The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Herd-HOUR 3-NCAAFB

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

Colin updates us on the status of college football.Guest: Joel Klatt Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard 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, Clifford 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 Clifford 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 IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes,

follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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. Summer in sports in full swing, do-it-yourself projects,

you're home more than ever now. Go to loz.com. Check it out. I'm making a bar card at home in my little secluded grotto outside as I watch games. Baseball tonight. Joel Clatt gets fired up. College football, I'm told the presidents of the Big Ten. The presidents of the Big Ten at 6th Eastern will have a meeting.

There are reports earlier today that it's been decided. There was like a 12-2 vote. I'm not sure. that's accurate now. Joel Clatt is now joining us, the voice of college football. Let's start with this, Joel. There was a report earlier today. It was done. It's over. That's not in set and stone, right? That's not entirely accurate. That is not entirely accurate. There have been some speculation that tonight's meeting will provide some finality to the decision. most have expected that it will be a postponement and a planning towards the spring for the Big Ten conference schedule and football season.

But nothing has been voted on. There has not been a vote and nothing has been set in the stone or official at this point. So stars yesterday, some big stars came out and said, we are united, we want to play. Do you believe that as a former college football player, do you believe players mostly do want to play? Absolutely. I would put it somewhere. I've talked to, let's see, six or seven different coaches, and all of them have taken straw poles amongst their team about, you know, who wants to play, who's undecided, and who definitely does not. And what you're seeing right now is about 85 to 90% to

percent of the players will raise their hand and say, we want to play. There's usually about, you know, one to three percent of the players that say, we don't know we need more information. And then somewhere just over 5% of the players, maybe just under 10% of the players, that would just say, hey, we would rather opt out. So I think the majority, the overwhelming majority of football players are looking to their leaders, the administrators, their presidents, to provide them options in order to play this fall. And right now, it doesn't seem like that's happening. And I think that that's really frustrating a lot of these players, which is why you've seen this prominent push, in particular by Fields and Lawrence, who have become great leaders in this, to say,

hey, listen, we want to play football and we stand united together in that sentiment. So why in the course, Joey and I were talking about this, it was like, we have college football, they're making the schedule. Okay, seasons canceled. Like what happened in the last two days? What is it? Well, I think that, so this might be a bad analogy, but, you know, listen, you love analogy. So, you know, my wife, my wife was in business to business sales when we first got married.

She would sell copiers, right? And that's not an easy sale. You got to walk in and you've got to find the decision maker. That was the key point when she walked into a business was you got to find the decision maker. Anybody in sales knows exactly what I'm talking about. I think what you're seeing right now is that the decision maker is finally at the table, and that's the president. So the coaches and the ADs and even the conference commissioners can talk all

they want about their efforts and what they want to do from a planning perspective and the procedure perspective in order to play. But really, this lies with the university presidents. And as the decision makers get to the table, they're not being truthful, Colin. Okay, let's be very clear about what's going on. If they were actually concerned about the health and well-being of the student athlete, the athlete and the football player in this case, they would want to keep them within in the structure, procedures, and protocols of a football season. Okay? What they're most concerned with right now is liability, and then right under that is the

Players United Front that has started to come up in terms of a unionization of the players. That's what's driving most of their decisions, the president's. Liability, the ever-increasing plaintiff lawyer community that's frothing at the mouth to bring lawsuits against conferences and universities. And that's what the presidents are scared of right now because the health and safety aspect, it's really not holding much water because if you're going to put a player through testing protocols, have the medical care right there, even when things are being brought to the forefront like these potential heart conditions that could be harmful in a long term, will it be much better to know if you had the virus

than to get the care needed right away with things like an EKG rather than just going about your everyday life outside of football structure, not knowing if you had the disease, in particular if you were an asymptomatic case, potentially being in a multi-generational home, and not knowing if you did have that underlying heart condition. So it just doesn't hold water whatsoever that they would cancel the season in order to benefit the health and safety of the player. If they did that in the name of health and safety, they would actually be doing the exact opposite. And that's not even getting into the mental health aspects of potential substance abuse, the fact that this age group in America, the second leading cause of death in this age group, the college age group,

is suicide. We're not talking about the loss of opportunity for hundreds of thousands, or excuse me, tens of thousands of scholarships. I think that this decision would be the wrong decision, and it would be based out of fear of liability and the fear of player unionization. I would watch spring football. I think it's doable. I do worry about spring football is really not in the spring. It'd be January, February, early March. That's flu season.

If we don't have a vaccine, that's flu season, that's COVID. Flu is rough on kids. COVID rough on older people. You could just have a mess if we didn't have a vaccine. So I would watch it. I do think it could be problematic. What do you make of the suggestion of spring football? Well, I think that let's just start with this.

We know right now the data suggests that the college age kid and specifically a healthy kid is under far greater danger from things like car accidents, homicide, suicide, heart disease, and even lightning strikes than they are from COVID. I would make an argument that trying to play a spring football season and doing to your body what a football season does and then trying to back that up again with a fall season. in 2021 would be more detrimental to the health of the player than trying to play this fall. So with that as the background, and I've told that to you before, with that as the background, if there are plans to move to the spring, I believe that it would have to be a reduced season, somewhere in the six, seven, maybe max eight game range. I think that it could happen. I think that it could be possible.

One of the things that I've heard floated out there as an idea, and I can't take full credit because I heard it earlier today, but is you could make matchups that were more attractive and it wouldn't have to necessarily be just playing within your conference. And so maybe we could get the USC Alabama and maybe we could have Ohio State play, you know, Georgia or something along those lines to increase the visibility and marketability of a spring season. But keep in mind, the players that have any option to go to the NFL will be out. So it will be virtually like a spring season for a preseason of 2021. Yeah, I'm okay with that if Alabama loses six or seven guys. They're still Alabama. Their backups are better than 90% of college football starters.

Finally, if I had to say, guess today, Clat, I still am 50-50 on the SEC. I think they're going to bulldoze their way through it. but, you know, that's not informational. That's just opinion. If I said to you this morning, are we going to have college football? Who's going to play? Who's going to play? Who's not? I do believe that at least one, probably two conferences are going to stand firm and try to do this.

And it's going to be led by the SEC. I think that the ACC will follow suit and try to get that done. And I think that the Big 12 might as well. And this is where it actually gets a little bit political because at some point, these universities and maybe even conferences are going to look to the governors within their footprint and they're going to say, listen, we're going to play if you're behind us. And we don't really care what the overarching governing bodies are telling us. So for instance, like let's say that there is a school that their conference decides to cancel the season, right? And let's say it's in the

PAC 12, one of the Arizona schools, maybe a Colorado, maybe a Utah, something like that. And PAC 12 says, like, no, we're not going to do this. And that school's governor says, you know, I'm okay with you trying to play football. And they say, okay, we're going to go schedule games. I think it might be the Wild West in terms of that type of a model. But if I were to answer your question, I do think we will still have a conference, maybe to try to stand up and try to move forward in the fall. But it's going to be awfully hard if that first domino tonight falls with the big tent. Okay. So I started my show today saying this. I've never figured out why college football didn't have a commissioner. For years and years, I grew up with boxing. But boxing had

promoters, all self-serving promoters trying to get rich. And then here came UFC, this young fledgling sport that had Dana White. So they had a centralized voice. And you could argue, I can watch a 30-year-old Muhammad Ali fight. I don't think I'd ever sit down and watch a 30-year-old UFC fight. So you can't tell me UFC rose simply because it's better. That's an argument. But it did rise because it had leadership and really strong leadership and boxing. boxing didn't. So the NFL's got a commissioner and a singular voice and a union leader. Why doesn't college football have like a president? It's a two, three billion dollar a year sport. If they had a president and these guys were aligned, you'd have an actual plan.

It's just not everybody fighting for themselves. You're absolutely right. And preaching to the choir, I completely agree with you. I think that there needs to be an overarching governing body of college football. And I really believe, you know, you make a great analogy, a sports analogy, back to boxing versus UFC. I've made the analogy all the way back to our country's founding and after the Revolutionary War and before the Constitutional Convention. In that little, you know, gap, we basically, we weren't a country. So you had all the states behaving in different ways, adhering to international law in different ways, and we needed the overarching governing body of a federal government in order to get that done.

And it happened at the constitutional convention. We need a constitutional convention of college football because it is far too big and too important to allow to behave this way where everybody acts in their own benefit. And that's what we have right now with all the conferences doing whatever they deem necessary for their own good. All right, the Klattster Joel Klatt. Great seeing you, buddy. He's always well appointed.

He looks so professional. That's what you bring a real professional look to our show, and we certainly need it. Because once the camera goes off joy, it's cats and dogs living together on this set. Good seeing you, buddy. See you, buddy. Have a good day.

All right, six Eastern. The Big Ten presidents are having a meeting. That would be three Pacific. 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,

The best 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 you're 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, 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 Podcasts, or wherever 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-taped 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 a little kill? 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 on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed Correct. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line.

We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you 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 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, care 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 purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

Guys, you're getting older. Stay in shape. Check out MDrive for Men.com. MDrive for men.com. Stay lean. Stay strong. Walgreens has it. Right Aid has it too.

Joy with the news. This is the Herdline News. Well, Joe Burrow had his first on-field workouts with the Bengals last week. Let me see. Actually, I saw this. Did we have this earlier in this video? Oh, let's see. Here we go.

Looks good. That ball was low. Looks good, Colin. Hold on. He looks thin. He looks very thin to me. He made a great impression with his new teammates. Tight-end CJ Usama said he liked Burroughs poise and moxie.

What? Throwing the ball? He's going to be one of the boys, which we could have assumed that. Wide receiver Alex Erickson said Burrow has the confidence about him, but he's not overboard and he carries himself like he knows he belongs. I mean, confidence was the main positive attribute that the ball is low. Look at this. They're all low. It's like he lacks arm strength.

Oh, my God. We play a video of Tom Brady. And you're, you're like gloating about how he looks like he's 25. Is anybody, the velocity is off. And then safety, Von Bell, who played with Burrow at Ohio State, said he thinks Burrow has even more swagger to him in the NFL, and he loves it. Right. I love it.

I'm with you. I think this is going to be a really difficult year for the Bengals, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a second. Watch this. Watch right here. Yeah, I mean, that was a perfect ball. That looked pretty good. One more. Let me hold on.

Let's watch the ball. Look at that zip. That wasn't a bad throw. That wasn't one more. Give me, hold on. Oh, look at that ball. It's way out in front. Oh, my God.

Ben Rathesberger says he feels good after recovering from elbow surgery. Even with him back healthy, Pittsburgh is expected to be chasing Baltimore in the AFC North along with the Bengals. But Big Men doesn't mind if the Steelers are looked at as an underdog this season. I think it's fun. I know a lot of guys like being on top, being hunted. Sometimes it's fun to be the underdog and to be overlooked. It's okay.

We can be overlooked. It's the offseason. And no one knows what this season is going to kind of hold or entail. So, you know, we're going to go out there and just give it everything we have and try and win a football game. I don't know that they're being overlooked. My skepticism is coming from several years of kind of disappointing seasons for the Steelers and Ben Rothesburg are coming back from surgery.

And Baltimore looks ridiculous. Well, yeah, obviously. And Cleveland, because they're not Pan Baker or anything yet, has stacked the roster. So the odds when the AFC North, obviously the Ravens are favored, according to Fox bet, minus 188. Steelers plus 250, the Browns plus 550.

Brown's the best bet there easily. Browns are the best bet easily. And the Bengals plus 25. You know, I should do a team bet. I should do a herd team bet. We should do that. We'll bet for the staff, and if I win... Do you bet to win what?

The Browns... You're going to bet that the Browns are going to win the AEC North? No, let me think about it. You don't know what I for a second? I have the Ravens going 60 to now. That would be hard. That's going to be a little difficult. So the Grizzlies were in the driver's seat for the last playoff spot in the West,

but they've struggled in the bubble, dropped five of their six seating games, and their loss to the Raptors on Sunday. mathematically guaranteed that there will be a play-in series for the eight-seed. The Blazers are now only a half a game behind the Grizzlies after winning four of their six seeding games so far. So what does that mean? If the eight seed wins the first game, that team will advance the playoffs. But if the nine seed wins, they play a second game.

And obviously the winner will move on. Yeah, Darren Jackson's out for Memphis. Portland will win that. Yeah, I would go with Portland there. Portland's final two seeding games against Dallas and Brooklyn. Brooklyn, which are not easy games. Memphis has Boston and Milwaukee left, but regardless, they're going to have this playing series. So now, now how many games?

I thought it was the 13th the playoffs started, August 13th. Am I wrong on that? I must be. Yeah, I think there's a little more. There's August 17? Yeah, there's a few more games to still be played. They're going to be playing regular season games, I think, through Saturday. The Spurs are one game behind the Grizzlies and the Suns are one and a half games behind the Grizzlies.

So there's still a little movement here that can. happen if everything falls apart. But I would take Portland in that game for sure in those series. Good stuff. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. It's too bad. I love college football. It's too bad. We're talking it on a bad day. But it's, listen, it's liability, it's pressure. It's, you know, there's the NFL, though, is a totally different animal. It's eight road games. Yeah, these are NFL players with rich owners. The players are getting paid. They don't want to go home. They want to get paid. You know, everybody in the NFL, all these guys are rich.

No, NBA guys are rich. Baseball guys are rich. NFL guys, you know, even the Patrick Mahomes deal, it doesn't start for a while. And by most standards, people think the team got the better of the deal. The NFL's got a much weaker union. So, guys, by the way, I've never been, I mean, I don't care if guys get paid. I hope young people succeed. But I've never been one of these believers.

Oh, I hope everybody gets paid. I want my team to be nimble. So, I mean, again, if I have Russell Wilson, I'm paying him everything. but I don't want you to pay seven other guys because I want my team to be nimble and move around and get people for Russell Wilson. So the NFL, I think, has always done that where you have very rarely in the NFL,

do you have like, oh, God, that's an awful contract. And if you do, it lasts a year. Well, as a fan, I would much rather have that than one dude getting rich. I would rather have, you know, like the way the NFL works, is if a guy's a bad contract, you cut him, you take a loss, you move on, the cap hurts for six months. So these NFL guys, they got to play.

They want to make money. They're not all, they're not all Maserati guys. There's a lot of SUV driving guys in the NFL. They need to check. There's just no way to compare the two. They're two different sports. There's just no way to compare the two. Yeah, they really are.

I've seen people say football is football. No, in Europe, it's soccer. And then in America, there's pro in college. And they are completely different. They are literally different ecosystems. Coming up next, up down and sideways. Thoughts on the NBA bubble. as we wrap up the initial part of the bubble and head to the playoffs.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. 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 you're 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, 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 Podcasts, or wherever 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 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. Thank you for finishing that sentence. 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. 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. Trip 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 purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. By the way, Greg Sanky's a very good commissioner

for the SEC. Joy, he just came out with this. Be patient. Take time making decisions. This is all new. Get better information day. We've been deliberate every step since March.

Develop testing protocols. We know concerns remain. We've never had a football season in COVID-19. Can we play? We don't know. We haven't stopped trying. Support, educate, and care for the student athletes. We'll continue to do so every day. I like that. I will say this, but every 48 hours, I learn something

about COVID. I mean, seriously. I mean, he's right. You do have to be patient, but we also are reaching a fork in the road where a decision has to be made about whether they're going to play or not. If you just gave me the SEC, and that was college football, even as a West Coast guy, I'm okay with it. I get my SEC Saturday night game of the night. I'm good with it. It's obvious at this point that there's going to be some conferences that don't agree with decisions of other conferences, and we're not going to have all of college football this year.

We already know that. Well, I told you as somebody who grew up following the PAC 12, the PAC 12 tends to be a tad pious and precious, and I thought they would bail fast. Once the Ivy League went, the PAC 12 was like, hello, bowtie meeting at four. They tend to be a little stuffy in the PAC 12. Well, this is very, very, very complicated. Because aside from just the students coming back, aside from college football coming back, and the idea that these athletes would be in some sort of semi-bubble, all of these schools are in communities where people live,

who are not students or student athletes. So you have to have a concern for them as well. It's very layered. I feel bad. That's why it's not, it's just you cannot compare it to the NFL. Let me tell you something. We got an economy right now with 11% unemployed. These small towns need, college football is their income.

Auburn, Alabama doesn't have industry. I mean, Ann Arbor does, Austin does, but Norman, Oklahoma, that is their industry. They don't have, you know, it's small town America needs college football. I mean, just economically speaking, jobs, it really does. All right, here we go. Up, down and sideways, Joyce. All right. Let's start with the Lakers turning up, down or sideways.

Down. Joy, what aren't they last in offensively in the bubble? They have the worst field goal percentage. They have the worst three-point percentage. They have the worst last in points per game. In the bubble, which has not been what you would say, a great defensive showcase. They're averaging 100 points a game. And remember this.

That's with LeBron James. That means you have the great playmaker in the league with LeBron. He's got Anthony Davis in their last and everything offensively. Training down. How about the nuggets up down or sideways? Training up because Jamal Murray's back. And the other thing is Michael Porter. Now, this is a kid a couple years ago was a high school phenom.

He skipped college. He went to the NBA. Then he got hurt. We've all been sitting around like, okay, Michael Porter. He was the kid in the last three years we thought would be a superstar. We didn't talk about John Morant two years ago. Well, he is averaging 29 points in the last four games. He has been, I guess I said, Denver's very interesting.

It's a football town. It's the Rocky Mountain time zone. We never know what time it is there. Denver Yokits Jamal Murray. If Michael Porter becomes a star, watch out for the Denver Nuggets a year from now. The Mavericks up down or sideways. Sideways. Number one in offense, no defense at all.

I will say this. Love watching them play. Trey Burke, Luke is obviously sensational and poor Zingis. They did have an overtime went over the bucks, which was nice, nice win for them. You know, I think we would both agree they're really fun. They're probably a year or two way. You know what they don't know how to do yet? That's why this overtime win was good.

They don't quite know how to win consistently late. They've outplayed a lot of teams they've played and just can't figure out the ending to it. Well, and that's usually how it goes for young teams. Young teams are like that. So the Blazers up down are sideways. Up. I think they're playing with a swagger, playing with confidence. They're healthy.

They have size. They're the number. one highest offensive rating of all the teams, and Gary Trent Jr. and Damien Lillard in the back court right now rank 1 and 2 in three pointers made in the bubble. And for the record, that is how you beat the Lakers. You spread it out and make the Lakers old roster chase you around the perimeter. So with Trent's emergence, Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, now you've got three guys in Mello, potentially four, hitting threes. Lakers. don't defend the perimeter well at all.

The bucks up, down, or sideways? Sideways. I can't take anything away from Milwaukee. They are what they are. They are a very good matchup with Boston, who they may have to go through. They don't match up quite as well with Toronto. Here's all I know.

They hold opponents to 41% from the field. That is the best in the bubble. And playoff basketball becomes very situational. You need a bucket, or you need a stop, and they make a stop as well as anybody in the NBA. So I don't take anything from them being two and three in the bubble. They got nothing to play for. They're not playing for home court.

They just want to be healthy. They've very well coached. So they are what I thought they'd be. The Raptors up down or sideways. Trending up, eight and one in their last nine games, smart, long veteran team. Here's the stat in sports that I can't figure out. They have a better record through 69 games this year than last without Kauai. They're a great regular season team.

Well, last year they were a great postseason team. Because they had Kauai Leonard. They allow the fewest points. Boy, Seahum was a steal for them. He's become a really good player. Yeah. And you know what? They play like a college team.

You talk about the extra pass. They have an unbelievable system, a great coach. Nick Nurse. A great culture. Nick Nurse likes our show. And his most right. thinking people agree. If you like our show, you're pretty heady. The Celtics

up, down, or sideways? Sideways. I almost went down on this, but I will say this. Jason Tatum has not been as dynamic as he was pre-bubble. He's only had one 30-point game. I've watched them three times. They're very guard wing-centric.

They don't match up with Milwaukee's size. But I will say this. When they're shooting well, they're a pain in the arse. They have the highest point differential plus 50 in the bubble. So when they get hot and Hayward's hitting and Jalen Brown's hitting and Jason Tatum's hitting, they can light lights out really quickly. I just don't think they match up very well with Milwaukee.

The Sixers up, down are sideways. Completely down. Simmons is now hurt and Beat is now hurt. I feel sorry for Brett Brown because, of course, he'll get blamed for it. But this is the classic Hollywood marriage. Looks good on paper. They're beautiful. They have good jobs.

There's work schedules are the same. get along great, be married forever. And every time I look up, I'm like, somebody's hurt. They don't play well together. Just feels difficult all the time. Everything is hard with Philadelphia. And they're just too talented not to be. So M.B. got banged up again.

Ankle injury against the Blazers. I only got the second half of that game, so I didn't see him get hurt. I just saw Dame do what Dame does. He's tremendous. Doug Gottlie, Peter King, Joel Clat-Oll joined us on the show today. By the way, do-it-yourself projects. Loz. go to loz.com. I'm making a bar card at home.

I have a little place in my house, secluded outdoors. I watch games. I got a big sea tray. Tray. Big sea tray. It makes me kind of feel kinglike in my own house, which for the record, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that at all. So Lowe's, hashtag Lowe's goals. Do It Yourself,

projects. Fellows get it done. All right. Nice stuff today. Joy just looks striking today, Joy. What is it? You know, can I say that? Yeah. You look well-rested. I slept terrible last night, but...

So I got up at 2.15. I woke up every hour on the hour. I don't know what I was wrong. You know, that's when I go to the Twitter bird and I just read. For three hours, I just read stories. Really? Yeah, I just read a bunch of different stuff. Boring stuff. Bloomberg News, Wall Street Journal, but read nonetheless.

I got smarter. I probably should start reading when that happens. All right. We'll see you tomorrow with a herd. 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, 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 Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at a Podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me.

Eighty-4 was big too. mean. I'm Sam Jay 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. 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 you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clivert 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 Cliford Show. This is a place for raw, unfills 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 Cliford Show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.