The Herd with Colin Cowherd - LeBron vs. Everyone Else, The Preseason Scam, Overcoming A Pandemic

Episode Date: July 21, 2020

In this full show edition of The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Colin argues for LeBron James' greatness in the fact that he's seemingly always compared to a player whose peak came in the 1990s. Also, Colin understands why NFL preseason games are being thrown to the curb during this unprecedented time. Finally, Colin describes why it's pretty amazing to see professional sports figure out a plan to play during a once-in-a-century pandemic. Guests include: Doug Gottlieb, Jimmy Johnson, Ric Bucher and Greg Olsen. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

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

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You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening to The HARD podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1.

Find your local station for the Hurt at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the IHartRadio app by searching Hurd. Fox Sports Radio. Oh, here we go. In a beautiful Tuesday, we are live in Los Angeles. Welcome in. This is The Hurd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1, back off a four-day break.

Yesterday may have been the nicest beach day since I've lived in California. 80 degrees, nice breeze, not hot, but warm enough. You had to jump in the water once an hour. Beautiful day. Hung out with the fam. Joy Taylor is joining me. You were on the beach in Venice. Yeah, I rode the bike.

There's a really nice bike path that goes up from Venice to Santa Monica. So I go run a bike, ride up the ocean. Do you ride from your house down to? No, no, no, no, no. Okay. No, no. No, because it's fun getting down there. But once you get down there and then you ride up and back and you have to ride back,

that's when it's like, oh, this is a lot of work, actually. It's never being a leisure thing to like a serious time. I have a friend that did that two weeks ago. He showed up at my house on a bike. And I said, where'd you come from? He said, Beverly Hills. I said, what do you mean? He goes, yeah, I'm going to ride home.

We had a bottle of wine. He got back on. Bike home. Oh, no, no, no. We can't be riding bikes in Soxie. That's a bad idea. The hair cut looks good. Your hair looks good as well.

Thanks. So here we are. We got a cut, right? Yeah, I got a cut. Yeah. Very exciting time for me. So we start our Tuesday show with this. I'm from one of these cities in America.

that has been title starved. Seattle. Okay, so I grew up as a kid, and University of Washington, you know, won a Rose Bowl. Seahawks didn't do anything. Mayors didn't do anything. All I had, my entire life,

until I was like 45 years old, all I had was one Sonics championship in the 70s. I can remember it. I had, it was red hot and green, hot, and smoking. Green was the team colors. Freddie Brown, Gus Williams. John Johnson, Lonnie Shelton, Lenny Wilkins, the coach, in a Marvin Webster, Jack Sykma.

You remember that when you have won. Some of you people from Boston, New York, L.A. You've got all these titles. But for most of us, we're title starved. And when you get a title, finally, when you get a little taste of it, you binge on that team because it's all you've ever had. Kansas City is one of those towns. They've got a lot of championships.

In the last 30 years, not a lot of championships. So this year they got a little taste. We gave them a little morsel. They got, mm, delicious. Now they're binging. Now they're gorging. Now they can't stop talking about it. Chris Jones just signed a new contract.

He's got them lined up for seven more parades. I swear to God, listen to this. This is only the beginning. Be prepared to have another parade and another parade and another parade because we're going to make sure we bring not one, not two, not three, not four, but five plus rings to Kansas City. You know, it's been 50 years. The weight has been great, but the weight is over now.

And it's time to create a dynasty. Oh, you just give them a little morsel of food. And it's like, honestly, it's like my dogs. I have to give them a, my dogs go crazy. If I just lay all the food out there, they go crazy. Professional athletes and starve cities are nuts. They're crazy. Fans are crazy.

Media's crazy. They start guarantee. I'm reading Kansas City columnists. I win seven. And a player's going to win five. Fans are going to win nine. You give them. When these cities.

are starved. You give them a taste of a championship, and it's just binge eating. They just can't stop. God, I'm reading Kansas City columnists. I listen to fans. I listen to talk radio. I listen to players. Folks, I'm going to give you five real simple reasons. They're not going to win five.

Let's start with number one. The highest paid quarterback in the NFL, the last time they won the Super Bowl, was 1994. Steve Young. Once Mahomes start making money, once Mahomes starts making money, you're not going to be winning these championships.

Now you're paying Mahomes and you're going to pay Chris Jones. Offensive line's going to struggle. Secondary is going to be bad. 1994 is the last time the highest paid quarterback won a Super Bowl. And your financial structure was much different back then. Now it's harder, hard cap. Number two, his name is Lamar Jackson. When you have a well-run organization, like the Lakers when they were well-run,

and you give them Kobe, and then you give them Shaq, it is your plan for second place. They got a good owner. They got a great quarterback. They got a good front office. They got a great coach. Lamar Jackson's going to be a problem for everybody in the AFC for a decade. This is going to be a big problem.

Number three. I'm going to throw out a what if. What if Drew Locke is good? He looked good at the end of last year. Vic Fangio is the best defensive coach in that division. Easily. because the other three coaches are offensive guys. Denver has a history of being well run.

They've got two great defensive ends, and now they've got Noah Fan at Tide End, a bunch of good young receivers, two good running backs. What if Drew Lux's good? Hell, what if Justin Herbert is? We like the Chargers. Here's number four.

Is Bill Belichick still alive in coaching? Because they need a quarterback. I mean, Philip Rivers may last in Indianapolis, and Cam Newton may work in New England. But what if Belichick gets, Trevor Lawrence or Tray Lance or Justin Fields because there's not a lot of teams that need a quarterback

outside of Jacksonville. What if Belichick gets one? You know, he's always got a plan, right? You know, I can't start Cam early. I got a quarterback battle. They go six and ten, number nine pick, move up with 13 of their picks. Well, what if he gets a great quarterback?

And number five is, you do get this win in the Super Bowl's thing is hard. This year, Kansas City with a cheap quarterback, who's the best in the game, they trailed Houston 24-0, San Francisco in the fourth quarter and trailed Tennessee. They trailed in every game. They had a home field advantage, and they were trailing in games. I mean, in the history of the Super Bowl, there's only four teams, four franchises ever, Pittsburgh, New England, San Francisco and Dallas,

that have four more Super Bowls. This is what, I'm from one of these cities. I'm from one of these cities. We're titles starved. And then you put the plate out and you say, here you guys, the championship. And we eat that and we're like, we're now starving. We start binging.

We start going crazy. We can't control ourselves. We just can't control ourselves. It's like Kansas City, take a step back, take a deep breath. Lamar Jackson, Bill Belichick, Drew Locke, highest paid quarterback, Super Bowl winning is impossible. Like, you know, very few cities, like win a championship. And then like four days later, they're like, all right, we got to get working.

New York's got that. L.A.'s got that. Boston's got that. There are these cities that they've won a lot of championships. But even well-capitalized cities like Washington is wealthy and Philadelphia's got a lot of money. And Russell Wilson's unbelievable. And Pete Carroll is a Hall of Famer. and the Saints are well run

and they can't get to the conference championship and Green Bay's got Aaron Rogers in Fav and they've only got one in the last 15 years and it's just really hard. Title starved cities just don't. They just

can't manage themselves. It's just too much. Hungry for that long. Finally satiated it gets really difficult to control yourself and your emotions in your comments. And I love Chris Jones. It came on the show. I love him. And I went in five.

It's just not happening. With Andy Reed, with Patrick Mahomes, they're not winning five. If they win half of that, I'll give them three. Thank your lucky stars. You will have been given several breaks. Somebody got hurt. Somebody got fired.

Drew Locke stinks. You'll get breaks if you can get the three. All right. I heard this. So the bubble thing in the NBA appears to be working. a bunch of tests. Nobody tested positive for corona. It's like 340 tests. Nobody tested positive. So that's real good news. And everybody said LeBron's in great shape. LeBron's now, it kind of feels like we're getting close. And I'm hearing LeBron press conferences. And they set up a place to get haircuts. It's all good. So LeBron James is talking about this whole thing. He's like, you know, MVP vote's going to happen here in a couple days. And LeBron would like to win the MVP. I would vote for him. Yonah, second. LeBron was talking about the MVP vote and he said, you know, you folks, you always used to say, well, you're doing it in the East. He goes, I'm over in the West now.

And he has a right to say this. I don't want to hear about he's getting cocky. LeBron, he didn't say this to be cocky. He said it to be honest. Listen. As far as the MVP race, I think I, you know, show what I'm capable of doing, you know, not only individually, but from a team's perspective, of us being number one in the West. There was a lot of conversation about, you know,

LeBron can do those things in the East, but if you ever came to the West, what can you do? You know, so, you know, I heard all of that. And to be able to have our team at the top of the Western Conference and playing the way that we were playing at that time and the way I was playing, you know, that's definitely a good film. It has been funny. We've always romanticized how tough the East was for MJ.

and how bad the East was for LeBron James. But it's funny. I remember watching Michael Jordan on a couch with my girlfriend in Las Vegas in the 90s. And I remember I said to her, like, who's the second best player in the league? Like, Barclay? He's not as committed. Akeem? That was when like centers didn't shoot or ball handle.

David Robinson, Carl Malone, never hit a big shot I can remember. The gap between Michael as the. best player to the number two player who you know i always thought it was kind of charles barclay it was folks it was the grand canyon but when you look at lebron james now let me ask you who's the second best player kevin durant those injuries were past that prime he's never had the physical or emotional resilience of lebron james or michael step kerry love him but he's small and can't defend. James Harden, one-trick pony, average athletically.

I think Janus is good but can be marginalized. You want him taking a big perimeter jumper late? He's not going to distribute to other players. Kauai Leonard, I love Kauai. Can we be honest about Kauai? He misses 30% of the games. What is the gap between LeBron and the second best player? Forget East and West.

It's the same gap Jordan had. I mean, as great as Tom Brady is, Even in his prime, did we ever consider him the greatest? I mean, he broke into the league. It was Farrve. Then the prodigy Peyton Manning. Then you guys lectured me on Aaron Rogers, and now it's Mahomes. Well, as great as Derek Jeter is, he's not even the most talented person in his prime

on the left side of the Yankee infield. Arod was. Magic Johnson was a poor defender, not much of a perimeter player, and Magic's the third best player I've ever seen. LeBron is so good that he hasn't had to be a good. that he hasn't had a contemporary for the last eight years that compares. So we compare him to a guy that hasn't played in 20 years. That's how good he is.

We don't have anybody to argue with. And we argue for a living. Well, he's not as good as the guy that's 50. Who is great? Folks, the gap between Michael and second was the Grand Canyon. The gap between LeBron and second is Grand Canyon. It's never been about the West and the East. And I will admit, the East has some really bad owners and really sketchy general managers.

But they also have the Celtics and they had Doc Rivers and they've got Pat Riley and they've got Miami. And, you know, there's been some Eastern teams that are well run. God, look at Toronto's done the last four or five years. Excellent. So when I look at LeBron and he smirks about, you know, you told me I couldn't do it in the East and I'm over to the West. All I know is this. This is all I know. I watched Jordan sat in the couch with my girlfriend,

and I remember commenting, who's the second best player in the league? And I feel the exact same gap with LeBron and Kauai Leonard, who, by the way, his career assist average is two and a half. Meaning as great as Kauai is, you know, when he plays, he doesn't really elevate others. He's just a great player on both ends. But the gap between that and the king is the gap between Michael Jordan and Carl Malone?

Ask yourself this. When's the last time unless you live in Utah, you and your buddies told Carl Malone stories. Let's start with never and work our way from there. All right. Good stuff today. Absolutely packed. You know, when you take days off, you actually have stuff. to say during this time. So when I take four days off, I'm loaded. One of the reasons I think it's

important to push back on power. Not all the time. I think people in this country that run corporations do a lot of charities and do a lot of good stuff. I'm not one of the doomsdayers that thinks, you know, eat the rich. They're all bad people. But I do believe you have to push back on them because they get content and things are easier. They're well capitalized. And it's important to push at their rigidity and push at their power occasionally. And NFL players did a little pushing in the last 48 hours. And they got their way because they were right.

And they've always been right. And the owners have always been wrong in the NFL on one topic. And that is coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart radio app. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

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

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

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

I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up. in the chase, that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you

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Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clivert 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, this linebacker walks up to me.

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or wherever you get your podcast. So yesterday, the NFL made an offer to the players, the NFLPA, the NFL Player Association. And they said, okay, we'll get rid of all the pre-ceesies. season games. Now, for years and years and years and years, we've heard this, oh, you've got to have preseason games. They are essential. They are crucial. But the players now with COVID in all these sports, they have leverage. It's like my wife's pregnant. I'm not going to play your game if you don't improve your safety issues. Like, right? Like, I'm the one out there playing and

touching and sweating. Players have leverage. Baseball players had it. NBA players had it. And for the first time in my life, all the players have a little bit of leverage. Now, I've never been one of these anti-owner guys. You can't have a league. I mean, the XFL had to go under. Why? Because the owners are like, we can't make any money. You've got to have owners. And there's just not that many people that can, you know, buy teams. And so we have a history in pro sports. The better the owner, they hire a better GM. They don't meddle. They hire a better coach. Owners are, there's a reason, Kansas City, good owner. You know, for years and years. Seattle, good owner. Philadelphia now, good owner. Most of Baltimore, good owner. Most

of your good owners are where your good teams are because they select the people who select the people who select the players, including Patrick Mahomes. Kansas City moves up. Why? Because they have a good owner who hired a good GM, who hired a good coach, who hires good scouts. I mean, you get the way it works. And so the owners for years have been push, push, push. It's a bit yesterday the players are like, yeah, we don't want preseason games. Boom, done. There you go. they wilt it. And they were like a deck chair in the stormy seas. They just caved.

Of course they caved because you don't need preseason. Preseason is a rip-off for players and it's a rip-off for fans. For fans, when you pay for season tickets, you pay for 10 games. Two of those are pre-season. Hell, if you wanted to give them away, you couldn't. If you wanted to sell them, you couldn't because fans have figured out the pre-season's terrible. A couple years ago, the Rams said, we're not even going to play any of our good players in the preseason.

They went 8 and no to start the season. And it's also bad for players because players don't get paid in the NFL until week one, meaning they're basically college guys in the preseason. They get per diem, that's it. Probably more, but per diem. It's bad for players. It's bad optics. It's bad for fans.

It's a rip-off. And I've never bought into the argument, ad nauseum, multiple times on this show, that the sport needs it. I'm not anti-rich guy, but you've got to push back on the powerful. And in professional sports, owners have had the power for far too long. And now, strangely, due to COVID, players have some leverage. And they're getting rid of stuff that's always been a bad idea. If you love football as much as Joy loves it and I love it,

and you want to ensure football works, there's one or two things that are going to be really important. And one of them is humans are getting bigger, stronger, and faster. If you look at 1950s and 60s football, I mean, I've watched like old video of it. I think I could have played. I mean, are you getting tackled or the players just fall on you? Human beings are getting bigger and stronger and faster. High school kids now are yoked.

I watch high school recruiting video. It's scary. I'm not sure I'd want my son playing against some of these great high school players. College football? Yikes. NFL, watch out. just everybody's bigger, stronger, faster, the collision. So how do you ensure that it lasts?

Safety measures, better helmets, fewer hits during practice, and limit the number of games. Like when we play, it counts and we play. No four warm-up games. You know, I'm not a big, you want to add a 17th game? I'm not a big fan of it, and I should be selfishly a fan of it because it extends the NFL season and the NFL is great for my ratings. But if you love football, I mean, I can look at every pro league in America. I could make an argument you could get rid of six teams

and you could cut the season by a third. Baseball would be better. The NBA would be better. Everything would be better. Except the NFL. There aren't really seven teams you can cut. I mean, the small markets, I would argue right now, are more interesting. New Orleans, Baltimore, Green Bay, Kansas City.

even Buffalo's growth. Hell, you can have the NFL teams in New York. I think the small market teams in the NFL are more compelling. It doesn't work that way in other sports. The unglamorous places in the NFL are fascinating right now. The league is led by New Orleans in Green Bay and Kansas City and Baltimore. And if Indianapolis can get themselves a quarterback, they'll be a dynasty, potentially. The other thing is, I'm not a fan of having more NFL games.

but somewhere around 14 to 16, it feels right. NBA 82. How about we go 68 and call today? Baseball 162. Can we stop at 100? I can figure out after 100 games who can play and who can't. But one of the things the NFL has done really well, they don't gorge.

It's like we got about the right number of teams and about the right number of cities and about the right number of players on a team. and about the right number of practices. The roadblock to all that was always, what the hell do we do with this preseason? The games are awful. You don't even pay the players.

Fans feel ripped off. Stadiums are empty. TV networks don't like the way it looks. Sometimes you just got to push back a little on the powerful. NFL players did and not only got what they wanted, they got what they deserved. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. There's been a lot of talk about whether this season's NBA title will have an asterisk next to it. Dwight Howard is fully against that idea. He said whoever wins this year deserves to be the champs

because this will be the toughest NBA season ever. Yeah. I do the, well, it's obviously going to be the most unique NBA season ever. The weirdest. The weirdest. unique, completely and utterly difference as far as how we're going to evaluate teams going into it, how and what we can expect from it.

I did see Mark Medina and Chris Mannix posted some pictures and videos of what the NBA bubble courts are going to look like. Oh, you did? Yes. And I'm actually really impressed. So that's the Black Lives Matter that's going to be on the court. We're showing that now. And they tweeted it out and it's on their their Instagram page as well.

So this is one of the places they're playing. Yes, but if we get to the other pictures, you'll see that they've completely black, they put up really nice signage around the entire. This, this is what I talked about. I saw last week. I mean, it looks great. It looks, I watched

the, I don't even know who these guys were. I watched a bunch of guys I've never seen in my life. I don't even know what network it was on up in the 200s on my TV set. And it was, it looked like this. And I thought, oh, it's like a theater. It's like Broadway play. It looks great. It does. It looks very. It looks very, it looks very intimate.

Yes. There isn't like stands going up into oblivion that are empty. I mean, now I don't know if it's going to be comfortable if guys are falling into that, obviously. Like, that might be an issue. But it does look very closed in, which is, which is what my concern was visually for these games. You don't want to have a ton of stands.

You don't want to have big gaping spaces behind the, the hoop that caused depth, perception issues for shooters. Yes, it would feel very hollow. So this doesn't look like that at all. In fact, if there's media there, it might actually feel kind of busy. Yeah, you know, the other thing is, and a media has to understand this. Television pays for all the bills now for sports, right? With no fans, you just do whatever it takes to make it the best TV product.

So the bottom line of- That's what everyone who has come back has done. And they've done a tremendous job of it. I'm here, I'm reading all these people that are saying, I don't like the crowd noise. Folks, all these games and all these leagues now are just television. productions. That's all they are. If you got you absolutely add that's all this is now. It's not about the fans.

And for that matter, most of the leagues have kind of pushed in that direction anyway in, even changing the rules that make the products a better television product. It's just a TV show. From this point forward, it's a damn TV show. That's all these sports are. It kind of has been for a really long time. As far as the Astorick conversation goes, I, I don't know. I think we collectively decide that after we see how this all plays out.

We do have to wait and see how this all plays out. But I do think that what they're going into, I mean, so far it's been really smooth. It's just going to be a lot of pressure a few months from now. So Tyree Kill thinks that Mahomes was underpaid. Patrick Mahomes agreed to a 10-year extension worth half a billion dollars. He thinks he could have gotten even more. I'm proud of my boy Pat, man. Like, I'm really happy for him.

I mean, hell, I thought he was worth even more, you know. But I'm proud of him. I'm very proud of him. I'm proud of Chris Jones. I'm proud of just the chiefs in general, man, for getting all these deals done, man. You know, because they understand, like, right now is our time. Like, this is our window to be great for us to build that honesty. And I'm just happy to be along with them.

Obviously, players never get paid what they are actually worth. Like, LeBron can never be paid as much as he is actually worth. You know, even the salary cap, like people always say, well, baseball doesn't have a salary cap. But what that also means is there's no salary floor. So like in the NBA of the NFL with a salary cap, you have to spend at least some money. Even when you eliminate the salary cap, to your point that players never quite get it, in baseball, about eight teams decide we're not going to pay for anybody. So the salary cap may limit you at the high end, but it also forces you in hockey and basketball.

To spend money. You've got to spend some money. There's a floor. So to your point, though, if LeBron was on the open market, if Mahomes was on the open market, he's worth $60 million. Absolutely as an owner. The Dallas Cowboys, what would Mahomes be with the Cowboys?

A hundred million dollar a year player? No, I'm dead serious. Yeah, I mean, you got, yes, yes. If you could pay him whatever you wanted to pay him, the value that he would bring to a organization like the Cowboys, I don't even know if you could actually put a quantifiable number on it. So Dallas's Stadium, I think we talked about this last, I don't, yeah, we talked about this last week.

The average NFL team makes, you know, 15 million bucks a home game. The Cowboys Stadium last year, Jerry Jones made $632 million on cowboy games at home. So let me ask you, what is Patrick Mahomes worth on an open market? I'm not, it's, if Jeff Bezos can make $13 billion in a day,

I don't want to hear that Patrick O'Holmes is not worth $25 million a home game. Am I crazy? No, you're not. Because especially when you look at a team like the Cowboys, And not that he's not worth that to the chiefs, but the Cowboys are the biggest sports brands in the world, in the whole world, not just in the United States, not just in football,

in the whole entire planet. It's a global NFL brand and those don't really exist. Right. That's the one. Yeah, it would, yeah. So they're never going to get paid exactly what they deserve. I went off on the weeds there. Yeah, it's okay.

So in his first NFL season in 2011, AJ Green and fellow rookie Andy Dalton got the Bengals to a 9-7 record in a spot in the playoffs. And he is confident AJ Green is in his new rookie quarterback, Joe Burrow, and he thinks he can help the team find more success in 2020. I know the type of player he is, man. I know he's a dog. I know he's a dog for a fact.

So I'm excited to play with him, man. I'm just very just can't wait to get back out there. But I feel like when we have the number one pick and what we did in a free agency and me coming back, TV is coming back, John T, and all these pieces that we added on defense, I feel like, you know, the talent level that we have now. also is way different than we had in 2011. They are in the top 10, according to pro football focus for their wide receiver units for 2020.

God, I'm just dying to watch football practice. I really am. I'm just dying to watch. So you wouldn't watch Joe Burrow football practice? Oh, God. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think, I think Brady Tampa and Cam New England are more interesting, but I'd watch him. Listen, I, we're at a point now.

I spent the week last four days. I watched UFC. I watched MLS three straight nights. I watched about 15, 20 minutes. I appeared to be a Yankee game last night. I'm ready for sports. I hear some people saying, you know what? Sports is not that important.

Well, it is to me. I'm done. Sports is very important. I am so over watching Netflix. Like, I've seen every show twice. You know, obviously there's a lot of great storylines to this year's NFL season. And obviously Brady and Cam Newton and Joe Burrow, lots of great storylines. but it's something to actually watching something happening live

that is what we're missing. Like, I'm with you. I still have shows I have to catch up on. Like, I don't watch that much TV every single day. So I space mine out. But I'm with you. Like being able to sit down and know that the rest of the world is watching this too, the experience we have with the last dance,

like that's what we're missing. And the other thing to remember. The collective community of watching something live. Because Trump's a very polarizing guy and he's a newsmaker as a president. the cable ratings are all up over the last four or five years, right? The truth is, most of our presidents are boring. And so right now, politics has been much more interesting over the last three or four years than usual. But let's say Joe Biden won.

Joe's not a fascinating dynamic. So politics will go back to mostly being boring. Right. So if we don't have sports and we have boring politics, I'm out, I'm just sleeping, I'm napping all day. Like, what am I going to watch? I'll stop watching television Because politics is actually In the last six months

Has filled in for some of it Because it's crazy town Yeah But it's generally not crazy town I mean I could definitely use a nap On the crazy town On the politics side But I'm definitely ready for sports

To come back I could use hibernation Yeah Joy with the news Well that's the news And thanks for stopping by The Hurd Lie News I gotta get to Doug Gottlieb

He's patiently sitting in his His house So we ran along there Doug Gottlieb Jimmy Johnson legendary football Hall to Fame coach joining us next hour. Greg Olson, Seahawks, going to be a broadcaster joining us too in LA. It's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific.

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

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

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

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

because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different. different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood,

pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up guys? This is Clivert 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, this linebacker, this Lever, this Leverick This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What?

Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior.

and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery, and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace, and self-mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming.

The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and social. connected. We're becoming more individualized, but we actually need people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Doug Gottlieb, Doug Gottlieb show, Dugger on after this show on Fox Sports Radio, also fills in for me. I think he filled in Friday and Monday. I think he did, right? Is that the story?

Okay, he's nodding to me, yes. Joining me via the Coward Global Satellite Network brought to you by Mercedes-Benz, the best or nothing. Not that I don't love, Doug, but when I go on vacation, I play crappy golf and hang out at the beach. And let me start with this, is that, you know, LeBron talked about East-West. And listen, we both know LeBron's great. Is it possible that we romanticize the East when Jordan played in it? and that we're romanticizing the West for years when LeBron was in the East. The West had the Warriors and the Spurs, but a lot of Utah, a lot of Portland. What do you make of, like when LeBron kind of says, snarkily, but he kind of says, you know, you guys told me I couldn't do anything in the West.

Now I'm number one in the West. What is your takeaway on that opinion? Well, if we look accurately on what happened in the East, okay, it wasn't just that he had the best team. It's that he took Chris Bosch, the best player from Toronto, a playoff team. He left a 66th and 61 win Cleveland team. And then he joined Foist's with LeBron James. And then he eventually got Ray Allen as well.

So the Celtics age, the Raptors were done at that point in time. And the Cavaliers were done. So the East, in addition to being weak, became just one team loaded up. and everybody else was down. In terms of the West, there is a little bit of data data data in terms of the dominance of the West. But if you look around the NBA, yes, the spurs are down. But the Nuggets are very good.

Yokic is absolutely a star. Damian Lillard is absolutely a star. Let's not pretend, though, that this is the same West because the Warriors weren't the Warriors this year. The Clippers are very, very good, but the Clippers weren't trying to be great in the regular season. So there's a little bit of truth to what you're saying. The West was not its usual strength.

mostly because the Warriors didn't play Steph Curry most of the year and Clay Thompson didn't play at all this year. But the West is generally far better than the East. And what he's been able to do at the end of whatever you want to call the first part of the season, they were the best team in the NBA. I do think that deserves some kudos. So Yon has got 70 of the 20 votes for MVP from the people who were polling. 17 to 20 would take Janus.

Great player, no criticism. But Michael Jordan only won five MVPs, Phil Jackson won coach of the year. Russell Westbrook, because he rebounded well for a guard, what an MVP? What is it about basketball awards? Who would you give the MVP to this year number one? And secondarily,

why can't they get their awards right? They feel romanticized more than reality? There's several part question there. Without getting into why they can't get the MVP right, I think the easiest answer to that is, you know, it's the, it's the old Bill Clinton, all that depends on what your definition of is is, right?

Like, to me, it's LeBron James this year. And honestly, I don't believe it's actually close. And I'm not even factoring in his age. I don't think he's the best pure basketball player in the NBA. I don't think that, you know, if you line him up on a given night, he can go by his guy. There are nights in which he doesn't have it. But if you want to factor in leadership, true leadership. Consider this, Colin, at the end of last season, Magic Johnson quit. At the end of last season, they fired Luke Walton, and everyone said, hey, you got to hire Ty Lou. That's the only guy that LeBron can trust. So they didn't hire Ty Lou, and then they hired Jason Kidd to be an assistant. Well, that won't work. He's going to undercut Frank Vogel. Oh, you can't sign. You can't make that trade. You know, you can't trade away all your pieces to get Anthony Davis. You do. And then, well, you

You have to have Darren Collison as a point guard. Well, he doesn't want to come out of retirement. And then you have to have, Avery Bradley hasn't been very good. Kyle Kuzva hasn't had a very good year. He's been injured, and then he's been up and down. And with all of that said, LeBron James has risen this team to arguably the best team in the NBA, or at least the best team in the West. And while he's not the defender he used to be, he, as the fifth best defender at times on the floor,

leads, talks his teammates, understands angles. Same thing offensively. While he can't bring it every night or throughout 48 minutes of a game, he gets Anthony Davis going early because he knows he can carry the team late, but he won't have any gas in the tank if he carries him in the first half. I think what LeBron James has done this year has been his best season of leadership. And some of that was he was a terrible leader last year. When he got hurt, he checked out.

He comes in with a wine glass. Like he deserves the blame. If what Frank Vogel said yesterday or the day before, which, No one affects winning as much as LeBron James. That's true. That means he sucked last year. But he's rebounded. He's turned this franchise around.

And you could go through chapter and verse of so many of the decisions they made that people said, well, that won't work. And they did. They have worked. And I think he deserves the credit. He is the MVP. Janus is more in as athletic prime. He can do some things that are just remarkable.

They built the entire team around him. And the bucks are better this year than they were last year. And he has better stats than LeBron. but LeBron has been the MVP, his value, his intangibles, his leadership is the biggest reason the Lakers are where they are heading into whatever we want to call this version of the season. But you and I tend to be, I would say, pretty reasonably close on how we see sports. We're not anti-owner. We're pro-capitalists.

Like you've got to have money to have teams. But I do think it's important to occasionally push back the powerful. And the NFL owners for years, oh, the value of preseason. The minute the players are like, we're not playing if they caved on it. And I do think the pre-season is a rip-off for fans. It's bad for players. It's not good for networks like ours. I don't think it's necessary.

I never have. I don't get it. The athletes are bigger, stronger, faster, the collisions are worse. Don't give me games that don't matter. Let's get in and out of these seasons, less hitting at practice, make the games count. That's how I've always seen the preseason your thoughts. Well, I differ from this opinion. I do think that you need some either live scrimmages or some exhibition games.

You need to feel real, whether it's for the rookies or for new teams, new offensive lines. Like, let's be honest, we all romanticize college football. And then you go back and you watch those early season games, like, ooh, they're not very sharp. And they've had spring football, which is they have a live football game. They have a lot more practices. But if we want to get down to it, The future of sports in the short term and maybe the long term is cut out the things that don't make any money, right? Minor league, minor league baseball is not happening this season, and I don't know how much of it comes back.

We'll see what happens with the G League if and when it comes back. And normally the preseason makes a ton of money, not just for the owners, but for the players because they split the football profits. Well, there wasn't many fans in the stands. So they're going to lose money. So you get rid of it. It's a very, very easy proposition. I don't think this was done for any other reason other than it was a money loser. And we get rid of it because if you don't have fans in the stands, yeah, you make a bunch of money on the TV side and the radio side and the digital side.

But you're going to lose money because you still have those stadiums. You're still carrying that debt service. And what can we cut out that loses money and nobody really wants? Preseason is the easiest answer. By the way, zero positive tests out of 346 players tested for Coronus in the Orlando bubble. We've only got about two and a half minutes left, two minutes. Yes. I was making this argument this morning on the morning meeting.

NBA travels a schloid. I mean, it's get on a plane at 1145, fly into Cleveland, bumpy flight, then get in a van, then go to a hotel, five and a half hour sleep, shoot around, get up, nap. And I was saying, can I make the argument? The bubble is a Ritz Carlton all day long. and that NBA players stay in their rooms during the travel of the season and play Xbox and just avoid the, you know, basically they get in their room and they hide.

And I was saying to a friend yesterday, I was talking, I'm like, in a weird way, this is the easiest. The bubble, if you could do this all year long where you just stayed in a bubble then just occasionally saw your family that we're overstating how brutal the bubble is. Yes, we're overstating it.

There's this massive freakout factor. Two things here real quick, because I know you've got to go. One, players are, safer in any of these bubble environments than they are at home. The college football writer that decries these college kids that come to campus, better medical care, better treatment, and less likely to contract coronavirus. And if they get it, they'll be quarantined smartly. As for the NBA, yeah, some of these guys have had it and they've been quarantined.

Russell Westbrook's, you know, there. And eventually he'll be cleared. I think the big challenge, though, Colin is, look, man, you get to that two, three week, four weeks around the same dudes. without a chance to break away and be a guy, you're going to hate your best friend. Look, you and I, you know, with your ex-wife, we took a trip, okay, cross-country, flew to Vegas,

drove to San Diego, stayed in the beach for a week. By the end, we didn't talk for a month afterwards. Can you imagine? I do think when we get to the end of the playoffs, a team gets up three games and none, that fourth game is going to be terrible, and I think there will be some chemistry issues because it's just not natural to stay in a hotel for two or three months.

Yeah, good stuff. It was a nice trip, but we just couldn't stand each other by having it. Hey, I got to criticize you for a second. You tweeted about Bosch, the TV show, Bosch. Yeah. Yeah, I lost basically my night's sleep last night because I watched four episodes. I love Bosch. You ever seen Bosch?

It's very good. It's very good cop show. It's really, it's not overly, it's very good. It's incredibly well written. Bosh. All right. All right. Amazon.

Yeah, Jeff Bezos, take more of our money. Doug Gottlieb, good stuff. Yeah, Bosch is the cop show. been watching about two or three years. My wife showed me it really good. Kind of gritty. It's basically about a renegade cop who shoots too many people. But he's a good guy. He's a good guy. He just has a propensity to, you know, shoot too many people. I'll look into it. I'll look into it. That wasn't really a very good description. Yeah, it's a terrible description. He's a good cop with a good heart, but he's a little bit of a renegade. But it's mostly, you know, a lot of it,

makes for good copery. Okay. He's just a little on the aggressive. This is not the pitch. I think like when you thought about how you were going to pitch this show to me, it's not coming out how you think it is. Hour to Jimmy Johnson next. That was a terrible pitch.

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. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? When Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at a podcast.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we picket here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know. At this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed, correct. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line.

We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapy. Kier Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth,

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

What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 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. A rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Gorsha accusing Kelly of sleeping with a merry man. They holding Kay Michelle back from fighting Drew. Pinky has financial issues. I like the bougie style of Housewives of Housewives show. I think it looks like it's going to be interesting. On the podcast, Reality with the King, I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real Housewives franchise, the drama, the alliances, and the team everybody's talking about.

As an executive producer in reality television, I'm not just watching it. I understand the game. As somebody who creates shows, I'll even say this. At the end of the day, when people are at home, they want entertainment. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Ah, here we go, Hour 2. The host who can't really describe his favorite cop show. Live in L.A., it's the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening, IHart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Yeah, I just gave the worst description of a police show ever.

I named all the problems with current police issues in America and said, I just love this show. And Joy pointed out, I just didn't sound like. the show I'd really like. It doesn't. I've heard of it before, though. Bosch. Yeah. I think, didn't you post

that you were watching it the other day? Yeah, yeah. It's on the Amazon? It's on Amazon. Yeah. Well, we were talking about this. The interesting thing about the shows today is with this OTT

or these subscription-based services, HBO for years, Amazon Prime, Hulu, all this stuff. Right. Is that the shows, shows are different now. You can tell stories. Because if you have me as a subscriber, it doesn't, you don't have to,

it's not joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke. You can tell stories. stories. So there's a lot of episodes now happening on all these services that are set up episodes where it used to be until about five years ago, if you did a show on television, you have to deliver that night or I turn it off. And the ratings go down and that's bad for everybody. Yeah. For linear television, you don't want to lose people in commercials. Right. And you don't want to lose people night to night. So it has to be, that's why there's so much action. And every show jumps the shark. Right. With linear billions has episodes that are just set up episodes. Well, yes. We were saying true

detective, season one, the first four episodes are extremely slow. They're just set up episodes. But then there's an incredible payoff, but you just got to push through. You love mind hunters. Which the first two episodes, I love them, but I've pushed this on everybody, and they're like, I can't get... Yeah, you pushed it on me, and I watched the first two episodes, and I

was like, Colin clearly naps a lot because this is the slowest show ever. So if I push through to the next few episodes, it's going to pick up. Yeah, Jason Whitlock told me to watch The Wire. That's what I'm watching right now. Okay, so the first couple episodes are just Snoo's City. They're set-up episodes. But I know

for a fact how good the wire is. So I've already committed through whatever setup needs to happen. Yeah. But it is a different world we live. And the sensibility now for these is we're... And that's why there's such amazing, compelling characters in writing, because they don't have to go over the top the first episode

with a shock factor every single... You get incredible depth of characters. You don't need a cliffhanger after every episode. Sopranos was the first to do this, where Sopranos would have episodes, oh, they were just a set-up episode. Yeah. But Sopranos, even it was Soprano's ability was you were such a fan of the show that you would just go an hour on Sunday and realize

the next one will be unbelievable. But it's just a different way to watch television. It's not like joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke. You're setting up one big long joke in a comedy. Or just action and then ridiculous cliffhanger at the end of every episode so that you come back to watch the next one. They don't do that anymore.

Yeah. So you just have to get used to it. That's Joy Taylor on radio. So I was thinking about this this morning. You know, the... Everybody could complain. I never got the best support. I mean, I just didn't.

I always said, Magic Johnson is the outlier in the history of sports. He inherited Kareem. He got Pat Riley as a coach, and Jerry Bust may have been the best owner. And then they drafted James Worthy. It's like Magic got everything, and he got it first day. He didn't have to wait for much. You know, Michael Jordan had to wait years to get Pippin and Phil Jackson. LeBron had to wait seven, eight years, so he could go to Miami.

It's very rare. Tom Brady was very lucky. He got Belichick. He got the right owner. He got a great defense. They had good running games. He had great coach. coaches. That doesn't happen very often. Who has support and who doesn't? And, you know,

one of the debates on this show with quarterbacks, I'm a Russell Wilson fan, most of America is an Aaron Rogers fan. Now, they're both great and they're both going to make the Hall of Fame. But there has always been this argument, and I don't even think it's disputable, that Aaron's got no support and Russell's got everything. Now, I do believe Russell's first two years in the NFL between Marshawn Lynch and that defense, it allowed Russell to slowly move into a command role of the team. But Aaron Rogers also sat for three years and didn't do anything his first year in the NFL in terms of wins.

So he had some lead up and help too. But it's interesting what they've become. It's interesting what they've become. And Jimmy Johnson, Hall of Fame coach joining me in eight minutes. This morning, pro football focus, they've been doing all these lists. They rank units. they rank defensive lines in the NFL. Green Bay is five.

That's what Aaron has. Seattle is 32nd. So now Russell Wilson has not only the 28th best offensive line in the league. All of us would acknowledge it's a grease fire.

Has been for years. He now has the worst defensive line. So who doesn't have support? Let me ask you, is Seattle well run or like I've been saying, as joy as my witness for over a year, Russell Wilson's just saving a bad franchise.

They're not well-run right now. Aaron Rogers not only has the fifth best defensive line and the fourth best offensive line, he has a number one receiver, DeMonte Adams, a star. He has a number one running back. Aaron Jones, star. He's got a new offensive-minded head coach

in a league which is clearly rules and legislation are benefiting offensive guys. Who has help and who's? doesn't. Calm, that's not fair. Green Bay Packers drafted a guy who's not even going to play this year, Jordan Love with their first pick. Oh, that's interesting because two years ago, Seattle drafted running back Rashad Penny. He's a bust. He doesn't play either. 33 yards a game, no starts. But Jordan Love will not influence a single game for Rashad Penny has no starts as a first round picket running back. The position in the NFL easiest to go college to pro.

By the way, last year, they drafted L.J. Collier. 11 games. Three tackles. He appears to not be able to play either. It's funny who we say have support and who doesn't have support. Aaron had more than you thought early. Russell has virtually none now. He is saving this franchise. They don't draft particularly well. at the top of the draft. They can't build offensive and defensive lines.

By the way, a great owner passed away. The current ownership group doesn't necessarily want it. Who's got support and who doesn't? So LeBron James, we talked about hitting a lot in the first hour. That's what you do when you wait for games. Was talking about the West and the

East. And, you know, he made a comment about, you know, you people were dogging me for years about playing in the East. Now I'm in the West and we're the number one seat. Here's LeBron. As far as the MVP race, I think I, you know, show what I'm capable of doing, you know, not only individually, but from a team's perspective, us being number one in the West. There was a lot of conversation about, you know, LeBron can do those things in the East, but if you ever came to the West, what can you do? You know, so, you know, I heard all of that.

And to be able to have our team at the top of the Western Conference and playing the way that we were playing at that time and the way I was playing. that's definitely a good film. By the way, one of the reasons I don't hold LeBron to some unrealistic six-for-six championship model, one of the things that's been overstated or overlooked, the reason Michael Jordan was six-for-six in finals because he couldn't get past Detroit and Boston for years. So by the time he did get to the finals,

he faced an old Lakers team and teams that never won a title. Utah, Portland, Seattle with Gary Payton. The problem with LeBron, of course, is he keeps getting to the finals and losing the dynasties, the Tim Duncan Spurs, the Steph Curry, KD, and Clay Thompson Warriors.

The truth is, LeBron did get some breaks, but so did Michael Jordan. Remember, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and the Pistons got old. Michael couldn't even get to finals when they were closer to their primes. Yes, Tom Brady got several breaks. One of them, the Colts and Peyton Manning, were moved out of the AFC East by year number two. Tom Brady is only four and four in his eight road playoff games ever.

Think about that. That's it. He's a 500 quarterback on the road. That is it. Yes, Tom would still be great, but he wouldn't be as dominant. But the truth is, Michael Jordan got breaks too. Everybody got old. And all the other teams' mobility wasn't as crucial, as vital, and as dynamic as it was years ago.

You kind of had what you had. The reality was Chicago had better players, a better coach, a better duo, despite Jerry Krause and his issues, probably a better front office. and all the guys got really old, really fast, and Michael stepped in. All right, Jimmy Johnson's around the corner. Also next hour, Greg Olson, Rick Buecker from the bubble. I was saying this with Doug Gottlieb. Not that I don't think being in the bubbles hard,

but NBA travel is a total schloid. Baseball travel, you go to a city for three or four days. You take golf clubs. I mean, you take golf clubs. Pitchers will go in a road trip, knowing I may not play. In the NFL, it's eight road games. Your brother Jason, I mean, it's eight road games.

And by the way, September, October, weather's nice. Go in Saturday night, have a nice dinner with a team. And you play and you're on the flight home. Basketball travel is game over at 940 on a plane by 1110, fly into bumpy Cleveland in the winter, get into a van, van to a hotel, check in, go to your room, try to fall asleep, some do, some don't. Get up five hours later.

Shoot it around. Go back to the room. it, nap it, eat a piece of salmon, go to the game, rinse and repeat, 41 times. The NBA bubbles a little bit of, I don't know, heaven. NBA players don't really go out on the town. They really don't. That's why they all love coming to Los Angeles. Because with the Lakers and the clippers, you often play both teams.

You get like an extra night in L.A. to, you know, have dinner in a city that's not nine below. The truth of the matter, the bubble is actually, according to the world, to two people I know in it. It's pretty slick by NBA travel standards. Now, by September 1st, I think it's 14 of the 22 teams, boom, they're gone. Now, September on, there's going to be some fatigue. But if you look at how awful NBA travel is, and it is not great, I think the first four to six weeks of the bubble, it's going to be okay.

It is, they're bringing the food to you. You're not in bands. You're getting great sleep. The NBA players during the season are not out on the town. They're in a van down by the river at 2.15 in the morning in Cleveland, in Memphis, in Houston, in Dallas, in Portland. It's raining. It's wet. So the life of the NBA players on the road to me is the worst by far.

And that's with Mark Cubans, great owners, take care of their players, Steve Ballmer. with that, I think it's tedious. NFL guys, they like getting out. It's fun. Eight road trips. It's like a camping trip for two days with the boys. Baseball, you take your golf clubs. NBA Schloid.

This was Oklahoma City Thunder Center, Stephen Adams, talking about the bubble. Let's be clear, mate. It's not Syria, mate. You know what I mean? Like, it's not that hard. It's not that difficult way. You know, I mean, it's...

We're living in a bloody resort. Everyone's got to complain. Everyone has their own preferences, mate, but, you know, it's not, it's not anything too serious. It's just a bit of a bit of dry food here and there. Dry food here and there, mate. Jimmy Johnson, the Hall of Fame football coach, joining us next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app.

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only on Fox in the Fox Sports app. One of the people that works on NFL, Fox, Jimmy Johnson, a hall to famer, multiple Super Bowls, national champions at University of Miami. And Jimmy is one of those guys that every Sunday when I come to work during the football season.

Jimmy's the first guy in the building, just like he was his coach. And I've always gotten smarter with Jimmy. I'll ask him a question. He knows everybody. He's got an explanation. And we only get him a few times a year on this show.

And I love when I get him. And we're going to bring him on and be the Coward Global Satellite Network. I imagine he's down in the Keys. He's got a beautiful place in the Keys. He's in his coach's office. You're in the Keys, right? You're in the Keys?

Oh, without question. I don't leave the Keys. And as I go to L.A. Yeah. So I'm going to start with this. The cowboy negotiation with Dak, as a coach, were you ever, whether it was with Jerry, Wayne Heisinga, was there ever a negotiation and you're a coach and you'll want something? Are you banging on the table to your owner? What do you think Mike McCarthy's going through? He needs a quarterback. I think he probably likes Dak. Is it a tough position for a coach to be in with an owner who's like, I made you a good offer? That's what it is. I really didn't get into anything. You know, that tragic. Of course, we wanted to sign Emmett, you know, to a long-term contract. He held out a couple of weeks, and that was a little bit frustrating,

but we got it done, and we ended up winning the Super Bowl. One time, Jack Del Rio, when we had the Plan B, a free agency, I exposed him in Plan B. I didn't think he'd leave because we had a great team, and I thought I had a good relationship with Jack, and he was upset that I exposed him on Plan B, so he left and went to Minnesota. So that, you know, that was disappointing.

Had I known he was going to leave, I would have not exposed him. Right. There was a couple of them, but for most part, it was pretty smooth throughout my career. Do you, when you look at the DAC situation, I think he's a good player, but I always have, I always have this rule in my head that you play great.

you pay great money for great players, but you get into trouble when you pay great money for good players. That's trouble. And my takeaway is, Dax's a good player. Good player. Do you think Jerry made a mistake not giving him a long-term deal? Colleen, I think he tried to give him a long-term deal.

I don't know who actually fouled up the thing. Was it the agent? was it Jerry, was it Dack? You know, Jerry is a hard line negotiator. And I think because it is a new head coach, McCarthy, I don't know how much McCarthy loves Dack. And so I think it's a weight and seed type process. Let's see how he plays this year.

But I just think that they didn't want to overpay. They didn't want to pay him like a Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, they wanted to pay him like a very, very good player. That's what he is. He's a very, very good player. He's a great leader. He's a great person. But it's a wait-and-see type process this year.

You know, one of the things you told me about Belichick years ago that you really were impressed with Belichick is his ability week to week to change the game plan, to be very flexible. And so I look at Cam Newton and I think, well, I mean, Belichick will just switch stuff up. It'll move the pocket. You think it's going to work? Oh, I think it's going to work as long as Cam's. stays healthy, I think he's

going to be very exciting. Josh McDaniels is going to work with Cam. They can do all kinds of things. Of course, Josh had Tim Tebow. You know, they're in Denver. So, you know, he can do some little running style type thing.

And Cam right now looks to be healthy. I know that Josh has had some conversations with Norb, you know, and Bill, you know, has had conversations with North Turner who worked with Cam. So I think everybody's on the same page. And they're going to throw him out there and just see if he can make plays. And I think he'll make plenty of plays. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. The Brady move, because I

haven't talked to you since then, the Brady move to Tampa's interesting in a couple of fronts. Tom, you know, like you, when you would add your success at Miami and then in Dallas, there's an expectation. Tom's been great forever. And he does things his way and he's pretty darn rigid about it. Now he goes to Tampa and they haven't done squat. And he's going to bring that intensity into Tampa. And I just wonder when you bring that intense guy into a building, if Tom may not, you know, Jimmy,

Tampa's easy living, beers at 4.30. Bruce Arias? Yes. He's not going to be there at 10 o'clock at night. I promise you that. So I do wonder about Tom, and embrace it is the wrong word. But once you've been successful, Jimmy, you kind

of bring that New England thing down to Tampa. Could it rub people the wrong way? I think the expectations are probably a little bit over what they should be, but they are a very talented football team. They've got great receivers. I think Brady will utilize those offensive players, and they will be explosive offensively. I think he will protect the ball,

the one thing that Winston did not do. And then, you know, the one thing that's overlooked, you know, Tampa's got an outstanding defense. They've got a great defensive coordinator. And so they're going to have a very good football team. Now, are they good enough to win at all? I don't know that they're good enough to win at all, but they're going to be very good, very exciting.

You know, Jimmy, when you look at dynasties in sports, you know, we were talking about this, they almost never materialize. Seattle didn't. Aaron Rogers didn't. You had one that worked. And Kansas City now, everybody's decided they're going to win six Super Bowl. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down on this stuff.

If you could sit down with Andy Reid and say, Andy, I built a couple dynasties, one in college and one in the pros. Here's a couple of things to be worried about. What would you give Andy Reid as a mentor if he asked? A couple of things that dynasties aren't as easy as you think. I think Andy right now has an open highway to have a dynasty because he has a team that's the strength of the AFC. He's got the two major ingredients, a great coach and a great quarterback and not just a great quarterback, the best quarterback. Now, the one thing that I would say for all those things, the strength of the NFL right now is in the NFC. The NFC has about three or four teams that are good enough to win it all.

The AFC, it's Kansas City. The two things that I would say is, you know, hey, you've got the coaching, you're at the quarterback. The one thing that every coach in this league has got to look at right now, with some of the knuckleheads that they're coaching, it's going to be, yeah, they're going to be easily distracted. Distracted by COVID-19.

Distracted by social injustice. There's a lot of different things happening. So the biggest, you know, hurdle for any coach right now is to have his teams focused on football. I would have a couple of, two or three people in my organization that worked daily on giving them a roster, having them a sheet every day. Here's what you've got to do today, you know, testing this, do this.

So that they won't have to worry about those things and make sure that you keep your players focused on football because they're going to be easily distracted. Well, yeah, and the endorsements start pouring in and the opportunities start pouring in. Now, the preseason, owners have said preseason, we'll get rid of it. it. Now, coaches love the preseason. And certainly, the bottom players on the roster, I think it's bad for them, for a guy trying to make the league. But Jimmy, you were known, when I've asked other coaches about you, they always say, Jimmy was a great personnel guy. Jimmy could spot talent immediately. So I would argue this, Jimmy. How many darn preseason games does Jimmy Johnson

need to be able to tell that corner can't cover and that tackle can't block? Why do you need four preseason games. I hate it preseason. As long as everybody's playing by the same rules and not having preseason, I would have been happy not having a single preseason game. Give you a little story. We had our first preseason game when Eric Williams was a rookie, third round pick from Central Ohio.

And so I asked Tony Wise. I said, Tony, I said, you know, we need to put Eric. up in their starting position at the starting tackle. And he said, he's got to earn it. He said, coach, he said, you know, Kevin Gogan is really a solid tackle. And, you know, Eric hasn't, he's just a young rookie. He hasn't beaten him out. And this was our first preseason game.

And I said, well, isn't it inevitable that Eric's going to be the guy? And Tony said, well, yeah, I guess so. I said, okay, put him in the starting lineup. You don't need preseason if the guy's a player. Now, we did move Kevin Golgan. We said, well, hey, I think Kevin might be one of our five best. And I said, well, move him to guard. He said, moving to guard, he's 6'7.

I said, I don't care if he's 6'10. Move him to guard. He's one of our best players. Turned out to be a good move. Yeah. So I love this. You're the only coach I've ever heard that didn't like preseason. I think you're the only one I've ever talked to.

I was bored. I was bored in preseason. You know, people weren't trying to win. You know, we played in Tokyo, and I pulled all my players out after the first quarter. And so Jerry Jones got so mad because we lost the game to Houston. And I went to the airport and he wouldn't speak to me. I asked his wife, Gene. I said, Gene, what's problem with Jerry? Oh, he's upset. So we got back to down. He wouldn't speak to him. me the entire plane of a trip back to the states back to Dallas from Tokyo. And so I went in his office and said, Jerry, what's the problem? He said, Jimmy, he says, he said, you know, they had one of those big, big dolls that they gave to the winner of that ball game. He said, and Bud Adams got that big old doll. He said, and they gave me this little old tricket doll. He said, you know, they said, runner up. He said, I wanted that big doll. So after the season was over with, and we won the Super Bowl, I walked in at Jerry's office, I said,

Jerry, you got that Lombardi trophy. Have you really had that or that big ball? I love your stories. Jimmy Johnson, you still look like a million. Have you gotten fishing today yet? No, we got bad weather right now. In fact, I thought the weather was going to mess up by Internet. But I didn't fish today, but I will.

I go lobster in here probably next week. All right. Great seeing you. Look fantastic. Okay. Good talking with you. All right. Jimmy Johnson, Hall of Fame coach. You know, it's funny. That's a totally true story. And you and I were listening to that story. We were laughing. We were like, did Jerry Jones really got all worked up over that?

Well, the way Jimmy tells stories, you can visualize it. You can visualize that actually happening. And I can visualize Jimmy going into his office and saying, is he this Lombardi trophy? Is that beat the doll? Right. Which would you rather have? God, that's so funny. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. It's interesting that Jimmy hated preseason, though. I wonder if because there really was no opportunity for preseason to go away, that there was a little bit of lip service about how necessary preseason was, and more people are going to be honest about how unnecessary preseason was. Well, I think the Rams two years ago really joy, I mean, I never liked preseason, but when the Rams said none of the starters play.

And you weren't on the show yet, but I remember thinking, ooh, they'll struggle early. And then the Rams went 8-N-N-O and you're like, okay, it's a big waste of time. And the Rams ended up that year being bizarrely healthy. I don't think it's a waste of time for fringe players and for rookies. But how much value does that have to the end of the season, which is what we talk about, right, the playoffs, like that success.

How long, here's my thing. how long do you have to, if I gave you a tape of somebody, and I said, Joy, we're thinking of adding somebody to the show, how long would you have to watch that tape to be like, he's not good enough or he is? I mean, because you gave it to me and asked me to watch it, I'd probably get through two minutes. But if I said four minutes, you can tell, got it or not.

I mean, that's why, that's why reels are only three to four minutes. So resume reels in our business are three minutes. Yeah. You can kind of tell. You watched American Idol. I watched it. You are 30 seconds in and you're like, he can't say. What did you mean say? If he can play, he can play. Like, you know who the guys are. And you can spot it fast. And there's mistakes that are made during the regular season all the time. I'm, I'm looking forward to not having preseason.

I'm with you. I've always hated it. So the Lakers have a firm hold on the top spot in the west with a five and a half game lead over the Clippers. It's a lot closer at the bottom of the division in the race for the eighth seed. And Danny Green has one team he would rather not face in the first round. No one say that we fear anybody. But if we would, you know, to choose to have a first-round matchup, I think, you know, we probably lean towards away from Portland. Yeah. In the fact, you know, they have more experience.

They have Dame, they have CJ, guys that are sclergoe over greatly and have a good, they have a lot of threats and a lot of experience. Not saying those other teams don't have threats, but they are the younger. Memphis is very young. Everybody wants to see the New Orleans matchup. The other two teams are very good, but Portland's probably said more of a threat to us because of their experience. Yeah, they also have Damian Lillard.

Yeah, he said that they have CJ, they have Dame. Charles Barkley also said that the Blazers would upset the Lakers if they play each other in the first round. Oh, my God. Oh, that would just be... I mean, the experience factors is true. The other teams that would match up with the Lakers in the first round if kids shake up. Or, yeah, are guys that do not have a lot of playoff experience on their roster, if much at all. Portland's got nothing to lose.

Total house money. You play a little different when you don't have any expectations on you. No question. And in this particular situation, is so unique. Who got hurt for the Lakers? Who opted out for the Lakers? Avery Bradley, great defender. What's the Blazer strength?

Two great scoring guards. So what they're saying basically is Danny Green didn't want to chase, he didn't want to chase Damian Liddard and C.J. McCollum all over the court for 42 minutes. I can't wait for NBA to come back to see how everyone looks. But like this situation being as unique as it is, I don't know if I've ever been so excited for the playoffs to start

because in normal life, no pandemic, we know who's going to be in the Western and Eastern Conference finals. We pretty much know who's going to be in the finals. I mean, especially with the Warriors the past couple years, you just have an expectation of who it's going to be, and you're right, because who can take them down. Right. It's just so wide open.

It's just going to be such a unique situation. So it's kind of hard to believe that Cam won't be the starting quarterback for the Patriots when the season starts, but Peter King thinks there are still some obstacles in front of Cam if he's going to be the starter week one. He said, I disagree with those who think Newton's a lot to start opening day. I think he probably will start, but consider that Cam Newton has never had one install session with Josh McDaniels, has not played fully healthy for 21 months and has had two significant surgeries in that time, then throw in the fact that Patriots have never had him on a practice field, there's a lot to overcome.

Yeah, that part's indisputable. It is. It's a weird situation. It is a weird situation, but I'm going to lean on the fact. that Cam Newton while getting into a new system is a nine-year NFL veteran, and Jared Sidham does not have really any live NFL experience. So while he may be in the system, he may know the system very well, knowing something and studying something and actually going out there and doing something are two different things.

So to me, like, as long as he's healthy, it's going to be such a stark difference in inability, in experience playing the game. that we're not going to have preseason now, right? So we are not going to get to see this to evaluate it ourselves. So when they get into practice, whatever we're going to see in practice is just going to be bits and pieces, obviously, because we're assuming that they're not going to air their camp practices, right? Hopefully they do.

But we don't know that. The definition of a star is Cam. I'll tell you why. I told you I thought this was going to be, because they don't have any weapons. It would be the most boring team in the league. Without him. I think they're the second most interesting team. And I've had my misgivings with Cam.

And I think he's distracted. His mechanics are hit and miss. But a star isn't always about, like Westbrook's a star. Westbrook in the bubble will be fascinating. Maybe because he'll unravel. But when you talk about superstar is a star that wins a bunch of games and titles. But a star, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and NASCAR was a star. He didn't win that much.

Phil Mickelton's a star. He didn't have as many majors as I think. Well, that's why I've always loved, Cam. I've never been shy about that. Cam is a star. He's a star. He's a star. I like interesting.

I am in the content business. So, yes, interesting, star, compelling, discussable. I'm into that. And if you can win on top of that, that makes it all the more great. And I just think that the NFL is better when Cam is healthy and is playing well because he is a star. And you can't just manufacture stars. No, he's captivating. Yeah, you can't manufacture that X factor that makes you and I want to discuss him every single day.

He also went vegan in 2019. So he's starting a new PETA campaign for a vegan diet as well. so we'll get more camp content there as well. Can't roll with them on that one. I have a vegan wife. Sorry, I like fish. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Live News. Rick Buecker joining us, the bubble NBA, his thoughts around the corner. It's the Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Geico, 15% off.

Car motorcycle and RV policies. Got to sign up by October 7th, though. Visit Geico.com to learn more. Let's go to Rick Buecker, not in the bubble, but talking to people in it via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Let's just start with the bubble talk. I don't think it's as bad as everybody says because NBA travel during the regular season is rough. 2 a.m. arriving in Cleveland, get in a van, 9 degrees. When you're talking to people in the bubble, what's the primary complaint today?

Number two, there's two things. Number one is being safe in the bubble. We've had zero positive tests. So the players, there's a certain amount of guilt that they are in a place where they are completely safe, but they're removed from their families knowing that they're outside of that bubble. And they are not only not as safe as they are, but they don't really have the requisite ability to take care of their families or to think about where they're at. The second one is, and you're not going to hear too many guys talk about it publicly

because it makes them sound spoiled. but it's the food situation. First seven, eight days, the only breakfast option that they had was food that was being delivered to their rooms. Now, I know that there's a lot of people out there going to go, room service, what's the problem? Well, this is resort room service.

This is not selecting off of a menu. This is the standard. We're going to send you a pancake and a potato and a juice box. And if you look, if you're an elite athlete, you need a little bit more in your engine than that. And then for teams practicing from like 9 to noon or 10 to 1, from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., they had the option of a number of great restaurants to get food from.

But the only option between 1 and 5 was essentially the meal rooms. Each team has its own meal room. But there's only two selections in that. And again, it's more resort. It's not like hotel. We're not talking about four seasons. I've been in those hotels and those catered meals for the players, and they are quite sumptuous. It's what you would hope you would get for an elite athlete being able to fuel themselves.

That's not what they've had up to this point. So if you get out of practice at noon or 1 p.m., you're basically struggling to find something to eat for the next three, four hours, to the point where some teams were ordering extra food at night and then refrigerator it, refrigerating it and then providing it for their players the next day for lunch. So considering the importance of food, I look, it's a losing battle to complain about it, but I think it's a legitimate issue that the players, that the players have when it comes to that. 25 years you've been voting for MVP. Who are you giving it to and why? I'm giving it to LeBron this year, essentially because of the Lakers.

team as I look at it and his part in it, the fact that they do not have another bonafide playmaker in that team, the way that he has cultivated Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis having the best year of his career. I don't think is an accident. I think LeBron has a lot to do with that. And then I look at the other disparate parts that they've brought together and in short order, brand new coach, a ton of brand new players. And LeBron James has brought all of that together and made it the second best team in the league. I don't, like, his whole West versus East argument, that was, I've been doing this for, for, I've been voting for 25 years. If that was a consideration, it was way down on the list of

factors that I took into account. And so in some ways, him bringing it up actually works against it because I'm like, okay, so what are you saying that there was validity and suggesting that you won all those MVP's over in the East because it was a little bit easier. I'm not sure why he needs to bring that up at this point. He certainly does it for me because he already had my vote. By the way, I said this earlier. The reason I think Michael Jordan and LeBron are the greatest players I've ever seen is that the gap between Michael Jordan and the second best player, which may have been Barclay, was massive and I love Barclay. Yeah. The gap between LeBron and Steph Harden, I mean, I think KD with the injuries has peaked.

We've seen the best of KD, and I don't think he had mentally or physically. He wasn't the same level as LeBron. I mean, who has been the second best player to LeBron last 10 years? Ah, the last 10 years is it, I mean, that's a long stretch. I think it has varied. But before KD got hurt between KD and Kauai Leonard, my feeling is that they were right there with LeBron. The distinction that I make is that when Michael George, was the MVP of the league, there was not one thing offensively or defensively that I would look

around the league and say, that guy is better than Jordan. Jordan was, you'd take him in a situation as your best defender, and certainly there was no one better than he was as a score. And for those are going to say, yeah, well, what about Playmaker? Because his assists aren't the same as LeBron. That was a result of the triangle more than the fact that Michael Jordan didn't create shots for others or couldn't have collected assists. So for me, yes, there was a disparity, but the disparity between Michael Jordan and the rest of the league when he was there is not the same as with LeBron. I think there are a number of guys, KD, being at the top of the list that I could look at and say, he's better at this than LeBron is, better scorer

than LeBron. Kauai Leonard, better defender than LeBron. And I just could never say that about Jordan. Rick Buecker joining us. So this thing, are you surprised? No positive tests? Joy and I talked about it earlier. The theater setup looks fantastic. I'm crossing my fingers, but it looks like all systems go to me, right? Like I'm watching all this stuff come in, and it's like, it's pretty slick.

We're getting a season, right? Well, we're going to get a season. my concern is the longer that the bubble is maintained and boredom sets in. I mean, everybody's happy to be with their teammates. They're happy to be out of their houses. They're happy to be playing again. We can fish. We can play cards.

You can do that after about a month. And guys are going to start to get restless. And it's not that they're going to go out is that they're going to start bringing some, let's say, social diversions in. And what? happens when that happens because it's going to happen and is it going to result in some positive test? Now, there is one thing. Like the team, the league has been very strict. If you violate any protocol whatsoever, Rishon Holmes had some food delivered and he had delivered in the wrong

place. And it was a result he had to go into quarantine for 10 days. If they're going to be, they're trying to set the standard. Like, if you screw up. up in the least bit way, you're going into quarantine. And if you're on a team that matters, you don't want to do that and undermine your team. But we're talking about human nature and we're talking about like standard behavior for these guys. So I am not all that surprised that it's been good now. Let's talk in six weeks and see if everything is still status quo. Good stuff. Rick Buecker. Good talking to you, buddy. Same, Colin. Guys, you can now use the right tools for the job, thanks to this revolutionary company.

Manscaped skin-safe technology reduces cuts, 20% off plus free shipping, the code herd. Manscape.com code H-E-R-D. Yeah. So there you go. I think we're going to get through it. I'm crossing my fingers. You know, at some point you need luck. I mean, UFC's doing it.

NASCAR is doing it. Golf's doing it. I watch MLS. It looks pretty good. You know, basketball is the one sport. I think you absolutely need a bubble. Like, you do need a bubble in basketball. You breathe on everybody.

I mean, the reality is that's just the way basketball is. You're breathing on people constantly. So I think the NBA, you know, everybody's looking at these leagues and we're trying to poke holes in it. Do you understand how hard it is to run these states, to be a governor and to be a mayor? I mean, got in Atlanta, the mayor of Atlanta is about ready to club the governor over the head. Like, this stuff is hard. There is no game plan here. I think the NBA, every time I get more video on the NBA,

I'm like, tip of the cap, looks really good. I mean, listen, if your biggest complaint are the pancakes in the morning, you've done pretty good hour three next. 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. This is the herd, wherever you may be,

and however you may be listening. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1, live in Los Angeles, wherever you may be, and however you may be listening. Joy and I just got into an interesting conversation for our TV and radio audience. In America, we can solve pretty much any problem. We just decide we want to solve.

Like, it is amazing. We have a pandemic going on. Right. Like, the most contagious virus of my life, and we're going to have an NBA bubble, and the NFL is going to play, and you're banging into each other. You can solve any problem,

you want. It is up to our government to often step in with non-sports. Because our commissioners now are owners and commissioners are showing you, we're going to solve a world pandemic. It's ridiculous. I mean, the barber shops, they're building in the NBA bubble, everything the NBA because they need the money. The owners need it. The league, need it the players. Everybody is sacrificed, and they're just going to make it work. The NBA bubble is, if you really look at what they're doing in the NBA, it's unbelievable, Joe. Yeah, it's been remarkable. It's remarkable. football shouldn't work. You're banging into each other and sweating.

They've built shields. They've got gloves. There's fewer practices. Zoom meetings. Our government could easily, this week, our government, tech companies in America in a single trading day made almost $400 billion. If our government stepped in and said, we're going to have a new alliance, that if you're on NASDAQ or you're a Silicon Valley company and we consider you part of this Google Amazon consortium, there's 30 companies. on days, and you do it based on your value as a company, on days when the industry makes $300 billion in a single trading day,

we will take 2% of that, and there'll be tax breaks. We will put that into public schools in America. It's called the Silicon Valley Alliance, because money now is so quickly made in tech. Nothing can compete with it. There are days where Silicon Valley companies make $400 billion, And we decided twice a year on those days. And over the course of a decade, you have an alliance, the government steps in and says,

we'll give you some tax breaks, whatever it is. No more than twice a year. But on those days, we take 1%, 2% of that $400 billion earning from the alliance. And it goes to public schools only. Not private schools. They keep getting better and better. Public schools. We've just decided as a country, we don't want to solve that.

We have decided that's not important enough. When you look at this virus and what is happening, it is unbelievable what the NBA is doing, what the NFL is going to do, what the MLS is doing, what baseball is doing. The NFL is going to spend $75 million on testing because they want it to work. They've made the decision.

The NFL made in the Kaepernick year, which was considered, you know, oh, that was a bumpy year. They made $14 billion. Right. So $75 million is a. rounding air. It is a rounding air. So my point is in this country is when you watch this pandemic, it's scary, right? But what it really shows you in America, this has been the strangest year of

my life and these leagues are overcoming it, one with a bubble. These are internationally, NBA's international, soccer's international. Well, also these these leagues are owned by extremely wealthy, successful, powerful, intelligent people that know how to make money and to continue to be successful to cite despite setbacks. In most cases, unless they just inherited it this year, they are great businessmen and women for a reason. So, yeah, they already know how to not only work with other people

who are rich because they're in an alliance and a partnership with players who are also millionaires. While they're billionaires, they find ways to make things work. So, as you said, they need it and want it to work. They're going to find a way to do it. The people who could make this public school scenario work. Silicon Valley Alliance. Their kids don't go to public school.

That's right. So they don't care. Right. And I'm not one of the eat the rich. You know, I'm not one of those guys. I don't, I eat rich tasting food. That's right. I don't want to eat the rich either.

We're capitalists. We like money. We like this. But America decides we need this to work and it works. You know, we know there's an. asteroid's going to hit us eventually, right? They're already working on it. They're already putting billions of dollars.

They're sending Bishemi. Yeah, I mean, they're already working on an asteroid. Why? Because they want to stop the asteroid. We decide this is going to work. It works. Think about baseball. They had to negotiate. These leagues are not only making it work with a pandemic. They're having to renegotiate player association contracts. I mean, Adam Silver is like, we're not built for this. You're having to negotiate finances and percentages and create bubbles. And I sit back and I'm like,

it's unbelievable how well these leagues have pulled it off. Now, they've each done it. Hockey, send people to Canada, baseball to your city, NFL, they've cut the preseason. NBA is a bubble. MLS is a bubble. It is, if you really look at this, you can be negative. I'm blown away by how leagues have not only created their leagues come back,

but they're negotiating contracts with players and CBAs. and, I mean, that baseball thing, everybody banged on baseball. I'm like, it'll work. Remember, I kept standing on the air. They're going to have baseball season. But you're simultaneously dealing with a global pandemic and a CBA. This is hard. And you're making very tough decisions.

It's remarkable what you can overcome when you have to. That's right. If Silicon Valley's, if those rich guys sent their kids to public schools, it would be fixed tomorrow. It'd be fixed tomorrow in America. We'd just say, you know what? Teachers get raises. I mean, you've got teachers in America now having to pay for pencils.

and pens and paper and paper clips, like teachers for 25 years are paying. Yes, I mean teachers, if you don't understand the value of teachers, but if you did it before this pandemic, now everyone appreciates teachers more, having kids at home.

That was Warren Buffett's thing. He said we should abolish private schools. He said if rich people sent their kids to publics, we'd have no public school issues. Zero. Instead, they sent them to private, nobody cares about the public schools, and it's like, you do realize

that a huge chunk of what America is based on is not rich kids. It's not trust fund kids. It's kids from public schools. The richest 500 people in America, a lot of public school kids. Now they're all spoiled brats at private schools. Going to take all dad's money. I mean, yeah.

If it's not something that's going to affect your life and it doesn't compel you emotionally or morally, then yeah. All right. So 17 of the 20, did they poll them, 17 of the 20 people that are going to vote in the MVP have voted Janus. I would vote LeBron for a lot of reasons. And I thought it was interesting because one of the things. one of the things that I've always struggled with valuable, the word valuable. And I've talked about this multiple times is that I think LeBron James is so far and away more valuable than anybody in the league.

Whereas Janus right now has a general manager people of and a coach people of, and it's really not been very chaotic. I mean, I've lost a couple of people to free agency. What LeBron has done, and I think this is a huge value, I think there's only one player in the NBA that you can argue has been as valuable as LeBron James for the last decade, and it's Steph Curry, and I'll get to that in a second. But the Lakers right now, I do not think are brilliantly run. I do not think it's a, it's been chaotic. I do not think it is a great front office, competent, yes. I don't think the roster is young and dynamic and athletic. That

would be the Clippers, not the Lakers, and yet they're number one in the West. And so to me, it's not really close. I agree with Rick Buecker. I think LeBron is easily, because I think there is value in stormy seas or in turbulent skies to get through it without a lot of bumps. And I think the Lakers could be an absolute mess right now if not for LeBron. Milwaukee would not be as good without Yonis, but if you put Anthony Davis in Milwaukee and not Yonis, that would be a good basketball team, not as dominant, but a very good basketball team. I'm not sure if you put even Kauai to the Lakers with all their messes over the

last year, it would be close to this. I don't, now there's a reason I think Steph is the only guy that is you can really compare to LeBron over the last 10 years. Because I think valuable in basketball tends to mean, are you productive? A, all these guys

we talk about are. Do you elevate others? You can make an argument that's not Kauai's strength. Two assists a game. He's great. He doesn't necessarily elevate others. As a whole, he can elevate a unit, but he doesn't make player. James Hardin doesn't his teammates better. I don't think Kauaios does. LeBron makes everybody better.

LeBron makes everybody better. And I think Steph Curry. And the third thing is, are you flexible? Do you have dexterity? I think we know what Janus is. Yonis is what Yonis is. You're not getting a big three-pointer late. He's not controlling the tempo. Great defensive player scores with an eight feet of the basket. And he's great and he deserves all the love. The amazing thing about LeBron and Steph Curry is they're so flexible. Steph Curry can go ball-centric. He can go decoy. He can be a distributor.

He can be the shooter. There's no needy. He's the least needy NBA player, including LeBron. He may be the least needy NBA star of my life. Like, I'll go recruit, Durant. I mean, he's got crazy Draymond, gets along with him. He's got his other guard on the team, Clay Thompson, some think's the best shooter in the world or second best.

I'll feed him. Kevin Durant's going to take shots. Heard his shoe deal. Oh, I'd like to have him. You never have to worry. There's a lot of different steps. There's leader stuff. There's shooter stuff.

There's ball-centric stuff. There's decoy stuff. There's distributor stuff. And I feel with LeBron, there are nights. If you're down 11 and the fourth, LeBron become a three-point shooter. That's what LeBron comes. If you go watch the Lakers live, and I did this year several times, first quarter, LeBron was a distributor.

That's all LeBron did in every first quarter of every game. He saves himself in the fourth. LeBron was passer LeBron. get Anthony Davis involved, LeBron, get Danny Green and Coosman involved. That's what LeBron was first quarter every game I watched this year. LeBron late is, depending on the lead,

if they're trailing, LeBron becomes three-point shooting LeBron. If they're leading, it's LeBron becomes part distributor, part drive to the basket, draw fouls, get people in foul trouble. There's a lot of dexterity to LeBron, a lot of dexterity to Steph Curry. I don't feel I quite get that with Yonis. And to me, that's what defines valuable.

That's what I've always struggled. You know, this league gave Russell Westbrook an MVP because he rebounded really well one year. That's not valuable. Most guys, almost every good player that Westbrook has ever played with is better when they no longer play with him. That's the opposite of valuable. Where I think you can make that argument,

everybody gets more efficient with Steph. Clay is more efficient. Draymond's more efficient. Kevin Durant was his most efficient. Same with LeBron. Everybody's a little more efficient with LeBron James. So that's why, to me, LeBron's the MVP. Curry, obviously not this year, due to the fact that he got hurt.

Greg Olson's going to be stopping by. A Seattle Seahawk, you know, I was texting him when he was considering going to like seven teams. And I kept saying it's very nice there. Pike Place Market, very good fish. It's a very nice. And I know you played at Miami. Good fish there, too. It's very nice.

And the day Greg Olson signed, he's like, oh, my God. And I kept, oh, you got it. Russell, Wilson makes everybody better. You played a role in the future of the NFL. I think I made the decision for him. I think if you really get down to brass tax. One of the really good guys in the NFL, and he's going to get a lot of Hall of Fame votes.

Greg Olson is 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 IHeard Radio app. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-taped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed. That's correct.

So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark.

Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross,

because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway.

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me.

He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker.

Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app. or wherever you get your podcast. If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Gorsha accusing Kelly of sleeping with a merry man. They holding Kay Michelle back from fighting Drew. Pinky has financial issues. I like the bougie style of Housewives show.

I think it looks like it's going to be interesting. On the podcast, Reality with the King, I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Rural House. Housewise franchise, the drama, the alliances, and the T, everybody's talking about. As an executive producer in reality television, I'm not just watching it. I understand the game. As somebody who creates shows, I'll even say this.

At the end of the day, when people are at home, they want entertainment. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. can beat up your automobile. Warranties run out. It gets expensive quick. Go to car shield.com code herd. A deductible may apply. It's one of my favorite

guys in the NFL. He's played for almost a decade and a half. Chicago with Jay Cutler, Cam Newton and him were buddies in Carolina. Now one of my favorite human beings on the planet, Russell Wilson, gets the gift of Greg Olson, and he is joining

us from Bellevue. That is a nice area via the Coward Global satellite network. So I was just telling Joy that when you were trying to make a decision on where to go, I kept texting you. I'm like, Russell Wilson's amazing. There's no state tax. So you can be honest now. I led you to Seattle. Can you just be honest with it, Greg? You were the guy. When they called me and told me to make a decision, what it came down to, I said, Colin, Colin, knock, you know, he hit the nail on the head. He gave me all the positives, all the negatives. And your decision making has always proved to be, to be fine.

But I figured I would, I just keep the streak alive. It's interesting. You go from Jay Cutler, big arm quarterback, not super mobile, to Cam Newton, one of the great athletes to ever play. Now to Russell Wilson. It's a third style of quarterback play. How are you preparing for that? Yeah, so obviously, Russ and I have known each other just as competitors from the opposite sides of the sideline for a long time. It's, it felt like for years there, we played Seattle, you know, multiple times a year, you know, one regular season game and then a few times in the playoffs. And just got familiar with his style, obviously, as a competitor. It felt like even games, I remember we had them down like 30 points at half time

in the playoffs one year and then had to recover an onsides kick to win. Like, he was never out of it. And I always just had such an appreciation for him as a competitor from the other side of the field. And when the opportunity came that they were interested and I could go continue. continue my career and join. You just saw D.K. and Russ, I had a chance to go work out with them a week or two ago out in San Diego with Russ. And, you know, he's just so

impressive. I mean, as a communicator, what he wants, what he sees, his ability to, you know, get that information across to his teammates. He's as impressive as everyone had told me he was. He's been that and more in just a few months now that I've gotten to work with him.

So Brady goes to Tampa. Cam goes to New England. Greg Olson goes to Seattle. playbooks. So tell my audience, because Joy and I have talked about this. Quarterbacks have to know a little bit of everything where a tight end, you have to know certain things, but there are plays that are fundamentally more important for you. How long will it take a guy like you or a Cam or a Brady who understands the language of football? You've been in the NFL for a long time to truly learn the Seahawk playbook. Yeah, you know, I was spoiled. You know, for my last 11 years in the NFL, I really was in one system. You know, my last year or two in Carolina, I mean,

in my last year or two in Chicago, we ran pretty much the same system that I would run the last nine years in Carolina. Same, same words, same formation, same digit system. This is really the first time in a long time I've had to learn a completely new system. There's not a ton of carryover how they call plays, how they call their no huddle two minute. So there's definitely, you know, a learning curve. It wasn't ideal learning it remotely. I would have loved to have been out here. I in April and OTAs and really be able to sit in the classroom with the coaches and the players and really ask a lot of questions. But, you know, these were the cards that I was dealt. I feel like I have a good handle on it.

You know, I think there's always little intricacies of every offense. You know, I run my dig routes for 10 years at 14 yards. They might do it at 12, right? I set my angles on my corners to the inside of the pylon. They might want it set to the outside. There's so many details just because on paper it says run 14 yards and run. the square. And there's 10 different ways to do that because of the other routes and what the quarterback sees. So there's a lot of detail that you take for granted when you're in one place and

you've kind of seen the evolution of that system take hold. I'm now joining a system that's been in place for years before me. And I got to play catch up not only to learn it, but really be able to put that to life and bring it to life on the field. And it's really hard to do until you get in person. That's why, as I said, I went out a couple weeks ago and worked out with Russ. And it was the first time we were ever on the same field together talking through routes, going through no huddle calls, talking about signals. You know, here's how I signal is very different from how cam signaled. So it's just learning human behavior, learning what quarterbacks see, learning what he wants. It's been a fun challenge, especially at this point in my career, but I'm anxious to hopefully

next week finally sit in the same room as my teammates and my coaches and really dive into this. I would argue that you not. having a preseason. You may be the prime example of this is great for you. It's not, I mean, honestly, Greg, you're probably going to go a year with a Seahawks, if it goes great one more,

but you'll segue into broadcasting at some point. But I look at you and I think to myself, God, if I was Greg Olson, this is the year. The one upside of the pandemic is your body is getting so much rest. Does that how it, is that how it feels

for you? Yeah, outside of learning the system and missing OTAs in that regard, this is a dream for a 14-year veteran. I hate to say that selfishly because the entire world has been turned upside down, but I got to train with my people, my trainers, my soft tissue, my massage, my chiropractor, my chef, in the comfort of my own home in Charlotte where I have roots and my family and wife and kids. And we were all in one spot. So for the past five months of quarantine, you know, I was. was forced to do nothing else but prepare my body and prepare physically to go play another season. And, you know, that's not always the case during OTAs, right? You're working out with 90 other players and the coaches are developing a schedule and a workout program that fits everyone. It's a little bit more like college where it might not be everything you need, but it's kind of a blanket,

cookie cutter program. Everyone, I got to train to what I needed. I knew where are my faults, where are that parts of my body that need more attention, what areas of my. my game was I not happy with last year. I got to get back to run and I got to get back more explosive off the line. Whatever the case may be, me and my trainer got to only worry about me. And that was a huge advantage. I feel healthy for the first time in probably two years after dealing with all my foot stuff. And then everything else seems to get out of whack from that. This is really the first time since probably 2016, 17, where I'm like, all right, this is how I'm supposed to feel. When I'm running routes, this is how I've made my career running, getting in and out of

breaks. So I'm hoping that it carries over into the season. But as far as an off season, you're 100% right. This has been, this is a veteran's dream. It's very similar to the lockout in 2011. I was, you know, I'm old enough to have lived through that. You really get to spend unlimited amount of time on yourself. So outside of learning the playbook, this has been, this has been great. You have a new podcast out. It's called a tight end one, the NFL tight end conversations with Greg Olson. It's a series focusing on long-term interviews with some of the NFL's elite tight ends. A couple days ago, Joy and I started talking about this. And I said, you know, everybody always talks about I'm overpaid or underpaid. I said, you want to know who's underpaid

in the NFL? And I didn't know you were coming on. I said, tight ends. I said, the franchise tag for a receiver is $18.5 million. For a tight end, it's $10. And I said, time out. They block. They don't get marginalized in bad weather. In bad weather, actually, tight ends become more valuable. They're more important than a perimeter player in the red zone, which is, that's the scoring zone. And I said, the other thing is you can roll over coverage

to a wide receiver. There is no safety that matched up with gronk or no linebacker that can run with Travis Kelsey. And then I said, I feel honestly like tight ends literally need to go to the CBA and go, we're the one position in this league. We have become wide receivers

as a tight end. Did you ever have this conversation thinking, I got to block? I'm more valuable in the red zone in bad weather. Why am I half of a wide receiver? Do you ever think about stuff like that and talk about your podcast? Yeah, the joke that I've always said is

I got to block the same guys to tackle and I got to run routes against the same guy as the receiver and they're going to pay me half. And that's been, that's kind of the story of the position since I've been in the league. Now, it's come a long way, and nobody feels sorry for us. But it's a perfect segue. So in one of the episodes of the podcast that you mentioned, TE1 coming out next month, I had this conversation with Tony Gonzalez, you know, obviously the most prolific and accomplished tight end in NFL history. And we don't, we kind of jumped into it

as it related, of course, the, you know, they all fit in the room is how much money is Kittal going to make. And another guy that I interviewed in a different episode. And my point to Tony was, And I think I kind of confused them in the beginning, but I think he came along. It's kind of Tony's fault. For so long, Tony was the standard of NFL tight ends, right? So when he walked in to renegotiate his contract, for 15 years, he negotiated against himself. He was the best in the market. And what's the team, you know, so there was no one else to ever jump him.

The old NFL, you know, draft system, quarterbacks, defensive linemen, wide receivers, they were drafted top five, top 10. So you could get Matt Stafford to come in and reset the quarterback market. Sam Bradford or Calvin Johnson, all these top picks. Very few tight ends were drafted year after year at that level. So you couldn't artificially reset the market. So the top players of the position had no one ever to reset it other than themselves. So the market stayed very flat.

It's going to take guys like Kelsey. And Kittles probably our best shot at it, right? He is he's the guy that if he doesn't just break. through the ceiling. You know, Gromk did that long-term deal after a few years in the league, and he was kind of always stuck in it. Kittles really the first guy that can blow the ceiling off this, and we'll see if he does.

But it's been a very interesting market now for over a decade. I mean, at least since I've come in the league, it hasn't moved a whole lot. And to your point, outside of the quarterback, nobody has to know every aspect of the offense like a tight end. You can't, we don't get to move. We sit in the room with the O-Linder and run install, a past protection install.

And then we go sit with the skill players for past game install, hot, sites, adjustments. There's really not an aspect of the game that the position. And I think the topic of our, the conversation that we had with all these, you know, all-timers at the position was, you know, this evolution, we started with Dicca in 1961, this evolution of 60 years where the tight end now

is really like a vogue position. Yes. It's a superstar position played by superstars. But it hasn't always been like that. our series, TE-1, kind of chronicles that evolution and, you know, through the words of some of the best who've ever played it. Yeah. Kettle's a little unhinged.

I find him fascinating. Did he? He's like a pro wrestler with a good 40 time. What did you make of him? He was awesome. I got to know George a little bit. We crossed pads at a couple events at a Super Bowl years back. You know, we worked with the same agency.

So we've kind of crossed paths here and there. I really enjoy him. I think his energy and his love for the game kind of jumps. out at you both on the screen when you watch them, but also when you play against them. He's kind of like running around. He's a WWE character who's exceptional at football and he's got a very unique personality. But it's funny, so many of the tight ends. And, you know, I got to talk to two of them. Kelsey's got a great personality. He's, you know, he's got his own little style. Obviously, kiddle, grong. I mean, the tight end position, I don't know if it's a prerequisite

or what, but the guys that have really come along these last, you know, five or so, years, they bring a little different, they bring a little different vibe to the position. I think it's fun. I think people love it. And they've really brought like a breath of fresh air, you know, to the game and to the position. And I enjoyed George, you know, Kittles conversation was amazing. He got mad. He said his dad was mad at me because I went and did for NFL network. I did the combine. And I guess I said something about his stance as I was like standing on the field. And he said, did my dad call me? He's like, who the hell is Greg Olson? What the hell does he know? And I said, well, let me tell you something. I said, did you widen in your stance?

He goes, yeah, my stance was way too narrow, so you were right. I said, so your dad got mad at me, but I was right. That's right. We had a lot of fun. The conversations were awesome, and the guys that agreed to come to it were just, they were a huge treat. Okay, TE1, put it up on the screen again, tight-end one NFL, tight-end conversations with Greg Olson, a series, long-form interviews with some of the NFL's elite tight-ins. become a glamour position. There you go. Boy, that looks slick right there, doesn't it? It really happened. We had Dicka. You know, Mike Dicka, having a conversation with him was just amazing. I got drafted in 2007, and you learned really quick that Dicka is the man of Chicago,

right? I learned what that was like. So I got to talk with him, Ozzie Newsom, you know, who's as relevant to the conversation as anybody even now as a talent evaluator and general manager, Shannon Sharp, Tony Gonzalez. I mean, some of the best guys who've ever played, it was a, it was a, It was an unbelievable experience, probably exceeded my expectations when we set out to kind of capture this story. And everybody who agreed to do it just opened up and gave us great stories, and we had a ton of fun. Oh, Greg. It's great seeing you. It's going to be great to see in that Seahawk Blue, buddy.

And say hi to one of my favorite players in league history as well, Russell Wilson, and we'll talk soon. I appreciate. It's always awesome coming on, Colin. Good to talk to you. Good talking to you. Two of my favorite NFL players, Greg Olson and Russell Wilson. good dudes. And he's in a beautiful area.

Bellevue, Seahawks train in Kirkland, which is just up the road. He'd never lived out west. So he played in Miami, went to Chicago. He told me during the break then Carolina, he goes, I'd never lived out west. It's expensive out here. It is expensive. It's not Charlotte. It is different out here.

Yeah. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. A lot of that, I mean, it was always kind of pricey, but Silicon Valley is just, it's ridiculous. I mean, the taxes are insane, too.

The taxes are nuts. But you know what, though? When I first moved here and I got my first paycheck from Fox, which was actually a physical paycheck was the first one, because I didn't get the direct deposit. Having lived in Florida, I had 10 years prior to that, I was like, is this correct? It's like a lot.

It is. It's dramatic, and then you get used to it. But yesterday, you were in Venice. I was in Manhattan Beach. I am not complaining. at all. We live in a beautiful part of the country. Great food. Great food. Amazing people. We have amazing

jobs. I have no complaints whatsoever. When you look at that check, they do take some. They do take a lot of taxes, though. So this year's NBA awards will be determined only by the games completed before the shutdown. And in the MVP race, LeBron thinks his resume speaks for itself. As far

as the MVP race, I think show what I'm capable of doing. You know, not only individually, but from a team's perspective, us being number one in the West. There was a lot of conversation about, you know, LeBron can do those things in the East, but if you ever came to the West, what can you do? You know, so, you know, I heard all that.

And to be able to have our team at the top of the Western Conference and playing the way that we were playing at that time and the way I was playing, you know, that's definitely a good film. Is his beard gotten thicker? I believe he is going out of a quarantine. beard, yes. I never look like that. It's definitely longer. Oh, yeah. I mean, he looks like a

New Hampshire author that's hiding and writing the Great American novel. I think it's a good look. I'm a big facial hair fan. You like facial hair? Yeah. All right. I like beards. Mustaches, goatees. Oh, you like mustaches? I mean, if it's like,

you know, it's a good strong stash. I can get down with a good strong stash. But I also think LeBron is the MVP. But I've always felt this. I felt this before the shutdown. I felt this after the shutdown. Like this is... Well, you lived in a city with him and then you see the value of him beyond like scoring. It's just

they change what it is every year. So why shouldn't it be LeBron's MVP this year? Like it's no standard for what it is to win the MVP. It's always what the story is. So this year it's got to be... LeBron's story is amazing.

Because he has better numbers than he did last year, so therefore he must win it again. The story changes every year. So of course it's LeBron's year. Like that's what it is. LeBron and besides that, he deserves the MVP this year. Well, because historically, we look at Milwaukee as average and we look at the Lakers as brilliantly run.

That's not the story anymore. Milwaukee's really got their act together. L.A. has been nothing but chaos for four years. And that's not to say that Yonis doesn't deserve the MVP. He's a great player. He had an incredible season. Great player. It's just LeBron's MVP this year.

It is. So the Dolphins have all the pieces to improve in 2020 with three first round draft picks and some high profile free agent signings and running back Jordan Howard said the chance to be a part of the rebuild is a big reason why he chose to go to Miami. He said, I just like the opportunity it presented. I felt like we're turning things around down here. I just wanted to be a part of that. The team is going to look a lot different this year. Obviously to Austin Jackson and they brought him Byron Jones, Jordan Howard, Kyle Van Nuoy, Eric Flowers, Shaq Lawson. I like the fact that Jordan Howard with a team of the losing record, he goes, I like what I'm watching.

Because they just had a certain energy. I don't, I'm not one of those people that's like, oh, it's a good loss. But I just like the way that they played. And I like what Brian Flores is building down there. Oh, is this new video on Tua? No, it's not. No, it's not. All right.

I thought it for a second. I had video I hadn't seen. Finally, Gronk couldn't be happier about playing with Tom Brady again, but he insists there there was never some big plan behind the move to Tampa for them to reunite. He said, I wasn't just going to come back out of retirement just to come out of retirement. definitely one of the factors was Tom going down to Tampa. That was a big connection to gain chemistry with the quarterback. It's not an easy task.

But no, we never really talked about that before. It kind of just happens with my retirement and him hitting free agency. It kind of just lined up like that. So there's no big conspiracy for them to go to Tampa. You know what the show I watched the other day on the plane flying back from Utah was Believe Land. It's a great 30 for 30. And they were talking about it just shows the tormented history of Cleveland's It starts with football.

It goes into Art Modell. It goes to baseball. It goes to Dan Gilbert in the Cavs. Dan Gilbert acknowledges when LeBron left, he's like, yeah, we didn't know what he was going to do. He goes, we figured we would have found out. And then you talk about the whole thing. The idea that everything is orchestrated and planned, that's what conspiracy theorists believe. Right.

But the truth of the matter is most of the time, and I've moved four times in my life, four different time, You do not know this was the only move I ever made from ESPN here where I knew nine months out, I was really strongly going to do something else. The other three times I'd move cross-country, I made my mind up hours before I announced it. That's the way it works in life.

I mean, look, nothing is real to me, right? So I always think something's up, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it, right? That's the difference between being a conspiracy theorist. Like when something happens, I'm like, oh, well, you know, there was probably some move made behind the scenes to make that happen. Having some decisions made that you don't know about and it being some long-planned conspiracy are two very different things.

Like they clearly had a conversation and decided to go together. But it wasn't like you're going to retire and then you're going to triumphantly come out of retirement and join me in Tampa Bay. And we're going to be fancy pirates. I thought part of Gronk honestly, I thought this sounds ridiculous, but I thought part of it was Gronk is fun. Gronk grew up in Buffalo and played in New and. England. And I thought to myself, part of it was, oh, Tom chose the place with jet skis that's warm.

Right. Well, also, they have a great relationship. And maybe Gronk felt better. He needed that year off. His body's been through a lot. He's had a lot of surgeries, a lot of injuries. Warm weather. And he just felt better and felt like he could play some more. Remember, Gronk chose to play at the University of Arizona as a Buffalo kid. I honestly think he looked at Tampa and he thought, my body's old. It'll feel better. Yeah. I'll be little. That's why people move to Tampa. It's because you feel better as you age. And it's one more year and who's saying no to Tom Brady. No state tax.

Brady's there. And I think like Bronx said, it just kind of lined up. You go home one night and you're like, no state tax. Brady's there. It's warm weather. My body's breaking down. There's a lot that makes sense about it that makes it less conspiracy theory. You just look at it one day and go, yeah, I think I'm going to do it.

Yeah. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd LiveLand. Let me tell you something. Not Believe land. you watch that.

I mean, I grew up. I watched sports in the 70. I remember Brian Seip, Ernest Beiner. You watch that Believe Land, and if you don't have sympathy for Cleveland, you do not have a heart. But I'm sitting on a plane when LeBron won and he's crying, and I'm crying on the plane watching it.

That's how emotional it was. I'm not joking. So Ernest Beiner didn't make me cry on the plane, but I got emotional. LeBron starts crying when he won Cleveland. And I watched this thing for 90 minutes and I'm like my tear ducts are opening up, a salty discharge. I'm not kidding you. You cannot watch that and not kind of root for Baker Mayfield and the Browns. And I'm dead serious on that. I bet I could do it. But I was born in

Pittsburgh. So you know in something, this is why I love documentaries. I watch a lot of documentaries because when you live something, we're all busy. We have lives. We're doing stuff. Man on the moon. But a documentary is like, hey, we're going to take a 12-year period and boil it down to 80 minutes. And when you watch Cleveland's history, they have been a dormant. They couldn't get a break for like 60 years. They've had a rough. Oh, my God. You watch it and you're like, I feel so bad for these people. I really felt bad. Literally, I almost like Baker Mayfield more than Sam Darnold after that. Almost. Not quite. But I'm telling you, I sat there and I'm I'm like, I can't root against Cleveland.

I literally hope Ohio State goes 12 and 0. The Browns make the playoffs. I swear to God, you cannot watch it and not have sympathy for Cleveland. You have no heart unless you're from Pittsburgh. It's like, okay, I'll give you an example. When the Warriors played the Cavs with LeBron in that game seven, unless you're from the Bay Area, you have no heart if you watch this documentary and are not rooting for Cleveland.

Oh, no, I was rooting so hard for the Warriors. How? What? I don't want this to happen. Okay, take out Miami's bitter people and Golden State. I'm not bitter now because he left Cleveland and he's in the Lakers now. I'm over it. But it took me some time.

I sat and watched it and I'm like, I took me back to that game seven. And I love Steph Curry and all the. I mean, I can visual, I can remember it. Like I remember where I was. I remember the feeling. When LeBron said he's leaving? No, that, yeah, also. But like, no, them winning the championship.

God, that was amazing. I'm not supposed to promote other companies' content, but God, it's just heartbreaking what they've been through. I agree. It was heartbreaking when he left the heat. I thought Seattle's sports history was rough. God, at least we were irrelevant. I have a lot of respect for Cleveland Browns fans.

Oh, my God. They have been through a lot. You just got to see it. It's incredible. And they're very loyal. Yeah. All right, what do I got? All right, best for last.

That'll be coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. You okay with getting older? I'm not either. Check out MDrive for men.com. MDrive from N.com. Supplement. Take one every morning. All right. Joy, here we go. We have NBA awards getting voted on here very quickly. Let's tee him up. All right. Rookie of the year, Tyler Hero, John Morant, Kendrick Nunn, Zion Williamson. Zion. Now, John Morant second. He never scored 30 or more in a game. Zion did it three times in his last 11 games. I'm going with Zion Williamson, who simply had better. better numbers. By the way, the Pelicans as a team are over 500. The Grizzlies are under 500. So for me, this is not terribly difficult. By the way, in the last month, Zion Williamson, in the last month, shot 50% from three-pointers. And that was the knock on him coming into the league. He can't shoot. That became one of his strengths. So Zion wins my rookie of the year. Most improved player.

Bam, out of bio, DeMonte Graham, Brandon Ingram, Jason Tatum. This is not as easy a pick for me. I'm going to go Jason Tatum. He's averaging eight points more a game than he was last year. And again, he's already got a fairly established game. So he added almost a third to his game. The Celtics, I also believe, are a Dark Horse Championship team. He was second in the NBA over the last month in points per game.

So not only did he improve, his last month was exceptional. For defensive player of the year, Bam out of bio, Yonnas, Hainz, Tocompo, Anthony Davis, or Rudy Gobert? I don't think this one's terribly close. This is a slam dunk for Yonnes. And I do love Rudy Gober of the Jazz. That's what I thought you were going to say. Yonis, people guarded by Yonis, shoot 36% from the field.

That is best in the NBA. So if Janice manned you up, you become a poor offensive basketball player. And he's also leads the NBA in defensive rating. He's also number two in rebounds. Third in rebounds. Coach of the year, Mike Budenholzer, Billy Donovan, Nick Nurse, or Frank Vogel. I'll go with a surprise here, Billy Donovan. We thought they had a chance, Joy, to be the first or second worst team in the NBA.

They were rebuilding, right? Westbrook left. Yeah. They've only got two players over 26. One is Chris Paul coming off a rough injury. Instead, they're 40 and 24. That is the best record since they've had win percentage since they've had KD. I always argued on behalf of Billy Donovan, who won back-to-back titles at Florida.

This was supposed to be a complete gut job. Like Philadelphia Sixers tanking gut job. They lost Westbrook, the identity of the franchise. 40 and 24. Billy Donovan, my coach of the year. Sixth man of the year. Harold, Derek Rose, Dennis Schroeder, or Lou Williams. Which Clipper? I'll take Lou Williams to come off the bench.

He scored 20 points or more in 25 games. And why this is impressive is, it is a deep team. This is not a team that needed Lou Williams to drop 24 points a game. They've got multiple scores. But a veteran player off the bench on a deep team in the West, average 19 points a game this year. which off the bench in the NBA is a ton of points. Finally, MVP, Yana San Francisco, Luka Donchich, James Hardin, or LeBron James.

Luca's a great player. He's not there yet. LeBron James. So the Lakers have a new free agent teammate Anthony Davis, a new roster, a new coach, a new assistant coach, a new offensive system. And they finished as the number one seat in the West. he's also playing a new position and LeBron James leads the NBA in assists per game. New position, new coach, new staff, new system,

new star, new roster, number one in the West. I don't even think it's close. I honestly don't understand the argument. I'm with you. I think LeBron is the MVP too. It doesn't mean Yonis didn't have an incredible season. We're not criticizing. Yonis is a very nice person.

Say hello to Casper, the Sleep Company, with outrageously comfortable products, but certainly award-winning match. not outrageous prices. They have bedding and pillows and duvets and a dog bed and all that stuff. All right, we got through it. We got through it today. And I want to thank Doug Gottlieb.

Jimmy Johnson told hysterical stories. Rick Buecker and Greg Olson. All unbelievable. We should put Greg Olson in our podcast. Put Jimmy and Greg Olson in our podcast. If you didn't hear them today, they were just fantastic joy. Thank you. Fellows coming up next.

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