The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Herd Update, Jaire Alexander and the Ravens, Caleb Williams and Bryce Young get humbled

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

John is joining Colin this week on The Herd on FS1 and shares his experience after Day 1 and talks about "how the sausage is made" with the show and how fun his first day was. Next, John dives into the Ravens signing Jaire Alexander and even though it's a good signing, the Ravens should be looking to add on the offensive side of the football. Later, he discusses the LA Rams team trip to Hawaii and why this trip is a good thing for the Rams. Next, John dives into how Caleb Williams and Bryce Young get humbled by a few of the greatest QB's ever to play the sport.  Finally, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment. 5:09 - Filling in on The Herd 12:02 - Jaire Alexander and the Ravens 20:01 - The Rams look good 26:55 - Caleb Williams and Bryce Young humbled 43:29 - Mailbag Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, and on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be? I call on my Gen X squad from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. Unfiltered conversations from night sweats to futas to scheduling sex. Wait, what sex? Is it just me, or does every woman my age want to look at Pinterest instead of having sex sometimes? They say we can't polish a turn, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with. laughs, tears, or tears of laughter.

Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Gianna Maria Riva on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry.

You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Volume. What is going on, everybody? How are we doing? John Middlecough, that'd be me, three and out podcast. That'd be the show. My voice is coming around. Had a wicked head cold, sinus infection. Who knows?

A lot of stuff going on. But we're battling. So you got to bear with me. I'm down in Los Angeles. because I got a call a couple weeks ago from a man, some of you have heard him, named Colin Coward, he's like, John, you want to come down to L.A.? McIntyre's, he's off for a couple days doing something.

You want to fill in for a couple days? I said, you know what, Colin? I'm there. Because whenever he asked me anything, my first answer is always yes. So I'm here. We'll go over that experience really quick, filling in for a couple days for McIntyre, Jason, and doing a little herd line news.

So I did that today on Monday, do that again on Tuesday, and do that again on Wednesday, and then head back to Scottsdale. Collins here in L.A. with me from Chicago. So we'll discuss that experience. Talk about some other football stuff. And do a little mailbag as well. At John Middlecoff. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those DMs.

And the plan, I think I think I'll do a go-low podcast tomorrow. A lot happened yesterday. I was watching on the plane. Kegan Bradley come back on Tommy Fleetwood. football. We got a little bit of a break now for a couple months. A couple months to be strong, about five, six weeks until training camp starts. So we just got to, we got to dig deep. And for me, I got to entertain. So I'm ready. So we'll have a go low podcast tomorrow and we'll podcast the rest of the week as well. But I'll be on with Colin the next couple of days.

Exciting down here in Los Angeles. And let's record a podcast. But obviously, if you listen to this on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to Three Now podcast. We also have a YouTube channel, which all of our content is up there as well. So go check that out. YouTube. Just type in Middle Cough. All of our content, we have you covered. Before we talk a little football, you know, I'm going to tell you about my friends, my partners,

and the official ticketing app of this podcast game time. Best in the business. It's the summer. You know, I got the Dodgers here down the street. My giants are actually hot on the trail. But if you want to go to one of these games, you want to go to a baseball game this summer, we got football games this fall. We got any type of event.

I saw Kenny Chessney. He just said, 2026. I will be back at the sphere. The Backstreet Boys said, we are coming to this fear. I think they're starting like this week. So if you want to go to an event, if you want to go to a comedy show,

if you want to get out of the house, go enjoy yourself, do something fun. That's what I task every single person listening right now. Do something fun this summer. And I'm trying to throw you a bone. Save you a little money while you're at it. So you guys know the drill. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime.

Download the GameTime app, create an account, use a code, John for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply again. create an account, redeem the code, John for $20 off. Down the game time out today, last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed.

Okay, in Los Angeles, shooting, taping, recording, doing the herd live, which was cool. A couple weeks ago, Coward calls me. I actually was recording a podcast and I saw a missed call.

And I was like, you're going to tell me they just signed the Kelsey's three and out is on the street. And I call him back and he's like, what are you thinking? in it. What are you doing in a couple weeks? I'm like, let me check the schedule. I mean, look at my schedule. There's not much on it come to summer months.

And he's like, would you be interested in McIntyre's out of town? I just, someone brought your name off. I'm like, yeah, why don't we just use Middlecough? Like, yeah, I'd do it. And he's like, okay. So I've known for a couple weeks, I was going to come down here on Sunday yesterday. My mother-law is in town with my wife. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to Los Angeles. You guys, you guys have a good time. And, uh, yeah, a couple years ago, it was probably like 2019. Most of you were not probably listening to the show then. Some of you dieharts on the audio side.

We didn't even have a video portion. I was doing three and out for him then. This was before the volume. And I came down here because I know a lot of guys on his staff. At the time, a guy named John Goulet, for any of you longtime coward listeners, was like his main producer. Now it's Ryan and Tui and some other guys

that I've also known for a while. And I said, hey, can I just come down and just kind of watch and just see how the sausages made. And I remember coming down and being blown away. You know, for those of us on the West Coast, the show doesn't start until 9 a.m. They're in the meeting, you know, calling at the head of the seat,

like, you know, Godfather, and then probably 10-plus people surrounding them, you know, that work on the team. And they are just firing through takes, right? I mean, today was a little unique. It was after game seven of the NBA finals. So you have some idea going in, you know, I would imagine they're going to talk some hoops and basketball.

But it's just them throwing takes and Colin Throne takes back, and it is, it's really impressive. I mean, listen, this is, when you're a podcaster, obviously the volume is now way more than a startup, but, you know, you kind of lose, one thing I miss kind of in the daily grind, and it's why, as my family expands, hopefully, that, you know, get an office and get a place where you can be around other people, because the energy and the ability to be created, in those scenarios is pretty eye-opening. And obviously when you have Fox, the support here,

I mean, they're like, hey, Middlecoff, you're sitting at the front of the bird. Hey, Middalcoff, you're in the sweet hotel. I'm like, in-in. I'm going to bring Chipotle to my room. But, you know, you get there. I mean, I walk in. I was technically late.

You know, had to wait from the car to pick me up. And then I'm sitting there, 615. They're already rattling off takes. Again, three hours until the show starts. So it's just, it's a really, really impressive. of operation, a ton of good people. And Colin's just a unique talent. He just gets there and he starts slinging them.

It's also kind of, I would say, less stressful for me, given that me and him do a podcast. I don't know, 30 weeks a year for years on end now. So it felt pretty comfortable, even though it's, you know, this is not a podcast, a little more corporate. They're like, you got to button that top button. We don't need that taco meat flying out. But we've had some Trailblazers, Jay Glazer and some Craig Carton now.

So bald people are a little more welcomed in Hollywood. It's also cool that where the Fox Studios are. And I think this is also where they shoot like the Fox pregame show or Terry, Jimmy. I think Jimmy actually just retired. But, you know, Howie and Gronk and all those guys is kind of in that. It's also on like the Fox production. lot so I'm pretty sure they're like literally right next to it are where movies are shot. I mean, I'm pretty sure there's a street that's basically just New York City.

There's a street that looks like Chicago and they are just, I didn't see any actual movies or television shows being shot, but it's pretty clear like this is a Hollywood lot where, and listen, as you get older, there aren't as many things that kind of, I think are kind of cool. that are like, I'm going to turn this corner and look down there, right? It's like I walked in to fill my water after the show, and there's Paul Pierce. It's kind of cool, Paul Pierce. NBA champ, I was always a big fan of the teams he was on with Doc and KG. But then I remember walking out to go get lunch after the show.

I'm like, this is where fucking movies and television shows are made. And it's just, it's kind of surreal. It really is. And these guys is kind of where they work and what they do. And you just kind of be, I say it all the time. This is why do something you like, because even when you do a cool job, you kind of become numb to it. Like these guys every day, they know they got to come in with takes, they got to have stuff ready.

There's an operation, there's an execution. And whether you work for a plumbing service or on the Fox lot, your job, you better enjoy what you're doing because, you know, every day, the sun comes up and you've got to be ready to roll. I mean, these guys, I give them a lot of respect. They are up and at them early every day. I mean, that's the one thing as a podcaster. and I know when I do my best stuff, it's actually usually more toward like,

I would say, lunchtime afternoon. When I was doing radio for a while, I did the morning show a couple times. I hated it. I'm just, I'm not not a morning person. Like,

I'm not a huge sleep-in guy anymore, but it does take my brain a second to, to wake up. It was, you know, you're a guest, so you walk in, the meeting's going at 6.15 in the morning. It's not like I could canvas the landscape and like where can I grab my coffee.

I wasn't even able to get coffee until 8 o'clock. So I basically was in the shower at 515, 520 in the morning. I didn't have coffee till 8. I remember just mentally you got to tough it out. And it's like, God, this is first world problems. I'm complaining that I haven't had caffeine in my own head. But really cool and just a pretty, pretty high-level operation. Not shocking that Colin's been at the top of the game for so long.

And there are a lot of people that, you know, many people on the outside don't know that clearly help make the show go around. And just cool to get invited down in doing it. So it's nice to mix up the routine of the podcast world because we're just a little more while, wow, wow, west, do whatever the fuck I want. This, a little more structured, put on a nice shirt, shave in the morning.

So it's be presentable. No swearing. Look up straight, sit up, have your back straight. Okay. No one told me that, but I was just trying to look presentable, mainly for my mother. But other than that, I had a good time this morning. Okay, a couple NFL things.

We actually talked about this on the show a little bit today. That Jair Alexander, who played with Lamar Jackson at Louisville, who was, most people thought like was going to get a restructured contract and stay with the Packers, ended up getting cut, and then they made some comments that he was making too much money, not playing enough, which is totally understandable, immediately signed with the Ravens. And, you know, any time that a quote-unquote bigger name guy signs or guy former pro-bowler signs with the team, it's like Jaira Alexander, signs with the Ravens.

Simple reality with the Ravens, their defense has been good now since Lamar Jackson has got there. They have played championship level defense several times in the Lamar Jackson era. The one year, I think, was the second year when he won the MVP and they were the one seed. And Derek Henry went through him, like as Nick. McSaven would say shit through a tin horn. Maybe bird shit or rat shit through a tin horn? That was bad. But over the last couple of years, Lamar let him down.

I mean, two years ago in that playoff game, he was atrocious. And last year, he just played one good half of football where they really needed at least three quarters. And I've said this before about Dak Prescott, and obviously Lamar Jackson is a better player than Dak Prescott. I, for a long time, and I don't know if I still feel that way, now that Dax's coming off a couple different injuries. I did think if his team was good enough,

he could play well enough for them to win a Super Bowl. Now, he hasn't done it, but if he just played three good playoff games, he is a good enough player. Eli Manning proved that. He got hot a couple times in playoff stretches, and they won the Super Bowl. If you have a good defense and you have a good team,

and you're like a top 10-ish quarterback, and you get hot, you can be a major freaking problem. Flacco did it at one time, right? He'd been on a really good team, been on a really good team, and they get scorching hot and they win the Super Bowl. And Lamar Jackson is better than these guys, obviously. But right now, like, the biggest question with the Ravens is not going to be like,

how deeps are secondary? Secondary is always good. How good is their defensive line? I don't know, top five in the league usually. Roquant Smith, second best linebacker in football. You could argue, you know, Fred Warner banged up last year. Might have been the best middle linebacker in football. Defense is what the Ravens do. It's literally their brand. It's like you go to Taco Bell. What are you getting? Tacos. When I turn on Baltimore Raven football, I expect people to get crushed. and even last year it's like their defense started a little weird got figured out by the second half and they were fantastic. But in that playoff game, what happened?

The offense let them down. Lamar had a fumble. Lamar had an awful pick. Obviously a couple of the drops from a star tight end. Like this game and this sport now has pretty consistently come down to, especially in the AFC, the top quarterbacks making big plays in the big spots. Now, if your defense screws you and it happened to Josh Allen a couple times, nothing you can do.

If Lamar Jackson played in a game against the Chiefs where they scored 3rd, 35 points, it's not going to be on him. Happened to Aaron Rogers a couple times. But I think these last couple years, they were both two games that Lamar Jackson would like back. And listen, he's proven he's good enough. I've seen him play in the regular season.

I do think he has it in him. Now, maybe as it goes by, and this happened to Peyton Manning for a while, there was like this... I sometimes hate the word narrative because it's just like, that's just a fact. It's not a... It's not a creative story.

Peyton Manning early on his career, I was a huge fan, was not the most dependable. player in the playoffs. He was a guy when they would play mainly the Patriots. He was going to be at a disadvantage. And then he figured it out. Why? Because he's a great player.

And he was going to have great moments in the playoffs sooner than later. Some guys never do, right? James Hardin clearly is just a guy that Bryce come on. It gets a little too bright for him. His style doesn't work. Like he's just not as good in the playoffs as he's been in the regular season. For most quarterbacks who are great,

they have playoff moments. I believe Lamar Jackson will. And The Ravens signing this guy, whether he's good. If he's good, awesome. If you tell me that he plays in five games, zero impact. I think he has zero impact on their ability to win a Super Bowl. Because the only impact in terms of getting over the hump will be, can Lamar Jackson have one of his?

I run for 120 yards and throw three touchdowns, because I'll promise you this. If he does, they're probably beating the Bills or the Chiefs in one of those games. Pro golfers drive for show and puffer dough. The easiest shot for you to make some dough, betting on this week's tournament at Drafking Sportsbook. From the opening round to live on Sunday. Draft King Sportsbook has you covered with live betting and player props.

I'll give you something. We've got the Rocket Mortgage Classic this weekend, up in Detroit. And Colin Morcao is currently the betting favorite. But how about Cam Young? You get it plus $2,800. That's about $100 to win $2,800. And you can also get them 5 to 1 to top 5, plus 260 to top 10. The other thing that's great about golf, you can bet on guys to top 10,

top 20. Don't even need them to win the tournament. So if you want to get in on the action, I highly recommend it. And here's something for our first-timers. New Draft King's customers can bet five bucks to win 150 in bonus bets instantly. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Use the code John. That's code John for new customers to get 150 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks. Only on Draft Kings.

The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler. In New York, call 8778, Hope N.Y. Hope N. Y. 46-7369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-78-9-77 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort, Kansas, 21-plus, age eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Voided Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance.

For additional terms and responsible gambling resources, see dkng.com slash audio. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special.

So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.

But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert 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 eye heart. radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down at three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me.

And she likes Clay. Listen, Lerabakina is arguably the best player in the world. right now and I actually can win on any surface because if she's serving well good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I think we talked about this a little bit last week. You know, the NFL has been a lot different than basketball historically. Even Kevin Durant was asked when he got traded

at Fanfest. He's like, yeah, I had an input. I told him where I wanted to go. And I let it be known. Like, I'm interested in going to these plays. So if you're interested in trading for me and you want me to stay, you better know that I want to come there. And that's kind of how the NBA works.

And that's on the lighter scale. Typically, it was like, Anthony Davis, I'm only going to the Lakers. You know, Kevin Durant, I'm only going to the Sons. It's actually surprising when it's like, I'll give you these three or four teams. Here are my four options. And the NFL over the course of the economic boom, which has been great for owners. We have a family friend who was taking a delayed honeymoon because they had a baby last year, and they were in Italy, and they saw Jerry's yacht, and they

Googled it. I think the thing was like $70 or $80 million. So business has been booming for everyone involved in the NFL. The owners, the coaches, the players, everyone's gotten rich. But as these contracts have gone up and up and up, players have gotten a little more juice. I mean, part of the reason NBA players have so much to use is one, one individual guy impacts so much of the sport, and two, like the top guys all make, I don't know,

250, 300, 400 million dollar contract? These contracts are huge. It's baseball. The top guys, they are getting $500, $600,000, it was like Raphael Devers. Like, we don't want to pay anymore. They send him to a $300 million contract. So any time that you pay people that much money in business,

when you pay, when you buy a company for a million dollars that's a big purchase i mean google once purchased youtube for a billion dollars didn't showy otani just signed for 720 didn't didn't uh won soto just signed for 700 million dollars i mean these are astronomical sums of money well in football now these quarterbacks you know josh allen's over a course of six seven years lamar jackson they've already talked about giving him a contract extension these guy will have accumulated three four 500 million dollars so you are very very invested them but it's not even just the quarterbacks now You know, Terry McLaren's holding out.

He wants $100 million guaranteed. Brandon Ayuk last year held out. He got $75 million guaranteed. These are wide receivers. I like McLaurin more than Ayuk. But these are guys catching 7580 balls. This is not Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson. T.J. Watt.

Miles Garrett, Max Crosby, these guys are getting $100 million. This is like their third contract. I mean, so these guys now have a lot of power. And it's become more of a player-friendly league. You know, in OTAs, my first year in the NFL was 2010. And in 2011, the lockout happened, and everything changed in terms of the rules at training camp and OTAs and double days and all that stuff's gone. Well, early on during the new CBA in the 2012, 13, 14, 15, there were teams getting in trouble. Remember Seattle?

They got in trouble for being too physical in an OTA practice. Same thing with John Harbaugh. I think John Harbaugh ran some special teams drills where they put on shoulder pads. And what happened? They got turned in. And they got dinged, I think, practices. That would never have happened in the 80s, the 90s.

When it truly was, basically on the pie chart version, players had little to no say. You know, you were well compensated and you were famous, but in terms of like you weren't telling the team what to do. Now it's like players like, yeah, we don't really show up to many camps. And if we don't feel like practicing that hard, we don't practice that hard. And there's a, there's much more of a balance, I would say now than ever before. And when I see this story that there are several elements to the Rams taking the team to Hawaii,

one of them is just simple business. The Rams did a deal with Hawaiian tourism. Hawaii's trying to get the tourism back after the fires. But I also think like Lombardi, Parcells, Holmgrens, Shanahan's. Mike and Kyle, Belichick, these old school coaches, this is not something that they would have done. This is a very modern thing.

That's where Sean McVe strikes his balance of having a little collegiate feel to him. And you just see the way that it happened. And I think he learned, I think he learned a big lesson in the way he handled Jared Gough. Because he handled the Jared Gough situation, shitting on him publicly,

once that he is something that he has been outspoken about and regretting for and something he's gone to Jared and talked about and just wasn't a good look. Something that coaches would have done consistently in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, even the 2000s. Now I think you've got to be a little more careful with that. And part of it is Jared Goff's a good guy and obviously a pretty good player. It's had a little rough stretch. Everyone got frustrated. But you look at the way Sean McVeigh handled the Matt Stafford thing.

Handled it much more like an NBA situation. We want him here. We'll let him explore. We'll do whatever he wants to do. we want to do right by the player. We have a number, but this is important to us. We're on Matt Stafford's side. We're in this together.

And I think a huge part of these OTAs now, because when I had John Schneider on the pod a couple weeks ago, if you haven't heard that, check that out. He was like, I think he told me this before the podcast started, is that they were going to cancel the last practice of voluntary minicamp. He's like, we're only going to have the first Tuesday and Wednesday. These OTAs and mini camps are basically a glorified. certified cardio workout. It's why it's so embarrassing some of these guys that skip these

that have kickers of 100, 200, $500,000 workout bonuses like guys. I understand you're making $10, $15, $20 million, but in no other line of work, regardless how much you're making, would you just give away $500,000 to do something that you would be doing anyway? You're literally just at home working out. You might as well just go there and work out for a couple weeks and then bounce. This is really, really easy. So these guys, take everyone to Hawaii, take their families, and it's a bonding experiment. I'm seeing clips of them playing golf, and there is a lot of positive momentum for the Los Angeles Rams coming into the season.

And the thing that has kind of slowed them down the last couple years, they started slow. If they could start fast and they could stay healthy, you know, Jared Verse and Fist, the two guys they took out of Florida State, obviously if Stafford can play at a high level, you bring Devante, which I would expect to have a big year. I think the Rams are a team. I mean, they went toe to toe to with the Eagles last year. Why? Because their physical style works.

Matt Stafford is a quarterback that when he's playing at a high level can play up against anyone in the league. It's Mahomes, that's Josh, that's Lamar. He can go toe to toe with those guys on an individual game basis. Maybe not over the course of 17 games, but I think you're just looking at more of a modern-day football team. And that is kind of player-friendly. I was flipping around YouTube yesterday hanging out at the hotel,

and I watched this talk between Peyton Eli, and Bryce and Caleb Williams. And one thing that's always struck me, and I've mentioned this forever when I used to go to games a lot, is that these quarterbacks in the Peyton and Eli era, they're enormous. Peyton and Eli, Tom Brady,

these guys are Carson Palmer, these guys, Phillip Rivers. These guys are massive. Joe Flacco, you're talking six, four and a half to six, six, all of them were 230 to 240 pounds. None of them could run, but they were just massive, Rothesberger, fucking horses.

And now you see them next to Bryce, who's 510, a buck 90, and Caleb, who is bigger than Bryce, but still relative to that era of quarterbacks, not that big. And I think, you know, and they were trying to give them advice, and, you know, Peyton's talked about, he's, he's very positive when it comes to quarterbacks. Like, he's not a guy that's going to be overly critical and shit on guys, which I would like, but that's not really going to be his style. is the record for interceptions in year one was Peyton Manning through 28.

And he mentioned in this talk, he threw 10 in his first three games. Football's hard. And playing quarterback's hard. And I don't give a shit how hyped up you are, what your accolades were coming out of college. If you're going number one, even if there's a trade like with Caleb Williams,

you're typically going to a bad team. You're not usually going to an Andy Reid, a Kyle Shanahan, a Bill Belichick-led operation. so you go into a franchise that typically the coaching is unstable and the pressure is immense and nowadays with social media the intensity of it speaks for itself but Bryce Young was really humbled

and looking at it I had forgotten what a big time barely lost in high school and in college by his first year starting they beat Georgia in the SEC championship and if it wouldn't have been for a couple injuries he might have been a national championship National Champion

All the guy had done is win You know Caleb It's weird because His team, his senior year sucked And they haven't been good The last two years But his last year at USC

They were not good But he didn't get any of the blame The coach got all the blame The program got all the blame The state of USC football Got the blame The recruiting got the blame It was not put on him

And in fairness in some of their games, even if they won, I remember they beat Arizona in an overtime game when he was at USC. Shit, the only reason they were in that game was him. But sometimes when that happens, like, it's not my fault. And then all anyone's talking about is,

he's going to go number one, he's going to go number one, he's going to go number one, he's going to go number one. And he did. And honestly, looking back, Ryan Poles, didn't really even, I mean, didn't even bring another quarterback during that time. So you have to think, Bryce Young was as embarrassed as any young quarterback I can remember

and handled it as good as you possibly can. He was benched after a couple games and came back and I would say resurrected his career. Got to a point where it's like he can be a legitimate starter in the league now at minimum a couple years. Like he's getting a little runway now. He has proven that over the course of the second half of the season. And Caleb, it never got that bad.

Though there were some conversations last year that people internally were like, hey, let's go to Tyson. That was kind of crazy. And coach gets fired, everyone gets embarrassed, the franchise is in shambles. But you have to wonder, sometimes humility, and it's easy to be like, you just got to humble yourself. Sometimes when you're young and everyone's giving you a reach around and everyone's calling you the greatest thing since sliced bread. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes you've just got to get in the arena of whatever you're doing and just suck at it to realize that this is hard.

Because every old quarterback, and this is what Peyton and Eli were telling them, like, this game's so hard. You prepare, you work so hard. And I think Eli said this is that, you know, it never gets easy. It gets easier because of your experiences, because of what you've seen, but it never gets easy. And I think for these guys, especially when you're a big-time athlete like Caleb Williams, you're used to running away from guys, being able to make plays, being when you make the throws on the run, everything, you can beeline it into an area that another guy can't make a play. Well, in the NFL, that guy might be Marlon Humphrey.

That guy might be Jair Alexander. That guy might be Ed Reed or Troy Palomal or Fred Warner who's covering your tight end or Roquant Smith or you name it. All these guys on all the good teams can play. And all the coordinators in your division on defense are good. So being humbled sometimes in life is forced upon you when you're young. Usually as you get older, it's pretty easy at different times in your life to humble yourself, to take a deep breath, to look in the mirror sometimes.

because we have perspective. We've been around a little bit longer. But when you're younger and you don't really know what you don't really know, sometimes it's fortunate. It happened to Bryce. It happened to Caleb. You really get two options. Now for Caleb, he got Ben Johnson,

who, this is what's weird about this situation. And I've said this before. Is the pressure coming into this year? I've seen in other spots. And this is what happened to Anthony Richardson. Like, the pressure was not on Shane Steichen. We've seen Shane Stuyken. People think he's a good coach.

We saw him win games with Garner Minchu. We saw him turn Jalen Hertz and do a high-level starting quarterback. People think Shane Steichen knows what he's doing. It's an Anthony Richardson issue. It's like when Trey Lance was thrown in there. After a while, it's like, this is not on Kyle Shanahan. This guy can't play. I know Ben Johnson can call plays.

We've seen it now for years. I know they had a talented offense, but his play calling, his trickeration, his feel for it. We talk about this all the time. Certain people just have instincts. Right? Certain people are just instinctive about what they do. Some people, it's with business. Some people, it's with Colin and just his ability to hold a conversation and keep you engaged. So why he's great at doing what he's doing for a living.

We see it with coaches. Some coaches, if you just got me 10 quarterback coaches in the NFL, and you gave me a whiteboard and a Sharpie, and I just said, let's talk football, all 10 of them. And I'll give each of them 15 minutes. They would all blow you away. It would be insane. They could all get to the levels of football where your jaw would be on the floor.

It's like, is this guy speaking Chinese? But if I gave them all the same team, same weapons, same O'Line, same quarterback, and we played two games, each of them got two games, there would be a couple coaches that would be dramatically better than the other at calling plays. Because it is, there's a feel,

there's an instinct to it. McVeigh has it, Kyle has it, Andy Reid's had it forever. Defensive coaches too. You know, and some guys aren't that good at it. Like Jim Harbaugh, it's not really his thing. Don't even know if he would know how to do it. It doesn't matter.

It's not what he's trying to do. But so many of these, Kevin O'Connell, they have a feel for calling plays. And you see some coordinators that immediately get overwhelmed. And sometimes their personnel's not great, but it's like, yeah, Lou Geesey's just not good at this job. It's just not that good at this job.

Could he be better if he had Patrick Mahomes and Tyree Kill and Travis Kelsey? Probably would. But I think something's missing here. And I think sometimes when it comes to a guy getting their first job, I know Ben Johnson can call plays. And we saw it with Sean McVeigh. Like the guy could call play.

If his quarterback could just kind of settle down, and he did. And Jared Goff was awesome early on. And that to me is the key. And this is what Peyton and Eli talked about. C.J. Stroud was up there as well. He's, I texted a buddy on the Texans. I said, God, this guy, CJ's an impressive guy. Just an impressive guy.

I know he had a rough season and the offensive line wasn't that good. But when you watch him sit there with Peyton and Eli and you watch him talk football and leadership, you go, yeah, I kind of get it. I would keep buying stocking this guy. I believe it might have been a year early on my Texans bet, but they're not going away. But I think if you're Caleb, you need to learn from these guys,

like just get rid of the ball, just dump the ball. You can't, not everyone's Steph Curry and shooting fadeaway threes. You can't always run around and try to throw deep pumps. And the way Jared Goff got his career back on track with Ben was just getting rid of the ball quick. Just getting the ball out of your hands. This is the NFL. It's a space game.

And a team like the Bears, just like a lot of teams in the NFL, have a lot of really good offensive skill guys. The skill top to bottom on offense in the NFL has probably never been better. There are more running backs who can catch the ball. You know, historically, for every Ladania and Thomason and Marshall Falk, there were a lot of running backs who weren't that great at pass catching. So you usually had third down backs at Fox Day. I saw Shady.

Shady was kind of unique. He'd catch the ball and he could run the ball. There were a lot of guys that struggled catching the ball. So if you were in third and seven, you'd yank that guy out of the game. Go around the league right now. Look how many starting running backs are excellent in the passing game.

I mean, if we consider Sequin Barclay's hands to be kind of meh, shows you how, I mean, awesome the standard is currently in the NFL in terms of catching the ball. I would say that's the quote-unquote weakness of his game. Not that he has bad hands, but they're not, I wouldn't say Alvin Kamar or Christian McCaffrey or something. But my point is that is a huge element for these young guys is to learn like it's not all on me

because before in college high school it's always been on them like in the pros it is a team game it eventually comes all on you as you get older as you become a better player but like make the right decision just just keep the play going forward

I mean a huge part of progress is just continuing to take a step right in whatever we're doing it's like you never want to take steps backwards and I think young quarterbacks they kind of get caught up sometimes in trying to make these crazy plays because that's what they've done most of their career. And in the NFL, you will get humbled and you will get destroyed and you will get

embarrassed. And in some of these cases, it can ruin your confidence and derail a career. In others, it makes you way stronger and you come back better and you're an awesome player. So I think the bears, they're going to be one of the better stories in the NFL coming up in 2025. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just

contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it

one of the early names of our band. the four Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas,

and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guide, 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 Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

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

The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm Breast. breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchen went. I mean, she went down at three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted.

She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court-side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast on the Archie. iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

Okay, let's do a little Middlecoff mailbag. At John Middlecoff, at John Middlecoff is the Instagram firing those DMs. Questions here on the show. Just fire into my DMs. This was one I was supposed to do last week, but my voice was just giving out. So I think I've battled back enough. We will answer your questions here. We'll start with Brandon.

Short and simple. In your opinion, what is the most devastating moment in sports history? What is the worst decision you've ever seen? As a Seahawks fan, I think you know what my answer would be. I would say devastating moment in sports history, the Malcolm Butler game for the Super Bowl. I mean, you were part of it. It's hard to top that.

I was thinking last night watching Tyrese Halliburton. I was on a treadmill here at the hotel, trying to get good little sweat on. And my jaw hit the floor. because when he starts banging on the floor and then they show the replay and you see that kind of explosion, you tear an Achilles

and the Malcolm Butler thing ended the Super Bowl so it's hard to top that. Like if you had torn your Achilles with five minutes left of a tie game and you have 20, 10 and 10, it would have been worse. But it looked like the Pacers could win that game

and their star player tears his Achilles. It was crazy that the game was even close. So that was There's been some injuries You know, Drey Greenlaw popped his Achilles But when you just think about devastating games I don't think anything tops the Malcolm Butler situation

If you wanted to slow bleed 28 to 3 It's pretty tough That'll be hard to overcome 28 to 3 second half against the dynasty Because it's part of who you're playing right? So when Malcolm Butler picks you off, it you're going to go back-to-back Super Bowls against Belichick

and Brady. What makes Eli and Tom Coughlin so legendary is they beat those two guys. Like they were the team that took down the undefeated pass. So part of it's who you beat. Mike Drable recently said, these next five weeks

are the most important of the off-season. And it had me thinking, how many players that are put in the work before training camp or else they might get the axe. How many of these players rest on their laurels in vacation versus how many are working with quarterback gurus and working with their teammates during this period?

It's a good question. I think if you've been in the league a little bit, you realize how much is on the line. And you realize you have perspective of how lucrative this is. So you would have to be a moron not to have something pretty set up over the course of the next five or six weeks or however many weeks you're off to keep your body because you're pretty dialed in right season ends take a little break and then most guys come back start training at the facility

and are in really good shape by last week well you don't want to lose that you want to maintain that now everyone's a little bit different but i think most veteran guys like if you just went around the league like if i just it's monday today i'm recording this if i just picked a player at every position, right? Sauce Gardner, Roquan Smith, George Kittle, Terry McLaren, you just name it, every position. I'd be stunned if they all didn't work out today and work out hard, right? And I think you kind of listen. You got a couple times where you can kind of get after it, a Fourth of July weekend, maybe if you're married, vacation, but these guys, they're not dumb. I mean, how many professions pay you $10, $20, $30 million? And once, you know, a thing in the NFL, unlike the NBA,

you see a lot of guys' careers end immediately. And a lot of these guys, some of these guys I just listed weren't all top 5, 10 picks. So if I'm a fourth rounder and I go on to be a multi-millionaire, I watch first rounders, guys I was drafted in the class with

out of the league. I watch these guys at home. They don't work in football anymore. Where I think guys can get humbled is the youth. So if I'm a rookie, you know, I've always had, when I play at Alabama,

when I play at Texas, when I play at Ohio State, when I play at Michigan, I don't really leave campus. all summer, maybe for a week, and now it's on me. So luckily, it's like, trust me, I know with my metabolism, when you're young, you know, you can get away with it. But veterans can't, but I also think veterans know.

I know you're not high on Shador. How does an unbiased observer not see all the major red flags when he comes with? Colin is usually against just a backwards hat at the podium, but thinks Shador is mature, even though he's an arrogant, not trying to pin you in Colin against he's. other but was wondering what you thought well I talked about a speeding last week that I in my overall take was these cars in 2025 go a lot faster than they ever have and going 90 100 miles an hour is a much smooth ride than it would have been if you got caught in 1997 going 105 miles an hour in a Ford Explorer like you knew you were hauling ass if you're doing 100 miles an hour in a turbo

charged ram truck, you might not even be paying attention. Now, when I gave my take on that last week, I didn't realize he had been pulled over multiple times and was in trouble for the unpaid tickets. Now, I would also be a hypocrite. I used to get parking tickets in college and never pay him. It's like an FU to the system, but they would just go to my parents' house and my dad wanted to kill me. So I think sometimes when you're young, you can be just naive and not pay attention, But once you get pulled over and you're the quarterback, I think you should be pretty dialed and like, yeah, maybe I knew need to slow it down.

That's where it's like, my original take was just thinking that he had been pulled over once. He'd been pulled over twice. Not ideal. And it also shows you like he's a fifth round pick. This isn't a story for most guys. Like if Will Howard gets pulled over or people talking about it. You know, this guy's lightning rods probably, though,

he's a polarizing. He's just a, he's a headline. It's kind of like whether he's good or bad anything Brony James did. It's like Brony James had a taco, front page ESPN.com. It's kind of going to be Shador.

Shador is not going to be covered like most fifth rounders. Shador's going to be covered like he was a top 10 pick, especially once training camp starts. In an NFL scouting department, are there certain people that specialize in specific positions?

For example, are there a small group of guys that focus solely on scouting whiteouts and others that have more knowledge about the offensive and defensive lines. Follow-up question. What position group did you feel you did the best? No, like if you are, you know, the college scouting director or you do the SEC or the Big Ten,

you evaluate every player in your region. So if you're the college scouting director, you know, during the season you're writing up all the top four or five round guys and you get to the later guys as the offseason goes. if I have, like I'm in L.A. right now, like the year that I did the West Coast, I had basically the Pact 12, the Mountain West, Colorado and El Paso, I think. Any player, any position that was draft eligible and draft double was my responsibility. So even if, you know, scouting certain positions or players is more difficult than others, you have to learn to do it all.

Now, when there are individuals like I think Howie has used Jason Kelsey before, he would just give Jason Kelsey some offensive lineman, right? And he would let him focus and give his two cents on what he thinks of the offensive lineman class. There are individual situations like that. But any pure, like legitimate executive or scout is typically entrusted with doing his entire area whoever's given to him. So it's not, you don't specialize in a position.

I would say this. When you work in certain organizations, you become better at evaluating certain positions. Like in my experience, I worked at Fresno State, we had a bunch of NFL wide receivers and an NFL running back, and NFL quarterbacks,

and NFL offensive linemen. So I felt really good about offense. And then I went to the Eagles. You know, Michael Vic, Brent Selick, Shady McCoy, Jeremy Macklin, Deshawn Jackson. and Jason Navant, like Jason Peters, Jason Kelsey.

You just, you kind of see what high, you know, defensive guys, I wasn't, didn't work for the Steelers or the Ravens. So you, it gives you a little, you just, if you work for the Ravens, you're probably going to get pretty good at evaluating defense. If you work for Andy Reed, you're going to get pretty good to evaluate an offense. You know, if you, it depends who, you know, people that work for Sabin forever. Like they're good at evaluating offense or defense. And then as time changed, they got good at offense too.

but you kind of have to figure it out. I mean, I wouldn't feel best about anything in the secondary. I think DB in general, safety and corner is difficult. But I would say the thing I know the least of when it comes to the sport of football would just be, especially now that I'm out of it. Like I'm not dialed in and like this could bang out every coverage like a coach. When you're in it, you're a little more in tune to that stuff. And it does matter because when you're evaluating someone, you can't be like, well, he's not a great man-to-man guy.

It's like, well, he's not even being asked to do that. So you kind of got to know some defense to truly evaluate the DB position. That's where at linebacker and defensive line, there's so much stuff at the point of attack that even if you don't know all the defensive responsibilities, you can evaluate a pass rusher or a linebacker pretty easily without knowing the playbook. I'm a big Patriot fan and have a lot of belief in Drake May. When do you think Vrable and May will be able to compete with Buffalo in the division and make a run at the playoffs.

Also being Scottsdale in early July was wondering the best areas to visit. It's a good question. Visit all. It's hot. I'll tell you this. Bring your swim shorts. It's going to be warm.

I think you guys can make the playoffs this year. I think you can make the playoffs this year. I still, I understand it gets a lot of hype, but there'd be a lot of pressure on Drake May. It's a big difference between just, just losing in these games, playing games don't matter, and games that do matter. But clearly a lot of people in the league are high on them.

The coach took the job because he's high on him. I think Josh is perfectly suited to be a coordinator, clearly. And I just think your schedule sucks. I also think your division sucks. I think Miami's in Chambles. I think that place is a ticking time bomb. I really do. If you were saying, Colin said something today on the show

that he thought the New York Giants would have the number one pick. I think Miami'd have a shot. I would take the New York Giants roster over Miami Dolphins roster in a heartbeat, especially because they're going to trade Jalen Ramsey and who the hell knows what happens with Tyree Kill. What if Tyree Kill, a little older now, not as fast? What if his career? I mean, he's had a Hall of Fame level, whatever, 10 plus years.

Like, what if it's just over now? He's never quite the same. So I think that really benefits you guys. Your division sucks. So I would say next week, or excuse me, next year, I'm picking you to make the playoffs. I've listened to your interviews with Schneider and SpyTech would love to hear more of these GMs interviews.

Me too. Trust me. I emailed and texted a lot of people, and they were the two that said yes. As I've listened to their advice and takeaways from all the great leaders, they worked in and got me thinking about a mailbag question for you. What are some of the best lessons you learned from all the incredible people you've worked with? People like Pat Hill, Andy Reed, Howie, Coward. Keep crushing it.

That's a great question. I would say the number one thing I learned from Pat Hill. I've never been around a human being that took more ownership in his program. And you know, as a college football coach, like he doesn't own the buildings. He doesn't own any of it, right? He's just an employee of the state of California. And you would have thought Fresno State was owned by Pat Hill. Every day he'd like make sure the doors were locked at night.

He just took so much pride in the program. So much ownership And I never forgot that As I've gotten older And I think as you get older And you know You stuff is yours Whether it's like you own a home

Or you know There's podcast is mine Or things that I'm associated with I just try to take great ownership Because I look back And how much success he had I think he was one of the first If not the first non-power five

Millionaire coach And just think How much pride in ownership He took and everything And I would say Coach Hill, like Coach Reed, they just had this gravitational pull. And I got very lucky, like, they were associated with each other. They had known each other forever. That there were just two guys that you meet them and you're like,

these type guys you want to be like in terms of the way they treat other people and how much respect that the people working for them have for them. It doesn't mean they agree with everything they do. but leadership and listen I'm it's something I'm fascinated by and obviously working in the football world forever and you know covering sports and football and watching it from afar

something we talk about a lot especially with quarterbacks but some we talked about instincts with play callers like some guys have it or not I think it's kind of like that with leadership and coaches and Pat Hill and Andy Reid just have it like whatever that is.

Like they were just natural at the head of the table being the boss. And that's not something you can teach. And obviously Andy just incredible human being. I mean, just I think him and Coach Hill both have this. Just be nice to people. Just treat people well. Some people are going to disagree. You're going to have, especially in a public job like this,

you're going to have some your moments. but just treat people well. One thing with Howie, he was relentless. I mean, he still is. I know people that still work for him. Just a relentless pursuit of just like the grind. How do we get better? What do we do?

Every single rock are we looking under? What can we make a move to get? Is this guy better than what we got? And there's a balance as you get an established team like they have now, but you can't just, you know, cut everybody when, you know, some guy, it's just, it gets a little more complicated, but he's just a relentless pursuer of the business, you know, and his ability to interact with from agents to media to other GMs, I would say second to none. He's obviously really smart, but I would say when I think Howie and being around Howie and still when I see him at a combo,

mine or whatever day. Just aggression. You know, hungry dogs eat first. That's something we used to say at Fresno State. But it's true. You know, and that motherfucker is hungry. He's got a couple Super Bowls. He makes a bunch of money.

He's been to another Super Bowl. Like, he's pretty well accomplished. Most people consider him, if not the best, one of the best GMs in the league. You know, if he broke up with the Eagles tomorrow, 10 teams would hire him. And he works like it's his first year on the job. He's just kind of a, I don't know,

he's just grinder. thing I'd say about Colin is you know think about it he's I don't know 60 years old he's got to the top of the mountain top in his profession he made it like he accomplished it and he still like create the volume still doing podcasts on top of like all I do is the podcast and I got very lucky people ask me like you're able to create a living well yeah I mean I'm doing our podcast does well but that's my life I dedicate everything I have to it You know, the show that he does for Fox is obviously a big vehicle for the distribution of the podcast that I benefit from, the notoriety of him and in the brand. But he doesn't have to do all this stuff.

I mean, he was mentioning someone he was going to dinner with tonight. I mean, he's just, he's just always in the pursuit. He's got a little howie to him. You know, what's next? What are we doing next? And that's a really good quality to have. because it'd be easy. And I never fault anyone.

Once you make it financially, once you get a little older, you're like, yeah, I'm good. I'm cool. I did it. And that is not how he's wired. I actually see some similarities with, I mean, they're completely different, I would say, personalities and obviously they do different things,

but him and Howie are just 100 miles an hour, go, go, go, and intense. And it works. On a serious note, since it's, I can tell you're based on listening to your podcast, I've had a couple people say you're based. I had to Google that. It shows you how out of the loop I am with some of these new terms.

I didn't know what that meant. I guess to my knowledge, looking it up means like unapologetic about your opinions or something. I'm 33 and I lost my father in 2022 unexpectedly. He was my best friend, Rock, always knew what to say, when to say it, and to ease my mind. The only reason I got into football and eventually loved the bills was because of him. The last time I ever saw him was the 13 second game. That was devastating enough. That was bad.

My question is this. If you feel comfortable, do you mind explaining your situation and what you went through in detail you want to share? I can tell that you have a good amount of guys in their 20s or listening to their pod. All of our situations are different. However, based on the questions you receive that aren't football related, I can tell you value and look up to have to say you are relatable,

authentic, blah, blah, blah. I guess are you just asking me to share my situation of losing my father? I remember hearing this a long time ago in the way it does ring true. I think Scott Van Pelt, when I heard say it, is that you never truly become a man until your dad passed away. And it is true. It's not easy. I lost most of my grandparents relatively young.

So, you know, some people, I had friends that hadn't lost any family members really up until they got to like their mid to late 30s, even grandparents. So you see death early on, but it's a lot different when you lose a parent, especially a father. My dad, my dad was pretty old school. There wasn't it like hugging and kissing in my family. I know some people, I'm sure I'll do that with my children. So it was not much talking about feelings in the sense of, hey,

how am I trying to explain this? Turns out he was sick for a while and I didn't know. Now, I knew because he was off. He just sounded like a different person. He was losing a bunch of weight. But it's not like he announced, like, I have cancer. And I'm in trouble because I don't even think he knew. He might have, might not have.

And then he started getting really sick. And I got a call. I'm trying to remember. One night, something had happened, and he was in the hospital. Thinking it was like, you know, maybe a checkup, old guy. My dad had me a little later in life. I think he was 42, so this is like in his mid-70s. And mom's like, you should probably come to the hospital.

And I went to the hospital. And it turns out that cancer had spread all over his body. And he was basically on life support. And it was like, man. Now, I would say the year lead up to his death, he had shown it had just, he had just deteriorated. it just didn't quite feel like the same guy and there were people my brother was working with him

at the time and it was just it was just different he just wasn't the same I used to talk to him once I left to college I mean forever I wouldn't say every day but I talked to him a lot

he'd call me all the time he just I wouldn't hear from him and I just don't know if he didn't have the energy he just wasn't all there maybe he knew inside I don't know if he gave through up the white flag you know he came from a generation they weren't huge on like doctors because it was like showing weakness um but yeah i don't know what else say besides you go there

you know he had been in poor health but it's different when you show up at the hospital and they say yeah he's on life support and you've heard that term like wait what does that mean like yeah if we pulled the plug right now he could not live on his own like what and then my mom Like me and my brother were there This is probably 2018 So Jeff's 28, I'm 33 My mom's like, well I can't do it

Someone's gonna do it He's not, I mean he's alive But he's not really alive So It happened fast It happened fast but it didn't really I had kind of like a year realizing Like something's just way off

So I don't know if I could mentally get Wrap around that like this is he's just getting old he's getting a little sick he doesn't quite realize he i don't know it was it was tough and then it's just over so it's just i think any piece of advice i would give to someone who has their parents around whether they're 50 60 70 however old they are however old you are once you get to a certain age in that relationship no longer is like you know you're living under their roof and you know it's more of just it's almost you become become a peer, like you share your lives together with them.

And what's weird is they get older. Sometimes you help them out as they helped you out most of your life is really just value the time that you have with your family because it's going to come, but you have no clue when that date is. And if you're 30 years old and your parents are 60 and 62, you might have 20 more great awesome years and that they're going to see your children. It's going to be sweet. And something unexpected could happen.

someone gets sick, someone get an accident, and it could end tomorrow. So anytime you get a chance, because once it's over, there's no, God, I wish I could do this again with my dad. I mean, I remember watching during Christmas break, Jimmy Garapolo had just been traded the Niners, and they were playing the Jags, and Jimmy lit them up. I remember my dad wasn't quite even the same then. I think he lived another, what would have been, a couple more months after that, but I remember being on the couch at my parents' house. Sucks. It's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what?

We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the earth. names of our band

before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing,

a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, hey Jonas, and then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.

But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast

from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to history, historic games from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchen win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me.

And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side scene. to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

Huge Knight of a fan. Born and Raised in the Bay. Any interesting takes on Shanahan. Obviously, his top five offensive head coach in the NFL. However, I can't help but feel like play calling has been very scripted in the lack of ability in game time adjustments. Because of this, the margin for error can be slim. as in everything in the game plan goes right, they'll win.

If 10 to 20% of his plays don't work as expected, they end up in a close game against a team that they should destroy or lose to a good team they could easily beat. Will they get back to the NFC championship forum this year? I do think we hear this a lot about coaches. I was watching on the plane right before the plane was taken off and I was like scrolling around YouTube. I saw this clip of Spags talking to the Kelsey brothers

and he was talking about all of his years around Andy just about how different the offense is now from when he showed up with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999. He was on that original staff to what they do now in practice, how different the concepts are. And Andy's always willing to adapt. Andy Reid got his start in the NFL with Holmgren,

West Coast offense, years to different stuff. Now, Kyle's offense is never going to dramatically change. Like, Coach Reed is always going to be around the past. Kyle's is always going to be I would say predicated on the run. But you do have to look back and adapt and say, how

can we change things? And Jay Gruden said to me this last year is, he thinks they're pure drop back passing game sucks. It's because Kyle doesn't want to drop back pass game. Like, it's 2025 in the NFL. I'm sorry, guys, we've got to drop back pass. You're paying a quarterback now, 50 million

a year. Who can throw the ball? Let's expand a little bit. And it's, it's on him. I think he's, I admire a lot what Kyle stands for, wants to shove the ball down your throat in the run game. He values defense. He values defensive linemen. But for some weird reason, he doesn't really value offensive linemen. He's admitted it. They will take skill guys over offensive linemen. Now, if you give him Trent Williams, he'll take Trent Williams. Most guys aren't Trent Williams. we should be taking guards and centers and backup tackles multiple times every draft

games won and loss in the trenches just take O and D linemen if anything Kyle should be able to create skill guys but he actually views it the other way I can create offensive linemen so that would be my one philosophical difference with the guy is

the way he looks at offensive linemen I do think that what his dad was able to do back in the 90s the league's a lot different. Good teams back then might have had like two good defensive linemen. There are some teams now all four defensive linemen can pass rush.

So if you have some shitty ass guard, he's going to get smoked. I'd say NFC championship seems a little bold. But I do think that they could make the playoffs. Schedules. Might have the easiest schedule in the league. I think statistically they do.

And it's one of those that like, because you know some people always push back, like don't try to overreact a schedule in the summer. True. Because you could have the Ravens on the schedule and if Lamar Jackson rolled his ankle of the game before

and he misses, it's a lot of different game. Niners ain't playing the Ravens. Niners are playing a lot of the Jags and the Titans and the Colts and the Saints. If all things were ranked even, 16th ranked offense, defense, head coach, middle of the pack

for everything, and you had to choose your starting quarterback for the season with the goal to win the Super Bowl. Who are your top eight choices? I would go Mahomes, I would go Josh Allen, and I would go Lamar Jackson, would be my easy first three decisions. You know, people say that I don't mention Burrow enough.

I would take Burrow fourth out of that group. I think Burrough is awesome. But I think in these type scenarios, I would take a little more mobile guys. I would go Herbert 5. I would go, you know, Stafford's a little older now. The one thing Jalen Hertz gives me is the running element, but who his coach is kind of matters. That's the thing with certain quarterbacks,

like what they do kind of matters. If I put Jalen Hertz with Kyle Shanahan, it would not work. I mean, it's not going to work. So I think what scheme you're running matters. Now could that coach play it? Stafford's a little older. C.J. Stroud, I'm still high on rough little year. If the offensive line is not great, can be humbled quick.

I think Jaden Daniels have to be a pretty hot pick right now you know golf if the offensive line sucks like he's in trouble because he can't fucking move you know the golf and the you know what Kirk Cousins was four or five years ago you give them bad offensive line

they're sitting duck they can't move so I just think what I think's great about the league right now is once you get past so I go Mahomes Josh Lamar

Barrow Herbert Jaden I'll go CJ My guy Purdy Who am I missing I'm in Los Angeles Stafford

Baker Baker If Justin Fields doesn't work out for the Jets What do you think is next for him Career backup Gadget quarterback, new position exit the NFL to be a commadeter It's a good question I would imagine

If this year goes really bad he won't be the quarterback for the Jets next year. And then it's just, he's going to be a backup. Which he played it perfectly, right? He like was a starter, made a bunch of money because he was a top 15 pick. Then he went to the Steelers, got benched, but people are like, should he have been benched? And it was such a weird situation that some team is so desperate and they wanted to get rid of Aaron Rogers so bad.

They're like, here, there's $40 million. $30 of a guarantee. You're like, what? What are we doing here? So now you got Rogers, or excuse me, now you got Fields of the Jets. That's going to be a disaster. It's not going to work. I promise you this, it is not going to work.

I like Justin Fields. Seemed like a great fucking guy. Honestly, wired like a backup. In terms of clearly a high character guy, team first guy, I just don't think he's good enough to be a starting quarterback. And I don't think the Jets, first time head coach. I think it's going to be weird. But good for him to get some money.

Big fan. You've been a big, inspiration for me? Two-part question. You've talked about quite a bit on how you didn't think about not being married for so many years and didn't care. I'm now 30 and pretty much all my friends are married except for me. Have a really good career and a good life friend group, but feel like I'm an outlier because I'm the only single one left. Any advice there? Football-related question. What's the floor ceiling for the Steelers? Any hope Rogers goes Montana Chiefs mode and leads us to the AFC championship game.

I would say one thing that helped me, if I'm being completely honest, about my late 20s, even early mid-30s, I wasn't crazy social. I just, I was working a lot. My life balance was skewing, like, pretty out of whack.

So I wasn't around it that often of just being around my friends and their wives and their girlfriends and feeling, out of the loop that much, I guess. So it's also easy for me to be like, yeah, I didn't care. I wasn't inundated with it on a weekly basis. I was around it enough where it's like, yeah, I would like that.

But I also, I was dead set on, I'm not going to be do something that I don't want to do. Just because a bunch of other people do it. I was never going to do that. And I didn't do that. So I think you just got to realize, like, what are you going to do, just get married to get married. You're 30. That means you're really, really. young.

Got a good career going. You got good people around your life. You sometimes just got a, I'm not the most religious guy, but just feel like everything's going to work out because there are things in your life that are out of your control. And you look back, I mean, if I would have said 10 years ago what my life would be, I don't know if I would have believed it. So you just don't know how it's going to work. And you just, I don't really know the dating scene in terms of like internet dating, DMs,

however you're meeting people, I would just say actively date, actively try to meet people, be in the right headspace. And I'm also a believer as you attract what you want. So when you are really serious and like want to, you know, get into a serious relationship, you'll attract it. If, you know, successful men, if you're doing well in life, you're going to be okay. Like, you age well. I'll promise you that. And I would say the Steelers upside would be like 10, 11 games. If Rogers has a career renaissance looks young, their defense is awesome, and they can run the ball. I could see them win 11 games in a playoff game. I do think that would be on the table.

And I think the floor would be, it gets injured. He doesn't play that many games. I think he would have an injury. You know, you're 41, you take a big hit. Think about, we can make fun of like how bad the Bengals defense was last year. I still feel like they hit hard. We know the Ravens hit hard. Miles Garrett said he's trying to fucking end his career essentially

In a nice way Buckle up Buttercup Because people are going to be coming for you A year back you mentioned Arizona And thought it was really scenic Do you recall the name of the lake I've been to Arizona once For my bachelor party to Scottsdale and Sedona

And was a big fan of the desert geography In the mountains in the northern part of the state Along with the lake Any cities in northern Arizona you would recommend Prescott Flagstaff I have not been to Prescott I have not even been to Sedona yet Flagstaff is sweet

the lake I went to I think was Pine Lake I could be screwing that up we were just there for a couple days when we was looking at some future client that ended up not working out but I mean when I said the lake

I mean it was it was solid I wouldn't call it Lake Tahoe or anything Flagstaff's cool uh Sedona I mean I've everyone that goes there loves it but yeah it's It's a unique. It's, you know, the mountains in northern south,

it's not. It's hard to be. One of my favorite places in the world. When you were in your late teens and early 20s, who was your favorite player in each sport? Major League Baseball, NFL, and NBA. Baseball is easy, Barry Bonds. NFL, early 20s, probably Peyton Manning.

That would have been late teens. You know, late 90s, early 2000s. I love Peyton Manning. NBA, I don't really think. I had a, I mean, I loved Michael Jordan when I was a kid. I think I really had a favorite NBA player then. I hated Kobe, because I hated the Lakers. And I still do.

I mean, I hate the Lakers. I respect the brand. I respect how expensive it is, how big their fan base is. I mean, they do have, like, it's a real deal. But I fucking hate him. I really do. I hated Kobe, and then he retired. And I remember watching all these things.

I'm like, I like everything about this guy. I had a weird relationship because I'm kind of a nomadic NBA guy in the 90s. Love Michael Jordan, Bulls were my team. But I lived close Sacramento and then they got good and I was like,

ah, this team's sweet, but then they couldn't be the Lakers. That's when my Laker hate really started. And then I was around Steff and Clay doing stuff in the Bay and I fell in love with that team. I'm like an NBA player,

I'm just a nomad. Alan Iverson, maybe. Currently watching, you on the herd, and this is awesome. Congrats. Can you give us a behind the scenes of what it was like? How did Colin ask you? Were you nervous being live? How much prep? Love the podcast. I talked about this at the beginning of the podcast that I wasn't nervous. One, I'm not, I'm not like auditioning. I'm not trying to get a job. So I look at it like, he asked, he could ask me to do anything at this point, what he's done for my life and my career. I would say yes. And two,

I'm not going into a situation where I don't, I feel like when I do a podcast with him, one, I've watched a show or listen to a show for decades now. So I kind of know the way he ticks. I know the way he thinks. I've watched definitely last week the show a little more intently. Sometimes I'll have it on in my office and like the cadence of him and Jason, like today is about, I'm sitting in Jason's seat. So I got to know like when I'm supposed to talk. and you have people helping you out. It wasn't that intense because you have a lot of help. You have people that kind of tell you what you're doing.

And I've done television. You know, when I first started in the Bay Area, I started doing television in like local TV. So I've had earpieces in. I've been, you know, in a button-up shirt was a makeup on my head sitting on a studio. So it's not like something I've never done. And then my chemistry or just working with Colin,

I mean, think how many shows we've done now the last three or four years for the volume on Sundays. I've done, I can, I would imagine 100 plus podcast with them. And most of our podcasts, 50 minutes to an hour. So I've just done a lot. It wasn't, it's the first time I'd ever done that, sat in this seat and done that for the show. But it wasn't that difficult just because I've done so many things with him. I followed him his entire career. I kind of know his takes.

I know how to get him and get a little laugh. So I think this is also, if I had never done anything and you just sat me there, I would have been sweating bullets. I remember the first time I went on television in the Bay Area. It was very nerve-wracking. I had never been on television. Not saying I'm great or anything, but I just, I wasn't nervous at all. End of the day, I'm a podcaster. Like, this is my job, and I love it.

I feel very, very fortunate. I'm able to do it. In a weird way, there's not as much pressure when you do this. Like, I'm just in a hotel room right now recording this, and this is how I pay my bills. But when you do this every single day, especially me, I'm just, it's just me in front of a mic most of the time. Every once in a while we have, you know, John Snyder, John Spy, take no big deal. But, uh, Joel Clat hit me back, said he was just super busy, but we'll get him on. I got a couple other guys that I said they'll come on.

But you just get used to doing this. So you just feel pretty comfortable with a mic and looking at yourself and talking. So it's one of those situations where they say this a lot in any line of work, the reps, the reps, the reps, it does matter. The more reps you do with something, the more comfortable you're doing. I saw Keegan Bradley, we'll have a go low podcast tomorrow. He won the tournament yesterday, and he knocked out Tommy Fleetwood on the 18th hole. And he said, in the 18th hole, he hit a shot. He knocked it like six, seven feet.

And he said, I've hit that exact same shot on the range 100,000 times. so when I stepped over the shot I've very comfortable doing it I've done it a hundred thousand times and when people ask me all the time like hey I want to get into podcast I want to get into this

you just got to start because even when you're doing it and I've done a lot of podcasts I had another podcast as well and I've done this podcast before we got on the volume that people didn't listen to maybe definitely people didn't see but those reps and putting together a show

and talking and just being there by yourself and having to do the content and having to create something semi-interesting even if 20 people are listening, 20,000 people are listening, 200,000 people are listening or today hundreds of thousand people are watching. Like every rep builds you up to a position where you can sit in the seat and just like, do it.

If I had to talk to Tom Brady tomorrow, right? And you just had to sit down with Tom Brady for an hour doing an interview. Would I be a little intimidated? Sure, Tom Brady never met the guy. But would I be pretty comfortable after a couple questions in? Yeah, because this is what you do. So I think you get a situation like that.

And again, I'm just, I look at it like I'm doing him. He's doing me a favor by everything he's done for me. So when he asked me to do something, my first answer is yes. I just not even like, how much are getting paid? I don't know. But yeah, have this guy email me. You need me to buy my plane fly? I would have paid to come here.

I would have paid to fly out here and to put myself out to hotel just to what I feel I owe the guy for what he's done for my life. Instead, they're putting me at the front of the bird. It's like, ah, he's living pretty nice in Delta. I never fly Delta Airlines. But when you do, you're like, oh, that's pretty nice. Well, I'll talk about it on Fugazi Friday. I wrote this down.

Plain Wi-Fi, man. The best Wi-Fi I've ever had on a plane was JSX, because they used Starlink, and the Wi-Fi was elite. These other planes, you talk about a Fugazi. Okay, last question. Big fan of the pod. wanted to get your take on the Kevin Durant being traded to the Rockets. You know what's funny and it's sad. I mean, I mentioned this today with Colin.

I grew up 20, 25 minutes away from Arco Arena where the Sacramento Kings played. And when I was in junior high high school, they got really good. And it became a really big deal. And when you have a team in a smaller town, you know, the Bay Area has, obviously the Warriors, but they had the Giants, the A's, the Raiders, the Niners, just a lot going on. on. Look at LA. You get some of these markets where there's just so many teams. When you have a place like Oklahoma City or Sacramento with their basketball team, it's a really, really big deal. And I remember looking back on the devastation when SAC couldn't get over the hump against the Lakers, it was like it hurt the town. And looking

back, they never recovered. But I do appreciate smaller markets in these situations. And sometimes as a smaller market, you get lucky. Like, the Warriors, or excuse me, the Warriors are not a small market. They used to be a low-budget team, but they're not a small market team. They're big market. I mean, they've turned into like, I would say, the Northern Califersian, Forni version of the Lakers. That's Steph Curry.

The Lakers brand is bigger than the Warriors brand. But you know what I mean. And the Kings got Chris Weber traded to them in the late 90s when he got caught getting high in a parking lot or something, and the wizard's just punted on him. When Tyrese Halliburton tore his Achilles in whatever, five, seven minutes into the game, Pacer's are a little lucky that he's on their team.

The Kings are such a fucking joke. They just traded to him. Terres Achilles, not only does it devastate because you can't win the NBA championship, but that could change the course of his career. That was their opportunity to potentially win a championship. And now it's like, who knows if they ever get back? And you see Oklahoma City, like, I get. I was kind of bored.

They don't do much for me, but I do appreciate how cool it is for their city. Yet in game seven, the day that they ended up winning the NBA championship, how ironic was it that it feels like Kevin Durant stole the show? Because Kevin Durant, it's weird, is just a bigger deal than the Oklahoma City Thunder. And a huge reason he's a big deal

is because he became a superstar while he played for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And I went to those games, I went to games 1, 2, 5, and 7 in the Western Conference Finals. The Warriors ended up losing to Cleveland in game 7 in the NBA championship. But that was the year that Clay had game 6, and the Warriors came back 3-1 on the Thunder. And I just remember thinking, like, this Thunder team looks incredible. They are so good.

And Kevin and Russell, they were just so badass. ass. And for whatever reason, he goes to the Warriors. I don't blame him. He didn't want to play with Russell Westbrook anymore. But after that warrior situation, he's a special player. But it feels like these last five or six years have kind of just been wasted. Obviously, he had a torn Achilles in one of them, but Brooklyn and Phoenix, I mean, listen,

I've been in the Scottsdale area now for whatever, three, four years. It's a good sports town because there are a lot of people that love sports. sports, they just don't like those sports teams. Most people are like Vikings fans, Bulls fans, Chiefs fans, Niners fans. Everyone I know loves sports, they just don't care about really the Phoenix teams. It's just, I think that brand's kind of dead there. I really do. And he wanted to go there as a cool place, but feels like he's kind of wasted his last couple years. And now he's going to Houston, who in theory should be perfectly suited for him. I don't know.

He's 37. He gets injured a lot. I'd be stunned if it... I mean, it just does feel like it's not going to end well. He's made a lot of money. I know he always says, I love to hoop. I love to hoop.

He's like, well, do you really? Or do you just like to hoop your way? Because some of your ideas... I think he's got great ideas. Like some people, like, he's creatively great once the basketball's in his hands. But like, as... When he becomes...

the GM of himself, like, where should I play? Who should I play with? What should I do? I think that's where he needs people in his life to be like, yeah, you know, it's like the director, like when a guy's like banging out a record, be like, yeah, I think those three songs should not make the album. I'd put those two songs. He doesn't have that guy. He's, because everyone's working for him.

He's got a bunch of people just telling him, oh yeah, Kevin. Hell yeah, Kevin. I think they just got in the spot of like, couldn't get out of his own way because he could have been a player, the Kyrie Brooklyn, thing. I mean, that was crazy. Even the Phoenix thing, I thought was pretty crazy. The Houston thing, I don't know. If I had to guess right now, I'd probably be like, go the second round next year and be done.

Go the second round a couple times. Be a highly paid guy. But I'd be, if I was a betting man right now, does Kevin Durant win another title? That's what's crazy about sports. The Patriots did not win a championship when they had Randy Boss in the greatest offense of all time. And then their dynasty restarted when Julian Edelman became their best wide receiver and a bunch of other random guys throughout. So it's like the Kevin Durant Russell Westbrook team, if you played a seven-game series of that team in their peak against this Thunder team, I think I'd take Kevin KD's team.

Yet they'd never won a title. And this team, shit, they might... If you're a bet man, they probably win like two of the next three. Sports, man. You never know. The volume. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. On Humor Me with Robert Smygel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, 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. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, and on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be? I call on my Gen X squad from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. Unfiltered conversations from night sweats to futas to scheduling sex. Wait, what sex? Is it just me or does every woman my age want to look at Pinterest instead of having sex sometimes? They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter.

Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry.

You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.