The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Tom Brady, Rams, Julian Edelman, and LeBron James

Episode Date: February 4, 2019

Colin recaps the New England Patriots big win over the Los Angeles Rams and why it was more amazing for QB Tom Brady then some may think, what makes players like WR Julian Edelman special, and the recent Twitter comments by Los Angeles Lakers F LeBron James. Guests include Greg Jennings, Mark Schlereth, and Eric Mangini.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Find your local station for The Heard at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the Iheart Radio app by searching heard. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a Monday. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we are live in Los Angeles on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. One hour from now where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong on the Super Bowl yesterday.

Joy Taylor is joining me in a Monday. Well, well, well, I feel like I've been sitting in this chair before and a Monday after the Super Bowl. Several, several times. So the Patriots, six Super Bowl wins. Brady, in all of them, in all of his Super Bowl wins, has led the game-winning drive in the fourth or overtime, six for six. But yesterday was inartistic. Yesterday wasn't pretty. Tom wasn't great.

I'm not that impressed. Wrong. I'm blown away. I'm going to talk about a word today that's always impressed me about a lot of Americans, a lot of people in the world, resourcefulness. The Los Angeles Rams had an incredible defensive game plan. Tom Brady, you will not be able to throw the ball deep. Chris Hogan, he'll never be open.

Tom Brady loves to throw to running backs. James White won catch. They took that away. The Rams also led the NFL this year in defending the bubble screen. that's not available. Tom Brady won a Super Bowl throwing to one guy, a 5-9 slot receiver who was a quarterback in college who looks like Santa Claus. He won a Super Bowl with that.

What separates Bear Grills from me isn't the fact that he can climb a mountain. It's that he can do it with a spoon and a gum wrapper. I would need nine goats, four tents, 13 Explorers, and two S-U-V-Vas. He can do it with a ball of yarn, resourcefulness. I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed with rich people's kids who go to Ivy League schools and prep schools and then have a nice job and make six figures. I'm impressed with a kid who lived through divorces, maybe drugs in the family, some abuse, and 25 years later, they run their own company.

Overcoming. Life does not give you a linear path. It's not sunny every day with no traffic and the kids slept through the night and you slept perfectly and the eggs were just right. That's not life. That's a television show. That's a script. Life is having to overcome crap. Bad bosses.

Average help. Late to work. A wreck. You got to use an app to get there. That's what life's all about. Tom Brady yesterday. I've said this about LeBron James. The most impressed I've ever been with.

with LeBron James in my life. Wasn't winning with the great Kyrie Irving. Wasn't winning with Chris Bosch and the great D. Wade. When LeBron James lost Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving and took the Golden State Warriors six games in the finals and the best, most reliable teammate he had was Matthew Delavadova. And he took the Warriors six games with Matthew Delavadova. Are you kidding me?

There's never been a basketball player including Michael Jordan, Magic Kobe, Larry, MJ, that could take Matthew Delavadova and get six games into the finals. Overcoming stuff blows me away. That's why Hollywood makes movies about rags to riches, about people that don't get perfectly what they want. Yesterday, the game-winning drive, I read a story this morning that essentially with nine minutes to go in the game, Josh McDaniels went to the sideline, the Patriot offensive coordinator and said, I'm scrapping the game plan. Nothing's working. We're going to do something and we haven't practiced this in months. We're going to huddle every play. We're going to use

two tight ends and a fullback and Mike Devlin and have an empty backfield. And they huddled every play because they hadn't practiced it. And they averaged on that drive 12 yards of play. The rest of the game they averaged four. By the way, I'm not saying last year's Super Bowl wasn't impressive for Tom, who threw for 500 yards, and everything worked. And Danny Amandola was open, and Edelman was open, and Chris Hogan was open. And I'm not saying that wasn't impressive. But what was impressive yesterday is the Rams took virtually everything away except Julian Edelman. And I love Patrick Mahomes, and I love Russell Wilson, and I love Andrew Luck, and I love Aaron Rogers.

They're all amazing. Those guys aren't winning a Super Bowl with Julian Edelman? Are you kidding me? They didn't have a deep threat. They couldn't throw the running backs. Their running game was spotty. Chris Hogan was blanketed. Brady faced interior pressure.

The Rams had an unbelievable game plan. And Brady with a 71 quarterback passer rating won. By the way, let me tell you the quarterbacks who have been able to win Super Bowls when they didn't play great. Terry Bradshaw, 96 passing yards won a Super Bowl. John Elway, 51.9 passer rating won a Super Bowl. Peyton Manning won a Super Bowl with a passer rating of 56. Big Ben won a Super Bowl with a passer rating of 22.

And Tom Brady yesterday won with a 71. What are they all of in common? They're Hall of Fame-level players. Most quarterbacks in this league, Kirk Cousins, guys I like, Alex Smith, they need a lot of stuff to work for them to win big games. nothing work for New England except Edelman. We're spoiled. We've had so many good Super Bowls in a row that if it's not a firework show, if it doesn't go to overtime, if it's not 35, 34, oh, who cares?

Yesterday was all about great defensive game plans, great defensive pass rush, great secondary play. Defenses were unbelievable yesterday. Wade Phillips, tip of the cap, Belichick, Brian, floor is tip of the cap. But one player on offense was able to overcome that, scrap the game plan, be resourceful using just Julian Edelman and win the Super Bowl, Tom Brady. I'm sorry, be impressed with a rich family's kid who has a nice, clean path to success.

I like people who get crapped on. I like people who overcome. Brady yesterday, it didn't feel good in the moment. He's probably bummed out in the moment. He'll look back 25 years from now and go, how the hell did we beat that Rams team? I'm asking it this morning. I want to shift to this.

Great to have you in a Monday really is. Great to have you in. I want to talk a bit about Julian Edelman because there's five or six patriots that create the core of their team, Gronk and Brady and Edelman, Devin McCordy, Dante High Tower, Shaq Mason. And not all of them are high paid, most are paid below kind of market value. They are the core of the team. And I'm all for free agents and I'm all for trades.

But realize when you get somebody via a trade or free agency, they often come to your team wanting something. Kevin Durant came to the Warriors wanting titles. and wanting to elevate his legacy. Okay. The warrior's core is Steph Klay and Draymond. You don't hear a lot of talk about them wanting to leave. Kevin Durant walks into a perfect situation,

and every time I open a sports page, every time I read a blog, he's not totally satisfied because Kevin Durant came there with an agenda, came there wanting things. Steph Curry invited him and gave him things, gave him the ball, let him take the big shots, gave him more minutes, more fame, more headlines. I tell my kids this all the time.

There are very few people that will jump in front of a car and give their life for you. And there's a word for those people, it's called family. And you can go get free agents, and you can get star, But who's there for you? The core of the Patriots is defined by Edelman. Precise. Tough as a cheap steak. Plays hurt.

Imperfect. Seventh rounder. Never seeks attention. Never demands the ball. I'm not saying stars don't have a place. And I'm not saying free agents don't have a place. NFL free agency? I mean, they're trying.

trying to get more like NBA free agency, which is awesome. But when LeBron went to Miami, Dwayne Wade's family, LeBron James was just really talented and rented. Chris Bosch was really talented. Udana's Haslam's family. Steph is family, Edelman's family, Hightower's family, Gronkis family, Brady's family.

Josh McDaniels now. He left for a while. He came back. He missed his family. is that when I watch that game yesterday, what really, really sticks with me is that, and it's not, Edelman's story is not just about that he's, you know, a seventh rounder. But I go back to something I've always believed in sports, that sports are similar to like a house. You have a foundation and then you build the house.

But when you drive down the street and you see a house being built, it all starts with the foundation. They don't build the roof first. They don't build the kitchen first. They build the foundation. And then people come in from the county or the state. And if the foundation's not right, you can't build the house. Your foundation is who you draft. There's an old saying in sports,

nobody loves you more than the team that drafts you. The Orlando Magic loved Dwight Howard. Everybody else just saw him as a means to an end. Edelman, Steph Curry, they define their current dynasties, drafted by them, mentored by them, coached by them, loved by them, willing to give. Because when you're in the family, you'll step in front of that car for another family member. As much as you say you like your neighbors, as much as you say you like your friends,

much as you say you like your college professor, your buddy, you wouldn't step in front of a car for him. Edelman, Steph Curry, that's what you build around. Okay, good stuff today. I saw, you know, it's funny I talk NBA because, you know, NBA and NFL are two sports that I really, really connect with. And I saw LeBron James taking a shot at the Super Bowl yesterday. And I want to say, time out, time out, time out, hold on, LeBron. Hold on. That game was much more reflective of what most big games look like.

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Yesterday, most of you wanted to punt the Super Bowl, but I will say this. LeBron James, middle of the third quarter, had a tweet. And it was, Man, where Shams, Woj, Haynes, McManaman. Those are NBA reporters. He was looking for something interesting like an NBA story because, you know, the NFL, the Super Bowl was boring.

And I wanted to tweet back, weren't you in the finals that was a sweep? Wasn't the World Series a total mismatch, Red Sox 1 in 5? Wasn't the college football national championship game decided by 30 points? The Rams and the Patriots were tied at 3 with a minute 16 to go or something? I mean, how much time would it go was 3 to 3 in the fourth quarter? Yeah, it was early fourth, it was three. It was a one possession game late. There was no fumbles, at least none recovered.

There were not a lot of drop passes. Only 12 penalties. New England only had three. Defense was blowing stuff up. Listen, the Super Bowl is where my wife watches. It's where fringe fans watch, and they come in and they think they're going to get this wild showcase. Most Super Bowls, in fact, there was a period in the 80s. We went through about a 10-year period where,

eight of them were atrocious. Like Dallas would beat Buffalo by 40. Yesterday we had a tie football game in the fourth quarter. I'm okay with that. Now, it wasn't the most artistic. But, I mean, you know, it's just like it wasn't a headline Super Bowl. Last year was full of headlines. This was not a headline Super Bowl.

But it was close and it was competitive. The World Series was unwatchable. It was a blowout. It was a mismatch. I mean, the NBA finals, after game one, the remaining three games were unwatchable. College Football National Championship was a blowout. Yukon Women's Basketball, that dynasty's mostly been blowouts.

We had a tie game in the fourth quarter. And, you know, it's just like most millionaires in America are not tech millionaires. Most of them have paid off their house. It's a husband and wife that both work, and they have both healthy 401Ks. But that doesn't make headlines. But that's 75% of American millionaires. They've paid off their house. paid off their cars, and they both have a 401k, and they're millionaires.

They have about a million and a half net worth. They're not working at, you know, Facebook. They're not like 27-year-old Elon Musk genius-level dudes. That's not really, that gets the headline. So I looked at yesterday, and I think defense wins a lot more than we think in sports. Pitching in baseball wins championships. Home run hitters do not win World Series. Who wins World Series of the Red Sox, and they're pitching the year before the

Astros and they're pitching, pitching his defense. Michael Jordan's Bulls were not the most gifted offensive team. Michael Jordan's Bulls were the greatest defensive team I've ever seen. Both of our college football dynasties are based on defense. So do you know every single Super Bowl, New England is won, all six of them, their defense has been ranked no lower than eighth. New England wins these Super Bowls. when they come into a Super Bowl and they're efficient offensively, they always are,

but they're very good defensively, which when they win, they always are. So I think the defense, you know, I've said a couple of things about Brady's legacy. He's almost always had good offensive lines. Dan Marino didn't. John Elway didn't. Brady's always had good offensive lines, but those don't make headlines. And the second thing, their defense is always better than we give him credit for. It is generally a bend, not break defense.

Yesterday, New England's defense, hyper-aggressive. They blitz statistically 50% of the time. Jared Goff could not get his feet under him. This is not a headline Super Bowl. This is not one of those eight or nine, you know, Pittsburgh, Arizona, big band of San Antonio Holmes. This was all about defense. So was the World Series. So is our college football dynasties.

And that's okay, too. I'm not a fringe fan. I'm not somebody that just walks in for the Super Bowl. Joy is not a fringe fan. We watch these games all weekend. So when you watch them all weekend, I like. Otherwise, we'd have the Canadian Football League down here. I'm okay with, I'm okay when Pittsburgh beat New England earlier this year.

It was like, what was it score? Like 1310. Did Pittsburgh celebrate any less? It's okay. Not everything has to be Rams, Kansas City at the Coliseum. I'm okay with that. Joy with the news. No, no, no.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So the Patriots are Super Bowl champions for the sixth time this century. He beat the Rams 13 to 3 in a game that won't be remembered for its offense. But after the whim, Belichick did credit offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, for making a slight adjustment that was one of the keys to the win. Dan has made a great adjustment. We talked about that on the sideline, went over to a two tight-end offense.

But we spread them out and we were able to complete some passes there to Julie and then to Rob. and then, you know, hit the goal line, run to score. So it was really well executed, not something that we had, I would say, anticipated doing a lot in this game. Josh McDaniels did, as usual, did an outstanding job of play calling and finding, eventually finding things that worked, and those are big drives. You know, this is really a credit to what matters long-term to having a successful franchise. And you look at what happened with Alabama.

You were just talking about the national championship game. and Clemson. Clemson's been able to maintain their coaching staff for longer than Alabama has. Everybody wants Alabama's coaches. You're seeing this a lot with the Rams. Now everybody wants Sean McVeigh's coaching tree. Clemson and New England. And in all fairness, Belichick does have a large coaching tree, albeit not incredibly successful,

Bill O'Brien being the most successful from that. But having Josh McDaniels there consistently alongside Tom Brady being able to change something like that on the fly, even though they haven't practiced it just based up of experience and being together and being on. on the same page is huge. Yeah, I mean, this is the factor in the game. Philadelphia struggled first couple of months of this season off the Super Bowl

because people poached their coaches. The Rams staff, by the way, just got poached. It's New England literally with nine minutes in the game said, fellas, we haven't practiced this all year. Josh McDaniels brought them all over and said, but we're going to do some stuff here because nothing else is working. And to your point, continuity, I have said this before. what if what if you and I you had a different producer every week you'd still be talented but you'd be

like trying to teach the producer how to do headline news the crankiest host on the time you know it's like continuity matters and the patriots they get poach like everybody else but offensive line coach Josh McDaniels running back coach well to your point about continuity it eliminates the learning curve it eliminates the communication issues it eliminates the any personal issues, you've already gone through all of that. So when you want to implement something new, you just go straight to that. And when you want to refer to something you already know how to do, you don't have to explain it. You don't have to have a conversation about why you're doing it. You know it and it's comfortable to you. So that was huge for them. So it's a little hard to

believe that Gronk has only played nine NFL seasons. It seems like a lot longer. It's not close to the 17 seasons to Sony Gonzalez played. Congratulations to Hall of Fame, by the way. That'll matter in the greatest tight end conversation because it's really possible that Gronk won't play a 10th season after the game he was asked about retirement if it's a possibility and he gave a very gronk answer. Tonight it's about celebrating with my teammates and that decision will be made in a week or two, you know, down the future because tonight that's what's about is celebrating with my teammates and that's what I'm worried about tonight. We're going to have a good time. Bill told me he's partying tonight so you know it's going to be good. That's by the way, that's a

very cool answer. No, it's perfect. He doesn't he doesn't owe anyone, seconds after the Super Bowl has ended. He's focusing on partying and enjoying the Super Bowl win, like he said. I don't really know what's going to happen with Grom. I'm feeling more like he's going to hang it up. I wish that he had longer because he's such a transformative player. But I think also his size is the hits that he's had to take and the injuries that he's had. He's talked about it.

The injuries, and we don't really think about this because, you know, we're just like, oh, like injuries are part of the game. injuries take a toll on you psychologically, especially when you have major injuries that you have to come back from. You have to will yourself back and rehab is exhausting. And then you have past injuries that come nagging again. It is exhausting mentally. If something's bothering you physically and you're having to work, it drains you mentally because you're focusing on it. I played for most of my young life, I played pickup basketball.

I didn't jog. And I remember being in Portland, Oregon, and I got need in the knee. and it was like a sip for me and I remember thinking I'm done with it not because I couldn't play again I was tired of being hurt all the time and I say you know if I just jog I won't get injured by a young guys banging into me

no I tore my ACL playing soccer six years ago six seven years ago and I was just like no that's it for soccer for me I'm not going through this again ever it's just gronk has been you know and I'll say this it's almost like they saved him His best two games of the year are the last two games. It's almost like they knew they had this annuity back there,

this thing that would pay them eventually. And they're like, listen, let's just get him to the playoffs because his last two games, Gronk was huge. Oh, no. And he's a first ballot hall of the favor of sure. So finally, despite being texting buddies, the matchup between the two head coaches was the biggest storyline heading into yesterday.

And Belichick obviously got the best of the young head coach. Here is Sean McVeigh on the loss. Definitely, I got out coached. And I didn't do nearly good enough for a football team. This one's going to stick with you and just stings in your gut. Like I said, I'm still kind of numb right now, but I have so much love for these players and these coaches. And that's where, you know, it really, you know, it eats at you because you feel like you didn't do your part to help them, you know, achieve success. All right.

Now, I know everyone's going to freak out about Sean McVeigh losing this game and all the coaches that were hired all over the league because of him. And listen, if you're panicking about the Rams losing that game because you hired a Sean McVeigh. coaching tree prodigy. You made the wrong decision. Like, that's what you asked for. They were in the Super Bowl, and they barely lost. Like, everyone's freaking out, like, oh, this is a mark on Sean McVeigh's legacy. Yes, he does need to win a Super Bowl for all this to be legit.

But he is in the Super Bowl. They were tied in the fourth quarter. It's not like the Patriots had this virtuoso performance and he got slaughtered. It's almost like when it comes to NFL coaching, this is part of the process. Belichick got fired in Cleveland. And then he goes to New England and he struggles. And then he gets Brady. And it's like, folks, Sean Payton got overlooked for a lot of jobs.

He went to New Orleans and made him better. And then he got beat down. And like the NFL again is not linear. It wouldn't be right for a 33-year-old to walk in and suddenly be the king of the league for 30 years. It would be an all-time story. Michael Jordan got beat up by the Celtics and the Pistons before. We keep forgetting this. nobody walks into these major sports.

And Patrick Mahomes, he had to lose this playoff game. That's the way the world works in the NFL. Yes. No one's going to come in anointed and then everything's just going to work out for you perfectly every time. Now, obviously, a lot of people were rooting for the Rams because they wanted to see the Patriots lose, not because they're necessarily Rams fans. But it's not the end of the world. They still made it to the Super Bowl.

It still had an incredible season and they barely lost. So all this freaking out about this whole Sean McVay thing is a mistake. And the way the Rams put their team together. was a mistake. It's just pump the brakes a little bit. I totally agree. It's just I think when we tend to forget, we look at the Warriors Dynasty and we forget, Steph got hurt

early. It took them like four years to click and it just stopped speaking in absolutes. Yeah. Everything is not just one way or the other. Right. It's not how it works. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. It is cold and

flu season, even in Los Angeles. pouring rain and cold all winter so far. Try Vic Cynix nasal spray. Works up to 12 hours. Use only as directed. Where a guy who's played in the NFL for a decade, he's been in a Super Bowl, had the good fortune of winning it

to multiple-time Pro Bowl or Greg Jennings joining us on the show. I'm so glad you're here today. And by the way, your Super Bowl experience was nothing but doubles. So you don't have a losing Super Bowl experience. No. But I will say I was listening to a radio show this weekend.

and I forget who the coach was, but he was talking about, he was a former coach. And he said, every time I watch the Super Bowl, the first thing I think about when it's over is that poor coach that lost. He goes,

oh, it was Joe Gibbs. Joe Gibbs was on radio, and he said, I won three Super Bowls, but I lost one. The hurt hurts way more than the joy. And you played with guys like Brett Favre that lost Super Bowls.

And there's almost a fear. Like, I mean, I mean, go to your Super Bowl. How long was the halo after the win where you were just high on the win? Honestly, it didn't last long for me personally. Once the offseason starts, you kind of start turning that page all over again. A week later? It was longer than the week. It was definitely longer than the week.

But once you start training all over again, it's like that last season that just happened, over. It's completely over. Once you start back into your training regimen and getting ready for what's to come next, you've got to throw that away. How much of your Super Bowl win was joy and how much was

we want, what was like we because it's so big, even like people in your family who don't love football watch, how much of it was like we didn't embarrass ourselves, we won, we didn't lose, because Super Bowl losers get mocked in the sports culture. It was a good culmination of both. I think more joy than anything because you're

just so filled with excitement, all these emotions that you can't really identify right away. It's like Sean McVeigh summed it up, even in the loss, even in the win, you're numb. There's a numbing that is there that you can't even really express what you're feeling in that moment because you have so different, so many different emotions taking place at the same time. Okay. One of the, the actual game itself, everybody's crushing it. But again, the Super Bowl brings in my wife, a fringe fan. I don't like Canadian football because it's all offense.

I like running games. I'm okay. I thought the defensive game plans were unbelievable. They were. But this is the way I look at it. You got people who watch football and then you got football fans. The football fans are going to stay tuned. you want to keep the game entertaining for the players the fans who are just watching the game right

they're not football fans but they're going to watch the football game that's why we have like musical acts at half when you're scoring touchdowns that's what's going to keep everybody in did you like the game i did because i'm a i'm a former player but i'm a football fan i looked at the game it's more like a floyd mayweather fight um honestly it was like i pretty much knew who was going to win once the first quarter was over. It was like I kind of expected the Patriots to win. The battle was there. A younger Floyd Mayweather, I know I don't have a younger Patriots team,

so I don't expect the knockout blow, but I don't expect them to beat themselves. That's a really good point. They're not dynamic enough to knock you out. No. But they're going to point you and cut you up. Exactly. They're not going to allow you to hit them. If you watch Tom Brady, I don't think that was his best game,

but even in the way he played, he played to almost not lose that game. I saw a lot of balls thrown low in the dirt, and it wasn't that he couldn't make those throws. I truly believe he felt like if it's just not there, my defense is playing too good. I'm not going to give them a chance to just make a play or something happened, and then I put my defense in a bad situation, and they get an easy score, and now we're on our hills. Stick around. I got a bunch of questions to ask you about. how you see Julian Edelman, who is never on those top 20 players in the NFL, and you'll watch

him just carve up Akib Talib and put him in circles. We'll talk about that. Todd Gurley didn't play. What am I supposed to make of that with Greg Jennings coming up next? It's the herd. Nobody should feel unsafe at home, period. Fear has no place in a place like home. That's been Simply Safe's mission from day one. You may have seen their commercial about it during big games this year. If you didn't, you can find it online. Simply Safe blankets your whole home with protection. Around the clock pro monitoring, make sure police are on their way when you need them. The security sensors are tiny blending in with your home. You won't even notice them. The Verge calls Simply Safe the best home security, and it's a wire cutter top pick. More than 3 million

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And I thought Wade Phillips stood in a remarkable job. He took away everything except gentlemen. Go to the play. It's the Brandon Cook's play that you thought was the play of the game. Why? Patrick Chung is out. They obviously had a bust in coverage. You got Brandon Cooks running down the field wide open.

I thought Jared Goff saw him late. He was in the end zone. He was in the end zone. And Jason McCordy runs across the field to make the play, to break the ball up. At that point, I felt like had they scored that touchdown, then their defense, who's already playing lights out, can now really get after Tom Brady.

And it never happened for him. If you saw right after that play, they showed Aaron Donald on the sideline, and he just was like, oh, with the towel over. He knew, like, that was our opportunity. It was a struggle. It was a defensive struggle. they knew, they believed defensively that we have this offense under control.

Huge play. Huge. So just think if that's completed. They take a lead. Yes. And now, by the way, now Brady can't be as conservative. He's got to take some wrist down the field. Absolutely.

And Tom Brady played, honestly, in my opinion, one of the most conservative games that he's ever played in a game like this because of the way the defenses were playing. What did you see with Brady kind of? Kind of when they scrapped their game plan in the fourth, but you had told me during the break, you saw something with Brady in the third quarter. I saw, he had no answers. For anything.

He had no answers. It was Julian Ellman or nothing. Wade Phillips did such a great job of showing one thing, but it's what defense is like to call disguising. And it wasn't anything special. It was just they would show zone, go to man, show man, go to zone. and he only had one or two options,

but they completely eliminated his ability to throw to his backs out of the backfield. Which is, for the record, Brady loves throwing to his backs. Yes, to get rid of the ball right away. Stay on time. Especially against the Chargers, the Chiefs, Pass rush teams. Yes. And the Rams took it completely away. It eliminates, it almost demoralizes your pass rush.

When you are trying to get back there and he just throws it to his run, running back right away. It is, and he gashes you. Then you have to start thinking, well, we can't really rush them because we have nobody going to the flat. We have to be able to cover this. The Rams took away that. I've never seen it taken away.

Yes. Ever. And a lot of our minds were like, well, why don't they take away Julian Ellman? And I even said it. And I honestly think the way that I'm looking at it, Wade Phillips plays called such a great game. That was his plan. I want Tom Brady to hold on to the ball a little bit longer.

and try to find Edelman across the field, a little bit down the field. You can't stop everybody. You can't stop everyone. So they basically said, sure, let Edelman have 10 catches, but we're not going to let your back speed it. By the way, as a receiver, you're taller, faster. I mean, listen, Edelman is a college quarterback who I went and looked up his pre-draft analysis, and they called him gimmicky, but an interesting prospect in the wildcat.

Okay, what do you make when you watch it? What do you make of him? I absolutely love his game. I love his, and everyone wants to talk about his route running and his catching ability. That's all great. He just understands how to get open and where he needs to be on the football field. If you watch him last night, there was so many times where he wasn't just running. He was playing with stems at the top of his route, meaning defensive backs, they're all about signals of what telltale signs of what a receiver is going to do.

He was setting them up because he knew what. where he needed to get to on the football field and where Tom needed him to be on the football field. That is attributed to his savviness, his smarts, him playing quarterback and him just understanding defensively what you're trying to do to take me away, but how I need to combat that. Yeah.

You know, we're talking a lot, Patriots. Let's shift now to the Rams. And Joy and I talked about this last week. The reason I like New England to win, as you did, and I think your Mayweather analogy is perfect, that Floyd Mayweather early would have knocked the Rams out. Floyd Mayweather late just wins on points. That's what he became as a point.

New England this year was Floyd Mayweather in his 50th fight just doesn't quite have the ability to blow you out. He just points you. But Todd Gurley was the game to me. And I said this on Twitter and I said it last week. If I knew I was getting 18 carries from Gurley, I could pick an upset. I didn't get it.

Again, I watched yesterday. Something's up. Something is going on. And I just want to know what. I just want to know what, because to have that kind of a weapon on your sideline, and literally on your sideline, not even in the game, and everything be okay, there's something wrong.

He's not even in the passing game. He's not, they weren't even including him. It was almost as though the Pats didn't even have to account for Todd Gurley because we're not going to even feature them. And it blows me away because when you look when you've seen the success of the

Los Angeles Rams this year, when Todd Gurley gets the ball 20 or more times, they're eight no. They don't lose. So you would think and I love Sean McVeigh and I think he just flat out got out coached and he will be able to bounce back from this but you have to

at this point ride your horses. You got to ride playmakers. You know what? Even if he wasn't healthy, it's called decoy. You got to use it. I said this yesterday to T.J. and Slareth, I said even him just being on the field makes a world of impact because now you have to account for him in the what ifs, the possibilities of what they can do as far as from a formation variation and offensive standpoint with him just being on the field simply. And with him not being on the field, you eliminate number one. I believe that's, that's a huge part of why Jared Goff struggled. He has a lot of confidence when Todd Gurley is

behind him. Well, all these young quarterbacks, you, I mean, Patrick Mahomes is great, but when Kareem Hunt left, you can't expect young quarterbacks, they need all their weapons. Of course. And Goff was never the same when Cooper Cup was out. Yep. And, and, and, and, and, and, And I don't think when Kareem Hunt left, I don't think Patrick was ever quite as comfortable. Still great, but he wasn't as comfortable. That's where the breezes and, you know, Aaron Rogers, where you've been around long enough pre-snap, you've had guys in, you've had bad old lines. By the way, I saw this.

You know, I laugh at this. So Vegas has already come out with the Super Bowl favorites. And I said last week, I said, I think this was the year to get New England. There was controversy. They have no deep fret. Josh Gordon Mess, Edelman suspended, Gronks a shell of himself. It felt like this was the year to kind of get him

because they have 12 draft picks, and that's a lot of picks. And they're two first round picks last year. One is excellent, and the other one got hurt and looked to be excellent. So here we come out this morning, and the Super Bowl favorites, Kansas City, the Rams, New Orleans,

and New England is fourth. Then Chargers, Bears, Steelers, Green Bay, and Dallas. I'd have Philadelphia. I don't know where Philadelphia is, and I don't understand that at all. But what do you make of the – it almost is once again, Vegas is giving New England what they want. Look at – they have you as the third best team in the AFC. Yeah, but I mean when you look at it, I can see why.

When you look at what Kansas City was able to do to New England Patriots, offensively with a young Patrick Mahomes in his second year, you have to think defensively, they played better in the second half. If they play better than the first half, do they win that game against the New England Patriots and Arrowhead? Possibly. So I like where you have Kansas City. The Rams, I couldn't put the Rams in front of, I couldn't put the Rams in front of New England. Are you bored with New England? A lot of people in sports are saying they're bored with New England.

You know, I'm not bored with them. I'm not bored with it. For whatever reason, I'm starting to really enjoy this because it is so, calling you know, It is so hard to stay on top. Even what you do, it is so hard to continue to have viewers interested in what you have to talk about every single day and locked in every single day with the New England Patriots to be able to find ways to manufacture this idea of we're not great. We don't have enough and they buy into that philosophy and then they use it against you. every single year with the best quarterback to ever play the game, it's there to be commended.

And I think we just need to really honor them right now and enjoy and appreciate it. And I get it. It's not everyone's team. So it's not the- Yeah, I get the animosity. Yeah, I get it. I totally get it. But you have to at least respect what they're doing.

Like even if you hated New England, you would have to wake up this morning and go, well, they did out-coach the third straight. playoff team. You'd have to admit that and go, McVeigh got out coach, Danny Reed got out coach, Anthony Lynn got out coach. You couldn't, even if you hate them, you can't deny they're winning the coaching thing. No. And when you look at the team, they won

differently. Like it was defense. We all was like, okay, if they win, it's going to be on the hands of Tom Brady and that offense. This year, they've won with a field goal, they've won with offense, and this week, this year they won with defense. Good seeing you, Greg. Our two next. 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. Ah, this is the herd. Hour 2. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we're live in Los Angeles. Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me. Next couple of days, we do some football.

Then the trading deadline NBA is Thursday. My sources tell me it's tense right now in Lakerland. How kind of the NBA to let the NFL have their Super Bowl Monday? But every Monday at this time, I think it's important that when we're wrong, we admit we're wrong. I created this a few years ago because I thought, you know, I always tell you when I'm right, because I know that most of my listeners listen once or twice a week. So I remind you when we're right, but it's also important on Mondays to say, listen, we whiffed on a bunch of stuff too. So here we go on a Monday after the Patriots are a ball win.

Colin right, Colin wrong. Where Colin was right? We had a great playoff run. There were 11 playoff games. We picked 10 right. That'll never happen again. I mean, I pay attention to this stuff. I care.

The only game I miss was the Chiefs losing to the Patriots. And even that was in overtime. You know, the Super Bowl to me, and I bet just a little on it, it really turned out the way I thought. I said, if Todd Gurley is not a factor, and that means like 10 carries, not 18, then I just don't think the Rams can win. And very early in this game, late in the first quarter, I felt like Gurley is not a factor. And even though there wasn't any scoring, I did feel like the game was turning out to be a

New England game. So 11 playoff games, we picked 10 of them straight up, and we feel good about that. Where Colin was wrong. I did think yesterday, we were going to have a lot of high. offense. I was shocked at the Patriots pass rush. Four sacks, 12 quarterback hits, they devoured the Rams offensive front. I was blown away by the Patriots pass rush. And I'll tell you this, the Rams defense was money. I've never seen Tom Brady can't even find open running backs to throw to. They reduced Tom Brady to find Julian Edelman, hurry up, and get rid of the ball.

The game was a complete defensive classic. I thought the teams would be like last year by the end of the year. The refs would let stuff go. You'd have a lot of big plays, and it was just not the case at all. Where Colin was right? I did predict that Julian Edelman would have a day. I said a non-quarterback is going to win MVP here. And I'll say it again, whenever I read these lists of top 10 players in the Super Bowl,

and I saw one this week, I had Edelman at 8, and I thought, how do you not put him top 10? Some people don't have him top 15. He is so productive. He is the quickest player on the field yesterday. Now, I'm not saying the fastest. I'm not saying the tallest or the strongest. But in the NFL these days, the bubble screen and the short slot, is every bit as big as the home run ball.

So what I'm saying is quick is now as important as fast. It used to be it was a fast league. Now it's a quick league. And if you don't consider Edelman to be a great NFL player, I can't help you. Because he was turning Marcus Peters, Akeed to leave, like real players in circles. He wasn't just open. He was wide open all day. Where Colin was wrong.

Godf was not sharp. Now, a lot of this is he just didn't have time to step into anything, but Goff look rattled. He looked nervous during the anthem. And I thought he would be better here simply because I didn't think he had a lot of awareness either. He got pop going out of bounds. It's like, Jared, get down, get out of bounds. Listen, it's just one of those things, is that these young quarterbacks, I think were just unfair. We expect them to walk into these massive games when they don't have a Todd Gurley and they don't have Cooper Cup. And we expect them to just be money. And listen, he looked a little overwhelmed. And he didn't have Todd Gurley. And he didn't have time to throw. And he didn't have Cooper Cup after week nine. And he's

never quite been the same. I thought he would be a little sharper. I thought a couple of his balls fluttered. I thought he missed a couple wide open receivers, didn't see him. I thought he'd play better. But again, a lot of this is their own line. Where Colin was right? Set all year. Stop hyperventilating. Come December, come January, defense is going to matter. September and October Fool us every year. The weather's great. The stars are healthy.

But here's what happens over the course of the season. Your running backs get hit more. Todd Gurley gets hurt more. Your wide receivers get hurt. Who's getting tackled in football? Offensive players. You start getting tackled for three and four months.

You're not healthy. Offenses slow down. Players don't have the zip. The running backs don't have the burst. They're not as dynamic. And frankly, defensive coaches have seen your entire playbook by November and you're not fooling them

like you are in September and October. Andy Reid's stuff historically has been great early and struggled a bit more late because all the new stuff he introduces, people catch up to it a little bit. And if you look at these NFL playoff games, almost to a playoff game, defense was the key. Almost to a game, defense won the game. Where Colin was wrong. I said going in, Wade Phillips worried me. is that the young, sharp, Sean McVeigh, 71-year-old Wade Phillips,

I know he's wearing his dad's cowboy hat and the jacket, and that's cool and everything, but I thought, is he just going to look like an old-timer? I thought he was the coach of the game. I thought Wade Phillips was unbelievable. I mean, I've never seen Brady that handcuffed. They had nothing. First ball was intercepted.

Brady, they literally had to shelf their entire offense at the nine-minute mark in the fourth quarter. New England went to the sidelines and said nothing. is working. So we're going to create an offense and a set of two tight ends and Rex Burkehead and huddle and empty backfield. I mean, Wade Phillips, to me, was the star for the Rams. Not a player. He was the star of the Super Bowl for the L.A. Rams. And I thought potentially he could be a liability. Where Colin was right? I said, listen, everybody's falling in love with young coaches. Everybody thinks Sean McBade's this and that. I'll go back. I said, next year,

Philadelphia is the best team in the NFC. Philadelphia. Doug Peterson's not a kid. GM Howie Roseman's not a kid. Philadelphia out-coached New England. Okay, the Rams got out-coached. I said before the Super Bowl, my pick for next year in the NFC is not the Rams. It's the Eagles.

Philadelphia, by the way, should have beaten New Orleans, but they, you know, we're missing nine starters that everybody, everybody has annoyeded the Rams. stars and I said, no. Philadelphia is the team to watch out for next year. And what Philadelphia did last year outcoached New England, the opposite happened. The young offensive coach for the Rams got out coached. By the way, how'd you like to be Cincinnati today? You got the Rams quarterback coach. How'd that work out yesterday? Where Colin was wrong. It's not that I don't like Gronk, but I've been saying all year, he's done. And you know, what? He was great against the Chiefs, and he came out with the biggest play yesterday. And he's

also become a very good blocker. He had the last two games he had 18 targets. It's almost like the Patriots knew they were saving him until they really needed him. And it's not, I mean, Grong's a great player, but he's always been a little goofy for me. He's always been a little silly for me. But you know what? He's matured nicely. After the game, he's like, I don't want to talk about my retirement. This is about the team. And for a guy that walked into this game and was a goofball, he became a great blocker, a tremendous big game player, and this year was really special. He didn't do anything all year. It's as if the Patriots knew he had about three, two, three big games left in him. I suspect, my guess is he will retire in about 10 days to two weeks.

It's a good tight-end draft. The Patriots have 12 picks, six in the first three rounds. They will definitely draft, no question, a tied-in. Where Colin was right and where Colin was wrong. Good stuff. Mark Slarith. There's a quote here by Jared Goff. He goes, I think that's something the Patriots do well. They're able to mix it up and that kept us guessing, especially early on. We were completely guessing. Just go back to last year's Super Bowl. Philadelphia's coaching staff had the Patriots on their heels. The whole game had them on their heels. This year, New England's coaching staff had Sean McVeigh on his heels. So before nothing against the Rams, I'll still say, Philadelphia is the team in the NFC.

Owner, GM, coach, quarterback, good line play. They check all five boxes for me. Coming up, Mark Schlerath, who's been in three of these Super Bowls, I think three, maybe four, tells us why Edelman is the perfect match for Brady. And did we get too high on the Rams, or as Joy said earlier, let's settle down. It was a great year for Los Angeles. sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your Facebook. 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 healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Clifford Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee.

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

Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what.

He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup,

he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying.

He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball like, After you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 13 days, the greatest event in motorsports is back. The Daytona 500 kicks off the 2019 NASCAR season, February 17th on Fox. I've never had a speeding ticket, have you?

What? Yes, of course I've had a speeding ticket. You have? You've never had a speeding ticket? Nope. Yes, I've had a speeding ticket. I've had tickets, not speeding tickets. I've had over 50.

Oh, I've had a lot of parking tickets. I kind of feel like, you know, most of the time I'm just going to park where I'd like to park. Mark Schlerler was joining us. Yes. Have you had a lot of speeding tickets? I had one. See? One.

In a school zone. Oh, that's bad. Well, but it was one of those where it's really light and I didn't, I was going to pick up my kids when they were in junior high school. And so it's a really bright day and I didn't see the flash. And I got a ticket for going, I think I was going 26 and a 20. Ooh, yeah. And I actually pulled up to school, and it was a motorcycle police officer pulled behind me. And so I'm just waiting in the school parking lot in the pickup line.

He pulled right behind me and all of a sudden knocked on my window. And I was like, yeah, what are you? What's, what are you doing? Basically, you gave me a ticket. So Joy's over here flying around through America. He's got a bunch of speeding tickets. Well. Let me ask you this.

Yeah. So you played with John Elway in a Super Bowl? Sure. And two, two times I do. two times, but one of them, it was the lowest quarterback rating ever for a Super Bowl. For a winning quarterback in the Super Bowl, yes, it was. He had, by John's definition, a stinker. Do you remember the game?

Sure, absolutely. Super Bowl 32. What happened? Why did John struggle? Well, I mean, one, it was the Green Bay Packers. Or Reggie White? Yeah, Reggie. Well, all that.

But it was one of those situations where we had gone into that game plan saying, listen, the way we're designing this game plan, it's not dependent upon you. Like, it's going to be Dorel Davis is in the Russian games. That's what's going to win this. So you guys came into the game knowing John didn't have to carry you? Absolutely. 100%. You know, it's amazing when you game plan, this is what these coaches have done that were in the Super Bowl. Sean McVeigh, Bill Belichick, when you game plan your game and you tell your players,

I think this what actually makes these two teams alike going into this thing, is they don't only tell their players, like, here are the plays we're going to run. But this is how we're going to run them, how we're going to execute them. This is why we do it this way, and here is how it's going to win us a football game. So when you talk to their players,

they have more depth of knowledge football-wise than the average player. Because there is this open dialogue about coaching, about teaching. There's a lot of coaches that will say, this is how we do this. say why, and they say, because we've always done it that way. Oh, yeah, I've had bosses like that. Sure. And so there's an exchange of knowledge between these two teams.

That's why you saw them here in the Super Bowl. Now, the game didn't go very well for the Rams. We understand that. But that's what separates them. So Super Bowl 32, Mike Shanahan came up with a game plan on how we were going to run the ball against the Green Bay Packers, which nobody had been able to do. And essentially, long story short, we exchanged the outside linebacker became the safety. and the safety, Leroy Butler, who made every play in their running game,

he became the weak side linebacker, and we ate them up. And it was so funny because he was like, this is what's going to happen. Here's how we're going to exchange the blocking assignments. Eddie McAfre, you're going to be in a slot. You're going to go get him. And you guys change and go get you guys inside, your guards and your tackles and your centers. You guys are going to be in charge of Leroy Butler. Very first play of the game, man, we're running 18 handoff.

Here he comes down. I'm like, here he comes, here he comes, here he comes. Wham! Get him. You know, it's a however many yard game. it is, maybe it was a second play of the game. And when that happens to you, as a player, you're like, man, our coach is dialed in and we're going to win this thing, right? Yeah, no, and I, and it's funny because, you know, Brady and Edelman are an interesting

segue off that. Yeah. Because I feel like they're kind of playing at a different level. They're just, they're, they're, somebody told me this once about the NBA. They said there's a lot of guys that play. There's not a lie of guys that lead or think when they're playing. Steph Curry is a great example, that Steph is thinking. the game and playing the game.

Some guys just play. Same in the NFL. Talk about Brady and Edelman in that relationship. Well, I think the thing about them is they see the game the same way. And so when they see leverage and they see defenders, they both read the same thing. They're so in tune with one another. And that's why you constantly see Edelman motioning from outside to inside, right? one, we need to get him stacked

and we need to get him a free release at all times. We can't let people jam him up. So he's going to go, they're going to basically run what we call option routes or choice routes, right? We're going to run everybody else off. And we're going to say, Edelman, you read it with Tom Brady and basically, wherever the leverage is, run away from it.

So if all of a sudden you're running a shallow cross and the guy jumps underneath you, take it to a whip route and take it to the outside. And so they read the same thing. And as soon as they see that defender's position, position, that leverage, bam, they hit it. And you know what?

They're, I mean, almost never wrong. They're almost always 100% on the same page. They threw one in that third drive, or that touchdown drive, not the third drive, but the touchdown drive, where Edelman had a, like, a shallow cross,

and he turned it to a, he turned it to a seam. And it was, boom, right there. Like, the two of them on the same page, based on leverage, based on positioning of the defenders. So it really becomes, hey, let's go play.

You play with your kids in the neighborhood but when you were your buddy, like, hey, man, go down to the tree and, you know, and then take a left at the tree and then stop at the fire hydrant, cut back inside, and I'll hit you. You know, it was one of those things. And they just play school yard football within the parameters of what we're calling on offense. And they're just a bunch of inside option routes based on leverage, and those two are just synced. You know, a lot of people are suggesting the Lombardi trophy should be renamed the Belichick trophy.

Really? I don't even think, I'm not sure Belichick would like that. He's into history. No, he's in it. I mean, first, the other thing is, think about Lombardi, right? We got a seal here, and we got a seal here, and we're going to run up the alley. Yeah. Like, what are you going to do with Belichick?

Like, we're on to Cincinnati. We're on to, you know, I mean, you've got that signature kind of. Yeah. Also, people will riot. Yeah, the Lombardi family's beloved. I mean, yes. And the Patriots and Belichick are not. Look at, look, we came out with one.

What if the trophy looked like this? Oh, yeah. That's a gorgeous look. I think the kissing of the trophy as it gets passed around will probably end there. Yeah. Yeah, I will say this. I don't ever remember. You had a great coach, Mike Shanahan.

Yeah. But I never remember, even with Jimmy Johnson, I don't ever remember a football team winning three games in the playoffs. And I truly believe New England had less talent than each team. Sure. and won significantly the coaching battle. I've never even thought about that. And I'm driving in this morning and I'm thinking, even as good as Jimmy Johnson was and Pete Carroll and Bill Parcells,

I never thought with the New York Giants, they have less talent than the next three teams they'll play. New England's got 12 draft picks. Gronks retiring. It is a roster that lacks a deep threat. Trey Flowers is really their only pass rusher. Not a ton of Pro Bowl, all pro guys. I mean, I got to be honest with you.

It felt like yesterday coaching was a big part of the game. A huge part of it. You know, I've done three Rams games in the last two seasons for Fox. And one of the things that Sean McVeigh always talks about is the illusion of complexity. When you look at the Rams, they'll run a bunch of motions.

They'll run guys, you know, tight ends across the formation, a ghost motion, or a jet sweep. And the bottom line, they do all that to bludgeon you. That's what they want to do. Yeah. Now think about this. 15 and 0 this season. 15 and 0 when they ran it 20 plus times.

0 and 4, I believe, when they didn't. And you're in a 3-3 game in the fourth quarter, and you still only got 17 carries in a combination to you two running backs. And I get that you're only getting three yards of carry. I get that. But your young quarterback is stymied. He's struggling. He's off target.

There's pressure. And that was the other thing. been a great offensive line, and they essentially just lined up and walked up a linebacker on the uncovered offensive linemen and ran pick stunts all day long. And they never adjusted. It explained that because it did feel like, first of all, New England blitzed 50% of the time exactly. They're not a huge blitz team. So obviously they saw something. Right. So when you walk up, so if I'm uncovered and I'm playing guard, your left guard, nobody over you. Nobody over me. And all of a sudden, the line

backer walks up, whatever we have now, we have to call off usually. So if we have some type of slide protection, now you have to call man. If slides the other way, you can still do it. But effectively, what it ends up happening is it ends up making five one-on-ones across the board. By the way, does Jared Goff have to audible out of that? That becomes more complex. It becomes more complex. And then really what they did was they ran pick stunts. So essentially, you walk up and all of a sudden, like if you're over me, all of a sudden, you go try to pick the offensive tackle and then they loop the other guy around. So they're always constantly trying to one with the guy who's the pincher or the picker.

He's trying to create outside leverage and make sure he keeps contained. The other guy is forcing Jared Gough out of the middle as they're running these games. Too much maybe for Gough to deal with? Well, my shock was, yeah, it got him off his game a little bit, but my shock was, that the offensive line that it played exceptionally well got worked just was out of sync all day long three and a half hours all day long and that that goes back to the coaching aspect of it is let's just bludgeon these guys let's I don't care if it's three yards of

carry let's just bludgeon them and let's let's shorten this game down in our favor it's a three three game I know we haven't done it very well but again it goes back to you know one of those situations we've talked about oh he's young we're going to reinvent football. And in the last two games, the Patriots have started the game in against Kansas City. They were in two backs, two tights, one wide receiver. They went back to the 70s. Last, I mean, last night was a lesson in 1990 football. It was. It was two backs, base formation, full back. Let's scramble somebody's brains with him, right? Let's trap somebody inside. Let's wham somebody inside and let's bludgeon these guys and let's run everything out of base formations

and not allow every one of their defensive linemen is a first round pick. Let's not allow these guys to wreck our game. That's what it was. Let's shorten it. Let's condense it. Let's run it. Let's be physical. And let's not give these guys one-on-one opportunities like the Rams are giving to us out of three wide sets.

Let's not do that. Let's protect our quarterback. You can win a lot of games if you control the line of scrimmage. And the one thing about this whole playoff series, you know, we talk quarterbacks and receivers and all this garbage. You control a line of scrimmage in this league. You win. It's never changed. I don't think it'll ever change.

No, I'm guilty of this too. An NBA coach once said, if you get a unified locker room and they play hard, he goes, you're 500 in this league. I don't care who you have. Sure. He goes, there's a lot of travel. Teams don't bring it. And it's the same in football. If you figure out the offensive line and it's a really good group, you don't even a lot of pro bowlers.

but it's a unified offensive front. They're smart. Generally, there's a veteran, maybe one young guy. You can win a lot of Sundays just because you make everything a little more comfortable for your young quarterback. Houston has town everywhere. They have an atrocious O line. I've said this in baseball. You cannot win a World Series leaking runs in the 7-A-9. Never been a bad bullpen to win a World Series.

There has never been a bad O line when a Super Bowl. There have been some bad defenses. There have been some weak running games. never been a bad O-line and this Patriot guard-center guard O-line, like pro-football focus hasn't rated one, two, or three. Well, think about this.

Didn't they go to Denver and lose a playoff game in 2015 and Brady got hit like 24 times, gave a bunch of sacks? And then what did they do? Went and lured Dante Scarnacki out of retirement. Is that when they got Dante after that game? Yeah. I believe it is.

Yeah. No, that was their worst O-line performance in a playoff game. You cannot win a Super Bowl. and by the way, the Rams were great all year up front. They were terrible yesterday at front. And think about this. Every one of those guys is either a free agent or a draft pick except Trent Brown, who they traded for from San Francisco this year. And then their rookie first rounder went down with an Achilles or a knee or whatever he did.

And Trent became a really vital part. But left guard, center, right guard, right tackle, all drafted like the third, fourth, fifth round, those type of guys. and then you had an offensive line coach, bring those guys together. I've always said this about playing offensive line. It's what fascinates me. Five guys, different parts of the country, different backgrounds, social, economic backgrounds. Five guys, all five of us could be doing the wrong thing.

As long as all five of us are doing the wrong thing together, it's going to work, right? It's when two guys are doing one thing, two guys are doing one thing, and one guy is doing another thing. That's when, you know, all hell breaks loose. That's what I love about offensive line, like the cohesiveness and the together. togetherness and the team within the team that is playing that position and the New England Patriots have dominated throughout the playoffs and that's why they're the world champions. Good to see you, buddy. Yeah, likewise. Mark Schlerer, Joy Taylor with the News.

No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, last night's Super Bowl wasn't the most exciting one I can remember, but it did create a huge shift in the narrative for the Patriots dynasty because Tom Brady has long been viewed as the star of that dynasty. obviously is the star on the field. But Super Bowl 53 kind of made you wonder, is this more on Belichick than it is on

Tom Brady? Because the Patriots did beat the Rams because of their coaching. It wasn't a virtuous performance by Phil Belichick. And Belichick did prime the Patriots all year for this. The players said they hung newspapers and internet headlines in the complex, the ones that said that

the dynasty was over. So he pretty much prepped them all year for this this mind game situation that they they weren't good enough, despite being on top of the world for the past. So they're now acknowledging their big thing was they loved being bummed. By the way, this morning, the Kansas City Chiefs are favored to win the Super Bowl next year. I mean, it's funny to me that they're literally putting up bulletin board material. I mean, we say that all the time.

It's kind of a cliche in our business. Like, oh, don't give them bulletin board material. They literally, they printed it and hung it on the walls. That is bizarre to me. It's kind of genius, though, and it speaks to about. Belichick's genius because we say all the time how hard it is to stay on top. I mean, once you are successful, how do you maintain that same level of commitment and drive every single year? You have three rings. You have four rings. You have five rings. It's like,

when is it like, do I really have to get out of bed and train today? Like, I already do have five Super Bowl rings. Look at Goff's throw right there. He doesn't have any time. He's just winging that. That's his bad as Jared can play. It was not the best performance by Jared Gough. No. All right. So last night, Julian Edelman had the game of his career. He had 10 catches for 141 yards and one MVP. It was the whole Patriots offense, basically. So there was a little drumbeat before the game about this, and now it's just a full-on thing that Julian Edelman should be considered for the Hall of Fame.

I'm not going to be rain on the parade guy here, but Julian Edelman is not a Hall of Famer. I don't, no, I don't feel like he's a Hall of Famer. I will say he has been Brady's guy for about five years because Gronk has aged. I think he's one of those guys that's actually, he's so New England. He's better in the playoffs than he is the regular season. No, and that is the argument for it. He is incredible in the playoffs.

How about this? I believe he's second only to Jerry Rice in, yeah, he has, only Jerry Rice has more catches or receiving yards in the postseason. How about if you did this, and I'm sure they have this, if you had an all Super Bowl team, I'd definitely make him my, he's a slot receiver. With Jerry Rice, your slot receivers, he has been great in big games, But I don't think his career, like I always say Hall of Fame a decade of great. Well, you can't make the argument that, oh, he has three Super Bowl rings.

He's been incredible in the playoffs, and he's been incredible in the Super Bowl. And then you put guys in on First Ballet who don't have Super Bowl rings. It's about your career. It's not about moments. Even though that is important, and he is an all-time great player, the Hall of Fame in the NFL is another level of excellence. It's not just being handed out. And the key people in a Hall of Fame that you put in are not the greats. The key people are the borderline people because you let one in and then you let 40 in.

Don't worry about Jerry. You let one in and then it's like, okay, well, maybe the standard wasn't as high. And that's, again, this is not a knock on Julian Edelman. He is an all-time great player and he's incredible in the postseason. You can't argue with that numbers. But then when you pull up his regular season numbers, it's like, what are we talking about here? It just doesn't work. So finally, Jared Goff struggled, as you just mentioned, in the loss of the Patriots 13 to 3, and after the game, he spoke about his disappointment.

The toughest loss I've ever had, I mean, it kills. It's terrible, and there are some good things you can take from it, but right now, there's nothing. I mean, it's a game I wish I would have played better. I wish we would have played better on offensively as a whole. I wish I could have had a million plays back, but there's nothing you can do about it. I want to move forward. You know what? Mahomes is great and luck is great and they didn't get here. He got here. And this is the way it works.

In the NFL, never forget, Peyton Manning took six years to win a playoff game. This is a hard league. I don't, I know everyone is very, and I can be this way too. We want instant satisfaction. It's just the world that we live in. And I get it.

Like, I would have preferred a much more exciting offensive performance from both teams. And that's fun. That's what we all expected. But I just need everyone to calm down on the ending of the Rams and this was all a disaster and proven that Sean McVeigh is and who he says he was. They were in the Super Bowl.

And it was obviously not a great performance by them, clearly, but it's not like the Patriots ran them out of there. So I think everyone just needs to calm down. They're very young. They're going to be back. They're going to retool. This is the way that they works. And they were tied with the Patriots in the fourth quarter.

Exactly. So everyone just chill. Chill. Joy Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. Coming up next, really the play that won the game,

and there's an interesting story behind it, which has been told this morning, the play that won it, and what really happened within the play? It's a remarkable story. I will give you a little update on Anthony Davis, LeBron, and the Lakers. I'm told there's a ton of tension in the Laker

facility. regarding this. That's coming up. Don't go anywhere. Want 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. Great to have you back. So I'm going to give you some pieces of tape here. It was a pretty remarkable story. And I think one of the things New England does, and they just simply do it better than everybody else. And I'm not saying other teams don't do it. Yesterday, the Rams did not do what I'm about to show you very well.

The Patriots got to a point in the fourth quarter where you could watch Tom Brady visibly. Nothing was working. Nothing worked. Nothing. They could run the ball a little and they were getting Edelman open. That was it. That was their game plan. So you're sitting here and it's three to three and it's just nothing's working, right?

Or three nothing. And so here's the play that most of you remember being the play of the game. And listen to Tony Romo. They are going to ride this play. Once they find you have a weakness, it's going to keep coming at you now. Same exact play again. Edelman over the middle. Second and three.

Down the field. They go. Grarkowski has it at the two-yard line. But what set that up? That was the third straight play run out of the exact same set that they had made up on the sideline minutes earlier. They brought in a full back in Rex Burkhead. Didn't put them in the backfield, put them out wide, and they ran back-to-back plays.

Josh McDaniels went to the sideline and said, nothing's working, we're scrapping the entire game plan. I don't know if you can do that with a young quarterback. And they came out with a double tight end, Rex Burke had in a fullback, the same exact formation, three plays in a row. And after the game, Dwayne Allen, a veteran tight end, said, Josh told us on the sideline, we didn't practice this, but it's going off in my head, and it's something I think we need to do. This game is the difference between the Patriot, said Duane Allen, and 31 other teams in this league. We try to figure it out. It's what we do, and we've got no ego.

So just think about what New England does well. They adapt. And, you know, I've been talking about this today. Resourcefulness. Adapting. Things aren't going well. Last year was the opposite. There was only one punt in the Super Bowl.

Everything worked for New England. So Tom Brady was much more comfortable. But he lost. This Super Bowl, both quarterbacks, incredibly comfortable, just uncomfortable, but Brady's the one that went to the sideline with McDaniels. They hadn't practiced it. And he figures kind of sandlot football. You know what?

Let's try it because nothing else in the world is working. So when you talk about what won it for New England, the ability to adapt won it for New England. Here's something else. I want to, what else am I running now? There's another piece of audio I want to run. Oh, oh, one of the things, you know, I kind of laugh. Like Arizona hired a young coach and Cincinnati hired a young offensive coach

and everybody around the league now is hiring the hip new young coaches, Cincinnati and Green Bay, Matt LaFleure. And, you know, one of the things, Warren Buffett always talks about. this, the great investor. He goes, people have an inner scoreboard and an outer scoreboard. Insecure people worry about their outer scoreboard. You know, that's Dennis Rodman. I'm a tough guy. Then you sit him down for an interview and he's always bawling. Is that he's a very empathetic guy in person, but he wants to flex. He wants to show you. And I see this all the time with athletes. And I see this with teams. And I see it with GMs and owners. They fall for what's

cool, what's hip, what's lit, what's new. And New England's the opposite. And I thought there was a moment yesterday before we run it. There was a moment that New England did this just, just to tweak the media. The media is progressive. The media hates the White House. The media is all about giving the athlete. And yet, they had an audible in the game for the most iconic conservative arguably in American history, Ronald Reagan. From the 8. Is that Ronald Reagan? He called it Reagan.

There's the carry. I'm Michelle right into the arms of Johnson. And obviously, Reagan means run to the right. I don't know if it does. Tony Romo's good at that stuff. But I thought it was them proving a point. Is that 66-year-old Bill Belichick and 7. year old Dante Scarnackian and the same running back coach.

All the big personalities in this league are not around. And they're not cool and they're not hip. And I told my wife this once. I said, if you really look who's kicked butt, even in comedy, it's serious people. Steve Harvey's a serious writer. Jerry Seinfeld, serious. Chris Rock, serious. They're Ricky Gervais.

They're serious people that happen to do comedy. But they're adults and they're serious and they work on their craft. And it's this, you know, even in a business making jokes, serious grownups and adults win. And I think that's just kind of the way New England operates. Everybody now go on young offensive coach. And the two coaches that really won the day yesterday were 71-year-old Wade Phillips and 66-year-old Bill Belichick. A Matt LaFleur is not in that class.

Sean McVeigh got worked. What's Cliff Kingsbury going to do against the Belichick? I mean, Cliff Kingsbury's got to face Wade Phillips twice. You know, we fall in love with new and cool, and I get it, and handsome. And old guys yesterday, that Super Bowl yesterday was about old football, punch in the mouth, jab you in the forehead, old guys. Wade Phillips was unbelievable. Bill Belichick was unbelievable. And the young guys got worked.

The young quarterback, the young coach, the young coordinators got worked. Well, it's experience and continuity. I mean, Belichick said Wade hasn't changed his system ever since he started, and it was his dad's system before that. It came down to a coaching change that could be implemented by a quarterback that has an insane amount of experience and players around him who have been there with him for a while who aren't going to panic at changing the game plan in the middle of the game. It's adjustments.

It is. Yeah, you know, I do understand, you know, somebody said this to me this morning is, what do I think drives Tom Brady? and I you know oh it was Joe Montana he blew him away oh is Peyton Manning oh he's blown him away now he's got six championships Jordan has six I don't think that's it I think when you look at people like Tom Brady and and I include the Kobe Bryant's and the LeBrons and the the Tom Brady's and the Michael Jordans and the magics I mean they're really all-time great players it's generally a negative childhood experience

somebody told him no, the pretty girl, the coach, Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame speech, he was taking shots at his high school coach. To be great, you can't be driven by money because you can't spend it, and he can't be driven by fame. I think we've always undervalued the impact of childhood experiences and young adult experiences. Tom Brady dropped in the draft, and I remember Tom had already wanted to be. three Super Bowls and they did a big story at the other place on Tom and he was telling a story about the draft in which he dropped Joy and he started crying and I'm thinking Tom you're married to a

supermodel you're worth 300 million dollars it still had so much impact on him Aaron Rogers had to go to a community college the great thing about Aaron Rogers it's still deep within his soul you think money motivates people or chasing Michael Jordan LeBron James would like to surpass Michael Jordan, but in the end, there is something much deeper, much greater, more soulful that is driving anybody in any business. And anybody listening to me or watching me right now, doesn't matter if it's Nick Sabin, doesn't matter if it's a college kid, you don't get great chasing anything other than what matters deep in your soul.

That's what gets you up every morning. Well, negative experiences, I think in general, it's human nature, are what change you. You know, if everything's comfortable all the time and everything's good, why would you change anything about yourself? It's when something negative happens to you or something that you perceive as negative and then use that to drive yourself to be different. Him dropping in the draft is what caused him to work harder. Maybe if he had gone higher in the draft, he wouldn't have been as dedicated. Yeah, and people, there's no finish line for that. Right.

There's a finish line for money. I made $100 million. There's a finish line for fame. I got on the cover of a magazine. There's no finish line for being told no by the pretty girl in high school. Like for the rest of your life, that is part of you. And I think it's part of Brady, and I think it's what drives LeBron and Brady and Montana. It's not money.

It's not fame. It's not chasing the next superstar. It's not Peyton Manning. Tom's been better since Peyton left. Hour 3 next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Ah, here we go, hour 3. this is the herd.

Live in L.A. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me. The show is flying by today. I mean, this is a Super Bowl show. So we talk about today. We try to give you a million different angles on it.

There were plenty of angles yesterday. It wasn't as artistic as people wanted, but don't get spoiled here, folks. A lot of Super Bowls, a lot of bad ones. You can also listen to us on Channel 83, Sirius X-M. 15 minutes from now, the one coach that I think knows more about New England

than any coach in America that's not part of the staff is Eric Mangini. He knows how they think, he knows how they operate, and he is just going to be joining us in 15 minutes. In best for last, I found five stats that are unbelievable

from this Super Bowl, and it's remarkable. They're kind of like you can't believe them when you see them. So even it wasn't a fireworks show, a lot of all-time stuff came out of this Super Bowl. But Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, it's almost, it's hard to believe in this sport where parody reigns won their sixth Super Bowl. So of course, I'm starting there. I'm going to talk about a word today that's always impressed me about a lot of Americans, a lot of people in the world, resourcefulness. The Los Angeles Rams had an incredible defensive

game plan. Tom Brady, you will not be able to throw the ball deep. Chris Hogan, he'll never be open. Tom Brady loves to throw to running backs. James White won catch. They took that away. The Rams also led the NFL this year in defending the bubble screen. That's not available. Tom Brady won a Super Bowl throwing to one guy, a 5-9 slot receiver who was a quarterback in college who looks like Santa Claus. He won a Super Bowl with that. What separates bare grills from me isn't the fact that he can climb a mountain. It's that he can do it with a spoon and a gum wrapper.

I would need nine goats, four tents, 13 explorers, and two SUVs. He can do it with a ball of yarn. Resourcefulness. I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed with rich people's kids who, go to Ivy League schools and prep schools and then have a nice job and make six figures. I'm impressed with a kid who lived through divorces, maybe drugs in the family, some abuse, and 25 years later, they run their own company. Overcoming. Life does not give you a linear path. It's not sunny every day with no traffic,

and the kids slept through the night, and you slept perfectly, and the eggs were just right. that's not life. That's a television show. That's a script. Life is having to overcome crap. Bad bosses. Average help. Late to work.

A wreck. You got to use an app to get there. That's what life's all about. Tom Brady yesterday. I've said this about LeBron James. The most impressed I've ever been with LeBron James in my life wasn't winning with the great Kyrie Irving. Wasn't winning with Chris Bosch and the great D. Wade.

When LeBron James lost Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving and took the Golden State Warriors six games in the finals, and the best, most reliable teammate he had was Matthew Delavadova. And he took the Warriors six games with Matthew Delavadova. Are you kidding me? There's never been a basketball player, including Michael Jordan, Kareem, Magic Kobe, Larry, MJ that could take Matthew Delavadova and get six games into the finals. Overcoming stuff blows me away. That's why Hollywood makes movies about rags to riches, about people that don't get perfectly what they want. Yesterday, the game-winning drive, I read a story this morning

that essentially with nine minutes to go in the game, Josh McDaniels went to the sideline, the Patriot Offensive Coordinator, and said, I'm scrapping the game plan. Nothing's working. We're going to do something, and we haven't practiced this in months. we're going to huddle every play. We're going to use two tight ends and a fullback and have an empty backfield.

And they huddled every play because they hadn't practiced it. And they averaged on that drive 12 yards of play. The rest of the game they averaged four. By the way, I'm not saying last year's Super Bowl wasn't impressive for Tom, who threw for 500 yards, and everything worked. And Danny Amandola was open and Edelman was open and Chris Hogan was open. and I'm not saying that wasn't impressive. But what was impressive yesterday is the Rams took virtually everything away except Julian Edelman.

And I love Patrick Mahomes and I love Russell Wilson and I love Andrew Luck and I love Aaron Rogers. They're all amazing. Those guys aren't winning a Super Bowl with Julian Edelman. Are you kidding me? They didn't have a deep threat. They couldn't sort of running backs. Their running game was spotty. Chris Hogan was blanketed.

Brady faced interior pressure. that the Rams had an unbelievable game plan. And Brady with a 71 quarterback passer rating won. By the way, let me tell you the quarterbacks who have been able to win Super Bowls when they didn't play great. Terry Bradshaw, 96 passing yards won a Super Bowl. John Elway, 51.9 passer rating won a Super Bowl. Peyton Manning won a Super Bowl with a passer rating of 56.

Big Ben won a Super Bowl with a passer rating of 22. and Tom Brady yesterday won with a 71. What are they all of in common? They're Hall of Fame-level players. Most quarterbacks in this league, Kirk Cousins, guys I like, Alex Smith, they need a lot of stuff to work for them to win big games. Nothing work for New England except Edelman. We're spoiled. We've had so many good Super Bowls in a row that if it's not a firework show, if it doesn't go to over,

overtime. If it's not 35-34, oh, who cares? Yesterday was all about great defensive game plans, great defensive pass rush, great secondary play. Defenses were unbelievable yesterday. Wade Phillips, tip of the cap, Belichick, Brian Flores, tip of the cap. But one player on offense was able to overcome that, scrap the game plan, be resourceful, use. using just Julian Edelman and win the Super Bowl, Tom Brady. I want to shift to this. Great to have you in a Monday, really is. Great to have you in.

I want to talk a bit about Julian Edelman because there's five or six Patriots that create the core of their team, Gronk and Brady and Edelman, Devin McCordy, Dante High Tower, Shaq Mason. And not all of them are high paid, most are paid below kind of market value. They are the core of the team. and I'm all for free agents and I'm all for trades. But realize when you get somebody via a trade or free agency, they often come to your team wanting something. Kevin Durant came to the Warriors wanting to elevate his legacy.

The Warriors core is Steph Klay and Draymond. You don't hear a lot of talk about them wanting to leave. Kevin Durant walks into a perfect situation, and every time I open a sports page, every time I read a blog, he's not totally satisfied because Kevin Durant came there with an agenda, came there wanting things. Steph Curry invited him and gave him things, gave him the ball. Let him take the big shots. the core of the Patriots is defined by Edelman. Precise. Tough as a cheap steak.

Plays hurt. Imperfect. Seventh rounder. Never seeks attention. Never demands the ball. I'm not saying stars don't have a place. And I'm not saying free agents don't have a place. NFL free agency?

I mean, they're trying to get more like NBA free agency, which is awesome. But when LeBron went to Miami, Dwayne Wade's family, LeBron James was just really talented and rented. Chris Bosch was really talented. Eudanus Haslam's family. Steph is family.

Edelman's family. Hightower's family. Gronk is family. Brady's family. Josh McDaniels now. He left for a while. He came back. He missed his family.

Is that when I watch that game, yesterday, what really, really sticks with me is that, and it's not, Edelman's story is not just about, that he's, you know, a seventh rounder. And, but, but I go back to something I've always believed in sports, that sports are similar to like a house. You have a foundation, and then you build the house, but when you drive down the street and you see a house being built, it all starts with the foundation. They don't build the roof first. They don't build the kitchen first. They build the foundation. And then people come in from the county or the state. And if the foundation's not right, you can't build the house. Your foundation is who you draft. There's

an old saying in sports, nobody loves you more than the team that drafts you. The Orlando Magic loved Dwight Howard. Everybody else just saw him as a means to an end. Edelman, Steph Curry, they define their current dynasties. Drafted by them, mentored by them, coached by them, loved by them, willing to give. Because when you're in the family, you'll step in front of that car for another family member. Edelman, Steph Curry, that's what you build around. Good stuff. The guy that knows the Patriots better than any coach not working for that organization.

And Jeannie will join us next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise.

Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets. gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slices 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, Tript 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.

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Search learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes,

A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. A rep. My mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's he at?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clipper Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game.

His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup,

he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying.

man, he running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Oh, yeah. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. Good, Davien. Don't forget. New or used car, go to truecar.com. Truecar.com. Check out the true price. You can save three grand off MSRP. You know, I was talking earlier. I think a lot of times we think,

that, you know, Kobe Bryant was good because he was chasing Michael Jordan or LeBron's good because he's chasing Michael Jordan or Michael Jordan's good because he's chasing Magic Johnson. I think a lot of that stuff is just hooey. I think it all comes down to powerful childhood experiences. And when you're young, pre 25 years old, there's not a lot of data. You're young. Not a lot has happened to you. By this point in my life, I've been hired.

I've moved. I've had kids. I've been divorced. There's a lot of stuff packed into my life. But when you're 12, 13, 14, 15 years old and the prettiest girl in school says, I'm not interested. And you ask her out to the prom and she says, no, you don't have a lot of data. That puppy sticks. And when your high school coach doesn't pick you to make the varsity, that never goes away. It sticks because you don't have a lot to clutter up your mind. And I'll give you two examples.

I don't think Brady's chasing anything. and I don't think Jordan ever chased anything. They had unique childhood experiences where they worked really hard and somebody told them, no, you're not good enough. And I think it lasts forever. Here's Tom Brady.

After winning three Super Bowls, married to a supermodel, 500 million net worth, beautiful kids after winning, talks about draft day and look how deep and powerful it is. It was hard. I remember taking a walk with my dad and mom around the block. It was just a tough day, you know. I just remember being there with my mom and dad. You know, they just were so supportive

of me. And they take it as emotional as I do. Finally, when the Patriots called, I was so excited, you know, I was like, I don't have to be an insurance salesman. But again, he's not chasing money. He's not chasing Peyton Manning. He's not chasing Joe Montana. He's proving people wrong. that gets you up every morning. Michael Jordan similarly. It wasn't about the pistons. It wasn't about magic. It wasn't about the money for Michael. He tells a story during his Hall of Fame speech. And then there's Lerawes Smith. Now, you got to think that's a myth. Lerawes Smith was a guy. When I got cut, he made the team on the varsity team. And he's here tonight. He's still the same six-seven guy. He's not any bigger. He's probably his game is.

about the same. But he started the whole process for me because when he made the team and I didn't, I wanted to prove not just to Ler Smith, not just to myself, but to the coach who actually picked Leroyer over me. I wanted to make sure you understood, you made a mistake, dude. That stuff is deep and you're not overly cluttered in high school and you don't have a lot of life experiences. So when you have a negative one at 16 or a negative one at 20, man, it's up to It's your whole world. It's your whole world and that stuff stays with you forever. I mean, it sounds a bit comical when you listen to it. It's like, dude, get over it. But the reality is none of us do. We all have something that happened to us, that moment where

everything just shifted. And that's where you make a decision if you're going to let that drive you or consume you or a mixture of both of it towards something positive or negative. You know what it is? It's the fear of that feeling that they had when they didn't make the team or that feeling that he had when he wasn't getting drafted coming back again. So it drives you every day to not experience that again. About 10 years ago, there was a 60-minute story with Larry Ellison who runs Oracle. Oracle's a massive Silicon Valley company. He's a billionaire. And he was talking about his childhood and nobody believed in him and his stepdad, you know, didn't believe in him. And he stopped and he said to the reporter, he goes, I had all the things

necessary to be a billionaire. Nobody believed in me. And you can go up in Wall Street and Silicon Valley and our presidents and no you can't do this you'll never be able to do this Michael Jordan and Brady the two greatest team sport athletes of all time it's a high school experience it's a college drafting experience that drives them not chasing money fame or all-time greats joy Taylor with a news no no turn on the news this is the herd line news so one of the main storylines, despite kind of getting ruined by finding out they were texting buddies, was the matchup between two head coaches yesterday, and Belichick obviously got the best of the young head coach, and here is Sean McVeigh on the loss.

Definitely I got out coached, and I didn't do nearly good enough for a football team. This one's going to stick with you and just things in your gut. Like I said, I'm still kind of numb right now, but I have so much love for these players and these coaches, and that's where, you know, it really, you know, it eats at you because you feel like you didn't do your part to help them. you know, achieve success. You know, I will say this, and this is not a shot at Sean McVeigh. He has developed a culture and an offense.

It's very successful. But there have been a couple of times now. Philadelphia has done this to him twice, New England now, where when you take away his standard offense and make him adapt to something else in game, he's not yet great at that as a coach. Now, culture creation, offense, he does a lot great. you know, New England got him off his game, and they weren't doing heavily complicated stuff. They just brought a linebacker up to Blitz on half the plays, and it threw their offense for a complete loop.

Well, also, you know, Todd Gurley, what's going on? I'd love to know. What happens? I'd love to know. It was the biggest, we talked about it all week. It was the biggest X factor for the Rams going into this game for both of us. What was the running game going to be? I still know.

What was going to go on with Todd Gurley? Todd Gurley, 10 carries for 35 yards. So, again, you're looking at all this stuff today, Joy. Is there still an answer? I mean, I think eventually it feels a bit oddly, although it's a completely different circumstance, it feels a bit Malcolm Butler-ish. Like, what's the answer here? Like, what actually happened?

What's going on? You know, John brought up something in our morning meeting. Gurley's not cutting. Now, he still has straight speed. But if you watch him early in the year, his highlights, and you watch him now, there's not a lot of cutting involved. They keep saying he's healthy. I know, but it doesn't look.

He does not look as dynamic. He doesn't cut. There's something not right with him physically. It's very strange. That was the, I mean, that was the biggest factor going into the game, and it mattered. So it's kind of tough to believe that Gonks only played nine NFL seasons. It feels like a lot longer than that. It's not close to the 17th season of Sonny Gonzalez's play,

which will obviously factor into the greatest tight end ever debates. But, you know, he still had an incredible career. And it's looking like he might not play his 10th season. He was, of course, asked about it after the game, if retirement was a possibility, and here was his answer. Tonight, it's about celebrating with my teammates. And that decision will be made in a week or two, you know, down the future. Because tonight, that's what's about, is celebrating with my teammates,

and that's what I'm worried about tonight. We're going to have a good time. Bill told me he's partying tonight, so you know it's going to be good. I do want to see what Bill Belichick looks like when he's partying. This was a perfect answer from Gronk I mean he doesn't have to give us an answer right now He's had an incredible career He's a ton of injuries

He gets hit hard because he's a huge guy And he's been a crucial factor for them In this postseason Despite all of us questioning whether he's going to continue playing or not He was huge blocking for them He made big plays in their games So I think that Gronk is a first battle Hall of Famer in one of the greatest tennis of all time

And a really transformative player Like, if you could find another gronk, I mean, you don't ever pass on him. He was... Well, there was no such... I mean, he just didn't even... He was just different. He was just unstoppable. Yeah, I mean, and it was healthy in the early news career.

He was just unstoppable. No one could tackle him. Really, it felt like you'd never even seen anything like him. Yeah, he was so athletic and so fast and so giant. When I first saw Walter Payton play running back, I can remember watching Walter Payton, and he didn't run like other running back. Like, you couldn't get a shot at him. And he had terrible offensive lines and he'd rush for 140 yards and you're like,

He's just making everybody miss. And he looks like he was stronger than linebackers. Like, great. I've never seen a player like Randy Moss. Like a lot of times you have never seen anybody like them because you've never seen anybody like them. Yes. And he's going to have a great career post-NFL, whatever he decides to do anyway. So finally, last night Julian Edelman scored to the Rams, 10 catches, 141 yards.

He won Super Bowl MVP, much deserved. Which led CBS analysts and former NFL receiver Nate Burlesons to say there's, There's no question that Edelman will be in the Hall of Fame. But should he? Let's take a little comparison, shall we? Now, his postseason numbers are incredible. They are. But these are his regular season stats.

So if he's a Hall of Famer, then the guy on the right would most certainly be a Hall of Fame. Who is that? That guy is Isaac Bruce. And he's not. He is not in the Hall of Fame. Yeah, and Isaac Bruce was unbelievable. He didn't make it in a second, third, fourth, or fifth. Yeah.

And that doesn't include the 44 receptions, 759 yards, and four touchdowns that Isaac Bruce had in the playoffs. Also help the Rams to their Super Bowl victory. By the way, Edelman, if I did an all-time Super Bowl team, I'd have Jerry Rice is my receiver. I'd have three receivers, and maybe one of them would be Edelman. Lynn Swan, you know, could be in that group. There's no question that Edelman is an incredible postseason receiver. And then he is a factor in all of those Super Bowl victories. and he is clearly Tom Brady's favorite target.

All of those things are true. He is an all-time great player, and he will always be mentioned in those wins, for sure. But that doesn't make him a Hall of Famer. You have to look at the entire body of work. Not enough, not to be the, you know, downer daisy today, but it's just the facts. Robert Ory was great in the playoffs,

but his regular season numbers don't feel. He has seven rings. Yeah, so, like, you can certainly make an argument he's a Hall of Famer based on the rings, because the basketball Hall of Fame works. different than the football Hall of Fame. Basketball Hall of Fame has officials and everything. And I don't even think that you should count.

Edelman does have three rings. I don't even think that that should necessarily factor into it because it has had such incredible numbers. But you have to look at the entire career. Good stuff. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly. Cold and flu season, Synex. Vick-Sinax nasal spray

works up to 12 hours, use only as directed. Well, I don't think there's anybody that knows more about the Patriots and how they're run. That's not currently on their staff than my friend Eric Mangini. He was their defensive coordinator back 2005, Jets Brown's head coach, joining us via the Cower Global Satellite Network. First of all, just from your worldview, the actual game, what would wrap a bow around

what really impressed you? What really impressed me? Look, when I heard Andrew Whitworth talk about the game afterwards, where he said that the Patriots played more zone than the man that they had been playing all season, to me, that told me a lot about the Rams approach and where they went wrong. It's not about how the Patriots played anybody else. It's not about their tendencies over a 16 or 18 game breakdown. It's about how they're going to play you. And to me, you've got to look at your weaknesses, You've got to look at your strengths to be able to anticipate what you're going to get.

And that summarized where the Rams went wrong. That one quote to be summarized where the Rams made a mistake. Yeah, I mean, I really felt, I'll just throw this out there. I felt New England believed if they mixed up coverages and created a little pressure, they saw golf as a weakness due to his lack of experience. When I watched the whole game, I thought it was built around. we're going to confuse Jared Goff, we're going to blitz more than usual. That's what my interpretation was.

They take away your strengths in New England, and they also feast on your weaknesses, and they probably felt, in my opinion, that Goff was kind of a weakness going in. Does that sound right? To me, that's absolutely right. They had a loaded box. They played borderline, goal line defense. He said Todd Gurley and C.J. Henderson are not going to beat us, and Goff is going to have to.

And then when he did get step back to throw, they were going to mix in enough pressure so that he was uncomfortable. And even if it was just a function of someone putting their hand on his shoulder so that he knew that they were close, that's what they were going to do. And they were going to force him to make post-snap reads.

Now, the other thing that I was surprised by is offensively you control the tempo, you control personnel, you control shifts, motions, formations. I thought they'd do more to try to take back control of the game to New England. Instead of letting New England dictate what they wanted to do, you've got that control offensively. Use it. Attack their weaknesses. Go some no huddle. See whether or not the change of tempo can affect things. And I just, I didn't see that at any point. No, I think Gurley, excuse me, I think McVeigh has created an interesting culture and the players

buy into it, but there have been instances now. I've seen it against New England and Philadelphia, two staffs, I think, are very good. When they've thrown wrinkles at McVeigh's offense, they have not been great at in-game adapting. Now, I want to go to Julian Edelman. Why was he so, it's not just, Eric, that he was good. He was so darn open. Why?

Why? I mean, they did a really good job. They put some pressure on Tom. They took away the deep ball. They took away the running back, the past of running backs, very effectively. whatever they did with Edelman didn't work. Why was he so open? Because New England does a great job of gathering information pre-snap. And then collectively, they understand what coverage you're in.

And then based off the coverage that you're in, there's certain weaknesses that are inherent in those coverages. And there's certain leverages that go with each coverage. So Edelman can run read routes or even if he has a designated outside breaking route, he's going to threaten hard to the inside and attack leverage, threaten leverage, and be able to break away. And he's got such good short area quickness, and he does such a great job of stemming the route and selling something different right up until the break point. And then when he does break, there's an incredible amount of separation. We saw four, five, six, seven yards between him and the defensive back because of the pre-snap read and then the way that he attacks leverage. and then his ability to come out of the brakes at the top of the roads.

Some have suggested we could rename the Lombardi Trophy, the Belichick. I'll just say this. Is it harder? Could you make an argument what Bill's doing is harder today than what Lombardy did? I absolutely think you can make an argument for that. There's free agency. Everything is designed for parity. The draft, you've moved to the back of the draft.

you're constantly in a state of flux. Your schedule is harder when you win. It's all built to make sure that there's a strong middle class and that everybody at the end of the year has a chance to make the playoffs. It's not like he's been able to hang on to his great players. The Bill's done a tremendous job of being ruthlessly efficient, the way he moved on from whether it was Seymour or Vrable or lawyer Malloy or take your pick of any of those guys and making those tough decisions

that you have to make. Yeah, plus the salary cap, that, you know, I mean, let's be honest, you just can't keep players. I mean, yeah, but, yes, it's, every year you've got to start over. You know, the Todd Gurley situation, Joey and I have talked about this.

It's like the Bermuda Triangle of sports topics. I can't figure it out. You know, it's like, where is he hurt? He doesn't look like he cuts as much as he did earlier in the year. But he plays, he's got some ability to pop. What do you make of the? the girly situation. Did they overuse him, Eric, in October and September? Because, you know,

the Rams are very top-heavy. They don't have a ton of depth. They didn't until C.J. Anderson have a second back they trusted. Is it possible they overused him early and he's just banged up? Well, there's a couple different concerns here. Obviously, he was very effective against Dallas. He averred 7.2 yards of carry in that game. So let's say he is hurt. Well, that's a problem because there's a lot of people that place bets on this game, and if he was hurt and they told him he was healthy, you know, that's one problem. Let's say he's not hurt. If he's not hurt, then he's a guy that comes up small in big games. So he's okay in the regular season, but in the big moments, you can't count on him. And I think that's a really dangerous narrative. So you're going to

have to get the truth out there because neither one of these looks very good for the Rams, or for Todd Gurley. Now, all that being said, his effectiveness at 15 and 20 carries is impressive. Why not give yourself a chance to see whether or not that tendency holds? Why not make sure that he gets at least 15 carries or gets at least 20 carries? And see whether or not what has happened the majority of the time continues to happen or whether or not it gets broken. But to go into the offseason, not knowing and giving the guy 10 carries,

I can't imagine anybody's happy about that. You know, I said this was the most impressive New England Super Bowl to me, and here's why. You had an off-field controversy. You had the Josh Gordon situation. Edelman was suspended. You didn't really have a deep threat. The AFC with the Chiefs and the Chargers is, you know, you have a lot of young quarterbacks who were very good. I kind of felt like with 12 draft picks coming up, your number one pick, the lineman from Georgia got hurt.

I kind of felt like this was the year to get New England, and they were incredibly resourceful this year. When you look at, I think next year they're going to be younger. I think Gronk retires. They have 12 draft picks. I think they're going to be a little more dynamic offensively. You know, Gronk will give them a little cap relief. That's how I feel going into next year that this was a down year,

and it was the most impressive Super Bowl to me. What was your takeaway on the season in full? Yeah, well, I disagree with being the most impressive Super Bowl. I think the first one where we were 14-point underdogs against the greatest show on turf was a little bit more impressive. I may be biased. But yeah, the amount of things that they had to deal with, but that's every year for New England. And I don't know if you heard Bill's pre-game interview, but he talked about the fact that each year is its own entity. And each year you go into the season with who you would like to be.

But then the reality sets in of who you need to be. And New England does the best job of understanding who they need to be, who they are, and then really pouring resources into strengthening that. And pouring resources into minimizing whatever weaknesses that shapes up into. And it's hard, it's hard. It takes a brutal honesty on the part of the coaching staff,

and then a humbleness to say, Yeah, we were wrong. We were on the wrong track and we need to pivot. And you see it every year. Typically, they don't start as well, but they finish strong and they keep getting better and better because of that self-awareness that so many other teams either don't have or are too arrogant to accept. Good seeing you, my man. Eric Mangini, you have a nice offseason. We'll bring you around here.

Why don't you stop by in L.A.? We'll take out for a nice steak. can you do some draft stuff for us? I'd love to see you soon. All right. I'd love to be out there. All right. Eric Mangini, good dude. So there you go. Coming up next, five stats to wrap up our show from the Super Bowl that are crazy. But just because it's not a wild, crazy, offensive showcase, some stuff happened that is fairly remarkable yesterday. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day seven days a week within the IHeart radio app.

Search Her to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. It's a world title showdown. World featherweight champion Leo, the earthquake Santa Cruz, puts his belt on the line against Rafael Big Bang Rivera, live February 16th on Fox and the Fox Sports app. Valentine's Day ditch the chocolate and roses. How about the gift of comfort? Tommy John, most comfortable men's and women's underwear on the planet.

Tommyjohn.com. Code her, 20% off your first order. All right. all sorts of good stuff here that made it a remarkable Super Bowl. Maybe not visually, artistically as explosive and dynamic, but let's go to best for last. After almost three hours, Colin apparently hasn't gotten to the point yet. Quit holding out on us, cowherd. It's the best for last.

One of the things that's interesting before I get to five stats that jump out at you, the Patriots have done it differently than everybody in the NFL. I love the NFL draft. But look at the notable players in the Super Bowl yesterday and for the Patriots and where they were drafted. Look at this board. James White, Stefan Groszankowski, Trey Flowers and Jack Mason were fourth rounders, Marcus Cannon and Matt Slater, fifth rounders, Brady 6, Edelman 7th, and Chris Hogan and David Andrews, Andrews, a great center, undrafted.

That is not the way the NFL generally works. They also picked up Jason McCordy, Rex Burkhead, six-rounders. from a previous team, and then Trent Brown-Lorence guy, seventh rounders from the Niners and Packers, respectively. Now, I'm not saying other teams don't have untrafted guys, but it's a pretty good sign that intelligence, coachability, flexibility, the ability to adapt is a real culture within New England. It's not about stars.

Also, maybe instead of poaching coaches from New England, you should try and get a hold of their scouting department. You know, it's funny. in the NBA, after about the 14th pick, historically, you run out of players. There's a lot of football players in this country. Half the league is undrafted. The center for the Patriots is undrafted. Brady is a six-rounder.

Edelman's a seventh-rounder. This country creates only 119 Division I programs. There's 370 Division I basketball programs, but this country's maybe it's because, you know, I don't have an answer for everything, but the reality. is when you create a great system, you're not as beholden to individual talent. And that's just a remarkable stat at the really good players for the Patriots, how often they are overlooked and passed over by everybody else. Well, also, coaching matters so much in football. Not that it doesn't matter in basketball, but one incredibly talented player can change the course of your

franchise's history. You see that with LeBron. So in football, you have to find guys who are willing to buy into whatever the system is because there's so many moving parts. So maybe there is something to guys who don't have the, well, not the flexibility, but just the coachability matters. Coachability is more important, I think. Yeah. So let's go to the five notable stats from yesterday's game. The 12 best offenses in the history of the regular season have never won a Super Bowl. The Rams had the 12th best offense ever.

This is why a lot of us said during the season, we like Kansas City, but they've got to eventually make stops. couldn't against New England. So offenses that light up the regular season that the media, myself included, can fall in love with the 12 best ever now officially after yesterday have never won a Super Bowl. How about this? Since 2011, Tom Brady's now 7-0 against quarterbacks who are 25 and under. And some of these guys are really good. Gough, Patrick Mahomes, Blake Bortles, Marcus Marietta, Andrew Luck twice, Tim Debo. Yesterday, I think a prime example that both quarterbacks in the game yesterday faced real pressure. The defenses and the schemes defensively were dominating the offense,

but Tom's ability to adapt in the fourth quarter late, and Goff's inability to do that was the difference. You know, I thought yesterday both quarterbacks, Tom Brady had a look late in the third quarter, he came off the field, and he gave that look, the camera caught it like, fellas, there's nothing here. It's Julian Edelman and nothing else. He failed on a fourth and one to gronk, and there was real frustration, but I think it's that ability to adapt.

And I'm not blaming them a Holmes and the Tebow's and the Lucks and the Goss. I just think it's harder. Your library upstairs is not as great. Your life experiences aren't as great in these big games. How about number three? Tom Brady extended his record for game-winning drives in the Super Bowl in the playoffs. He now has six game-winning drives. Think about how great Terry Bradshaw, his Hall of Famer's got two.

By the way, since 1970, Tom Brady has 13 game-winning drives. John Elway was known as the great fourth quarterback. Tom, he had engineered so many great drives. Brady now has more than double John Elway's game-winning drives in the playoffs. How about this? Julian Edelman, a quarterback at Kent State, drafted in the seventh round, is now the second most receiving yards in NFL playoff history. And by the way, it's not one of those fluky stats.

Number one's Jerry Rice. Number three is Michael Irvin. And, you know, he's done it seven yards at a time. You know, Jerry had a lot of explosion plays. Michael Irvin was very much an over-the-top guy. Edelman has been doing it seven yards at a time. And let me even add this, Joy. He's done it against some great defenses.

He had to do it against Seattle's defense. He had to do it against Philadelphia's defense. Yesterday the Rams defense was great. So he has done it against some really, really good defensive secondaries. Edelman now is number two. Now, he's never going to catch Jerry Rice. Okay, Jerry Rice, like a different galaxy, like, you know, 7, 800 yards more. How about this?

This one is fairly predictable. The Patriots Rams combined for the fewest points in the Super Bowl. Patriots 13 is the fewest ever by a Super Bowl winning team. Currently, before that it was the Miami Dolphins 14. Rams three points tied for the fewest in a Super Bowl. The Dolphins back in 71 only scored three. Sean McVeigh, that's the fewest points. Any Sean McVe coach team has had three.

And it wasn't just that they had three. You know, sometimes boxing and football are very similar that it's just too bad you can't bet in a football game after each team has had a series because you can generally tell very early in boxing matches

by like mid-second round, early third, what a guy's comfortable with and what a guy's not comfortable with because styles make fights. Yesterday, it seemed pretty obvious to me early in the game. A, Todd Gurley's a non-factor. That's going to hurt the rest.

Rams. And the second thing was the Rams offensive line was absolutely to a person. Left tackle to right tackle being manhandled. They were losing not only as a unit, they were losing personal battles for three and a half hours. And it became clear

it was the first series. It was the second series. It was the third series. And that's the stuff that's hard to clean up at halftime. Like if you're just losing one-on-one battles, that game didn't feel good at all from the get-go. for the Rams offensive front. Tomorrow, Peter King stops by. Also, Eric Dickerson, Mr. Rams, probably not going to be in a great mood on our Tuesday show. Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple leaves

tonight meeting our Discover card key matchup. Get your free credit scorecard cadetay, even if you're not a Discover customer. Include your FICA credit score. Learn more at Discover.com slash credit score. Limitations apply. We'll see you tomorrow. 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 SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports

and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee.

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

Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow.

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