The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 2 - College Sports Needs An Attitude Adjustment, Matt Holliday Still Sees Dodgers as Team to Beat

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Doug Gottlieb, in for Colin, reacts to interesting comments made by Northern Illinois HC Thomas Hammock on the state of college sports and gives insight on what he's witnessed as a coach in the disparity between the haves and have-nots. 7x MLB All-Star Matt Holliday joins Doug to explain why he still sees the Dodgers as NL favorites despite falling behind the Padres in the NL West. Plus, one superstar quarterback is about to do something he's never done before.See 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. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. What up? Welcome in. This is The Herd, wherever you may be, and however you may make it as part of your day. Thanks so much. I'm Doug Gottlieb in for Colin Cowher.

And for the next couple of hours, I want to talk sports with you. So, for those of you are like, hey, Gottlieb, what are you doing? Now, I'm a college basketball. Oh, that's right. A college basketball. That's right. Yeah. So what's that like?

That's what everybody asks. That everybody asks. And I'll share with you a lot, if you'd like. And it's a fascinating, fascinating, I don't want to say experiment, but just time of change in all business. Right? I'll give you an example. Okay. It's not just college sports.

I think pro sports, especially basketball, is about to change greatly. I'll explain in a second. I think NFL football is going to change. I mean, the perfect example is, yes, Archie Manning, just like, Arch Manning, just like Peyton Manning, just like, why am I forgetting? Peyton Manning, what was the two-time Super Bowl champion? Why am I? The other Manning?

Eli Manning, sorry. Okay, going to stay four years, not because of NIL, but because they believe, much like most people, that the more reps you have, the more ready you are, the more ready you are, the more confidence you have, the more confidence you have, the better you play initially, the better you play initially, the easier it is for you to maintain,

you get like a year and a half to be a starting quarterback in the NFL, and if you can't do it as a top pick, then you're out, right? And you become a career back. up or you're bouncing around chasing checks. You're doing the, like the Jets quarterback, right? I mean, this is his third team in three years? Yeah, Justin Fields, third team in three years? Why is that?

Because he basically got a year and a half. Bears didn't think he's good enough. They moved on. Goes to the Steelers. Steelers knew he wasn't good enough. Same thing. Rins repeat, rinse repeat. So I think that the archmanning thing doesn't have a ton to do.

with NIL or RevShare or the money that he's making. Kid was making money as comes from money. Money isn't the driving force. But I do think that the NFL is going to change. The draft is so much different now because everybody is older. And they're older because they stay in school longer. They stay in school longer because there's not the desperation for the NFL check the way there used to be. Which in many ways is a good thing.

There are bad things about NIL. there are bad things about compensating athletes, but the fact that they are staying in school longer is not one of them. It is a benefit. Now, let's not act like that was the intent of it. No one ever said, hey, you know, once we start paying players,

they're going to stay in school longer. Nobody said that. It's an ancillary benefit. It's an unintended consequence. But it is something that happens. So there's a smaller pool of prospects for the NFL draft, but you have more tape on them.

On the other hand, some of them have played at three or four schools, five schools even. So it's harder to get the background on what type of kid he is if he's only been in a place for six months before he declares for the NFL draft, right? It's very different.

And, and this, I believe, North Carolina's got 70 new players, Bill Belich's team, 70 new players. And like they're introducing themselves to each other like in warm-up lines. And my name is Jim, where you're from?

Oklahoma State Milam Monitor, 65 new players. And you have like 15 padded practices before you play a real football game. 15. Remember, most of these teams don't have spring games. A lot of these players are picked up in the spring, some in the summer, some right before the fall.

So you would think your offenses and your defenses might be a little bit more root of entry. College offenses have never been as ornate as pro offenses. Same thing with defenses. And that may actually regress. Whereas in previous years, you would think college offenses were kind of creating things that the NFL copied. So sports is changing in baseball. The Milwaukee Brewers are the talk of Major League Baseball, right?

What do they one in a row? 22 in a row or something? 21 in a row? 12 in a row? I like the 22 is a better number. It was better. It was better. And we have the greatest soundbite ever, the most Wisconsin thing ever.

We'll share it with you later on the show. But they won 12 in a row. But the brewers were good last year. Okay. Remember, this is a brewer's team that lost their manager to their rival, the Cubs. Why? Because Craig Counsel is like, Brewers are awesome. But the likelihood of winning is increased when you go to the Cubs because they have more money.

Right? The Brewers are built. This is, I've talked to their general manager. I've talked to their manager. And they told me that every position player they draft was a shortstop at some point in their lives. Baseball has changed with the pitch clock, but more than anything, with the bases, with the lack of ships.

Athleticism is a much bigger part of the game. So they're not just the best team in baseball. They try to build the best, most athletic team in baseball. It's one of the things that's happened to the Yankees going back the past couple years is they were, built for a foregone era of just hit home runs or walk or strike out. And now you can manufacture runs. So sports changes in a myriad of ways.

And in college sports, it's changed because now we're paying the players. Right? Now I'm paying the players. And what you find is, and look, I have one full year now in the bank. I got the job at the middle end of May last year. As you know, the portal opens in March, so I didn't have a full season that way. And not everything that I believe or maybe even I know is accurate at the highest level because we are not at the highest level. But I do know many ways how it operates.

So Thomas Hammack is the head coach of Northern Illinois. Okay. What do you remember about Northern Illinois last season? They beat Notre Dame. right Notre Dame beat Texas A&M on the road and they come back home they get beat by by Northern Illinois

and then Northern Illinois has average season after that so Northern Illinois I'm sure I'm maybe I'm not sure I'm guessing it's a tough put financially for them now they're going to join our league

in basketball only basketball and I think Olympic sports starting next year and the Illinois Illinois schools, the non-Champaign Urbana, right, that's the main university. When you say Illinois, that's the main campus. But they have Eastern Illinois.

They have Western Illinois. They have Southern Illinois, the Sulukis. They have Northern Illinois, the Huskies. They got different schools have different financial issues. Western Illinois, ton of financial issues. Like school could close down financial issues. in the Wisconsin system. Our school and Madison, University of Wisconsin,

are the only two that are growing. We've gone from like 7,000, 8, 9,000. We're 12,000 students this year. And we're expanding. But all the other University of Wisconsin's, Stout, Stevens Point, River Falls, even Milwaukee, they're shrinking. So there's a fight over budget.

But the bigger thing is, okay, How do you build a college football, college basketball program when you're trying to have a high retention rate? Bring kids back. Right. Bring kids back every year. Because we all look like that's what Purdue has done. That's one of the reasons that they win. Purdue is like the model for college basketball. Yes, they sprinkle in a transfer here, a transfer there.

This year they take in an Israeli point guard to go with maybe the best point guard in the country. They should be really, really good. But the big thing for Purdue is, like, they want their guys to stay. So I want you to listen to something that Thomas Hammock said at a press conference earlier this week. I posted it. It's got over a million views just on my feet alone. So I'm guessing this thing's gone viral. You're talking five, 10 million views or something overall.

This is the head coach of Northern Illinois. I enjoyed my college experience. I didn't get one dime, but the lessons I learned was more valuable than any money you can ever pay me. And I appreciate that because that is long term. People are losing the fact that this is short term. I coached in the National Football League for five years, five years. Don't lose focus of the long term. Get your degree, learn valuable lessons that's going to help you in a long term.

your life. That's the whole purpose. This is a transition from being a kid to a grown-up. And I hope people don't lose focus of that. So keep in mind, this is Thomas Hammack, who is an alum of Northern Illinois, right? He played football there back in the heyday in 99 to 2002. then he went to Madison and he got his master's and he started coaching football. And I understand that what happens is the human brain works this way. I hear pick the college coach, you know, when Nick Sabo's coach, he's making $10 million. Right. So he makes $10 million.

The players make nothing. There's two parts to it. First part is, do I think that at the very, very top of the salary, pool college coaches are overpaid. Yeah. Yeah, probably. But I also think they're CEOs of companies. I'm a CEO of a company.

The buck stops here. I have to manage my recruiting budget. Like we had to change our black uniforms, but to put in a full set of Adidas uniforms, it's like 2,900 bucks. We had to change uniforms because they're not NCAA compliant. in the chance that we make the NCAA tournament this year, we could only wear the gray uniforms.

It's the only ones that were NCAA compliant. So we redid the white ones, but they're like, yeah, we're not going to wear white in the NCAA term anyway, right? Like we're not going to be a lower seed than anybody. So in an effort to save money, it's a real thing. We just redid the tops. That's it. So it's $1,700 instead of $2,900 bucks.

And you're like, well, what is that? That affords me a little bit more money. You know, we call back every vendor that we use. We have an analytics company that I think is outstanding. I would love to have, and we got like the Cadillac setup. I had to have an uncomfortable conversation like, hey, we either need to cut this contract or trim it down or figure it out. Why? Because I need that money.

Because I got to compensate players. I got to compensate my coaching staff. Remember, Thomas Hammock, you may sit there and think, you know, whatever he makes at Northern Illinois is. head coach. He started as a GA at Wisconsin. A GA, you're not getting any money. You're simply getting your school paid for. Then he was a running back coach at his alma mater for a year. Then he was with the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL for three years, right? Starting as the running backs coach and then working at co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach. So now he start creeping into the six figures area. Then he coached back at Wisconsin. Then he was with the

Ravens, again, as the running back coach for four years. so he has worked since he graduated college in 2002 till now okay this is when he got this head coaching first head coaching break was 17 years later she's like oh my gosh look at how much money thomas hammock makes dude he worked 17 years to get to that spot but but here's the honest question and and look this is is it some of it recruiting yeah but a lot of it is true how are we going to have alumni games in college sports. Alumni, what's your alma mater? There's one other thing he didn't calculate in there.

He didn't talk about. And you can follow me on Twitter at Gottlieb's show. You can see the full context of the rant. If you haven't heard it already, we have no value as a society now for getting into college, getting into college. If you don't know how hard it is to get into college, You haven't had a kid apply for college recently.

When I was coming out of high school, Tustin High School in Orange County, California, in 1995, the safety to all safety schools, the easiest school to get into in the Cal State system, right, because you have like in order, you had UC system that's UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, Berkeley, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, then you have the Cal Poly system,

a little bit less difficult still. Okay, that's Cal Poly, that's in Pomona, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo that's in San Luis Obispo, Central Coast. Then you have the Cal States, which were easier. And you basically had to graduate with like a 2-5. If you had a pulse you were getting in. San Diego State.

And then if you wanted to party, you went to San Diego State. If you wanted to smoke weed, you went to Humboldt or to, what's the other one that's up there? Oh, man, I can't remember. There's two that are way up north. Right. And everybody, and you'd say, well, I'm going to major in horticulture. Yeah, we know what you're doing.

San Diego State now is unbelievably hard to get into. One of the most difficult schools in the country to get into. Why? Their sports, their basketball team was awesome. And then people are like, I could go to school in San Diego. Where do I sign up?

Well, it's become, you get a 4.0 and not get into San Diego State and being in-state. And, of course, all the kids out-of-state want to come in. Why do you want to have more out-of-state kids come in if you're San Diego State? Because you make more money. International.

and charge whatever you want. So there's no calculation or valuation from parents, agents, or people on social media of getting into school. And then the college experience, growing, becoming the dude. He talks about playing time. Like a lot of these kids, they, hey, if you're going to give me, you know, what I make, 1.5x of what I make, they'll go and just chase the dollar. And then they realize that's, it's the Peter principle.

Do you guys know what the Peter Principle is? It's when you're promoted above the level of your competency. If last year you were in the Mac and you were a starter and you transferred to the Big Ten and now you're not a star, you're like, man, I was killing at the Mac. They promised me a chance. They give me more money. Like, dude, that's not how it works. You were in the Mac for a reason.

And again, I know JJ Watt came from the Mac and is a Hall of Famer when he transferred and transitioned to a different position and played at Wisconsin. But those stories are outliers. The reality is most guys. leave and most teams leave. You lose your whole team. Whole team. And I just think it's very easy

to say, well, these kids deserve it. Okay. But what do you lose when you leave? What do you lose? You're never going to have your jersey on a wall if you leave.

You're not. No one's going to retire outside of Shador Sanders, but it's two years of Colorado. No one's going to retire a number of a guy who played there for a year or, you know, as a transfer. That just doesn't happen. That just doesn't happen. And you have to understand where you fit in the salary pool. You know, low level six figures on a high major club in college basketball means you're not

going to play. I hope you understand it. So we tell me all the time, like, you can go take that. That's great. if it's your senior year and somebody offers you $125,000 to play at name your Power 4 school or the Big East. Do you know what that money means?

You're not going to play. And that's great. If that's what you want, hey, I want some money to start me on my professional life. Great. You want to play basketball. You need to have basketball film to then go play. And then the other thing we're doing,

and this is more basketball-specific, but it's also football-specific. We're screwing up the minds of what the market looks like. Let me give you an example. Okay. Again, in college basketball, and I know this because this is the world in which I operated in when I'm not hosting the Doug Gottlieb show on Fox Sports Radio. There are lots of players playing college basketball making $250,000. Okay. And again, as I said, $250,000, maybe you play, maybe you don't. Probably you play. Probably you're a starter now at a power four school at $250,000. You're not the guy, but you're one of the guys. you get done playing

remember the G league doesn't play that you're not good enough to make the NBA you go overseas hey I'm going to go overseas do you want to know what you make usually when you're playing overseas your first year maybe six figures maybe

so what happens you get done playing and your agent's like I got a deal for you okay it's second division they hear second division they're like no no no no this that works second division Italy take care of everything live on the water it's great all bills taking care of $75,000 like I just made $250,000 playing at whatever state university in right we've completely

screwed that up where $75,000 for a rookie in A2 in Italy is a lot of money and it's a great opportunity and then the idea is every year you stack you make more more more more more more more and eventually you hopefully play in your league team and you make seven figures and you send that money home. So the point is that in everyone's effort to make sure college athletes are compensated, we are screwing up all these different pieces, valuing getting into school, valuing the actual college experience, valuing in being a dude and having an alma mater, a place to call home, and the market for when they get out of school. other than that is a perfect system.

Outside of that, Mrs. Lincoln, how is the show? I'm Doug Gottlieb in for Colin Cowherd. This is the herd. Do the Padres have a shot at burying the Dodgers over the next week and a half? We'll ask a seven-time All-Star next in 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 IHeart Radio app. Hi, this is Jay.

I'm the producer of the Pauli and Tony Fusco show. Usually in these promos, they ask you to listen to the show. I'm here to ask you, please don't listen to this show. The host are two absolute morons who have the dumbest takes on sports imaginable. Don't listen to this show so it can get canceled. Whoa, whoa, what the hell are you doing in our studio? Get him, Paulie!

Ignore that fool. Listen to the Paul and Tony Fusco show on the IHart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. He's still moving. 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, 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, 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 on Humor 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,

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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 Levan this went 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsClace on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicleaf 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Doug Adly been for call.

This is to hurt Fox Sports Radio, Iheart Radio app. It's good to catch up with my good friend. Let's talk some baseball, shall we? We got the red hot brewers handing out burgers to everybody in Wisconsin, or Milwaukee specifically. We have the slumping Dodgers. We have the Yankees kind of being in sort of no man's land. You got the rise of the Padres.

We're getting ready for fall baseball. He's a producer of multiple future major league stars, including Jackson Holiday, the number one. overall pick two years ago for the Orioles who starts for the Orioles now and Ethan Holliday who was the fourth fifth fourth fourth fourth pick of the draft with the Colorado Rockies who also select him he's Matt Holliday seven-time all-star joining us um he's it he's rehabbing he had hip replacement surgery what a week ago man yeah Wednesday I wish I was rehabbing I text the doctor what kind of rehab should I be doing and he laughed at me so I think the first two weeks are um very

just sit around on your butt. So I'm doing the best I can. As you know, I don't sit well. So I'm waiting for the go-ahead for some sort of rehab. But yeah, so just trying to get to that two-week mark and get back to being a little more active. What percentage of the hip issues were baseball-related? You played football.

You're a high school American football quarterback? You played pickup basketball. then you became like a pickleball fiend over the past three or four years, right? Like 99 days and 100 playing multiple games of pickleball. Did you ask your doctor what sport led to this issue? I didn't ask him. I'm guessing it's a culmination. I'm guessing a lot of it is my right hip with my leg kick and just sort of constantly

coiling around my back hip for baseball swings. and then I'm sure that, you know, the hours of pickleball that I've put in certainly probably didn't help it if I was just content on hanging out and doing kind of a basic workout, you know, three or four times a week. I probably would have been able to hold this off, but I love to be active. I love to play pickleball, so when it got to the point where it's prohibitive to do, you know, pretty much anything athletic,

I figured it was time to go ahead and I'm young, and get it done and hopefully be back on the pickleball course soon and later. All right, there you go. He was a ranked national pickleball player, but most known for being a seven-time All-Star Matt Holiday joining us here in the herd. Doug Gottlieb filling in for Colin. What's wrong with the Dodgers? Well, I mean, I think you could just, you go back to the starting pitching health.

I mean, they haven't had the consistent rotation that they kind of hoped for. I think they accounted for that by having a lot of depth. But the in-and-out inconsistencies of rotation is probably where you start. I think that, you know, Mooky Betts has not been the perennial MVP-caliber player that we're used to. So that's a, you know, when you take one of your two or three probably best players on the team, and there's quite a bit of a dip in production, you feel that that's not easily replaceable or accounted for.

So I think that certainly has something to do with it. It makes it easier when you're deciding whether to pitch around Shohei or not. If Mookie's not doing if he's not doing Mookie things, then it makes it easier on your decision making on who you're going to let beat you.

So I would say look, they're still extremely talented and they're going to be in the playoffs and they're very, very dangerous, as we saw last year. If you get in the playoffs and even if you don't have a rotation that's dominating you start to put together

a bullpen and pieces and guys that even if they don't, you know, even if guys can't recover to fully six, seven innings, you start to be able to piece games together with arms that are getting healthy late in the season. So I think they're just as big a threat to win the World Series as they

were at the beginning of the season. Now, they're not going to win 120 games like maybe we thought with the roster they constructed, but it's very difficult over 162 game season for everything to go is planned and sort of the formula that you put on paper is going to work out. It's just such a long season and there's so many factors that play into that. But when it comes down to a playoff month, I think they're just in a good position as they were ever. Okay. So it's not a playoff month, but it's a really interesting

week and a half, right? Where Padre's at home, then you got the Rockies. which, again, would feel like kind of a mental break. And we know the Rockies are in massive rebuild mode. And then they got Padres on the road. How do you think this plays out? Yeah, I mean, I think it's great theater. I mean, I love watching these two teams play each other in general. I think right now as they start to jockey for position on who wins the West,

and you start to look at the buy scenario. Look, anything can happen in baseball. You definitely want to try to win the division and get that series, you know, that you don't want to play in that first series. And I think the Padres, more than any other team, maybe at the deadline with adding a couple of those relievers, put themselves in a spot to really, you know, like we talked about, you know, in the Dodgers last year dominating the postseason with their bullpen. When I watch the Padres bullpen, it's incredible. The arms they roll out of there. So even if their starter gives them four or five innings, they're rolling out. all-star caliber pitchers from meetings 5 through 9 pitching in the high 90s.

So they're bullpen as I watch. And then, you know, I think getting Ramon Laryano and Ryan O'Hern from the Orioles, who obviously I follow very close with Jackson lengthen their lineup. Luriano's having an amazing season, I think, maybe a little bit under the radar. But he's a very dangerous hitter. He's hitting home runs. And he's been really good since traded over. so I think he lengthen their lineup.

The Padres are a very dangerous team. I think they're equally, if I had to, you know, handicapped the National League right now, I would put them probably side by side as far as my opinion about who could win the National League and potentially win the World Series. So these next, you know, seven or eight games, whatever it is that they play each other is going to be amazing.

And I think everybody's emotions start to go up and they don't really like each other, and there's been guys throwing at each other. And so this is, as a baseball fan, I think, these are two series that I'll be definitely locked into. Okay, well, you didn't mention the best team in Major League Baseball, which is the Milwaukee Brewers. And I know that you know Pat Murphy really, really well.

He's the manager. He used to be the head coach at Arizona State. And did you stay in his guest house in training camp? Yeah, in 2009, I was with the A's, and we stayed. Josh, my brother was at Arizona State as the assistant to MRF, and we actually, yeah, we spent the spring training in his guest house in Phoenix. So I know, look, I left them out and I'm on an accident.

I mean, they're playing amazing. So I'll let you ask the question, but yeah, I know Murph really well. Okay. So how are they doing this? Yeah, I mean, I think it's one of those things in sports where when you have a group of guys that believe in each other, they like each other, they kind of got that, mojo going where they think they're going to win. We had a lot of that in 07 with the Rockies and we won 21 out of 22 to end the season. And on paper, you know, we had a really good offense,

but, you know, I think if you looked at the names of the guys that were pitching, you'd be surprised in going back and looking at it of the kind of, you know, just the pitchers that we had and nothing to take anything away from them. They were pitching amazing. But it's kind of one of those things where you start to have that belief in each other. And you have the confidence that you're going to find a way to win, and it may not look the same every night, and you're not going to lean on the same guys every night. They've had a lot of young players that have taken step forward

and are getting big hits, and seemingly the crowd in Milwaukee has become a home field advantage, which it always has been. You know, when they've been good, it's always been a really good place or maybe difficult place, I'd say, the opposition to go in there and win. So I just think they have a lot of intangibles going that sometimes, you know, maybe pundits don't want to give,

getting credit to because it's not quantifiable and you can't calculate it. But they seem to have a lot of like each other or two of them and a lot of, you know, a lot of this stuff as athletes that play in clubhouses and have been on teams that that's hard to recreate or hard to create and hard to maybe, I don't know, talk, you know, closely about why it happened, but they seem to have found that sort of magic. Yeah. It's going to be a really interesting week next week.

I'm actually going to the first of the day-night doubleheader on Monday. They have five against the Cubs on the road. You mentioned they have that, whatever that, what's the French say, Geneseequa, the I don't know what, the momentum, the culture, the camaraderie, they got this thing working. But it does sound like, feel like, because they don't have the veterans, they don't have the names that you think are going to absolutely produce in the postseason. There's still a, all right, let's see what it looks like when things get really tight. How important is next week to find out what they really got moving into the postseason?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's probably even more important for the Cubs, obviously. They're trying to figure out, you know, if this thing gets to, away from them. You know, the brewers are a couple of wins against the Cubs, you know, to start that little run away from really creating a gap that seems, you know, almost you can't quite get there. So I think the pressure is on the Cubs. I mean, I think that the Brewers got it going. I mean, look, if the Cubs come out and punch them in the mouth three times, we'll find out how real this, this magic is. And, you know, it'll test, you know, what that, you know, kind of that momentum they've been riding and the feel

good they've had, if the Cubs come out and punch them in the mouth three times and that lead closes to two or three or four games, and then all a sudden they'll feel, you know, a little bit of tightness and then all of a sudden, you know, it might change the whole you know, the whole scene between these two teams

but I think, you know, currently standing, the Brewers go in there very confident with where they're at, how they're playing and we'll look to make a statement, you know, and maybe even pull away from the Cubs. and feel like their pad in the central is very comfortable. So like you said, another great kind of run of games that will be fun to watch.

I like when these teams are so close in proximity. You know, the Cubs and Brewers have always been a good rivalry just because how close together they are. And then you've got the Padres and Dodgers. I think this is really, you know, good TV watching baseball. And I'm excited to watch these rivalries. Yeah, because that's what your crippled butts can be doing is sitting there watching because you can't be, you can't be moving around. Last thing, this is a hard one for me. This is a hard one for me.

So tonight, I host the Pump Family Cancer Research Dinner. Okay. So yesterday, I'm at the hotel and I'm hanging out with Sammy Sosa. And tonight they're honoring Barry Bonds. And it's like amazing, right? but, you know, like I have this, I mean, like, and I don't know your feelings towards it, right? You never took anything illegal, illicit, nothing, correct? Correct.

Okay. So I feel like your numbers, your career, and we're friends, would be looked at in a completely different light had their numbers not taken place. Mm-hmm. But I ran into Sammy and I was like, I'm hanging out with Sammy Sosa. It was like, all of a sudden the star thing. thing, I became fanboy, you know, 1999 all over again. How do I handle that tonight?

Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, I think that when you look at the era in which they played and, you know, I think we can all say that there was definite steroid use and the game was, it was used widely, and there was a lot of guys, pitchers, and hitters using it. And so, look, I mean, I think that it is what it is, as far as cheating goes and certainly tainted numbers and records.

But I think, you know, when you start to acknowledge the best players in the era, I think we can all do that, just like we can in the dead ball era, or going back, or even now as the averages come down, as the pitching goes up. And so you're always acknowledging the best players in certain eras. And so I think that's one thing with baseball is everybody holds very tightly to the record books and the numbers and the stats. And I'm good with that. But I think that even when you start talking about the Hall of Fame,

I mean, there's guys in the Hall of Fame that use steroids. I mean, it's just there is. And so I think that acknowledging some of these guys that, you know, use steroids and having a place in the Hall of Fame that has their own sort of era. And I think we can all recognize that this was the steroid era, but these were the best players inside the steroid era. And so I'm,

I've probably softened my stance on that just a little bit because I think we should recognize, especially as I think some guys have gotten in, that there's definitely question marks about. But, yeah, look, I think you can appreciate their greatness and with also, you know, not accepting or not approving of what they did. Fair enough. That's Matt Holliday, Seven-Time All-Star. And actually now he's Jackson and Ethan's dad, right? That's actually what you're probably. That's really.

All right, well, stay where you are. Ring that bell. Make sure your family, make sure, Grayson, weights on your hand and foot with those cookies. You'll probably add about 10, 15 pounds. Nope, I'm starving myself of sugar. You have to find stuff to challenge yourself with in situations like this. Tell everybody I'll talk to you soon.

Okay. That's Matt Holiday. Joining us, seven-time all-star, four-time, Soversar. Coming up next in the, we'll get a little herd-line news with Greg Tooey. Justin Herbert made a surprising decision this week. What was it? Final next. And 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, new? 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

And 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

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 s nl late night comedy guy not quite unhumored me with robert smigel and friends me and hilarious guests from bob odenkirk to david

letterman help make you funnier this week my guess s n l's mikey day and head writer streeter sidel help an acapella 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete

themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the tick TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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 Levin this went 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. Doug Gottlieb in for Collins to heard Fox Sports Radio, Iheart Radio app. Welcome, welcome, welcome in. We have a brand new YouTube channel for my afternoon show.

Each day on Fox Sports Radio, just go to YouTube.com slash at Doug Gottlieb Show. If you're already on YouTube, just search Doug Gottlieb show. Be sure to hit the subscribe button. You have instant access to our very best videos from the show. Check out the brand new channel. Again, just search Doug Gottlieb show on YouTube and subscribe. If you missed it, Michigan has been full. find and hit with some additional punishments from the Connor Stallion's issues of a couple

years ago. We'll get to that at the top of the hour. Before that, let's get to Greg Tooey with the news. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Hey, Dugger. Hello, Greg Tui. All right, so we touched on this last hour. Matthew Stafford, who's not practiced at all during training camp because of an aggravated disc in his back, he will work out Saturday, which is potentially good news for the But here is Sean McVey after their joint practice for St. St. St. He's going to work out on Saturday. Hopefully it responds a little bit better, and then I'll have more information for you guys then. It's, you know, we're trying to get our hands around this as well.

So I would give, I don't really have much more information other than, you know, think, you know, we're trying some different things that are hopefully going to be in alignment with getting him back out on the field. McVeigh also said they haven't discussed whether surgery could be an option yet. Last hour, T.J. Hushmanzada told us he's worried. On a scale of 1 to 10, Ted being the worst, what's your worry level for Stafford this year? Eight.

That's pretty scary. Yeah, because if you remember two years ago, the back was an issue, and at the end of the season, there was talk of retirement. Remember that? Yeah, I do. And then they were like, well, maybe we'll trade him. I don't know what we'll do.

And they're like, ah, and it was fine, but there was clearly a thought of retirement. and it quite obviously has not gotten better. And once you get, like, there's just, here's the other part to having a bad back that people have not yet mentioned. If he plays, when he plays, he's going to get rid of that ball way quicker than he has. It's one of the things that a lot of these aging quarterbacks go through is at the end of their career, they do not want to get hit.

They do not. So they get rid of that sucker really, really, really. really quick. You're like, wait, why did he dirt that ball? Like, because he don't, like, if you watch Aaron Rogers over, especially the last couple years with the Jets, like, he's getting rid of the ball way quicker than he used to.

So, it's not just about can you get him on the field of play, or how good he can play, or how often he can play, right? If you play a Sunday, I don't know if I haven't looked their schedule on, Sunday, Thursday, turn around games, whatever. But when you do play, it's impossible for you

not to try and protect yourself that way. And that changes all of how you play, how you compete in football, right? If you're dirtying balls, you shouldn't dirt. So when they play the Colts and then the Niners, play the Colts on a Sunday at home, play the Niners on a Thursday at home, huge game with the Niners. First question is, can you play that close together and your back not lock up on you? And if you can't, like, all right, now we've got an issue. Now Garoppolo's got to play against Niners.

And then if you do play, will you play to the fullest your capability or will you be getting rid of the ball quickly because you're afraid of getting that back hit and hurt? Yep. And just the thought of holding up over a 17 game schedule is scary as well. We'll wrap it up with this. Justin Hurd. So Ben Johnson earlier this week announced that Caleb Williams will be playing this Sunday versus the Bills in their preseason game. And now we know that another star quarterback will be playing as well.

It's just Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert will start versus the Rams. and playing in the preseason for the first time in his career. And get this, Doug, this was his idea. Here was Herbert this week. It was actually going to him and saying, hey, would it be okay if, you know, I went in and play because I think in years past, the plan was, you know, to rest and see those reps.

But I wanted to go out there and steal a pass rush because, you know, in practice, as a quarterback, you don't always get the true feeling of a pass rush. So I thought it would be helpful to go out there. And he was understanding, and we kind of worked together on talking to play. So he went to Jim Harbon and said, Coach, I want to play in the preseason. Sure.

Now, if you're a Charger fan, do you want Herbert playing at all in the free season? I don't, but you are your own best doctor, and there he lost for Sean Slater, so you've got to feel like the pass rush is going to be hotter. And remember, they open up the season. Chiefs at home, Raiders in the road, Broncos at home. So you open up with three divisional games to start the year.

He wants to be sharp, he wants to be ready, and this is kind of a trend in the NFL. McVeigh brought in the trend of not playing starters at all. at all. And then this year, if you've looked, more starters are planned. And that's Greg Toey with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd line news. We got a great third hour of the show for you.

A very Wisconsin, very sports, very Brewer 911 call. Oh, man. Yes. And we're going to get you ready for college football with the latest news as Michigan has been punished now thoroughly and completely and finally by the NCAA for their sign stealing scandal back a couple years ago. Has it affect Michigan football and the rest of their university? Find out next. I'm Doug Gottlie. This is The Hurt. 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 us. 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 I-Heart 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 Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud.

But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.