The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Tom's Tough Question, Dez Unifies Cowboys, Darnold's a Jet

Episode Date: July 30, 2018

In this July 30th, 2018 edition of The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Colin dissects New England quarterback Tom Brady's interaction with Boston sports media members over the weekend--specifically a question regarding suspended Patriots' wide receiver Julian Edelman and athletic trainer Alex Guerrero. No question is off the table according to Colin's reasoning. Also, it turned out to be a unifying weekend for the Dallas Cowboys after former Cowboy wide receiver and current free agent Dez Bryant went on a Twitter blast of his old team. Finally, quarterback Sam Darnold is a New York Jet. Colin is high on Darnold, but how does he feel about the rest of the 2018 NFL rookie quarterback class? Guests include: FS1 NFL analyst Eric Mangini, The Monday Morning Quarterback Insider Albert Breer, and former teammate (and current friend) of Los Angeles Laker forward LeBron James, Dahntay Jones. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. 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, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

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Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Conky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of, Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines

ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's the herd. What's the most important aspect of a quarterback's game? Size, arm strength, speed. Well, ask the experts, the answer is simple. Accuracy.

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Our listeners can try it for free. ZipRecruiter.com slash Colin. ZipRecruiter.com slash C-O-L-I-N. Ah, this is The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, I-Hart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS-1, a Monday. Heard sponsored by Firestone, complete auto care. Keep your car running newer and longer. And here we are, Joy Taylor. I'm starting to smell the grass. Football's inches away. Morning, Colin. Good to have you in a Monday. There is a big difference between you and I working at a company and us owning a company. It's much easier to just work at a company. I don't have to

deal with, you know, HR and payroll. and facilities and contracts. I just come to work, blah, blah, blah. I'm an employee. Tom Brady was an employee forever. And then Tom Brady decided I want to branch out. I'm going to own the Tom Brady Clinic. And I'm going to sell oils and jump ropes and gear.

And I'm going to recruit players for the Patriots to join the TB12 clinic and get a big brand. And, oh, this appears to be the downside to owning the business. You get calls in the middle of the nation. night. Everybody that's watching this show or listening, driving around, knows the difference between just working at a business like a guy like me and owning a business. And most employees don't, they don't really understand what it's like to own a business. I don't really want to own everything about this show. I don't want to deal with payroll and I don't want to deal with

this and that. Tom Brady opens up a clinic, recruits players to come to the clinic. Julian Edelman comes to the clinic and oops, Julian Edelman gets busted for BEDs. So Tom Brady's got to go talk to the media and here's what happened. Tom, with Julian tested positive. What's your reaction to that? No comment. That's just ridiculous. Tom. I'm out.

All right. You can't hear it very well on radio. It's great on television. Tom Brady's asked a question. Do you think it's fair? People connect Edelman to you. He said it's ridiculous. And then he walks away.

And, of course, it's not ridiculous because it's your clinic. And I went this morning to the TB12 page. They're selling supplements and they're selling gear. and they're selling pliability lotion. Okay. I'm going to try some of that. I'm going to go home tonight and try some

pliability lotion, and I'll just leave it at that. They got a documentary, they got a book, they're selling lifestyle. Hey, but don't ask any of the questions. Well, Tom, that's the downside to owning a business. Ask every business owner watching this show. It would be an unfair question

if Julian Edelman busted for PEDs, and you didn't have a clinic, and he was going to using the Patriot staff, and people came up and said, Tom, what do you make about that? Tom could say, well, I don't know. I'm just an employee. Julian Edelman's got to take care of Julian Edelman, but now Tom Brady takes care of Julian Edelman.

You put your name in a company. You want a brand. You ever notice with Tom Brady, the more Tom Brady branches out in the Tom Brady stuff, and the less Tom Brady's about New England stuff, we're getting more of this crap? New England was always the one. team in the NFL. Assistance didn't talk. Coordinators didn't talk. Brady didn't talk. Nobody talked. Grunk, tough guy. 6-7, 260. I don't know. I'm not going to talk about it. I'll get in trouble from the coach. There used to be one clear message. And now it's all muddied up and all clouded. And then Tom's got those young receivers and young tight ends and all running backs and they walk in and oh my God, there's Tom Brady. Maybe I should be part of his clinic. If I go and be part of Tom's clinic, Tom will like me more and hand me the ball more and throw me the ball more and audible. more. And oh man, we have a fissure in a business. No longer is it about one voice and one message.

There's multiple voices, multiple clinics, multiple trainers. And you have young players, I'm sure, walk in and they want to be part of that Tom Brady 12 clinic because he's Tom Brady. He's a rock star. I mean, if you were a guitarist and they had an opening on you, too, wouldn't you just suck up to Bono? I mean, this is a thing. Tom Brady moved. into mogul stage. I get it. But this is the downside to having those businesses and growing your brand and doing your clinic. And now we got questions. Belichick's already talked about Alex Guerrero, Tommy's trainer, and Guerrero's had multiple quotes.

And Edelman gets busted. And the media now, and for the record, you know, the Boston media now is asking very legitimate questions. They were very parochial for the first 15 years of Tom's career, not so parochial to Belichick. They're pressing Belichick and they're pressing Brady and they're pressing them because there's real issues here. I'm not saying an employee can't have an opinion, but I'm saying once an employee wants to be a boss, this is what you get. Rush Limbaugh just wants to do radio and get paid. Glenn Beck wanted to own his own business. Glenn Beck's had health issues.

Glenn Beck's had to fire people. Glenn Beck's had controversy within his employee base. That's the difference between talking on the radio and getting rich and then owning your own company. and talking on radio and getting rich. It's a choice. Go either way. You know, I prefer the former, not the latter. I'll just sit here, talk, get paid.

But Tom Brady made a choice, and this is the result of the choice. Tough questions. They are not ridiculous whatsoever. So I saw, you know, most of the time, you and I agree on stuff. We agree on stuff. Who's going to win the games?

Who's going to win the series? We agree on 90% of stuff. The 10% you and I don't agree on is the stuff that makes the internet, blogs, tweets, right? If I have an opinion that's contrarian. Okay. What I'm about to say seems obvious, and I think you're all the crazy people. Because what I'm about to say is fact-based. So I'm reading a story this weekend.

LeBron talked over the weekend. He's going to talk later today. He's opening an amazing school and Akron. It's awesome. But I'm reading a story about this, and a story came out this weekend. and it was another, I don't think this L.A. is going to work thing. Said a player in the NBA anonymously, he didn't go to the Lakers, he went to L.A. He's going to L.A. He's not going because of the basketball, i.e. it won't work.

During this column, the writer says the Lakers journey is embarking on, is it difficult to say the least. There's no surefire co-star on the Laker roster barring a major trade. There's no clear path to contention. Okay, time out. I am now going to go into a fact-based argument. Let me just put up LeBron's career highs last year. So let's establish that he's still great. Games played career high.

Assists with that garbage roster career high. Rebounds, career high. Triple doubles career high. So let's establish. LeBron's really, really good. And forget the MVP award. He's the best player in the game. Hardin plays no defense.

He's the best player in the game. Let's establish that. If you put the best player in the league on any team, I mean, Golden State was good. You add Durant, the second best player, and you can't beat him. You add Chris Paul, a top 20 player to the Rockets. They have Golden State down 3-2. I'm talking the best player, better than Paul,

better than hard, better than Durant. So we've established that he's great. Here's the other thing. Remember how Michael Jordan won three titles, went and played baseball, came back and won three more titles? When Michael Jordan came back and won three more titles, he was 33. LeBron's 33.

But LeBron has multiple advantages that Michael didn't. Number one, Michael Jordan played multiple years of college basketball in arguably the top. office conference in college basketball, the biggest in the ACC. He played three years, the grind, the travel, leaned on. Three years on your legs. Three years. LeBron never played college basketball.

Nowhere, no tear. Right to the NBA. From dominating high school, where virtually he took a year off his senior year and still won the state title right into the NBA. So Michael had three more years at 33 of college basketball. Michael also played in a significantly more physical NBA where centers weighed 270 were domestic and they were there to pound you if you came close to the basket.

LeBron plays in a league where they're international centers. They're built like combs. You know, they're like 7 feet 1, 250. And they have no interest in contact. The health and wellness standards are much. better today. LeBron eats better, trains better, foods better, supplements better, nutrition better. Oh, by the way, LeBron's a bigger, stronger person. That generally matters as you age. People get certain DNA. LeBron's bigger and stronger. And oh, by the way, Michael Jordan had a

major injury. Second year in the league broke his foot. LeBron's never had one. Michael came back. 33. Best player in the league wins three titles. You do get LeBron's 33, no wear and tear of college, a less physical league, a healthier era, bigger, stronger person, no major injuries. And you think LeBron's going to struggle here. Colin, Colin, Colin, Colin, wait a minute, Colin. No, you wait a minute. LeBron's going to be the best player in the league for the next three years.

After that, no idea. But who's going to supplement him? Janus doesn't control the basketball, not a ball handler, not a shooter. Ben Simmons, not a shooter. Kevin Durant, I like Kevin Durant, but this is what he is now. He's not going to another level, therefore he's not surpassing LeBron James. Steph Curry, when he can stay healthy, he's good, he's never been LeBron. James Harden, come on, physically not the same guy.

Well, what about the timing? The timing's perfect. It would be different if Golden State's dynasty was starting. We're already seeing fatigue with their dynasty. Durant multiple times sounds like a wander. Curry got hurt again. Dramon's getting tired of being the fourth. beetle.

They showed fatigue in the regular season. PJ Tucker gave him fits in the postseason, down three, two, before Chris Paul got hurt. What about San Antonio and Minnesota? They're very good. And both dysfunctional. What about Houston? Yeah, what about them? They're not as good as last year.

This is the perfect time. Chris Paul's out of his peak. And the spurs are dysfunctional. And Minnesota is going to be, oh, even more dysfunctional. Portland can't figure it out. Westbrook and Paul George will always have limitations. Houston's not as good and Golden State's the dynasty

closer to the end than the beginning. I don't get it. Jordan 33, major injury, college basketball, wear and tear, less healthy, smaller body, dominated the league. Yeah, now Michael came back to a better team, but many would argue the league was

smaller, more comprised of elite players and better teams. I don't get it. I just don't understand it. Oh, I don't know what's going to. Every story I read, it's like, oh, it's going to be man overboard. They'll be lucky to beat New Orleans. Folks, 33 is to do 29.

That's why Tom Brady's going to be 41 this year, and I just looked up this morning, is the favorite to win the MVP. 41's the new 36. LeBron's 33. He's going on like 30 compared to Jordan's era. It's going to work. I don't get the doubters.

Coming up next. people will tell you who they are. Just believe them. Just believe them. Cowboy fans, just believe him. Good weekend, actually, for cowboy fans. A great weekend for Dallas Cowboy fans. I'll explain that coming up.

It's the herd. Sports fans, the sun is shining, the temps or rises. Weather like this waits for nobody. Kingsford Charcoal. Kingsford Charcoal, start something. Great weekend for the Dallas Cowboys. If you're a Dallas Cowboy fan, this was a terrific weekend. because Des Bryant melted down and you've already gotten rid of him and

Dak Prescott was a grownup proving why he's a franchise quarterback and you've secured your future with him. It was a great weekend to be a Dallas Cowboy fan. The cuckoo for Cocoa Puffes, the wacko, the diva, the needy wide receiver who for years we lectured you, he is stunting the growth of Dak Prescott. This weekend it was on full display. Sean Lee, very good football player, is quoted saying, yeah, you know, I mean, got to be honest with you. Sometimes he was difficult. Sometimes I wanted him to be more accountable.

Sometimes I wanted him to be a better teammate. Oh, Des Bryant implodes. Oh, just going crazy. Des Bryant taking shots at everybody. Taking shots of the Cowboys. Call the owner Jerry Jones Clueless. Yeah, billionaire Jerry Jones clueless. Okay, Des. Sean Lee's a snake.

No, Sean Lee's actually when healthy, a really good football player. Des Bryant showed you who he was. Now, by the way, he's available. Everybody. everybody. Cleveland wants him. Okay. Cleveland doesn't need him. Cleveland wants him. This, Dallas is a great day. This used to be your pain in the butt. It's going to be somebody else's. If you're lucky, it'll be a rival and be distracting to them. On the same weekend that Des Bryant was being Des Bryant, did you see, Dak Prescott came out and talked about the national anthem controversy. He said, it's not the right time or the venue to protest. It takes the joy out of football. So, Deskent as Des spent the weekend enhancing his image as somebody that inflames a situation,

Dak Prescott enhanced his image as somebody that put some cold water on drama, a little bit of a wet blanket on drama. Both were on full display this weekend, the immature and the mature, the chaotic and the calming, the crazy and the smart. the undependable and the dependable. They were all on display this weekend. Des Bryant, nothing but taking shots at people.

Dak Prescott, in the throes of Jerry Jones and the national anthem controversy, Dak Prescott steps up. Takes the joy out of football, not the right time or place. A very reasonable opinion, which, by the way, has always been my opinion. I'm not outraged by athletes taking a knee, but it's not ready the timer of the place. I don't come to FS1 every day with a protest political sign. I can do it before the show and after the show. This is the three hours a day.

I've got to show up and do sports. sports, and that's what Dak Prescott's saying. Not the time of the place on full display. By the way, there is a stat, and I've always said this. There are three games in Dak Prescott's career where Des Bryant was unavailable to play. Look at Dak's stats without him. Three and O, 71% completion percentage, six touchdowns, one pick, and a passer rating nearly perfect. Yep. We preached it almost lectured for two years.

Everybody's had the needy coworker. Everybody's had the high-maintenance coworker. That coworker's often very talented. But you end up having to kind of babysit him. You drive to work and you think about him. And boy, how are they going to react to this? And how is he going to react to that? And you got to make sure when you have staff meetings, you're like, hey, how will Des deal with that?

We have the Amazon Prime series where Dak Prescott, the quarterback's in another room. Des is in the receiver room blowing up at the coach over a random innocuous comment. But this weekend was great to be a cowboy fan. The headache no longer yours. The foundation of your franchise, currently yours, was cooling off embers with his anthem quote. By the way, Dak Prescott on our show a few weeks ago, talked about spreading the ball around and how much he likes it. When you don't have a big time guy or the number one or whatever you want to call those guys,

you go out there and you just spread the ball around. And it's not a factor even in your head who gets a catch, who has how many touches. Some of my best games in the NFL have been with eight different targets or so. Yeah, he's 14 and 2. Dak Prescott, eight or more targets. Look at these numbers. Eight or more targets, meaning less reliant on DES, he's 14 and 2. Look at the numbers for our TV audience.

Less than eight, meaning a lot of throws to DES. He's sub-500. You got the future, you got rid of the headache. Great weekend for the Dallas Cowboys. Here's Joy with the News. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

So you mentioned this earlier, Colin, but Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady are the clear top two choices to win the 2018 NFL MVP award and one sports book actually had Rogers as a slight leader. A month ago, Bet 365 now has Brady as a front runner to win his fourth MVP. He's a four-to-one favorite with Rogers, but close behind at a five-to-one favorite. While Brady's roster isn't great, I think that will play a part in it. I don't see it happening this year. I don't see it all. I think the AFC is better.

They're rebuilding their offensive line and joy for the first three weeks, four weeks. They don't have any targets. They have Grong, Brady, and Cross Your Fingers. Right. Kirk Cousins is in that list. That's interesting. Yeah. I don't know.

I have to. I think I think I'm going to save my money on that one. Yeah. I think. Actually, Brady and Kirk Cousins, I don't see it. Everybody else I can make an argument for. Who do you think? Who do you think?

I would go Aaron Rogers. I don't know if I put Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't have the weapons to be in there. You had to pick a sleeper right now. I wouldn't. I'll tell you, Matt Ryan will be in it. Aaron Rogers and Wentz and will be in it in Breeze. Those four. All right.

Carmelo had a very short tenure as a member of the Hawks, and it's come to a close. According to Wage, finalized his buyout with the Hawks, giving back a $2.4 million of his $27.9 million salary, which he'll get back once he signs a veteran minimum deal with the new team. So once he clears waivers, he's expected to sign that one-year deal with the Rockets. And his future teammate James Hardin is optimistic. He talked about it over the weekend to Michael Lee of Yahoo's sports.

Obviously, it's a lot of egos, a lot of talent. Someone has to sacrifice. Everyone in the world knows what Carmelo brings, how gifted and talented he is. And he still has a lot more to go. If he comes to the Rockets, we'll bring out the best of him. and I'm sure he'll bring out the best of us as well. Yeah. He's a bench player, Carmelo is. Is he okay with that?

I mean, he's going to have to accept that at one point or another in his career. They'll figure it out in camp what his full role is going to be. I don't think he does anything for them defensively, obviously, but they do have Capella and they do have PJ Tucker. But he is going to get buckets, though. The one thing that Carmelo does is get buckets, and he's going to get buckets, especially in this DeAntony offense. Houston's still a top five team in the league. I think they only took a step back defensively. I mean, Chris Paul is going to come back.

They're going to be an exciting regular season team. And I think Carmelo brings a different element to them. And Carmelo's getting a lot of heat. And we've given him a lot of heat over the past couple weeks, especially with reliving the comments about him possibly coming off the bench. And he's constantly being compared to LeBron, not taking care of his body and stuff. But this is a good opportunity for him to kind of rehab his image a bit in this last part of his career. Yes.

Because they're an exciting team. And he's going to be a contributor on offense. Again, this goes back to my theory that when players move, even guys who are at the end of their career, it's interesting. I want to watch Carmelo with Hardin and Paul. I want to watch. I didn't want to watch him at the end of New York when you let these star players leave. Even when they're eroding players, it's a good story. Like, I want to watch Houston play next year.

He's going to be Tommy Shepard above the room. Yeah. They should redo that movie, by the way. Have Kendrick play Tupac. Finally, sticking with the Rockets, despite some suffering some key losses in free agency we just talked about, the Antonio still has faith that they will rise to the occasions. stick listen. It's our job to prove them wrong and we did it for two years now. James Kahn be a point guard and now those two cows can't play together. We got one more big step.

If we're going to beat Golden State, which everybody's searching for, you've got to take some chances and you've got to hope things hit out and you've got to hit that sweet spot. It doesn't mean it'll happen, but I'm confident and I love our guys and I think the worst will be is great and hopefully we can take that last step. You know, this is kind of my issue. you with the Rockets. Just say we have to win a championship because that's what you have to do. Yes. You're not there to win regular

season championships. I don't give out banners and rings for that. I don't want to hear, we're going to be great. No, your goal, you just brought in Carmelo Anthony. Like your goal is to win a championship. Is it not? Three Hall of Famers and a Hall of Fame potential coach. Right. You've got to win a championship. Or this was not, this was not a success.

It might have been fun to watch. It might have been entertaining. But at the end of the day, you're not going to talk about you as a all-time great team because you didn't win a championship. Just come out and say it. Dan Tony is just a very nice guy that there's always a little bit. I want a little bit more aggressiveness. Nice is underrated. I'll take competent over Nice every day of the week.

Yeah, I like him. I even think he's competent, but there is kind of a passivity to him that drives me crazy. Right. Like just say you have to win a championship. It's what you got to do. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The herd line news. He's coached under Parcells, Harbaugh and Bell. a check. He's got Super Bowl rings, former NFL head coach two times. Eric Mangini, I can smell grass. I can smell football. Oh my God. I love it. Somebody called me that Trent Dilfer called me this weekend. I was like, I can smell grass through the phone. We're getting close to football. Trent Dilfer calls me. By the way, you know how I feel about wide receivers. Icing not the cake. Diva wide receivers. I'm not even sure they count as icing. I just would not have the time. I've worked, I've mostly worked with great people, but over 30 years, you do work with people that

are a little more high maintenance. Did you ever have to deal with a diva wide receiver, or a diva? Yeah, there's been a ton of them that I've had to deal with, and they're difficult. They're exhausting. A lot of times you go and you try to put in the game plan and they're not happy with their role in the game plan, so you're dealing with them during the week, and then what you're getting at practice is inconsistent, and you go in the game, and they're always open. They're always open. Whenever they come off and they're on the sidelines, like, hey, look, I'm wide open.

I remember dealing with Braylen, who had a strong personality. Who was that? Braylon, Edward and Cleveland. Braylin Edwards and Cleveland. And we were talking on the sideline. He's like, I'm open. I show him the picture and there's a corner underneath him. There's a safety on top of him.

I'm like, you aren't open. There is nothing in this read that will take the quarterback to you. He said, well, throw it to me. I'll still catch it. And it's like, all right, I get it. And I can see the, the issues that were probably happening in Dallas. That same thing.

You got a young quarterback who's trying to assert himself, who's trying to grow, and then you get this pressure constantly, throw me the ball, throw me the ball. And it takes you out of what you should be doing, which is reading the defense and getting the ball to the right spot. It's amazing to me how many people in the media, I get fans,

because fans are fans, short for fanatic. How many people in the media fall for this trap? The dival, like OBJ is another example. I'm not disputing his greatness, but they don't win when he has over 100 yards. I do think Eli sometimes walks to the line thinking, I got to get him touches early. I got to, instead of thinking who's the open guy? Well, I've been in meeting rooms where the coaches are talking about,

we got to get so-and-so the ball in the first five plays, otherwise they're going to be complaining from there on it. So you design these plays. It may be, you'll see some wide receiver screens early in games or wide receiver reverse. And typically it's to the elite. guy, that's just a function of giving him the ball early. So he doesn't pout. So he doesn't pout, and you can actually get him into the game plan.

And when you have to start planning like that, when you have to start taking to account these massive personalities, it's hard on everybody else. And everybody else in the room looks around and says, well, why are we doing that? Well, I mean, Des, that Amazon Prime series, where he blows up in a team meeting room. And you have kind of a docile coach, the Dooley guy. And he's, they're just, they're playing Denver. and he says, listen, this is a great secondary. Akeeb, Talib, Harris,

and he blows up. Have you ever been in a meeting room? Like, this happens, right? We're like receivers. I mean, when I watch that Amazon Prime series, I'm like, time out. No way with Des, I can bring him on my roster. Yeah, I don't, I've never been an example where a guy blew up based off of the defensive backs,

but there are several times where guys will blow up for whatever reason. And look, it's not just wide receivers. The defensive backs can be a little moody too. And dealing with not knowing what you're getting every single day is really hard. It's really hard. And Bill Parcell has always used to talk about the importance of being the same guy every day. Because as a coaching staff, you're trying to plan based off of certain expectations. But when a guy comes in one day and he's pouting and then he comes the next day and he's a great mood and he's working hard.

And then he comes in the next day and he's somewhere in between. You don't know. You can't plan with any kind of certainty. It's where are we on the roller coaster when we get to Sunday? And you're hoping that you're in the right spot. But there's a lot of games where you aren't. You aren't. And the guy does nothing.

You know, when legends retire, they still want to play the games. But they may, they're tired of training. They lose their passion. They've got a lot of money. The wife wants them home. Tom Brady this weekend, you know, now he opens up the clinic. and now everybody's asking about Julian Edelman and Brady shakes his head, leaves, walks out

and I say to myself, this is why legends retire a year early. Tom can play forever, right? But it's like the Boston media now is after him and Belichick's grinding on him and he likes Guerrero and there's a little fissure. And I'm not saying Tom's walking out today. But, you know, once the money's piled up to here

and the Super Bowl trophies are up to here and Garoppolo's gone so there's no real guy behind you, it does feel like, you know, there is a part of Brady, I think, when I watched him walk away from that press conference thinking, God, he's getting tired of this crap. Well, I thought two things.

I thought the first thing is it was a shot at Tom. It was a shot at saying, okay, if Julian somehow was doing something illegal in order to perform, are you? I felt that there was implied in that question. Sure. And to me, I don't think that's fair. And I think at the beginning. Why isn't it fair?

He opens a clinic. It's got his name on it. Okay. he opens a clinic, but there's nothing that says that he's been doing something inappropriate. There's nothing that said that he's been doing something outside the rules Tom has.

And so to imply that, just because the guy went to visit his guy. If it's Tom Brady's clinic, and I'm a reporter, who do I ask? Because Edelman's cleaned his whole career, moves to the clinic, gets busted. As a reporter, who do I ask, if not, Tom? Is there a manager of the program?

you ask Edelman, you deal with it. It's Edelman's issue. What Edelman did, Edelman did. Tom Brady didn't do that. Tom Brady may be associated with this, and Tom Brady's had tremendous success with it. But I don't think that, I don't think that was a fair question to Tom. And I think that Tom reacting the way he did, I was supportive of that.

And I do think this is the time of year in New England where the media is kind of going through their training camp, too. They're all excited from vacation. They're coming back. They think we're going to ask these hard-hitting questions. we're going to get answers, and then they're going to get trained. Those answers don't happen in New England. You're not getting it from Tom. You're not getting it from Bill.

So you can ask these questions right now, and then they'll fall back in their line. You've got to retrain the media. By the way, I do think I'm seen as a homer. I don't feel quite the same about New England. I think the AFC is better. I think they're rebuilding to some degree their offensive line a little. They have one elite player in their front seven defensively. They have a corner I love and a safety I love and a tight end I love and a coach.

But I do feel, I think I do, Eric, I feel there's a little pullback. I don't look at that personnel and go like Philadelphia or the Rams or Kansas City or Houston where I'm like, whoa, that is just a lot of athletes. I feel a pullback coming. Well, people say that the media is getting harder with New England and more critical. They were hard on us for a long time when we got there. And I think that you're consistently, here's a headline from, when we first got to New England.

The idea that it's always been great there and that the media's been supportive, that's not a real thing. But I also feel like for you, every time that we talk during this time of year, you're a little bit down on New England or you're a little bit down on Tom Brady. I can't remember a preseason

where you and I have been together where you've been like, this is it. Actually, maybe one season of all the season. I think there was a year about three years ago when they loaded up offensively And I was like, oh, I think, Brett, when they got, well, actually when they got Brandon Cooks, I was like, that's a good get. That's, that'll help Tom. It wasn't as spectacular as I thought.

So you think I'm just part of the negative. I feel like you're always hard on New England early. And then early in the season, too, if they have any kind of hiccup, then you're like, oh, if this is it, it's over. We're finally seeing the demise. And then about week eight or so, when things are rolling again, you kind of fall back into supporting him. What he's saying is I am, you know what it could be? You have a pattern. You have a little bit.

If I was scouting you, I'd say, going to go negative against New England early. You're probably negative on Green Bay. I don't know where you are at Andrew. Oh, by the way, you and I have a disagreement we have to talk about with him. I don't, oh, hold it. Okay, don't go anywhere. Because we have a big disagreement.

I want the coach to, you and I have a big, don't let's not say what the disagreement is. Okay. But you and I have a big disagreement. I want a coach's perspective on this. That's coming up. Car shopping. Consider Geico. 75 years. They know what they're doing. It's simple. Want to save money? Go to geico.com. Go to geico.com. It's the herd. Welcome back, Eric Mangini. People think owners, oh, they're billionaires. They're stable. And I'm like, to be a billionaire, you've got to squash some people.

You got to be a lot of them are temperamental. This is interesting because I saw Hugh Jackson about three weeks ago, said Baker Mayfield's not close. Hugh Jackson this weekend came out and said, guys, amazing. And I'm thinking, that sounds like an owner who goes to a coach and says he was a number one pick. Let's, yeah, five days ago, Hugh Jackson had reservations. Hugh Jackson now is, this kid is, this kid's something special. He's been perfect. So let's just talk about owners. You've had two of them.

People think Jerry Jones is crazy. You've always disagreed. Well, here's how I feel about Jerry Jones. The whole world knows that he's involved. So he doesn't hide it. People know that he's making decisions. He's the de facto GM. So people can look at things that happen there and realize that he controls it and everybody can appreciate that.

But a lot of owners are heavily involved in decisions that are being made, whether it's the draft, free agency, who to play, who not to play. But they don't ever take accountability for it. They aren't out in front of it. And you've got to go to the podium and say, this is the best decision for our, I have decided that this is the best decision for our organization, even though fundamentally you don't believe in it. And then if it goes wrong,

it's not like the owner's steps up and says, hey, you know, that's on me. My bad, my bad, don't worry about it. I had a situation one time where an owner said that we needed to throw the ball more, and we were playing a team that was ranked 30th against the run. And so we threw the ball and it got picked off once for a touchdown. We got stripped sacked for a touchdown. And we came out and we won the game. And on Monday, I had a call from the GM and says, well, why didn't you run the ball more?

And I'm like, you were in that meeting. What are you talking about? You were in the meeting where the owner said, we wanted to throw the ball more. And I said to both you, so let me get this straight. This weekend, in this game, you want to throw the ball a significant amount of time. Yes, I do. So don't come back on Monday and say, why didn't you run the ball? their 30th and run defense.

We were in that meeting together. People don't think this stuff is happening in the league. It's absolutely, Jerry's, at least Jerry Jones is like, he holds a press conference every game. So you know where Jerry's at. He's right out in front. Jerry tells his opinion and puts it right on him.

Yep. And so I was talking about Baker Mayfield. Tennessee and the Browns, Tennessee is the most underachieving football program in America. It should be a top 10 program. Cleveland's the biggest grease fire in the NFL. Jimmy Haslam owns the Browns and is the number one booster at Tennessee, and over the last five years put it on the board.

They're a mess. Haslam, nothing happens in Cleveland without Haslam putting his hand on it. And nothing happens at Tennessee football without Jimmy Haslam. I don't worry about Baker Mayfield or Tyrod Taylor. They're both NFL quarterbacks. I worry about leadership and them ruining Baker Mayfield. And here's what I worry about. Haslam, week six, they're like three and three.

You're playing the Steelers. Put Baker in because he wants to get talked about. That worries me. Week six? Week six. You think it's going to get to week six? It'll probably be a lot earlier than that. Really?

Unless things go really well there. In fairness to owners, a lot of them, especially the ones that have made their own money, have been very successful in the industry that they've been in. Right. But then they come into pro football and pro sports in general. It doesn't follow the same rules. It doesn't follow the same progression. Things don't happen like they happen in corporate America.

And it's hard for people to understand why the programs, that they've been so successful with don't apply apples to apples in pro sports. And I used to tell owners, look, it's like doing business in China. You're at the mercy of the interpreter. Whoever's giving you information is who you're at the mercy of because you don't really understand how this all comes together. And it's not a knock on them. It doesn't mean that they can't understand it,

but it's a very different world than traditionally where they've come from. And when you insert these ideas, it can be incredibly disresue. And the other thing I'll say is sometimes they'll say an offhand comment. Like, hey, have you ever thought about this? And as a head coach, you're thinking, okay, I need to do this. It's never like, and then you come back to him and they say, well, why'd you do it? And said, remember you asked me to go look at this? It's like, oh, I've just, it was an offhand comment.

It's like, no, you're the owner. Your comments are not off hand. When my wife says, have you considered taking out the garbage? What my wife is saying is take out the garbage. Yeah. Yeah, that's the power you women have over us. You make a suggestion and it's law. We have all the power.

Correct. Or as an assistant coach, the head coach says, hey, why don't you go look at this as a staff and see what you think? It means, hey, go put this in, make sure I see it at practice, and make it work on Sunday. You know? And then if it doesn't work, it's like, hey, I just told you to look at it. I didn't know whether it would work or not.

Okay, so Joey and I have a disagreement. I think even if it picks number one, I don't want to throw my quarterback into the fire against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Joy is like, you're paying him a boatload of money. Put Baker in. Put Josh Rosen in. Put Sam Darnold in. What do you make of this?

You got to play Sam Darnold week one. I feel like all those guys are wired a little bit differently. And some guy, the quarterback, it doesn't matter what position is. Guys learn at a different pace. Remember Troy Palomalo in Pittsburgh? It looked like he was going to be a bust early on. He wasn't playing. But once he got it, it hit and it hit really big.

And that happens sometimes with quarterbacks where they don't learn as quickly as other guys. It has to build up. But once they have it, they're really good. So to universally say, play them right away, I think that's hard. That's hard to say. But I get Joy's point, you brought them there for a reason. And one of the greatest teachers is experience. Yeah.

As long as you're not going to put him in a situation where he's going to get wasted. He's going to get so beat up because the line isn't good or the running game isn't good. The argument can be made, though. If you're a first round pick, aren't you a starter? We always tried to look at a first round pick as a thousand play guy. So first year? A first round pick, you want him to play a thousand plays. And that's typically the amount of plays that happen during the course of the season.

So it could be a combination of defense and special teams. However it is, you're hoping to get a thousand plays out of that first round. draft pick. That was kind of the gauge. And then each round down, you kind of brought it down a little bit in terms of what their contribution ideally should be. Do you think there's a quarterback that you, I've said this. Josh Rosen to me, I think can play day one. I don't know what his ceiling is, but when I watch Josh Rosen at UCLA, I watched him play 15 times. He looks like he's ready to be an NFL quarterback today. I really like Josh Rosen, and he does look like that.

But let's talk about Tom Brady for a second. So Tom was a six-round draft pick. Let's say he was a number one pick in the draft, that everybody thought that Tom was going to be who Tom became. he would not have been ready to play that first year in New England. You were there. I was there. He wasn't very good. We'd have these post-practice routes against the DBs,

and I'd bet with Brad Sealy. Brad Sealy would take the receivers and running backs. I'd take the D.Bs. There's a dollar, you know, just a friendly type of thing. And I want a ton of dollars from Brad Sealy because time would miss guys. You know, it just wasn't clicking. But he had tremendous traits. And we kept four quarterbacks, and he worked at it.

And a year later, it was different. but we only scored three offensive touchdowns in that Super Bowl run in the playoffs. It's not like he was still Tom Brady at that point. People forget that. So he wasn't anywhere near what you'd hope he'd be his first year. And I think if he had gone to a different team, Colin, he may have gotten cut. So this is interesting. What about Cleveland where I think Tyrod Taylor can win a bunch of games?

So you have a veteran. I have no problem with Baker not playing it down this year. I don't either. If Tyrod Taylor, look, the biggest thing that the bronze can do is to, to mitigate the unforced errors. And Tyrod Taylor is very good at that. Yes. He protects the football.

They lost, in the NFL, you lose more games than you win anyways, and they lost a bunch of games on turnover. So Tyrod Taylor gives them an advantage there, and Baker Mayfield does too. If you can let that guy learn, I think it's a great situation. I think that's ideal to be able to do that. But I do completely get Joy's point,

and I think that if the stands aren't full, and if they're winning a medium amount of games, what's going to get people in the stands? By. John, look at the, who do the Browns play in the first month? They play the Steelers, the Saints, the Jets, the Raiders, the Ravens, the Chargers, Bucks and Steelers. That feels like three and three?

Okay, well, if it feels like three and three, that's two more games than one the last two years. So there should be a parade, right? Yes, thank you. There's what, one game, one in the last year? lasts a thousand days. So, yeah, there's going to be banners all over Cleveland. Good stuff, Eric Mangini. It is a Monday next where Colin was right and where Colin was wrong. Plenty of both next. The herd. Ah, this is the herd.

wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor's joining me on a Monday. We're right, Colin right, Colin wrong in about three minutes. Great to have you. today. The summer, we're moving out of the NBA. We're moving into the NFL and college football. In fact, we're having big executive meetings next couple of days in Los Angeles for all the Fox broadcasters and famous people in town. And those times of the year where we all button stuff up and get ready for a long football season.

Very exciting stuff. Very exciting. So we do it every Monday. We started doing it years ago in football season. And then people said, hey, why don't you do it non-football season? So I have strong opinions. And every week on a Monday, here's where I got it right. And here's where I got it wrong in the last week.

So here we go. Where Colin was right? Ah, what do you know? Des Bryant melted down all weekend. Look at me. Blasting teammates. Des Bryant's always been 80% headache, 20% production. And he's also one of the worst kind of people.

Everybody else's fault guy. Dez, you couldn't separate at the end. You couldn't separate. You were blowing up team meetings. So this weekend he's blasting Sean Lee. And by the way, he's blasting play calling. And he called Jerry Jones Clueless. No.

You came into this league as a wildly talented young man and you didn't master the route tree. And you didn't really, really take coaching serious until you lost a step. And now you're nothing but a headache. This is why we said two years ago. Don't be fear-based. Dallas. Dak Prescott's the future.

Ezekiel Elliott's the future. This guy's going to stunt the growth of both. And this weekend, it was more the charade. Great weekend to be a cowboy fan. This is what you don't have to deal with this point forward. Where Colin was wrong. I'm a big believer in building your football team from the ball out, not the sideline in. And I am surprised the Rams haven't given a huge deal to Aaron Donald,

mostly because they've given a huge deal to everybody else. I didn't get the Brandon Cook's wide receiver deal. He's yet to play a game. He got an extension. Aaron Donald's a much better player. I mean, Brandon Cook's a nice receiver. He's played for three teams in three years. Isn't that kind of a warning sign?

I also worry about this. How does this play in the room? Like, players know and support guys who can play. Aaron's the best defensive linemen in the NFL since Reggie White. unblockable. He's like Indomac and Sue with discipline and coachability. And I just I wonder how

it plays in the room. Listen, I'm all for giving Todd Gurley a deal. And I like Brandon Cooks. But I would have waited on the Brandon Cooks deal and I would have taken care of Aaron Donald first. Because I think in the room he is respected and revered

and that is something. These are long NFL seasons. You've got to make sure your stars know they get treated well. Brandon Cook's not a star. Aaron Donald's a star. Where Colin was right? I didn't love the John Gruden hiring. I said, listen, I like John. Great broadcaster. I said, felt a little too nostalgia for me. It felt like Art Shell 12 years ago. Art Shell'd been out of the league forever. They hire him and it's man overboard. And Art Shell hired some guy who ran a bed and breakfast to run his offense. I'm not lying true story. Well, last week is what I worried about.

one report Gruden hasn't talked to Kalil Mack Gruden says I've talked to Kalil Mac and then two sources came out this weekend well they haven't talked

long because Kalil Mack's people don't like John Gruden listen John generationally speaking 10 years a long time to be away from any business again everybody knows

Gruden loves offense so the first thing Gruden should do when he takes over the Raiders is put his arms around his best defensive player we know he loves quarterback Everybody in the room knows he loves quarterbacks. What they don't know if is John is all in on defense.

And by not embracing Khalil Mack, again, how does it play in the room? Not good, not a good week for the Raiders. Where Colin was wrong. I used to mock the Boston media. I mean, for a large American city, you know, we've got about seven, eight major cities, your Atlanta, you're New York, your D.C., you're L.A., you're Chicago, you're Boston, you're Dallas. In the big-boy cities, the media should be big boys.

And they just soft and pushovers, but they got after Tom Brady this weekend. I was wrong on that. They showed some teeth. And remember a week ago when they got after Bill Belichick, who they're always cowtowing to? Remember this last week? We have some audio from that. Do you care that the fans want to know more about this? My focus is on a 2018 season.

I'm not focused on any of those seasons. They're done. Hopefully you can respect that, but maybe not. Yeah, I like it. Boston. Put down the pom-poms. Show a little fight. York media shows me fight. Boston media has been great in the last couple of weeks.

I really like it. I was wrong about that. Not a bunch of fanboys. Love it. Where Colin was right? I've been saying this forever. Everybody whines about how much college football coaches make. When you get a great one, just pay them whatever. Alabama, smart enough to figure out, oh, we're going to rework Nick Saban's deal for the third time and third year, three years. And now he's going to make 10 million a year. And that's under, paid. Yeah, I said it. That's underpaid. Alabama totally gets it. They're never going to be another Nick Saban. Everybody loved Pete Carroll. Does everybody realize that Nick Saban's dynasties now twice as long as Pete Carroll's and doesn't appear to be slowing down? I mean, USC was good for about four or five years. This is like

the 10th year Alabama is really, really good. The attendance, the enrollment at Alabama, I'm going to talk about non-football revenue is up 13,000 students since he arrived. 13,000 students at $35,000 a year. They pay for a significant part of his contract in non-football revenue. Don't listen to the media that overreacts. Oh, my God. Nick Saban is worth $30 million a year if somebody was willing to pay it. You want to keep winning nine games at your program, or do you want to be a dynasty?

You pay Nick Saban $9.5 million. By the way, whoever Alabama's coach would be, you'd pay him five. So you're paying him $4.5 million more a year for dominance? She's the best buy in college sports. Where Colin was wrong. I don't think this is a huge story, but if you had told me of the five quarterbacks drafted, one would be a holdout and it would be Sam Darnold. I would have been like, no, no, no, no, Darnell will get that puppy cleaned up real quick.

But Sam Darnold has not reported. Now, his agent's Jimmy Sexton, and some of this is just the agent, and they're trying to clear up language, which they call forfeiture language. It's for the average fan, even for me, this is too deep to get into. There's certain languages in contracts that Jimmy Sexton is trying to get eliminated, but the Jets have a history of not giving it the things that Sam Darnold wants, and Jimmy Sexton and his agent saying, you've never had Sam Darnold. You've been a mess for the last 20 years, mostly.

We finally got your next Namath. We finally got you, you're Eli Manning in town, and we're going to go toe to toe on this. But I will say Darnold's is about a low maintenance, a kid as I've ever met and if I would have guessed, of all the quarterbacks, the one holding out, I would not have guessed Sam Darnold. Where Colin was right?

50 NFL people were recently pulled by ESPN. Coordinators, coaches, general managers, scouting directors, and they raided quarterbacks. And I thought they did a great job. It was an ESPN poll. Cam Newton was not in the top 10. Hater raid. I didn't vote on it.

Cam Newton was not in the top 10. He was a tier two quarterback, according to NFL executives. Coaches, coordinators, some by the way of work with Cam. General manager, scouting people. This is what I've always said about Cam. He's not a top 10 quarterback. Now, when I rank my quarterback, it's not going to waste your time with that, I've always had him at about 12 because he's a non-precision thrower and now a precision game.

In the 80s or 90s, I could have lived with 59. percent completion percentage. It's not good enough now. You've got to be 62. You've got to be 62 and a half. You've got to be 63. And what do you know that he's not a top-tap? Every time I say that, the world implodes. And now all the executives in the league who watch film and tape, some of them on his staff are like, no, he's not, he's not as good as Matt Ryan. He's not as good as Russell Wilson. He's not as good as Carson Went. He's not as good as Andrew Luck. He's not as good as Philip Rivers. He's not as good as Matt Stafford. You know, I mean, they're all saying it. Now I'm not the only guy saying it.

Where Colin was wrong. Well, this is me from May in my stance on athletes wearing their hat backwards. I hate guys that wear their hat on backwards. Hate it. Hate it. Do not like it. It's my least favorite thing. Don't like it.

Not a fan of it. Sends a message. I'm a goofball. Okay, well, LeBron James had his hat on backwards this weekend. I got to be honest with you, I cringed. That the hat was backwards or that you were so wrong about the hat backwards thing? Oh, the hat backwards guy. It's so Jay Cutler.

I just... Oh, please, no. No, Jake Cutler is the vest. The vest with like the bucket hat or something. I don't like hat on backwards guy. It's such a you-know-what look. I don't know what. Sophomoric, goofball, frat boy.

LeBron just opened a school. I know. I'm going to have to. to revisit my whole hat on backwards. I think it's time to retire that one. You know what that is? That's what you wear when you want to slam a bud light with your buddies. I don't think LeBron

drinks bud light. I know, that's the problem. Because up to this point, every got... He gets very, very expensive wine. All right. Where Colin was right? Finally, what do you know? Tim Duncan's no longer in San Antonio. We had our third spur calling out the team, Danny

Green. Albeit it softly, Danny Green came out and said, yeah, I probably should have gotten a second opinion on my injury of San Antonio. So I always said, my problem with Greg Popovich, I think he's a smart guy and a great coach, but he hates the bluster that he himself has. He's got a lot of bluster, but he always tells players, get over yourself. Sometimes Greg needs to get over Greg. And I always said, Duncan was 75% of this great system. dumb, okay. Duncan leaves a third player two years ago to Marcus Allridge, this year,

Kauai Leonard, and now Danny Green. Yeah, yeah, maybe we need a second opinion. Maybe it's not all great here. I like Popovich. I really do. He wouldn't think that. I think he's a great coach. I think he's one of the top three or four coaches last 10 years. But, you know, I always hear how the system and this and that. The minute Duncan leaves, how's the system? As much as I like Belichick, if Tom Brady leaves, that system wins like. Nine games a year, eight. It doesn't win 13 in the AFC East every single year. You need the star to lubricate the locker room.

When Brady leaves, Belichick won't have it. And when Duncan left, Popovich no longer has it. Where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong on a Monday. Coming up next, good Lord, the Raiders say Jordy Nelson is unbelievable and why Aaron Rogers wants Jordy Nelson to be unbelievable. That's coming up. Sunday on Fox. It's the latest episode of the exclusive documentary about Baker Mayfield.

Follow the NFL's number one draft pick as he navigates his way through the complex world of professional football. All the way up, Baker Mayfield, Part 2, Sunday at 3 Eastern on Fox or stream it on the Fox Sports app. By the way, I just had an NFL person who I trust text me, and they said, if you want to know what's happening with Aaron Donald, this is very interesting. They said, what happened to Philadelphia's great defense last year? shredded by the Patriots in the Super Bowl. What happened to Jacksonville's great defense? Pittsburgh scored a ton on it. New England scored a ton on it.

If you start, what about Minnesota's great defense? Philadelphia shredded it. If you've noticed what's been happening this year, we're seeing wide receivers get money, Jarvis, Landy, Brandon Cook, we're seeing running backs get money. We're not seeing a lot of defensive linemen get money. And the NFL person said to me, he said, this is a copycat league.

You start looking at all these great defenses, and once again, did New England have a great defense? They end up in the Super Bowl. Philadelphia had a great defense. New England did what they wanted with them. Garong got hurt in the AFC championship. New England moved the ball up and down the field, up and down the field on Jacksonville.

Pittsburgh and Jacksonville, supposed to be great defensive balls all over the field. And so, you know, after a while, my source is telling me, People look around and go, it's becoming more of a perimeter game. It's more about offenses. The safety is being marginalized. And Aaron Donald wants $25 million a year. That's like a quarterback.

And so, you know, this is the thing about the NFL. Every year or two or five, there is a shift. This position's marginalized. This scheme means more interesting. But Aaron Donald's great, but what's the value of them? wants quarterback money. By the way, Derek Carr is the quarterback of the Raiders. And Derek Carr now has Jordy Nelson because Green Bay didn't want to pay for him.

And Derek Carr this weekend talked about Jordy Nelson and how great he's been so far in camp. He's just a guy that it's easy to throw to him because he's open. You know, like I said, there's some guys that are good at running some routes, but a guy will be there. They're just strong at catching the ball or whatever. He just gets open. And he is a great route savvy. He's very smart.

Again, I can't say enough good things. I can't believe Green Bay let him go, but I'm glad he's here. For the record, if you were Aaron Rogers, Joy, wouldn't you be rooting for Jordy Nelson to have a great year? Yeah, of course. Because it furthers the narrative that Green Bay never gave Aaron a great defense. They don't keep his guys. Listen, the best eight quarterbacks I've ever seen play. I'm not counting guys that played when they had like leather helmets.

The best eight quarterbacks I've ever seen play are Peyton Manning, Brady, Montana, Bradshaw, Elway, Marino, Aikman, and Breeze. Aaron Rogers, to me, is in the next group. Now, some put Farrv in that. To me, he made too many mistakes. I think Aaron's actually better than Fav all time. I'd put Aaron slightly ahead of Fav. Aaron, to me, has always been Steve Young. They both have a Super Bowl.

They both have two MVP's. They're both above average mobility. They're both a little quirky. Young's a left-hander. Aaron's a little smaller than your typical, you know, Brady, Peyton, Bradshaw, Elway, Aikman guy. To me, Aaron's in the Steve Young class. Now, I'm not saying Aaron can't elevate above that. They both have a Super Bowl.

They both were having legends above them. Young grew up with Montana over him. Aaron came into the league with Favre over him. Both Steve Young had the highest passer rating while he played in the game in his peak. Aaron's got the highest passer rating while he's playing in the game at his peak. They're both above average mobility. To me, Aaron is Steve Young. Now, he can elevate if he has five more years and wins in a Super Bowl.

But one of the things that 25 years from now, you're sitting around a bar, if the narrative is, you know, Aaron Rogers is not his fault. I mean, they never gave him a great defense. He had Jordy Nelson, then he went to Oakland and had three great years with Derek Carr. I do think it may not mean anything to Aaron. Those kind of arguments supplement Aaron Rogers into that elite all-time class. Now, I'm just telling you, my all-time eight great quarterbacks, I've ever seen Peyton, Brady, Montana, Bradshaw, Elway, Marino, Aikman, Bree's best I've ever seen.

And again, FAR, I like too many mistakes. And then I fall into a kind of a stallback, Aaron Rogers, Steve Young thing. Dan Fouts is up there. But if Jordy goes and blows it up with the Raiders for a couple years, it makes Green Bay look bad, makes Aaron Rogers look really, really good. Here's Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

So in 2017, the Celtics traded their top overall draft pick to the Sixers because they knew neither the Sixers or the Lakers would like Jason Tatum. And Tatum tore up the league in his rookie season and spent the summer working with Kobe Bryant and the trainer Drew Hanlon. After working with Tatum and seeing a mashup of their similar playing style, Kobe had one question for the Lakers, according to Hanlon. He said we actually showed Kobe it yesterday and he was like, Why didn't the Lakers draft him? Which was pretty funny after seeing that. He's Jason idolized Kobe. But if you're Alonzo Ball, how do you feel about that?

Well, I mean, everybody now has revisionist history. I like Jason Tatum at Duke. But by the way, would Jason Tatum be this good if Brad Stevens wasn't his coach? What if, by the way, what if Gordon Hayward didn't get hurt? Jason Tatum would have come off the bench for the Celtics. Like, everybody now is like Jason Tatum's great. Let's give him an average NBA coach. Instead of 14, he averages 11.

And oh, by the way, let's put him on the Celtics with a healthy Gordon Hayward. He's playing 18 minutes, not 38. So, again, I wouldn't be shot. I think people think Jason Tatum now, it's like, oh, he's going to average 30. Slow down. By the way, Isaiah Thomas was an MVP-level player. His entire career, he's averaged 14 a game. He got to Brad Stevens.

He was an MVP-talk guy. Let's slow down on Jason Tatum. I watched them in college. I watched Duke basketball a lot. I liked him a lot. We didn't think he was going to be in the Eastern Conference finals, throwing the ball down on LeBron. Right.

I mean, I don't want to move all the pieces around if he had a different coach. And, you know, would have Gordon Hayward would have got hurt. I mean, he's played great and he deserves credit for it. But to me, it's more about,

I don't know that Kobe necessarily wanted that out. No, Kobe's been doing so good. Yeah, Kobe's been such a good Lakers. Yeah, like just, just the ideal vet. And then you take a little shot at Lanzo ball. Not directly, though.

But speaking of that, sticking with Kobe, you can always rely on Shaq for throwing shade at Charles Barkley. But can you rely on him for NBA news? How about this one, Colin? The big man told TMZ this weekend that a certain former teammate might be making a comeback. No way. Jack, what if you could come out of retirement and play with LeBron, man? No, no. What do you think about that result?

Kobe coming back, I heard. What's that Kobe free Kobe back too? Kobe coming back. I heard he was right here for him. No, no, no. I saw Kobe last week. He looks great, by the way. He looks thicker.

Kobe's put on 20 pounds of dad weight, like steaks and wine and sleeping in weight. It looks great. He's not like he looked when he played, but. No, I mean, Kobe looks good. Kobe's got some girth now. Kobe looks like a really handsome, in-shaped dad. He's got those kind of like big dad arms now, you know. He coaches his daughter's basketball team.

He's awesome. Is that going to make a comeback? No. I don't want him to see him make a comeback. I got all the great Kobe. I got eight to 12 years of prime. I saw the young Kobe, the older Kobe. I got 60 his last game.

And I got an Oscar. I'm all good with it. It's all-time stuff. We're good on Kobe. Finally, the only team that scored fewer points than the Giants last season were, of course, the winless Browns. But after drafting Sequin and getting

key pieces healthy during the off season, at least one scout thinks that the Giants will be nearly unstoppable. terrified AFC scout told NJ Advanced Media that teams facing the Giants can only rely on one thing. Pray for injuries and bad weather. My prediction is that if Eli has healthy targets, it'll open up the offense for the short throws and the long throws.

There's too many weapons that can stretch the field vertically. Then you add in stake on Barclay. You can do some serious damage as well. Who's my Super Bowl dark horse? It is your sleeper team, Colin? In the whole NFL, my sleeper team is the New York Giants. I don't understand why people, they literally have, in every single unit on their team, they have a potential star.

Running back Barclay, Odell Beckham, Lannon Collins safety, Janoris Jenkins Corner, Alec Ogletree linebacker, Olivier Vernon Passrrrrusher, Snacks Harrison, Nate Solder Left Tackle. Now, I'm not saying they're Philadelphia, but in every unit, they have a Pro Bowl-Level player. There's about six teams in the league that can say that. Rams, Eagles, Kansas City.

There's just how many teams that can say that. I think it's just so hard to imagine because they were such a disaster last year. I know, but this is the NFC East. Nobody wins back to back for like 13 years. That is true. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The Heard Lye News. I'm all for good sportsmanship. That's why we're a huge fan of Hyundai's new Shopper Assurance program, transparent pricing, flexible test driving, streamlined purchasing. Hyundai. Go to USA.com slash shopper assurance. HyundaiUSA.com slash shopper assurance. Learn more for yourself via the coward Global Satellite Network.

One of our favorites, Albert Breer, senior NFL reporter, Monday morning quarterback. We love having him on. You were a cowboy beat rider. Now you're a Patriot guy, or at least in that vicinity. It looks like that's where you're at today. You wrote an article about Aaron Rogers' quest to be like Tom Brady. Now, it's interesting, Albert, because, you know, sometimes Aaron can be kind of

California cool. You know, there's like a distance with like, like he cares, but not too much. Does he, does he kind of keep track of stuff with Brady? I think it was more about kind of what motivates him. You know, I think forever what motivated him was how he fell on draft day and how Alex Smith went in front of him and how he had to wait until the 24th pick in that green room. And that has an expiration date.

You know, he won two MVPs. He won a Super Bowl. in the NFC championship game a couple times in the last few years. And I think it sort of reached the point where that wasn't pushing him anymore. And he needed new challenges. And he had a knee injury in 2015. And it was something that had been bugging him for a while. He goes and gets his scoped out after the year.

And then he starts looking into his diet and different things that he has been doing. And the new challenge to him became longevity. How do I extend my career? How can I become like Tom Brady has been? and how can I do some of the things that Brady's done? And so I think as much as anything else, Colin, it was about where he's found his motivation. Early in his career, that chip on his shoulder,

that was about where he was drafted, how all those teams passed on him. And now it's kind of hard for him to play the underdog, so his motivation is getting to where Brady is, which is to a point of almost unprecedented longevity. By the way, you're at Brown's camp, my bad. I'll get to that in a second. Speaking of New England,

Dan Shauna Seagulls, after Belichick a week ago. go. I love that. Brady and his Tom Brady Clinic. Somebody goes after Tom Brady. There is a feistiness in the Boston Press Corps. Like they've been beat up so long by this dynasty in Belichick,

this covert machine, that now they sense a weakness. Do you sense a fraying of the system? I mean, it feels like there's little tiny fissures in this, right? Well, you know, I think we talked about this last fall, Colin, right, around the Garoppola

trade. And I really think Tom Brady forever has enabled Bill Belichick's system. It's incredibly powerful for any coach if your best player is willing to be treated like the 30th player on the roster. And forever and ever and ever, Tom Brady was completely fine with that. He was a program guy. He was on board with everything Belichick did. And so every coach in that building could coach everyone hard and point over at number 12 and say, look, that guy's taking it. You can take it too. And that kind of trickled down to the way he was paid, the way he comported himself. Tom Brady came to embody what Bill Belichick wanted in a football player. And when your best player is like that, it means everything.

When your best player isn't on board to the same level, it can cause problems. And that's part of what I think they've had to fix over the course of the last six months is, you know, like how do you, how do you take this next step with the program coming off of a Super Bowl loss if that guy isn't there for the entire offseason program? if that guy is doing little things on social media that look like he's needling the team. I think it makes it a little bit more difficult to run the program the way that Bill wants to run it if he doesn't have that guy sitting there as a symbol of everything that he wants in a player. And so my understanding is that there hasn't been any sort of great effort to fix everything.

I think the hope internally in New England is that they're going to find a way when the game start to kind of compartmentalize everything and focus on winning. I still think this is a 12-win team. I still think he's an MVP candidate, but certainly it's not the way it was. Emin QB, Albert Brear, senior NFL reporter. You know, Jimmy Garapolo came out and said, and it didn't bother me because he was out of the building.

And once you're out of the building, out of the newsroom, out of the office, and you say, I think I'm better than blank. I'm okay with it. But then Jimmy Garapolo follows that up with the adult film star, dinner Beverly Hills. And guys like me are like, there are certain things in Life Albert that don't go together. Toothpaste and orange juice and franchise quarterbacks and adult film stars.

I don't want to see them together. What did you make of that knowing Garoppolo, knowing his personality? I had two NFL guys, two of them, one Sean Merriman here, and another one texted me and said, this ain't the first. You believe that? Do you believe that? I had a coach, I talked to a couple days ago, he said that he was pumped to see that happen with Jimmy Garapola because it means the Niners might be a little bit more vulnerable

than people on the outside might think. So I know NFL people have taken note of it. I think you hope if you're the Niners that this is a lesson he can learn that he is living under a spotlight now that he wasn't living under before. He's been a professional athlete for four years, but this is not the same sort of environment that he was living in when he was the backup to Tom Brady in New England. And so I think part of this is the adjustment that he's going to have to make. Look, he played college football at Eastern Illinois. He was a second round pick. You know, I think, you know, as recently as a year ago right now, he could go out to dinner in Boston,

no one would bug him. It was no problem. He could go to a bar with his buddies, no problem. No one would bug him. He's in a very, very different position now where people know who he is. And that changes the way you live your life. And so I think for Jimmy, this is an important time to understand that the circumstance that circumstances that he's living under off the field have changed.

And I know the Niners hope that he's going to take this as a lesson and live his life a little bit differently now. Albert Breer joining us. You're in Cleveland. I like the fact that it looks like Tyrod Taylor would start the season. I think Teddy Bridgewater should start for the Jets. I have no problem with rookie quarterback sitting the entire year. But I am also realistic. A number one pick is not going to sit.

They go on a two-game losing street. streak and that crowd's going to go nuts and they're going to want to see Baker and I get it. What is your feeling on the vibe? Hugh Jackson has to win, Albert. They're not going to give him a 2 and 14. What is your vibe on the pressure, Baker, Tyrod, how it plays out? Well, I think the key for all the rookie quarterbacks, this goes for Baker, it goes for Sam Darnold, goes for Josh Rose and Josh Allen and all the way down to Lamar Jackson.

Those guys are going to get on the field if their teams fail. And so that puts pressure on the starting quarterbacks, not just to play well, but also to find a way to win games. And if you want to look back at the last 10 draft classes before this one, right? So that's 2008 to 2017. 27 quarterbacks were drafted in the first round. Only two of those guys were true redshirts, like really sat the entire first year. One was Jake Locker in Tennessee in 2011.

The other one was Pat Mahomes in Kansas City last year. The two things that those guys had in common, they were on contending teams. The 2011 Titans were 9 and 7 in the race to the very end. The Chiefs won the division last year. And so it's almost less relevant how the quarterback in front of them plays. It's where the team is. And so if these teams don't win, we're eventually going to see those rookie quarterbacks, whether they're ready or not.

Yeah. It's exciting. I want to see him play. He's got something. Yeah, he sure does. I'll just throw this out to you. So we saw the Eagles great defense shredded in the Super Bowl. We saw the Vikings' great defense shredded in the NFC championship.

Pittsburgh in Jacksonville. Everybody moved the ball up the field. Without Gronk, the Patriots moved like a hot knife through butter, second half against Jacksonville. Aaron Donald is unsigned, yet Brandon Cooks got an extension in L.A. You know how this league works. It's a copycat league. It seems to me I'm getting receivers and running backs and quarterbacks.

Kurt Cousins making a fortune. Aaron Donald unsigned. What do I make of that? Are we seeing a shift that, you know, the game is no longer defense. I understand the logic there, Colin. I think this is more about the market and how the markets changed over the last three years. And Domagan Sue got $19 million a year in 2015 when he hit the free agent market.

The market for players at defensive positions has not moved since then. Von Miller basically got the same deal the next year and we've seen no movement. At that point, Sue was making 86% of what the top quarterback was making. Right now, what Sue got, what Von Miller, got, that's right at about 63% of what the top quarterbacks making. When Matt Ryan signed his deal, quarterbacks hit $30 million per year before any other player got to $20 million per year. And so this goes for both Aaron Donald and Kuliel, Mac, and Oakland.

Both those guys are looking for a market correction. They're looking for a percentage of what the top quarterbacks make, whereas I think the teams want a little bit more of an incremental increase over what Sue and Miller make. And so that's the question you have to ask yourself, is it fair that the gap has grown that big and the way from from the way quarterbacks are compensated to the way that everybody else is compensated. It's a tough

one. And I think that the leverage for both Donald and Mack is that those two guys are stars on their team, but they're stars off the field too. They're great locker room guys. They embody what they what those teams want to be. And so if you're Oakland, if you're John Gruden there, if you're Los Angeles, you're Sean McVeigh

there and you're trying to build your program. The Rams are in a win now spot. Gruden's trying to get by in. It becomes a little bit harder when one of those guys who's done everything right and who's been a great player and these guys are defensive players of the year, that guy's on the outside looking in. That can

create problems at locker room chemistry. So that's where the leverage is for those two guys. But I think as much as anything else, this is about the gap between the way the quarterbacks are paid and the way everybody else is being paid. Good stuff. Albert Brewer, great talking to you, Albert. You got it, Colin. All right. Coming up next, we've got breaking,

breaking news. Breaking news. Next. When you're ready for buy a new car, Hyundai's on your team. Shopper Assurance Program, transparent pricing, flexible test driving, three-day worry-free vehicle exchange.

Hyundai, USA.com slash shopper assurance. Okay, breaking news. Breaking news. Sam Darnold is now officially agreed in principle, $30 million. contract, fully guaranteed, a $20 million signing bonus. Adam Schaefter reporting Sam Darnel of the Jets. I just went to the Jets site.

They've got Sam Darnold talking. He said, let's go jet up. So Sam Darnold is now officially in house for the New York Jets. A couple of days, Miss Camp, no big deal. The language settled. I've said before there are a handful of quarterbacks that I put my arms around and go, that's going to be a guy. I did it with Andrew Luck, who went 11 and 5, 11 and 5, 11 and 5,

with the worst O-line in football in a bad running game until he was beat up. And I think Sam's one of those guys. He is tough. He is durable. Now, he had less than two years starting at USC. He is the youngest quarterback and the least experienced quarterback of all these guys. Lamar Jackson's got more starts. Josh Rosen, Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield.

He's going to have a choppy first year. He is not a refined project. He's not as good as Andrew Lodagh. coming out. He's not. Remember, Drew Breeze's first couple years. Aaron Rogers sat for a couple years. These guys grow at different times.

But at this quarterback class, there's five. You and I know that all five are not going to make it. It's not the way it works. Of the five quarterbacks drafted in the first round, one is going to be an absolute bust. My guess is the kid at Buffalo. Two of them are going to be less than we thought. my guess is Lamar Jackson's not going to own the league

and Baker Mayfield's not a number one pick. Two of them are going to work out pretty well with the chance of one being a franchise guy for 15 years. My bet is on Darnold. Smart, hardworking, durable, tough, alpha male, great qualities without the ego, and he just keeps getting better. And, you know, there's a big question at USC.

did he win the PAC 12? Not the USC coaching staff. They didn't have a great football team. Did he carry them to wins over Stanford a couple times? Washington the year before. Texas, Penn State. They were winning a lot of close games with Sam Darnold. And the question that USC a lot of fans have is,

we're going to win those without Sam Darnold. So I think this kid's special. I don't quite think he's Andrew Luck out of college. That doesn't mean he couldn't be Andrew Luck, because Andrew Luck already got the you-know-what kicked out of him his first five years, six years in the league. I like Todd Bowles, the Jets coach. I do. I do think it's an advantage for a quarterback to have an offensive coach.

But Belichick's a defensive coach. That's not to say it doesn't work if you have a defensive-minded coach. By the way, last year, the head coach at Minnesota was Mike Zimmer. And Case Keenham had his best year by a mile. If you got a good coach, I'd prefer an offensive coach, but I think Mike Zimmer's a good coach and made Case Keenham better. So it doesn't have to be an offensive coach. I just don't want you to be Rex Ryan, and you seem to be plotting against your quarterback. But I think Darnold's going to be a special player.

I think within a year or two when Tom Brady retires, the Jets will own this division. And they've got their guy. And there was five quarterbacks drafted. I think Darnold's the best one long term. I think Josh Rosen at Arizona is the best. one the soonest. Again, I think Josh Allen has a chance to bust. I think Baker and Lamar

Jackson have a chance to succeed, but I don't think they'll be nearly as great as everybody else does. I think Baker, his ceiling's lower than people think. I think Lamar Jackson, I just want to see him play for a couple years and make those third down and nine throws in the NFL. So Sam Darnold's in. He's a New York jet.

By the way, did anybody see LeBron James? Joy, I want you to watch this tape this weekend. LeBron's opening a school. today. When LeBron went to Miami, there was pressure. He had to win titles. When LeBron came back to Cleveland, there was pressure. I got to win my city a title. Is it me or does LeBron sound happier now going to L.A. with no pressure? This is kind of like a dream come true for me. You know, growing up, you know, I was a Cowboys fan, I was a Bulls fan, I was a Yankees fan.

And you look at the Lakers, you know, being able to play for a historic franchise, you know, with so much history, you know, and now being able to partner with Magic Johnson, someone I kind of like, you know, looked up to when I was younger and being forward to all come to fruition at this point, I think timing is everything. Okay, again, when he went to Miami,

he had something to prove. And then when he went back to Cleveland, he had something to prove. You know what he sounds like? Happy. Once you have the rings and once you have the stack of cash, you can play for yourself. The whole tone of this move has been just LeBron moving into the next stage of his career, right?

Just look at the way that he announced he was coming to the Lakers, the Los Angeles Lakers. That's a little tweet. It's a little memo. Nothing to prove. By the way, I'm going to the Lakers. Yeah. That's it. There's no big announcement, no big party, no guarantee a champion.

No Sports Illustrated article. No song to match the big events. He called in Van Nuys Airport, heading to Europe. He called his guys and said, yeah, you guys can do a press release. Yeah, I'm out. Nothing to prove. There's been no big press conference. None.

No parade. Once you have the titles, once you have the fortune, you can do stuff for yourself. And it's very freeing. And by the way, people are saying, well, he didn't go to L.A. for basketball. Well, he's in Mogul stage. By the way, Clint East would won a Grammy. Clint East would want an Oscar in Mogul stage. And Bono won a Grammy in Mogul stage.

And Tom Brady beat the Atlanta Falcons. in a Super Bowl in Mogul stage. And Peyton Manning won a Super Bowl in Mogul stage. Derek Jeter won a ring in Mogul stage. You know my three stages of sports. The showoff stage, I'm great. The validation stage, got to win rings, Grammys, Oscars. And then there's the mogul stage, which is, I love my job and everything.

But I got nothing to prove. Now I'm going to do what I want to do. And that's where LeBron's at. And there was a quote, according to an NBA source, listen. NBA players said, quote, on LeBron's move to L.A. They just had to not blank it up. Jerry West just said it. And I was like, finally, they ain't going to the Lakers.

He's going to L.A. That's okay. Again, you can win titles in your mogul stage. Hour three coming up, sports fans, the sun is shining. The temps are rising. Summer's here. Grab your friends. Blast some tunes and ignite those coals. Kingsford, charcoal. Start something.

Hour three next. Ah, this is the her. wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles. Our number three, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Sam Darnel, Joy Taylor. Just announced only one rookie is unsigned. That's the Bears linebacker from Georgia. And that's more about a helmet hitting rule.

And he's trying to get some clarity on that. So Sam Darnold's in for the Jets. Fully guaranteed. Not that I'm rooting for him. I am above that. We practice only Big J journalism on the show. Oh, we do? That's all we do here is journalism.

Not really into opinions. It's just Big J. journalism. So Sam Darnold has been signed. A friend of LeBron James will be joining us this hour. And bad news for anybody facing Nick Sabin. Interesting numbers on Sabin. But let's start. Tom Brady got upset at training camp this weekend.

Football's going on. So I'm starting there. There is a big difference between you and I working at a company and us owning a company. It's much easier to just work at a company. I don't have to deal with, you know, HR and payroll and facilities and contracts. I just come to work, blah, blah, blah. I'm an employee. Tom Brady was an employee forever.

And then Tom Brady decided I want to branch out. I'm going to own the Tom Brady Clinic. and I'm going to sell oils and jump ropes and gear, and I'm going to recruit players for the Patriots to join the TB12 clinic and get a big brand. And, oh, this appears to be the downside to owning the business. You get calls in the middle of the night. Everybody that's watching this show or listening, driving around,

knows the difference between just working at a business like a guy like me and owning a business. And most employees don't, they don't really understand what it's like to own a business. I don't really want to own everything about this show. I don't want to deal with payroll and I don't want to deal with this and that. Tom Brady opens up a clinic, recruits players to come to the clinic, Julian Edelman comes to the clinic, and oops, Julian Edelman gets busted for BEDs. So Tom Brady's got to go talk to the media, and here's what happened.

No comment. That's just ridiculous. Tom. I'm out. See, guys. And, of course, it's not ridiculous because it's your clinic. And I went this morning to the TB12 page. They're selling supplements and they're selling gear and they're selling pliability lotion.

Okay. I'm going to try some of that. I'm going to go home tonight and try some pliability lotion. And I'll just leave it at that. They got a documentary. They got a book. They're selling lifestyle. Hey, but don't ask any of the questions.

Well, Tom, that's the downside to owning a business. Ask every business owner watching this show. It would be an unfair question if Julian Edelman busted for PEDs and you didn't have a clinic and he was going to using the Patriot staff. And people came up and said, Tom, what do you make about that? Tom could say, well, I don't know. I'm just an employee. Julian Edelman's got to take care of Julian Edelman. But now Tom Brady takes care of Julian Edelman.

You put your name in a company. You want a brand. You ever notice with Tom Brady, the more Tom Brady branches out into Tom Brady stuff and the less Tom Brady, about New England stuff, we're getting more of this crap? New England was always the one team in the NFL. Assistance didn't talk. Coordinators didn't talk.

Brady didn't talk. Nobody talked. Grunk, tough guy. 6-7, 260. I don't know. I'm not going to talk about getting trouble from the coach. There used to be one clear message. And now it's all muddied up and all clouded. I'm not saying an employee can't have an opinion. But I'm saying once an employee wants to be a boss,

This is what you get. But Tom Brady made a choice, and this is the result of the choice. Tough questions. They are not ridiculous whatsoever. So I saw, you know, most of the time, you and I agree on stuff. We agree on stuff. Who's going to win the games? Who's going to win the series?

We agree on 90% of stuff. The 10% you and I don't agree on is the stuff that makes the Internet, blogs, tweets, right? If I have an opinion that's contrarian. Okay, what I'm about to say seems obvious, and I think you're all the crazy people. Because what I'm about to say is fact-based. So I'm reading a story this weekend. LeBron talked over the weekend. He's going to talk later today.

He's opening an amazing school and Akron. It's awesome. But I'm reading a story about this, and a story came out this weekend, and it was another, I don't think this L.A. is going to work thing. Said a player in the NBA anonymously, he didn't go to the Lakers. He went to L.A. He's going to LA. He's not going because of the basketball, i.e., it won't work.

During this column, the writer says the Lakers journey is embarking on, is it difficult to say the least. There's no surefire co-star on the Laker roster barring a major trade. There's no clear path to contention. Okay, time out. I am now going to go into a fact-based, fact-based. argument. Let me just put up LeBron's career highs last year. So let's establish that he's still great. Games played career high. Assists with that garbage roster career high. Rebounds, career high. Triple doubles career high. So let's establish LeBron's really, really good.

And forget the MVP award. He's the best player in the game. Hardin plays no defense. He's the best player in the game. Let's establish that. If you put the best player in the league on any team. I mean, Golden State was good. You add Durant, the second best player, and you can't beat him. You add Chris Paul, a top 20 player to the Rockets. They have Golden State down three, two. I'm talking the best player, better than Paul, better than hard, better than Durant. So we've established that he's great. Here's the other thing. Remember how Michael Jordan won three titles, went and played baseball, came back and won three more titles. When Michael Jordan came back and won three more titles, he was 33.

LeBron's 33. But LeBron has multiple advantages that Michael didn't. Number one, Michael Jordan played multiple years of college basketball in arguably the toughest conference in college basketball. Michael also played in a significantly more physical NBA, where centers weighed 270, were domestic, and they were there to pound you if you came close to the basket. LeBron plays in a league where they're international centers. They're built like combs. You know, they're like 7 feet 1, 250. And they have no interest in contact.

The health and wellness standards are much better today. LeBron eats better, trains better, foods better, supplements better, nutrition better. Oh, by the way, LeBron's a bigger, stronger person. that generally matters as you age. People get certain DNA. LeBron's bigger and stronger. And oh, by the way, Michael Jordan had a major injury. Second year in the league broke his foot.

LeBron's never had one. Michael came back 33. Best player in the league wins three titles. You do get LeBron's 33, nowhere in tear of college, a less physical league, a healthier era, bigger, stronger person, no major injuries. and you think LeBron's going to struggle here. Well, what about the timing? The timing's perfect.

It would be different if Golden State's dynasty was starting. We're already seeing fatigue with their dynasty. What about San Antonio and Minnesota? They're very good. And both are dysfunctional. What about Houston? Yeah, what about them? They're not as good as last year.

I don't get it. Jordan 33, major injury, college basketball, wear and tear, less healthy, smaller body. Dominated the league. It's going to work. I don't get the doubters. By the way, coming up, a friend of LeBron around the corner, also a very interesting dilemma. I'll pose this to you, Joy.

Sam Darnold is signed with the New York Jets. I'm going to throw something out. You tell me, I'll ask the audience. You can weigh in on Twitter on this. In fact, we should put out one of those goofy Twitter polls. That's around the corner. Saturday, baseball's best rivalry is on display when John Carlos San and the second place Yankees take on mookie bets

and the first place Red Sox in a huge ALE showdown. Then Mike Trout and the Angels battle Francisco Lendor and the Indians. Coverage begins at 3 Eastern, noon Pacific on FS1 or stream it live on the Fox Sports app. And by the way, the Yankees just added to their staff, so they're really, really good. Yankees and Red Sox.

It's good for us. We have the World Series, the ALCS, the NLCS. Who we have this year? We have ALCS? Last year we had NLCS, I thought. We got the Yankees Red Sox this year, I think. Now last year we had Astros, Yankees. I don't know.

All I know is I like the Yankees. Yankees and Red Sox in the baseball players. Got some playoff baseball. By the way, we were talking about Sam Darnold is signed with the New York Jets. And I have no problem with kids coming in at the, I don't want to rush kids on the floor. It's very rare when you get somebody like Peyton Manning who's ready to come in and play. I mean, that's, you know, Russell Wilson, somebody that's mature enough to walk in and

take over a franchise. It doesn't work that way. This is complex. Darnold's the youngest. He just turned 21 years old. He has less than two full years of starting. But I'll tell you what, here sometimes in life you get a break. By NFL standards, the jet schedule is really, really, I'll just say workable.

It's obviously it's a professional schedule. The Jets open up at Detroit. That was the 27th best defense in the league. Then they get Miami and Cleveland. And then it's at Jacksonville. Then they get Denver, Indian, Minnesota at home. Then again, it's a couple of meh, at Chicago, Miami Buffalo. Then a buy.

You know, if you want to roll the dice with Sam Darnold, I mean, he's not walking into the fire there. I mean, you have a Detroit that's got a whole new coaching staff. Then you get Miami coming to your place. Miami's generally not played well up north. And then I get to go to Cleveland. You know, that's not, I mean, you know, again, if you're the Jets, you know he's the future, is he the future now?

Meanwhile, I think Cleveland, Baker Mayfield, I think their schedule opens up with like Steelers. And there's a couple of matchups for the Browns that you'd rather Tyrod Taylor kind of ease Baker Mayfield into this thing. We know Sam and Baker and Rosen and we know these guys of the future. The question is when the future start. And Sam Darnold's in. That schedule for the Jets is incredibly workable.

They get most of their Jets get most of their tough games at home. Denver, Indianapolis, Minnesota, New England wants, Houston, Green Bay. The only tough game they have on the road is at the Jags. And again, it's, that's, you know, Sam Donald would be overwhelmed against that defense. But that's it. Most of their tough games, Green Bay at home, Houston at home, Minnesota at home, Denver's defense at home, Andrew Luck at home, Tom Brady wants at home. It's pretty workable.

And with that, I bring in a friend of LeBron James. We were talking about this. LeBron seems so happy and so free. And let's bring in Dante Jones. Got a ring, played with him, knows him, hangs with him. So I'm no longer your friend. I just said this morning, I heard this LeBron quote. I'm not your friend.

I'm a LeBron's friend. That's cool. All right, that's cool. Well, you're my friend. Okay, I take it. But you and I hang out, but you go to LeBron's house. Yeah, I don't. So that's big.

Is it? Yeah, kind of. Where are you going today? I'm going to LeBron James' house. I've never met anybody but you that says that. What? A lot of people go to my house. John Goulet's been to my house.

You go to LeBron's house. I've never got invited to your house. Well, I don't invite that many people. He's been once. I'm not. Special enough to come to your house. Okay, I got it. Okay.

I take that. I'm kind of a loner. So, I was saying this order to your, I said, when he went to Miami, you go in rings, dude. We know you're great. You got win rings. And he goes back to Cleveland, and it almost felt like I owe the city one. All right. And then he comes out to L.A.

And I'm like, he seems happy. Didn't even call a press conference. Is it possible this is the least pressure? Mind you, I disagree with what you just said. Because when he went to Miami, he didn't have to win championships. Miami just wanted good basketball. Like, there's certain cities that just want great basketball. They don't have championship aspirations every year.

Miami wasn't one of them at that point in time. Yes, you have great talent next to you and you're coming. He gave those expectations, what, not one, not two. He brought that with him. But were they screaming for championships? they just wanted great basketball. And then when he went back to Cleveland, Cleveland just wanted him back.

Like, that's not a city that demands a championship at all points in time. He put that championship on them. I want to bring it to you. I want this to be remembered for this city. I grew up close to here. This is what I want for Cleveland. Now, when you go to L.A., it's already understood. Sometimes you don't have to state things that are already understood. The Lakers, the Celtics, the Spurs,

they play for championships. They don't play for good basketball. They don't play for for entertainment purposes. They play for championships. They build for championships. So that's why I don't think it's necessary for him to even start speaking about championships because it's already understood when you put that Laker jersey on. The fans expect that from you on a nightly basis.

And that is what you're going to be measured by in their eyes. If he would have left Miami with no titles, though, people would have said, I don't even want to hear, Jordan. Please, can't close with Bosch. If he doesn't win here but they're good, you'd be like. I don't see. That's what I'm saying. The fans are the ones that would have.

the world would have said that to him, but the Miami fans would have been gracious to have him. You think so? I don't think they would have been, if he didn't win a championship, like even Alonzo Morning and all the great Miami Heat players, even though they may have not brought a championship during their heydays, they weren't vilified. They weren't cut up in the media because they didn't have a championship. Alonzo got one later, but. LeBron's, isn't he different?

He is different, but I don't think the Miami Heat fans would have been gracious. They're great fans and they're great fans, and they love. love great basketball. But the Laker fans, if he doesn't bring a championship, that's what they're going to measure him by. And that's just what you get when you sign up for this Laker franchise. You think he feels pressure here? I don't think he feels pressure. I think he knows what he signed up for. He knows what he's happy. And I think he knows what he signed. As he strives for greatness, he wants to be a part of a situation that holds him accountable instead of him holding himself accountable. Like this Lakers franchise is going to

hold him accountable. They're going to demand more out of him, and that makes him better ultimately. And he's okay with that. I think he is. When you hang out with him, I know he's a busy guy, and you've got your stuff you're doing, but when you, the times that you have lunch, talk, good space for him?

He seems extremely happy right now. Like, just in a good place where him and his family are in, it just seems like it's all working for him. And as a friend, you're happy for a person who's happy with their own personal life. He's happy being a Laker right now.

He's happy with being under his kids and his kids being happy where they're playing at and his family seems like they're having a blast right now. What did you make last week of Kevin Durant? Kevin Durant's one of those guys, I call it rabbit ears. Like LeBron doesn't really respond to people. LeBron, Tom Brady doesn't respond to fans. Peyton Manning didn't respond to fans.

Brett Farve didn't respond to fans. Derek Jeter didn't respond to fans. Most guys don't, especially what you're a legend. You know, the third string running back, for Tennessee may respond to fans if he's getting called out. But the legends don't, except Kevin Durant. Random people, Twitter burner accounts. As a pro athlete, how do you see that?

I think we look at his superhuman ability on the court, and we do not understand that he is a human who's very sensitive. But also, he's in the social media world they're wearing right now. Me and you are not like him because we have families. So they keep our attention on a daily basis. But you got a guy who's single, no kids. and he's in social media and when you're not doing things

that's just what we do now if we're not busy with our families of things we're in our phones and social media and looking at what the world is telling us because most people get their news from social media so like he's just engulfed in this culture of social media and he's tired of seeing

random people with random opinions talk about him so he's shooting back and I respect him for saying something that's on his chest he doesn't have to keep holding it in People have too many opinions, and they may not be professionals at this craft, but they have an opinion in regard to what he does. And sometimes he gets, he has enough and he shoots back. You know, people really, and they have no problem saying this, multiple people who have covered him say, you know, listen, man, he ain't going to end up in Oakland.

Like, he's a wander. He wants to do things. And, you know, my theory has always been, once you get the titles and once you get the fortune, then it's your life. And you have no, the pressure just escapes. I mean, LeBron, like, didn't choose the best roster in the league. It was what LeBron goes where LeBron wants to go. Do you think, I mean, do you think Durant leaves, stays in San Francisco for another eight years?

I just don't. I think Steph's a lifer. Steph's a lifer. I think Steph's a lifer. I totally agree. I think Dreimond might be a lifer. I think those two may be lifers in Golden State. I don't know if Clay is and I don't know if Kate.

And I don't think Katie is. I think New York is going to be the new hotspot next year. Oh, really? Because they have a great coach. The organization is moving in the right direction. I think their culture, that city, and what it could be is what's going to. You have Porzing is there. Like you have some, you have some, the kid Knops.

That kid's good. You have a flexible roster. I think what brought LeBron to L.A. was ultimately the city, the lifestyle, and the flexibility of the roster of what it could be rather than what it is. A lot of rosters are stuck in what they are right now, and they don't have that much flexibility. But you look at a New York Knicks roster and the cap space that they could have and you could play with who you want to play with. Like if he looks at a landscape next year and he's like, okay, Kyrie's there. Porzingis could be there.

The kid Knox is good. And me, we could do it our own way. And I could be in New York City and I could live the way I want to. I've already dominated here. I already have these businesses set up in Silicon Valley. They'll follow me to New York. We could set something else differently. I think that's going to be the new hotspot.

I think guys are going to be looking at that very seriously next year. Well, Kevin Knox has looked sensational so far. I know it's young early. but if you have poor Zingas and he's healthy, you have a star, and then you have a young star. He has some markers that you can't deny. Yeah, no, no, no. And by the way, James Dolan may sell.

It's not a terrible... And listen, and that may change the whole landscape of basketball at that point in time. I agree with that. By the way, are you one of these crazy people that are going to tell me, Jason Tatum's going to score 30, Jason Tatum's going to be this. Time out. Brad Stevens made Isaiah Thomas an MVP candidate.

He wouldn't have played if Gordon Hayward didn't get hurt. I mean, he'd have played, but he'd come off the bench. Can't we pump the brakes a little on Jason Tatum's going to be the next superstar? No. I thought he was the best player in that draft. It would be if it would be dangerous if he was a sixer. Like he has some, he has some markers that you just can't deny. His one-on-one ability, he can space the floor.

He's six-nine. He defends at a great level. And he wants to get better. He seek Kobe out to get better. That, like, he's going to, he's in a trajectory to be great. Like, great, what great? Whatever he wants to be. Like, he's a child right now, basically.

He's what, 19, 20 years old, 20 years old. So we haven't even, we've scratched the surface with his talent. So if he's that great, Boston can't keep all these guys. Right. They have a problem. I was going to say, either pay through the roof or find a way to keep what you, what you want. But I think he's the one that you just. just don't move. No, I mean, if he comes out and he's a 24 point of game guy like everybody's

telling me right now, you don't need to pay Gordon Hayward a fortune. I'm sorry, you don't. Right. I think he's a movable piece at that point. A totally movable piece. But he's an asset because he's at a price point and he has talent. So now you can move your roster and get more picks and stuff in your warehouse where Boston can have some longevity in winning and trying to reach the championship level again. But that kid is, that kid's going to be very, very good. And when I saw him and Kobe working out together, that was scary. Like that's what gives you chills because the kid, like if he gives something just part of the mentality and even in how he sees the game, if he keeps getting that part of it, the kid has some things that you just can't stop. Good stuff, Dante. Are you going to LeBron's house today?

No, not at all. Well, last week. I don't spend all my days of LeBron's house. I do have, I have five children. I have a family. Yeah, but they, you know what? I just saw him yesterday at this kid's game, which, which Bronny was amazing. that team is very good.

So you went and hung out with LeBron yesterday? My son was playing in Las Vegas and in his tournament, and I just stopped over. I saw some of my friends' kids. I wanted to go see Kenyon's son play, and I want to go see Bronin's son play. And then my son had a game, and then we trucked on back.

Why didn't you go to LeBron's today? Because I got stuff to do. But he's LeBron. You should just go over there and get sourcing. He's not home. He's opening a school, which we have to congratulate him on. That whole school for kids in his home city. Like that's an amazing thing.

Was LeBron yelling at the refs? Keep it real. He's not a big ref yellow. He's not a ref yeller. He was coaching. He wasn't a big ref, like. Nah, he's not. But he was coaching and he was defending his team.

It wasn't like, what I saw in that game was, like, if my son is on the team, he's going to play all the minutes. Why? I just, that's just my son. But, like, he was using his team, which was awesome from that coaching staff and him. Brian's son sat down for minutes. He played. He got coached by multiple. people. So like that, that was awesome.

If I was you, I'd just go to his house, whether he's home or not, and just, you know. I don't have that, I don't have that much flexibility in our friendship. You have five kids, too. You don't have much flexibility, period. You have five kids. I got stuff to do. Dante Jones, good to seeing you. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Speaking of basketball in Vegas, Colin, there's been some discussion about eventually

having a NBA franchise there. The Las Vegas Review Journal asks some of the NBA's biggest names if they were down with the idea of having a franchise in Sin City. Let's take a listen. I think it's overdue, to be honest. I think that Vegas is a booming market. All the players come here, so many people visit, so much, you know, revenue that you can bring in and have a team in Vegas. I thought from a basketball standpoint, just from a location standpoint, it's person. You got hockey here, they got WMBA here. The NFL of B here. The NFL of B here. You in a couple years. I think, you know, Vegas is built for a NBA team. I mean, it's built for it. You know, it's built for it. Obviously, the money is there, but I think the fan support is there

as well. And we saw that in hockey. What do you think? Well, it's funny. Like, I, if you had asked me what Vegas could have handled, I would have said before anything got there, I'd have said NBA. Right. Baseball, it's too hot outdoors. It's like Florida. It's just doesn't, it's not going to work. You have to have a retractable roof. And NFL, I think, can work because it's eight home games. and you don't need to sell it every game in Vegas. Plus, the Raiders have a huge fan base. But now I'm going to have three pro teams in Vegas on like a two-year period. That seems like too much.

Too fast. I don't know. I think the NBA, like you said, the NBA is actually the one that makes the most sense for Vegas. No. Listen, I worked there seven years. It's a great basketball. Right. So, I mean, I'm a big supporter of sports in Vegas.

I thought that the rate went this way back in the day when the Raiders were rumored about it or even just putting a franchise there. I thought it was a good idea. because Vegas is just, it's an event city. Like, that's where people go to spend money. Yeah, well. It just makes sense. And people say, like, if you think about it, people go there to spend money.

Don't you think people also live there? Everyone just thinks that Vegas is just this empty town that only has visitors. You know, NBA games are an event. Like, baseball games aren't. There's too many. NFL games are an event. NBA games are the world's biggest cocktail party. Those work.

By the way, they have a NASCAR event. It works. They have boxing. It works. Hockey's obviously working. It's a huge sports town. I think this actually makes a lot of sense. However, if a team were to move, say, like, Memphis or Phoenix or Magic or whatever,

I would prefer they bring a franchise back to Seattle first before Vegas. Well, Seattle is, people think of Vegas as a very well-heeled rich city. It's not. Actually, Seattle's a much richer city than Las Vegas. Las Vegas, a lot of the money in Vegas is from people bringing it and then leaving town. Right. I'm leaving it there. Yeah, I mean, the industry, they don't have the bandwidth that Seattle does in terms of, you know, Seattle's got a massive tech base.

Yeah, tech industry there. So a lot more millionaires in Seattle. It's a bigger city. It's got more money. You got far more fortune 500 companies. So Seattle is, even though you think of Seattle is up in the northwest and it's wet and it's dreary. And also there's just like a rich basketball history in Seattle. Well, Amazon.com's in Seattle.

Starbucks in Seattle. Microsoft in Seattle. You could get 150 season tickets. You could get eight suites purchased just by those three companies. So it's safe to say Jarvis Landry is happy that he's no longer remember the Miami Dolphins. He was talking to Sports Illustrated and he ripped the dolphins and shed some light on his relationship with Adam Gase, the head coach. He said in Miami, no one appreciated bleep. Here it's blue collar.

It's hardworking. People that actually appreciate what you bring to the table. When I'd go talk to Gase about it, he'd curse me out. Why are you telling me how to do my job? It got to the point where the environment was just awful. Yeah, Miami's dysfunctional. Oh, yes. I'm sorry.

No, you're not doing anything. I love Miami, but it's dysfunctional. I don't, I look, I'd like to defend the Dolphins in this spot, but I think what Gase is doing is interesting. You're from Miami. If I said, do you take out Pat Riley in the whole city? Right. Your baseball's dysfunctional. For sure.

Your NFL's dysfunctional. Miami Hurricanes as much as I love him. I've had a lot of dysfunction. They've just now gotten back on track. Yeah. Okay. Hockey's dysfunctional. Basically, Pat Riley is the only functional has become.

The Miami Heat are well run every year. Yeah, he's the godfather. But everything starts at the top, right? They get to have good ownership. You have to have a good executive structure. Like that matters. I think what's happened in Miami, especially with, particularly with Gase. Obviously, Tanna Hill got hurt.

That's unfortunate. You had to bring in Cutler, which didn't work out too well. But Gays has also let go of all the big name personalities. It's kind of like, I mean, it's not a different situation, obviously, but it's Chip Kelly-esque. He got rid of Jay Ajay, got rid of Indomacan Su, he got rid of Jarvis Landry. They're flushing.

They want to get, Miami clearly wanted to get the egos out of the building. Cool. Better work. Better because they just like that. Because they have egos because they're pretty good at football. Yeah. Finally, everything is new with these Seahawks. Even Russell Wilson feels like he's being reminded of his rookie season six years ago. That was the last time the Seahawks were beginning a new era,

speaking of starting over, as they are now. Let's take a listen. It's on somebody yesterday. This year feels kind of like my rookie year. Way more experience, obviously. But the feeling of it all is just different. I think the outside world doesn't really know, you know, what we're hoping to do and what we're working for.

You know, kind of, you know, I don't think anybody had really crazy high expectations my rookie year, too. So a lot of that feels the same. No one has high expectations for the Seahawks this year because they're a completely different team. Nobody knows what to expect to have expectations. Well, they lost Michael Bennett, a premier pass rusher, Cliff Averill, Cam Chancellor. Richard Sherman. Yeah, it's like, now Richard was not, you got hurt, but, I mean, that's a lot of, that's a lot of people.

But it's just that they lost, I mean, I feel like they lost more than just those particular players. They lost their identity. Yes. They're not as feared. Right. About a three-year window, nobody wanted to go to Seattle. Like nobody. Now you look at it and you think yourself, oh, I can get a W.

Yeah, it's a winnable game now. Yeah. It's a completely different environment and culture there. They'll be interesting, though. 22nd best odds win the Super Bowl. 22nd best? That's lousy. That's like Dolphins-esque.

That's all my team's careening out of control. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lide News. If you're a Nick Sabin-Hater, you're not going to like today's best for last. That's coming up next. Hey, pro customers.

at Lowe's save 5% on every purchase every day when you choose the Lowe's business credit account. 5% all purchases in store or online. Subject to credit approval. U.S. only, Lowe's. Oh, if you hate Nick Sabin, you're not going to like this. 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. Well, every time a college football coach signs a big contract, the media, which just doesn't get business at all, freaks out. So Nick Saban has a new deal. It makes him the highest paid coach in college football. He'll make $8.3 million a year, slightly more than Urban Myers, slightly more than Jim Harbaugh. Forget the fact that with Sabin, Alabama has 13,000 more students on campus since he arrived. Just one year of 13,000 students at $20,000. pop is $260 million.

Nick Saban, the enrollment at Alabama has gone up every year he's been there. So if you just took 13,000 students one year at Alabama, most of those kids stay for four years, one year 13,000 new students, and don't kid yourself, there is a study that's been proven to show that the better the football program, enrollment goes up. So Alabama makes $260 million as an institution. in one year with 13,000 new students. And since Sabin's been there, the enrollment's gone up, you know, like 35, 40%. Forget that.

That's non-football revenue. But what is really important? What is the thing you can tell people, a recruit when you pitch them? Recruits can go anywhere in football. You sell consistency. So Nick Saban, this is the greatest dynasty ever. He's won five national titles. since he got to Alabama in 2007, they've won 85% of their conference games.

Second place is Georgia, and they've won under 70%. But look at this. Since Saban arrived, consistency is the key. 42 coaches have been hired or fired. Tennessee's gone through five. Arkansas, Florida, Ole Miss Vandy have gone through four. I'll just roll behind me a list of every coach, not even including interim coaches, of which there have been

over a dozen. These are the head coaches who have been fired, hired, fired since Nick Saban came to the SEC. Our radio audience can't see it. I'm not going to read them. It's just incredible. So when people talk about, remember, Alabama's coach would make $4.5 to $5 million, regardless of who it was. What you're paying Nick Saban is $3.3 million more than a stiff. He's underpaid. He's making 3.3 million more that you would pay for. If Nick left tomorrow, you'd have to pay $5 million for anybody. Anybody.

And the good ones would get six and a half. So you're paying Nick 3.3 million more than any average football coach in America. Because that's what the good coach is now. If you're at a big job now in Oklahoma, you're making $4 and $5 million. And people get worked up over that. They just don't get it. Literally, there's a waiting list. Suites.

Enrollment of classes. Enrollment of student is through the roof. And, you know, I said this before. Pete Carroll's dynasty at USC when you live in Los Angeles. Oh, everybody's in love with it. It lasted like five years. It wasn't great the first year. It didn't account for national title in the second year.

It was kind of year three through eight. And then he was gone, just like that. They were a mess the last year. This thing is rolling. By year two, they were a national title contender, and they'll be favorites again to win this year. In fact, I think you could make the argument that Alabama hasn't necessarily been great for college football. I don't think they're the most riveting dynasty. I think the Miami Hurricanes dynasty was more fun.

I think Nebraska's dynasty in the middle of the country was very, very intriguing. USC's dynasty was a lot of fun. I could make the argument that Alabama and Clemson, Clemson's now starting a dynasty. It's become very regionalized. You don't want to become regionalized in a sport. The NBA is global. I mean, LeBron, that works everywhere. NFL works everywhere.

What's hurt baseball is that it's become very regionalized. By the way, Michigan's enrollment has gone up 3,000 since they hired Jim Harbaugh. So you say, oh, it's only, yeah, they were already in the 40s. So just think about 3,000 people. Michigan's expensive. Michigan's an elite American university. It costs you 50,000 a year. to go to Michigan. Now, if you're in state, it's a little less, but a lot of people that go to Michigan

are from New York, Texas, you know, Los Angeles, Seattle. It had been neutral for several years before Harbaugh got there. Michigan's enrollment was here. Harbaugh puts 3,000 students in at 50,000 a pop. That pays for his salary one year of that. One year non-football revenue, forget the season tickets he sold, the sponsorships, the marketing, the TV contracts, the games, the major bulls. One year of three more students at Michigan pays for Harbaugh for five years. And all these reporters, oh, my God, I'm just outraged by it. You'd be paying anybody at Alabama five.

You're paying Nick 8.3? Who gives a rip? Car shopping can be confusing terms like dealer price, list price, invoice, true cars, you show what others, shows to what other people paid. for the car in your area. Eric Mangini, Albert Breer, and Dante Jones stop by today. By the way, I loved having Eric Mangini on earlier today. So Mangini came on, and he's told me these stories through the years off the air.

But it's funny because in Cleveland, five days ago, Hugh Jackson came out joy and said, you know, Eric Mangini or Baker Mayfield's not quite ready. And then this weekend, Hugh Jackson's like, Baker Mayfield has been everything you'd want a rookie quarterback to be. And that feels like to me, the owner of the Cleveland Brown's Jimmy Haslam saying, dude, pump the brakes on the negativity. We got tickets to sell and sweets to sell. He's a number one pick. Let's be positive. And, you know, Mangini has told me stories about this.

The great thing about Jerry Jones is you think Jerry Jones is crazy. But you know when you own the Cowboys, is that Jerry's going to have a press conference after every game, that Jerry's going to tell you what he thinks every game. What owners have done historically is owners tell the coach to do something. The coach doesn't really want to do it. The coach feels compelled or pressurized to do it. It doesn't work and the coach gets ripped for it.

That's what coaches hate. And the Jets, Woody Johnson, you know, he'll suggest things to a coach, meaning do it. The coach does it, doesn't want to do it. and Woody will never put his name on it. Jerry Jones always puts his name on it. This is Jerry Jones. Here's what I think we should do.

The other thing Mangini talked about that Joey and I have gone back and forth on is, what do you do for a quarterback in year one? First round guy, do you play him? Do you sit him? Mangini talked about Tom Brady. When he was in New England, Brady came in from Michigan to the Patriots. And Mangini talked about Tom's transition from college, Big Ten. to the NFL.

Let's talk about Tom Brady for a second. So Tom was a sixth round draft pick. Let's say he was a number one pick in the draft, that everybody thought that Tom was going to be who Tom became. He would not have been ready to play that first year in New England. And I think if he had gone to a different team, Colin, he may have gotten cut. That's what I've said. I am in no rush to play any of these guys.

No rush. Now, there are times. I think you sit down as a staff. For instance, the breaking news today on the show, is Sam Darnold is signed with the Jets. I have Teddy Bridgewater, who is more than capable enough to start. I've got Josh McCown, who did a nice job last year. And then I have Sam Darnel.

If I'm the Jets, I know my future. It's not Teddy Bridgewater, and that's not, that's right, it's not Josh McCown. The question becomes, when does my future start? And we were talking about this with Sam Darnold today. If you look at the New York Jets schedule, I mean, And it's, do you want to start Teddy Bridgewater and he goes five and one? And everybody's like, why do you need Sam Darnold? You have to think about these things.

That if you start looking at the jet schedule, the only toughy in the first month is at Jacksonville. And Jacksonville's offense is sort of run-based and the Jets play real defense with Todd Bulls. You start looking at that with the Jets and you're like, where do we go? Because you know McCown's not in the future. I've always thought this. if the Jets need help, somebody in the NFL by week six is going to need a quarterback. It's just the way it works. Teddy Bridgewater.

Teddy Bridgewater is, Teddy Bridgewater to me is, if you told me Teddy Bridgewater and Case Keenham, look at the money Case Keenum got. I don't think Case Keenum is any better than Teddy Bridgewater. I think they're both kind of C plus quarterback talents, B minus C plus quarterback talents. If I'm the New York Jets and I'm. I think I like where Sam Darnold's at. And I watch him through camp. And I watch him through, you know what I do?

I call up and I say, folks, anybody interested in Teddy Bridgewater? And if I can get, if I can get a good pick out of Teddy, does Teddy get your second round pick next year? Does Teddy get you a starting right tackle? I think he probably does. So if I'm the New York Jets, I want, what my future is for the next two years for sure is Darnold and Josh McCown backing him up. Because McCown's good enough to win games.

He did last year, and he's a great mentor. He is a great mentor. So I think it's really interesting for the Jets. Watch camp, watch Darnold. I think that Teddy Bridgewater piece, you can get a starting right tackle. You can get a second round pick. Because what you need to do if you're the Jets, okay, this is going to be a choppy year.

You're not playing for a championship. You better fix that offensive line fast. Because ask Andrew Luck, you've got to fix that offensive line in New York. It's not good. And you've got to get a running game. Because Sam Darnold's 21 and none of these quarterbacks, including Darnold, are ready to carry a franchise. They need help. I don't think any of them are as good as Andrew Luck.

I think Darnold's close. I think he's a little more athletic, run around a little better. And I also think, like luck, he's prone to throwing the ball in traffic. By the way, Donald had a quick message for Jet fans this morning after signing his contract. Here it is. What's up, Jets fans? Man, it's a pleasure to be signed now. Very excited.

Very special moment. Let's do it. Jet up. It looks like a franchise quarterback to me. Exclusive live interview with one of the eight best quarterbacks I've ever seen play. Drew Brees, tomorrow in the herd. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where 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 Podcasts, or where wherever you get your podcast. And for more,

follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. A rep, mom.

I'm going to want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The story I told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more.

Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.