The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Herd-HOUR 2-UConn, Ethan Strauss

Episode Date: August 7, 2020

Doug gives his opinion about UConn Head Coach Randy Edsall being disingenuous about their reasons for not playing. Also Ethan Strauss joins to talk NBA Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the I Heart Radio app,

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Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Heard. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. What up? Welcome in. This is The Hurd, wherever you may be. And however you may be making as part of your day, thanks so much. I'm Doug Gottlieb, filling in for Colin Cowherd.

We have a tremendous, tremendous second hour of the program. Ethan Strauss will join us. Covers the NBA for the athletic. What's wrong with the Lakers shooting? The Bucks had a big comeback win, but man, they were yeesh. And is this thing an all-inclusive deal? I do wonder if the Disney set up is all-inclusive because Zion Man, you know, it happens on all-inclusive things, right?

I mean, it just, you feel, you ever gone on an all-inclusive vacation? You just feel obligated to eat and drink as much as possible. Like, I can't eat another bite. Okay, it's free. I already paid for it. What's going on with Zion? How did he fall out of shape so quickly? And how concerned are the Pelicans really?

We'll ask Ethan Strauss. He's going to join us in 15 minutes. All right. So smaller conferences continue to cancel their college football season. The Patriot League did so earlier today. Ivy League, of course, has done so. They were the first to stick their flag in the ground. The big conferences,

the Power 5, all have some form of plan to show up and play. It is important to point out that many of these schools have kids back on campus. Some have classes starting as early as Monday. So we're a go for in-person learning on some level. Many of these campuses

and college well players have been there. They've been tested. Some have tested positive and been quarantined or even isolated and have recovered. So it feels like we're going to have a college football season, except at Yukon, where they decided to cancel their season. This is Randy Etzel in his second Stinnis head coach at Yukon on the Dan Patrick show yesterday.

Yes, I have gotten responses from coaches and said, thanks for speaking up. I'm glad you had the guts to do what you've done. Put the pluses, put the minuses down. There's only one plus money. And you go down to minuses, and there's much more. I think there's a lot of coaches.

There's a lot of players that don't want to have the season. You know, in the NFL, they have a Players Association. Well, guess what? Players Association spoke up so those guys could go in and feel safe. And then they also, if they didn't want to play, they could opt out. In the college game, everybody talks about that, but nobody backs it up. Everybody walks away from it when push comes to show. Okay, that's actually not.

He's lying on several levels. on several. He's either lying or just being disingenuous, which we're in the political season. That's what people tow the line of. Yukon isn't playing this year, and does it have to do with money? Yeah, it also has to do it.

They're not in a conference. And if you're not in a conference, you can't get conference games when only the conference teams are either only playing one another, like the Big Ten, or the ACC, you know, you're playing one non-conference game.

and many of them have to be the regionally located or right there in their own state. So the first thing is that the idea that college coaches are calling Randy Edson go, out of boy. Way to stand up for what you believe in. Like, do you want to talk about a phony? Bro, if they were in the Big Ten,

the Big Ten said, hey, Yukon, we need somebody in the East Coast, we got Maryland, we got Rutgers, we need to play with us for a year, much of the way that noted. Or if the ACC said, hey, we're going to put you in a little quasi, with Syracuse, former big ace member,

Boston College, former big east member. We're going to have you play up there. Would you do it? Yukon would be playing, would have three a days today. You're going to say no to the Notre Dame NBC money? Hell no. The second thing is,

it's like, well, there's only one pro, and that's money. We'll circle back to the money thing because somehow money has become an evil word. I don't know. maybe there's a little bit more to it than just playing for money. This is Brock Heward, who started Washington, college football analysts for Fox Sports,

on what to play for outside of just money. You know, I think the last time I was on with you, Doug, we talked about Joe Burrow and what one year meant to Joe Burrow. You know, had he not had last year, he probably isn't even drafted into the NFL after his first, you know, three, four years in college. But he needed that incredible year. And with it, he becomes the number one pick

the draft and the Heisman trophy winner and you never know what a year can bring. None of these guys that are sitting out are sitting out because they fear having COVID. That's not why they're sitting out. They're sitting out because they don't want to hurt their draft stock. They're like, you know what? I'm good and I really only came to playing. And so please stop with the, I love my brothers at college. I just, I love them so much.

I'll be rooting for you like, what do you, what are you even talking? talking about. You could come and play and be a star and improve your stock or maybe get hurt or maybe not, but whatever. But if you really love like your brothers, you're going to be there playing football. You're not. Your goals are to play in the National Football League and somebody has told you that you're going to play in the NFL, so sit tight. So you're lied to why Yukon's not playing. You're lied to that only money is the reason that you play, right? You do play for the glory. You do play to win, try and win a championship. And oh, yeah, by the way, just the reality of if no one plays football this year,

you got this kind of backload of another, a new class with graduating seniors, everybody gets an extra year eligibility, you have the scholarships? Do you expand? You're like, well, of course you do. College football makes tons of money. They wouldn't make any money and still be carrying a ton of expense. You've been lied to about the individual. I've told people for years, like, look, I'm not saying.

saying what guys do and making a name for themselves in college football isn't great. But even Trevor Lawrence, Trevor Lawrence, it's going to be the number one overall pick, or at worst, the number two overall pick, right? If Trevor Lawrence doesn't play for Clemson this year, are you going to not watch Clemson when they're on TV?

Right? If you're watching Clemson, watching Clemson, that's what you do. And, and, So diehard Clemson fans, be like, I'm out. No, no. I'm out. Right?

I mean, Deshawn Watson is the most accomplished quarterback they have. When he graduated, he finished the next year. People still watch Clemson, watch it even more. Right. So, and then, and that's Trevor Lawrence, who's the 1% of 1%ers who's playing in college football. And maybe the mainstream fan will not tune in to see him every week if he's not playing. All the rest of these guys? Come on.

I'm not saying that they're not important to their individual team. I'm not saying that. But you know, you got Rondell Moore who had this great freshman year at Purdue. Last year he had an injury-plagued year. And he's opting out of playing at Purdue. And people are like, well, you know, name and likeness. Like what value does he have?

Not one more person is going to watch or not watch Purdue because you don't have Rondell Moore, who's a slot-wide receiver. and, you know, kind of in his own right, like a mini Tyreek Hill, without any off-field baggage, getting ready for the NFL job. He's a good player. He'll play in the NFL. And look, if that's what you, but like on some level, college football college athletics is told, well, you know, we don't have a say in opting out.

Yes, you do. You absolutely do. And we can get to later on the show why opting out is not actually safer than opting in. It's just not. the reality of it. But there's far more pros than just money. Money is not some evil thing. It does take money in order for all the players to be well taken care of.

All of the athletes on campus to have their scholarships, all of the coaches to make money, the school to pay off their debt service. All of these things do in fact take money. Now, if it was the only reason and it's just a money chase and it was something illegal, and there was a high percentage probability that kids, or any sort of probability that kids were going to get sick and deathly ill,

then of course you shut it down. But there's no statistical data that tells you that. And the whole world is opened up. If you're going home, you're going home to a world where, unless you're staying home quarantined with your parents, you're just as unsafe. and then oh yeah by the way now you're bringing whatever you have potentially home to your parents who are the real ones at risk

like look the elementary school discussion is really interesting because you do need parents to be able to go to work and if you're doing homeschool you can't on the other hand you know we still don't know enough in terms of other people on campus and who could get it and how it's passed on and all those other things so I'm not sitting here telling you I'm going full clay Travis and trying to call you a corona bro I'm just telling you you from the reality of it.

The reality of it is in the NFL you're getting tested every day. You're not getting that at home. In the NFL, you're in some sort of controlled environment. You're not getting that at home. Unless you're staying at home for the entire football season. And no one's doing that, especially not a college kid.

Who's waited his entire life to get away from his parents. Now a sudden you're back with your parents? Well, no, I'm going to go train in Orlando at Bradenton. Like, okay, that won't be a controlled environment either. And then I think we'll have a couple Nick Marquakis as well. Nick Markechakas, long-time Major League Baseball player at times a star. He opted out and then he was like, wait, they're playing baseball and they're okay?

I want to opt back in. How many college ball players do we have like that? Like, I'll talk to me October 1st when UCLA has already played USC. when we're 23 days away from Michigan and Ohio State, right? Talk to me then. It's like the whole thing is a lie. Even the letter from the Pack 12 players that said there's going to be this boycott, they're not boycotting.

They want to play. And the guys that don't want to play aren't not playing because of COVID. They're not playing because they're concerned about their NFL draft stock. Players treating college football like a way station to the pro. when it should be treated as something that's going to grow their brand, their skill set, and their career after football. And we're told by, I mean, what Randy Etzel said is embarrassing for the profession. Because what he's doing is taking the moral high ground,

which isn't a real moral high ground, because there ain't no way in hell that if the ACC said, hey, you come, we need another team. Can you come play? they go like, nah, we're good. We've been searching for relevancy since Randy Utso left after losing. They lost in the Fiesta Bowl, like nine years ago. He got on a plane afterwards, flew to Maryland, took the job. The team, which wasn't any good that year, was 8 and 5,

but they were at least fairly relevant. Haven't been relevant since, dying for relevancy, trying to make money, trying to make it in Division I football, which is a hard world, and they get offered a spot in the ACC, and they go, no, no, they couldn't get any games. So they canceled the season. they actually did it to lose less money, which is the opposite of what Randy Edsel's trying to make you believe.

And oh yeah, by the way, then what he essentially says is all of these other colleges and college programs that are playing, they're only doing so for the money. It's a bad lie. It's a bad lie. Ethan Strauss joins the show next. Should the Lakers be worried about their lack of shooting?

What in the world is going on with Zion? We'll discuss next in The Hurt. 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. 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. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw,

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Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jay and I'm Alex English Each episode we pick it here unpack what went down and try to make sense of how we survived it Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill

Waxing All About Crack in the 80s To be clear, 84 is big to me not just because of crack I'm down to talk about crack on day But just so y'all know I mean at this point Mark this is the second episode Where we've discussed crack So I'm starting to see that there's a through line We also have AIDS on the table right now

So Thank you for finishing that. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

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slash heard. Ethan Strauss joins us from The Athletic. Of course, he literally wrote the book on the Warriors. Ethan, are you in the bubble currently? Unless my house is a bubble, then no, I'm not in the bubble currently. I'm across the country. I think I would have tempted divorce if I insisted on being in the bubble with a toddler in our house.

I don't think that was really an option for us. I actually think it's a pretty good option. I don't know. Since the restart, since the restart, the Lakers, LeBron's shooting 27% from 3, Anthony Davis 24, KCP 18, Danny Green, 12% from 3. Dionne Waiters, 10%, J.R. Smith has not made a 3 since joining the Lakers. Obviously it's bad, right? It's really 23% in the five games in the bubble. 23%.

Any sense for why the Lakers, they weren't a good three-point shooting team, but they weren't this bad previously. Yeah, you would rather have good than bad. But at the same time, do they care? Is this that important to them? Are they just retooling the rotation at this point? I just don't see a tremendous amount of motivation for them. And absent that, I'm not going to panic on their behalf.

But this does get at something, which is they've got some inefficient guys who can do inefficient things. And you can try to rationalize it, justify it, and say that, oh, well, that's the type of shot that you need to take in the playoffs, whether it's waiters or what have you. But if they end up losing, you could totally see this as the reason why. So I have two minds on it. On the one hand, you know, not that big a deal, not that big a deal. not that big a deal. These results right now don't matter, but on the other hand,

if they do end up failing, this will probably be what bites them. Or LeBron's inability to carry them through that, right? I mean, because they weren't a good three-pointing shooting team all season, but the biggest determinant in their success or failure is LeBron. Look at the splits are pretty obvious, right? 27 a game when they win, 20 a game when they lose, the percentages are far different.

I guess the question is, does he still have it in him to fully carry a team like he used to? I wouldn't count it out, but this is how it will go, right? This is how it will go. We will keep trusting that LeBron will recapture the old magic until one day you won't, right? That's how it will unfold. I don't want to get there yet. I think this is, again, a situation where we know LeBron paces himself.

We've seen it time and time again where he paces himself where he doesn't go full tilt and then turns it on eventually when needed, I would trust that that is more likely to happen versus that he's just older now and he just can't do it now. But that day will arrive. It will arrive. It has to arrive.

Okay. What about the Clippers? Do they care? Are they retooling and reworking through the things? Do they care? They're kind of the kings of not caring, right? I mean, this would be the perfect season for the other winner championship, wouldn't it, when you don't even have a parade down, Bigaroa.

Nobody really honors it or thinks much about it. That would be the perfect first Clipper championship. I don't know how much they care, but they have more depth than the Lakers do. So even if they don't care tremendously, and even if they have players missing, they have so many guys who can step up. Lost in everything going on, I just think it's such a lot. an impressive roster that the Clippers have put together, and it is, in my opinion, the best roster among all of them. I tend to agree with you, and I think that's why they are the favorite.

Doug Gottliebent for Colin, this is the hurt. Ethan Strauss joining us from the athletic covering the NBA. Simmons gets hurt, dislocates a kneecap, right? And the argument for keeping Simmons instead of Embededde was, you know, Embedde breaks down all the time. Now Simmons has had a back and a knee in the same year, and there's not really the progression as a shooter the way you would hope at this point in time. What do you think the chances are? The likelihood is that they decide to move Simmons in the offseason. Wow. I mean, that's been discussed.

That's been rumored for a while. It does seem, the NBA does produce these situations where it seems like it's got to be one guy or the other guy for the franchise to jump up a level. And yet many franchises, they just can't do it. They can't make the hard choice. It seems like maybe with the Sixers, it's got to be in Beaterson as far as what their long-term planning is. But you don't see them pulling the trigger on it. And you see that similarly in Portland for years where, yeah, the Portland Trailblazers are a good team, right? They're enjoyable.

But it seems like at some point they should have made that choice that's got to be Dame or CJ. And they've got to go in one trajectory in order to maximize my job. optimize. And when teams are comfortable and they're winning just enough, they don't tend to swing for the fences in that way. But I think that they should. So to answer your question, no, I don't think this will do it. I don't think they'll do it because I've seen too often that teams don't make that hard choice, but it was probably a logical hard choice to make. Ethan Strauss joining us here. What about the Bucks? They did come from behind and get a win, but for a team that was playing so well for most of the season, they haven't been able to, I think

You lost, what, six of eight overall? What's your sense of the bucks? Well, first of all, they burned a lot of gamblers in that last game. With that nine-point spread, that was quite a shocker to some of the people who took a sharp bet on the heat with how they came back. So that's first of all. Second of all, I think, you know, they're such an impressive regular season team, but I do have my doubts on them winning a championship. And they play so beautifully together, they're mostly, a positive story.

But, A, defensively, they give up so many threes, and it just seems like when they go up against the team, who shoots a lot of threes, as say the Rockets did, that that will come back to haunt them. And you can't just spend your defensive rating in the playoffs. We act like that sometimes. Oh, they're, you know, tops in defensive rating. So when they march into the play, well, situationally, that might not work.

So I've got my concern right there about how there is strategy to wall off the rim completely and give up threes, especially in a bubble environment where there isn't a crowd. You're not getting nervous maybe like you would in an ordinary setting. You know, those threes just might start really flowing in this open gym setting that we're seeing from the opponent. And then on the other hand, the shot creation is an issue. You've got Janus, he was tremendous. He's an incredible player, but he can't really create shots off the dribble for himself.

And he does have a very deliberate, some would say predictable style of Eurostaffer using his shoulders to get to the rack. and is a kickout path. And then they don't have guys to really supplement, really create apart from him. I like Middleton, but I don't know if Middleton is that second-tier star. So that's my long-word way of saying that I don't really buy them as a championship team. I just don't. And I think that they're fantastic. I think they've optimized their talent tremendously, and they're a great story.

But I just have to be honest that because of those deficiencies, I don't see it for them. Do you see Portland? And look, Charles Barkley, if Portland pulls off an upset of the Lakers, he'll be viewed as some sort of genius. If he doesn't, he'll be called an idiot. In fairness, I think he was asked to make a bold prediction. And even though he think he picked the Lakers to win the championship because of Anthony Davis, his bold prediction was the Trailblazer beat the Lakers, like those two things can coexist. But in reality, in your mind, can the Trailblazers, who do seem completely rejuvener,

with Nurkich back, with Collins back. Can they pull off the upset of the Lakers? Well, I kind of think so just because the bubble is so discombobulating. You know, we don't know what to expect. I thought the Thunder were 100 to 1 a couple weeks ago. And I said, take that bet, man. Take that bet. You don't know.

I don't think it's 100 to 1 to the Thunder win the championship. It seems like it's a little more jumbled. You don't know. Guys could get bored. they could fake injuries. This is not the standard situation. So I think it's possible, probable, of course not. But I also think it speaks to Dwight Lillard up there in the Pacific Northwest.

He just has a resonance that you just wish some of the other NBA stars have or he seems to take it seriously. He seems to really care and have that competitiveness. And it's ironic because people would say, well, he's got this rap career on the side, but that doesn't really seem at odds at all. he doesn't seem totally distracted in the way the other players do. There's just something about his general aura and star quality that just seems like it's something that the NBA could benefit from

if you saw it overall, considering some of the issues they're having right now, resonating with the American public. Awesome, awesome stuff. Ethan, thanks so much for joining us. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm a way, wait, wait, I can't let you go. I forgot. I feel like maybe it's my brain.

Let me take a sip of coffee. Look, I know that when you see Zion in person, at any point in time, he's built like a football player, right? Yeah. But I was under the impression that his fitness level had improved during quarantine, that he was going to come out. And then he took some time off for the family thing or whatever. And look, I know if you don't watch the games or you only watch the highlights, you're like, oh, yeah, he's scoring basically a point a minute. and he's still getting dunks. But doesn't look great.

What's your reaction to how Zions looked? I would advise people they're interested in this to just start watching some of his dew kai lights. He's a different guy. He's a different guy. I mean, he's built incredibly, and with that size and his skill and his natural quickness, he can still pile up the points.

But, A, it doesn't seem like the pelicans are doing great in those minutes because he's not exactly moving the way you would want him to move on defense. And B, he's just not physically better than he was at Duke. He's physically worse. I think it's pretty obvious. You don't have to be a doctor. Even though I did interview a doctor about it, you can see it. And so that's a bit concerning.

It's a bit concerning. And I would even say more than a bit concerning because overall, it's not just about the Pelican. The NBA needs Zion Williamson to come through. a lot of people don't admit it there's a lot of happy talk a lot of obfuscation but they are not getting the viewership that you expect them to get

off of this whole quarantine and Zion is the future he's the reason why there are 22 teams there they're hoping that he can be that next superstar that the American public loves and so he needs to be healthy my dog agrees in the background your dog does agree and what kind of dog

he's a half board or collie half lap is there a name for that Collie, because everything's a doodle when it has a doodle, but there's nothing with the lab. You know, I don't know there's a name for it, but I'd recommend it, apart from this situation where he's barking in the background. He's a really good boy, so I don't know what the combination is. I don't know what the portman show is, but I'll look into it and I'll get back to you on the next time I'm up. Ethan, great stuff, man. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me. Ethan Strauss from the Athletic. I almost forgot the Zion. He went, my dummy. I just, you know, need some more coffee. Let's get to Rye Music with the News. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

All right, Doug, we'll pick it up right where you and Ethan left off with some NBA here. Some unfortunate news for the fans of the Philadelphia 76ers. It used to be a regular injury update for Joel M.B. He's remained relatively healthy recently, but unfortunately their other star player, Ben Simmons, is the one who continues to battle injuries. just before quarantine and COVID put a stop to the season. He was dealing with a back injury. Now he is dealing with a left knee injury. At first, they held out hope that he might be day to day.

The MRIs came back. He did end up having a partial dislocation of his left knee. There was no ligament damage, so they are looking at potential treatment options. Now, there's a couple of ways this could go. There was several NBA players in the past, who have had this same injury. Some have been able to come back within a couple of weeks.

Or Andrew Bynum suffered this injury back in 2008, and it took him over eight weeks to come back. So this could be a... Yeah, Andrew Bynum is not something that you ever want to use as a... Hey, you know, Andrew Bynum came back from this one. Yeah. Right? Because his career was shortened because of continuing knee injuries.

But my thing is, it's weird because it was weird because it was. It wasn't, it was like a nothing play that allowed him to slightly dislocate his name, right? Yes, there was, there's another comparison, you know, that what we saw with Pat Mahomes, that's a full and complete total dislocation. Where they popped it back in? He somehow. But there was, but he got hit. Like, Pat Mahomes got hit, and that's why it popped out.

Right. Whereas this one just kind of popped out. Yeah, he just landed and it kind of just popped out. Yeah, it just got popped out. Look, in and of itself, not a huge deal. hurts their season and maybe their chance to win a championship but when you factor in

he just hurt his back and wasn't supposed to play like wait I thought he was the healthy one and indeed was the banged up one he also there was that whole debate should he be rookie of the year because he missed his entire first season due to the foot injury which I think was the list frank one of the tiny bones same thing with Kevin Durant

same thing with Cam Newton so we've gone from foot to back to knee all seemingly non-contact kind of injuries. Like, I know you've talked about this in the past with Matt Holliday, former baseball player, where it's like he gets hitting on the hand with a fastball, his hand breaks. Oh, you're injury prone. Like, I know I got hitting the hand with a fastball. Right.

But when you get hurt on your own and nobody you jump up to grab a rebound and you just land and your knee pops out. And that's after just hurting, tweaking your back. Right. Two totally different things. Correct. Correct. Big thing.

Also, we will move it along here to the NFL. Doug. We talked about this last hour. We will continue with a little bit more from Cam Newton. He did have his first news press conference via Zoom with the Patriots today. He was asked about working with Bill Belichick. He said, quote, there's a perception, but at the end of the day, it's football. I've loved it ever since I've been here.

He also referred to being in New England as a breath of fresh air. And he also said, you hear rumors about certain things, but once you get settled in, none of it really matters. So I guess that means he likes Bill Belichick. I'm not entirely certain, but according to Cam Newton, it's all just football at the end of the day, whether you're playing for Ron Rivera in Carolina or Bill Belichick in New England. It's just football. It's just football. Yeah, I don't.

I think it's just football when you're just, it's like everything's happy-go-lucky, the honeymoon phase and like your relationship, but what happens when you're stuck together in quarantine? Right. Right. You know, you start really hitting hardships. How do you deal with it then? Is it different when you got married? like, all right, well, like, talk to me. After you have a couple of kids, somebody loses the job, you know, talk to me when there's, you know, when your attention starts to wane because you've been together a long time.

It's just football. It also seems like a, it's just bad as baseball, right? The classic baseball excuse for something. I think the challenge for Cam Newton is not going to be learning a new offense. It's going to be, does he really want to be coached? Everybody says they want feedback, even in my industry, but they don't. They want to be told, hey, that last swingin, that was awesome. Do that again.

Just be you, you're awesome. Right. And it's the same thing with playing quarterback. Cam Newton's been told he's awesome. Has he ever been coached hard? Because he will be coached hard in New England. Yeah, you had mentioned earlier in the show that there was a former teammate of Cam Newton and Carolina who also spent time in New England at a separate time.

And that was exactly his concerns for the situation was, from his perspective, they didn't necessarily go hard on Cam in games that he didn't play well because they thought that his ego wouldn't be able to handle it, but then pointed out how tough Bill Belichick could be on Tom Brady and how that set the tone for everything and having some doubts as to how those personalities would mesh. We'll finish it up here with some Major League Baseball news. Doug, do you know who the best team in baseball is right now?

Yankees, Dodgers, Twins, Cubs? No, sir. Marlins? Miami, Marlins, that's right. The team to have the first outbreak actually has the best winning percentage in the league right now at 8.57 after another win over the Orioles. And they have only played seven games as opposed to some teams who have played 13 or 14.

Yeah, it's crazy, right? Like, you look in some teams that play 14 games and they've played seven games. Seven. The only interesting thing here is, look, the Orioles are not supposed to be one of the premier teams. So when you get three or four wins against one of the worst teams, I guess that makes you not the very worst team. but surprising that the Marlins were not expected to be any good this year, but somehow to this point have the best record in Major League Baseball. Well, I thought another thing that's interesting is that the Braves have scored 74 runs

the most in baseball so far. The problem with the Braves though, they're a plus 21 is the Dodgers have only scored 70, but allowed only 37. Look, ultimately, Water is going to find its level, but it's fun. See the Marlins with this bizarre start, not just with the coronavirus outbreak, but also with their actual success in limited in a small sample size on the field. That's rhyme music with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The herd-line news. The trailblazers are who we want the pelicans to be. I'll explain next in the herd. Want more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand, where the herd. ever you'd like.

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 podcast. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger.

So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or where you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush

got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at It podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense

of how we survived it. Including a recent episode, with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist,

Keer Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough.

Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely.

And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and personal. on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app.

Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Doug Ghalybin for Colin, this is the herd. Whether you're working from home or working on your fitness, you want to hear your music, not your roommate. And Raycon's wireless earbuds are the way to go. Get 15% off your Raycon order at buyraycon.com slash heard. Some dude named Cameron, I'm going to say, say Gauthier,

Gauthier, slid into my IG messages and says, you're dead wrong about college football. It's all about the money and try to deny it is probably the stupidest thing

you've ever said. No, I've said far stupid. I just want to point that one out. They're only playing because of money. Whenever you sub for calling, you sound like such a moron. Okay.

This is the only reason they play this for money? Okay. Nothing else like trying to win the game. representing your school, represent your family, improve your standing within the team, you know, playing for each other,

maybe even your draft stock. I guess you could say that's about money. And by the way, by the way, doing things for money is not a bad thing. Right? Like we do understand that colleges make money off of all of their students.

All of them. All of them. So college is, like, college's job is to educate people, but they don't do it for free. It is not a charity, which is the same thing as college football. It's not truly a business. It's not truly a charity.

Somewhere in the middle. Somewhere in the middle. So, but it's definitely not the stupidest thing I've ever said. I would challenge that one. I mean, not sure if you're aware, but once upon a time, I thought Steph Curry should. to come out of school early.

I mean, that's far dumber, right? That's way, way worse. Dustin May is going to join us next hour? Oh. He better shower because he's filthy. Oh, Godleave's got all the one-liners. Did you guys see Cowherd tweet out a picture of his dog buddy yesterday? Did you notice that the feet were included in the shot?

It's now become a thing. Nick Wright pointed out, it's now become a thing. always feet in all of his photos of him chilling at his house. Always feet. What is the deal? Maybe it's because he got good toenails. I don't have good toenails. I'm working on getting better toenails,

but maybe it's because he has good toenails. You know, there were many people, myself included, who thought the reason that they wanted to have more teams in the bubble than just playoff teams was because they wanted to have the pelicans involved as much as possible. if you remember back to when they decided to put 22 teams in the bubble. If you remember, remember when they decided to do that? The hope was, hey, let's get more of Zion on TV. And maybe you get the Pelicans into the playoffs,

the Pelicans in the playoffs, and Zion's in the playoffs. How did that work out? Not well. Not well. the Pelicans have lost three out of four games in the bubble. Zion Williamson's going to sit out tonight against Washington to rest on the second half of a back-to-back. Like, dude is 20 years old and he's sitting out like he's 40. The Pelicans are so bad now that they've fallen behind everybody record-wise,

everybody record-wise, except for the Wizards in the bubble. They have the worst Western Conference record in the bubble. and they get the Wizards and Zion's not going to play. Meanwhile, the Portland Trailblazers are quite a different story. Last night, they got a win over the Nuggets, and it's not like they're beating the bad teams. Yes, they beat the Sons, who are actually surprisingly pretty good, the Grizzlies who were the 8th C.

They lost in a close one to the Celtics. They beat the Rockets, 1-10-10-10-1-2, and then they just beat the Nuggets. They're starting to beat the playoff teams in the bubble. They're helped dramatically by, Nurkich being back. He had 22, 7 and 4 assists. Zach Collins is back as well, 7 and 9 and 2 assists.

Gary Trent, Jr., get out of Duke, starting to come into his own, as his role has been established. And, like, look, we kind of freaked out. I know that Colin did something our Carmelo Anthony. He did hit the big three, which put him ahead for good against the Houston Rockets. He was just 4-14 before that shot.

He ends up five. last night he regressed, you know, two of 12. He looked older. He looked like he couldn't move nearly as well. It was hard to find a good matchup. Michael Porter Jr. blew up because Carmelo can't guard him. But still, the wizards behind 45 and 12 from Damien Lillard. The Blazers are who we thought the pelicans could be. Like we thought the pelicans were limited only because Zion was hurt the first half

the year. You get Zion back and suddenly now they're a playoff team. But that's been the Blazers. The Blazers who were a complete disappointment up until the time of quarantine, now they get Nurkits back, now they get Collins back, and they're starting to win and not just win but beat playoff teams. The Blazers are who we wanted the Pelicans to be. The Pelicans are who we thought, who, trying to think, who do we think the Pelicans are? Like if everybody's kind of switching teams and switching names, who are the Pelicans? I mean, they're almost like the Nets, except their guys have actually shown up,

whereas the Nets didn't show up, but the guys they do have are playing really, the Nets guys are playing really, really hard. Anyway, sons are surprisingly decent as well. Sons have won four in a row. They're hanging around for a chance to get that eight spot. Grizzlies have taken a beat, and they've lost five in a row, and now they're tied in the wind column,

one less lost than the Blazers. The Blazers, of course, got that big win last night. I don't know. Look, I understand what Colin has said about Zion, and on some level I do agree that he has this otherworldly talent, and he has gifts at a style that the league is trending towards if he can continue to develop his jump shot. But man, he's got to figure out that body stuff. People always think that in the NBA,

you don't make it because you're just not good enough. And that's not always true. That's not usually even mostly true. I'll never forget I was playing a league called the USBL shout out to all my USBL alums out there I think Mugsy Boggs is in Manute Bull were USBL alums in Connecticut anyway I remember I was getting ready for my first USBL game and we had we had Willie Burton who scored 50 in an NBA game

he's a hell of a player ninth pick in the NBA draft we had Willie Burton we had Bubba Wells led the country in scoring at I think at Austin P is the second round pick of the Mavericks. Gailen Young second round pick of the bucks. We had, we just had guys.

And without mentioning anybody else's name, I called my dad. And I was like, Dad, you won't believe how good some of these guys are. I can't believe they're in the USPL. And he's like, son, there's always a reason. and it's not usually, not always how good you actually are. Some guys, it's women, some guys it's food, some guys that can't be coached, right?

Some guys can't handle professional lifestyle. Some guys can't pass. Some guys can't shoot. And I remember I was driving to the game and one of my teammates was having a double cheeseburger like an hour before the game at Sonic and washing it down with a Coke and he struggled with his weight and I was like, he's eating his way out of it. There's always a reason. Are the cause for concern with the Lakers?

I'll tell you next. I'm Doug Gottlieb. This is the hurt. 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, S&L'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 Smiley. Michael 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On The Look Back at it podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilts of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes,

follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.