The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD – HOUR 2 – Big Mistake Trading Jaylen Brown, Steelers Have Problems

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

Colin talks to NBA analyst Frank Isola about why the Celtics made a mistake trading former Finals MVP Jaylen Brown. Plus, Colin dishes out on a poll from Steelers fans and what it reveals about how they feel about the organization, and that the fans might actually have it right about the team where ownership has gone soft on the team's underwhelming performances.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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iHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Here we go. It's our two. One of my favorite guys coming up, Frank Isola. You know what? Staff's done a great job last couple of weeks, World Cup. We've had great guests. You know, big, broad, sweeping opinions, sometimes very direct. Pulisics getting beat up, which, again, it's every four years. We beat up on NFL quarterbacks every Monday. Caleb Williams, when he got drafted, I don't know, he painted his fingernail. I don't like it. He's Moody. That's every Monday.

Josh Allen's unbelievable. He loses a playoff game. When's this guy going to win? This Josh Allen guy is overrated. Colissa gets banged on every four years. I'm not losing a lot of sleep. He didn't have a good World Cup. Pre-injury.

They didn't have a good World Cup. Okay. I mean, in Argentina, Spain, England, Brazil, I don't know about the Norwegian press. I don't get the Norwegian B. I have no idea. But, you know, the international press, I don't know what talk radio is like in Dusseldorf,

but, I mean, they're pretty savage. they go after you, the tabloid press. You have a bad game in the World Cup. You get crushed. Pulisic stunk. I mean, he wasn't named captain for this team. He wasn't named captain for the last team. You know, you're hearing stuff about, you know, when our collective Carly Lloyd and

Stu Holden, Landon, Donovan, Alexi Lulles, and they all got kind of a similar thread. They're talking to federation people. They're talking to people inside the building. And, you know, they're critical. Now, I think it's okay. Polisic had a he got nicked up he's a bit fragile i mean of the last nine world cup games he's been in four four of the nine he either didn't play at all or he left early like messy never misses a game it's like some sometimes some guys just never get hurt i mean it's amazing you'll see some smaller

players never get hurt and then you have bigger players that are always banged i don't think earling holland's going to miss many games like so i think the criticism it's interesting about this though i i like the discussion every four years we get that this discussion. Well, what is wrong? England invented the sport, has the best league, hasn't won a World Cup in 60 years. This stuff's hard. It is really hard. American exceptionalism. We're going to dominate. Yeah, maybe in tech, maybe an AI. Japan, I said this last hour, Japan came out in 1992, 1992, with a hundred year plan to win the World Cup. Can't just plop yourself in and incremental advantages.

Our team's more skilled than ever. We just happen to have our one World Cup team ever where we weren't very good in goal. If Tim Howard was a goalie in that game, we lose two to one. We get out played. We get out class. We're not Belgium. We probably lose two to one. Casey Keller, probably lose two one.

We've had great, go back to Tony Mayholt. We've had great goalies. We've always been kind of athletic. Our skills better. American loves it more. The ratings, the merch, the attendance. just incremental stuff. We just had a really embarrassing last like 45 minutes

because we're not very good in the back end and we're not very good at goal, which is really, really rare for the USA. We have great goalkeep, guys that have played in the EPL for 15 years. I mean, Casey Keller, I think, played like European soccer for like 15, yeah, was it 13, 14, 15 years? I mean, you're playing best leagues.

That's what we historically have. This time we have an MLS goalie. And he kind of slight, got a little bit overwhelmed, them not quite aggressive enough and gave up some ugly goals. I want to go to Frank Isola, who, by the way, is a great NBA guy, but I love him on this show for a lot of reasons. One of them is the World Cup. So I have, and I know you have, I think you have kind of defended Pulisic a little bit.

My take is before the injury, he hadn't played particularly well. I tend to think, I don't care if you're Tom Cruise, LeBron James, Messi, or Pulisic, who's been our great soccer star. You have layers of people that keep the wannabes away and the hangar honors, and it does create some resentment, right? So the minute you age out or you're vulnerable, the knives come out. The leaks come out. I think if Polisic had seven goals in the World Cup, everybody be like, oh, it's the greatest guy in the world. But he's vulnerable. He does have a little bit of a layer to get to him. And I think this is just sort of a, it's a reality of being our best soccer player

or anybody's best soccer player. If you struggle in the World Cup, the knives come out, the leaks come out. Is that fair? Yeah, it is. And, you. You referenced how they're treated in Europe, but I go over once a year to London to watch some games. And it reminds me of like, you know, old school New York. You go to the newsstandy, have all the tabloids there. And you're right, the way that it's covered. And I also think, too, what I like about the way it's covered in Europe is they go after the big players.

It's, you know, when a team loses, they're not blaming like the sixth best player on the team. They usually blame the coach or the manager or the star player. Now, I do think in the case of Christian Polisic in the game the other day against Belgium, the whole team played poorly. I mean, and you were 100% right in the back. How poor were we? Their last two goals, they took the ball off our keeper's foot and they took the ball off our centerback's foot,

who, by the way, plays in Crystal Palace, who plays in the, you know, in England, in the EPL. So where we were at the start of the World Cup, 4-1 over Paraguay, who turned out to be a pretty tough team. They beat Germany. I watched them playing the 100-degree heat in Philadelphia on Saturday, and they were really tough against France. Now, they weren't going to score in about a week.

if the game kept going on, but they were trying to beat them in penalty kick. So the way that we started, the way that we finished was disappointing. And let's be fair, it turned out to be a disaster. I mean, we've been in the round of 16. Remember, when we were in Brazil and we played Belgium, we were more competitive against that Belgium team. Four years ago, we were more competitive against the Netherlands. We didn't get humiliated in those games.

We lost to Ghana in the round of 16. We got humbled and humiliated the other night against Belgium. Yeah. The, I mean, I tend to be, maybe I'm naively optimistic. I did think there was growth in terms of fan interest and growth in our technical skill. I made an, I compared it to a spelling bee. If you see those kids, Frank, that when the spelling be at 16 years old, they didn't just join at 14 and start memorizing words. They got smart parents.

They've been doing it since they were four. Yeah. Right? And then all of a sudden at 16, you're like, oh, Oh, my God, these kids are brilliant. I think sometimes if you look at the people left, it's Erling Holland's a superstar, then it's Spain, then it's England, then it's Argentina. Those are the kids that at four years old were like the smartest kid in the class.

Like there's an infrastructure disadvantage. We're just not there yet. Just a lot of this is infrastructure, right? I think you're right. I went to the game on Sunday. Watch Erlen Holland play. Like I told you last week, he's LeBron James in his prime. He's a man among boys.

But getting back to Polisick for a minute. as well. You kept talking about, you know, the injuries, which is really the biggest issue with him. Because if you look at the way that he played against Paraguay, look how dynamic we were in that game. Yeah. And we scored four goals on a team that beat Germany and only lost one nothing to France. And I thought to what you were saying, I thought we were making steps. The two goals by Tillman on the free kicks, both against Bosnia and Herzegovina and against Belgium, those were excellent goals. That's like high level. But defensively in the back, we just looked a little slow. we're not really good with the ball at our feet.

I thought we had made great strides, but it was almost as if Belgium said, especially after everything that happened with the White House getting involved, Belgium going into the game was better. They had more motivation. If you watched the players when they came off the field when they were being subbed out,

I'm talking about the Belgian players. It wasn't as if they were celebrating. Their attitude was like, yeah, of course we should be beating these guys. We beat them five to two back on March 28th in Atlanta, so why wouldn't we beat them now in Seattle? What really has changed? Who would you blame then? I mean, some of it has to go on the manager, obviously.

Some of it has to go on the star players, Policic. You know, Balagan had a couple of chances where he couldn't convert. I didn't think Weston McKinney played well. Tyler Adams is a big part of the team. He didn't play well. The back line didn't play well. How about Dest on the first goal? First, you know, he didn't, nobody attacked the ball.

We weren't the team that was being aggressive. So I think everyone has to get a little blame. You can't play that well against Paraguay, and then a couple of weeks later, with everyone watching, I mean, so most people that's ever watched the U.S. play, the men's team, play a soccer game, and look at what the outcome was. And that, that, to me, is on everyone. That's why I think the criticism of Polisic is a little over the top. Because I do remember four years ago in Qatar, they beat Iran one nothing to get to the knockout. That was Christian Polisik was scored. And what happened on that goal? He got injured and had to come out of the game. That, to me, is the biggest issue. with him. He takes a lot of knocks and he just, it's unfortunate. To your point, Messi never seems to get hurt. He does get hurt. Occasionally got hurt in the Copa America. I mean, the Copa America final, but Policic always seems to be hurt from that standpoint. And that's the disappointing part. The, it's interesting. NFL, the NFL culture is largely kill the ego. I saw a Fernando Mendoza quote. He said, Kurt Signetti reminds him of Clint Kubiak,

Kill the ego. Even the media. Like if you look at an NFL draft, all we do is tear down Andrew Luck and Kayla Williams, who are obviously going to be great pros. NBA draft, a kid comes in, and all we talk about is, oh, look at his ceiling. Look how great he's going to be. We tear down our NFL media is hard. Our NBA media placates a little bit more, and it's funny.

Yeah. Christian McCaffrey got traded. They didn't even get a first round pick. Jared Goff got to a Super Bowl. He gets shipped off to Detroit. Tyreek Hills in his prime unguardable. They give him to Miami. They don't even get players back.

Jalen Brown gets traded and there's like this outrage. Like how can you only get Paul Georgian picks? And my take is analytics thrives in two American sports, baseball and basketball. It really owns the front office. In baseball, when analytics was introduced, Frank, it marginalized the manager. That's why managers in baseball salaries are muted. football coach makes four times what a St. Louis Cardinal Manager does. Here's what analytics has done of the NBA.

You and I are conditioned, because we're older, to think if you score 27 points a game in the NBA, you are a Hall of Famer, you're a star and you're a winning player. But the analytics are saying, Trey Young, Montay Ellis, Jalen Brown, the old box score is Jurassic and that there are these ball dominant players, 27 a game is not. not what it was us growing up. And so when the trade is made, we're conditioned to think this is outrageous. Paul George may play 50 games. He's a great analytics player. They can get out of his contract sooner. Far less money. I look at the trade and I'm like, Brad Stevens didn't get dumb. Do you look at the trade and just think it's the biggest whiff by Brad Stevens ever? Or the fact that the world is changed

in 27 a game doesn't make you a dominant great must-have player. And I think what also hurt the was they're involved with Janice and Teddekumbo. So if you're going to trade Jalen Brown and MVP Canada finals MVP in the past and you're thinking of Yonis, you're like, okay, I get it. They're going to get the bigger player to pair alongside Jason Tatum. You don't get him and then you get Paul George. What is Paul George really done the last five years of his career? It's almost like a punch to the stomach. You're thinking that's all you can get. But I think you're 100% right about the analytics. The only thing that I would say in defense of Jalen Brown. I know Jaylen thinks that everyone, nobody likes him. I like him because he does a couple

of things for me. He plays a lot. He plays both ends of the court. Yes. And he wins. He came into the league. He's been in 10 years. He's played in 142 playoff games. That's a lot over 10 years. So all these guys, and we'll see tonight, you know, Darren Peterson will play against AJ DeBonsa and you got Camboos. Are all terrific players. Do you think their teams would sign up, for 10 years, 142 playoff games, two trips to the finals, a championship, and a finals MVP? Absolutely. So I get what the analytics are. I remember what Bobby Mark said on SiriusXM NBA radio. There were a lot of, you know, a lot of the analytic people don't like Jaylon Brown. But the eye test tells you he does perform. Now, the last two years, not good enough.

They shoot way too many threes. And this year, they blew a three-one series lead to the Philadelphia 76ers who were not the Michael Jordan 96 Bulls. Let's be fair here, right? And I think that they got to the point the day after he does his thing on Twitch, where he's talking about it's my favorite season ever, I think they probably felt, you know what, this is going to start to turn in a bad direction. Let's trade him now before we have to pay him 70 million, which I have no problem with.

I just didn't like what they got in return. Frank Isola. Who do you like? I mean, if I said right, I mean, France is the obvious pick. I will say Morocco's interesting. They are really jump off the television. Turn the sound down, man.

They just move. They're quick. Who do you like? You know, I'm going to be at the final. I just find it hard to believe that France could lose. I guess they could lose to Spain. I saw Morocco play. How about this?

A tune-up match in New Jersey at Sports Illustrated stadium with the Red Bulls play. And those two could end up meeting in the final. And when you watch Morocco play in person, they're all fast. They're all good with the ball at their feet. I watched them play. And the first thing I said was, now I can tell how they got to the semifinals four years ago. They are an un-fully. that'll be a that'll be a lot of fun today i'm looking forward to it frank i so you're you're great my man

i always appreciate you taking time for us thanks colin anytime uh frank i solo i mean he's on he's on a couch the guy's probably having a nice uh lunch and i'm interrupted in his world and uh he comes on our show the um you know it it is interesting though like when the panthers trade christian mcalfreed they didn't get a first round pick didn't get a player that's the nfl tiree kill unguardable going play in miami didn't even get didn't even get a player in return And we're like, yeah, we totally get it. You're letting go of a great player. You're getting draft picks are a 50%.

I mean, outside of the first round, draft picks work about 34% at the time. And in the NFL, like Jared Goff Super Bowl, yeah, we're upgrading. Get out of here. Jaylon Hertz, two Super Bowl appearances. I'm not sure he's the guy. We are really hard on our football players. But in basketball, we are just kind of conditioned. If you score 27 a game, you're great.

And the analytic departments now run NBA football. front offices. And I mean, it's just, it's incredible how you, I watch Jalen Brown and I'm like, man, he plays good defense. He plays. He plays hard. He's smart. He got all the stuff. It's like the analytic departments are like, and that's why I've always said, I really like analytics. I prefer analytics, which is, can you make a stop? Can you get a bucket in a big playoff game? I think Jalen Brown's pretty good at that. But it's different. Like we are just people just, they don't want anonymous sources. They don't want, they don't want people banging on him. You didn't get enough.

You got this. I think the Celtics looked at it and thought we can get out of the Paul George contract faster. He's much better analytically. He plays off ball. Essentially, we upgraded at center with Mitchell Robinson. We get Tatum now full health off season, ready to go. And Paul George is an additive player. And, you know, I just don't buy.

I think Philadelphia is fascinating. But I don't buy Boston's going to be bad. I think Boston's going to win 53 games and win at least one playoff series, probably two. I also think of the trade deadline. They're going to make another move. I really do. All right. Oh, I got to get to this Steeler thing.

I'll get to it after the break. Very interesting story. It's, you know, we kind of roll our eyes sometimes at Steeler fans. Boy, this survey tells you it's not Steeler fans. Steeler fans get it. It's the people that own the franchise. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeart Radio app.

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podcasts I'm Jake Brennan And on my podcast Disgraceland I tell the stories behind music's biggest names, the moments, rumors, and real-life events that help shape their legacy. Like the story behind Sonic Youth that starts with downtown New York Cool and ends with album art inspired by a true crime. Sonic Youth was not fronted by a groupie hustling alpha like David Lee Roth. No, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore was an artist in love with a fellow artist who just happened to play bass in the same band with him and his other.

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Might as well start sending it to the Bay Area. Paul George, circle in the drain. That's not what I watched. Paul George is an unbelievable analytics fit in Boston. Go to that series. He's a great three-point shooter. He is still unhealthy, an unbelievable defender.

He's going to be a Hall of Fame basketball player. 37 minutes. like again, it is interesting how we treat how the cultures are so different. Like now Paul George is a bum. If you go look at what Jaylon Brown's probably going to score per game because they have so many mouse defeat in Philadelphia, he probably averages 23 and a half points a game for the Sixers. Paul George is going to get great looks off ball for Boston.

What if he averages 19? One is longer and equally efficient on defense. So it, the idea of, Boston is just, oh, they got taken to, and you can get out of Paul George's contract much sooner. There's no extension talk. Like, it's, and also Paul George is hearing what a bummy is. So all he is hearing now is, oh, what, they got taken to the woodshed?

What do you bet Paul George comes in unbelievable shape to prove everybody wrong? J. Mack, with the news. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, let's stick with the NBA and roll into Miami where Janus will be. making his debut this season. Everybody's very excited for it. Colin,

Janice finally spoke at length in a wide-ranging interview with Bucks announcer Jim Plashy about his fears of leaving Milwaukee for Miami. Take a listen. I'm scared of change. I'm scared of change.

I'm scared that the grass is not always greener. I'm scared of like I have things. People love me here. People respect me here. People allow me to be myself here in the city. And I'm scared that I might never find that ever again. That's just so interesting to me.

It really is interesting. A lot of fear-based stuff. You know, international players, remember how hurt Luca was that he was traded? Like, it's interesting. Like, the international player comes over to the States and they want to play for one team. Like, Wembe never wants to play for another team. He wants to be a San Antonio spur. know, American players, like, you get traded.

Sometimes you get an upgrade. You go to a better coach. You go to a better situation. Like, I think he's in a very, a much better situation in Miami. But it is interesting how he views it. He like, I can be myself. It's Milwaukee. I can kind of hide.

That's just kind of fascinating comments. I mean, by all accounts, a really nice guy, a really decent human being. Still a great player. Don't listen to anybody. Still a great player. Injuries. I mean, he's played fewer games than Luca in the last four. years. But Colin, let's be real. This fear thing, I just don't totally get it. I know you and I both

had a similar situation where we basically moved across the country, uprooted our family. I wasn't scared. I was excited. A new opportunity. I don't totally grasp why he would be afraid to leave Milwaukee. You haven't want, you got out of the first round of the playoffs, I think once in the last four years? What's the fear? What is there to be afraid of? This is just a new chapter in your life. There's no rules to this. You can do whatever the hell you want. Well, you get a, you get a legendary GM. You get, I mean, Bam out of Bayou is a, had 83 points in a game. He's an elite defender. So you don't have to be the only rim protector. You're going to be allowed some freedom to roam defensively. You get a great coach. It's an excellent organization.

I think there are a couple of shooters light, but that's what GMs do. They go find those shooters. But you know in the modern era, essentially you get to decide your future or the company does for you or the team in this case. Most of the time, the player at the end, you know, they start tailing off. The team's like, thanks for your time. We'll see you later. And you have to go and find another shop. I mean, look at LeBron right now

what he's going through. What's funny about the Jalen Brown trade. Somebody's going to get screwed, Colin. You get traded for a lot of reasons in pro sports. In the NBA, you got traded because you were old. You're aging. Or your game declined.

Yeah. We're getting to a point now players are moved because of analytics. And that's not, it's just, you know, I mean, there's, there's a lot of quotes out there. I saw one quote in the athletic where one GM did not have Jalen Brown as a top 50 player. Well, I don't think that's a made up quote. People say, you know, based on some stats, some stats, not all of them, he wasn't. But is it analytics or is it the second apron and fear of a contract that's going to have the owner making a, writing a check for $150 million?

I think it's a common. And I also think Tatum and Brown were no longer quite as close, which is not that unusual. Like, not every player gets long in the locker room or best buddies. I don't care about that much. Colin, you and I have run businesses, okay? You know at the end of the day you look at the bottom line and say, is this generating positive revenue or is this a bunny pick? What people do at the top of big corporations, it could be Fox, it could be NBC. What they do is they try to move out of stuff before they see a bigger problem.

that's really what companies do. They want to move into stuff so they can get stuff for value. You want to get great draft, but you're trying to get really inexpensive great players before the market catches them. That's the draft and that's some like trade. Sam Presti does those deals. Or what you're trying to do is get out of deals

before they really go south. I think a lot of Boston's move was, listen, Tatum got hurt. You know, what if Brown gets hurt? What if Tatum gets hurt again? Like this tandem has been together nine years. We have one title. We don't want to be military.

or Denver, we're going to move a year early, not a year late. That's what great management does. Yeah. They put out fires, potential fires before they start, and they find value before the market recognizes it. I think Boston kind of looked at it in the, listen, nine years together, we got a title. Let's not do a Milwaukee and let us get old and banged up. And then we lose, our players aren't as valuable. So I think that's how I mean.

Remember Mark Zuckerberg with the Metaverse? He was pounding the table that the Metaverse was going to be a thing. He believed in it. He put millions of dollars, probably billions. And people trying to tell him, now this isn't going to work. He's like, no, I believe in it. And then ultimately, he had to scrap it. And he scrapped it after losing a ton of money and value in the stock.

Colin, you could argue that Boston said, we got our title. I don't see a future here. Let's just, let's cut bait. And you don't hate that, right? No, I just people get traded all the time. And that's just the reality of what happened. People get traded for a variety of reasons. You age out.

Analytically, it's not as great as everybody thinks. Maybe there was a culture issue. You know, Tatum's got two young kids. Brown is still a bon vivant, a man about town, young guy? Listen, that's what the athletics said. The quotes, the anonymous sources there, and people aren't making it up. My guess is there was fissures in the relationship. I mean, I heard a quote, it wasn't about money.

Well, I don't believe that. But if it wasn't about money, then it's obviously there's. some relationship fissures. I mean, money has to be part of it. And I'm reading quotes, money wasn't part of it at all. If they say it's not about money, it's about money. There you go. All right, let's move on to the NFL, Colin.

And some interesting commentary here from Andrew Whitworth. Now, he's a former ram, taking a little jab at the 49ers, who haven't really been spending first or second round draft picks on offensive linemen in the last, I don't know, five years. Take a listen to this, interesting commentary from. work with. It does scream that maybe they just don't have a lot of confidence in their ability to select the right one because I think this is the problem with offensive line. When you're going to allocate a first round pick or a second round pick to an officer lineman, a lot of people

love that theory, but you better be damn good in picking it. But when you miss on a high pick like that, a skill player that's okay can still get you plenty of reps, plenty of ball, you know, they're going to catch footballs. They may not be somebody you sign back, but they're going to be productive for you. You draft an unproductive lineman. you are cook. Yeah, that's a, Andrew's really smart. One of the only misses that Les Sneed has ever had was a second round offensive lineman from Wisconsin.

And it is they didn't have a first round pick. They bombed on the second. It's like, oh, we didn't get a, we didn't get a highly productive guy in our first two picks. Like, we didn't have a first. We whipped on the second. So, but I will say, let's be on it. In the history of great left tackles, left or right tackles.

top 30 ever, 27 are first rounders. That goes back to a theory known as the George Young Planet Theory. George Young is a legendary former New York Giant general manager. George Young's theory was the planet gives you only about one or two human beings a year that are 6, 7, 330 with good feet. The planet theory. Like the planet gives you lots of fast guys, lots of tough guys. The planet doesn't give you 6, 7, 3.30 and great quick feet.

So there's about two offensive line in a draft that if you can get them, draft him. And I mean, Jonathan Ogden's, you start looking at the great left tackles. Just start Walter Jones, Jonathan Ogden. It's like they almost all went first round. So he's right on that. You don't want to miss. But if you want to get a great, Tristan Worf's has become, you know, a great tackle. Tristan Worf's.

You know, they went after. When Tom Brady got there, the Iowa kid's been better than they would have guessed. Most, I mean, quarterbacks mostly come from the first round. Great wide receivers. A lot of them are first round. Like left tackle, offensive tackle greatness, it is overwhelmingly a first round draft. All right. Final story is, let's go to some controversy.

Last year's playoffs, Buffalo in Denver, and it was a memorable play. Colin, I'm still, my butt is chapped over this. Obviously, I had the bills in this game. I'm looking at this six months later. That is a catch. It was ruled in an interception. of course, pivotal play in the game. Denver would go on to kick the game-tying field goal after that.

I'm sorry, the game-winning field goal. Game winning, not game-tying. And Cooks is saying some stuff about it, saying he still has not watched it. He didn't watch it for a week straight, could not forget about the play. Here's the thing, I don't think any rules have changed that would alter this decision, right? Next January, we could be in a similar situation, Colin. And, you know, I think half the league is like, what is a catch still? If there was one team that was going to get hosed, just based on their history, it would, of course, be Buffalo.

I mean, it's just... I mean, it's a perfect pass by Alan. I thought he was down to ball. I mean, you look at that and you line up 15 GMs, and it's like 8, 7 one way or the other. Yeah. J-Mac with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The Hurd-Lie News. God, it's... the remaining, I was just reading this, the remaining teams in the World Cup, FIFA World Rankings. France number one, still in. Argentina number two, FIFA rankings, still in. Spain number three, still in. England number four, still in. Morocco number six, still in.

Belgium number eight, still in. The only what you would call outlier is Norway, and they have the best striker, arguably, in the the world. And Switzerland's 14th, but Switzerland's made the quarters many times. They've, you know, they make the World Cup five or six straight years. So we can yell, we can scream VAR, we don't like the officiating. Look at the FIFA rankings. They're mostly right on.

And I've said this is I have always been nothing against Virginia Commonwealth. I mean, did you like the Dusty May Michigan team with three lottery picks or the Dusty May Florida Atlantic team. Be honest. The Dusty May Michigan team was way more fun to watch. So, you know, Erling Holland, who is the

world's greatest striker, dominating the English Premier League, three of the last four years in scoring, the gronk of his sport, is the only reason Norway is there. Otherwise, Norway would be out, and it would be another elite FIFA ranking

team. We were ranked. Was it 18th coming into this thing, 16th or 18th. And that's about, you know, if you, if you, I said this earlier, we're about 16th, 18th. If you gave us Erling Holland, we would be here. I absolutely believe that. Or we, or we would have been toe to toe with Belgium. Erling Holland would be a difference maker. I mean, never forget.

LeBron James got to the NBA finals and the second best player on that team was Larry Hughes. That's basketball, right? where it's easier to score than soccer. So, I mean, France is the best-looking team I've seen. Messi's the most technically superior player of all time. Erling Holland's the best, you know, striker score. And the team that's clearly underrated is Morocco. And if you watch Morocco play, that's a turn the TV down, turn the sound down.

They are fast. They run like France. They don't look like us. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I Heart

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These are the stories you haven't heard, the kind you'll end up telling someone else. Like the time Paul McCartney spent in one of the world's most notorious prisons. Imagine that. You're Paul McCartney. It's 1980. You're an ex-beetle. And you're doing time in one of Japan's worst prisons right there alongside Yenka yakuza gangsters and for a ridiculous charge.

Or the bizarre crime Lady Gaga is accused of. Who is the artist Lady Gaga as being accused of doing the unthinkable to after allegedly stealing her music in style to become famous? And what about that time, Blondie's Debbie Harry escaped a serial killer? The man who had given her that ride she barely escaped from was Ted Bundy. Listen to disgrace land on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There is a percentage. So I was online yesterday more than I usually am.

There is a percentage of people that, like, they don't like soccer, and they kind of like that we lost. And that's always such a weird position. Like, I'm not a big hockey guy or a big NASCAR guy, but I do think hockey playoffs are fun. Every hockey player I've ever met is a great guy. I like the cultural hockey. You play through injuries, you play hard. It's tough guys. I love watching Olympic hockey, but I'm not a guy that knows, you know, I don't spend a lot of time on hockey.

I love football, college football, NBA, March Madness, you know, golf majors, Rory McElroy. But, I mean, it's like there are a percentage of people out there. And since they don't like it or get soccer, they just like almost root for us to lose and be gone. I just don't get that mindset. Like, to me, it's such a gift. It's like it's Marty Grawe with a ball. It's just this global atmosphere that is such such a cool thing. to be involved with.

We don't have to win everything for me to, you know, I've been part of companies where I wasn't that important. And it's like, I still like being part of the collective and a part of the group. But there, you know, there's a part of this country. They don't like soccer and they sort of resent that we talk about it. And I think, good, go away. Hide. But this has been, to me, the best June I've ever done on radio.

It's been so much fun to watch these games and come up with topics every day. And the soccer guests have all been thoughtful. smart i love it that's why it's like i'm not i think we got a right to criticize christian pulisic it's the world cup do better we crush every other athlete why can't we crush a soccer guy every four years this is interesting the steeler fan had a steeler fan survey and they asked steeler fans what are your feelings on mike tomlin's departure 75% of steeler fans said i was ready for him to go or he should have left years ago. Steeler fans are like glad it happened.

The next question, agree or disagree, bringing back Aaron Rogers for a second season was the right move. 42% the largest percentage either disagreed or strongly disagreed. I think you can argue either way on that. I think the fans in Pittsburgh are right. Third question, Steelers haven't won a playoffs game since 2017. That is a long time ago. What has been the biggest thing holding the team back? Quarterback play, coaching are 77%.

So, like, the fans want change. The fans are seeking change. The fans in Pittsburgh are clamoring for change. The fans see the issue. It's the ownership that doesn't. The Rooney family is not reading the room. In most instances, I'm going to trust ownership and a GM over a guy in the third deck. But the fans in Pittsburgh, I mean, the Steelers lost a great GM. He leaves. What do they do?

Walk down the hallway and give it to a guy in the building. You know I hate that. I don't like it with coordinators. I don't like it with coaches. Got to do a global search. Steelers move off Mike Tomlin. What do they do? Hire a Pittsburgh guy. So the ownership is playing it safe. The fans, according to the survey, don't want to play it safe. They want big swings. Mike DePart, Mike Tomlin, should have been out years ago. Aaron Rogers, don't love it. What's been the problem? We can't get the quarterback right in the coaching thing.

Like, so this is one of the instants. I don't think you have to necessarily do what fans want you to do, but you've got to listen to them. I mean, I've said for years, I've taken, there's been criticisms I've had from fans. And I'm like, that's actually a good point. I doesn't necessarily mean I want to build my show around what crazy Larry on the inner web says, but there are, you got to listen. So Mike DeFabo does a great job for the athletic cover in the Steelers.

He was talking about Pittsburgh's outlook this year. Right now they just need something to get them out of this current cycle that they're in. They're stuck in this purgatory where they're good enough to make the playoffs, but then when they do, they look like the team least qualified to be there. And that has been the story over the last several years. years for the Steelers. And truth be told, you know, Mike McCarthy's inheriting expectations of winning a playoff game at the very minimum. And at this point, after seeing 10 and seven seasons that end first round of the playoffs, that is the expectation for this new head coach from the

fan base. They want a playoff win. Anything less than that is not going to be successful season. It's really interesting when the Rooney said it. They're very much about protecting what they've already done. Right. Like, let's make sure we don't go backwards. they're really uncomfortable with that. And, you know, the Rams took a big step backwards. The Niners have taken steps backwards. It's just very interesting that the Roonies are not really listening to the fans. And they're really protecting legacy.

They're playing it safe. You know, let's just bring a guy inside the room to replace our great GM. Let's get a Pittsburgh guy at coach. Let's not really have a plan right now at quarterback, like a viable plan to beat him a home. or a Josh Allen, a Lamar Jackson, or Herbert. It's really interesting. So now, now, in fairness, the two or three in terms of total net worth, ownership net worth, Pittsburgh's on the bottom end of that, Mike Brown, Cincinnati on the bottom end of that.

Like Pittsburgh doesn't have a lot of money. But so be it. So Steelers fans, nor are picking on Steelers, Jay Mack. They appear to, you know, they're the ones pan on the table. They wanted Tomlin years ago gone. What do we pick on here? Who do we take our shots at? I think it's the family. I think the Rooney family is not, is kind of disconnected from what their fans want. And any business owner, you don't have to exactly do what your customers want, but you got to listen to them.

The fans are telling you, we're just being too, we're playing it too safe. Stop playing it safe. You know, it's interesting. If you look at the NFL, the riskiest team in the league that moves off quarterbacks, they move off coach, is Philadelphia in the same state. Yeah. And the franchise in the NFC in the same state is probably the most aggressive, big market Philadelphia, small market Pittsburgh, play it safe. Now, Jeffrey Lurie's much richer in the Rooney family, so there's probably some capital advantages there. But it is interesting. In the same state, you have the, I mean, Green Bay is a small market. They don't play it safe.

I mean, they were drafting Aaron Rogers first ground. They're drafting Jordan Love. They could have drafted other players. They knew that would upset the quarterback. Green Bay takes big swings. For a small market team, they do. not play it safe. They've always been above average offensively. They draft the quarterback when they've got an aging star quarterback and they know it won't sit well and it won't play well in the

room. The Steelers had Big Ben aging and they were like terrified to tick off Big Ben. Yeah. Very strange. I don't know. You look at Rogers how he ended it. It's not very good. You look at the schedule early. It's rough. I don't think we're going to be talking Steelers a lot this year, Colin. I just, I don't see that team in the cards. I forget their schedule. What is it? Is it rough? I'm going to pop it on the screen here because they're amazing. But, you know, it's a tough division. Joe Burroughs back.

The Bengals are much better. You know that. Cleveland's still a dumpster fire. But the Baltimore Ravens have the highest win total in the league. Don't be surprised. Four new teams make the playoffs every year. Do not be surprised if the Cleveland Browns are on the four new teams. What's up, fam?

It's sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam Jay. And we're the hosts of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together. We're breaking down the biggest headlines, the viral moments, and the stories everyone's talking about across women's sports. From game-changing performances to culture shifting conversations,

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