The Herd with Colin Cowherd - NFL schedule, Tom Brady, Roger Goodell, Jim Harbaugh

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

Colin breaks down the NFL schedule and gives his predictions. He feels Tom Brady will be getting a huge break this season. Also he defends Roger Goodell and gives his thoughts on Jim Harbaugh's recent comments about NCAAF athletes. Guests include Michael Mulvihill, Joe Maddon, Peter Schrager, Dave Wannstedt, and Jason McIntyre. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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Find your local station for the Hurt at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the IHartRadio app by searching Hurd. Sports Radio. Oh, here we go on one of my favorite Fridays, post-NFL schedule Friday. This is The Hurd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. We got a good show today. Everybody from Dave Wonstat, Peter Schrager, Joe Madden, baseball manager of the Angels, formerly of the Cubs.

Michael Mulvehill is an executive at our country that will break down the schedule. Really smart guy and what the league was thinking. and Joy Taylor is joining me. Last night, it was fun. I did a show with Carissa Thompson and Mark Slareth and Jason McIntyre. It's so easy to do TV now. I'm doing it in a radio studio. I can do it in golf shorts last night.

It is a fun day for us. I love today's show. It is. You're getting spoiled, huh? I am. I'm not going to lie. I have secretly done the show a couple times this week in my Tommy John loungewear. Yeah.

Why not? It's the future of what we're dealing. I read a story last night about how American business and how people are now going to work from home. I don't think it's a terrible thing, by the way. It will reduce traffic issues. It'll save people money in America, which will be a big thing going forward. But let's start NFL schedule. And I've said before, I'm never going to look at a good team and a tough schedule and go they're done.

Or a bad team and an easy schedule and go, oh, they'll be a playoff team. But I do every year look at the schedule and I monitor. and alter my win-loss total. That's why yesterday I gave out my NFL standings pre-schedule. And this morning, there's four or five teams. One in particular, I'm going to add two wins to one team and subtract two from another team because I felt the schedules were that advantageous. So let me just start with two teams that I think got the raw end of the deal with the schedule. And I didn't love this team anyway, since it. But they got no breaks.

No OTAs, young coach, rookie quarterback, forced to play, a dubious offensive line. And the Cincinnati Bengals have to face six of the top seven pass rushes with a rookie quarterback and a truncated camp. Chargers, Browns at Cleveland, at Philadelphia, at Baltimore, at Indian Browns again. So of the six of the seven tough games, four are on the road. at Cleveland, at Philly, at Baltimore, at Indy that's gotten out to Forrest Buckner. Bruttle! And then the end of the season, they face three teams that'll probably be vying for playoff spots. The Steelers, the Texans, and the Ravens.

Little softer in the middle, but this is an overwhelming schedule. They didn't get, they got one give me early, Jacksonville. They didn't get Miami when they could use them. They didn't get the Giants or Washington. They buried those. The team will already be buried. a bad break for a team that's going to start a rookie quarterback and we're dealing with a virus and we don't know how much prep time he'll get. And, you know, it's funny about this because,

you know, it's just tough division. Rookiee's got to start. Brutal schedule. Young head coach. Brutal. And, and, you know, Bengal fans, I'm a hater because I had them at 5 and 11. Fox Bet has them favored in one game this year. So if it's, you know, it's a lot of them. I'm a hater. I'm a hater. I'm a stays true to form, they're 1 and 15. I don't think they're that bad, but I literally looked at that schedule and I reduced the number of wins. I had Cincinnati at 5 and 11, got a ton of negative feedback on that, like I was delusional. They haven't won a playoff game since 91. The team they beat no longer exists, the Houston Oilers. So to me, I would put them now at three or four wins. We'll talk about that top of next hour when I redo my standings. Here's another team. So you think,

Oh, I just hate Joe Burrell. Here's another team. I'm going to downgrade wins. Sam Darnold. I love him. New York Jets. Baroodle. So here's a team that's rebuilding their offensive line through the draft and free agency.

Look at the Jets for seven weeks. Bill's defense. Niners pass rush. Colts pass rush. Denver. Bradley Chubb Vaughn Miller. Chargers pass rush. Buffalo again.

Oh, they get a break then. They get to go to Kansas City. That is, to me, the toughest schedule in the NFL. It lightens up later, but for a team that is, they don't even know their tackles yet. A rookie left tackle, a second year right tackle, maybe, a brand new center. This is not the way the New York Jets needed the schedule to work out. So the bingles, I'll reduce some wins. Jets, I may reduce them two wins.

top of the hour. I'll talk about, I'll talk about, you know, the new schedule. I've changed it up. We'll get to it in 45 minutes. Now, on the opposite end, these are teams I liked, and I don't know if it makes me think they'll win more, but it confirms the fears I had about my prediction. So like take San Francisco 49ers, scheduling break.

Now, I got them winning, you know, 11 games anyway. But Super Bowl losing teams, Joey and I, we've talked about this before. There can be a little bit of a hangover, especially like Atlanta. When you lose a Super Bowl that you should have won and you lose a lead and everybody questions your moxie and you come out the next year flat.

That's what Atlanta did. San Francisco, I worry about that, but they got a scheduling break. So the first three teams they play are all rebuilding their offensive lines. Arizona, the Jets and the Giants. With San Francisco's defensive front being the strength of the team, they even drafted another defensive lineman in the first round,

that's a break. That is a break. That you could not play well and just simply overwhelm young auditioning offensive lines. Then after that, they get three straight home games, Philly Miami Rams all at home. So they get weaker teams, got to travel for a couple. The tougher games they get at home, rebuilding, Offensive lines, rebuilding teams, young head coaches, new staffs, young quarterbacks.

I don't know if it makes me think San Francisco wins more games, but it reassures me on little concerns I had about San Francisco having a Super Bowl hangover. Here is a second team. Again, I have Cleveland winning nine games and becoming a playoff team. I wanted to see the schedule to reaffirm, because I thought it could fall two different ways. I like the way it felt for Cleveland. So at Baltimore, sucks as an opener. There's no getting around that.

That is a tough opener. But after that, Cleveland gets the opposite of last year. They get an early scheduling break. Cincinnati, Washington at home, two rebuilding rosters. Cleveland's not a rebuilding roster. Then after that, for the next six or so weeks, they get really average defensive teams as they break in new tackles. a new coach and a new system, a new tight end.

Dallas defense, Cincinnati defense, Raider defense, Texans defense, and then there's a buy in there. So unlike last year where they went through a five or six weeks stretch early in the season last year, five out of six weeks where they faced like elite defensive coordinators, elite coaches, elite pass rushes. This schedule, they get to face a couple of rebuilding teams early and then softer defenses. Dallas doesn't have an elite pass rush. Cincinnati's pretty good on the interior of the defensive line, but they had to go up bringing new players defensively because they were lousy last year. Raiders can't stop anybody. Houston's got all sorts of secondary issues. So again, I thought for Cleveland, it confirms what I believe a week ago, which is if the schedule falls right,

Baker's going to tighten it up, just the playoff team. So, Bingles Jets, I'm subtracting wins. Niners Browns, I don't necessarily think they get additional wins, but they got a scheduling break. It kind of falls in their favor. Because I do think with Cleveland, when you have a new coach, you come off a rough year, it's easy for people to bail. You know, you go O and four again this year.

You can get, you know, OBJ, don't tid yourself. You can lose guys in the locker room fast. So I thought Cleveland and San Francisco got breaks. It's good to have you. Now, top of next hour, Dave Wonstat will stop by to talk about some thoughts. Jim Harbaugh had about college football. Plus, as a former bear and dolphin head coach, do you look at the schedules with your personnel? Do you get some breaks?

Andy Reid was funny yesterday. I mean, Kansas City is going to win a bunch of games. I don't worry about them. But I thought Kansas City got a little bit of a break. And Andy picked up on it immediately. They play the Florida teams later in the year. so it's not a sauna. And they play, they have a very good vertical passing game in Kansas City.

They play a lot of the cold weather teams early, like at Buffalo, at Baltimore early, at Denver early, where instead of a 30 mile an hour wind in snow and low visibility, it could be warm and sunny in Denver, Buffalo, and September, early October. So I do believe, Andy Reid talked about it yesterday, I do believe they're scheduling breaks. And maybe this to me, I swear to God, Tom Brady's got an angel on his shoulder because I thought Tampa got multiple breaks in their schedule. Multiple breaks in their schedule. We'll talk about that coming up.

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

in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit, suit of the thing. We get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're

still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro.

Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me. Kear Gaines is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s.

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

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game.

This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. Oh, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Whether you're working from home or working on your fitness, you want to hear your music, not your roommates. Raycon's wireless earbuds. Way to go. Get a 15% off. Raycon order at Buyraycon.com slash hurt, H-E-R-D. Now, in 10 minutes, I'm going to bring on Mike Mulvahill. He is the leader of a vice president at Fox Fox Strategy. So networks ask for certain things from the NFL.

It's very fascinating. I think you'll really like it. We're going to spend about 10 minutes with Mike about what we ask for, how networks see the games and how they play out. It's fascinating. Mike's a guy bringing my podcast all. the time. People love him. He's kind of the Wizard of Oz at Fox, behind the curtain. How does he see this schedule playing out? Because all these networks, we ask for stuff. We're asking for certain games.

We have different needs and different wants. Why do we not need the Cowboys to face one of their biggest games on Thanksgiving? We don't need that this year. Why? What game did CBS really need now that Brady retired from the AFC. Okay. So Tampa Bay, Tom Brady. I think they got a break. Whereas San Francisco and Cleveland got schedules that benefit them, I don't think it changes their record necessarily.

I'm going to give Tampa one more win off their schedule. So the first thing I look at is, oh, they face the Saints in New Orleans. Ooh. But for some reason, nobody can explain it. The Saints aren't great in their home opener. one and four in the last five and could have lost their only win. Then it is a really interesting schedule break. They're learning a new offense.

It could have been brutal. They could have had Aaron Rogers Week 2. Patrick Mahomes, Sean McVan Gough of work together, Kirk Cousins. There was a lot of little landmines here where you could have faced quarterbacks who are efficient, who have been with the same coach for years, who have more firepower, but it didn't work out that way for. Tom. Instead, after the Saints, they get Carolina. New coach, new system, new quarterback. Denver. They don't even know if their franchise quarterback is their franchise quarterback.

Chargers. Tyrod Taylor, new quarterback. Chicago. Hell, is it Trabisky or Nick Foles? They get Green Bay at home, but now Tom's got five starts in. Then they go to the Raiders and the Giants, two really weak defenses. This is a scheduling break. Now, I do think, The Rams and the Chiefs in November are tough, but Tom's got half a season already in the books. Then the end, so he's got no cold weather games here. That's a break. Because I think weaponry and perimeter stars are the strength of their team. No cold, blustery winner road games or home games, right?

Secondly, I think he faces, he's got some tough quarterbacks to face here. But in the first two months, it is mostly Teddy Bridgewater, Daniel Jones, Drew Locke, Tyrod Taylor, Mitch Tribisky, Nick Foles. That to me is a scheduling break. They also get a scheduling break in Tampa late in the season. Hear me out on this. So at the end of the season, I have respect for Atlanta. They burn me so many times I'm worn out from them, as Joey and I often laugh at. I always like Atlanta more. And every time I do, they burn me. And when I don't like him, whatever. They play Matt Ryan twice in the last three weeks. Here's why it's important. Matt Ryan's good. Dan Quinn could have gone either way, right?

Could have been fired. Atlanta faces the Saints at the end of the year twice. November 22nd, December 6th. New Orleans is better than Atlanta. If the Saints beat Atlanta both those games, if you look at Atlanta's schedule, they're probably out of the playoffs. And Dan Quinn is a lame duck head coach.

Tom gets them twice late. If Tampa's as good as I think, eyeing the playoffs and seating, gaining momentum with Tom Bruce Ariens and the Young Weapons. And Atlanta's done. They're cooked. Coaches done, lame duck. Out.

It's a big break. Also, Matt Patricia is sandwiched in between. This is a bad team and a good division with Green Bay, Minnesota, Chicago having better rosters, better coaches, too. So I think they end. It's a break for them. Two Atlanta's and a Detroit, I don't think those teams, they'll have lame duck coaches and out of the playoff picture.

So I thought Tom got a scheduling break. He got some of the more average new offensive systems and quarterbacks early as he's just fundamentally trying to figure out the offense and figuring out Tampa and Bruce Ariens and all the young guys. So a break there for Tampa, enough of one, I think I'm going to give them a win. I'm giving them an extra win. So there we go. Mike Mulva Hills in about 10 minutes less than that.

Fascinating how Fox, how a network looks at the schedule. Compared to how we look at it as fans or broadcasters, here's Joy with the News. No, no, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, Bill Belichick won't have Tom Brady on his team for the first time in 20 years, but during his appearance on the NFL Network, last night, he didn't seem too concerned about what the team will look like without him. We played at other times, you know, without Tom,

what was the 09 season, after he was injured, played 15 games with Castle, Solomon 11 and 5 or, you know, heading into the 16th season with Jimmy and then Jacoby and Tom come back after the four games suspension. So, you know, they've been out of the points in time where we've dealt with that. We'll do what we always do is try to, you know, prepare the team the best that we can, utilize our players and the skills that they have and put ourselves in the best position we can to, you know, to be competitive and win. And so that's what we always do and we'll continue to do that. Well, his record with Brady is 219 and 64. His record without Brady is 18 and 19. Right.

Since he started as the Patriots head coach. Yeah, that's with, that's in New England with a great owner. That's in New England. That Matt Castle year in 2008 remind you, he had at Randy Moss, West Welker, Vince Wilfork, Teddy Bruske, Gerard Mayo, Mike Rable, Richard Seymour, Stephen Galkowski. By the way. like he was out there making it happen without Tom Brady. Yeah. And look at New England's schedule.

First four weeks at Seattle and at Kansas City. So I got Jared Stidham and I got to go to Russell Wilson, two Patrick Mahomes. Both have much better weapons. Like, I'm sorry, Bill. And by the way, my break, oh, I don't have to play San Francisco or Baltimore for weeks. I mean, their schedule, they will have worse weapons, Joy, than arguably every team they play. because I think the Jets have actually upgraded a wide receiver. I can make an argument they'll have worse offensive weapons than every team on their schedule.

Seven and nine, people said, you're crazy? I look at this and I'm like, if Bill manipulates the schedule and can pull a couple of games out there, seven and nine, they're not going to be a great team. No, and I think that's okay because we both agree that there is some master plan here at work with Bill Belichick. He's not just winging it. But this year, they're just not going to be good. And I don't know why that's such a hot take. All I could hear about is how terrible all the pieces around Tom Brady were last year.

And they had Tom Brady. I mean, unless Jared Sidham comes out and shocks the world, which I guess is possible, moving forward into the future with the Patriots and Bill Belichick, I'm sure they're going to figure it out and they have some plan to get a quarterback. But this year, I'm just not buying into this whole idea that they're, like, comfortable with what's going on. I think that they have a plan moving forward. and for whatever reason it involves them sticking with Jared Stidham and Brian Hoyer. Speaking of a quarterback situation, Ben Rothersberger is still recovering from his elbow surgery last September.

He said last month he'll be ready to go next season. And during an interview with NFL Network, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin made it clear that he agrees. We're extremely confident in his readiness. We're enjoying the process that he's going through right now. Obviously, it's not without his angst. The guy's coming off of a season ending. injury and surgery. But we like what we are.

He's throwing on a rehab schedule. It's going well. And we fully anticipate him being ready to go for that over. Well, GM Kevin Colbert also said that the team likes their backup quarterback situation. Oh, come on. Comfortable with Mason Rudolph. Come on.

As a backup in Delvin Hodges in the mix. Oh, Lord. Stop it. We talked about it yesterday. Cam Newton is open to a backup role. I don't know what the Steelers are doing. I mean, obviously, I'm not. evaluating Ben Rufferzberger's rehab process and, you know, what his fitness regimen is.

But, you know, it's a serious surgery. He doesn't look great from what we've seen. Obviously, there's a lot of time between now and September for him to be ready. But I just don't, I don't know what the plan is here. As much as I don't know what the plan is in New England, I don't know what the plan is with the Steelers either. You're going all in on Ben Rathesberger, who just had a major surgery. You got an opportunity to see what Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges were last year. Yeah.

We saw enough. like stop protecting big band, bringing a legitimate backup. It doesn't make any sense to me. Finally, Tom Brady and Gronk are starting next, the next chapters of their career in Tampa Bay. And head coach Bruce Ariens told ESPN that the idea of the reunion was all on Brady.

Yeah, I mean, it was really Tom. Tom brought it up to me. And I didn't think it was even a possibility that he wanted to come back. And he was adamant about, yeah, he really wants to play. You know, he'd love to play with us. So, you know, Jason Light got the ball rolling with the Patriots. The conversation was there. And, you know, he's working out.

He's in great shape. And it's really rare in the go. So we're looking forward to getting on the practice field. There's a reason old people retire to Tampa when your bones ache a little bit, that warm weather helps. Oh, for sure. Yeah, Gronk and Brady, don't kid yourself. Those 90-degree humid days, that feel pretty good. For the rest of us, they're sweltering for those guys.

It's like, yeah, it's easier to get up in the morning. I mean, it's a lot easier than, you know, getting your elbows moving. Oh. You know, 10-degree weather, which you know all about. I'm not surprised that this was Brady's idea and that he's the one that pulled the strings to make all this happen. He wanted somebody there that he felt comfortable with

and him and Gronk have a great relationship. As opposite as their personalities and styles are, they clearly have a great relationship and he has a lot of faith in him. And again, I'm not expecting Gronk to do any heavy lifting this year. He's there to clearly lubricate the situation and give Tom a steady target

that he knows where Gronka's going to be once they're able to start working. together. This situation might actually surprise some people, myself included, because I'm not expecting a lot of heavy lifting from Gronk, but if he comes back in a different kind of shape, then he's in right now putting on a little bit of weight.

Ask yourself this. Trent Williams took the year off and most people say Trent, as an old offensive lineman, needed it. Gronk was banged up for two years. He was miserable. He told us he was miserable. He wasn't even enjoying playing.

Yeah. So, I mean, I don't, if it helps Trent Williams, and I don't expect a ton from Gronka, I said this before, it's about managing expectations. If I told you Gronk had 35 catches, three touchdowns, and was a vital blocking tight end in the red zone, with all their other weapons, you'd be like, okay, I'll take that. Good, like, good locker room guy, lubricates the locker room, kind of leads the teaching going forward. You know, he's a good, you know, kind of a gateway into Tom's system for the other players, really good in the red zone. And he gives you 35, 40 catches. in a couple touchdowns.

You'd be like, I'll take it. He's a huge asset to have. And he's not that old. No. We keep talking about Grom. What is he 30? 35, 38 years old. I think he's 31.

He might be 30 still. So we're aging Gronk a little bit because of the injuries that he had, but he's still a young player, even for NFL standards. Good stuff. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News.

You know, I thought today, somebody I brought on my podcast for the last couple years, people really enjoy them. When a schedule breaks, the NFL puts all the information into software, and it spits out 300,000 schedules, not joking, and they end up with this. And so nobody works and crafts their schedule more of all the pro leagues than the NFL. And we as a network ask for certain things, not just cowboy games. We ask for certain games at certain times, and sometimes you get him and sometimes you don't. He's the head of strategy and analytics at Fox Sports.

Mike Mulvahill joining us. So it's a lot more sophisticated than people would ask, and you guys tend to, Mike, ask for things a year out. So when the schedule was released yesterday for the first time, give me one or two things that you wanted and you got. Well, first of all, thanks for having me on the show. Great to talk to you. definitely one of the most exciting days of the year for us and all the NFL partners when the schedule comes out. On our side, the thing that we look at first are the Sunday afternoon 425 games. You know, those late games on our double-header weeks are actually the number one show in all television,

most watch show and TV, primetime, or otherwise. And so we treat those windows with a lot of seriousness and we think a lot about what games are of a high enough quality to be there. what we really like about our Sunday 425 window this year is that each of those games has one of two characteristics. Every game that we're going to showcase at 425 either has a Hall of Fame quarterback, like a no doubt about it, future Hall of Famer, and we now have four of them in the NFC, or it features the Dallas Cowboys. Wow. For the most important window on our air, and I'd like to think the most important window in all of the NFL, we're going to be able to rely on either the biggest brand,

the team that traditionally drives the most viewership, or we're going to be able to rely on Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rogers, Russell Wilson, and in some cases, two of those four going head-to-head. That's a really strong hand for us to be able to play. Now, let's talk about Tampa. So, and this is a big deal, and I think most fans get this, but in our world, it's huge.

Tom Brady has been on that CBS late game for two decades. as a star in 15 and 18 of those years. He leaves. That's a big hole for CBS. Now, we get Tom Brady. So do you expect Brady and Tampa to give you a Cowboys number? What is the expectation inside the rooms I'm not allowed to go in at Fox Sports? Well, we'll try not to look too far into the future.

I think our expectation is that in the early part of the season, the interest in Tom Brady being in a new city and a new uniform and a new conference is going to be extraordinarily high. And the way that the league treated us in terms of Tampa Bay games is, I think, close to a best case scenario. We've got five of the first six bucks games of the year. And three of those games are particularly significant. You know, we've got the season opener against Drew Breeze and the New Orleans Saints. We've got Brady's first primetime game, which will be our Thursday night opener at Chicago in week five. And then the following week we get to have Brady going head to head with Aaron Rogers in week six,

matchup obviously of unquestionably Hall of Famers. So we feel like we get to start the season in a really powerful way, focusing on that Brady in Tampa Bay story. And then the interest in Brady and the Bucks through the rest of the season will obviously just be determined by wins and losses. I think we're in a position where we can really take advantage of it earlier in the year, and then we'll see where it goes. But the league obviously has treated Tampa Bay as a marquee attraction and an elite draw. They've already maxed out on the number of games that Tampa can play outside of the Fox packages,

which is they're the only team that's already maxed out. It's a pretty clear sign of the kind of numbers that the league expects them to draw on our network and elsewhere. Mike Mulvahill, Fox Sports, head of stress. strategy and analytics, somebody I lean on a lot. Okay, so let me, we know Dallas gets a number. But occasionally, Tampa no longer counts as a sleeper. But is there a team out there? And we have the NFC schedule mostly.

Is there a sleeper team that you and the Fox bosses look at and think, keep your eye on that team? Because you guys do have some flexibility later. Well, it's interesting. You know, I think the teams that are raiding sleepers are the teams that have powerful brands, have a lot of history, a rich history, but they maybe haven't had a lot of recent success. So in the last couple years, you would look at San Francisco last year, a team that has an enormous history and a lot of Super Bowl championships,

hadn't had that much recent success. Now under John Lynch, they're one of the elite teams in the league. They get to the Super Bowl last year, and they pop up as a big driver of viewership. Chicago was like that two years ago when they won their division. You know, I obviously have an interest in promoting Fox. and the games that are on our air. But to give a little bit of a nod to the other package, I think a team that has a potential to be a rating sleeper in the future is Miami,

you know, on the CBS side of the board. That's a franchise that has an incredibly rich history. We were kids. They were contenders every single year for decades. Yes. Maybe not that much recent success. Now they add Tua. Tom Brady obviously has left the division.

Maybe it opens things up for teams that haven't been able to get a division title in a long time. Whether it's this year, or in the near future, Miami's one of those teams that is a powerful brand. And if they can get back to having some success, they can be a really elite driver of viewership. Mike Mulvill joining us. So I thought the Monday Night Football package was the best in a decade. Thursday night football used to be, I mean, let's be honest, 10 years ago, it was, you know, quirky uniforms. And, you know, the Steelers looked like bumblebees.

It was a lot of gimmicks because the matchups weren't very good. Fox has it. And it's obviously you've lobbied hard to get better games. And Monday night football and Thursday night football, when I looked at it, Mike, all I saw was, man, there's a lot of good quarterbacks on those Thursday night games. Is there one game in particular on Thursday night football? How about two that jumped out to you that you really, they fell perfectly for you? Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. I mean, we certainly have tried to be more aggressive with the Thursday night package than maybe it had ever previously been treated.

and we've grown the viewership for it in our first two years as the rightsholder, and we've tried to be even more ambitious this year with the league's cooperation. We're in a great position because as the Sunday NFC rights holder, we're able to take games from our Sunday package and make them available to Thursday, and that's primarily why Thursday has been upgraded the way it has. I think the best Thursday games on this year's schedule are the best games that have ever been on a Thursday schedule, and you would probably start that conversation with the NFC. championship game rematch, Green Bay at San Francisco in week nine. I don't know when there's ever

been a conference championship rematch played on a Thursday night and on a short week, but we've got it this year, and it was placed in a really strategic place. I give the NFL more credit for this than we can take. It was really their idea. But the game will be played two days after the presidential election, which I think is really smart. You know, when you come out of what might be the highest turn out election of all time and a story that's obviously going to galvanize the interest of the entire world, we then have an opportunity to come in two days later and recapture that public attention with one of the really special games of the year. And that's something that there's a lot of history of that in the NFL schedule of putting a really important game in a strategic

mid-season position where it can capture attention immediately after an election or maybe immediately after a World Series, if you go back a little further. That's what they've done with Green Bay San Fran. I think it's really, really smart. The other game on Thursday night that jumps out to me is Dallas, Baltimore. You know, we start our process. Our entire process begins by thinking about how we want to use the Cowboys on Thursday night football.

And they have to play in that week after Thanksgiving. Yes. Because their Thanksgiving game is their short week game. Yeah. We can only use them on a full week's rest the following week. so we know they're going to be there in late November, and to have them playing Baltimore last year's number one seat on the AFC side, matchup of the biggest brand in football with a new head coach,

really exciting new playmaker and C.D. Lamb against one of the most exciting offenses in the league and the reigning MVP, that's a terrific matchup. That really is the very first thing that we penciled in when we started this whole conversation. By the way, there's a Thursday night game on Christmas, and I thought to myself, oh, that used to be the NBA's day. That feels strategic, right? Yeah, we like that a lot. Look, I'm a very big believer that one of the things that helps strengthen the fans' connection

to the league and to the product is when the league is part of a holiday, when the league is part of a day that is special to people all over the country. We're in a really fortunate situation this year to have the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving and to then come back a month later with this Minnesota New Orleans game on Christmas Day. We're really grateful to the Saints for being willing to host a game on Christmas Day, and I think they're the right market to do it. It gives us really powerful matchups in the case of the Christmas game, a playoff rematch and a game that ended in kind of a surprising way on Christmas when everybody's at home.

It'll be between the opening of the presents and everybody's Christmas dinner, good time to sit down and watch a football game. and I'm really excited about it. I think it's a great way for the NFL to plan a flag on a second major holiday. You know, it's interesting. NFL, you told me this yesterday. Their software, they put all the potential games into software, and it just flies out.

Just give me about a minute description of how much time and how much effort the NFL puts into their schedule. Yeah, it's an enormous undertaking. And our role is really more as a lobbyist. we don't get to choose our games, the way that we get to choose our games in college football, where we literally have a draft with Disney to set those matchups. The league sets the matchups. Our role is strictly advisory, and each network makes the best case they can for their games. So that process starts well before the previous season's Super Bowl.

We have a very in-depth conversation just before the Super Bowl about what worked and could have worked better in the previous season and what our wish list is for both the Thursday package and the Sunday package. and then they take our requests, every other network's request, requests that come from the teams, logistical considerations like teams that share a stadium or share a parking lot with a baseball team or other conflicting dates that they might have. And all of these factors go into their software and into their modeling. And as you say, it spits out hundreds of thousands of iterations of the schedule until you finally get a couple hundred that merit kind of a closer consideration.

and then at the very, very end, just before the finish line, it gets down to just one or two that they maybe elevate to the commissioner for a final approval. The effort that the league puts into it is extraordinary, and I don't want to overstate our role in it because we really are advisory, and as I say, we act more like lobbyists. They really bake the cake, and we're the ones that just put it in the display case. We benefit from all of their effort. Michael Mulville, he'll head of strategy analytics at Fox Sports. Great stuff.

Good talking to you, bud. Great talking to you, man. Hope you see you soon. Yeah, we all got smarter. That's how it works for the NFL's standpoint. Now, coming up next, my thoughts on the Dallas Cowboy schedule and Jim Harbaugh's talking, but what is he selling? The Michigan head coach.

That's next. 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 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 content. and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 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. incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch.

Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing,

growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search, learn the hard way, and listen now. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?

Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George but got to do a little kill. Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence.

I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff.

Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. you're working at home or working on your fitness. You want to hear your music, not your roommates. Raycon's wireless earbuds, way to go, 15% off right now. Your Raycon order, go to buy raycon.com slash heard H-E-R-D. Very excited. Top of the hour. I give you my official NFL standings, post-coaching moves, post-free agency, post-draft, post-schedual. There you go.

And barring, the only change I'd make is a big injury. This will be set. It's very exciting. So Joe Madden, Angels manager next hour and Peter Schrager. Baseball, what I'm hearing, NBA, glass is half empty. Baseball, glass is more than half full. One of the smart guys in baseball, Joe Madden. So the Dallas Cowboys schedule. I don't see, I think it's tough early, I think it's tough middle, and I think it's tough late. And I've had the Dallas Cowboys at 8 and 8.

That's what they are. Lost too many playmakers and productive people, offense and defense. At L.A. and at Seattle, Cleveland early, tough. Middle of the schedule at Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, at Minnesota. Tough. End of the schedule at Baltimore, San Francisco, Philadelphia. Tough. They don't get a lot of breaks.

But here's the game on this schedule that really jumps out to me. Cleveland. So, you know, coaches, it, It's very hard to say Mike McCarthy and Dack are going to go to L.A. and Seattle and win. Those are tough games. McVeigh and Gough have been working together three years. Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll, been working together eight years. That's just tough.

That's a big ask. I think Gough is better than Dack. And Matt Ryan, Week 2 is better than Dack. And I think Russell Wilson's way better than Dack. You're asking too much. My guess is they're one and two. The Cleveland game is huge and they get it at home. And the reason it's huge is because the,

only small window for the Dallas Cowboys is in October. Giants at home rebuilding, Arizona at home Monday night football rebuilding, and at Washington rebuilding. That's your scheduling break. You can make it a four-game winning streak if you beat Cleveland, and you're probably coming off a loss at Seattle, which will be a big four o'clock game on Fox. Seattle's going to crush Dallas or beat them. There's going to be a lot of negativity.

It's going to be rally the troops, Cleveland at home. This is the season. And Gulel tell you, as a cowboy fan, when they lose on national TV, it's different. When you lose as a cowboy on late Fox game or a Sunday night football game, it just feels big. The world's ending. So Dallas is going to come into that home game against Cleveland, rallying the troops, save the season. It's the only part of Cleveland's schedule. It's a tough break for Cleveland.

It is everything for Dallas. And so when I look at their schedule, I see them as an 8-18. It's not easy early. It's not easy in the middle. It's not easy late. That Cleveland game could be a season decider, a momentum shifter. So in that game right now, Fox bet has Dallas favored by minus four and a half. That's where I looked at their schedule.

I don't think they got any breaks. I don't think it's overly hard. It's sort of what I thought it would be. Let me say this, a little college football before we go to the top of the hour. hour. So, and we're going to talk about schedules all day today. I'm totally into this stuff, but Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh came out yesterday with a big, long letter to college football. Now, I like Jim Harbaugh, much more than most of you, but I thought it was fairly transparent. Jim Harbaugh basically said, listen, college football, you players should have

the eligibility to enter the NFL draft whenever you want to. he addressed it the college football community. He said there are early bloomers capable of playing in the NFL. I propose an option that allows them to make a decision that is best for them. My takeaway is, first of all, all these college coaches, basketball or football, if it ain't good for them, they're not writing a letter. My first takeaway is it's very pro player. I love you players.

You deserve your opportunities. Recruiting. You know, I'm not one of these sticks in the mud. I am for you being taken care of. Pro Michigan player. Secondly, yeah, of course he wants it. All the Big Ten coaches like that except Ohio State. Why?

Because it'll affect the SEC. They have more guys that would leave early. All those Big Ten coaches outside of Ohio State are like, yeah, let players leave early. Yeah, because you don't have guys that are going to leave early. In my opinion, college football is fine. it needs one big move. Hire a czar, hire a commissioner, hire a prime minister, hire a president.

Could we cinch up the schedules? Everybody plays 10 conference games. You get one cupcake, start the season, get into your conference games, because every weekend we have 65 games and three are watchable. I thought the Harbaugh stuff was, you know, a little self-serving. But under the altruistic branch off the tree,

I'm here for kids. And Jim Harbaal, in the Big Ten, and Michigan. New standings next. One more herd. The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

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

the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark.

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

Steve Burns, Dustin Ross because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid because that's two different intentions bro absolutely and that's two different 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 Hardway.

Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Learn the Hardway, and listen now. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence.

I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff.

Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom. Mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Red.

My mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Ah, here we go. Hour 2, live in Los Angeles. This is the hurt.

Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Sirius XM Channel 83. Joe Madden Angels, manager, stops by the day, really smart guy. Pete Shreger stops by Dave Wonstadt, a lot of football stuff. Joy Taylor, I just saw Joy, you went on a jog this morning? Yes, I ran 2.23 miles. Wow.

in downtown L or like where you live around the company yes yeah and everyone's telling me not to run with a mask on so I do I just I run with it I put it down in Los Angeles there's people outside and it's a mask that's designed for physical activity so yeah yeah I don't we got this yeah yeah so plus I just think it's a it's a respectful sign when you're jogging around a community it's just respectful right of course there's still people outside you're still within space of other humans yeah it seems obvious to me I just do it out of respect right So we talk about the schedules. We're going to do this all day. And so I said before, I think Tom Brady got a break in the schedule. I'm going to give them another win. I think Cincinnati and the Jets, I'm going to take away wins. And so I save this team, Baltimore I have as the, along with Seattle, that's my Super Bowl favorite teams.

I didn't look at Baltimore schedule close enough. So they face no teams coming off a buy. Big break when you have Lamar Jail. Jackson. Lamar Jackson hasn't had the success in the postseason. People get perhaps more time to prepare. They don't face a single team off a buy. They only make one trip to the West Coast. They're only leaving the East Coast once all season. Oh, wait, they have no West Coast trips. I didn't notice that the first time. They get a real scheduling break. Also, the Ravens open up. They get Cleveland at home. And it's a break because Cleveland's got a new staff. Cleveland's going to be really good.

they're probably not going to be humming, you know, September 13th. So they get a break because I think Cleveland matches up really well with Baltimore, not in week one. They also, one of the toughest games they have is at the Colts. It's one of their toughest road games. They get a buy before the game. They also don't face any team getting a buy before them. They also end the season with bad football teams out of the playoff race,

Jags, Giants, Bengals. I thought it was a really, really good schedule. And because of that, I hand out my standing predictions, but now we've had coaching changes, free agency, draft, and schedule. So I am going to give you my official, barring any injuries in camp, my official NFL standings. Let's go AFC first. I'm taking two wins away from the Jets.

Their schedule is brutal. I talked about it to start the show. So the Bills goes 9 and 7. Jets are 7 and 9. So are the Dolphins and so are the Patriots. It's mostly an average division with the bills winning going away. Boring division. Ravens, I had winning the division anyway.

I'm going to add a couple of wins to 10 and 6. I still have the Browns making the playoffs. Steelers not making the playoffs. And I'm taking a win away from the Bengals, 5 and 11 to 4 and 12. The Colts win the AFC South, nothing changes. Chiefs win the AFC West. Nothing changes. I do have Denver making the playoffs at 10 and 6.

Let's go to the NFC. Nothing changes. NFC East. Philadelphia's schedule still looks 10 and 6 to me. Dallas's schedule. I watched before it was released. Not a lot of easy games for me. Dax, the inferior quarterback and at least half the schedule.

NFC North, nothing changes for me. NFC South, Bucks still win it. Saints still win it. I'm giving Tampa Bay a win to 10. So the Saints and the Bucks tied at 10 and 6, but I think New Orleans gets the best of them head to head. NFC West. I thought about giving the Niners another win.

A little Super Bowl hangover, but the schedule falls in their favor. I'll keep them at 11 and 5. So here are my AFC playoffs. Bills, Ravens, Colts, Chiefs, nothing changes there except for a record for Baltimore AFC playoff title division winners. Wildcard, Broncos, Browns, Titans,

nothing changes. I did think about giving the Titans one more win. The schedule was good for them, but I'll stay there. in so the Titans are the new playoff team for me, not the Jets and the AFC. Jets out, Titans in. NFC playoffs remain the same. Eagles, Vikings, Saints, Seahawks win their division. Niners, Bucks, and Packers are wildcard teams.

So my big change is Jets out, Titans in because the jet schedule is ridiculous. There you go. Can still change it, but probably won't unless somebody, a superstar quarterback gets hurt. I will also say this, is we tend to. And this is just the way all of us do things, right? We glamorize the past. I mean, Michael Jordan never missed a shot. You know, that's why that documentary is so important.

We see the truth that Michael Jordan struggled, and he couldn't beat the pistons. And, you know, there's just, I lived through that. And I've always said, you know, slow the role on Michael. He may be the best basketball player ever, but you guys got him never missing jumpers. I saw the years he got tackled by Boston and Detroit and couldn't get through him

until he got, you know, Scotty grew up and Phil Jackson and, you know, Jerry Krause made a couple of good moves. And we do this with all sports, you know, let's be honest, a lot of baseball players back in the 20s, 30s and 40s, you know, probably can't make the bigs today. Probably can't. Even Babe Ruth. I don't know. Guys are like pitchers now. We're all like six, seven.

They're all giants. Nutrition's better. Players throw harder. And we do this in the NFL. is that with quarterbacks, we forget that John Elway made a lot of mistakes and Joe Namath had more picks than touchdowns.

We are living in the golden age of quarterbacks. Quarterback play in the NFL is better than it's ever been. And I mean, it used to be half the teams in this league just average a quarterback. Average athlete, average arm, just guys. For the first time, I think in my life, the Monday night football schedule is great.

And the Thursday night football schedule is great. When Thursday night football first came out, it always felt like it was Blake Bordles against Marcus Marriota, like 10 times. It was just Andy Dalton and Brian Hoyer. It just had a flack-o Ryan Tannahill feel to it every week. They were doing gimmicky uniforms. It was, you know, they put it on NFL network.

They didn't care where the play-by-play announcers were. It was Drek. It was bad. Even the quarterbacks in the NFL now that don't have winning records, Sam Darnold, Kyler Murray. unbelievably athletic, unbelievable playmakers, unbelievable athletes. Look at the Monday night football schedule. I won't even name the teams.

I'll just tell you the quarterback or quarterbacks you get every week. In the Monday schedule, Big Ben, into Drew Breeze, into Lamar Jackson against Patrick Mahomes, into Matt Ryan against Aaron Rogers, Drew Breeze, Kyler Murray and Dack, Jared Gough, Tom Brady, Tom Brady, Sam Darnold, into Kirk Cousins, into golf against. against Brady, Russell Wilson against Carson Wentz, Josh Allen against Jimmy Garoppolo, I get Lamar against Baker and Big Ben again. That's, I guess Buffalo, New England last week,

but you know, you could have Buffalo secure in a playoff spot. Thursday night football. It goes to Fox week five. So let's start week five. Tom Brady, next week I get Patrick Mahomes, next week I get Carson Wentz, next week I get Matt Ryan, next we could get Jimmy Garoppolo.

Cults, Titans, me next we could get Kyler against Russell Wilson. Next we could get Lamar Jackson. Next we could get Jared Goff. Next we could get Lamar Jackson. Those are the Monday and Thursday schedules. I mean, the NBC's got the flex on Sunday night. They're trying to, you know, the leagues trying to get all the,

you know, in the Fox big game Sunday afternoon, NBC. The Thursday and Monday schedules are ridiculous. And, you know, this is why I say, good luck to all you leagues battling the NFL. Well, quarterback play now is so good. It is, we have, we have, what's the word we always use on this? I'm trying to think of the word I use. Saturation.

After this year, the Bengals got theirs. The Dolphins got theirs. The Chargers got theirs. I mean, you're reaching a point. And by the way, the good quarterbacks now play longer. I mean, Philip Rivers, Tom Brady, Breeze, they play longer. So you've got good guys playing long. longer, new guys who are better than ever out of high school and college with 10,000 snaps

by the eighth grade. The college guys are better and they're better sooner. I mean, one of the reasons, you know, James Winston's making nothing this year and Cam can't get a job is we've reached a saturation point. If you show baggage, you're not totally in, you show you're a little distracted, you can be a little needy. Teams move on. They're not giving you second and third chances.

They are moving on. I mean, Chicago wouldn't give Nick Foles. another chance if they didn't with on Trubisky. We have reached a saturation point. The quality of quarterback in this league is astounding. And it's getting better. All these college quarterbacks going into the NFL, they are all now in these seven-on-seven camps and these summer camps,

and it's the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000-hour rule. They are so much better now. I mean, the idea that Trevor Lawrence can go into Clemson as a freshman and win a national championship and look poised, What? It's not the way You guys used to red shirt. He's going up against Alabama and Nick saving.

Few, few, few, few. Darts everywhere picking him apart. I mean, it just, you just didn't used to be that way. So it is, now you, just good luck. The quality. And I'll say this, the NFL's no more Mr. Nice guy. They put a game on Christmas.

They said, you know what? Why should we give the NBA that holiday? Why? holidays everybody's home. We're not going to give leagues holidays. So, I mean, that's why I think it's imperative for the NBA to push. To push. You better push to get this season underway because the only way you're going to deflect some of that rating hit is if Christmas is your opening day.

Then you've got a real fight. Then you got Lakers, LeBron, Kevin Durant. You got, now all of a sudden, I'm like, depends on the NFL game over at halftime. I'm going to the NBA. So good stuff. Joe Madden, Angels manager, one of the smartest people in baseball. And we're going to talk about a lot of different topics.

Baseball, the people I trust, tell me, we got NASCAR coming up. UFC this weekend. The first team sport back is going to be baseball. I think it is huge for baseball. Plus, plus, plus. My thoughts on the Patriots schedule all around the corner. Don't go anywhere.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays and New Newn. Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHard Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear.

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. SportsClyce brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsClyce on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo SlicLife 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, learn the hard way with me. your host and your favorite therapist,

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

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

Absolutely. And that's two different 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

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

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

Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of

stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her.

What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Everything going on, you're probably worrying more than ever, some anxiety. Check out MDrive Relax, Powerful Supplement. MDrive Relax, 50% off. Check it out. MDrive Relax.com, mDrive Relax.com. The World Series he managed the Cubs to is probably the most dramatic baseball moment in the second half of my lifetime so far,

three-time manager of the year. 14 years as a manager, 9 in Tampa, where he had almost no budget and started moving in a saber metric analytic direction before the rest of the sport. Some didn't like the defensive shifts, but it was what he had to do. It was the Florida version of the A's to some point.

Then he went to the Cubs where he got a payroll and he won a World Series. Now they didn't renew his contract. He's with the Angels where years and years and years ago, He signed as a free agent back in the 70s, so he's really coming back home again. And it's neat. Joe Madden is one of the real thinkers in baseball.

And, you know, it's fascinating. I had Michael Lewis on the show yesterday who wrote the Moneyball book, and we talked about analytics and the movement toward it, the upsides and the negatives. And I thought it would be fitting today to bring Joe Madden on for a variety of reasons. I haven't talked to him in a long time. but in a sport that sometimes can drive me crazy with its rigidity, he has got a Bruce Ariens kind of looseness to him

and an ability to adapt I absolutely love. First of all, Joe, welcome back to Southern California, and how are you? Good calling, how you doing, man? Really appreciate all of that. I'm really enjoying it. I've been driving around Long Beach when I came back prior to spring training, getting reacquainted with everything and everybody. I'm hanging out my RV right now as we're working our way through this moment.

But really, it's got like a homecoming kind of a feel to me. It is kind of like going home, and I'm really looking forward to getting this season going at some point and working here for the next several years. You feel like a Southern California guy. And I don't, no knock on Chicago, my wife's favorite city, but you got a Southern Cal Field. Now, I want to talk about the pandemic. When you reach out to players, it doesn't have to be Mike Trout. It can be a AAA player. It can be a borderline guy that makes the roster.

What are you hearing from players about their want to play today? You know, it's primarily what we've been doing. We've been working through a texting tread. I've been doing a weekly Zoom conference with my coaching staff. And what I've done, I've also done a GoPro video trying to replicate our opening meeting during spring training in Arizona and sent that to all the boys. So I've just been trying to keep the messaging at the forefront of the. their brain and what I'm hearing is everybody wants to play but of course they're all concerned and

the biggest thing is how do I take care of my family during all of this yes not being separate from the family because all the other stuff to me as we work the machinations of all this it's all you know workable according to science and with everybody's comfortable with but the part that's that's that I thought from the beginning the players going to have to be ameliorated with is my family how do I take care of my family how does this affect my family can I be with my family And that's really, to me, the biggest part of all of this as we work through it, just to make sure that the players feel comfortable regarding the relationship and how they're going to be able to stay close to their families.

If we could work through that, I think they'll be able to really be part of almost anything else. So the no-fans thing, I mean, listen, guys are sitting in the batting cage for years with no fans. Spring training games sometimes don't have a lot of fans. You know, baseball players are so concentrating on being in the plate and pitchers are so zoned in. I can see no fans for a while. Would it bother you? No, I agree with you. I mean, at this point, I mean, listen, we're just trying to get it going again.

We want to get back up and running. We don't want to lose a year of baseball just from a developmental perspective. You know, we're here also to provide entertainment and provide hope for the general public, people in the United States and around the world. I mean, there's just a lot of complimentary impacts going on right here. And so, yeah, nobody in the stand? Come on, I did Instructionally for how many years in Arizona from September 15th to October 31st. You're playing on field number three at Junotry Park. And literally, it's 105 degrees up until the middle of October.

So these are things that we've done in the past. It's not anything new in that regard. It will be different. Absolutely. I think, have we done it for maybe a week or so, guys will kind of start getting used to it, and it's not going to be that much of an adjustment. I think in the beginning it will, but I'm sure we could work through it. You know, we talk, I've always said baseball's regular season is hard for me as a broadcaster

because it lacks a certain urgency, and I'm in the urgency business. And I do think in life, sometimes we are forced to make decisions by our wife, by our job, by a culture, and it's actually something we should have been doing for years. Baseball said to you, Joe, listen, 85 games. That's what we're doing. And people love the urgency, and it ended up just being wonderful. Would you be comfortable saying, you know what, 162 is a lot? Can we scale it back 40 games? Is it possible? This will force baseball to make some moves that are actually good for the sport going forward? I think there's different things that we probably end up trying during the course of this time that

I probably have been against just being a, you know, a purist, the fact that I grew up in a certain way like we all did. And the game needs to be played this way and this ruggedly and this many games. And how could you compare stats unless you did that? I, you know, I've been of that ilk. Now, under the current circumstances, I am wide open to trying new and different things. Now, I've talked about rule, you know, some rules I wouldn't, don't mind being changed. And, you know, I'm really into, I'm fine with impacting the pace of the game. than anything. So there's things that I'm amenable to. But at the end of the day, I mean,

number of games, I think that it would be interesting to call it back to the point where you can either play games and playoff games in better weather. That would be a big part of it also. Yes. Yes. I've been involved in some really horrific like a World Series

against the Phillies. My God, that game when we had a stop for like two days, the rain was horizontal. I mean, it was horizontal. And infield balls hit on the infield, runners on first and second, the empire wouldn't call infield fly roll because it wasn't a routine play.

So whether in that part of the year, the games like that should not be decided under those circumstances or weirdly I'm almost into the fact that neutral sites in advance, say Miami is going to be the site of this year's World Series, whatever. I think that could be fascinating too. But calling back the number of games, it'll be better for the players in a sense,

fat injuries, the travel, expectations, just how we do this now. I mean, it's not like it had been done in the past. It's different. And so, I don't know, 154. I mean, I just call it back to the original number. And then if you need to look beyond that, possibly. But whatever it takes to get postseason played in better weather, I think that's a consideration. You know, you are pretty ground-breaking.

What Billy Bean was as a general manager, you were as a manager in terms of evolving and adapting. And I always think it's fascinating. I am pro-analytics, but I also use a word regularly called man-a-lilics that I don't think you can take 27-year-old alpha males and reduce them to numbers. I think you have to trust players to make plays. And so if you can add analytics to analytics, I like it more. When you are changing things and taking some analytics, do you ever worry that a player feels like, Skip, I'm just a number to you. That you, you know, does that, is it part of analytics you have to be careful not to minimize or marginalize the young emotional athlete?

Yes, absolutely right on. I totally agree with that assessment. I am into information. I am into analytics to a certain point. I think like anything else, you become an extremist in anything, politically whatever. It's really not a good place to exist. and if you just want to turn baseball into this analytical game solely, you're really creating a pretty boring game,

and I think that's a part of the lack of interest in the game today. Because when you do that, and the way baseball organizations are run right now, everybody's working up the same sheet of music, and everybody's losing their identity. There is no identity. There's just a baseball identity, which is hit homers, strikeouts are okay, go ahead and walk,

and pitchers try to spend the baseball. But there's not this method per team of playing the game. I've been watching the 2002 World Series with the Angels. And my God, I was so proud to be part of that. And the identities is dripping off the TV screen there, purely just based on contact. And how about how we ran the bases and advancing balls in the dirt, defense,

the ability to come back, never quitting. I mean, there's different components of that team that are timeless. And my push this year has been for us, the Angels, 2020, to create our own identity now and moving forward to the point I created an identity wall. because I want our thoughts, what's important to us up on this wall, that they could walk by it every day. Analytics, be careful, has the potential to subtract all the passion out of the game.

When you're always deciding things through technology and computers, pretty much you're turning everybody into robots. And that's my concern, right down to replay. And that's when, you know, replay to me can, and it has. I mean, for me, okay, something bad happens. I don't go berserk real fast because it's going to get changed, okay? it's going to get changed, something on the bases. Don't run out there.

Put your hand up, wait 20 seconds, and say, challenge it or not. Passion, you've got to be careful. Men, you're subtracting passion from the game, and we're putting it in the hands of machinery. And that's the part that scares me. Joe Madden, New Angels manager back in Southern California. So I'm watching the documentary the other day, you know,

and Michael Jordan, that episode seven comes up Sunday, you should give it a watch because they go back to Michael's baseball career. And he played in the summer league and actually hit 300 with Terry Francona. And listen, he's 6-6. He had a big strike zone. He couldn't hit the curve for a while. But the effort was magnificent.

And by the way, he started in AA baseball, which is no joke. Okay. It's not like some single A instructional league. It was tough. But it's interesting. It is interesting when I think about, you know, spring training and baseball. So you're in Chicago. and you win the World Series

and you're on top of the world. But sports is cruel. A couple years later, you have a meeting and they let you go from America's sweetheart team. And go to the morning you find out you're not going to be

the Cubs manager. Were you grateful, thankful, bitter? What were your emotions? You had accomplished Joe something. You may not even have thought you could. winning a world series when you became a free agent catcher in 75, and now you lose the job. Where did you go emotionally to drive home or the first talk discussion with your wife?

Grateful, absolutely grateful, humbled by the entire experience. I mean, listen, where I had come from, I was a bench coach up until I was 51, 52 years of age, and then finally I get this opportunity, and then I'm driving across country and find out that the Cubs really didn't want me. and offer a contract that was bizarrely great. And what does that do for your life? I'm like 60 years old at the time, right? And now of a sudden, you know, you're able to plan even further for your future

and for your kid's future and your grandchildren. I mean, there's so many things that occur in that one particular moment outside of the game. Things that you have worked for, validation of your concepts and your thoughts and your work. People have no idea what it took to get to that point. They don't. Everybody sees the finished product that you don't realize what goes into that. But if that's where my mind rushes do, what went into that and the gratitude. So no, bitter, not even for a second bidder, not even for a nanosecond bitter.

You know, of course, of course it would have been interesting and cool to have stayed there longer. Not going to deny that. I love the place. Love the ballpark, love the city. Great city. Yeah. Absolutely. It's the best.

But under the circumstances, you know, Theo and I talked, I mean, at the time, I mean, it was just the right time for change. from his perspective, looking at me, and then from me looking back to them. So it was mission accomplished. It couldn't have been better. I mean, five winning years and four with averaging, what, 95 or 96 wins, something like that. Not bad. So leave, you move on, you go on to the next challenge. And it does.

Whatever those juices are that we got inside us and you put us on a frying pan, they start coming out a little bit more again. And it's kind of cool. I'm totally reinvigorated. I'm really jacked up about this whole moment. Yeah, and again, you spent time in the minors. My first job out of college was a minor league baseball job. If you get a half hour Sunday, episode seven of the last dance takes you back to Michael

Jordan's minor league baseball career. First of all, the curve is really hard to hit. That is my first takeaway. He didn't look good. But, you know, just the batting cage and sitting in there and chopping wood every day, it's kind of fascinating. And your life has been similarly an incredible ride, one of the really smart, good people in the business. And Joe, best of luck to you, your team getting back in the Angels. Very kind of you, call.

Thank you for having me on today. And let's do this again in the near future. And I really do appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Joe Madden, smart, smart guy. Really, really interesting. And he's lived a great, I mean, he got his break at like 50.

I mean, just put your head down. Chop wood. Put your head down. It's not easy. You watch that last dance documentary with Michael. Joey and I have said this. For Michael Jordan, it was just Andy Dufrained Shawshank Redemption through a tunnel. Tackled for six years.

Joe Madden's career is fascinating. It couldn't get breaks for years. Then he wins the World Series with the Cubs. It's just perseverance. You got to love your life. You got to love it because it's so hard. to be successful. You know, and that's why I kind of think of Michael Jordan

with Joe Madden. Joe Madden didn't get any breaks for a long time. 60. He's the guy. 60. You can't give up at 40. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no.

Turn on the news. This is the Herdline News. Sponsored by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Only pay for what you need. What do they say every overnight success is 10 years in the making? Right. It's really a lot longer. was looking at Joe Madden's resume today.

That dude put in so many hours until he got a break. Forget success, a break. I mean, success is really what? Just not quitting, right? Right. So, Dak Prescott's contract has been the talk of the Cowboys for months. Well, it's actually been a lot longer than that. But in an interview with NFL Network, Jerry Jones said that he's keeping his focus on building a strong team around Dak instead of his long-term deal.

When I look at the career that Dak has had with the kids. It gives me a really solid feeling about what's in store for us in the future. And we've got to do everything we can, and that's what we're doing in this offseason, to put the players on the cowboys that are players that can, with his talent, as quarterback, really win championship or have a shot at. That's the thing I think about when I think of where we are and how we are with Dak. And Dack's situation has gotten so interesting for me. If you like him, sign him.

If you want to be there, sign it. I'm just so over talking about it. It's so exhausting. And I'm a Dack fan, as I say, every time I want him to get paid. I want everyone to get paid. I mean, it's not money out of my pocket. What do I care if a player makes a lot of money or not? But it's just like Jerry said, they're trying to put the best pieces around him,

which is what every team is trying to do. But it's just one of those situations where it's starting to make me a little bit nervous for Dack. especially with the Andy Dalton move, it just seems like they are, the cowboys are kind of stuck where they are, and it just is going to be what it is. And that's what's concerning moving into the season, because, you know, God forbid something happens,

that's what can change the course of your career if it's not a long-term commitment. So the Ravens lucked out with their 2020 season schedule. They have no West Coast trips and only leave the Eastern Time Zone to go to Houston in week two. So they will have the travel, the fewest miles of any team. They did get two Thursday night games,

but they're back to back. So Baltimore will have a full week to prepare for the Cowboys after facing a Steelers on Thanksgiving. That's why gave them two extra wins. An amazing Thanksgiving game. I mean, they got, it's, it's really, no, listen, they were good anyway,

but they got, no, they don't play a single team that has a buy before them. I mean, come on. It's a remarkable schedule. And they will not play any teams coming off of their buy. None.

I felt like, like Baltimore was going to be, I mean, obviously we know what the chiefs are. They're incredible. But Baltimore, I think, is going to come into this season rolling with a little bit of vengeance, a little chip on their shoulder. And then they have this schedule. It's going to be something to watch Baltimore this year. That Thanksgiving game, I mean, back-to-back Thursday night games, but that Thanksgiving Steelers Ravens game, that's going to be a fun watch. They have five primetime games. That's the maximum allowed by NFL rules. So Baltimore are going to have a big, season. So the Bears did not pick up Mitchell Trubisky's fifth year option, but Bears GM,

Ryan Pace said on 670 the score in Chicago, that doesn't mean that they've given up hope on their young quarterback. We've always had the approach for we're honest and we're truthful with our players and with our staff and then we move on and we get to work. And that's worth that Mitch gets it and everyone's competing. Everyone's focused on better results. That's the entire team. It starts with me and everybody. And I think, you know, we believe in Mitch. That doesn't change, you can point to Kyle Fuller as a great example of a player that didn't get his option to exercise. And I think we would say it's worked out well for him and for us. Doing it. Every other week, it's a different story with Chibisky and the Bears. We're

committed to him. Here comes Nick Foles. We're not picking up his option. We're still believe in him. Love the coach. Questions about the GM. I just, I don't, it's, it's the same thing for me always. I just think that especially with a young quarterback, what's the harm in saying it's his team? What's the harm? He goes into the season, goes into camp, feeling confidence.

The guys on the team know who the guy is. If he has a terrible camp, then you have a different conversation. But what's the harm in just saying this is his team to lose for this moment? There is a bit of a mentality in psychology that goes into this as well. And this constant flip-flopping.

And I understand being honest. You can be honest with players behind the scenes, but publicly, there's got to be some sort of plan, you know? Agreed. Agree. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News.

Peter Schrager in New York joins us next. What to make of the Giants, the Jets, and his thoughts about the Ravens getting a massive break. What about Dallas's schedule? New England's. Peter Schrager next. The small business news mentioned brought to you by our partner Net Suite. America is ready to get back to work, but to win in the new economy, you need to take every advantage to succeed. Smart companies run on NetSuite by Oracle, the world's number one cloud business system.

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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. 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 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests.

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

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

Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jette. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line.

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

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue. Artitude. Hey, Rhett, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker.

Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Joining us now, sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, the best or nothing. Okay, Shregs, I love this whole stuff. I thought the jet schedule, I thought it was brutal. Was there a schedule you thought was a little bit of a raw deal, Shregs? You know, look, every team today is going to wake up and say, we're 10 and 6. We love our schedule. We're 10 and 6.

We've got 10 wins. That's how it's going to go. Yeah, some teams got it harder than others. You know, the 49ers, I thought, have a rough go at it because in weeks two and week three, they play the Giants and the Jets back-to-back weeks right out of the gate. So you're telling the 49ers after having however many weeks they've had in quarantine, living shelter in place, all this stuff. Then we go through training camp, and then we're hanging out.

And for 14 straight days, we're going to be. out on the East Coast playing in East Rutherford. That's a tough ride for the defending champions. Usually they get a little softer for that kind of thing where they at least are given primetime games against big teams at home. So every team could have some gripes. I look at the Jets. It was going to be hard no matter what.

Last year the Jets had a cake schedule down the stretch. They went six and two. Those wins at the end, it means they're going to get a tougher schedule this year. So if the Jets are going to do it, it's not going to because their schedules, a bunch of cake teams, they're going to have to win those games. Tampa Bay and Brady. Listen, to me, I look at it, and I think it's a pretty soft ending at the end. If Atlanta's out of the playoffs with a lame duck coach, you know, Atlanta twice in Detroit, Matt Patricia,

you could have some lame duck coaching going on there. Your overall thoughts, though, on what Brady got? I don't think it was ideal right out of the gates. I mean, you look at that thing. You're going into New Orleans. And gosh, Colin, just on the side, how good will it feel to be just watching Joe and Troy and Aaron from the Superdome with actual football? I can't wait for it. And then it's Breeze and Brady.

So I think that's a tough one. You know, that's a tough place to win, especially considering Brady might not have the easiest offseason, whereas everyone thinks this is going to be turnkey. Brady is one of these mad scientists where he needs to work with his guys and has had the same playbook his entire career. Brady has to learn an entire new verbiage, an entire new offense. He's never worked with Byron Lesbich or Bruce Ariens his entire career. And I don't think it's a turnkey as the Saints where Breeze and Peyton speak the same

language they have for 15 years, and it's the same cast of characters on offense, Kamara, and of course, Michael Thomas. I think the bucks might be big underdogs in that game, and I think it might take the Buccaneers a little bit before they hit their stride, and they don't have any room for that. Their first four weeks are all big-time games against big-time opponents. I look at New England, and, you know, I just don't like the direction of their weapons. I think there are Julian Edelman injury from being the least talented offensive weaponry in the NFL, I'm looking at home games.

I guess that's breaks with the Niners in Baltimore, but God, early, they got to go to Seattle, to go to Kansas City, Buffalo's pretty early. I mean, what do you make in New England going forward? All right. So the behind the scenes on this, the NFL doesn't arbitrarily make a schedule. The NFL puts the teams that they want to highlight on prime time. And we've got eight different teams who have five primetime games. The Saints aren't one of them.

You know, there's a few other playoff teams from last year. the Vikings aren't one of them. The Patriots are one of them. So either the NFL and the league office believes in the power of the brand of the Patriots to the national audience, either they believe in Belichick or there's almost kind of like this shot and fraud feel of like, people want to see Rome burn. And if this team is not great out of the gates, those games aren't going to be flex necessarily. So five primetime games with Jared Stidham as a likely quarterback with no Brady,

and not a lot of weapons on defense. They lost, obviously. Kyle Van Doi and a few of Landon Roberts, two guys. Like, this is going to be the ultimate test for Belichick because they have a very difficult schedule and they also have five primetime games or the entire country is watching. And guess what?

No secret here. A lot of people don't like the Patriots. This might be one of those things where the Patriots lose a lot of games in primetime and they're on the next week and the week after that. Or Belichick gets the last laugh and the Buccaneers struggle out of the gates and here come the Patriots and it's Belichick's genius

on primetime five times to show it. Peter Schrager joining us. three, I mean, the most exciting game for a lot of people's chiefs at Ravens. Is that the big one for you? That's the big one. It's a Monday night game. And, you know, these two teams have played twice before. One of them was a Mahomes incredible comeback victory two years ago. And then last year, it was another Mahomes victory. Both those games were an arrowhead. I think a lot of people expected these two teams to square off in the AFC championship game. The Titans had other ideas for that. I look at that week three game, Monday night, it's kind of both teams have gotten their

feet settled and they can get after it. But there are a lot of fun. games in this one. You know what? I look at Thanksgiving night, and I think of the Ravens with Lamar Jackson and all the hype that he's gotten going into Pittsburgh on a Thursday night, Thanksgiving night, and Rafflesburgers back, and that defense is hitting. Like, that's the stuff I get up for. I love that. When the entire country's watching midseason, what are you? What do you got right before we get into December? I'll take Ravens at Steelers Thanksgiving almost over Chiefs at Ravens early in September. Did you get text last night from Any coaches or GMs regarding the schedule?

Yes, I got several because there's a lot of quirks and, like, weird stuff in these schedules. Like, I mentioned the 49ers have two straight games out there in New York early on. The Patriots have a weird stretch where they play the Rams in the very next week. They play the Chargers in the same exact stadium. So they've got to stay out here. The Chiefs, they have this brutal schedule. And then at the end of the season, they've got two games in South Florida in December where it's like, okay, thank you very much. schedule makers will take a nice two weeks in Florida.

There's a lot of teams that have very tough beginnings and then kind of ease off at the end. And there's some teams that are just have brutal schedules at the end. But this is what it always is on schedule day. And I think everyone's feeling is the same. Like, I'm not going to complain about anything. We're just hoping and praying that there's football week one that we can all watch. And as the NFL forces forward, and everything's been on schedule and on time, and they plan on playing those games. Yeah.

It coin flipped today preseason. I looked at the schedule yesterday and I said, probably won't have a preseason. Am I being negative or realistic? You know, I don't know about that. I don't know about that. Let's give it a couple of weeks and see how the country response. Joe will say is this.

What is good for, I don't know, the Kansas City Chiefs or the Indianapolis Colts might be a totally different story for the Rams, the Chargers, the 49ers, and teams in New Jersey, the Giants and the Jets. This is a very state-by-state thing right now. And I don't know. Like, do the 49ers or the Rams? so they have a typical training camp?

Is that possible? And if it's not, is there any quality in the fact that, okay, well, look, Indianapolis hasn't been hit so hard. Are the cult going to? I think it's part of the reality, though. Like, all right, you might not have it. Everyone might not be completely equal in the thing. I might need to be some adjustments from team to team to team.

That's supposed to have to deal with it. I will say this, though. The NFL schedule makers putting a giant home game, week one on Monday night football is pretty badass. It's like, we are going to be playing football. And not only are we going to be playing football. We're not avoiding the possibility that there won't be football in these certain states. No, New Jersey and New York have been hit really hard.

We're going for it. Monday night, if everything's safe and everything's ready, we're going to bring sports back in grand fashion. I've got to sit my cap to the NFL. They're going for it. Peter Shregor, good talking you, buddy. Always great, Colin. Thank you.

NFL Network, good morning football, too. Get your free credit scorecard today, even if you're not a Discover customer, includes your FICA credit score. More hurt your credit. It won't. Learn more. Discover.com slash credit scorecard. Discover.com slash credit scorecard.

Limitations apply. The great storyteller Dave Wonstat is going to be joining us next. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Ah, here we go. Our number three schedule release day. It's live in Los Angeles, the herd. High Heart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. Good stuff.

Michael Mulvahill, Joe Madden, Peter Schrager, Dave Wan. Monsstaff, one of the great storytellers, Dolphins, Bears, head coach, funny, funny guy. He'll be joining us. I bet you's smoking a cigar right now in Naples, Florida. I know Dave well. Smoking a cigar in Naples, Florida. Coach Wonstat was the first celebrity I ever met. Where did you meet him?

Chicago. I won a art contest. I was really young, like eight or something. And I got to go to Chicago, and he was at one of those. Remember telethons? Sure. They'd bring all celebrities in, the answer phone. So he was there, and I started freaking out.

He's one of the truly great guys in our business. He's awesome. He's just great. You know, so funny, when I used to live in Connecticut, my wife and I, you know, got a place down in Naples, Florida, and we just fell in love with it. Just loved it. Get up in the morning, ride a little bicycles through town.

It's beautiful there. So chill. So chill. And there used to be this bar named Handsome Harry's. And it was, you know, it was all late. It was kind of like good-looking people and stuff, you know, but older, kind of a sophisticated older crowd. And I'm talking to Wonstadt one time, and I got a place in Florida. And he goes, where? I said, Naples.

He goes, I got a place there. He says, where do you like to eat? I said, I like to go have a cocktail at Handsome Harry's. He goes, I own it. I'm like, what are that? And he said sold it, but I was like, oh, it's, it looked like Wonstat, you know, gentleman, handsome, that kind of thing. Coach, he really is. He's one of the all-time great human beings.

So, you know, listen, social media is rough. And the way I attack social media is I just have fun. I don't take myself seriously. I kind of roll my eyes at it. But I do put some stuff out so it gets tweets and stuff and my social media team likes it. But it's hard to have an opinion that goes against the grain. I mean, who wants to deal with that crap? Your phone blown up.

And so people basically, and most people in life are followers anyway. So on Twitter, it's just followers. Very few people are willing to say, no, the opposite's true. Roger Goodell is a great commissioner. Twitter, you're wrong. You just keep following. He's no good, but he's more successful than you or anybody in your family or anybody you know. And he runs the NFL really, really well.

And you can't say that on social media. Everybody loves Adam Silver, more woke. Nobody likes Roger Goodell. And I look at this schedule. It's just great. I mean, do you notice this? In week two, every team playing each other has a bye week, meaning they can move it.

No division games in week three and four, meaning virus, they can move it. September's very malleable. Also, Super Bowl in Tampa. There's a two week space before the Super Bowl, so they get a break there. They can move that around. Lots of flexibility.

And the NFL's really well run. I don't think they get everything right. Anybody that criticizes Goodell for his missteps as somebody that's never had a big boy job, it's hard to lead. Canadians like everybody. They don't even like their prime minister. We didn't like Barack Obama once because he wore a beige suit.

People just don't like leaders. Social media is vile and angry and anonymous. We don't like anybody. We don't like any of our commissioners. And I like, I think all of our commissioners, I mean, they all went to like Ivy League schools. They're successful people. I like all of them.

Adam Silver sometimes is a little too pro player. but that's the NBA. It's always kind of been the NBA. But I met all these commissioners. I met all of them. I like all of them. They're all smart. But Goodell gets just clobbered.

Do you know how hard it is to run the NFL? You have regulated violence. You've got the gambling hanging over it. It's absurdly popular. You've got network. You're on every network. You've got every network executive and president and the Murdox and this group and that group. And they're all asking big questions.

And it's hard. and players make mistakes and players are young and there's domestic violence and he kind of butchered it and then a Kaepernick situation these are hard they're hard again Canada likes everybody they don't like their prime minister but I looked at the Super Bowl this year I thought I think joey and I agreed it's one of the best five hours of tv I've seen in my life it was it was incredible incredible I mean there wasn't a hiccup I thought free agency this year he got blowback was terrific I thought the draft, I'm still, we work in television. Television's hard.

At any one point, Joy and I could trip over a damn wire and knock us off the air. They went four days on that draft on Zooms. And it was brilliant from basements. You got to see the families and the kids. It was so heartwarming. And I thought the schedule yesterday that's got all sorts of little opportunities in early season to move it, You just got to, but nobody wants to say that about him. Nobody's saying he's perfect.

No, I, there are presidents I loved. I loved Reagan, disagree with a lot. I loved Obama, disagree with a lot. But by and large, this league is so well run, and it's hard. And I'll tell you this. Here's an advantage for the NFL. States now, we've got unemployment rate of 15%. States need additional revenue, because these budgets,

are all going to be deficits. States are going to pass gambling legislation fast. You thought pro sports gambling legalized by the Supreme Court was moving in the right direction. It's going to be overnight. You're going to see 30 states approve it. Why, they need additional revenue for their states. So good luck taken on the NFL when sports is legalized in 48 to 50 states in the next six months. They are all going to sign off on it for additional revenue for these states.

They're going to be all behind it and what sport do we bet the NFL? But I looked at that schedule release yesterday. No league turns a combine, a draft, and schedules into must-watch television. And nobody wants to admit Roger Ginell's good. Perfect? No. Flawless? No. Made mistakes? Yes. But if Canadians don't like their prime minister,

and they like everybody. It's an indication and an illustration of how hard it is to run a country, a business, or a league. I think Goodell's great. I've met him two times, had dinner with him, had drinks with him. He could not, he, unlike a lot of powerful people, he's a listener. He just asks questions. He wants to know answers. What do you think?

Why do you think that? He is just constantly curious about how to get better. And I watched this thing last night, and I looked at the same. schedule and I'm like, man, Bravo. By the way, the Patriots. Now, many of you would suggest that I'm a Patriots home. I, of course, am not. They just have the best coach and the best quarterback for like 15, 20 years. But I looked at their schedule, and when I say they're going to go 6 and 10 or 7 and 9, I get nothing but pushback. You look at the schedule. You tell me where the 9 and 10 wins are. Jared Stedham, week two, at Seattle, week four at Kansas City.

Then Denver's pass rush at home. By San Francisco's defense into Buffalo's defense in Buffalo. Oh, well, we get the Jets. Here comes Baltimore. Then at Houston. We get Arizona. Then Chargers, then Rams. You find me the nine and ten wins in that schedule.

And there are a Julian Edelman injury away from having less offensive weaponry than every team on their schedule. Buffalo, Colin, they brought in Stefan Diggs. Buffalo now has weapons. Well, what about the Jets? They went and drafted one, Breshard Perman. Last year, if you paid attention, Jets, tight ends were great, plus Lavian Bell. Jets now have better weapons.

They'll be in a quarterback deficit to Russell Wilson, to Patrick Mahomes, to Jimmy Garoppolo, to Deshawn Watson, to Lamar Jackson, to Jared Gough, to Sam Darnold. to Derek Carr. So for all those saying, I'm a Patriot Homer, Belichick is going to squeeze some wins out of losses. But if you look at the direction of the league, if you look at their schedule,

if you look at the weaponry you need now, I mean, you can't touch anybody. I don't see nine wins in this schedule. I don't see 10 wins at all. Skip Bayliss and I don't agree on much. He sees 6 and 10, so do I. 6 and 10, 7 and 9. That's what I see.

They didn't get any breaks. on this thing. I mean, think about this. So wait a hold on, one, two, three. First ten games. They face Russell Wilson, Derek Carr,

Patrick Mahomes, Jimmy Garoppolo, Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, Lamar Jackson, Deshawn Watson. Their break is November 21, Kyler Murray.

I mean, find me the wins with no firepower. Find me the wins. Dave Wanstack, handsome Harry. going to be joining us next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific.

Check it out, mdriv relax.com. MDriveRlax.com. They're offering 50% off right now. It's stressful, stressful, stressful time. Check it out. One of my favorite guys. You used to own a restaurant in Naples called Handsome Harries. Are you in Naples right now, Dave Vaughn's that?

I am. Let me comment on your last statement there. I feel the same way. I'm a five inning at a Cubs game. That's about, you know, I'm at and then I got to move. I would watch nine innings right now. And I'm done with Netflix.

I'm turned to bourbon now. I'm drinking bourbon, okay? I'm burnt out on the vodka, my red wine. We're done with that. So a buddy mine brought me a bottle of bourbon. So I sit there and have a bourbon and a cigar and watch the last dance. That's where my mind is right now. Yeah, Dave is talking about a conversation.

we had off air with joy and he could hear it that I said, if the NBA doesn't go and baseball comes back, I will watch the Yankees, I'll watch the Dodgers, I will watch every single baseball game I can get my hands on. Dave Wonstat joining us. So when you coached it in Miami and knowing the heat and humidity, did you think the schedule mattered giving you an advantage or disadvantage? Not as much for us because we had a practice in it,

but I do think, and I know that it, was a factor for opponents. You know, if you were playing New England, you know, up there late in December, that could be a disadvantage for us, an advantage for them. So the weather was a little bit of a factor with us. We used to talk about it all the time. I mean, I, you know, and Joy would talk to Jason, you know, when it was hot and we were practiced. And we would practice at game times. I mean, we would go out during the morning and have an eight o'clock practice and then we would come back around 1, 2 o'clock in the afternoon, right in the heat of it, and we would go out there and put the pads on and get after it, just to kind of say, hey, and then players bought

into it, hey, this is game mentality, and it's going to be hot. So I think psychologically, that it definitely played a big part. I don't know how much on the opponent's side, but definitely it helped us. You know, I looked at, I also think if you have a rookie quarterback who's going to play like the Bengals, I looked at Cincinnati's schedule, coach. Coach, holy moly. Cincinnati played all these pass rushes in the first couple of months. If you ever, yeah, I mean, did you ever look at your personnel and think? Well, you know what?

I think you're hitting on something that's worth talking about because I've done two or three of these primarily bear shows in the last week or two. And I really feel this. The teams that have new coaches, rookie head coaches, and rookie quarterbacks, they've always been, a little bit behind because of the transition. But now doing all this stuff through Zoom and virtual, you know, you cannot get in there right now and work on the timing. I mean, if you've got a defense is one thing, you can line up and turn them loose.

But offensively, I think that's the position that's going to suffer a little bit and primarily the timing of the quarterbacks and the receivers and the running backs and the audibles and the checks. You can't do that. You can talk about it. Sounds good. you know, at a clinic, but reality is you have to be on the field doing it and be coached. So now, and then you got, I heard Matt Roll the other day.

I was talking to one of his assistant coaches. And he said the most difficult thing that Matt's doing, having right now is you try to get in there and you try to set your own foundation or your own culture, whatever you want to call it, as a new head coach for the program. And now you're doing it Zoom. You know, I mean, think about it. So it's, I think it's a real advantage. If I was a veteran team right now, and I've got everybody back and my staff back and my quarterback, boy, I'm feeling really good about starting this season.

By the way, the Baltimore Ravens not like they needed any help, but they don't have a West Coast game. Last year, the Jets got really lucky. They didn't have much West Coast stuff. Do you think, meanwhile, Seattle always has to go East Coast. Those are 3,000-mile trips. Does the length, can that hurt you at all? You've got several trips as a Miami coach all the way west. You know what?

We never, yeah, if you're going from the west, like you talked about Seattle, going to the East Coast, I've never really experienced that. But being from Miami, I mean, it takes us an hour to fly out of the state of Florida, as you know, Colin. So, I mean, when we were played the Raiders and when we played Seattle, we just had the minute, we never left early. We would go our normal day. We would fly out Saturday.

We would get up. We'd be up early on. Sunday and we would go play the game and we had a lot of success. We never thought that that was a factor. So I don't think it's as big a deal. We never made an adjustment going out two days early. A lot of teams do. A lot of teams do.

And they believe in it that going back to our Dallas Cowboy Days and then I never did it at the Bears and we never did it at the Dolphins. So going east to west, we never did anything. I can't speak for the other way. NFL, no OTAs, potentially shortened training camps. How difficult would that be to deal with as a head coach? Well, as I said earlier, defensively, it's not a problem. I mean, you can put your defense in and guys can go out and run around garbage cans and get to the right spot and you're going to be okay.

But boy, the receiver stuff, the offensive line, you know, trying to get those guys to work as a unit and the communication between them and the quarterback, you know, it's going to be difficult. I, you know, I'm not sure really if I'm a head coach, I think I would rather have two weeks, an extra week or two of training camp practice and eliminate a game or two, you know, because sometimes you get into a game and, boy, guys can lose confidence in a hurry. You know, you go in there with Joe Burroughs and your line's not ready, and the receivers don't know what to do, and he looks terrible. And he, I mean, so I think if, depending when they give the go sign in the NFL, if something was going to give, I'd give up a preseason game or two just to have a week or two of practice

to really get a good base and a good foundation established. By the way, you're still very prominent in Chicago, do a lot of radio shows there. Ryan Pace did something most GMs don't like to do. He admitted Mitch Trubisky doesn't work and they went and got Nick Foles. Are you surprised that a G. pretty early in his quarterback's career is signaling, I whiffed. Well, I'm going to go back to our shows last year, our kickoff show, Colin. I'm still believing in Mitch.

I believe that Ms. Chubisky wins the job. I think that Ms. Chubisky is a starting quarterback at the Bears. You know, it's going to be tough on Nick to come back. But look at Nick Fools. And I love Nick as much as a person as I do as a quarterback. But the guy's performance has been average the last four years. So now you're going to come into a new system. I just think that Ms. Chubisky is going to be the guy,

and I think that this is good. I think they put a sense of urgency in him. We're not going to guarantee that $25 million. You know, you want it. You're going to have to earn it. And I think that he'll accept the challenge. I know I'm in a minority in Chicago. I do, you know, like you said, radio and I do two TV shows.

And I've been, I just think if you use Mitch Trubisky right and run the ball with that defense, I can get in the playoffs tomorrow. I really believe that. And keep in mind, I love what Ryan Pace did in the off season. For any bare people who are out there watching, I talk about this all the time, having a window to win.

Well, everything that they did in the off season is to win now. When you sign Jimmy Graham and you sign Robert Quinn, a deep pass rusher, and you sign Nick Foles, and you sign Danny Chorbatten back at linebacker, these are all guys that are playing for one reason

to get a ring. And I love that mentality with that football team. Dave Wonstat, Fox Sports, NFL guy, college football guy, too. So I didn't get to talk to you about this. It's one thing for the Packers to draft a quarterback. But if they had drafted a wide receiver with their second pick, I think you could make the argument to Aaron is, listen, we're drafting a kid that we think has your talent in four years.

but when they went quarterback, running back, never went and got a receiver, it looks like Green Bay is trying to make a statement. And I get Aaron Rogers being potentially pissed. What did you make of love being picked and no receiver in a deep receiver draft not being selected? Yeah, I'll tell you what, and I don't know much about love. Obviously, he's a great talent. I'm not questioning that. But my first thought was they better be careful that they don't end up being Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

Because all last year, we talked about that the Patriots had, you know, they had the second most drops of any receiving group, and they were making mistakes. And they were a young group, and Tom didn't have the supporting cast. And obviously, Aaron's younger, and he still got more arm strength and things like that to Tom Debt. But still, you better be darn careful that, you know, your best player, I think you've got to give him as much help as possible. I was disappointed. I truly was. I thought the Packers could have stepped up and really tried to help Aaron Rogers.

Yeah. So I want to talk to little college football. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. I think you and I both like him more than the average person. He wrote this, you know, open letter to college football. Oh, I wrote it to the college football community. And he talked about, you know what, we should let players go when they want to go to the NFL. And the cynical part of me thinks, yeah, of course he does because they're all

be SEC players. So when he wrote, he wrote this idea that players should be able to, you know, make themselves draft eligible. And if they don't get picked, they can come back. And they should all be eligible the minute after their freshman year. What was your takeaway on that by Jim? Yeah, I like half of it. I always agreed because I had players at Pitt.

You know, when I had Derelle Revis and the show. McCoy, Dionne Lewis, you know, some of these players I knew were going to be first or second round draft picks, I would tell them, go, get out of here right now. But if a guy was going to be, and I had players that were six, one kid never got drafted and his agent had him convinced he was going to be a fourth rounder, it would have done him a lot of good to be able to have the opportunity to come back to pit for another year. So I don't like the idea of leaving after your freshman year, but I do really like the idea that if a kid wants to change his mind that he has that option to do it,

or if he gets drafted in a certain round, that maybe you don't want to waste the first round pick on him, obviously, and then the kid decided to stay in school. But after a certain round that wouldn't be costly to your program, to your club, I like that idea of a guy going back in a draft. Yeah. So what have you been doing the last couple months? Well, you know what?

I don't want to sound disrespectful to anybody, but Florida has been really progressive. I had my knee replaced a week after the Super Bowl. So that gave me something to do for the next week. At least I had rehab three days a week and I went to. And now I am, you know, Florida here, the beaches are open, the restaurants are open. I'm playing golf once a week, sometimes twice. I'm biking.

I'm swimming. So I'm pretty much back to normal in the city. Naples has been good. You know, down here, the people have been very, very aware. and following all the social distance guidelines. And I think so far, so good. So I have no complaints. Yeah.

Love talking to you, Coach. Thanks for stopping by. You know I love you in Naples, Florida is one of my favorite places. Good talking. All right. Talk you later. Bye-bye. Yeah.

By the way, yesterday I went for a long run. Joy went for one this morning. And I wear a mask around my neck and then pull it up if I have to. People are incredibly respectful. This idea that you're going to open stuff up and everybody's going to rush back to be in restaurants. It's just not the case. It's just not the case. People are going to be very caught.

I mean, I'll just tell you, if you opened up restaurants, I would maybe go once a week and only the places where I knew the owner and knew I could get a seat with space. That would be it. That would be it. Like the idea that people are so dumb, you're going to open it up, everybody's going to rush back. People that have underlying medical issues, they're not dumb.

They know they're in the crosshairs. They're going to stay back. And a young, 28-year-old person in great shape, it's probably going to say, I'm going to go to the beach. But even when people go to the beach. beach. I saw the beach last weekend in Ben Chura County, Joy. People were surfers. They were all standing apart. People that were walking on the beach. They were all like 20 yards out. They were moving to different sides. People are respectful. They just don't want to be trapped in their home.

We need to sometimes understand that this country is based on having a lot of personal freedoms and people make good choices. It's not perfect. But when I've watched people in my community and on beaches, They're very respectful. They separate. They have masks or cloths with them. I think sometimes the media portrays everybody. You're going to open stuff up and everybody's just going to rush back. Give everybody a big hug.

Breathe on them. And I just don't see that happening. Well, more than anything, people just want to get back to work. I do. That's what it's all about. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. So the Browns did not live up to their, very high expectations surrounding the team in 2019. And running back, Nick Chub admitted on the Jim Rome show that they got caught up in the hype. We thought we were a lot better than we were. And we didn't actually, we thought it was going to just happen for us. We didn't actually put the work in. So we just thought, man, we got this guy.

We got this guy. I mean, we're straight. We don't need to actually work. It's just going to happen for us because, I mean, we're just so naturally talent. I mean, that just goes back to the old saying, you know, the hardware beats talent when talent doesn't work. I think that's exactly what it was to do us. I mean, we had all the talent in the world, but we just didn't, you know, put the work into it. That's kind of disappointing news, but not really terribly surprising, considering what the Browns season was last year.

But all we could hear about from the Browns was just, you know, the Brown's attitude, and they've got it figured out, and, you know, it's Freddie Kitchens and Baker and this is the year. How could Cleveland, I mean, again, just basic delusion. How could Cleveland in a division with Pittsburgh and Baltimore think, we got this? Like with Freddie Kitchens, players thought that? Like, what? I mean, apparently that's what was going on there. That's what he said. They thought they were better than they were.

They really didn't have to work like that. Oh, my God. I am expecting a very different mentality and attitude and approach from the Browns this year. I don't necessarily know how much it's going to matter because the Ravens are in that division. Yeah. If Ben Ruffisberger is healthy and in shape, that's the Steelers, who were in the playoff conversation last. year with Rudolph and Hodges.

So again, I don't know how much it's going to matter this year if they do have a different system and, you know, new approach. But I just don't know what to ever make of the Browns, I guess. That's what I'm saying at this point. Most rational people don't. I mean, you ever met somebody, Joy, who's a little off, a little crazy and you're like, I don't get it. Well, of course you wouldn't because you're not crazy.

So it's like with Cleveland, if you're well run and organized in life, you know, You would look at them and go, how could they be cocky? They've never won. And I like the personalities in Cleveland. So it's not that. I actually find them to be incredibly interesting. And I thought they were interesting last year even while being dysfunctional. But dysfunctional only goes so far.

And we say it all the time. We're not rooting against Cleveland. I'm not rooting for any team to be bad. That's not good for anyone in the business. It's not good to have a team that when they come up on the schedule, you're like, oh, L. Like, they have no one there. They're tanking. There's nothing going on there this season.

And like, that's not ideal for anyone. So I do want them to have success because I want to see OBJ do great. And I want to see what Baker is capable of. And they have a ton of weapons and a ton of pieces. It's just going to be, can you apply all the things that you've changed this year? So Janus and San Jacumpur will be a free agent next year if he doesn't sign or do agree to a supermax extension with the bucks. And according to the San Francisco Chronicle, the warriors have reportedly been preparing for years to target Janus and either a train. or free agency.

Whoa. There's been some reports that Yannis could want to leave Milwaukee if he loses confidence in their chances of winning a title, but if the Warriors plan could be affected if this season doesn't restart and no champion is crowned.

That's kind of what they're waiting to see. We were talking about Clay Thompson being so frustrated with everyone saying the dynasty is over yesterday, which I didn't take too seriously, but if they get Yonis, then we'll be right back to talking about the Warriors every single day.

Well, we knew this was kind of a possibility this was sort of like some of the moves that they were making to be in place to make a play for Janus. But again, this is all on Janus if he chooses to stay in Milwaukee or not. Well, to me it comes, and this sounds like such a, people are like, you're crazy. But if Chris Middleton, I don't think we're going to have an NBA season. But if we didn't, Chris Middleton struggled in the playoffs, Janus can't keep saying, okay, I have to be great every game or we can't win. So to me, he needs his teammates.

It's like LeBron left Cleveland, not because he didn't live. like Cleveland, but he felt twice, I can't trust my teammates to win in Cleveland and we're not a big free agent spot. Milwaukee's not a big free agent hub. So you have to at some point believe the guys your team drafted can meet you at least occasionally at the A plus level. Yes. And if Yonis feels like, listen, I could, listen, I could love a job. You and I could love a job. But if we felt in the end of the day, our company didn't have the budget to hire good. people or the foresight to hire good people. You and I would have to like call our agents and go like they can't get it done.

Well, yeah, if your goal is to win a championship, if your goal is to reach ultimate success, then yes, all you have to do is look around the league. No matter how confident Janus is in his own skills, if the bucks aren't able to put it together. And look, we don't know if they can or they can at this point. But are they going to beat a team in the West? All he has to do is look around the league at all the other great players in the league and what they've done and how they've managed their.

their careers in order to win a championship. You know what the league is and the culture is. So again, it's on Janus, but if he ends up with the Warriors, who. So finally, the UFC returns tomorrow night with UFC 249, featuring the main event of Tony Ferguson versus Justin Gaichi. The fight will be for the interim lightweight title. And Dana White reportedly told Yahoo Sports that tomorrow's winner will face Habib next in a title unification fight later this year.

So UFC 249 was supposed to be Habib v. Ferguson before the pandemic. If Ferguson wins, this will be the sixth time the UFC has tried to put together a fight between the two of them. So it's a much anticipated fight, obviously, if Tony Ferguson wins tomorrow night. He has a record of 26, 3 and 0, and Gathe's record is 21, 2, and O. So it should be a really good fight and a really nice card. And I, for one, I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow. Yes, I am. And the state of Florida said, okay.

California said nothing here. Florida said come on over and boom, we got ourselves an interesting card. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lye News. Jason McIntyre does tomorrow's headlines today. He knows he's such a Jets fan.

He's got to be freaking out with that horrible jet schedule. So tough. So Jason McIntyre, we'll be joining us next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Tonight on FS1, we live. of Emmett Smith's record-breaking 150-yard game against the Packers as Fox Sports presents greatest games tonight at 7 Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. Good stuff. Hold on. There we go. It's called the cough button.

See, kids, if you're watching, I'm in a radio studio. I can cough and you don't hear it. It's kind of amazing. Who needs FaceTime? We have a cough button. Jason McIntyre, Fox Sports Radio on the weekends. former newspaper guy and ditch that career. And now he's gambling. He does tomorrow's headlines today where he guesses sometimes bizarrely accurately what's going to happen over the weekend. In fact, what was the one recently you got? Oh, you got you last week.

You predicted Andy Dalton to the Cowboys on Friday. And Sunday had happened and I'm like, what? Yeah, that was hysterical. So I'm hanging out with the family. I think it was Saturday. afternoon, Saturday evening. And my phone just starts, beep, be, be, beep, all these buzzes go off. I'm like, what's going on?

And they were like, you know, one of a couple guys at the show were like, hey, Andy Dalton to the Cowboys. I was like, yeah, I said that yesterday. They were like, no, it happened. And so I go on social media and I saw your shout out. Yeah, hey, listen, this is what we do, right, Colin? I mean, by the way, have you been talking much about last night's a pretty awesome production that Fox put on with Carissa Mark.

Yes, very good. How fun is that? Listen, you can do, I had a cocktail right next to me. I never drank it during the show. I just stared at it. But it's so great that I can do TV. I'm telling you, and I really believe this, and I've talked to Joy about this. Companies, I have a buddy who's a bond trader.

He's in his garage. He's like, I don't know why I go to work. He goes, I get more work done at home. What's the point? Like, I think these big residential buildings now, I wouldn't want to own them. I'm not so sure we can't do more programming near home at home. I'm going to build a home studio here in the next year just in case we deal with this stuff again.

Is it going to be near us? Because you and I live kind of close. Yeah, it's going to be in my basement. Oh, yeah. Well, you do have a pretty sweet house, by the way. All right, here we go. Tomorrow's headlines today. What will the headline be after the Browns go to Baltimore in week one, J. Mack?

So, you know, I'm very excited for week one, gambling. looking to schedule. Brown's Ravens jumps out of me big time. The headline will be Baker cooks up a win. Now, Colin, remember, we are steadfast in it. Everybody loved the Browns last year. You and I, I think were two of the few who were like, hey, pump the break. This is going to take a while. Colin, this Ravens team is going to be in some trouble in week one. Cleveland is for real this year. This is, by the way, this will be the fourth time the Browns had seen Lamar Jackson. Yeah, okay? Yeah. That definitely matters here.

This Brown's offense has been able to run on Baltimore. And if you look at the Ravens front seven, they had some turnover in the offseason. They're going to have about three or four new guys in the front seven alone. Cleveland will be able to run on Baltimore. I think that Brown's offensive line, two new tackles will be tough. I think there is a lot of value. The Browns are seven-point underdog. And if you look historically, Colin, week one, okay, teams that miss the playoff versus teams that make the playoffs,

there is immense betting value on the underdog that missed the playoffs and the Browns qualify here. Oh, that's, and for the record, they have faced Lamar four times and they've had some success. The last time Lamar got his, you know what, handed to him, was that Cleveland game, a few, like last year, I believe it was it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they just literally handed it to him. Okay. Tomorrow's headlines today, what will the headline be after Sam, Donald, and the Jets face the bills in week one? Well, I was thrilled to see that you're bullish on my Jets next season, Colin, and it starts early.

The headline will be Buffalo. I love the Jets in Week 1. This is another one, divisional matchup, team that made the playoffs, first team that missed the playoffs. How is Josh Allen, Colin, favored by seven against anyone? I mean, this is a Bills team. Of all the playoff teams last year, the Buffalo Bills had the worst, at least efficient offense of any playoff team, 21st in the league. And by the way,

Josh Allen has faced the Jets twice. We're discounting Week 17 when they largely sat everybody. Josh Allen had two starts versus the Jets has seven turnovers, Colin. He's not good against the elite defenses. I'm telling you, this is a Jets team that's going to shock some people early.

They were a top five defense last year. We'll see about Sam Darnold and Adam Gaze. I'm hopeful in year two they turn it around. I just think the bills are going to be overvalued. Remember, this is a team that collapsed, a total and utter debacle against Deshaun Watson and the Texans last year in the playoffs leading on the road. I don't love the bills this year. Everybody likes them, but I'm off the Buffalo Bill.

Tomorrow's headlines today, what will the headline be after the Patriots play the Dolphins interesting in week one? Yeah, well, there is a favorite I last in week one, Colin, and it happens to be Bill Belichick. That headline will be New England, same Patriots. Colin, do you remember what happened in week 17 last year? Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins were like 17 point underdogs or something like that. They shocked the Patriots. New England now does not get a buy in the first round.

They end up losing. Belichick has had all offseason to stew about this. He's hearing you every day say, no, Tom Brady. He hears he watches this stuff. I know he acts like he doesn't pay attention to social media. Belichick knows every day. thinks the Patriots are going to fall, okay? This is going to be a Patriots blowout in week one, all right?

And I've seen this Ryan Fitzpatrick show before as a Jets fan, okay? He's good for one year. Oh, Fitzpatrick can play. He went to Harvard. He's good. And the next year he turns into a pumpkin, okay? He's going to be very bad next year at the outset, and people are going to call for two or early, but two is not ready.

I love the Patriots in week one crushing the dolphins. Tomorrow's headlines today. What would the headline be? when the NFC champs. The 49ers take on Arizona in week one. Well, I'm very bullish on the Niners next year. Love their offseason. I think you like them as well.

However, the week one headline will be Kai's the Limit. Kyler Murray, I like a lot. So do I. I love the Cardinals next year. I'm very bullish on them. Getting seven points against the Niners is like a gift. If you look at their matchup for whatever reason, San Francisco let their guard down against Arizona.

twice. Those two games were very close. Arizona loses by three, and they were led in the fourth quarter of the other game before collapsing. We've seen the Super Bowl hangover. Remember the Rams? Lose to the Patriots and a tough Super Bowl. Come back in this. This is a, we have a historic trend. Super Bowl losers can struggle the next year early. Now, early is the key word there. I like the Niners a lot, but not early. Again, remember they let the Super Bowl by 10 with like nine minutes left and lost. And I'm in the buy.

You know, everybody's buying Amazon stock here during the quarantine. I am buying all of the Arizona Cardinal stock. I just like Kyler Murray. I really like the coach Kingsbury. And I like the D'Andre Hopkins edition. Tomorrow's headlines today. What will the headline be when the shocking Titans face the Broncos? I like them in week one.

Yeah, I pick the Broncos because I know you like them. I don't love them this year. but in week one, oh boy, that's my favorite game. The headline will be Music City Mirage. Everybody, even our guy here at Fox Clay Travis, everybody likes the Titans. Oh, went to the AFC Championship. Colin, we know it was fraudulent, okay? They scrape into the playoffs at 9 and 7.

They get lucky and remember, okay? Denver historically at home in September has a massive advantage, okay? Teams coming to altitude for their first couple of games. are like, whoa, what's going on here? Now, factor in the COVID-19 off-season where a lot of teams aren't even doing off-season. And I think it's going to be a major struggle for Tennessee to go to altitude. What's the line on that game? Well, it was one and a half. I've seen it at other places at two, two-and-a-half. Fox bet has one and a half. I'm almost certain the Broncos will be favored by three this summer. Yeah, I'll let me tell you something. You make a lot of sense.

I love Denver as a bet. You're going to have truncated camps, go to Denver high altitude. That's a great bet, actually. Denver's a great bet. Fan Gio, by the way, last year. I think they shut out the Titans. It was like Marcus Marriota's final start. They just shut him down. Tana Hill came in, couldn't do anything. I really, really like Denver in that opener next year.

Jason McIntyre. Social spacing, masks, whatever. Be safe, buddy. Yeah, yeah. Hey, I was hoping to come in the studio when we start back next week, but I don't know if they're going to allow that. So hopefully sooner than later. All right.

See you soon. All right. You have no idea. I just do a show. It's in a radio booth. I have no idea when I'm going anywhere. This is my life now. I eat salads from Panera bread. That's it. I get a coffee, a salad, it's a green shake. That's my life. It's very simple. All right, Joy, another week. We got through it. Last Dance. Very excited. It fights this weekend. We've got sports. UFC this weekend. Episode 7's great last dance. Episode 7 and 8 on Sunday. We'll see you then. Be safe. It's the herd. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline.

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