The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Tom Brady-Phillip Rivers, playoff outcomes, expectations, & the Blazing 5

Episode Date: January 11, 2019

Colin discusses the careers of New England Patriots QB Tom Brady & Los Angeles Chargers QB Phillip Rivers, the most exciting NFL playoff outcomes, what fans expectations should be, and the Blazing 5 picks for the weekend. Guests include DeAngelo Hall, Albert Breer, Eric Dickerson, Greg Jennings, and Jason McIntyre.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

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Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you not to be played. with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Michelle McPhee,

and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multimillion dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1.

Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a Friday. This is The Hurd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we are live in Los Angeles, fired up for a Friday show. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1, one hour from now our playoff, Blazing Five, our official last blazing five of the year.

We are packed today. Joy Taylor is joining me in a Friday. This is one of the last great Fridays of the year where you got four huge games. It's the last big football weekend until like next year. We got four massive games. Then it's down to two. Then it's down to one. Exciting.

This is a huge weekend. It's a huge weekend. I got a long story. I had to do some traveling last night. I want one sip of Red Bull before we start your show. Hold on. You're starting the morning with Red Bull? It's delicious.

Not great for your teeth, but delicious. That is aggressive. Okay. That is very aggressive moved by me. I want to start with this. I do not believe over the course of a 70, 80-year life, luck plays any part in your life. I don't. Even if you have a bad childhood, 18 years you're out of the house, your choices will dictate your life. Who do you marry? Who do you

hang out with? What jobs you take? What jobs you turn down? If you had a bad childhood, are you willing to go into therapy? I don't think luck plays a part in life. Good breaks, bad breaks. But the reason luck does not play part in people's lives over the course of 70 or 80 years is because you have 40 to 50 years to overcome childhood chaos if things are kind of messed up early. And nobody had a perfect childhood. You didn't. I didn't. Joy probably didn't. I know Goulay, Tui.

Those guys are crazy. Okay, nobody had a perfect life. But I don't think luck plays a part of your life when you have a 75, 80 year life. But what if your life was 14 years? That was it. Beginning to end. You would not have the time to overcome. chaos, abuse, dysfunction.

12, 13, 14 years is the lifespan of an NFL franchise quarterback. And therefore, luck plays a part in it. Bad ownership. Three coaches fired in four years. There's a lot of things you could not overcome. You simply don't have the time to overcome it. This weekend, Tom Brady, the luckiest quarterback of all time, will face Philip Rivers, the unlucky.

great quarterback of all time. This is in no way to in any way dilute the greatness of Brady. He would have been great anywhere. But I doubt the greatest of all time if he'd not been rather lucky. And this is not to say Philip Rivers would be the greatest of all time,

but he'd have more playoff wins. In life, the shorter it is, the less you can overcome. What if Tom was a chance, Charger and Philip was a patriot. Think about Tom's career. He is drafted by now, in arguably, the greatest football coach of all time. He lands with arguably the top owner in professional sports in America, Bob Kraft.

He is drafted into a hyper-competitive, hyper-academic city. The Boston Bruins, the Red Sox, the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Celtics, all MIT, Harvard, all highly competitive. Sports Matters in Boston. Billionaires competing against other billionaires to be smarter, more analytic-driven. It is not a coincidence. The Red Sox, the Bruins, the Patriots, the Celtics, all way, way above the curve on analytics. Sports Matters.

Tom is drafted by the greatest coach, one of the smartest, most empirically powerful owners and stable ownership groups in a sports city where everything matters. And, oh, by the way, gets to plan a division with three other dysfunctional teams, jets, bills, dolphins. Another break. The NFL in 2002 realigned divisions. Peyton Manning would have been in Tom Brady's division. He ended up in something now called the AFC South. Think that would have changed Tom Brady's career?

Let's now talk about Philip Rivers. Four head coaches. His first one fired after a year. The ownership, and I'll say this nicely, has been historically frugal. The city in San Diego, surfing is number one. When lose, nobody's losing sleep. You don't have the passion, the drive, the competitive four different professional sports teams, four different billionaires, all trying to beat each other.

In a division with Denver, one of the better NFL franchises. And, oh, by the way, Kansas City as well, perennially, they're in the playoffs or close to it. And oh, by the way, Phillips having his best year. And true to form, his franchise moves to a city and plays in a soccer stadium. Luck plays very little part if you live a long and extensive life. It doesn't. don't blame mom and dad. If at 58, you're a mess, that's on you.

You could have chosen therapy, a better partner, better friends, and better locations. But over the course of a 14-year life, the span of an NFL quarterback, you simply would not have the time to overcome chaos and dysfunction, bitterness, family squabbles. Brady would have been great anyway, but he would not be the goat without a series of luck breaks. And Philip Rivers would not be Brady, but would be much closer. Luck matters a great deal at quarterback in the National Football League. It won't define you, but it elevates or slightly erodes. That is not arguable. All right, let me shift to this.

The Dallas Cowboys against the Rams. It'll be on Fox. That's our network. We can't wait for it. It's going to be interesting. I think Dallas has better players. I think Dallas and Zamari Cooper showed up is a much better team than the Rams who lost their best receiver Cooper Cup. There's been great debate this year. What is Dak Prescott? Troy Aikman was talking about Dak Prescott, and he believes like I do, he's a grown-up, limited perhaps, but he's a grown-up. Here's Troy on Dak. He's a great leader.

He's everything you'd want him to be. I don't know that there's a more solid individual. the National Football League. And then what he's done on the field, I think that he has shown an ability to win games late. And that's a quality not everybody has. And he's shown to have that even in games when he's not necessarily played his best. And I think that's the greatest quality. Okay, so I agree with that. But I'm going to give you a series of traits. Pretty mobile above average. Joy, that sounds like Dak, right? Wins a lot. Arm is average at times liability. not a big risk taker.

He's a very solid leader. Smart appears to be very coachable, great in front of the mic, and his best year had a great defense. That is not Dak Prescott. That's Alex Smith. And if I say, Dak, we've seen him before. It's Alex Smith. You wince.

You don't like to hear that. But can I remind you that Alex Smith has had eight straight winning seasons? has been a Pro Bowl or three times, has three division titles and five playoff appearances. Cowboy fan, you would buy that in a New York minute if I offered that this morning. We have seen Dak. It's Alex Smith, and he wins, and he gets to the Pro Bowl occasionally. Every couple years, he wins his division. He gets to the playoffs, about half of his career.

That's Dak. And you don't like to hear that. Because what Alex Smith is isn't Super Bowls. He always comes up just a little shy in that big game. And that's why with DAC, the most important element to this entire career is going to be expectations. If you go in today knowing that you're going to have a guy who wins, maybe every third, fourth year gets to a Pro Bowl, he'll win you a division title every couple years. Half his career is going to get you in the playoffs in the competitive NFC.

Then you're fine with DAC. But I don't think the Cowboys probably beat the Rams this weekend. And much like Alex Smith, the season ends with frustration, disappointment. Dak can't quite make the throwdown field. Dak can't quite stretch the field. Dak isn't quite willing to take the big risk. Anger and resentment comes from one thing. expectations. Take a deep breath. Know what DAC is. What DAC is is is very good. He's Alex

Smith. If you expect more, you'll be very disappointed. Coming up next, Joy and I talked about this yesterday, that we are loyal, not to teams, not to players, we're loyal to content. Joy and I root for tire fires. We root for car wrecks. We root for interesting. Makes our job easier. going to give you all four games this weekend. What would be the most interesting thing to happen in all four games? We'll discuss that coming up. 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.

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 athletes 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 SportsSlic 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.

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, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped. up in the chase, that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it.

And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely.

And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about. How 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. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth.

He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me?

Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. within probably 10 days I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, you know, as we have four great games this weekend, you know, there's always been this confusion. The audience thinks we're rooting for this, we're rooting for that, we're rooting for big market, we're rooting for small market. The highest red at NBA finals ever, I think, was Michael Jordan against the Utah Jazz,

and everybody was predicting nobody would watch. because Utah is a small city, but it was a great story. And it was Michael Jordan with 100 degree temperature and the Utah Jazz with this pesky team that gave Jordan trouble. And there was all sorts of drama. Ratings come from stories, not market size. Okay, that's the reality of it, is that Boston and the Patriots, this has been a dynasty. Alabama is a dynasty. It's not always big markets that control sports or get the ratings.

It's the best stories. So the Utah Jazz Michael Jordan Finals was the highest rated finals of all the time. Michael had played Barclay in the Suns. And you think that would be a huge rating because Bartley was a star. No, it was a little Utah Jazz. And so this weekend, if it was up to me

that I was rooting for the best stories, because the best stories mean I'll get better ratings, the numbers inflate, more people watch our show. We can build a bigger staff. We're rooting for the most interesting stuff to happen. So when you get up Monday morning, you're like, see what Joy and Colin have to say. That's what we're rooting for.

We're rooting for interesting. So let's go through all four games. What would be the most interesting outcome? Kansas City at Indianapolis. I believe the most interesting outcome is a shootout between the next Brady and Manning. For the next 10 years, Patrick Mahomes and Andrew Luck are going to go toe to toe. And I want a shootout. And I want Kansas City winning.

And I want the MVP winning. And I want Andy Reid winning. And I think it's 3433. And this is Peyton Manning and Tom Brady early in their careers. obviously Mahomes younger than Andrew Luck, but I want Mahomes to be flashy and no look passes and left-handed passes and be a contrast of styles. That Mahomes comes out, he is Brett Farb.

He makes a real bonehead interception. He makes some mistakes. But he has two or three unbelievable all-time highlight plays. Meanwhile, Andrew Luck is 28 for 34. He is workman-like, a contrast of styles. He is boring, and he is leading them down the field, and the clock runs out. and Kansas City wins a wild shootout,

and we have a sense when the game is over, oh my God, we're going to see this a lot for the next decade. A Kansas City narrow win in a shootout gets everybody fired out. Because we know the Chiefs are going to be around for a while, and we know the Colts with nine draft picks on top of this and 100 million, they're going to be really good starting next year. But this one we give to Kansas City, and then they go back and forth. Okay, Dallas and the Rams.

what's the most interesting outcome Dallas and the Rams. Dallas upsets the Rams and DAC is not good. Zeke runs for 150. The cowboy defense is great and Dak Press got struggles. And for the next four months, six months, nine months, what do we do with Dak? We're winning the division. We're winning playoff games.

He's Alex Smith. What are we going to do if we pay? Pam! And by the way, the glitzy Rams give me all sorts of stories. Sean McVeigh, Owen, two, both at home, in the playoffs. Both as a heavy favorite. And the shiny, new, techie toy, it doesn't really work in January. And Sean McVeigh is maybe a little more style than substance. I don't believe that to be true. But Kansas City in a shootout winning, Dak playing poorly and the Cowboys winning and getting

the NFC championship and an equally big story is the Rams are a lot of glitz and they paid for all these big stars and it ain't working brother and oh oh all those teams that uh picked off that Sean McVatry you're going to be a little concerned how about New England Chargers we said this yesterday the Chargers don't beat New England they beat them 3314 Tom Brady is overwhelmed sacks six times the Chargers have better players you start to question Belichick's arrogance letting Brandon Cooks go, Josh Gordon, leaving Tom with nothing. Ding Dong the Witch is dead. Dynasty is over.

Tom Brady going to retire. Belichick getting heat. We have another offseason where we question the dynasty going forward. Not just a charger win, but an overwhelming performance where the road-weary chargers go on the road. You watch the game for three and a half hours and come to the conclusion. It's over. Kind of like that Bama Clemson thing. you're like, oh, Clemson's better.

They got better coach. They got better structure. They got better players. You sit and watch that game and you think, oh, it's not even close. New England's got no players. That's the best outcome. We're talking about that until Labor Day. Finally, Eagle Saints.

Now, you're going to be confused by this. You know, I initially thought, well, Drew Breeze wins. Everybody loves Drew Breeze. But what if the story Sunday night is? Holy crap. Philadelphia wins. close game, fourth and goal, Doug Peterson, Nick Foles again,

pull one out of there, you know what. And then after that, it would be the Eagles at the Cowboys for the NFC Championship. Yeah, I'll take that. Yeah, I'll take that. If Philadelphia wins, another close situational game, let's see, they beat Atlanta in one of those, and they beat Brady in the Super Bowl in one of those,

and they just beat the Bears in one of those. and they earlier this year beat the Texans in one of those. And they're getting into a habit that Doug Peterson, if he wins another one against a great quarterback, there's a Belichickian thing going on where it is not a coincidence. Philadelphia is simply smarter, owner, GM coach. We've got a Wentz-Fouls controversy. I think Philadelphia winning close,

Colin, what about the breeze, Brady, Super Bowl? Well, in my scenario, Brady doesn't get past the charger, so that's not going to happen. If you're asking me what's interesting on Monday, what is the most angst? Kansas City wins in a shootout. Dallas wins, but DAC struggles. The Patriots get absolutely rolled. And somehow, some way, on another fourth down situational moment, The Philadelphia Eagles shocked the world, and we can't figure out what the hell's going on.

Here's Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So Steelers president, Art Rooney II, made some very illuminating comments yesterday about his disgruntled receiver, Antonio Brown. Yeah. It looks like AB's future is murky at best in Pittsburgh. Yeah.

Rooney implied that Brown will be gone next season, though. he gave himself just enough wiggle room to possibly reconcile. He was asked if he sees him coming back next season. And he said, as we sit here today, it's hard to envision that. But there's no sense on closing the door on anything today. We don't have to make those decisions right now, whether the situation can be reconciled and have him back on the team next year. We're not closing the door on anything.

And after the quotes hit the Internet's, Brown posted this photo on his social pages with the caption, Good Business, hashtag boomin. three things the Steelers ownership is, patient, quiet, and tolerant. And all three went out the door yesterday. They're not patient, they're losing tolerance, and they're not quiet. They don't talk. This tells me, and for the record, somebody, Antonio Brown may not fit the Steelers. He certainly fits the NFL.

As long as you don't build around him, he becomes a component to a very talented team. I think he's interesting. Well, I think the one thing that they are still being, patient because at least according to his comments they're not making a decision right now. I mean, it is possible that Antonio Brown comes in and they all sit down and have a conversation as men and work it out and talk about what went wrong and what they want to do moving forward. That's possible. Unlikely, but it's possible.

So maybe they are just waiting so closer to the season, maybe after the draft. And, you know, I don't remember what the date is for when the extra part of his contract kicks in. They owe more money. But I'm sure they'll sort it out whether they decide. to keep him or not when the time is right. They don't have to make a decision right now, like he said. So the NFL coaching carousel has officially jumped to shark after the Packers hired

Rams' offensive coordinator, Matt LaFlor, and the Cardinals pointed out that Sean McVey and Cliff Kingsbury are friends in their press release. The Bengals are now planning to hire McVeigh's quarterback coach to be their next head coach. Nothing can be confirmed until the Rams are no longer in the playoffs, obviously, but multiple reports are pointing to Zach Taylor becoming the next head coach of the Bengals this offseason. he'll be the third hire who is a connection to the Rams coach. So this is the offseason of the next Sean McVeigh, which we predicted was going to happen.

Yeah, and it has quickly. And yesterday McVeigh himself spoke about this phenomenon. I think really what it is more than anything else is it's a reflection of our organizational success over the last couple years. I think it's certainly flattering. It's extremely humbling to even be mentioned in that. But I know this. The reason that people are saying those types of things is because the Rams have had success. And I know the Rams are having success because we've got great players.

We've got a great coaching staff. And we've got a lot of people that are working in the same direction. And I think that's key for continuity and anything that you do. But it certainly is very flattering. And, you know, it's a reflection of the Rams. It should be noted. You and I both like Sean McVeigh. Yeah, yeah.

And I think he is really bright. I think he is the real deal. No, no. I think Sean's totally the real deal. I think we're jumping the shark on the let's find the next guy. And I don't think his skills are transferable. That's what it is. And this is what I said yesterday.

I think that when you have someone who stands out like that, who has completely transformed Jared Goff's career and turned around an organization that looked dead, you have the spotlight on you. So people around you are going to get the spotlight too. But part of what Sean McVeigh is saying, and he's being humble and saying the right thing, obviously, but what I also believe is that he's also smart

of putting the people around him who are great at what he may not be good at. Like hiring a very seasoned defensive coordinator, for example. You have to put people around you who are great at what you necessarily don't have time to do or aren't great at. And then they get the spotlight and it gets confused with what you really do. What I like that McVeigh has, and I think it's a really important component to smart people, he has self-awareness. He's like, listen, let's take a deep breath. This is kind of ridiculous. We're a great organization. I've told you before. One of LeBron's great strengths is LeBron's got pretty good self-awareness. Like, this owner's not good. My team's

getting old. This roster's getting hurt. LeBron has moved generally at the right time. That's self-awareness. Carmelo Anthony, I killed for years because he forced to trade the New York, forcing New York to trade pieces away, so when he got to New York, they didn't have any pieces. That's lacking self-awareness. McVeigh understands the temperature of the room

here. I think he's probably rolling his eyes a little bit at some of this stuff. Yeah, but I think he also wants, you know, it seems like he wants the people around him to be elevated, too. Right. So, you know, he's saying all the right things. And finally, Not everyone is happy about Adam Gase being the next Jets head coach, but Alshan Jeffrey thinks he could work with Sam Darnold. They were together in Chicago in 2015,

and he told New Jersey advanced media, his impact will be huge knowing the Adam Gase that I know and the potential of the Jets are looking for. I'm pretty sure Sam is going to be a Super Bowl MVP. He can win a Super Bowl. Darnold will be an MVP in this league working with Gase. I expect big things from those two. You know, it's just funny.

You know, everybody gets, you know, Everybody, Cleveland loves their coaching hire. Arizona loves their coaching higher. But Bengals are going to hire a 35-year-old. Green Bay just hired a guy who's called played for one year. Adam Gase has been an NFL head coach, has gotten to the playoffs, gave Peyton Manning his greatest year. Right. Was the quarterback coach for Tebow during his winning streak?

Nick Saban and Peyton Manning called on his behalf because Saban took him when he was a 21-year-old Snoddy-nose kid down in LSU and gave him all sorts of responsibility because Sabin thought, who hell is this bright kid? Does everybody get that Adam Gase is going to work? This is not like a newbie. a 40-year-old that took the dysfunctional dolphin to the playoffs with Ryan Tannahill. Yeah, I don't, I didn't love Gase's tenure in Miami, obviously, because it didn't exactly work out the way that I wanted it to. But you are right about the playoffs, and you are,

the facts remain that he was with Peyton Manning when he had his best year. He greatly improved in color. Every situation doesn't work for every person. Maybe Miami just wasn't a situation for him. By the way, Belichick couldn't get the quarterback right in Cleveland got fired. Pete Carroll couldn't get quite the quarterback right, maybe in New England. You start looking coaches that get fired in this league that we perceive to be good coaches. It's generally the same thing. They couldn't quite get the quarterback right. Herm Edwards told me this years ago.

Said, Colin, if I got the right quarterback, I wouldn't be a broadcaster. I'd be a coach because it pays more and it's a lot of fun. And we all coaches want to coach, not broadcast. Right. So Gase and Darnold is going to work. Now, Super Bowls, I don't know. But the idea that all the other four young teams love their hire and they're like 33, 35, never been a coach.

And you're not... Again, I don't think the age has anything to do with it. I just think that... He's got experience. Yeah, it's experience. And, I mean, Gase has it. So, we'll see. Everyone's excited about all their hires.

Yeah, Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lye News. Let's bring him in. We got a guy that knows all about Sean McVeigh. DeAngelo Hall spent time with him in Washington with the Redskins, 14 NFL seasons.

He was a multiple-time pro bowler. So you know McVeigh, you know, by the way, he was an assistant at 22. He was a coach at one point at 22, which is absurd. But that was on accident now, Colin. What's that? He was a coach on accident. You're talking about him being a position coach. No, when he was a 22-year-old coach, like, where was that at?

At 22, he was like Oakland with John Gruden. Yeah, QC, I think, in Oakland. I thought you met the time he stumbled upon being the tight-ins coach. He was our QC starting off in Washington, and we had our tight-ins coach, John Embry get the head job at Colorado. So they moved him up. They moved them up. And I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool.

So now, let me, did you know, and everybody knows he's smart now, but when you were there, you're doing your own thing, you're a defensive guy, you're a pro bowl player. It's not like you're spending a lot of time. But was there talk that, who's Boy Wonder over here? Yeah, yeah. I mean, and there was a couple of guys like that on that staff. It was Sean McVeigh was on that staff. Matt LeFlewer was on that staff.

Mike McDaniel, who you're starting to hear a little bit about, who Shannonhan's rank game coordinator. He was on that staff. Aubrey Pleasant, the DB coach for the Rams was on that staff. Rahim Morris, who we already knew a whole lot about. And so it was a slew of really, really, really good coaches that you knew they were good coaches because most young coaches are intimidated by everyone else around them. So if you're an offensive coach, you really don't say anything to the defensive guys, especially the corners or the DBs because they can be a little bit, you know, you know,

they could go off at any given moment, DBs. And so, you know, most offensive guys, coaches don't really say anything to, you know, to the DBs. They kind of stay in their position groups. But these guys would mingle amongst everyone on, you know, on the roster. You know, you'd catch Sean over here picking my brain about coverage. Hey, hey, so what were you guys in on that particular coverage? Now, you know, why did you come off trying to understand why we did this? Or why did I see, you know, why did I see this play this way instead of the way he was coached off?

Information seeker. Yeah, and I'm doing the same thing. I'm like, Sean, so why did he throw this ball? Well, you know, when your back was turned, even though you didn't mean to turn your back, because he saw your back turn, he thought that was open. So, you know, we would always just, all of us, just meeting of the minds it kind of felt like. And so, yeah, as a young coach, you knew all those guys were just cut different because I had been around most coaches who didn't act like these guys. When they were 29, 30 years old.

Yeah, yeah. By the way, I said earlier, anger and. resentment comes from one place. Expectations. So if you have realistic expectations in life, you don't get mad. Okay? If Dak Prescott is Alex Smith, you

were actually, about two months ago, you came on this show and you said, I like Dak. He's Alex Smith. And I said today, if I gave you Alex Smith's NFL career, eight straight winning seasons, three

pro bowls, five division titles, you would say, if you're a cowboy, here it is. I want you to look at this. Eight straight winning season, three pole bowls, three division titles, five playoff appearances. If I told cowboy fans today, that's going to be DAC in a decade. Wouldn't they take that? Yeah, I would hope so. So my point is, as long as you realize that you'll be disappointed in the NFC championship,

you'll be disappointed at some point because he won't vertically carry you to big wins. Yeah, but, you know, I don't know if you'll necessarily be disappointed because Alex Smith, Dak Prescott, they won't command the $33 million or the $35 million that seems to hamper a lot of these rosters from a personnel standpoint. When you commit so much money to the quarterback position, it makes it very hard to put really, really, really good players around him. You can put some good players. You can hit on some draft picks.

You know, you might even can get some guys who play way above their expectations. You're not going to keep your own free agents. To get a Leo Mack, to get a Aaron Donald, to get a Von Miller, to get these impactful defensive players or even other players around guys offensively, it's hard. Just think if you're paying a quarterback 33 million, then you go out and get a number one receiver. You're paying 15 million, too. that's a lot of money for two positions. And then you got to somehow get a left tackle to be really good.

Then you have to put other guys on that offensive line. And then not even talking about defensively what you have to do, you know, either one side of the ball is going to be really young and you're going to invest draft picks on them or you're just going to have a really good quarterback, kind of like Green Bay's trying to do it, a really good quarterback, a great quarterback, and good players around them, not great players around them.

And I think Dallas will have a chance because they'll be able to get back for a bargain and they'll be able to put really great players around him. And so he doesn't need to be great. I think he'll still be a really good player. And like you said, you know, you saw those numbers. You went a lot of games. I mean, Alex won a lot of games.

And he won a lot of games. And so, you know, I just think that's the formula. And you see teams who are trying to load up now while they have that rookie quarterback on those, you know, minimum money contracts because they know at some point, I mean, I can't let them walk. I have to pay them. And so, you know, you got to get it while you can.

All right, I'm going to go through all four games. Give me your thoughts on each. Colts at the Chiefs, your gut feeling is? I mean, I think the Chiefs win this game, but I think it's a lot closer than people think. I think the Colts' defense is for real. They're so aggressive. They play fast. The one knock on them is they don't play as much man.

They play a lot of zones. And it can be good. It can be bad. Patrick Mahomes is a guy, though, that can pick apart zones. We've seen them do it time and time again. And those little fast receivers and Tyreek Hill and some of those other guys, Kelsey, running down the seam, if you don't have bodies on those guys and you let them just run through zones, it's going to make for a long day. But I think Andrew Luck and knowing he gets the opportunity to go against his Kansas City defense, you know,

they haven't been great so far this season. But I think they'll get a little bit better playing in Arrowhead knowing all the history of, of, you know, postseason losses there. I think they'll be amped up. But, I mean, I ultimately think Kansas City offense is just going to be a little bit too much. Good call. Cowboys at the Rams got feeling.

I mean, Rams. Rams. You really like confidently. I do. I just think that the Cowboys are a really good football team. They're young. If I was a head coach or if I was a GM, this would be the roster I wanted because it's so young.

It's talented. DeAngelo, listen to this. They're the first playoff team. without a starter over 30 in 31 years. So not only they're young. They don't have one starter over 30. Sean Lee, no longer starting 30. And he's not starting anymore.

And they've got his reply. They're the youngest NFL good team in three decades. So when you say they're young, it's like, yeah, no, no, they're historically young. They're really young. I mean, they're still trying to learn and figure it out. And, you know, I ultimately think Dak Prescott can win football games and will win football games. But, you know, right now he's still learning. how to really be an elite quarterback.

And so I think it, you know, their team and that offense will go as Zeeke goes. And, yeah, the Rams probably aren't built to stop the run. When you have a converted safety plan, Mike Linebacker, and what's the kid from? Jalen, who are you talking about the Rams or the Cowboys? Jalen Smith or Van der Reyesh. No, I'm talking about the Rams.

Gosh, the guy from Tampa. Oh, Mark Barron. Mark Barron, exactly. He's not built to take on ISO blocks, and, you know, Zeke's bigger than him. Most Mike linebackers are normally bigger than the running backs. And so the Rams aren't necessarily built to stop the run, but I think they'll drop more safeties in the boxes.

They'll, you know, they'll do certain things scheme-wise to prevent Zeke and that offense from running the ball and ultimately put all the pressure and the onus on deck Prescott. And, you know, I just think the Rams will be a little bit too much. A lot of their late-season, mishaps have been self-inflicted. They've been Jared Gough, instead of taking that checkdown that's wide open right here, teams knowing they want to go deep is two guys on the post and he's still throwing it.

And those are things that I know Sean and that offense has been coaching them up to see like, hey, look, you can't always take the big shot. I know it was open early in the season, but teams now are starting to play for it. They know that's what we want to do in our offense. Let's hit this checkdown. Let's give the ball to these guys who can make plays in space and let them make the plays. And so Jared Goff hadn't been doing that as much in the second half of the season, but I think having this week off and watching film and just really seeing the mistakes he's made

and some self-inflicted mistakes that offense has made, I think the Rams will be all right. And I think they'll come out with this win. Stick around, come back. I'll have you look at the Chargers and the Patriots and the Eagles and the Saints. It's a wild weekend, a blazing five top of next hour. Albert Breer, Eric Dickerson, Greg Jennings, Jason McIntyre. We're packed in L.A. It's The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd.

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War me out. It is. All right. So you think the Colts will give the Chiefs a real game. You'll take Kansas City. Yeah. You'll take the Rams. arrested at home over the Cowboys.

Let's go to Chargers Patriots. Who do you like and why? Take your time. I've been saying New England because they're consistently, what they've been able to do for the last 12, 15 years has been unparalleled.

And I don't want to I don't want to not put that into my consideration. Of course. Because you have to go with the constant. And I feel like Coach Belichick, Tom Brady, you know, it's hard to pick against those guys. But this is the first time I'm probably going to say it out loud. I've thought about this in my head, and I've always took New England.

I've always took New England. But it's something about the way New England hasn't quite looked like New England. And for that fact, I'm going to take the Chargers. This is my first time saying that out loud. Every other time someone's asked me, I've always taken New England. but the more and more I think about it and I think about that Chargers team and the way they've been playing

and the way they can put pressure on Tom Brady with just rushing their four-down linemen that's what they do. They don't blitz much. They don't need, I think they blitz less than any team in the national footballers. Yeah, because Bradley doesn't blitz. He wants his past rush

and his cover guys to cover. Now, if Melvin Gordon can run the ball, I'm sorry, I said Melvin Gord. If Sony-Michel can run the ball for New England, That's something that will make them change a little bit what they do, the charges. But, I mean, I just think the charges roster is so talented. Offensively, it's not close.

Going into New England is a tough place to play. In a playoff type atmosphere, Philip Rivers is never won. I don't think he's ever beat Tom Brady. Oh, and seven. And so, you know, that's a little bit of a monkey on his back. But, you know, I'm going to go with Old Phil, man. Phil was in my draft class. I'm going to ride with Old Phil.

He still looks good, by the way. By the way, I don't know what it is with the seven or eight kids, but I've never seen a guy with that much energy after a game. He always gets interviewed after the Chargers win games. He's talking a thousand. He makes me look like a slow talker. Philip Rivers got so much energy. He has a lot of them.

He is just bursting through the seams. Okay, and finally, everybody loves the Saints this weekend, but the Saints give up yards. Philadelphia's got a lot of ballers. They do. They do. You know, if I had to put a percent on the Eagles, if they could go in New Orleans and win, I probably would say 10%.

But all you need is 1%. You know, you just need 1%. You know, I've played in games where I felt like, man, if we played those guys 100 times we'd win 99, but today they won. How the heck is that possible? This is one of those games. When you think of this Saints offense,

this Saints team, what they were able to do against the Eagles earlier in the year with Carson Wentz, you know, it's almost like, Like, are you kidding me? Because Nick Foles is nowhere near the kind of player Carson Wins is. But it's something about that Nick Foles magic, man. You know, in these playoffs and in the playoffs last year, he just catches fire. He's so confident.

Those guys rally behind him. And that's what you need. You want guys to want to play for your coach, for your leaders, for your quarterback. And those guys in Philly, man, they play for Nick Foles. And so, you know, I would like to bet my life. and say the Saints will win this game. But you think it's close. But, I mean, I give Philly a chance.

I really do because, I mean, that front forward. I mean, this secondary of the Eagles are a makeshift bunch who I don't think maybe one guy was starting in week one. And that's Malcolm Jenkins, I think. He's the only secondary player that was starting in week one that's still starting now. And so to have all of those guys go down and replace them. and at times Philly secondary did look bad but you know what bailed them out was that front and I think that front understands hey look

we got some young guys back here we're not at full strength on the back end we're landing on the line and you saw it first against the Rams you saw that front get after Jerry Golf and if they can do the same thing to the Saints and that offense down there in that place I mean it's Eagles got a chance but I'm saying the Saints are

to win, but the Eagles have a legitimate chance because they're playing outstanding football. You just want to get hot at the right time. And they got hot last year. The proof is in the pudding. You ever playing a team that got magic that you didn't think you had the best team? Do you ever have a six or an eight week run in the NFL? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

I think you might even remember RG's rookie year. Yes. We were three and six, three and six and finished ten and six. And had Seattle on the ropes in the first round of the playoffs. What happened? How? I mean, we just had him on the road. I mean, we were up 14, I think 14, 3 or 14-0, and then RG gets hurt.

He gets hurt. He hurts his ACL. Well, you know what? We keep the game close into the fourth quarter. Fourth quarter is when he goes down, and they just continue to make play after play, and we just couldn't. I mean, we didn't put any more points up after that 14, and it just made it. But you had a seven-week run with a rookie quarterback. Yeah, we had a seven-week run where we were like, man, it don't matter what we do.

Like, we could not make a mistake. Yeah. No, it happens. Tebow had it, RG3 had it, Lamar Jackson had it. Sometimes when you bring something new into the league, and the league hasn't seen it. Oh, yeah, it takes a while to figure it out. Especially running quarterbacks.

Yeah. They can't quite get the, by the way, Chargers beat Baltimore the second time they played them. And the Patriots crushed Tebow the second time they played him. The running stuff, I don't think is sustainable over 10 years, but it goes on roles. Great seeing you. Oh, thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Blazing five, top of next hour. I'll make all four of my pitch. We were four-and-o last weekend, which only guarantees we won't be four-and-o this weekend. It doesn't work that way. If you've got the cold, the dreaded stuffy nose and flu season is here. Try Vick-Synex nasal spray.

Works up to 12 hours. Use only as directed. But when congestion strikes, try Vicks, Synex, nasal spray. Blazing 5 is next. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the I-Hard Radio app. Search Herd to listen. live or on demand whenever you'd like.

Ah, here we go. Hour 2 and a Friday. This is The Heard. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we are live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me for Hour 2. We have a packed hour Albert Breer coaching updates, coaching moves, inside NFL stuff, Eric Dickerson, Greg Jennings, and Jason McIntyre. last hour. Joy, how are you? I am just doing because I have a great story for you in

Heard Line News, the bottom of the hour. You do? I do. I'm not going to give you any hints. It's just all about you and you're going to love it. Oh my guy. I'm so excited. You should be so I am so excited. It's called a tease. You do it all the time. I'm taking advantage of this moment. It is must watch. I'm not going to go on. I'll give you a hint. No. You want a hint? You have one's well hit. Okay. All right, let's just make it. That's fun. It's really good.

Okay. All right. You listen, I do the Blazing Five all year and I stop it at the end of the regular season because, you know, I get to pick five games out of like 15 or 16. When you only have three or four games, I wouldn't generally bet all these games. But there is a game I love this weekend. And I'll let you figure it out by the keywords I often use when I pick these games. But I thought we'd do it. Let's go Blazing Five with four games.

Here we go. That's a hot one. Let's Blaze it off. Fire it up. It's Collins. blazing five. Colts at Chiefs. Chiefs minus five and a half off a buy at home with Andy Reed. I'm going to take Kansas City to win the game. Listen to the first team to average 35 points per game for a season since Denver did it with Peyton Manning. Now the Colts are hotter, but Kansas City's offense is first in virtually everything.

And the Colts defense, although it's a great story, has not faced a top 10 scoring offense since week five when the Patriots lit them up. I think a lot of this Colts defensive story has been situational. They haven't faced great offenses. Darius Leonard's outstanding, but they still have lots of needs on the defensive side. I think luck may outplay Holmes. It is cold. It is snowy. I do not like dome teams on the road in cold, snowy games.

I'm going to take Kansas City here, 31 to 24 to win and cover the spread. Cowboys and Rams. Cowboys plus seven and a half. They got the better defense. They're playing with house money. They've got the better momentum. They've won eight of nine. Let's not lie here since Amari Cooper showed up.

It's a pretty darn good offense. And their defense, and again, they faced real offenses this year. Their defense has been up to the task. Cowboys defense hasn't allowed 25 points to any of the top five offenses they've faced this year. So when they've faced the Drew breezes, they have delivered. By the way, the Rams defense, when it's. has it been good? And I don't think Todd Gurley's healthy. We're still talking about Todd. I don't think he's healthy. And I still think they miss Cooper Cup. I think Sean McVeigh,

off a buy, has some explosive dynamic play calls to catch the Cowboys a little off guard and take a lead. And in the NFL playoffs, you get a lead, you win like 75% of the time. But there's no way, I'm not taking seven and a half points with the Cowboys. I think the Rams take a lead. in this game and hold on for dear life, but I'm going to take the Rams to win 3026, but absolutely Cowboys to cover. Chargers at Patriots. Like New England at minus four? I love New England at minus four.

Okay, first of all, Philip Rivers, last three games, gotten beat up a little. I think he looks a little fatigued. I think the running backs are a little beat up. In the last three games for the Chargers, Philip Rivers passer ratings 55. They're averaging 18 a game and about 240 yards. The Patriots are 11 and 1 after a playoff by Bill Belichick era. Undefeated at home this year. Only undefeated team.

Listen, the Chargers have been getting, you face Baltimore two times in three or four weeks. You are banged up. They're a little banged up. They've got to travel 10,000 miles in the last two weeks, last three weeks. I think New England controls this game. They're efficient. It's a frustrating game for the Chargers who have better players. But I'll take the Patriots to win in cover, 28, 23, maybe even a little worse.

Eagles at Saints. All right. Listen, everybody loves the Saints. And my guess is the Saints drop a 30 burger. But I think Philadelphia's offense is potent. They're five and one straight up as an underdog. They've been great situationally. I get eight and a half points.

I'm taking that all day. Nick Foles' pass a rating in the playoffs is 105. They're three and one against top ten scoring offenses. Listen, the Saints defense, it's not an easy defense to run on. But you can throw the ball on this team. Alshon Jeffrey, Zach Ertz, Nelson Aguilar, Golden Tate, a very good offensive line. We've got an excellent coach and a quarterback who's good in these sons. spots. I think this game is a lot closer than people think. I do expect New Orleans to be able to

move the football. But come on, you don't bet teams, you bet numbers. Philadelphia plus eight. I'm taking it all day. Eagles cover, Saints win a super competitive game 24 to 20. So again, Blazing 5, these are my picks. Kansas City, Dallas, New England, Philly. New England's my favorite pick. Dallas is my second favorite pick. I'll just say that right there. Okay, I want to talk about this for a second. This is pretty amazing. Dallas is the first playoff team. This is really amazing. Without a starter over 30 years old in 31 years. And you would think that would guarantee that you're going to be really good. But I don't think it guarantees anything, and I'll tell you why.

I think when Kansas City plays Indianapolis this weekend, you're going to see mostly the future of the AFC for the time being. I think both the Chiefs and the Colts have a great coach, very, very, very, very good transformational quarterback talents, excellent front offices and good home field edges. I think Kansas City and Indianapolis and the AFC, you're going to see a lot of. I think in the AFC, you've got a lot of dysfunctional teams, Jacksonville, Miami, Buffalo, Sincy, Oakland, Cleveland. You got a lot of bad quarterbacks.

Even quarterbacks that are okay, Lamar Jackson and Marcus Mariotto, do we really, really buying them long-term? Pittsburgh and the New England Patriots have Hall of Fame quarterbacks, but they're old and going to retire pretty soon. I think the AFC is going to be led. I know what the AFC is going to look like for the next

eight years. You're going to see a lot of Andy Reed and Patrick Mahomes, and you're going to see a lot of Frank Reich and Andrew Locke. You can see a lot of that. The NFC, I got news for you. I don't know what I'm going to see for the next five years. Dallas has the best young roster, but they're limited at quarterback.

Philadelphia has maybe the best combination of, if Carson Wentz is healthy, owner, GM, coach, and quarterback. The Los Angeles Rams have a lot of money, new stadium, free agent destination, and they certainly have the GM, the quarterback, and the coach, right. The Chicago Bears have my vote for the coach of the year, so they got the coach right, and that defense is not only loaded, it's a bunch of kids. And they're not, except for Cleo Mac, you're not paying those guys much. Green Bay's got Aaron Rogers.

I'm not giving up on Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll. They usually figured out and end up as a playoff team. And I've told you this before. I think San Francisco is going to be a thorn for the Rams. When Jimmy Garoppolo comes back and Kyle Shanahan, I think they're going to win that division at least every other year for the next 10 years. Not to mention the Vikings, the Saints, and the Carolina. You know, Carolina's got Cam and Ron Rivera, and they got good Luke

geekly and the Saints have Drew and Sean and Mickey Loomis drafts well. You know, I didn't mention Atlanta, Minnesota. You got real players there. So the NFC, you've got bigger cities, more revenue, better free agent markets except for Green Bay, more competitive, better quarterbacks, better organizations. In the AFC, I got a lot of dysfunction. I got a lot of bad owners. I got a lot of bad quarterbacks.

I got a lot of bad cultures. The cowboy talent is remarkable. I mean, it really is. First playoff team without a starter over 30 and 31 years. It is an incredibly special team. But I don't think it guarantees anything in the NFC. When you compare the NFC to the AFC, AFC is kind of dysfunctional.

There's a lot of junk in the AFC. It's not a lot of junk. I think the Bruce Ariens hire in Tampa because I think Tampa's kind of junk in the NFC. I think they write that ship. I think they're pretty competitive next year. I think Bruce Ariens, James Winston, Todd Bowles.

They've got a good roster. I think Tampa next year will be a real tough out. And maybe you could argue the same in the AFC with Cleveland, with Baker and Dorsey and their roster. They're going to be a tougher out. I think they will be. But I know what the AFC is going to look like. It's going to be a lot of Andrew Luck and Patrick Mahomes for the next 10 years.

I guarantee that. Coach, front office, quarterback, I guarantee that. No idea what I don't even know what the NFC looks like next year. Seriously. I have no idea about the NFC. If the Giants figure out the quarterback thing, Sequin, Barclay, Shermer, the offensive guy, OBJ, watch out. All right, coming up next, Albert Brear stops by.

The very latest on some of this coaching stuff. Bengals are going to hire a... Zach Taylor. High school kid. What? Zach Taylor? How is he? 18?

I don't know. I don't know how old is. 35. 35. Oh, Lord. 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 Heart Radio app.

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,

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SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Life 12 in 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.

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Join me, Keir Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose. On my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world,

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The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

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the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The NSC. Divisional Playoffs kick off this weekend on Fox. Tomorrow is Ego Elliott and the Cowboys, take on Todd Gurley and the Rams. Then on Sunday, Big Falls and the Eagles battle Drew Brees and the Saints.

It's all happening this weekend on Fox and the Fox Sports app. Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Anaheim Ducks 10 Eastern tonight's Discover card key matchup free credit scorecard today. Even if you're not a Discover customer, won't hurt your credit score. Discover.com slash credit scoreboard. With that, all sorts of stuff happening in the NFL right now. We've got job openings. Let's go to our friend Albert Breer, Monday morning quarterback via the Coward Global

Satellite Network. Listen, we all know what's happening. What I think is funny in this, Albert, is all these organizations love their hires, even though they have no head coaching experience. Some are hiring people like Matt Lafleur and Green Bay, one year of play calling. But yet in New York, they're banging on Adam Gase, and my takeaway is, excuse me, but he got to the playoffs, beat New England a couple of times, has been hired multiple times as a coordinator. Adam Gase, to me, is the one higher I like, and it's the one getting the heat.

What do you make of it? I think it's a smart move by the Jets, honestly. This is about developing the quarterback and getting the most out of Sam Darnold, particularly while he's on his rookie contract. They got probably three more years of that. And to me, I look at this and I say to myself, okay, here you have a guy who has gotten career years out of Peyton Manning, Jay Cutler, Ryan Tannahill, went to the playoffs with Ryan Tannahill as a head coach, and recreated an offense on the fly in 2011 with Tim Tebow at the helm.

And so if you want offensive creativity and you want a guy who can work with a quarterback, you've got that with Adam Gase, plus you got three years of NFL head coaching experience. He's the only coach to bring the Miami Dolphins to the playoffs this decade. Things weren't pretty at the end. I think you have to hope he learned from being part of the day. discord in that organization at the very end. But there are lots of pieces to like there with the Adam Gase hire in New York. Okay, I can't talk Darnel without Baker Mayfield. I'm a little reluctant on Freddie Kitchens, never been a high school head coach, only been a coordinator for

eight games. I don't think he would have gotten necessarily a coordinator job around the league. I don't like when my quarterback is learning how to be an NFL quarterback, hiring a coach who's learning how to be a head coach. I don't love this. But I was told John Dorsey wanted somebody he doesn't want Greg Williams. He doesn't want Hugh Jack. He don't want pushback. And this is John Dorsey's team. I mean, that's kind of what I feel.

Here's the key, Colin. Okay. And I know, look, the fact that he ran the offense, the way he did, that's a huge plus. The fact that he developed Baker-Mayfield the way he did, first as his position coach, then as his coordinator, that's another huge plus. But the key word here, and remember this one is unifier.

That's the way that everyone in the building felt about Freddie Kitchens, that he could be a unifier in some. that building. Even Greg Williams, as they started winning, like even him, you look at him and you say, is he going to be combative down the line? Are we going to have the problems? And then you've got to roll it back and look at the history since Jimmy Haslam bought the team. The first regime he put in place, Rob Juzinski, Mike Lombardi, Joe Banner, that blew up. The next group was Mike Petton and Ray Farmer, that blew up. And then again, there were internal problems when he had huge accident and Sashi Brown. And so I think the quarterback part of this is important. I think the

fact that he proved he could run an NFL offense over the last eight weeks of the season, that's important to. But to me, and based on what I've heard, the most important thing here is that they projected Freddie Kitchens to be a unifier inside that building. And if you look at the problems that they've had and Jimmy Haslam's seven years of ownership, you can understand why. I got to address something. I think I may have talked about it with you.

Antonio Brown is as gifted, a wide receiver as this league has. and we have clearly, Albert, in the last year, due to rule changes, quarterback wide receiver has been elevated in the league. So this is a transformational talent in his prime. The Roonies, who are patient, tolerant, and quiet, came out yesterday saying, I don't think it's going to work. I'm just going to throw a couple things at you. New England gets rolled this weekend, and they come to the conclusion,

we got to give Tom help. I think Antonio Brown works in a lot of spots. You don't build around him. But, man, I can't believe somebody wouldn't trade for him, Albert. What are you hearing? Well, I mean, first thing you got to take a new account is his contract. And I'll give that to you in two different ways. Okay, there's three years and $39 million left on his contract.

For most teams, that's going to make him attractive. Because you look at what the top receivers are making. It's somewhere between 16 and 18 million a year. Odell Beckham's in that range. Evans is in that range. Sammy Watkins is in that range. And so to have Antonio Brown presuming he'd be okay with going forward with the contract the way that it is, that would be a very, very attractive number to a lot of teams.

But not in New England. And here's the reason why, while you still have certain guys on your roster who have agreed to take less, it's very hard and it's been historically very hard for them to take on guys who are getting paid premium prices. Look at what Tom Brady's making about $15 million a year. Now, I'm assuming they'll amend that after the year, but for right now, it's $15 million a year. Kronkowski's making $10 million a year. Julian Edelman has been fantastic for them, is making about $6 million a year.

So you look at what those guys are making, the premium guys in their roster, the salary structure in New England is completely different than it is in most other places. And so to bring in a guy like this, you'd almost have to blow up what you're doing. They wanted Brandon Cooks back, but this is the reason why they couldn't bring him. back was because to make it happen, they'd have to blow up their salary structure. And so that's why I think Antonio Brown would be a little bit of a tough fit in New England. The other thing, and Colin, you know this over their history, New England has always bought low on these guys, whether it was Randy Moss coming in on the deal that he came in on. If you want to look at that summer when they brought in Chad Johnson and Albert Hainsworth, they've always bought low on these guys. And that gives them a

modicum of control. I think if you buy high in a guy like this, that premium number, you don't have the control over the player that New England likes to have. So the Rams Dallas game is intriguing. We know that Jerry Jones has said, I love me some deck, I love Jason Garrett. We all know that. And we all know that Sean McVeigh is very bright and golf is the future. But if the Rams lose this weekend, there is a little shine off Sean McVeigh potentially. Yeah. You know, they kind of went all in in Los Angeles with, you know,

Akeeb to leave, Marcus, Peters, and Domen Siu. If the Rams lost this weekend, do you think it would slow down the Sean McVe coaching tree thing? And that some, and then, because I feel like there's this tsunami of Sean McVeigh rolling over the league. Yeah, I mean, I would say it would be, I don't think it should change it the way anyone looks at Sean McVeigh. Best point differential in the league the last two years and the best record in the league over the last two years tie with the Patriots and the Saints. And you look at where

the Rams are coming from. Sean McVeigh has done a fantastic job by any measure. I also think there's a little more to what we're seeing than just Sean McVeigh. I know a lot of people you can trace them back to Sean McVe and everything else. I think that this is about owners and where owners are in the league right now. And it's harder to draw a rating than it used to be. It's harder to draw a fan to a than it used to be. Yeah. And I think that there are a lot of owners in the league that watch that game at the end of November between the Rams and the Chiefs and pointed at the television and said,

give me that. And so I think what you're seeing now is an overreach for guys that are, that have backgrounds and those sorts of offenses. It's a little more difficult when you look at Andy Reed's tree because Doug Peterson was already picked from there, Matt Nagy was already picked from there. Whereas when you look at Sean McVeigh and the people that have worked with him traditionally, they're young, and they came up with him. And so I think that part of this is, you know, an owner looking at not just winning and losing,

but the entertainment product and saying, I want what they've got in Kansas City and Los Angeles. And then they look at Sean McVeigh's tree and they say, okay, well, this guy isn't perfect, that guy isn't perfect. I think ultimately two or three years from now we're going to find out that some of these hires were overreaches. But I think there's certainly an element of entertainment that goes along with the winning and losing that owners want right now. Albert Breer, Monday morning quarterback.

I mean, the guy is just available to us every time we call with all sorts of good stuff and information. It's going to be a great weekend. Read his stuff. I do. Senior NFL reporter. Albert, thank you so much again. You got to call him.

You know, it's funny. He brings a really interesting point, is that we forget. These are billionaires. None of them made their money, almost none of them, on their football team. they made their money on now jerry jones was very you know he was a wild catter with oil very big real estate all that stuff and jerry a lot of jerry's net worth is the cowboys but in most of these instances don't forget this these are owners and owners want to sell tickets and increasingly the home watching experience is so good at everybody's house that you got to make the games fun you build the smaller

stadium the new l a stadiums got it you know restaurants Dallas has margarita stands you go to that cowboy game. Remember Pete Carroll said it's a nightclub. Right. And so that's where Antonio Brown, that's why I look at Antonio Brown, I'm like, I would take my kids to go watch Antonio Brown. He's one of like seven guys. That's why the conservative giants signed Odell

Beckham. Of course, he's a star. It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win as an organization. No, but the billionaires see the world differently than coaches, and you know, the Rams want to be interesting. Which is exactly why the billionaires should probably stay out of the football side of things. Joy Taylor with the news.

No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, so it was a discussion that Bucks might possibly move on from James Winston after this season. But instead, they hired Bruce Ariens, and he doesn't think that taking over is going to be a rebuilding effort. He's 66 years old, Ariens. And as we talked about yesterday, kind of the story about Ariens towards the end of his tenure in Arizona was that he just wasn't going to put in the hours. He thinks that James gives him the talent that they have to win right away.

Tampa Bay. People want to know what's your system? Your systems, your players. It's his team. I think we have the core here to win quickly. I'm not about building. I'm about reloading. I do agree with him on the system being your players because when it's the pro, when it's on the pro level, you can't just get rid of everyone. It's not a college where you have a whole new group of freshmen coming in every year and you can recruit exactly what you want that matches your program. Think about this. The Lakers have been in a five-year rebuild. Okay, these players have been part of the rebuild. DeAngelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randall, Larry Nance Jr.,

Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Lonzo Ball. When did they get good? They got LeBron. They didn't whiff on a single draft pick. So the Lakers have been well-run, have not whiffed on draft picks, and they are still, as LeBron has hurt with the groin injury, depending on one guy. In the NFL, Cleveland gets Baker-Mayfield to end up. engineer what's a pretty decent roster and they're a viable team.

You can turn around. Listen, if you look at that Tampa staff between Ariens and Todd Bowles and the special teams guy they hired who's a top five guy in the league, there is, I have no reservation saying this. I would not be shocked if Tampa Bay vied for the division next year. No, no, yeah. I wouldn't be shocked at all. And they could get Levy on Bell too.

That's in the conversation. The word is. Which I think would set them, would put, you know, them at obviously a great advantage. Yeah. I just don't trust James Winston. No, that's a very fair comment. It's not about Arians.

It's not about Todd Bowles. They get Levy on. They're going to be a dynamic offense. I just fundamentally don't trust James Wilson. I don't trust them in the stadium. I don't trust them driving home yet. I mean, his judgment has been bad. College pro.

Period. On the field or off the field. Period. All right. So search committee was reportedly split on who to hire as the 17th full-time head coach of the Cleveland Browns. The search committee was? What do you mean? Yes.

They were split on who to go with. Oh, I mean, like John Dorsey. So they were split on it. Yes. They could not decide. And when a consensus could not be reached, Baker Mayfield helped break the tie. So according to pro football talk, Mayfield tilted the scales in favor of Freddie Kitchens. So John Dorsey and all his guys were split on it. Yes.

Meaning there was a lot of reservations on Freddie. The football people, which was John Dorsey and whoever's on his side, liked kitchens more than the Vikings interim offensive coordinator, Kevin Stavansky, who was favored by the analytics guys. Now, this is comforting. Because I don't like when analytics guys make all the decisions. I like analytics. I think they're important. But there's a whole list of intangibles that go into things as well. So being that they're both inexperience,

if you're going to go with the one that the franchise quarterback likes and that the football guys like, I tend to lean towards that. It should be noted, though. Baseball, basketball, and increasingly football, analytics is winning. I'm just saying, I'm not saying Cleveland did it wrong. I'm just saying gut feeling guy. No, I get it. I'm with you on that 100%.

Listen, I don't know what qualifies Freddie Kitchens to be the head coach of the team other than gut feeling guy. Sure, but he wasn't the head coach. He was an offensive coordinator. No. So he's never been a head coach. And I'm not saying that that doesn't mean that he's not going to be successful. I just don't know where's the evidence that that's what's going to happen.

legitimate question. And this is my special surprise. Finally. I teased it at the beginning of the hour. Okay, stop right here. Okay, so this, you saw this story a half hour ago and went crazy. Yes, because you know how, you know, I'm petty, and you know how excited I get when people take what you say to heart, and they get very, very

sensitive about it, particularly Cleveland. Cleveland is very in their feelings this particular week because we don't know what to make of the Freddie Kitchens' house. So, we uncovered an open letter to you, Colin Coward, from Dogtown Daily. What's that? Is that their blog?

It's a Cleveland Brown's blog. Okay. Okay. So the letter says it's very, very long, so I just picked the most important parts. It says, Dear Collin, considering you are one of the highest paid radio personalities in the entire world. Certainly a rumor. I cannot imagine that your ratings are that bad that you have to feel the need to beat the dead horse that is your stance on the Cleveland Brown's quarterback Baker Mayfield.

Maybe your ego has reached an all-time high that you cannot admit that you're wrong. Maybe you truly think you are right. Either way, you are anti-Cleveland and anti-Baker stick is getting. getting old. They then continue to cover in-depth your takes on Baker. So they've watched the show every single day, which we appreciate. Well, so does it marry. Baker Mayfield was a wildcard in college.

Very hot take by you. Mayfield isn't a team player in his undraftable. You talked about how he checked his phone after the game, which, by the way, guys, I've defended him pretty clearly about that. And, you know, his rookie first appearance, he brought the team back and, you know, he hadn't won a game in

19 attempts, and he deserved some credit. You didn't like the Hugh Jackson's stare down. He then goes on to say, Freddie Kitchens gets promoted to head coach a move the majority of Cleveland has rejoiced about. Your take is that the city has low self-esteem. You really know the way to a fan base's heart. The national media has made Cleveland the butt of their jokes for so long. Yeah. And now Baker has the city fighting back. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Finally, keep adding fuel to the fire. If there's one thing the city of Cleveland has learned, it's that Mayfield thrives off of it. And he has the rest of the team following. If you ever find

yourself in town, make sure not to forget your wallet, because drinks are not. not on us. We look forward to attending your funeral on the hill you have decided to die on. Sincerely, all of Cleveland. That was adorable. I think it's very nice. Yeah. Well, listen, they're emotionally connected to the show. Like or hate us, you're engaged, and that's what's fun about sports. I have a lot of respect for the Browns fan base, because no matter how awful that organization may have been, they are very loyal. And all I have to say is that they have no basis of consistency or track record of success.

So it really truly shows that Browns fans are maybe the most loyal fan base in all sports. You didn't certainly make that argument. I mean, in Los Angeles, you're going to two-game losing streak. Stadium's empty. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The herd line news. But, you know, it is funny. One of the things that I think is disappointing to me over the course of my life, we have become a nation seeking affirmation. not information. Liberals go to MSNBC, conservatives go to Fox News, they're both fine companies. Nobody wants to learn. They simply want to hear the beliefs they already have. We are less curious in America than I think we've ever been. There are people who are curious. They're in Silicon

Valley and they're changing the world. But I find even with sports fans, even if you give people data which is accurate, they're not interested if it doesn't align with their beliefs. Well, fans are short for frenetic. Let me give you an example. If I said to you, a bunch of guys got hired. And what about this guy? He just got fired as a college coach. He was terrible as a college coach.

His alma mater fired him. You'd be like, that's not good. As our place, Cleveland hired a guy. He had never even been a coordinator. He was just an interim coordinator. Now we're going to have him run the whole team. That's not great. As this Green Bay hired this guy and hired this guy.

He hired this guy. Been a play caller one year. And the team's offense got worse. You'd be like, that doesn't sound good. And then I said to you, what about New York? Forget the name.

And I said, yeah, they hired a guy who's 40, who created a magical run with a guy that can't play Tim Tebow. Peyton Manning's best year was with him. He went to the dysfunctional dolphins. And with Ryan Tannehill had a winning record. Made the playoffs. What happened in his last couple of years? Well, Ryan Tannehill got hurt.

And he had to deal with a reality star Jay Cutler and Brock Osweiler, and they didn't win as much. Well, okay. Why'd they fire him? Because it's Miami. Adam Gase is the best hire, but you're seeking affirmation. You're not seeking information.

If you lined up Adam Gase against the other guys, it's not close. He's a playoff winning head coach with a winning record with Ryan Tannahill. It's not close. We don't have an argument here. But in America, people want to hear what they believe. People are not seeking information.

They're seeking affirmation. Adam Gase is easily, it's not close, the most qualified candidate. But you love Sam Donald. Yeah. And I like Andrew Luck. And I told you Frank Wright would be good. And he has been. Yeah.

Occasionally I'm right. Adam Gase is easily the best coaching hire going forward. Certainly the most qualified. Coming up next, Eric Dickerson. I think his Rams could be in trouble this weekend. He doesn't want to hear it. That's next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd.

weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. When Cousin Sal, Todd Furman, Clay Travis, and Rachel Benetta, and today, Colin Coward get together. All bets are on. Lock it in is the all-new one-of-a-kind sports gambling show weekdays at 4.30 p.m. Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. Yeah, it's 4 and 0 last week. I'm going to take that show over today. I'm going to go lock it in. Yeah. In your face, Cousin, Sal. All right, Eric Dickerson Hall of Famer. By the way, the last time, the Cowboys and the Rams met in the playoffs. What happened, Eric?

Oh, I gave it to him. Good. 248, two touchdown. First of all, I hate the Cowboys. I mean, look how fast I am. That's the second playoff to have, 62-yard touchdown. God, you're fast. Wasn't that fast, Colin.

But look at the, y'all going to show the other one. That one right there. Bam! Go on. Take some of that, Cowboys. All you cowboy fans. Y'all, they remember it, 248. Like your hair.

Thank you, Jerry. I still had it. So it's funny. You still have animus toward the cowboys. You know, I don't like the Cowboys. First of all, I get sick of that America's team crap. I mean, even back then, I couldn't stand it. And you're from Texas?

Yes, I'm a born-raised Texan. I was a Steeler fan. Only reason I like the Steelers? Because they used to beat the Cowboys. That's why I like the Steelers. Really? Yes, that's why. And my high school uniforms are black and gold, so I like the steeler.

But I did like the Houston all of because of Earl Campbell. But, you know, it's funny about this. There's a lot of talk about the Rams. But, Eric, you have to be honest. they haven't played well in two months. Aren't you a little worried? They haven't played. I don't think Todd Gurley's 100%.

I don't. You know, we have so many other weapons. If Todd isn't 100%, look, right now, no one is probably much 100%. Most guys are going to play, especially running back. It's going to play at 85, sometimes 90s, sometimes 7.

You were never 100% at the end of a year? Very, very rare. Even that game, I wasn't 100%. I had a bad turf toe. So you hardly never 100%. No, the Rams haven't played good in the last, say, month before the season ended. But, you know, they won their last two football games.

And they look good in them. I mean, even though they won the greatest opponents, but, you know, they played the Cardinals and the 49ers. But still, a win is a win. That's the thing about the national football. They'll blowout wins. They'll blowout wins. They'll blow out.

And to me, they beat those teams how are you supposed to beat a football team, that you're better than. You know, when you look, I was saying this about Brady's great. And Philip Rivers has been very good. I don't think over the course of your life, luck matters, I do think in pro football when you have a very short career, where you land initially matters. Almost definitely. So I think Tom Brady would still be good, but I think Belichick, Kraft, Boston dysfunctional division has elevated him to a lot of home playoff games and wins.

And he's been great. Philip Rivers has had less dysfunction, four different head coaches, a San Diego town that's not as sports-centric. And by the way, he's been a division with always pretty competent Kansas City and very excellent Denver. go back to your career. Was the Rams a good fit for you? Perfect fit for me. Why was it perfect? Because when I got the John was a guy that liked to run the football.

John Robinson was the head coach. Loved. I want to run the football. I won't forget, we started off doing the split back field. And the Houston Oilers had swapped places with the Rams to get me. The Rams got me plus the Houston Oilers swapped. So the first two games in the preseason, we ran the split back set, which I didn't really like because I came from kind of eye formation. And I will never forget if we played the Redskins, they beat up on a.

in the preseason. And then that next week, John said, we're going to the iback. The one-back formation was exactly what the redskins ran and said, Eric, and you're my back. And that's how I became the starting running back for the Los Angeles Rams. So it worked for you. It worked perfect for me. Now, now, of all the games this weekend, I am told

your lock. My lock of the week? Now, now, let's take a deep breath. Come on. Come on, Codd. You're very emotional. Come on. I just tell you what. I'll tell you what. It's not the ram? Can I say this here? A what? Last week, first of all the game, I was 4 and 0 last week. I picked every game. I picked every game. So was I.

What you were you and I in the whole building? It was you and I. That would go. Maybe Chris Broussard was good, too. All right, four and on. Okay. Who's your lock? My lock of the week is this, I almost say it wrong.

The L.A. Chargers versus New England Patriots. Why? This is a better football team all the way around. If you would swap their uniform, if you would take the San Diego, sorry, the L.A. charge uniform and put them on the Patriots, this would be up, they were, they would win by 14 points. The charges are such a good football team all the way around. I mean, they got a great coach in Anthony Lynn.

I mean, the running game is good. The defense is outstanding. Don't get enough credit. I mean, the special team is good. It's just a good football team, and they got depth. What do you make? Colts and Chiefs is interesting because, and I said this, the NFC historically has had bigger cities,

Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago. There's a couple green bays. Actually, if you take out like Houston and Boston, the AFC smaller cities, they don't have the money. They're increasingly dysfunctional. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Oakland, Miami. I kind of look at the Colts and the Chiefs, Eric, and I say, I think for the next 10 years, I'm going to see these two going back and forth

because I think Mahomes is a transformational talent. I think Andrew Luck is ridiculously good. I think the Chiefs Colts this weekend, regardless of it, I think this is going to be the AFC, this is going to be your Brady Manning for a decade. Do you think as highly as the quarterbacks as I do? Very much so. You know, when people are kind of down on Andrew Luck, You know, one thing about...

You weren't. I never was. I always thought he was great. You know, when he got healthy, I thought he'd be just as good as he is. And Mahomes, I mean, he's exciting. He's called him flashy. He's not flashy. He just does what he does.

I mean, and people make him flashy. I mean, I think he's going to be a great quarterback. The defense was working with that football team, but just him as a football player against Andrew Luck. Oh, I think we're going to see this for many years. I think it's a shootout. I think it's a shootout. Who do you take in this game?

I don't have a ton of confidence. My belief is that Andy Reid historically, you know, everybody says Andy can't win the big game. He won a lot of playoff games in Philadelphia, and he was always good in the first round. When you give Andy a buy in that first round of the playoffs and you put him at home, he wasn't losing those games in Philadelphia, Eric. I think they're going to win this game. And I also think sometimes, Eric, the story's better than reality. Like Seattle last week, I like Dallas. The Seattle, you picked Dallas too.

Right, I picked Dallas too. The Seattle story was pretty cool. They, like, shocked us, but they weren't a great team. No. The cult story is awesome. Eric, they're not a great team. I think the story runs out this weekend. I don't think the cult are a great team.

I think they have played some weaker offenses. They're playing their butts off. They're now very healthy. Most teams aren't. Kansas City has a chance to be a great team. Kansas City has a great offense. Kansas City. Me and you could.

I think school on that defense. The secondary is not good. Their defense is horrible. They have a great offense. I'm going to tell you nothing. Without Kareem Hunt, this is a different football. They're totally different. They're not as good.

With Kareem Hunt, I was very afraid of this football team. But now I'm not. I feel like the Colts are a better defensive unit. And it's a team that, a lot of people, you didn't know their players. They're like the, the, was the 72 dollars? You know, the no-name defense? You don't know any of the Colts players. No-name defense.

But you know what the Colts can do? The Colts can score with anybody. They can score. They can run. the football. They play ball control. They take what you give them. That's what I like about it. And Andrew Luck makes really good sound decisions. Can I watch that, those, let's go full screen on Eric. I want to see the video of Eric against Cowboys and just do it full screen. Don't put us on. It is unbelievable how fast you were. Look at this. I was fast. I was real fast. I tell people

how fast I was. Matter of fact, I won't forget when I came to L.A. It might have been this week. It might have been that week. I'm at a bar on Olympic. And a guy tells me, you Eric Dickerson? I'm like, yeah. He said, you ain't that fast. I'm like, man, don't let that fool you. Don't let that TV fool you now. So we get into a discussion. I said, I'll tell you what? Let's just take it outside, right on Olympic. So he said, all right. So what do you want? Let's run a 40. Well, give me five years. I thought I'm not that fast. But just give me five. I said, okay, I give you five. When they said, go, I was right next to him. And all of a sudden, when it's oh, he said, you don't look that fast on TV. I say, don't let that TV fool you. That's television.

But yes, Colin, I was really fast. man why come I can't run like that anymore? Lord have mercy, I'm just, what happens to us? We all get over. You know, the other thing, Joy, I don't know if you know this about Eric. He doesn't eat. What do you mean he doesn't eat? No, tell her the story.

Everybody said. You eat one meal a day. Yeah, and I ate, a matter of fact, the only reason I ate this morning, right now, a few minutes ago, is because my good friend Linda Sheridan came over and we had lunch. But I'll eat once a day. Sometimes I won't eat till late at night. I sometimes only eat once a day. How do you people do that?

I only ate once a day. I only ate once a day yesterday. Eric, I can do it all. But I won't eat sometimes till late at night. Sometimes I just want to eat the whole day. Yeah, I didn't eat until 9 o'clock last night. See, thank you. Thank you.

There you go, Joy. Eric, that's not normal. That's not entirely true. I had a cheese stick. But that is normal. That's normal for me. I've eaten six times today. I'm having a smoothie in five minutes.

I'm not joking. I've had two bagels. Well, see, you look, you look fit. You look like a run. You look like a long distance. Oh, excellent. Oh, really? You look like that guy.

Yeah. Listen, Alaska pipelines you're looking at right here. I heard that. Could you think you have to run the, could you have run the young Eric Dick? Do you want to go on Olympic Avenue? You and I could race right now? Come on, let's do it, Colin. Come on, let's raise some money for it.

Let's raise some of that. I would beat both of you easily. Hour three coming up. 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. Ah, here we go. Hour three.

This live in Los Angeles is The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we're on IHeart Radio. We're on Fox Sports Radio. We're on FS1. It's going to be the best hour of the show today. Fifteen minutes, Greg Jennings. You're going to go right down to playoff games. Remember last Friday what happened, Joy?

I brought three grass on. And only one agreement. the 12 predictions. I was one and 11, but I ended up having a great weekend. Greg agreed with you on, right? I think he agreed with me on the Colts, beating the Texans.

And also we do one of my favorite segments all week is Monday's headlines today with Jason McIntyre in 40 minutes where what will the headlines be on Monday? My Friday last hours now are I think my favorite hour of the week. Not because it's the last hour.

By the way, tip of the cap, Utah Jazz. I had to do a speaking engagement last night with Donovan Mitchell, Spider-Mitchell. What a great kid that guy is. What a great kid. And Quinn Snyder and the Utah Jazz staff, talk about a world-class organization. What a bunch of great people in Utah.

So I'm going to go watch them next week, play the Clippers. How about that? Nice. Great. And Spider-Mitchell, what a career. What a kid. Funny, smart, good kid. 15 minutes, Greg Jennings.

Then Jason McIntyre Monday headlines today. All right, so we got four outstanding games this week. Can't deny that, right? Did our Blazing 5 earlier, but Chargers Patriots is the most intriguing to me, so let me start there. I don't think luck plays a part in life. Good breaks, bad breaks. But the reason luck does not play part in people's lives over the course of 70 or 80 years

is because you have 40 to 50 years to overcome childhood chaos if things are kind of messed up early. And nobody had a perfect childhood. You didn't. I didn't. Joy probably didn't. I know Gulae, Tooie. Those guys are crazy. Okay, nobody had a perfect life.

But I don't think luck plays a party in your life when you have a 75, 80 year life. But what if your life was 14 years? That was it. Beginning to end. You would not have the time to overcome chaos, abuse, dysfunction. 12, 13, 14 years is the lifespan of an NFL franchise quarterback. And therefore, luck plays a part of a part of. part in it. Bad ownership. Three coaches fired in four years. There's a lot of things you could not

overcome. You simply don't have the time to overcome it. This weekend, Tom Brady, the luckiest quarterback of all time, will face Philip Rivers, the unluckiest great quarterback of all time. This is in no way to, in any way, dilute the greatness of Brady. He would have been great anywhere. But I doubt the greatest of all time if he'd not been rather lucky. And this is not to say Philip Rivers would be the greatest of all time, but he'd have more playoff wins. In life, the shorter it is, the less you can overcome. What if Tom was a charger and Philip was a patriot?

Think about Tom's career. He is drafted by now, in arguably, the greatest football coach of all time. he lands with arguably the top owner in professional sports in America, Bob Kraft. He is drafted into a hyper-competitive, hyper-academic city, the Boston Bruins, the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Celtics, all MIT Harvard, all highly competitive. Sports Matters in Boston, billionaires competing against other billionaires, to be smarter, more analytic driven. It is not a coincidence.

The Red Sox, the Bruins, the Patriots, the Celtics, all way, way above the curve on analytics. Sports matters. Tom is drafted by the greatest coach, one of the smartest, most empirically powerful owners and stable ownership groups, in a sports city where everything matters. And, oh, by the way, gets to play in a division

with three other dysfunctional teams. Jets, Bill. Dolphins. Another break. The NFL in 2002 realigned divisions. Peyton Manning would have been in Tom Brady's division. He ended up in something now called the AFC South. Think that would have changed Tom Brady's career? Let's now talk about Philip Rivers. Four head coaches. His first one fired after a year. The ownership, and I'll say this nicely, has been historically frugal. The city in San Diego, surfing is number one. When lose, nobody's losing sleep.

You don't have the passion, the drive, the competitive four different professional sports teams, four different billionaires, all trying to beat each other. In a division with Denver, one of the better NFL franchises, and oh, by the way, Kansas City as well, perennially, they're in the playoffs, are close to it. And oh, by the way, Phillips having his best year. And true to form, his franchise moves to a city and plays in a soccer stadium. Luck plays very little part if you live a long and extensive life. It doesn't.

Don't play mom and dad. If at 58, you're a mess. That's on you. You could have chosen therapy, a better partner, better friends, and better locations. But over the course of a 14-year life, the span of an NFL quarterback, you simply would not have the time to overcome chaos and dysfunction, bitterness, family squabbles. Brady would have been great anyway,

but he would not be the goat without a series of lucky breaks. And Philip Rivers would not be Brady, but would be much closer. luck matters a great deal at quarterback in the national football league. It won't define you, but it elevates or slightly erodes. That is not arguable. All right, let me shift to this to Dallas Cowboys against the Rams. It'll be on Fox. That's our network.

We can't wait for it. It's going to be interesting. I think Dallas has better players. I think Dallas and Zamari Cooper showed up is a much better team than the Rams, who lost their best receiver, Cooper, Cup. There's been great debate this year. What is Dack Prescott? Troy Aikman was talking about Dak Prescott, and he believes like I do, he's a grown-up, limited perhaps, but he's a grown-up. Here's Troy on Dack. He's a great leader. He's everything you'd want him to be. Don't know that

there's a more solid individual in the National Football League. And then what he's done on the field. I think that he has shown an ability to win games late. And that's a quality not everybody has. And he's shown to have that even in games when he's not necessarily played his best. And I think that's the greatest quality. Okay, so I agree with that. But I'm going to give you a series of traits. Pretty mobile above average. Joy, that sounds like Dak, right? Wins a lot. Arm is average at times liability. Not a big risk taker. He's a very solid leader. Smart appears to be very coachable, great in front of the mic,

and his best year had a great defense. That is not Dak Prescott. That's Alex Smith. And if I say, Dak, we've seen him before. It's Alex Smith. You wince. You don't like to hear that. But can I remind you that Alex Smith has had eight straight winning seasons,

has been a pro bowler three times, has three division titles and five playoff appearances. Cowboy fan, you would buy that in a New York minute if I offered that this morning. We have seen Dak. It's Alex Smith, and he wins, and he gets to the Pro Bowl occasionally. Every couple years, he wins his division.

He gets to the playoffs, about half of his career. That's Dak. And you don't like to hear, that. Because what Alex Smith is isn't Super Bowls. He always comes up just a little shy in that big game. And that's why with Dak, the most important element to this entire career is going to be expectations. If you go in today knowing that you're going to have a guy who wins, maybe every third, fourth year gets to a Pro Bowl, he'll win you a division title every couple years, half his career is going to get you into playoffs in the competitive NFC.

Then you're fine with DAC. But I don't think the Cowboys probably beat the Rams this weekend. And much like Alex Smith, the season ends with frustration, disappointment. Dak can't quite make the throwdown field. Dak can't quite stretch the field. That isn't quite willing to take the big risk. Anger and resentment comes from one thing. Expectations.

Take a deep breath. Know what DAC is. What DAC is is is very good. He's Alex Smith. If you expect more, you'll be very disappointed. Greg Jennings will tell us why Antonio Brown will never be a patriot. Plus he picks the games.

We have a great next 40 minutes. 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies,

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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.

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Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search, learn the hard way, and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect.

We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire? survive. The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know.

Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast, Superhuman, documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Covered card key matchup tonight's the Penguins against the Anaheim Ducks 10 Eastern. Get your free credit scorecard today, even if you're not a Discover customer. not going to hurt your credit score. Discover.com slash credit scoreboard. All right, four big games. Plus, we have all these coaching hires. Are you going to mention that Arizona thing, Joy and update stuff? Oh, what are we going to say?

Now, Vince Joseph is the defensive coordinator. Okay, so the Denver Bronco coach who got fired. Very good defensive coach is now the defensive coordinator for Cliff Kingsbury, which I like. And they're also finalizing a deal according to Mort, Chris Mortonson, great guy, to bring Sark over to be the offensive coordinator. So that's an interesting staff in Arizona. It is.

I think Cliff's a risky hire, but you give him a big time defensive coordinator. Guy knows what he's doing. And then you're bringing the guy's been in the NFL, NFL guy as a coordinator. Now the Arizona staff with Cliff makes a little sense. I like that. At least that's now fun to watch. That's not man overboard. Well, that was always my concern with Kingsbury.

And it's my concern with all of these young coaches in Cleveland. Well, not even young, just inexperienced coaches. Put people around you that have experience and know what they're doing and I have a proven track record. I think that's a big part of what has made Sean McVeigh successful. Let's go to Greg Jennings via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Decade in the NFL, Super Bowls, Pro Bowls. Let's talk about the Packers because Cliff Kingsbury, I didn't love to hire.

But I do like Vance Joseph now, a grown-up defensive. Sark's been in college and pro. I feel better today. The Green Bay thing with Matt LaFleur, Greg, he's been a play caller for one year. It wasn't a great year in Tennessee. I don't, you know, again, people. thing I'm anti-packer. I don't love it. It feels weird to me. Your thoughts? Yeah, I didn't love it. I think it was a curveball, a huge curveball that no one saw coming. And quite frankly, when you look

at why they're saying that he was the interesting and intriguing hire, and I'm sure that this isn't just everything that they put their eggs in the basket because of. But it was known that well, he and he was going to keep Mike Petton as a defensive coordinator. So we like that about him. And I thought to myself, if you're going to hire a guy, just hire Mike Patton and then get your own offensive coordinator. Why would you, why would you bring in the head coach because he said he's going to keep your defense or coordinator? Like, I don't know how much they're really so. Obviously, they are sold on him.

but I have some red flags and he's going to have a huge, huge microscope on him, like magnifying glass. It's going to be an interesting year for the green bagels. By the way, let me just ask you about the young guys, is that, I mean, a veteran NFL player is 34, some of these coaches are 34. There is this sense that if you ever had a beer with Sean McVeigh, you get a job interview. What do you make of the whole McVeigh tree?

Well, it's an interesting dynamic. You have a young coach who has been around great coaches for a long time in Sean McVeigh, the John Gruden's and those type of offensive minds. But he still hasn't proven to win in the playoffs. However, you have all these organizations who loves what he has provided for a young team with a young quarterback with a fresh mindset offensive. in an innovative mindset, and it's intriguing. And so everyone's looking at this, and Sean McVey, like, well, if they did it with McVe, maybe we can do it with our hires. So you see all these kind of random hires that no one ever saw coming. But one thing that McVeigh understood, which is what you were talking about before you had me on with Claimsbury, is he accompanied his staff. with Wade Phillips, a proven defensive mind head coach who had been around for a long time to kind of balance what he was getting ready to do.

And I like that about what Sean McVey has been able to do. Can these other coaches mimic that and create a staff that makes them better that pulls even more out of them? We'll see. Yeah, the Sean McVeigh coaching tree is definitely more of a weed than it is an actual tree at this point. So I look at your picks. It says here you like the Saints, they're favored. You like the Patriots, they're favored. You like the Rams, they're favored.

But you are going to go with the dog on the Colts. And this is the pick I said earlier on our Blazing Five is I'll take Kansas City, but I kind of feel like we got ourselves a shootout here. Why do you like the Colts? A couple of reasons why I like the Colts. The one main reason is because of the way that they're playing and the quarterback play that they're getting out of Andrew Luck. And defensively, they look really, really good. Making a lot of plays for that team and that offense, getting the ball back into Lux's hands.

But secondly, is back in 2011, 2012 season, we went 15 and 1. The year after we won the Super Bowl, we had one of the most. high-ing scoring offenses in all the football, if not the high-end scoring offense and all the football could put up a lot of points. However, our defense couldn't stop anyone, but they could create turnovers. And when I look at the Kansas City Chiefs, they remind me of who we were that year. They can put up a lot of points, but their defense not really able to stop opponents, but they will take the ball away. In the playoffs, that all went for nothing because as an offense, we have had to carry that team, and we didn't produce the way our defense needed us to produce

and how we had produced all year. And the Kansas City Chiefs have a small margin of error because their defense can't stop an offense like the Indianapolis Colts. This is why I'm picking the Colts. Yeah, you know, people that I, even Vegas, people, a lot of people like the Colts this weekend, which I love Andy Reed. And I'm going to lean Kansas City because I think Andy off a boss. lie is really good. Okay. So I said this earlier. When people get upset, whether you're a parent,

you're a dad, you're a mom, you're a player, you're a coach, anywhere in life. If you get upset, it's generally because something didn't meet expectations. You go to the airport, you're mad at the airline because you're 15 minutes late, right? The plane? Okay. If you look at DAC and you line up all the traits of DAC, mobile, not a great arm, not a big risk taker, a grown up, low risk, mobile. He really is Alex Smith. And everybody goes, oh, well, Alex Smith has been eight straight winning seasons, three Pro Bowls, three division titles, five playoff appearances. If I was a cowboy fan, I would sign up for Alex Smith's career from DAC. I think the problem in Dallas is Cowboys have higher expectations than what is reality. I think DAC is Alex Smith. I think they

play alike. Dax's a little heavier. I mean, is it. I mean, is it. that a weird comparison? Because I think the Cowboys are going to go into the playoffs this weekend and lose, and the question's going to be after the game. You can't win the big one with Dak, which is what everybody's been saying for nine years with Alex Smith. Your thoughts? I don't disagree with you. I can definitely see that why you would draw that comparison. Alex Smith always needed guys around him to make sure that he was able to kind of be the best Alex Smith we were able to see in the same goes with that Prescott. However, I think their mentalities are a little different.

I think that Jack Prescott thinks and believes that he's more than a just Alex Smith. Now, from our vantage point, yeah, we can see that comparison because his team has supported him while in Dak Prescott's mind, he believes that I'm better than what everybody's giving me credit for. I've won in this league in the regular season. now I've won a game in the playoffs. If he continues to win, why would he not see himself

as one of the elite quarterbacks or believe himself to be one of those elite quarterbacks? He has every right to feel that way. I just don't think he is personally. But to your point, I agree. That's a fair assessment. Hey, by the way, finally,

the Pittsburgh Steelers never, the Rooney family is patient, tolerant, quiet. They came out yesterday and said, Yeah, we don't think this Antonio Brown thing's going to work out. Antonio's obviously 100 catch guy, a dozen touchdowns, 1,500 yards. He may not work in Pittsburgh. He works all over this league.

You don't think New England, I mean, I'm sitting to myself thinking where would he land? Pittsburgh probably wouldn't send him to New England, right? What do you think he, I mean? No. No, that's like giving your big brother something else that he can beat you up with. And you know it will beat you up. Absolutely not. Pittsburgh has been trying to get over that New England Patriot hump for years

and to send one of their best players, if not their best player, outside of Ben Rothensberger, over to Big Brother? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That will never happen. Okay. But do you think Antonio, they said basically they're going to trade him? I mean, you ran a franchise.

I mean, it's funny. I wouldn't build around him, and I'm not into diva receivers. but that's my problem with Odell Beckham. I'm not going to build around him. I like having Odell on my team. I have a problem with O'Don. I like somebody that can make 100 catches. Would you bring Antonio on a team?

I would. I would definitely bring Antonio Brown on a team. And let me say this. Odell Beckham, in my opinion, he gets a really bad rap because he's never had like character issues. He's never had these run-ins with teammates and with coaches. His things have always been the extra antics on the football field because of his playmaking ability. It's never been anything that we questioned off the field or with teammates.

So let's leave Odell back about it is. Antonio Brown, however, completely different player. What they provide is similar, but what he brings to the table from a personality standpoint is a lot greater and a lot more to handle. And I think when you're thinking about surrounding him with a young quarterback, and a young team, you got to be leery of the influence he'll have on that team. That's a very fair point. Antonio, with a veteran quarterback, you know, a Matt Ryan, you know, Russell Wilson, a veteran guy who can handle it. I'm not throwing him up there with, you know, Josh Rosner.

Good point. Greg Jennings, who is dressed for Minnesota weather. It's only 32 degrees today. So that ain't bad. January standard in Minnesota. Good talking to you, bud. Absolutely. This is a bad hair day.

A lot going on. We'll talk about it. By the way, if you own a sports team, you need to be informed, make smart decisions. Same when you're buying a car. Go to truecar.com. Check out the true price inside of a true car. New or used, doesn't matter if you're buying either. Truecar.com save three grand off MSRP. Here's Joy with the News. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So it is officially the offseason of the next Sean McVeigh. The Packers hired former Rams offensive coordinator, Matt LaFleur. The Cardinals pointed out that Sean McVeigh.

McVeigh and Cliff Kingsbury are friends in their press release. Friends. And the Bengals are now planning to hire McVeigh's quarterback's coach to be their next head coach. Then nothing can be confirmed until the Rams are no longer in playoffs. Multiple reports are pointing to Zach Taylor becoming the next head coach of the Bengals this offseason. There'll be the third hire this year who has a connection to the Rams head coach. This is crazy. Now, you and I know that by the draft this year, half the league's coaches will be hired.

in the last two years. So we know most of these aren't going to work, right? Yes. I know everyone's very optimistic in the offseason, which they should be. And I'm perfectly fine with that. Some of them will work, but most of them won't work. And that's how this goes. I'll put my tag on it, Adam Gays and the Jets.

And it's not because it's Sam Darnold. What is work? Like, I'm not saying any of these guys going to win a Super Bowl. So how does this work? Seven to eight years as a coach and a regular, not not annually. and you're a playoff team. I think Adam Gase will last their seven. You're in the conversation as being a contender consistently.

Yes, you are the Baltimore Ravens. You are the Denver. Denver's been down for a couple years. Kansas City. Right. I think Adam Gays can last their seven, eight years, and they're going to win the division a couple times with Sam Donald. It could be when Brady retires more than that,

and I think it worked. I think Adam Gase is the obvious one. Been a coach, got to the playoffs, winning record with Tannahill, work with Teebo, work with Peyton Manning, Nick Saban used him at LSU. I don't, you know, ooh, it eroded in Miami. Outside of Don Shula, Jimmy Johnson at the end wasn't working in Miami.

Miami, Miami, Cleveland, Detroit, nothing works there long term. You know what I will say about Miami fans, though? We are very self-aware. We have no problem criticizing the organization. That's why I love Miami. No problem saying that we have not gotten it right. We have no problem saying we get the quarterback right. Do you know why this is?

because Miami has a beach. And I'll explain it. Okay. The two cities that I've lived in, or the two places I've been in my life where fans the most realistic are Los Angeles and Miami. Now, why would that be?

Because you have other options for entertainment. And so you don't live and die with your team. Well, it's, look, first of all, sports fan police are going to come out and be like, you're not real fans. What does that mean? I don't know what that means because sports is entertainment. And I don't understand.

If I go to a movie and the movie's terrible 10 minutes in, it's absolutely my right to leave. And that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy movies. It's just I'm not going to spend my time watching the scrappy way. Miami and L.A. fans, if you're not good, they'll bail on you because they have the beach. They have options. Other cities, like Buffalo in the winter. You can't bail on your team.

What are you going to do? Go eat chicken wings and bark at the moon. I think that Steelers fans are very self-aware. But I would say that's because there's a standard of excellence that's expected of the Steelers. I like Steelers. And they're old school fans, too. I like them. fans are that way. They're not delusional

about everything that the franchise does is the right move. I think I'm beloved in the city of Pittsburgh. I'm thinking about... I'm certainly beloved there. You are beloved. So I give you a pass. I give you a Pittsburgh. I believe I am beloved there. I think Pittsburgh fans like you. I haven't gotten a lot of bad reviews. All right. Steelers President Art Rooney, the second, speaking of the Steelers,

made some very illuminating comments about Antonio Brown. It looks like his future there is murky. He implied he will be gone next season, but he gave a little wiggle room. He was asked to be seasoned coming back, and he said, as we sit here today, it's hard to envision that, but there's no sense on closing the door on anything today. We don't have to make those decisions right now. Whether the situation can be reconciled and having back on the team next

year, we're not closing the door on anything. Then Antonio Brown posted this photo on his social pages after that with the caption, Good Business, hashtag boomin. I like the Roonies. I don't know what that means, but. Solid ownership for sure. I don't think that the Steelers need to make a decision on Antonio Brown right now either. I think let the season kind of simmer, doing some emotions, calm down a little bit, get everybody in a room, have a conversation, and see if you guys can all get on the same page. I don't think that's going to happen, but it's possible. Can you imagine being the Cleveland Browns and you're in a division with that family,

the Rooney's? I mean, it's like the Rooney family is the gold standard of the NFL. Cleveland is not very happy with us right now. I don't know if you've been on the Twitterverse today, but they are not, they are very upset that we would dare question the direction of the Cleveland Browns organization. I have seen North family. The Steelers were the kid that went to Harvard, then went to Princeton and became a thoracic surgeon

and raised kids that became a Nobel Prize winner. And Cleveland got caught up in some fed sting, and they're behind bars. I'm hopeful for Cleveland. Like I said before, and we've said many times, it does not serve us for Cleveland to be bad. There's no positivity in our business if a team is an absolute dud. no one's wishing for that. I would love for Cleveland to be good. Didn't I tell you this year? I like Baker. I said Baker should start from the beginning of the season.

You did. You did. Cleveland do not hold this show against joy. Yes, it's not my fault. And I'm from Pittsburgh and I have plenty of feelings about Cleveland. Steelers own Cleveland. Don't forget that. Finally, the NBA released their second returns on fan all-star voting. Yeah. And the results were not very kind to Kevin Durant. KD is now fourth in the Western Conference front court, trailing LeBron, Luca, and and Paul George. Luca's a nice rookie, but good hell.

What happened? Luca's got a lot of getting a lot of attention right now. Steph Curry and Derek Rose are in the lead for the guards. Oh, well, good Lord. Westbrook's way back. God, I'm only four votes behind Westbrook. You just, yeah, you had to say something about Westbrook. The fans account for 50% of the vote to determine the starters and NBA players in the media hold 25%.

How come James Hardin's weight? What? That doesn't mean. It could be a little fatigued. Oh, I see. It's front court back court. Yeah, it's front court back court. Okay, so Hardin is the one.

But first of all, hold on, hold on. One, two, three, four. Hardens the seventh leading vote getter in the West? That doesn't make any sense. He's the top player right now offensively in the lead. I mean, this is according to the fans. Houston, get your act together. It's according to the fans.

The hell, Houston. It's all, well, I'll be decided on the 21st of January. How is James Harden the seventh leading vote gator? Does the thing in Houston not work? I mean, this is the ballot not work, though. I mean, people might just be, you know, they might have a little fatigue of James Arden. He's behind Derek Rose. Yeah, Derek Rose is, he's trending upwards right now.

Come on. That is brutal. All right, Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurdline news. James Hardin is behind Derek Rose and the All-Star voting. I mean, come back.

player? I don't know. I got another three hours a show to do. Aren't you more shock than Kevin Durant is so low? No, Kevin Durant. You know, LeBron gets all the votes. And so Kevin gets knocked because of LeBron. But, you know, Duran will be fine. Duran will probably go on Instagram for an hour and a half because of that thing. All right. Coming up next, Monday's headlines today with Jason McIntyre. I love that. In Best for Last.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. When Cousin South, Todd Furman, Clay Travis, Rachel Beneta and today, Colin Cowherd get together. All Vets are on. Lock It in is the all-new one-of-a-kind sports gambling show weekdays at 4.30 p.m. Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. I am going to dominate Lockett in today. It's not hard to do. Clay Travis and Todd Furman and Rachel Bonetta and Cousin Sal, I'm going to dominate today.

By the way. Cousin Sal lives in our area, by the way. Right down the street from a, yeah. By the way, buymdrive.com. Refind your prime. Buymdrive.com. more energy, more drive, elevate your T levels.

All right, Jason McIntyre, Monday's headlines today before we get into that. Yes. Okay, fans are nuts. If I told you there was a coach who got to the playoffs with Ryan Tannehill, you'd be like, yeah, that's a pretty good coach. It's called Adam Gase.

Why are Jet fans dope freaking out? God. It's the best hire so far. As a Jets fan for 20-plus years, Colin, I can just say this fan base is among the most clueless in the NFL. They just don't know the good things when they happen. Okay? The Jets haven't hired an offensive coach in over 20 years.

They keep finding these defensive guys and they're, oh, they're all excited and they flop. Gaze, as Joy knows, killed it the first year in Miami. Second year, based off Ryan Tanyhill's great first year, there was excitement. What happened? He gets injured and they got to bring Jake Culler off a reality show to be their quarterback. And again, Tana Hill looked good this past year.

They exceeded their Vegas win total. And Brock Osweiler had to start. five games. And by the way, Brock Osweiler had like a three-game stretch where he was the best he'd ever been. I mean, listen, the dolphins just happened to beat the Patriots. They happen to beat the Bears. They want some good games. There's not a lot of talent there.

I'm going on record, Colin. The Jets with the right free agent moves this offseason. We were talking about them. Leveon Bell's candidate. They need a left tackle. I think this team can make the playoffs next year. We're seeing a changing of the guard in the AFC, okay? We'll get to it here shortly. You got some old quarterbacks

kind of on their way out. Pat Mahomes is rising, the Colts. That roster on the Colts is sick. I mean, Jets fans, like, get with the program. Like, start to pay attention. If they get Greg Williams on defense, ooh, Jamal Adams, Greg Williams, the defensive coordinator. Jason McIntyre, he and I're going to be over

here at the 900 Club, knocking down bruskeys. Hey, why are you giving out our spot, man? Jeez. Okay, here we go. My favorite segment of the week, Cowboys and Rams. Here we go. Monday's headlines today. Cowboys at Rams.

You know, a lot of sentiment out there that it's going to be about 70-30 Cowboys fans in the Coliseum. I believe Monday's headline will be, holy cowboys! Jerry Jones and Dak and Zeke. And yes, Jason Garrett, get a win. Shocking L.A. right here. Listen, we know what happened last year, right? Jared Goff struggled in the first game. They had the turnovers against the Falcons and losing.

Colin, if you look at the Rams this year, one five and five. one against the spread against playoff teams and the one win was against the Chargers in September. When you see the Rams step up in competition, they didn't look good against the Bears. They could barely close out Seattle twice. Dallas is a very good defense. At front seven, the linebackers, Jalen Smith, Van deresh against Todd Gurley, who's not 100%. I give advantage to the Cowboys here. I think you take them plus seven, maybe on the money line.

What's interesting about this is they struggled both. times stopping Seattle. Seattle is a less talented version of Dallas. And how about since the Amari Cooper trade? He's opened up a new avenue for DAC to go deep down the field. I mean, the numbers don't lie. Now, Cooper hasn't really dominated on the road, but he's going against Marcus Peters and Talib. We know they've struggled this year. And they're risk takers. Yeah, they are. And, you know, Amari with the hitch and go, be careful, Rams fans. And I know a lot of Rams fans out there. I like the Cowboys this weekend. Colts at the Chiefs, Monday's headlines today.

So I think you're officially the biggest Colts fan in L.A., right? That's official now, right? I think I am. I think Monday's headline will make you sad. Better luck next time, as in next year. I think people in the NFL I trust are all saying next year, this team. This team is going to be a nightmare to face. I think you're right. And if you look at the gambling markets,

we talk about this on my gambling podcast. Markets tend toward efficiency, Colin. Underdogs last year and last weekend, 14 and 1. 14 and 1 against the spread. And everybody's loading up on the Colts here against a team we've seen and the Chiefs that have been dominant this season.

I know no Kareem Hunt, but for instance, you look at T.Y. Hilton. Have you seen what he's done on the road this year? No. Doesn't have a 100-yard game. It doesn't have a 75-yard game. By the way, the Colts are a dome team. It is going to be really snowy and cold.

And it should be noted that the Colts have made a lot of this inertia defensively against mediocre offenses. And bad, you're reading my notes. And bad old lines. The last good quarterback. And I love the Colts. I love their defense. They're now top 10 defense.

The last good quarterback they face, Tom Brady in early October. And he ate him up. Yeah. I mean, Pat Mahomes is a beast. Bad feeling about the Colts. Sunday, Eagle Saints. Monday's headlines today. All the Philadelphia fans, they love me.

They killed me on social media all week. But on Monday, the headline will be Follzing, like a cheap suitcase. If you didn't like Nick Fould's last week, and listen, Foles came through against the number one defense. Colin, I just want to note, fifth road game in six weeks for the Eagles. People aren't talking enough about that. It's a real thing. Vegas is talking about that. I think Philadelphia, there are teams, I feel this a little bit with the Chargers.

There are teams that just run out. out of gas. It's a long season and listen, I know there's excitement. They took down the Bears. This is the best offense, this beleaguered Eagles defense will face in a while. The last time they saw them, you know, we know 48 to 7. The Eagles did have some injuries in the

secondary in that game. But when I just look at the Saints, this feels like the season for Drew Brees and Sean Payton. By the way, off-bys in the playoffs, Saints generally score in the 30s. Alvin Kamara, monster game. Monster. Chargers at the Patriots. Mondays Headline today.

This is my second favorite game of the weekend after Cowboys, Rams. I just think Monday's headline is going to be a shocker. Reversal of Fortune. Philip Rivers, and I think I messed that pun up when I enunciated there. I think the Chargers will go into New England. And, Colin, I like Philip Rivers to break the hex. Here's a great stat. This is the stat of the week.

Playoff wins for Philip Rivers. Five. Super Bowl wins for Tom Brady. Five. When they go head to head, I mean, Don Brady's totally dominated him, Colin. The numbers are staggering. Rivers 0 and 7 against Brady. How's he going to pull this off?

Well, you know, you break down the matchups. You tell me where the Patriots have an advantage. Other than Bill Belichick, where is the advantage? It's not Gronk. The chargers are number one defensively defending tight end. So Gronk's not going to have a day. Offensive line, maybe there's a slight advantage. But Bosa and Ingram are basically the recipe the Giants used in two Super Bowl.

to get to Brady and rattle him off the edges. Ingram and Bosa are going to have a field day. Remember, the Ravens have given Brady problems with Terrell Suggs off the edge. They're not going to have an advantage there. I like the Chargers, Colin. Okay, you had a headline about— You're not feeling this, are you? No, I like New England, but it's not a shocker.

I do believe the Chargers probably have 13 of the top 20 players in this game. The narrative out there is, oh, Bill Belichick doesn't lose in the divisional round. They're undefeated at home. So we have a special fifth headline, Colin. Are you ready for this? had a headline about the Chargers, your special fifth headline Monday. Special headline today. This is an extra special copy of the newspaper.

Monday, the headline will be after the Chargers win, Patriots deal with the devil expires. Feeling that? It's over, Colin. I don't, you know, we've been shoveling dirt on the Patriots grave for years and they keep popping up. I do believe this is the offseason where it kind of blows up. I, listen, Joy, I don't think you can, I think Edelman's career. career is close to the end. Gronk is done.

My gut is they have to draft several receivers here. And Tom Brady is impatient with young receivers. They have some moves to make because this league is changing and they're not equipped on the perimeter to handle it. I just Bill Belichick, 67, how much longer does he want to do this? And again, Tom Brady and we know his wife has been pushing him to retire. They lose here. And the Patriots say, we're going to press reset.

I mean, is Brady done? Is he going to go out with all? loss to the charger? Or does he come back with like Jacksonville? They also have to use one of their picks on a quarterback. They don't have a backup quarterback. There's so many needs on this team. First of all, they need, I would say they need two vertical receivers

not one. I mean, they're a team I would trade picks to get Mike. If I was New England, I would trade four picks to get Mike Evans. They got to get, they got a million C plus receivers. They don't have anything resembling an A. And again, we talked about it at the outset, but the AFC is starting to turn over, right? Patrick Mahomes. He looks like he's going to be here. No question.

Sam Darnold, even your buddy, Baker Mayfield. AFC's on the rise, and I just wonder, Patriots Dynasty, how big will your number be on Monday on this show if the Patriots lose to the charges? My ratings will be so big Monday if the Patriots lose. I'll turn away viewers. We just won't have any room for. You're just going to do three hours of it's over for Belichick and Lady. I'll say, listen, you go watch Whitlock and Wiley, a restaurant's full.

We just don't have, we don't have enough menus to handle it. I will not shovel one spec. Oh, come on. Joy, you're a dolphins fan. You want this to end. I'm done with these guys. I'm 20 decades, Colin. I'm not doing it.

Jason McIntyre, the big lead. We'll see you Monday. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports slice comes in. I'm Timbo. And every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

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