 against the East. This team is, and I think this is going to be true for all the really good teams. They're going to get through this thing. There's going to be no like off nights. Milwaukee is going to sweep potentially the first two rounds. They dominate average teams and they are good against good teams. Boston Celtics, they're my dark horse to win it. They're inside the bubble. And one of the reasons I like them, especially now, if they lost a guy to an injury or COVID, they're in pretty good shape. They're the only team to have three players average 20. plus points. Averaging 20 plus points

in the NBA is a real thing. That's like an All-Star. Kemba, Tatum, and Brown. And Gordon Hayward drops 24. You wouldn't be shocked. They were also 5 and 2 against the best teams in the Eastern Conference. I think they're a dark horse team to win it. L.A. Clippers totally inside the bubble.

They were 11 and 1 when healthy. And they really controlled the Lakers in two of the three games they played. They're incredibly well-rested. Paul George said it's the best shape of his life and the most arrested. And they're also uniquely built to stop LeBron with Beverly and Morris and Paul George and Kauai on the wing. There's my eight teams. Denver, Houston, Philly, Lakers, Raptors, just outside

the bubble, Clippers, Celtics, Bucks, very much in the bubble. One thing hasn't changed this year. We depend on our cars. They break down more in the summer. They do and always have. Go to carshield.com. The code is heard. Get 10% off. Carsshield.com code H-E-R. D. MLS tonight on FS1 for joining everybody. See you. 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. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes

themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends.

Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 is big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down,

and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild. I mean, it was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all?

You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.