The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Tom Brady, Colts, Conor McGregor, Baker Mayfield, and the Blazing 5

Episode Date: October 5, 2018

Colin talks about a Tom Brady stat that the New England Patriots QB should get more credit for, the problems with the Indianapolis Colts, what to expect from Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield this weekend, why he's picking Conor McGregor to win at UFC 229, and his Blazing 5 picks. Guests include Albert Breer, Ben Volin, Ty Law, and Jason McIntyre. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh, it's a Friday. This is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio on FS1, one hour from now. Blazing five picks, as good as I've ever had. I love them this week. I'll tell you, things are setting up very nicely.

A lot of underdogs this weekend are going to do very, very well. It's going to be an underdog weekend, although it was not an underdog week to start last night. Joy Taylor is joining me here on a Friday. Good morning. Good morning. I am fired up. It's a great weekend. Texas, Oklahoma tomorrow, NFL last night, great NFL Sunday. UFC fight coming up Saturday night with Connor McGregor, who's going to win decisively. Let me start with this. It used to be before Henry Ford created the assembly line. It took 12 and a half hours to build a car. One car, 12 and a half hours. And in the early 1900s, there was this guy named Henry Ford, you know, Ford, Chevy, Dodge Ford, Henry Ford, he created an assembly line.

And the assembly line could make a car in two hours. Now, it was repetition, it was efficiency, those aren't fun words. And you know what that assembly line was about? It was about taking a man on an assembly line and telling him, you just now, you just put the steering wheel in that spot. Just do your job. Just put the, you don't have to be an expert at every. everything. Just do your job. Well, it's repetitious. Well, it's efficient 12 hours to two to build a car. Henry Ford changed American industry with the assembly line. And New England and Bill Belichick have

changed American football forever with their own version of it. Just do your job. Josh Gordon was the 71st person to catch a touchdown pass from Tom Brady. Yeah. This is what Belichick does. Interchangeable parts. OBJ. Levian Bell. Zekeel Elliott. Nah.

Antonio Brown. We're not going to build around an individual part. Is it fun? Well, it's winning fun? If you don't run business like the Patriots, you're out of business. Three of the four guys who had touchdown passes last night were not Patriots last year. By the way, they're red zone numbers. their offensive numbers don't change when Gronk gets hurt.

Although Gronk is valuable, but they're not going to build around you. And Henry Ford took out the individualism. It's an assembly line. Just do your job. Just put the steering wheel in. Even Rob Gronkowski, who embodies fun, said this offseason. I'm only playing with Brady. And by the way, we see Belichick.

Belichick's the mean old. He's Henry Ford. But don't kid yourself. Tom's running the fact. Tom won't throw to you if you don't memorize the playbook. Tom would not throw to Ocho. Tom will not throw to wide receivers if you're not buttoned up and you don't get into efficiency and repetition.

Folks, egos blow up teams, politics blow up teams, individuality blows up teams, noise blows up teams, Saxonville, there's no nicknames here, guarantees, Rex Ryan, Philadelphia, Eagles, there's no guarantees here. Only five television shows in prime time have lasted as long as the Patriots dynasty of 18 years. And two of those are law and order. You just don't last 18 years with big individuality in the NFL, with big egos, locker room full of politics,

paying a ton for perimeter players. You know, it's funny last night, listen to Buck and Ainkman. You know, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman only do Patriot games in the Super Bowl. So they occasionally do them. But they're NFC guys. They don't do AFC games. So last night was a rare treat for Joe Buck and Troy Eggman. They were in Foxborough

doing a regular season New England game. And it was interesting. It wasn't Jim Nance, who's seen a million of them. It wasn't Jim Nance. It was Buck and Aikman. And they were just sort of marveling at the machine of the Patriots. I played in seven straight

AFC championship games. The sustained excellence the culture here with the Patriots is just unheard of and almost impossible to even wrap your head around. You can't even put it into words. As someone who played and I was able to win three and four years, the Patriots certainly did that and went on and have won two more, but what they've done, everything else tells in comparison. I don't care any other team you want to compare it with, maybe in all of sports,

but certainly in the NFL. There's nothing that comes close, greatest dynasty that I've ever seen. And Troy Aikman was in a dynasty, and Joe Buck, Yankees was broadcasting a dynasty. There's nothing like it. By the way, I hear this about the Patriots assembly line their machine. It's no fun. Remember Cassius Marsh who played for the Patriots? He hated it last year.

I hate it. There's no fun here. He's now a 49er. They're going to lose again this weekend. I mean, let's be honest about it. We all have that loser cousin in our family. man, I don't want to be tied to a job. I want my freedom.

That's called summer. You're 17 years old. Then you have to get a job and be a grown-up. Assembly lines may not always be the most fun, but winning is fun. Repetition efficiency over ego, individuality. You want that? I love the NBA too. I love the NBA.

But that's what they do. That's not what football does. All right, I'm going to mention something. I am almost, how can I put this? I'm almost embarrassed. I considered not talking about this on the show today. I don't even, but I am a journalist, and I've got to report this story. Tom Brady last night became the third quarterback to reach 500 career touchdown passes.

Of course, that's just in the regular season. Of course, he's thrown for almost 575, but the NFL doesn't acknowledge that. You know, why would you acknowledge playoffs? Oh, I don't know, because it's the one thing that separates him from Peyton Manning. That's why he's the goat and Peyton's not. That's why he's the goat and Brett Farv's not. It's embarrassing that I even talk about this. He's won five Super Bowls.

For a musician, that's five Grammys. For an actor, that's five Oscars. Do you think if this was an entertainment show, I'd spend a lot of time on Meryl's winning a people's choice award? I mean, can you imagine the NFL does not count Tom's playoff touchdowns? If you and I got into an argument

about Michael Jordan, and I like LeBron, and you like Michael Jordan, and you said, hey, man, in your face, six for six, and I went, oh, no, you can't count that. The next word out of your mouth would be, uh, because LeBron wins everything else.

Your argument for the greatest basketball, football player is solely about six for six. In the NFL, though, Tom Brady, 500 career touchdown passes. He's got 571. By the way, he's got 71 playoff. Touchdown passes. Peyton Manning's got 40. Farve's got 44.

I mean, I'm not a record guy. But isn't that the difference between Brady and Manning? the 71, not the 500? Isn't that? I can remember almost all of his 71. I don't remember a lot of his 500. It is amazing, though. I mean, on his Wikipedia page, ask yourself this for Tom Brady.

On his Wikipedia page, how far would you have to scroll down on Tom Brady's Wikipedia page when it's all said and done in three or four years to get to the, oh, yeah, He has the most career, regular season touchdown passes. That would be right under he likes smoothies and he's got a dog named Puffy. Come on, man. I mean, it's still a great record to have. I am honestly ashamed of myself, but I felt as a journalist, I had to come out and acknowledge that he set another amazing record.

but the fact that like we're talking about 500, what makes him the goat isn't the 500. It's the 71 that nobody counts, which is what makes Jordan isn't a Tuesday night in Denver beating the nuggets. It's the six for six. Humiliating moment for me as a broadcaster. All right, 45 minutes from now, Blazing Five. Albert Breers coming up later this hour.

Okay, now this is going to be a really, Really, really big weekend for Baker Mayfield still never won an NFL game. He hasn't. That first game doesn't count. And the NFL, as goofy as it sounds, got to start the game to get credit for the W. So he's 0-1, lost to the Raiders. Should have won it for turnovers. But something to be cautious about with Baker is right around the corner.

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Lending club.com slash sports. If you want to pay off high interest debt or credit card debt, that's great to have you in. So happy to be here on a Friday with Joy Taylor. This is going to be one of the great sports weekends of the year. I got, I got McGregor and a bebe over the weekend tomorrow night. Great fight. Totally in on the McGregor thing.

You got great Texas, Oklahoma this weekend. There's not that many great rivalries in sports. Texas, Oklahoma is one of the five to ten best rivalries in sports. I'll take the Sooners. You got great NFL last night. coming up this weekend. Now, now, there's a lot of good games this weekend. There's a lot of good NFL games. Obviously, the Baker-Mayfield stuff is highly wildly entertaining. He was a great college player. I didn't like his off-the-field nonsense. I came out. I put him on the couch. We went

back and forth, and I'm going to be forever linked to him, and him not necessarily to me, but I'll be linked to him forever. So he plays this weekend against Baltimore. Baltimore's my dark horse Super Bowl pick. I love the Ravens this year. And they give rookie quarterbacks a lot of trouble. And you can't score on them in the second half, but I think this is going to be a very good weekend for all the rookie quarterbacks. And I'll get into that later, but I think it's a very good weekend for all the rookie quarterbacks. Do you want some context of stuff or you just want to sit next to drunk guys at a bar? I mean, that's why you're listening to the show, right? For a little context on stuff. That's what I do for a living. If you go to a dentist,

he fix his teeth. I dig deep on data and stuff for sports. So just think about this with Baker Mayfield. Here's the big thing to remember, and it's not a small thing. In college, if you stay two extra years, you get a master's degree. Otherwise, you just get an associate's degree or a bachelor degree. Baker Mayfield of all these rookie quarterbacks is the only one with a master's. He used all five years of his eligibility. He's got 48 starts in college.

Josh Rosen, Arizona Cardinals, 30. Sam Darnold Jets, 27. Josh Allen, Wyoming, now with the Buffalo Bills, 27. Okay, Baker Mayfifference. is significantly more experienced than all these guys. He should be better at this moment, his second start in the NFL. He should be more refined in this moment. I don't think he has the ceiling of Donald.

I don't know if he has the ceiling of Rosen, but he should be better today. Sam Donald had two years left. He redshirted and then left early. Josh Rosen didn't redshirt. Josh Rosen could have redshirted for a year, learn the system, and then stayed another year. Donald and Rosen combined left four years on the table of college. Baker used all five years.

He's two years older than Arnold. When you're in your early 20s, two years is a lot. Go to your life, Joy. The difference between you at 19 and 21. Were you a different person? Very much so. Yeah. I mean, if you're 48 to 50, you're the same old cranky dude.

Okay, but it's a big deal. Baker is much more experienced. And by the way, Baker's also had an advantage. on all these quarterbacks. Baker Mayfield and college had Cliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech, really good offensive guy. Then he went to Lincoln Riley, great offensive guy at Oklahoma. Now he's got Todd Haley and Hugh Jackson, respected offensive guys. Josh Rosen had a defensive coach at UCLA, got fired, and now he has a defensive rookie

coach at Arizona. Sam Darnold, defensive head coach. Josh Allen at Wyoming had a defensive-minded head coach in college, and now Buffalo's head coach, McDermott, is a defensive guy. So Baker-Mayfield is older. Check. Almost double the starts in college. Check.

It's had a much better series of offensive coaches to this point. Check, check, check. He should be better. You spend two more years in college and get your master's. Donald and Rosen have bachelors. I mean, God, one guy played at Oklahoma. That's an associate degree. That doesn't even count as a bachelor's.

So, yes, he should be better now. And he is right now this second. I said it before. He looks really buttoned up right now. He does. He looks more experienced. Hell, Sam Donald only had seven college starts out of the state of California. It's going to take him a while.

Plus, he's two years younger. I do think all these rookie quarterbacks, I mean, God, Ravens defensive coordinator, Don Martindale. I'm hearing him talk this weekend. I'm like, Don, bring it down a little, babe. I think Baker Mayfield's, this generation's a Brett Far, John Elway, if you will. I mean, this guy, this guy. knows where he wants to go with the ball and he's very accurate. He has a quick release and he's really playing well.

So, you know, obviously he's playing well. They scored 42 points, you know, last week against Oakland. He's done a nice job filling him. And it seems like they have more rhythm with him as a rookie every play that he's in there. Don't you think if you came out of law school and you had you were two years older than the other lawyers and you would work with better lawyers than the other lawyers your age? But you were older than them, and you had two previous years experience that you used up in a law firm as an intern that they didn't have.

Don't you think you'd be at 23 or 24 out of law school? You would be at that point a little more refined, a little sharper, a little more on point, a little more knowledgeable. Well, of course you would. But the question's not today. The question is in 13 years. That's why you draft all these guys in the first round. 13 years later, what do you get?

I just think Baker's closer to his ceiling now than everything. everybody else. Just do basic homework. Of course he is. Joy Taylor with the news. No. No. No. No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. We just love comparing rookies to Hall of Famers, huh? People are crazy. Like Patrick Mahomes has never played in hail or snow, and he plays in Kansas City. Oh, Kansas City's got terrible weather. It's, I think Kansas City has... Hail? Oh, no, no. Kansas City gets, you know, Kansas City gets like... They're not going to call They're going to call the game off for hail.

No, no, no, Kansas City is the only place in the league. They get lightning, they get hail. Pittsburgh gets hail. Pittsburgh gets cold and snow. Pittsburgh gets hail. I'm telling you right now. Like this, like this. Kansas City's weather is the worst in the league.

Dry, hot in the summer. I don't know what I would argue with that, but I don't think if they have fans out there in hail. I feel like that's a lawsuit waiting happen. I think you've got to call the game off. Big golf ball hail, you know. That doesn't work. But anyway, we love. I love comparing young guys the Hall of Famers.

You just mentioned Don Martindale. Well, Todd Haley responded to Don Martindale's praise of Baker Mayfield. He's carving a bust. I'll hold my stance. I'm excited about a lot of the things he's doing. But like I said, this week will be a real test. We'll know a lot more come Sunday evening. Yeah, that's going to be a really good game.

Baltimore's really good, but Baltimore came off that huge Steeler game, highly emotional rivalry game. In the NFL, if teams look bad, they generally look good the next week, and if teams come off big emotional wins, they come down. So I think Baltimore, Cleveland is a really entertaining game. It's a good test for Baker Mayfield, like he said, especially in the division. John brings up a good point. We've got coordinators doing press conferences in Cleveland.

Belichick doesn't even let his coordinators talk. What are we said? You don't have to necessarily be good to be interesting. That's what's happening. So the UFC 229 press conference had a unique twist yesterday. Neither Habib or Connor were on stage together at the same time. This can be great. Let's watch this. Hey, guys, 15 minutes.

15 minute, I'm here. This guy didn't come. This is big disrespect. See you tomorrow, guys. Have a good night. He knew what he fucking saw and do for. I've been late on this. The traffic is a little heavy.

There must be a McGregor fight going on. I don't know where the little fool is. He's better off running anyway. You know yourself. I bet you he was saying a load of shit up here. He didn't say anything the last time. So, I mean, whatever. It is what it is.

These things happen. Connor is going to destroy him. Everybody's on this. He thinks so? First of all, Connor is a taller. He is a twitchier athlete. He's a better stand-up fighter. He's more experienced.

He's been in these big... That Mayweather fight? Do you think anybody else? an MMA could have fought Mayweather. No, of course not. And by the way, and very, now, he, Mayweather dominated, but it was a very respectful, a very respectable showing by, you think Abed faces Mayweather and it would be over in a three minutes.

No, I agree. It was a respectable showing by Connor. It was a good, entertaining fight. But Connor hasn't fought and you have seen almost two years. A little over two years. Kobe Bryant can take a year off, still hit free throws with his eyes closed. He's not hitting free throws. He's getting hit in the face.

Connor is going to, it's going to be all these MMA guys. These MMA fans are so funny. You don't know the sport like I do. No, I don't have to watch as much to figure it out. I don't have to sit and watch every UFC card to figure out. Connor's going to, the only chance Habib has is getting him down to the mat. And by the way, Conner doesn't let that stuff happen. He just looked at you and kick you away and won't go down there.

That was a good kick by you. By the way, I have already spent the money on my bet. I've already bought my wife a beautiful present. I've already bought the present. Like, I've already spent the money before. You're that confident. Oh, come on. Conner's way.

It's not even, you look at those two guys. One guy's like, I'm disrespected. The other guy's laughing. You can tell a lot about a press conference. One guy was up tight. One guy's laughing. Connor is a master at press conferences in the media. That's just not even comparable.

I cannot wait for that fight. Well, it'll be a good fight for sure. And I'm sure everyone in the UFC is glad that McGregor is back. Finally, Kyrie Irving doesn't appear to be headed anywhere next offseason. According to Kyrie Irving, spoke to fans gathered inside TD Garden last night and had this to say. Shared it with some of my teammates as well as the organization and everyone else in Boston. You guys will have me back.

I plan on resigning here next year. Of course he is. Of course. Well, it does kind of kill the dream of him going to New York and reviving the Knicks. You know what it is sometimes? I think a lot of NBA writers want the Knicks to be good. So they're rooting for Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving to end up in New York. Jimmy Butler is going to be a Miami Heat in about five minutes.

and Kyrie Irving's like, I'm going to stay with the Celtics. Listen, man, Brad Stevens, why would a point guard leave Brad Stevens? Like, Brad Stevens has made rookies look great. Brad Stevens is going to make you the best you can be. You're not going to leave that for the dysfunction of New York. New York's one of those cities. New York's great.

But, God, how many years LeBron was going to go there? D. Wade was going to go there. Chris Paul was going to go there. Nobody ends up going to the Knicks. It's a pipe dream. It's what everybody wants to happen that covers the NBA. Nobody ends up going there. And James Don't still owns the next.

He's still exactly, Joey. So nobody wants to be aligned with that. To deal with that. Yeah. Joy Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Line News.

30 minutes away, blazing five. So fired up. Now one of my favorite guys in the world. Covers the Patriots, covers everybody from Money Morning Quarterback. We have a big weekend planned. Albert Breer via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Okay, so basically if the Miami Dolphins lose against the Bengals, which is possible,

New England leads the division because they beat Miami head-to-head. What was your takeaway on the performance, the good, the bad, the ugly last night for the Patriots? I mean, the first takeaway calling is just how the Patriots approach the season, and if you've talked to enough people there, you can go back to the advent of the new CBA in 2011. They've really gradually started to treat the first month of the season as an extended pre-season. And because they run complex systems on both sides of the ball, they want to be difficult to deal with later in the year. And because they've got Brady and Belichick, they've got the luxury to do it this way. And so we've seen it the last couple of years.

They got blown out by the chiefs in the opener in 2017. A few weeks later, they get run over by the Carolina Panthers at home. And lo and behold, they work all of it out and they wind up in the Super Bowl at the end of the year. So this has sort of become par for the course in New England. under the 2011 CBA where they've really used the first month of the regular season as a chance to work things out. Most teams can't do it because most teams don't know that, you know, A, they're going to be in the playoffs and B,

they're probably going to be playing at home when they get there. The Patriots usually have a pretty good feeling that they're going to win the AFCs, that they're going to be in contention for home field no matter what. And so they've been able the last few years to use September kind of as a time to work things out. By the way, Nate sold or the Giants are one and three. Malcolm Butler's off to a terrible start. Dionne Lewis didn't have any rushing yards against Philadelphia, and Sony Michelle looked good for the Patriots. You know, Bill Belichick once again let very popular guys go. None are flourishing. And I watched Sony Michelle that running back last night, and I thought to myself,

oh, he's a cheaper Dionne Lewis. You know, once again, we crushed Belichick for Malcolm Butler, but none of the guys that left are flourishing. They all look overpaid, don't they? Well, let's tap the brakes bill. Deon Lewis did have a key fourth down picked up in that Tennessee game in overtime, but you're right. I mean, this is one of the things that they've done really well traditionally, and this is such an underrated thing. We always look at who's bringing in the best free agents, who's doing the best in the draft. One of the most important parts of building an NFL team is being able to assess your own talent and being able to look a, objectively at the guys in your locker room.

And Bill's always been really, really good at that. Nate Solder wasn't perfect the last few years. If you want to rewind it back to the Atlanta Super Bowl, you'll see a very old Dwight Freeney having his way with Nate Solder. And so Nate was a great piece here for a long, long time, but they looked at him and said, we can't justify paying him $15 million per year. And they were able to find a suitable replacement in Trent Brown.

They got ahead of losing Malcolm Butler by signing Stefan Gilbert. more a year early. And if you look at it early on last year, that looked like a bad decision that winds up working out in the end. And then they get Sony Michelle, of course, as you mentioned, or replaced Dionne Lewis. That's one of the things they do really well. You can certainly criticize some of their free agent signings over the years. You can certainly criticize the way that they've drafted. But they've always been very, very good at looking inside their building and being able to assess those guys objectively. And remember, it's harder to do that when you've won championships with guys. The emotions can tug on you. You can look at certain guys and say,

this guy helped us win a championship. We want to reward him. One of the things that Bill does best, he can take a cold look at each individual guy and make an assessment of them. All right. I got one guy comparing Baker Mayfield to far of an Lway, and I'm like, can we pump the brakes? He's 0-1 as a starter. I do think he's two years older than the other rookie quarterbacks, double the starts. And he's had very good offensive coaching through college and now in the NFL. He is a more refined pocket thrower this second than the other guys. But, you know, what are your sources saying about Baker? Should we pump the brakes? What are your guys saying around the league on Baker? One of the most interesting things, just talking to the Cleveland

coaches this week, is how a lot of the hiccups that we saw in that game against the Raiders, they really weren't on Baker. I know Hugh Jackson publicly pointed out the nine drops. A couple Guys have mentioned that to me privately as well. The botched snap, that wasn't really on him. And one of the things that they like best about him is the way that he's been able to fight through these things. When things go sideways, that's when some rookie quarterbacks can kind of fall off a little bit or struggle. And you certainly didn't see that with Baker. He kept fighting as that game went on.

And so that shows, you know, quarterbacks got great makeup for the game. And you mentioned the offensive coaching he's had. I'll tell you this, Colin. people in the NFL right now believe that Lincoln Riley is one of the top five offensive coaches on the planet anywhere. And the fact that he comes from that system, the fact that he was able to play for Lincoln Riley, just from the quarterback coaching standpoint, really put him in a position to develop over the last three years. And what you're seeing, and not all of it's translatable to the NFL, of course, what he learned at Oklahoma, but what you're seeing, two very important qualities.

One, he's very accurate with the ball. and two is decision-making, for the most part, was off the charts at Oklahoma. If you have those two things coming into the league, that's a pretty good starting point. And Baker certainly has those things in space. Senior NFL reporter Monday morning quarterback, former Patriot Beat Rider for the Boston Globe, Albert Breer joining us live. Let's just say, let's look ahead. Atlanta can score a lot of points, and they're at Pittsburgh.

And Pittsburgh can't stop anybody. Let's say Atlanta goes in. The weather is still not a factor for the dome Atlanta Falcons. the road they win. And, you know, listen, Mike Tomlin's won Super Bowls, but if Pittsburgh, with all these stars and all this offensive firepower and all this money, does Pittsburgh get to a point? And I think they have always been incredibly patient, you know, three coaches since 1969. But if they lose to Atlanta and Baltimore looks great again, could there be a little

panic that we got to get LaVian Bell in now? What do you think that's the Pittsburgh situation? your gut feeling because they are giving up a lot of points in Atlantic and score them. Yeah, and certainly losing Ryan Shazier was something that they weren't prepared for, obviously. And I think it's something that's really hit them in a certain way in the defensive side of the ball where they felt like they had a lot of young players that were developing and coming together. And that sort of threw things haywire on that side. I don't think there's any panic in Pittsburgh.

I don't think they're going to bend to Levy on Bell. It hasn't been their history to do that sort of thing. and I don't think that they're going to go any sort of extra mile to get him in there. I think they're going to try to continue to evolve offensively. Losing Todd Haley was a hit, but they've got the young kid, Washington from Oklahoma State, who they believe in, who they believe can develop. Juju Smith-Schuster, I think they believe he can be a number one receiver down the line. James Connor, look, he's been up and down the first few weeks of the season,

but they believe in him as well. There's a group of young players there. It's not going to be one person that's going to do it, but there's a group of young players there that they believe can make up for the loss of Leveon Bell, at least in the short term. And look, they've been through this before. There was a period right after they went to that Super Bowl and lost to the Packers where they leveled off a little bit. And they had a couple eight and eight years there.

They were able to bounce back from that. It's interesting because they're right at the end of what feels, right, like what feels like the end of the window there with the Bell, Levion, Ben, group. It'll be interesting to see what they do going forward. they've drafted well enough with the offensive skill positions that they believe that after adjusting to Randy Fickner as the offensive coordinator, after Ben adjusts the weapons around him that they can get through this. I think the bigger issues for the Steelers, as you said, are on the defensive side of the ball, and particularly that inside linebacker position that traditionally has been so important

in that defense. Albert Burr, great talking to you. Have a great weekend. Thanks, bud. All right, thanks, Colin. Enjoy the games. Yeah, Pittsburgh is going to be very interesting. You know what's happened with all these NFL rule changes that they've all

help the offense, right? We have more points being scored, more touchdown passes. You can't deny that. Well, what's happening is just think about this on a macro level. It's the offensive kids getting drafted in college are the bust rate is dropping for receivers. The bust rates dropping for backs. The bust rate is dropping for quarterbacks. The bottom line is it is easier to draft offensive guys now than defensive guys because the rules help offensive players. So if you got to, If you've got to fix your defense, that can be tough. But if you've got to fix your offense, all the rules benefit offensive players. And the NFL is using more college stuff than they've ever used.

So the transition college to the NFL is getting easier for offensive players and still really tough for defensive players. So does that change the way of draft? I mean, I look at some of these NFL teams. They don't whiff on their offensive picks. They just don't. Pittsburgh's one of them. They don't whiff on their offensive picks. They whiff on some of the defensive guys, not the offensive guys.

Coming up next. Oh, yeah, y'all. Take a deep breath. Blazing five, by the way, in 25 minutes. Coming up next, Richard Sherman is complaining again. And he went to Stanford. He's a smart guy, right? Stanford, you got, you'd be smart to get into Stanford.

But Richard Sherman said something. He's completely wrong about it. It's more whining from defensive NFL players. And I'll just go to facts. go to facts. That's not much of a tease, right? I'm going to give you actually facts in football, and I'm about done with defensive players whining in this league.

That's coming up next. I honestly think this is the greatest weekend coming up in American sports. Started last night. You got the greatest quarterback who ever played last night. Then you can take a deep breath. Go out with your wife tonight. Have a nice dinner. You wake up tomorrow.

You get Texas, Oklahoma, one of the great college football rivalries, one of the great rivalries in American sports. Then you get Connor McGregor and a bebeb. And then NFL Sunday, you get great games, huge NFL Sunday. You get baseball playoffs. By the way, that Josh Hater guy I talked about yesterday, the guy that strikes out, huh? The rock star, right, the Metallica guy.

So he strikes out two people per inning. He came in yesterday, he faced four batters, he struck out three. He's like the heavyset little league kid with a mustache. He literally nobody can, he throws that hard. So you got baseball playoffs. You got NFL. You got Texas, Oklahoma, which is great. And I'm telling you, Connor McGregor is going to smoke Habib.

I cannot wait. I've already spent my money. All right. So one of these things, blazing five and ten minutes, one of these things, I hate when people go to cliches. And instead of learning and just doing a little homework, people fall into bad cliches. So the big cliche in the NFL now is nobody lets us play defense. Defensive players don't go anywhere. Oh, defensive guys.

Okay, this is Richard Sherman, who used to be great, is no longer great. and I don't think he likes the fact he's no longer great. He's blaming something else for his inadequacies right now, because Richard Sherman's no longer great. And now it's not his fault, of course. It's the roles and stuff. Here he is. You can't touch him.

You can't tackle him. You can't hit him high. You can't hit him low. You can't knock them down to the ground hard. If you push him too bad, you know, all that's a penalty. You can't hit a receiver high. You can't hit them low. You can't push them.

You can't, you can barely press them. You know, it's making it really difficult on teams to combat it because every rule in the book is designed to make sure you don't get them stopped. That's just a bunch of bull. Now, yes, there have been rule changes. By the way, Aaron Donald just signed a contract for $135 million. Kaleel Mack for $141 million. Go look at the highest paid NFL players.

Vaughn Miller's in there, Fletcher Cox, Justin Houston, J.J. Watt all over $100 million. Of the 13 highest paid NFL players, six. are defensive players. Why? Because great defensive players have never been more important to combat the offensive-driven rules. Okay? If you're an elite pass rusher today,

you get $100 million. If you're an elite interior defensive lineman who can make Brady, can make Aaron Rogers uncomfortable in the pocket through the middle, you get $100 million. If you're an athletic linebacker, especially one who's a talker, like a Sean Lee,

Luke Keekley, who gets in the middle of that defense with no huddles now and the game faster than ever and can communicate signals and get everybody lined up and be a sure tackler, you get $75 million. This idea that nobody, oh, defensive players have never been more valuable. They've never been paid like this before. By the way, it is September. The weather's perfect. There's no wind. It's sunny.

It's 72 degrees. You do get that every September, everybody scores a lot of points. Let me remind you of the scores last year in the postseason. The AFC championship with Tom Brady 2420. Philadelphia beat Atlanta. By the way, with Matt Ryan, 15 to 10. The Jags beat the bills 10 to 3. The Rams only scored 13 points and lost to Atlanta that had 26.

Tennessee, Kansas City was 22, 21. You get to January. You get to December. Guess what? The scores come down. It's cold. It's windy. Everybody's got tape. Your left tackle is on the injured reserve and you have a backup. And the pass rusher now is intense. This idea that nobody's allowed to play defense is a bunch of hooey. Marcellus Wiley played in the NFL. He talked about this. You just have to evolve and learn how to tackle. As a defender, you can learn and teach yourself new habits just like you taught yourself old habits.

No one walked in day one know how to make a form tackle. Someone taught you. Now you can do the same thing with this situation. Yes. This idea nobody's defensive guys have never, ever, ever been more valuable. Because the game is, by the way, it's just like the NBA. Remember a couple years ago when LeBron, James, and Kyrie Irving beat the Warriors? Do you remember that?

And we think of the NBA as all offense. There were two plays at the end of the game that won it for the Cavs. one was a shot by Kyrie Irving. The other was a block by LeBron James. Yeah, it was a block. Like nobody's saying the NBA is not offensively driven. But did you notice how much better the Rockets got? Because they already had James Hardin.

Notice how much better they got when, by the way, Chris Paul arrived, the best defensive guard in the NBA. They improved 10 games and got to the Western Conference finals and had a 3-2 lead on Golden State. not because they had better offensive players, because they had Trevor Areza, because they had Chris Paul who plays defense. Nobody's saying the games aren't leaning offense. It's like hockey.

They got rid of clutching and grabbing in hockey. What wins a Stanley Cup, a great hot goalie? You still got to keep the puck out of the net. So I don't, Richard Sherman's not elite anymore, and Richard Sherman is probably frustrated with it. But this is just 13 of the highest paid players in the NFL. Six are defensive dudes. It's not hard to figure out. Look at those contracts now.

Five years ago, there are six NFL players right now in defense making more than any offensive player five years ago. And this is not going to stop. A great pass rusher is going to get paid for the rest of my life. Anytime there's rule changes, people are going to complain because people don't like change. And anytime there's rule changes, it's going to benefit someone and not benefit someone else. And that's what we're dealing with. now. For me, I just feel like fans get tired of seeing flags every other play. That's an

annoying watch. It becomes almost about the referees. And that's, that's the worst. But that's not what Richard Sherman is talking about. Look at this list of highest paid players. It's all quarterbacks and defensive players. It's not running backs. It's not wide receivers. It's not tight ends. It's not offensive players. It's quarterbacks. And the people who have to stop the quarterback. That's it. So it's a bunch of hooey. I mean, it's just a bunch of hooey. Hockey got rid of clutching and grabbing. Why did the Las Vegas NHL team have a great year? They had a great goalie.

Well, look how people talk about basketball. Back in the day, you know, when you could put an elbow in someone's neck. Like, yeah, but the game is evolved now, and it's more finesse. It's more fun. And what's happening? It's more popular. It's more global.

I was watching last night. I was watching the Patriots Colts. And last year, people forget this. You know, NFL is a very physical sport. And sometimes there's a team every year in the NFL, a team or two that just falls apart. Last year it was the Washington Redskins. Washington, people forget this, very early in the year, Washington traveled out to the Rams and shut them down.

It was like Jared Goff got shut down. The Rams offense got shut down. People forget about it because the Redskins fell apart physically. Their whole offensive line got hurt. They had like 20 injuries. All their running backs got hurt. Their offensive line got hurt. Their pass rushers got hurt.

Washington's a real football team. This year, it's the Indianapolis Colts. I mean, I thought they played their butts off last night. I thought that was an incredibly impressive 14-point loss. The Colts have no... It's like Andrew Luck and an injured reserve list in helmets. That whole team's falling apart. They got no healthy players in Indianapolis.

I thought if you were a cult fan, you came out of that, you were kind of encouraged. You were kind of like, our guys played their... You know what's off last night in Foxborough against the reigning dynasty. If you get to give them eight players who didn't play, you may have an upset on your hands last night. Blazing 5 right around the corner on a Friday. Thai Law, three rings, former Patriot, five-time Pro Bowlers joining us today. It's The Herd. Hour 2, this is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening.

Live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1, Joy Taylor is joining me. I'm so excited for the next 30 minutes on this show for a variety of reasons. This is the greatest weekend of the year in sports. to me, started last night, the greatest quarterback of all time, setting records, go out and have a little dinner tonight, have a cocktail or two, then tomorrow, get ready, baby, Texas, Oklahoma, as good as any college rivalry. And then Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Auburn. That's about as good as it gets.

You got the Habib Connor McGregor fight, which is going to be unbelievably fun. I cannot wait for that. I've already got my money spent. Connor McGregor is going to dominate him. And then we have a great week of NFL games. A lot of very intriguing games. And Drew Breeze on Monday Night could set a record or two. So this is fun.

This is what we do. This is very fun, Joy. I'm very excited. And now we do Blazing Five. So we had two, two, and one last week. It was a push after three winning weeks. So I love these picks. Blazing Five, we have a sponsor.

Presented by Chili's. Here we go. That's a hot one. Let's blaze it up. Fire it up. It's college. Broncos a Jets. All right. Jets minus one and a half.

I love the New York Jets here. By the way, this is pick them in some places, so you could even get a better number than I have. First of all, they've had 10 takeaways this year, and their defense is only allowing 5.2 yards of play. That's top six in the NFL. And that counts that god-awful performance last week in Jacksonville when they were terrible.

This is a real defense. And Denver, when they have to go east, and play an early game. They're old for their last six, allowing 30 points a game. They're not the same team. Denver's really bad going east. And again, the Jets were terrible.

Todd Bowles is getting a lot of heat. They bounced back, played their game of the year. The Jets win 26, 21. Raiders at Chargers. This is a home game for the Raiders, and I get five and a half points. It's not officially a home game, but it's a home game.

game. It'll be all Raider fans. And I get right now an offense that is absolutely humming. The Raiders' offense is second in the NFL. They have two legit backs. Marshawn Lynch, Doug Martin, a great tight end. Three legitimate wide receivers. And the Chargers defense without Joey Bosa has been awful. They're 30th in points a game. The Chargers defense, their offense is fine. Their defense is shaky. And I really feel like John Gruden saved the locker room. in Oakland. A little bit of a renaissance here with them. I'm going to take the Raiders. I get five and a half points. I think they win outright. I think they win outright. Raiders win 27 to 24. Vikings at Eagles. Upset alert. Minnesota plus three. I'm taking the Vikings. First of all,

if you watch the Eagles secondary, it's been lit up by good receiver. Julio Jones, lit it up. Deshawn Jackson, lit it up. Vikings have two world-class wide receivers. By the way, Carson Wentz is not 100%. Joey and I talked about that about three weeks ago. He's not 100%. You can tell he's not 100%. And their coordinator, offensive coordinator, Frank Reich,

is now the head coach of the Colts. We've seen this before. When a great coordinator leaves a city, the offense isn't the same for a year. All right? And Kirk Cousins at Lincoln Financial, he played better there in Philly than any other place in the NFL. 12 touchdowns, three picks.

Upset alert. Philadelphia is not right. They're not right right now. I'm going to take the Vikings to win 24, 23. Cardinals at 49ers. I get Arizona plus five and a half. Like it. I love it.

The 49ers last 12 games that Jimmy Garoppolo did not play are 1 in 11. This has also been a series where the underdog does very well, getting points, and I get five and a half. The Cardinals have lost their last two games by a combined five points. Here's the thing. Nobody was watching that whole Josh Rosen game last week because they were watching Baker-Mayfield. Josh Rosen looked great. Arizona's offense had its best game with points, yards, passing yards, and rushing yards.

And San Francisco's a mess on the offensive line. I think I'm getting the better team. I'm getting the better young quarterback and I'm getting five and a half points. Arizona goes on the road. upset win 27-26. Redskins at Saints. I love getting teams off a buy, especially when they have a veteran quarterback. Veteran quarterbacks, they get healthy, they get an extra week.

Washington and Alex Smith come off a buy. And the defenses in this game, total mismatch. The Redskins defense is excellent. It's excellent in points, yards, past defense, and a poser-passer rating. Remember, Washington's defense was good last year until everyone. Every single guy got hurt. Washington got a pass rush. They've got good corners, and the Saints defense is absolutely atrocious.

Now, you think it's pretty good because the last week in the Giants, it's bad. I'm going to go with the upset. Washington spoils Drew Breeze's night. Off a buy wins 28 to 27. Blazing 5 is brought to you by Chili's 3 for $10 deal. Starter and Entree and a Coke, 10 bucks. Casso burger, mushroom jack fajitas. Chili's. Three for ten bucks. Always a winning pick. Now, you do know this. Here are my picks.

The Jets pick is particularly interesting. If you make that bet right now, you get a better line than I did because I picked it Monday. I used to have the Baker, Baker, Maker, Moneymaker briefcase. I now have a darn old dollars. I have, I won $1,000 off Baker. And then last week, I doubled it down betting against him and I won. So this week I have $2,000. I am betting it on Sam Darnold to have a very good game as a pro. Darnold Dollars. Blazing 5 presented by Chili's. All fired up.

I will say this. Let me talk for a second. We have good stuff today. By the way, a little tease here. I'm not going to talk about it now. A little tease. I don't watch NBA preseason. Do you see what happened in the Laker game?

I'm going to tell you about seven minutes. A real thing happened last night, folks. and it ain't good for Lonzo ball. It is not good for him. But let me go with this. I think we have the potential for a very good weekend for all the rookie quarterbacks. Let's start with Baker Mayfield. I'm not saying four and oh for all these guys, but rookie quarterbacks, I think, are going to have a chance to play really good this weekend.

Baker Mayfield faces the Ravens. The Ravens have dominated Cleveland for the last so many years. They're not going to get up for Cleveland like they just got up for the Steelers. The Ravens and the Steelers is one of the last great NFL rivalries. It was a standalone game. It was a highly emotional game. And Baltimore won that game. And I think there is a natural letdown after a big rivalry game.

And especially when you've beaten an opponent, they're looking at rookie quarterbacks. Ravens destroy rookie quarterbacks. And Cleveland, meanwhile, blew a game against Oakland. They're going to come in focused. They've got great confidence because the last two games, Baker's played for them. Dave won one and should have won one. Keep your eye on this game. This is a potential upset.

This could be a very good day for Baker Mayfield. Now let's talk Jets. Terrible performance, but Sam Darnold did not have a turnover. Baker had four against a crappy Oakland defense. Sam didn't have any against a great Jacksonville defense. Denver's a lousy road team. Watch. This is the way it works in the NFL.

The Jets were atrocious defensively last week. week and they have a defensive head coach. Todd Bowles is getting real heat. If Todd can't get the defense right, they'll fire him because Sam Darnold's their future. The one thing they have to be in New York is good defensively. They laid a complete egg lack last week defensively. They were atrocious. Watch the defense be really good for the Jets against Denver and Case Keenham.

Darnold now, didn't have a turnover against Jacksonville. I think it would be a very good weekend for Sam. Let's talk briefly, Josh Rosen, San Francisco. You didn't watch this game. He was really, really good. In fact, we had Greg CoSell on earlier this week. Because everybody was watching the Baker-Mayfield game, myself included. Only two cities got the Arizona game.

Seattle and Arizona. The rest of the country didn't see it. As Greg CoSell said, Josh Rosen was excellent. He looked like he did in college to me. There was a refinement. There was a nuance to his game in the pocket. Made some big throws. He plays from the pocket extremely well.

has a calm helmet. I thought he threw the ball really well. And it's interesting when you see a quarterback that plays with a refined sense of timing, how all of a sudden the offensive line looks a little better. Quarterbacks who play with a lot of rhythm and timing and get the ball out within the structure of the design play, always make an O-line look better. Okay, so I like Josh Rosen to beat San Francisco. I like Sam Darnold to beat Denver. I think Baker Mayfield's going to be in a very interesting game against Baltimore. And let me just add this. Tennessee, off a huge win over the defending Super Bowl champs. Their biggest win of the year, they go up on the road to Buffalo.

Tennessee's not a good road team. Last year they were eight and, you know, if you go back the last couple of years and look at Tennessee, they've won eight of their last 10 at home. They've won four of their last 10 on the road. So Josh Allen, the rookie, and he's the one that's kind of scrapping right now. But Buffalo's better at home, and Tennessee's not a good road team, and Tennessee's off a huge win. So I think we have an opportunity this weekend for all the rookie quarterbacks who start to have very, nice weekends. I'm not saying 4-0. I would not be shocked, however, at 3-1 for the rookie

quarterbacks. All right, coming up next, we'll go live to Ben Volan, the outspoken Patriots reporter for the Boston Globe. He didn't like what he saw last night. And did you see? And I know most of you did not. Not a good night for Lonzo Ball. If I'm Lonzo Ball and I watched the Lakers preseason last night, I don't like what I saw and I don't like what I hear. That's coming up. In L.A., it's The Hurt. Be sure to catch live editions of the Hurt. weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. The NLDS continues today starting at 3.30 Eastern as the Rockies try to bounce back from a devastating game one loss of the Brewers. Then later on, Clayton Kershaw

looks to put the Dodgers up to nothing on the Braves at 9 Eastern, all on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. Rogers hit three homers last night. They're there, I'll tell you something, they don't have Seeger this year because he got hurt. They got a lot of sticks. Now, Clayton Kershaw is not what he used to be. He's still good. He's not what he used to be. He's on the back nine. but Dodgers have, man. Dodgers, I've been to five Dodger games last two years. They've had multiple homers in every game. Yankees Red Sox starts tonight, which is there's nothing like, I'm going to taste out, when I lived out in the Northeast, I lived for 10 years in the New England area, there is nothing like October baseball in the Northeast. It's nothing against the middle of the country. It's nothing against Riggley. There's nothing against Dodgers Stadium. Two nights ago, I'm watching the Yankee game. October game, Yankee or Fenway. I lived there. I went to those stadiums.

You can't, I can't even tell you, I can't explain it. It's like college football in the South. It just looks different and it just feels different. So good baseball stuff. Oh, by the way, you know, I know the Patriots. Lane Johnson said it's no fun. And there was that special teams guy that came from Seattle now with the Niners. Cassius Marsh, was that his name?

Yeah, yeah, it's no fun. It's no. So I feel bad. We feel bad about the Patriots. We wish, we're going to do a PSA here. We just wish their players could have more fun. We've all seen the news. Several brave NFL players coming forward to share the story of cruel treatment

suffered by members of the New England Patriots. We want to help spread awareness to prevent other players from suffering the same cruelty. You should know that while other teams allow their players to go home in December, Patriots players are forced to keep playing through January, usually into February. And then, once the season ends, they have metal rings strapped on their fingers. Shackles, they're told to wear for the rest of their lives. And some players are treated like animals.

In fact, they call one of them the goat. Frankly, it's disgusting. If you or someone you know plays for the Patriots, let them know there's a better life out there. This message paid for by the Cleveland Browns. And with that, senior NFL rider, smart dude does great work for the Boston Globe via the Cary Global Satellite Network. Ben Volan joining us. All right, we're gloating today. I'm gloating as a patriot guy.

But Ben, you go to every practice I don't. You're in that locker room. I'm not. You didn't love what you saw last night, I heard. I was not a big fan of that win, Colin. Look, no offense to the cold. They actually showed a lot of heart last night. And Andrew Luck was phenomenal.

I really like what he showed us. But come on, that was a minor league outfit that the Colts were showing last night. No Ty Hilton, no Jack Doyle. They're missing their top defender. They couldn't even field an entire 46-man roster. And I think by the end of the game, with all the injuries, they were down to like 38 real football players. It's a Thursday night.

The Patriots at home, they should have won that game by 50 points. Instead, they let the Colts hang around. The Colts picked up 298 yards in the second half, three touchdowns, Andrew Luck, carving them up in the fourth quarter. I mean, it's weird to say that a 38-20s, 24 win is a bad win, but there's a lot to clean up for the Patriots. And beating this Colts team at home does, you know, it doesn't prove a whole lot for them moving forward when they play like their next opponent, Kansas City coming in next Sunday night.

That's going to be a much tougher test. Let's talk about Josh Gordon. Listen, they got their slot guy back. They got Gronk. Sony Michelle and James White are nice components. Sony had a real nice night. They really leaned on him. But Josh Gordon, to me, is kind of what they have been missing for years.

And they had Brandon Cooks for about an hour. but Josh and Tom Brady we know his history do you think it works what do you make so far what you see at practice in games I'm a big Josh Gordon guy Colin I love his addition to the offense and they're not relying on him to be a focal point he's really just kind of like a wild card and he didn't really have a catch until the fourth quarter last night but that touchdown that's a schoolyard type of play that no one else on the Patriots maybe other than gron can make that play where he's out maneuvering two defenders for the ball and going up and coming down with the touchdown. And you're right. They haven't had a physical guy like this, maybe since Randy Moss. And Randy Moss doesn't have the same power that Josh Gordon has when he's just dragging guys through the secondary and galloping for extra yards. So I'm a big fan of his so far. And you got to love the fact that him and Brady are connecting on these sand type of plays. Brady's going to him on

third down as well. That's always a good sign. And other than Grancowski, they don't have a big physical receiver. Brandon Cook wasn't Josh Gordon. He's a freak. You should see this guy. standing next to the other wide receivers. It is quite noticeable. So if he can stay healthy and keep his head on straight, which is obviously a huge wild card, that is such a dynamic weapon they have for that off. By the way, they let go at Dionne Lewis

and Sony Michelle, the rookie, look great. Malcolm Butler's off to a terrible start. Danny Mandola doesn't have a touchdown. We all beat up on the Patriots, myself included. Nate Solder is, you know, they're one in three offensively and can't get it going. Was Belichick right, Ben, that he can get cheaper replacements and they're still the same offense? Or do you see creaks in the New England

offense? Well, I mean, the offense definitely is not executing the way it did last year. There's no question. And you mentioned all those players and they probably made the right call. I think they might miss Dionne Lewis a little bit. But, you know, Brandon Cooks looks pretty good for the Rams right now. And he didn't look this good for the Patriots last year. It makes you wonder, why couldn't the Patriots make Brandy Cooks look this good? I mean, he's on pace for 17, 800 yards this year. So Brandon Cooks, you do wonder if they're missing that element. But not having Julian Edelman in the first four games was huge. Gronk was getting so much attention.

All these new pieces in the offense, Sony, Michelle, as you mentioned, guys going on IR, Rex Burkhead. So they've had some issues and some moving pieces. I'm definitely not writing off the Patriots offense by any stretch. But they're not executing the way they have in the past. And like I said, they have this like mini buy coming up. They've got a lot to clean up before Kansas City comes to town in nine days. Ben, one of the advantages why I like bringing you on the show.

this is an 18-year dynasty. I said earlier today, there's only five TV shows that have lasted 18 years in prime time in the history of TV and two are law and order. So it's hard to create great. It's harder to maintain great. And they've sustained it now for 18 years. But you're at practice. We know the last six months, the Malcolm Butler thing, Tom versus Time, Gronk and Amandola taking shots, missing OTAs. But when you go to practice, Ben, body language, when you're in that locker room. Do you feel that Brady Belichick is different? There is a gronk Brady here, Belichick over here. There's a little bit of room between the two now. I think they've put that to the side now that the season starts. It's definitely a business-type relationship. These guys

aren't going out for beers or having lunch by any stretch, but they're still meeting twice a week to talk about the game plan. Bill Belichick said last night after the game, there's no quarterback. I'd rather have than Tom Brady, something he said many times over his career. And, you know, Gronk, you can tell, is a little frustrated with how the way things are going so far. He hasn't scored a touchdown in four games. His teammates aren't winning the one-on-one battles. But I don't think the frustration is about what's going on with Belichick and behind the season. That's like off-season stuff. They have, I think, hash that out for now. I don't see this thing falling apart anytime soon, barring a disaster, of course, you never know. But it looks like Belichick's probably

going to be back for another year next year. I think Brady's going to be coming back. Probably Gronk as well. I think they're going to keep this band together for a little while long. He is a senior NFL rider for the Boston Globe. Busy guy. Good enough. Post-Patriots to come on and talk to us for a few minutes. Ben, thank you so much. We will talk soon. Hopefully. Thank you. All right.

Thank you, Colin. All right. Ben Volan, senior NFL guy for the Boston Globe. I like sometimes. You used to do this. When you were in Miami or I was in Portland or Tampa, I like bringing on local people who were in locker rooms, and at practice, and they can sometimes have, they're kind of like, they're soldiers. They're on the ground and they see stuff in locker rooms.

I don't, because I remember when I used to cover NFL teams or NBA teams, and you're in the locker room and you're at practice, you just see stuff that, you know, people that are doing national stuff, sitting up here on a desk don't see. So he was not as impressed with the Patriots as a lot of people were. I do think Josh Gordon's a fascinating element if it can work. I just, my gut feeling is it won't over time, but they got the slots and the tight end.

and the running backs, and I thought they got, Brady had a ton of time to throw in key situations last night. I'm still teasing that LeBron story. It is not good news for Lonzo Ball if you've watched the Lakers preseason games. Joey, though, first were the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

I was sticking with that Patriots game last night, the Colts were sort of their own worst enemy. issue of not securing the ball that carried over from week four. Andrew Luck tossed two picks. And rookie running back, Jordan Wilkins, lost a fumble, and five other players accounted for a drop pass. So here's Frank Reich on those struggles. Obviously, the drops are unacceptable. We have been doing great catching the ball until the last two weeks.

So we just got to get that back on track. I mean, we're throwing a lot of passes. You're probably going to have one or two. That happens. But we just got to get back on. track in that regard. You know, I just think we've got to make those plays. It's concentration. I know every drop we have, the guys we have, I know they have good hands. I mean, I see them every day in practice. So we don't have any guys that don't have good hands. They all have good

hands. Well, they have an extra 10 days to fix that issue before their week six game with the Jets. You know, I was thinking about this. Everybody, you know how everybody, there was this big thing about last year. I mean, the media's gone very far left, where it's always like, oh, the corporation's bad, the coaches are bad, the NFL's bad. Everybody complains about Thursday night games. Do you know the Patriots didn't practice this week? They don't put on pants. So everybody complains about these Thursday night games. You don't hit or mostly practice all week. And then you get nine days off. If you told me I had to do back-to-back shows once a year, but then I got 48 hours off, I'd be like, I'll do that. Well, yeah, but you're also not running your

body into a garage door. Hey, this show is heavy lifting. This is hard work up here. During those back-to-back shows. Talking all the time. They may not be practicing, but they are coming off of generally a game and then playing it on a short week. It's basically a second buy week. You get a second buy because you have because what happens in these short weeks is

it's usually a close game so the flight's not very long and teams don't put the pads on. They don't hit. So you just especially, I think it's bad for veteran guys. But if I'm a young player or a quarterback and it's like we're not going to, I get kind of a week off

practice? I watched more film. Athletes are also creatures of habit though. That is true. So when that's disrupted it causes problems mentally. So the Vikings spent the offseason adding pieces to what many thought was already a Super Bowl caliber roster. Yeah. But they have back-to-back losses and Mike Zimmer's team has slipped to one, two, and one on the season. So they're heading to Philly for a rematch of last season's NFC championship game, and Zimmer is preaching level-headedness. Everybody wants to, once they evaluate everybody after four weeks, but You know, I think if you remember last year, early in the years, Xavier had some penalties

early in a year and we cleaned them up. You know, this isn't time for what was me. You know, if people remember we were two and two this time last year, we finished 13 and three, we were 5 and 0 the year before and we finished 8 and 8. We were 2 and 2 the year before that and we finished 11 at 5. So, you know, all the predictors are not really, this isn't a good time to predict. Think about this. Hockey's played indoors. Baseball, if it rains, they call the game.

NBA's played indoors. What is the one sport that's played outdoors football? Unless it's a dome. Huh? Unless it's a dome. But even then you play eight road games usually. So why would we ever get worked up in September, which is the only time during a football season,

the first four to five weeks where the weather's perfect? Because we've been waiting so long for football, so we have to. We can't help ourselves, Colin. Is that it? Yes. been waiting all offseason for some football. It's here. So now we have to talk to MVP and we have to make our Super Bowl picks

and who has a playoff roster and are they going to keep this up and the Patriots are done and the Dolphins are going to win the AFCEs. This is what we do every single year. Every year. We do this. I love these Thursday games. It was a good game last night. All right. Finally, time for the Real Deal

brought to you by Carl's Jr. and Hardies. Despite showing up 30 minutes late yesterday's UFC 229 press conference, Connor McGregor did not just because that's what he does. And he also made a few predictions about his payout. We're estimating around 3 to 3.5 million. I'd say I'll close in around the $50 million mark. So for a mixed martial artist to make $50 million in a mixed martial arts belt,

it's quite breathtaking. How long until you're a billionaire, Connor? I'd say about, I'm 30 years of age. I'd say by 35, I'll be a billionaire. 35? Yes, 35. Good luck. Thank you, sir.

I appreciate that. I love him. he's obnoxious, but here's the thing. It's UFC fans are the funniest because like hockey fans and UFC fans, they feel they've been ignored by the mainstream media, so they're very defensive. And I go out yesterday and I'm like...

UFC fans feel that way? Oh, they can be very... Like, you don't understand the sport like we do. I'm a diehard fan. Connor McGregor is better than Habib. He's taller, lankier, a twitchier athlete, a real fighter, more experienced. I'm telling you, when McGregor was in that fight with Mayweather, I was there.

I'm close to it. I'm 20 rows up. That gave Mayweather a confidence that no other fighter is going to have in a big fight. McGregor. It gave him massive confidence. And he's going to walk into that thing tomorrow. And he is going to feel no nerves with him. And this kid's fighting the Muhammad Ali of his sport.

And it only goes five rounds. You don't have any time to start off slow. The only chance this kid has is if he pulls him down to the ground and Connor's not going to, Connor's smart. He's not going to allow that stuff. I don't know. He hasn't fought in two years in UFC. Let's have a staff.

Okay, raise your hand if you like Connor to win this. Well, no one can see. Three. So I'm the only one who's picking Habib? I like that. All right. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. By the way, Thai law. Always a good guest last. hour. Jason McIntyre does something very fun at the end of the show. We call it Monday's headlines today. All right. It's NBA preseason. I don't watch NBA preseason. But I said before the NFL season started, I said, LeBron and the Lakers, this is going to be worth watching. He is going to a team with a bunch of young guys and a couple of castoffs and LeBron makes teams instantly better.

So, you know, how much would he play? Well, first of all, he's playing real minutes. And last night, if you're Lonzo Ball LeBron's quote after the game oh here's his quote about Brandon Ingram had 31 points Brandon now is from Duke he's the forward banged up a little last year he's the number two NBA pick he was a number one high school player in the country

so he's got all sorts of talent this was LeBron last night talking about him I think he was a red all game not just in the second half you know his pace his ability to play the point and play the wing he's a very special talent and you definitely happy to have him on our side I know what I see in him and you know he's looking looking for this opportunity to make the next jump in his in his third year so it's a lot of upside in that kid and I'm happy to try to give him as much as I can

okay one thing that's becoming very clear I know it's preseason but LeBron's looking for Brandon Ingram because every time down the floor LeBron wants to do two things. Have the ball and score himself or have the ball pass and be rewarded with somebody else scoring. Okay, LeBron likes shooters. He liked Kevin Love. He like Chris Bosch. He and D. Wade had to figure their chemistry out. He and Bosch figured stuff out pretty quick because Bosch can shoot. LeBron like shooters. The best pure shooter on this team could very well be Brandon Ingram. Lanzo needs the ball to flourish. And LeBron's not going to get him the ball.

LeBron's going to dominate the ball. Lonzo is not going to reward LeBron if LeBron passes. So why would LeBron pass to him? It's not that LeBron's going to freeze Lonzo out. But this is why I said LeBron and Ben Simmons was a weird fit. Because Ben Simmons needs the ball because he can't shoot. Lonzo needs the ball.

He's not a shooter. Well, LeBron is ball dominant. And LeBron goes into every possession thinking, either I'm going to the basket and scoring, or I want to get rewarded for it. You're not going to waste possessions. He'll never pass to Lonzo. I'm not sure how much they can be on the floor together.

And if they are, you watch LeBron, he is looking for Brandon Ingram. And, I mean, I really think LeBron's been in this league 15 years. He's not changing his game for Lonzo. He is not changing his game for him. I think Lonzo is going to get a lot of minutes in the second unit and is going to elevate the second unit. but man, when you watch LeBron and Brandon Ingram, you can tell right now, that's going to be his guy. That is going to be his guy.

By the way, Rondo is not a big shooter. Lance isn't a pure shooter. Javelle McGee's not a pure shooter. Okay, so who's LeBron going to look for? The pure shooter, Brandon Ingram. That's not good for Lonzo. This is going to be a fascinating watch. Luke Walton's got his hands full because the two guards on this team, Rondo and Lonzo, are not shooters.

and LeBron's not the easiest guy to coach. Yeah, but he loves Rondo. He's spoken very highly at Rondo. And I think LeBron likes high IQ veteran players who play defense. That is Rondo. He did advocate for J.R. Smith when he was in Cleveland. But J.R. could shoot. LeBron likes shooters.

He'll even take weirdos. J.R. Smith is goofy, but he can shoot. It broke his heart when Kyrie Irving left. He can shoot. He defended Kevin Lerner. Kevin Love. Kevin Love can shoot. And Monzo were both out last night. I mean, I'm not disagreeing with you that he likes Ingram.

I'm just saying I think once the season starts rolling, this is just going to happen until really Christmas. All right. We know this is going to happen. By the way, Bill Belichick should have been arrested last night and I'll explain why coming up. Blazing 5 today brought to you by Chili's three for $10 deal. Starter, Entree and a Coke, 10 bucks.

They have their casso burger, mushroom Jack fajitas. Only 10 bucks. 3 for 10. Always a winning pick. Chili's. Sunday. It's a Fox NFL doubleheader, starting with Aaron Rogers and the Packers, taking on Matthew Stafford and the Lions. Then it's America's Game of the Week as Kirk Cousins and the Vikings battle Carson Wentz and the Eagles.

It's all on Fox and the Fox Sports app. Check local listings. The Eagles. It's just so funny about the Philadelphia Eagles. Remember Lane Johnson? Remember Lane Johnson who'd been suspended twice? He'd like, New England, no fun. Let me lecture you about winning.

I'd rather win one Super Bowl than a bunch of them because we're going to have fun. Well, be careful what you wish for, Lainey, because I watched you last week lose to Tennessee. One Super Bowl is all you're going to get. You know, you hear all these guys complaining all the time. I don't understand what's not fun about winning. Well, we have a lot of fun in Philadelphia. Was it fun losing to Tennessee last weekend? I was just wondering because I watched you.

You weren't very good. Remember his quote, I'd much rather have fun and win a Super Bowl than be miserable to win five. I wouldn't ever. success is fun winning is fun why do you have to be miserable who says new england's miser does tom brady look miserable

who looks miserable well everybody isn't tom brady but just because you have a structure and you're not like i don't even i don't even understand what the difference is i'm sure philadelphia's structure too it's just this idea about new england that's very like rigid i was sitting there like cassius marsh is another one

played for the patriots for an hour and they let him go and now he's with a lousy niners. They don't have fun. There's nothing fun about it. There's nothing happy. I didn't enjoy my time there. I was first time in my life, but I didn't like football. I just didn't like it.

It's not fun. You like the one in three niners there? How do you like produce? How are those apples? Sometimes standards are a lot for people. By the way, I had this discussion. And expectations. Everybody can't operate under expectations.

I had this. I was sitting having a glass last night as a little, having a cocktail with my wife and her sister. And we were sitting around a little, we had a little, fire in the back after the Colts Patriots game. And I told her, I said, discipline is freedom. I said, it's like kids. It said, think about your life in terms of you work and then you retire. How do you get freedom when you retire, that you can do what you want when you want?

Be disciplined with your money. Be disciplined with your body so you can move at 65 and not be old and a mess and you're going to the doctor and that you have money. You can golf when you want and you can surf when you want and you can travel when you want. Discipline is freedom. Be disciplined with what you eat, with what you work out, with what you put away financially. And then the last half of your life, it's all freedom. You can golf when you want, when you can travel when you want, you can buy a motorcycle if you want. Can't do that if you're not on discipline. Whenever I hear people like, it's life, I just want to have

fun in my life. Okay, then that's not discipline because discipline's hard, getting up, working hard, being committed is hard. But do you really want to have all the fun in your 20s? And then you're a mess from 58 years old on. There's also just, there's also a balance. So you feel like Gronk doesn't have fun? Of course. Everybody thinks Gronk is just like this unhinged maniac. Meanwhile, he doesn't even spend any of his money from his contracts. None of it.

He doesn't even touch it. If the Patriots would have not, if Brady doesn't get hit in the Super Bowl, none of this would have come out. Literally one second, Brady is driving for the winning touchdown, which he did against, you know, we've seen him do it against Seattle. We've seen him do it against Atlanta. We've seen him do it five times. Every Super Bowl in New England's been in has been close.

And we've seen Brady and like three of them drive for the winning score. He was driving for the winning score. Philadelphia couldn't stop him, just like Seattle couldn't stop him, like Atlanta couldn't stop him. He was driving for the winning score and somebody hit the ball out of his hands. If that makes one other role in a Patriot lands on it, none of this, none of this stuff's being talked about because Philadelphia loses and New England wins and we don't care about Malcolm Butler. Like, where is winning not fun in life? It's like called, you're an athlete. It's called competition.

I'd rather win one Super Bowl than five. Can you imagine Michael Jordan saying that? Can you imagine Kobe Bryant saying that? Can you imagine Jack Nicholas saying that? Expectations and standards are not for everyone. That's pressure. God, I just, oh, by the way. Bill Belichick should go to prison.

What? Well, let me explain. So there is a story in the NFL. It's the craziest story in the NFL this year. It's really sad, actually. There's a kid named Michael Kendricks. He played for the Eagles last year. And he got busted for insider trading.

And he made about a million dollars off. And he got some information from a stockbroker guy or an insider guy. And he made a million bucks. He could face 25 years in prison. I don't think he'll get that. But it's really scary. He's a young man, by all accounts, good kid, made a mistake.

I mean, I hope he doesn't get along. I mean, he made a mistake. He admitted it. He admitted to wrongdoing. He owned up to it. And I'm crossing my fingers. The kid doesn't spend 10 years and, you know, the whole, because I think he's a good kid that made a big mistake.

We all make mistakes. But I was thinking, you know who should be arrested for insider trading is Bill Belichick? Because he always has the information before the media, other players, and guys like me do. By the way, he let go of Malcolm Butler. Wouldn't play him. Let him go. Outrage.

That guy can play. Malcolm Butler yesterday quoted saying I'm unhappy with the start for my season. He was against the Eagles last week. Carson Wentz for seven for seven when targeting Malcolm Butler, including a touchdown. He said, quote, this quarter of the season has not been what I'm looking for. He was targeted last week seven times. Carson Wentz went seven for seven with the touchdown. Bill Belich.

like a good stockbroker sold the stock before the crash. How's Danny Amandola doing? Oh, there was a lot. Everybody loved Danny Amandola. Loved him. Stockbroker Bill had inside information. So far, Danny Amandola's four catches, 20 yards, four catches, three, two catches. No touchdowns.

121 yards in a month. And for a team, by the way, that let go at Jarvis Landry that needs Danny Amandola. They don't have Gronk. They don't have Tom Brady. They need Amandola to be big. There's your big. By the way, Nate Solder, Giants, one and three. Mess offensively.

Dionne Lewis, now he's a good receiver. He had catches last week, but he didn't do anything. And by the way, Sony Michelle, did you watch him last night? That young running back from Georgia for New England? Look pretty good to me. When I looked at New England last night, I'm like, I don't know. I got two running backs here I like.

I got a rookie. I got James White. I got a tight end I like. I got Gronk. I got now I got my slot receiver and a backup to a slot, Chris Hogan. And now I got Josh Gordon. And I'm not saying, by the way, the Josh Gordon thing, I'm not sure it's going to work. But, you know, insider information, Belichick knows.

It's like Albert Breer told us an hour ago. The thing Belichick is greatest at is taking a. cold, hard look at his players, even after winning Super Bowls and saying, we've got to get rid of him. And it's hard, especially when you win, because everybody's human, heavy emotion, you fall in love with players. I've had NBA executives tell me that. They're like, don't let coaches decide contracts. NBA coaches fall in love with players who reward them and win games. They fall in love with them. Belichick is the coach. He has to make hard to say, I mean, listen, they got to a Super Bowl. They won the AFC, and he got rid of sold her.

left tackle, Dionne Lewis, Danny Amandola, Malcolm Ball. He's a good players, right? They were all, and he knew. Inside information, dude always knows. Listen, I know I don't talk. Sam, my producer gets mad at me sometimes, Sam. I know I don't talk a lot of UFC, but I've always felt with sports that I got to go with my gut. Like when I'm driving to work in the morning, I got to go with my gut. I have never in my life been this excited for a UFC fight. In my life, I've never been this excited.

And by the way, at a college, I got a job in Vegas. I was the luckiest kid in the world. I get a job at a Vegas. It just so happened. Sugar Ray Leonard's in his prime. Thomas Hitman Hurns is in his prime. And Mike Tyson's in his prime. I mean, how lucky was I?

I was the luckiest kid in the world. So I didn't know boxing at all. And then for six years in Vegas, I went to all the biggest fights in the country. There was no UFC. And I've always said, boxing, all I want is two fights a year. Give me one in the spring. Give me one in the fall.

I don't want a big summer fight. Give me one in the spring. Give me one in March. Give me one in October. And I'm good. And when boxing was in its prime, it gave you two great fights a year. That's all it gave you. This is the best fight in the history of UFC.

This is it. This is the best fight in the history of the UFC. I am so excited. And then you're picking Conor decisively. I'm picking Connor decisively. I think he's the better athlete. He's the twitchier athlete. He's longer.

I think the Mayweather fight gave him robust, even though he lost, gave him incredible confidence. He's been in this spot before. Now, if Habib can win, if he pulls him down, if Habib pulls him down to the floor, to the mat, he's in trouble. Because that's Habib's strength. He is a, he wants you on the ground. And Conard doesn't want any part of that. but as a stand-up guy, two guys standing up, Connor's significantly better.

Habib's a very average stand-up fighter. But this is, I'm just going with my gut here. I'm just going with my gut. Like, this feels I cannot. I'm selling their pay-per-view right. I'm making Connor McGregor some money. I can't wait to watch this. Maybe he'll bring you some of his whiskey.

Too bad I don't drink it. You don't drink whiskey? I don't drink whiskey. Last night I had one just little small vodka. It's social lubricant. Put me in a good mood and then I crashed early.

So there you go. We have a great third hour. Ty Law is going to stop by the show. Jason McIntyre does McIntyre's Monday headlines today, which I absolutely love. We have on FS1, huge baseball playoffs coming up today. I watched the Dodgers last night. Typical of the Dodgers,

all sorts of home runs. Car shopping can be confusing. There's different terms dealer price list price and invoice true car shows you what other people paid for the car you want so you can recognize a good deal newer used it does not matter when you're ready to buy a car go to truecar.com and check out their true price tells you all the fees and accessories truecar dot com newer used hour three on a friday baseball playoffs and a little more than an hour we are rolling it's the heard ah this is The herd, hour number three, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles,

iHeart radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1, Thai Law in 15 minutes. Joy Taylor is joining me today. We had a blazing five picks. Very excited. This weekend's going to be the best. Kind of started last night. Are you looking for your darn old dollar? My darned dollars.

It's going to be. We got baseball playoffs in an hour. This is a great time of the year. If you're going to rate sports months, October is a good. great month. This weekend I'll be parked in front of the TV, watching Habib and Connor and all that stuff, and then Texas, Oklahoma, baseball playoffs after us. You know, I was driving around this morning coming to work and somebody was talking about we don't have as many rivalries as we used to. We do. You'll see one of them tonight. Red Sox Yankees, that's a rivalry. So huge, huge

sports weekend. And again, coming up in 15 minutes, three-time Super Bowl champ, Tileau, good dude, a good dude former Patriot is going to be here to talk about, you know, the Patriots let go of a lot of good players. And when he was playing, Ty Law, they let go of him. And then later this hour, Jason McIntyre is here Monday headlines today. Well, Patriots smashed the Colts on Thursday night football. So let me start with this. It used to be before Henry Ford created the assembly line.

It took 12 and a half hours to build a car. One car, 12 and a half hours. And then the early 1900. there was this guy named Henry Ford, you know, Ford, Chevy, Dodge Ford, Henry Ford. He created an assembly line. And the assembly line could make a car in two hours. Now, it was repetition. It was efficiency.

Those aren't fun words. And you know what that assembly line was about? It was about taking a man on an assembly line and telling him, you just now, you just put the steering wheel in that spot. Just do your job. You don't have to be an expert at everything. Just do your job. Well, it's repetitious. Well, it's efficient.

12 hours to two to build a car. Henry Ford changed American industry with the assembly line. And New England and Bill Belichick have changed American football forever with their own version of it. Just do your job. Josh Gordon was the 71st person to catch a touchdown pass from Tom Brady. lady. Yeah. This is what Belichick does. Interchangeable parts. OBJ. Levian Bell, Zechiel Elliott, nah, Antonio Brown. We're not going to build around an individual part. Is it fun? Well, it's winning fun? If you don't run business like the Patriots, you're out of business. Three of the

four guys who had touchdown passes last night were not Patriots last year. By the way, their red zone numbers. Their offensive numbers don't change when Gronk gets hurt. Although Gronk is valuable, but they're not going to build around you. And Henry Ford took out the individualism. It's an assembly line. Just do your job. Just put the steering wheel in.

Even Rob Gronkowski, who embodies fun, said this off-season. I'm only playing with Brady. And by the way, we see Belichick. Belichick's the mean old. He's Henry Ford. but don't kid yourself. Tom's run in the factory. Tom won't throw to you if you don't memorize the playbook. Tom would not throw to Ocho. Tom will not throw to wide receivers if you're not buttoned up and you don't get into efficiency and repetition. Folks, egos blow up teams, politics blow up teams, individuality blows up teams, noise blows up teams, Saxonville. There's no nicknames here.

guarantees Rex Ryan, Philadelphia Eagles. There's no guarantees here. Only five television shows in prime time have lasted as long as the Patriots dynasty of 18 years. And two of those are law and order. You just don't last 18 years with big individuality in the NFL, with big egos, locker room full of politics, paying a ton for perimeter players. You know, it's funny last night, listen to Buck and Ainkman. you know, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman only do Patriot games in the Super Bowl,

so they occasionally do them. But they're NFC guys. They don't do AFC games. So last night was a rare treat for Joe Buck and Troy Aigman. They were in Foxborough doing a regular season New England game. And it was interesting. It wasn't Jim Nance, who's seen a million of them. It wasn't Jim Nance.

It was Buck and Akeman. And they were just sort of marveling at the machine of the Patriots. I've played in seven straight AFC championship games. The sustained excellence, the culture here with the Patriots, is just unheard of and almost impossible to even wrap your head around. You can't even put it into words. As someone who played and I was able to win three and four years, the Patriots certainly did that and went on and have won two more. But what they've done, everything else tells in comparison. I don't care any other team you want to compare it with, maybe in all of sports, but certainly in the NFL.

There's nothing that comes close. Greatest dynasty that I've ever seen. And Troy Aikman was in a dynasty, and Joe Buck, Yankees was broadcasting a dynasty. There's nothing like it. By the way, I hear this about the Patriots assembly line their machine. It's no fun. Remember Cassius Marsh who played for the Patriots? He hated it last year.

I hate it. There's no fun here. He's now a 49er. They're going to lose again this weekend. I mean, let's be honest about it. we all have that loser cousin in our family. Man, I don't want to be tied to a job. I want my freedom.

That's called summer. You're 17 years old. Then you have to get a job and be a grown-up. Assembly lines may not always be the most fun, but winning is fun. Repetition efficiency over ego, individuality. You want that? I love the NBA too. I love the NBA.

But that's what they do. That's not what football does. All right. I'm going to mention something. I am almost, how can I put this? I'm almost embarrassed. I considered not talking about this on the show today. I don't even, but I am a journalist, and I've got to report this story.

Tom Brady last night became the third quarterback to reach 500 career touchdown passes. Of course, that's just in the regular season. Of course, he's thrown for almost 575, but the NFL doesn't acknowledge that. You know, why would you acknowledge playoffs? Oh, I don't know, because it's the one thing that separates him from Peyton Manning. That's why he's the goat and Peyton's not. That's why he's the goat and Brett Farve's not. It's embarrassing that I even talk about this.

He's won five Super Bowls. For a musician, that's five Grammys. For an actor, that's five Oscars. Do you think if this was an entertainment show, I'd spend a lot of time on Meryl Streep winning a People's Choice Award? I mean, can you imagine the NFL does not count Tom's playoff touchdowns?

If you and I got into an argument about Michael Jordan, and I liked LeBron, and you like Michael Jordan, and you said, hey, man, in your face, six for six, and I went, oh, no, you can't count that. The next word out of your mouth would be, because the braw wins everything else. Your argument for the greatest basketball player is solely about six for six. In the NFL, though, Tom Brady, 500 career touchdown passes.

No, he's got 571. By the way, he's got 71 playoff, touchdown passes. Peyton Manning's got 40. Farve's got 44. I mean, I'm not a record guy. But isn't that the difference between Brady and Manning, the 71, not the 500? Isn't that? I can remember almost all of his 71.

I don't remember a lot of his 500. What makes him the goat isn't the 500. It's the 71 that nobody counts, which is what makes Jordan isn't a Tuesday night in Denver beating the nuggets. It's the six for six. Humiliating moment for me as a broadcaster. You know, I was thinking about this, talking about kind of the assembly line, kind of the machine of the Patriots. The NBA is very much star over coach, star over team. The NFL is much more machine over star.

The downside of the way the NBA does it is there are no rivalries in the NBA anymore. Celtics Lakers means nothing. It's LeBron now against Kyrie. if they play. Oklahoma City, Golden State's not a rivalry. It's Durant against Westbrook. I couldn't give a rip if the Celtics play the Lakers. It means not. You know what I'd like to see, honestly? I'd like to see LeBron against Ben Simmons, who I think it's kind of the next LeBron. Won't ever be LeBron the score, but it'll be a good score. Yeah, but the rivalry thing in the NBA, too, like it's a different, it's a different environment.

It's a player rivalry. Yeah, and they're friends and they work out together in the offseason. The NBA doesn't have really rivalries. The NBA is a rivalry-less league now. What does it matter? It's all about when I think of a, think of the biggest, think of the biggest matchups in the NBA. It's about the player. It's about the clippers having to face Chris Paul. It's about, can somebody knock off the Kevin Durant's the dynasty?

It's more storylines than it is rivalries. That's right. The NBA is about the individual and therefore it's killed rivalries. The rivalries are just between the players and even then they don't. I don't think it makes it any less interesting. There's just more angles, and it's less, I guess it's less vicious. But you can't really buy into that anyway. Like I said, these guys are all working out together in the offseason.

They're not, this whole idea that there's like this steep hatred. But I like, I mean, I like Texas, Oklahoma. I liked Ollie Frazier. I like Auburn, Alabama. I like Steelers Ravens. I like Packers Bears. Like, I like rivalries. Rivalries are something to me.

I like, you know, the Saints in Atlanta to me, if you live in the South feels big. The Packers to me, you know, by the way, Patriots, Colts last night had a little rivalry to it because Deflate Gate Patriots. I like rival. I just don't think the, when you, when you heighten the individual, the rivalries die in sports. Now, they become personal rivalries. Too, but also then if an individual doesn't goes down for, you know, an injury, it doesn't end this season for the entire team because there's, you know, there's other individuals. I mean, if the Celtics Lakers played in the finals, would you care? Any more than. Of course. But I, but I, if the Lakers.

Especially now. Well, I would because of LeBron. And Kyrie. Yeah. But if Kyrie wasn't there and LeBron wasn't there, I'd be like, I just want to see the best players. I guess my whole point is the NFL is a system, mostly system. You can still college football. College sports is mostly about the coach and the system, not the individual.

NBA's individual, but it's killed rivalries. Well, the rivalries, I think, are strongest still in college sports and college football particularly. Yeah. Tye Law around the corner, former Patriot. He's seen guys get cut. Belichick did it. They look to be back. He'll be joining us.

Tomorrow, we have a huge day of college football. First is the Red River Showdown between number 19, Texas and number seven, Oklahoma, followed by Indiana taking on the third ranked Ohio State. Coverage begins at 11 a.m. Eastern on Fox and the Fox Sports app. I am going to have my prediction on that. The last four games between these two have been really,

really close, touchdown or less. So Tom Herman's getting it rolling. I'll talk about this game. coming after Herdline News. So we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the fight. I'm going to lay it all out for you in our spoiler alert. But first, 15 years in the NFL, five-time pro-Bullner,

one of the great patriots of all time, be the Coward Global Satellite Network. Ty Law is joining us. Ty, you played for Belichick for five years, and Herm Edwards and Pete Carroll. You played Parsels. You played for a lot of defensive guys. You really did.

and you're in that defensive huddle, but you also know Brady. When you watch him last night, I mean, good God, he's as good as, I mean, he's really clicking. What do you think separates Brady? You practiced against him for years. God, it's a new, now Josh Gordon's his new toy. What do you think makes him special? His attention to detail and his preparation, I mean, I had a front row seat when he started and people don't understand how much work he,

puts in on a daily basis, whether it's conditioning, whether it's studying, getting his receivers to go out and do extra work. It's nothing like anything I've ever seen. So it's no mistake that he's the greatest player, football player, not only quarterback, but football player of all time. He works at it, and age is just a number to him. He doesn't get caught up into the people talking about being over the hill. I'm 41 years old.

Age is just a number. He's out there having fun, and that's the most important thing. You know, Ty, you're a successful business person. I've used to, you've gone to your, you have these parks for kids. You've done very well. You've got 22 of them now. You're a business guy. So you fit, I think, very well into New England's culture.

This is why I think Bill Parcells liked you and Bill Belichick liked you. Some players say New England's not fun. To that, I would say, no, it just takes a different kind of player. Teddy Bruske, again, carries a briefcase to work. when you hear it's not fun in New England, what do you make of that? For those that don't know how to work and don't know what it takes to win,

I thought it was fun, and the people that created the culture, which you guys called a patriot way, we made it fun because we had a lot of fun amongst each other, but when it was time to step on the field, we went to work. And I think you get a lot of free agents. I know for a fact, a lot of free agents that come in, it's a totally different culture than what they're used to.

And they're like, what is this? This is work. Yes, football. Yes, supposed to be fun. Yes, it's a game. But in New England, it's work. So you have to try to find the fun within the camaraderie of the team, which we do. And it's a shock to most people because we could be laughing and joking in one minute.

But we're serious, we're very, very serious once we get out there on the field. But we still have fun within the practice as well. But, you know, it's entertaining. to me when free agents come from the other programs and come to New England and they see the difference in culture and they was like, you know, what is this? You know, because they may be used to more

of a country club type of field, you know, and you're getting paid a lot of money and you go in early. When the last whistle blows, you're in your car, and you're back home by, you know, 3.34 o'clock. It's usually not like that in New England. A lot of these young quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes is tearing it up.

Baker Mayfield people are falling in love with. You, when you were part of the Patriots, you guys ate young quarterbacks alive. Belichick's record against rookie quarterbacks is sensational. He eats them for lunch, and you were part of those game plans. Baker Mayfield is going to play this weekend. Sam Darnold, what was the secret sauce for Belichick, and you were in these game plans?

Why were they so great against young quarterbacks? What should I do against Baker? What should I do against Josh Rosner, Josh Allen? I mean, give them things that they can't figure out right away. We used to play a lot of games back there, you know, moving around. No one ever stood still so you can figure out what we were doing. We used to do that to Peyton Manning. When he was young and he really couldn't read the defense,

we had thrown a bunch of different looks to make him figure it out. And that's what you have to do to a young quarterback. And Coach Belichick has an ability to know what the quarterback strength and weaknesses are. So we took full advantage of that. But it's basically moving around, playing deep, coming up into a press, but we're really playing a basic coverage. But we were so comfortable within our own skin, we can be anywhere in a position. If you snap the ball early, we still know what we're doing. But the quarterback has no clue because it's like something, it's nothing that he's ever seen before.

Yeah. By the way, Richard. And it made it fun for us as a defense, too. Yeah, no, Teddy Bruske told me the same stories. He said, we would just make stuff up and yell stuff. And, you know, he goes, we were playing our own little card game. on defense and it took Peyton Manning years and years to kind of figure it out. Listen, I know defensive players are upset, but of the 13 highest paid players in the NBA,

six are defensive players. The other seven are quarterbacks that I would argue today that defensive players have never been more valuable because it is such an offensive game. If you can be a Von Miller, Khalil Mack, J.J. Watt, an elite Luke Keekley. When you watch the game, it is clearly more offensive-minded. Does that bother you? How does that land for you? I mean, we know that people tune in to see the quarterbacks,

but you hear what you just said, Colin. The guys that are chasing the quarterback are the highest paid defensive players. But yet, we're trying to protect the quarterbacks, which is somewhat of a contradiction because when you're going at the quarterback, how are you going to get paid the type of money that these guys getting paid,

and then you ask them to hold up and not take them to the ground? I don't know any of those defensive players that's from Krypton and that got Superman to where they can leave their feet and not put them down the ground and put their weight on. I mean, the rules are skewed. I think is biased with the quarterback. I mean, if you want to protect the quarterback like that, in my opinion, just put a bunch of flags on them and, you know, pull the flag and that's a sack. But they're asking players to do something that's not physically possible. Now, when you were in the NFL, I think when you came into the league, you could grab wide receivers and

By the time you left the NFL, you couldn't grab receivers. So how did you change? Yeah, listen, there's a lot going on with the rules. I mean, when you watch the TV and they call a flag, then they come to the so-called professional analysts that's on the TV side, and he doesn't agree with the call. So it's such a big gray area. Look at William Hayes.

He got his career shortened because he's trying to protect the court. Why isn't the same action taken amongst all the players to protect all the players? Everything has seemed to be based around a quarterback. I understand business because I'm a businessman myself. But at the same time, Colin, if you think about it, you know, I just want to make this little analogy for guys out there watching right now, there was a guy by the name of Drew Bledsoe, Perennial All-Plo, the face of the organization for the New England Patriots. if he did not get injured, not that we, you want anyone to get injured, but it happened.

It's a part of the game. We all know we signed up for. Drew Bledso got hurt. Then comes Tom Brady. We would have never got to witness the goat and the greatness of Tom Brady if it wasn't for that play. Not saying that it was a good thing by any means to Drew Bledso, but it's the part of the game that we all signed up for. So this is football. So I think that if you're going to make rules, you should protect everybody.

Because we would not be sitting here talking about the greatest quarterback and the greatest football player of all time if it wasn't for something unfortunate as that. So if it's going to be some unfortunate incidences in football, it should apply to everybody. Thai law, which by the way, you have 22. I called him like kid parks. How would you describe them? Launch. Launch, you know, family entertainment. So when we do everything, laser tag, we have Crave Cafe, Mom.

pizza concept. We have virtual reality, rock walls, ninja courses. We have it all. So it's a family fun arcade, full-fledged ticket redemption arcade games. So it's awesome. Go check it out. Launch trampoline park coming to a city near you. Yeah, using that Michigan, that University of Michigan education has made you a lot of money. Great business school. Ty, good talking to you. Thank you. Hey, thanks for having me. You bet, Ty Law, three rings, five-time Pro Bowl, a really, really good dude. I took my kid to launch multiple times in Hartford. Joy Taylor with the news.

No. Turn on the news. This is the Heard Line News. We're at Dave & Busters for Bella's ninth birthday on Monday. And I always love to challenge Earl and pop a shot because in my mind I can beat him. Yeah.

And it just doesn't work out. No, no, no. Anybody that's ever played in the NBA? He thinks it's hilarious. Yeah, he was an NBA player. Yeah, I know. Has Earl told you that he was? I'm aware. I did beat him in one game, though. But I had an extra ball. Yeah. If you play with the same number of balls, he will beat you every time.

He did beat me every time once we even did it out. Anyway, Des Bryant made a bit of a splash on social media this week by saying the Cowboys were his preferred destination. And even though he and Jerry were spotted at the Beyonce concert a few weeks ago, Jerry kind of squashed that narrative this morning. We feel good about Des and wish him the very best. Trust me, if it were in our best interest, his and ours and the teams, he would be on the field for the Cowboys. there you go. They need a receiver, not interested at all. I mean, he was there, and Jerry has a relationship with him.

So it shouldn't be too confusing that he's not going back with the Cowboys. But also, Des roasted the Cowboys players and coaching staff on the way out. Yep. You can't burn that bridge. At one point or another, even Jerry has to deal with the players and the personnel that's there. It's just not going to happen. It's a small world. Be careful of the bridges you burn.

So LeBron made a major reveal yesterday during shoot-around. He gave up wine. Wine? Here he is. It was just a part of a diet regimen that I had. Did you change anything? Yeah, it made me want wine more. But I feel great.

I feel great. But I did a two-week cleanse, and I gave up a lot of things for 14 days. And Tuesday night was actually my last day, but I'm ready until last night and stuff. What are some of the other things? What do you do? No gluten, no dairy, no alcohol, no wine, no artificial sugar. What's left? What's left? And life? Air. Cleances are the worst. I've never done one. I've done a few juice cleanses, and it's just...

And that's all you can drink or eat? Oh, that's awful. It's so bad. I didn't have dinner last night. That's not a cleanse. I just didn't have time. No, I mean, sometimes I won't eat for a long time, because our schedule's kind of weird. I eat super early in the morning, and then sometimes I won't eat lunch. won't eat till later in the day. But drinking only juice, I was just sleepy all the time. Because you just, you need, like, you need some substance.

You know, I'm from Pittsburgh. I need some meat and potatoes. I can't live off juice. But, you know, LeBron is way into wine. He's a, uh, well, I don't know if he's an officially a sommelier. No, he's not. But he likes wine. He does love wine.

I, too love wine. I don't, I'm not interested in a two-week wine cleanse either. Do you like wine? That's a very simple question. I mean, it did. Not a lot of it. I mean, what's a lot of it? I mean, I'll have a half a glass of wine with a piece of fish.

If somebody, I went to dinner last Saturday with a buddy, Trace Gallagher, a buddy of mine. He and his wife, and my wife, and I've known him for years. He works at Fox News. And he brought a bottle of wine. And then I had a really, really, really good glass of wine. And that was the first glass of wine I've had in a month. It gives me snake dreams. What's that?

If I have dreams when I drink wine and snakes are attacking me, the giant snake dreams. It's a weird thing. I'm not going to get into it. I'm not the only person that's had this. Wine gives me crazy dreams, and like giant snakes attack me. I'm not joking. I wish I was joking. It gives me snake dreams. I'm not joking. What are you talking about?

Red wine gives me like cobras are coming after me and chasing me. I get hot and I have dreams and the dreams are vivid. I don't dream ever. Do other alcohols give you different nightmares? No, no, no. Like white wine means like clowns attack you or something? No, no. I'm a nightmare to deal with when I'm a nightmare to deal with

when I have whiskey. No. No, I don't drink a lot of, no, I don't dream. They say everybody dreams. I don't dream. You don't remember your dreams. I don't remember a single. Unless you drink red wine and then you're being attacked by snakes. And they're giant yellow. And then it's snakes on a plane featuring Colin Cowder. No, they're just a terror. They're all over my feet and I can't get away from them. I'm just telling you. That's what happens to me. Okay. I guess it's not, Napa's not for you. No. I've been there. That's nice, but I don't drink wine when I go there. I have beer. Oh, wow. Yeah. The things you learn during her line. news.

Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lie News. Not going to waste any time. It's time for another edition of Spoiler Alert, where I tell you what's going to happen before it happens. So turn away if you don't want to know what's going to happen next. Warning.

Colin is about to reveal the outcomes of the biggest college football games this week. If you don't want to know exactly what's going to have. Turn away now. All right, let's start with Oklahoma, Texas. Turn away if you don't know, you don't want to know what's going to happen. First of all, Oklahoma has won 27 of their last 28 big 12 games. They've taken over the conference. And in most instances, it's not even close.

I do like what Texas is doing. And I do think Tom Herman is already showing signs that Texas is back. Now, they're not back to a national title. I think they can compete for that next year. They're too young in spots. But, I mean, Oklahoma's a machine right now. They're like Alabama. They've just separated from their conference completely.

They're the nation's eighth-best scoring offense, eighth-most rushing yards per rush, fourth-most passing touchdowns. Kyler Murray, who's actually going to play baseball over football. He should. Baseball pays more. He's going to go and play Major League Baseball. He's a great prospect. I don't think he's a great NFL prospect.

But Oklahoma is a machine. Lincoln Riley is as is as good enough. offensive coaches college football has. And, I mean, this is always a very competitive game. I just think this year, I don't think Texas is in a spot to beat them. I think Texas is really going to struggle offensively to put points on the board. So I like Oklahoma is going to win this game comfortably. All right.

Next up, Connor McGregor against Habib. Habib's never lost. Everybody loves him. Spoiler alert. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen in this fight. Connor McGregor is going to win it. Late fourth round knockout. Late four, sorry, I apologize for giving away what's going to happen.

First of all, McGregor's won 17 of his last 18 fights. He, like Oklahoma, has separated from this sport. His only loss was to a tough guy, Nate Diaz, but he had to go up two weight classes to fight Nate Diaz. Okay, when you're talking about same weight class, Connor McGregor is better than everybody in this sport, and it's not close. He's a better athlete. He's a twitchier athlete.

He's more savvy. He's more experienced. He's more confidence. He is a great stand-up fighter. Habib has to get you on the floor. And McGregor became the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two-weight division simultaneously. I mean, that's pretty remarkable. He's going to win this fight.

Late fourth round, Habib's only chance is get him on the mat. And I think McGregor's too strong and too savvy to do that. So spoiler alert. Connor McGregor wins going away. I can't wait to watch that thing. I've already spent the money I bet on it. Already bought my wife. You're very confident.

Beautiful presence. Beautiful. One of my favorite segments. Monday's headlines today. Jason McIntyre. Best for Last Next. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day,

seven days a week within the I-Hard Radio app. heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Playoff baseball after our show. Habib Connor McGregor fight, Texas, Oklahoma this weekend. This is the most excited I've been for a weekend. You are fired up. It's really a good weekend. Let's bring in my friend, the biglead.com,

Jason McIntyre, J-Mac joining us in studio. By the way, before we get to you... Wow, I got an applause, Calvary. Before we get to our Mondays headlines today. which is becoming my favorite segment. Of course. McGregor, do you, I'm going to watch the fight. I can't wait to watch it.

Do you watch it? Well, we talked about this on my podcast. Are you going to be getting down some gambling on the fight? Don't tell me you bet on Connor. A ton. Oh, boy. That's not good news. The public's all over, Connor McGregor.

And apparently this guy is fighting. I'm not even going to try to say his name because I'll butcher it. He's never lost a round. He's the much better fighter. I think McGregor's a bad play here. for you, Mr. Calhard. Got to remember in UFC. There's very few elite fighters.

So there's about six guys who are like great. And it's like tennis. I mean, it's like tennis. There's like five, there's like three great women's players and four really great men's players. And they just crush everybody else. It almost sounds like the Patriots. How did you do last night?

Did you have the Patriots? I said Joy is my witness. I said very rarely in the NFL. I can't remember the last time. excellent quarterback, got 10 and a half points, and I took the Patriots to roll. Well, the problem is Andrew Luck is surrounded by ineptitude. I know you're tight with the Colts front office, but I'm telling you, Andrew Luck's getting a raw deal.

He's throwing to undrafted guys. No, no, no. Total nobody's calling. Andrew Luck is having a remarkable season. Deshawn Watson's not playing well. Well, his offensive lines bad, but luck just is surrounded by nobody. There's some stats out there. He has such a bad defense.

He's had in Indianapolis, his whole career that like Ben Rothesberger, Aaron Rogers, all these guys have great defenses. So after the game last night, I was out. We were drinking in Manhattan Beach. And after the game, I was like, boy, glad I didn't see that, Andrew Luck, social media bashing. I'm sure it was ugly. And I'm telling you, I believe that he is as good as a Dan Marino. Dan Marino, who had nobody in Miami, Joe, you know that well, right? I mean, Dan Marino, Hall of Famer won an MVP. Andrew Luck is going to have that kind of career if Indianapolis doesn't surround him with him. No, he needs. That's why I said I thought the Colts should go after Levian Bell. I thought it was like, listen,

the bottom line is, it's not bad. He's a great receiver. And by the way, their defense up front, Darius Leonard, he's a rookie, he's having a great year. Their defensive lines like Fourth and Sacks. Their defense is better than people think. They have, they need new tackles, they need receivers, they need

a back. You're not going to get anybody in the second, third round that's close to Labian Bell. Listen, and you talk all the time. Aaron Rogers doesn't get help. Well, you tell me what help Andrew Luck is getting. No, Andrew Luck has had no help. Top 10 quarterback in the NFL, right? No, nobody in the NFL's had less. You know, you know, GMs walk through these halls at FS1 all the time. Go talk to any of them.

Oh, God, they love luck. They love luck. They're all like, oh my gosh, I'll take Andrew Luck in a heartbeat. By the way, Carson Wentz is great. He's struggling this year. And with great players around him, it's hard. This league is hard, man. Dangerous spot for Carson Wentz this weekend at home. I like the Vikings. Yes. All right, we call it Monday's headlines today. Here we go. All right, so Colin, one of the better games of the weekend, actually, the three-and-one Ravens visit the Browns and your buddy Baker Mayfield. You guys are now texting regularly, right? Very close.

So after the Ravens absolutely throttle Baker Mayfield, I'm thinking, you know, some Cleveland fans could be turned to say, where's Tyrod Taylor? That's how ugly it's going to be. I think the headline Monday will be half-baked. You like that? I do. Listen, Baker Mayfield turned it over four times against the Raiders, who have a bottom three defense in the league.

Yeah, atrocious. has the number one defense in the league in yards per play, the most important metric. Baltimore Ravens. They've given up. Baltimore's given up nine second half points all year. And they get their best cornerback. Jimmy Smith is back. Keep an eye on special teams.

The Browns are the worst in the league from kicking to returns to punting. I just, the Ravens, and I hate to say this, because I go on lock it in, you know, the gambling show. And I talk about my lock of the week. Ravens are my lock of the week. I love them this week. All right, next game up, Jaguars at Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Monday's headlines today.

So is the bust done for Patrick Mahomes? Is he in the Hall of Fame yet? I know it's at the quartermark. But after the Jags win in KC, here's your headline, not much to write Mahomes about. Come on, how about the creativity, baby? That's money. I like your head. You know what, there's a lot of newspapers that could use your work.

So you think he's going to struggle? Well, I mean, he's going against the two best cornerbacks in the league, right? Jacksonville. This is just a big step up in class for the Chiefs. It is. I mean, listen, that Denver Broncos defense, everybody was like, oh, they're good. They're not good. They have a force to turnover in three games.

And the Chargers now without Bosa, I have no pass rush. I mean, and the Steelers, we know they're a joke defensively. So Mahomes is all of a sudden on a short week going to be facing the best defense in the league. I think this is a tall order. We know Andy Reid's better with extra time on a short week. I think this is a tough spot for Casey. Good stuff. This is a good game. Raiders, well, it's at the Chargers, but it's mostly a home game.

Raiders at the Chargers, Monday's headlines today. Did you see the headline on the big lead about how the Chargers are like working around noise at their own stadium? They're preparing for the Raiders fans. But I think the Raiders go down. I like the Chargers a lot here. Grood Awakening. Oh, I didn't get a laughter there. That wasn't great.

Don't love that. Okay, so you like the Chargers to win this game? We know the Raiders. I know that were they your Baker Maker, Money Maker thing last week? I will say this. It's now Donald's dollars. I would say this, though, personnel-wise. Marshawn Lynch can still play.

Doug Martin's a great number two back. Jared Cook's great tight-in. Jordy Nelson. Amari Cooper. You can't name a player on their defense. Don't even try. It's bad. There's no team in the NFL as lob-sided as the Raiders.

They have really special offensive personnel. They don't have squat defensively. Chargers a bit underwhelming. I don't think they took the 49ers seriously. When Garapola was out. can't figure them out. It was like a Vikings Bill's game, right? The Vikings just didn't show up and the bills rolled them. Forty-niners took

the lead 14-0 nothing last week, and the Chargers just were like, oh, we got to wake up and play. This is a good team. I'm telling you, the Chargers don't sleep on them. I think there's great value on them this weekend. And, okay, how about now this game's getting no discussion, and it's really fascinating because the Cowboy games all get discussion.

Dallas Cowboys at the Houston Texans. Monday's headlines today. We could do a whole segment on the Cowboys and how boring they've gotten. I mean, seriously. I believe that Cowboys go into Houston, lose the battle for Texas, and Dak Prescott's in the crosshairs. One step forward, two steps, Dak? That's a good headline.

That's not bad. Joy, that was a thumbs up. I got to say this. Listen, Dak Prescott did not look great against the Lions, and that was his best performance of the season. What's really hurting Dallas right now? There's no juice on that team, Colin. You watch them.

They're predictable on offense. There's no real personality. He's noticed Ezekiel Elliott has really dialed it back from the suspension last year. He doesn't talk. He's not that interesting. There's nobody on the defense that's really exciting. You know, Jerry Jones, I think Jason Garrett's going to have to go. And I keep the name Jim Harbaugh, your buddy, you love Jim Harbaugh.

Keep that name in mind for the Dallas Cowboys. You know, one of the reasons you succeeded, you and I both like business. And I think our connection initially wasn't sports. It was business. I would consider you an early adapter. I've had this theory about sports. people in life and businesses that are early adapters. The Warriors were early adapters to the three.

They got ahead of everybody. About two years ahead of everybody. LeBron, by the way, was shooting threes about 10 years ago. LeBron, a little bit of an early adapter on threes. He went down to Miami in the last two years. That's all they shot. And you've done it very well. You got out of the newspaper business.

You got into the blogs before they were big. Then you, by the way, sold yours as they start to kind of peek out. Jeez, I'm a little embarrassed here. No, but I would say it's such nice things about it. But I would say this. The Cowboys are not early adapters. If you watch what's happening in the NFL, the Bears, Kyle Shanahan, the Rams, Andy Reed, their early adapters on college offenses, Belichick was too.

Belichick and Andy Reid were very early adapters. Take some college stuff and bring it to the pros. Dallas is running a professional offense. It's not clever. It's not creative. when you watch the Rams and the Chiefs play and you watch some of these teams, you're like,

oh, that's clever. Matt Nagy in Chicago. I think the word you're looking for is innovative. They are just willing to try new stuff totally outside the box NFL stuff and the defensive coordinators who grew up ready for the pro-style offense and the eye formation.

They're just confounded by this. They're not ready. And if you're looking for another early adapter, I'm telling you, sports gambling is on the rise like never before. So I started this podcast at FS1 coming up winners. And there's a lot of podcasts out there now in this space.

We know that FS1's in the gambling TV. Let's just say I know other networks that are starting to make moves. They want to get involved in the sports gambling. This is what's going to pop in the next 24 months. You're going to see a big surge in sports gambling. First of all, gambling makes sports more fun. And it's unpredictable. We like to think we know the NFL, Colin.

We have no idea what's going to have. Nobody does. 57.5% last year. that's what I try to hit. I say this all the time about like everybody, you know, sometimes I watch the media. Oh, the NFL's dying. The NFL is dying. What do we bet in America?

We bet football. We don't bet baseball. We don't bet the NBA. If you don't think gambling is going to help the NFL, then you're just not paying attention. Because the NFL, it's a once a week bet. Everybody can play. Baseball's too many games to be a big better. You have to really be into it.

And most people are busy. They have lives and kids and careers. NBA 82 games. The NFL, 16 games in the fall, moves to winter. It's easy to play. You got to make one big bet. You watch what professional gambling. You watch what gambling now does to the NFL.

It's going to give it the next five years. Huge. It's going to be huge. You mentioned NFL dying. So we saw a big surge in traffic on the big lead in September. So we compared it to the prior year. I believe it's up 96% traffic-wise on Sundays on our website. NFL content on Sundays.

Up 96 from the previous year. I mean, I'm telling you, right now, the NFL is very, the NFL's hot. Well, the quarterbacks are healthy. That's huge. You have great quarterbacks. You've got new blood baker. The Thursday games on Fox are way better games. They're giving you big time, like Minnesota Vikings Rams, that could be the NFC championship.

And by the way, as beat up as the Colts are, I got to watch Brady and Luck last night. I'm getting like star quarterback. And the other thing, and I know this is not new territory, but there really is a lot of in the league. There are so many good teams that every Sunday you've got like six or seven must see matchups. By the way, you want to know who's good and nobody watched him last week?

Josh Rosen. Yes. Nobody saw Josh Rosen because we were all I was watching Baker Mayfield. And that was that game by the way. You watched that. That game was great. The Raider game in the Browns game, even though it was played in the baseball infield, was great. Nobody watched Josh Rosen. Dude was good. I think Rosen had a good game, but the 49ers

will be ready. You know, John Lynch, they're going to be prepared for this. Keep an eye on Darnold against the Broncos defense. I think Darnold everybody's selling Sam Darnold now. Oh, hey, he wasn't good against the Jags. Well, nobody's good against the Jaguars. Go ask Tom Brady about that. Watch Darnold this weekend. I believe he erupts

and has a big game for the Jets. Love them this weekend. One of my blazing five picks. Yes. The Jets. Yeah, one of my blazing five picks. Michael Vick on the show Monday, where Colin was right. Where Colin was wrong. I want to thank J. Mack, Jason McIntyre, Ty La. Ben Volan, Boston Globe, Senior Reporter. He was great. Albert Breer as well.

Have a great weekend. I'm going to take Connor McGregor and the Oklahoma Sooners in L.A. It's the herd. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the Internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline.

And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy,

not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer 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, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way

with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor.

It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on,

a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed Human.