The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 1 - Bill Belichick not being a first ballot Hall of Famer, what goes on in the voting room, Seth Wickersham

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Colin Cowherd discusses the shocking report legendary head coach Bill Belichick was NOT voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame his first year eligible for induction. Colin explains why the result is not all that surprise when you look back on Belichick’s career with proper context. Reporter Seth Wickersham joins the show to tell Colin what happened inside the voting room and why Belichick expected to get in as a first-ballot selection.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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So the interweb just went crazy last night. Jimmy Johnson's yelling, screaming, throwing pots and pans. Bill Belichick, in his first year of eligibility, did not get voted into the NFL Hall of Fame. Now, let's start with this. He will. He's a Hall of Fame or he'll get in. And we don't know that he didn't get 39 of the 50 votes.

I'm sure he got a majority. So let's just start talking about, is it possible, possible, that what I'm about to explain to you went into consideration? Let me start with this. The winning as coach of all time Don Shula got to a Super Bowl with Dan Marino, David Woodley, and Earl Moral.

He had to wait five years until he was even eligible for the Hall of Fame. But because of a tweak this year in the voting, and I don't like this at all, coaches now can get in one year removed from being out of the league. So the greatest players can't, but coaches can?

Is it possible that a handful of voters, 11, 12 voters went timeout? The classiest guy ever, the winningest guy ever, the guy Belichick's been chasing forever. Don Shula had to wait five years to even be eligible. And now because of a weird tweak, I got to put Belichick who was a jerk forever. And that does matter. I'll get to that later. Some of these voters are writers. I'm going to put him in day one.

Nah, I'll put him in next year. That gets me to the second part of this. If you take out one superstar quarterback in Belichick's career, he has a winning percentage below Jerry Glanville and equal to Anthony Lynn. With Brady, his team scored almost 29 points a game and he won 77% of his games. without Brady, they scored 19 points, and he wins 44%.

And not only that, he was fired in Cleveland without him, was about to get fired in New England before Drew Bledso got heard, and then the minute Brady left, he put a defensive coordinator in at OC. In the one year, and think about this, Mike Frable is getting to a Super Bowl with Drake May, who's not even a finished product, the current New England coach. Mike Vrable got a not. number one seed with Ryan Tannahill, the 17th best quarterback in the league. Okay. Brady leaves and they can't score. They don't get offense. They're the worst drafting

team in the league. I mean, Bill Parcells is his mentor. He won Super Bowls with Jeff Hostedler and Phil Sims. Was Parcells, was Belichick's mentor? He had to wait forever. Bill Parcells. Ask yourself, if there was a great movie director who made 20 movies. In 12 of them, he had a superstar actor, and they won Oscars, and they were amazing. In the eight other movies, he didn't have that one superstar actor, and they were unwatchable. Drek, Porkies, too. Would it give you pause for five minutes to go, was it the director or the actor? Even with a stacked roster of the one year Brady got hurt.

They couldn't make the playoffs. And again, Vrable got a number one seat with Ryan Tannihil. Okay, and here's the third part. I'm just asking you to consider it because Belichick is a Hall of Famer and we'll get in. The third part, what is the most valuable week of the year in pro football? What is the one week of the year that the league values the most? Super Bowl week. And in 2007, it was tarnished because Belichick footage of him taping another team.

and Roger Goodell had to go to the Super Bowl and all week long address Belichick's cheating. Folks, you successful men out there, there is a tax in life. You can be a great husband for 45 years, but if your wife finds that one of those years you were cheating, you will sleep on the couch at minimum. There is a tax to pay if the most valuable week of the week of the time, you will sleep on the couch at minimum. the year, you blew it up once because you were taping another team. So in review, Don Shula had to wait five years. Parcells your mentor waited forever. Your winning percentage is 44% without Brady, and you blew up a Super Bowl week. If you have several asterisks by your name, is it okay to pause for a year? My staff also did it,

interesting thing this morning. We went and looked at some of the other great coaches to see how quickly they got in. Vince Lombardi, you know the guy they named the trophy after, did not get in first year eligible. Bill Walsh, the most innovative coach in the history of the league, half the league uses his offense, did not get in first year eligible. Joe Gibbs, in unquestionably three Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks. The most underrated coach in the history of the league, Joe Gibbs, first year eligibility, doesn't get in.

Jimmy Johnson waited forever. Parcells waited. Andy Reid will have to wait. But because they tweaked, and I don't agree with this, they tweaked the voting so that coaches can now get right in. Somebody said, Walsh didn't get in. Lombardi didn't get in.

get in, Gibbs didn't get, make him wait a year. They may not be punishing Belichick, they're punishing the voting methodology. So, again, let's not argue that Bill is a Hall of Fame coach. Yes, absolutely, I would have voted him in. But when you change the voting methodology, I mean, this is what Biden and Trump argue. Lines, where do you vote? Who's voting for who? Who's, I mean, we can't even get our presidential election voting right.

You cheated, you rigged it. I mean, Hall of Fame voting's always been wonky. I mean, baseball's got a morality clause. Football doesn't. But when you change it, sometimes stuff like this happens. He's getting in. But if you take a deep breath, I think you have to, when Brady left went to Tampa, won a Super Bowl and Bill's teams were awful.

D.C. to O.C. Doesn't that make you pause a little bit? I mean, what makes Christopher Nolan and Spielberg and the great director so amazing? They use all sorts of actors and writers and they can do it. That's what makes Joe Gibbs and Parcells and the great co-Bill Walsh. Andy Reid gets to Super Bowls. With guys not name of Holmes, Andy Reid wins with everybody. You take out Brady, you can't pause for a year and go,

hmm, hmm, again, you guys are all freaking out. He's getting in. He deserves to be in. But you start looking at the methodology. I do not like the idea that players have to wait for half a decade to be eligible, and coaches can get in immediately. That makes no, it's a players league, not a coach's league. I mean, I love Andy Reid.

He won an hoisting trophies till Mahomes. How about this? Bill can get in once Tom's in. Since there's an argument to be made, he was going to get fired Belichick in New England, would have failed that both jobs, had a surly reputation, and may have never had any of this debate

because he didn't get another head job. Brady's eligible or what? 2028. Bill's eligible now? You like that? I don't like that. Jay Mack, before I go to my next story, I think it's interesting because when you start looking at who gets in and the eligibility,

baseball's Hall of Fame is weird because they put in morality clauses. And, you know, like, are you a good person? Did you cheat? And there's been great consternation and debate on that. The NFL doesn't do that. But there are people voting on this who covered Bill. I mean, he wouldn't talk to, I know two Hall of Vane voters, he refused to talk to for 15 years. He held grudges.

He could be petty. He could be difficult. And every business, including football coaching, is a people business. There was a reason when Jimmy Johnson got in on the set, all the other men there cried. Because Jimmy had been good to a lot of people. Belichick doesn't even have a coaching tree. I mean, seriously. I mean, it's like Sean McVeigh, relative to Belichick's, but in the league 45 minutes.

he's got a coaching forest. So like there is something to be said in your life. It's not a morality thing, but if you dump on people, if you're difficult, Bobby Knight's life ended sadly while he was still coaching. I'm not talking his health deterioration. I'm talking his last eight, nine years of coaching. He bullied people. He alienated people.

Even Coach K like, stop connecting with him. Coach K's like, I'm not going to deal with you. I'm not going to talk with you. if you treat people like that nobody's saying you won't get in Howard Stern took forever to get it into the Hall of Fame and Radio why he made fun of the Hall of Fame Radio everybody knew he and Rush Limbaugh

dominated American radio but if you poke people in the ribs you're difficult you mock you you rip you well don't be surprised if there's a little bit a 12 month tax on your actions and personality just a little bit of a tax

just sleep on the couch for a night or two that's all I'm saying But can you still take the whole Hall of Fame vote seriously, Colin? If when you see all the 15, 20, 30 names up eligible for the Hall of Fame and you go through them, you see Bill Belichick saying that's an automatic he's in. He's one of my top five. Let's look at the president. Let's look at the precedent.

Why wasn't that the case with Parcells or Jimmy Johnson or Vince Lombardi or Bill Walsh or Joe Gibbs? The damn trophy guy didn't get in. Well, Belichick has more trophies. I think that all those guys may be combined. More trophies, it's a different world. But if you literally have a trophy named after you, you think you would have got in rather quickly. Yeah, football was in his infancy then back then.

It was really early. I'm just curious, are you surprised by the whole craft situation? You know, he's been waiting, I think, 14 years to get into the Hall of Fame. And now he would have gone in with Belichick if they both got in this time. And by all accounts, it sounds like crafts getting in and Belichick is not interesting subplot given their ugly ending in New England. Remember that?

Beyond ugly end. I mean, they initially said it was a, oh, there's a mutually parting of ways. Ten months later, Kraft on record, oh, I fired him. You know, I took a risk on that guy. It's been ugly between those two. I think the subplots here are fascinating, Colin. Yeah, and I, and again,

Bill's getting in. He may have gotten 39 of the 50 votes. But remember, in the football voting, five people are eligible, you only get a vote for three. It's just ridiculous. So all these Hall of Fame votes are, I mean, voting in America for presidents is convoluted, difficult, redistricting. I mean, this is what we argue about every four years. This side cheated, this redistrict.

Voting like for this stuff, all voting is weird. It should be more transparent. I think when you vote for a Hall of Fame, you should be able to go in and say somebody gets in or they don't. it shouldn't be limited to. I can vote for two of five or three of five. Bill Belichick, do you think he's in or not? Yes. Yes. You shouldn't be, you shouldn't qualify it based on, well, I've got to let this guy in and that guy nodded. So the whole thing, I don't mind a handful of sports riders who covered the league forever being part of it. I would put executives, coaches, few of those. Like if you're an observer to something, you can have a right to vote in any Hall of Fame.

It could be radio. I mean, I was just in a Radio Hall of Fame. There were executives. There were hosts. There were local. They were syndicated. There were sales people. There, you know, all sorts of people matter in any business. But you're right, the voting. Like, I love Roger Craig. You know, Roger Craig on the Niners, the high-stepping, tough running back. He's awesome. How can you vote Roger Craig into the Hall of Fame over Bill Belichick? Like, on no level does that make an ounce of sense. Remember. That's just one guy. I'm just saying, but Bill is going to get in. He is, yeah.

He's just sleeping on the couch for a year. about that. All right, Mike McCarthy is official. He is the Steeler coach. Big Ben says something, I think's worth noting. That's next. That's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Hey, it's Ben. Host of the Fifth Hour with Ben Mallor. It would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking what in God's name is the fifth hour. I'll tell you, it's a spinoff of the Ben Mather show, a cult hit overnights on FSR.

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We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand, because I, competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down

everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jen, she went. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court-side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So Mike McCarthy at the end of yesterday's show was hired as the Pittsburgh Steelers coach.

I thought Ben Rothersberger, you know, along with Terry Bradshaw, have been the two great quarterbacks in Steeler history. And Big Ben says, here's the one thing about Mike Mike McCarthy that is a game changer in Pittsburgh. I think you bring a new, a new voice into the locker. Because sometimes the message can get repetitive and can get, we call it stale, but it can just get repetitive. We finally have an offensive-minded coach in here that we've never had. I believe Chuck Nolan's defense as well, I assume, you know,

and all the defensive head coaches we've had. I'm so excited for an offensive-minded coach because I think we have to score more than six points in a playoff game. Yeah, like, this is why Mike McCarthy isn't a bad hire. He's safe. He's a little uninspiring. It reminds me this week I watched a movie on Netflix called Rip with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. And the critics are like, well, it did not elevate the genre. Now get out of here.

Either to your columns. Oh, it was a terrible. It was a weak swing. Not every painting's a Picasso and not every hire is Sean McVeigh. It doesn't make it a terrible movie. It doesn't make it a terrible hire. I was entertained for 90 minutes with Matt and Ben, and I will say this. McCarthy, if Aaron Rogers plays next year, probably wins 10 games.

I mean, folks, John Malkovich, maybe our greatest living actor, did Conair. Okay? Not everything is art, even in a world of art. And this is an organization, not only seven straight years of a bottom 10 office, No, it's worse than that. In the last seven years, they have the 30-second ranked run game. And you can say what you want about McCarthy, but if he and Aaron Rogers next year together, I'll take the over on wins at nine or ten.

I really will. I mean, in Dallas one year, Mike McCarthy one season had the number four total offense. Cooper Rush started five games. Dak got hurt, and they had one legit receiver. C.D. Lamb. and they finish with the number four offense in the league. So the Steelers have been in the wilderness offensively for seven to eight years. I consider Mike McCarthy the compass that gets them back to offensive civilization.

They'll be competent. They'll spend more money. Again, not every movie is Goodfellas. Rip on Netflix. It's entertaining. I'm sitting there. My wife's like, you want to watch a movie. see, I watch, I make her watch football all season.

I'm like, I'll watch it. It's entertaining. It's not Scorsay. It's not the Irishman. It's not, you know, it's not what a Christopher Nolan's best. It was entertaining. Mike McCarthy's fine. You know, he's an emotional guy.

I mean, here he was yesterday. It's hard not to root for a guy who starts crying at the mic. You know, oftentimes, coaches and players, you know, you put on new team colors, and it takes a minute to feel comfortable in those new colors. But to be blessed beyond any measure one day to put on the colors you wore since you brought home, I apologize. I understand and embrace the responsibility of privilege and the weight that comes with this stewardship. This city, this franchise, this fan base means the world to me.

Because Pittsburgh is my world and Dodds, it's just awesome to be back here. I mean, what am I going to root against that guy? Would I have no soul? Of course, I'm going to root for him. I want to see a win. I just got tired of the repetitive defensive spending. There'll be more of an offensive organization. I agree with Big Ben.

I'm excited to see it, and I hope Aaron Rogers does come back. I mean, J-Mack said seven wins. If Aaron and Mike McCarthy are together next year, I'll say it right now. It's a 10-win team. Not saying it's winning anything beyond that. It's a 10-win team. Go ahead. You doubted me on the Patriots and the Seahogs, Jay Mack. Jay Mack with the news.

No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Do it at your own peril. I'm scrambling to look up the Steelers' opponents for next year. But we'll do that later in the show. We got some breaking news. The Browns have announced they have hired Todd Munkin. Yes, Todd Munkin is going to be the new head coach in Cleveland.

He was the Ravens O.C. with Harbaugh. Todd Munkin, 59 years old. Interesting nugget from the athletic. Munkin was in Cleveland as the O.C. in 2019 and allegedly told opposing teams coaches the Browns were a mess, sorry, a total mess, which is not really a surprise.

I do say, I think the Munkin-Shadur pairing is good news for Shadur Sanders. Because Munkin is a pretty sharp offensive guy. I won't talk about the game plan against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship. that cost me money. But overall, I think Munkin, kind of a good offensive mind, could work while with Shoddor. It sounds like Jim Schwartz, their DC who was highly thought of and was up for the job, is going to be leaving. He wants nothing to do with Cleveland.

Yeah, I mean, it's fine. I think when's the last time the sixth or seventh hire in a coaching cycle was the great hire. I think it could work fine. I think Cleveland has been a mess. I wouldn't have let go of Stefansky, who interviewed for every top job, but it's Cleveland. so this is what they do. I think it's, I mean, there's not a single coaching hire. I'm like, oh, that is destined to be a failure. I think Jesse Mentor is going to do really well in Baltimore. I think John Harbaugh is going to crush with the New York Giants.

And I think eventually if Pennix can be healthy, whatever they do a quarterback, I think Stefansky will do very well in Atlanta. After that, I mean, the rest of the hires, Joe Brady and Buffalo, Todd Monkin. I mean, you got a lot of, you got a great quarterback. And you got some really good players. So, I mean, can he win seven games next year? Certainly possible. Yeah.

I mean, somebody's making the point that, hey, the two teams in the Super Bowl this year, they weren't in the playoffs last year. Anybody can do it. And let's just pump the brakes on that, okay? Drake May, they had their quarterback in New England. I'm sorry, I don't think Chedore's in the Drake May class. I don't think he's a franchise guy. He'll get a year.

He'll get a crack at it. Sure. But the Browns have a major uphill climb. Offensive skill position players are so weak. I just, good luck to Todd Munkin. First head coaching job at 59. Proud, happy for the guy. All right, let's move on to the Patriots, Colin.

Drake May, the second year quarterback in the Super Bowl. There are, you know, let me say this. There's speculation he may have an injured shoulder on his throwing arm. Mike Vrable was asked about it yesterday and said, hey, this time of the year, nobody's 100%. Then May went on a weekly radio spot on WEEI and had this to say about a potential injury. I'm feeling good. We've got some extra rest. And really the only thing is from the game, I think just the built-up of throwing for, this is what, almost including training camp, 30 weeks straight of throwing.

And four days a week, it can add up. But I think we've got some extra rest and I'm feeling good. And we're ready to go for Super Bowl. Sounds like some excuses for a guy who's throwing at 55% completions in the playoffs, Colin. I like Drake May. Again, you go back to our draft stuff. Everybody loved Jaden. I said, no, Drake Nays my guy.

You can look it up. I just, he's been awful this postseason. There is no argument. And don't give me this weather. It was a one half of bad weather against the Broncos, okay? They won. So he's very young. And also, the offensive line for the Patriots is absolutely the weak part of their team.

And it should be noted, the Texans and the Broncos may have the two best pass rushes in the league against his really average O-line. These have not been great matchups. I look at it at the other way. The fact that they were able to score enough points to win when the weakness of their team is O-line. And I think it's the number one question in the Seahawks Patriot Super Bowl.

Can they block the Seahawks O-line? Because Seattle will score on New England. JSN's going to get his catches. Seattle's going to score on New England some. The question is, can they move the ball on that Seahawks defense? Now, all they have to do, if you're the Patriots, is watch the Matt Stafford film because he went through it twice, hot knife through butter.

So I think it's going to be a really good Super Bowl. Right today, I would take the Patriots and the points. Oh, wow. I think four and a half, five points for this football team that's won 16 to 17 who's going to hear for two weeks. They have no chance to win. I think Brable's brilliant. Josh McDaniel, Drake May, good defense, been here before. I think it's a really good Super Bowl.

Wow. Okay. All right. Let's go to the Final Story Con. That's the LA Superchargers. They have Mike McDaniel as their new OC. People are downright giddy out here. I'm not even kidding, Colin.

There is so much excitement for pairing Mike McDaniel with Justin Herbert. And here's McDaniel talking about Herbert's ceiling and just how damn good of a quarterback he is. Not relying too heavily on Justin's ability to do above and beyond, I think is critical to maximize those types of opportunities. You know, that'll be one of the first things that we'll try to do is, you know, take a little off his plate so that he is free to do that when, you know, his greatness is required. You try to take it off of him by creating some low-cost, high-reward offense that, you know,

he's firmly capable of doing, but maybe a player of lesser talent would be capable of doing as well. Yeah, it's going to work. There's certain things that are going to work. John Harbaugh, New York. They're going to do fine. Mike McDaniel, O.C. in L.A., that's going to work. I mean, there's certain things.

By the way, Brian Daible, offensive coordinator with Sala down in Tennessee, they're going to double their win total. I don't know how great they are, but you've got one of the best offensive minds, an excellent offensive coach. Tennessee's got a fortune they can spend on players. There's three things I think are absolutely true. Harbaugh doubles. the win total. The Chargers

offense is suddenly really good and Tennessee crushed it. And they don't crush a lot in Tennessee. Tennessee crushed it this year in the coaching cycle. Coordinator head coach. So Colin, this is an interesting mix. You've got Harbaugh who is very quirky, right?

Is that a good word for Jim Harbaugh? He's a little quirky. Yeah, a little quirky. Some of the stuff he says the interview. Exactly. McDaniel, the smart guy from Yale, not really a football guy. Harbaugh's one of these. Arr. Like, McDaniel's the opposite. And then you've got Herbert, who I think you had said back in the day,

he was like a 4-0 student at Oregon who was a bio-major or something like that. You have a really interesting trio. This is, for me, would be a great team the league would spotlight in like a hard knocks or one of these shows. I'm very interested. We go to Vegas a lot. This will be one of the few teams, I bet, to win the Super Bowl next year. I think this team is really making a leap, Colin. Wow.

Jay Mack with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. Now, I said this earlier, Major League Baseball has a morality clause in their Hall of Fame and football doesn't. That doesn't mean treating people poorly for 20 years. That's not a morality issue. That's a personality issue.

And if you know people who cover you, you probably shouldn't treat them really, really poorly. You know, if you build walls and make enemies, don't be shocked if nobody shows up to your birthday party. Belichick went out of his way to make people uncomfortable who covered him. It shouldn't matter. Folks, it matters. It matters in your job. Every single business, including mine, is a people business. Doesn't mean I love everybody I've ever worked for, but there's no reason to spit on him.

And Belichick has no coaching tree, his way or the highway. Relative to how long he's been in the league, McVeigh's got six. seven guys in the league. So, I mean, he doesn't get along with Bob Kraft, who's probably trusted more than any owner by Roger Goodell. Bob Kraft made him the richest coach in the league, won't speak to him. Tom Brady, who, by the way, kind of saved his career to some degree, never had dinner in 20 years with him, never broke bread once.

I mean, Belichick was 5 and 13 in New England, and Brady started, okay? and the winds started cascading downhill. And so, again, you say it shouldn't matter. I mean, you are completely naive. If you think a museum or a Hall of Fame in any industry, if you whiz on people, you build walls, you make enemies, you mock and poke, and you think they're all going to go, come on in, first, eligibility.

They're not. I mean, that's, it's, and I know powerful, rich guys think they're always going to get their way, but they don't win every election, and they don't always get their way, and Bill's going to get in. And again, I understand that some people are just grumpy and closed off and don't have big personalities. Nobody's saying you have to be a Boy Scout. Nobody's saying you have to come in and give the sports writers apples and cookies. But, I mean, Bill was difficult with his owner. No dinner. The other day, Jules Edelman, Julian Edelman was asked on a podcast, do you ever remember Bill doing something nice for you.

He's like, he drafted me. I mean, everything had to be difficult. And again, that doesn't mean Bill doesn't have a heart. Doesn't mean he's a bad dad. It doesn't mean anything. But I'm saying we're talking about first

year of eligibility, anonymous voting into a Hall of Fame. He may have ticked off 11 people. For the record, the 11 that didn't vote him in if that's the number probably would vote him in next year so you everybody is everybody there's an old saying about everybody learns at a different rate it's the same way with

hall of fames everybody gets in at a different rate sometimes it's first bout derrick jeter that that i mean in the history of baseball hall of fames i think i'm right on this i don't have it in front of me nobody's ever got does anybody ever got a hundred percent of the vote. You think like Hank Aaron would get 100 percent of the vote? I don't know if anybody's ever gotten a hundred percent of the vote in the Baseball Hall of Fame. I can see one of my producers scramming. I'm sure it's possible, but I mean, I grew up with Johnny Bench.

Johnny Bench, he was the best catcher for like 15 years in baseball. He won titles. He hit for power. He was, they had the best army, he threw out the runners. I remember when he got in, I'm like, not everyone. How do you not vote for him? I don't even understand that. I mean, Mariano Rivera was the greatest closer of all time. Did he get 100% of the votes? Did Mariano?

Is he the only one? He is. Okay. Mariano Rivera, there you go. He's the only player ever. So you're going to tell me a guy that pitched seven pitches in his usual outing gets in. And there's all these great pitchers, starting pitchers, wear and tear, 20 years. So, I mean, it's the closer.

Hey, I got no problem with Mariano Rivera getting in with 100% of the vote. He's one of the classiest guys ever. But could you make this argument of all the great baseball players ever? Babe Ruth, Mantle, Kofax is part of the reason Mariano Rivera, because it wasn't innings pitched. One of the reasons he got 100% of the votes, because he's the nicest guy that's ever played, that Mariano Rivera is the classiest, nicest human being

that has maybe ever played the game. He didn't get it because the innings pitched. He also blew a World Series against Arizona. You could have argued he gets 98% of the vote. You got 100. And I think a lot of it is he was so gracious, he was so humble,

he was so decent, and he was great. But there's been a lot of great. in baseball. It's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what? We have some big news.

What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchen won.

I mean, she went down to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle. great listen to superhuman on the i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts um about once a year seth wickersham uh stops by the show senior writer at esbn new york times best selling author i don't know how he's a senior writer anywhere since he looks like joe burrow's younger brother uh but seth is now joining us uh live the man does not age but let's let's get to the football stuff. How are you doing Seth? So, I made the argument. With the voting methodology changing, we all know Belichick's a Hall of Famer, that now coaches can get right in. Players still can't.

It's like, wait, so Brady has to wait until 2028, Belichick can get right in. Is some of this, maybe voters saying, well, Lombardi, Walsh waited, Shula waited, Gibbs waited, it's okay if Bill waits a year. Is some of it just the methodology, methodology change in the voting? Well, thanks, man. And, you know, look, if you have Burrow on the show, maybe, you know, don't mention that I look like his little brother. I think that that would probably lead to some awkward content. I think that there is something to the methodology change, but not quite that. I think, so this is interesting, is that, like, a couple years ago, they changed the groups of people who get in and they created the Hall of Fame did, created this hodgepodge of senior players,

coaches, and contributors. So this is why, in case your viewers are wondering, we have Bill Belichick up against Roger Craig and Ken Anderson, the quarterback for the Bengals of the 70s, to make it into the Hall of Fame. And there's 50 voters and they can vote for three candidates. And I think that's where things got really tricky. I think that there's some voter. who didn't vote for him because of SpyGate and because of the, you know, the cheating and the rule breaking that happened during that time. And then I think there's a lot of voters who tried to vote for their guys with the assumption that Belichick was going to get in. I think they figured that it was a fate of complete. And so because of that, it's like this perfect storm of, you know,

dysfunction where a guy who has eight Super Bowl rings and is the second win. as coach of all time, greatest coach, at least of the Super Bowl era in the NFL, didn't get in. I think that's what happened. Spigate, listen, a lot of coaches, Bill Coward, Jimmy Johnson have said, you know, a lot of people were taping. I made the argument the most valuable week of the year in American sports, and certainly for the NFL of Super Bowl week. Roger Goodell in 2007 had to answer questions for six days, and it burned a lot of bridges.

I mean, and Bill's good at bridge burning and being a little petty, spy gate. Is that, you know, baseball's got a morality clause, NFL doesn't. Do you think that turned off a few voters at least one time? Yeah, and I think that Belichick

was probably, look, they were taping it from the illegal location for seven years before they got caught. You know, the league had sent Belichick three letters warning him to stop, and he didn't do it. Then I think Belichick's paying also a price for the way that the investigation was conducted, which was really a matter of days.

It's kind of astonishing to think about now. But here you had this like long time taping operation and Ernie Adams and Bill Belichick, two of the best football minds at the time in the middle of it. And three Super Bowls won by a total of nine points by that moment in time. And really what happened was that, you know, they started the investigation and closed it within a week. And Jeff Pash, the general counsel for the NFL at the time, went to Gillette Stadium and stomped tapes into pieces in a conference room, leaving it for the Patriots executives to clean up, by the way. So there was like an entire perception that the league was covering up and swept all this stuff under the rug for Belichick and for Robert Kraft. And that really came back around on Deflategate, where we wrote about

how that was a quote, make-up call for Spygate. And I still think that there's some of that lingering. you know there's you know we wrote about bill polly and in the article you know those teams that had to compete against bellichick haven't forgotten those things that's right but i also think that you know for some of the writers in the room they're not as personally offended as maybe someone like tony dungy or bill bellichick would be um do we know you got to get 40 out of 50 votes he could have gotten 39 i mean i mean my take is we don't know what the vote total is Seth do you have any idea what the vote total was? I don't. And I do know that this is a piece of reporting for my colleague Don Vanatta, who we worked on the story together. Belichick was expecting that he was going

to get 49 votes. Like privately, that was his expectation that he would get 49 votes. And obviously he didn't come close to 40. And I think that that's pretty interesting. And again, how that happened is really difficult. Like, it wasn't like the Hall of Fame wanted us to break this story yesterday. They didn't. And a lot of the voters didn't know that Belichick hadn't gotten in. You see a lot of their reactions on social media, and they were blowing up Don and I's phones for sure, saying, like, this is an embarrassment for all of us. We had no idea that Belichick didn't get in. You know, I said the only, I was told by my producer, the only baseball Hall of Fame inductee to get 100% of the vote was Mariano Rivera. And I said it's not because it was the most

productive, it's because he was great and the most humble, gracious human being that's arguably ever played. It does matter. We're all in a people business. And Bill held grudges to this day and can be petty. And maybe there's a voter that was. I do think when you build up walls, you may lose a voter or two. You don't want to hear that. You know, football doesn't have a morals clause like baseball, but people are human. I mean, I think, I think. that probably cost him a couple of votes no well my guess would be that there wasn't someone who was going to vote for him who didn't vote for him because of that but it may have not you know it may have you may have given some people the impetus to say hey let's vote for roger craig and elsie

greenwood and robert craft right because again i think the assumption among the voters was that bala check was going to get in and so this result was as surprising for them as it was for the rest of us you know, Bill Valichick was called by the Hall of Fame on Friday as like a courtesy call to say that, you know, you didn't get in. You know, don't come to Santa Clara and wait around for a knock on your hotel door. It's not going to happen. And I think that like he was certainly disappointed by that, you know, as one could expect. Because again, it wasn't just the narrative that, you know, he's clearly a first ballot hall of famer. that he himself expected that he would get at least 49 votes.

One more question, two minutes. You talked to Sean Payton after the loss. He got beat up a lot, maybe deservedly so for the fourth down call. I didn't mind going for it. I did not like a rollout to a backup quarterback. Bo Nick's rolling out is different than Jared Stidham rolling out. What did he say? Yeah, I spent a lot of time with Sean Payton.

I mean, you know, I was in his office at the next to the locker room in the stadium when he walked in after the game. And I mean, he was a weathered and beaten and somewhat in shock person. And he said, you know, I can't believe we lost that game. And the first thing he said was he goes, that fourth down. And, you know, about 20 minutes later, I did talk to him about that. And I think that like he kind of philosophically was where you are. I think that he wanted to go for it. The Broncos have generally, you know, each team has different metrics or philosophies when it comes to first downs.

The Broncos have a general philosophy that if you drive down the field and you're moving the ball, which they were, you go for it. If you get the ball off a turnover, you take the three points. So they were moving the ball. Sean had called a run and the defense that they came out in surprised him. So he called a timeout and he switched to a pass. And that's where I think he made the mistake. I think that he regrets the rollout pass, and he wishes that he had just stuck with the play call

that they had before. Or, by the way, gone to the line, tried to draw them off sides. If they had failed, kick the field goal. I think those are the things he's thinking about now. But when I talked to him, I didn't sense a lot of regret for going forward on fourth down right there. He told me, he goes, I wanted it to be 14-0.

You know, I think that what he regrets is what happened after the timeout and the fact that they, and this is, you know, look, it's not just Sean Payton's fault. Mike Rable, they had studied the Patriots defenses on short yardage in the red zone, and they were mostly a man-to-man defense, and they came out and played zone, surprised the Broncos, and then that play had no chance because of it. Seth Wickersham, senior writer ESPN, been there more than two decades. He always joins us on late notice. Great stuff on Belichick and Peyton.

Thank you so much, Seth. I appreciate it. My pleasure, man. Great to see you, as always. All right. Yeah, there is, there's just a lot of things. So much of Hall of Fame voting, you know, everybody wants to now blow it up and start over. By and large, the people in the Hall of Fame deserve to be in Hall of Fame.

There's every Hall of Fame. It could be the culinary Hall of Fame if there is such a thing. There's some chef who was nice to people and, you know, didn't make the greatest food. Okay. Like there's always those kind of on the margins people that get into Hall of Fame. I think they overwhelmingly eventually get it right. just don't like the timing of this. We don't love the timing of it. Bill Belichick is getting in. And he may have gotten 39. He may have been one vote shy. This wasn't zero to 50. Nobody gave

him a vote. I'm pretty sure of that. Hour two next. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called. Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, reader Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments.

If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to, he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball.

So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season. of Family Secrets. He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move.

And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off. And that was the last time I saw him. Listen to Season 14 of Family Secrets on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.