The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Tom Brady-Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and sport biases

Episode Date: February 5, 2019

Colin compares the legacies of New England Patriots QB Tom Brady and Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, Los Angeles Lakers F LeBron James some times being difficult to work with, the latest update on New Orleans Pelicans F Anthony Davis, and how media has sport biases. Guests include Peter King, Rob Parker, Eric Dickerson, and Tony Gonzalez. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We are live in Los Angeles on IHart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor and I ready to roll on a Tuesday. We still got a lot of football to talk about. You know, it's funny, I remember this every year. Monday you talk about the game. And then I always feel like Tuesday, stories come out about the game and you get like an added dimension to the football game and stories are starting to pour out about the game and what happens.

It's kind of fun. It's the best time of the year. It is the best time. Plus we got the Anthony Davis-Lebron thing. I want to talk about this. I'm driving to work this morning. And here they come. The Tom Brady Michael Jordan, who's the greatest of all time

because Tom Brady's blown away, you know, the great ones. He's blown away Montana and Peyton Manning. Those guys are unbelievable. And Tom's blown past him. So now it's like, okay, the only thing left is Michael Jordan. And, you know, it's a fun argument. But I just want to say this. There's a lot of arguments that you're never going to win.

You're never going to win at the local bar. And you're never going to win the Tom Brady's greater than Michael Jordan at the bar argument. Because the Michael Jordan argument is easier. Six for six. Six finals. Six wins. six MVP's nobody mentions

he played for 15 years that's too complicated that's why people don't play golf 330 million Americans three play golf why because it's hard it's a hard argument

you're never going to win that Michael had to be like Mike brand the shoe culture you know he was the first corporate superstar in America that all the corporations jumped on you're never going to win that argument but I can make argument for Brady I can make argument for Brady

I can make make arguments for Brady. Think about this. Football is much less forgiving than basketball. Football is much more precise than basketball. If a quarterback in a Super Bowl makes two mistakes, one doesn't even have to be him. It can be a tip ball that's intercepted. You lose the game. In the NBA, you could have three atrocious games in the finals and still win. I this morning went and looked up Michael Jordan's worst NBA final games. He had a nine for 26 clunker and a 11 for 28. Sonics, jazz, jazz, Lakers.

It didn't matter. They had a better team. And you can have a terrible night shooting in the NBA. And you got tomorrow night, game two, game three, game four. Football is much more precise and much less forgiving. Advantage Brady. Number two is Brady won with several different stars. There was the Dion Branch era.

There was the Cory Dylan era. There is the Gronk era as he's deteriorated. Now it's the Edelman era. Brady's won with several Robbins. He's Batman. He's had a lot of robins. Michael Jordan didn't do anything pre-pippin and anything post-pippin. Michael Jordan struggled to win playoff series.

Forget titles. He struggled to win playoff series without Scotty Pippin. Even in college, he won a title with James Worthy. James Worthy left. two years in college. He didn't win the next year without James Worthy. Okay, advantage Tom. Here's the third one.

Tom, in a sport where even practice is hard. Football practice is hard. Basketball practice, I had it in high school. It's fun. You sweat. There's a lot of drills that are fun. Football practice, and I love football, I hated football practice. It's hard.

And yet Tom Brady has gone 18, 19 years. Never missed a beat. emotionally, Michael Jordan quit twice. He quit. It's like, it's too much. It's too emotionally draining. He quit twice. In a sport that's easier, that elevates the star, that worships the star, that back massages the star.

He had his own dressing room with the bulls. Football, rain, sleet, practice, tackled, hurt, always 19 years, not a break. advantage Tom. I can make all those arguments for Tom. But I also know that Michael's the first corporate superstar. And Michael was cooler. And cooler matters. And be like Mike and the Nike bubble.

I can't win those arguments. And I also know that Michael Jordan has nostalgia on his side. Michael Jordan's like a piece of art. I swear to God, he gets better. Michael's gotten better every year. When you close your eyes, close your eyes, If you're sitting at home, if you're driving and listening, do not close your eyes. But if you are at home, do me a favor, close your eyes.

And I want you to just think of Michael Jordan. You don't even remember the Orlando Woolridge Jordan's a ball hog years. You don't remember Quentin Daly. You don't remember all the firings. You don't remember the Washington Wizards jersey. You don't remember the broken leg. You don't remember the baseball. And that team, by the way, finished last.

you don't remember any of it. Michael's art, he gets better every year. You don't even remember the bad times. But I will leave you with this. If you want to make an argument, let me just leave you with this. Basketball is a sport built for dynasties. Football is not. In 13, just remember this, 13 NBA players have safe.

Six rings. One NFL player does. Last name Brady, first name Tom. There's my argument. All right. Let's segue to the NBA. The big story right now, it's obviously it's early February. The big story is a training deadline Thursday.

And, you know, there's going to be guys moving around and stuff. But the big story is Anthony Davis, a great player, has informed his team through his Agent Rich Paul. I don't want to play here anymore. I've given you guys like six and a half years. You've messed up trade, signed band contracts, had a bunch of coaches. I'm out.

And I always support the mobile player. I mean, owners move their teams. GMs, coaches move. Why can't star players? And it's not like he didn't give them time. He gave him six and a half years. The story I'm told last night from two sources I trust is that the Lakers want Anthony Davis now.

They want to create inertia. They want to create chemistry. And frankly, there's a lot of tension in the building. LeBron didn't come here to waste another year of his life with Lance Stevenson, Javail McGee, and Lonzo Ball. That's not why LeBron came to the Lakers. There is intense pressure to get it done. And the Pelicans know this. And the Pelicans have leverage here.

A, they know the Lakers need 80 now. Secondly, I am told there is massive pressure on the Pelicans general manager, Demps from other league executives to not trade Davis to the Lakers now. If you're going to do it, do it at the end of the year. Nobody's going to do the Lakers any favor. The Lakers have been the rich, good-looking guy at the high school reunion. People are tired of him. They're the most glamorous franchise.

They've got all the titles. They've had all the free agents. And now they've got LeBron, who people already resent many in the NBA because he's kind of manipulating the league and moving guys. around. There is massive pressure on Dell Demps to not make this move now. And the Pelicans have a little, you know, tension there because the Lakers just keep adding player and draft pick and player and draft. The Lakers are now up to eight players and swallowing a horrible contract, Solomon Hill. Eight players between picks and players and a bad contract. I've never seen a trade

in terms of overall people more lobsided. I still think you always want the star over the other guys. But here's what's going to be interesting. The Lakers are acknowledging, I'm told, they're going to have to wildly overcompensate. They're going to have to give more picks than they want, potentially four first round picks. They're going to have to give more players than they want,

essentially all of their good young players. They're going to have to give an expiring contractor to, and they'll also have to swallow a terrible, terrible contract with Solomon Hill. But what the Lakers believe is this. When you live in New York, when you're the owner of the Cowboys, Yankees, Lakers, there are these massive brands, Ohio State football, Notre Dame football, but let's just keep it to pro sports. At these big cowboy brands, Yankees, Lakers, Real Madrid, that kind of stuff,

that great creates its own chemistry and inertia. And that if you get an A-Rod to the Yankees or if you get a AD with LeBron to the Lakers, you can't really overpay for it. You'll get so many benefits, so much free publicity, so much marketing. Other guys will want to be in in this millennial NBA where stars want to join the cool team that wins titles

that you just overpay for it. There are some things, I don't love the idea of it, But when you have these unique American or global sports brands, and I would say Yankees and Lakers, cowboys are very rare. It's rarefied air. You just get the star and worry about everything else later. Jerry Jones said it a year ago talking about his stadium when he built his stadium. And he said, you know what, man, there were cost overruns.

But I look back at my life, I overpaid for my big successes every time. And when I tried to get a bargain, I ended up getting it and not being happy or missing out. And this was sort of the Steinbrenner philosophy with the Yankees. It's the Jerry Jones philosophy and the Lakers now are having to kind of own the fact. They're given away all their draft picks, all the mentoring, all the coaching, all the work, all the drafts, everything. It just leaves and you get Anthony Davis and it will create a momentum and an inertia that for these big brands pays off. And people want to join the party. You know, Jason Whitlock was laughing about this yesterday.

I mean, the Lakers now are up to, according to one report, giving away eight different pieces. Magic doesn't want to give up everything. I don't think Polinka, Jenny, but they just don't want to scrap everything for Anthony Davis. But that's what they're about to do because LeBron and Rich Paul are forcing them to. Draft picks and everything else. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's bones will be thrown into this trade at some point. it's the reality of business with LeBron. When you get into business with LeBron, there's some carnage.

Well, it's also just temporary. You have to do what's going to make you successful in the next few years, not in the next 10 years or 20 years. You're not building a dynasty. You're trying to get a championship. Exactly. So, you know, this is the LeBron business. Pat Riley's probably laughing his butt off right now,

seeing what his buddy Magic's going through. I told you so, Magic. You got to give up the few. give up picks to win now. And I think with these big global and domestic brands, there is a certain chemistry and inertia and momentum that's created when you get the A-Rod, when you win a Super Bowl, when you get multiple stars, Shaq and Kobe, and it just kind of takes over the league and has a life of its own and you go for it. And you give up all your rental properties to buy that one big house in Beverly Hills. And, you know, it's, it probably doesn't know what makes business sense,

You sit and watch it grow, and then everybody gets rich, and then you fight over it when dad dies. I don't know. But this is the very latest we have on this story. I'll give you more as it develops. And my gut feeling this morning is different than my gut feeling yesterday. My gut feeling this morning is the Lakers do not get Anthony Davis by Thursday, which is going to raise another huge question, which I'll get to later in the show. I thought 24 hours ago it was going to happen.

I don't think so today. this morning, based on my source that said, Dell Demp's is facing intense pressure from around the league to not let the Lakers have AD. Now there is an anti-Laker bias in this league. There's no question about it. There has been for years. People are tired of the Lakers getting all the attention,

love glamour and players. Coming up next, you know, I've said this before. There's an anti-patriot bias. Boy, do I know. notice it in the last 24 hours. I want to bring it to your attention. That's coming up next. Hi, it's the herd. Nobody should feel unsafe at home, period. Fear has no place in a place like home. That's been SimplySafe's mission from day one. You may have seen their commercial about it during

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And Peter King this hour. Rob Parker has to eat some crow. Eric Dickerson, Tony Gonzalez, now a Hall of Famer. Excited for him. I've said this for years. The media, they're human beings. Men, women, they have favorite teams, favorite politicians. They're imperfect. Just admit it. That's why we have a segment every week called Colin right, Colin wrong. I whiff, I tell you, I acknowledge it. I look in the mirror. That the media bias is not simply in what they say. It's in the stories they choose to cover. I've worked in newsrooms and said, why aren't we covering that?

And the young producer, maybe leaning left or right politically, has a favorite team or a team they don't like. We just don't cover the story. It's interesting, isn't it? Think about last year. Malcolm Butler, a good, not spectacular corner, was benched for the Super Bowl. He had a bad week of practice. In the two previous playoff games, he got absolutely torched by Blake Bortles and Marcus Marietta.

That sentence had never been uttered. And Belichick decided, you relate to practice, you've been awful, I don't like the matchups, I'm benching you. and the media vultures circled Belichick. He's a dope. He's out of touch. This will never last. The dynasty is certainly over. This for the greatest coach of all time.

Malcolm Butler in the two previous playoff games was awful. Blake Bortles and Marcus Marietta when they threw and targeted him had 146 quarterback ratings. Belichick, best coach in football, said, yeah. I'm not going to play you. You had a bad week of practice. You're a mess. Vultures, teeth sharpened, eaten alive.

Sean McVeigh, meanwhile, who has two playoff wins, one with an asterisk, did not play Todd Gurley much the last two weeks. McVeigh said he's healthy. Todd Gurley came out after the Super Bowl and said, now I'm healthy. Where's the criticism? Where are the credits that Sean McVeigh has earned that Bill Belichick did not earn. McVeigh, who I like a lot, the Rams who are very fun to watch,

but McVeigh had a stinker. And if Gurley is healthy and the Rams simply lied, how in the world would we treat the Patriots for that? Todd Gurley is a top 10 NFL player. When he had 18 plus touches, the Rams were 9 and 0. Super Bowl. Barely part of the game plan. So either McVeigh should get crushed for not giving him the ball, or the Rams and McVeigh should get torched for lying about it. Malcolm Butler was atrocious in the two previous weeks in the playoffs. Blake Bortles ate him up.

Marcus Marietta ate him up. Had a bad week late to a meeting, Belichick benched him. And it was shark week among the meetings. media. It was vulture circling. So when you tell me the media doesn't have a bias, I look at this story and think really, no bias

ever. Bill Belichick is in arguably the best football coach ever, and I say that with Jimmy Johnson as a friend. I say that loving Bill Parcells. Belichick has separated from the profession. We gave him not a single

pass. McVeigh, two playoff wins, one with an asterisk. I mean, the story's moved on. The media's reaction to it is, OK-dokey, have a good off-season. See ya in Cancun, maybe. That's it? All right.

The bias is not just in the words you're right, but in the stories you cover. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, when it comes to NFL quarterbacks, I think everyone is now fully agreed upon Tom Brady being the goat.

Finally. There's a little bit of discussion about overall who's the best player. A little more of a preference conversation. Sure. But as far as the quarterback goes, he's the greatest. But if you run into Tom Brady in the street and you're calm enough to tell him that he's the goat, he would rather you not. He'd actually rather you tell him that he's trash.

His response to being called the goat. I don't even like that. I don't even like it. It makes me cringe. It makes me cringe. It makes me cringe. I guess I take compliments worse than I take. I wish you would say you're trash.

You're too old. You're too slow. You can't get it done no more. And I would say, thank you very much. I'm going to go through your wrong. You're driven by criticism more than you're driven by success. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there's a, I actually agree with him.

Oh, yeah. And I think that means that there's something wrong. But it's a good thing, though, I think. If you don't want to simply be praised and told that you're right all the time and have yes people around you, You want to have people that make you better. And his psychology on it is like I'd rather be told that I'm not good so that I get that fire stirring that I can go out there and prove you wrong

as opposed to being cushy and comfy. Like, yeah, you know what, I am the goat. I always use the Jerry Tarkhanian example. Jerry Tarkhanian, all the winds blur together. But he could remember every loss in his career. And he didn't have a lot. But most of us are driven, I think, a little bit more by fear of losing than joy of winning. And I don't think that's a, I think it's a human quality.

think as a parent, I don't remember. If I make one mistake, I can remember losing my son for 10 minutes once in a grocery store way more than I can all the Disneyland trips. I mean, it's like the reality is fear is a powerful motivator being told no is really powerful. I mean, it's, it's, I think it's also a competitive thing. You know, you don't want to lose that competitive drive. And once you start thinking, you know what, I am the best, I am the greatest. And, you know, we talk about Muhammad Ali saying he's the greatest.

But that was a whole different persona and energy. And it's different in this case. Now, I also think it'll be interesting to see if his tone changes when he retires. Because I do think this is part of his and Belichick's, like, psychological warfare on each other to keep themselves motivated. So I wonder if he's going to change his tune when he retires. So Brian Flores was officially named the new head coach of the Dolphins yesterday. A defensive guy. Yes.

The first defensive guy with the Dolphins, Sensational. He's the latest coordinator that's risen through the ranks under Belichick. And his intro presser yesterday, he talked about how Belichick will now be his indivision rival. My relationship with Bill, it'll be a little bit different and that will be competing against each other. And I'll always have a great respect for him. I don't have to think it'll be the same on his part. I really do. He's been a mentor to me.

He's been great to me for 15 years. He's been a sounding board for me. I don't see that changing. You know, the only thing will change is we won't play each other for those three, four hours. We won't like each other, and that's okay. That's part of, you know, being competitors, and we're both going out to win every week. He knows that.

He taught me that, so I don't think it'll be much of a big problem. Now, we all knew this was happening, but it's now obviously official, and I love this hire for the Dolphins. Now, traditionally, Bill Belichick coaching tree prodigies haven't been very successful, but Dolphins did give him five years fully guaranteed, which I like, because I don't think that the constant turnover, of coaches is a positive thing. Oh, I think it's awful.

You come in and you have a terrible season. Fire him. It's been one year. What on earth can you accomplish in one year? What can you possibly build or change in one year? You're going to make a decision. I always had a feeling like in college football. I just, the first year doesn't count. All I ever want is by the second year, the midpoint in the second year,

am I watching you and do I see a plan of attack or a point of view? The bottom line is he got to find a quarterback. So Brian's only going to be as successful as the quarterback position. Sure. Because Belichick got fired in Cleveland. So I don't know if he's going to be a great coach because that's the first time I've ever heard him talk. I mean, he literally's been, you know, but I will say this. If they draft the right quarterback, he's going to be a good coach.

And if he can't figure that out, then he'll get fired. Well, they haven't really said anything publicly about what they're going to do with Tantahill. They have some contract maneuvering to do. I think Tanta Hill will be there this year at least, even if they do draft someone. because I don't think there's any clear you have to have this guy quarterback in this draft. So if they do take someone, they may have him sit behind Tiana Hill. But that's obviously the biggest factor. You're really only as good as your talent when it comes down to it.

Finally, Kyrie Irving is reportedly unhappy with the perception that his free agency decision will be influenced by other stars like KD or Anthony Davis or even LeBron. A former teammate of Kyrie's Told Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix. He hates the narrative that other players can influence his decision. he gets frustrated when he feels people are trying to manipulate him. In his mind, it doesn't matter if it's Davis or James, he's going to do whatever he wants to do and to assume otherwise is disrespectful.

It's kind of a fair point. I mean, everything that we've talked about with Kyrie as far as leaving has been, oh, he's going to go play with KD in New York, or, oh, he's going to come to L.A. and play with LeBron again. There's not really a lot of talk about where's Kyrie going to go. A lot of that has to do with the fact that he really already has a team in Boston. Yeah, I mean, I think at some point, every athlete professionally has to battle themselves. Like Tom Brady's wealthy. How do I get motivated?

Tom Brady loves going home. How do I go to work? I think Kyrie's got to get better at being a little more emotionally disciplined, realizing the world doesn't cater to you. You're going to get talked about all the time because you're a superstar and a fascinating player. And you sometimes have to manage yourself. My dad used to always say that. They used to say men manage money better than themselves. That's why there's men all over Wall Street and prisons. We don't manage ourselves well at all.

We're good at managing money. And I think Kyrie Irving is going to have to become better at managing Kyrie. Listen, if you're as good as Kyrie, you're going to get talked about all the time in the NBA. Like you're going to be on blogs and stories. I mean, I understand how he feels. Like, he is a superstar in his own right. And we talk about him as always being linked to someone else. And that was kind of what we all assumed was the point of him going to Boston to have his own team.

be the leader in the alpha of his own team. And he's got it. Right. And I didn't like it. This trade deadline and free agency is going to be crazy. This is the NBA. It's star driven. It'll start to get talked about a lot. It's this. Joy Taylor. With the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd line news. You know, as I'm watching the Patriots dynasty, it makes me think is that I can see somebody duplicating what the warriors are doing because I can see a bunch of great stars getting together in another city. It could be L.A. It could be New York. I can see the Warriors championships that dynasty being replicated. We've seen that a lot in the NBA.

I'm not sure if New England can be. And I want to bring in Peter King via the Carroll Global Satellite Network. I mean, Peter, you've been covering this league for 30 years. I don't think we're going to see a 20-year dynasty. I don't. I mean, you talk to Robert Kraft. You talk to Brady. Privately or not so privately, do they think you can duplicate this?

It's not happening, Colin. it's never going to happen. I mean, it's amazing that, I mean, consider the truly great teams of our lifetime, okay? The truly great ones, okay? And that would be, dependent on how old you are, the Green Bay Packers, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the San Francisco 49ers. There have been a lot of very good teams that might have won a couple of them, but I'm talking about the great teams, all right?

all of those teams exist one less. They won less. And they existed in a time before free agency and before a salary cap. And what is amazing about this run is that, and I said it last year when the Seth Wickersham story came out on ESPN, that everybody is saying, oh, my God, it's going to be the end of the Patriots. And who knows? Maybe it would have been who I don't know. But just think of this.

The best owner-coach quarterback triumvirate, I think of our lifetime, you know, before this one was Eddie DeBardo, Bill Walsh, Joe Montana. Yeah, yeah. They lasted 10 years. They lasted 10 years. Well, assuming that Brady plays again, it's Kraft Belichick Brady, and they're entering their 19th year. It's amazing. We're never going to see it again. Kraft told me at midnight on Sunday, you will never see this again.

This is not an owner bragging about his team. This is the absolute truth. We're not seeing it again. You know, two things are happening that I think are an advantage to New England. The league is getting younger and the league is more mobile. So the same guys, the same staff, the same old line coach. The Patriots are uniquely experienced. and uniquely old and key spots coaching and playing.

And as the league gets more mobile and hires younger players and younger coaches and everybody's moving around and staffs are changing, you know, I look at Josh McDaniels in that relationship with Brady, and I think it's the most under-discussed relationship in the NFL. Go to this Sunday's game. By the way, they put in eight plays, as you reported first, in Kansas City in a hotel dining room. And then in this one, I mean, Josh McDaniels, to me, I could argue, you won this game. Did he not? Well, you know, Colin, I was over at their party

132 o'clock Monday morning at their hotel. And one of their guys told me, he says, you need to find out what happened with, you know, in the fourth quarter and how we changed everything on that deal. So I know Dwayne Allen, okay? He's the backup tight end to Gronk. And I knew him pretty well when he played in Indianapolis. So I asked everybody, where's Dwayne Allen? Where's Dwayne? I finally find him. You know, I can barely hear him over Snoop Dog because there's this 90-decible party going on. And I asked him, I asked him to tell me what exactly happened. He said, Josh McDaniels gathered us all on the sideline. And he said, essentially, that we're changing everything that we've done to this point.

We haven't practiced this at all leading up to this game. We want to keep their standard defense on the field. We don't want them to go nickel. We want them to go base defense because we think we would have great matchups in our passing game running gronk against linebackers, Edelman maybe against a linebacker, a running back like Rex Burkhead against the linebacker. We're going to get these.

matchups. So they did it. Five plays, 69 yards, the only touchdown of the game. And to me, I agree with you totally. The guy who's lost in all of this for the New England Patriots, that they're incredibly lucky has not been picked off. And for the life of me, with some of the things we've seen coaches do over the years, for everybody to hate on McDaniels because he backed out of the Colts thing last year, and I get it. I get it. It was a bad thing to do. But to now say, well, you're never going to coach again, and maybe he'll never be ahead, coach. I don't know. But wow, what a job he's done both in Kansas City and in Atlanta, in the championship game and the Super Bowl. Peter, I think we're giving McVeigh a little pass.

Last year, we ate Belichick alive because Malcolm Butler didn't play in the Super Bowl, but he had been eaten alive by Blake Bortles and Marcus Mariotta in previous playoff games. Bortles and Marioita had 146 combined quarterback rating when they threw at him 11 times. and then he had a bad week of practice. Then he was late to a meeting. And Belichick said, you're not playing well, you're out. He was ravaged. Todd Gurley didn't play.

Gurley says I'm healthy. McVeigh says I'm healthy. They're 9 and 0 when he touched the ball 18 times. They're either lying about his health or McVe tortured it. Shouldn't we be more critical of McVe here? Oh, I think so. And I think Sean McVeigh has some plays in this game that he would like to have back. But Colin, I'll tell you this.

This is my problem, more so than that because honestly, you know, Todd Gurley had not been an impact player for the last two months. And whether there's something wrong with him or whether teams are playing them a different way, I can't tell you that. All I know is I would not have entered the Super Bowl saying we're giving it to Gurley 28 times. Yeah. I just wouldn't have done it. Yeah. And C.J. Anderson, three of the last four games, has been a better back. So I guess what I'm saying, I guess what I'm saying is I fault Sean McVey for something else for not being explosive, imaginative, a little crazy. That's what the Rams are with all the motions, all of the, all of sort of the crazy ideas on offense.

There was none of that in this game. And maybe Belichick took it away. But all I'm saying is I'm more, I would be more angry as a Rams fan that they play. They executed a pretty boring offensive game plan that wasn't the McVeigh kind of game plan. And that's one of the big reasons why the only points they scored were on a miracle, not a miracle, but on almost a Hail Mary field goal in four quarters. That's amazing, really. I think it's going to be, and I know you don't pay a ton of attention to the draft,

but the Patriots have 12 draft picks. The Colts have nine and a hundred million in cap space. I do believe there's a handful of teams. Kansas City has a loaded roster, a great quarterback, a great coach. I think Philadelphia is my pick for the NFC. I think Howie Roseman, Doug Peterson, Lori and Wentz are all really gifted people. Is there a team, as we kind of wrap a ball in the season, is there a team next year that if I said to you, Peter, they're going to surprise people or they're your team?

I've said, I think the Colts are going to pop next year with the new players, the money, and the picks. Do you have one? I love the Colts. I think that's a fantastic pick with a healthy quarterback. I really like the Ravens too because it's a year of getting Lamar Jackson used to playing in a system that will combine what he does well and also combine some downfield throws which they need to execute in that offense. But I do want to say one thing about the draft column. Just think about this. The New England Patriots will pick 32nd in the first round.

in the next 68 picks of a draft that all the guys early on anyway are saying it's the second and third rounds in going into the fourth where the strength of this draft is between pick 32 and pick 100 68 picks new england has six picks they got more picks in the first three rounds than anybody so with those picks in my opinion if the patriots choose to i think they could easily move up into the middle of the round and get the quarterback who they think in 2021 or 22 will succeed Tom Brady. Yeah. Now, could that be Kyler Murray? Daniel Jeremiah thinks so.

And I think it's really smart to look out for Kyler Murray for this reason. Remember what the Patriots were doing three days before the draft last year. Josh McDaniels was with Baker Mayfield in Texas. I forget who reported that. It might have been Peter Schrager or somebody on draft night. but that was reported on draft night, never refuted by the Patriots. So obviously they have it in their head. Let's get a quarterback.

And they've got all these picks. If they want to, they will be able to move up and get their long-term quarterback in this draft. Oh, great stuff, Peter King. He throws out a Baker-Mayfield Patriot Nugget. Look at that. I can't let that go. That's great. Peter, NBCSports.com, thanks.

It wasn't my nugget, though. It wasn't my nugget. I stole it from, I think, NFL Network on draft night. So give them the credit. Okay, I will. Thank you, Peter. Can you imagine, Joy, if the Patriots would have drafted Baker Mayfield, my life would have been turned upside down.

What would I have done? That would have been a pretty interesting conflict for you. Would have been fun to see you sort that out. I know. That's a great way to. There are a lot of a lot of. You know what I think? I think if the Patriots had taken Baker Mayfield,

you would have immediately changed your tone. Like, they know something that I don't. I would have had. Baker's got in the room with them and convinced them that he is different personality. All I know is I would have a moversial. Because I would have emotionally had to unpack a lot. You would have taken a few days and sort of that. I would have to see a therapist.

A team of therapists. I'm a very expensive decision on their part for you. Coming up, the downside to bringing LeBron to your city. That's next. In L.A., it's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. So just give you an update.

And we've talked about this before, that, you know, the duality in life. You know, I mean, with good comes bad, with bad comes good. LeBron's obviously a great player. Last 10, 12 years, best player in the NBA, and he's won a bunch of titles. But the Lakers right now, when you do business with LeBron, you can ask Dan Gilbert, you can ask Magic Johnson privately, you can ask Pat Riley. You've got to sell a little bit of your soul. Pat Riley right now is laughing his ass off in Miami, looking at Magic Johnson, his buddy saying, this is what I warn you about because they had talked about it. When LeBron wants a play date with

Anthony Davis, you have to sell your other kids. There's a little bit of that with LeBron. 15th year in the NBA, three titles and two franchises mostly wrecked when he left. He left Cleveland. They were a disaster. He left Miami with Pat Riley and Mickey Erison. D. Wade, like these are

legends in the NBA. Kind of a mess. He just left Cleveland. They're back to be in a mess. The offers, the Lakers are having to make to even consider a deal for Anthony Davis. The Pelicans want four first round and second round picks to start with. Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Michael Beasley, Ray John Rondo, Lance Stevenson, Lanzo Ball, eight players, and they also have to swallow a horrible contract, Solomon Hill, who can't play but makes a bunch of money.

You would think they were trading LeBron James. Right? What's Anthony Davis ever done? We know he's talented. And this is the theory. You have to make decisions. LeBron's about winning now. LeBron's window does not include a developing Lanzo ball.

They need a star player. And I would say this. It's the duality of LeBron. You'll win when he's there, but you're going to be left with a mess on your hands. I would say increasingly, I was told by a league executive a couple of weeks ago that LeBron's getting harder to work with. His window's closing. He is more demanding.

He doesn't have years to burn. He doesn't have practices to burn. and sometimes his guys can be exhausting. They want total loyalty, and they don't give it in return. They think you're hustling them. They're fighting for every penny, and it can be exhausting. And you've got to give away picks, and you've got to get away players, and LeBron wants to win now, and it's not easy.

And LeBron was never easy because the best player in the world at any sport's not perfectly easy, even Brady and Michael, and they're not easy. Jeter wasn't perfectly easy despite what you read. But LeBron's become increasingly difficult, and I also think LeBron's LeBron, and this is fair to say, has a history of, for whatever reasons, he can struggle with authority figures. He struggled with coaches. He struggled with Spolstra.

He struggles now with Luke Walton, despite what everybody says. He struggled with Riley, Mickey Erison, Dan Gilbert, you know, David Blatt. He can struggle a lot if you don't have his worldview. If you don't acquiesce to what he wants, then LeBron gets, you know, and the window's closing now. He's not in your eight with 10 years left. he's now in year 15. He just came off an injury.

There's a lot going on here. And do I feel a little desperation, a little panic with the Lakers? Yes, because here's what I keep coming back to. LeBron, I mean, remember last year he had a terrible January? And then there was the rumor of a trade. And then he went out that night and played great. He can be a little moody. I found at the Super Bowl, LeBron was very, very happy on his Instagram,

very happy on Twitter this weekend. And why? Because the reports were coming out that Anthony Davis and the Lakers were getting real close. What happens Thursday if it doesn't happen? And my sources tell me this morning it's closer to not happening than happening. What does LeBron do for the next three months? Do you get, I'm out because of load management, LeBron, whatever that was? I'm just saying.

Doug Gottlieb said on our show a year ago, and, you know, I like LeBron and I like his camp, and I think they've been great for the league, but you've got to look in the mirror sometimes. It's LeBron comes 15 years in this league, 16 years. We got three titles, and we got three different wrecked franchises when he leaves. Here's Doug Gottlieb. Look at the record for the calves when he left.

Look at the record for the heat when he left. Part of it is that's who LeBron is. You try and create everything to be perfect for him, and when he leaves, it's like the kid that comes over to your house, and every time he comes over to your house, right, somebody ends up being sick or the playroom's messed up. What happened? They're like, well, LeBron was here. This is what happens.

LeBron's a lot of fun, and everybody has a good time. And then when he leaves, you know, everything is a mess. That's LeBron James. When he leaves, he leaves it a mess. Other players, when they leave, they leave the situation better than it had been. And it's just not anti-lebron, but remember, this is a tougher situation to begin with. When he went to Miami, they had a star, and they brought one along.

Immediately, Wade and Bosch. When he went to Cleveland, they had a star, Kyrie, and they brought one along immediately, Kevin Love. LeBron's just looking for one guy that's even close to his level. Forget a second. This is tougher. LeBron's out of his prime. I mean, this situation, I'm being told it's tense, and if it doesn't get done Thursday, it is going to be a very interesting second half of the Lakers.

Hour 2 next. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd. weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Ah, hour two. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're live in Los Angeles. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1.

It is great to have you here today. Joy Taylor is joining me for hour two. Rob Parker is going to have to eat a lot of crow. I can't wait for that. Cannot wait for that. I mean, I was watching that game thinking all these haters out there. Let me start with that. Haters.

Let me start with this. Do you ever watch those movies with Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry? America loved Clint Eastwood. For 30 years, he was the anti-hero, right? Tough guy, had his own form of justice, a little sketchy, did things he probably wasn't proud of. We love Clint Eastwood, the anti-hero. We loved the movie Deadpool, the anti-hero. We loved Indiana Jones.

And we loved all of them because of the same question. qualities they had, pushing the envelope, disagreeable with authority, have their own code of justice. It runs counter to the league they're in. Can be cranky, quirky, too old, washed up. By the way, our president ran on many of those themes, and half the country loved it. Why doesn't anybody like the Patriots? Isn't that New England? Aren't they a little dirty hairy?

Aren't they a little Deadpool? aren't they a little Indiana Jones? I mean, didn't we love Walter White and Don Draper and Tony Soprano? Flawed people with their own code. Suspected of doing things that are not on the up and up, not everything they've done they're proud of. Isn't that kind of what we like resourcefulness? Doing more with less, savvy, homegrown, overcoming adversity.

The Patriots to me have been. become incredibly likable. This version anyway, nobody believes in them. The coach is almost 70. The quarterback's 40. Edelman's their star. Gronks on one leg. You don't know. They only had two pro bowlers. That's like the least amount ever for a Super Bowl winning team. In baseball, you just win titles because you pay for them. That's not necessarily very likable. And in basketball, though it doesn't bother me, stars all go to certain cities, join forces and win. that's not very likable to a lot of the country. So let me get this straight.

You were rooting for the Rams on Sunday. You mean the Rams who bailed on St. Louis, their fans still suing the owner, bailed on that baseball-loving Midwest town. The team that went out and sought Indomacan sue, Dante Fowler, underachievers, Marcus Peters, basically hushed out of the last two jobs he'd have.

That's who you're rooted for. You're rooted for the young football coach who is smarter than all of you guys. That's who you rooted for? I don't know. I thought America liked the rebels. I thought America liked Dirty Harry. I thought America, I mean, I'm watching the White House. I've got my own code.

I do it my own way. I'm empty in the swamp. We don't care what you do. I thought that's what America liked. You're rooting for the team that bailed on the baseball-loving Midwest City. That's fine. I live in that city. I like the Rams. They're fun to watch. I think they're smartly run. But I will say this. It is interesting who we find is the villain and who I never forget this.

When I covered UNLV and UNLV played Duke and people were rooting against Duke and for UNLV. who was later to have had a sports fixer in a hot tub with several of their players, a team I covered. I was like, I don't know, Duke coach, kids are nice. I always like Duke players. They worked their butt off. It's a hard school. I would have flunked out of Duke.

By the way, I applied to Duke. They wouldn't let me in. I didn't even qualify. I'm like, I don't know. Why does everybody hate Duke? Well, remember, half the country didn't like the president also. Yes. Duke has a bit of a prep school kind of privilege air about them.

Jealousy. It's very similar to what the Patriots have going for them. You know, Tom Brady is not this rags to Rich's story. I mean, he's married to a supermodel. So that's all jealousy, though. He wears ugs. Like, there's an element to it of. It's like there's this, it's an air of arrogance about them that I told you about before.

And when they get caught doing something wrong, it's, well, I don't know. Ask the quarterback. I don't know. They have multiple gates associated with their run. I mean, people hate excellence also. I mean, it's kind of the same thing with Golden State. The Golden State hasn't had same situations, but people hate Golden State also. But Golden State had a superstar join them that was already winning elsewhere and a superstar joined them. And they can be Silicon Valley smug. and we're, I mean, New England, basically, every time you say to Bill Belichick, you're smarter than everybody else, he says on to Cincinnati.

We get this idea. We were talking about Jordan earlier. We get this idea because we're separated from it now. Like, everyone loved Michael Jordan. Everyone did not love Michael Jordan. They do now. They do now, but everyone did not love Michael Jordan. Everyone did not love Muhammad Ali.

Like, in these moments, you have obviously fans, but they're polarizing situations. Right. Which is actually a good thing if you're polarizing because you're talked about and discussed. I think they have a lot of qualities, if you were honest about it. They have a little dirty hairy, a little Deadpool, a little Don Draper, a little Walter White. There is a little bit of that with them, but we're so tired of it. We want somebody new. But all these people, these Indiana Jones, these dirty Harries, you know, these Don Draper's, all this stuff that we're attracted to, Tony Soprano, what's the guy in Ozark?

What is it? Marty Bird. By the way, who's a very friendly, friendly money launder. He's your friendly neighborhood money launder with a cartel. He's a friendly neighborhood money laundering. But a lot of those qualities that we're attracted to, New England has those, but we're just damn tired of them winning. It's a lot of fatigue. Let me go to this. Basketball. Kobe Bryant's one of the 10 best players I've ever seen. And I always have a rule. When I'm listing the 10 best players I've ever seen, I take out centers. They hit like the genetic DNA. I mean, come on.

I mean, Shaq better be, Wilk better be one of the best ever. Come on. So Kobe's one of the best players I've ever seen. I think he's the closest thing I've ever seen to Michael Jordan as Kobe Bryant. I don't think he is MJ, but I think he was about 85% of him, 90% of him. And one of the things I always appreciated about Kobe is that he's a bright guy. He kind of gets the, I didn't love it in the last couple years in L.A. When he took all the money.

It was like, come on, Kobe. Let's take less money and get better players. But whatever. You know, whatever. So, and I didn't love James Hardin when he first came into the league. I didn't think he understood the temperature of the room. But I've really come to terms with James Hardin and Kobe are very similar. Now, Kobe's better.

Kobe's a better athlete. Kobe is going to end it with a lot more titles. I think just Kobe was overall a better basketball player. I don't think it's that close. But I do think in today's NBA, Hardin is going to score a bunch of points. But there was a moment yesterday. and this is the thing that drives me nuts about Westbrook, but that I've increasingly like about Hardin

and always liked about Kobe. So Kobe talked, remember when he was on interview last week and said, you know, James Hardin's great, but you can't win a basketball game taking this many shots. I'm not a fan of in terms of winning championships. I don't think that style is ever going to win championships. But at the same time, you have to keep your teams head above water to win games. So you have to do what you have to do to win games, and he's doing that.

So are you saying you don't think James Hardin in the Rockets as constructed can win a title? Not with this style of play, it won't win, right? With one player dominating the ball. He's totally right. James Hardin was asked about Kobe's comments and gave a very adult

response. I have to be ball dominant just because we have injuries. But when we get Chris in the rhythm and Eric back and get our full roster, we got multiple guys that can make plays, multiple guys that can dominate the ball. So right now, he's, I mean, He's probably right.

This way that we're playing won't happen in the plot. It won't get us where we want to go. But we haven't had a full roster yet. So I'm excited for that to come. Hardin wasn't defensive. Harden understood the question. Harden consumed the answer. Harden thought about it and gave a very grown-up response.

It was a very Kobe answer. And I've said this for years. The great players in this league all have one thing in common. it's not that they're all great athletes. They don't all have a 44-inch vertical. They're not all great scores. They're not all great ball handlers. I can give you the 30 best players I've ever seen.

Some have limitations athletically. Some have limitations handling the ball. All of them are get it, guys. They get it. They get the temperature of the room. Russell Westbrook, if he would have been asked that question, if Kobe would have said, you can't win like with Westbro, 's winning. I mean, you can't take all these shots. How would Westbrook have answered?

Westbrook can't get in a conversation with local media, pom-pom waivers, unless he's arguing. You can't even talk, forget national media. He can't talk to local media. Is that my knock on Westbrook is really crystallized in this moment. You can't have a discussion with Westbrook on a real, not critical of Hardin, but Kobe comes out and says, you're not going to win anything this way. And Hardin's like, yeah, Kobe, Kobe's right. You're not going to win anything this way. And it was just two grownups.

Just two grownups. Nobody was defensive. Nobody was angry. Everybody could handle it. And this is where Kobe and Hardin. James Hardin did something last year. He never got enough credit for. Chris Paul's not the easiest guy to play with.

We know that. And he went and joined Hardin. Hit it off immediately. You think Chris Paul and Westbrook would have hit it off immediately? Say what you want about Kobe. When Kobe had Shaq, they got along for years. And then Kobe got Gasol, and they got along for years. Kobe understood when you get somebody that plays at your level,

give a little more, a little more giving, a little less me, a little less ball-centric. Sometimes I'll talk after the game. It wasn't perfect. But he got along. My knock on Westbrook isn't that he's not athletic. It's that he's not functional on a day-to-day basis with the constant commentary and narratives. You can't ask him a question. Well, Colin, he's playing great with Paul George.

No, he's not. He's a broken player right now. Can't have a free throw because he's having to emotionally deal with the fact that he's no longer the best player on his own team. Forget the league. And it's eating him up. But Hardin's response to Kobe was grown up, was adult, was understanding, the temperature in the room was not defensive. And that's why I've turned on Hardin,

who kind of drove me crazy his first couple years in the league, but I really, you know, I really kind of like him now. I think he gets it. And I think you can win a title with Hardin. You can't, as Kobe said, shooting 50 times, but you can't win a title with him. You know what we're serving for lunch today at the Cowherd Cafe?

Joy, do you know what's on the lunch menu? Is it humble pie? A bowl of crow. To Rob Parker. In your face, Rob Parker. I don't know if anybody watched Sunday, but the Patriots appear to win, and Brady had the game-winning drive again, and Ron Parker

will sit in front of this judge who will render a decision coming up next. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves.

Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions

everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast,

Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing,

we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person

while you hear on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing,

growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office, blue, 42. Hey, rep, my mama wants you to wave at her. What?

Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? This Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast. podcast point game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed.

And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup,

he has to really guard guys like Nas Reed. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night bases on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get to fly. He running up the court licking his fingers while he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcasts. Saturday, seventh ranked Michigan looks for revenge against number 19 Wisconsin. Then it's a big East showdown as Marcus Howard and the 10th ranked Marquette take on number 14 Villanova. A college hoops doubleheader tips off Saturday at 1130 Eastern on Fox and the Fox Sports app. I think Wisconsin beat Michigan a couple weeks ago in Wisconsin, didn't they?

I think they did. I watched a lot of that game. Yeah, I did. Yeah, under, I had a couple beers and I was sitting there watching it. I'm pretty sure it was Wisconsin beating Michigan. I have Michigan winning the national title this year. What kind of beer do you drink? Yesterday I had the Corona Light.

Half of it and that was all I wanted. I don't really. I'm not loyal to anything. Are you loyal to stuff? No, no, not like out of principle just because I like it. I had one medello. Oh, Madelos are good. I can drink one beer, one entire beer. That's it.

By the way, our next guest is loyal to craziness. Let's bring him on. Rob Parker. Rob Parker has been the anti-patriot crusader for years. This is Rob Parker. Let's play the tape. Let's play the tape. This is Rob before the Patriots

went to Kansas City. This is about Independence Day for NFL America. The reign of terror will finally be over. He hasn't won a road AFC championship game.

They've lost their last three dating back to 2006. Let me throw this at you. What if they do win? I think I'm moving to Mexico. So what was it like to watch the Super Bowl in Mexico? Yeah, Cancun is nice this time of the year, you know, for the weekend. Do you know Tom Brady, and listen, and Super Bowl, John Elway had a bad Super Bowl, Big Ben, Peyton Manning, Terry Bradshaw, Bob Greasy won a Super Bowl with eight completions.

It wasn't pretty, but Tom Brady is now, in all six Super Bowl wins, has had the game-winning drive in the fourth or overtime. That's amazing, isn't it? It is amazing. But Tom Brady, as much as everybody wanted to make it about Tom Brady, this was supposed to be a coronation. He was going to have the six Super Bowl rings, win the MVP, and none of it happened. It was so bad. Tom Brady was so bad that what did they do? They had to give the MVP to a receiver who didn't even have a touchdown in the game.

I mean, if that drive was so great, how did Tom Brady not wind up getting the MVP? Can you answer that? Well, Edelman was sensational. Yeah, but Brady, you just told me to let him to some game-winning drive for the Super Bowl. Well, Tom Brady's now won two Super Bowls where he threw a total of one touchdown. The first Super Bowl, he threw one, and this one he threw none. He looked more like Peyton Manning in 2015 when Von Miller gave him a Super Bowl as a parting gift. Tom Brady looked like a 41-year-old man.

You know what, in fact, he looked like Bobby Brady throwing a part in. the ball that hit Marsha in the nose. That's what he looked like. It was more Peter Brady, I mean. Now, let me say this, though. And I know that you have said he's the luckiest of all time, but would you at least acknowledge this, that in the last three games, you can make a very compelling argument. The Chargers, the Chiefs, and the Rams had better rosters. There's no doubt about it. But when I look at those, I also look at what the defenses did to all three of those teams. And this is not to say, I've said this to you before.

Tom Brady's a great quarterback. He's the most accomplished. Yes. Okay? I'll give you that. But if I would really take a look, I would still look at Joe Montana's resume compared to Tom Brady.

You don't, it's not just six championships. But you're a Hall of Fame baseball guy. So numbers mean a lot to you. And that is your DNA. You're a baseball guy. You're a Hall of Fame voter. No doubt about it. And so you get into these mathy,

you know, four for four, six for six. I don't. I look at, to me, I didn't like math. and I love football over baseball. So football has never been about the numbers. It's been about the volume and the accomplishment. Two decades. Think how great Jordan is.

Jordan quit twice, emotionally draining. Football is harder than basketball. Practice for football. I've played football. I hated football practice. Basketball practice is fun. Right. Wouldn't you acknowledge in a sport where you get tackled,

Tom Brady has won in the Dion Branch era, the gronkier, the gronkier, the Corey Dillan era, the Edelman era, He's one with multiple players. No doubt about it. And I get the longevity. I get the two dynasty streaks you want to say. But there was also a 10-year period where he didn't win a Super Bowl. I think everybody glosses that 10 years over.

And Eli beat him twice and a backup quarterback beat him last year. And then you had Jared Gough this year, who was a no-show, who was terrible. Again, that was the worst performance by a man in the mask since. I just forgot the play Batman. I just blew it. You had a great joke. I had a great joke. There it is right there.

George Cloody played Batman. That's how bad it was. But I'm just saying he's had a lot of things go his way. Well, but I could also argue Thomas had two things not go his way. He had one thing not go his way. David Tyree. I'll give you that. That's the one where, but you can't say Manningham didn't go his way.

Mendingham made a great catch. Last year he threw for 500 yards and his defense didn't make a stop. But he just won a Super Bowl on Sunday and his defense was unbelievable and held a team to three points that averaged 33 points a game. Yes. So all I'm saying is you could average those things out. So you thought the game was boring. I thought it was a boring football game. You told me how great the World Series was this year.

It was over in 15 minutes. It wasn't even competitive. It wasn't competitive. The NBA finals was a sweep. This game was tied in the fourth. And here's the other part that was so interesting. And you could say it might be, is it Tom Brady fatigue? Is it Patriot fatigue?

But here was a chance to watch a player with a sixth Super Bowl. Yeah. And people opted out. The lowest ratings in 10 years, NFL ratings were up this year, Colin. So you can't tell me it's a TV trend. I was telling Shannon Sharpe. People turned over to the history channel instead of watching this. Listen, last year was a real choppy NFL season with a great Super Bowl.

This year was a great season with a choppy Super Bowl. You know, last year NBA, there was a lot of fascinating playoff stories. Celtics, LeBrongo 7, without Kyrie Irving. The Rockets have the Warriors in peril, and the finals was awful. You very rarely get great regular season. This year, I thought college football had a bad regular season and a bad championship. The year before, I thought it had a great championship game a couple years ago with Clemson, Alabama, and the season wasn't as good.

You never get everything. So it was a great NFL season. it was not a dynamic game. Could I argue this? The Super Bowl isn't about guys like me who love football. It's about my sister who doesn't watch anything but the Super Bowl. No doubt about it. The casual fans shows up and they watch.

And a lot of the casual fans were like at halftime bailed on it, and that's okay. But you're not surprised at 10-year low? I mean, that's an unbelievable. And I know there's some other extenuating circumstances. New Orleans, they were out on the Super Bowl. Right. So there's no doubt about it. They were out.

But I'm still saying, here's a chance. to watch a piece of history, and people opted not to watch it. Was it Brady? Was it the Patriots? And NFL America hasn't fully embraced this Patriot dynasty that people try to say has been 19 years in the running. What does that say? That tells you something about it. Well, some of their Super Bowls have been very, very highly watched and entertaining, and that's just okay.

And it's not just jealousy, because I know that's what the boss of people always put. Well, jealousy is a big component to it. Not all jealousy. A lot of jealousy. Okay. So I was saying, this. I love the NBA. And again, I think I'm a football guy at my core. You're a baseball guy at your core. But we both, we like the NBA, and there's a lot of drama. I've covered the NBA since 1987.

A lot of fun. Absolutely. I've been watching it since a kid. I like the NBA a lot. And there's a lot of drama and a lot of soap operas. This Laker thing, from what I'm told, 24 hours ago, I thought it was going to happen. This morning and late last night, I thought it's not going to happen. Here's my thing. The Lakers are

offering to swallow a terrible contract, Solomon Hill, give him eight players and picks, and it doesn't look like the Pelicans want to make a move until the trading deadline. It feels a little bit now. Am I wrong on this, Rob? The Lakers are getting desperate here. Eight picks and players swallowing horrible contracts? That's how, as Joy made a great line earlier, she said, that's what you do to get LeBron. Forget Anthony Davis. But that's where they are. Absolutely. The Lakers are desperate because they know the clock is ticking on LeBron. They need. to win next year. If they don't win, Colin, he's not going to win in year three or four. So

they know this. Here's the other bad part. This is where I've always said LeBron has ruined the NBA. Look at where we are. Look at where we are. Okay. So now this trade doesn't go down on Thursday and you're saying you're hearing that. I'm hearing it's not going to now. Now that may change. What happens to the teammates that he's already put out there that he doesn't want? LeBron came in. Magic has no choice. Magic has no choice. Magic has no choice. He's stuck with LeBron. And now, how do you welcome those guys back to finish out this season? This season will be a loss. No, this is a very good point. I'm glad you brought that up. This is your first really solid point. Oh, really? Can I come back? That now that everybody's

name's been out there, everybody's names in the paper is that if the trade doesn't go down, how do you walk back in that room and how are you want? It is a complete mess if the trade doesn't. go down. And Magic, by the way, they're desperate now. Because again, LeBron does forget it. LeBron, these star players in the league, Harden, Kauai, they bake in 12 misses a year. Like, I'm taking the night off. And that's after the NBA has said, no more back-to-backs, very few back-to-backs. So I think this is a great point. If this trade doesn't go down, that locker room's a mess. It's a mess. A loss season. And even when you look at Anthony Davis, as great as he is, and he's a great player.

He's not even a perfect match for LeBron. That's where we are with this league. He's not even a perfect match, but they're so desperate. There's nobody else out there. They're looking around to say, well, who else possibly? There's nobody there. He's going to wind up being Chris Bosch, and this is why he's more of a pawn than anything

in the whole LeBron situation. Colin, if LeBron was to deliver a championship in Los Angeles with Anthony Davis, it would be about LeBron. And when they don't lose, it's going to be about Anthony Davis that he won good enough. If they don't win. If they don't win. And he's going to be Chris Bosch, who was an all-star 21 and 12 in Toronto, who's a third option sitting on the three-point line. Just think about where Anthony Davis is taking his career, and it's a mistake.

Kevin Love was a star in Minnesota. He was a third option in Cleveland. He's left for ruin. Chris Bosch was a star in Toronto. guys were in their respective teams. No, I always said what works with LeBron, and I've seen it happen, is shooters. He can take a marginal player like J.R. Smith or Kyle Corver. They're great with LeBron. Love, Bosch, and Anthony Davis. Big guys get marginalized. You become sort of, you kind of, you know, because LeBron wants to control the ball, and you'll get it, but you'll get it on LeBron's

terms, and increasingly, he wants you out so he can drive the lane and score. Absolutely. I'm telling you, this is a disaster. Everybody thought, everybody's so desperate for LeBron to get his guy. And this is what I mean when I talk about the league being ruined. We're at that point now where they can't do this trade right now because they should wait until a summer. You know why, Colin, maybe the Knicks get the first round pick and they have Zion Williamson to trade, right?

There's a possibility. Maybe something happens in Boston where they're willing to take a chance. You will have more suitors then. And this Laker trade, this desperation Laker trade, will be waiting for you in the summer as well. They're that desperate. They need another player next year so they don't have to jump at this. If you're in New Orleans, you just had the worst sports week you could ever imagine. You had the same job.

Now your best player in the NBA wants out of town. And there's mouse hair and your gumbo. Nothing's working out for you. It's just a bad week. Sorry, Joy. You know, Joy, he brings a lot of energy to the show. I mean, I'm struggling to say this, but I think I agree with him about Chris Bosch. Do you agree?

No. Well, look, I think that Anthony Davis makes the Lakers much better. Thank you. They need a star. It's not a knock on Anthony Davis. It's just that he's not enough. With everything that they're giving away, he's not enough. You need Anthony Davis and you need multiple shooters.

You don't just need one shooter. You need multiple shooters. But that's how desperate you are. You're going to get rid of your entire young core and all these picks, and you still need more help. You're addicted to crazy, but you made good points today. Thank you. I feel good today. Joy Taylor with the news.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. The Super Bowl MVP, Julian Edelman, has gotten a lot of love after his 141-yard performance, but it's quite a rise for a little-known Kent State quarterback. Actually, fun fact, I almost went to Kent State. You did? You did? I said my wife.

I had a, really? Yeah, not for track, just a party. You were going to go there as an athlete? Yeah, I was going to run track there. What did you do in track? I was recruited there. One, two, four by one, four by four, four hundred. So you were a sprinter?

At one point in my life, it was very fast, yes. That's from all the boys chasing her because she was the beautiful girl in school, right? Come on, admit it. Well, the Patriots took him in the seventh round of the 2009 draft, and Bill Belichick gave some unusual credit for the discovery of Joel. in that'll mention. You know, I've got to give Rick Gosselin credit on that one for getting started. I talked to Rick, as we know, Rick followed the draft very closely.

And at one point, you know, he said to me, you know, he might want to take a look at it as this quarterback of the Kent State. I don't think he can play quarterback, but he's a pretty good player. So as it turned out, he came to the Patriots and caught passes, which he hadn't done before, return kicks, which he hadn't done before, and played defense, which he hadn't done before, in addition to cover kicks and all the other things in special teams. That's something. A sports writer.

A sports writer put them on Julian Edelman. I mean, it makes sense. Like, he was a random quarterback, and now he's playing slot receiver for the Patriots. You know, it's funny. When we used to have email, I mean, we still do, but we don't use it. It's amazing. Occasionally, before the draft, I would get, you know, I would call my email every day, and I've always loved the NFL draft.

And you would get these people, like, at Florida. international, you know, that would say, hey, keep your eye on T.Y. Hilton. And then I could just go, I'd look it up and I'm like, holy God, this guy. Remember when T.Y. Hilton came out? And I remember going on the air saying he's going to be the shock of the draft. Fans, sports writers, media, you got to keep your ears open. You know, I always say nobody knows their own bullpen like a fan, more than Peter Gammons, more than all our Tom Verduci. And local writers, too. Yeah, I mean, like a fan that watches the Phillies every night, nobody knows the middle

reliever like that guy. Right. I mean, it's also credit to Julian Edelman, though, because he allowed himself to open up to being a diverse player and playing multiple positions. Yes. On top of working hard, obviously, being a seventh round pick. And then he's a Super Bowl MVP. So Dolphins' GM, Chris Greer, so there's no decision that's been made on the future of Ryan Tannahill, according to the Miami Herald.

Multiple sources have said that Tanna Hill is very likely not to return for next season. That's what I hear. For whatever reason, Tanna Hill's photograph was removed from the team's media work. Excuse me? What was that? You just kind of glossed over that. His team, well, I mean, it's just, his photograph was removed from the team's media workroom. If my photo was removed from the hallway, I'd get a feeling I wasn't long for the place. Yeah, maybe they just want to change up the artwork.

So yesterday, Greer said there are a lot of good prospects. We spent some time with at the Senior Bowl. We may get through the process and fall in love with a couple guys. Last year we liked two guys a lot and they both had good success this year. It could be that point where we may say, hey, we feel this is the guy. Now apparently, according to the Herald, Stephen Ross loves Tua from Alabama. Oh, Tua. Tua.

And they also like Justin Herbert from Oregon. That would be for next year. Yeah, I was going to say that's not. But they owe Tanta Hill $18.7 million. If they release him, they'll have a $13 million cap hit this year, but they'll be free of $13 million next year. I can't listen to an owner. He likes Tua. That's because the only game he watches all week is like Alabama and maybe his Michigan alum team.

That's a hard pass for me. If an owner likes a team, I'm out. Or a quarterback, I'm out. Well, hopefully the new direction of this team is that the owner is not involved in personnel decisions like this. And Chris Greer and Brian Flores will make the decision on the quarterback. I like Ryan Tannahill, but I don't think that he is the quarterback that's going to take you to the next level. And obviously, it would be, if you took someone this year, it might be ideal to have Tannahill there, but you're going to take a big cap hit this year next year if you keep him.

Finally, Kevin Durant can become an unrestricted free agent after this season. ends if he declines his player option, but Warriors GM Bob Myers has a plan to convince him to stay. We recruit every day. I mean, recruiting every day. If you want to maintain a good working culture, you don't just ignore people until their contracts up or say, hey, you can't leave now anyway. My opinion is if you wait until somebody has an opportunity, you haven't really done your job while they were employed with you. So I think that's our approach to that. I like that, yeah.

You got to tell your wife you love her. all the time. I mean, you don't want to splurge at the very end of the situation and do all the nice things. They're like, oh, please don't leave us. I don't think that's how the Warriors get down anyway, though. They run a classy ship over there. So I'm pretty sure this was already in motion before he was asked about it.

They're aware of the situation with Kevin Durant at his contract. So I'm sure they're actively recruiting him every day, as they do with all players. They are in a situation where their contract is coming up. You want to treat him so well. that he would almost feel guilty to leave. He would almost drive home after the final championship game and think, God, I'm a jerk if I leave. Well, I mean, clearly, I didn't feel like there was any way

that he was going to leave. But now the situation with the Knicks and the Porzingis trade, and there's a lot of things, a lot of factors into the Knicks situation that make it very interesting. Can I say officially, I still don't buy that he's leaving? I still don't buy it. God, Golden State's perfect. It's everything you want.

It's a nice city. I got a great teammate. I don't have to rebound. I don't have to be the tough guy. I got a guy with Boogie Cousins now. I score, drive home, and count my dollar bills. It's a good situation. It is a good situation, but, you know, everyone's not motivated by the same things.

All right. Good stuff. Joy, Tailed over the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Live News. Was Todd Gurley healthy for the Super Bowl? Eric Dickerson talked to Gurley the night before the Super Bowl will bring you that next.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd. in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the I-Hard Radio app. Cold and flu season. Try VicSynix nasal spray. A couple of sprays up to 12 hours used as directed. Well, Mr. Ram, the Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson,

who guaranteed a Rams win. I want to get to the serious thing, though. And I said this. When Belichick did not play Malcolm Butler, who had had two previously horrible playoff games against Bortles of Marriota, benched him, we killed Belichick. McVeigh didn't play Gurley. My

thing was, well then Gurley better be hurt because you give Todd Gurley the ball. You talked to Gurley before the Super Bowl. Is he, was he healthy? He said, I'm 100%. That was his, where he talked. I talked to him the night before that. Sent him a text. He called me right after the text. I said, how you feel? And he said, Eric,

I'm 100%. I'm going to say this. This reminds, you ever see the movie Face Off? With John Travolta and Nicholas Cage? I never did. He never saw it? He was a different guy. This was almost like, like Jeff Fisher was Sean McVey. I mean, it was like a switch.

He coached like Jeff Fisher that day. The offense was like that. No adjustments. Man, I'm disappointed, man. I'm serious. The big thing in this football game, I got a call from Hall of Fame of Richard Dent. I got a call from Hall of Fame of Ricky Jackson

and my good friend Harvey Armstrong who played for the Eagles and played SMU together. All three of them said the same thing at first. Man, why ain't y'all run the football? Man, is girly, see what you? Is girly hurt? I said, I talked. him the night before.

He said, he said, I didn't send him a text. Go get that MVP. That was a perfect time to run the football. They didn't run C.J. Anderson either. Man, look, C.J. Anderson is a good player. He really is. But he's not Todd Gurley. No, he's not. You play your best player. That's like taking Tom Brady out the game and putting somebody else in.

You play your best player and you run him. If he ran the ball 20, 25 times and we lost, I'll say, you know what? I'm good with that. No, I mean, it's funny because if you had to run Gurley 20 times, and you lost, I could walk to the podium and say, I felt in this moment I didn't want to put the burden on a third year quarterback. There you go. That's coaching.

My takeaway was, I thought golf would play fine, but my takeaway was going into this game was, Gurley needs to be the guy to win. And in the first quarter, Eric, after two series, my takeaway was, Gurley's not part of the game plan. Even though there was no score, I was like, oh, this is a huge edge for New England. Man, it was a perfect setup for us. I mean, all we need to do was run the football.

And if I'm Belichick, I'm like, oh, y'all not? Oh, good. Perfect. No, I mean, Belichick's thinking, so you're going to have golf trying to beat us. Exactly. You're going to put your faith in a young quarterback. Kid. Okay.

And the play action, there ain't no play action. We're not even worried about the play action. I mean, think about this. We didn't even get in the red zone. The field goal we kicked was a 53-yard field to score. Other than that, we wouldn't even score points. Eric, do you know there's a guy online, Orange Sharp that does this.

The Rams didn't even go to like double tight ends to create protection until the Brandon Cook's play. Oh, wow. I mean, they went the whole, I mean, it was like, it was just an incredibly odd game. It was really odd. And it's funny you say that because I was driving over here this morning. I'm like, why didn't they go a lot of two tights? Because I can hear when we play, they say Rams come out and double tights.

You know, that's a running set. That's to protect your quarterback if you have to and run the football. But basically, Lawrence Taylor, if you played the giant. when they had Lawrence Taylor. Oh, you ran two tights. You ran two tights. Joe Gibbs tells the story. He goes, we didn't run it.

Everybody thinks I'm a genius. I just went to two tights because we had to block L.T. That's what you do with a great pass rush. And the Patriots, from the first series on, Eric, had a tremendous pass rush. Yeah, they got to Jared Garth. And I got to say, Jared didn't play bad. He didn't play great, but he didn't play, like, whoa, that was a horrible game. No, I just felt like they put too much pressure on a young quarterback

back and did not use our best player. I mean, and it showed. I mean, you know, you got to say it sometimes I say these young coaches, and coaches in general, they get caught up and throwing the football. I'm going to show you how smart I am. I'm going to show you this trick play. You're going to go like, wow, did you see that?

My God, I was such a trick play. Instead of just, you know what, old-fashioned football, turn around and hand it to him. It's always been the knock on Lane Kiff, and they call it vanity play calling. The young hot-shot offensive coordinators get into vanity play calling, which is Look at this clever play.

And look at this clever play. And by the way, we saw it. We saw it with Sean Payton in the game. Against us. Against you. Against you. He got into vanity play calling it. Sean, you got the ball down in the red zone.

Run the ball. Run the clock. Kick the field goal. These offensive coaches, listen, it's like anything else. It's almost biblical. If you had a great voice, you'd sing all day. Yeah. If you're an offensive genius, you want to show everybody you're an offensive genius.

By the way, Gurley declined to talk to the media today at the Rams facility. I want to ask you this. the team that loses the Super Bowl, the team that loses in the championship round, they're not guaranteed to be back. Half the teams that lose the Super Bowl, half the teams that lose these championship series, they take a step back. Are you worried about the emotional pushback? This is an old team in certain spots on the offensive line.

Are you worried the Rams take a big step back? No, I'm not worried. I mean, look, first of all, you know, we have a lot of good pieces on that football team, a lot of good pieces. I'm sure we'll lose some pieces this year this next season coming up. And first of all, I let everybody know I'll still have the utmost fate in Coach Sean Bigbe. The utmost fate. Yeah, he had a bad day.

And all of us have them. Players have them, coaches have them. Eagles last year out-coached the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Right. Everybody has them. So, you know, it's no court. It's no worry there. You know, I just feel like that football is a game of chance.

You know, you've got to have injury-free. You've got to have the right players on the field. It's got to be amazing. You got to think about this, Colin. This is three years the Rams have been back in L.A. Three years, and we're in the Super Bowl. That's big. I mean, no matter we win, lose, a drop, we don't want to have been fantastic,

but still, that is a big step for a coach that's I'm being only coaching the National Football League for two years. You know, I said yesterday, Eric, that the way the NFL works, it first humbles you. Belichick fired in Cleveland. It humbles you, and then it allows you baby steps to a title. If McVeigh won it, it was almost like, like, okay, you're too young.

You have, this game, football has a way. It humbled Bill Parcells. It humbled Joe Gibbs. It humbled Troy Aikman. It's humbled the legends. It humbled Peyton Manning, who got to a Super Bowl and got humiliated. It just would have been too darn early. There's no such thing as too darn early, I don't think.

You know, but you're right. It does humble you because sometimes you start feeling like, okay, I got this. You know, I can honestly say, my rookie season, I'm like, man, this ain't that hard after all. I mean, after a couple of games, I'm like, this is kind of easy. Then, you know, as time went on, like, man, let me shut up. This is hard. Dan Marino. Dan Marino.

You get to a Super Bowl. You may never get back. Good stuff. All right. Hour three, newly inducted Tony Gonzalez Hall of Fame around the corner. Good stuff. Eric Dickerson in L.A. Hour three, it's the herd.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Ah, this is. is the herd, wherever you may be, however you may be listening. Live in Los Angeles, IHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio and FS1, Joy Taylor is joining me, hour three. It's great to be here today. By the way, I have to say this, Valentine's Day is what, next Thursday? Go to Tommyjohn.com, code heard, 20% off, HERD.

Tommyjohn.com, most comfortable men's and women's underwear on the planet. good stuff today Peter King Rob Parker had to eat crow See isn't that funny Eric Dickerson Just on the show said he talked to Todd Girley night before texted him And Todd's like 100% ready to go And I don't get to Baldwin

And it's like And that's the end of the story Where are the media vultures? It's not the end of the story I mean come on There's got to be a media is just All right that's good enough answer Bye bye

Didn't work that way with Belichick And Malcolm Butler Well I mean Malcolm Butler was crying on the sideline before the game. There was a little bit more of a emotional element to it. But he's kind of a good, not great player. Girlie's like an MVP in week eight.

I'm with you. The whole situation is very bizarre. I don't know what to make it. I mean, it's literally the media. I can't do everything in America. I can't be in these locker rooms all day. I am giving America. Would you like me to fake outrage? Well, I mean, you and I are...

Yell at Sean McVeigh. Some... Why don't you... Run talk early more. Yeah. I mean, Joy and I can't do everything in this country. This makes me very angry. Can somebody find an answer on this thing?

I don't know. I really don't know what it is, though. Grab your notebook and pen, you reporters. By the way, the herd's also on Sirius XM Channel 83. Coming up in about 20 minutes, Tony Gonzalez is in the Hall of Fame now, got voted in. That's a great award for him, so he'll wrap a ball in the Super Bowl. Later on best for last, the world premiere of a trailer for the Blockbuster Hollywood movie about the New England Patriots.

But, but, but, but, but Brady now has six rings. Tom Brady got six rings now. And here, I was listening to radio this morning, here come the Michael Jordan comparison. So let me start with that. There's a lot of arguments that you're never going to win. You're never going to win at the local bar. And you're never going to win the Tom Brady's greater than Michael Jordan at the bar argument. Because the Michael Jordan argument is easier.

six for six. Six finals, six wins, six MVPs. Nobody mentions he, you know, played for 15 years. That's too complicated. That's why people don't play golf. 330 million Americans, three play golf. Why? Because it's hard. It's a hard argument. You're never going to win that. Michael had the Be Like Mike Brand, the shoe culture. You know, he was the first corporate superstar in America that all the corporations jumped on. You're never going to win that argument, but I can make argument for Brady. I can make arguments for Brady. Think about this. Football is much less forgiving than basketball. Football is much more precise than basketball. If a quarterback in a Super Bowl makes two mistakes, one doesn't even have to be him. It can be a tip ball that's intercepted. You lose the game.

In the NBA, you could have three atrocious games in the finals and still win. I this morning went and looked up. Michael Jordan's worst NBA final games. He had a 9 for 26 clunker, and 11 for 28. Sonics, Jazz, Jazz, Lakers. It didn't matter. He had a better team, and you can have a terrible night shooting in the NBA. And he got tomorrow night, game two, game three, game four. Football is much more precise and much less forgiving. Advantage Brady. Number two is Brady won with several different stars. There was the Dion Branch era. There was the Cory Dylan era.

There is the Gronk era. As he's deteriorated, now it's the Edelman era. Brady's one with several Robbins. He's Batman. He's had a lot of Robbins. Michael Jordan didn't do anything pre-pippin and anything post-pippin. Michael Jordan struggled to win playoff series. Forget titles.

He struggled to win playoff series without Scotty Pippin. Even in college, he won a title with James Worthy. James Worthy left two years in college. He didn't win the next year without James Worthy. Okay, advantage Tom. Here's the third one. Tom, in a sport where even practice is hard. Football practice is hard.

Basketball practice, I had it in high school. It's fun. You sweat. There's a lot of drills that are fun. football practice, and I love football, I hated football practice. It's hard. And yet Tom Brady has gone 18, 19 years, never missed a beat. Emotionally, Michael Jordan quit twice.

He quit. It's like, it's too much. It's too emotionally draining. He quit twice. In a sport that's easier, that elevates the star, that worships the star, that back massages the star. He had his own dressing room with the bulls. football, rain, sleet, practice, tackled, hurt, always 19 years.

Not a break. Advantage Tom. I can make all those arguments for Tom. But I also know that Michael's the first corporate superstar. And Michael was cooler and cooler matters. And be like Mike and the Nike bubble. I can't win those arguments. And I also know that Michael George.

has nostalgia on his side. Michael Jordan's like a piece of art. I swear to God, he gets better. Michael's gotten better every year. When you close your eyes, close your eyes if you're sitting at home. If you're driving and listening, do not close your eyes. But if you are at home, do me a favor. Close your eyes.

And I want you to just think of Michael Jordan. You don't even remember the Orlando Woolridge Jordan's a ball hog years. You don't remember Quentin Daly. You don't remember all the firings. You don't remember the Washington Wizards jersey. You don't remember the broken leg. You don't remember the baseball. And that team, by the way, finished last.

You don't remember any of it. Basketball is a sport built for dynasties. Football is not. In 13, just remember this, 13 NBA players have six rings. One NFL players. does. Last name Brady, first name Tom. There's my argument. All right, let's segue to the NBA. The big story right now, it's obviously, it's early February. The big story is the training deadline Thursday.

And, you know, there's going to be guys moving around and stuff, but the big story is Anthony Davis, a great player, has informed his team through his agent, Rich Paul. I don't want to play here anymore. I've given you guys like six and a half years. You've messed up. trade, signed band contracts, had a bunch of coaches. I'm out. And I always support the mobile player. The story I'm told last night from two sources I trust is that the Lakers want Anthony Davis now. They want to create inertia. They want to create chemistry. And frankly, there's a lot of tension in the building. LeBron didn't come here to waste another year of his life with Lance Stevenson, Javelle McGee, and Lonzo Ball. That's not why LeBron came to the Lakers. There intense pressure to get it done.

And the Pelicans know this. And the Pelicans have leverage here. A, they know the Lakers need 80 now. Secondly, I am told there is massive pressure on the Pelicans general manager, Del Demps, from other league executives to not trade Davis to the Lakers now. If you're going to do it, do it at the end of the year. Nobody's going to do the Lakers any favor. The Lakers have been the rich, good-looking guy at the high school reunion.

People are tired of him. They're the most glamorous franchise. They've got all the titles. They've had all the free agents. And now they've got LeBron, who people already resent many in the NBA because he's kind of manipulating the league and moving guys around. There is massive pressure on Dell Demps to not make this move now. And the Pelicans have a little, you know, tension there because,

the Lakers just keep adding player and draft pick and player and draft. The Lakers are now up to eight players and swallowing a horrible contract, Solomon Hill. Eight players between picks and players and a bad contract. I've never seen a trade in terms of overall people more lopsided. But what the Lakers believe is this. When you live in New York, when you're the owner of the Cowboys, Yankees, Lakers, there are these massive brands, Ohio State football, Notre Dame football, but let's just keep it to pro

sports. At these big cowboy brands, Yankees, Lakers, Real Madrid, that kind of stuff. That great creates its own chemistry and inertia. And that if you get an A-Rod to the Yankees, or if you get a

AD with LeBron to the Lakers, you can't really overpay for it. You'll get so many benefits, so much free publicity, so much marketing. Other guys will want to be in in this millennial NBA where stars want to join the cool team that wins titles that you just overpay for it. There are some things, I don't love the idea of it, but when you have these unique American or global sports brands, and I would say Yankees and Lakers, cowboys are very rare. It's rarefied air. You just get the star and worry about

everything else later. Jerry Jones said it a year ago talking about his stadium when he built his stadium. And he said, you know what, man, there were cost overruns. But I look back at my life. I overpaid for my big successes every time. And when I tried to get a bargain, I ended up getting it and not being happy or missing out. And this was sort of the Steinbrenner philosophy with the Yankees. It's the Jerry Jones philosophy. And the Lakers now are having to kind of own the fact. They're giving away all their draft picks, all the mentoring, all the coaching, all the work, all the drafts, everything. It just leaves. And you get Anthony Davis. And and it will create a momentum and an inertia

that for these big brands pays off. And people will want to join the party. You know, Jason Whitlock was laughing about this yesterday. I mean, the Lakers now are up to, according to one report, giving away eight different pieces. Magic doesn't want to give up everything. I don't think Polinka, Jenny Butt, they just don't want to scrap everything for Anthony Davis.

But that's what they're about to do, because LeBron and Rich Paul are forcing them to. Draft picks and everything else. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's bones will be thrown into this trade at some point. You know, this is the LeBron business. Pat Riley's probably laughing his butt off right now, seeing what his buddy Magic's going through. I told you so, Magic.

You got to give up the future, give up picks to win now. My gut feeling this morning is different than my gut feeling yesterday. My gut feeling this morning is the Lakers do not. get Anthony Davis by Thursday. I thought 24 hours ago it was going to happen. I don't think so today this morning, based on my source that said, Dell Demp's is facing intense pressure from around the league

to not let the Lakers have AD. Now there is an anti-Laker bias in this league. There's no question about it. There has been for years. People are tired of the Lakers getting all the attention, love glamour and players. We'll keep you updated on that. Tony Gonzalez.

Plus, coming up next, there is a real difference. I noticed it with the Cowboys and Amari Cooper, the wide receiver they asked him about playing with Tom Brady. His answer is really the difference between the NFL and the NBA. Whichever side you want, not saying one's better, but they're really two different cultures and codes. And the cowboy receiver Amari Cooper laid it out this morning. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand.

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We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

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And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen to Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tab Ramos on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. Helaton's a game-changing indoor cycling bike brings the energy. live classes to your home. Learn more. Pelotin Bike, Onepelleton.com or visit your local showroom. These sports are all different. I grew up with baseball and they've got their culture. And I think cultures are really, really underrated. I was sitting there talking to a cousin last night having

dinner and he's worked at multiple corporations. And I said, you know, everybody thinks it's about personnel. I said, it's culture's everything. Culture is everything. That's what separates good companies from great and good companies from average. I work at Fox. It's a great culture. People like each other. People come to work happy every day. I feel very, very fortunate. The NBA has a culture, and it tends to be more individual, and the NFL has a culture, and it tends to be more about we, not me. And of the many differences between the two leagues, Amari Cooper was asked about playing with Tom Brady, who takes every receiver he's ever played with and they get better with Tom Brady.

Everybody goes to Tom Brady. Wes Welker was a punt returner. You know, becomes a borderline Hall of Fame guy with Tom Brady. Would Julian Edelman be Julian Edelman with Kirk Cousins? I don't believe so. Everybody. They gave Randy Moss to Brady for an hour

and a half and they set every NFL record. And Amari Cooper, receiver for the Cowboys, who has Dak, who people are kind of hot and cold on, was asked about playing with Tom Brady. No. I don't want to play with Tom Brady. I want to beat Tom Brady. I want to play with Dak Prescott.

And I believe that we can get the job done. But the point is, it's really true. The NFL code is, I'm not going to a rival. I want to beat the rival. In the NBA, it's more about what's the path of least resistance. I mean, LeBron was going to the finals in Cleveland. It's not like he was struggling. Kevin Durant was on a really exciting team that everybody loved in Oklahoma City.

But it's different. The NFL code is you play hurt always. Period. The NBA code is, I'm going to bake in about 12 days off a year. And LeBron sat out of the game this weekend, do the load management, whatever that is. It's a load of something. But I'll give you an individual player to show you the difference. Would we admit that Kevin Durant's a great player?

And would we admit Oklahoma City was a pretty good team? And would we admit Russell Wilson is a pretty good player. And Russell Wilson's on a pretty good franchise. Think about Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant goes to a great organization, Golden State. Great owners, great GM, great coach. He doesn't have to be the tough guy. He doesn't have to be the rebounder.

He doesn't have to be the best defender. He doesn't have to be the emotional leader. He can go, shoot, score, drive home. When the finals MVP, it's kind of baked in for him. And that's it. And yet all I read after back-to-back finals for Durant is, you know, he's getting restless. He's not sure he's happy here. Can you imagine Russell Wilson winning back-to-back Super Bowls with Seattle?

After they lost that one, it was a win, the ball was not intercepted. And Russell Wilson, rumors being, you know, he just wants more, you know, he's restless. It's a completely different code. It's a completely different culture. I've said this. When people tell me Kevin Durant's going to leave the Warriors, I'm like, why the hell would you leave the Warriors? and go to the awful Knicks? Golden State's got the owner, the coach, the GM.

You have the greatest teammate in the league, Steph. Draymond's the tough guy. Now Boogie Cousins does the rebounding. I mean, literally, they just come on in, get your points. Even in the finals, the other star doesn't even mind if you win finals MVP and go home. You can just hoop it and go home. You don't have to sit there after every game and, you know, the media rushes to you. Steve Kerr loves to talk, Steph Curry loves to talk, Draymond loves to talk.

A lot of guys will talk. You don't have to sit there for hours answer every question. Like, Kyrie Irving's getting worn out in Boston because it's like, oh, I got to be not a best player. I got to be the guy that talks every night. Marri Cooper's like, I'm not going to play with Tom Brady. I'm going to play with Dak. And I think that's one of the things that a lot of people relate to football. The cultures are different.

And the culture is we, not me. And you can see it in the marketing. the NBA is promoting stars, NFL's mostly promoting Shield. And there's advantages to be in the NBA. You may a lot of money in the NBA. But if you don't win in the NBA, we say stuff like, you're not six for six.

In the NFL, if you have a great career, we still love Damarino. We're not constantly mocking his lack of Super Bowls. So there's good and bad with both. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

So when it comes to the goat of NFL So, quarterbacks, the bait is pretty much over, whether you think that Tom Brady is the greatest player of all time, is a more of a preference conversation. But if you happen to run a Tom Brady in the street, don't call him the goat because he doesn't like that. He actually would prefer that you tell him that he's trash and he's too old and he's washed up. Here is Brady's response to being called the goat. I don't even like that.

I don't even like it. It makes me cringe. It makes me cringe. It makes me cringe. I guess I take compliments worse than I take. I wish you would say you're trash, you're too old, you're too slow. can't get it done no more. And I would say, thank you very much. You're driven by criticism more than you're driven by success. Yeah, absolutely. I think anyone who's competitive would agree

with that. Everyone likes compliments. They're nice, but it's almost like wins. Like, they kind of all blur together, but you remember the losses more. You know, if you ever run, well, you are a runner, so you have, I've run a bunch of half marathons. And what I've always done in half marathons is as I'm running, I find somebody ahead of me who I think I look like I'm in better shape. And I'm I'm like, I'm going to catch them. And I find somebody. And so what motivates me? I'm better than that person.

How is that person beating me in the marathon? That's what pushes you through 13 miles of running in the rain because your mind wanders. It's hard to concentrate for three hours. And I think that's just natural. Losses hurt more than the joy of wins. I was a sprinter, so any kind of long distance running was not what I was into at all. But I see how that would work. Brady is clearly motivated more.

by someone saying that he's not that good than he is being called the goat. But I do think that this whole tone is going to change once he retires. Yeah, I think it's... I don't think he's ever going to come out and be like, yeah, I am the greatest of all time, because that's just... But he will say... That's not cool. He will say, that was pretty good.

I think he's going to back off the I don't want to be called the goat thing so much once he's not playing anymore. All right. So, this is something. Dying to get your response on this. The Wizards announced some very grim news. this morning. John Wall ruptured his left Achilles tendon after slipping and falling in his home and is expected to be out for an additional 12 months.

Oh, my God. His season ended on January 8th because he had surgery to clean up some bone spurs. What's worse for the Wizards, aside from this injury news, is that Wall's four-year extension, which will pay him an average of $42 million a season kicks in next season. He is out for a year. Here is the money that is remaining on John Wall's contract. This is now not only a bad contract. After this news, this is officially the worst contract by a mile in the league.

It's something. It's untradable. 37.8 million this 2019 season, 2020, 21, 40.8, 20, 2021, 20, 22, 22, 42, 43.8. They're done. They're done. And 2022, 23, 48.8 million dollars. They're done. I mean, he fell at his house, I guess.

I mean, is that the story? Yes, he slipped and fell in his home. And he ruptured. And the Achilles is just, I mean, it's such a bad injury. It's very hard to come back from him as well. Well, first of all, that franchise is done. They can't, and I'm not blaming him. It's just, you know, no, no.

I mean, there's nothing you can do about it, but it's just, it's a. By the way, now. Very unfortunate. Now is the time somebody go get Bradley Beal, the most underrated player in the NBA, and give them, you got a rebuild now. You have to rebuild. I'd go out and get another. point guard. You're not going to play for a year

and a half. I'd trade Bradley Beale, I'd start completely over. I don't know what you do. Finally, Kyrie Irving is reportedly unhappy with the perception around his free agency decision and that it's influenced by other stars like Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, or even LeBron, former teammate of Kyrie's told Sports Illustrated Chris Mannix.

He hates the narrative that other players can influence his decision. He gets frustrated when people are trying to manipulate him. In his mind, it doesn't matter if it's Davis or James, he's going to do whatever he wants to do and to assume otherwise is disrespectful. He can become a free agent this off season. Obviously, so can Duran.

There was some, I mean, people felt pretty good about him staying in Boston, obviously until late when he said Ask Me on July 1st, kind of implying that he may not be so set in his ways in Boston. It's kind of kind of grow up, doesn't he? I mean, get over the rumor stuff. Who cares? I mean, you can't get influenced by what, you can't get too bothered by what people say about you and the perception about you.

I can understand it because it's always, oh, who's Kyrie going to go play with, as opposed to where is Kyrie going to go, which is the conversation we have about Kevin Durandor that we had about LeBron and that we're sort of having about Anthony Davis. You know, it's like if you're a supermodel and you wear a beautiful outfit, people are going to stare at you and take pictures. If you're an NBA star, you're going to be in every blog and every story because the NBA promotes you.

So when NBA players complain, you know, all these rumors are, that's, you cannot be a superstar in the NBA, one of the eight best players. You're going to get talked about all the time. Well, I mean, I don't think it's that he doesn't want to be talked about. I think he wants to be talked about as his own man. He doesn't want to be talked about, like, oh, who is Kyrie going to go play with? Who is Kyrie going to team up with? I mean, Kyrie has his team right now in Boston, so he's in the situation that he wanted to be in.

And he could end all the talk by saying, I'm not going anywhere. But NBA players like their name out there, and then they're upset that they get linked with our players. Well, it's leverage. I mean, you want to have your name out. So he likes the leverage. He doesn't like, but he wants to control the leverage. Right. I mean, listen, LeBron is the most powerful guy in the league,

and I've been critical of him on the show today, and everybody else been critical. Even LeBron gets ripped occasionally. I mean, that's like, you cannot come to do 15 years in the NBA and not get criticized. Yeah. Not be rumored and talked about. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lying News. 1-800 Flowers.com, Valentine's a no-brainer, 18 stem, and Chan and Rose Medley, 299 or double it. 36 stems for $20 more. 100 flowers.com, click on the radio icon, and enter the code, H-E-R-D. So I will say this.

You know, the NFL, Peter King was on earlier. There's a lot of NFL trends out there that are, you know, I mean, the league is always kind of changing a little bit. So is the NBA, so is baseball. But there was only one Patriot that made all pro. One, Stefan Gilmore, only two made the Pro Bowl. and that is even by the system, the way the system of the Patriots trumps the player, that's half as many as they average to a third as many.

And you've got to give the Patriots credit. In the other Super Bowl years, they had 3, 6554 pro bowlers, and this year they had two pro bowlers. And it just shows you the remarkable coaching and Brady's ability to address. adapt, but by any standard, it's pretty remarkable that a team with just two pro bowlers. And the Pro Bowl to me is a popularity contest to some degree. I look at All-Pro. The All-Pro team is much more legit.

New England had only one player that was an All-Pro, Stefan Gilmore, and they won the Super Bowl. I mean, that in itself is amazing. All right, let's bring in the Hall of Famer, 17 NFL years, 14-time Pro Bowler. By the way, speaking of culture, has only missed two NFL seasons. First of all, congratulations. Thank you. Yes, congratulations.

Thank you. You were in the hotel room, the Marriott, probably, and they called you. Yep. And some guy called you, and he said, Tony, I got some news for you,

and did you cry? Well, that's not, actually you get a knock. And 6-9, 4, 350, whatever he is, Mr. Baker, who's the President of Hall of Fame, the face of the Hall of Fame,

he comes by, and he gives you the handshake, he tells you in person. want a phone call. If you get a phone call, that means you didn't make it. You want him to come to your room. But I loved it, man. It was like a culmination of your whole career coming together. You start thinking back to Pop Warner, high school, college. And I knew I had a pretty decent shot of making. Sure. But when you see him, like your heart just drops. And he gives you a spiel. And I turn around and I see my family there. I see some tears in my family members' eyes. My cousin

was crying. My good friends were crying. Then I started getting a little emotional. It was just a great experience. And then we popped a couple Modellos and it celebrated. You know, what's great about your story too is people look at you, big, strong, handsome guy, but you were awful as a Pop Warner player initially. You had a really tough first year in the NFL. There was a time that people thought you were a basketball guy over a football guy.

Your path was not linear. It had a bunch of bumps. Yeah. And you know what? I think that's the coolest thing, too, the next day they have orientation. Well, yeah, they have two days later. They have the orientation. And they had each guy get up and speak and do an impromptu speech, caught all the guys in the class off guard.

But they start telling some brief stories about what they went through. And everybody has that same story. I think adversity is the best thing never happened to you, actually. You want some adversity because that's where you learn the most. That's where you have to make the decision. Am I going to go this way or that way? And all those guys in the Hall of Fame obviously chose to go that way. So I was fortunate.

I've said this. I love basketball practice. I loved baseball practice. Football practice I didn't like. It's hard. The sport shapes you. Your clay and it mold you. You're going to play hurt.

You're going to lose teammates. You're going to lose games. There is no, you know, basketball tends to be the elevator. Zion Williamson's a great high school. Then he goes to Duke. Then he's the number one pick. And he doesn't face real, you know, like basketball struggles. Till the first team, the bad team he's on, right?

Like a Knicks or something like that. But football is, even if you're a great high school player, Nick Saban says, sit in the bench and red shirt. Yeah. And you just watch people for three years. You should go to these hard practices. Football is a shaper of people. Yes. And it's the best teacher of how to get along.

You know, when you're in that locker room, you're with guys from Alabama. You're good guys from Canada. You're with guys from all over there from Southern California, laid back California, grew up surfing, stuff like that. All these different cultures coming together for a common goal. And then it is tough. I played basketball at a pretty high level, too. It's nothing compared to what you go through in football. It is just a gladiator sport.

It's the true gladiator sport of what we have in America. So the Patriots have two pro bowlers and one all pro, and they won the Super Bowl. I got to be honest. Now, I did like them in this game because of the experience factor. And after I saw what they did to the Chargers, I was kind of in all of it. But I'm, I got to be honest with you, it's almost like the Patriots are telling the league. it's not about stars get your quarterback

get your coach stay with them keep your offensive coordinator continuity they're almost going off brand I mean I just sat there Sunday and I'm like this is ugly and I felt early

I'm like they're going to win this game they're not scoring but they're moving they're under it felt like to me early no score I felt now when you watched it what did you feel? Yeah you just knew that they were you knew they were gonna win

I felt that early. First quarter, you're like, they're going to win this game. It's going to be close or whatever it is. Because they're going to eventually something's going to crack, and Tom's going to figure it out. He didn't play the greatest game. But I do agree with you. It shows that good players win games more than just a bunch of stars. Maybe you've got two or three stars on a team.

And this is most NFL football teams. They got two or three really, really good players and a bunch of average players, like average guys, where the Patriots, they have just a bunch of good guys. And I started thinking about them and what makes them, work, especially the consistency is there. And I'm looking at all the players that they've had. And looking at their team this year, you got High Tower. Good

player. Benoy. Good player. Stefan Gilmore. Really good. Their offensive line, by the way. Shack Mason these are good. If you go to pro football focus, they're all top five in their position. Not superstar. Not max players. And like Stefan Gilmore, I look at him, who's an all pro this year.

Great. Do you think he's going to get maxed out? Do you think he's going to get that unbelievable contract with the Patriots? No. He's going to have to go because they don't want that because that doesn't win. It doesn't win games. And it starts with the quarterback, Tom Brady, who's one of the greys of all time, and he takes less money because he wants to win games. Belichick would not be the same without Tom as the guy who puts it over the top.

They're going to be a good football team no matter what. Belichick will win 10 games a year, eight, nine games a year. But then you throw Tom in the mix, it puts them over the top. Same thing if you took Belichick off that team, I don't think Tom Brady wouldn't have won all these medals. Do you think less of McVeigh and the Rams after the loss? No, I think it was his first time there. I do believe I was watching the game and I'm looking at golf and people, you know, he took a little bit of slack in the game, but there was nobody open.

I mean, McVe, and he said it after the game, I'm just telling you what he said. He said he got out coached. And I would say, I agree with you, McVeigh. You did a hell of a job, obviously, but Belichick is the master. There was nowhere to go. They were running all these stunts, all these. there was nobody open. It was nobody open.

No, it was the first time in two years watching the Rams. Remember, the Rams averaged 32 points, right? They never got into the red zone. It was the first time watching the Rams where their offensive line was completely manhandled. Yeah. And that doesn't happen. I mean, they lose games, but they're not manhandled. The Patriots, stunts, they did 50% blitzes.

You could not run. They had, Gurley had one run. It's the first time I looked and I thought, oh my God, the RAM thing isn't working at all. One working. At all. And by the way, the Patriot thing wasn't working either. But as the story has been told, Josh McDaniels came up in the fourth quarter. I don't know if you've heard this.

Peter King found this out. So nine minutes to go in the game, Josh McDaniels went to the sidelin and said, guys, we're thrown out the game plan. Nothing's working. We're going to go empty backfield. Mike Devlin, fullback, Burkhead. and we're going to run the same basic plays four or five times. That was the winning drives. The only drive that worked all day.

Duane Allen came out later. We have a quote here and said, Josh told us, we didn't practice this at all. But nothing's working. And I look at that and I think to myself, Tony, rookie Tony Gonzalez couldn't have done that.

Eight-year veteran Tony and Atlanta could have. There is something to be said about the collective IQ of the Patriots. They literally added eight plays in Kansas City, in the hotel, the West in that morning. You can't do that to a bunch of kids. Can't do it. You can't go. If you ever been in a game on the sideline and you scrapped everything and made stuff up,

have you ever been in that situation? Hardly ever. We can do it, but you have to have the veteran guys that are able to do that, guys that have played together. That right there, I think sums it up. Good, smart people win collectively. That's what wins in the NFL. That's how you're going to win those games.

Yeah, here's the story. when basically when they played the chiefs at 11 in the morning, they put in eight new plays that were installed before the game, which is just unheard of. And by the way, five worked. And you know what it is? It's also Tom Brady. I mean, he's the master, along with the other goats out there.

He's just, I love the New England Patriots organization. When I do talks now, I'm talking about them. This is how you get it done in the NFL. And I hope a lot of other teams take a page out of this book. I hope my chiefs take a page out of this book. Well, your chiefs will be there. Chiefs are fine. By the way, can I say something about the Chiefs?

Yeah. Can I say some more quick? I just want to tell them, thank you. And the Atlanta Falcons, thank you for all the support that I've ever had. Had a great career in both those places. And it means a lot to be able to put on that Chief's uniform, to be able to put it on that Falcon uniform. And being in the Hall of Fame, I just want to, I'm really proud to be able to know that

I played for two great organizations. When do you start writing that speech? I don't know. You're going to help me out? No. No? No, this has to be from your heart. You're very emotional.

Yeah. So I told you before, if you don't cry, I'll be a little disappointed. Because you go deep. You are very much about family, your journey. And a lot of guys aren't. You are very much about your journey. Well, I promise you this, I'm not going to hold back. It'll be a good one.

Really? It'll be a good one. No, I'm not going to hold back. There's no way. If I feel it coming up, just like right now, a couple minutes ago, I felt a little emotional. Like, I probably could have, if I kept going, I probably would have cried. Really? But I'm going to hold back.

I could have made. Oh, my God. I really failed. You're going to cry on this show? How did you not sense that? You could tell you? Yes, I do. It was moments away. Really? Yes. Let's go back to it. Tony. And from the top, all right, everybody. Tony, you were eight years old.

I really blew it there. I was crappy. Congratulations to a great guy, a Hall of Famer. Good having you on the show, bud. Thank you. Tony Gonzalez. Can't wait for the speech. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the I Hard Radio app. Tonight's Discover card key matchup, New York Islanders, Battle the Bruins, free credit scorecard today.

Check it out even if you're not a Discover customer. Learn more, Discover.com slash credit scorecard. Limitations apply. I'll get to the breaking story in the NBA here in one minute. I do want to give a tip of the cap to the New England Patriots. I said this earlier today that I don't understand they've got a dirty, hairy quality, a Deadpool. They've got a Walter White quality.

They're rebels. they do it their own way. They've got their own code of justice. Many of the things that we love about the anti-hero, they're the anti-hero. They're not about stars. They're scrappy guys. They take a college quarterback, make them a receiver.

They don't overpay for anybody. And I, Bill Belichick, the same thing. And I said, I think they make a great American movie. I don't understand why they're the villain. I mean, was Clint Eastwood a villain? Was Deadpool a villain? was Indiana Jones a villain? They're the rebels.

In fact, and I called this morning, I called some big shots in Hollywood, some big money people, Joy, some big producers. And I've got the green light to go ahead. We got a movie coming on Bill Belichick and the Patriots. It has been greenlit by one of these big studios,

and I want to give you the trailer. It's already out today. He doesn't follow the rules. He doesn't care about being light. He doesn't. doesn't answer to anybody, especially reporters with a bunch of dumb questions. This summer, Clint Eastwood as Bill Belichick, Matt Damon as Tom Brady, Rob Grancowski as Rob Gronkowski, and Zach Galfinacus is Julian Edelman.

From the maker of Every Which Way But Loose comes, Every Which Way But Lose. Joy. Strong name. That's a very good movie. I like the casting for Julian Edelman as well. Exactly. It's a very similar beard. Edelman's funny.

I mean, very funny. All right, here's the breaking news. According to Woge, the Lakers are still glad to engage with the Pelicans on an Anthony Davis trade, but the Lakers have pulled out. They're no longer wanting to bid against themselves. The Lakers said the bids and the questions and the demands are outrageous. The Lakers were not going to give them.

the Pelicans, the six to eight draft picks they wanted for Anthony Davis. The Lakers had agreed to send their entire young core, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingraham, Josh Hart, Zubotch, to the Pelicans, as well as KCP Contavius Caldwell Pope, who's an interesting player. But the Lakers said, we're out of this thing. We're not selling the farm for it. I agree with the Lakers here.

I understand those. I get the argument to just go for it, but remember, with LeBron, there's carnage. Cleveland, both times he left was a mess. Miami, first year and a half, two years he left was a mess. When you sell everything for LeBron, there is carnage afterwards, and the Lakers, and I know this firsthand, they don't want to give away everything. Now, they're willing to give away a ton, but Brad Turner of the L.A. time, broke the initial story, the Lakers have pulled out. This is what I said mostly today.

I believe last night they would get it done. And then this morning and late, late last night, I got a text from an executive in the league that says there is pressure on the Pelicans to basically rob the Lakers. And the Lakers to make the Lakers hurt. I think the Lakers made the right move here. I really do. LeBron this morning was asked about Anthony Davis at a shooter round.

Here's LeBron earlier today. I kind of tend not to play much fantasy basketball. That's just how I've always been. It's something will occur with our team, no matter if it's him or for somebody else throughout the trade deadline, we will approach them. Listen, I'm not flipping on this. I would not give all this stuff up to get Anthony Davis. It's outrageous.

It's outrageous. Now, I do get Yankees' counterfeit. The Cowboys Lakers, the inertia created when you bring these superstar in. I do get it. And it's hard to overpay. It generally pays off. But you have to at some point not bit against yourself. You have to have pride.

You can't give away eight draft picks and seven players. That's just idiotic. LeBron's, I got news for you. LeBron Anthony Davis are not going to win a championship. I'm not even sure. It's like LeBron and D. Wade. They're great, but they need other parts to win. Great.

Just because you get Anthony Davis, if you give all that up, you still need shooters around you. It's not over. LeBron and D. Wade were never the perfect match. They were good buddies, but they were both. Neither was a great perimeter shooter. They were both great athletes. They were both drivers. They needed Badiye.

There were a bunch of guys that contributed to those final runs in those championships. Shooters. Ray Allen. Mike Miller. Badiye. You needed shooters. It's like your team, Anthony Davis, and LeBron are not winning a championship. You've got to get shooters. And according to this deal, they were going to give them all up.

They were going to give up KCP, he can shoot. They were going to give up Josh Hart. He can shoot. And you were going to give up eight draft picks. You could draft a shooter. So I don't disagree with what the Lakers are doing. Tomorrow, Greg Kossel, Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, will have it all covered.

Speak for yourself is coming up next. 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. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines.

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 in 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. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker... You know these kids. This linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42.

Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our. podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was primed. You just understood. That's how personal it got.

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

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