The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Lions-Packers, Elite Quarterbacks, and the Herd Hierarchy

Episode Date: October 15, 2019

Colin talks about the Lions-Packers game, what he would do to fix bad officiating, the issues with QB Matt Stafford, what few quarterbacks in the NFL do very well, and his new Herd Hierarchy. Guests include Reggie Bush, Peter King, Mike Pereira, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark Schlereth. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

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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. Hey, what's good, y'all? 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're 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 iha radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast what's up guys

this is clivert taylor the fourth and on my podcast the clivert show i'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff like being an internet famous referee we're in the middle of a game this linebacker this linebacker walks up to me he goes a ref my mom wants you to wave at her what Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Rhett, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Ms. Parker.

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You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh, here we go on a Tuesday, live in Los Angeles. This is the herd, wherever you may be, however you may be listening. We're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. One hour from now, the herd hierarchy. What do we do with the Packers? What do we do with the Cowboys? What do we do with the Chiefs?

Heard hierarchy. Talk 10 teams in the league. We give it a lot of thought in one hour. And Joy Taylor is joining me after a controversial finish last night in Monday night football, which turned out to be a great game. It was a great game, but I do feel very badly for the Lions. I do, too. So, you know, here's what's interesting about this.

The nation freaked out, the owners freaked out, America freaked out. When the New Orleans Saints, there was a really bad call against the Rams and the NFC championship. And the Saints certainly played the victim very well. But the thing about that bad call is there were three opportunities for the Saints after that call to win the game. Okay? After that bad call, Saints kick a field goal.

The Rams got the ball back in regulation, drove all the way down the field. Saints' defense couldn't stop them. Kick a field goal, send it to overtime. So the Saints' defense could have won the game. Then we go to overtime in the Superdome. The Saints' offense gets the ball. They throw a pick. And then the Saints' defense takes the field.

And the Rams drive down and kick a field goal to win the game. Three opportunities. Now the Saints play the victim. The owners wanted to support the Saints. And oh, my God, can't believe. But the Saints had three opportunities to win that game. Their defense had two. And Drew Breeze and the offense had one.

I'm not saying the call was good. It was bad. But bad things happen in games and bad things happen. in life? Are you given opportunities to overcome bad things? Saints got three couldn't do it. Last night, Detroit didn't do to a bad call have any opportunities. Their offense sat and watched, their special team sat and watched, and their defense made the stop, bad call, watched Green Bay bleed the clock. So I feel very bad. I feel worse for Detroit than I do for New Orleans because Detroit didn't have any time to overcome it. And this begs the question.

for this caper. How do you solve it? I think the way to solve it is really, really, really in easy. For the 276 time, the umbrella rule, the umbrella rule, which means two minutes left in any NFL game, everything is reviewable, everything. It's the NFL's insurance policy that instead of this nonsense, the Ram Saints game created, which is now we're going to review every pass interference call, has been a debacle. The last 25 reviewed PI calls, 24 are unchanged. Nobody wants to change it. It's nonsense. There's a reason for 100 years in football. We didn't have it. And now they bring it in because everybody freaked out because New Orleans complained enough. And it was a bad call in New Orleans. But in the end, that's nonsense. What's not nonsense is insurance. It's the first

thing you buy when you have a car and the first thing you buy when you have a home. And you buy insurance because insurance is like replays in sports. It's best used rarely, but it's used in case of dire consequences and an emergency, an earthquake, a flood, a car wreck, or a really egregious call with 42 seconds left in the game, and everybody just has to watch the clock bleed. I don't think it's hard to figure out. Listen, these replays, we all agree. They take a lot of time and add it to games.

acknowledge that, that sometimes they kill the pace of a game. I've always thought replays are innately unfair, because sports is so much about momentum, especially in football, the big hit, the big sat, the big interception. Then you go to replay, takes two and a half minutes, the crowd simmers down. It's a momentum killer. And in certain sports, I mean, you watch football, you watch NBA basketball, the big block, the big dunk. The last thing you want is two and a half minutes in a replay just kills the momentum. So I'm not a huge fan. of replays, but I do believe in certain instances, end of games, there should be a big insurance policy called the umbrella review.

I don't think it's terribly difficult to figure out. I don't know why they haven't figured it out. But that's where we stand this morning. The pass interference nonsense due to the Saints Rams ending is a debacle. Bad calls happen. Denver lost a game this year against Chicago on a bad call. In fact, you can argue Denver's lost. two games on iffy calls.

So let me segue from that, my umbrella policy, my umbrella insurance reviewable policy, to this. You do realize this was the classic Matt Stafford game. The worst part about Matt Stafford, boy, he looks the part. His handsome quarterback, got a nice arm, makes beautiful throws, sees the feel. You're like, good. I like Matt Stafford. But last night, three for 13 on third down, one for three in the red zone. Classic Matt Stafford, 11 years in the NFL, he does not have a signature win.

And in the second half, six possessions, punt, field, goal, field, goal, punt, field, go, punt. It's the kind of game Russell Wilson wins. It's the kind of game Tom Brady always wins. And it's the type of game Detroit and Matt Stafford always lose. In 11 years in that division, I want you to think about this. Mitch Trubisky has won that division. Case Keenham has won that division. Jay Cotler has won that division.

Teddy Bridgewater has won that division. Aaron Rogers, overwhelmingly with bad defenses, has won that division five times. Matt Stafford's never won that division. You can blame the refs last night, but in the second half, it was punning and field goals, and they couldn't do anything in the red zone and anything on third down. And I don't want to hear about defense. Detroit's defense stifled Green Bay in the first half. Detroit's defense got two turnovers.

Detroit was up 13-0. He had all sorts of help last night. When you go to Lambo and you can shut down Aaron Rogers for the first quarter and a half of a football game, that's all you're going to get from your defense. You cannot ask to shut Aaron Rogers down for four quarters. There are times you can't shut Aaron Rogers down for a quarter. The defense did a great job for Detroit early in that football game. They came in with a great game plan.

They jumped out to a big lead. He got to play ahead instead of like Dak Prescott always playing from behind. Matt Stafford had the lead on the road. The crowd got quieter because you take the crowd out of the game with a lead. And with Matt Stafford, he always looks the part. That's the difficult thing. Like Andy Dalton just doesn't have the arm. Like Andy Dalton, you're like, well, he just doesn't have the arm.

Kirk Cousins doesn't have the size of the arm. When you look at Matt Stafford, there was a very interesting moment early in the game. And this kind of sums up Stafford. First play of the game, they come out and do a flea flicker. And Matt Stafford throws an absolutely beautiful ball. I mean, this is how you teach quarterbacks to throw. Look at that big. It's like velvety smooth.

And you're like, oh, look at this. And yet, here's this 11-year veteran on the very next play. After this, I mean, this is just classic, beautiful, perfect. It's like video game quality. Next play, fumbles a snap. When's the last time Brady fumbled a snap? Let next play, and then all of a sudden they sell for a field goal. Like that's Matt Stafford.

It's like, it's always just this close. And this game, he got two fumbles. His team gave him an interception. He got a big lead. The defensive game plan was great. And the last six possessions, punt, field, go, field go, punt. So we can blame the officials. but this has come to define the Matt Stafford era.

Looks the part, but why do they always lose these games and why does Russell Wilson and Tom Brady always win them? There's something called it. Some people have it. Some people don't have it. Some people look the part. Some people can't deliver. I was sitting there watching that game last night.

My first thing is, you know, he doesn't have a signature win in 11 years. I think this is going to be it. I thought this is going to be it. they finally have the coach. They've got some nice, not great, but nice little pieces. Rookie tight ends good. They have a good receiver. They have a nice young back.

They've got the coach. They got a couple of really nice corners. You're like, okay, this is going to be the signature win. And it ended up being exactly seemingly what every time Detroit has a chance to win a huge game, they always come up short for the last 11 years. By the way, Detroit has led every game in the fourth quarter. You know what their record is? 2, 2 and 1.

Blame who you want. It's a quarterback league. Coming up next, I've been critical of Aaron Rogers, but there are three quarterbacks in this league that are doing something, and they deserve massive praise, and Aaron Rogers is one of them.

That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear.

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Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist. Kier Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Destin,

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 that's two different levels of trust i want you to just really be a good person join me care gains is we have real conversations about healing growth fatherhood pressure and purpose on my new podcast learn the hard way open your free iHeart radio app search learn the hard way and listen now what's up guys this is cliver 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. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What?

Time out. Look. Quarterback on office blue 42. A rep. My mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed.

And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup,

he has to really guard guys like Nasree. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night bases on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying.

He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball like, after you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

It's October. Geico Ween, don't be scared of higher rates in your car insurance. 15 minutes could save you 15%. Geico Ween. Whatevs? Good to have you in, top of the hour, The Heard hierarchy.

Peter King next hour, Alex Rodriguez on the show, the series, American League Championship Series, moves to New York. So A. Rod will be joining us. Oh, just saw him this weekend. Great to have him on the show. So the NFL is what it's really about is overcoming it. We can make excuses for Cam Newton and Andy Dalton and Matt Stafford and Kirk Cousins. This is about overcoming. Average quarterbacks can't overcome. They need everything to be right. Great quarterbacks overcome stuff. So I'll give you three examples. is now 2-0 in the last two weeks without Devante Adams. Last night, he also had to overcome two lost fumbles, an interception which should have been a touchdown, but the wide receiver bubbled it and Detroit picked it off.

And then he lost Geronimo Allison during the game. All you want to talk about is the bad call Matt Stafford dealt with. Aaron Rogers lost his best receiver, arguably a second best receiver, had a touchdown pass bobbled and turned into a Detroit interception, and there's two fumbles. By the way, Russell Wilson won this weekend. He's lost Doug Baldwin, his most trusted receiver. His number two receiver now is a rookie who dropped in the draft, and during the game Sunday, he lost his top tight end, and he won on the road.

And Tom Brady is 6'0 using a collection of wide receivers who are undrafted. Rookies, one of them played corner back in college. Overcome it. Overcome it. Okay, quarterbacks make their weapons. If your weapons are making your quarterback, you have what's known as Dak Prescott, which is certainly good enough to win games. And Kirk Cousins, Dak Prescott, you can have good Sundays, you can win divisions.

But if you want to win at the highest level, Aaron's got a Super Bowl, Tom's got a bunch, and Russell Wilson has won, you've got to have somebody that can overcome stuff. And if you look at last night and you really talk about who had to overcome things, Green Bay's defense got worked for a quarter and a half, two fumbles, drop touchdown becomes a pick, lost his top receiver. And then arguably Geronimo Allison is his second receiver. And here's what Aaron Rogers does. He goes to the sideline.

He said, let's put number 13 in. It's Alan Lazard. He didn't even call him by name to the staff. He's like, you know, he's been pretty good at practice. He's got a locker by me. Let's put number 13 in. And, of course, you solved the throw. Here's Aaron after.

I may have put in a good word there in the fourth quarter to get him some opportunities. The thing that got me was what you love as a quarterback, and that's when your receiver's coming back and telling you he wants to ball and what routes he wants to run. you know the big first down we had to him on the out route that was him coming back in the huddle telling me what play he wanted and for a young guy to do that how can he not have confidence in that i got to tell you this will be one of the more forgettable games for erin rogers right this is when i love erin rogers this was really impressive to me he didn't have aiming go right last night good god he threw a touchdown pass the receiver bbbled it and they picked it off two fumbles lost his best receiver his second second best wide receiver. He had to play from behind 13-0, which is always absolutely a disadvantage when

you're playing from behind. The crowd was out of the game. I was totally impressed with Aaron Rogers last night. This is the kind of game that nobody talks about at the end of the year, but this league has been defined by overcoming stuff. Russell Wilson this year, Tom Brady this year,

and Aaron Rogers this year have separated. Hey, Patrick Mahomes, I don't want to hear about it. Deshaun Watson's winning with no offensive line till two weeks ago. I like Patrick Mahomes. I don't want to hear about Tyreek Hill. I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to hear about the injuries. Because I watched what Aaron did last night, and that was really impressive.

Hey, coach, put number 13 in. Didn't even know his name. Apparently. Here's Joy with the News. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Doug Peterson said ahead of next week's divisional matchup with the Cowboys at the Eagles we're going to go down to Dallas and win that football game. He is now taking a step back, saying he never guaranteed the win, but he doesn't regret his comments because he wants to show how confident he is in his team.

Never said that. I never said that. Never said guarantee win. I'd never do that. I'm not going to stand up here and go or go on record and say, we're going to go down there and try to win a game. You know, we're going to, man, hopefully we can go win this. You know, I mean, it just doesn't show confidence. And I want to show confidence in our players. And I promise you, you know, Jason Garris is going to say the same thing with his team.

They're going to win the football game as well. Let's check the receipts. Here's what's interesting, though. Remember Domino's Pizza? Yes. Okay, Domino's Pizza. It's still around. Yes.

When I was in college, they used to guarantee they delivered a pizza in 30 minutes or less. And if they didn't, you got it free. But it was called the 30-minute guarantee. You had to use the word 30 minutes. Domino's didn't say, hey, we're going to get it to you in 30 minutes. They said the word, we're going to guarantee we get it to you. He never said I'm guaranteeing a win. He goes, we're going to go down there and win.

So you can say it's semantics, but remember this. When companies only give you money back if it's a money back guarantee, you have to use the word guarantee or it's just a guy talking trash. I want the word there. Now, Rex Ryan twice in his career came out and said, I guarantee you. I mean, but calm. He said, we're going to go down to Dallas. Our guys are going to be ready to play, and we're going to win that football game.

See, when I tell my wife, I'll remember your birthday, I don't guarantee I'll remember it. So it gives me an out. Honey, I'll remember your birthday. But I don't say, I guarantee you I'll remember your birthday. So when I forget stuff, I got a little wiggle room. Well, regardless, there is no. guarantee that the Eagles are going to win this game. In fact, the Cowboys are favored by three in this game.

They're tied for first in the NFC East with three and three records. So it is a very fair fight at this point. So saying that you're going to win that game, whether that's confidence or guarantee, I'm not so sure how this game is going to go. I don't know what to make of the Eagles. It's really funny. Carson Wentz's road and home splits are dramatic. He is really good at home and really not on the road.

They lost to Atlanta on the road. Now, you could say Green Bay, but if you remember that game, Joy, it was the running game, not Wents that won that game. So the line in Vegas is telling you they don't think the Green Bay off. They don't think the Philadelphia offense goes down there and can carry him to a win. Yeah, Fox Bed has the Cowboys as a three-point favorite, and they should be because they're home and everything that you just said. So the Rams secondary just took a big hit. Cornerback, Akib to leave will be placed on injured reserve with fractured ribs. He suffered the injury week five against the Seahawks.

did not play Sunday against the 49ers, he will be eligible to return in eight weeks if he is healthy. He's in the final season of his two-year, $19 million contract with the Rams. He was placed on IR last season in week three with an ankle injury, which required surgery. He came back week 13. So Troy Hill will start into Leap's place. But just another blows to the Rams in a season that it feels like it's, I mean, I don't want to get crazy, but it sort of feels like it's slipping away a little bit. Yeah, it's like unraveling. And the division, they got to play.

That's really the issue is how well everyone else in the division is playing. I mean, right now I watched Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury on script in the first half Sunday. It's like, I don't want any part of that. And by the way, the Rams right now are, it's not like all the issues are offensively. They give up some really bad cheap touchdowns over the top. And now I'll keep to leave this out. So it's not going to get any better. Finally, Tom Brady passed Peyton Manning for second all-time passing yards and Thursday's win over the Giants.

And Bill Belichick did something really, really sweet. He gave him, he gave Tom Brady the game ball. And apparently this is rare. So he gave him the game ball after this accomplishment. Brady said he was surprised by the gesture since he doesn't remember the last time he got one. Are you kidding me? No. When was the last time that you got a game ball from coach?

I don't remember, but that was very nice. I was very, very kind. I would say unexpected, but certainly appreciated. And, you know, it's pretty cool. Belichick is cold-blooded. It's amazing. I mean, I don't imagine a scenario where Brady gets it, you know, every week. But you guys remember the last time you got a game ball?

That, you know, here's the thing. I like crusty old guys. I really do. I don't want to become one, but I'm kind of fascinated by Krusty old guys. And Belichick's a genius. But, man, I got to tell you, he's a little rough on Brady. Can't you show your kids a little love? Can't you hug them once?

It's something, man. I mean, it works, I guess. Whatever the sauce is, you know, don't over-salt it. But it's really bizarre. I don't think I've ever felt sympathy for somebody with six Super Bowl rings. Could you give him a hug one time? I mean, the way he just, right. way he described it saying, I don't know that it was very nice, it was very kind.

Like, to describe getting a game ball as a kind thing is, like, to me, that feels incredibly rare. Like, like he was taken back by, like. You know what? The good news. Tom Brady a game ball? You know what age of mine? You know, Joy, it's funny, because Tom is so loved by his family.

He's got such a great family unit that I think it makes this all very consumable. I mean, but Tom's ability. the strength he brings to the locker room from family and home. Can you imagine if you had chaos in your life and didn't feel loved at home? And then that's what you dealt with in the locker room? I mean, thank God the guy goes home when he's loved. I think that's probably part of the reason why it works. But either way, I would argue, speaking for Tom Brady,

but I would argue he loves football almost as much as he loves his family. Like, he really loves football. So it's for him to describe it as a kind thing. Can we show the picture again? Sorry to the radio audience. Show the picture again of the delivering of the game ball. Brady's face is, it's really interesting. He doesn't know what to make of it.

Is he, watch. Robert gives him a hug. And then he looks at Bill and he's like, hold on, hold on, here you go. Look at him. He's not. He's almost like, he's almost like embarrassed. It's so bizarre. It's so bizarre.

It's so bizarre. I love it. It's a strangest, like, interaction. It's so awkward almost. It's great. Doesn't remember the last time. Yeah. Very kind.

Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. You know, I understand it. Let's say Brady was cocky and his work ethic was marginal. And Belichick felt like he had to always keep tabs on him, right? Like, Jimmy John, I was talking to Jimmy Johnson off the air Sunday.

And Jimmy was talking about it. He goes, you know, some of these players, when I was in Dallas, Michael Irvin or Charles Haley, I had to keep on them. Because they go sideways real fast. And they were fun guys. I had to keep on him. Brady's the opposite. You need to occasionally go, go home. I mean, like, you're so committed.

So it's still, it's, I can't unwrap it. He was genuinely touched. He was, like authentically touched by it. Yes. It was so kind. So I'm going to read this. These are only facts. In fact, I'm strongly considering turning the show just facts, no opinions.

Facts. Baker Mayfield this season. Less passing touchdowns than Mason Rudolph. Less passing yards than Andy Dalton. Lower completion percentage than the recently cut Luke Falk. Lower quarterback rating than Eli Manning and the most interceptions in the NFL. that's with a star running back to star receivers and a defense that gets in the ball back.

Of course, the only way to solve this, it could not be Baker's fault, right? So now I'm going to go into the opinion thing. It's to fire Freddie Kitchen. I go to Twitter over the weekend. Oh, it's Freddie Kitchens. It is Freddie Kitchens. Okay, so let's solve it by firing Freddie Kitchens.

So that will mean Baker will be on his fourth head coach in 19 games. Yeah, that's the answer. And his third play caller in under two years. So let's just fire him this week. Fourth head coach, 19 games. So that's the answer. Let me ask you this. And do you know why Tom Hanks gets the best scripts?

He doesn't deal with Porky's Four. Tom Hanks only gets the best scripts. Why do the richest guys in Silicon Valley get the first crack at the best startups like Uber? because great people with a track record of success have options in life. If you fire Freddie Kitchens, best guy in the market, Rex Ryan, did you see what he did with quarterbacks? When you keep firing people over and over and over and over, it sends a message to the industry.

Toxic, stay away. Jimmy Haslam, stay away. All of you suggesting you fire Freddie Kitchens are out of your mind. That would be the sixth head coach in seven years if you fired him under Jimmy Haslam. And let me ask you this. Not only wouldn't you get an elite coach, what kind of staff could a Rex Ryan get? I mean, again, Tom Hanks only gets the best scripts. So you're going to get a coach that's probably been fired, often multiple times,

and then he's going to have to put a staff together. to get my wife, and it's not like Cleveland's a desirable place to live, to get my wife, any job I take, I got to sell my wife first. I got to sell my wife and my kids. So the idea that you could hire a coach after Freddie Kitchens and then he'd hire 17 assistants and you'd get an elite assistant staff. No, no, no, no. The top 10 special teams coaches are not taking the job. The top eight to 10 defensive coordinators either have now head coaching jobs or not. taking the job. So this idea, the answer in Cleveland is always fire the head coach. The problem

is you get left with Freddie Kitchens as a head coach. That's who's available. So if that's what you think, I said day one, if Baker Mayfield succeeds in this league, and I've said from day one, he is a franchise quarterback, I don't think he'll be a bust. He's too accurate of a thrower. but if he succeeds, he's going to have to overcome organizational chaos. And I am already right on that. He's already on his third coach 19 games in. You want it to be his fourth. So this is what I don't understand.

Like we're all sending messages. Our hygiene sends messages, our haircut, our dress. Did you brush your teeth? You smell okay? all of us are sending messages every day in our lives. How we dress, how we look, how we talk, how we verbalize. What do we like in the room? What is the message you are sending to the industry of football coaches and top scouts if you run out Jimmy Haslam?

You're going to give a guy six, seven games? I mean, in my opinion, you've got to give Freddie Kitchen two years. You got to even 32 games. It's why when I said, be careful about firing Hugh Jackson. me ask you today. Are you sure Freddie Kitchens is better than Hugh Jackson? And I said, be careful about firing Hugh Jackson, whether or not he's the right coach, he's an offensive coach, he's an adult, he's been a coach, just let him get through the season with Baker Mayfield. You know, I don't care what the record is. You weren't going to make the playoffs with Baker last year,

but you just ran him off, and then it's Greg Williams, and then you offend this guy. And now Greg's actually with a team that's got real players and feels great about themselves this morning and you got a coach you want to run off. And it's just a mess. It's just, that is not the answer. You're sending a terrible message to the coaching fraternity if you fire Freddie Kitchens. This is just on Baker. Stop making excuses. If Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady and Russell Wilson can overcome what they're overcoming, I don't want to hear about that thing Sunday. That was a mess. He's a mess. Baker's a mess right now. That's just stop with the offensive line. He had nothing but time to throw the ball Sunday.

Okay, Russell Wilson was under much more duress from Cleveland's D-line than Baker was under with Seattle's D-line. Baker had plenty of time to throw. Okay, Reggie Bush is around the corner, former Detroit Lion, what to make a last night. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling. you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories

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

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience

in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase 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, 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 walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her.

What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? This Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast, Point game is about defying the odds.

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

because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reed. He has to guard Julius. random. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He run up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the

ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Exciting news on the XFL front. Today is day one of the 2020 XFL draft. Here's how it works. Players are being drafted by positional groups, but first, each team is assigned one quarterback. Headline the quarterback pool are Landry Jones,

Aaron Murray, and Cardell Jones. The draft is already underway, so go to XFL.com for live updates. Yeah, so this is interesting. The Dallas Renegades got Landry Jones played for the Steelers. So that's the best quarterback in the league. The D.C. Defenders got Cardale Jones. You've seen them in the NFL. The New York Guardians got Matt McLeon, who actually started a playoff game for the Raiders.

Tampa Bay Vipers got Aaron Murray, great kid. Little small for the NFL maybe, but Georgia quarterback, very good quarterback at the college level. So I have seen four of the – there's eight teams in this league. I've seen four of the eight quarterbacks, and I was watching some of the draft this morning. A lot of recognizable guys. I mean, there's a lot of talent in football in America. Never forget, half the NFL is undrafted. Yeah.

Half the NFL is undrafted. So there's all sorts of players out there. Let's bring in Reggie Bush, 11 years in the NFL, Super Bowl with the Saints in 2009. Big Noon kickoff live on Fox. By the way, let's start with it, talking about the XFL draft. So you go to USC high profile top draft pick. Go back to your years in the NFL about an undrafted player that you arrived to camp and you're like, who is that? I think people forget sometimes how many players in the Tony Romo was undrafted.

Yep. Do you remember the best undrafted player you ever saw? Do you know one year the Chargers got Antonio Gates? Who's the other guy, the Pro Bowl offensive lineman? Was it Nick? In one draft, they got Antonio Gates, Hall of Fame tied-in undrafted, and an offensive lineman that made two Pro Bowls in the same unrestricted free agent class.

There's definitely one or two guys. I can't think of it off the top of my head. You put me on the spot. but that happens all the time, right? There's always guys that go undrafted and they're going to have amazing careers as well. And I'm always just a fan of that, of those kinds of stories,

of seeing guys get an opportunity to go out and to play and to live out his dream. And, you know, maybe he goes undraft or he's a late draft pick and his career ends up taking off. I'm always a fan of those kinds of stories. Okay, let's talk about, as I was saying, we can blame the officials and I'll get to that in a second. Yep, let's blame him.

But let's start with this. Matt Stafford, Russell Wilson wins those games and Brady wins those games. And last night, Aaron Rogers had to overcome two fumbles, a touchdown pass that became a peck, in the whole 13-0,

lost Geronimo Allison and didn't have Devonte Adams. Russell Wilson just overcomes crap. He does. Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady's throwing now to guys that undrafted rookie guys that weren't even receivers in college. There's got to be something about Matt

that he just finds ways in 11 years to not be able to win that game. What is it? Yeah, well, I think Matt, again, he can make any throw from anywhere on the football field. Talent has never been a question about Stafford playing with them on the field and having seen it actually in person, especially when we had Calvin, Calvin Johnson. There wasn't a throw that I saw that he could not make. Yeah, he's got one of the, he's had one of the best arms. Mel Kuyper once said his arm was so, good at a high school. He could have been drafted out of high school to the NFL and they would have put him on a scout team for years. I would believe that. I will believe that. That's how good

of a talent he is. I think the difference is Matt, Matt is a good leader. I think when he decides to take ownership in that team, like you talk about Russell Wilson, I would put Patrick Mahomes in that conversation as well. They own their team. They own their team. And that's where I think Stafford can be better. Not that he's not a good leader because he is a good leader. But when he decides to, literally take ownership in that team. And no matter what this situation is, whether the defense is playing the bad, or if I'm not getting protection from my offense align, or my receivers might be dropping balls today,

I'm going to will my team to this win. And I've seen them do it. I've seen them do it before. We did it when I was there. We beat Aaron Rogers a few times. We beat him on Thanksgiving Day. I never forget that game. But he has to do it more consistently.

He's got to beat the Tom Brady's. He's got to beat the Drew Breeze quarterback. He's got to win games when he gets a, three turnover edge in a 13-0-0 lead. Exactly. And he was three for 13 on third down. You just got to make more first downs. Exactly.

When the odds are stacked up against you, when the game is not going your way, you find a way to win the game like Russell Wilson did against Cleveland. They shouldn't have won that football game. Had no business winning that football game. And Russell, being Russell, it just seems like no matter how much he's down by, you can guarantee that fourth quarter, he's going to be right there knocking on the door with an opportunity to win the football game. So let's talk about the bad calls.

Listen, here's the thing. I don't want to hear about all the bad calls. The one that I really feel bad for Detroit is the one at the end of the game where they can't overcome it. Like, listen, the PA call, I don't care. The other, by the way, call on Trey Flowers was with 10 minutes left in the game. You got multiple possessions after that. I don't want to hear about it. It is a fast game.

College has eight officials on the field. The NFL's got only seven. There are blind spots. You miss stuff. Okay? We can't review everything. Everybody's human. Is there any game in your career that was similar to that where you felt the

refs lost you a game? Yeah, it happened to us when I was in Detroit when we played against the Cowboys. I believe the refs missed the pass interference call against Pettigrew that it should have been called. And we're seeing this happen too often now. And that's the thing that I think people are getting frustrated with is that if we can see it on TV, right? If everybody else can see it in the world, why can't the refs who are standing right there see it?

They should be able to see those kind of calls. And then when they're making calls that literally decide a football game, that's also where you get frustrated as well. Obviously, the Saints is a perfect example of that last year in the playoffs. And then this game as well, you give Aaron Rogers, everybody knows, everybody in the world knows. You give Aaron Rogers too many more extra possessions, right? Because that was a third down. That gets them off the football field. Now you give him a new set of downs, four downs to work with, he throws a touchdown and that's what happens.

And you just, again, you get frustrated because we're seeing this now start to decide games more often. When a ref makes a call that's debatable, are you allowed as a player to go up and bark? Have you ever barked at a ref? Yeah, all the time. So they'll communicate with you. Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100% guys will barker at the ref, especially if the call's on you, right? And you know you didn't, you didn't do the thing that they're alleging, right?

Like what happened last night? I mean, there was a clear cut perfect technique by that defensive end. It was perfect technique. So what are you supposed to do now? Because really what happened was that left tackle got his butt kicked. And so that's why it looked as bad as it did because that left tackle was getting pushed back into Aaron Rogers. And because his body was bending back and because he's getting his butt whoop now, it looks like it's a bad technique when that's not the case. And that ref's standing right there.

You're saying that the ref, there's. there's blind spots. That referee who threw the flag was within five yards of him, so he should be able to see that. All right. Let's shift to I know. You've got two refs. Yeah, right. So let's

shift to something. We can make excuses for Baker Mayfield, but he was atrocious mostly on Sunday. Now, not all the interceptions are his fault, but not all the interceptions in the NFL or the quarterback's fault. We all know that. You're okay firing Freddie Kitchens. I think it sends another terrible

message. My theory on the NFL is if you keep firing people. Yeah. What you're telling the best coaches is that place is toxic. You're going to move your daughters cross country to live in Cleveland, which wouldn't be your first choice anyway, and they could give you seven games. I think it's very hard to get the best coaches, scouts, executives, and assistant coaches in a place like Cleveland, which has a history of not giving coaches more than like

13 games before they make a judgment on you. Yeah. No, I side with doing that point, actually, because I do think at this point firing Freddie Kitchens is probably not the right thing to do, especially after you just fired Hugh Jackson, you know, he didn't let him finish the season last year. And so I love the point that you made earlier was that is Hugh Jackson a better coach than Freddie Kitchens? I think he has more credibility. I think he has more skin in the game. And so I don't think firing him right now is the right thing to do. I do think, though, they have a culture issue there. They're finding ways to

lose football games. And one game is Baker, right? That Monday night game against San Francisco, they beat Baker up pretty good. This game, Baker has all the time in the world to throw the football. He had a great pocket for a majority of the game. He had nothing but time. Some of those interceptions weren't his fault. The one at the end of the game, Hilliard should have caught that ball. You get two hands on it. You got to catch it. It's not always going to be perfect in your stomach, you know, while you're moving down the football field. Nick Chubb had a fumble in that game as well. They had a block punt in that game. So sometimes it's Baker. Sometimes it's other people.

The defense didn't really hold up their end of the bargain when that fourth quarter drive where Seattle was driving down the field to win the game. So it's a culture issue. It's not a baker issue. They got to find ways to win games. And I think right now they're finding ways to lose games. And it's like it's different places. You're like you can't put your finger on it. Like sometimes it's here, sometimes it's there, you know, and you're trying to figure out what is the problem?

Why do we keep finding ways to lose games? By the way, I can admit when I'm wrong, you know at all. Orgeron. He was at USC when you were at USC. I think LSU's the second best team in the country to Alabama. I never thought Ed was a head coach of a football power. I thought he was a great recruiter, a great guy. I'd make him a DC. Great recruiter. But I was always like, he's quirky. I'm not sure if he's the face of an organization. But I got to tell you, he's eight and three in their top ten games. I think I'm wrong on this. He's a good coach. And he's actually the reason why I went to USC. He was a guy who recruited me. Love him to Death. I actually spoke to him last night. And we just talked about just the team and where they are. And the sign of a great coach is when you know, when you see and you have an area of weakness,

and then you go and find the answer to that area of weakness. Thank you. Joe Brady bringing in that offensive system. I got a chance to speak to Coach O'Bee before the season started, and he compared him to Sean McVeigh. He said that this kid is bright. He's very smart. this is the offensive system that Coach O'Jon has been wanting for a long time.

It's the Saints offense, basically. It's what we ran when we're in New Orleans, is what they still run now. And so Joe Burrow looks amazing. He's having a Heisman-type season. And Coach O'Reilly, he's a defensive guy. So hand the offense to somebody else. And so we handed it to the perfect person. And by the way, Reggie, give Ed Orgeron a lot of credit here.

A lot of coaches get to be 50. They think they have all the answers. They've got a pile of money. Listen, Coach O's like, I don't have all the answers on offense. I'm going to hand it over. I was wrong. He's been a big success. Reggie Bush.

Heard hierarchy hour two coming up 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying,

and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by

the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, 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, Keir Gaines, is we have very. 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, 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 with 42.

Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed.

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

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

That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, here we go on a Tuesday, hour two. This is The Herr. live in Los Angeles, wherever you may be and however you may be listening.

We're on iHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. I'm reading these stories. Jane Slater tells me Jason Garrett's in trouble. Cam Newton may not get his job back. Tom Brady won't lobby for Rob Garnkowski. We got all sorts of stories today. Peter King's going to be joining us A-Rod in 40 minutes from now. The American League Championship series shifts back to New York,

where the Yankees earned a split in Houston, so it's game three in New York. and Astros are going to be a tough. I still think the Astros are the best team in baseball. All right, Joy Taylor is joining me. Lively first hour. Everybody thinks the Packers stole one last night, but I'll say it again. I think if you look what they overcame, Aaron Rogers overcame, it was more than what Matt Stafford had to overcome in that football game.

Stafford had a bad call or two in the game. Aaron Rogers running back fumbles, a couple fumbles, trailed 13-0. Defense couldn't stop the Lions. touchdowns, bobbled, becomes an interception, lost his second best receiver, went into the game without his receiver. Green Bay overcame a lot more than Detroit did last night. Detroit got hosed on a call. I'm not disputing that.

But Green Bay, Aaron Rogers overcame far more than Matt Stafford overcame last night. So I don't want to spend hours on what a bad call it was. I'm going to bring Mike Pereira on at the end of the show today to talk about that because it does feel like there's this increasing number of annoying calls that are wrong. So we will talk about that. But I don't want to hear it that, you know, Aaron Rogers got all the breaks last night. He had literally a touchdown pass, hit a guy in the face mask,

and Detroit's guy picks it up and runs 60 yards the other way. That is in a terrible, that's a horrible break. He did overcome more. It just felt like that was like Detroit's moment. You think, yeah. He was right there. And it kind of, I mean, I know I was a little bit rooting for Detroit. I want to see them. just get this win.

You know what I mean? Green Bay is going to be okay long term, even if they lose this game. But it really felt like an important game for the Lions and the spot. It felt like Stafford's. The same call on the same guy. It would be so blatantly wrong.

And he had never had that call in his entire career. So that's, it's like, the refs is obviously like there's no point in like figuring it out because it's not going to be changed. But it just felt more impactful because it's like it was there. It's not win Detroit. It was there for Detroit.

All right, we do it every week at this time. It's our herd hierarchy. We rank the top 10 teams in the NFL. We take a lot of time doing it. We think about it. We try to be rational, and here we go. Heard hierarchy. Time is now, let's go.

The top 10 NFL teams, according to college, number 10. Minnesota, and they're actually now becoming a very easy team to figure out. When they play a good defense, Kirk Cousins is 0 and 2 with a quarterback rating of 73. When they play a bad defense, Kirk Cousins is 4-0 with a quarterback rating of 135.8. It's real simple. Kirk Cousins is limited, and when you put a fearsome pass rush and a top secondary against them, he's not very good. But Philadelphia had back-end issues, and he looked great. Delvin Cook, by the way, is a monster.

He's being overshadowed by Christian McCaffrey. Dalvin Cook right now to me is the first or second best running back in this league. We're just talking so much about McCaffrey. And they've got such great receivers in Minnesota. We forget about Dalvin Cook. He's having a monster year. Number nine. Kansas City.

You complained last week when I had them like seven. Their defense has spent an average of 38 minutes on the field in the last two games. They can't get people off the field. And by the way, I like Patrick Mahomes. But this is the first time in his career, Joy. He's having to overcome stuff like injuries, and he's not, he's struggled with it. So he's completing last three games, 56% of his throws. That's with Travis Kelsey.

That's with Andy Reed. So listen, Wilson, Brady, Aaron Rogers have spent years having to overcome injuries. So Mahomes now for the first time has to overcome some stuff, and he has regressed. Doesn't mean he's not great. It doesn't mean he won't get good again, but this is the growth of young quarterbacks. You come out, you blow everybody away. Oh, you take away this guy. You take away that guy.

That guy's hurt. And Mahomes is pulled back, Kansas City at nine. Number eight. I think Buffalo does have a ceiling offensively. They are so good, though, situationally. The number that jumps out to me, they've had 14 red zone trips this year, and they've scored 10 touchdowns. So that is a team. The play calling's good.

They went in the offseason and they upgraded their offensive line. And I liked their staff last year and I like their defense, but their offensive line has taken all that chaos and all that inconsistency last year and just pulled it down a little bit. It's a great defense, a great staff, a limited offense, but a pretty good situational offense in Buffalo at number eight. Number seven. Carolina.

Again, I think Kyle Allen has some limitations. but let's be honest, the defense right now, again, another Ron Rivera defense, most sacks in the NFL and tied for the second most takeaways. This is what Ron Rivera does. He gives Cam Newton, wherever the quarterback is, he's like, listen, I'm going to give you a top 10 defense. And in the NFL, if you have a top defense and you're a top quarterback, you generally have a winning record.

Add to the fact they've drafted very well at wide receiver and it running back with Christian McCaffrey, Kyle Allen is now one of four undefeated quarterback. in the NFL, Brady, Garapolo, Bridgewater, and Kyle Allen. Carolina 7. Number six. This is mostly Russell Wilson. He's just great. He leads the NFL in passer rating, second and passing touchdowns,

second in completion percentage. Oh, yeah, no interceptions. And Chris Carson has become a complete workhorse at running back, that seventh round pick. He's second in the league in carries, fifth in yards. But this is really about Russell Wilson. He is situationally the most unique quarterback I've ever seen. He's a pocket passer yet a playmaker, yet sometimes a running quarterback. Doug Baldwin retired, and I said on the air, the defense is too young.

Doug Baldwin's retired. I don't love their offensive line. I think they could be an 8-8 team. And then Russell Wilson just happened to have the greatest year of his career, and they're a 5-1 team. Number 5. Number 6. Green Bay is at 5. I think we saw them last night.

They're not a perfect team. But one of the things that Green Bay has done very well with Aaron Rogers at quarterback, they draft the offensive line well and they coach up offensive lines. They do a good job of developing offensive linemen. And Aaron Rogers has only been sacked four times in the last four games. They went and got Billy Turner. They have drafted the position very well. So Aaron's got a nice offensive line.

That's allowed. obviously Aaron Jones to flourish. And by the way, what that does, it allows Aaron to more often throw on play action. So what does that do? Well, Aaron Rogers on play action has 103-passer rating and complete 73% of his throw. So Aaron's good anyway, but when you let Aaron throw on second and four and third and two, linebackers have to play up. He is absolutely lethal, Green Bay at five.

Number four. Houston Texans. Bill O'Brien got ripped for trading first round picks for a left tackle. Guess what? Deshawn Watson doesn't get sacked anymore. Guess what? He's really good. Here's the other thing.

This is a Deshawn Watson. This is very Russell Wilson. Houston leads the league in red zone touchdown percentage and third down percentage. What does that mean? Deshawn, like Russell Wilson, just makes place. This is what I knock on Matt Stafford. Red zone third down last night. Matt just doesn't make the play.

Deshawn Watson right now, best in the league. Red zone touchdown percentage. Third down percentage, best in the league. That's just the guy making plays. 90% of this sport is off script. You know, the first two series are scripted. After that, you've got to make stuff happen. Nobody makes it happen like him.

And by the way, has not been sacked in two weeks. It's not a coincidence. The offense has scored 84 points in two weeks. Deshawn now has time when. he prefers, as he's always said, to be a pocket quarterback. Number three. San Francisco 49ers, best defensive front in the league. What I thought was impressive about winning in Los Angeles,

they were missing their fullback, who's a big component, a big cog in their offense, and both offensive tackles, and they were on the road, and the Rams were more desperate. So you can just say the Rams are no good, but that, you know, the wise guys in Vegas thought the Rams were one of the bets of the weekend. So they've allowed the second fewest sacks, and the second fewest, yards per game. So they're doing it on both sides. You're not getting to Garapolo and they're getting to your quarterback. And this league's not hard. Get a quarterback, protect him, and then draft guys that can get their quarterback and make him uncomfortable. So San Francisco goes into every game

and their quarterback is more comfortable than your quarterback. That's why they're number three. Number two. New Orleans Saints, it's really, we're talking about Bridgewater. It's really about line play. They're top 10 in the league in sacks and top 10 in sacks allowed, meaning like San Francisco, they're doing a lot of this on the lines. Teddy Bridgewater's terrific. Bridgewater is essentially become Drew Breeze. If you look at his numbers right now, what does Breeze do? High completion percentage.

What is Teddy Bridgewater? 69% completion percentage. What does Breeze do? High passerating, very few picks. Teddy Bridgewater, seven touchdowns, two interceptions. Very coachable, good line play Saints at number two. Number one. New England Patriots.

Yes. We know they've played the dregs of the NFL, but their special teams have been outstanding. The special teams in defense have scored more touchdowns than they have allowed this season. So their special teams are better than last year. Their defense is better than last year. They've got a ton of secondary and running back depth.

Nikiel Harry comes off the IR soon, the rookie first round wide receiver, which would help Edelman, Philip Dorset, and Josh Gordon, 6 and O, usually in September. They are at their weakest. They lead the league in takeaway, so it's not just about one thing. The running games back in the fold, best quarterback in crisis, best coach in the league, special teams, New England number one. Heard hired.

Who didn't make it that people would complain about? I don't think I kind of nailed it. Yeah, I don't think anyone's going to complain. The order people might complain about, but I don't think of anyone would not make it. I would flip the Saints. I would put the Saints at number one, and I would also put Seahawks over Packers right now

just because of the way that Russell Wilson is playing. Yeah, Seattle lines are funny. Vegas keeps telling you with the betting odds, they don't love Seattle. It's funny. When you look at the lines on Seattle and Philadelphia, I like Seattle and Philadelphia. Vegas is telling you they're not in love with the Eagles

and they're not in love with the Seahawks. I just think that there's certain seasons. Guys just have certain seasons. where, you know, I mean, Russell Wilson has been great. That's not news. But there's just seasons where... He said something this week. It's different.

Russell Wilson said something this week. And Tom Brady said this years ago, Russell said, I'm at the point now where you can't show me anything. I haven't seen yet. I haven't seen. Brady said that after the Atlanta Super Bowl. He said it's so much fun now. You can try to trick me, but I'm eight years in now.

I've seen everything. And I think the game becomes slower. You know, you can see. And for the record, Russell's saying that now in year eight. And Russell's smart. Like this position at quarterback, it's not easy. Yeah, he's always been very cerebral. That's not the question.

Another level. Yeah, that's right. Peter King around the corner, NBC Sports. His latest thoughts about what we have this weekend. We got Freddie Kitchens in trouble. Jason Garrett in trouble. Some of it sounds like nonsense to me. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m.

Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the Ihard Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

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

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

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

Search, learn the hard way, 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, this linebacker walks up to me.

He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game.

We get a player's perspective on the table. challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing.

That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that I said? you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't be the guy in the room of the long, sloppy-looking untuck shirt. Go to untucket.com.

The code has heard 20% off. They also have retail locations all over America. It's great to have you in today. I thought Aaron Rogers was really impressive last night. I know the narrative publicly is Detroit got hosed, but Aaron Rogers, overcame a drop touchdown that became a pick, two fumbles, trailed 13-0. You know, this league is about overcoming, and Aaron lost Geronimo Allen in the game. He didn't have Devante Adams.

I can make an argument that you can concentrate in the bad calls. Aaron Rogers had to overcome a lot. That's a pretty good Detroit team that got a big lead, took over the game, silenced the crowd, and lost a receiver, already came in with it without Devonte Adams, multiple fumbles. I thought Aaron was very impressive last night. I think this league is overwhelmingly about quarterbacks that overcome obstacles. I've seen it with Brady and the O-line issues this year and receiver issues.

I've seen it with Russell Wilson. Doug Baldwin retired and Russell Wilson's having his greatest year. His tight end got hurt this weekend. The great one's overcome. And Aaron's a great one. With that, NBCSports.com via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Peter King joins us. Are you surprised at all?

Matt Lafleur, Aaron Rogers, seems to be working. Any surprises for you with Green Bay? No, because I think, Colin, I mean, the big surprise, obviously, is how seamlessly two huge free agents came in. You know, the Smiths, Zadarius and Preston, came in in free agency and have totally changed the character and the personality of what had been a porous defense. That has been the biggest surprise to me about,

this team. You sort of knew that Aaron Rogers, he heard the chatter on the outside, quietly and privately, he's got some rabbit ears. He knows what people are saying about him. Well, could this be he's 35 years old, decline of Aaron Rogers? You know, he could not overcome some of the problems he had with Mike McCarthy. So is this it for his greatness. He had not been great, really consistently great in a couple of years. So this was a big, prove it year for Aaron Rogers. And I'll tell you, he made a couple of throws last night, especially the touchdown pass at the pylon that was absolutely that in its own way was as lovely and as on target as

Russell Wilson's throw, you know, in the corner of the end zone the previous week when he was under so much pressure. So I thought that was a great, great night, a great prove-it night for Aaron Rogers, especially to overcome so many of the mistakes that his teammates made. Yeah, I love watching games at Lambo. Let's talk about the Saints. We said when Breeze got hurt, we said actually on this show, Teddy Bridgewater is a little bit like a younger Drew Breeze. High IQ, coachable, almost a savant learning quick playbooks, limited vertically, would rather pass but can move a little.

And he's become that. go back to the day Drew is hurt and Teddy takes over. He addressed the team because, man, it's been smooth. Yeah, I wrote about that this week in my column. That was the week, if you remember, when Breeze got hurt, he gets hurt in L.A. And the Saints, because they were at Seattle the following week, decided that week that they were going to stay out on the West Coast rather than travel home and then go back. So they went up to Seattle, and on that first night in Seattle, Teddy Bridgewater invited the entire offensive team to a restaurant in Seattle.

And he had Michael Thomas speak. They had a couple of people speak, couple of teammates, and then he got up, and he basically said, listen, I am not Drew Breeze. I'm Teddy Bridgewater. I can't be Drew. But I'm going to do everything in my power to make everybody else. in this room proud of me. And I'm going to be a great teammate and we're going to win. And they're four and no sense.

Yeah. No, it's, and it also shows the line play there has been good. They get to the quarterback and they protect theirs. Line play in New Orleans. Mickey Loomis has done a very good job. The talent overall in this roster is really strong. Now, I'm going to go to two stories that I think are both ridiculous, but they're out there. The first one is Freddie Kitchens is on the hot seat.

if he was fired, it would be the six coach in seven years under the Jimmy Haslam, which I think is a terrible sign for the organization. It's toxic. I don't think you can get good staffs built. I'm not going to bring my wife and my family across country to Cleveland if I think I'm going to get 10 games. I don't think firing Freddie Kitchens is the answer. Do you think some of the talk now is legitimate, though? I don't.

But I do think this. This is a team that after its seventh game, I mean, barring one of the upsets of the year and of many years, Cleveland winning at New England after their buy this week, they're going to be two and five. So they are going to have a major crisis on their hands. But I just don't see John Dorsey doing a panic move at that time firing Freddie Kitchens. I just don't think he would do that.

Now, if they believe Freddie Kitchens has lost control of the team, which I can tell you is not the case. If they believe that happens at some point, all bets are off. But I think Freddie Kitchens will make it through the year just fine. Now, there's a Jason Garrett hot seat story. You know, I think it's pretty ridiculous. If they win Sunday, they're in first place. Even if they lose Sunday, they get a buy and get the Giants. Whereas Philadelphia, if they win Sunday, their schedule gets harder.

so I don't buy this nonsense at all, but it's out there. And I do think Jerry's getting older. Jerry wants the ring again. This, I do think at the end of the year, Jason could be in trouble. But as let's just let's not talk today. Let's talk end of the year. Do you think he has to make the playoffs to retain his job? At least.

Wow. I would be very surprised if they go nine and seven and he doesn't make the playoffs. Now, Colin, just remember this. his contract is over at the end of the year. So they would have to sign him to a new contract. How in the world does Jerry Jones bring Jason Garrett back if they're nine and seven and don't make the playoffs after the Cowboys Brass said at the start of the year? Some in some, I'm not going to say the quote exactly, but it's something like this is the best talent we've had since we won the Super Bowl. And so if that be the case, how do you justify in an okay division, but with two weak sisters,

how do you justify bringing Jason Garrett back with a new contract? I don't think that would happen. I think that if Jason Garrett, if they make the playoffs, they win a game maybe two, then Jason Garrett comes back. But I doubt if they don't make the playoffs, Jason Garrett has much of a chance at all to come back. Yeah, by the way, Peter did not pick the Cowboys to make the playoffs. I had him at 9 and 7 battling for the final wildcard spot. So Peter and I were not as high on the Cowboys.

By the way, Vegas had him at 9 wins too. So I don't think they're underachieving to this point. I think they're achieving. I want to move to Kansas City. One of the great things about Russell Wilson and Brady this year and Rogers, they've had to overcome the losses of receivers, offensive line issues. It's interesting, Peter.

Patrick Mahomes, for the first time in his career now, is having to overcome a loser receiver, we got offensive line issues, quarterback is hard to play. And I think Patrick will be fine. But is there a little concern with you not only defensively, but he's now completing 56% with Andy Reed, Travis Kelsey, in the last three weeks, that Patrick, at some level, has not done a great job overcoming what is known in the NFL as Sunday, losses, you know, roadblocks. Colin, I would have zero worries about Patrick Mahomes.

I'd have less than zero worries. There's two problems as I see it right now. Number one, Patrick Mahomes has an ankle injury. And even though he's not going to win a 40 against Tyreek Hill, part of his game, like Russell Wilson, is moving around in the pocket and instinctively making almost everybody miss. So that is an issue. The second issue is that their defense basically is allowing 5.3 yards per carry for opposing running backs and are getting killed in time of possession.

So it's almost like every possession for Patrick Mahomes is vital. He's only got the ball for 22 minutes on average in each of their two losses. So think of that. normally you'd have the ball if you're the Chiefs, 31, 32, 33 minutes. They've got it for 10 minutes less in each of the last two games. They've lost both games. And there's also to me, Colin, a little bit of a mental aspect of this. If you are Patrick Mahomes and you're Andy Reed the play caller and you know that you're

going to have to take advantage of every possession, because you don't know how many you're going to have and you know your defense is a sieve. That's a little bit of a different approach than getting a 17-0-0 lead and just doing whatever you want when you get the ball on offense. Yeah, that's a good point. Knowing, as he said, scarcity of possessions,

you have to make the most of the possessions. I think it can change play calling and change the way you think. NBCSports.com, multiple-time sports writer of the year. Peter King Football Morning in America. Thank you, Peter. You're welcome, Colin. Thank you. By the way, 75% of America does not like the underwear they wear.

Over a million people have tried Tommy John.com code herd, 20% off your first order. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Bronc retired from the NFL, but he said he was going to leave the door open for a possible return. The Patriots are very thin at the tight end this season. And when Gronk was asked if he would come out of retirement,

help his former team as he's going to continue to get asked. So if he says the door is open, he finally gave a very definitive response. I'll give an answer, obviously, when I retired, I retired for a reason because I needed step away. So it would be a no. It would be a no. There it is. But I never say no because I've said no.

And everyone's like, yeah, he's kidding. But in my mind, it's a no. Yeah. There you go. All right. There you go. That's gronky. I mean, it doesn't matter.

Like, if he says no and he comes back, no one's going to be like, you know, like, oh, you said you were never coming back. It's just when he leaves the door open, he's going to get asked about this every time that the Patriots have an issue at tight end. And they do. Matt LaCoste injured his knee against the Giants. And they signed Eric Tomlinson and are re-signing Ben Watson. Yeah, I saw that. Which, by the way, Brady will be happier because Brady loves Ben Watson.

So that's... He did his passive aggressive move at the podium when they let Ben Watson go. It should, man. This is more of a nuisance, not a crisis. Running backs, they're good. Defense, they're great. Special teams coach quarterback. They're good.

Edelman, Philip Dorset, Josh Gordon, and Nikiel Harry the rookie is good enough to win a Super Bowl. This is not a crisis. It's more of a, I'm in a bad mood at the podium. But I don't feel like it's a crisis in New England. I wouldn't describe too much as a crisis in New England ever. But it's clearly an area of concern if they let Ben Watson go. One injury. But that's at any moment.

Elements hurt in this game. Then it's a crisis. Right. So everyone's talking about the officiating in last night's game between the Packers and the Lions. Detroit got hit with two hands-to-the-face penalties that helped set up Green Bay to come back and win the game. But Aaron Rogers thinks every team gets their share of bad calls. When he was asked about Detroit's luck last night, he said, I think it equals out pretty good over the years. He's totally right on that.

Yes, he is, but that doesn't make the Lions feel any better. If you remember famously, the Packers lost to the Seahawks in the Fail-Mary game in 2012, which the call was so bad that it ended the referee lockout that year. Remember we had the replacement reps and it was an absolute disaster. We're almost grateful that that happened so disastrously because it got the reps back. By the way, that's a great recall by you because that call was really changed. It ended a lockout. Yes. It was so bad it ended the lockout.

It was so bad it ended the lockout. Good call on that. And there was a pass interference call before that that they missed too. So that is what obviously this picture that we're showing with the refs having the different signal calls at the end of the non-touchdown touchdown, which ended up being a touchdown. Like that was, that's what we remember. But there were other horribly missed calls in that game as well. He is right. And this is what we were saying about the Saints two last year. Like in the end, you have opportunities.

If it's not on the very last play of the game where it's like it's ending a game and winning a championship, you have opportunities to overcome it. You have to have a short memory and it does even out over the years, it doesn't make the lions feel any better. And again, like last night,

it just kind of felt like it was just right there for the lions. Like you got everything going. You feel kind of good about the lions this year. And then... Listen, there is something about who the team is. We would not be spending a ton of time if that call went against Trey Flowers

of the Patriots. last night and Green Bay beat New England. No sympathy. There would be no national sympathy whatsoever. So we feel bad because, you know, Detroit, for about 70% of the game, outplayed Greenland. Right. And I would argue maybe even if this had gone against the Packers that way and the Lions had won, there wouldn't be a whole lot of sympathy. Right. You'd say, oh, it's Green Bay. They get breaks all the time. Right. Right. So, yeah, it's just because it's the Lions.

Finally, the Browns have been one of the bigger disappointments of the season. If you went into the season, of course, with the Browns having any expectations. Their two and four start is not lived up to many people's expectations and wide receiver driver slandry hints that team chemistry and reaching their potential is a big part of the problem. I think for us, you know, we do great things and we try to build off of it and we end up taking steps back, you know. So we just got to find a way to do the things that we do well consistently. I would definitely say, you know, we're a team, but I would think the biggest thing what I'm trying to say is that again, like I said last week, just need to find ways to continue to play to our potential. That's the biggest thing.

You know, Jarvis is a big team energy guy. You remember in Hard Knocks, he had that famous scene where he stood up in front of the room and was talking about, you know, the energy being contagious, contagious, bro. You might have to have that speech again this year. Anytime that a team is struggling, everyone starts having the conversation about chemistry, right? Like, is everyone working together or the head coach and the quarterback on the, the same page, the receivers on the same page with the quarterback. So you can always have this conversation about chemistry. You don't have it when a team is winning because what is there

to pick apart? If you assume that there's good chemistry because they're winning. There's a lot of issues in Cleveland's, but I also feel like if you keep perspective that you had at the beginning of the season, this is kind of predictable. It's always what you always say. The expectations, your happiness is based largely on your expectations. Like they had a really rough scheduled to start the season. So if you had astronomical expectations for the grounds, then, yeah, then you should be disappointed. What I think the bigger disappointment is is Baker's play in accuracy because that's not what we saw from Baker last year.

It's not what we saw from him out of college. So that is the concerning part of it. And then when you add Odell into the situation and the expectations go through the roof and people want to see Odell making these flashy catches and getting these wins, it just complicates the situation when it comes to expectations. Listen, a lot of you like Baker. Just admit it. He's having a lousy year.

He's struggling a little bit. Yeah. Like he's having a, like he had nothing but time to throw Sunday. Russell Wilson was under way more duress on Sunday than Baker Mayfield was and Baker was lousy. And that doesn't mean they can't turn it around or that Baker's not a franchise quarterback. Just you go through a stretch sometimes. Yeah. Joy with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurdline. Hey Rod joins us live from New York. The American League Championship series moves back. moves back out east. He'll be joining us next. It's the Hurt.

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

I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs,

the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to Sports Slice. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me,

your host, and your favorite therapist, Keer 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 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, 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, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds.

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

because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reed. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing.

That man, hell get the flanks. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Game three tonight moves to Yankee Stadium. It's tied at one. The two biggest guarantees in sports are the Patriots win games in Foxborough and the Astros win games when Garrett Cole pitches. last 24 starts, he's 18 and O. Alex Rodriguez is joining it via the Coward Global Satellite Network from beautiful Yankee Stadium.

Do you remember in your career a pitcher this hot, a pitcher this overpowering? Can you even, what's the comp with him in your career, Alex? I mean, there's probably two. Madison Bump Gardner, who obviously won three championships in six years for the San Francisco Giants. And the other one was 33 years ago, another Houston. by the name of Mike Scott, who, of course, had the split finger and just left the New York Mets scrambling, thinking that he was scuffling the ball. But for a guy like Garrett Coe, there's no scuffling a straight-up heat, 98 to 100 with a hammer and a

change-up. And this guy is going to be the most sought-after free agent. But the Astros need to win today to get this series back to Houston. And all you want, if you're the Houston Astros and the fans, you want a game seven with Mr. Garrick-Cole on the mound again. By the way, there are so many young stars in this league, and I could argue many of them will be on display tonight. Do you feel like it's a passing of the torch in the sport now to a new generation of kids? Colin, that's a great thought.

And, you know, I was just talking. We did a piece with Big Poppy, reminiscing the 2004 ALCS. And great for him. It was a very sad story for me. You'll see it on Thursday. But when you see players like Glaver Torres and Judge and the guy on the mound today, Severino, Garrett Cole, and you see Justin Verlander, First Ballot Hall of Fame or passing the torch to a guy like Garrett Cole, the game is full of great, great young players, and we need to celebrate them more because not only they're great players, but they're great people.

Yeah. And the game is heading the right direction. You know, analytics, and I'm for analytics, but I also, I joke on the show, I call them, analytics. I don't want to make, don't reduce any sport to numbers. These are alpha males, millionaires, great athletes. Sometimes I don't care what the numbers say. I want my guy, Cody Bellinger up in a big spot. Analytics are interesting, Alex, because baseball's regular season is one thing, and then baseball's postseason is another thing. And I kind of feel like in the postseason, we should be a little less analytic driven.

What say you on that? I agree with that. I'm a big fan of analytics, both in baseball and business. I mean, I think numbers don't lie. But I got to tell you, I think Google Map is great, but if I'm driving from school to my mom's house, I'm going to leave Google Map. I know where it is.

I'm going to trust my instincts and trust my eyes. I think managers, especially in October, need to trust their eyes. You can't have a point guard dribbling with your head down. You've got to look up and see what's in front of you. And the Bunt, for example, has taken huge ramifications. postseason. The lack of bunt for the Atlanta Braves in game four sent them home. And the bunt yesterday by Strausburg executed beautifully opened up the floodgates for the

nationals. Sometimes it's important to advance 90 feet. If you're going to wait around for a three-run homer of Garrick-co, you'll be waiting on a very, very long time. Yeah, it seems like, Alex, could I put it this way. In the postseason, one run can be everything. And in the regular season, you know, there's a game tomorrow. Like you got to play for the run, right? Well, you see what happened in game two in Houston. I mean, you were two-two, and basically no one got a hit for eight innings because you have supreme pitching on both sides.

And it doesn't make any sense that you're taking analytical numbers that go 100 years. The problem with that is they're not factoring pitchers like Verlander and Garrett Cole. You're factoring in their three, four, and fives and the weak part of many bullpen. So you have to be very specific. I think you have to have, you have to use your. your gut in analytics and do both? I got to ask you about the Nationals because I believe that when Bryce Harper was with the Nationals, there was a pressure on the organization.

He was becoming the face of baseball. And baseball and golf, there's a lot of idle time. Pressure can reduce, anxiety can reduce the level of play. Whereas in hockey and basketball, you get another shot 20 seconds later, right? And so Bryce Harper leaves the Nats, the expectations lower. the locker room chemistry feels good. It's a little more chill. And then he goes to the Phillies,

and expectations are through the roof. And they see two other teams in their division go to the playoffs. I love Bryce Harper. But I remember when you signed them to the Texas Rangers, boy, the expectations were absurd. And I wonder if you look at your career in Texas and Bryce Harper's, and that sometimes the big star, the big contract,

can have an adverse effect on a locker room. I think there's a lot of things that come into play, you know, Bryce Harper has nothing to do with the struggling pitching in Philadelphia with some of those injuries. But without a doubt, you take all that pressure. You know, I call it the circus that travels with me. It comes with you, and it comes to Philadelphia.

And that takes maybe a year, two, or sometimes three, or maybe never to adjust to that. And the same is true for the nationals. You decrease the pressure. You become a sub-story, not the main story. And all of a sudden, you look up, and the nationals, hey, they're pretty, pretty good. And history repeats itself, Colin.

When you look at 1999, Ken Griffey went to, traded to Cincinnati by Pat Gillick. We got Mike Cameron back. The next year, we went to the playoffs. Then I left, and in 2001, they bring Eitro, and they break the all-time record for wins in a season. Yeah. It happens more than you think,

but base was a funny game. At the end of the day, the one common thing is analytics is trying to bring you down to the most important thing is bullpen. I'm still a believer that strong starting pitching, veteran starting pitching works. And there's no doubt that you have the nationals with two horses at the top, and you have the Houston Astros here with Garry Korn Verland. They're leading the way over here. Finally, rain called for tomorrow. The weather in New York is beautiful. 60 degrees today. Tomorrow the floodgates are out, it could rain. What's the effect on that? We know the Yankees

have a good pen. The Astros, the edge in starting pitching. So what's the rain due to the series? Well, 10 years ago, when we were right here and we won the World Championship, rain played a big factor. And the rain allowed us to start three pitchers, Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettit and nobody else. This could be a big factor in the series of it rains. And you have to think Verlander can come back in full rest on Friday, and then everything falls in place. Got to keep an eye on that.

Yeah. You know, it's funny, teams often shrink at Yankee Stadium. I kind of do feel like, though, tonight, this feels like there's a little heat on Houston. I mean, you send out your Sandy Kofax. I kind of think Houston tonight, there's a little added pressure. You don't win with your star. New York leads. You got that pen.

I mean, I feel like there's heat on the Astros tonight, right or wrong? There's a lot of heat because they have their best pitch in the world pitching tonight, and he's also the hottest. And your goal, if you're Houston, you have to at least win one. you have to get this back down to Texas, and your goal is to have Garikour on the mound for game seven. If you're the Yankees, you want to win two out of three and finish hopefully in game six in Houston. All right.

Alex Rodriguez, Game three, Astros Yankees tied at one. Coverage starts right after our show. Great seeing you, Alex. Thanks for coming on the show. Great seeing you, Colin. You bet. Boy, Yankee State, I've been to Yankee Stadium a handful of times when I used to live out east.

On days like today, it is magic. 62 degrees, crisp blue skies, storm tomorrow, got a little humidity coming in at the end of the night. It's going to be absolutely beautiful there. The one time I was at Yankee Stadium was for a hockey game. What? Yeah, they played like the outdoor classic or something there. And it was the coldest I've ever been in my entire life.

I inexplicably got a beer, you know, thinking like alcohol kind of like warms your blood a little bit, not beer. And the beer froze. Really? Yes. I set it down and it was frozen. By the way, Goulet spent most of his childhood watching the Yankees win. John Goulet is actually a big Yankee fan on the staff. So this is a huge, huge game tonight for the Astros, actually.

The pressure's on. They've got a kid that's literally a free agent and is going to make a fortune. Simply Save Home Security gives you the best most reliable protection. Free shipping, 60-day risk-free trial. Simplysafecollin.com. Simply save collin.com. By the way, you know, as we head to the last hour, Mark Schleris on, Mike Pereer, talking about officials.

You know, we talk about all these, you know, these coaches in trouble. Jen Slater, I'm looking at her tweet from Monday. Jane Slater, excuse me. She asked a Cowboy source about Jason Garrett, and the source said off the record, too early to jump ship, too early to build a new one. Here's the thing. Cowboys win they're in first place.

Cowboys lose, they get a buy, and they get the New York Giants in two weeks. What do you always say? Just win Sunday. So everybody's freaking out. If the Cowboys lose, Philadelphia's schedule gets harder. You get a buy. You get the Giants.

You're fine. It's a two-team division. Washington and the Giants aren't winning the division. And by the way, Philadelphia's got their own issues. Their secondaries a mess. Carson Wentz doesn't play well. So it's a lot of nonsense. By the way, Jason Garrett's won the division three of five years, two of three with

that. This is not a nept coaching. It may not be New Orleans coaching. It may not be Seattle coaching. But it's not inept coaching. I mean, somebody, DAC or Jason Garrett, somebody's got to be competent here. I know you think neither is. Somebody has to be competent.

They keep winning the division. Hour three next. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart radio app. Search Hurd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. L.A. Kings Carolina Hurricanes. Today's Discover card key matchup go further than ever with the Discover at Miles card.

New card members only, but they'll double your miles first year. 35,000 become 70,000. Discover.com slash travel. Check it out. Mark Schlaerth has three Super Bowl rings, a multiple-time pro-Boulder played with John Elway, went to Washington as well. You called the Niners Rams Sunday, and I think it was fairly predictable. We all knew San Francisco would be better.

I mean, Garoppolo's in. Shanahan's super smart. You know Shanahan's dad very well, so you're really tied to the Shanahan family. Sure. But it's the defense, which is filthy. And so you're doing the game Sunday, and is it who they're playing? Is it the personnel? What did your eyes tell you as a former offensive lineman?

Well, I think one, I think there's a couple of different things. One, they dominate the line of scrimmage. You know, in this league, it's so funny because we make so much of quarterbacks, and we make so much of systems and coaches and all that stuff. You dominate. You dominate. I'm sorry. I just got my leg.

I got leg phone right now going on. I apologize for that. But if you dominate the line of scrimmage, you know what happens to you? You win football games. And right now, you look at the 49ers, they will dominate the line of scrimmage. Their defense coordinator, Robert Sala, makes things simple. It's kind of a keep it simple, stupid process. I'm going to let my players who have extreme talent go out there and dominate a football game.

And think about this. They've got D. Ford's a first rounder. Eric Armistead is a first rounder. DeForest Buckner is a first rounder. Joe Bosa. Nick Bosa. Nick Bosa, first rounder. Solomon Thomas is the third.

overall pick of the draft several years ago, he's been relegated to a 25, 20, 25 snaps a game guy. So they have six first round picks. And let me tell you something. He is exceptional. He's an exceptional player. He's just kind of this ultimate twinder. Like he's not quite quick or fast enough to turn a corner on a consistent basis to be an outside guy. And he's not big and strong enough to take the beating of being an inside guy.

But you can move him inside and it can be an effective, a really good effective pass rusher at 20, 25 plays a game. when he doesn't have to consistently defend the run. So you think they're a real team? I mean, anytime you have six first rounders in one unit, that goes back to you look at the Cowboys' Offensive Line for years, Tyrone Smith and then Zach Martin, and then you look up and you're like, well, you have four first round picks. Right.

That, at the end of the day, most of those guys hit. All right, bad NFL calls. So I have a theory on what to do with the NFL calls. I'm not a huge fan of instant replay. I think we need it. I would have the umbrella rule, which is two minutes left in any game in America. You can review anything.

get the rest of the replays mostly out. Big catches, let's make sure those matter. Make sure touchdowns or touchdowns. But I would have my umbrella rule and you think it's stupid. Well, here's the thing. You just said it like in your last segment you contradicted yourself or whatever segment that was that I was listening to where you said the umbrella rule.

And then in the same breath you were talking about of the 25 penalties, the 25 pass interferences, only one of them has been overturned. Right, right. Like here's my problem. And I've said this for 10 years, and people, you know, 10 years ago thought I was crazy. But I think people are coming away around in my way of thinking. I'd scrap pile instant replay. Instant replay is garbage.

Like, everybody says, well, we have to get it right. Well, you never get it right anyway. Like, we're having this conversation right now. You don't get it right anyway. Right. And then there's that, then there's the point where like, well, yeah, we like to get it right on the things we like to get right on. Right. But there are certain things we can't, you know, we can't go back and look at.

Like, there's certain rules. We can't replay that. I mean, that one, we don't. but we replay this one, but not that one. And so, like, incomplete pass. You know it's an incomplete pass, but they called it complete on the field. Everybody runs up as an offense. I've been a part of it and try to snap the ball really quick,

so you can't go back to replay to look at it. Like, why do we as a league let people outside of our league set the narrative? This is the greatest sport in the world, in my opinion. I think it's the greatest sport in the world. Why do we let everybody else? You're never going to get it right 100% of the time. You're slowing it down. you've taken the authority away from officials because they're told to swallow the whistle and let replay figure it out,

which it never figures out. So why the hell do we have it? Why not scrap pile the whole thing and just say, hey, human error is part of this thing. Our officials are going to be, we're not going to just appoint our officials. We're going to empower our officials so that they're going to be better on game day, and they're going to be sure of what they see and they're going to call it, and we're going to move on. How about this? Have the replay there, just give both teams.

teams, two challenges in the game. And by the way, at your discretion, if you believe early in the game there's a bad call, and for momentum's sake, I'm on the road, I'm on Lambo, I'm going to throw the flag, I need the touchdown. So no going in. There are going to be mistakes. Twice a game, I can throw the flag. And now it puts the burden not on the officials on the team to make a, what you would call kind of a

schematic decision. Yeah. Is that terrible? Well, again, you know, part of the thing I have or part of the issue I have with the challenge flag thing is, is instant replay was put into, so the whole premise of instant replay was put in to say, we want to get it right. And we're not. We're not getting it right, but we want to get right.

But the challenge flag thing comes in, then they say, we want to get it right, but only if you have a challenge flag. So what if there's something egregious that happens and you've already used your challenge fake? Then we don't want to get it right, right? We don't care about getting it right if you're out of challenge flags, but if you're not, if you're not out of challenge flags, damn it, we want to get it right. but if you're out of them, you're screwed.

None of it makes any sense. No, it would be like saying in America, we're going to audit you if you cheat in your taxes, but to a limit. Right. After we've audited a million Americans, you can cheat like crazy because that's the limit you can audit. You either audit everybody who cheats or don't audit anybody and just acknowledge this is our system.

Here's the other thing. If everything's going to New York to be reviewed, why do we have to go through the farce of running over to the sideline to look at the little Microsoft tablet. Right. Why do we have to go look at that? If they're calling in New York, why do we send our officials over there? Hey, let me go look at the replay.

Like, why are we doing that? Just go say, well, wait, two minutes for the New York decision. Right. So the whole thing, the whole thing to me is a farce. All right. Let's talk about something. This morning, I'm reading stories. You've got to fire Freddie Kitchens.

And I'm saying, okay, if you fire Freddie Kitchens, that'll give Baker Mayfield his fourth head coach in less than two years, which is I don't think. a good message to the industry because I don't think you can get the best coaches. You know, one of the reasons Denver historically has been able to hire pretty good coaches because people think it's a well-run organization. The reason Cleveland ends up with Freddie Kitchen because most coaches stay away from the opportunities when they present itself.

So is it Freddie Kitchens? What's the issue? Yeah, well, I mean, I think the issue is just you're buying into the hype. I think it's really easy to deal with failure, right? Like, I've never learned anything about myself during the good times because I was too busy pat myself on the back for what a great job I did, right? It's during the tough times where you actually learn something about yourself. I think they bought into the hype of work Cleveland.

Look at all this talent. And Joe Gibbs used to say this all the time when I played for the Washington Redskins, and I've always adhered to it. I always believed in it. Talent will make plays in the first three quarters. Great character wins you football games in the fourth. And you can say whatever you want about Baker Mayfield, but every time I turn on the TV, he's in a commercial.

And now, it doesn't mean that he didn't work hard, didn't mean they didn't prepare. But when you look at it, the narrative becomes, did he really work hard? Did he really prepare? Or was he spending time being a celebrity? What did Bill Parcell say? Long time ago, nobody wants a celebrity quarterback.

I want a great quarterback. And you look at this football team, and to me, you know, when it comes to Cleveland Browns, it's about buying a plate of sizzle. I don't go to the steak restaurant and buy a plate of sizzle. Just give me some sizzle. I just want to hear it. I want to smell it, you know.

I want to eat some steak if I go to a steak restaurant, right? And there are a lot of sizzle. And there are just a lot of sizzle. And so I think it's really tough. I mean, Freddie Kitchens, think about his meteoric rise, if you will. He was the quarterback's coach last year. He started as a quarterback's coach. Then he got elevated when Hugh Jackson got fired to the coordinator,

running best coach. Excuse me, running best coach. Then he got elevated to coordinator. Then he gets elevated within a seven-month period or whatever it is to the head coach. You don't think there's a learning curve, not only learning your players, but understanding kind of how to put the whole thing together, all of a sudden being the guy that has to answer the questions. And, of course there's going to be a learning curve into that.

It just is. It's amazing. When they fired Hugh Jackson last year, my takeaway was, so do you think you're going to the Super Bowl? No. So just keep Hugh in. First of all, Hugh knows offense. He's not going to be bad for Baker.

Keep the messaging to the league is we don't embarrass our coaches mid-season. And Cleveland fans, you got to fire. Like if you're Dallas even with your issues, you don't fire Jason Garrett because Rod Marinelli is 70, Kellanmore 17. It's not like you have a lot of guys. So Cleveland's answer is always fire the coach. And all that does is send a message to the NFL, don't bring you and your beautiful kids here to Cleveland because you got about 13 games.

And if you don't win eight of them, we're out on you. So I think it's bad messaging. Here's an interesting story. So Carolina's got a new owner. He's an investor. And if Cam Newton was a stock, I can make an argument. It's time to sell. Kyle Allen's unbeaten.

Next year, Cam, you only owe him $22 million. And since you're paying Kyle Allen nothing, it wouldn't be a huge cap head. Sure. Cam's got injuries. You've paid Cam a lot. He tends to be a tad distracted. If you look at the division, they've clearly surrounded him with players. Could I make the argument?

Rich Eisen said yesterday. that Todd Bowles in the meeting before the game, Rich did the broadcast for the NFL network over in London. Yes. That during the meeting before the game, Bowles told Eisen and his staff is, oh, it's much harder to face Kyle Allen than Cam, because Kyle distributes it to all their players.

When Cam's in, it's just he and McCaffrey. You know, I start reading that, and I think to myself, isn't it now time? This is the time to break up. You're not paying Cam 35. You're paying in 22. And if you move off his contract, you say, oh, there's a cap hit.

But you're paying Kyle nothing, so you're just paying the position of quarterback $22 million. I mean, I think it's time to move, isn't it?

I don't think there's any question. When you look at Cam, Cam, to me, was never an elite quarterback. He's an elite athlete. Thank you. That's what he's been. He's always been,

I mean, in the quarterbacking realm, he's always been woefully inaccurate. Yeah. Especially in the intermediate range. Yes. So, I look at this. You have a better chance to win with a young quarterback who distributes the football and is deadly accurate.

Yeah, Kyle's accurate. He's a limited vertical thrower. He's not a world-class athlete, but he... You know, I was comparing him to a point guard in the NBA named Mike Conley. Sure. Mike hits about two jumpers a game. Coachable plays good defense. Great distributor.

Gets the ball to the right people. And Mike hits about two jumpers a game. Kyle makes about two throws a game. You're like, okay, that's an NFL quarterback. But I could argue, they're pieces offensively. are excellent. Yeah, absolutely. And you have to, you know,

you have to be able to be accurate to get those, to get the football, distribute the football in the playmaker's hands and let the playmakers do what, you know, let them get you down the football field.

You know, the issue is, and we've said it forever, the problem, when you're gifted athletically, and there's nobody that's more gifted athletically than Cam Newton. Yeah. Unfortunately, what happens to those guys,

the majority of the time, is your default mechanism goes from the national, neck down. Yes, yes. So when things break down, your reaction is I've always been gifted athletically. I can just take off.

I've always been able to get away. In the NFL, those guys are literally, I picked up a fumble once. They tried to murder me. I was like I was laying at the bottom of pile going, don't pick up a fumble. Like, that's dumb. Right? So your mechanism, when things break down is from the neck down, you know, your default mechanism, you're not going to last.

The neck up is where you need your quarterback's default mechanism to No, I mean, it's funny because Russell Wilson, you know, he kind of acknowledges that now in his eighth year, the game's slower. Mike Vic told me this once. He goes, listen, in high school and college, third and four, I just took off. Yeah. He said, and he's a catch him. And then I got slower and beat up, and I met Andy Reid, and I'm like, oh, I'm just going to start developing the pocket thing. And Mike's the first to admit it's like your whole life, you take off and run and get the first down.

It's like anything else. If God gives you gifts, you will use them. Right. Like, Brady doesn't have the option. Like, I've got to figure out the pocket. Right. Because that's all I've got. And that's where you want the quarterback that's been classically trained,

Russell Wilson, who's got the athleticism to escape. And his second reaction plays, come on. His second reaction plays aren't like these crazy scrambling Mike Vic runs. His second reaction plays are what? Throws down the football field to Tyler Lockett in the corner of the end zone touchdown I mean these incredible just incredible plays that's

what he does when he decides to escape the pocket he's still kind of a neck up quarterback is how am I going to get out of this mess and when you see him scramble he scrambles for eight yards and he slides down and goes oh we have to punt now all right that's okay well Russell's always running almost always running with Aaron Rogers last

night Aaron's only really truly running twice a game he's always running buying time to throw yeah there's a big difference with that right Mark Slare with Good Seeing you. Three Rings. Nice having you back, bud. Absolutely. All right, Joy with the news.

No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Doug Peterson said ahead of next week's divisional matchup with the Cowboys at the Eagles, we're going to go down to Dallas and win that football game. He is now backing off of it a little bit. He's just saying it he didn't necessarily guarantee a win. I never heard him say guarantee.

He didn't use the word guarantee, but he doesn't regret. read his comments because he wants to show how confident he is in his team. Never said that. I never said that. Never said guarantee you win. I'd never do that. I'm not going to stand up here and go or go on record and say we're going to go down there and try to win a game. You know, we're going to, man, hopefully we can go win this. You know, I mean, it just doesn't show confidence. And I want to show confidence in our players. And I promise you, you know, Jason Garrett's going to say the same thing with his team. They're going to win the football game as well. It's a good spin job.

He did not say the word guarantee. If I said tomorrow, Joy, I'll be at work tomorrow. And I didn't feel under the weather. But then I said, I guarantee I'm going to be here tomorrow. And I didn't show up. You'd think a little less of me. Guarantee changes everything. The word guarantee.

30-day money-back guarantee. Maybe legally. See, I think legally, he is protected. Yes, he's legally protected from this football game prediction. Yes. But he did say they were going to win, which is a commitment at the least, right? Can we give it that? All right. There's a commitment. There's a reason why people are freaking out about it. He said, we're going to go down in Dallas and we're going to win. They are, the Cowboys are three-point favorites at home, according to Fox Bed, and they're tied for first in the NFC East with three and three

records. It's a two-team division, so it's no time for anybody. By the way, for all those banging on Jason Garrett, this guy's three-and-three with Carson Wentz and an awful loss to Atlanta. The idea that people would be okay with the Cowboys firing Jason Garrett this season is beyond my comprehension. I can't even have a serious conversation. Two of the last three years with Dak Prescott, they won the division. They win Sunday. They're in first place. And they're favored. What do you do people? What are you talking about? After the season, If they don't make the playoffs, have that conversation, which I don't even agree with it then, but have that conversation then.

But midseason, I'm against firing coaches midseason always, unless it is some other, you know, mitigating circumstance where, you know, it's something else. But anything has to do with on the field firing midseason makes no sense to me. For what? So you can get ahead of the coaching search. If you're firing midseason, you clearly are in a bad way. So you're not going to get one of the top coaches anyway. Yeah, Jerry doesn't, he's only fired one coach midseason.

So if you wait to the end of the year, Lincoln Riley would, I think, take the cowboy job. He wouldn't take the Brown job. But Jerry's, if you look at Jerry Jones history, he actually gives coaches usually a year more. He gave Barry, Dave Campbell. There's something to, at the very least, being consistent. Yes.

And being steady and seeing something all the way through. And when it comes to coaches, head coaches now, I understand there's not a lot of these jobs in the world being a head coach in the NFL. However, I do think that college coaches value their jobs more now than in the past. In the past, there was this idea, like, everybody wants to get to the NFL. Everyone wants to get to the NFL. I think a lot of top-level college coaches aren't scratching to get into the NFL

and worry about their job security and worry about uprooting their family and worry about having to deal with an owner. When they have control over an entire college campus and an environment can pick all their own players and recruit and pick their staff. and it's not all like that anymore. So how you treat your coaches and how you treat the environment that you're creating there

is important. Fire midseason is silly. So Tom Brady passed Peyton Manning for second and all-time passing yards and Thursdays went over the Giants. Bill Belichick thought it would be a nice gesture to give him the game ball for that accomplishment. And Brady said he was surprised

because he doesn't remember the last time he got one. Weird. When was the last time that you got a game ball from coach? I don't remember. but that was very nice. That was very, very kind. I would say, unexpected, but certainly appreciated.

And, you know, it's pretty cool. It's the strangest look in the world. Watching the video, it's like, it's almost, it's, it's really, it's an emotional moment. And it's just, it's just laughable because it's Tom Brady. Like, this,

he can't remember the last time he got a game ball. You don't feel like there's been any games. And, I mean, let's just say it hasn't happened in two years. There's been any. games in the last two years where Tom Brady wasn't deserving of the game ball. It's just, and the funny, we said this earlier, the funniest part about this is Tom's not a guy that you have to keep a little thumb on, like, like, always making.

Like you can't praise too much. Because he'll get, he'll go sideways. Right. The guy doesn't drink a beer in the season, reportedly won't drink a beer. Can't you give him a hug? Can't you tell him you love him once? Like once. It's so, it's like, it's not, it's not.

It's not. It's not. awkward, it's just like, it's shocking to watch because you, you know that emotion, right? Like, someone's done something for you where you've been genuinely touched, like someone's given you something or made you something, or even like your kid or something. Like, here, like, here, Dad, this is for you. Or like, you know, I made this for you. I got this for you.

I was thinking of you. And like, you're, you know, you're genuinely touched. And that is the moment that we're experiencing with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick giving in the game ball. This is so, I don't understand it. I love it. It's like my favorite story of the month. I don't know that this could be.

Finally, the XFL is gearing up for his first season with a two-day draft that started today. The league announced their eight quarterbacks this morning, headlined by Landry Jones with the Dallas Renegades, great name, and Cardell Jones with the D.C. Defenders. And we also have Matt McGloin. NFL quarter. Aaron Murray from Georgia went to Tampa. Yes, Brandon Silvers.

He played for Troy and Louis Perez. He played at Texas A&M Commerce, Jordan Tiamu, he played for Ole Miss. Yeah, yeah, saw him. And Philip Walker played for Temple. Did Connor Cook get drafted yet? Did anybody know if Connor Cook, the NFL kid, Michigan State Kid? Because I thought he would get, I thought he would be one of the top quarterbacks.

It's very interesting. I got to tell you, I looked this morning, I've been looking in between breaks. I've watched a lot of these guys play. This is half the NFL folks is undrafted. And by the way, the NFL, the NFL, the NFL, rosters are not big. They're not. There's a lot of talent out there available.

And there's what there is, Joy, there's a lot of quarterback talent now available. So I think this is going to be a fascinating league. You watch, it'll be like the Canadian Football League was years ago where the best quarterback in the league, you always felt like, oh, he's going to get a shot at the NFL. That used to be kind of a feeling. The quarterback playing in this league, I think it's going to be pretty good. I'm excited for it. And like we said before, it has the backing and the tag.

talent there. So, and that support. Connor Cook went to the Houston roughnecks. Oh. Yeah, because he's an NFL level quarterback. Yeah. There you go. Enjoy it with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. Baseball playoffs, Yanks, Astros in 20 minutes in 10, Mike Pereira, former head of officials, explain some of this nonsense that confuses all of us.

That's coming up next. Competing today takes tremendous toughness, energy, and drive. It's why I use MDrive every day. MDrive for Men.com. Refind your prime. I thought today we needed clarity on the officiating.

So many of you were complaining about it, and I watched the game last night. I think it's a very difficult game to officiate. But with that, I want to go to the former vice president of officiating in the NFL to kind to create clarity for all of us, Mike Pereira via the Coward Global Satellite Network. So let's start with this. Am I overstating it by saying there's a little bit of an officiating crisis in the league with another layer, the past interference review. We're adding a lot, it's like an aeroplane. We're adding more for the pilot to figure out in flight. Do we have a little bit of a crisis going on with

officiating, Mike? No, I think we have more than a little bit of a crisis, quite frankly, because if you're the pilot, I'm concerned about that plane that it's going to crash at some point when it means most. And I'm speaking about the past interference rule here. We've created a monster. And I hate to say it because it's put Al Riveron in an impossible position, even officials in a tough position, coaches an even tougher position. And I think what the league did was overreact and brought in a rule change with making pass interference reviewable. And to me, it's all about one play. It's all about one play. And now all of a sudden you have two different standards of what is or what is not pass interference. You have the standards that the officials

look for, and then you have the standard that replay looks for, which means that if they don't call defensive pass interference on the field, and Pat Schumer challenges the Golden Tate was interfered with, and New York looks at it and says, yeah, really he was, but that doesn't rise to the level of what we're looking for in replay. Everybody's going to be flummoxed. And so I think you've created more attention on officiating because of this rule. And if that happens in week 17 and keeps a team from getting into the playoffs because replay doesn't add pass interference, even though it is pass interference. If it happens in the playoffs, it happens in the Super Bowl, it's going to be awful. What is your initial reaction to the two calls against Trey Flowers of the Lions last night?

Well, I mean, look, I feel terrible about it, but they're so easy to call in slow motion when you're seeing them on TV. You have to realize that you can't go to the head or neck area when you're either rushing a blocker like that or pass protecting either way. And in fact, he wasn't the first one. He wasn't on the neck. He was on the collar. He was right here below the neck. Look at the difference. What's the difference from being on the neck to there?

I can see what he called. And then the second one, you know, he's actually on the left shoulder, close to the, you know, close to the neck, but off to the side. So easy to call in real time. But when you look at it in a flash, I mean, in real time, it's so hard to call. In a flash, I can see why it's called. And I feel bad about it. And I know that the umpire who's a veteran, a 20-year vet, you know, feels bad about it. But it's pretty hard in real time to look at that and say it's an egregious.

miss. A miss, yes, but not an egregious miss. I have a theory. It's called the umbrella rule. Two minutes to go in a game, you can review anything. Is that just for two minutes left when another team doesn't have a chance to overcome it? Even in the Rams Saints, the Rams did have chances to overcome it in overtime. The umbrella rule, the insurance policy, two minutes left. Nonsense or does it make sense? Well, I wouldn't, I wouldn't call it nonsense because I think what we have going on now is nonsense. So, you know, to me, you should shorten the period of when you have, like, pass interference even to the last five minutes of the fourth quarter. Let's think back to that championship game. There was a blatant interference that was missed in the first quarter.

Anybody talking about that? No. No. It's just because this happened at the end of the game and had a direct, really, impact on who won and lost the game. I wouldn't be opposed to your theory at all. I would worry a little bit about how time gets manipulated there because if you are in a situation where a team is out of timeouts and then you stop games to look at something. You stop a game, but something that is not clear, somebody's going to gain an advantage. But I don't think you throw any idea out the window at this point. I think you just have to look at it. I'd be more inclined just to have replay, period, in the last two minutes of the first. half and maybe the second half because replay's grown so much into judgment into what is it

catch catch no catch you know did he have the ball long enough to perform an act is past interference is it egregious is it stuff they're all in it's getting so far into subjectivity right now that I personally would love to cut it to the most important part of the games and maybe that's the last two minutes of the first half and five minutes of the fourth quarter maybe that's a better idea I'm not I'm not given I'm not giving up on you on this one You might have something. Finally, got a minute and a half left. I think college football has eight officials.

NFL has seven. They're not full-time. Many would subscribe to the theory that the NFL has never given the commitment to officiating it deserves. I don't know if that's right or wrong. But do you think the league has grown, technology has grown, television replays are so accurate here. You can see everything that it is time that the league just spent more money on officiating, made the refs full-time. Is that reasonable? I don't I don't think making all the reps full time.

I think making the referees, the 17, 16 referees full time, 17 referees full time. I think that's certainly something that could be looked at. But I agree with you. Look at these guys are so important that they need to have more support. And, you know, there shouldn't be guys like me, honestly. Me and Blanino and McCauley and John Perry and Gene Sterator, all good people involved with the league, have left to the networks.

That's right. Why? Why? Because, A, it's more money and one-tenth of work. You know, so they don't, they don't, I shouldn't have said that in my option year.

That was the wrong thing to say. But can you strike that back? But, but, but I mean, they don't, they don't, they just don't appreciate as much,

officiating as much as they, as much as they should. But, you know, I, I think they just have to, look at changing the structure of what they're doing now. No, I think, Mike, actually, we brought that up in a meeting this morning, that the reality is all these reps are leaving because the money's great,

and, you know, there's a lot of stress officiating, not as much talking about it on TV. We've got to run Mike Pereira Fox NFL Rules Analyst. He's the best doing this in the country. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Colin. See you. That actually was our topic this morning in the meeting. We were literally talking about this as a staff.

I think, Joy, you were there. We were like, the problem is. Fox and the networks pay more money than the NFL does, and it's a third of the work. He said it's a tenth of the work. So, you know, take it more seriously. College football's got eight officials. NFL's got seven. Come on.

They should absolutely be full-time. Yes, yes. All right, baseball's coming up. Tied at one. Game three in New York. It's the third. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what.

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