The Herd with Colin Cowherd - LeBron James, Antonio Brown, Kyler Murray, and where Colin was right and wrong

Episode Date: March 4, 2019

Colin discusses the failure of Los Angeles Lakers F LeBron James as a leader, Pittsburgh Steelers WR Antonio Brown not getting it, the latest rumors surrounding QB Kyler Murray, and where he was right and wrong over the weekend. Guests include Chris Broussard, Stephen Jackson, Joel Klatt, and DeAngelo Hall. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for The Heard at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Herd. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go on a Monday. This is The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we are live in Los Angeles. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and right here on FS1, we are absolutely packed.

I don't remember an early March with this much stuff going on. Joy Taylor, who's got almost Laker colors on today, signaling the end. You really, you really. They could be Steelers' colors, too. Yeah, they could. Or maybe I'm just hoping for spring to finally get here. Yeah, finally. Great to see you.

Good morning. Good morning to you. You ever watch a motivational speaker like a Tony Robbins, a politician, those things called TED Talks, and people are on a stage. And they do that for a reason. psychologically, you and I are more likely to listen to somebody who's above us. You see this with military leaders, you see it with public speakers, you see it with politicians. And there's a reason they do that.

You look up. It's almost worship psychologically. You're more willing to listen. But the most powerful moment is when one of those public speakers, I mean, the Pope in St. Peter Square, right, out of a window up there looking up. Most powerful moment, though, is when the politician, the public speaker, Tony Robbins, comes off the stage and engages with you. He joins you. He is now one of you. Tony Robbins does that with his speeches.

About 45 minutes a rah, rah, rah, then about 45 minutes to an hour in the arena on the floor connecting with you. That's what the great ones do. The great politicians do it. The great speakers do it. The great TED talkers do it. it. LeBron James has been the best player in the NBA, I'd say, for about 13 years. He has been on a stage. Players look up to him. Players listen to him. All eyes are on him. They follow him politically. They follow him financially. They follow him professionally.

But the downside to being on that stage is all eyes are on you and there is a great burden and a great responsibility. LeBron James this year has never stepped off the stage. He's had a lousy year as a leader. Not as a player. He's still very good. He failed to connect. He failed to engage his young teammates.

He failed to mobilize, galvanize the locker room. He never made a true effort after the injury to connect with Luke Walton. One of the things we always hear about Tom Brady, every time we bring somebody on the show that's played with Tom Brady. What do they always say? He walks up to the rookies. Hi, I'm Tom Brady. And they're like, yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. I have your jersey in my bedroom as a kid. Tom is stepping off the stage. He's connecting with you. I noticed at first with Obama about 10 years ago. I'm like, man, does that guy get it? It's not just about the stage. It's about stepping off it. Do a selfie. Do a high five. A hug. The great ones do it and they get it.

LeBron's never stepped off the stage. He's always been a great player, and I've always loved LeBron, and I've always defended him to the core that he's actually a very good leader. Players follow him. They should. He's usually right. But he had a bad year as a leader. And that's okay.

He hadn't had a bad year as a player. LeBron's still great. But in Los Angeles, it's been a conveyor belt of side projects. I've yet to see a Laker in any of them. not even a walk through for Kyle Kuzman, a movie? It's been joining other stars. Hi, I'm up here in the stratosphere. Look at me.

I'm a mogul. Yeah, I get it. I get the mogul stage. I started talking about it years ago. I get it. The show off stage, the win a Grammy stage, the, I'm kind of a mogul now. I defend it. I like it.

But this has been a really, really bad year for LeBron as a leader. His imagery with Luke Walton, distancing himself on the bench and in timeouts, that moment against Phoenix when he inbounded the ball and threw it off the backboard. Any other player in the league could have done that. But LeBron did it for the first time in his career. It was not a coincidence.

LeBron, instead of leading, was basically sending a message. I'm done. The problem is LeBron was done about the All-Star break. great player, great guy, a lot of great qualities, great guys around him, great brand, great net worth, great mind. There's a lot of great with LeBron. He's a lousy leader this year.

Got to step off the stage, dude. Got to be one of the peeps, dude. Take a lesson from the football guy who's got six titles. And by the way, I'm often critical of Michael Jordan. But I always felt Michael Jordan, when he was with the Bulls, he was all in. In fact, sometimes I felt Jordan was rallying his teammates against management, but he was always all in with the players.

Can't just be on the stage. Sometimes got a high five and do a selfie with your followers. Let me segue to this big football story. Oh, my Lord. Antonio Brown is just talking. He can't stop talking. Larry Fitzgerald is one of my. favorite NFL players. He is on a short list of the smartest, most influential professional

athletes in the National Football League. He talks, people listen. He came out this week and said, Antonio Brown, does he realize that he had it pretty good with Big Ben? Big Ben is imperfect, by the way. But you see this all the time. When people get divorced, there is obviously anger in the first couple of weeks, maybe first couple of months. But after a while, If you keep bad-mouthing your ex, it's no longer about her. It's about you. You know, you get a divorce. Her fault.

She did that. She's terrible. But after about four or five months of that, your friends start looking at you like, dude, you're a loser. Get over it. She's not that bad. We know her. We like her.

Antonio Brown spent the past couple weeks bad-mouthing Mike Tomlin, Hall of Famer, Big Ben, Hall of Famer, Best Deep Ball Thrower in the league. And this week, watched him on the shop. That's one of the LeBron's side projects. And he was all about bad mouth in the coach and bad mouth in the quarterback. So the last week of the season, we're going into the final game. We got to win and we got to hope the Ravens don't win so we could advance to the playoffs. I'm a little banged up.

So I meet with Coach Tomlin. I'm telling him like, hey, man, I'm a little band up. So I'm going to need a little time to get right. So he's like, you banged up, man, just, you can just go home. So I'm like, then. That's where we're at. Damn, how are you get that? I don't have an ego because, like, bro, I'm just trying to win.

We lose a game. He's like, damn, AB should have ran the better route. Why would Ben do that? The type of guy he is. He feels like he's the owner. Bro, you threw the shit to the D line, man. How the fucking won you got to be a better ball? Okay, so in that room,

everybody around Antonio Brown makes him feel like, man, you're landing punches. It's her fault. It doesn't matter anymore. That's landing on you. Every GM and owner in this league with all the good quarterbacks who can make you a first ballot hall of famer are out. Three teams are now interested. Lousy Washington, dysfunctional Oakland, and unpredictable and usually mediocre Tennessee.

Colt McCoy, good luck with that. I mean, there are stages of this stuff. And I get divorces are ugly. But you're way past the finger pointing stage. You think now you're landing punches. Yeah, I am telling people Mike Tomlin's no good. He actually is pretty good. I'm telling Big Ben's a jerk.

Maybe he's a jerk, but he's a Hall of Famer. Like, at some point in the divorce, okay, you divvy up the furniture, you hire lawyers. But if you keep bad-mouthing people, all your buddies in the room are like, yeah, you nail it. But it lands on you. You look needy. You look mean-spirited. you look insecure. And that may land in the room with LeBron and all the fellas,

but I'm telling you how it's landing around the NFL is, no, thanks. Pass, not interested. Let him go elsewhere. Oh, by the way, in a separate interview this weekend, he said, but you just don't even need football, really. I don't even have to play football if I don't want, bro. I don't even need the game. You know what I'm saying?

I don't need to prove nothing to anyone. If they want to play, they're going to play by my rules. If not, I don't need to play. Would Antonio Brown's agent, please sit him down, stop talking, stop bad-mouthing, stop finger-pointing? You are not landing punches. You're not, no matter what your buddies are telling you, you're not landing punches here. You look needy, insecure, individual over team, me over we, it's a horrible look. but, you know, it gets big laughs in the room.

Coming up next, it looks like Kyler Murray is going number one. It looks like Arizona is moving off their rookie quarterback. The very, very latest coming up. Here's something interesting. Studies show that security systems deter burglars. It's a fact. But there's still a burglary every eight seconds in America. How?

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I don't see him as a great NFL quarterback, though I think he throws a great football. Kyler Murray is a kid out of Oklahoma, fast, nimble, dynamic, athletic, really tiny, which worries me. there's a report now that Cliffs Kingsbury is telling people the Cardinals are going to draft Kyler Murray and they're going to move Josh Rosen. Now that could be a smokescreen. There's a lot of people think they're just baiting other people to move up and take the top pick and give them a bunch of picks. That's certainly possible.

I do not believe that is true. I believe in the last 48 hours from the calls I've made and the people I've talked to and the stories I've read, I believe that Kyler Murray and Arizona are going to make it happen. So that's where I believe this is going to work. And let me tell you why. Is that you have a split building in Arizona, the building split. Half are on Rosen, half like him, half don't.

It's the same thing Sean McVeigh faced in L.A. He shows up and the building was split on Jared Gough. And Sean McVeigh said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. we can win a Super Bowl with Jared Goff. And when he went all in, the building went all in, turn it around. Mitch Trubisky, Chicago, Matt Nagy came in, split building, split building on Mitch Trubisky. A lot of people didn't like it. Matt Nagy, the coach said, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We can win our division with Mitch Trubisky. The coach has to go all in on the young quarterback. and Cliff Kingsbury, Arizona's GM, they're all getting run out of the building in two years if Cliff Kingsbury doesn't win. So Kingsbury has to be all in on the quarterback. McVeigh went all in on golf. United the building. Matt Nagy went all in on Trubisky. I'm not a huge fan, but united the building. The worst place to be in the NFL is a split building.

Have to be. Baltimore dealt with us with. Joe Flacco, last couple of years. Building was split. John Harbaugh said, you know what? I'm going to go with Lamar. And the building was still kind of, I'm not sure. And then they won like seven games. And then they got in the playoffs. Everybody's like, oh, buildings united.

Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury. I can tell you, Cliff Kingsbury, from all these stories, cannot unify the building with Josh Rosen. It doesn't mean Josh Rosen doesn't fit elsewhere. But Cliff Kingsbury knows he can unite the entire facility with Kyler Murray. And this is key. You've seen it now with two other great young coaches, Sean McVey and Matt Nagy. The worst place you want to be is a fractured locker room.

New England Patriots after that Super Bowl for about six weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, had a fractured building. And Belichick went out of his way. Okay, Garopolo, get him out of the building. Get him out of the building. Gronk, re-sign him. Even the Patriots, we saw what two teams in the NFL this year have talent and underachieved? Pittsburgh, split building, Green Bay, split building. Half Aaron, half McCarthy.

So I believe the way to unite this facility in Arizona. They are scrambling right now. You got half the guys like Rosen, half of that. Murray, Cliff, his vision, his perfect. quarterback brings them all under the same roof, all going in the same direction. It doesn't matter if you have world-class players. Big Ben's a Hall of Famer. That building right now, a lot of AB guys, a lot of Levian guys, a lot of Ben guys,

can't win. Green Bay, a lot of Aaron guys, a lot of Mike McCarthy guy. Can't win. Can't. Football's too hard. This is not the NBA where Golden State just got more good players than everybody. It doesn't work that way. New England's probably got the ninth best roster in the NFL, maybe seventh.

You cannot win when you got multiple points of view in the NFL. The league's too hard, practice too hard, film study too hard, games too hard, winning too hard, preparation too hard. Cliff and Kyler brings them all together. All together. And by the way, Jordan Palmer, who I trust as much as anybody, when it comes to breaking down young quarterbacks. Palmer's brother, he said, I can see this Arizona thing. I'm reading the stuff too, Colin. I can see it happening.

I think there's something there. I have no inside information of anything that's going on. I'm just a fan watching sitting here going, it makes a lot of sense. Does it make more sense than building it around the guy you took last year? I don't know. I'm not in that building. But it certainly makes sense because if somebody believes that Kyler is the perfect person

to run their thing, and the data that they have is he ran something similar at the other level, that's the only data you're going to have, then I think it becomes a real discussion. Interesting. I'll be honest with you. I love the draft. You love the draft. I like cars spinning out.

I like tire fires. I think this is going to be fantastic. I mean, it'll be a must watch. Absolutely. I still, I have a little sneaky suspicion. There could be some high profile moves made the day of. of the draft. I got a kind of setting up for.

I got a Latvian thing. I got an AB thing. I got an Odell Beckham thing. I got a Kyler Murray thing. Listen, you and I like free agency as much as a regular season in the NBA. This is fun. Joy with the news.

No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So playing on the road in the second night of a back-to-back, the Lakers lost to a son's team with the worst record in the NBA. Oh, God.

And after that game, Luke Walton emphasized his team needs to create their own energy. We need to be better. We need to be a lot better. I'm happy with the fight that we showed in the fourth quarter, but that's where we're at in the season. That's the desperation that we need to start the game with. That shows me that the group cares and that they, you know, they're still invested. I'm confident. I believe in our group. We need to play a lot better, but I believe that we can get it done. Can I make a prediction? It's just a crazy prediction. I do not have this multiple sourced. So this will be little J journalism. Okay, so this is not Big J.

Okay. So when I have double sources, you and I have been doing this long enough. When you have two sources, then it's Big J journalism. When you have one source, it's just a tiny J. It could grow into it Big J, but right now it's just a little tiny J. Luke Walton fired, Ty Lou, the next coach of the LA L.A. L.A. Yeah. Don't have it double sourced. Have it singularly sourced. Um, I wouldn't say I have it sourced exactly, but there's enough rumblings that I firmly believe that's what's going to happen. So if you and I both have little Js, do they, is it count as a big J? Uh, can we multiply Js into a big J? I don't think that, well, I wouldn't call it source. I just think that people have been talking about it. And it also just makes sense.

Like, this is a point in LeBron's career where you have no more time. All right. So you can't risk bringing in someone that maybe you've wanted to work with, but you haven't worked with before. And learning how their system works, having them get acclimated to you and to the team. So the biggest step is getting acclimated to LeBron James, of course. So if you bring someone in who's already not only won a championship with him, but that LeBron respects and likes and can be told things from, that to me just makes the most sense. By the way, somebody in my ear, I'm not much for math. I'm not real mathy, but they said with algebra, two little jays don't equal a big j.

So it doesn't case. It's still a little jay. Yeah, I'm not a math person either. But in TV journalism math, I think we just made it a big jay. Okay. So Kyrie Irving's team's really fed up with all the media attention. He and his team has been getting this season. And he had this to say as he entered TD Garden yesterday before the Celtics game against the Rockets.

I'm not going to miss any of the, I'm not going to miss any of the season. So he's kind of off the extra attention this year. By the way, when he goes to New York, right? He does get cameras, will follow him there too. That would be worse than New York. Of course. For sure. That was their fifth loss in six games last night.

They're lost against Houston, and they are the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. I really don't know what's happening with the Celtics and Kyrie. I don't, it feels like there's something else kind of brewing there because they have so much talent that it seems like they should be able to figure this out. And Kyrie's a winner, and he's a clutch player. and he knows what it takes to get to a championship and persevere to reach that championship. Let me throw this out there. Antonio Brown and Kyrie.

From the outside, it looks like, I think everything I want. But there's something, probably a relationship in both organizations that went wrong. Because with A, B, you go, Big Ben, a good receiver on the other side, hard to double. You win a bunch of games. And then, Kyrie, you're like, good coach,

emerging stars, but you're still the guy, you handle the ball. So with Kyrie and A.B., it looks from the outside. They're incredibly needy. It probably in both cases, there is a relationship in the building that just doesn't sit right with them. Well, generally, it comes down to relationships at the end of the day. If you look at the dynacies and organizations that have been in place that look like they would be winning situations, and they don't, it usually comes down to a relationship. Like with the Steelers. Speaking of the Steelers, finally, since requesting a trade from Pittsburgh,

Antonio Brown has been really trying to personify the know-your-worth thing. And he took it a step further in an interview with ESPN, where he claimed to play the sport of football out of love and not necessity. I don't even have to play football if I don't want, bro. I don't even need the game. You know what I'm saying? I don't need to prove nothing to anyone. If they want to play, they're going to play by my rules.

If not, I don't need to play. Obviously, I want the game, but I don't need the game. It's a different. I don't think that's great to say. So there's a million different angles you can take on what Antonio Brown is doing right now and that interview. And obviously if you watch the shop, he's talking a lot about how he wants to own his own narrative. And when you start to own your narrative, people push back and attack your character. And there's a lot of different things.

And depending on what you're a fan of, if you're a fan of Antonio Brown, you're going to be on his side. If you're fan of the Steelers, you're obviously going to be against him. He could just be trying to kill his trade value so that they cut him and he can go where he wants. not the craziest theory of all time. But to me, what's happening with Antonio Brown is really just the new wave. I think players are, they're kind of over being controlled by organizations

and even though football is a team game and there's still very much the mentality of you need to fall in line and you need to be part of an organization and not an individual. I think social media, I think the ability for players to make so much money outside of the sport, and players being more aware of managing their money

while they are playing as opposed to blowing it and, you know, being broke at the end of their career, players are really becoming more of entrepreneurs, which is what he talked about. I really think that that's what we're going to see more of this. Oh, I think so too. Than the latter as we move forward. So if it makes you uncomfortable, you should get used to it? Because players are not, they're not of this humble, like I'm just happy to be here mentality anymore. And I really don't feel like they should.

They, there is more, they have more value to organizations. Well, yeah, but when you say they have more value, nobody's underpaying them. No, no, no, I'm not saying that he's underpaid and I'm not saying that he's not going to go on to a great career moving forward. Like all this talk about, oh, like, teams are afraid of him. Antonio Brown is going to be on a team next year. Don't fool yourself. But it'll probably be a lousy team. It may very well be, and maybe some things will happen and he will end up with another great quarterback, or maybe he won't, and who knows how this will sort out.

But from the way that he's talking, he doesn't need the game in that he may be motivated by other things. And that's just the way it is now. And you really get to see people's motivations. I still think of the majority of athletes want to win. I think Janice wants to win. I think there's a lot of – I think 90% of athletes, they make their money. They don't – you know, like LeBron's political. I think most players aren't.

LeBron's mobile. I think Damian Lillard, Paul George chose Oklahoma City. I do think there are certain players, just like in our business. There are certain people that are outspoken. I want to control this. But everyone's not motivated by the same thing. And that's okay. And I really feel like that is what Antonio Brown is saying.

is I don't have to fall in line in order for me to be successful for myself. Like what I determine success doesn't have to be what you think is success. And that should be okay. Joy with the News. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping back. The Hurd-Lie News. Next 20 games, I think the Lakers are out of the playoffs, four and a half back.

Teams in front of them, I think now are better and certainly more unified. With that, we go to New York City. First things first, you hear him on our show all the time. Chris Broussard, V. the Coward Global Satellite Network. Chris, I said this. LeBron's still a great player. But when you're on the stage and people are looking up at you,

be at the Pope and St. Peter Square, be it Tony Robbins, be at TED Talks. When you're on the stage and people are looking up at you, you're a leader. But the really engaging moment is when you step off the stage as a politician and you meet people eye-to-eye in a selfie and a high-five and a fist bomb. LeBron's been on the stage for 12 years, and most of the time he has connected very well with teammates. You know, J.R. Smith's not a great player. He reached down. James Jones, one of his best buddies.

I think, Chris, LeBron's had a bad year in leadership where he's done too many star-driven projects. He's never come off the stage and connected with Luke. Connected with some of the young players. That's just my takeaway. He's still a great player, great guy. But I don't think it's been a great LeBron leadership year. How's that land for you? Well, Colin, I think the main difference between this year with LeBron and the previous four, at least, has just been the winning.

You know, there's different ways to lead a team. We can look at all of the guys or a lot of them that we consider great leaders in the past. And the reason their leadership was good was because they won. Michael Jordan. We know he punched out Steve Kerr. We know he had issues with some teammates here and there. He told his teammates, don't pass the ball to Bill Cartwright. And Cartwright said, I'll break your legs if you ever say that again.

I mean, Kobe Bryant, I came on your couch and said, Kobe was a good leader. Why? He won five rings. Isaiah Thomas had, he punched out Bill Lambere. Isaiah Thomas ran Adrian Dantley, a great player out of town. Detroit and got his buddy Mark Aguire there. I mean, LeBron

had his drama in the past four years. I mean, yeah, there's some different things now, but let's not forget the cryptic tweets. Let's not, or Instagram, whatever it was, let's not forget the issues with Kevin Love. Are you in, buying in, buying out, whatever

it was, he said. Kyrie Irving, David Black. I mean, LeBron's had this type of drama the past four years. The difference was they won, they got to the Eastern Conference, or they got to the finals, and they won one championship. So we looked at it as great leadership. Now he's doing similar things, something a little different, but similar things, and they're not going to make the playoffs.

So we're looking at it as, whoa, Michael Jordan's last season in Washington, Colin, I was there. I covered a lot of it for the New York Times. Those players who grew up idolizing MJ, they couldn't stand him by the time. it was over. Why? He was the same MJ as he was in Chicago. The one difference was in Chicago, he's leading you to championships. In Washington, he wasn't quite good enough anymore to even get you in the playoffs. Good stuff. Chris Broussard joining us. You know, you and I had this discussion a couple weeks ago is that outside of Tom Brady, it all works the same way for even superstars. There's a domino effect. They have a big injury. They don't make the playoffs. Suddenly, they're all

off the front page, they're on page three of the sports section. So LeBron now, first major injury, not going to make the playoffs. Chris, if they don't land AD, is he on page two of the sports section? Yes. I mean, there's no doubt about it. It's AD or bus for the Lakers. And even if they get AD, look, I'm not ever going to write LeBron James off right now as a guy that won't win another championship, But if you put a gun to my head, AD or not, and said, is LeBron James going to win another championship? Your life depends on it. I would say, no, he's not. Now, that said, let me go here.

I actually think LeBron could have a very successful run here with the Lakers. You see, he's still a great player, as you said. But this year, at least, he isn't able to dominate the game like he's. used to. Okay, his numbers are still what they always are, but he's not dominating the game, controlling the actual game like he has in the past. I think LeBron could use that for a good thing because one of the strengths of his game and weaknesses of his game throughout his career has been that he does everything. I had a guy who won championships a few years ago tell me LeBron would win more rings if he just did one thing.

Either be Magic Johnson at point guard and average 22 points and 12 assists or be a small forward, a real small forward, and lead the league in scoring and get nine or ten rebounds. Because he does everything that makes it hard for players to play around him. Not role players. Role players can't do much. So they need you to create everything for him and give them the ball and they can shoot it. Yeah.

But other talent, players, it's harder. So as he declines a little bit, why not go to a straight point guard, period. Or go to a straight small forward, period. And then it'll be easier for other players with talent to play around you. And maybe you could win more. Yeah, by the way, this is a great point. As your skills decline, you can't do as many things well, then just zone in on the one thing you do well. Chris Broussard, very good point. Finally, Kyrie Irving is a great. great player. Okay, but something's not working, Chris, because Boston is worse with him on the floor. I just told Joy, when you get an Antonio Brown or a Kyrie, we know they're great.

Generally, if they're struggling with what appears to be a great situation, there's a relationship issue in the building. We know Antonio Brown's was Big Ben. What is going on with Kyrie in that building, Chris? What are your sources say? Because he is an unhappy dude right now. now. Yeah, he is. I have not been told of a poor relationship in the building. I've actually been told that off the court, his relationships with Jason Tatum, Terry Rozier are fine.

I'm not saying they're bosom buddies, but they're fine. It's more the on-the-court chemistry. Remember last year in the playoffs, we talked about it, Kyle. The team went from being Kyrie's to Brad Stevens' team. He was the superstar. Remember, Kyrie wasn't even there for, was it a game seven in the playoffs? It wasn't a good look. So you wonder, did that bother Kyrie?

And we know that's been a source of the problems in Boston is that the young guys feel like they went far without him. And do they really need him? And he sensed that because he said it repeatedly in the public. So that is bothering him right there. But I really think, too, Colin, that Kyrie. has let the media criticism really deflate him. If you look at before the All-Star game, there was a six or seven game stretch where he averaged 30 points 10 assists, led him to a six-and-one record and was looking

fantastic. Like, he is taking over the team and they're winning. And then at the All-Star break, he's criticized because he and KD are in the hallway talking. And he's, you know, people make a big deal out of him staying on the court for KD's. you know, MVP award session after the All-Star game. And he talked about how he hated that. And notice from that point on, his answers to the media have been small, clipped, basically

no comments. You saw the clip you showed earlier, him walking in the arena saying, I won't miss this stuff when I'm done playing. So I think he's let this media criticism deflate him. He's got rabbit ears kind of like Kevin Durant. and you wonder both of those guys are talking about going to New York, it's worse than New York. So that's going to be interesting to see if that impacts their decision.

Chris Broussard, good seeing you, bud. Nice work today. Thanks. All right, my man. Coming up next, we usually get it right. Usually. The great players are treated like great players. The average players are treated like average players. And the below average players we don't talk about.

there is one exception in American pro sports. We've whiffed, you've whiffed, we've all whiffed, mostly. That's coming up. Plus, top of the hour, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong on a Monday. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app.

Good to have you in. Colin right, calling wrong, top of the hour. Generally, we in the media get it right. right. I know you don't want to hear that. Everybody hates the media, fake news, blah, blah, blah, but we usually get it right. We talk about the star players a lot. We talk about the slightly above, slightly below average players way less, and we never talk about the mediocre bad players. That's the way it works. By the way, fans mostly get it right too. But in the media, it's our job to get it right. It's not your job to get it right. It's our job to get it right.

It's our job to get it right. Talk about the right people. It's the reason to talk about Brady, talk about LeBron, talk about Kevin Durant. There's a reason to talk about Brady. There's a and we talk about it. We talk about the Steelers. We talk about A.B. We talk about Todd Gurley of the Rams. The media, though, has whiffed on one. Steph Curry is the third most discussed player on the Golden State Warriors.

K.D. should be discussed a lot. Dramon makes a lot of noise. Kind of fun. I get it. But does everybody get 30 years from now? His legacy is going to be changed the entire sport of basketball forever. And he's got four or five titles.

Like that's, that's like, okay, that's not even first class. That's flying the plane. Okay, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and Kyrie Irving get discussed significantly more. We whiff on Steph Curry. This past weekend, Andre Aguadal, was talking about it. His teammate, Steph Curry, said, I still don't think he gets nearly the respected deserves. I told KD. He said he missed on a shot he took and I said, yeah, you two are like MJ.

no such thing, it's a bad shot. When you sit down and have serious conversations, he is the second best point guard ever. Um, yes, he is. But even Magic Johnson, I never thought changed the sport. Magic was just great. I didn't think Michael changed the sport. He's just great. Wilk Chamberlain like changed the sport. They had to change rules for Wilk Chamberlain. LeBron James changed the sport. Like, players are now positionless. Can you player can you not play? But Steph Curry isn't dramatic. He's not needy. He's not on Instagram all day. He's not seeking headlines. He recruited a great player to come to his team and take shots away. We generally get it right. We've completely whiffed. 30 years from now, here's what people are going to

say about Russell Westbrook. Yeah, I mean, triple double, kind of an enigma, no titles, kind of hard to play with that's what they'll say James Harden Beard, MVP's probably no titles he traveled and the refs never called it he was a great offensive player

what people are going to say about Kyrie Irving flat earth he left LeBron and the Celtics dude was talented remember the shot in game seven but kind of flaky what people are going to say about Steph Curry is, oh, he changed the way they play basketball. He eliminated centers.

He changed practice. Like kids just went to gyms and shot threes. My son's not a huge NBA fan. He knows who Steph Curry is. Like the media usually gets it right. We've whiffed on Steph Curry. Okay. And maybe it's because Steph isn't loud and Steph isn't seeking attention and he's not a personal fireworks show, and he doesn't go on the shop and bad mouth teammates. Like, I understand, and I'm guilty of this, we talk about interesting a lot. And Antonio Brown right now is really, really interesting. And maybe Steph Curry is just not interesting enough. But generally in the media, great players get the talk.

Average players get a little talk. Bad players get none. When's the last time before this, I had a Steph Curry segment. A year ago? It's on me. It's on the media. can't just talk about people who are trying to get talked about. Sometimes you've got to look beyond that and talk about who is going to end up

with one of the all-time great legacies in the history of the sport. I mean, how many people can you say in sports changed the sport? I mean, Muhammad Ali changed boxing. Like, boxers became self-promoters. Muhammad Ali changed boxing. Tiger Woods, no, he changed golf. Like, guys started eating right? doing push-ups.

You know, I'm like, there's like seven guys in the history of sports that changed it. Steph's the third most discussed Golden State Warrior. And while most people consider him to be the greatest shooter or one of the greatest shooters of all time, he's never in the conversation for the best player. Ever. Ever. On his own team. It's like, well, Katie's better.

Well, I think he was considered the best player on his team before Katie got there. Right, right. But now it's just not even a question. Yeah, it's like, and it's like, you know, there is something to be said about incredibly coachable. He's the best ball handler in the NBA. He's the best shooter in the NBA. And it's going to be about a decade to 12 years where he's the best at two things. Magic was the best passer and probably the best leader.

Magic was never the best shooter, best defender. I mean, Larry Bird was almost as good a passer. So I think we've kind of whiffed on that. Colin Wright, Colin Wrong, top of the hour. There is also, first of all, NFL Combine was this weekend. NFL Combine is fun. I don't take it. I watch it, not with a grain of salt, but I watch the NFL Combine.

And it always reminds me of when I go and work out at a gym. Some guys just look great in a gym, but they're not great athletes. I don't take a lot from the NFL Combine. I did see a story this morning. I just want to mention this before we get to the top of the hour. According to Peter King, the NFL Combine, obviously Kyler Murray is getting a lot of talk. There's reports out there. that John Gruden and the Raiders also likes Kyler Murray.

And he's got all sorts of picks in the first round. So John Gruden could move up in the draft. The Combine's fun. I get it. I don't know how in the world Derek Carr went from an MVP candidate two years ago to less than Nick Foles on the market now. I would not move off Derek Carr. I think the Raiders are making a mistake.

I think they've got a really good quarterback who a couple of years ago before he broke his leg was an MVP. MVP candidate. I don't get it. But at the combine this weekend, there was a lot of Kyler-Marie talking just to give you heads up. Raiders, Kyler-Marie is also being discussed. Hour 2 next. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Ah, here we go on a Monday. Hour number two. Live in rainy Los Angeles, this is The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening live on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports

Radio, and right here on FS1. It is an absolute pleasure to have you today. Joy Taylor, in her Lakers season, is over colors. These are my morning colors? I don't know. Look at you. You literally match our graphics perfectly today. I do.

I'm not representing a lot of teams today. Steelers, Warriors. And the lowly Lakers. And the Lolley Lakers. It's great to have you in a Monday. Joel Klatt's going to be joining us. NFL Combine. Folks, we got major stories here.

It looks like Arizona. A lot of smoke. Kailer Murray is going to go number one. There's a lot of smoke around it, so we've got that story coming up. It's great to have you last hour today. DeAngelo Hall stops by. He's letting that beard, by the way. DeAngelo is all in on that beard.

It is looking tight. All right. Here we go to Monday. Where Colin's right. Where Colin is wrong. Where Colin was right? Larry Fitzgerald, one of the smartest professional athletes in America, one of the greatest professional athletes in America, one of the most respected national football.

league players, well, what do you know? He doesn't like what Antonio Brown is doing either, publicly trolling Pittsburgh. He's Mr. Big Chess is a good friend of mine, but I don't think he's going about it the right way personally. You know, to be able to play with a all-time quarterback like he's able to play with, I don't think he understands how good he has it. You know, it's, it could be, it could get tough out there. get really tough. By the way, the two times Larry has popped Carson Palmer, Kurt Warner. You need a quarterback in this league. Right now, Washington is leading on AB. Their quarterback's

Colt McCoy. Antonio Brown, dude, you're getting a divorce. You hire a lawyer. Stop publicly berating your ex. You're now hurting yourself, and you're a great player. Where Colin was wrong. Well, I predicted the Lakers would win 48 games with LeBron, and I said they'd be about a, you know, somewhere between a three or four or five seed, about a four or five seed. They're on pace to win 38 games, not much better than last year when Lonzo led them, and they ain't making the playoffs. And by the way, I was told over the weekend that when the season started with LeBron, the chemistry was really, really good October, November in the building.

I am also told by the same source, it has deteriorated massively since Clutch Sports, Anthony Davis rumors. Yesterday, Kyle Kuzma came out and said, something is wrong here. What is wrong is when you're the world's best player or certainly most viewed,

you've got to step off the stage and put your arms around the little guy and the head coach occasionally, and LeBron hasn't. I didn't think this was a team capable of anything more than a, you know, a four or five seed, win a playoff series, and then go home,

and then regroup and find another star. But it is worse on all accounts than I thought it would be. Where Colin was right? Well, what do you know? The Rockets are better when Chris Paul leads the offense. They are now 12 and 0. 12 and O are the Rockets when Chris Paul has 10 assists. Listen, James Harden, I get it.

I get he gets the headlines. I get he's the score. But this team can beat the Warriors, not saying they will, but they can when Chris Paul is setting the tempo. Folks, the NBA is not just about the best players. When you get into the playoffs, it's about the best judgment and the best decisions. James Hardin's going to get his. He's just too damn talented not to.

But they are 5'0 the last two weeks with Chris Paul handling the ball more than Hardin, 17 points 10 assists, and the offense now is run through Chris Paul, and they look really, really good in Houston. where Colin was wrong. Boston, it's just not getting better. I mean, they're getting now hammered. And I thought, okay, you had Gordon Hayward and a healthy Kyrie Irving to a team that got to the Eastern Conference

finals and the emergence of Jason Tatum. This team's going to get to the finals. And this team could beat the Warriors if all things work out. Folks, it is a mess. It is just, it's bad. And they're getting thumped at home. It leads me to believe. And this is certainly possible.

Sometimes relationships don't click. But I can't believe Danny Aange and Brad Stevens are watching this. And their rebuilding effort has been terrific. This is the first blip. And it is a bad, bad look. So I never thought it would get this bad. Kyrie's too talented. And I always thought, you know, a little needy with LeBron and stuff, a little bit.

But that's the world. And I live in a needy world. I get it. But it's way worse than I thought. Colin was right? Oh, story came out last week. Todd Gurley, oh, he's got arthritis. Ah, now we have a reason.

I never bought into this. No, they just want to share the ball. Just want to loosen his load a little bit. Once I saw him on a bike in the NFC championship, like on the sidelines, and that's with Cooper Cupout, and I'm thinking to myself, a timeout. Okay, stop, stop, stop peeing on my leg and tell me it's raining.

I mean, come on, give me a break here. There's a reason. Give me a story. Oh, now we have a story. It's not about sharing the ball with C.J. Anderson. It's not about trying to get arrested for the playoffs. Oh, Todd Gurley's got a medical problem. Todd Gurley has arthritis in his knee, and it's a real problem.

And if you're less need and you run the franchise, kind of freaks you out a little bit. Because he's taking a real toll running the football. And all of a sudden, in October, he no longer ran the football. And we were told there was a lot of bunch of different reasons for it. And I didn't buy any of them. I said, there's something going on here? I kept saying, there's something going on, and I don't know. But I'm not buying what you're telling me.

And now I am buying what I'm hearing. Stories out, Todd Gurley's got an issue medically, arthritis in his knee. Where Colin was wrong. I thought baseball GMs had finally figured it out. These tenure contracts are absurd. I mean, first of all, you're signing about a 27-year-old guy to a tenure contract. The last four years of the deal are awful. Then the Phillies went out and not only signed a tenure deal,

they signed a 13-year contract for Bryce Harper. By the way, there's no opt-out, there's no trade clause. Oh, good hell. I mean, what are you doing? I mean, I know the Phillies have been bad for years, and in the Northeast corridor, the Yankees and the Red Sox get a lot of love and the natural playoff team, and they're trying to make a big splash. But this is just awful.

I mean, I'm happy for Bryce Harper. This is an awful contract for an organization. Your last five years of this contract, even if Bryce gave you, let's say, six great years, and two really good years, and then you start the erosion. You're only 60% through the contract. No opt-outs? No trade laws? This is bad.

And by the way, it's going to put enormous pressure on a really good kid. And, you know, if he has a couple of fours and strikes out a few times, here come the boo-birds. Philadelphia's not kind. You know, they eat their own, so good luck there. Where Colin was right? Well, LeBron dropped an album with two chains this weekend. I always said. He's in the mogul stage of his career.

I think I'm the first guy that coined that. For all superstars, music, entertainment, movies, sports, there's three stages. There's a let me show off, my talent stage. And there's the let me win an Oscar, a Grammy, or a title stage. And the third stage is a mogul stage, which I consider doing mogul stuff and building my brand. Which, by the way, I'm four. I get it. I totally get it.

Now, I think LeBron's completely lost balance this year. It's a little too much mogul. It's not, you know, you're running to Instagram to tell you about his individual stats as the team gets hammered. is not my cup of tea. But we did tell you when he came to Los Angeles that eight or nine, like the richest people in town were like, we want to do business,

and this is what it is. It's a little out of balance to me, but this has been, it does make you think where basketball is in his life. Because right now, he doesn't seem to be engaged as much as I'd like on that front.

Where Colin was wrong. I never thought Nick Foles would be a guy, teams fight over. I saw Nick Foles play in college. Nick Foles, to me, was always a nice NFL backup, solid kids, certainly not spectacular. Apparently there's like three teams really interested, Jacksonville's, the leading candidate. There's a part of me that thinks Philadelphia has just got a bunch of really good coaches. And some of this is Nick Foles is going to leave these Philadelphia guys and it's not going to be as good. But I, I, I, I,

I'm pretty good at guessing what quarterback strengths and weaknesses. I'm not perfect. But Nick Foles is a free agent. A couple, two, three teams interested in teams like Jacksonville's got players. And I've got to be honest. I didn't see this one coming. I didn't see him beating Brady in the Super Bowl either, but I didn't see this coming. Where Colin was right.

Dallas Cowboys, I've been on this for a couple years now. You keep making fun of them. Keep making fun of Jerry. And they keep showing you they know what they're doing. They dumped Dez perfect time, found Dack in the fourth round. Fourth round. They went and got Amari Cooper for a first rounder. What a home run that was.

And over the weekend, last Thursday, they signed Jason Whitten. And I know a lot of years saying colonies old. Be very careful about that. Antonio Gates was old. And the Chargers brought him back, and he made a huge difference. And we all buried Gronk this year. And then you got to that Kansas City game, and you got to that Super Bowl. and Gronk looked really good.

Remember, teams play zone a lot in the NFL. Witten can find openings. Great hands. Not a burner, but you're kidding yourself. If you don't think Jason Witten is going to be crucial on big third downs for Dak Prescott. This is a very good young roster that Cowboys once again proving. You roll your eyes and you talk about what the Cowboys can't do, I look at an organization kind of knows what they're doing.

Giants are dysfunctional. Washington, Oakland, Tennessee, Miami, Tennessee, Jets. There are a lot of dysfunction in this league. I don't see it with the Cowboys. Jerry Stephen, know what they're doing. I thought it was a really good move. Good to have you in. Joel Clatstops by NFL Combine this weekend, and there's a lot of stories. This is probably, I don't remember when this was. Joy talked about this earlier. We have something going on. Adam Silver talked about it this weekend, too, at a MIT conference with Bill Simmons about players are unhappy. I think what's happening in sports is players are being empowered.

Social media lets you hear in real time what people think about you. More drama in sports, which, by the way, for Joy and I, we like drama. I don't remember a March 4th in my life where there was more NFL stuff moving around. This is usually when you kind of segue into the last month and a half. half a regular season NBA. There's a lot of football stuff going on. I think we could have Kyler-Marie go number one, Lavian Bell go to the Jets, Antonio Brown go somewhere, and the Combine. What did it mean this weekend? Joel Klatte stopping by after that. 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 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 athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls,

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Search Learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before.

And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense.

And when IT's friends stop by like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever 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.

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Fox Sports, college football voice was at the NFL Combine. When at the NFL Combine, by the way, is where all the execs go. Yeah. And they stay up at night and stake and shake it. And they go out and they talk. a couple cocktails. It's not just watching players. When you're at the combine, it's about trades. It's about, it's a hiring. It's really an NFL convention. Yeah, basically is. You're right. So do you believe Arizona and Kyler Murray is a thing? I do. At this point, I'm going to be

more shocked if Arizona doesn't take him at number one than I would be with any other outcome. So my jaw will hit the floor come draft night, round one if Arizona doesn't take Kyler Murray number one overall. You've been very, very fond of Kyler Murray. And rightly so. Tiny, Kyler Murray. I mean, you can call him short. Yeah, I think he's on the shorter side, but I think that he's certainly well within the range of what you would need to succeed. And that's really all it is.

Let me put it to you this way. Part of the issue with Kyler is that most people outside of the league have not done a deep enough dive into him as a player and just focused on his height to the detriment of their own evaluation. If Kyler Murray was six foot in an eighth, just one inch higher, I think most people would have focused on his play on the field, and then he would be rightly so regarded as one of the best prospects that we've seen in the last 20 years. If I could act, I'd be Jeremy Irons. I mean, he's not that tall. No, he's not, but I'm just saying that one inch is what prevents people from actually evaluating his play in the field. They just get stuck. You got stuck last week. I was trying to talk you off that ledge.

It was like you getting stuck in the airport last night, wherever you were, for eight hours. You got stuck on the height. See, here's the deal. When you actually go and you evaluate, here's what you see. All right, America, here we go. What is Kyler Murray as a player? Let's talk about it. He was the best passer in college football last year, in particular on downs and distances

and within situations that are the most critical. When you go to the down distance of third and seven plus, it's the hardest down to play quality quarterback in football, regardless of the level. He was number one in rating. yards per attempt, percentage, touchdown interception ratio, and all of college football. And yes, I said yards per attempt. Okay, so it's not just him dinking and dunking because I'm short. I need a split in the line.

No, no, no. He was as efficient or more efficient down the field than anybody else in the sport. You also go and you look at what he did, playing at that position, the most important on the field, in situations where his team was down by one score. See, that's when it's pressure. Okay. Guess what he was? Number one rating in college football. Number one rating in college football when his team was down by one score or less.

That's incredible. See, everyone just glazes by that because they get stuck on his height. But the fact of the matter is, just as a passer, you can take this guy before Dwayne Haskins, just as a passer. And then you don't even have to look at what he was as a runner. And I think he would be probably the best running back in this draft if he was just evaluated as a runner. You know that he averaged seven yards per carry, 7.1. You know what? He's not a running back. Guess who didn't average seven yards per carry in any season or during his career in college football?

Joy, do you know? Who? Michael Vic. He didn't even sniff six yards per carry. Those are facts. Facts don't care about your feeling. God. What happened to you?

That was a cold-blooded fact. All right, let's go to this, though. So if you are right, and I do think there's a little smoke here that, Kyler Murray. If I'm right about Arizona. Yeah, no, I mean, I said this to start the show today. You can't have a split building in the NFL. So there was a split building on Jared Goff. And then Sean McVeigh said, no, no, no, no, no.

I see what you're saying. I can win here. Yeah. United the building. By the way, Matt Nagee went to Chicago, split building on Trubisky. Not anymore. And by the way, there was a split building on Flacco. Yep. And then he said, no, we're going to go with his kid. You got a split building with Josh Rosen. I do believe Cliff can sell this.

You see my offense? You see my guy. They need a united building in Arizona. They got a split building now. I don't disagree with you. I think it's going to be tough moving forward because it takes two to mend that building. See, it takes the goff side of it. It takes the Trebisky side of it.

You're talking about just from the coaches side. And I agree Cliff could be that guy. But you're talking about a kid in Josh Rosen. There was reports that, oh, you know, all the Cardinals' pictures were deleted from his Instagram. and he said, oh, I was hacked. Listen, listen, America, if anyone says they were hacked for any reason and their credit card information was not stolen, they were not hacked.

That's just a baseline. Start from there and you're good, okay? He wasn't hacked. So I'm saying is I don't know if Josh is going to be able to get over that hump. I think that the fracture is not only within the building, but we'll see now with Rosen, you know, whether he is willing to even make this work. Okay, you were at the combo. You talk to people.

Yeah. What is Roe, I think Rosen has some value on the market. I think he does too. Third round, second round pick? Yeah, and I think maybe even more than that. I think Arizona is hoping for more than that. I think they're hoping for something in the late first round that someone would do that deal.

Part of what they would point at, I believe, is that a guy like Jared Goff was able to totally transform his, not just image, but his ability to impact the game in his second year when he got around the right coach. Josh is highly talented. In fact, if he was a rookie coming out into this draft, I would rank him number two behind Kyler. And I think he would be a top 10 pick in this year's draft

because of the need at the quarterback position. I think he's that good. What hurts him is the things like I was just talking about with his Instagram account. That's what's going to drive down the value is the reputation that he had coming into the draft last year was that he was a little hard to get along with. And then that happens with his Instagram account.

are going to be like, see, you're proving what we thought earlier. Yeah, no, he's got a little Aaron Rogers where you question whether he's the greatest leader, but nobody doubts, like shoulders up, arm brain, great. Great, great, great. And it can and should work somewhere. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, yeah. Joel Klatt, so these are your top five quarterbacks in the draft, and I do think it's a bad

quarterback draft. It's tough. It's a tough draft. Can I just, I want to make sure that people, you know, this is what always happens, is that I have an opinion and everybody's like, oh, you don't like that guy. Like I always said with Baker Mayfield. Oh, no, he's going to work in the NFL. He's just too accurate in a throw.

Oh, really? You did? Yeah, that's what I did. Yeah, maybe you should watch this show more. It's very good. That seems like revisionist history. I believe the term was undraftable. For me.

I believe. I don't want to go back. Listen, I'm a tape guy. What's on the tape, don't lie. I am this guy, don't lie, Colin. I believe that the term was undraftable. Yeah, if I was a GM, grabbing your junk, off the board. Police video, off the board.

And then all of a sudden, now you're like, well, I thought it would work out. he did later say that it would work out. Joy, why do you defend Colin so much? Because I do a lot of listening. We're in a relationship together and we do journalism here. All right. You said on draft. Two small jays equal one big jay.

That's how it works. I like it. I like it. Okay. So let's go to your, okay, so here's what I'll say about your whole draft board thing. It's not great. No, no, I don't disagree with it. I'm not a Will Greer kid.

I'm not a big fan of him. That's fine. He's Baker without the talent. I get all that nonsense stuff with personality. he doesn't have Baker's talent. He doesn't have the nonsense so much. He's actually kind of a no-nonsense guy. He's married. He's married. Actually, I don't know if he's married, but he does

have a child with his girlfriend. Why did he leave the college he was at initially? I mean, I think you could say that about a lot of people. Not me. I stayed in college. As a young person, you make a mistake, and I think he was a far different player and person, more importantly, at West Virginia than he was at Florida, to all

people that were around him by all their accounts. Dana, I mean, listen, Dana Holgerson would stand by that guy. And I think, Will is a really changed person. I think Ryan Finley could be in there at number five. None of them had a great combat. Kyler Murray is the guy. There's only two guys here.

I want to see Dwayne Haskins in the league. Yeah, I do too. I want to see Kyler Murray. I think only one of them make you better tomorrow, and Haskins might be a little bit of a project, but very good. Okay. Peter King covers the NFL, Dan Patrick's show this morning. He talked about a little bit about Kyler Murray and the Raiders.

Listen to this. Someone in Indianapolis told me, John Gruden is the worst poker player in the NFL. He and Mike Mayock can talk all they want about how they love Derek Cart. And indeed, they may love Derek Cart. But I'm telling you, John Gruden is very, very interested in Kyler Murray. Okay. What do you hear?

No doubt about it. That's why, regardless of what happens with Air, it's someone like gave Arizona a ton of picks for the number one and didn't take Kyler. Kyler's not getting past Oakland. And I wouldn't put it past Oakland with all of their ammunition. with draft picks that they have to make a run at Arizona in that number one pick. Like I said, I'm going to be really shocked if Kyler's not taken by Arizona.

I'll be even more shocked if he's not taking number one overall by anybody. Do you have a good time at the combine? I had a great time. Here's the thing about the combine. Conversations are really while you're there. And when you're actually watching the drills in the stadium, it's everything you can do to not fall asleep. It's just like, oh my gosh, it's quiet.

I mean, you're in this big dome, right? You're in Lucas Oil, and it's like, it's so quiet. It's the perfect arena for a nap. By the way, when you walk around and you'd mention my name, what do people say in the NFL? Okay, so your name does come up a lot. Yeah. Absolutely. The show does, people are like, hey, you know, Joel, what's going on?

You know the next thing out of their mouth? What? Keep giving Colin grief. He's always wrong. Yeah, that's true. We're calling was right. We're calling us wrong. That's right.

And you know what? I think people really love it when you admit it. Undraftable. He's off of my board. Hey. That's what you said. I wrote a book and he's off of my board. The two B's book and board. One person supports me on this show. And that's why, by the way, she'll be here tomorrow and you won't be. Because she supports me. Goulet. It's true. Maybe that's why she supports you is that she has to be here tomorrow. Well, you know, we're also only a year in on that. That's a great point.

Maybe we can all just. Done with your points, clat. Undraftable. Joel, Joy Taylor with the news. No. No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So Jerry Jones says he's reached the point where his only goal is to win another Super Bowl, not to make any more money or do anything else in business.

Just get back to the Super Bowl. That's cool. This is my 30th combine, and I don't have 30 more. We talked the other night. I've made them all, and I made them all. It's a big thing to evaluate. waiting and put the team together. So I'm running out of combat.

I love Jerry. He does. I mean, he also said there's nothing short of the health and goodwill of the people I care about. There's nothing that means more to me than if I could get a Super Bowl. So this kind of makes sense, being that we're going into a lame duckio with Jason Garrett. You bring in Jason Witton back. And Jerry's right. Like, what else is there?

He's in the Hall of Fame. You know what? He has Super Bowls. He's accomplished everything in canon business. The Cowboys are the most profitable organization in sports. He needs another Super Bowl. Players are all different, and we celebrate that. Stan Cronky hides.

Jerry Jones wants to be on TV. Owners are all different. And we need a Steinbrenner, the late George. We need Jerry's. It's okay. Mark Cuban. It's okay to have outspoken owners, as long as they're good people we think at their core. Right.

It's totally okay to be an outspoken owner and to be involved in your organization. That doesn't always necessarily translate to winning Super Bowls, but neither does how some of players approach their careers either. So if you're going to hold players to that standard of all we care about is winning, and you have to be a part of a team and all that. And I'm not saying that Jerry won't win another Super Bowl. I do think that they're very close. Yeah, so do I.

And I don't really know exactly what is the piece. And maybe it is the head coach that's going to be the thing that puts them, over the edge. But this makes sense. Just based on everything that the Cowboys are doing, that they're making a push for a Super Bowl sooner rather than later. So the Jags are reportedly going to make a long overdue change

at the quarterback position. According to ESPN, the Jags are locked and loaded to sign Nick Foles to a multi-year contract once the league year officially begins. So that would be the Jags admitting that signing Blake Bortles. So a contract extension last winter was a mistake. Yep. He is a better thrower than Bortals. Bortals.

the better athlete, Nick the better thrower of the football. Well, they can free up $9.5 million in cap space if Bordels is designated as a post-June-first release. Oh, okay. That would spread out the dead cap hit of $16.5 million between 2019 and 2020. So they guaranteed him $26.5 million. You know what? Tom Coughlin has had a quarterback like this. His name is Eli Manning. Not Real Mobile.

throws a good ball. A few too many picks, but can make big plays in big moments. Nick's got a lot of Eli Manning. I like Nick Foles, and Nick Foles is steady, and I've never felt like Blake Bortles was a consistent enough quarterback. Agreed. And sometimes, I mean, you have a guy, sometimes you just have to pay him, so the money thing doesn't necessarily really bother me

because you're not just going to go out and find a quarterback on the street. So I don't really have a problem with him. But once you realize, even if you paid him, once you realize that this is not the guy, you got to make a change. And like you said earlier, the Jags do have players. So if they could get somebody in there that's consistent, it would be interesting to see if they can do.

And they have a good defense. I do like watching Nick Foll's highlights. He's got kind of a, he's just kind of an easy, breezy guy. Like when you watch him, he just kind of slings it. He just kind of comfortable. You don't feel, sometimes when you watch a quarterback, you feel like a level of stress. Exactly.

And there's none of that with him. Yeah. It's just kind of like I'm just playing. It's like you don't know what's going to happen. It feels like exhibition football in the Super Bowl. They just kind of doing a trick play. I'm just going to try this. It's really special.

Why not? Finally, things aren't going very well for the Lakers, losers of six of their last eight games, and their dysfunction is pretty much evidence, and the odds makers have taken notice. The Lakers now have plus 600 odds. That's a $100 wager to win $600 to make the postseason. By far, their worst odds all season.

They're staggering minus 900 favorite to win the postseason. They've lost 12 of their last 17 games, and they have the seventh toughest remaining schedule. And they've had some dog games, too. It's not like they've had a brutal stretch. They have the clippers tonight, and then they have the nuggets and the Celtics. Yeah, it gets tougher now. I was just looking at the schedule this morning.

The easy part in the last 10 days, that part's over. Well, I mean, what was supposed to be the easy part looked incredibly difficult. What's going on with the Lakers is kind of scary because I told you, the thing that I am going to just despise the most is going to be the conversation that it inevitably is going to come if they miss the playoffs, that everything the LeBron has done in his career up until this point is just basically irrelevant because he's in the Eastern Conference. It's just going to be ridiculous and we know it's coming. Good stuff, Joy with the News. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. LeBron's been the star of the NBA for 12 years. Can't really deny it. Love him, hate him, loat them. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what side you're on. You can't deny he has been the overwhelming story.

Now, the Warriors have been the best team in the last four or five years, but LeBron's been the story of the league. But there is a domino effect that happens. even with stars. And it's the big three. It happened with Aaron Rogers. It happened with Aaron. Aaron Rogers was the face of the NFL. And then hurt again, didn't make playoffs, got coach fired.

Aaron Rogers is not the lead story in the NFL. Happened to Connor McGregor. Face of the UFC. Inactivity, didn't fight for a year, had that weird bus incident. and then gets choked out in the big fight. And he's now, I don't think about Connor McGregor. LeBron's been the face of the league for a long time, but we have two of the three dominoes have fallen.

First major injury, LeBron's human. Oh, my God, he couldn't even make the playoffs. If he and the Lakers do not sign Anthony Davis, LeBron's off the front page. and outside of Tom Brady, this is how it happens even for the stars. Don't kid yourself. Patrick Mahomes is now on the front page of the NFL news. Aaron Rogers is not. Two years ago, he was the face of the league. Heard again, can't make the playoffs coach fired Aaron Page 2.

Connor McGregor was not only a fighter for the UFC. It was a face of it. Inactivity, weird bus incident, choked out in the big fight, off the front page. LeBron James, two of the dominoes are falling. First major injury means, oh God, he's aging, he's human. Oh, my God, can't make the playoffs. Check, check. There's been this narrative last couple years. Stars don't really want to play with him.

If Anthony Davis can't be landed, he is off the front page. By the way, woge today reports that Carmelo Anthony has no interest right now signing with the Lakers. Why? Because Carmelo doesn't think this organization is headed in the right direction. Okay. Not great. Outside of Tom Brady, this is how it ends. Stephen Jackson up next.

He is fired up about Luke Walton, who is not long, regardless of what you've heard for the Lakers. That's coming up. 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. Welcome back to the sophisticated wine drinking academic Stephen Jackson wearing glasses now. I really like this look. I really like this look. Tough guy going uptown.

Oh, my goodness. Let me take these glasses off. Okay. So I can't announce the other thing yet, right? That's it. Okay. Next week? Next week.

Can we talk about it? for next week. Yes. Like, you'll tell me. There's a big story going to happen with this guy.

And it's fascinating. And it's, uh, Joey knows. You can't say what it's about. You just can't say what to do. It's about the brawl in Detroit. And that,

I got to stop talking about it. Yes. Okay. Now we're going to talk about something. You have been really critical of Luke Walton. Mm-hmm. And I've said this. I'm not saying he's the best coach.

Right. But everybody was banging Eric Spolster with LeBron first year. Mm-hmm. And then everybody kind of, Pat Riley said, no, no, no, no. This kid knows what he's doing, given time. Luke Walton's going to get into our job somewhere. Yes, no question.

I'm watching the body language. I'm watching all this tape. LeBron's out on him. The body language, Stephen, I can watch a player and know he's in a guy. Then LeBron deserves some heat, never put his arms around him once this year, not one time? He could have handled the situation a lot different. I mean, with the trade and him being out and walking in the arena with wine while he was out and all this stuff. Thank you for mentioning that. Like you, with this team being so young, you can't be disengaged.

You have to be engaged at all times. He's dealing with a different monster being in the Western Conference. This is not the Eastern Conference where you can make all these mistakes and stuff still go well for you. You don't have Kyrie. So it's a different situation. And the veterans on this team is not the veterans he's had of old. Good point. You know what I mean?

One year guys, kind of quirky guys. Yep. Rondo's here and there. Stevenson's not playing as much. Javelle got up to a good start. Now you can't find him. So some of this is LeBron. You know, it isn't because he's the best player. And, you know, even you can tell against Finnings,

when he took the ball out and threw it in the back of the goal, everybody's frustrated. And losing is taking a toll on him. It's even taking the toll on him right now. And you can see it with the whole team. But with Luke, you know, when you got guys, like Mike Busley is a great player, but when you got guys like Mike Beezer that barely plays

and he's going at the coach in the media, do they have no respect for him. I've never been on the team where a guy that's not even planned has the audacity to get up and have an argument with the coach. When Mike Beasley can do stuff like that, that lets you know the team it's tore apart. Why do you think that is? Well, first of all, they don't respect Luke.

Like, it's a different time. It's a different league. You know, people always get mad when guys like me say the league is soft and it's different. But when guys like James Harden and all these guys that's in the league say it's cool, but when we say we hate them, but it's just what the stage the game is right now. Now it's softer.

It's different. Guys don't care. More guys concerned about what the game can do for him instead of loving the game. And so what you're saying, in today's NBA, players are more empowered. They got to respect the coach. It used to be, as we all grew up, coach barked, you listen. Players aren't like that. I was a better player than Rick Carlisle, but I respected him as a coach.

I listened to him because he's one of the smartest coaches in the game. We got into it, but I didn't disrespect him. and the guys that wasn't playing on our team, they was working hard. They didn't say nothing. They didn't try to overthrow authority. They didn't have the confidence to speak to the coach because they wasn't playing. When you have a guy that's not playing is at the end of the bench that has the audacity to say something to the coach, that goes to show that there's no respect for him in that locker room.

Let me ask you about LeBron. He's great. Joy and I say if he doesn't make the playoffs, it's not an indictment on his legacy. But hurt for the first time, not going to make the playoffs. And if they don't land Anthony Davis, LeBron's still great, but he kind of moves off the front page of the NBA. If they don't land AD, that means Paul George said no thanks. We hear Kauai's not interested. Does it start to, if Anthony Davis doesn't come to Los Angeles, can we now say Kyrie left him?

LeBron's not for a lot of the top players. Well, I ain't going to say him and Kyrie might be back. together. You think so? It's a possibility. But I don't think it's the fact that people don't want to play with him. And if LeBron doesn't get a championship here, it will hurt his legacy. If they don't make it to the playoffs this year and next year, it will hurt his legacy. I mean, you talk about all the great Laker players and he went there for his legacy, but all the players that's, that Jersey is retired and have statues, they want championships there. If he doesn't win a championship, it's definitely going to hurt his legacy. No, it's really interesting because everybody that's come to L.A.,

trade free agency got a ring, got something. In fact, Dwight Howard came here. It was a mess, and nobody took him seriously from that point forward. It's like, dude, you're a center. You come to the Lakers, you're irrelevant. It's not that LeBron will be irrelevant. But if you go two years at the end of it and you can't make the playoffs, let's be honest about the NBA.

May and June is when the ratings pop. And if you're not on television then, let me ask you about Kyrie Irving. I can't figure this out. So he's very talented. I'm not saying it's not. No question. But him and Kevin Durant, there is something about Instagram and the media. They hear a lot of stuff.

Kyrie Irving and the Celtics appear to be imploding. What's happening? As a former player, what's going on? Okay. For all the people that don't really understand the game of basketball, same thing Kyrie's going through, same thing's Braun's going through. They're not used to losing. See, people look at stuff and the same things go on when teams are winning.

But when they're losing, things get magnified. Like, players argue when they're winning. They have arguments in the locker room. They disagree on the court. When you were with the Spurs and you won, guys argued? They didn't argue after games, but when we went through parts of the season where we lost two or three games in a row or things weren't going our way for a week or two, guys, emotions went crazy and guys got, well, blame, I'm blaming it on you.

You need to do your job. Things like that happen when you're, losing. But LeBron's never been in this situation. Carre's never been the leader of a team where they're going through all this losing stuff. So now people are magnifying like, well, this guy's dealing with that. No, they're losing. And losing magnifies all the stuff that goes on even when you're winning. By the way, I want to shift to this.

Andre Aguadal said over the week, he said it's unbelievable to me. I mean, Steph Curry is the second best point guard of magic all time. And nobody ever talks about him. And I was saying this, is there something about Steph Curry? players have more respect for Westbrook than Steph Curry. And Steph Curry is going to win five titles and changed the sport. Why don't players give Curry more love? What players don't give him love?

Oh, come on. Every time they mention a couple years ago, Westbrook and the Bronx. It's the Warriors. People hate the Warriors, period. It's not just Steph. People respect Kevin Durant. They hate the Warriors, period. They don't talk about Clay.

Clay is the best shoot in the game. one of the best two-way players. They don't talk about him as much. You know why? Because he's on the Warriors. Everybody hates the Warriors. If I gave you Steph Curry or Russell Westbrook to start a franchise, who would you take? I'm taking Steph Curry. You are? Yes. To start my franchise. Okay. Steph Curry or Kyrie Irving? I'm taking Steph Curry. Steph Curry is the second best point guard of all time to me right now. But when Russ, if Russ continues and wins a championship or two and finishes his career with,

averaging the triple double, it's going to be, it has to be a new conversation. If it's not a conversation with, if Russ averages a triple double, finished with two championships or two MVP's, if his name is not in that conversation, it's just hate, point blank. He's averaging the triple double in the best league in the world. It's not easy to do. Last two years, first round, right? True.

That's about, but you- Alan Iverson don't have a championship. Yeah, but Alan Iverson's not as good as Magic or Isaiah. That's because he doesn't have any championships. You don't think Isaiah Thomas is held in higher esteem than Iverson? Not to me. What? Not to me.

Isaiah Thomas, best ball handler league history. He's definitely a great, but I think AI was a better player. Well, we just disagree on that. Yeah, we disagree on that. Isaiah Thomas, another guy. He played, you know, he in Stockton played in the Magic era. So it's like Phil Mickelson played when Tiger was crushing it. So people forget how great.

Isaiah was a dog. I love Isaiah Thomas is in one of the all-time great basket. football players. Best ball handler, league history. Competitor. Oh, tough. By far. Get in fights. Get in.

Oh, he was great. My type of guy. Yeah. Me too. I love you. I'm very physical. All right. Great stuff with the academic, sophisticated vino drinking Stephen Jackson.

Veno. Hour three next. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Ah, hour three. Live in L.A. What up? This is The Herd. wherever you may be and however you may be listening

live in Los Angeles Iheart Radio Fox Sports Radio FS1 I was not in Los Angeles over the weekend Joy was and it was raining the whole weekend I was told I was in Colorado I think I'm finally on board with complaining about the weather I fought long and hard to be very self-aware

that we live in Southern California but it doesn't feel like Southern California anymore it rains every day and it's chilly I won't say cold it's chilly where you were it was cold Yes, it was avalanches. Yeah. In Colorado, raising some money for cystic fibrosis, raised almost a million bucks.

Not me, but the people involved. It was amazing. By the way, Vic Sinaix nasal spray, cold and flu season. Do it, use it. Works up to 12 hours. Don't eat it. Did as a kid. Bad call by me.

Also, we're on Channel 83, Sirius XM. I'd listen, but I'm on the air right now. Check it out. We got a great show today. There are three really interesting LeBron Laker conspiracies floating around. So don't go anywhere. And best for last today, they're bronspiracies. And there's three of them out there. I buy one completely. I kind of think the second one's true. The third, I think, is a bunch of hooey. But don't go anywhere. Our bronze

conspiracies coming up in about 35 minutes also, DeAngelo Hall, all in on the beard, completely committed, talks about the NFL Combine. What did he see this weekend? First of all, two, really, really bad losses for the Lakers this weekend, Milwaukee and Phoenix. So let me start with this. You ever watch a motivational speaker like a Tony Robbins, a politician, those things called TED Talks, and people are on a stage. And they do that for a reason. Psychologically, you and I are more likely to listen to somebody who's above us.

You see this with military leaders, you see it with public speakers, you see it with politicians. and there's a reason they do that. You look up. It's almost worship psychologically. You're more willing to listen. But the most powerful moment is when one of those public speakers, I mean, the Pope in St. Peter Square, right? Out of a window up there looking up.

Most powerful moment, though, is when the politician, the public speaker, Tony Robbins, comes off the stage and engages with you. He joins you. He is now one of you. Tony Robbins does that with his speeches. About 45 minutes a rah, rah, rah, then about 45 minutes to an hour in the arena on the floor, connecting with you. That's what the great ones do. The great politicians do it.

The great speakers do it. The great TED talkers do it. LeBron James has been the best player in the NBA, I'd say, for about 13 years. He has been on a stage. Players look up to him. players listen to him. All eyes are on him. They follow him politically.

They follow him financially. They follow him professionally. But the downside to being on that stage is all eyes are on you. And there is a great burden and a great responsibility. LeBron James this year has never stepped off the stage. He's had a lousy year as a leader. Not as a player. He's still very good.

He failed to connect. He failed to engage his young teammates. He failed to mobilize, galvanize the locker room. He never made a true effort after the injury to connect with Luke Walton. One of the things we always hear about Tom Brady, every time we bring somebody on the show that's played with Tom Brady, what do they always say? He walks up to the rookies.

Hi, I'm Tom Brady. And they're like, yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. I have your jersey in my bedroom as a kid. Tom is stepping off the stage. He's connecting with you. I noticed it first with Obama about 10 years ago. I'm like, man, does that guy get it?

It's not just about the stage. It's about stepping off it. Do a selfie. Do a high five. A hug. The great ones do it and they get it. LeBron's never stepped off the stage. He's always been a great player.

And I've always loved LeBron. And I've always defended him to the core. He's actually a very good leader. Players follow him. They should. He's usually right. but he had a bad year as a leader. And that's okay.

He hadn't had a bad year as a player. LeBron's still great. But in Los Angeles, it's been a conveyor belt of side projects. I've yet to see a Laker in any of them. Not even a walk through for Kyle Kuzman, a movie. It's been joining other stars. Hi, I'm up here in the stratosphere. Look at me.

I'm a mogul. Yeah, I get it. I get the mogul stage. I started talking about it years ago. I get it. The show off stage, the win of Grammy stage, I'm kind of a mogul now. I defend it.

I like it. But this has been a really, really bad year for LeBron as a leader. His imagery with Luke Walton, distancing himself on the bench and in timeouts. That moment against Phoenix when he inbounded the ball and threw it off the backboard. Any other player in the league could have done that. But LeBron did it for the first time in his career.

It was not a coincidence. LeBron, instead of leading, was basically sending a message. I'm done. The problem is LeBron was done about the All-Star Break. Great player, great guy, a lot of great qualities, great guys around him, great brand, great net worth, great mind. There's a lot of great with LeBron. He's a lousy leader this year. Got to step off the stage, dude.

Got to be one of the peeps, dude. Take a lesson from the football guy who's got six titles. And by the way, I'm often critical of Michael Jordan. But I always felt Michael Jordan, when he was with the Bulls, he was all in. In fact, sometimes I felt Jordan was rallying his teammates against management. But he was always all in with the players. Can't just be on the stage. Sometimes got a high five and do a selfie with your followers.

Let me segue to this big football story. Oh, my Lord. Antonio Brown is just talking. He can't stop talking. Larry Fitzgerald is one of my favorite NFL players. He is on a short list of the smartest, most influential professional athletes in the National Football League. He talks, people listen. He came out this week and said, Antonio Brown, does he realize that he has to be?

it pretty good with Big Ben. Big Ben is imperfect, by the way. But you see this all the time. When people get divorced, there is obviously anger in the first couple of weeks, maybe the first couple of months. But after a while, if you keep bad-mouthing your ex, it's no longer about her. It's about you. You know, you get a divorce, her fault, she did that. She's terrible. But after about four or five months of that, your friends start looking at you like, dude, you're a loser, get over it. She's not that bad. We know her.

We like her. Antonio Brown spent the past couple weeks badmouthing Mike Tomlin, Hall of Famer. Big Ben, Hall of Famer, Best Deep Ball Thrower in the league. And this week watched him on the shop. That's one of the LeBron side projects. And he was all about bad mouthing the coach and bad mouth in the quarterback. So the last week of the season, we're going into the final game. We got a win and we got a hope.

The Ravens don't win so we could advance to the playoffs. I'm a little banged up, so I meet with Coach Tomlin. I'm telling him like, hey, man, I'm a little banged up, so I'm going to need a little time to get right. So he's like, you banged up, man, just, you know, you could just go home. So I'm like, damn, that's where we at? Damn, how are you at?

I don't have an ego because, like, bro, I'm just trying to win. We lose a game. He's like, damn, A.B. should have ran the better route. Why would Ben do that? The type of guy he is. He feels like he the owner. Bro, you threw the shit to the day. The line, out of fucking.

You need to give me a better ball. Okay, so in that room, everybody around Antonio Brown makes him feel like, man, you're landing punches. It's her fault. It doesn't matter anymore. That's landing on you. Every GM and owner in this league with all the good quarterbacks who can make you a first ballot Hall of Famer are out.

Three teams are now interested. Lousy Washington, dysfunctional Oakland. and unpredictable and usually mediocre Tennessee. Colt McCoy, good luck with that. I mean, there are stages of this stuff. And I get divorces are ugly. But you're way past the finger pointing stage. You think now you're landing punches.

Yeah, I am telling people Mike Tomlin's no good. Actually, it's pretty good. I'm telling Big Ben's a jerk. Maybe he's a jerk, but he's a Hall of Famer. Like, at some point in the divorce, okay, you did. Divvy up the furniture, you hire lawyers. But if you keep bad-mouthing people, all your buddies in the room are like, yeah, you nail it. But it lands on you.

You look needy. You look mean-spirited. You look insecure. And that may land in the room with LeBron and all the fellas, but I'm telling you how it's landing around the NFL is no, thanks. Pass. Not interested. Let him go elsewhere. Oh, by the way, in a separate interview.

this weekend. He said, but you just even need football, really. I don't even have to play football if I don't want, bro. I don't even need the game. You know what I'm saying? I don't need to prove nothing to anyone. If they want to play, they're going to play by my rules. If not, I don't need to play. Would Antonio Brown's agent,

please sit him down, stop talking, stop bad-mouthing, stop finger-pointing. You are not landing punches. You're not. No matter what your buddies are telling you. not landing punches here. You look needy, insecure, individual over team, me over we.

It's a horrible look. But, you know, it gets big laughs in the room. Coming up, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said this weekend, many of his great players are absolutely unhappy. He said it. We'll respond. That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays and Noon East.

Mr. 9 a.m. Pacific. 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 triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight, 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field

and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. 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. 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, fam? This Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast Point Game. is about defying the odds.

Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series

because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball.

Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff.

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By the way, Adam Silver NBA commissioner, a very honest guy when you ask him questions, he was at the MIT Sloan conference with Bill Simmons and they had a big hour long, sit down and a bunch of questions asked. Fascinating stuff. interesting bite, Adam Silver was talking about some of his individual players and social media and dealing with it. And here's what Adam Silver said.

I thought it was very authentic. When I meet with them, what strikes me is that they are truly unhappy. A lot of these young men are genuinely unhappy. But I think it's less calculating than a lot of people think. The reality is most don't want to play together. There's enormous jealousy among star players. First of all, the unhappy thing is not going to, you know,

It's going to a little bit tone deaf. Nobody wants to hear about a guy making $800 zillion dollars about he's unhappy playing basketball. But whatever. I will say this. When I look around the league, Dwayne Wade last year in the league looks incredibly happy. I think Clay Thompson and Steph Curry,

they're very joyful. They're happy. Damien Little is happy. Even LeBron James this year, everybody tells me how bad the Lakers are, but I saw him yesterday on Instagram. He's dancing like crazy and having a good time. I see a lot of happiness.

Nobody's perfect. I think they're much happier than the average 24-year-old in America. I think Kyrie Irving is unhappy. And that's Kyrie. It's okay. Not everybody is happy. Some people are more restless. Kyrie Irving left LeBron.

Kyrie Irving, it sounds like wants to leave Brad Stevens. When I look at the NBA, I think it's very pro player. If you can't be happy in this league, like I get baseball player who has to spend nine years in the minors being fairly bitter. I understand NFL player who gets cut. being fairly bitter. I get bitter a PGA star who is constantly having a deal with sponsors. I get a lot of bitterness in sports. Just because the guy makes money doesn't mean he's happy. In the NBA, man, it's a lot of players basically can fire coaches, can get GMs fired.

I'm told LeBron's going to hire Ty Lou. He's hiring him. Tom Brady is not going to hire the next Patriots coach of Belichick retired. I think this is a situation. I saw it this weekend with Kyrie Irving, coming out of a locker room in Boston getting upset with the media. Dude, it's going to be worse in New York. You come to L.A., it's going to be five times that. Just because a high-profile player is unhappy, sometimes there are people out there. I feel bad for them.

I'm not one of these people, but they exist. They're not happy unless they're unhappy. But I look around the league, I see a lot of happy guy. By the way, James Hardin and Chris Paul, everybody told me it wasn't going to work. And Chris Paul is difficult. Every time I watch them play, they're winning. They seem really happy. Maybe they're fooling me.

Maybe it's fake news. look happy to me. And with that NFL Combine this weekend, I want to bring on a guy who was the number one rated defensive back 14 years ago at his NFL combine. DeAngelo Hall is joining us here on a Monday in the herd. Fox Sports One distributor. By the way, if you would have played today, would you have been a big social media guy? Would you have been on Instagram? Would you have been on Twitter?

I probably would have just because that's the culture. You know what I mean? So I think I probably definitely would have fared into. to the hype. Would the hate have freaked you out? The hate? Yeah, I mean, people, everybody hates everybody on Twitter. Yeah, no, I don't mind the hate so much, but I definitely would have probably been a ham without a doubt, just posting everything, you know, because, and I like to talk a lot of trash. So I could just imagine me and Chad Johnson back in the day having a little social media award. Yeah. It would have been for really good TV.

Okay, so I remember you were the time, remember this, you were the top defensive back, the combine. You did run the 40. I did. I got talked into running the 40. Okay, tell me the story. So my agent thought it was a good idea if I didn't do anything at the combine. Because you were number one. And at the time, that's what guys did.

The top guys didn't work out. The thing was, like, let's wait and do it at somewhere where you feel comfortable. Sure. Your place, your terms. Pro day. Your pro day, exactly. And after meeting with a lot of teams, you know, I went in there and saw Dick Vermil. And Dick Ramil started, I mean, he gave me a whole big spiel and started tearing up.

You know, fast guys run fast. You don't have anything to worry about. Like, you're at this great place where every coach is here to see you run. Why would you not want to run? They start crying. And I'm like, coach I'm running. I'm running for you, coach. And by the way, you ran a great 40.

I did. I did. I ran a good 40. Wasn't ready. And I tell people this all the time, they think it was a joke because my fastest 40 was at Virginia Tech, I run a 415. Oh, Lord. It was hand-timed, but it still probably would have translated to, I don't know, to something

Yeah. Yeah. And so, but because during training, I was training in Tempey, Arizona, athlete's performance. Yeah. I was basically working through the combine. So I kept squatting heavy. I kept lifting hard, running hard because I wasn't tapering down my program where a lot of guys who knew they were running were tapering down their programs.

And I don't know. I just felt. so fast because our speed coach it came to the combine to help work guys out and warm them up. And I was just feeling so fast through the course of just warming up, working out with it. You ran the 40 in the combine, and there's

no question. It didn't hurt you. No, it didn't hurt at all. So I actually went skiing this weekend with a guy named Jordan Gross, former offensive line. Yeah. Great dude. Funny dude. And he was talking about the combine. He went number eight, and he was like, you know, he was one of those guys that, like,

what was the point? I didn't want to go to the combine, because I the best guy. Yeah. So I never, I don't, I totally get it. I don't think it hurts. Let me ask you this, though, when, like, Kyler Murray, is there ever been players that you thought maybe should do it? If you were Kyler Murray, would you do it?

Maybe not. Maybe not. If I'm Kyler Murray, no, I don't do it. You go pro day. Yeah, I go pro day. I mean, just in today's society, I probably would have done it. I would have done everything because the coverage now is so insane. Like I can't even find video of myself running or doing anything.

I think I've seen one video running. Now the whole thing's on. But yeah, now everything is on. And so it's kind of like, wow. You know, even your college pro days get recorded and somehow people get to see it. That just wasn't the case back then. So now I see this coverage and I'm like, man, I would have blew up. Like I would have vertical high.

I would have long, you know, broad jumped and did, you know, all these shuttles. I think I would have increased my stock even more by doing more stuff at the combine. So, you know, I tell a guy or kid, if you can do it and you aren't trying to hide anything, why would you not want to do it? Do you buy the Kyler-Marie Arizona rumors with Cliff Kingsbury? I do.

I do. I don't know if it's the right move for them. And I get that question all the time, what should Arizona do? What should Arizona do? And I'm like, well, you can't make that team or that offense run the way they envision it running if he doesn't have the right personnel. So if that coach feels like he's better with Kyle Murray at quarterback, then you have

to as an organization give him that opportunity to be successful. Because by the way, this is what I feel, DiAngelo, they went all in on Kingsbury. If he doesn't work in Arizona, everybody in the building's fired. Yeah. So you go to him and you're like, he's kind of the savior of the franchise. If Cliff doesn't, if Cliff wants a new guy. If he wants that guy, if that guy can help us win more games in his vision of what he thinks his team looks like, I think you got to give him, I mean, you got to give him that, you know, that option to do that. Where does Josh Rosenfall now?

Who knows? You know, I've heard Washington Redskinned rumors and I've heard other places too. So it's going to be interesting. That's for sure. DeAngelo Hall joining us. You were an outspoken player. Antonio Brown's an outspoken player. Is he helping himself hurting himself?

self? You know, because I was an outspoken guy, I always want to let guys be themselves and say what's on their mind, say how they feel. Because I was able to do that rightly or wrongly criticized for it, but, you know, if you speak, obviously someone's going to comment or respond to what you've said. And so I feel bad for him because the narrative is no longer how hard this guy works, how great a player he is, some of the things he's been able to do on a football field. That's no longer with a narrative. The narrative now is he's a bad guy. You know, he's troubled. And is it hurting him?

You know, it is. Anyone who says it's not, it's foolish because the league we play for, the league that I played in, it's it's a walk this fine line. You know, I tell people all the time, the difference to me

between the NBA and the NFL, the NBA encourages you to be an individual. Individuality is almost praise. Yeah, it's marketed. They market stars. Yeah, even from your sock length. Like, you know, if Jason Terry wants to rock the long boys, he rock the long ones.

If someone wanted the ankle ones, they were able to wear the ankle ones. If you wanted a headband or arm sleeve, like you got to go out there and really be you. And I feel like football is kind of like, that's why when I was done playing, I was almost relieved. Like, who, the pressure's off me. Now I can actually be a normal person. Like, if someone smacks me, I can smack them back, you know, and not. not get in trouble. You know, I'm defending myself.

So you did, when you were done, you, you as an outspoken athlete knew there's a culture in the NFL that I have joined. And you got to, you got to abide by the rules. Or you're going to be out. And that's the thing with AB that not makes me mad, but kind of makes me sad because, you know, he's definitely getting bad advice from somewhere, somebody. Or he has a lot of guys who aren't, you know, aren't telling him the truth. But this league is going to go on without A, B, or with A, A, B. You know, I heard the comments, he's, you know, he don't need football. I hope that's great.

You know, I hope that's the case. And if so, that's great. But a lot of guys need it. They need it financially. They need it to fill a void within them to, you know, that space. But for him to make that comment, I hope he really feels like, look, I don't need it because you don't want any one thing holding you hostage. You know, there was a time, DeAngelo. I can remember talking about you as a play.

and saying, yeah, I like DeAngelo, but is he a team guy or a me guy? Did you ever feel that your opinions and your outspoken nature, did your age and ever say, you may want to scale it back? Did you ever feel that a team bailed on you because of that? Yeah. Yeah. I think right after the Atlanta situation with Bobby Petrino and me and him kind of getting into it on the sideline, I think a lot of teams felt like, man, you know, this dude's not

very coachable. You know, I don't, you know, I don't really know about that personality. Because a lot of coaches aren't confrontational. They might give you that scowl or look at you kind of mad, but they don't really want a lot of confrontations. And so, you know, I think they felt like, man, this dude's going to be a problem. He's a head case. And at that time, I probably was a little bit.

You know, I definitely wasn't as mature as I am now. And so I was still learning and figuring it out. Right. I was 24 when that happened. And so I was still a relatively young guy. And so I was still learning as well. But yeah, I mean, it definitely, it scars you. And I mean, it took probably the next 10 years.

I played 14. It took the next 10 years for me to really kind of wipe that stench away. And even guys to this day, they meet me. And they're like, man, you're totally not what I expected, man. You're a cool dude. And I'm like, yeah. Thanks, you know, on the field, I kind of got to be a turd. You know, I'm a little dude.

Like, even looking at DK, I'm like, bro, could you imagine me going to like, come on man like that dude is huge and so if i don't think i'm going to whip him he definitely not thinking i'm going to whip him you know it's what's funny about pro sports is that in most of um like in joy in eyes careers usually about 38 to 52 is sort of your wheelhouse years where you kick butt right pro athletics is totally unfair so they take young people and say oh by the way be on your best behavior and judgment at 22 years old and by the way here's 32 million dollars No, that's what I tell people all the time. It's hard.

I mean, it's like it's literally the opposite of every other business where you can make mistakes in your 20. They're like Bob's an idiot. And then all of a sudden, Bob at 42 is a millionaire, gets money and knows how to handle it. We're asking 24-year-olds to have their life buttoned up. That's why when I sit in this seat, I try to think about that because I know what I was doing at 21, 22, 23. and if we had social media back in the day, I say back in the day 15 years ago when I first came in this league, I mean, it is a lot of guys, even further back than that.

You hear stories about MJ and some of those, you know, all-night benders. Imagine cell phones snapping pictures of him in the casino and then going out dropping 50. Like all of us would be in trouble. I remember I literally once had Barack Obama on a radio show. And the question that he gave the longest answer to, I said, you're the first president who's dealt with the anger of social media. No other president. Now, Trump deals with it. I say, you're the first president who has this tsunami of hate every day.

And he gave this really long answer. And he's like, listen, man, we always knew people were angry. Now we just see it all day. And it's social media. What happens has always been there. Now you just read it. That's what you got. That were done in the dark.

You used to be able to keep them hit a little bit longer. It'll come out in a couple years or if ever. Now it's like hours later, minutes later. It's for the world to see. Great seeing you, man. Good to see you. And I like the beard. I like the commitment.

Thank you. You're the James Hardin to this network. I appreciate it. You're a score. You deliver points. Joy with the news. No. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. So the Lakers were on the road in the second night of a back-to-back and lost to a son's team, the worst record in the NBA. And after the game, Luke Walton emphasized his team needing to create their own energy. We need to be better. We need to be a lot better. I'm happy with the fight that we showed in the fourth quarter, but that's where we're at in the season. That's the desperation that we need to start the game with. That shows me that the group cares and that they, you know, they're still invested. I'm confident. I believe in our group. We need to play a lot better, that we can get it done.

Did we put the expectations to I? I don't think we did, because I think you and I, I don't recall the shows, but I thought you and I were both in the 45, 47 win thing. I may have been higher than that. But Vegas was at 48. Vegas doesn't have the emotional, you know. I think I gave them 50 in the Western Conference Finals,

so maybe my expectations were a bit of time. Okay, but Vegas had them 48, so Western Conference Finals is a little over? Well, the thing is we forget how they were playing before LeBron's injury. And I think that the injuries are the biggest part of the story of this season. Now it's not the sexiest part. Right. You want to talk about the trades and, you know, all the stuff LeBron's doing off the court. And is Luke Wallen?

Is he staying? Is he going to be gone? But really, the injuries were the thing that affected their chemistry the most. Yeah. It was a horrible time for him to be out with the longest injury of his career. And it wasn't just him. It was Lonzo. It's still Lonzo.

It was Rondo. Huzma had some issues this year. So that, to me, is really what the genesis of all of their issues are. Yeah, I don't think LeBron has done a great job. So Stephen Jackson said he's never really embraced. And he's had, LeBron's pushed back in a lot of authority figures. He's never really bought into Luke ever. Like, I don't feel, I remember the first year in Miami.

He bumped into Eric Spolster a couple times. And the media was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The difference is Pat Riley was like, we're not getting rid of him. Right. I mean, he didn't, he didn't buy into Swelstra at first. Ever. And we all know what happened with Blatt. And maybe he doesn't buy into Luke Walton, but this year was supposed to be the year to see what this young core was and what the Lakers are going to develop into. And I think that was a big stumbling block, not to buy anyone's choice, obviously, because it was injuries. But that's what we don't talk about the most.

Since requesting a trade from the Steelers, Antonio Brown is personifying the no-year-worth. phrase and he took a step further in an interview with ESPN where he claimed to play the sport of football out of love and not necessity. I don't even have to play football if I don't want, bro. I don't even need the game. You know what I'm saying? I don't need to prove nothing to anyone. If they want to play, they're going to play by my rules.

If not, I don't need to play. Obviously, I want the game, but I don't need the game. It's a different. He's going to be on the squad next year regardless of what everyone is saying. I think it's Washington. It could be Washington. Oakland is being thrown out there. so is Tennessee. I would like to see him go somewhere with a solid quarterback

that can get him the ball because I don't want this to be the end of Antonio Brown's career as far as his production goes. He's a fun player to watch. I do think that no matter what happened, the situation wasn't fixable in Pittsburgh because the relationships have clearly deteriorated. But I feel like it's partly on the organization

to predict and to eliminate the distractions that cause those relationships to deteriorate. Like, you can't come out as a GM and call the entire squad kids. You can't do it. Because to me, that speaks to the overall mentality of the organization, that it's Big Ben and his two championships, and he can be unquestioned at all times, and everybody else is just trying to play pickup with him.

And that's not how you treat everybody. That's not a winning mentality. Like, everyone knows that different players get different treatment based off of how good they are or what they bring to the team. I mean, Troy Aiken ran. Or how much winning they've done. Right.

But everyone has to be treated with the same respect. Everything's not fair, but it's got to be respect. Finally, Jim Delaney is retiring as Big Ten Commissioner, a job he's held since 1989 and retire at the conclusion of his contract in June of 2020. During his tenure, he oversaw the growth of the conference from 10 to 14 teams with the addition of Penn State, Nebraska, and most recently, Maryland and Rutgers. And he was also influential in launching the Big Ten. Network in 2007, which was the first television network for a Power 5 conference.

Well, they've made a lot of money. He's signed a lot of good contracts. That league is done. SEC may have the most good football players, you know, if you look at the NFL draft, but in terms of ratings and relevance and income and the Big Ten is still, I mean, come on. And also, the money raised by Delaney has allowed the teams to get better coaches. Big Ten's got expensive, good coaches right now. The search process for the new commissioner will be held by Northwestern President Morton Shapiro and with the assistance of a consulting company, Corn Ferry. So he is retiring in 2020. That's a pretty good job.

Yeah. Not easy. Very important job. Yes, a big job. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news.

Okay, there are three, these are kind of fun. There are three stories. these are not necessarily being reported by major media outlets, but they are out there, they're being discussed. I would call them Bronspiracies. Some conspiracies with LeBron James and the Lakers, that Bronspiracies, three of them, that's coming up next in Best for Last.

One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart Radio app. Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Back to back, Big East matchups coming your way Wednesday on FS1. First Marcus Howard and number 16 Marquette faced off with Seton Hall. Then Jesse Gavon leads Georgetown against DePaul. It all starts Wednesday at 630 Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app.

Car shopping's confusing, new or use, a lot of different terms. Go to Truecar.com. Check out the true price. You could save 3 grand off MSRP. Good show today. Chris Broussard, Joel Clatt, Stephen Jackson was the academic, all fired up today, and DeAngelo Hall. So a lot of times I hear things, and I'm not ready to report him, and I thought today there's a couple of rumors going out in regards to LeBron in this season. And there's, I mean, let's be honest, he got hurt, he's going to miss a playoffs. They've got to make things happen.

So there's a lot of LeBron, I would call them Bronspiracies, have. happening right now. And we thought we would today attack the three bronze spiracy theories in the NBA. Number one, the Lakers are tanking for Zion Williamson at Duke. According to basketball reference, the Lakers now have double the odds to win the lottery than to make the playoffs. Zion's the most spectacular college player in over a decade. We'll go number one in the June draft.

LeBron went and watched Zion Williamson. Remember that game Duke in Virginia? Not the game the former president was there. He went to the Virginia game. And since that time, the Lakers are tied for the worst record in the NBA. Lakers are late to the lottery party. But it does appear with the luck of a ping pong So do you buy joy

This First Conspiracy? Do I buy it? No, but I do think it's very interesting and I do think that the sports world's heads would explode if this happened. Some kind of rooting for it. Yeah, I agree with you. I don't buy it,

but I do think it's captivating and it's sometimes there are just coincidences in life. People think the NBA lottery is rigged. I do not. The second conspiracy, the NBA is changing its entry age so LeBron can play with his son. A few weeks ago, the Embrye proposed getting rid of the one and done rule lowering the age limit to 18. The rule would be implemented for the 22 draft to give

teams ample time to prepare for the change is what the league said. But LeBron is here in year one of a four-year contract with the Lakers. He'll be a free agent in that summer, 2022. And his son, remember LeBron has professed many times he'd like to play with Brony Junes. junior, his son, if he graduates in three years and reclassifies, like recent players Marvin Begley, Carl Anthony Towns Andrew Wiggins have done, he'd be eligible to play in 2022. Joy to you buy the NBA changing its entry age so LeBron could play with his son. I do think it's very interesting and I do think that LeBron may do his most, do the best to try and actually make this happen. but he'd have to get all of the players in the entire league on board with this

since this has to be collectively bargained. And I don't know that everybody's just going to do him as solid just for that. But it is interesting. And that would be cool to watch. Do you think he possibly got in the ear of Adam Silver? I think he has bigger things to deal with at the moment than that. But it's interesting. It was kind of interesting, right?

It's definitely going to watch if that happens. So those are the two. Now we have one more, this theory, that LeBron is letting Luke Walton fail to get his friend Ty Lou to coach. Now, Jeannie Bus endorsed Luke Walton on January 23rd. The Lakers really have gone into the tank since 5 and 10. In the last six games, Lakers have been favorites. In the last six, they've been favored.

They're 1 in 5. LeBron's been visibly frustrated with Lute's coaching since Jeannie endorsed him. Luke Walton you can see sometimes LeBron's disengaged LeBron defensively is not the same player he's been in previous years

he left the court early Friday against the bucks and Ty Lou is the only head coach LeBron has ever handpicked and he is also available Joy LeBron letting Luke Walton fail to get his friend Ty Lou after Jeannie Bus endorsed him

what do you make of this? I don't think that LeBron is actively trying to lose, but I do think that he is making it as most visibly known as he possibly can that he is off the Luke Wall and coaching situation. You and I agree on all three of these. So if that's a soft answer. Now it's a good answer, by the way.

I mean, I do think Tylo is going to be the coach of the league. John just said in my ear, that's not a conspiracy. That's just happening. Yeah, no, no, for sure. But I don't think he's actively trying to lose on the court in order to make that happen. All right. So the first one was Lakers tanking for Zion Williamson. You don't think that's happening.

No. But you think it's interesting? Interesting. It would be amazing. Okay, I agree. Second one, NBA is changing its entry age so LeBron can play with his son. Yeah. Too many people have to agree to that for it to be something LeBron can just make happen.

I think I think there's a little something there. And LeBron is letting Luke fail. I think LeBron is doing the most that he can to make it seem like this is Luke's fault. That I agree with. And that he's unhappy with it. Those are today's Bron. Conspiracy series. We got to change that graphic to get you the tinfoil hat.

Yeah. I don't know. The staff came up with those today. We did a little digging and found them. By the way, so Peter King was on the Dan Patrick show today talking about Kyler Murray and all that stuff. You know, the NFL Combine, that's where guys, reporters go, GMs go. It's really an NFL convention. It's not just watching guys in their underwear, you know, jump.

It's convention. You hire coordinators, you fire people. You have not fire people, but you, the bottom line is it's a convention, a lot of late night dinners hiring people. And here's what Peter King said. Someone in Indianapolis told me, John Gruden is the worst poker player in the NFL. He and Mike Mayotte can talk all they want about how they love Derek Carr. And indeed, they may love Derek Carr.

But I'm telling you, John Gruden is very, very interested in Kyler Murray. Okay, am I crazy? Derek Carr has become Tony Romo. that you watch him and your eyes tell you, oh, he's pretty good. And everybody's selling his stock. Like Tony Romo was real. Derek Carr, two years ago, was 12 and 3,

28 touchdown, six picks and a 97 passer rating. And suddenly he's garbage. Would it be he's on his fourth head coach in five years? Would it be that two years ago as coordinator had never been a coordinator? Would it be his team just figured out where they're playing about two weeks ago? I mean, Derek Carr last year had career highs in completion percentage and passing yards, and that's with Amari Cooper leaving in the middle of the year. I mean, they're Jared Cook and a whole bunch of nothing offensively.

I don't get it. Like, I go back to something I believe, which is trust your eyes. Just watch body language. Trust your eyes. I always said this about Tony Romo. Tony Romo is elite. Tony Romo was absolutely one of the top seven, eight quarterbacks in the NFL when he played. I don't care about playoff stuff.

Tony Romo was very good. And the dad approved it. And he's a very good broadcaster. Derek Carr is a top 12 quarterback. Now, he made me 12, but I got to tell you, I think he's absolutely as talented as Matt Ryan. He just had a broken leg. And he was going to be running to be an MVP in 2016. If you look at the dysfunction of the Raiders, you can't tell me there's not a component,

a part of Derek Carr's struggles, which aren't at least somewhat tied to that. Two years ago, he got a coordinator who'd never been a coordinator. My eyes tell me, guy can play. Maple Leafs Flames tonight, Discover card key matchup. Get your free credit scorecard today, even if you're not a Discover customer. Include your Fikeit Credit Score. Learn more at Discover.com slash credit scorecard. Limitations do apply.

All right, good stuff today. Chris Broussard joined us from New York, Joel Clatt, Stephen Jackson, and DeAngelo Hall. The combine's fun. I don't take a ton from the combine, but I will say this. It's well covered. It's smartly broadcast. It can be wildly entertaining. I just don't think it means a ton. I mean, I want to see a game tape more than I want to see you and your underwear jumping. I don't care if offensive linemen can run. I really don't. Speak for yourself around the corner. 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

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys, this is Clever Taylor the 4th. 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? Quarterback on office blue with 42.

Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry.

You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just. basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.