The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Matt Ryan, Nick Foles, Doug Pederson, Dak Prescott, and the Steelers

Episode Date: September 7, 2018

Colin discusses the issues with Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan, why Philadelphia Eagles QB Nick Foles and HC Doug Pederson work well together, why there isn't much pressure on Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, and how Pittsburgh Steelers HC Mike Tomlin is handling his team. Guests include Bryan Cox, Bucky Brooks, Joe Thomas, Greg Jennings, and Jeff Pearlman. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Ah, this is The Herd on a Friday, wherever you may be, and however you may be listening, live in Los Angeles. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS-Wan, the herd sponsored by Firestone, complete auto care, keep your car running newer and longer. Joy Taylor is joining me. Morning. A lot of penalties last night, 45-minute rain delay, which, pretty much. probably on the East Coast. Some people went to bed, not in Philadelphia, certainly. It is definitely a perk of being on the West Coast. I feel for my East Coast people, though, because I'm still kind of programs for the East Coast.

I've been there my whole life. It's supposed to be dark out of this football on. Yes. All right. In one hour, my blazing five, my best NFL football peaks in a week one I've ever had. But let me start with this. Last night was two really good teams. Both were a little rusty, a lot of penalties. Both will be better by the end of the year. And both will be around at the end of the year in the playoffs. These are very, very good football teams. And when I look at the stats, I got all the stats right here. Boy, they're just, I mean, it's just first downs. They're real close.

And total drives and, you know, yards per play and time of possession. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, here's one where they're not close. Third down efficiency. The Eagles backup quarterback was 8 of 16. Maddie Ice was 4 of 15. That's with Julio Jones. That's with two good running backs.

That's with a better than average offensive line. Maddie Ice was ice cold, one for nine red zone passing. Last night, once again, all I'm doing is waiting for Maddie Ice to make a play in a big game and he doesn't. Super Bowl had the lead, couldn't fourth quarter. Last year, divisional playoffs, final play couldn't. Last night, final play couldn't. By the way, the Atlanta coach is in the first quarter. First drive of the game.

Stay out there, Maddie. Stay out there, Maddie. You prove everybody wrong, Maddie. No, he's proving me right. People get upset when I say, if you take out the one great year, Matt Ryan is Andy Dalton. He's closer to Andy Dalton than he is Aaron Rogers,

and everybody freaks out. But Andy Dalton has one great receiver, A.J. Green. Matt Ryan's got one great receiver, Julio Jones. They both have a defensive head coach. They both have a cooler nickname than they actually are. They've got decent arms, but not great. They can move a little, but they're not mobile. They have two other teams in their division, Steelers, Ravens, who are better organizations.

You've got the Panthers and Saints. Those are really good organizations. And what's the knock always on Andy Dalton? I can't beat the Steelers. And wants to knock on Matt Ryan. He can't win the game. Well, there was the one MVP year. stop it. Kyle Shanahan makes everybody better.

Kyle Shanahan and Jimmy Garoppolo have never lost a game together. I like Jimmy Garoppolo, but he would lose games with other coaches. I always say this with a real estate agent. If you're a real estate agent for 10 years and you have one spike year because you sell a mansion, somebody hooks you up, friend of a friend, you sell a mansion. Okay, that's great, but that's not who you are. Of the 10 years, who you are is the nine other. years when you sell nice homes.

You're a solid real estate agent, make a nice living. You had that one spike year because a buddy hooked you up and you sold a mansion. Made a lot of money that year. But the next year you went back to, you know, being a good, solid real estate agent. Don't give me his MVP year. Kyle Shanahan left. He came back to being, you know, Matt Ryan. By the way, Matt Ryan, Andy Dalton, you put the numbers up.

Take out the MVP year. Same darn guy. You just don't want to hear it. In the Super Bowl year with Kyle Shanahan, Matt Ryan scored 35 points or more 10 times. He's never done it once since. And he never makes the play. I saw Nick Foles make the play in the Super Bowl. I saw Case Keenham make the play in the playoffs against the Saints.

I've seen Breeze and Brady and Ben. I've seen Cam make the play. I'm always waiting for Maddie Ice to make the play. And don't kid yourself. Don't you always feel this way. There's in the dome, Matt Ryan, and there's outdoor Matt Ryan. Maybe he just keeps playing Philadelphia on the road. Need to get him at home.

But my lasting memory, and I saw it three times last night, Matt Ryan, fourth down, chance for a touch. Can't get it done. I'm not anti-Matt Ryan. I'm just realistic Matt Ryan. He and Andy Dalton both have a nickname Red Rifle, Maddie Ice. That's better than the actual player. And both always leave me feeling like,

they're good. But I'm waiting for the play. Nick Foles gave it to me. in the Super Bowl. I still don't have one for Maddie Ice. Let me shift to this. Let's talk Philadelphia Eagles for a second. Now, they're a very good football team.

I don't have them winning the Super Bowl, but I haven't won in the division. They're a good football team. And I always felt like this. In Hollywood, there were a lot of tough guys for years and years. A lot of action stars. Sylvester Stallone was a tough guy. Arnold Schwarzenegro was a tough guy.

Ben Diesel was a tough guy. Tom Seismore was a tough guy. but in his prime when he was like 45 years old you know who the toughest guy was nobody mess with Clint Eastwood Clint Eastwood's one of those guys and we've all had a friend like this you just don't mess with you just you know you just don't I can't really take a joke you just you just they're wow you just you just wouldn't want to end up on the wrong side of Clint Eastwood when he was 40

now it's a little different but 40 45 years old there's always that guy in the bar not the biggest not the strongest but you're like you don't want to mess with that guy. Connor McGregor's not the biggest, toughest guy in the UFC, but you don't want to mess with Connor McGregor. Philadelphia's got a roster and a culture full of those guys. That final drive last night, you know, it was four minutes left. Five straight times.

Pound the ball. Pound the ball. Get the push. Pound the ball. Make the play. That's Philadelphia football. Offensive and defensive line, that is a locker room full of tough guys. By the way, what did they do?

What did they do in the offseason? They got Michael Bennett, another tough guy. Haladinoa, another tough guy. They went and drafted a tight end from South Dakota State. 260, 6, 6.6. Another tough guy. Atlanta's culture is fast and slick. What did they do in the first round?

They got something they really, really needed another Alabama-wide receiver who didn't do anything last night, a small guy. They got more skilled. What you watched last night was the difference in two cultures. This is why Philadelphia last year was number one of the NFC in the red zone. Tough guys. Space gets limited. Gets tight down there.

Not a lot of space. Guys all jumbled up. Who wins in that scenario? Tough guys. Philly's got a roster of tough guys. Guys, you wouldn't want to get a fight in two whiskeys in. Guys, you don't want to mess with. guys you don't want to cross.

Atlanta's skilled. Atlanta's fast. Atlanta's lousy in the red zone last year. And lousy in the red zone last night. When you need that extra push and you need that little extra thing that football demands, you watch two cultures last night. A skilled, fast, slick culture that once again can't get it done in the red zone and the tough guy punch you in the neck,

Clint Eastwood in his 40s, dirty hairy culture. Man, when that game came down to brass tacks, they lined it up, Philadelphia did, they just lined it up. And that looked like the Big 12, Atlanta, and Philadelphia looked like Alabama. We're just going to lean on you. This is going to be a street fight. We need five carries and a two-point conversion.

And that's what Philadelphia did. bang, bang, bang, bang. Ran the ball five straight times. Like, I think the Rams, the Chiefs, there's a lot of good rosters. Houston, I'm not sure there's a roster with more guys if you need a yard or need to stop a team from getting a yard. I'm not sure there's a better roster in the NFL than Philadelphia. And boy, did we see opposites last night. We saw the Big 12 and we saw Bama last night.

Coming up next, Cowboys were in a very interesting game, and it is remarkable to me who we think the pressure on is in this game. I'm reading all these stories this morning. The media's got it wrong. Who the pressure on is in this game. Plus, Atlanta coaches got out coached last night, not just because they lost the game. That's coming up.

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Listen, you're always pretty secure if you have a job if you're outperforming your contract or you're outperforming what somebody's paying you. If you work at a company and they're paying you $40,000 a year, but you're really doing the work of somebody that should be, and can double that, they're never going to fire you. Those are people that keep their jobs forever. People that are outperforming their contract.

If a company pays you $100,000 and they look at it and go, you know, a lot of guys around him doing more for less than you're in trouble. So that's how pro sports works. like if we're going to pay a lot of money, you've got to be worth the cap hit. If we're not paying you much and you're outperforming it, I've got to feel good about that.

I'm reading the story. Cowboys this weekend face Carolina. It is a can't miss game. And I'm reading the story this morning. Pressure on Dak Prescott. This is the big year. There's no pressure on him. Cam Newton is the number one pick here.

Cam Newton makes 21.5 million a year cap hit. Cam Newton's coming off a week year. Cam Newton's Superman. You go to last year, DAC and Cam. Dak was a better quarterback. Dak had a better passer rating. Dak had fewer interceptions. Dak had a better completion percentage.

Dak had more yards. Both had six rushing touchdowns. Dak had fewer fumbles. Okay. the pressure in this game Sunday, it's not on DAC. Dak's making $725,000 a year. And yet, over the last two years, the Cowboys have won more games than anybody in the NFC.

He's totally outperforming his contract. Now, the Cowboys, by the end of the year, will have to make a decision on him, and I think they'll make the right decision, the prudent decision, which is to pay him. But Carolina, for the last couple of years, First round, running back. First round, wide receiver.

Fire all their offensive coaches. Why? Because right now, Cam, as a number one pick, is a guy called Superman, is underperforming. Folks, he's never had back-to-back winning seasons. So if you look at the moves Carolina's making, fire and coaches, new offensive coordinator, running back first round. Who are they drafting? Wide receivers. Bring in a running back first round.

Denver. They're trying to get Cam to be worth that 22 large. Like there's no pressure on DAC. Just go out. You're making $775,000, whatever it is. Are you kidding me? There's not a player in the NFL right now. Not a single

player that is outperforming his contract more than Dak Prescott. He is the single greatest value in this league. And they're not even a second place. No pressure on him. Dak, go out, play. do what you do, win nine games, you're going to get a great contract.

Let me shift to this. One of the things I always complain about. I'm a guy, but here's something guys do that drives me crazy. And Joy, you probably, you know this is true about guys. Guys do this all the time, not going to speak for women. Guys want to be right, not necessarily get it right. You start arguing with a guy, you give him the data. He just wants to be right and win the argument.

No, get it right. here's the data. You ever had a fight with a guy in argument? He's more worried about being right than getting it right? I got to be honest. I've been accused of this. But yes, I've also had the argument with the person who has to be right, even though they have no facts in space completely off of their emotions.

So NFL, my whole life, there was a rule in the NFL. Take the points. If you have points, take them. The average NFL team is averaging 21.7 points a game. Atlanta last night. First drive, fourth down. Get the points. Just get the points.

Instead, Atlanta's trying to prove a point. Their coaches are trying to prove a point. Matt Ryan can make things happen on fourth down. Okay, I keep seeing him. You try, and it's not working, because that's not who he is. He's not mobile enough to run it in. He didn't have that arm to squeeze it in. Matt Ryan's a good quarterback, but you're trying, you're trying to be right.

Matt Ryan is get it right. Kick the field goal. If you kicked a field goal last night, first drive, all you would have needed for a feel at the end of the game to tie it was a field goal. But you put yourself in situations where you had to get a touchdown late. It's football. This is not the Big 12. It's not 40 to 38 every Saturday.

The average NFL game is 2320. Since when do we consider field goals to be like a garnish on a plate? No, they're not the steak, but they're at least the potatoes. I mean, I'm not saying they're the steak, but they're not a garnish. Field goals matter. The Falcon's ego last night, we're going to prove to you that Matt can get it done. Just kick a field goal. This is Philadelphia.

They got pro bowlers everywhere. First drive, you got points. Go sit down. Play defense. Lord, kicking your field goals is like eating your vegetables. I know it's painful. I know you don't want to eat. your vegetables, you'll live a little longer.

What are you doing? What are you doing? Average NFL team scores 21.7 points. That's very good comparison, the vegetables and the field goals. Come on. God, this league's about winning games, not proving a point. If you're in Philadelphia, you drive against that defense, that defense is good, all the way down the field.

You get a field goal. You won! What's the old Wall Street saying? pigs get fed hogs get slaughtered. You get a field going to Philadelphia opening drive of the year. You should be more than satisfied. Stop trying to prove a point. Joy Tandle with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, so Carson Wentz was eyeing week one for his return, but we knew, no, now, no, that wasn't going to happen.

And we don't even know if he'll play at all in September. But before last night's regular season opener, reports are saying that Wentz won't be ready to play for a few more weeks. Just as we would all expect, Doug Peterson was asked about the report after the game. Here's his response. I have not seen it, or I've seen it, but I'm going to investigate that a little bit more and see where and why and when that came out, but not going to comment too much more. I saw him in pregame. Did you guys see the thing in pregame where he was running around?

He doesn't look like he's ready to play yet. Well, he's obviously not ready to play yet. They would have him out there, especially after what Nick Foles looked like in that first half. You know, we were talking about this yesterday. If you're Philadelphia, and Peterson obviously knows what he's doing, just keep playing Nick until you go sub-500. Like if you play next week and lose your one-in-one, you play him again, you go one-and-two,

then I can see saying, okay, but if you keep winning with Nick and you're above 500, just don't play. If he's ready to go, he needs to be out there, but he's obviously not ready to go. Didn't look like it last night. I mean, they're not going to put him out there and risk him re-injuring it. That's the worst-case scenario. Then you have to go through an entire season. with Nick Foles. Now that Nick Foles isn't a capable

quarterback, but he's not Carson Wants. He's getting confused about it. You talked about it yesterday. Stop saying that Nick Foles and Carson Wins are the same guy. We get it. He won a Super Bowl. It's lightning in a bottle, but like, relax. Carson Wins is the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback. And Doug Peterson just got to get used to getting asked about this because that's just going to happen until he's out there. So the Eagles love them some trick plays.

Most famously from the Super Bowl was the Philly Special when Nick Foles caught a touchdown pass from Trey Burton. And he caught another pass last night, and the world freaked out about how bold it was to run the Philly Special on Banner Night, but it wasn't quite the same play as the Philly Special. So let's take a listen to Doug Peterson when he was asked about it last night. It appeared to be the exact same play New England ran against you guys in the Super Bowl unsuccessfully. Be aware of that. That's where we got it from. We just put different people in the game.

What do you call it? Philly, Philly. That's what teams do, by the way. I love it. That's what I... So here's the side by side. Oh, look at that. Of the plays, yeah.

Except for Brady did not catch it, and Nick Foles did. There you go. Filly, Philly. Controlled him. Oh, it is 100% trolling. Just look at Doug Peterson in the press conference. He can't help himself. It's so...

I love it. It's really petty. They're not ready to let it go yet. And on Banner Night is very aggressive. Yeah, that's good. It's so good. You know, I remember years ago talking to Bobby Bowden to call a football coach. And he told me years ago, he goes, you know what I do on Saturday nights, Colin?

This was when he was still coaching. He goes, I go home, grab a notepad, and I watch Oregon play, and I steal stuff because Chip Kelly and that kind of stuff. He goes, Oregon does a bunch of crazy creative stuff. And I watched that late Pac-12 game. He goes, I know a lot of the other coaches are in bed. He goes, I'll watch that thing and steal plays. Coaches steal plays all the time.

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's not surprising to me that they stole the play. It's just funny that everyone flipped out and thought it was the Philly special, when in reality it's the play that Tom Brady infamously dropped the pass on, and they're running it on Banner Night in Philadelphia, an opening night of the season. So finally, why did John Gruden decide to come back and coached the Raiders after nearly a decade in the broadcast? Why? Why?

Money, money, why? It could perhaps be $100 million. Yeah. small detail or it could be Tom Brady Gruden told Bleach report he can't run, he can't jump he's too old he gets his ass knocked off but he's a

Terminator he ran me out of Oakland in the tuck game damn he even brought those bastards back in a two minute drill to beat us in the driving snow and here I am 20 years later and guess who's still there that's why I'm back you said you like chip on shoulder guys Colin

is John Gruden a hundred million dollar chip on shoulder guy there's things about Gruden I like I just think 10 years out of a sport that changes as much as a national football league is really rough to just walk back. There's a lot of businesses. The post office today looks mostly like the post office 10 years ago. But there are businesses you just can't leave for a decade. A laundromat, a dry cleaner. My dry cleaner looks like my dry cleaner 10 years ago.

But I always say Silicon Valley in football, you leave for a year. There's all sorts of changes. Rule changes. Legislation passed. Good luck. I kind of don't mind going to the post office. anymore. There was a time when it was very annoying, but now it's kind of, you know,

it's kind of nice. I go to the groceries. You know exactly how it's going to smell. It's going to smell a little bit like ink. Yeah. You know? I go to the grocery store every day. It's going to take you 15 minutes no matter what? You know what I call it? It's a freshness center. You go to a grocery store, everything's fresh. Vegetables, produce. Everything

in there is fresh. My refrigerator, you're like two days old, three days old. You go to a grocery store, everything's fresh. It's a freshness center. I've become completely Hollywood with groceries. You could just order them to your house. It's so nice. Not acceptable.

It's so easy. I get in my car and go to my local freshness center. The freshness center can just come to you. So nice. Joy Data with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd Lie News.

30 minutes from now, the strongest blazing five I've ever had in week one. My NFL picks, generally week one, I'm like, save your money. Go take your wife out to a number. nice dinner. Not this week. Chips all in in 30 minutes. And with that I bring in Brian Cox, the pro bowler. He's been a coach. He's been a pro bowler. Now we get him at Fox Sports 1. So I was saying this last night is that there's different ways to win in football. Right. I mean, Michael Vic won some games running around. And, you know, Tom Brady's a pocket guy. Eli's a pocket guy. There's a lot of different ways to win. Tony Dungey never yelled and screamed.

We've had football coaches. You know, Ditka yelled in. screamed. Right. And when I looked at Philadelphia last night in Atlanta, Atlanta is skilled and fast and slick and that's Atlanta. Philadelphia is tough guys. And I watched those two juxtaposed against each other last night. Atlanta's not a good red zone team. They weren't last year. Philadelphia is a great red zone team. They were last year last night. And I think a lot of it is, Brian, when you get in that tight space, tough guys win. I don't know so much. is that. I think when you look at the game last night,

Red Zone was for sure the issue. Atlanta, the first drive of the game, when they got down there the play calls that they did where they tried to throw the ball to Freeman and then they came back and tried to run the ball wide, not good play selection. As you just noted that they were a bad

red zone team last year and they said they worked on it all offseason. They're trying to prove they've improved. But look at the Jim Schwartz defense versus Atlanta, the last three times they played. 16 points, 10 points, 12 points.

He figured him out. So, you know, he may not be a head coach, but he's a great defense coordinator, and he deserves some credit for putting it together. The other thing was that Philly ran that defensive line out there, and they really put in some work. Chris Long was excellent. Bennett showed up.

Nata showed up. Barnett showed up. All those guys really played a major factor in winning the game. You know, it's funny. This week we had a situation, and it's funny to listen to athletes. There's always been a rule in the mafia. You don't mess with anybody's kids or their wife. There's always a rule in the NFL.

You don't mess with guys' money. Right. Probably not good to mess with their wives either, but it's the money thing. So the Steelers this week, you got guys chirping about other guys' money and what they make. And T.J. Hushman's Auto came out yesterday and said, man, that's not, that's not great. What do you make of it? I disagree with T.J. Hushmanzada from this standpoint.

Now you're messing with my money. Because if I'm a Pittsburgh stiller, Brian Cox, the player, I'm a team guy. And I've supported you all training camp in your holdout. You got $14 million. That's your money, not counting it. But now what you're not showing up, you're potentially preventing me from reaching my goal, which is the Super Bowl, which has costed me money. So now we're talking about my money.

So I stand with the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, I think that Cleveland Browns beat him this week. You know, it is interesting. Very rarely do I think bad is interesting. I've never walked out of a bad movie and thought, you know, that was interesting. I don't think Cleveland's great. But between the Baker-Mayfield thing, Tyrod Taylor's on the clock, Hugh Jackson's fighting for his job, they actually have some decent

players. I got the Steelers drama. If you were going to say there's a bad team this week that will be really interesting, I'm with you on. I think Cleveland, if there's every week in the NFL, we've got a couple of upsets. You like Cleveland to beat them. Why? I think this is

upset alert. Sorry, Joe, I know you're from Pittsburgh. This feels like upset alert for me. Todd Haley, what bigger grudge to go in their first game out to shoot as a coordinator. You know Pittsburgh's defense. You worked against them all last year. And you go in there, Greg Williams' defense plays well. They don't only give up about 17

points. You go in there, you got a puncher's chance. Tyrod Taylor doesn't turn the ball over. I know many people won't Baker Mayfield to be the starter, but you can't play a rookie against Pittsburgh and expect to win. So Hugh Jackson's saying my job's on the line. I'm going with Tyrod. He doesn't turn the ball over. Todd Haley is the X factor. They're going to score more points than people think this week. You know the Patriots well. You were close with Belichick. You have said, Nobody made him trade Garoppolo. So let's get that aside. There's been reports people did.

You don't believe it's true. It is interesting, though. Even in the Tom versus Time documentary, the final episode this week. Right. Brady came out and said, you know, last couple years this game's not as fun as it should be for all the games I'm winning. Can we at least acknowledge that after 18 years, marriages people wear each other out? that Bill and Tom are not the Bill and Tom of seven years ago, of nine years ago,

that they're both legends, it's hard for, listen, Shaq and Kobe couldn't work together forever. Yeah, but you don't have that type of ego. Bill doesn't care who wins. He doesn't care who's the quarterback. He just wants to win. And I would say this and I hope it's not disrespectful. I think he'd much rather be coaching football and designing plays than making love. I really believe that.

Really? I really. He's that passionate about it. The other thing about it is people don't talk about the Garoppolo thing. Why did he get so little Cleveland off more? He hates Cleveland. They fired him. He would never trade him to Cleveland.

That's been reported too, yeah. And the second thing is, Garapolo, if he's not traded at the deadline last year, he walks away as a free agent and you don't get anything for him. So I don't think it was a forced trade. I think he had to make that trade. An interesting matchup this weekend. The NFC's got some fascinating games. And Giants, Jaguars, that ain't fascinating.

Giants suck. You don't like the Giants at all. No. No. You know New York Giants going to win that football game. No. They're going to win that. Jacksonville's not very good on the road.

You get those warm weather guys. them up in northeast. It's not cold. It's warm. So you don't like the Giants. No. And why don't you like them? Well, I think the makeshift offensive line that everybody's making a great deal about

average guys. Soder was a good player, but Dante Scarnacki had coached him, and he's the best offensive line coaching football. So New England let him walk. That's number one. The second thing is, you know, Eli is getting older and they're still trying to to force him to play. He don't like getting hit anymore.

He never liked to get hit in the first place. The second best past Russian team in football last year was his Jaguars with 55 sacks. They're going to make him black and blue. And then, you know, now you've got a new defense philosophy with Betcher. The one thing on him that I've heard from players that played for him that they didn't like, his playbook is too big. You can't get good at anything because he throws everything on the wall and expects you to have a great playbook every week. So I shouldn't say that they suck.

I want to take that back, but I don't think they're as good as people think they're going to be. Would you have paid OBJ the money? They got the guy back. Yeah, but it's hard when you got to get protected, protect Eli so that he can get OBJ the ball. You know, who else you got? Who's the other outside receiver? You know, it's too many things on offense. And I'm not sold on Pat Sherman.

You put him in Minnesota and you put lipstick on them. but, you know, if you take an ugly pig and you put lipstick on them and you make them run the ball like they did in Minnesota, you play great defense, and now of a sudden you make this guy head coach again, just look at his record. I'm not sold on them. I don't believe. So you just don't buy the New York Giants at all?

No, no. And I think the East is going to be down. I think the NFC East, I think it's Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington may be like French playoff team, but this is a two-horse race. It's great having you. Well, I appreciate it. Brian Cox. I got my blazing five coming up. Also, the NFL officials, it's not that difficult. Officiating's not easy, but you keep butchering the replay rule and we'll tell you all you got to do.

That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. you know, these pro leagues way too often coddle officials. Baseball coddles its umpires. They don't want to embarrass them. In the NFL, you know, they don't want to overturn calls. They don't want to. So the NFL's new thing on replay with catches is, you know, we want to get it right,

but we're going to try not to overturn them. We're going to back the refs more. Irrelevant. If a guy stinks, get fire the ref. They're not even full time. They're part time. Isn't that the exact point of replay? It's the exact point.

The point of the replay is to make sure they got it right. To me, it's so simple. Get it right. But if it's fuzzy, ambiguous, I can't tell. Give them a catch. Because the NFL wants more catches. I want more catches. You play fantasy football.

You want more catches. So my theory on this, it's almost like marriage. unless my wife is crazy wrong, I always side with agreeing with her. Makes her feel better, better marriage. Now, if she's crazy, I'm going to jump out of a plane with no parachute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, crazy. But everything else, just side with her, lean toward, it's better if I agree, better marriage. In the NFL, got to get it right.

But if it's really go either way, reward the fans, fantasy football, reward the player reward the offense with a catch. Last night, what are you doing with Julio Jones? Come on, you can't tell. Give them a catch. The NFL, and leagues do this. The NFL, they want to get it right too, but their priority after getting it right is we want to back the refs.

No. Fans don't care about refs. Fans don't get rewarded by backing the refs. They don't get rewarded. Fans get rewarded fantasy footballs big in the NFL. fans get rewarded with catches. Fans like catches. Those are your customers.

So get it right. Don't give a guy a catch if he doesn't have one clearly on the replay. But if it's up in the air, you go with a catch. I don't care about the refs. I don't care if you expose the refs. Who wins there? You gave a crappy ref a break. The job for a league is get rid of bad officials.

You know, the NBA doesn't maybe it's officials. For a while, the NBA, if a ref made a mistake in the last two minutes, they'd come out the next day and have a press release writing exactly what the refs did wrong, which I didn't love that because I think basketball is the hardest sport to officiate because virtually everything's subjective. We're in the NFL, there's a lot of definitive calls, off sides, motion. You know, pass interference tends to be in the NFL. Yeah, very, you know, subjective, go either way.

Lordy. You know, do we have the sound of that, Julio Jones catch? Blazoned five top of the hour. Here it is. Here it is. But he's out of bounds. Well, he caught it, but when did possession take place? Double move here.

No possession, no possession, no possession, no possession. Was there possession? That pinned against his shoulder, I don't think he was out at that point. This is close. So Dan Quinn, challenging, worthwhile here because that's a big game. After review, the ruling on the field stands as called. Second complete pass. Wow.

Big break for the Eagles. Yeah, you only had 170 yards. I could see why you'd question him. Just give him the catch. It's a goal either way. It's the best player on the football field. Somebody's got Julio Jones and their fantasy team. Just give him the catch.

You can't tell. Don't back your, that was backing your refs. That's all that was. That was backing your refs. Don't back refs. Back them out of the job if they're not very good. That's a catch. That's what everybody wants.

More of that. Julio Jones, if it's fuzzy with Julio, I'll give him the catch. He was the best player on the field by a long shot last night. Here's the other thing. Big win last night, Blazing Five, top of the hour. We got Joe Thomas, Cleveland Browns. We got good stuff today. Author of a brand new football book that's outrageously funny.

I've just started reading it. Got to give Philadelphia coaches credit for that. The Philadelphia Eagles recognize what Nick Foles is. Everybody's high and low on Nick Foles. You know what Nick Foles is? Good game, bad game, good, good, bad game, good, really good, bad. His last seven games, here's what Nick Foles is. Go look at the stats yourself.

I won't bore you with him. Good, awful. Oh, horrible. Okay, good, good. Terrible. He was terrible last night. He was mostly terrible last night. That's what backup quarterbacks do.

That's what backup quarterbacks are. First game he played last year with Doug Peterson. That was good. Then he was bad. Then he was awful. It was okay. Then it was good. That it was good.

And it was awful last night. And the Philadelphia coaches recognize that. They're trying to create a running game last night. They're not putting him in bad situations. Tony Dungey talked about this last night. What Doug Peterson does with quarterbacks, why quarterbacks like Doug Peterson so much. He was going through the wristbands and letting Nick Foles make the wristband up.

said, here are the plays I'm thinking in this situation. Which one do you like best? Nick would line him up on the wristband one through 10. Here's the next situation. So Doug is calling the plays, but he knows what Nick Foles likes and what he wants in each situation. That kind of rapport, that's what sets him apart. His quarterbacks love him and they trust them.

So what Doug Peterson's doing is he recognizes what Nick Foles is, a great backup quarterback who can play great. Tim Tebow won six straight games. He's a backup quarterback. How do I know? last seven games. That's with Philadelphia's personnel and coaching. Good.

Awful. Terrible. Good. Really good. Wow. That's a backup quarterback. That's a backup quarterback. That's a backup quarterback stat line.

You don't get that with Brady, Breeze, Big Ben. Even Matt Ryan, who I'm critical of, not a lot of stinkers. Not a lot of stinkers for Matt Ryan. A lot of solid, good. Ooh, occasionally, really good. And for the record, this is why Nick Foles stayed. Nick Foles could have started right now for the Buffalo. Bills. He could be starting for the Buffalo Bills right now. And Nick Foles also, like Doug Peterson,

knows who Nick Foles is. That's good coaching. Now, I'll say this. Dan Quinn, and Doug Peterson's an offensive guy. He gets offense. He was a quarterback, right? For the Packers. Dan Quinn's a defensive coach for Atlanta. He doesn't know quarterbacks as well. He doesn't have a feel for it. Now, he's got Sark, who was a quarterback in college. But Atlanta, is trying, they're doing the opposite. They're trying to make Matt Ryan something he's not. This is why Atlanta struggles in the red zone. Because Matt Ryan, in the red zone, a quarterback that can run, Cam, Wentz, Marioada,

you guys that can run a little bit, you can use that running to score in the red zone. Or you got a cannon, Aaron Rogers. You know, you just have a, you have a, you know, Matt Stafford, Flacco, you got a cannon in the red zone, you can squeeze the ball into tiny spots. Matt Ryan doesn't have either. There's a reason Atlanta does almost everything well except Red Zone, because their quarterback isn't athletic enough like a Cam to run in, not athletic enough like an Andrew Luck to run in,

Sam Donald, you'll see him on Monday night. He can do some running in the red zone. Aaron Rogers can run around a little bit. So Matt's not going to give you that. And Matt also doesn't have the kind of canon, but he can squeeze a ball into a keyhole. He didn't have that either. Atlanta coaches, though, no, no, no, forget the field goal. Go for it on fourth.

Go for it on fourth. No, take the field goals. Maddie is money 20 to 20. 20 yard line to 20 yard line. Terrific. Give him a little time. Set up, throw, platform, ready to go. Great.

But you're trying to make him what he's not. He's not going to squeeze it, and he's not going to run it. And take some field goals, especially against Philadelphia. What are you doing? Blazing 5 first of the year is coming up next. Football's back. Draft Kings has a free team pick-em promo this weekend. Pick at least half the winning teams.

That's all I got to do and get your share of a million dollars. Go to draftkings.com slash pickum for details. Loaded show. Blazing 5. My NFL picks. Strongest week one picks ever next. This is the herd. Hour number two, wherever you may be.

And however you may be listening, we are live in. in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me. Joe Thomas in 40 minutes, a top 5, 10 left tackle of all time in the NFL, retired, going to be a first ballot hall of famer, funny guy, smart guy going to be joining us. I do think of former Brown, the Cleveland Steelers game, is fascinating this weekend. Cleveland's not very good, but I got so many stories I'm fascinated with. I know this is freaking joy out because she's from Pittsburgh.

I'm actually not freaked out. I think the more that people talk about how the Browns are going to upset the Steelers, actually the more faith I have in the Steelers. Remember, this is the team that always has some. Something is always going on. Pittsburgh plays down to its level, down to its opposition a lot. Steelers own the Browns.

Jimmy Haslam owns them, but I get your point. How many games did Cleveland win last year? It was a rough year for the Browns. They didn't win any. Zero. It has been a rough century for the Browns. You know, listen, sometimes you just have a bad century. I mean, those, you know, I just think it was a bad century for us.

Those darn bad centuries. All right. So here we go. It's the first time you've ever been around for the Blazing Five. We try to hit 60% every year. We do pretty well. We take it seriously. Generally, week ones are tough.

I got to watch the games. I feel very strongly for the first time in years. Goulet, you've been around forever on this thing. I don't like week ones. I feel great about week one. So here we go. That's a hot one. Let's blaze it up.

Fire it up. It's Collins, blazing fun. Texans at Patriots. Houston's getting six and a half. Like them, I love him. My strongest number of the week. Bill Belichick, by the way, experiments in September.

Only wins 66% of his games. He wins 83% in December. This is an organization that is trying to win Super Bowls. They'll play around. early. Figure out who they are, an extension, if you will, of week three of the preseason. Meanwhile, Deshawn Watson last year gave New England all sorts of trouble. They don't have elite talent to catch him as he runs around in the backfield. By the way, he averaged 34.7 points a game in the starts he had last year, highest points per game by any starting quarterback in the

NFL until he got hurt. Got to tell you right now, this is a massive number. I'm going to take the Houston Texans outright to beat New England 27. to 23. Jaguars at New York Giants. Again, you know I like points. New York Giants at home getting plus six against a conservative offense in Jacksonville. This is an easy one for me. Odell Beckham's back. Eli Manning's a C quarterback, but he's a B quarterback with Odell Beckham. His quarterback rating gets into the 90s, seven yards a catch, 270 yards a game. Odell Beckham's healthy with Eli Manning. He becomes a different quarterback at this state. in his career. Jacksonville was four and four on the road last year. You get him out of Florida.

In fact, they lost their last three road games last year to average teams, San Francisco, Tennessee, Arizona. And they're a conservative offense to begin with. They lost Marquis Lee, a top receiver for the season. They're going to be, Jacksonville's going to be more conservative. Giants win this thing. I like the upgrades they've made across the board offensively. Giants win. 24, 23. Bill's at Ravens. Baltimore minus 7. That's a big number, but I'm going to swallow the number and take the Ravens. They have a Mike Tyson quality.

You put him at home against the bad quarterback. Ravens feast on him. And Buffalo's got a bad quarterback situation. Nathan Peterman. Last couple of years, Buffalo's been last in the NFL in yards passing a game at about 183. That's not good. In Baltimore's defense last couple of years, especially last year, was great. led the NFL and takeaways.

Points per game, they were sixth. Baltimore's also added tight ends and wide receivers in the draft and free agency. And Joe Flacco's got Lamar Jackson breathing down his neck. He's going to play inspired football. This is a big number, but to me it's the one blowout game of the week. Again, Baltimore at home, they may lose to Brady and Big Ben. They feast on bad quarterbacks. Baltimore wins 31.13.

49ers at Vikings. Listen, I think Minnesota pulls back this year, but I'm going to swallow the six points, take the Vikings in this one. Minnesota's a very good football team. San Francisco's rebuilding, but they're so glamorous. Jimmy GQ and Kyle Shanahan in a history of Super Bowls,

offensive line, they're rebuilding. Pass rush, running backs, receiving corps, stopping the run. You've got a rebuilding team facing maybe the best roster in the NFL. The Vikings were 7 and 1 at home last year and won by an average of 15, and that's in the NFC.

points per game, yards per game. San Francisco's defense was first in the NFL. I think they pull back a little, but this is an absolutely complete roster at home, and I don't have to give up a touchdown. I'll take Minnesota to win 30 to 20. Vikings, I'll swallow the six points. Vikings win 30-20. New York Jets and Lions.

Monday night football, I know what you're saying. Colin, you like Sam Donald. I do. and I especially like him facing Matt Patricia in the Lions and getting six and a half points. Man, I know it's Monday Night Football. I know it's a dome.

I know Donald's a rookie. But Detroit's defense stinks. That's why they hired a defensive coordinator from New England, Matt Patricia. They can't stop the pass. They don't get to the quarterback. They don't keep points off the scoreboard. Todd Bulls, Jets coach,

best coach in the NFL with a losing record. I like Todd Bulls a lot. Coaching mismatch here. And the other thing is, Detroit hasn't had a hundred-yard rusher in a game in five years since Reggie Bush. So they're going to give that rookie quarterback with that decent wide receiving cord. Not great. Okay, when they're healthy. It's just too many points.

It's just too many points to give Matt Patrish. Matt Stafford didn't have a signature win 10 years in the league. I'm not sure if the Jets win. I'm going to go with the upset. 24-21 Jets. I'm not sure if I'm right on the winning part, but six and a half points. points with a better coach, significantly better defense, not even close. And with that, former NFL player, former NFL scout for several teams, and a guy I trust now at the NFL network.

Bucky Brooks joining us on a Friday. We said, we do not believe bad is interesting. Bad movies are bad. A bad meal at a restaurant's bad. The Cleveland Browns may be bad, but could Pittsburgh be in a little trouble here? Oh, yes, they could be in a lot of trouble. Even before all the stuff happened this week with Levill and his teammates,

the Cleveland Browns were going to pose a challenge because the Cleveland Brown's defense, they have some A-level players on defense. Miles Garrett is coming into his own. He's a legitimate pass rusher, and Manuel Ogba on the other side is problematic. Then you have Jamie Collins and Kristen Kirksi. they added a young guy and Denzel Ward.

This team is going to be feisty and competitive. And the thing that kept them from winning games last year, turnovers from the quarterback position. The one thing we know about Tyrod Taylor, Tyrod doesn't give the ball away to the other team. In the National Football League, the number one deciding fact that you can look at in games, turnovers.

If you win the plus the turnover battle by plus one, you win 64% of your games. You win about two, you win 82% of your games. By three is 90%. So if you just take care of the football, you'll win games. The Cleveland Browns will take care of the football better with Tyrault. That makes them a tough challenge with Pittsburgh, who is already infighting.

If I'm a guy that's a betting man, I wouldn't bet on the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. I just don't think that the chemistry that they have with the discord that they have is repairable. And I think when Lev Bell shows up, it's going to be a problem because the shots that the offensive line took were personal. Personal. Personal. It's different than a. the guy can't do this. The shots they took were personal.

The Instagram post from Ramon Foster. That's another personal deal. There's a dislike there and a distrust that I don't think you can fix in the middle of a regular season. How much is Mike Tomlin? I mean, obviously, like it falls on the head coach because the head coach can kind of set the line of expectation in terms of how we deal with the media,

keeping things in house. I won't blame this one on Mike Tomlin. For whatever reason, like there's certain things that you don't talk about when you're a player. You don't talk about another player's money. You don't talk about their contract situation. At the end of the day, you have 53 independent contractors working together on a team. And I think what happens is forever we grew up playing team sports. We believe put team over me. But in pro sports is a little different because you're the CEO of your own corporation, and I know people don't want to hear this, but you are your brand. You have to

kind of look out for yourself. What I do and the money that I make impacts my family direct. What you do impacts your family directly. We hope that we win a goal, but we're business people playing a game. And so what Lev Bell is trying to do is he is trying to take care of business. And at the end of the day, he'll play the game, but the business has to be worked out. As much as people want to blame him, the Pittsburgh Steelers could have sold this up. They could have made the move. They could have assigned him to a deal.

They could have taken care of all of this stuff. So it's not a distraction heading to the regular season. Okay, so I said this last night. What I like about Doug Peterson as a former quarterback, The media is all in this Nick Foles thing. No, no, no, no. Doug Peterson knows what he is, and he coaches what he can do. I feel like Atlanta's trying to prove to me, hey, our guy, we're going to go forth and forth.

We don't need field goals here. And I'm like, no, Mattie's not athletic enough in the red zone to run in. He's not Cam. You're not Andrew Luck. And he's not going to squeeze that thing in like Aaron Rogers. Matt Ryan's a good quarterback. I think Atlanta's trying to prove either to me, the media, the fans are themselves. Matt Ryan's something he's not, which is a.

a good quarterback. He's not Aaron Rogers. Stop trying to prove it to me. Am I crazy? No, you're not crazy. Here's the problem, and here's the problem that is taking place with the quarterbacks. We are paying the position and not the player. When Matt Ryan signs a deal and he gets

$30 million per year, there's an expectation that comes with that. Because you have to remember, before we had all these contracts signed this offseason, the standard was Aaron Rogers at like $22 million. So anyone who wasn't as good as and Rogers, you didn't get paid more than that.

But for some reason, we started overpaying quarterbacks who are not at that level. And when you pay that guy, when you pay him $30 million, there's a level of expectation and a standard of play that you expect. I have said this repeatedly. Julio Jones is the most valuable player on the Atlanta Falcons. Well, he was last night. Part of the reason why he wanted more money is he's looking around the other end of the locker room is saying, Matt Ryan is a $30 million player.

He's making $12, $14 million. there is no way you can tell me that Matt Ryan is doubly important to this team. We know it. The team knows it. But because we're overpaying quarterbacks, we're now trying to justify while we're paying guys money. That's really good. Okay, so I read the story this morning. I've always had this, you know, I tell my kids this, and I've talked about this,

overperform your contract. Okay, like, Dax's making 700 Gs a year. Okay. And he has, Dallas is the winningest team in the NFC. last two years. Cam Superman, they're firing coaches. They're drafting first round running backs, wide receivers. Clearly the staff is trying to say, we got to elevate camp. Okay, we got to, I don't feel any pressure on deck. I think when they meet this Sunday, my eyes are on cam. Because if the Norv Cam thing doesn't work, I'm like, where do you go from there? You fired coaches.

You gave them McCaffrey. I kind of feel like DAC is the best value in the league right now. If you don't like him at the end of the year, go drafting our quarterback. He is the best value in the league this year. I would say that there's still more pressure on DAC than Cam. And the reason there's more pressure on DAC is, for whatever reason, people are looking at last year for DAC and saying he had a subpar year. And the outside, the Twitterverse is saying, due to Cowboys, maybe need to move on, is he a franchise quarterback?

Is he elevated by Zecchio Elliott? 22 and 10, the last two years, you look at his numbers, 16 games with a pass of rating of 100. That is tied with Tom Brady during that span. And so I believe that Dak Prescott is a good quarterback. I still believe the best player on their offense is Ezekiel Elliott. I can agree with that. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Dak Prescott is looking at a $22 million per year payday. The pressure is on him because he needs to play well enough so Jerry will write the check. Cam Newton. The thing that Cam has in his favor is Ron Rivera drafted Cam. Ron Rivera has seen Cam play at an MVP level. Ron Rivera went to the Super Bowl with Cam. It's hard for loving eyes to see past that part of it. Loving eyes.

He loves Cam. He loves him because he's seen him. He's taken him to the edge of the Promise Land. He's also got Ron Revere an extension. Right. So he's going to give him every opportunity. I will say this about Cam. I expect Cam now to play at his best because for the first time in a long time,

the first time ever, really has an A-level support and cast. They went out, they got McCaffrey, they have running backs, he has a legitimate offensive coordinator in North Turner. They have weapons on the outside. If Camp can't do it now, he will always be what we've seen the last couple years.

By the way, I'm watching Philadelphia last night. Football at its core is tough guys. Dionne Sanders is one of the only guys ever that wasn't a tough guy that was so gifted, you just say, I'm not going to defend the wrong. You've got to be as talent as Dion to do that. Even running backs, Walter Payton, Jim Brown, Joe Thomas coming up in 30 minutes, tough guy.

I watched Philadelphia in Atlanta, juxtaposed last night. Atlanta's skilled. They're skill. Philadelphia, you know why they're so good in the red zone? That's a bunch of bar room brawlers. On television, I turn the sound down. Philadelphia's just got more tough guys. For me, I watch them.

I'm like, their culture is a tough city with tough players. And then what you said at that point, you really can underscore it. Your team should be a reflection of the city. If you look at the way teams are constructed, I'm not saying stylistically they play like that, but they have to reflect the city. Philly's a blue-colored town. Philly's a town that prides itself in its toughness, where you have to acquire players that have a level of grit and toughness.

When I look at the Philadelphia Eagles, all those guys, I've heard you talk about liking quarterbacks that have come through some adversity, they have a little chip on their shoulder. Well, look at the people that they have in Philly. You heard Chris Long after the game, I listened to it on the radio. He talked about, I am playing hard because I want to show all the naysayers that I still can play. Everyone on that squad has some form of adversity that they've overcome. Even the quarterback, Nick Fos, people said he couldn't play.

And there's still some debate on whether he can play at a high level, but he has it. When you put a room full of those guys together, when it gets dirty, it gets hairy, you get into those situations where it comes down to a me versus you battle and toughness in Supreme, they have that. And I think it is amazing to watch their level of toughness and grit. Now, you said something about Doug Peterson. This is what I'm going to give Doug Peterson credit for. Four disclosure, Doug Peterson and I played together in Green Bay.

Doug Peterson, to me, is what every offensive coach and coordinator should be and should be able to do. To look at their quarterback, to clearly see what the deficiencies are, and to put him in a situation where he only plays to his strengths. That's Nick Foles. Nick Foles, whatever he is. He's a B-plus quarterback, but he can play at an A-level when you only ask him to do things that fall within his wheelhouse.

Doug Peterson has a clear ability to look at his quarterback when he's struggling and saying, I'm only going to ask you to do these things because right now you're only doing these things well. And I think there's a beauty in that. And everyone doesn't have that level of genius to be able to look at their players and put them in a situation where they're constantly elevated. Bill Belichick does that with all of his players, particularly

on defense. He looks at him, he gives them a role that works for them, and he doesn't ask them to do things that they can't do. Bucky Brooks, NFL Network, former player in a scout, Guy Eileen on. Good seeing you, man. Thank you, man. Joe Thomas is a first ballot hall of famer

and not so distant future. He'll be joining us today as well. Greg Jennings. Author of Jeff Perlman's got a new, hysterically funny NFL, USFL book. It's just a blast. Those two leagues are a lot closer connected than you will ever imagine. That's coming up within the next hour and a half of the show.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Don't be the guy in the room with a long, sloppy looking untucked shirt, untucket shirts made to fall at the perfect length. Untucket.com code herd for 20% off GQ calls it perfection. Joe Thomas will be joining us here in about 15 minutes. guy. We'll talk about the Steelers and the Browns. A lot of people feel, and I'm one of them, that could be the upset of the weekend. I don't consider Houston beating the Patriots, and I like

Houston to beat the Patriots, a big upset. Belichick looks at the first week or two of the season a little bit like an extension of the preseason. He'll experiment. They don't have Julian Edelman. I think there will work in progress on the outside. But I think Cleveland's got a real shot. Tyrod Taylor doesn't make mistakes. And Pittsburgh's just swimming in controversy. For the record, So I'm watching the game last night. My staff did a great job on this, Joy. So Doug Peterson's been in Philadelphia for a couple years. And when he first got the job, I was like, who's Doug Peterson?

He was a Packer player. He's a buddy of Andy Reed. Did Andy Reed make a call to the Eagles and say, hire him? I'm like, he wasn't even calling plays in Kansas City. He's proven me wrong. He's been terrific. And you never know with these guys. Nobody knew Tom Coughlin at a Boston college was going to be this good.

Nobody knows. You just don't know. Belichick fired in Cleveland. You just don't know. Pete Carroll didn't work in his first two NFL jobs. Then he worked in this one. So Doug Peterson, since he's been with the Eagles, only four quarterbacks have played against that Eagles defense

in Doug Peterson three times or more. Four guys have played against Doug Pee. Only four quarterbacks. Eli Manning, Kurt Cousins, Dak, Prescott, and Matt Ryan. Everybody thinks Matt Ryan's the best. I mean, certainly of those quarterbacks. Nobody else has Julio Jones every single Sunday. So here's how they've done against Philadelphia's tough defense, Jim Schwartz, Doug Peterson.

Actually, Eli and Kirk Cousins have done very, very well. Dak and Maddie Ice have struggled. Isn't that interesting? So the perception is Eli's a shot fighter, Cousins is overpaid, Dak, you know, he's a kid and Matt's the star. But these are quarterbacks with three plus starts against Doug Peterson. Eagles last couple of years and Maddie's struggled.

Dak has struggled. Kirk Cousins and Eli have not. Eli's actually played really well. I mean, Eli doesn't complete 65% of his throws for 350 yards against a lot of people these days, but he does. He's played the Eagles really,

really tough. Here's Joy Taylor with the news. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right. So you don't think Bill Belichick is very funny. No, I think he's just grumpy. And you finally come to my side on

Nick Sabin being a notorious grump, right? Yeah, I think he can be funnier, but he's mostly grumpy. All right, well, Belichick told a funny story in his own way. Tom Brady is surprisingly comfortable around cliffs. He jumped off a cliff in Costa Rica a few years ago

with his family and posted the video of that, which if you were Bill Belichick, you probably don't want to see. He's a franchise quarterback jumping off of a cliff. And he told and now Belichick is telling another story about Tom Brady hanging off a cliff. Here is what Belichick told Ian Rappaport on his podcast. One story I think really sums it up for Tom is when we were playing at the Pebble Beach Pro Am, we were in the same group.

We were on the sixth pole, which is a long par five, and it goes up a big hill and the ocean's on the right. So Tom hit one, his second shot over there, and I, You know, see a starting quarterback, a Super Bowl MVP, a league MVP, literally hanging over the side of the cliff, probably two, 300 feet above the ocean. Gee. Trying to hit a golf ball that's a pretty meaningless shot because the pro is already going to do better than he would on the whole. But that's Tom. He's very, very competitive, very focused, plays kind of fearlessly, whether it's in this case on. the golf course or on the football field.

But I was just thinking to myself, this is a crazy sight that I'm looking at here. So he hit the ball and then his caddy kind of walked over there and gave him a hand and helped him back up this clip that he was a few feet down on or below. I certainly breathed a little bit easier when he came up for air on that one. But when I think of Tom, I think of situations like that, it doesn't really matter, but to him it matters.

and he only knows one way to do it, and that's the way he's going to do it. So that's a cool story. He's hanging off of a cliff trying to hit this golf shot, which he does not need to hit because he's playing with a pro whose ball they're going to play anyway. Could you imagine Bill Belichick? He must have been sweating watching Tom Brady hanging off the side of this cliff in this golf course. And yeah, that's him jumping off of another cliff. You know what this reminds me of this story?

It reminds me of the movie Mission Impossible, where Tom Cruise, multiple times was on a cliff and it was really Tom Cruise. I'll say it again. I have Mission Impossible as the second greatest movie of all time. Now it's the second greatest movie of all time. I had it eighth. I've moved it up only behind Silence of the Lambs. It's the second greatest movie of all time.

No, Clarence. Silence of the Lambs is a very good movie, though. Best movie I don't like scary movies. I like scary movies that make you think or that are otherwise just incredibly gory, like Saw. Saw was interesting, though. You have to appreciate life. Mission impossible. That's the message of it.

Tom Cruise and Tom Brady, same dude. And what's the message of Mission Impossible? Never give up. Never give up. Just never give up. Even if you're hanging off a cliff and you're Tom Brady. Okay, so it seems that Leveon Bell has become public enemy number one for some of his teammates. But one guy that continues to sport Bell throughout his holdout is Antonio Brown.

He took to Instagram to offer some positivity and encouragement. Yeah. You posted this picture with the caption, We All We Got, We All We Need, ready to roll whenever you get back with us, family. People were really, really upset with the Steelers yesterday. Well, they were talking about guys' money and... You know what, though? You're not supposed to talk about guys' money. Can I ask you something?

Among guys, you never criticize another guy's wife and you don't mess with his money. For women, what are the one or two things you don't do? You don't mess with the woman's man. Okay. Kids. I mean, it's kind of the same thing. Like, money can be that. that way too, but it's just like basic people principles.

But I don't really know that that was what was happening. That's not what I interpreted. What I interpreted from those statements that those guys were giving on Bell was that there's a massive lack of communication about what's actually happening because it seems like all of the players were under the impression that Bell was going to show up on Wednesday.

That's what it seemed like. The way that they were reacting was like, they had bad information. That's how I got it. day. I don't think that any of them are just tired of him trying to get his money. They don't think any of them really care about that. That's not what I was hearing. Now, I know, you know, T.J.

obviously, was like, couldn't believe it. And Shannon was talking about, like, from a player's perspective, you don't talk about guys' contract situations. But I think that they all just got fed up because it sounded like they had information that he was going to be there. So time now for a fantasy headline sponsored by Draft Kings, obviously talking about all the holdouts and people getting paid. This offseason in the beginning of the season,

Dak Prescott is focused only on football. In fact, he had this to say yesterday when he was asked if he was worried about a potential payday. It's not anything that I go sticking my head. Oh, I got to do this. I got to do that to get that. I play my game. I do what I'm asked to do. And all that stuff will come.

It's not anything I worry about. It's important for us to go out there and me put a great performance on for my team, for my teammates. And that's what I do it for is these guys in this locker room will go out there every day with me. So I feel confident about it. He is so great at quarterback speak. Oh, he's the best. He is very derogated. Jeter. And I just, as much as I love contents, I love a good quarterback speak interview because

it's just, it's so great. And I honestly, I don't know if any of the leagues do this or if they care to, but I really feel like with quarterbacks, they should just put them through a quarterback speak class. Like, just drill them. Whatever question you get, just give the most basic, ambiguous answer you can get. Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott, Tom Brady, have mastered it. Yeah, mastered it. And Tom can, Tom can kind of maneuver here and there with it, too, but they are great at that. They talk but say nothing. Oh, I mean, for, I mean, they can give a whole 45-minute interview. Derek Jeter spent 20 years in New York.

He talked every day, never said anything. Never said anything. Ever. It's so good. I don't know. Maybe it's just because it's the business, but I just, I really, I love a good non-interview. But this could be a big year for Dak. He's got Zeeke back, at least for now, and got blamed for a lot of stuff last year.

So we'll see if he's back to his rookie form. Joy Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd line news. So we all know the Steelers have had nothing but noise this week, and the players chirping about Levy and Bell. Mike Tomlin, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers,

who I've always compared to Pete Carroll. He is very pro player, locker room's a little loose. Sometimes I'm not in love with the details, but I'm not denying either can coach. They can. They've won Super Bowl. There's a reason. They're good.

But they drive me nuts. So finally Tomlin yesterday, who's about as good at a podium as anybody in league history as a coach, addressed the Levian Bell comments from his players. I don't communicate with agents regarding how I utilize players. I communicate with players regarding how I utilize players. We're preparing to play a football game with those that have been here and working. Nothing has changed from my perspective or our perspective based on what's transpired in the last number of days. Zero.

He is. There has never been in my life. Ditka's the only one close. Mike Ditka's the only one close. The best guy at giving a nine second sound bite is Mike Tomlin, Ditka's second, nobody else is third. He is, you know, some coaches talk too fast, some just go on and on and on. Tomlin talks like this, and that's the end of the quote.

That's what television needs. He literally is writing it and saying it for us. Opposite of quarterback speak. Yeah, I mean, he's just like, and he's so, definitive. This is how I feel. I'm going to tell you how I feel, and I'm done talking right now. Everything is stamped. Everything has an exclamation point. Everything in life could be that easy. He is the best. Guys, give me a first ballot hall of famer. Joe Thomas is joining us next. We're halfway through the show, man. We got a lot of show, including my college picks last hour coming up.

Borrow up to $40,000 to pay off credit card debt, high interest debt, Lending club. Go to Lendingclub.com slash sports. Lending club.com slash sports. All loans made by Wembank, member FDIC, equal housing lender. Tomorrow, college football is on FS1 and the Big Ten Network. It all kicks off with Western Michigan facing Michigan at 1130 Eastern on FS1 or watch anywhere on the Fox Sports app. And on the Big Ten network, Rutgers battles number four, Ohio State.

By the way, Michigan's lost four straight games under Jim Harbaugh. And I like Jim Harbaugh, but that's not acceptable. That's pretty hoaxish. You've got to win those games. And Miami Hurricanes have also lost four straight games, dating back to last year. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's... But one coach is getting a lot more heat in the other, and that's Jim Harbaugh puts himself. Well, I think gratefully so.

Yeah, you're right on that. He played 11 seasons. Ten of them, he was an all pro, a pro-Boulder. He never missed a game in his first decade in the league. He played in 10,363 consecutive snaps as a left tackle and protected 29 different brown quarterbacks. I'm not making that up. It says it right here on the sheet. His name is Joe Thomas.

He joins us via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Joe, what makes you really interesting to me, you're a smart, thoughtful guy, and you're going to be a first ballot hall of famer. You are a high functioning person who worked in an incredibly dysfunctional decade for the Cleveland Browns. How did you overcome it? How were you obviously talent a big component of it? But were there times somebody as good as you was even worn down by the constant change? Yeah, you definitely get worn down over time with all that losing. But I think it's important when you decide to be a professional to be able to compartmentalize and say,

this is my job, this is what I'm asked to do. It doesn't matter what the record is. doesn't matter what the scoreboard says, I have to do my job. And I have to emotionally detach myself from what's happening from a winning and losing standpoint, because that would negatively affect what I'm doing on the field. And if you're able to do that, then you can still perform at a high level in spite of all that losing. Do you miss Steelers, Ravens, these battles where you are playing great all-time pass rushers? Is there part of you?

You're not that far removed from it that you do. miss this Sunday. Oh, absolutely. You're going to miss those battles, those matchups because, you know, going against a guy like Terrell Suggs and James Harrison on a Sunday, those are the things that you get nervous for all week. And then you go out and when you have that great performance and you do your job against those guys, there's this amazing sense of relief and happiness that you feel that you just don't get anywhere else. And so certainly I'm definitely going to miss those one-on-one battles, those great matchups against the Ravens and the Steelers twice a year. But my body's not going to miss it, man.

I would still be playing on Sundays if I could, if my body was willing. But unfortunately, you get to a point when the arthritis just builds up so much that you just don't have anything left in the tank. One of the reasons I've questioned Baker Mayfield, because I've said, listen, to overcome some of the dysfunction in Cleveland, and I don't think all of it's gone, you need to be an Lway, a luck, a cam, kind of a wince. I think Baker's going to work in this league. Can he overcome? He means a two-time walk-on, a little small, not a huge arm. what is your guess? I mean, we all want to be positive.

We don't want to see anybody fail. We know he's going to be the quarterback eventually. Do you have some concerns, though, that you have to almost be Superman sometimes to overcome Cleveland? Well, I think you made a good point of why he can overcome is because he has done it at every step, every stage in his life. And so this is, yeah, this is a bigger step. This is the biggest stage in football in our game.

But I think having the experience have done it in the past, he's got a great opportunity to do it again, but it's not going to be easy. And like he said, he's not the tallest guy. He doesn't have the skill set that maybe a Cam Newton does. But there's guys in this league from top to bottom at that quarterback position that have overcome some of physical limitations. And all you have to do is look down in New Orleans that the team that I think is going to win the Super Bowl and Drew Breeze with the New Orleans Saints.

By the way, you pick them to win the Super Bowl. New England's everybody's favorite every year. I like Pittsburgh this year. Now, you have Pittsburgh's a highly emotional, franchise. And then you have this almost academic covert operation in New England. Having faced both, tell me the difference between Face and the Steelers on Sunday and the Patriots. Well, it's going to be totally different. The Patriots are going to play a game plan that specifically attacks the things that you don't do very well. And they might completely

throw out their game plan from weeks past. They might throw out their entire playbook and come up with a completely new defense for what you're going to see. And that's what makes them really difficult. Whereas when you play the Steelers, you know what you're going to get. They're going to run the same offense and the same defense that they've been running for probably 20 years. Now, they're really good at it because they've got so many years of experience doing it. They've got so many good players.

But you know what you're going to get from them. And it's going to be a good on good battle. When you go into the Patriots, though, it's totally a mystery. They could show up in a 5-3 on the goal line. They could show up in a 6-2 on the goal line. They could run a 3-4 on defense. defense, they could run a four or three. You don't know what they're going to do because they're willing to take those risks and those chances because it's paid off throughout Bill Belichick's career.

I'm watching that game last night, Eagles Falcons. And when I think of Atlanta, I think of skilled, fast, finesse. When I think of Philadelphia, they're one of the few teams in the NFL. I can't take my eyes off their line play. They are so, that's why they're so good in the red zone. And I felt like juxtaposed last night, you had these two different cultures, the fast, slick, finesse and then you have this tough, gritty Philadelphia, blue-collar, tough guy, Eagle team. That's how I saw it. When you watched that game last night,

are you, your thoughts about what Philadelphia has created in the trenches on both sides? It's pretty impressive. I think it all starts really with the Eagles defensive line. I mean, they've got all pros all across the board, but it's how they play. They pin their ears back and they get after the ball carrier, whether that be the quarterback or the running back,

on every single play. And then, of course, you look at their offensive line. I'm not sure they have any one thing that they're really well known for except for being big, tough, strong, great players. And when you have two bookends like Lane Johnson and Jason Peters at left tackle and right tackle, that's a great place to start. And then you've got a great center in Jason Kelsey. It's a pretty difficult line to beat, especially in this day and age of poor offensive line play. I mean, everything is built up front for those guys. By the way, 29 quarterbacks you protected. is there one guy if I said who was the one guy that really had something special but it just the dysfunction and the chaos and the coaching just never had a fair shot was there one of these guys that you were like you know what that guy in a different spot would have worked I think this may surprise some people but I think actually Colt McCoy was a guy that I played with and now he was a rookie he played some games as a rookie his second year he was a guy that I said you know

what, if he would have been in the right situation and given the proper opportunity with the skills, skill players around him that you need to succeed as a quarterback, especially a young quarterback, I think he really could have been successful. And actually, he's had a great career in Washington as a backup. He really still hasn't had that opportunity to take a starting role on a team. But I think if he ever does get that opportunity or if he would have gotten that opportunity, I think he could have parlayed that into a really good career as a starting quarterback. Back, by the way, you have a podcast. It's good and it's popular called The Tomahawk Show with former teammate Andrew Hawkins.

It's funny. Sometimes unintentionally, there are NFL stories. You guys are obviously good friends. Again, the podcast is called the Tomahawk Show. Now, your wife is expecting any day. You could get a call in five minutes. I've been told she's a few days overdue. Is that right?

Yeah, she was due last Friday. So she's like eight days overdue. And actually we went to the doctor today like an hour before I came on your show. And they sent this home and said, all right, come back if the contractions get a little closer. So I'm definitely on watch right now. Okay. Joe, you're great. Good luck to you.

The Tomahawk show, the podcast with Joe Thomas. Congratulations on an absolutely remarkable Hall of Fame first ballot career. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me, Colin. You bet. Joe Thomas. He's interviewing in between contractions. That is a hall of thing.

He's not having the contractions. Well, per contractions, but. But he is aware of the happening. Colt McCoy. I saw Greg smile because Greg's from Texas. You bet, man. Colt's dad was a coach, wasn't he? Yeah, so was his brother.

His brother played was a quarterback too. Colt McCoy. Listen, man, it's hard. I tell the story. I've told Goulet this before. We never take this under consideration where you land in life. Tom Brady lands in Cincinnati and Carson Palmer lands in New England. I got news for you. Carson's got a lot more wins and Tom's got a lot more losses. Now Tom's the kind of guy that maybe would, I'm not saying Tom wouldn't be great, but Kraft and Belichick, one of the great advantages, Brady, he wins a division every year because the jet or it's functional, the dolphins are dysfunctional, the bills are dysfunctional. That gives him a buy and two home games in the playoffs. And let me take

something. They've needed Foxborough several times. They may have blown out the Colts a few years ago. They have used that Foxborough advantage against the Ravens a couple times where they shouldn't have won the football game. So, you know, you just forget where Joe Thomas is so

uniquely talented, he can overcome dysfunction. But I mean, those are outliers. I mean, I tell the story. I've been so lucky. My first job, I had a great owner at a TV station. I worked at ESPN. At that time, it was well run.

This place, total support. I worked for a year and a half in Tampa. We didn't know what we were doing. By the end of it, I was anchoring a 5 o'clock news on a leather sofa. I mean, it was just a mess. And I remember being in that station and thinking, this is, this just doesn't work. Like, it was the only time in my career I've worked at a place and nothing worked. You had the wrong this, the wrong that, the wrong theme, the wrong set, the wrong people.

even super talented people were struggling to overcome our management. And it's like, that's why I always say, you can be a great salesman and have a bad product. You know, the NFL, like Case Keenham was the opposite. He got the perfect situation last year. Everybody's like, oh, Case Keenom is, no, you're not going to get that defense the rest of his career. He's not going to get two receivers like that the rest of his career. I mean, last year for Minnesota, that roster is stacked. The chances, Tom Brady's never had a roster as stacked as Minnesota.

Minnesota last year. Now, he's had some good ones. Minnesota is just that everywhere. Backs, tight ends, two receivers, great corners, best safety maybe in the game, unbelievable linebackers, edge rusher. Where you land matters a ton in life. Okay, next hour we're packed Greg Jennings. Jeff Perlman and author's got a great new book out. Car shopping's confusing, a lot of terms, dealer price, invoice, list price. Here's what's not confusing. Newer used car, go to truecar.com. Gives you more confidence on average.

Save 3 grand of MSRP. It's the herd. Ah, this is the herd. Our number three live in Los Angeles. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS-1, Joy Taylor is joining me. We have an hour left. I am so fired up.

I've had so much fun in the last 24 hours. Watching football, talking football. I love football. having a blazing five last hour. We have a great, great, great last hour. Greg Jennings is going to join us in about 15 minutes. There's breaking news here. Atlanta Falcons, pro-bowl safety, Keanu Neal,

is out for the season with a torn ACL. That's a loss. That's the weakness of that team was cornerback and secondary. That's why they drafted it and went after it in free agency. It makes me wonder. Earl Thomas, Seahawks, not happy. Dan Quinn was a defensive coordinator in Seattle. Seattle needs to rebuild some of their team.

Do the Atlanta Falcons go after Earl Thomas, who Dan Quinn coached? Seattle will give you a second round pick. You give us Earl Todd. Because Atlanta sees himself as a Super Bowl team. Seattle isn't. They may, but they're not. Atlanta sees himself. I don't think they're wrong.

They can play with anybody. Okay. So, I mean, last night's game could have gone either way. So that's the story. He was a first round pick a couple of years ago. Keanu O'Neill, and he is out for the season. So coming up in about 10, 12 minutes, Greg Jennings, great stuff. We're going to talk Packers and Bears, which is a fantastic opening week game here on Fox.

Also, Jeff Perlman has a new book, a USFL book, has a great story about how Donald Trump came this close to owning the Dallas Cowboys. We kid you not. But the Eagles last night at home, the Super Bowl champs held. on to beat the team they beat last year, the Atlanta Falcons last night, so I'm definitely starting with that. Last night was two really good teams. Both were a little rusty, a lot of penalties, both will be better by the end of the year, and both will be around at the end of the year in the

playoffs. These are very, very good football teams. And when I look at the stats, I got all the stats right here. Boy, they're just, I mean, it's just first downs. They're real close. And total drives and, you know, yards per play. And time of possession. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, here's one where they're not close. Third down efficiency. The Eagles backup quarterback was 8 of 16. Maddie Ice was 4 of 15.

That's with Julio Jones. That's with two good running backs. That's with a better than average offensive line. Maddie Ice was ice cold, one for nine, red zone passing. Last night, once again, all I'm doing. is waiting for Maddie Ice to make a play in a big game and he doesn't. Super Bowl

had the lead, couldn't, fourth quarter. Last year, divisional playoffs, final play couldn't. Last night, final play, couldn't. By the way, the Atlanta coach is in the first quarter. First drive of the game. Stay out there, Maddie. Stay out there, Maddie. You prove everybody wrong, Maddie. No, he's proven me

right. People get upset when I say if you take out the one great year, Matt Ryan is Andy Dalton. He's closer to Andy Dalton than he is Aaron Rogers and everybody freaks out. But Andy Dalton has one great receiver, A.J. Green. Matt Ryan's got one great receiver, Julio Jones. They both have a defensive head coach. They both have a cooler nickname than they actually are. They've got decent arms, but not great. They can move a little, but they're not mobile. They have two other teams in their division, Steelers, Ravens, who are better organizations. You've

The Panthers and Saints, those are really good organizations. And what's the knock always on Andy Dalton? I can't beat the Steelers. And wants to knock on Matt Ryan. He can't win the game. Well, there was the one MVP year. Stop it. Kyle Shanahan makes everybody better.

Kyle Shanahan and Jimmy Garoppolo have never lost a game together. I like Jimmy Garoppolo, but he would lose games with other coaches. I always say this with a real estate agent. If you're a real estate agent for 10 years and you have one spike year because you sell a mansion, somebody hooks you up, friend of a friend, you sell a mansion. Okay, that's great, but that's not who you are. Of the 10 years, who you are is the nine other years when you sell nice homes. You're a solid real estate agent, make a nice living.

You had that one spike year because a buddy hooked you up and you sold a mansion. Made a lot of money that year, about the next year you went back to, you know, being a good, solid real estate agent. Don't give me his MVP year. Kyle Shanahan left. He came back to me and, you know, Matt Ryan. By the way, Matt Ryan, Andy Dalton, you put the numbers up. Take out the MVP year. Same darn guy. You just don't want to hear it.

In the Super Bowl year with Kyle Shanahan, Matt Ryan scored 35 points or more 10 times. He's never done it once. since. And he never makes the play. I saw Nick Foles make the play in the Super Bowl. I saw Case Keenham make the play in the playoffs against the Saints. I've seen Breeze and Brady and Ben. I've seen Cam make the play. I'm always waiting for Maddie Ice to make the play. And don't kid yourself. Don't you always feel this way. There's in the dome, Matt Ryan, And there's outdoor Matt Ryan. Maybe he just keeps playing Philadelphia on the road.

Need to get him at home. But my lasting memory, and I saw it three times last night, Matt Ryan, fourth down, chance for a touchdown. Can't get it done. I'm not anti-Mat Ryan. I'm just realistic Matt Ryan. He and Andy Dalton both have a nicknostic. name red rifle, Maddie Ice.

That's better than the actual player. And both always leave me feeling like, they're good. But I'm waiting for the play. Nick Foles gave it to me in the Super Bowl. I still don't have one for Maddie Ice. Let me shift to this. Let's talk Philadelphia Eagles for a second. Now, they're a very good football team.

I don't have them winning in the Super Bowl. but I haven't won in the division. They're a good football team. And I always felt like this. In Hollywood, there were a lot of tough guys for years and years. A lot of action stars. Sylvester Stallone was a tough guy. Arnold Schwarzenegro was a tough guy.

Ben Diesel was a tough guy. Tom Seismore was a tough guy. But in his prime, when he was like 45 years old, you know who the toughest guy was? Nobody messed with Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood's one of those guys, and we've all had a friend like this. You just don't mess with.

I can't really take a joke. You just, you just, they're, wow, you just, you just wouldn't want to end up on the wrong side of Clint Eastwood when he was 40. Now it's a little different, but 40, 45 years old. There's always that guy in the bar, not the biggest, not the strongest, but you're like, you don't want to mess with that guy. Connor McGregor's not the biggest, toughest guy in the UFC, but you don't want to mess with Connor McGregor. Philadelphia's got a roster and a culture full of those guys. That final drive last night, you know, it was four minutes left. Five straight times.

Pound the ball. Pound the ball. Get the push. Pound the ball. Make the play. That's Philadelphia football. Offensive and defensive line, that is a locker room full of tough guys. By the way, what did they do?

What did they do in the off season? They got Michael Bennett, another tough guy. They went and drafted a tied end from South Dakota State. 260, 6.6. Another tough guy. Atlanta's culture is fascinating. and slick. What did they do in the first round?

They got something they really, really needed another Alabama-wide receiver who didn't do anything last night, a small guy. They got more skilled. What you watched last night was the difference in two cultures. This is why Philadelphia last year was number one of the NFC in the red zone. Tough guys. Space gets limited. Gets tight down there.

not lost space, guys all jumbled up. Who wins in that scenario? Tough guys. Philly's got a roster of tough guys. Atlanta's skilled. Atlanta's fast. Atlanta's lousy in the red zone last year. And lousy in the red zone last night.

When you need that extra push and you need that little extra thing that football demands, you watch two cultures last night. a skilled, fast, slick culture that once again can't get it done in the red zone. And the tough guy punch you in the neck, Clint Eastwood in his 40s, dirty hairy culture. Man, when that game came down to brass tacks, they lined it up. Philadelphia did. They just lined it up. And that looked like the Big 12, Atlanta, and Philadelphia looked like Alabama.

We're just going to lean on you. This is going to be a street fight. We need five carries and a two-point conversion. And that's what Philadelphia did. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Ran the ball five straight times. Like, I think the Rams, the Chiefs, there's a lot of good rosters. Houston, I'm not sure there's a roster with more guys if you need a yard or need to stop a team from getting a yard.

I'm not sure there's a better roster in the NFL than Philadelphia. And boy, did we see opposites last night. And with that, we bring in Greg Jennings, pro-bowler, Super Bowl ring, feisty Greg Jennings on a Friday, willing to go toe-to-toe with me off and wrong, but it doesn't matter. He does so with conviction. So everybody's freaking out. First of all, just your impressions of what you saw last night. An overview of as a former NFL great player, what did you see last night? I saw a week one at its finest.

A lot of scrappy, penalty heavy, a lot of laundry out there. It was two defenses that looked really good. One looked great. And for me, defenses, they catch on a lot quicker when it comes to regular season, preseason. Defenses are going to click faster. Offense, it takes a while for your offense. You have more to memorize. Yeah.

And then when you don't have guys who have gotten any snaps in the preseason, I mean, it's going to take a minute. By the way, I'm not banging on Matt Ryan, but I, when a couple. Yeah, you are. I wouldn't say I'm critical. I'm saying. Yeah, you are. A couple years ago it was like Aaron Rogers, Matt Ryan, ooh.

And I was like, no, no, no. Matt Ryan Andy Dalton. No, I don't think it's ever been Aaron Rogers, Matt Ryan. That's what a lot of crazy media people were saying when he got the MVP year. And I'm like, time out. Yeah, no. Kyle Shanahan's doing a lot of the work there. Matt Ryan Andy Dalton.

Matt's better, but they're closer. You want to know why Atlanta can't figure out the red zone? Because you know what you need in the red zone? Little Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, Carson Wentz, Cam can run it in, or Aaron can squeeze it in. He can't do either. So to that point, I think that's why we see them struggle so much. In the red zone, you're dealing with a lot smaller area. Congest it.

everything is congested, condensed. And if you, and when you watch, if a play doesn't, when the play breaks down for the Atlanta Falcons, Matt Ryan is not an improviser. That's right. Like, he can't really extend the play and keep it going. Aaron can, Cam, can, Luck can, Went can. Like, they need the play to just be run efficiently and it work. When it starts to break down, that's when I've seen the Atlanta Falcons,

in the red zone and why they struggle in the red zone because a lot of plays in the red zone aren't just snap back three seconds get rid of the ball touchdown no they're extended plays because the defense is going to cover a little bit better they don't have they really don't have to cover the sideline like they have help because of the out of bounds and the in lines so you have to be able to extend plays and to create separation as receivers and help your quarterback out and they don't do that well so you know the green bay culture I said I compare Aaron Rogers to an iPhone, is that I spend money on an iPhone. Every time iPhone comes out, I get new one. Because if I buy this, I don't have to have a GPS, I don't have to have a

roll decks, an alarm cop, a map, HDTV, calculator, music player. This lets me save money everywhere else. When you have Aaron Rogers, you can save a little money on offense. I mean, good God, he got to a Super Bowl without a running game. You're one of his good receivers. They've always given them good receivers. O line, they never pay for the guys to keep them. They develop them, let him go. Tight ends hit and miss. Jared Cook wanted let it go. But what you got to do with Aaron, you got to pay for defense because he's going to allow

you to take B minus guys and make him B plus. He's going to do a lot of B minus to B plus. Defensively, though, Aaron's 7 and 0 in the playoffs when Green Bay's held him under 23. Every time you give him a good day. So I would have paid for Colee O Mack instead of facing him 10 times over the next five years, and I'm off two, what surgeries do you have?

Collarbone surgeries. I don't want to get hit by Kaleel Mac 10 times in five years. I'm with you. Because you are with me. I am with you. I like the iPhone analogy, because when you have an iPhone, you really forfeit and forego a lot of other pieces of technology. I don't even have an iPad.

I don't need it. You don't need it. It does so much. I like that. I like that. But for the Green Bay Packers, It makes sense for them to do that because Aaron Rogers can elevate the level of play on that one side of the ball. Absolutely.

Has been doing it now for a decade. Has done it his entire career. But he can't elevate the level of play on the other side of the ball because he's not on that side of the ball. He almost puts pressure on his own defense because we're going to score. I just need you to not let them score every time. Have you ever seen the times? Aaron Rogers, seven playoff losses. It's almost comical.

They've given up like 51, 44, 36, 35. It's like, just keep, you know, I say this with the Colts and Andrew Luck. Just keep in the, the average NFL team scores 21.7 points. With Aaron, you can score 23, 24. Can't score 30. You can't ask Aaron to drop 36 in a playoff game on the road. It doesn't work that way. Yeah, I think it'll be different this year.

I've been sitting down with Brian Cox a lot. And you know that defensive side of the ball mentality. And he's high on the defensive coordinator, Petting. And he thinks that that's going to, he thinks that that's the best signing that the Green Bay Packers have had all offseason. So I'm going to watch that because I think if that is the case, they've addressed their corners with young corners,

obviously, but that Khalil Mack would have been huge if the Green Bay Packers could have signed the Chicago Bears are really interesting because the defensive side of the ball they've drafted pretty well. We just saw it last night with the Philadelphia Eagles. If you can get to the quarterback,

they sacked Matt Ryan four times, eight tackle for losses, 13 quarterback hits. If you're doing, if you're harassing the quarterback that much. They're not the same guy. They're not the same. There is no way you will be the same guy. My theory on what the bears are doing, they know their quarterbacks, not Rogers, not Kirk, and not Matt. And what they're saying is, for us to win in this division, we have to reduce the other quarterbacks, because ours has a ceiling. So we're going to bring

Aaron down to us, and the way to do that is have an unbelievable front seven defensively. Think about what the Minnesota Vikings did. That's what they did. Yeah. They went defense first. Okay, now I've been hearing this all week. Greg Jennings joining us, 10 years, Super Bowls, Pro Bowls. Player, like in the mob, you don't mess with a guy's wife or the kids. And in football, you don't mess with a guy's money. You don't talk about a guy's money. Come on.

That is, uh-uh. No, that's a public. In the grocery store, as a kid, you reach and grab something, and mom or dad told you not to do that's a stop put your hand you don't do that that is the absolute what the stealers what the offensive linemen in pittsburg did can you bring levy and bell back now it's i don't you can bring them back but nothing is the same because if i'm lavian bill i'm saying something to those guys in life think about it any walk of life in any corporate setting any business do you go around talking about, hey, wait a minute, Skip.

They gave, you guys gave Skip this or you gave Jason Whitlock this or you, you don't do that. You're not counting their money. Like, that's just an absolute no-no. You don't walk around. Money's a big deal for guys. It's a big deal in general. It's already publicized.

But for you to make it seem like I'm just about the money, number one, we're all about getting paid. You guys' careers last eight years. We're all about getting paid, and we have a short window to do it. So don't talk about it. Thankfully, I work here virtually for free, so it's never an issue with this network. Okay, Greg Jennings. There's nothing funny.

Stop it. Okay, so speak for yourself later? Absolutely. Greg Jennings. Packers will win that game, but I am excited to watch the Bears defensive front. I just want to – because Khalil Mack's going to come in. They're going to tell them for the first couple weeks. Just get the quarterback.

Look, the Bears already had a great rush anyway. And by the way, Roquan Smith is apparently fantastic. The linebacker out of Georgia, it's going to be fun. Coming up next, spoiler alert. A lot of sportscasters tell you what they think about college football. I'm going to give you the final result on the game of the week. I'm just going to tell you exactly what's going to happen. 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. Don't go anywhere. Great, great ending to the show today. Barrow up to $40,000 to pay off your high interest debt credit cards. Lendingclub.com slash sports. Lending club.com slash sports. All loans made by Webbank member FDIC equal housing lender.

You know, a lot of sportscasters on a Friday and make some predictions about college football games. That's not really the way we do it here. We just tell you exactly what's going to happen. Here we go. Warning. Colin is about to reveal the outcomes of the biggest college football games this week. If you don't want to know exactly what's going to happen, turn away now. All right, there's one game I want to talk about.

Stanford hosting USC. And this is a rematch of last year's Pac-12 championship and is likely potentially going to be a repeat of last year. year's Pack 12 championship. They play very early in most years. Now, Stanford won their opening game, 31 to 10 over San Diego State, but their best player is Bryce Love. He didn't have very good night. And he's going to be a Heisman guy, and he didn't play well. And Stanford has a good quarterback, good receivers, good offensive line, but they didn't play well. And he didn't have a big game. Now, he's been very good against USC in the past. And Stanford in the last decade has played USC 11 times.

they've won seven, and in the last four at home, they've won three against USC. And I think the personnel in this matchup is very interesting, and they're going to use Bryce Love a lot. He has had his way against USC. Now, the Trojans won their opener against UNLV. They have a freshman quarterback named J.T. Daniels. And the last time anybody was this good as a freshman playing their first game, his name was Jared Gough. This kid is really, really good. and USC has a veteran offensive line and tremendous young receivers.

Keep your eye on J.T. Daniels. Now, these games are usually close, but I get a freshman quarterback against a more veteran quarterback. USC is always better in the Coliseum than on the road. I think you're going to see a classic USC Stanford matchup. It will come down to the last series or two. They generally do. Here we go. Spoiler alert.

The score officially will be Stanford 27, USC 23. I told you to turn away. Listen, I don't like to give exact picks. You're picking against your team? I am a journalist. Do not have a team, Joy. I have no idea what you're talking about. Very painful.

Joy of the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, so the Eagles, they like some trick plays, most infamously in the Super Bowl, the Philly Special. Very catchy name. Nick Bowles caught a touchdown pass from Trey Burton.

And last night, the whole world freaked out, thinking that they did the Philly Special on Banner Night. And it's actually a little bit better than that. Let's listen to Doug Peterson when he was asked about it last night. It appeared to be the exact same play, New England ran, against you guys in the Super Bowl unsuccessful. Absolutely. Be aware of that.

That's where we got it from. We just put different people in the game. What you call it? Philly, Philly. Let's the play. They trolled them. You get a little extra juice and you got that Super Bowl ring, huh? I like that on Banner Night.

Look at the exact same play. It is. I love it because it is just so petty. And on opening night, Banner Night, it's not ready to let go yet. You know what I like about this trick play? I love trick plays. But you're not asking somebody to make a, you know, trick plays are goofy when you ask

receivers or running backs to throw. But you're not asking them to throw more than like 10, 12 yards. So it's a trick play, but the efficiency level is very high. Oh, yeah. Look at that pass. Like, I mean, that's what any pro athlete can do. Right. Right.

I love trick plays when they work. When they don't work, it's the most frustrating thing you've ever seen in your life. I never figure this out. Like when you have a kicker throw. That's why he's a kicker. He shouldn't throw. To have it, what you do is you find. somebody on your roster that was a high school quarterback that's now in the NFL, and you ask

him to make a 12-yard throw? Well, your quarterback's got to catch it, too, because as we've seen, Tom Brady, maybe the greatest quarterback of all time, but there's a reason why he plays that position. There's a little fly buzzing around here if you see that. Okay, so Fanatics released their jersey sales rankings this week, and there might be some surprises on that list. Who do you think is number one? NFL?

Yes. Selling the most jerseys? From Fanatics, yes. Oh, God, that's a good question. Is it a veteran or a young guy? It's a young guy. Deshawn Watson. No.

Sequin Barclay. But there's a new addition to this list this week, and that is Khalil Mack, which is kind of surprising. So, Sequin Barclay, Jimmy Garoppolo, Carson Wentz, Tom Brady. Tom Brady is... Where's Aaron Rogers? Tom Brady's been around this league for two decades. He's still a top five. You know what?

That is the one thing about it that kind of confuses me. Do you need a new Tom Brady jersey every year? It just shows you that Rogers isn't that relatable. He's great. But you're going to tell me defensive guys and a rookie running back are out selling Aaron Rogers? Caliomac isn't surprising because it's Chicago. Okay, I get that. That's a great NFL city.

But I mean, where's Aaron Rogers? He's the best player in the league. Everybody keeps telling me. It's also Green Bay. What did you say, John? Brady's been around so long. You need a second. The first one is worn out.

The numbers aren't there anymore. You have to get another one. That could be it. It's just like a rotating year of New Jersey. But, I mean, it's Green Bay. And then, you know, New England, they've got those like patriotic colors and stuff. Chicago is such a great NFL. It is.

It's a great sports town. Finally, kind of under the radar, NBA Hall of Fame class gets inducted tonight. And it's no secret that Ray Allen and his former Celtics teammates have some issues. And speaking with Rachel Nichols during the eve of his induction into the Hall of Fame, Ray Allen spoke about his relationship with them and had this to say. After having left Boston, I didn't expect it to be there to be any vitro. Yeah, fans would be upset. But from the perspective of a team, I would have expected that, you know, you understand and you move forward, you move on.

Like we all do, it's bothered me. You know, I've always hated to have any ill will or any animosity in the airways. But I'm not throwing it out there. I'm just happy to be moving forward. And the people who love me, they tell me on a daily basis. them. So that's all I can concern myself with. Wow. Can they just let it go? I know. This story never.

It's so unbelievable to me. And I love Petty, but at this point, it's just like, come on. Why? He left. This is not, it's not actually that serious. Like, he's a professional. He went to Miami and won a ring. What is the big deal? And they really recruited him because at the time, LeBron and Wade were not as great at three-point shooters. He wasn't always there. Yeah, they wanted Ray and Shane Battye because they could hit threes. I will never understand the complexity of the story.

But a little shout-out to the 2018 Hall of Fame class. Ray Allen, Markey's Cheeks, Charles Lefty Dreisle, Grant Hill, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Tina Thompson, Dino Raja, Charlie Scott, Orme-Washington, Rod Thorne, Rick Welts and Katie Smith all go into the Hall of Fame tonight.

You see this. It's good class. Yeah, it really is. There will be, I am going to guess that there are tears from Ray, Maurice, and I'm going to go. I think Grant Hill has a teary speech. You know, I have such, Grant Hill was such a good player, but he was hurt so much. He doesn't immediately, to me, I don't think Hall of Fame with him. I just think, oh, his career could have been so much greater if he didn't get hurt.

That's the first thing. I mean, oh, it does count college. You're right. Basketball Hall of Fame counts college. Okay. Then he's a lot. Yes, absolutely. Joy Taylor with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. You know, and best for last, we usually have, you know, weird stats, weird stuff. Today, we're going to do a whole different thing. We're going to have an interview. We thought it was just quirky and different. One of the great pro football books written in the history of this country is about the Dallas Cowboys.

Boys will be boys. If you've never read it, it's a must read. Gunslinger about Brett Farb is an all-time classic football book. The author for both is Jeff Perlman. He's written a new USFL book. He just did it. He said, you know, I just want to write. It's quirky.

You forget Jim Kelly, Steve Young. Donald Trump almost owned the Dallas Cowboys. All those stories to finish off on a Friday coming up next. Okay, we do it every day at this time. we're going to switch it up today. Best for Last. After almost three hours, Colin apparently hasn't gotten to the point yet. Quit holding out on us, Cowherd.

It's the best for last. New York Times bestselling author, several of the most readable, consumable football books in my lifetime. Boys will be Boys. The Gunslinger, his name is Jeff Pearlman. He has written a new book about the USFL that is absolutely fascinating. If you are too young or in your 20s, you just don't understand the USFL.

I know you're not going to make as much as you would make on a cowboy book or a farb book. This is a labor of love for you. It is a fascinating league. Let's start with this. The best player ever in the USFL was... I'm going to go Reggie White. If you're taking all-time career, Reggie White. But you had Jim Kelly.

Yeah. You had Steve Young. You had Sam Mills. So people understand this. How many players that played in the USFL went to the NFL and were good people? players. Well, you had more than 200 players overall who went to the NFL from the USFL. I just want to say, Gil Brandt from the Cowboys at the time, said, there's no more than 12 guys who were going to make the NFL out of the USFL. That's what he said at the time.

How many pro bowlers? Pro bowlers, I don't know, four Hall of Famers. So four guys who played in the USFL became Hall of Famers in the NFL. Yeah. Now, so Steve Young was in it and Jim Kelly was in it. I don't remember the specifics, but they met in one of the wildest pro football games ever. It's the greatest game nobody ever saw. That's what Ralph Wiley at us. I caught it. I don't remember the final score.

They were about L.A. Coliseum, 90,000 capacity. There were maybe 6,000 fans watching this game. Jim Kelly led a comeback where they scored four touchdowns in about seven minutes in this crazy. They combined for a thousand yards passing. It was one of the greatest games ever. Steve Young and Jim Kelly still talk about it when they, they talk or get together. A thousand yards passing.

So when you look at this league, you had some high profile stars. I remember watching it. I remember Herschel Walker. Herschel Walker, I think, didn't he have a profound game or a year? Yeah, 1984. Nobody knows.

Hersil Walker belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I don't care what anyone says. If you remember him for the Viking trade, 1985 USFL still holds the single season rushing record 2411 yards. In a single season. In a single season. 2400 rushing yards. Yes. He was amazing in the USFL.

Can I YouTube and watch the stuff? Yes. Charlie Steiner is doing the call. He was the voice of the generals. Charlie Steiner was a voice of the generals. Oh my God. So you generally, you're one of these guys. You'll interview 800 people.

Yeah. Okay. So this league had two now. content it's the greatest league in America, Sports League, that didn't work. The quality of offense, many things were adopted by the NFL. Oh, yeah. The run and shoot came

out of Jim Kelly and the Houston game. It was, Mouse Davis was a coach. Let me tell how they got Jim Kelly real quick. He was in the office of the Buffalo Bills about to sign with the bills. He did not want to go there. He told them not to draft. Because he played at Miami. And he's in the office, really glum about it all. And George Allen, who is the general,

Bruce Allen, who's a general manager at each 25 of the Chicago Blitz lies, calls the bill's offices because he found out Kelly was there, and says he is a relative of Kelly's agent and there's a family emergency. Gets him on the phone and says, I know Jim doesn't want to play there. You know Jim doesn't want to play there.

Get out of there and we'll take care of him. He leaves. He goes and meets with Jerry Argovitz, owner of the Houston Gamblers, and signs with the gamblers two weeks later. The bills were furious. The USFL was stealing star players. Now, the reason this league,

now here's what I remember, Jeff Perlman joining us. The new book is called, I got it here. Football for a buck, the crazy rise and crazier demise of the USFL. Here's what I remember. Because I remember watching it. I was an NFL college fan, but I remember watching the games. It was on two networks.

What I remember was they expanded really fast because I remember liking the helmets and liking the uniforms. And I was like, ooh, this league's kind of fun. And all of a sudden there were a bunch of new teams. Is that why they folded? It's one of the big reasons. They panic because each team was going to have to pay $6 million into the pot. But all of a sudden, you have the Oklahoma outlaws and the San Antonio Gunslingers with owners who can't afford the bills. Okay.

The Gunslingers, their best player was their quarterback, Rick Neuheisel. Yes. And, yeah, from UCLA. Yes. And New Heizel tells a lot of great stories about the check starting to bounce so much that after practices on payday, the players would rush to freer Texas to cash to cash. because only the first five or six were cash and the rest were balanced. I worked at a broadcasting company like that once. Jeff Perlman joining us.

Now, there's a lot of Trump in the book, obviously, because he was, you know, this brash New York real estate guy, a younger Donald Trump, and he always wanted to own an NFL team, and I think he kind of saw this as his gateway into it. First of all, and I haven't gotten through the book yet, he almost owned the Dallas Cowboys. He didn't. He likes to say that. He didn't. It's factually untrue.

Okay. So it was always Jerry's team? Yes. Okay. Give me the story on, because there's always been this Trump NFL, USL, there's a sense that, in fact, I've seen documentaries on this, that Trump kind of ended up killing the, he sued the NFL. Tell me the story about the most fascinating Trump story about the USFL. All right. Well, when he bought, he bought in after one season.

Okay. So he bought the team for the 84 season. Okay. And in the lead up, this is great. I love the USFL. The USFL is awesome. As soon as he is the owner of the generals. as soon as he's on a first league meeting.

We need to move to fall. We need to move to fall now. We need to take on the NFL directly. During this time, he has a secret meeting at the Pierre Hotel in New York with Pete Roselle, NFL commissioner at the time. He pays for the room. Trump does.

And he says to Roselle, I don't really give a crap about this league. I want an NFL team. What do I have to do to get in? And Pete Roselle says to him very bluntly, as long as I'm the commissioner of the NFL, as long as my family is affiliated with this league, you will never have a team in the NFL.

Says that very bluntly to him. Trump, undeterred as he often is, decides the USFL needs to sue the NFL for an antitrust violation. And we're going to move to fall and take him on directly. He leads the lawsuit. People are begging him, do not file this lawsuit in New York. You're not going to win in New York. Jerry Argovic, you know, the gambler says,

Texas, let's do it in Texas. We'll have a sympathetic judge. No, no, no. They do this lawsuit. Trump is the main witness for the USFL. I interviewed one of the jurors. She said he was the most disastrous witness you could ever have a man, just bragged, boasted.

He made the USFL, the bully. when the NFL was supposed to be the bully. And the jury comes back, and what the jury decides is, you know what? The NFL is violating the, is dominating TV. They do have a monopoly on TV. The USFL is correct. However, the USFL is its own worst enemy.

And the number one guy who's screwing this up is Donald Trump. And she actually told me, Donald Trump was on the witness stand, staring her down, trying to intimidate her. She remembered this vividly. She painted the scene. So when you want to talk about why they won $1, they're given a dollar, it's because, And the best thing is Donald Trump is sitting in the courtroom,

and the owner of the New York Giants takes out his wallet, takes out a dollar bill, and hands it to him when it's announced. Wow. By the way, the league, I do remember the, and it's in your book, the USFL wasn't perfect. There was a steroid issue, wasn't there? Oh, there are so many drugs in the USFL. What would mean drugs? I mean, the Houston Gambler's strength coach was a guy named Bob Young, who said to his offensive linemen, if you don't use steroids, you're not playing for me.

Richard Johnson, the great wide receiver for the Houston Gamblers who later played for Detroit, would smoke a joint before every game. One of my favorite stories, over quick, Vince Corville was a teammate, and Richard Johnson was great, Vince Corville, not great. Vince Corvo told me one game, he decided to be like Richard Johnson. He was going to smoke a joint before a game. He'd never smoke pop before. He smokes a joint.

He goes out on the field. He's like, why are my hand so big? Why is everyone looking at me? He said he had the worst game of his life and never did it again. There was also a player for this league that chased an owner around with a back. and threatened him. Greg Fields, big paper. He was a defensive lineman out of gambling. And he was good. First, he punched his coach.

John Hadole was a head coach of the Express. John Hale? He was a coach of the Express. He punched him? John Hedl called him in and cut him, and Greg Fields punched him. This is the best thing ever. The Express hired this guy Nelson Mercado, Liberace's bodyguard to be the bodyguard for the Express because Greg Fields allegedly was calling in death threats to the coach. So this guy, Nelson Maracado, got a staff of five other guys with him and made their life following Greg Fields around the defensive line him because he

punched the coach. It was in the newspapers. It was everywhere. And in a great USVL moment, the San Antonio Gunslingers needed defensive line help. So they sign Greg Fields. They sign him. They sign him. He goes to San Antonio. San Antonio's owner stops paying the players. So Greg Fields one day follows him home with a baseball bat. To his mansion? To his mansion. To his mansion. He lived at a place called the Magic Kingdom with wild animals exported from different African nations. I swear to God. Greg Fields has has a baseball bat in his trunk. He gets out of the car. He walks up to the owner, Clint Mangus. He says, I see where you live. You better pay me. Clint Mangus goes, wait here.

He goes inside. He comes back out with a paper bag through $10,000 in the past and says, are we good? And Greg Field says, we're good. And he leaves. And what, did Greg Fields ever play again? No, never, but me and my son went to see him at a mall in Sacramento at a food court. And was he nice? Awesome. He was awesome. The best. So this, this, the book is called Football for a buck, the crazy rise and crazier demise of the USFL by Jeff Perlma, who's written several incredible books. I really do, you know, I mean, the NFL, baseball, the NBA, but we see the big three's been created and they were getting $17,000. Do you think in the end the USFL would be good for the NFL? It'd be like a farm system, right? If a kid didn't want to play college, maybe,

or something? I think if the USFL was willing to be that, the USFL wasn't willing to be that. That's the problem. Yeah, you're right. If they, if they stayed. in the spring, you may have a leak. By the way, you've got other books that you can still purchase. Boys will be boys. The Dallas Cowboys, the Troy Aikmaneers is an all-timer. Gunslinger is a fantastic book. You exposed a lot of stuff with Aaron Rogers, who, by the way, I love.

He reminds me of Kevin Durant. He's kind of got rabbit ears a little bit. He's got rabbit ears. You also wrote Showtime. Of all the books you've written, was this the most fun because it was the goofiest? Easily. And it was the one I dreamed of writing from the time I was in the, as a boy, Mailpack New York, I remember the first time I saw Herschel Walker on the cover at the Mailpack Public Library,

and he's on the cover in his general's uniform. It says hitting pay dirt. Because Herschel Walker, he was a junior and the NFL wouldn't touch him. And the USFL signed him after he begged to go to the USFL. And the funny thing is, as soon as the NFL found out, the Dallas Cowboys came secretly along and said, we'll offer you this money too. And Herschel Walker, to his credit, said, I already agreed to sign with this new league. I'm not going to do it. And he went to the generals. Yeah. Herschel's an interesting cat. A little quirky. A little. He once told me he went winks without eating. It's probably true.

He would say that. He goes, I do push-ups, sit-ups, have a smoothie once a day. I don't eat. Yeah. Yeah, one smoothie a day, John, you were with me at the other place. One smoothie a day. Another great book, Barry Bonds in the making of an anti-hero, love me, hate me, by Jeff Perlman.

Books, one of my favorite things is to go and read old books. Mark Kriegel's got a book about Pete Marevich. So good. Oh, my God. It's so good. It's great seeing you. Thank you. By the book.

A Fascinating Reek. The corkiest, greatest league in American sports that did not. make it. We're done. We'll see you Monday. Enjoy football. It's the herd.