The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 2 - Colin gives his Super Bowl pick, Fernando Mendoza stops by The Herd

Episode Date: February 7, 2026

Colin shares his official Super Bowl pick and why he expects it to be a close game on Sunday. Heisman Trophy winner and National Champion Fernando Mendoza joins the show to talk about playing under head coach Curt Cignetti and why he feels prepared to be the #1 overall pickSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeart radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. Hour 2. It is a Friday, Super Bowl Sunday. We're live. We're in Los Angeles.

It is the herd. Wherever you may be. However you may be watching. Thanks for making us part of your day. We had a very good year. I was very fortunate. Hit about 60% of my NFL picks, 59, 60% of the NFL picks. And then I picked him.

the first weekend of the playoffs. And after that, you know, I just kind of, I shut the blazing five down. But in this game, and this happens all the time during a season, I have an initial reaction. And then over the course of a week, there can be injuries, there can be storylines, and then you start deep diving on Thursday, Friday, and Thursday night is the night that I spend some time kind of deep diving on stuff. And all week long, I've said low scoring, I'm trying to, taking the points. I think it's very 24-21-ish. But there is a stat and a theme that I can't get past.

And it benefits Seattle. I want you to think about this. In a division, Seattle was in a division where they had to face Christian McCaffrey, the best running back in the league, just pure talent. And Kyle Shanahan, probably the best run game coach.

They had to face them three times. They also had to face McVe, Kiron Williams, and the substantial Rams run game three times. So Seattle had six games against McVeigh and Shanahan in those run games. Yet Seattle led the NFL, the entire league in fewest yards per attempt.

I can't get past that, meaning Drake May is going to have to throw the ball 35 times or more. 23 years old for a Super Bowl. Do you know what his career record is when he attempts 35 passes or more? It's 1 in 7. Big Ben's first Super Bowl. Brady's first Super Bowl. Mahomes first Super Bowl. I think Josh McDaniels, the offensive coordinator for New England, and it's certainly something he could do,

is going to have to call a perfect game. I believe there will be a lot of screening, a lot, eight, ten screens. There has to be. You cannot ask Drake May against this defense with that O line of New England to drop back 37 times, five, seven-step drops. They'll get crushed. They'll get rolled. I can't get past that. Seattle facing elite run games, regularly fewest yards per rush in the league.

I think New England needs a touchdown on defense and a perfect game plan called by Josh McDaniel. Ryan Fitzpatrick likes New England, and I get his reasoning too. Here he is. The longer this thing is the game, they're going to shorten the game on offense. Ramon J. Stevenson is going to have a ton of carries. Josh McDaniels is the X factor in this game. He's been in a bunch of these. Drake May has a calmness about him when Josh is calling the play.

place, is going to put them in good situations. I think the New England Patriots are going to win this game. I think that reasoning is sound. But my question is, you go back to the Denver game pre-Blizzard. Patriots could not move the ball. Pun, punt, punt. So here is my Super Bowl pick. Seahawks versus Patriots.

New England's played 11 games this season against teams that eventually fired their coach. So it's not that they played average teams. New England built up a lot of their credibility against teams that were in chaos. Drake May, in games that he throws, 35 or more. And they don't want him to, I think he's going to have to. He's one in seven. And he is the most sack quarterback in the league, including the playoffs. He's the first quarterback with five plus giveaways and 15 plus sacks ever taken in a single postseason.

and I'd argue Seattle's defense is better. The Seahawks have led for 113 to the 120 minutes, so they'll probably take a lead. Okay? The three games they lose in the regular season, they lost them by a total of nine points, one to the Rams. They're 10 and O best in the league

when committing one or fewer turnovers. That's the secret here. Can New England force two? Their defense allows three, 3.8 yards per rush. I can't get past that. Drake May is going to have to play a nearly flawless game with one or no turnovers,

and most of it will have to be from deep in the pocket. I don't think you can bubble screen Seattle to death. I'm going to take the Seahawks to win close. I think it's low scoring. I think Seattle's capable of making. mistakes, a very young team, 24-20 Seattle, still like the Patriots plus the points and the under. And I do think Seattle, the second youngest team in the league, makes mistakes. Greg CoSell was on the show yesterday.

And I just, again, Greg comes on Thursdays, and I thought a lot about this. There's a reason I put CoSell on the day before my blazing five picks. he talked about Seattle's D against New England's offensive line. They have tremendous versatility with their back-in players which allows them to do

multiple things from a coverage and a pressure standpoint that they feel they need to help Campbell. How about Wilson, the rookie left guard? What do they feel about him going up against perhaps Williams or at times they even move Lawrence inside? So I think that

it'll be interesting to see how the Patriot handle that. I just now, Jay Mackle make his pick in two hours, little less than two hours, but I went down last night, and I went and looked at Brady, Mahomes, and Big Ben's first Super Bowl starts.

Number one, the second thing I looked at is Seattle's run defense is remarkably strong, leads the NFL in a key category, yards per rush, and that's facing the Rams multiple times, and the Niners multiple times. Those are very, very,

good run teams. New England's not in that class. So again, I think New England's got some clear edges. Drake May is, I don't think, one of them. I don't think that's one of their edges. I think Vrable's Super Bowl experience, Josh McDaniel's Super Bowl experience is a key here. So you're just your impressions on some of the game I can see, but I just can't get past the speed and the explosiveness of the Seahawks, J. Mack. Any response? Yeah, I'm with you, Colin. We are in lockstep almost universally on this game. I was just texting.

One of our staff members was like, hey, here's a ammo to go back at Colin. And I'm like, I can't because I agree with him. I mean, look at the three playoff games, right? The Patriots run offense. It was kind of working, 70 yards or whatever. They were leading in the second half of all those games. So they just relied on the run game. They don't want to trust Drake May because they had the lead.

I think Seattle gets the lead here and kind of chokes them out. I don't see this game being close, Colin. Wow. I will say this. You don't call that a lot. You try not to. You got to save it for the big spots. Like the Eagles over the Chiefs last year in the Super Bowl.

That was a big spot. Just forget my wildcar picks. They did not happen at all. Ignore them. Yeah. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart Radio app.

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Well, he is impossible not to root for, unless you're a rival of the Indiana Hoosiers. Fernando Mendoza, you know about the Heisman Trophy, and you know about the remarkable Indiana story. He originally, out of Miami, committed to Yale and then flipped the Cal, another remarkable school. And I talked about the first time he really, I watched that Penn State second half, and I went, oh, wow, this kid is different. And then I started going on YouTube and watching the Cow games. And it's like, there's a little Andrew Luck here. There's a toughness here. And Fernando Mendoza has been kind enough to join us live here on a Friday before the Super Bowl.

So it's just, you're such a neat story and very true to your personality. Fernando, when was the first time that you thought to yourself? Because you're a real humble kid, but you thought to yourself maybe after a game, you know what? I may be able to play on Sundays. I think I can play maybe pro football. Was that at Cal? Was that in high school?

When was that first moment? Well, first of all, Mr. Crowder, I really appreciate having me on. As much I love the compliment, I don't think I'm in the same sense as Andrew Luck. I'm still a long way to go. But a cow, I was a very raw prospect, and I know I needed to get developed. And that's why after graduated Cal in three years, I took the jump to join Signetti and Co to try to become a developed quarterback because I know I need to get my footwork right. I need a whole other skill set to even think about the NFL.

And I would say mid-year when we played Oregon at Austin Stadium and came back, I was like, wow, maybe, hey, maybe he could play in the NFL. And then the whole month of December as we have here, the Ohio State clip rolling. and the playoffs, I was like, okay, I think I'm confident enough to take this next step, to take this next leap, and bet on myself and declare for the NFL draft this year. You know, it's interesting, though, you went to Cal. You didn't play with a lot of five-star players, and you, you know, you lost some games, but I talked to an NFL executive, and he said, I said, what do you like about him?

And he said, I like his toughness. You guys all talk about his arm and his size. he said, I saw him get whacked by Miami. I saw him get hit hard at Cal. I saw the Ohio State game. He's like, that a lot of guys don't like to sit in the pocket.

Where do you think your toughness comes from? I think it comes from not wanting to let my teammates down. And I always trust my offense at Lyman, and I know that if I sit in the pocket and I deliver a strike, not only is it going to deflate the defense, it's also going to inspire my team.

Wow, Fernando could get back up and deliver the next play, oh, that's somebody we want to play with. That's somebody we want to play for. And like you mentioned, there are a lot of close game at Cal that unfortunately not go our way. But I think that's great experience. And that's why when it was a Penn State game, the Oregon or the National Championship, whenever it was the high pressure moments, it was that Cal experience where we want some close games and we also lost some close games like the NFL, the margins are very, very small.

And it kind of gave me that experience to help the Indiana Hoosiers go 60 and out. So it's interesting. know Kurt Signetti is a great coach now. Yeah. But he's not a, I mean, when you're at Cal and a lot of people were interested, Fernando. They wanted you. And it's not like Signetti is just Mr. personality and one-liners and funny. What did you see in him? What in that recruiting pitch, what did you see in him that you're like, okay, this is the guy to take me to another level? So my younger brother, Alberto Medoza, who's now going to be the starting quarterback for Georgia Tech, he was there the year before.

And when I was in Cal for three years under a couple different OCs, and I saw the way he developed one year, I was like, wow, the way he's learning about defense, the way they're processing information, and the way they're really developing the quarterback, that's where I need to go. And when I visited these other schools, they're like, hey, we had the best shot of one of the national championship, Indiana. I mean, they're a Cinderella story. But Coach Signetti was like, Fernando, you want to go to the NFL? I'm going to develop you into the best quarterback you can possibly become.

And that's what sold me because I want to control the controllables. I mean, the best quarterback I could become the best serve my teammates and coaches. Yeah, does he ever get mad at you? Because, boy, he gets mad at the media all the time. He gets mad at you. He does. Oh, a lot. Yeah.

I would say that there's been a lot of times in practice. He's like, what the hell are you throwing here? And, you know, and it's that tough love. Honestly, he doesn't give us a lot of love at all, especially the quarterback. But I think that's what makes him special because he never wants to keep us complacent. When we had great victories early in the year, he was like, I don't know who you guys think you are. We're not that good as a team. We still need to go a long, long way.

And Coach Dignetti was always made sure to keep our team and especially myself humble. So he was always very hard on us. And I think especially in the day and age of college coaches, you know, going to more the side of NIL, the power shifts to the players. where they, you know, it's wanted to be a little bit more friendly. He brings that old school leader, that kind of like, fear leader,

CEO type, where it's, hey, you're going to respect him, you're going to do what he says, and you're going to listen to his coaching points. So it was a great learning opportunity for all of us. The, in terms of just football players,

quarterbacks, a lot of times we in the media or draft analysts will say, okay, here's his comp, here's his comp, here's who he is. And I do think you have, I mean, to me, you have a toughness that has an Andrew Luck feel.

And you have a poise and a toughness and the intellect. And that's why, you know, and by the way, like Andrew Luck, Andrew didn't play with five-star guys at Stanford. He played with good players. You play with good players. Yeah, grip. Yeah. Do you, is there a professional quarterback at any part of your journey that even subconsciously,

you kind of the footwork, the style, the jersey, Is there a professional that you've always kind of thought, I kind of like the way he plays, the way his feet work, is there a guy for you? Yeah, I would say there's a lot of guys for me throughout my entire childhood. And then when I started getting to high school and the college level and actually learned how to study tape and really extracting things from their game to put it in my game.

As a child, I was always a huge Tom Brady fan. I read a TB12 book. I was always big on the preparation. Because like Tom, I'm not the biggest. I'm not the fastest. I'm not the strongest, but the edge is in the intellect and preparation. So I really appreciate him preaching that message from a young age. Yeah.

And what's really important about being quarterback is being cerebral, knowing where to go to the ball, knowing your checks, and all that different, you know, all those different external factors that you don't think about when you just think about armed talent and footwork. And this past year, our quarterback coach, Chandlermer, who's now the quarterback coach for the Bucks, well, Baker right now,

he made me watch every single clip of Sam Darnold from the past year and Matthew Stafford as they had a little bit of a similar system as we did at Indiana for some of the play action games. Not the RPO, but for the play action games and for the dropback game. And it was great to see their footwork and really how they processed the game. And it helped me learn a lot about the NFL game because you always see the highlights. But it was really interesting to see how they dealt with plays that didn't go their way. When they needed to throw the ball away or they needed to check it down.

And I think that really helped my efficiency this year. Listen, you're going to go to the Raiders. We can project that. I'm projecting you're going to go number one. You will lose some games. It's a great division. And when I watched you against Miami, they were running some zone, some man-to-man.

It was a very smart defense, and they were really physical. And I kind of felt, I honestly felt, Fernando, I'm like, he's kind of getting a glimpse of the NFL. Like Miami's got professional-level athletes. Take me back to that Miami game, because you were so good on big downs. was that the most professional feeling?

I mean, Ohio State's obviously great, but when you played Miami, honestly, it felt, I said this, I'd never watched the college game that I thought felt like a little bit of a pro game. When you were in that game, did it take you to a place? Did you, I mean, did you think at any point,

this is the best personnel I've ever faced? Honestly, I think pound for pound, Ohio State, had the best personnel, but what Miami made an NFL game is the edges they had. They have two first round, picks on the edge. And that's how it is in the NFL. You want to stay at front of the sticks. You want to be efficient so you don't get in the long third downs because they have Jason Taylor's

a D-Ly coach and they're doing all different NFL stunts, all these different disguises. So you want to stay ahead of the sticks and Miami had an extremely physical defense. And with the NFL, like we talked about the margins are so small. And it's going to be a dog fight every single week. And when it seems like you're up by a lot, you're not really because then it comes back to equalize. and I think the Miami game was great experience because you're going to get roughed up. So what? Cry about it. But you're going to need to be able to deliver in the big moments.

Like they say, money down, third down, and even more than that, fourth down. You know, your personality is very infectious and it's very authentic. And you're a very optimistic guy. But what I actually, I'll tell you, it's not just the Indiana stuff. I like that you played at Cal. Aaron Rogers played at Cal. A Jared Goff played it Cal. Jared Goff, I don't know if you've seen the tapes,

Jared Goff got beat up a lot at Cal. He got sacked a lot. And I look at Cal and I'm like, oh, this kid knows what it's like. This is tough. If I said to you, Fernando, what is the one thing you have to work on before you take an NFL snap?

What's the one thing that, I'm not saying it keeps you awake at night, but you're like, man, I got to get better at blank. Yeah, I would say with the NFL, I mean, I believe my forward needs to get better because anticipation of time in the NFL, it's larger than college. College, you know, you always got to throw it, you know, right as they break or before they break. But the NFL, you kind of get away with that stuff.

And with the footwork at time, it's something that I've really improved on from Cal to this year. But I think the footwork is so important. And so it's really the small movements in the pocket. We see quarterbacks when I was watching the NFL tape. You see Matthew Stafford. He moves a foot is stable and then rips the ball rather than escaping the pocket or these large movements in the pocket. it's all about being subtle and being a master within your telephone booth in the pocket. All right.

By the way, are you picking a team for the Super Bowl? Is there a team you think's better? I'm not picking a team for a Super Bowl. I don't want to get in any trouble. I just hope it's a good game. And it's kind of funny because now I'm in the real world and actually going to play in the NFL. So from being an NFL fan, I've got rid of that aspect of my life now because I realize I'm going to be playing for an NFL franchise. an organization and I need to give them

my all. Yeah. Planet Fitness is who you're supporting. You got a word for Planet Fitness? I do. As much as I love Coach, he kicked me out of the Indiana football facility. He said, get out of here. We're ready for the new team. And so when I'm here on Radio Row, I need

to get a workout in. I need to be prepared. I can't have two weeks off not working out. If not, you know, I don't even want to see what that product looks like. So with Planet Fitness, it gave me a $15 per month subscription. So I'm able to to go in there, you know, before ready a row, get a workout in, do

some, you know, applyability, be able to work at my core and maintain and strain for this pre-draft process, as I know how important it is. And I need to give this eight weeks. And honestly, this entire year, my all. You know, I'm starting to really like

Kurt Signetti's crankiness. That makes me laugh. That is Kurt Signetti Dimes. I'm starting to, really an endearing quality. Get out of my facility, kid. Hey, good rats. Can't wait to watch you play in the NFL. It's just, you're an easy guy to root for, and thank you for taking 15 minutes for our show. Thanks so much.

God bless you guys. I appreciate it again. All right. Fernando Mendoza. Yeah, I mean, I've said this. If you look at quarterbacks in the NFL where they went to college, you know, obviously Matt Stafford goes to Georgia and Sam Darnold USC. I think he's the first USC quarterback in a Super Bowl, I think.

There's a lot of quarterbacks in this league. Philip Rivers, North Carolina State, Eli Manning, Ole Miss, Aaron Rogers, Jared Gough, Cal, Big Ben, Miami of Ohio. There's a lot of, I mean, Joe Flacco's journey. And I, Matt Ryan, and I've had this theory for years, is that it should be like, well, you're number one, you go to Alabama, then you star in the NFL.

No, that's not a real experience. A real experience for a quarterback is Cal to Indiana, that you get hit. and that your receivers aren't wide open. Look at how many great quarterbacks don't come from traditional powers. Even this Indiana team didn't have a lot of five-star guys. Miami did. You think quarterbacks should always be like from Bama, Texas.

They're not. They're so often from smaller schools where you have to elevate three-star guys. So I think those Cal years for him, I mean, YouTube them. Go back and look. He doesn't have a lot of time to throw it, Cal. He's not throwing to five-star guys. You know, Colin, we got a lot of guys coming on the show, do interviews. A lot of them are coached up.

They don't want to give any bulletin board material. I feel like what you just heard from Mendoza was 1,000% authenticity. Like every single thing he said, he felt it. Like he felt genuine like a real good human being. Like the kind of guy, if your daughter brings him home, you're like, this is a nice guy. If he came here and wanted my job and took it, I wouldn't be like angry at the world.

I'd be like, that's a good dude. That's been taken under consideration. He's just a good guy. Well, you know, the other thing. I'd like him. Somebody said this the other day. They may have said this on the air or they may have said it off. I don't remember where I heard this.

But somebody said something that was very interesting that I think it may have been Jordan Palmer is that the one thing you can't be to succeed at quarterback is a chameleon. you can't be a guy that comes into the locker room as a quarterback and you're just a different guy every day. You've got to be true to you. Even if some say it's cringy, you have to be true to you. Tom Brady was like overly optimistic first day last day. You'd be like, nobody's that optimistic. And then you have Tom on my show.

No, that's who Tom is. Right? Like this kid's personality, this is who he is. He doesn't care if you think it's cringy. It's totally true to him. I think a lot of that's from his parents. He's got a lot of self-belief, but he is just a good kid. J-Mack with the news.

No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, Colin, we're going to start with, oh, wow, they actually didn't send me the scripts for the news here. Should we go to break and come back, or should we just do jail on Earth? All right, let's go Doug Peterson. Doug Peterson was on it. airplane recently, Colin, and he took to the intercom to defend his quarterback Jalen Hertz.

Take a listen to this. We grabbed the Jalen Hertz for a reason, and we saw something to Jailen Hurts that we felt like he was going to be the starter at some point. He was going to be the franchise quarterback at some point. You look at the success of what the Eagles had over the course of the last, really since he started. they've won a Super Bowl they've been in another Super Bowl they've been to many playoff games

they've won a ton of football games and every year they've had a different offensive coordinator Was he piloting the plane? No, he's doing one of these Super Bowl week deals and he's defending his quarterback so this was kind of a gimmick but it felt real that he was defending Hertz

as if Hertz is under fire. You said you hurt some stuff this week on Joe. I think Jaylen's very and not all pro athletes are one of the guys. Jalen's his own guy. He is not, he is, I've been told he's not that popular among players. He's a bit aloof.

He's his old guy. And I'll say this, I don't think you have to hang with everybody. Again, certain guys get along with everybody. I've heard Jayland's kind of his old guy. It can be a little off-putting to some. But his intangibles,

like his toughness, I do think his ability to play poorly and win, It's not just personnel. He's not a guy. And the other thing about Jalen, and I felt this, not as much this year, but in previous years, he always feels dinged up to me. He's dealt with a lot of injuries. I think he has pretty high pain tolerance.

I think he's played Hurt a lot. Well, you said a thing that's Tom Brady, the real Tom Brady first day, last day. Hertz is going to the podium with a briefcase. You say he speaks in fortune cookie language, you know, at the podium sometimes. I don't know how that goes over. I'm going to continue to defend him until I get. more evidence than it's, he's not the right guy, but, I mean, again, he's been to two Super Bowls. He's performed really well in both Super Bowls.

Yeah, I mean, listen, he has made big throws and big plays in the largest of games, so he deserves credit. All right, let's go to backup quarterback Mack Jones, no longer called McEnroe Jones, after a tremendous season backing up Brock Purdy, eight starts, went five and three, and suddenly it's like he's a hot commodity, do we want him? Well, Mac believes he's proven himself, and he likened his comeback to that of Sam Darnold. Everyone's journey is so different And I feel like I've watched him in interviews and stuff And he does say that San Francisco And learning from Kyle and Brock really changed his career And I see why now

Like I learned so much this year And I've obviously been coached by some great coaches And I know a lot and I've learned a lot But I really learned a lot this year I know Sam probably felt the same way And you can see it on the tape There's a lot of crossover We run the same offenses

And there's other examples out there at Baker and everybody So it's definitely motivating for me I feel like I can get back and do that And I have my swag back and I feel like that's important to me and I can go out there and win games for whoever. Yeah, I, I, um, the Niners are either going to have one of the best backup

quarterbacks in the league. Um, I think if Brock Purdy, he's been dinged up a few times. I think that's probably why San Francisco would be reluctant to move him. Because Purdy's had a lot of little, not nagging stuff to just stuff that knocks you out for three or four weeks. But I, you know, the offense, I think Purdy's mobility, augments this offense more than Mac can do it.

But Mac was good with him. Very good. He was very good with him. Do you entertain a deal for him if you're the Niners? Like, what if Arizona's willing to give you an early second round pick and they want Mack to be their quarterback? He would be in the division. I would not give him up early in the season.

I would want Arizona to have some losses. I don't want Mack to go to Arizona, prepare, and take some our trade secrets. So it's one thing if Arizona's one and six. and we've already played them once and hammered them, and we've played them one week after the trade deadline. And so Mac doesn't have six weeks to prepare for us. I mean, it's all timing. What about the Browns out of conference?

I mean, I don't know that the Browns would entertain. I mean, do they have money? That's a good point. But if I'm the Niners, I would hold out for a first round pick. I don't think you're going to get that, but I would at least hold out. Like you said, otherwise you got a good backup to Brock Purdy. Quarterbacks are dropping like flies around this.

Yeah, mid-second, maybe. a mid-third, a third and a sixth, maybe. I think he did make a Pro Bowl. Would you take a third and a six when you see what Sam Darnal just did? He's in a Super Bowl. He is not as athletic as Sam. He doesn't have the arm strength of Sam. He's not even close athletically to Sam.

What is he? 90% of Sam Donald? Athletically. No, no, just overall as a quarterback. Sam's different. Sam's bigger, stronger, better arm, better athlete. I don't think it's particularly close. Oh, okay. Final story.

Let's go to the NBA. Everybody was waiting for that Janus trade, Colin. It didn't happen. And then Janus, of course, did what every kid does. Goes on social media and posted, Legends Don't Chase. They attract. And he added the clip from Wolf of Wall Street

where Leonardo DiCaprio announces, I'm not leaving, and then a bunch of F bombs. It's an awesome scene. I think this is kind of weak from Janus, Colin. He's acting like, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to attract people. What is he? What's he talking about?

Well, we don't know exactly. Shams was telling us it was going to happen, and I think our take was at 31, still not healthy, multiple injuries. I don't necessarily think, I do think he would make the Knicks better, but again, he would make them better now, but the Knicks are good enough now to make the finals, and you'd be giving up, what, four first round picks? remember Jalen Brunson

not only has Yonis aged and he's not a perimeter player, he needs the ball. Well, Jalen Brunson does. Jalen Brunson plays a lot of minutes and is a smaller player. Do we know that Jalen Brunson in four years with the wear and tear on his body? Jalen Brunson has the ball

in his hands, creating contact, a smaller guy. Like I, I mean, you go for Yonis because you think now you can win titles. But boy, you are giving up the future in your New York. New York's the one that's got stuff. I'm just saying if I ran the Milwaukee box, the Knicks have stuff I want. I'll take OG Josh Hart and three picks. I like that.

Lakers don't have anything I want. Warriors don't have anything I want. Miami's doesn't have anything I want. The Knicks have stuff I'll take as a as a glue guy Josh Hart. OG is a high-end starter. Knicks have stuff I like. So again, we talked briefly about this earlier in the week. But now that Janice would get traded in the summer, the team to watch is the LA Lakers, Colin. I know people don't want to hear that. What are you getting me? They've got like 90 mil coming off the books. You saw Austin Reeves last night, 35 points off the bench.

Look like an alpha. Look like a one or a two. Okay, fine, he's probably a two. But if you're the bucks, you don't want any bad contracts and you want picks. The Lakers will have three or four first round picks to offer, plus Austin Reeves. I'm just saying that's the beginning of a trade. And then you get Luca and Janus. For the record, if Luca and Janus are together, those are.

late first round picks. Yes. And same with any picks from the Knicks or whoever. I mean, by the way, that Warriors offer was laughable. Buck's did not entertain it. I'm just saying you know the Lakers' new ownership with the guys from the Dodgers. They go big game hunting. Luca and Janus,

is that appointment television or what? Yeah, it would be. I'm not denying that. J. Mack with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. If you say it, people will go, whoa, pump the brakes.

But now somebody with credibility is saying it, and I don't think he's wrong. We'll talk about that next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. On Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHeart Radio app. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news.

We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to us. people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. 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. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. 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, for 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. 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 is. 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. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect.

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

You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Jenchian win. 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, Lennar 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. Tomorrow, we got a top 10 showdown on Fox Primetime Hoops as Keaton Wagler leads fifth-ranked Illinois against Tom Izzo's 10th-ranked Michigan State Squad. It all begins tomorrow at 8 Eastern only on Fox. You know, sometimes somebody will say something projecting. And everybody goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I can remember saying, I think Cooper Flag is going to be better than Jason Tatum because I think he's much better defensively and I think he's much more aggressive. And I think most of the great players in league history, your MJs, your Kobe's, they're really aggressive players, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson. I mean, Brian Winhorst said yesterday, he thinks Cooper Flagg, people in the league think he could be better than Luca. Well, he's already much better defensively than Luca. a good 25, 35% of the game. He's just a much better defensive player. But he just last night had

his fourth straight game over 30. And this kid's a remarkable player. When I watch him, I see sort of that MJ Kobe, Larry Bird intensity for a 19-year-old to be this aggressive. You just don't get that. I mean, and by the way, there's a lot of guys that come into this league and blow you away, John Morant. John Morant has now what they call negative trade value where people won't trade for him. Like you have to give us stuff like picks to take his contract. He's been so immature, battled coaches. That's other things winhorst has reported. And then there's guys like Lamello Ball that are fun, but you don't think of them as championship players. They're fun. They're flashy. It kind of feels thin. You know,

this kid's game to me has, it really does. It feels like it's got some of that mama mentality, which is not just work ethic. He is in a heighty. Aper, aggressive, tough player that likes contact, that demands the ball. That is remarkable. And there's so many layers to his game. He can play point guard. He's got floaters. He attacks the rim.

He can be a slasher. There's just like layers and layers. I said this the other day, it's like a, it's like a European game. When a European comes in here and they're like 20 years old, but they're games like that of a 28-year-old, this stuff is very, very unique. And here's Cooper Flagg on his current hot streak. It gives me a lot of confidence. You know, honestly, you know, it doesn't really change much. You know, I'm just going to go out there every night and try to be consistent and try to be the best version of myself.

And whenever that looks like, whoever, you know, is out there with me, you know, I just competed at a really high level. I mean, it sounds weird if we'd have said this before he played in the NBA to say, what if he's better than Jason Tatum at the trade-led deadline of his rookie year. That would sound ridiculous. And it's like, whatever the gap is between Tatum and Cooper Flag, it's not much. I'm telling you. I mean, that left-hand he uses effectively, wards off the defense, I mean, the gap between he and Tatum, and there was some pushback when people, oh, you're putting a lot of pressure on him. The all-time grades don't care about pressure. you know remember james worthy uh there there was the the michael jordan documentary right the last dance and james worthy was maybe the best player in college basketball at the time and he said when

michael jordan got to carolina he was better than michael and then after about you know i don't know if i forgot if it was six games or six practices he's like no michael's better than me so greatness flourishes very quickly like tiger woods was raw he was good he was great, he was the best, and it happened fast. So it's a really remarkable player. And again, I do worry about there's, they call it the rookie wall, because you know, you paid 35, 45 games in college, and you don't have to play that kind of defense, that intense defense.

In the NBA, you've got to defend or you'll get eaten alive. So, I mean, is he going to hit the wall after about 55 games? That's very possible. But, I mean, you're watching something here that you just don't, you don't see very often. Max Crosby of the Raiders and J. Max Super Bowl pick in the final hour. Can't wait for that. Fernando Mendoza was just on, and we were talking about toughness. And there's just things you can't necessarily coach.

You know, I remember years ago talking to a GM about a rookie quarterback. And the GM said when he shook his hand, when he shook his hand after they drafted him, and he's like he didn't have a firm grip and he goes just I wonder did we draft the right guy in this quarterback this rookie quarterback did not end up being a great player and he's like the NBA or the NFL the practices are hard and you're going to be tested in camp by all these veteran players even your teammates are going to test you so I asked Fernando Mendoza like like this kid plays better with a bloody lip where's the toughness come from because they're not want to let my teammates down and I always trust my off offense alignment and I know that if I sit in the pocket and I deliver a strike, not only is it going to deflate the defense, it's also going to inspire my team. Wow, Fernando could get back up and deliver the next play. Oh, that's something we want to play with. That's somebody we want to play for. You're going to get roughed up. So what? Cry about it. But you're going to need to be able to deliver in the big moments. Like they say, money down, third down, and even more than that,

fourth down. Yeah, I mean, it's hard not to let you have a smile on your face. He just, yeah, cry about it. He doesn't sound. like any of the guys we interview. How many guys have been on the show this week? Christian McCaffrey, all these dudes. He doesn't sound like any of them. Totally different, right? Maybe it's because he's a young college guy,

but he just sounds real and genuine. I mean, you watch on the internet, everybody's selling your protein bars and telling you how to live longer and do this and don't do that. And of all the messages I've been told through the years by any, you know, all these experts

and the one that always rings true in my life, that is gratitude. Are you great? Because life is going to kick you right in the groin. It doesn't matter what you do. You could be the best-looking person all through life and you become an actor. You're only getting about if you're a star, you're getting turned down 80% of the time. Right.

Like so life, no matter if you get good genetics, you're big, you're strong, you're beautiful, you're brilliant. Life knocks you back. That's why you have to be grateful for the good times, the bad times are coming. And what gets you through those bad times is being grateful for the good times and be like, listen, when things are good, they don't stay good. It's not linear.

I mean, go look at Tom Brady. You're going to get hurt. You're going to miss time. You're going to get blown out. You're going to get beat by Nick Foles in a Super Bowl. You're going to play perfectly in a Super Bowl and lose against Philadelphia. They weren't punting. So you just, you have to be grateful for the good times because bad times.

because bad time, I tell my kids all the time and it's not like a unique message. Life's not about action as much as it is reaction. How do you react to bad days? Because you're going to have about three a week. That's a lot, cop. Three a week? I mean, geez, hopefully only three a month.

I mean, you were wearing the double earrings in the bars in New York. Maybe you didn't have bad days. I had plenty of bad days. And it's how do you react to stuff? And that kid's personality seems to me he's going to be just fine through the lean years. and the Raiders have had some lean years. A couple. Just a few.

Just a few. Max Crosby in the final hour on a Friday and J-Max Super Bowl pick. 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 Smygel 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. 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports

and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife-Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.