The Herd with Colin Cowherd - NBA referees, playoffs, Jimmy Butler, and NFL team ratings

Episode Date: April 30, 2019

Colin explains why the Houston Rockets have crossed the line and should be fined, why NBA games are officiated differently in the playoffs, why Philadelphia 76ers F Jimmy Butler is so important, and his NFL team ratings in three words. Guests include Chris Broussard, Lance Zierlein, Kendrick Perkins, and Jim Jackson. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes, coaches and Olympic champions, about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward. At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything.

Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this? Alliance last. Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart

Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to the Heard Podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Heard. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio. Oh, here we are on a Tuesday.

Absolutely loaded. This is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Live in Los Angeles, we're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me. In one hour, Joy, all the coaching hires in the NFL are done. All the free agency is done. All the drafting is done. I'm going to go with my herd hierarchy, the 10 best teams in the league.

today. Oh, 10 best on paper? 10 best on paper today. The teams I think of the 10 best on paper, a couple of omissions that won't land well, and a couple of teams inserted that I think are going to be huge surprise teams. So beware Twitter. Beware.

Twitter and Cleveland and whatever. It's great to have you in. Good morning. I thought this was years ago, Phil Jackson would tweak the NBA refs. Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Bulls coach. He would tweak the refs. And the NBA would often fine him. Don't talk about refs during a series, trying to manipulate the series.

Well, the Rockets did that and then some. The Rockets tabulated the net result of 81 potential miscalls and non-calls in game 7 of the series between the Rockets and Golden State, and they leaked it to the media, and it was obtained by the place I used to work. The Rockets had a full report listing 81 blown calls that cost the Rockets 18.5 points, 18.6. They went full analytics nerd. The Rockets also argue that veteran officials exhibit the most biased against our players. Oh, God, this is a backfire move. This is intentional and a timely leak to influence the refs tonight.

By the way, I just want to know all you geniuses in Houston. In that analytics report, did you have the part where you went 0 for 27 on threes in that game? Was that in the report? Remember that? You had that stretch in that game. You were 0 for 27 on threes. Was that included in the report? Oh, that was an omission.

So let's blame it on the veteran officials. As I said yesterday, veteran officials don't fall for this BS. They don't fall for this hard and flopping soccer stuff. I'm the NBA. I hand out a huge fine to the Houston Rockets. This is not tweaking the NBA. This is trying to embarrass the NBA. They went full analytics nerd here, and I don't think it's going to work.

And you know what they say about karma? Karma is a you know what? Scott Foster is refereeing the game tonight. Scott Foster has a long-running feud with James Hardin and Chris Paul. The Rockets are 0 and 6. In the last six games, Scott Foster has officiated. Now, maybe the Rockets, they knew he was officiating tonight, because that's assigned a while back,

and they thought, let's get ahead of it. But I think this comes across as they're trying to embarrass the NBA. I think it's a terrible look, and I think Adam Silver should find them. Listen, let's be honest about this. The rocket's formula to get to the championship was more calls and more free throws. This is where analytics fails. This is where analytics fails. Here's what analytics does not tell you that the NHL, the NFL, and the NBA do not want calls,

free throws, and penalties deciding Super Bowls. So in all those sports, NBA, NFL, and NHL, refs swallow their whistle. in the playoffs. And the further it goes in the playoffs, NFC championship, asked the Saints, asked the Rockets last year. The further playoffs go,

the more viewers, the more the games mean, the more hockey, football and basketball officials get out of the way. Analytics. Did analytics tell you that, Houston? What the NBA doesn't want

is what the NFL faced years ago, where Joy and I would come I'm on the air this fall, and when we talked about big games, we just talked about games. But a year earlier, I would come on my show and talk about catch-no-catch. And Roger Goodell came on my show and said, we don't want every game. We're literally talking about the interpretation of rules. We want you to celebrate the NFL. We want to have fun.

Steve Kerr talked about this after game one. All we're talking about is the officiating. It's disappointing because the focus should be all. on two teams who played extremely hard. I mean, watching the tape, you know, both teams just got after and competed. But, you know, we just watched the tape upstairs. You don't think there were 10 calls that we thought we got fouled.

I mean, this is how it goes. Okay. Never forget this. I said this yesterday. Leagues have a right to their own interpretation and their own officiating territory. Houston's trying to manipulate. officials. Never forget this. Remember this joy? A couple Super Bowls ago, Eagles Patriots.

All year, we complained about catch-no-catch. And in the Super Bowl, the NFL did not tell the Eagles, did not tell the Patriots, did not tell Belichick, did not tell Doug Peterson, did not tell the teams. The NFL decided in that Super Bowl, common sense prevails. If it looks like a catch, it's a catch. They went against their own rule and they gave nobody a heads up. And you know why they did? Because they're the league. And my boss can do what they want. And the NFL can do what they want. And the NBA can do what they want. And the NFL decided without giving anybody a heads up, we're not going to have the Super Bowl turn into a seven-day argument over the interpretation of a catch-no-catch rule. And they knew they were going to change the rule. And they

did a month later. And the NBA knows they're going to change this landing area rule. They know they're going to do it in the off season. And they're not going to let these playoffs. And this is the finals. Let's be honest. The Rockets Warriors is probably the finals. I mean, I picked the Celtics to beat the Warriors, but this feels like the finals, right? They're not going to have this series dominated by, well, the interpretation of the landing rule. Common sense is going to prevail. And this is where analytics falls flat. I've told Darrell Mori this. I like analytics. I'm not anti-analytics, but I'm a big believer that you cannot reduce sports to numbers.

These are humans. These are athletes. I'd pay money to watch Hardin. I'd pay money to watch Westbrook. I want to pay money to watch Brady and LeBron. These are the world's greatest athletes we're watching. Let's not reduce them to a spreadsheet. Now, I think numbers matter.

I think they matter. But the reality, the reason Brad Stevens and Kyrie get along better today than two months ago? Because they talk because they're human beings, not human doings, not numbers on a spreadsheet. Houston is trying to reduce this series to a spreadsheet. And the NBA's like, nah, no, no, we're not doing that. And the NFL did this two years ago in the Super Bowl. They said, no, no, no, no, we're not going to have this game become a six-day slog of guys like me and women like joy coming on the air and complaining for six days about officials. We're not going to have it.

And so the NFL didn't give anybody a heads up. They said, no, we're going to change things right now. And that's what the NBA is doing. And I applaud him. If you try to manipulate officials, and that's what Houston's doing here, leaking this memo, flopping, they're manipulating. The referees, the league is saying, okay, we're going to take a little territory back. And we're not going to give you heads up.

We're not going to release a memo. We have a right as a league to take a little bit of this territory back. By the way, Scott Foster's officiating the game tonight. Never forget what James Harden said in February about Scott Foster. Scott Foster, man, he's a, you know, I never really talk about officiating or anything like that, but just rude and arrogant. I mean, you aren't able to talk to him throughout the course of a game. And it's like, how do you do that relationship with officials?

And it's not even that call. It's just who he is on that floor. It's pretty frustrating. By the way, I don't want you to have a relationship with the officials. There's rules. You're a player. I don't want you to be able to curry favor, buddy up. I remember years ago hearing a story where a major league baseball empire,

every year I ask Barry Bonds for some autographed baseballs for his charity. I want that. I don't want you to have great relationships with the officials. I don't need them to be awful. But I don't want you carrying favor with them. And it's not an official's job to, by the way, invite you to birthday parties. I'm Scott Foster. I'm a ref.

I officiated in college to make money and intermurals. And the first thing I learned very quickly, don't smile, don't laugh, don't frown. Poker face, entire game. I wanted to be as robotic as I could. I didn't want anybody to think they made me mad. They made me happy. I had any influence. Because if I smile to harden, that means the guy guarding hard.

Hardin thinks I like Hardin. When I officiated, and I, again, this was like two years of college. My whole thing was robotic. I wanted nobody to think there was any influence. That's what Scott Foster does. That's what veteran NBA officials do, mostly. They get out of the personality business. I don't, Ed Hockily in his gun show, I could do without.

Dick Bavetta and his humor, I could do without. I don't want a lot of ego. I don't want to know your personality. I don't want you being friends with the players. Come in, make calls. Thanks for flying United. Well, there's a reason there's no name on the back of. their jersey. Thank you. And I can't think of a worse job for you. I know. I had to be a robot.

That is not for you. Hey, $8 a game at Eastern Washington, it paid for a lot of beers. That's good pay. Eight dollars. I do three games a night, $24. That's a decent college job. It's what you do. Divorced parents. Guys got to eat your ref for two years. I can't see you holding a straight face for too much. I was the Scott Foster. Nobody liked me. Because I wouldn't have any relationships with any of the guys. Because I'd see them on campus and they'd be like, hey, you're the ref of the... All right. So coming up next,

again, I'm not into gimmicks. The process. I'm not into that. Sixers, season is now alive and they're in control of it because they ditch the process. 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, F.S1 and the IHeart Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in.

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with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me,

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

person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear gains, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back.

Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levan this went to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life.

Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On hurdle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WMBA standout, Kate Martin, and rising hockey star, Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't.

Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't Don't belong. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs, Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladecki. The ability to show gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world.

Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. This Mother's Day, 30 for 30 deal, 1-800 Flowers, 30 tulips, 30 bucks. Go to 1-800flowers.com, click on the code, H-E-R-D. One of the reasons I think the NFL is the most popular league in the NFL, NBA's second or baseball second. I think the structure of the NFL, it's not dependent on one or two players.

The NBA's always been dependent on stars. So when Michael Jordan's your star, it's good. When Iverson was your star, not as interesting. When LeBron's your star, great. If, you know, Westbrook's your star, maybe not as great. A prime example, the NFL draft, highest ratings ever. There was one star in the whole draft, Kyler Murray. Last year, we had a bunch of stars, quarterbacks.

Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Lamar Jackson, got better ratings this year. NFL business is not dependent on one or two. people. It's not dependent on stars. The structure of it, plus we bet it, is a huge advantage. Not that I don't love the NBA. I do find something funny. The Philadelphia 76ers beat Toronto last night. I love watching Philadelphia play. I love watching them. I feel so lucky. Outside LeBron, not in the playoffs, all the fun teams to watch. Boston's in. I love watching them. I love watching the Sixers. I love watching the Warriors. I love watching the Rockets. Portland's now a fun watch. Denver doesn't do a ton for me. Either does Toronto. Milwaukee's fun.

I like Yonis. But it's funny about Philadelphia. all this BS about the process. The only reason the Sixers season isn't dead this morning is because of a player named Jimmy Butler. Here was one of his moves last night. Ambide with Siakum helping. Try to work with two defenders. Finds Butler. Oh, Jimmy Butler, Bullseye.

28 for Butler. By the way, the new GM, Elton Brand of the Sixers, smart dude. he didn't buy into the process. He scrapped it. And he said, get me Tobias Harris and get me Jimmy Butler. But analytically, they're really good players. Let's scrap the process. And since he did that, Joy and I have acknowledged, we like the Sixers. They got more good players. Listen, all this hipster BS with the process is a bunch of hooey. You want to know why the process works in Golden State? Because they got Steph and Kevin Durant and Clay. You want to know why the process and analytics work in Boston? They got Kyrie Irving. You want to know why the process.

the process works and all the analytics work in Houston. They have James Harden. That stuff works if you have stars. If you have great finishers, staff, Hardin, Kyrie, Clay. You can run that stuff in Memphis all day long. It's not going to work. Analytics are a bunch of hooey. The process in Philly was a bunch of hooey.

It works now because they've got four good players and Elton Brands like, get me dudes. Jimmy Butler's a dude. I mean, Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, not process guys. Guys they traded for. was like, get me guys. He did it. He got rid of shooters, by the way.

Analytic guys love the shooters. He's like, Jimmy Butler's not a good shooter, but boy, he's a good player. And Tobias Harris hot and cold, but boy, he's a big, strong athlete, been on a bunch of teams I like him. And suddenly now Philadelphia has home court advantage in the second round of the playoffs. Last year, they had the analytic guys. Okay, so I'm really into Philadelphia's talent. Now, I do think there's some limitations.

And I understand the media tends to fall in love with gimmicks and catch-fifes. phrases and analytics because it makes him feel smart. We get it. You don't. We're the media. We're smart. We get analytics. The stuff only works if you have the guys that can get it done, right? The Philadelphia, the fascinating thing about Philadelphia, and we're all going to watch this thing unfold. And I think it's fascinating.

They have four really good players. Embed, Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler, and Tobias Harris. Elton Brand, who you got. And I have no problem. They're all, Embedd's a brilliant player, but is often hurt. and seven-footers don't get healthier once they've been hurt. He's missed 64% of his Sixer games. Then there's Ben Simmons, who is a brilliant,

transformational six, ten and a half point guard, but can't shoot and doesn't work well with Embed. Then there's Jimmy Butler. An unbelievable A athlete, a player in the NBA, doesn't always get along with coaches and young teammates. And then there's Tobias Harris, who wants to get paid, who's going to get expensive, who's got a great NBA body, but it's been on a bunch of teams for a reason.

He's not a star. And they're going to have to choose a couple of these guys. And I've told you my belief on this, I'd go Simmons and Jimmy Butler. Because Embed, I'll say it again, it took six treatments per day to get him on the floor in these games. He missed playoff games last year. He's missed playoff games this year. Six treatments a day to get him on the floor for these games. Seven footers don't get healthier.

He's got trade value. He's got a big contract, but it's not egregious. He's a great player. Socially, he's fantastic. He'll light up your city. I'd move him. It'd be painful, but I'd move him. And I'd get a shooter somewhere.

And I would keep Ben Simmons because they don't make six, ten and a half point guards. He's in an elite class. He and Magic are the class. Six, nine or bigger point guards who can see the floor. Can't shoot, but get him shooters. I would keep Jimmy Butler because he's really, really talented. And I think his game works with Ben Simmons. He can do what Simmons can't.

Simmons can do what he can't. And Tobias Harris, I'd keep him if I could for the right number. He's going to want to get paid. I'll probably have to move him or get somebody else. The fascinating thing about the Sixers is they got four dudes, and they're going to have to probably select two to three of them. And I'm on Simmons because he doesn't get hurt. He's a unique all-time talent.

He may not be able to shoot, but analytically, he gets the ball two shooters as well as almost anybody in the league. And Jimmy Butler, they just don't make a lot of Jimmy Butler. veteran guy, tough as nails, big shot maker. He's a great athlete. He's just a better player than Tobias Harris. And Embed, as much as I like him, sometimes you have to move guys you like.

It's not a center's league. He doesn't handle a ball. Can shoot an occasional three, but he's not the future of the league. All that said, good win for Philadelphia. Like him a lot. By the way, here's the coach, Brett Brown, after the game last night telling you what he thinks of Jimmy Butler. This was James Butler.

That was the adult in the gym. He was just a tremendous, just a tremendous sort of rock. He willed us to a lot of different situation. He was a stud. He really was an adult in the gym. Yeah, and that's one of the reasons I'd keep him. I just think Jimmy Butler is a very unique talent. Now, a lot of people think he's going to go to L.A.

Boy, if LeBron could get him, LeBron's game works with Jimmy Butler. Anybody that handles the ball, your game's going to work with Jimmy Butler. That I like. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

Nicola Yokic is a problem. Many teams have tried and failed to find an answer for him. The spurs failed and now the Blazers appear to be struggling. Paul Millsap, his teammate, talked about how Yokic is not short-handed by his age or his lack of athleticism. And he even compared him to Tom Brady. Hmm. He sees that people are playing him and guarding him, and he makes the right play every time. He doesn't force anything.

Everything is going to be the right play. He's going to make the right reads. It's like a quarterback out there. I consider him like a Tom Brady. He's going to always pick you apart and make the right reads. So commend him for doing that at this stage in his career. He's unbelievable. He's a great, by the way, he's a very good passing big man.

To me, it kind of separates him from a lot of guys. He's just watching him makes me tired. Can you imagine going up against him? He's 7 foot 250 pounds. Yeah, he's a load. And he's unstoppable. Last night, he had 37 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and was perfect from the free throw line.

Yeah. I mean, look at some of these passes. I covered Arvita Sabonis in Portland. Arvita Sabonis was a brilliant passer. I mean, believe it or not, on a team that had a bunch of wings and guards, Arvetus was the best passer on the team. Yokic is that Bill Walton was a great passing big man.

That's what you get with Yokic. This guy sees the floor completely. He really does. I was just looking at this way. Game one in the first round, San Antonio tried doubling him, had 10 points, and he also had 14 rebounds and 14 assists. 14 assists for a big. Yeah.

That scores. Like most bigs get the, Patrick Ewing, you gave the ball to Patrick. You never got it back. But that was okay. That was Patrick's game. Like certain big guy, you gave him all of Shaq. Shaq was going to pretty much take it to the basket. He's really impressive.

I don't know what they're going to do with him. So the New York football giants had a interesting NFL draft. Dave Gettlement took Daniel Jones with the number six pick, and the entire draft had Gettlement looking like a GM without a plan. But he told Peter King, in three years, we'll find out how crazy I am. And he added, the bottom line is, I have confidence in what I do and who I am.

I've led a charmed life with the quarterbacks on teams I've worked for. I know what good ones look like. The other thing is resumes matter. Every once in a while, I wish the people taking the shots would take a minute to look at my resume. I've been a part of teams that went to seven Super Bowls. I had a hand in some of them. By the way, I did look at his resume. First of all, he's bad at the microphone.

He's the opposite of Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin could say the wrong thing, but it would sound right. Mike Tomlin's the best coach I've ever seen in my life at the microphone. He speaks with confidence and conviction. Gettleman is the opposite. He could say the right thing and it would sound too. terrible. He doesn't have confidence. He doesn't know what he's. And like some of this is Gettleman should just talk less. Well, yeah. I mean, the difference is Tomlin is the coach and Gettlement.

And the difference is also Gettleman, uh, Tomlin's all man. Tomlin stands up there. And even if Mike's just kind of bailing water, he looks at you so intensely that you're like, okay, Mike Tomlin said the world's flat. The world's flat. Mike said it for sure. Gettelman could say the world's round and I'd be like, I don't believe him. I just don't believe him. It just, it didn't come across like they had a plan. And three years is a long time from now in a situation that's been not ideal for a while to begin with. I don't like overreacting to draft picks.

Everyone kind of agrees this feels like a reach. Yes. But we have no idea what he's going to be. Tom Brady went in the sixth round. Nobody knows. Like when we give these draft grades, no one knows. He is right. In three years, in about three years, you can give an honest grade on how a draft was.

An initial reaction to a draft is just that everyone's opinion. I think the big knock on this isn't Daniel Jones. It's that Daniel Jones is arguably a first round talent, but you're going to have to pay him so much in a salary cap league to not play on a team that had major issues. If this was the Patriots doing this, you'd be like, okay, they don't have many openings. When you're a rebuilding team and you have the sixth spot, you're supposed to get like Nick Bosa.

Or, you know, you're supposed to get a guy that can help you. Well, also, if the Patriots did it. We would, they have earned enough of our trust in their decisions that we would feel like, okay, there must be something here we don't all see. And again, like talent observation and evaluation, like that varies. The Patriots have bused too. But you can't come across the way that you did in that press conference and then wonder why everyone is confused as to what you're doing.

You've got to know that Ohio State's in the Big Ten. That helps. That's a good start. So finally, the people think the Browns are going to be good this season. Vegas released their playoff odds yesterday and had the Browns missing the playoffs. Whoa, time out, time out. Joy, what did you say? Vegas, Vegas released the playoff odds yesterday and had the Browns missing the playoffs.

However, within hours, those odds changed. And Baker and Company now have the best odds to win the AFC North. They also tied for the fourth best odds to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl 54. But so Vegas is kind of back and forth on the Browns. Does Vegas? hate the Browns? I don't think they hate the Browns. They have questions about...

It seems like Vegas finds the Browns intriguing. Talented and intriguing, which is exactly what I've said. Really talented and really intriguing. I'm not sure they're great. Well, no, I think we've got to wait. Throwing the great label out there or, you know, Super Bowl is probably a bit much. It's probably a bit aspirational. Yeah.

Okay. At the most at this point, they are interesting because they're completely unproven. But I do think that what's changed with the Browns is they now have expectations because they have talent. They have proven talents in Odell and Jarvis Landry. And Baker has made vast improvements last year. So they have proven talent. With that comes expectations. That's the difference for the Browns this year.

Expectations change the world. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd line news. By the way, top of the hour, I'm going to give you my herd hierarchy. The coaches are in. The free agents are in.

draft picks her in. I'll tell you who I believe of the 10 best teams in the NFL. I've thought of schedules. I've thought of everything. And I'll bring that to you coming up at the top of the hour. Now let's bring in Chris Broussard, former New York Times, odd couple Fox Sports Radio, my guy, the NBA voice of this network, Chris Broussard. First of all, the Houston Rockets leak some sort of memo, and it ends up at the other place. Now it's a national story right before the game tonight. This feels, I mean, I don't think I'm only, overstating it here. It feels like more manipulation from now organizationally toward the leak. If I'm Adam Silver, I am not happy with this this morning. It's gone too far. It's gone too far.

And beyond Adam Silver being bothered by it, if I'm sick of it, if you're sick of it, how do you think the officials and the warriors will be? When you see Steve Kerr go out in a press conference, Steve Kerr and mock an opponent the way he did with James Hardin? that shows you how upset and focus he and his players will be. The Warriors problem all season long has been lack of focus, boredom, complacency. You're not going to see that. I'm picking them to win tonight. I'm not saying it's going to be an easy series.

Oh, you like Houston tonight? No, no, I like the Golden State tonight. I like the Warriors tonight too. Yes, because they're not going to lose focus in this series. One, because of how good Houston is. But two, because they're sick of the talking. about the refs, and this is gone from gamesmanship, which we get. Phil Jackson did that.

Throw it out there a little bit, you know, put something in the refs head. But this has gone from that to belittling us. Now you're saying, oh, we shouldn't have won our title last year. Now you're questioning our greatness. You already got Clint Capella running his mouth all the time. And now you're basically insulting us and saying we're not that good. We only won last year because of the rest. I think you're going to get a great performance from.

Golden State tonight. I totally agree. By the way, in that memo that got leaked, did they put in the fact they were 0 for 27 on threes? They forgot that. There's a Michael Jordan in the 98 finals. He said he stopped talking to the referees. I remember this.

Right, because we have, I think we have a clip. So we have the, this is Michael Jordan in 98, who by the way, it's not like Michael never complained about calls. Magic constantly chirped a refs. Bird and MJ, Dr. J. not the chirpers. Here's MJ back in the 90s. Michael, what was your halftime speech like? Phil said you gave a little lecture there coming in at halftime.

Well, I just said that lead of referees alone. You know, we can complain and we can do whatever we have to say about the referees. You know, once we get into the locker room. But out there on the basketball court, we can't control the game. The referees control the game. And every time we made mild the office say something, we're giving away free points. and digging ourselves a hole. So I just told them to shut up and play.

All right. That's Michael Jordan saying when we mouth off to the rest, we're giving away free points. They may call something that really they wouldn't have called before, whether it's a technical or a regular file, whatever. If they were going to do that with Michael Jordan, they were wearing Jordan sneakers in their off time, right? They were asking for autographs after games.

How do you think they're going to respond, even if it's on a subconscious level? Sure. To James Hardin and Chris Paul and all these guys running their mouth, not only during the game, but now I've got to hear your GM. By the way, did you notice in the Rockets memo to the NBA that they mentioned, I talked about this yesterday. I'm not sure you did, but I talked about it yesterday. Joy was here. I said veteran officials are generally in all sports less inclined to be swayed.

Right. The NBA has got 70 officials or close to it. only 30 of them work the playoffs, and then it gets down to about, doesn't it get down to about 20 by this time of the year? So the bottom line is you're dealing with the best officials and veteran officials, and Houston noted that the veteran officials have a bias. I would say the veteran officials lack bias and just aren't going to deal with your chirping. I totally agree.

Here's the flip side of it too, or another element. Scott Foster, we know his history with the Rockets, has had issues with Chris Paul and Jay. hard in the past. He's doing the game tonight. I'm not worried about Scott Foster, but I wonder with the rockets, could this get in their head?

The officiating has become such a big deal for them. And Chris Paul, as much as I respect him, you see he gets emotionally unwound at times. He got a hinge the other day. Yeah, that's like, do you do it? And I wonder if it's going to mess with them just the fact that they know

oh, we got Scott Foster now. You know we're not getting any calls. what Houston has to do is they have to get that out of their mind and secondly read the game. First quarter, you will know how they're calling stuff. And again, I agree with them that Clay was in landing space. But if that's happening tonight and they're not calling it, adjust. Just say, okay, they're not going to give us these calls. We have to play through it.

And if we get them great, but we're not going to worry about that. We have to play our game. So we'll see how tough mentally the Rockets are. Tonight's great. I get Milwaukee, Boston. Oh, great night. And then I get Golden State Houston. Tonight's one of the best NBA nights of the year.

You're going to get two great games. Only thing, only thing to be honestly that this month is missing is LeBron in the playoffs. NBA's, all the teams I like to watch are there. Now, stay there. I want to talk about the Sixers. They got big decisions about Portland doing something last night that drove me crazy. Chris Broussard, don't go anywhere. Be sure to catch live editions.

the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments, that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsClyce on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Game. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark.

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

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

Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come

across. When Jacob met Levin this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entire. entirely different worlds. Just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me?

Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the Aihar Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On hurdle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going.

From the WNBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel like. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladecki.

The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard.

Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts for wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Interesting stuff. I want to get to this. I've said before, I've made my kind of comments known about Westbrook, a great transformative talent, but I think there's limitations how far I can get you.

I think he plays in a tunnel. I think there's a certain rigidity to him. And I think this year you've come a little bit toward my side, that you love him more than I do, but there is a certain rigidity. And I think the franchise is walking on eggshells around him because it's a small market. So Sam Presti comes out after the season ended.

And this is classic Sam Presti in Oklahoma City, terrified of Westbrook. The quote is, and there's a reason so many people are in this room today. Russell has helped us achieve a certain level. Okay. Then he goes on to say, well, he's not perfect. None of us are. Obviously, don't qualify it. Then he goes on to say, I'm not going to let 11 years of contributions be overshadowed by a

couple of pretty tough months. It's not a pretty tough months. it's three years, first round exits, three years and four total playoff wins. I think this is classic Presti. And by the way, Russell, Westbrook, in is, Presti said, among other things, Russell's changed. I see growth. But here was Russell's exit interview. He was actually in a very good mood.

So I like when he talked. He was at the happiest I've seen him forever. It's almost like the stress of the season was done. But he said this. If you want to determine my career and what I've done over two, three games, you go ahead. That'll mean to me. It doesn't. I'm going to wake up, like I told you before. Three beautiful kids, I'm going to wake up, a smile, be happy, enjoy my life. It doesn't change anything about, talk about if I play bad or who's better, who's not.

I know who I am as a person, and that's the biggest thing I can say by myself. I know who I am. I know what I'm able to do. I know my capabilities. I know what I've done. I know what I can and can't do. So I'm okay with that. I'm okay with who I am.

I'll just be blessed to wake up every day and enjoy my life. So to talk about, I don't even know what talk you're talking about, whatever that is. You guys can keep talking about it, and I'm going to keep living my life. By the way, he's happy. He does feel like the season's stress is off his shoulder. That's the happiest he's been.

But what he's saying is, I am what I am. Well, the issue is, three years, four wins, we want you to understand that some of what you are can be a little enigmatic or problematic for the franchise and teammates. So what do you make of that whole thing? Well, when you look at that press, conference juxtaposed against the ones in the playoffs, okay, after every game. That is what you need to know about Russell Westwick.

That's the problem, if you will. He can't turn it on and off, okay? During the game, he's on, and he's playing 110 miles an hour every single game, every single minute of the game. That's why I can rack up the triple doubles, but that's also why he doesn't play the minute 46 differently than minute 16, and that's a problem for them. You saw it in the press conferences in the playoffs.

He's still in game mode. He can't turn it off. So he's all amped up. He's got his game face on. He's mad. He's not answering questions. Now that the season is over, he can go. He can turn it off.

And that's what you saw. By all accounts, Russ is a nice guy. Paul George has raved about it. He got George to state. Yes, this is it. When Russell comes into the phone booth of the arena and he puts that cape on, he's got, he has got, this is. Russell. If you talk to people

outside the arena, he's two people. He really is. He's like nice, fashionable, fun, great dad, Russ. He enters that arena and it is just like a boxer with no jab. He's throwing haymakers. And just like he can't turn it off in the game or in the press conference,

he can't turn it off in the game. And that's the challenge. As far as Sam Presti's comments, I'm fine with that publicly. Because obviously, you don't come out and just blast your franchise players. Of course. So I'm fine with the sugar coating and walking on eggshells and all that. But behind closed doors, as long as you're telling him the truth.

He is right. They've been talking with Russ about this for years, understanding time and score, pace of play. That's why Mo Cheeks is there as an assistant. I mean, Mo Cheeks was one of the most poised point guards we've ever seen. He totally knew how to play that way. So you know how frustrating it can be for him when Russ doesn't get it. The thing is, I don't know that he's ever going to be able to get it. No, I just think this is who Russell is, and it's okay.

He's a gift to all of us. Have you ever seen Russell Westbrook play live? He's a gift to all of us. But there are players. He's a very rigid personality. And when you add the layer of intensity of the playoffs to an intense guy, did you notice how happy he appeared? Right.

It was like you lifted. Do you know how bummed out MJ would be after getting out of the playoffs? Michael Jordan was still petty. his Hall of Fame speech. Russell felt like, all right, that play, that's,

I think, in fact, I saw a story earlier this year from Royce Young, who covers O'KC. And Royce said, he goes,

when it was Paul's team, it was a little more chill locker room. Paul got hurt. It became Russell's team. The locker room got a little tight. And because I think, I do think,

intense people, I think that, what's the word I'm looking for? It spreads. Like, if I was really intense and a yell and a screamer. It's contagious. It's contagious.

Intentities contagious. So is chill. And I think Russell adds an intensity. I want to segue to this. The Sixers have big decisions. Embeded Simmons, Butler, Tobias Harris, can't pay all of them. Okay. Embeddeed six treatments to be able to play.

He is hurt. At 25 years old. You don't like Butler as much as me. I'm Philly. I want to keep Butler. I love, Jimmy Butler is a terrific player. Terrific. Okay.

And he's their closer. he's their only, not only shot, but he has to be huge for them to be able to win this year. So I like putting the ball in his hands the way they did yesterday. No problem with Butler's game. There's no way I'm turning my franchise over to him. Number one, it'll be 30 years old in September. Okay, so signing him for a four-year, a max deal.

That's, I think, going to be a bad investment. And number two, we have seen, we know what he does to locker rooms. He's had trouble when he hasn't been, hasn't had the money. Like this year he's going into free agency and he has trouble in locker rooms. What do you think he's going to do when you empower him with a $150 million contract or something? His issues in Chicago, Minnesota, a little bit in Philadelphia, are with younger guys. Guys that are younger than him that he doesn't really have to answer to. I love him with the Lakers.

If the Lakers end up getting Jimmy Butler, I think, because LeBron is older, his stature in the league, I think Butler will respect that and won't be the cause the problems that he has in other locker rooms. I'm not turning the Sixers over to Jim. Okay, who are you turning over to? I'm keeping my young guys. Now, I agree with what you're saying a bit about Embed. I wouldn't give up on him this summer, but at some point soon, they're going to have to sit down and say, do we need to trade him prematurely?

64% of the games is a sixer. He hasn't played. Yeah. And like you say, six treatments at 25 years old. You may need to move. Look, here's the thing. Ben Simmons can slide into the Joel Embed role. And he's not as good as Embed at it, but you'll be fine.

He can score in the post. I don't have to worry about trying to put him on the perimeter where nobody's going to guard him. He can score down low. He can move down there around the painted area. if you double him, he's a tremendous passer, and he can get the ball off the rebound and lead the break. And if I don't get the fast break points, then in the half court I'm playing him near the basket,

you would be fine. If you can trade and beat and get some great shooters. By the way, this is my thing. One star. I need a star, though. Think about what injuries did to the Portland Trailblazers, Brandon Roy and Greg Oden. Or they could be the warriors.

Seriously. I mean, to me, I always start with a, Availability is the beginning of ability. I love Ambide. 25, 6 treatments a day to get on the floor. And remember, they dealt with this with Andrew Bynum. Fortunately, they ended up giving them the huge contract, but you saw Bynum was a talented player.

Huge, huge talent. Chris Broussard. Coming up next, I'm going to lay out. Coaches in, free agents in, drafts in, what I believe of the top 10 NFL teams, and there'll be some pushback on that. I can tell you right now, one city, it's not going to like my answers. I bet I can guess what city that is.

What? They already don't like me. What's it matter? I'm making friends there. That's coming up. Hour 2. Thanks, Chris. It's the herd.

One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHard radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending. Opinions are flying. And nobody's telling you,

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

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

Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough.

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

person. Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world. He doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey.

I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know.

Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WNBA standout Kate Martin

and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't belong. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs, Gabby Thomas, and Katie Ladeke.

The ability to show a gold medal to someone have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to, win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything.

I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Here we go, hour two. We're live in Lodagh.

Los Angeles. This is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening, viewing. We're on IHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio, and right here on FS-1. Joy Taylor is joining me. During the football season every Tuesday at this time, I do my herd hierarchy. We judge the top ten teams. In this time of the year, even Vegas came out this weekend. Vegas came out this weekend and released their Super Bowl odds, division odds over unders, because Now you've got all your coaches set, you've got all your free agent set, and you've got all your draft set. So now is the time that I can look. Now, people could get injured in exhibition season and camps, but now is the time I know what I have.

This point forward, I feel safe saying, I like this team more, I like this team less. And by the way, in the AFC, Vegas has New England won, Kansas City, 2, Indie 3, Cleveland Chargers, Pittsburgh. and in the NFC, which Vegas considers the better conference, Rams, Saints, Philly Bears, Packers, Cowboys, Vikings, outside shot to San Francisco. So I'll just tell you what I think. I consider everything. I consider schedules.

I consider free agent. I consider coach. I consider draft. And let's go. I'll give you my 10, what I believe this morning, I'll give you a reason for all of them, my 10 best NFL teams. Heard hierarchy.

Time is now. Let's go. The top 10 NFL teams according to college. Number 10. Dallas Cowboys, I think they have a fairly low ceiling. I think there's some limitations offensively, but I love their roster. I get Amari Cooper for a full year.

They added Randall Cobb and the adult grown up in the room, Jason Witten. I think you'll have a little bit more dynamic offense. They also had a bunch of offensive line injuries last year. They added a very good draft pick to their offensive line. I don't think they'll be as banged up. This is a very good team. Amari for a four year. I do think their ceilings a little lower than the Eagles and the Rams and the Patriots and, you know, teams like that.

Number nine. Every year in the NFL, there's a surprise team and minds the Niners. Jimmy Garoppolo is back. I think they added unbelievable free agents and draft picks. Nick Bosa and D. Ford combined on an offensive line with Bruckner and Kwan Alexander at linebacker. This front seven is going to be one of the better front sevens in the NFL. They also, besides Jimmy G, they went out and got one of the best wide receivers in college football, Debo Samuel, and that's what they really need. They needed more pass rush and a number one playmaking wide receiver.

Listen, don't kick yourself. We know every year a good team goes into the tank last year, Jacksonville, and a team that wasn't good becomes very good. You can pick yours minus San Francisco number nine. Number eight. Chargers. And now it's inches not feet here with all these teams. except my number one team. Chargers arguably have the best roster in the NFL.

Their weakness over the last two years has been addressed. They did it again in this draft. They went and got a nose tackle. They have great edge rushers, but not much of an interior push. So they drafted Jerry Tilleri from Notre Dame that will include the interior push. Philip River sometimes worries me in big games with his decisions, and I don't know if they have an A coach. I think they have a B-plus coach and a B-plus quarterback. Philip does worry me in big spots, and I thought they really.

really got overwhelmed in that playoff game, a total head scratch. You just don't see that with the Patriots, so I'd put him at eight. Number seven. Kansas City, a smidge better, because I know Andy Reid more and his history. I think Tyree Kill, potentially not being there, I don't think you can replace him. I don't think Patrick Mahomes, when he lost Kareem Hunt last year, was quite as good. They lost D. Ford, although they did add Frank Clark. I like them a lot. But I just think if Tyreek Hill's not here,

he's the fastest player in the league I've seen since Dion Sanders. I've had defensive people in the league say there's no real answer for it. I mean, you've got to double them. We don't have anybody that can keep up with him, so I have them at seven. Number six. Green Bay, I like Green Bay a lot. I think, first of all, I thought their draft and their free agent period loaded up heavy on defense. So it's no more excuses.

Aaron's got the coach he wants. He's got a new, smart young coach, more progressive. And I think defensively, this will be Aaron's most athletic defense since his Super Bowl year. So I like Green Bay more than everybody else does. I think they win their division. Number five. I like Pittsburgh. But by the way, Vegas likes Pittsburgh a lot, too.

They got Pittsburgh at nine, nine and a half wins too. I think Labian Bell, they won a lot of games without him last year. They also drafted a good running back that I think could be a semi-replacement for him. And Antonio Brown, I'm sorry. I thought he was a distraction. He didn't show up for week 17. They had to answer questions about him. I still think this is an elite organization with one of the best GMs.

I think it has the best offensive line right now in football. I think they have a Hall of Fame quarterback. They have a number one receiver in Juju Smith-Schuster. They added a very good linebacker to what I think. There's a couple of things the Steelers do well. Draft linebackers and draft wide receivers. So I think they're going to be a very good football team. Number four.

you. Great free agents. Great draft. I like almost everything they do. They added Malik Jackson next to Fletcher Cox on the defensive front. Good luck. Good luck blocking that. And I also thought they drafted the best offensive lineman, Andre Dillard. And as an aging offensive line becomes an issue, they solved it. They also got my favorite sleeper player in the draft. Stanford receiver, J.J.R. Sego-Whiteside. They also got Deshawn Jackson. Carson Wentz loves to throw the deep ball and he can still run. I think Philadelphia is very much a Super Bowl

threat to a favorite. Number three. L.A. Rams added Clay Matthews, veteran Eric Weddell, first draft pick Taylor Raps, a defensive in the box safety. I think the Rams are really good. I think they were humbled in the Super Bowl, a little bit humiliated. I think they'll come back.

I think golf gets better every year. As long as Todd Gurley is healthy, there's not much not to like. And Domic and Sue's gone, but that's fine. And Domicons do his own thing anyway. You give me Gurley, you give me Gough, you give me Robert Wood, you give me Aaron Donald. There's a lot of playmakers. Cooper Cup, by the way, comes back.

He was not around for the last two and a half months. He returns now. I like the Rams number three. Number two. Indianapolis. Last year they got beat badly by Kansas City. There was a reason. They weren't as good as Kansas City, and it was on the road.

This year, they don't face a cold weather team. They're a dome team. They don't face a cold weather team, and in the last eight weeks, they face one elite quarterback, Drew Breeze. I don't necessarily think they have the second best roster. I think they maybe have the eighth or ninth best roster. But they were 10 and six last year, and that was after a horrible one-and-five start. They're not getting off to a one-and-five start. I think this team once again had one of the best drafts, added Justin Houston, a pass rusher.

It is a very young team who nailed their first three-privile. picks last year. I think they nailed their first three picks. And frankly, I still think that division is theirs. They have owned Tennessee and have had their way with Houston in big spot. So I just think they have a psychological edge. And number one. New England. Added Michael Bennett, a pass rusher, added Chase Winnevich as a draft pick, a pass rusher. So if there was two or three things they needed, they addressed the pass rushing. They addressed a wide receiver. Now, they did not address the tied-in. They got Austin's,

Severian Jenkins, a veteran tied-in, a big guy. He's got Gronk's size, but I don't think Gronk necessarily blocking ability. But this is the best coach, and still, among the best quarterbacks in the game, the best system, the best overall coaching staff. They're money at home,

and they once again are in a division with three rebuilding teams, Bill, Jets, Dolphins, so they have a chance to go 6-0 in division. Now, by the way, there's a couple teams that missed. Where's Cleveland? I'll explain. next segment, why I don't have Cleveland in?

One of the reasons is all these teams, outside of Green Bay and Aaron Rogers, and I think Aaron's pretty, I don't know, amazing, I don't know what Freddie Kitchens is going to do. Secondly, Chicago Bears and Saints are not in that list. I have them 11 and 12. In Seattle. I don't think Seattle's roster is as good as the Bears of the Saints. I don't have the Bears and Saints. I have them 11 and 12. Bears 11, Saints, 12.

I think they both come back a little bit. I thought Chicago was a bit of smoke and mirrors. offensively. They were exposed in the playoffs on that. And I think the Saints have had back-to-back wildly emotional playoff losses. I think those start to add up. I think their division will be better. A couple more losses in division. And then I have Cleveland in about the 13 spot. Houston, by the way, doesn't make it. I still am not sure. They've answered the questions on, I think, the NFL's worst offensive line. And Seattle, I don't love their roster. Doug Baldwin may retire.

I think it's a lot of Russell Wilson and Pete's defensive schemes. They have two great players, Russell and Bobby Wagner. And then they got a bunch of young guys that aren't proven. I didn't love their draft. It was fine. They got draft picks. But that's where we're at. I feel very good about my picks.

I have San Francisco higher than most and indie higher than most. Other than that, I thought it was very, very, very responsible. You love the Colts. Loved them last year. They got beat by a better team. They're rebuilding. We just think they're not rebuilding. because they made the playoffs.

They got crushed by Kansas City because it's in Kansas City. No, it's a respectable loss. Yeah, and Kansas City is better. They got better players last year. All right, did the Rockets do more harm than good calling out the NBA officials? Kendrick Perkins is going to be joining us next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific

on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the iHeard radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the Internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are fly, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise.

Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games,

from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody will. wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of

my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses.

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

as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our Heart Radio app. Search, learn the hard way, and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect.

We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering our meaning, businessman, catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world. He doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud.

But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them?

On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness. professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WNBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't

feel like you don't feel like. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladeke. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face like. up and smile. That means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can, like, I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's sports. By the way, let me talk about Portland last night. They lost to Denver. I think Portland, when they're quiet, an underdog, scrappy, and focused is a really good basketball team. I think when Portland is distracted and chirping at the refs, they're a very average team. The Blazers in that Oklahoma series were totally focused, didn't talk to the refs, played their butts off, and let Damien Lillard control the game. Last night, chirp, chirp, talk, chirp, talk, churp, talk. That's not their identity. It's not their identity. You know what they are? there are poor man's Houston Rockets

where their best two scores are in the back court. James Hardin and Chris Paul are better than Damian Lillard and C.J. McCullet. Now, Damien is on a role and the gap between him and Hardin may not be as big as everybody thinks, and he may be better now than Chris Paul.

But they're a poor man's rockets. They need to be focused. They need to hit a bunch of threes. And they need one megastar, Damien, and Hardin to go off. But when Portland's not focused, they're an average team. They're not. This is not a great roster.

It's a well-coached team. Damian Litterd is unbelievably gifted. And then it's a bunch of guys. And when C.J. McCull is hot and Ennis Canter's getting his thing on, that's pretty interesting. But I thought last night they lost their focus. They did what OKC did against them. And you spent a lot. Now, Golden State can chirp to the refs because they're so gifted they can get away with it.

And Houston can do some chirping. naked sometimes because they're so darn gifted. Portland's not one of those teams. They got to be focused, keep quiet, get Lillard hot, and get going, and they did not. And I think that was the problem. Damian Lillard talked about this after the game. You know, it was a game we wanted to win. It was a little bit of a heated game, you know, when it came to the whistle for us. And we would say something when something needed to be said.

We weren't coming out on me. Nobody got a tech. So it wasn't anything disrespectful. But when your season is on the line, you got to be willing to challenge what's happening out there and, you know, try to put your team in the best position to win. And I think it was a little bit more of that, you know, probably more than we need it. You know, maybe we need to, you know, not say as much. But, I mean, it's anytime you see guys wanting it that bad, you know, you're going to say

stuff sometimes. And I think, you know, we might have a little bit too much of that tonight. With that, let's bring in the veteran NBA air for four or five different teams. The Celtics, big three, the Thunderwood, Durant, Westbrookard, and Kendrick Perkins, 15 NBA seasons. A tough guy you didn't push around. Perks in the house today. I want to talk about, so

I feel like I could be wrong on this perk, and it's great finally to meet you and have you on the show. Thanks, big fan, by the way. Thank you. That I think Houston's trying to manipulate between the Scott Foster comments, between leaking the memo, the flopping,

and I think what the NBA is saying is, time out here. We control the series. You're not going to. control us. That's what it feels like. How do you think the NBA, the officials, and the Rockets and Warriors respond tonight? Well, I think it's going to be zero tolerance from the referee points. I think it's going to be a point of emphasis going into the game. The referees are not going to, are not going to want to hear anything from either side. And I think technical files will be issued out early.

Wow. Yeah. I think they're going to set the tone early because at the end of the day, like, it's getting out of control. Let's play basketball. And let's talk about basketball, not officiating. Yeah, about officiating. Like, at the end of the day, like, everybody was talking about, oh, they missed these calls. But Houston had several times to win this game, several different opportunities to win this game, besides the files that weren't called. And I could recall a couple of times, KD took shots, and he didn't have a good landing space. And guys were under him.

He didn't complain. So at the end of the day, let's play basketball. I mean, you know, like. Well, let's talk about Scott Foster. Now, Hardin complains about Scott Foster. He's a veteran. He's one of the four or five guys we all know. You had a lot of Scott Foster playoff games.

Did you like him? Scott Foster is one of the best NBA riffs in the league today. Because he don't play favoritism. Not saying riffs do, but it don't matter who you are. If you file, if you're Kevin Durant, if you're James Hardin, he's going to make the call. If you're Greg Popovich and you said something to him, he'll give you a tick. If you're Doc Rivers, he'll tech you. just like he'll take anybody else.

And so Scott Foster actually goes out there and do his job the correct way. He's a great official. Not a big personality. Not at all, but he has zero tolerance. He'll give you a warning, a second warning, and then he'll tee you up. But he's going to referee the game the right way.

By the way, this is fascinating. So you were in OKC when they had a young Durant, a young Westbrook, and a young Harden. You were not only in the games, you were at practice. Right. Did you have any sense Hardin would be MVP Hardin? I knew James was going to be good, but I didn't know he was going to be this good. But I remember one game in particular.

It was we was on our way. The year we went to the finals. And I remember we swept Dallas, and it was game four. And Dallas was actually giving us a great game. And I remember, I think James. had like 21 and the fourth and I was like Jesus Christ he he's he's really like that then after that he had a couple the previous season he had like 40-point games one in Phoenix off the bench and I'm like well hold on then he won six men the

year award and I'm like okay then he came back from the Olympics and I remember James telling me he said man perk it's nothing personal man I just feel like I want my own team and I was like James you sure he's like man I feel like man I feel feel like I'm a franchise guy. And he went to Houston and he showed it. He showed it. Yeah, no, I don't have a problem with that. Like, it's funny because Kevin Durant, I've heard rumors, wants to go to New York.

But unlike a young James Harden, we all acknowledge that Kevin Durant's the world's best player. James was saying, basically, you people think I'm the third best player on this team. Right. I'll always support a young guy that says, listen, man, you got me coming off the bench. I'm a franchise guy. Jason Tatum for the Celtics. If it's Kyrie's team and Jason's like, I think I'm a franchise guy.

I get that. I don't get Kevin Durant going from the best team in the league, maybe the best run, making more money in Golden State than he would in New York to be the man with the Knicks. That I don't get. Explain why he would do that. Well, I think it's better for KD because at the end of the day, as long as KD is on the Golden State is always going to be stiff. team. So it's time for KD

to have his own team, in my opinion. Can you imagine KD in New York? Oh, no, I think it's great for the league. It's great for the league. It's great for basketball period. And I just think, you know, he's done what he needed to do in Golden State. But you know, Perk, you know

that you can only be as good as your owner and your management. You know that. Boston had really good ownership and you did really well. New York, James Dolan, you trust him? I mean, it seemed like he's trying to turn over. I mean, you got to give everybody a second chance or third chance, right?

I don't know. I don't know, Colin, we all have flaws in some ways. No, I'm not saying that, but if I'm a player, I got 12 years to hit it. A billionaire has 80 years to make money. Exactly. Players got about 12 to hit it. I don't think I'm giving my career up to James Dolan. That'd be hard for me as a player.

Would you think he had changed if he'd get Kevin Durant? Well, I think Kevin Durant would change the franchise. Right. I think Kevin's so great, he would change the whole game. Let me go to this. So I liked Boston all season. And people kept saying, no Milwaukee, Milwaukee. And I kept saying, listen, Kyrie Irving is the best closer under 6'4 I've seen in my life.

Isaiah Thomas was close. I agree. And I said, just don't get caught up in the regular season, Kyrie. Playoffs come, he's going to flip a switch, be more coachable, it's going to work. And it has. do you have some sort of theory about certain players regular season playoff season? Absolutely. And Kyrie is a, and I'm glad you said, Kyrie, because he's a, he's a definition of what a playoff per, like he's playoff ready.

He's playoff, he's playoff, he's playoff, he's playoff, he starts the season off. He starts the season off with the Celtics, healthy, came back, killed, make the All-Star team, okay? that's one goal out the way and then he knows he has to get ready for the long run which is the playoffs so after the all-star break you see Kyrie he's sitting out a little bit

back to back. He dials back a little bit getting his rest making sure his body is right and then he comes out, playoffs start and he comes out as a killer it's simple so some guys to you Perk

some guys listen you have regular season guys and you have playoff guys. So Chris Middleton is a hard worker. Right. Busses tail. Three years of college. Got demoted to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Bus his butt and he's going to give

you everything every night. But there's to me there's a ceiling to Chris in a huge game. I like him. Right. Kyrie, I don't see a ceiling. No, it's not. So certain guys in your opinion, they know. They know. And it worked their way for some road players. Just think about this, right?

like even with Derek Fisher for the Lakers. Throughout the regular season, D. Fish, he wasn't good at all. Playoffs came around. He turned on to a whole other, what people were saying, wow, we were in the one-ness without Derek Fisher. So you have guys who actually play to make All-Star games and stuff like that, but then you have guys who actually plan to win championships.

So you do have regular season guys, and you do have postseason guys. 15 years in the NBA, one of the tough guys, Celtics, big three, thunder, calves, pelicans. Westbrook's a fascinating topic. I'm seen as a hater, and I've said before,

he's unbelievably talented, but there are players. It doesn't matter if you played high school, A, U, college, or YMCA. Some guys are easy to play with. Clay Thompson. You could put Clay on every roster. Absolutely.

He plays both ends. I think Kauai could put on a bunch of rosters. And then I think there are players, Ron James wants the ball. Thank God he's great, but he can marginalize big guys. He forces Bosch to go outside. You know, he forces Kevin Love. Go outside.

Get out of the hole. Westbrook, to me, Perk, has a personality and a certain, like, rigidity. He's, here's how I play. I do think he can be tough to play with. Not doubt in his athleticism. But in three years, they won four playoff games. Maybe, is it fair for me to say, he's, he's. He's hard.

We all played with the guy. And I played at the YMCA with guys. And they're like, that dude is great. He's just hard to play with. Well, I'm going to tell you something. I agree with you to a certain extent because I played with Russ. But I played with a younger Russ. Over the last few years, he's matured a lot better than when I was there.

He has. He has. Because when I was there, it was a lot worse. I remember times where I only had five shot attempts throughout a course of six games, right? So what I'm saying is I watch Russ today. and he's matured a lot. He's matured a lot for us, getting this teammates involved and stuff like that.

I give you one instance. So, for example, we was in a playoff game, and Russ drove to the paint, and he passed the ball to Serge, and it hit his feet. And it was a bad pass, but Serge missed it was a turnover, and Russ blew a gaskey. He was like, man, that's it, Serge, I ain't passing you the ball no more.

So a couple of plays went by. We went to sit down, went to the, the timeout and I said well Russ listen man you can't do that we need surge and we all have flaws you have flaws we deal with I have flaws that y'all deal with

so you have to deal with his mistakes I think Russ is so competitive that he expect everybody to have his skill and his athleticism and his intensity and his intensity and it's not like that so that's where you can see

you know that's how it goes but at the end of the day I don't think playing with I see a change in them though You do I do over the last two years I really see a change in Russ I really do He's making passes that

He's been making some passes that I haven't seen before Finally do you like the Warriors to win it again I do like the Warriors to win it again Don't you think though it's funny I've always said that the second best The best team I ever saw was Jordan's Bulls Because I thought I think they would take Golden State out of their game

Michael was so physical. Rodman was physical. Ron Harper was physical. I always tell him, this is the skinny jeans team. If you take out Draymond Green, it's nightclub guys. I mean,

they just all look good. Right. But it's, I think if I was facing them, if you take the big three, Garnett tough guy, you tough guy, Pierce good defender.

Would be Golden State. You would get physical with them. Right. I mean, that's the way to beat him, right? Absolutely. But I think, like, if Golden State was to happen to match up with the Celtics and the finals, it would be interesting. I'd pick Boston.

It would be really interesting, especially... Horford? Yeah, without cousins, it would be really, really interesting. Perk, good meeting you, 15 years in the league. Hope to have you on the show again. Colin, thanks for having me. I hope to be back. Yeah, don't mess around with Perk.

Perk doesn't take no BS from you, Goulet. Goulet can be a trash talker. Don't take any of it. Good seeing you, man. Good meeting you, Joy with the News. This is the herd line news. So now that Spurs have been eliminated from the playoffs, all eyes are on Greg Popovich to see if he will return for another run. And during his end of the season press conference yesterday, he gave us his answer.

I'm currently in a negotiation. It could very well end up either with the Portofino Flyers or the Positano Pirates. I think that it's like one-third Positano, one-third Portofino, and one-third San Antonio. He's 70, by the way. He's got great energy for a 70-year-old, and I think that San Antonio, Denver, last minute of that game, I thought he was going to pull his hair out.

Yeah, he can get animated. When Lamarcas Aldridge wouldn't go foul. Listen, he's a very good coach. I mean, very good, I think, is probably an understanding. This is his 24th season. They've made the playoffs, the Spurs, 22 seasons, the last 22 seasons. It's a streak that's tied for the longest

in NBA history. I mean, he's in, he's, it's debatable, he's the best NBA coach of all time. He has five championships. I mean, Phil Jackson has 11. You know, you talk about Pat Riley, Red Arbach, Don Nelson. John Wooden's kind of the consensus best ever,

but certainly best college. I know two guys that have played with him. He's one of the most well-liked among players. Now, Kauai had an issue, but outside of Kauai, guys love Pop. Well, that and just look at the culture that he's created there. I mean, just talked about the playoff streak, but the tree that has come from the Spurs, not just from head coaching positions, but assistant coaches. And, I mean, the culture that they've created, I mean, we talk about Bill Belichick's

coaching tree. There's a lot of guys that have gotten jobs, but how much success have they had? Popovich has had guys who have moved on to not only get jobs, but also have success. So he's got to be up there in the conversation with the best of all time. And he also, with Becky Harmon, he had power. And when you have power, you know, golf, Tiger Woods changed clubs when he was number one. Golfers don't change clubs. You know, right?

When you have power, you can change things. Popovich has ultimate power. And I like the idea of saying with Becky Harmon, I'm going to try something here. Yeah, putting Becky Hammond on the bench. Hammond, my bad, my bad. An important move. And he's always made a point to relate. to his players. You know, he's taken the step to, you know, get involved in, you know, off the court

situations. He's very political, social activism. So he does try and relate to players on another level, on a human level. So, yeah, he's up there in the conversation for sure. So just a few days after the draft, Vegas has released the odds of the rookie of the year award for the upcoming season. Obviously, the first overall pick, Kyler Murray has the best odds. But after that, the results are pretty surprising. Dwayne Haskins up there with seven awards. won odds for rookie of the year. By the way, Josh Jacobs of the Raiders is interesting because Gruden loves powerbacks.

That kid could walk in and get more carries in the NFL that he got at Bama because he was not the workhorse running back at Bama. He could be a 20-carry game guy as a rookie. I also think the wide receiver for the Chiefs is interesting as well because they've lost a lot of offensive pieces. And he's a playmaker. He's a down-the-field guy. You can go over the top of him.

So, I mean, that's what Patrick Mahomes does. I'll vote on, I'll tell you who I think it is. First of all, Kyler Murray, it should be the favorite. Second is T.J. Hawkinson, Detroit, the tight end. You love tight ends. I do. I think this kid's going to be a 65 catch, six touchdown, 750-yard guy as a rookie. Daniel Jones has 18 to 1 odds, by the way, on there as well.

Finally, sticking with the rookies, the Washington Redskins might have a new number 7 under center. Dwayne Haskins' preferred number is number seven, but it's off limits in Washington. Joe Thysman was the last one to wear it, of course. And he appeared on Redskins' talk and had this to say about it. I'm not opposed to it, not saying yes yet. But I really want to sit down and talk to the young man and get a chance to meet him. I know he's reached out and said he wants to ask me. It's what's inside the jersey that makes a big difference.

But, you know, I've been very honored to have the Washington Redskins not have an issue to anyone over 30 plus. us years. And this is the first seven that we've had come along, I think. So I really want to sit down and have a visit with them and talk to them about it. And we'll sort of decide going forward from there. That's not an easy decision because when they retire your jersey, it really is meaningful. It's a thing. I don't know if they've officially retired it. Oh, they didn't? Let anyone wear it. Oh, okay. Okay. But I mean, it's the same thing. Like, it's been so long since they let someone wear the jersey. But yeah, yeah, it is. It's important. Like, it's a- It's a meaningful thing.

Yeah, it means stuff to players. It kind of, you know, separates you from the rest of the people at that position or really just the rest of everyone in that franchise. Larry Bird 33, Jeter 2, MJ 23. Those numbers. Yes, it means something to all those players. Yeah, so a little added pressure for doing that. It ends up letting him wear it, too.

Good stuff, Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. By the way, I got so much stuff here. I want to get to my Cleveland Brown Steeler thing because I'm tired of being called a hater. I am going to lay out why I like Pittsburgh to win the division by a game over Cleveland. I don't have time now, but I will get to it.

But coming up next, he works at the NFL network and NFL.com. Dad was a coach in the NFL. He is one of the really smart personnel guys in our business. Lance Zerline has been on our show before, been on my radio show before. I trust him. He and Daniel Jeremiah know their stuff. He's going to be joining us. Are the Cardinals better off with Kyler? Is Rosen overvalued undervalue? Who really had a draft under the radar? I contend the Baltimore Ravens actually had a very good draft. All that is coming up.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending. Opinions are flying. And nobody's telling you exactly. What happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

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

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

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

Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keer Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure,

and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness.

So when a swaggering our meaning, businessman, catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world. He doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levin this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history.

You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told, Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness. professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them

and the mindset that keeps them going from the WNBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel on. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ledecki. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light.

up and smile. That means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Saturday, we've got a great double-header for you on FS1. First, the Cardinals battle Chris Bryant and the Cubs as they renew their historic rivalry.

Then Chris Davis leads the A's against the Pirates. It all starts at 4-Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports Act. By the way, Cardinals back in first place. Paul Goldschmidt on fire. By the way, Cardinals disappeared for about four years. Cardinals, nice to have you back. It's nice to have you back. All right.

You ever go to NFL.com and read their draft profiles? I do all day. The guy that writes them is my guest via the Coward Global. satellite network. Lance Zerline, NFL draft analyst, NFL.com. One of the smartest guys doing this. Dad used to coach. By the way, Chris Ballard, my favorite young GM in the NFL, was in your wedding,

one of your closest friends. So I know you're smart because Ballard's a great guy and only hangs out with smart people. So let me start with this. Josh Rosen, I think he went to the East Coast version of the Cardinals, a fourth place team with a rookie defensive head coach with offensive line issues. I feel bad for Josh Rosen. Is it possible he's just starting over again with the same situation in Miami? Well, I don't think it's an optimal situation, as you just mentioned.

And I think it's possible he's in a similar situation. Let's face it, a lot of people around the league kind of thought the dolphins were doing everything they could to, let's just say make it more difficult to win in the NFL, right? They were trying to make it more difficult to win for Tua. And that's, you know, that's the common name that's thrown out there. But the fact is now they've added Josh Rosen. And I don't know if that changes the strategy in Miami. I can tell you this, the situation is going to be equally difficult for Rose.

I think he's got a decent situation with wide receivers, but the running game hasn't really gotten it going. You've got an offensive line that really needs a lot of help. Yep. And so I'm kind of with you. I think that's a really difficult spot for him over there with the dolphins. And I don't even know that he beats out Ryan Fitzpatrick. He Fitzpatrick is the guy that won't go away in NFL circles. He just continues to make it harder on quarterbacks.

He did it for a little while with James Winston last year. The Raiders took some, I think the Raiders over drafted a little and have overpaid for a left tackle. But I do think they brought in nine guys since the season ended, free agents or picks that can play. So I think they'll be better. What did you make of their draft? You know, as soon as Cleveland Farrell was drafted, I said, what? I had this guy in the 20s. I think you probably could have gotten Cleveland Farrell in the last.

late teens, somewhere to mid-20s, maybe even with that 24th pick. However, once I saw the rest of the draft, and I saw Josh Jacobs go at 24 there, and I saw Jonathan Abram at 27, and then I watched the second round of who in the third round, and I saw the rest of Mike Mayock's draft, it started to really make a lot more sense to me, because clearly what Mike Mayock was trying to do was draft for culture. You drafted three players from Clemson, winners. You drafted Josh Jacobs, who had been at Alabama, winner. You know, Jonathan Abram, who had is the most game ready safety, and one of the most game ready players in this draft,

that guy's a winner. So what Mike Mayock basically did and John Gruden is they said, the only way to change culture is to go get guys who know how to win and who expect to win. And I think that's what he did. And so I really ended up liking the totality of the draft. Cleveland Fairl Four, you know, I thought was too high. But when you look at the draft in total,

I think he did a good job of drafting to change culture, Colin. And I think that's very important when you have an organization that's been as stagnant as the writers. By the way, I said this. Mike Tomlin's the best guy I've ever seen in the NFL at the podium. He could be wrong, but he sounds right because he speaks with such alpha and conviction. Dave Gettleman could be right and sounds wrong. Is it possible he's a genius on Daniel Jones? He just is lousy in front of a microphone and seems kind of flustered and lost.

What did you make of that pick? Yeah, I mean, I think the big, thick Boston accent gives it a little different wrinkle. We're not used to hearing him say, you know, brother and all of us, the thick Boston thing. But look, I had Daniel Jones as a fourth best quarterback. I had him as a second round grade when I put it out there. I don't see a lot of pizzazz, a lot of that leadership quality that you like to see, at least not from a tangible standpoint, but sometimes that can be a little bit overrated. I didn't really see it at the senior ball.

I think the armed talent is kind of average, to be honest with you. But I think what they did, though, Colin, is they've fallen in love with Eli 2.0, or at least who they think or they hope can be Eli 2.0. From the lack of juice, as I call it, you know, on the field when he's out there and that charisma to, you know, the quiet demeanor, to David Cutcliffe being the mentor, even the Manning Passing Academy, it feels like they're drafting Eli or they're hoping to get Eli again. But I just think the odds are that this is not going to be another Eli. And you're going to have to surround him with playmakers. And your best playmaker is now no longer on the team and Odell Beckham.

So I think what you need to do now, I think he's more of a snap taker than a playmaker. The guy at number one is a playmaker. The guy at number six is a snap taker. So you better surround him with more playmakers than you have right now. Neither one of us love the Jets draft. Let's go to Arizona, though. When you have the number one pick, you should have the best. draft because you get the number one pick in the second round. So you should get two dynamic players.

What do you make of Kyler Murray? Would you have taken him number one? Yeah, I would take Kyler. The rest of the draft, I think, is okay. I think Akeem Butler has a pretty good chance in the fourth to be pretty good. But to be honest with you, I thought the rest of the draft, or especially when you focus on Kyler Murray, I should say, I really like that for specifically for Cliff Kingsbury and what the Cardinals are trying to do. Let's remember this. Josh Rosen got pulverized last year because the offensive line wasn't good. Now, he's not, Nikailer Murray, all the highlights we see, you know, one of the things he can do is extend plays, but let's not get a twist. He had the Joe Moore award winning, the best offensive

line in football, Oklahoma, for those guys got drafted in the first four rounds. It's not going to look like that for him at Arizona, but he can uniquely protect himself with his feet. That's a unique quality he has, Colin, that Josh Rosen doesn't have and most guys don't have. So I think that's a big advantage right now. And then having Cliff Kingsbury handpick wide receivers to put around Kyler Murray, I think is very, very interesting and very, very important. So I think Kyler Murray was the right pick for them. Now, had he not gun number one, I think his fall would have been a little further than people anticipate because I don't, I didn't hear a lot of teams really pining for Kyler Murray. So it might have been a surprise team who would have come up and grab them.

All right. He's on 97-5, the bench in Houston, NFL draft analyst. NFL.com. Yes, he's in Houston. They're all arguing about Scott Foster. Only a minute left. In Houston this morning, does the city feel like they're being robbed by Scott Foster and the NBA in general? I think the city is upset about the officiating. I think it's too much crying going on personally. I mean, go play, go make a basket. Go execute in the last three minutes. I do think the Scott Foster, though, with his relationship with the Rockets, I think it's a little scary. He's a guy that the Rockets players, Chris Paul and James Harden, went out of their way to make comments about how bad he was and how arrogant he was there in February.

And he hasn't rough the game since then of the Rockets except now. So now you basically got the Knight King coming in, just getting ready to, you know, it's like this impending doom in Houston that there is overwhelming odds that they won't be able to defeat. Unless Chris Paul can jump on top of him with some dragon glass. I'm not sure what's going to happen tonight. I do know, I do know this, so, Colin. I don't think Houston's overmatched by a Golden State. I didn't think so last year. I don't think so this year.

I know you're a big basketball guy. In years past, I would have said, yes. I think they're uniquely suited to beat the Warriors. They need to stop all the crying with the refs and just go play ball. Good stuff. Lance Zerline, NFL.com. He's the guy that writes those profiles that I rely on. Lance, great hearing from you again. All right.

And by the way, I was with you on the Dwayne Haskins at number six. That's where I would have gone. There you go. See? See? Smart minds. He likes Ballard. I like Ballard, the whole thing.

Good stuff. Thank you, Lance. By the way, the Game of Thrones reference, unlike the Game of Thrones, billions on Showtime gets better every episode and every year. Game of Thrones, a lot of complaining about it. It just means that people are more invested. Well, I'll tell you what I'm invested in. Billions on Showtime, last night I watched like season four.

I'm like, this thing's getting better. It's getting coochier. Oh, there's all sorts of stuff. You guys have your sorcerers. I just have finance and Wall Street. And the Night King. And the Night King. Stop making fun of me.

Hour three next. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart Radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Ah, here we go. We're in L.A. and we're live. Hour three.

I think it's going to be our best hour yet. This is... The herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS1, quite a show today. Kendrick Perkins stopped by? Yeah. Tough guy. Chris Broussard, Lance Zerline, Jim Jackson's going to be showing up.

I have in my hands. You know, the thing is, when I criticize somebody like Russell Westbrook, I come armed with stats and data. So you don't think it's personal. A lot of you still think it's personal, but I always come armed with stats and data. When I criticize the Cleveland Browns, because I don't know. don't pick them this year to win their division. I do the Steelers. I come armed with data. And in about seven, eight minutes, Ohio, I'm tired of being called a hater. I'm just going to come with facts. If your feelings are bothered by my facts, I can't do anything about that. But that's

coming up. Sirius XM Channel 83 is also, that's Joey Taylor's voice you here, the home to our show. And then best for last today. You know how during the regular season of the NFL, Joy, we do three-word game on Monday. Yes. So we think we can describe every game in three words. So now that the coaches are hired, the free agents are signed, the draft picks are in, the unrestricted free agents, we're going to go NFC today, AFC tomorrow in terms of three-word game. I believe I can describe every NFL team going forward in three words. We'll do the NFC today. And my brown stuff in 10 minutes. But first, game two, tonight's a great NBA night. Rockets Warriors game two tonight. But all anybody wants to talk about.

out, and the NBA hates this, is officiating. Years ago, Phil Jackson would tweak the NBA refs. Lakers coach, Phil Jackson, Bulls coach, he would tweak the refs. And the NBA would often fine him. Don't talk about refs during a series trying to manipulate the series. Well, the Rockets did that and then some. The Rockets tabulated the net result of 81 potential miscalls and non-calls in game seven of the series between the Rockets and Golden State, and they leaked it to the media,

and it was obtained by the place I used to work. The Rockets had a full report listing 81 blown calls that cost the Rockets 18.5 points, 18.6. They went full analytics nerd. The Rockets also argue that veteran officials exhibit the most biased against our players. This is a backfire move. This is intentional and a timely leak to influence the refs tonight. By the way, I just want to know all you geniuses in Houston. In that analytics report, did you have the part where you went 0 for 27 on threes in that game?

Was that in the report? Remember that? You had that stretch in that game. You were 0 for 27 on threes. Was that included in the report? Oh, that was an omission. So let's blame it on the veteran officials. As I said yesterday, veteran officials don't fall for this BS.

They don't fall for this hard and flopping soccer stuff. I'm the NBA. I hand out a huge fine to the Houston Rockets. This is not tweaking the NBA. This is trying to embarrass the NBA. They went full analytics nerd here, and I don't think it's going to work. And you know what they say about karma? Karma is a you know what? Scott Foster is refereeing the game tonight. Scott Foster has a long-running feud with James Hardin and Chris Paul. The rockets are 0 and 6 in the last six games.

Scott Foster has officiated. Now, maybe the Rockets, they knew he was officiating tonight because that's assigned a while back, and they thought, let's get ahead of it. But I think this comes across as they're trying to embarrass the NBA. I think it's a terrible look, and I think Adam Silver should find them. Listen, let's be honest about this. The Rocket's formula to get to the championship was more calls and more free throws. This is where analytics fails. This is where analytics fails.

Here's what analytics does not tell you. that the NHL, the NFL, and the NBA do not want calls, free throws, and penalties deciding Super Bowls. So in all those sports, NBA, NFL, and NHL, refs swallow their whistles in the playoffs. And the further it goes in the playoffs, NFC championship asked the Saints, ask the Rockets last year, the further playoffs go, the more viewers, the more the games mean, the more hockey, football and basketball officials get out of the way. Analytics. Did analytics tell you that, Houston?

What the NBA doesn't want is what the NFL faced years ago, where Joy and I would come on the air this fall, and when we talked about big games, we just talked about games. But a year earlier, I would come on my show and talk about catch-no-catch. And Roger Goodell came on my show and said, we don't want every game. We're literally talking about the interpretation of rules. We want you to celebrate the NFL.

We want to have fun. Steve Kerr talked about this after game one. All we're talking about is the officiating. It's disappointing because the focus should be on two teams who played extremely hard. I mean, watching the tape. You know, both teams just got after and competed. But, you know, we just watched the tape upstairs. You don't think there were 10 calls.

polls that we thought we got fouled. I mean, this is how it goes. Okay. Never forget this. I said this yesterday. Leagues have a right to their own interpretation and their own officiating territory.

Houston's trying to manipulate officials. Never forget this. Remember this joy? A couple Super Bowls ago. Eagles, Patriots. All year, we complained about catch-no-catch. And in the Super Bowl. The NFL

did not tell the Eagles, did not tell the Patriots, did not tell Belichick, did not tell Doug Peterson, did not tell the teams. The NFL decided in that Super Bowl common sense prevails. If it looks like a catch, it's a catch. They went against their own rule, and they gave nobody

a heads up. And you know why they did? Because they're the league. And my boss can do what they want. And the NFL can do what they want. And the NBA can do what they want. And the NFL decided without giving anybody a heads up. We're not going to have the Super Bowl turn into a seven-day argument over the interpretation of a catch-no-catch rule. And they knew they were going to change the rule, and they did a month

later. And the NBA knows they're going to change this landing area rule. They know they're going to do it in the off-season. And they're not going to let these playoffs, and this is the finals, let's be honest. The Rockets Warriors, probably the finals. I mean, I picked the Celtics to beat the Warriors, but this feels like the finals, right? They're not going to have this series dominating by, well, the interpretation of the landing rule. Common sense is going to prevail. And this is where analytics falls flat. I've told Darrell Mori this.

I like analytics. I'm not anti-analytics, but I'm a big believer that you cannot reduce sports to numbers. These are humans. These are athletes. I'd pay money to watch Hardin. I'd pay money to watch Westbrook. I want to pay money to watch Brady and LeBron. These are the world's greatest athletes we're watching.

Let's not reduce them. to a spreadsheet. Now, I think numbers matter. I think they matter. But the reality, the reason Brad Stevens and Kyrie get along better today than two months ago, because they talk because they're human beings, not human doings, not numbers on a spreadsheet. Houston is trying to reduce this series to a spreadsheet. And the NBA is like, nah, no, we're not doing that.

And the NFL did this two years ago in the Super Bowl. They said, no, no, no, no. We're not going to have this game become a six-day schlogue of guys like me and women like Joy coming on the air and complaining for six days about officials. We're not going to have it. And so the NFL didn't give anybody a heads up. They said, no, we're going to change things right now. And that's what the NBA is doing, and I applaud him. If you try to manipulate officials, and that's what Houston's doing here, leaking this memo, flopping.

They're manipulating the referees. The league is saying, okay, we're going to take a little territory back, and we're not going to give you heads up. We're not going to release a memo. We have a right as a league to take a little bit of this territory back. By the way, Scott Foster is officiating the game tonight. Never forget what James Harden said in February about Scott Foster. Scott Foster, man, he's a, you know, I never really talk about officiating or anything like that,

but just rude and arrogant. I mean, you aren't able to talk to him throughout the course of a game. And it's like, how do you do that relationship with the officials? You know, so, and it's not even that call. Like, it's just, you know, who he is on that floor. It's pretty frustrating.

By the way, I don't want you to have a relationship with the officials. There's rules. You're a player. I don't want you to be able to curry favor, buddy up. I remember years ago hearing us, story where a major league baseball umpire every year asked Barry Bonds for some autographed baseballs for his charity. I don't want that. I don't want you to have great relationships with the officials. I don't need them to be awful, but I don't want you carrying favor with them.

And it's not an official's job to, by the way, invite you to birthday parties. I'm Scott Foster. I'm a ref. I officiated in college to make money and intermurals. And the first thing I learned very quickly, don't smile, don't laugh, don't frown. poker face entire game. I wanted to be as robotic as I could. I didn't want anybody to think they made me mad. They made me happy. I had any influence because if I smile to Hardin, that means the guy guarding Hardin thinks

I like Hardin. When I officiated, and I, again, this was like two years of college. My whole thing was robotic. I wanted nobody to think there was any influence. That's what Scott Foster does. That's what veteran NBA officials do, mostly. They get out of the personality business. I don't, Ed Hockley in his gun show, I could do without.

Dick Bavetta and his humor I could do without. I don't want a lot of ego. I don't want to know your personality. I don't want you being friends with the players. Come in, make calls. Thanks for flying United. For the record, I would like to now, if I could, shift gears for three minutes to address the state of Ohio and specifically Cleveland, Ohio, which thinks I hate them. I do not.

I fly over your city all the time and enjoy it. That was a cheap shot. So I saw this story this morning. Las Vegas has their new odds out on the Cleveland Browns. Okay. Oh, their over-under-win total is nine wins. Oh, wait, that's exactly where I have Cleveland. And I hate them so much.

Say it out loud. 20-year laughing stock of a franchise goes 7-8-1. Now as a rookie head coach in a tough division. And some hard-to-coach guys, I give them a 9-and-7 record finishing second only to the historically relevant Pittsburgh Steelers, and I'm a hater. Let me ask you, here's how I view the AFC North next year. Steelers 10 and 6th, Cleveland, 9-and-7, Baltimore in the 7-9 thing, and Cincinnati in the 4-12 thing.

That's hating. Freddie Kitchens never been a high school head coach, never been a college head coach, never been an NFL head coach. So let me be specific and break this down. Why do I think the Steelers will be a game? better than the Browns. All right, let's get into facts and data. Sorry if it hurts your feelings. A new rookie head coach with some new high-profile players.

Is it reasonable to think it's going to take a while to get going? Have you looked at Cleveland's schedule in September and October? First seven games for a rookie head coach with new players. Five of seven are on the road. At the Jets, at Baltimore, at San Francisco, at New England, at Denver. At the same time, veteran coach, veteran quarterback, best O-Lennan football, the Steelers have a really tough seven, eight game stretch. They host Seattle.

They host Cincinnati. They host Baltimore. They get a buy. They host Miami. They host the Colts. They host the Rams. Six of their toughest early games are at home. Five of the Brown's toughest games with a rookie coach are on the road.

You don't think that's a game difference? That's where I think it will be decided. I think Pittsburgh's going to have a very good September October and then be fine late. I think Cleveland's going to have a little bumpier, little bumpier September October and then finish strong. My over under is 9 and 7. That's exactly Vegas's. And the reason I chose that, I went to something that I believed to be true. Rookie head coach with a bunch of new players, including stars who have been tough to coach, brutal schedule, many tough

roadies. I think Pittsburgh, with a lot of veterans getting high-maintenance guys out of the building, veteran GM, veteran coach, veteran quarterback, great old line with a schedule that leans heavy, tough games at home, I think they take a one or a two game lead by the end of October, early November over Cleveland. That's hating? Really? That's hating. But you didn't say that they were going to the Super Bowl, Colin? I didn't say Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl. Well, that's why Cleveland thinks that you're hating. I'm not saying. In Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl. New England or Indianapolis are going to the Super Bowl or the Chargers or the Chiefs.

I'm being sarcastic, but I think that that's the problem. Also, I think when people say you hate, it's because of the consistency of the criticism. Hey, I have feelings, too. That's why you should stay out of your mentions. I recommend that for everyone in general. All right. That was Joy Tender, who hates nobody. Petty, but hates nobody.

Jim Jackson's right around the corner. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Get rid of the old underwear. Go to Tommyjohn.com. Code Herd, save 20% stuff I wear to bed and while I'm working and not in bed. He's my buddy Jim Jackson, NBA for 14 seasons.

By the way, Jimmy was a great football player, but he's smart. You chose basketball over football. Two reasons. Number one was the girls. Oh, yeah, because they like being inside, right, Joy? Instead of outside of the co- in Ohio. In a cold football.

Yeah, I've spent many, many freezing cold days in Akron, Ohio. And you can't be cute outside. No, it's not worth it. Can't be cute. And number two is tight ends. Tight ends back then. When I in high school, I caught the ball. But moving forward, if you looked at tight ends back in the day, they're blockers.

Blockers. Now, Kellyn Winslow was different. He changed it. Okay, but that was a different system in San Diego. Right. You know, with Coriel as a coach and Fouts, those guys, Chuck Munty, that was a different era. If you were in high school today and could choose, what would you do? Oh, basketball.

No, go basketball. Just because of the guaranteed contract and the longevity. Okay, fair. But it's good to have the option. But in high school, oh, definitely. And you love football. I love football. I love football.

I love just maybe because I didn't play all the way through. It's a good TV sport. Oh, it's great for TV. It's like built in its little field. You know why it's great for TV? Why? Because it usually takes me about an hour or so to smoke a cigar. Yeah.

So generally I can get through about a couple watching a football game. So it's perfect. Let's talk about the officiating. Listen, I've always contended it's the hardest game in the world to officiate. It's the best athletes moving the fastest. You've got 6-11 guys. I can't see who's hitting who. I think the Rockets are making a mistake here.

I think they're trying to manipulate the NBA. And my gut feeling is it's going to backfire. Two things here for me is that in situations like this when you're dealing with the field. Now, teams can go back during the course of, the season and review and submit plays that they think should have been called. Yeah. But when you continually do it, it's like crying wolf. When it's really time for the wolf to show up and you're not going to believe them because

you did it all year, okay? The issue is now is that I think he goes the opposite way. And what I mean by that is the first three to five minutes in this game, just watch how the game is being officiated. Because this could also hurt Golden State because this is where now comes into play the calls that are more, what's the word I'm looking for? Do you think tonight's loose or tight? I think it's tighter because the opinionated calls are more so like the block charge, okay,

whether somebody gets filed on a shot, a travel call. Those kind of calls right now, I think, are going to be more scrutinized by the officials early, okay? I do believe that because they're not going to benefit Golden State because it looked like Houston won, But then they're not going to go against Houston because then it seemed like Golden State won. So the officials now, I think, are going to control it a little bit different that can offset can hurt both teams. It's interesting. James Hardin said something where Scott Foster's arrogant and won't create a relationship. And Joey was kind of laughing at me, but I officiated to make money for two years in college.

And I took it really serious. Were you good? I actually was. So at one point, both years I got to the final game because I took it seriously. Like I was athletic enough that I knew the players. They were football guys and I didn't want to be a jerk. I wanted to matter. But I remember my takeaway on officiating was I never wanted to smile or frown.

I never wanted to give anybody a thought, oh, he's in my dorm. He's my buddy. He's not. I was robotic. I understand officials listening. I don't want relationships with players and stars. I don't want Michael putting his arm around Dick Pavetta. and Jim Jackson, I'm guarding and thinking,

these guys are golfing buddies. Is Foster a bad ref to you? No. No, but I do think, keep in mind, officials, I don't care what sport are they're human, okay? If you continue to get on a certain official or somebody, after a while they're going to have enough of it, okay? And sometimes during the course of the game,

they're not going to give you the benefit of the doubt just because of that non-personal relationship of how you approach them. If I'm Golden State, if I'm Steve, you know what I tell my guys, no matter what they call at the beginning of the game, don't react to it. Tell them it was a good call and just keep it moving. If I'm Steve Kerr, they call something that's obvious or foul, I'm not going to say anything.

Because I think that sets the tone of what you want to do later in the course of the game to get benefited of the doubt. Yeah, so if you only bark once or twice a game, refs, that psychological edge is maybe I did blow one. And also, too, because of everything that has gone on the last 48 hours with the officials, okay? You don't think that they know that all eyes are on them and every call they make?

Okay, I think one of the biggest mistakes the NBA made which hurts officials is the two-minute review. I don't like it. Because what happens is a team like Houston can go back now and say, see, the review says that you want Golden State to win. But I'm saying this. If I'm Bob Myers, okay, I want to go review. Didn't Chris Paul bump an official?

He should be kicked out. He shouldn't be able to play if I want to push the button, if I want to go to the letter of the law. So you put the officials in a tough situation. I think I do not like the two-minute report. No. I mean, I know you want some kind of clarity. You want, you know, fans to know that it's not a rigged system,

but that's not how you do it because now Houston has a legitimate excuse of why they're complaining. Or the two-minute rule. The league said it. They should have called this. Well, what about the push-off calls on James Hardin? Okay, what about the travels? What about some calls that they missed on Houston?

So that's where it gets ambiguous in regards to the accuracy of what you're talking about. I can argue all day long that you miss calls over here. But what about these James Hardingin called all year? Where he's traveled, pushed off, and they haven't called it. They call the chicken wings. So now you want to complain. You can't have it both ways. And I also think what bothers me about Houston.

Phil Jackson used to tweak the refs during a series. It felt playful. Phil would be sarcastic. You know, Phil would be like, apparently they don't understand that, you know, our guys get to play defense too. And Phil would say it was sort of a sly, smart alicky, I'm smart. I never thought it was malicious, but the NBA would fine him. Right. They would fine him.

Like, we're not going to have you do this. And I was never bothered by what Phil did. I thought it was kind of funny and smart. This feels like almost Houston's trying to, maybe embarrass is too strong, but out the NBA in the middle of a series. But here's a thing. That feels heavy-handed to me. Mori is what, analytical person? No, a smart dude.

How about sometimes you can be too smart? Because now you're trying to push all this information, show all this, we're right, we're right, we're right, but you're still painting the picture of officials not doing their job, and that's not going to change the narrative. Listen, when I was in high school and college and early in my career, I got the benefit of the doubt sometimes. Yeah.

But not like some. I used to guard Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. I mean, we would be talking. and they won't want to get the files all the time. And I'm like, that's what I wanted to say. Man, stop complaining. You get all the calls,

so now they miss one. Now you want to be upset. Stop complaining. You get the benefit of the doubt. You know, you'll get this because you're into business. I said this yesterday. If I'm a company and I am trying to manipulate the IRS, I have a right as the IRS to say,

I'm going to put more agents on your case, and I'm going to use a finer, tooth comb auditing you than your rival company because I feel you're trying to manipulate my system. The IRS can choose who to really audit and who to lightly audit because all big companies get audited. If I feel you're trying to manipulate, I don't think Golden State is trying to manipulate me. I think with Hardens Flops, you're trying to manipulate me. I have a right as a league to say, I'm going to take a finer tooth comb to your manipulation. IRS does the same thing.

No red flags. If the IRS thinks, oh, Jim Jackson is riding off the yacht as a business expense. That's when they put 13 people on your tax return. Amazon talking about not paying tax. You don't think that they scrubbed that with a fine tooth comb. When Microsoft and Apple also, when they were overseas and money was going overseas and not paying taxes, you don't think the IRS came in and said, hold on, wait a minute. Okay.

Just because we're hearing all this backlash from other companies. That's right. in cities that you're not paying tax. It's the same thing here is that what happens is now the NBA is going to go back and review, and you said it, a lot of people are saying that this shot right here in this rule, verticality. In the offseason, it will be a huge issue. Here's the issue.

As a shooter, sometimes your momentum moves you forward, especially if you're stepping into your shot. And as a defender, even if you go straight up vertical, that offensive player encroaches upon that space, okay? And you may have some kind of. contact. But a lot of times the interpretation is that, you know, the offensive player needs to land, but that momentum at time, I'm not saying all the time, can move you forward into a defensive player space. Thank you. So the question is, what is the radius you're allowed? Now,

Harden amplifies it because Hardin's like, he's smart. No, no, no. He manipulated the rules. By the way, you know? People who manipulate the IRS, they're not dummies. No. Like, like, I get manipulation. But by the way, think about this. What did the NFL do to Tom Brady when they thought, really have proof. They thought Tom was manipulating ball pressure four-game suspension for the greatest player ever. The NFL, it was about, it was about we think you're trying to manipulate us. And then Tom Brady, a cell phone, I can't find it. They were, they always say about Capone. It's not the crime. It's the hiding. It's the hiding. It wasn't. When Tom threw away his cell phone, it's like, okay, now that's a month. Exactly. And I think that's what we got here.

Okay, Jim Jacks. Are you an SFI later? Yes, sir. Speak for yourself. Good stuff today, man. You got it, man. Would have been a great tie-in. You've been Tony Gonzalez. Me and Gonzales. I'm going to have more catches.

Enjoy it with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So everyone's trying to find an answer for Nicola Yokic. The Spurs failed and now the Blazers are having some trouble as well. Paul Millsap talked about Yokic and how he's not short-handed by his age or his lack of athleticism. He even went as far as to compare him to Tom Brady.

He sees that people are playing him and guarding him. And he makes the right play every time. It doesn't fork anything. Everything is going to be the right play. He's going to make the right reads. It's like a quarterback out there. I consider him like a Tom Brady. You know, he's going to always pick you apart and make the right read.

So commend him for doing that at this stage in his career. He's just a presence. I mean, just looking at him and imagining. having to go. I mean, he's seven-foot tall, 250 pounds. Well, you know, it's funny. Guards are still guards and wings are still wings. What has happened in your lifetime and my lifetime is seven-foot guys now can pass and shoot. Would they have to become more skilled? That's the way the game is gone. So what you're seeing now is the seven-footer, Durant can shoot a jumper.

He's arguably the best passer on their team. I covered Arvita Samodas in Portland. He was the best passer. Bill Walton was the legendary passer. When your center can score rebound and direct traffic, it's just a different dimension to the sport. I just don't know what they can do with him, what the Blazers can do. To me, they just have to play faster. That's the only option that they have.

I mean, I do think that the chippiness and getting a little out of their element last night played a role in that loss. Portland was distracted. Yeah, I mean, C.J. McCollum at 16, you're going to need more from him as well. I mean, Damien Lillard does what Damien does. He had 39 points.

But Yokut's with 37, 9, and 6. And perfect from the free throw line. And that's the issue, too. Sometimes you just got to foul him and he's making his shot. So he's just, he's unstoppable right now. Love Denver's floor. Yeah. I have no idea why I just said that.

It's my favorite NBA floor. It's clean. I like their line. Sorry. I list the altitude, yeah. Yeah. It's tough place to play. So the Giants had an interesting NFL draft.

Dave Gettleman took Daniel Jones with the number six pick. The entire draft had Gettleman looking like a GM with a team with a lot. about a plan, but he told Peter King, in three years, we'll find out how crazy I am. He added, the bottom line is, I have confidence in what I do and who I am. I've led a charmed life with quarterbacks and the teams I've worked for. I know what good ones look like. The other thing is resumes matter. Every once in a while, I wish the people taking the shots would take a minute to look at my

resume. I've been a part of teams that went to seven Super Bowls. I had a hand in some of them. I don't want to pick apart everything he's saying. Fair. But I just kind of want to hear a little less from the GM. I think Mark Schleras said this yesterday. Sell your pick.

Come up and just say, folks, he reminded me of a 23-year-old Eli Manning. And if you stop talking, people in New York would go, okay, I don't know. Yeah, less is more in this spot. When you're being overly criticized and you went for what most people consider to be an edgy pick, not that he wasn't going to be drafted or anything. It just feels high for Daniel Jones, which is a fair assessment. Not to mention the fact, what have you done that has garnered any trust from anyone in your fan base or nationally? For the record, we're not saying Daniel Jones can't play.

No, no one's saying that. I thought of the quarterbacks. I would have taken Haskins one, Kyler 2, this kid 3. Because I get, he really is, if you take Eli at 24, he's a more athletic, less armed quarterback. He doesn't have Eli's arm. He's significantly better athletically. He plays a lot like Eli Manning. So it's not that he can't play.

We're not saying that. It's just, wow, a top six pick for a team that had multiple needs. Everyone's going to be critical of everything that everyone does in the draft unless you go with the obvious pick. And Sequin Barclay was a success for them, but they still don't have their quarterback. And last year was a quarterback draft. So there's a little bit lingering over from last year. It's fine to be critical of them. what's been happening with the Giants that shows anyone that they should be optimistic about it.

But say less. Just say less. It's not about you. It's about what's on the field anyway. Finally, Ohio is very upset with you right now. People think the Browns are going to be good this season. Vegas released their playoff odds yesterday and had the Browns missing the playoffs. And then within hours, those odds changed.

And now the Browns have the best odds to win the AFC North. And they are also tied for the fourth best odds to represent the AFC in Super Bowl 54. the first best odds are probably New England, second best Kansas City, third best. Steelers, probably. Indianapolis. I think the angst toward me is a little over the top. You know, I think it's kind of funny because I used to be quite a consistent

hater on Cleveland. And I would say it. I was definitely a hater. But I've earned that. And I was kind of born into that being from Pittsburgh. I'm more optimistic, I think, about the Browns than you are. I'm not going Super Bowl, but I do think that, one, the way that they are presenting themselves, they have to make the playoffs in order for this to be a success this year.

And it's a different situation. Like, it's just like I was saying with the Giants, what exactly has happened that we should be having this revelation about the Browns? Like, you've made some changes. You're trending in the right direction. That's great. Nobody has to go over the top with it. Nobody has to be guaranteeing Super Bowls. Nobody has to lose their mind over the moves that have been made.

It's all on paper at this point. By the way, Indianapolis was better than you that does have a rookie coach and has a better quarterback. And if I said I think Indy's going to go 10 and 6 and beat Cleveland, Cleveland would freak out. Well, Andrew Luck's better than Baker at this point, and he is better. And Frank Wright is absolutely more experienced than Freddie Kitchen. And they have Chris Ballard, who may be the best GM last two drafts in the league. But Cleveland, if I said Indy is better than that. than you, you'd freak out. Don't get

too caught up in Odell Beckham. When he's healthy, he's good. He gets hurt a lot. It's like, let's just slow down on all the love. I just think it's okay to be skeptical. Yes. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie news. During the

NFL season on Monday, we do the three-word game, try to describe every single game in three words. Less is more. And so the coaches are in, the free agents are in, the draft is done. We'll do the NFC today, the AFC tomorrow. The three-word game with every NFL team on the NFC side next in the herd.

Game 3 Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets tonight. Discover alerts you if they find your social security number on any of the thousand risky websites. Free for card members. Sign up online. Discover.com slash free alerts limitations apply back in a second. Want 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.

great to have you back in. We call it the three-word game. We do it during the NFL season on Mondays. Joy Taylor joining me in the herd. So we thought we'd do it now. The coaches are hired. The free agents are in. The draft is settled. Three-word game, best for last. You guys ready to go? Here we go. 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. Three-word game, NFC. Let's start with the NFC East. Cowboys. Three-word game. Dax contract year.

He's entering his fourth season. He went seven and two after they acquired Amari Cooper, and now you get Amari for the entire year. You brought in Jason Whitten to calm the chaos of the Cowboys. Second most wins in the NFL since he entered the league Tom Brady is first. This is the year for Dak to pop and pay him the big money. Eagles. Best quarterback returns.

Oh, get off Nick Foles. He's going to go 6 and 10 in Jacksonville. Carson Wentz was an MVP before he got hurt. The last two years, however, have ended in injuries. But in 2018, when he was healthy, career highs in passing yards, completion percentage, passer rating they've added to Sean Jackson. They took the best offensive linemen in the draft. they got their guy back.

Giants. Gettleman, no plan. Last year was a quarterback year they passed on it. This year was an edge rusher year. They had the six-pick, and they passed on it again. My argument is when he steps to the microphone, I don't think he has a plan. I do think Daniel Jones can play,

but you're going to be paying him $18, $20 million for three years to sit. They lost Odell, they lost Olivier Vernon, they lost Lannon Collins. Some of those guys were very important to the locker room. How about Redskins? Haskin too much. Word play. I think Dwayne Haskins was my favorite quarterback in the draft.

Not if you're asking him to play right out of the shoot. His head coach, Urban Meyer, came on our show, loves the kid, recruited him, said he's not ready to run a $5 billion franchise. And because they got Colt McCoy and Case Keenham and Alex Smith is hurt, I think they're going to ask him to play very early, and I think Washington's schedule is brutal early. How about NFC South? Saints, pullback year. Drew Breeze turned 40. Never forget.

They finished the season four and three after finishing 10 and 1. They looked gassed by the end of the year. They had no first round pick this year. They lost dependable Mark Ingram this year. They've had back-to-back emotional playoff losses. I'm not saying they're a bad time. team, I feel like they pull back. Panthers.

Cam equals Westbrook. Temperamental, fashionista, wildly talented, kind of an emotional roller coaster, and I don't think always easy to play with. Again, Westbrook struggles at the end of years. Carolina started well. Last eight games, one and seven. Falcons. Ice, ice, maybe.

Maddie. I like him, but they finished the year seven and nine. They did add two offensive linemen in the first round. But this division, last couple of years, it feels like it's trending away from Atlanta and to the Saints. This is kind of an important year. Kyle Shanahan left and you didn't answer the belt. Now, they had a ton of really bad injuries early.

So I think this is a rebound year for Matt Ryan. he did improve from 2017 to 2018 across the board. 20 TDs to 35. Bucks. James or James isn't? All right, you'll find out. We got 16 games with Bruce Ariens to find out. And Tampa's got wide receiver talent.

They got a great young tight end at Alabama. This is the year. Like, you're going to make a decision really quickly. If James Winston the dude, and if Bruce Ariens, because they got talent, if Bruce Ariens can't turn it around, James Winston will just be a talented guy who was never the franchise guy. Remember he got suspended last year for three games.

He just isn't going to be the guy. If Bruce can't get it right, it's not right. NFC West, Cardinals. Cliff got Kyler. Listen, only the second team in history to draft quarterbacks in the first round in back-to-back years. And this was really all about Cliff Kingsbury. We're bringing this offense,

which is all about athletes and quarterbacks. And Kyler Murray is a game-changing athlete. athlete, I'll say this. I'm fascinated to watch it. I think it'll sell tickets. And in that division where they're the fourth best roster, they felt they had to take a big swing. It's a big swing, but I think it can work. Seahawks. Russ got paid. Four years, $140 million. Now the key is draft picks and get cheap on both sides of the football. I didn't love their draft. Doug Baldwin is retiring it appears. I think next year they'll be battling for third with Arizona in their division.

49ers. Surprise title contenders. I don't care they were four and 12. Jimmy G. And between their free agency and their draft, D. Ford, Kwan Alexander, Jimmy G, Jason Barrett, Nick Bosa. I think no team personnel wise improved more in the last four months. Free agency and draft.

the 49ers. I also love their coach Kyle Shanahan. I think they got their backfield right with Coleman from Atlanta. How about Rams? Gurley or Gurney? Todd Gurley got diagnosed with an arthritic knee. That's the franchise.

I mean, to me, if Todd's good, I'm good with the Rams. If Todd is a 15 carry-a-game guy or cannot withstand the 16-game assault on your body, I kind of feel differently about the franchise. I still like them. But man is Todd Gurley great.

And never forget this last year. Last two games, 45 rushing yards total. And that offense in New Orleans and in the Super Bowl did not look the same. NFC North Vikings. Cousins rebounds slightly. Kirk Cousins took a PR beating last year. Can I just say this? It was his first year in the system.

I do think Cousins has a better second year. They re-signed Adam Thielen, who's a very cagey receiver. I think they got arguably the best offensive lineman in the draft, arguably Garrett Bradbury, the center from NC State. I think last year was a lot of pressure on Cousins and a lot of heat on him. I think deep breath, he improved slightly. Bears, barely above 500. Listen, Trebisky's last five games, I thought it was a lot of smoke and mirrors. his last five games, five TVs, five picks.

I think Matt Nagy's a brilliant coach, and he fooled you. He's a copper field. Left, right, trapped, look. But in the end, the last month, everybody got the film on the Bears. Tribusky was incredibly pedestrian, and I think they're a nine and seven football team. For the record, that's what Vegas thinks. Lions, Patriots minus winning. All right, they drafted a tight end that looks like Gronk.

They took Danny Amandola and Trey Flowers, and Matt, Trisha the head coach was the defensive guy for Bill Belichick. They got all sorts of Patriot connections. They just got to turn the L's to double-use. And then turn that frown into a smile thing. Turn that frown upside down. Yeah. So right now that the Patriots, you know, without the winning part.

Sounds fun. Packers, no more excuses. Folks, all sorts of talent. Aaron got the right coach. They've gone heavy defense in the last two drafts. They'll have the youngest, most athletic defense. Aaron Rogers has had since the Super Bowl. I think they're going to reclaim the NFC North and win the division.

But now, let's not talk about no defensive help. They've gone massive defense, last two free agent periods and drafts. Three word game, AFC tomorrow. Last night, a blown call changed the game. morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the

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