The Herd with Colin Cowherd - NFL/March Madness parallels; Le'Veon sounds ridiculous; The point of Pro Days

Episode Date: March 22, 2019

Subscribe here to the 3 and Out with John Middlekauff Podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/3-and-out-with-john-middlekauff/id1352730623?mt=2.  In this episode, Middlekauff looks at the parallels between March Madness and the NFL, why Le'Veon Bell's recent comments about the Steelers are ridiculous, the importance of teams place on pro days heading into the draft, and answers listener questions in Middlekauff's Mailbag.. Follow John on twitter @JohnMiddlekauff and go to www.theherdnow.com to find the latest content. Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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What is going on? Boy, middle cop, three and out podcast, back at it again. Taking a little break from watching March Madness. Not going to lie, having a pretty good day gambling. As I'm recording this, I still need one more game. St. Mary's hasn't quite tipped off yet. But still some stuff going on in football. I have some thoughts why.

And I talk about sometimes big picture stuff with the sport. And that's something that fascinates me. just the health of American sports, whether it's football, basketball, baseball, even golf, I'm a big golf guy with Tiger Woods and the power of getting attention. Have some thoughts why March Madness actually has a lot of parallels to the NFL. Levion made some comments that I thought were just pretty moronic about the Steelers, about Ben, and not necessarily about Ben, but more about the Steelers. And then just a lot of these pro days are going on.

If you watch NFL Network, they better know how to have. State, they've been at Oklahoma, they've been at Alabama, and just wanted to dive in a little bit about my experience and if they're important or if they're not. But the one thing with March Madness that is so powerful, now if you like to bet, it's incredible, but just I think for sports, the casual person, they say a lot of it has to do with the bracket. I think a lot of it has to do just with the drama. And Colin uses this word a lot and forever on my radio shows, when I did a local radio show, we talked a lot about baseball because the Giants were big and we had the A's and they were good. But baseball talk doesn't really drive

media, sports media anymore, because there isn't any urgency to it. And I think a lot, the same thing has happened in basketball. Like the regular season now means nothing. It's never meant less. Guys don't even play in games. There's just no urgency. And as someone that used to gamble on the regular season. I lost a lot of money. I just stopped doing it because it was just impossible to predict. Well, the powerful thing about March Madness is, and I don't know if you guys listen to this guy named Gary Vanderchuk. He's like a motivational speaker. Not all of his stuff. You can disagree with some of the stuff, but one out like overriding message that he always has, and he's pretty, he's kind of like an entrepreneur meets kind of a tech guy, and he was big on Facebook and Twitter

and all these companies before they got big. And his big, thing is the hardest thing to do in 2019 is to get someone's attention. That's why Twitter and Instagram and these social media platforms are so powerful and so lucrative, Netflix, you name it, because they get people's attention. I don't think people realize a lot of people do not watch a national NBA game on a Wednesday night. It's like 700,000 people. Like 15 million people watch Thursday night football. I might actually be off on these numbers. Just millions of millions of people watch these games. It's really hard to get people's attention.

Now, football is a lot working for. One thing that football really has working for is the sport is the sport. There's not a lot of inventory because you only play once a week. It's the one major sport where you practice way more than you play. So when you do play, it's a big deal. Every game kind of matters. It's why in the NFL, especially the second half of the season, all the Sunday night games, the big national games,

they have huge implications. And then the playoff format and college benefits from this too Every game matters I mean it's not a seven game series You know if you're not super locked into the NBA playoffs Like you can lose a game It's not that big of a deal

Especially on the road Like that's normal As long as you have home court advantage You take care of home But in playoff football A couple years ago The Chiefs screwed around And they lost the Titans in the first round of the playoffs

And obviously gambling Plays a big part in it Fantasy football whatever but just the setup of the sport, just like the setup of this tournament. Just one game. You win, you advance, you lose, you're out. That's baseball.

It's like, oh, I went over four, no worries. I got six more games this week. It's only Monday. In the NBA, I had a bad game, whatever. I'll take the next two off and come back for the next month. It's only December. I have six more months of the season. We're in football.

It's why every game's serious, every injury matters, every snap matters, every game matters. You just can't make that up. I love March Madness, but I love anything that's important and has a lot of urgency to it. I love the golf majors. I love the NCAA tournament. I love the NBA playoffs.

I obviously love the NFL and college football because for five straight months, you're on this roller coaster ride of importance. In college football, when they kick off that week one and you get some of those big cross-rival, not rival, but like interconference matchups, Washington, Auburn, Clemson, A&M, Alabama, whoever, that game matters. You know, if you lose that game, you are in trouble.

Now it's been proven you're not necessarily knocked out, but last year, Notre Dame Michigan, that game mattered a lot. And we know that as a consumer. And that's just the one thing that the sport of football for some of its faults and CTE and head issues, which they've done a really good job of getting ahead of. and changing the rules, even as a fan, I don't really love all the rules, but you can't dispute or argue that they're good for people's brain and health,

and they've tried to kind of get that out of the game. But when the season kicks off until the Super Bowl ends or the college football playoff ends, you're kind of glued. Every game matters. I've been glued to my television day with the NCAA tournament, mainly because I have money on some games, but even just games I don't. You lose, you're out.

and you can't it's the one thing that the other two sports will just never have and in a day and age society's never getting slower just check out a history book as we advance we only get more impatient and I'm on the impatient scale

about as high as you can get and that is not a healthy thing to be but as time goes on we're never going to slow back down you just look at the way society's gone from the beginning of time You just constantly speed up. So the good thing is that everyone's doing so much, and the one thing that football will always have is on Sunday or on Saturday

or how high school games. Those games, every stinking game matters. Okay, let's dive into my main man, Leveon Bell, who's had, as I've said, over and over and over again, one of the worst off seasons we've ever seen for worst 12 months we've seen from a financial standpoint. Left $14.5 million on the table, ended up getting $26 fully guaranteed.

But as I've been saying for a long time, he could have just taken the $14.5 million. Slight risk as welcome to life, everything's risk-reward. Like every other free agent, played out the season, more than likely not gotten injured, definitely not gotten a career ending injury and more than likely would have signed the same contract if not for more because he would have had recent tape

but that's not what this is about. Levion sat down with MMQB's Jenny Ventress I might be screwing up her name if I am, I'm sorry and had some interesting comments and I pulled from a couple. Now I've been talking for a long time about Big Ben and I think his reputation has taken a massive hit like Levion and Antonio Brown

I don't think there are any winners in this whole thing. I think Antonio Brown, who actually, he might be the biggest winner because he got more money. He's really, he's just kind of happy now. Now we'll see when the fall comes. And if Derek doesn't play well and he's not getting catches, how happy he is. But Levyon said some things about Big Ben and, you know, how he acts like a coach and same type of thing, Antonio Brown, owner mentality. I don't know if he used those exact words. But he used things like Ben would get petty.

when he would get mad at Antonio, and he wouldn't throw AB the Rock. Well, if you do a little research of the last six years, this year, if he's talking specifically about this year, Antonio got his third most targets of his career, had over 100 catches, again, and had 15 touchdowns. So these guys might be thinking that, and clearly Levyon and Antonio have talked about

when Ben is mad at you, he doesn't throw you the ball. and again, that works, I think, for a lot of teams with a lot of different players over the years. But statistically, like hard data, it's just not true. So even if, and Antonio didn't even play a game this year, they kicked him out of week 17. So he had 104 catches and 168 targets through 15 games and 15 touchdowns, which was also a career high. So even if Big Ben is mad at him and they clearly think that they just don't like them, whatever, and I don't blame them for not liking them.

I've always not been kind of a clown. Classic, you know, do as I say, not as I do. Got some fraudulent characteristics. You heard some things about them in NFL circles back in the day. Not the greatest guy. So I never even disputed that Antonio and Levion were necessarily wrong in their hatred might be strong, but just disdain for Rothesberger. I agreed.

But this notion, and clearly they're talking about it, bro, When he's pissed off at you, he doesn't throw you the ball. Can't you just see that conversation happening over text message in person, just hanging at the crib with those two guys? For sure. Like, Ben, so Ben hates me, man. He never throws. No, Leveon.

He actually throws Antonio the ball all the time. That is the one problem I have with this whole Steeler argument. Is like, you know, Ben and Antonio didn't get along. Well, they sure as hell did on the field. It sure worked out pretty well for the last six years. Again, Google the numbers. They speak for themselves. They're borderline historic.

And I'm not ESPN stats and info here or stump the Schwab here, but I think I've seen different times on Instagram or Twitter. They literally are historic. First guy with 100 catches, 1,000 yards, 6 straight years of that. Or maybe he's tied for the most like Marvin Harrison. I think it was like 3 or 4. 100 catches, 1,000 yards. He passed Jerry Rice.

Like Antonio Brown, he's not some Odell-Ely situation where, you know, just quarterbacks are couldn't get on the ball. He literally is getting 100 plus catches and competing for double-digit touchdowns and 13 to 1,500 yards every season. So again, they may really not like each other, but on the field, the production, the success, the wins speak for themselves. So I hope that Levion, and I'm going to lump Antonio in. this too. And this is what Larry Fitzgerald talked about at the Sloan conference.

I don't know, and he was talking about Antonio, but you can let them both in, know how good these guys had it. Like, Antonio, you're coming to the Raiders. I don't know if you've checked, they've struggled the last 15 years. Yo, Leveon, you're going to play with the Jets. I don't know if you check. They're not that good. They're not that good. So I hope you guys realize you left the Steelers, who the majority of my life, every single season, double-digit wins during the playoffs. Yeah, they don't win the Super Bowl as much the Patriots, welcome to the NFL. No one else does either.

So I just think these guys are in for somewhat of a rude awakening. Levian also made some comments, basically talking out of the Steelers. I might be misquoting him a little in the sense that he said wouldn't let him play video games. Not necessarily wouldn't let them play video games, but got mad if you play a lot of video games or an artist. They want you to just focus on football.

And I thought to myself, novel concept, Levion, I pay you $10 to $20 million, and Levion two years ago was making 12. This year was scheduled to make 14.5. Your employer wants you to put in a lot of time at your job. Again, welcome to life. This notion that players like, football just wants me to be all football all the time. Like, yeah, they're paying you a lot of money to think like that. When you retire and you got 50 million in the bank, you can do whatever the hell you want 24-7. Guess what?

You won't get that much money. Most of the top players in the NFL, now there are some outliers. Like Julio Jones, I think, has been outspoken about, you know, I don't really watch football. I don't think he's that into football outside of football. But when I get Julio in the building working out, like he clearly's all in. Now, most quarterbacks, I'd say the best ones, are football junkies. It's kind of got to be your life. You could argue most guys that get to the Hall of Fame are typically football junkies.

It means a lot to them. It is kind of their life. Usually at what anyone, you know, in any sort of business that makes a lot of money, for the most part, usually dictates or dedicates a lot of their free time and their professional time toward that. You think about it. It's all consuming. Like, yeah, Levion, sorry, they're not helped. you to be a balanced human. That's not really their job. That's for Michigan State. That's their job. Do you know what the Steelers job is? When they're paying you a lot of money or now the

Jets, produce. I care about how good you are as a football player. That's what matters to them. I don't ever understand why these players get shocked by, God, they just, they didn't want me to have a life. No, you can get married, have kids, do whatever you want. But yeah, they want you to focus on football 24-7. Now, is that realistic? No. But is it understandable coming from the 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,

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that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Team side? Like, yeah, yeah, Antonio, we're paying you $19 million.

We'd like you to be at work on time. Yeah, we'd like you to go all in on studying the playbook. Again, I think sometimes these players, and this is where they're out of touch with the common guy, because the common guy would go, God, you know, the average American makes like 50 grand. If someone said, hey, I'll pay you 500 grand. Can I get a lot of your effort? Most people say, yeah, I'll give you a lot of my effort. And some of these players, in football's heart, and the difference is in football, you're getting yelled at a lot.

It's difficult. Like, this isn't baseball or basketball where, you know, the media just gets on their knees and blows you every day. And, you know, in basketball, they never say anything negative. and you can take games off. Coaches aren't allowed to yell at you because you can get them fired. Like, football's difficult. You're getting MF daily. You're getting screamed out all the time.

The games are physical. It's difficult. I get that. And I think most fans understand if you've played football at any level, high school to the pros, most people have not played the pros, let alone college. If you just played high school football, you know, it's tough. It's demanding.

And it's not always fun. Like, football practice is not fun. And then by far in the media sense, they're the hardest on you for football. It's a difficult, like, it's not an easy life, but I don't think it's like that out of left field or that out of the blue, or that just, it means understandable that your employer

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I wouldn't say mid-swing. I guess probably one more week of them, almost over. And I get a lot like, what do they mean? What's the point of all the pro days? And I used to think what I was in the NFL, great question. Now, sometimes they are important. When you have an underclassman that you did not know was going to come out,

ends up coming out. Now, even if that guy goes to the combine, just getting back around the coaches, asking them questions. The one thing, though, you need to be careful of, and I was taught this and I learned this, is when you go into a school in March, the information sometimes gets. it's a lot rosier than when you went in during the fall.

And it was during the season, the heat of battle, and jobs were on the line, and games were on the line, and you usually get more of a real sense for the player, the person, from the coaching staff than you do in March. Why? Because everyone's happy in March. If the kid gets drafted higher, that's coaching staff or that individual coach, position coach, coordinator, head coach, gets more credit.

Now, with the Nick Sabin or someone like that, if you know them well, that's not necessarily true. But for the most part, you have to be very careful. The information you are getting when you go into a pro day in March, because a lot of times those coaches, it's kind of a dead period for them. So, you know, it's kind of like their job turns into 9 to 5. They're relax or chilling. They're in a good mood.

And the draft isn't far away. They have guys that are going to get picked. It makes them look good. So you have to be careful. I also never put stock into when a quarterback had a good. good day. The quarterback is playing on air, against air. There are no defenders, right? It's just, it's pretty easy. It should go well. It is a situation that is conducive to success if you are good. Now, if you're a questionable prospect and it doesn't go well, then I read flag you. If you're a good

prospect and it doesn't go well and you've proven on the field, I don't put that much stock into it either. Now, just getting a feel for the way the guy carries himself, the ways around his teammates. I see a lot of people tweeting that. That's important. I agree to a sense, but if you've gone to the school multiple times in the fall, you saw them around their teammates. Again, when it matters, when they're going to practice, when they're preparing for games. This stuff is a little fake right now because it's all manipulated for them to look good. I think you've got to be very careful with what you take away from these pro days.

and we've seen the history of the sport, right? A lot of misses have been, we used to call them in the NFL workout warriors, guys that weren't great players, then we'll go to the combine, run fast, jump high, look good, you know, have long arms, all that BS. So I think the pro days, they serve a purpose. You get to kind of circle back on maybe some information, maybe some holes on some guys, but you got to take everything you hear at these times with a grain of salt.

A lot of times the good thing about a pro day is you know what you're looking for. If your general manager or head coach want something specific on a player, you can go to that position coach, you can go to that counselor on campus, you can go wherever and get that information. But I really think they're a little overhyped. And again, we need something to talk about,

we talk about it, and they happen for a reason. But whenever I see a guy like Nick Bosa standing on his numbers or any player that's standing on his numbers that went to the combine did well, I think that's what they should do. That is the smart move. Now, the one red flag I had of the pro day circuit was Kyler Murray, because Kyler Murray refused to run.

Well, what does Kyler Murray arguably do the best on the football field? He's an accurate thrower, but his truly defining characteristic is just his elite speed. Why wouldn't he run? Well, as I said last week, and I told Colin, I think a big reason he didn't run is because he's not normally 205 pounds. He probably paid just eyeballing him. I'd say 185 to 190. So if you're a team, if you're the Cardinals, or any other team interested in this guy,

you've got to find out what's his normal playing weight, and if he did play normally at 185, are you comfortable that he's going to be able to hold up playing like that? Because usually running quarterback, Kaepernick and Russell Wilson, I mean, those guys were 215, 220, 2.30. These guys were bigger. RG3, look at him. I'd have to look up his weight, but he broke down pretty fast.

That is a question mark. There's a reason we weigh these guys. We get their arm measurements. Because that stuff matters. I always love when Twitter and Twitter draft Nix as they go by, go like, I don't care how short he is, he can play. Well, yeah, if you got 30-inch arms, it's probably going to be hard to be a pass rusher.

Again, like boxing, there's a reason they measure reach, because I can hit you and you can't hit me. And that matters on the lines. Now, it doesn't matter as much at wide receiver, whatever? No, but it still comes into play. Remember the famous pass in the 2011 Super Bowl where Brady overthrew Welker? Welker's got small arms.

If that had been, you know, a longer player, now again, Welker had positive characteristics, but all this stuff does come into play eventually. Small hands, like Jared Goff couldn't hold on to the ball when he went to Oregon a couple years ago in his pouring rain. Now, luckily, he plays in California, so he's not playing in the elements. I remember going to a pro day and seeing Matt Barkley,

and it was the worst pro day I'd ever seen. He was such a bad athlete, he didn't have a great arm. He's actually, and I say it all the time. had a much better career that I ever thought he could have. I thought he'd be out of the league in like three years. He's going on like year eight or nine. But I remember when I was a GA at Fresno State, Ryan Matthews went to the combine.

He ran a 4-4, he was 220, just shredded. It went really well. And then he went, and then the pro day, a bunch of GM showed up. And we had a bunch of fringe undrafted free agents. And Ryan's like, screw it. Ryan didn't need to work out at all, at all. he had to establish himself set in stone

he was going to go in the first round well I think AJ Smith was his name the general manager for the Chargers was in attendance and all the guys were there and he's like screw it I'll run I'll work out he worked out ended up going like 15 or 14 or wherever to the Chargers he replaced LT now it didn't go great for him but I think a big reason of that like everyone's like this guy's a badass

he doesn't care he just wants to compete So you can't help yourself These pro days, just impress people. It never hurts to try to just do stuff. If you're good at stuff. If you run fast, just run. If you're going to crush the drills, just do the drills. It's not going to ruin your career.

If Nick Bosa, who stood on everything, which I don't blame him, but had he done drills, it wouldn't hurt him at all. Everyone knows he's a good player. So I think you've got to be careful with pro. days, be careful what you're reading with the pro days. Though I like talking about pro days, I always thought working in it and now covering it

just a little overhyped. Okay, let's get into the Middlecoff Mailbag. At John Middlecough is my Instagram handle, also my Twitter handle. Easiest way to get a hold of me online. And you slide up in those DMs and I'll answer your question right here. Hey John, as a long-time reader of football outsiders,

one thing has me spooked on both Murray and Haskins. Each has only started for one season. One of the outsider's projection stats has always said the two most important stats for quarterbacks are a completion percentage and starts. Why isn't this being talked about much? As a Bears fan, it seemed painfully obvious that Tribisky, even in year two, was terribly unseasoned.

Isn't that also likely for these two? Well, I think every You have to take every situation No different in scouting As its own unique situation You know, just you can't make blanket statements With players and player situations So you go, let's go, why did Kyler Murray start only one year?

Well, he started as a true freshman At Texas A&M Shit kind of got out of control He was splitting time with Kyle Allen another big time recruit, was kind of named the starter, but ended up just transferring because he didn't want to be around Kevin Summline.

That was a big reason that Kevin Sumlin was kind of in the doghouse with a fan base. Then he transferred to Oklahoma. Well, when you transfer in college football, you have to redshirt. So two years ago, he redshirted. Last year, he backed up Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield went number one in the draft.

So no one's going to say shit about that because the guy that was ahead of him was really good. So to me, it's not him starting one year. When you transfer like that, isn't that crazy. Where Mitch was at North Carolina the whole time, I forget the guy's name, but he was an NFL player and couldn't beat him out. Then when you look at Ohio State with Dwayne Haskins, you go, well, why didn't he start? Well, he's clearly a better player than J.T. Barrett,

but as scouts have told me that have gone through there, they'll say the coaching staff will tell you he should have been our starter two years ago. but Urban looked at J.T. Barrett like his long-lost son, even though he wasn't that great of a player, and just rode with him his senior year. I mean, he wasn't going to bench him his senior year, but he's just not that good.

I mean, that's a reality. Dwayne Haskins is a much better player. And I think that that, you know, I think both of them just were in those situations. Now, Kyler is a little more understandable, but I think if Urban says, listen, yeah, he was a better player than J.T. Barrett, I just went with my emotional ties.

I wanted my guy to start. I don't think it's that unrealistic. Now, if you are like a fourth year guy, you're never able to play, that's usually a problem. But I think definitely for Kyler, I mean, again, he backed up Baker Mayfield, who went number one in the draft.

And his first year eligible to start at Oklahoma, it was Baker Mayfield's fifth, fifth years of senior. So I think you've got to be careful with that. Now, most of these guys don't have. that problem when you just look at the last four or five years, right? You look at Josh Rosen, full-time starter, Sam Darnold, the full-time starter, the kid at Clemson in a couple years full-time starter, two a full-time starter, Deshaun Watson, full-time starter for a while.

So a lot of these guys, Mahomes, was a multiple-year starter. But again, you've got to be very careful with this stuff and take every player individually. You can't do blanket statements. That's where you get in trouble. And I'm with you. Starting is a big deal. Experience is a big deal. But I think it's understandable with these two players.

With the notable wide receiver moves this offseason, AB for picks, O'Dell Beckham for Picks and Papers, tape for a small fortune, do you see wide receiver mobility picking up as much as we see corners and running backs getting moved around? If I had a Galladay or a Ridley on my team, I wouldn't be too happy with all these elite wide receivers moving around as often as they're seeming to.

Yeah, again, kind of like we were just talking about with the quarterbacks, I just think it's unique. Antonio Brown basically said, F you to the Steelers, I hate Ben Rothesberger, trade me. And he threw a football in his face and quit on him in Week 17. So that's, it was unprecedented really what he did. The dude was having like a historic six-year run getting the ball all the time and he still wasn't happy. The Odell Beckham thing was more, again. Again, borderline unprecedented. They sign him to a record contract, and then they trade him a year later,

after he had a pretty good season, given how shitty Eli Manning was. Like, you don't see Julio getting traded. You never saw Larry getting traded. You won't see Mike Evans getting traded. The Amar thing was weird, and that was a big win for Dallas. But you don't see a lot of the best white... DeAndre Hopkins is not going anywhere. Devante Adams is not going anywhere.

I also think it's what's the player's personality like. Like Devante, high character guy, easy to get along with. No problems, right? Doug Baldwin forever. Everyone likes them. Larry Fitzgerald, clearly. Mike Evans. So, Julio Jones.

Are you a diva or are you easy to deal with? And those two guys, to me, are pretty big outliers of, is it safe to say that Beckham and Antonio of the last like 20 years are in the top five divas you know let's put T01 you could probably in some order put Antonio Brown or Beckham

like two and three or however you want I'd probably go and again you don't to be a diva doesn't mean you've been in trouble or anything like Odell Beckham's never done anything wrong besides he had a little cocaine it looked like on that pizza box I'd probably go Odell

because I do think Odell's upside for being even more of a diva with time is really high. Don't forget, Antonio has him by five years. So, Odell's already got a pretty strong start. Antonio didn't start out as a diva. He didn't turn into AB to like three years ago. Can you explain sports betting in layman's terms for us who don't completely understand sports betting

or might be looking to get into it? Or does my bookie spell it out easy enough? I don't talk gambling that much on here I talk about it on all my other platforms I'm in business with my bookie.orgie.combochew promo code ham one gambling I would imagine a lot of people listening to this

kind of understand the way it works if you're betting on a game in football you can bet on the point spread most point spread started at three points you know the home team automatically gets three points or gives three points and then given on how good or bad a team is,

the number kind of moves from there. Now, usually just with the point spread, depending on how it's being bet, it's even odds, meaning the way betting works, you've got to give a Vig, meaning you've got to bet $110 to win $100. Now, when you bet money lines,

that's where you can make good money, and I've made some pretty good money line bets in the Super Bowls in years past. If you bet an underdog, you get them three, four, five to one. I mean, two to one's pretty big. in a money line and then betting like if you're betting the New England Patriots

playing the New York Jets, the odds for them are not going to be very good. So you bet a money line, you probably got to bet $400 just to make $100. Then I think anyone that's dabble a little bit in gambling, loves doing parlayes. I just had one with St. Mary's losing to Villanova

did not come through. Now they pay an incredibly high amount. You know, I did a parlay with three games. I took Yale plus seven and a half. I took St. Mary's to win and I took Minnesota to win. $200 paid almost $3,000. Now the thing with parlayes,

and again, if you're listening, you're like, no shit, John, I gamble, I get that. This is layman's terms. They pay, my $200 turned into $3,000. So because they're all correlated, there's some formula, it's incredible. Now, as I just found out, as I took a little break-eat dinner

before I recorded this Middilcoff mailbag and watch St. Mary, it's really hard to win parleyes when you have three plus because you're not going to pick every game right. The problem with the parley also is once you hit it one time, a couple years ago I hit it just the best parley of my life. Pick like six NFL games.

And one of them was the Broncos over the Saints and it was like a last second field goal block where they returned it for a touchdown. The Chiefs against the Carolina Panthers, I think that same day. Eric Barry had two pick sixes. I mean, it was incredible. It gives me chills just thinking about it. But it was unrealistic.

And it was like $90, $1,500. Like I said, you win it one time, you'll always go back. Any good gambler will tell you, just bet individual games. So if you want to bet individual games like March Madness or win the NFL season, just bet on teams. I like betting underdogs, just because especially when you get big point spreads and especially in the NFL, most games are decided by a touchdown.

That's, yeah, layman's terms. The pod, bears question for you. What are realistic expectations after last season? 12 and 4 was a shock to everyone. Is Trubisky a long-term guy and improvement on last year or more like Dak? Where ideally you'd want to move off him once his rookie deal expires. I think this is a huge year for Trubisky. Now, technically it's only his third year, so I think he's got two more good years left.

12 and 4, I don't know if that's that unrealistic. Your defense is just absolutely stacked. Now, Fangio's gone. But talking with a buddy with the Bears, he's like, bro, we got everyone coming back, and we added ha-ha on a prove-it deal. So you got both corners back. You got Eddie Jackson back.

You got Trevathan, you got Roquan Smith back, and you got the entire front back. Floyd, Akeem, Eddie, Mac. Like, all these guys are rolling back. So the defense should just be Chuck Pagano's not Vic Fangio But he's pretty damn good And it's

I think me or you could Just coach the defense to be just solid And then Matt Nagy with another year They added CP 84 Corderole Patterson You got Alan Robinson Coming back You know they got

Torek Cohen Trubisky should be better They're offensive line They re-signed Bobby Massey I think they're a double-ditchie it win team and should be in the playoffs. To me, the only way they're not in the playoffs if Trubisky just falls off a cliff.

And I don't see that happen just because they're too innovative on offense. He's just too athletic. So even if it's like when he's off throwing the ball, which as we saw can happen, he can just run around and make shit happen. That's a great part about having athletic

quarterback. They don't have to be the most accurate guys because at the end of the day they can just scramble around and pick up first down. So to me, as we sit here today, March 21st, even regardless what happens after the draft. Now, the Bears don't have a first round pick because of Cleo Mac. I think the Bears are the favorite to win that division. And really, when you look at the division, the Lions are in shambles.

The Packers are going through a transitional point. The Vikings should be pretty good. I mean, they re-signed Barr, they got some guys coming back. Kirk Cousins, you think would be a little more comfortable. They got some continuity now with the offensive staff. But still, I think the bear, And again, I'm biased. Matt Nagy's my guy.

And I got a couple of buddies on the staff. And I'm just, I'm a sneaky Bears fan now. But I think on paper, when you look at last year, are they 12 and 4? Maybe they're 10 or 11, but they're going to be good. I mean, their defense, they should be like Seattle for these next two years. Remember Seattle for those like four-year stretch with the number one scoring defense for four straight years? That's what the bear should be. For the next, last year, this year, and next year.

Just like the top defense. That's just who they should be. That's what their personnel says that they deserve to be. And all these guys they have are in their prime. It's not like, oh, you know, Killeel-Max 35. No, he's 28. Akeem Hicks is what, 27, 26. Roquan Smith's like 22.

I mean, Danny Trevathan's kind of old, and he's not even that old. Eddie Jackson's, what, 24? I mean, all these guys are young and in their prime. What's Kyle Fuller? Is it Kyle Fuller? Yeah, it's Kyle Fuller. What's he? His brother Kendall is on the Chiefs.

He's in his mid to late 20. So all these guys are in the prime of their careers. I don't love Gruden, but isn't it true that their financial woes were severe that they could not sign Mac, not enough cash reserve to escrow? Hence, all of Gruden's moves are informed by that crisis. Is this true and just not talked about by the media

or am I tinfoiling over here? Well, I just don't think we know. No one has Mark Davis' bank account. But what we do know about Mark Davis is he has the least amount of cash of any NFL owner. They do not have other businesses. Now, every NFL team gets $250 million.

And for the last several years, have got around that amount. So your players are paid for by the media rights deals. But the Raiders don't make any money off their stadium. It's why they're moving. I mean, they make no money in this area,

which is kind of baffling everyone, including John Middilkoff, from his home office, is able to do pretty damn well. Like, business is not that difficult around here. There's so much commerce. There's so much, just so many people. Football is, and pro football, by far is our number one sport. The Raiders and 49ers, well, the 49ers, definitely. The Raiders, they've just done a poor job with business. Now, does Mark have the cash on his hand?

in theory if he wasn't moving he would have had it but he spent so much money over the last several years but he bought some land for I think 80 million in Vegas they had to pay some relocation fees they've just spent a lot of money they spent a lot of money on the coaching staff

they bought del Rio out like every 10 million dollars to Mark Davis is a big deal where Jerry Jones or Stephen Ross or any of the big money guys it's not that big of a deal so I do think it's pretty realistic that last year they did not have, you know, if 90 million guarantees,

if the signing bonus, I think Khalil's signing bonus was like 60 million. Maybe he didn't have 60 million on hand. Yes, that's a very real possibility. And I think the people with the Raiders would tell you that's why you're moving. I tell you back, like, why are you idiots in this situation? You are in the heart of one of the greatest economic stretches in the history of the world these last six or seven years in the Bay Area. And you morons couldn't get it done.

Joe Lacob came in here, moved right next to you, ran circles around you, and has printed money beyond belief. Jed York, who fired Jim Harbaugh for Jim Tom Sula, has never made more money in the last three or four years. And he hasn't even won since Harbaugh left. Has it sniffed winning. Never made more cash.

Never been richer. Yet consistently the race, Raiders cannot make a dime to save their life. And that's why I think back to the Vegas thing. I do think there are elements of the league office being nervous. Mark Davis does not have good business people around him. Mark's not a business guy. Though Mark, he's honestly, when he talked to him, he's a really cool guy, very blue collar, very easy to deal with.

I always got along with Mark Davis. People think I hate the Raiders. I don't. I actually root from Derrick Carr. I want to see them do well. If you like football and you get to be around the Raiders, it's just pretty cool. Like, they are a very historic organization, but they're very flawed organization. They're terrible at business, and it all stems, Al Davis was not a business guy.

He was a football guy. He was a football coach, and that's kind of bled into what they have now. They just got low-level business people operating, and, you know, if they want things to change when they get to Vegas, they don't just need to win, but they need to get people that know what they're doing economically. Not necessarily like they're good with contracts. They're good with players. I'm talking business-wise, which they have historically been, I'd say them and the Bengals, terrible.

And the difference, I'd say the Raiders and the Bengals, like the Raiders have one of the most legendary logos and just some of the sayings they have. Like, they have a brand. And the Chargers and the Bengals, yeah, they're mom and pop shops, but they don't really have brands. You know, I mean, the Oakland Raiders, They're a national slash worldwide brand.

Like when you see that logo, you know it. And to still not be able to cash in has to make you a little nervous while they're making this move if they can figure it out and get it done because they've never have been able to. So yeah, back to your question. Could it have been with the money? I've heard different people in different front offices

and different agents that had different opinions. So I just don't know. But I wouldn't be shocked if he did not have the amount of money that the business, Bears gave to Cleo Mac in his bank account. And I don't know the rules. He's taking out so many loans that maybe he's just capped. You can't take out another loan because people,

why didn't he just take out a loan? It's like, that's a good question. I don't know. It's the Raiders. Appreciate everyone listening. Adios. Godspeed. Enjoy the day.

Enjoy the tourney this weekend. And I'll talk to you next week. John Middell Coff 3 now. Peace. Get right to the romance and find the way to wow this Valentine's with 1,800. Flowers.com. From classic roses and bouquets to decadent chocolate covered berries, gourmet treats, and more. Surprise your Valentine with 1-800flowers.com. Right now, get the 18-stem enchanted rose medley for $39.99, or upgrade to 24 red roses for $10 more.

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