The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD – HOUR 3 – Steph Curry Leaving The Warriors?, Raiders Making A Big Mistake

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

UCLA head coach Bob Chesney joins the show to discuss expanding the College Football Playoff and preparing to compete in the BIG 10.  What's next for Steph Curry? Are the Raiders making a huge mistake not starting Fernando Mendoza?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to 3 Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRedia.com or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Back here on the herd. UCLA new football coach, Bob Chesney, stopping by in a minute to talk about how he's changing the culture with the Bruins.

Chesney, of course, was at JMU before UCLA. And I know JMU very well, having graduated from there. Our football program is okay. 1-A back in the day. Now we're legit. And Chesney took us to the college football playoff. We did cover the spread. very important to some against Oregon in the playoff on the road.

That was a wacky fourth quarter if you guys remember. This is shaping up as a monster college football season in the Big Ten. I mean, we just talked to Jeremiah Smith from Ohio State. We know Buckeyes are going to be good. Michigan's going to bounce back. They've had a lot of turmoil if you followed the former head coach who was, well, we'll just move on from that. Michigan will bounce back. And UCLA appears to be on the rise significantly.

their recruiting efforts have been massive. So let's bring in Bob Chesney, UCLA's new head football coach, live from Big Ten Media Days. Hey, Bob, how are you, man? Thanks so much for joining the show. Very excited. How's your first Big Ten Media Day going there?

It's going good, man. It is a car wash for sure. Everywhere you turn, there's another interview, which is pretty awesome. And just getting a chance to see all these coaches in action and meet all the people and see a lot of the media. It's been really great.

Yeah, I was just looking at the depth chart. It looks like maybe 15 new transfer starters. I don't know if that's the exact number, but it's going to be a new culture. Talk about building that at UCLA. Yeah, right now we ended up with 63 new guys on this team, 45 of our transfers. So it is really that.

We really want to try to find guys that have played meaningful snaps. We want to find guys that have come from good cultures. We want to find guys that can add to our transfers. We want to find guys that can add to our culture and continue to grow on a day-to-day basis. And that's what we feel like we found with these guys. So, you know, they bring energy to it every day. They love playing this game and they don't have to go to work. They get to go to work.

And that's a really important part of us being able to turn this thing the right way. Yeah. So I'm a JMU graduate. So I was following you last season, incredible run to the playoff. Outstanding. How big of a leap is it going from, hey, listen, Harrisonburg, Virginia is a lovely place. But it ain't Westwood. Just talk about that leap and bringing a bunch of players to the West Coast.

Yeah, so obviously there's a big difference between Harrisonburg and Los Angeles, as you know. And I love my time in Harrisonburg, and I think that the people that live there are very proud of it and proud of that football team and rightfully so. You know, it's just a team that continues to win at every level. And I've been really, again, proud to be associated with that university. But we did. We ended up bringing 10 players with us and those 10 that we brought with us. I think are all guys that can contribute. Obviously, the stakes are a little higher here.

The coaching, you know, the players, the stadiums that we're going to play in, just go through all the things. The air is a lot thinner at this current level, you know, where we're at. But I do think a lot of the same, you know, formula that came into what we were able to do, not only at JMU, but previous places, the fundamentals and those standards all still travel. I'm sure recruiting is a lot more fun. I know you guys are crushing it on the recruiting. my guy, Vic, who I know pretty well, he's killing it. I mean, talk about like just recruiting at

UCLA versus what you experienced back at JMU. Yeah, well, very different. Obviously, I think that just the idea of being on the West Coast and, you know, when we bring a lot of guys out, we brought them out in January. So a little bit different weather than what they might have been going through on the East Coast and had an opportunity to just see the benefits of that. But, you know, just to me, I had to get out here. I had to meet a lot of these coaches. I had to be able to start to get a footprint going. Obviously, the amount of time I spent with a lot of these West Coast coaches

has not been magnificent over my past bunch of years. But at the same point in time, it's not about the quantity. It's about the quality. And I think we've opened our doors. We had 180 of them come to a free coaches clinic. A ton have been at practices, sat in our meeting rooms. Those are all things we've got to do as far as establishing this footprint and making sure that our time spent with them is extreme quality.

Yeah, now we saw Kurt Signetti in Indiana make an incredible run here over the last two years. And instantly people are like, listen, this is how quickly it could be done in the new NIL era. You can turn programs around quickly. I mean, you don't want to put too much of a burden on you guys at UCLA, but I don't know. It seems like you guys are ranked about 13th in the preseason poll. Obviously, you can use that as motivation. What's a realistic goal for the squad this year? Yeah, I'm sure most coaches say the same thing.

But for us, whatever our goals are, we have to have our standards that match them. And our goals necessarily in our public, but our standards are things that we have to live on the day-to-day basis. But I don't want to put any, you know, artificial ceilings on what we can accomplish and limit ourselves in any way. But I also don't want to hide behind the fact of, hey, this is a year where we're rebuilding and accepting less is what we're going to do. That's not the facts either. We've got to be able to go out here and play the brand of football that needs to be played in this league on the day-to-day basis and just continue. continually, truly evaluate ourselves honestly and grow every moment we can. That's ultimately what this journey is about.

Yeah, very well-spoken, coach. I want to ask about the quarterback situation. You got two brothers there who are really awesome. I hear a lot of buzz about Madden. Obviously, Nico NFL prospect. Talk about the situation of quarterback right now and how optimistic you are. Yeah, well, obviously it all goes through that quarterback position, as we all know. You watch games when teams go back and forth.

It's usually the quarterback making some pretty. heroic plays. And you have to be able to do that. You've got to play the game that's being played at that moment, whether it's tempo and you've got to speed up or you're down and you've got to do more things. But you've got to play each play individually throughout that. And I think both of those guys embody that. They're very talented, as you know. They had illustrious high school careers. And they are in a position right now to lead a team and be sharing a room together, which is pretty rare about 20 minutes away from where they grew up. That's a special moment. And I think that's one of the things that I'm excited to just watch what they're capable of and make sure we put them

in positions for strengths to be highlighted and weaknesses to be avoided. So, Bob, when I moved my family across the country here, and that was tough, man, just moving across the country, setting up shop, you know, transitioning to FS1, I can't imagine what you're going through, you know, coming across the country, coaching UCLA, and now in the recruiting environment and NIL era. Can you just talk about how rapid of the last six months it's been for you, just a whirlwind? Yeah, I mean, it's been just that. And I think you hit the nail on the head with the majority of it.

It's not one of those moments where you just come over here and say, hey, this is all we got to do. There's things to be done in every single department that touches this program and in every single person that touches this program. So that's really important. But again, I think probably, you know, the work's the work. And we all understand that as coaches. I'm just proud of my family and the way they were able to handle it.

Our kids came over here from Harrisonburg with, like, I think, two months of school left. So we're able to walk away from all their friends and just come over and integrate themselves into a new system and new across the country and meet new friends. And I'm just really proud of the maturity and the way that they made this transition for me a lot easier than, you know, if it would have went a different way. And they weren't happy and didn't see the value in it. And I'm just really proud of what my family's becoming as well. I got to ask, Bob, about the NIL. A lot of people are complaining. We've got to rein this in.

It's out of control. I don't know. It almost seems like, hey, this is the hand we're dealt. Shouldn't we just deal with it, guys? Let's stop complaining and get to work. Where do you stand on NIL? Are you one of these like, hey, well, you've got to tighten it up here. This is out of control.

Yeah, I mean, I do think there's an helmet to tighten it up. I don't think we want to see ourselves in moments where there's $75 or $100 million rosters out there. I think that that really becomes the haves and halves and heads. have knots and the playing field gets skewed quite. It's already there, but it could get skewed even a little bit more. But to me, what are we doing? You got to make a decision and you either are competing or you're complaining.

And I just will not allow our guys to go through a day where they're complaining. So the alternative is competing. So whatever the rules are that we got to play by, we got to play by them. And whatever we got to do, whatever work we got to put in to make sure that we're one of the teams that's more funded. And that, you know, fortunate part is I think we have the third or fourth, highest alumni base in the entire country. We're located in a pretty cool area. And on top of it, it's a, you know, the number one public school in the country, six or seven out of the last eight years. There's a lot in here that I think we could all be really, really proud of. To me, I think

it comes down the football right now. We have to be able to take these next steps. I said it before, but we won three national championships here in our athletic department. We won seven conference championship. It was more than any other department in the country. We're one good football team away from being the most dominant athletic department in the entire world. And I think that's really important for all of us to understand and understand just how heavy that crown is to wear as a football program. And we got to attack the work on a day-to-day basis like it. So Bob, you talked about how fertile the recruiting ground is out here. Have you had a taste yet of what it's like battling the other school across town USC for recruits and the rivalry and what it means? Have you

gotten any sense of that. I know it's tough because you haven't coached the game yet. Yeah, no, I think as far as like the recruiting, they do an unbelievable job, you know, and obviously they're funded very, very well. So, you know, it's hard to really, you know, beat them at this moment just because they have a little bit more than you do. But at the same point in time, you know, we got to get this place right and we got to get it to a point where we can compete with anybody at any time and we will do that. So I'm excited about it. I think, I don't worry about any other teams. We have enough things we got to do on a day-to-day basis and get better at on a day-to-day basis that, you know, to worry about anybody else doesn't make any sense.

So we just got to continue to grow, honestly evaluate ourselves, and figure out what we've got to do to be better. Yeah, Bob, I want to wrap up the, a lot of chatter this week about the 24-team playoff. We're just making leaps. 24-team playoff, I have no problem with it. I like competitive football games, you know. But some other people, you know, some other leagues maybe are not as big of fans. Have you given any thought to this or you want to weigh in on it? Well, this is how I lived my life, you know, growing up, obviously in the D3, D2, FCS world, it was that.

You know, you were in the tournament. So you're who you scheduled, who you played, not necessarily, you know, how many losses you had, but who you lost to and by what margin is what it came down to. And if your strength of schedule wasn't good, you weren't getting into playoffs. Like that all mattered a lot. So we were constantly playing up, you know, whatever we were at. And we were constantly trying to find the best, like schools, to be able to, you know, boost our record at the end and our strength of schedule. And I think that's what we all got to consider and think about at this level.

24 to me, I don't know. I don't really have a strong opinion about it. I think whatever the rules are will play by. But when you look through it, I think basketball is at 70% of their teams make the playoffs. I think almost every other sport is close to 45 or above as far as how many teams make the playoffs. We're at 8% right now that have a chance to make the playoffs. 8%. That to me is just a little bit different.

Now, how long is the season? What are we doing with the championship game? How much wear and tear on the players is this? What are the ramifications of losing the bowl system for those towns and those people? Like, with every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction multiple times over. So I think that's where someone's going to have to come up with these rules and figure out what the best path forward is. but I don't see an issue with, you know, letting more teams in. But at the same point in time, I get it if not.

We just made it. You know, at a, you know, group of five school, we just made it. So, you know, whatever the rules are, we'll play by them and we'll do our best together. I love it. Bob, great stuff. Thanks a lot. And, you know, continued success in your college football endeavors. I'll see it again this season.

All right, man. I appreciate it a lot. Thank you. Bob Chesney, first year coach at UCLA. Really good stuff. I like you. Listen, he's got some numbers, spitting numbers on the college football playoff expansion. That's great. Coming up next, we'll do Rachel with the news. And also there is another college football coach talking at Big Ten Media Days.

We'll dive into that. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Hey, we're Kavino and Rich. Fox Sports Radio every day, 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern. But here's the thing. We never have enough time to get to everything we want to get to. And that's why we have a brand new podcast called Overpromised. You see, we're having so much fun in our two-hour show.

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Oh, we're going to go to Hurdline news. All right. Let's go to Herdline right now with Rachel. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herd Line News. Very impressive talker, right? I mean, he just comes across really well. Remember when across town over here at USC, Lincoln Riley was the new hot college football coach?

It was a good first season for him at USC 2022. Riley led the Trojans to an 11-3 record. Caleb Williams won the Heisman. Those were the days, Jason. But in the three years since, Riley has gone 24 and 15, which means there is a lot of talk about how this is a little bit of a put-up or shut-up year for him at USC. Top-ranked recruiting class in the country. Quarterbacks coming back.

They have a really tough schedule. It's ranked one of the toughest schedules in the country. Do you think if they don't make the playoffs this year? Because he's never made the playoffs here at USC. That he's on the hot seat? Ooh. Ooh. Oh.

I guess I would counter a question with a question. What's his buyout after the season? Honestly, that's like the talking point. Does that even matter anymore? Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Listen, you're not kidding. That schedule is tough. Oregon is a national title contender. We know Ohio State is. I don't think that UCLA game is going to be a layup.

No. Penn State has a new coach, and I believe Matt Campbell. Washington's not going to be bad. I like some of the things they do. What's he going to take nine? Does he need to win nine out of 12? Is that going to do it? Probably. I mean, you know, the sort of upside version of the schedule is 10 wins. The downside is 8. So maybe 9. I forgot Indiana, the defending champion. Come on there. Come on, man. You can't just go to Bloomington.

You can't go to Bloomington to win. Yeah. Holy count. So you think he's got to win 10? Schedule. You know, I don't know. Obviously, it probably depends on the way they lose games that they lose or the way they win games that they win.

But I know that when you pay, you want what you pay for, right? You don't have the top ranked recruiting class because the boosters haven't shelled out money. So those are the people that control sort of the noise in the athletic department is the over whether you get fired or not. And these people have paid for a very good recruiting class. I think there's going to be, I think that that seat's going to be pretty warm. I mean, they should go four and oh, right?

To start, those are, they'll be favored by double figures and all those. And then the Oregon game. Hosting Oregon, I don't want to say it's a swing game, but if you could show up in that game and not get blasted by Dante Moran Company, it's fine, right? But that Oregon, Washington, Penn State, then they get a buy before like the second half of the season, which is Ohio State, Indiana.

I mean, the early line is that they should be favored in nine of those games. Okay. So they should, quote, quote, win nine. I don't know. That's what there's, no mess-ups, you know, like no accidental losses, kicker blows a game or something. Nobody wants the expansion of the college football playoff more than USC. I would love that. Listen, did you hear the numbers that Chesney said?

Yeah. I mean, 80% of college, or was it 70 or 80% of college basketball teams make the NCAA tournament? And in, I don't know where he got. that for what? Is it 8% of... 8% for football? Yeah. But, you know, it's a different game, obviously. You can play two basketball games in one three or four day period on the weekend. You can't do that in college football. So by definition, unless you want the playoff to last three months, you need to have fewer teams. That's just Matt, Jason. Yeah, well, I don't know. I mean, aren't they already playing the Natty in like January 23rd or something? Yeah, well, that's what I mean.

You can't, how much further, how much further are we going here with college football season? Maybe you don't take three weeks after the conference championships? It could be. Maybe some guys get buys? I don't know. There's a lot of highly paid college football people. Yes. Hey, do your jobs, guys.

Figure it out. Get us 2014. We will see what happens here in L.A. setting up for a good college football season. Let's go back to the NBA because we have some new reporting to talk about Steph Curry and the Warriors. A lot of talk for the last few days, Jason, about the back end of Steph's career, how the Warriors are handling it. New report from the ringer said that the Warriors

could have brought Jalen Brown to Golden State, but the front office decided Brown was not, quote, the right player to carry the warriors beyond the Curry era. Jason, if I am Steph, beyond the Curry era? What about during the Curry era? During the Curry era.

Jalen Brown could have helped. And yes, at the trade deadline, the cost for Jalen Brown was really high, but clearly wasn't that high when they got rid of him this summer because we saw what Philadelphia paid for. So certainly Golden State had the resources to bring Jalen Brown to play on the Warriors. They decided not to do it because he might not be the right guy to give an extension to beyond the Curry era. And if I'm Steph Curry, I am asking about these kinds of things when I meet with them.

And he will have that opportunity coming up because he is eligible for a two-year extension at the end of August. So they are going to start talking about that extension. Shams reporting that they are both amenable to an extension. They're both looking to work something out. But I don't know. What assurances would you need if you were Steph Curry to sign that extension? Well, I mean, the big problem, Rachel, is you go back and you don't want to revisit history, but they screwed up Wiseman and they messed up Combinga because they were trying this two timelines thing.

What about one timeline? Okay, but yes, definitely teams make misses on draft picks. Those were misses and the way they tried to develop them were misses. I'm not going to say you have to have 100%, right? But I think that especially if you screwed that part up, you have to put your money down for this part. Like the idea, and yes, they went out and got Jimmy Butler, and that's great, and they spent money on him, but he got hurt.

And by the way, he was a player on the older end of his career who had a significant injury history. So him getting hurt wasn't some big fluky shock thing. So now you're looking at a contract, with his contract, Jimmy Bowler's contract, that is tradable because there are teams that would take that contract and just let it fall out and not extend him

and then have that money to pay someone else. Jalen Brown's contract is huge. You could have swapped those contracts. I just, if I'm Steph Curry, I am not signing that extension until I know what they plan to do for these next two years. Because if they're just planning for the era after me,

as much as I know Steph would like to stay with the warrior, and there's an argument, hey, he won four championships there. So, like, even if nothing else happens, that's enough. He will obviously get to retire a warrior if he stays, all of that stuff. But I don't know, man, I watched him in the Olympics. He's the reason Team USA won. He can still play great basketball. I wouldn't want to just sit around and play out the string if I were him.

Let me ask, so the Jalen Brown trade talk thing. Butler was still healthy at the time, right? The trade deadline? I'm not sure. He got injured in February. I'm not sure. Okay. I'm just curious.

I'm just curious. Would the Celtics rather have Jimmy Butler's expiring, right? Or Paul George? According to what Brad Stevens said in the press conference after the Jalen Brown trade, he was talking about the amount of money being tied up in all these contracts and how difficult that was. I wonder if they would have rather had the expiring contract because he was saying you can't have two players taking up 70% of your cap, which was the situation, which was.

the situation with Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. Jalen Brown's contracts three more years. Paul George's is two more years, so you're still going to have two more years of two guys taking up 70% of your cap. One would be better. I just, again, worrying about the post-currie era, and this is the second time in three days we've had a report of Joe Lakeb, the owner, worrying about the post-curry era.

I talked about on the show yesterday. We saw Dan Gilbert obsessed with this the last time LeBron was in Cleveland. Guess what? It meant he didn't put enough into the end of LeBron's last year or two in Cleveland, and LeBron left because he wasn't playing with a team that could have kept him in championship contention. Steph Curry doesn't want to leave Golden State. He is looking to sign this extension.

But you've got to give him a reason to sign it. He's basically been spitting in this guy's face. It almost sounds like Laca, Gilbert. They're thinking of this as a business. Boy, Chase Center is going to be pretty damn empty when Curry leaves and we got no stars. Especially if you haven't taken care of Steph on the way. out. Fanbase is, I'm not alone here. The fan base feels exactly like I feel. And if they feel that you have messed up the end of Steph Curry, the guy who got you that arena, who got you all this

money, who got you all those titles, they're not going to be sticking around for the bad team afterward. If they feel like the reason why they have a bad team in the few years after Steph Curry's there and they're in a rebuilding phase is because you gave it all for Steph Curry, they're going to show up for that plucky young team. I don't know, man. This feels like an easy, easy thing to execute and just an own goal to keep messing up. Remember the final Jordan year how they basically set it up so that

hey, we're moving on from everybody. We're getting Scotty Pippin out of town and we're just rebooting. They have not recovered. No. I mean, Derek Rose kind of recovered them a little bit but then he got hurt. So if memory serves no finals trips for the Bulls since then? Correct. I think they got to a conference

finals with Derek Rose, the one against the heedles and LeBron just smoked them. Why are you getting rid of Michael Jordan? Why? That was the beginning of my career was covering that team. Why? Well, these owners, these rich guys, want to try to thread the needle. Aren't they supposed to be selfish, though? This is not in your best interest. That's what I don't understand, is this is not in your best interest. Billionaires act selfishly all the time. Do that now, okay? In your best interest is to give Steph Curry the end he deserves. I promise you the end after that, the post-currie era, will be better if you do this now, even if you don't have resources. Because guess what you have now? Steph Curry. There you go.

All right. Let's go back to football. We were talking about the Cowboys earlier in the show. As we all expected, Micah Parsons came over from the Cowboys. Now with the Packers is going to be on the pup list as he continues to recover from that ACL tear. But why am I bringing up the Cowboys when I talk about Micah, Jason? Because, according to a report from the athletic of Parsons Rehab continues to go smoothly, guess when he might come back? Week 6 versus the boys and Dallas. How great would that game,

Dave a Sunday night game, Dallas. Could be massive. It's been a mixed bag, though, of guys coming back from ACLs, and that would be sort of the quicker timeline that week six against Dallas. So what do you expect from Micah? If we're pointing toward his return here, what do you expect when he gets there? I mean, it's been a long time, right?

I mean, some of these, I don't understand totally some of the recoveries from injuries, like Daniel Jones coming off in Achilles. He's going to be back before Micah? Really? I'm stunned at that. That's still brutal. Brutal. Yeah.

But it's just Achilles is supposed to be the worst injury in sports, pretty much. And the fact that he's going to be back, but Mike is waiting until week six, maybe they're being extra cautious. Well, the Packers have something called a nine-month rule. The nine-month rule is you can't even get on the field to practice until it's nine months after an ACL tear.

So obviously, that is a more conservative timeline than we have seen with some teams, guys trying to come back. But look, the reason they have that rule is because it's been a mixed bag. You know, it used to be an ACL was a career ender, right? I mean, that was just it. And we have seen guys now in medicine is advanced and rehab is advanced, but it's still been a mixed bag. You look at Joe Burrow, right, came back clean from his ACL. That was 2020. Still looks great out there. Sequin Barclay had the ACL. He looks great again out there. But you've guys got Von Miller, Stefan Diggs, Rishy Rice. These have not been as successful in the returns.

Our research department gave me a whole list here. It's really this, you know, it's up and down. So I don't know who we're going to get. I mean, I bet on Michael Parsons because you've got to bet on Michael Parsons, right? Yeah. I don't know. I'd like to see that week six game, though. Rachel, what the news? Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lie News. All right, coming up, Jerry Jones, we'll do a little Fernando Mendoza, not starting. A lot of fun NFL talk that's next year on The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays, and noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, I'm Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak.

Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf forades, I'll Believe in Anything, and tattoos all the things she said, and how they all became a part of this global phenomenon. Stream Encore on IHeart Radio, Crave, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing Along is back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an intimate setting. Every episode's a little different, but it all involves music and conversation with some of my favorite musicians.

Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Leveh, Mavis Staples, Remy Wolf, Jeff Tweedy, really too many to name. And this season I've sat down with Joshua Hami, Sarah McLaughlin, John Legend, and more. Check out my new episode with Phineas. So I went home and I asked Billy if she wanted to sing it. She immediately made it her own thing. No faith. You really know how to make me cry when you give me those oceans. So come hang out with us in the studio and listen to Playing Along on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Mungesha Chitkiduilar, and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain. That's incredible. A suppose to his brain. Here's some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster,

but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive,

How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Declaration which is full of these beautifully rendered, you know, sentences and paragraphs about enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it. Why is it important for the darker part of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution? Why is it important that Americans know about it? Well, if we don't understand the full context in which our nation was founded,

we won't understand the full context in which our nation was founded. We won't understand the full context which our nation now finds itself. I'm Rebecca Nagel. Gohine, Dawadol, to like I et al-Li, citizen of Cherokee Nation. Are you guys big Chiefs fans? Hell yeah. This is First America,

the true story of how the United States came to be and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What a whirlwind Wednesday. Oh, I like it. that. I mean, Rachel and I've gotten so lucky. The LeBron stuff broke. Now we got Big Ten Media

Days. And, and we have a quarterback decision officially made. The Raiders are starting. Kirk Cousins. We feel the excitement. We had James Palmer on from Bleacher Report earlier. Here were his thoughts on Cousins versus Mendoza. Kirk Couss could teach this offense. He could coach this offense. And I think what Fernando needs to learn very early on is, yes, I'm more talented. I'm more physically gifted than Kirk. I want to learn how to beat teams with my mind in this offense, and that's what Kirk does. And I think that's the way this entire group from Tom Brady to Clint Kubiak has always thought of how it works with quarterbacks. But if he goes out there and absorbs everything, I mean, I do think he's mentally okay to go out there and play if he's hit early.

That's one of the things that battles quarterbacks. I don't think that will rattle for Nita Mendoza if he is put out there sooner than later. Interesting. So you look around the league at the other potential quarterback showdowns. you've got the one that hasn't got off the ground yet in Atlanta with Tua versus, I can't believe, I'm forgetting Tua's opponent, Michael Pennix, the incumbent. You've got this Raiders one which seems settles. You've got Kyler Murray versus J.J. McCarthy in Minnesota. And then I think that's pretty much it.

I would like to say Gino Smith versus Kade Klubnick in New York for the Jets. But it looks like Gino's definitely going to be the guy, although Clubnick has shown well. according to some reporters that are putting stuff out there. I just can't get behind cousins as the starter. I think it's pointless. It serves nobody any purpose. Obviously, many people disagree. Rachel, we had guests on who disagree.

So others do agree. And the thing I keep coming back to is this Patriots, disaster with Drake May. Like, they decided Jacoby Brissette should be the starter, not Drake May. Then May comes in after four games. He clearly was ready. He was clearly the better quarterback than Jacoby Brisset. And he wasn't great.

but nobody's going to be great right out of the gate, right? And then in year two, because he got a ton of action in year one, boom, they go right to the Super Bowl. And I just, I don't understand holding Mendoza back. Now, again, if he goes into preseason games and he's vomiting all over himself, he doesn't know what he's doing, that's another story. But there's zero signs of that. But it sounds like, I don't know, can we go to the audio real quick of Kubiak proclaiming that Cousins is going to be the starter? because this wasn't like a, hey, it was a competition and cousins won out. Just listen to the verbiage from Kubiak.

For every position, there's got to be competition, right? The best player has to play. And that's not just what I'm going to see. You guys are going to see it in the preseason games. You know, we as coaches, we're going to see who's the best guard is, best quarterback across the board. There's battles everywhere on the roster. It's important for me to be fair to the players is to put the best player out there.

When we go out to practice tomorrow, Kirk Cousins is the starting quarterback. He's the guy, and he's going to get a ton of reps, and he deserves him because he's played really good football. But I want Fernando, and I want Aidan to push him. Don't love that. We also have great sound. Listen, this is that time of the season. Camps are open. Coaches, largely coaches, sometimes you get insufferable owners who are like, I got to get in front of the microphone.

Here's Jesse Minter. This is interesting. So Jesse Mentor and the Ravens have the highest win total in the league, according to Vegas, right? New head coach, first time OC play caller. Jesse Minter, really sharp defensive mind. He took to the podium today to defend his guy Lamar Jackson. And listen, when you inherit a team that's a two-time MVP still in his prime, you could say stuff like this. Lamar's incredible.

Again, best player in the league. when he's out there and he's, you know, obviously really engaged like he is, he makes everybody on the field better. So he makes the offense better. He makes the defense better for having to defend that type of player. All he's got to do is be himself. That's what he's proven that he is over the course of time. I do think sometimes when, you know, you're trying to learn new things, like it really

energizes you because you know that there's like a requirement to get where you want to get between now and the game. So I just appreciate the way he's gone about his business. I will say, I've never been a huge Ravens fan, just haven't. My brother lives in the area, goes to a lot of Ravens games, his boys, they're big Ravens fans. And so when I'm not glowing about them, I hear it from my brother. And so, I don't, something tells me this team's going to be really freaking good this year. I don't, I don't know.

Rookie head coach, he's never, never been a head coach, first time play caller. And something tells me this is going to work. It's weird, though. You heard him say that Lamar is the best player in the league. And it's just so tough to say that in the NFL. There's so many players, first of all. But like in the NBA, if you say the best player in the league, you could have a credible argument.

The best player touches the ball on every possession, pretty much. He is the fulcrum of the offense, plays at both ends, heavy minutes. You know, like Yokic, best player in the league. I could argue Luke. I could argue SGA. It's a real argument. I don't know that Lamar is the best player in the league. What does that mean?

Best player? Like, best talent? Well, I don't know. Miles Garrett cannot be blocked by anybody and just broke a record that the league has had for a long time in terms of sacks. Like, Miles Garrett might be the best player. But if it's most valuable, I think that's where the quarterback comes into play. They're the most valuable to the point spread. Is Lamar the best player?

in the league, I would say no. I think Josh Allen's probably a better quarterback than Lamar, even though he doesn't have two MVP's because Josh Allen, you know, mostly has been healthy. Patrick Mahomes obviously has an argument for best player in the league, but it's just a weird title to give someone when in the NFL, the offense is only on the field for a certain amount of time, the defense is on for a certain amount, special teams is on, like, I don't think Lamar is the best player in the league. And that's why this list, you heard Mark Schlerath yesterday or two days ago,

really go after that list, the NFL Top 100. It is a little goofy and silly. Lamar went from second to 69th in the span of one calendar year. That is silly. So I do like Jesse Minter hyping up his guy. And I don't know, I'm inching closer to Ravens in the Conference Championship and probably go into the Super Bowl. I have promised you Super Bowl picks Friday.

In German, that's Fritog, I believe. because I did German one year in high school. We'll see you tomorrow. I'm Munges Chatekular, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, kermudgens, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way.

I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live, How to Live, forever on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 150 years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us, and now they're hunting down immigrants

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It's that and then there's everything else. Dude, his whole life has sounded like the first drop of a roller coaster. I mean, I can't even tell you, Paul, how crazy he was. It was insane. Listen to Paul's best podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When Democrats are messing up, I say it. When Republicans are messing up, I say it. I'm S.E. Cup, a journalist and political commentator. And on my podcast, off the cup, I help you make sense of the often nonsensical news. I do this on cable news too, but on my podcast,

I can really let loose and be my honest, unfiltered self. I just want to talk about something that happened this week because it's so bonkers, so stupid. Such incredibly bad politics. We, We have to talk about it. Come for the hot takes, stay for the sanity. Listen to Off the Cup on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.