The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Urban Meyer, Jon Gruden, Tom Brady, and Dak Prescott

Episode Date: August 2, 2018

Colin discusses the developing story about Ohio State University HC Urban Meyer, why Oakland Raiders HC Jon Gruden might not be the right fit, New England Patriots QB Tom Brady's past issues with owner Robert Kraft, and why Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott is a great leader. Guests include Bruce Feldman, Rashad Jennings, and Greg Cosell. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. This is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, IHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me.

MorningCon. On a Thursday, NFL starts tonight. Greg CoSell later on the show as we talk a lot of football today, but I think we have to, and we should begin with a story that broke just before our show began yesterday, and my takeaway on Urban Meyer was, I think he needs to be suspended. I don't have all the information, but this morning, I've got more information.

And I am incredibly greatly disappointed, not only in Ohio State football, but when I think of Ohio State football and Urban Meyer, I think of Louisville basketball and Rick Bettino and Baylor football and Art Bryles and Penn State football at the end with Joe Paw. those universities and those fan bases and those coaches want me to believe the unbelievable that husbands and wives don't talk, that coaches who live together in small spaces for 70 hours a week vacation together don't talk. We now have texts which show that Urban Meyer's wife, also an Ohio State Athletic Department employee,

knew of a coach on her husband's staff beating his wife. We know that to be true. And she never told him for three years. I sit with my wife, and I'm sure you do this every night. When the kids go to bed last night, we talk for 90 minutes. We talk about our kids. We talk about our lives. We talk about our future.

We talk about our house. We talk about vacation plans. We talk about schools. Urban Meyer's wife, three years ago, knew about this, validated, verified on texts. And for three years, never told her husband, man, that must be a really bad marriage. Oh, wait, it's not. Because at Big Ten Media Day, Urban Meyer bragged about the relationship with his wife. Here it is.

She's always weighed in. That's my best friend and soulmate. And she's been right there with everything, especially when you start dealing with, you know, not necessarily who's going to carry the ball on third down. She has opinions too. but we don't chat about that. We chat about people. People.

She's got a great spirit and a great love of people. And her heart's always in the right place. She's phenomenal. Okay. And so absolutely I rely on her. We talk about people. Well, is Courtney Smith a person? Because she was getting beaten by her husband,

who was a football coach under Urban Meyer. Not to be hyperbolic here, but when you brag about your relationship and then you want me the next day to believe, we didn't talk about it. Really? College football coaches and basketball coaches are men often in small towns with power.

Where pro fans are loyal to a point, college fans are loyal to a fault. Ohio State fans this morning will surround their coach because that's what they do in college towns. And you want me to believe that a coach who brags about his marriage, about how his wife is great and they talk about people, didn't talk about the one person on his staff beating his wife. College football coaches have become Jack Nicholson.

Remember his character and a few good men? You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. It's a code. Us against them. The big bad media out to get us. Civilians, average people don't get us. Why don't football coaches and basketball coaches like Rick Patino

and Urban Meyer and Art Bryles and the people at Penn State years ago. Stop being Jack Nicholson. Start nurturing, not protecting. Start communicating, not protecting. And fans, it's on you. You are asking me to believe the unbelievable. That for three years, the wife didn't talk to the coach. We have verification that multiple wives on the staff knew,

and none of them talked to their husbands. And if they did, then the husbands who are coaches didn't talk to the boss down the hall, who they talked to 15 times today, never brought it up once. I don't know if you fire Urban Meyer. Maybe you should fire all of Ohio State's football coaches for not coming up with better material. Come up with a better excuse. Here's Courtney Smith, who's been pleading for help for years. You know, She said she wanted it.

She was going to have to tell her. She was going to have to tell urban. I said, that's fine. You know, you should tell urban. We can't have somebody like this coaching young men. No, no, you can't. And you shouldn't. But increasingly, we see it over and over.

I don't know what to do with coaches. I've told you. When it comes to small college town and Columbus is not Mayberry, but fans are loyal to a fault. In pro towns where people are not all from the town, because big cities have lots of jobs and lots of people move there not from the city, fans are loyal to a point. Brian Calangelo, wife had a burner account.

Fans didn't buy it, team didn't buy it, owner didn't buy it, media didn't buy it, GM gone. Unfortunately, we have a victim here, and the town will put their arms around the coach yet again. and asked me to believe the unbelievable. Let me shift to something with football that is a lighter note. Jared Cook's good football player. He says that John Gruden, the new coach of the Raiders, is showing the Raiders' old grainy film from 1976. I laughed at this because I don't know how this Ohio,

or excuse me, this Raiders Gruden thing's going to work. Baseball is considered old, stuck in its ways, rigid and stodgy. But even 10 years ago in baseball, we didn't talk about launch angles and exit velocity. We didn't have defensive shifts. Starters were paid a lot more than bullpen guys. But baseball stuck in its ways, right, has made massive changes. Ten-year contracts. Didn't have those 10 years ago.

Bullpenes now are more important than starters. That wasn't the case 10 years ago. A shortstop plays out in right field. That didn't happen 10 years ago. So baseball stodgy in 10 years ago it didn't look the same. What about football? The NFL is like Silicon Valley. They change week to week day to day.

Football doesn't even look the same on television than it did 10 years ago. 10 years ago, you had something called huddles and fullbacks. And the overtime rules were different. And the PAT rules were different. And you didn't have four and five receivers all the time. But that part, I think John Gruden can figure out. What worries me about John Gruden is the other stuff, not the schematics, not the rule changes. The world has changed in 10 years.

Ten years ago, an old white male coach could walk into a locker room that's diverse and say, no, politics. And it was understood. If the old ball coach walks into an NFL locker room and says that today, he's racially insensitive. Or worse. There was no Twitter. There was no Instagram. There was no Snapchat.

The players weren't as empowered. But players today, and rightfully so, have an opinion. Because we go to these games for the players, not the GM scouts and coaches. John Gruden will figure out all the football stuff. I don't think he'll figure it out immediately. He'll be a little rigid. It'll take a little while. it did for Joe Gibbs.

But the world's changing now. And that's what worries me about the Khalil-Max situation. The best defensive player, arguably in the NFL, and John Gruden hasn't talked to him since February. That's not a schematic thing. That's a personality thing. That's the way it used to be thing. It used to be the NFL was all about the coach.

Not even Bill Belichick is calling all the shit. shots in the NFL anymore. You want to call the shots. There's other places to do it. It's not the NFL. It's not the NBA. It's not Major League Baseball where managers are increasingly replaceable.

So I worry when I read this story, and I've got to be honest, I laughed at the headline. Jared Cook says John Gruden is showing the Raiders, quote, old grainy film from like 1976. I just don't think this thing's going to work long term. It may work for a year. Derek Carr is an unbelievable quarterback, but I got to give my staff credit.

They found something. I just can't figure out why John Gruden is not communicating and can't get a hold of Khalil Mack. But we found out why their communication is so bad. Gruden is using America online. And he's trying to get a hold of Khalil Mac using this device. And Joy, it's just not working. Someone keeps picking up the phone in his house.

That's what it is. And then he has to keep starting over. So he's trying to get a hold of Khalil Mac. And the connecting, it's not working. Yeah, it's just not working. Maybe that's Kalil emailing him back. In 2008, when Gruden left, here was a headline. on internet television, that's how it was termed, both NFL.com and NBCSports.com carried complete live games for the first time ever on that thing called the internet.

That's the game he left. And football, football is fluid, man. There's jobs that don't change in 10 years. They're called the post office. NFL, jettison the thing for a decade. I don't care if you're talking about it on football. That locker room is a completely different place. Get an extra 5% off purchases every day at Lowe's.

Items bigger, small. When you use the Lowe's Advantage card, all projects have a starting point. Start with Lowe's. C Store for Details, U.S. only. Bruce Feldman in 10 minutes. So this is an interesting story. new book out, it was released yesterday called 12.

That's Tom Brady's number 12. The inside story of Tom Brady's fight for redemption. And it talks about Tom Brady's unhappiness and displeasure over Deflategate. And Robert Kraft in particular, siding with the NFL, not Tom Brady with deflategate. Now, there's a quote in the book where Robert Kraft says, at no time should the agenda of one team outweigh the collective good. of the full 32, meaning take care of the league before you take care of an individual. Apparently, Brady was watching that press conference and blew up, was furious, grabbed the phone and called the executive director of the Players Association,

DeMora Smith, and yelled, what the blank. Why am I not getting the support I deserve on this thing? Okay, time out. Tom, New England is a ruthless cold business. Coaches and players are expendable. Yet the minute that ethos landed on Tom, he didn't like it. Tom, the reason you're Tom Brady isn't because of your mobility, you're the strongest guy with the best arm.

It's because they've been cold and ruthless. And they get rid of coaches and they get rid of players. And they don't lose a second of sleep over it. That's why you're Tom Brady. The only time, in fact, that Bob Kraft had a heart, that the New England Patriots weren't. ruthless is the biggest mistake they've ever made. They gave away Jimmy Garoppolo for a nickel and a ham sandwich to San Francisco.

That is the one time they decided we should be nice to Tom. And Tom has been good to us. And we should support Tom. And so let's take our next quarterback for the next decade and let's give him to San Francisco for virtually nothing. A second round pick, which has about a 65% chance of doing anything. Garoppolo has a 100% chance of winning games. He's 5 and 0 in his first 5. If you work for a ruthless organization, expect them to be ruthless.

Walmart is legendary. They're ruthless. They go into a town and squish small-time businesses. Squish them. They negotiate for every penny on every deal with their retailers. I know I have two buddies who have had products and have had to negotiate with Walmart. You don't make any money. You don't make any money.

They squeat, but they know you want your product in their store. You make no profit. Sometimes you lose money. They're ruthless. So if you work for Walmart, don't complain in negotiations. They don't pay you much because they're ruthless. That's what they do to small businesses. That's what they do to retailers.

And that's what they do, frankly, to their bosses, their management, and their employees. They're ruthless. That defines what New England is. They're cold. They're covert, they're quiet, they're under the radar. They are system over player. And that's largely, and I love Brady, but he's not as talented as the Elways and Marinos.

He doesn't throw the ball like Aaron Rogers. Tom has benefited greatly from that bottom line business model. Don't complain if it occasionally lands on you. Here's Joy Taylor with the news. No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, sticking with Tom Brady.

Apparently, he is getting soft in his old age, Colin. Rob Gruncowski claims Brady has lightened up, and he doesn't yell at him as much anymore. Let's take a listen. I would say probably back in the day, he was a little bit more on you. You didn't get it right, a little bit more in your face. But, I mean, I don't see

He's 40 going on 41 now. I don't see you feel like you backed off on that a little bit, which is nice. He used to be mean to me. Glad he's not to you. He loves the game of football so much. Usually on his birthday,

he usually just wants a good practice. I think that Tom appreciates Gronk so much. Oh, for sure. And secondly, Gronk's a smarter football player than he was 10 years ago. So, you know, the thing about Tom is. When you're as good as Tom is, he does that documentary. He tells everybody what he is

and how committed he is. So when you join Tom Brady now, he doesn't have to teach you anything other than the plays. Everybody gets in line with Tom. If you're not committed like Tom, because you know now because of the Tom versus time documentary, he's uber competitive and Uber committed. So like Gronk knows Brady and appreciates what he brings to the table. He's saying that he's basically saying Tom's nicer, but the truth is the reason Tom's nicer is because Gronk is a better listener, more coachable. They're probably more on the same page than they were

10 years ago. He doesn't have to, you know, grab him by his face mask and yell at him for running the wrong route. But he did say he's nicer to the young guys too. So, maybe Grom's a little upset about that. I think the younger guys didn't get it as rough as Grom did. Oh, I think young guys walk into

the room now and Tom's... Well, Tom's brand's been established. Like Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant's first eight, nine years in the league, people didn't know how to react to him. Then when the stories come out about how Kobe is, you walk into the Lakers and you know Kobe is going to crush you at practice. So once you have this defining, advertised, written about, talked about, discussed brand, players know what they're getting when they enter the building.

And I think that makes it easier for you as the star. So a big story that we're watching this NFL season is Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs, the Chiefs traded their appropriate quarterback to the Redskins early in the year and went all in on the 22-year-old as the future of the franchise. But through six days of camp, Mahomes has thrown seven picks. Yeah. So let's take a listen to his reaction. Yeah, I mean, that was on me. I easily could have ran it in.

We were in a live period, and I kind of didn't want to hear the defense talking trash to me for running in because they can't tackle me. And so I threw the ball, but, I mean, you just got to play your game. Play the game how it's supposed to be played. Don't try to force something in because they can't tackle you. and it's just something I was not to learn from and hopefully in the game I just run it in pretty easy. You know, I got to tell you, I don't really want to overreact to this. This is what training camp is for.

Get these bugs and these indecisions out before the season starts. So I realize it's a lot. And, you know, we're watching all of these guys under such a microscope that every mistake they make feels like a bigger deal. But it's training camp. I'd rather have it make these mistakes here. You know, the only team in the league that I love the coach, Andy Reid,

and I love the roster I do with the Chiefs, but I don't know what to make of them as Kansas City. To me, Kansas City is the one team in the league. I have no idea because I love their coach and their roster. And in any other instance, I'd be playoff team. I have no idea. I didn't see this kid play enough in college. Yeah.

I haven't seen him play in the NFL. They, to me, are the mystery team in the league. If they go 11 and 5, you'd be like, well, of course, they've got great players and a great coach. but they could go five and 11 because this kid's a turnover machine. To me, the Chiefs are the enigma in the league. I have, I predicted 9 and 7 because that was the safest prediction I could make. I figured Andy Reid's so good and the roster is so good, they'll have a winning record.

I have never seen Patrick. The bullets are flying when the game, you know, I don't even want to watch them in the preseason because the preseason's vanilla defense. So he can, Tim Tebow had a great, great game for the Eagles in preseason. and they cut him the next week. I want to see this kid October 3rd on the road against the Chargers. Then I'll make my decision on Kansas City. Yeah, their roster and coach are so good that you feel like you should feel better about them.

Right. But you have absolutely no idea what he's going to be. So it really all comes down to Patrick Mahomes. Yep. Finally, we talked about this yesterday, the fight between Draymond Green and Tristan Thompson. I say that loosely because it was more like just shoving. But Draymond said he couldn't stay silent any longer. He took to Instagram on Wednesday to respond to the rumors that he interested in Thompson fought at LeBron's Post SB Party last month.

He posted, I enjoyed y'all's stories and talk shows over the last couple days. Thanks for watching, Jemann. We appreciate it. The joints inaccurate, though, G. All right, carry on my good people. They might want to cancel that parade, too, L.O.L. And then he posted another story after he had thought about it and said, nah, keep the parade. That city won't have any for a while.

I forgot Bron left. And that's followed by six emojis of the guy shrugging with his hands in the air. it's actually kind of a funny response. I'm still deeply bothered that they were invited to LeBron's party and got into a fight. I mean, it's ridiculous anyway. Like, they didn't even get into a fight. They just carried on what they were doing on the court, which is a bunch of short pushes and forehead shoving.

Like, they didn't even actually fight. You invite me to a party at your grotto tomorrow, and I come and get into a fight with one of the people at your party. I'd be very impressed. I got to tell you, Colin. You? I'd be like, what did you do to Colin Coward to get a, him to fight. I've got to hear what you said to him. But I understand the point of what you're saying.

It's really inappropriate. But it's, what bothers me is if you're going to bother to get into a fight at LeBron's SB party to carry on or figure out whatever happened in the finals, please actually fight. They just did a bunch of shoving and then went back to their tables. Yeah, I mean, at least throw a haymaker or something. You're not going to get punched in the face and stay at the party. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. After Notre Dame, Ohio State football is probably the biggest name in college football in a small group of others. After Nick Saban, Urban Meyer is probably the most highly regarded coach. Will he be the coach by game one?

We bring in a top college football guy, somebody we trust, always have, work with him before, long time. Bruce Feldman now joining us in the herd. We led our show yesterday with this. there's still fallout. Now, he is, basically there's an investigation going on. The current situation with him does not sound great. Generally, when these coaches, they have an investigation and they are paid leave, it doesn't end up well.

The cynical part of me says they're already working on a buyout. You know, I think you wonder about how long this kind of happens where the more time unfolds, the more it's hard to undo kind of the PR side of it, where you feel like people are saying it's got to be, he's got to be out of there. It's like everything becomes crystallized. Now, I don't know if it's going that direction, but, you know, this morning, yesterday morning around this time, I was like, oh, there's probably a 25% chance. He may not survive this at Ohio State.

By the time I left here yesterday afternoon, I thought it was around 50-50. And this morning, I think it's even further. It may be, you know, a 75% chance. But the one thing that I am most curious about, and, You know, we can talk about Shelley Meyer's text and the text of the wife of the director of football. Shelly Meyer's, Urban's wife, who also works in the football or in the athletic department. Well, she works. She is a nurse and she has a role at the university.

Yeah. But the question I have is, so when Urban Meyer spoke and we played this clip yesterday morning from two weeks ago at Big Ten Media Days, when he was pressed on this issue, more about what he knew when. He talked about how in 2009, when they were both at Florida, he and the assistant coach Zach Smith, that he had reported it to his boss, which was basically what you're supposed to do as it relates to the Title IX cases,

the Cleary Act, what coaches are supposed to do. Whether you believe it or not, whether you think it's, you know, you're not judge and jury in this case. But you have to report it to your A.B. Yes. And go up to the, or to the Title IX office,

let them deal with it. So he did that in 2009. If, and everyone is assuming that from the Shelley that she had with Zach Smith's ex-wife that he did know, contrary to what he said two weeks ago at Big Ten Media Days, where there was nothing to it? And he kind of was like, where does this story come from? I was only texted about it the night before. What if he did actually communicate to his AD or to the Title IX office and say, hey, there's some allegations about Zach Smith here, just want to let you know? Then what?

Now, did they say, well, there's no charges that were the police found there? And then they just kind of just washed their hands of it. I don't know. But I think if he did that part of it, then that kind of changes where we're at with this. But we don't know that at this point. It's surprising to me that he would have gone to his boss at Florida in 2009 and not done it in 2015. And keep in mind, what happened in that six-year gap was the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State. This is a big deal.

So in 2011, you have the Penn State scandal. So coaches are now hyper aware of reporting things. So in 2009, Urban reports it, but he wouldn't report it if he knew in 2015? That's the part that seems a little odd. But then you go back to his answer from Big Ten Media Days two weeks ago and how he handled it. Now, again, and I've talked about this a few times now, he really speaks in absolutes. this is nothing, this is that. Was he saying this is nothing and meant, well, because there was no charges filed and it was

very dismissive? I don't know. I mean, we haven't heard from Urban Meyer to explain that part of it since all this stuff has come out. But if there's some kind of documented documentation that either there were meetings or discussions had, then this might change the dynamic. Listen, in the Joe Paul situation, in the Art Breil situation, in the Rick Bettino situation, and now in the Ohio State situation.

In all four, there's one common thread. Fans want me to believe of those institutions that nobody talks. Husbands and wives don't talk. Coaches don't talk. I can't believe that. You cannot tell me, do we have official validation that Urban's wife knew about the beating? We do. We do from the text messages.

So then she would have obviously, over three years, had a discussion with her head coach. Right? Is Urban denying that? Well, we don't know. But the interesting part, again, go back to what he said two weeks ago. When he's talking about Florida, he's talking about he was the one who brought up, he and Shelley, had communication with the couple. It's a young couple.

It's a family they knew. Yes. So you're going to say that they talk to them, perhaps they talked to them about counseling. And then all of a sudden, Shelley Meyer is going to have conversations with the wife, with the ex-wife, and talk about at one point there's a line from Shelley Meyer in those texts. He scares me. Right. So she would know all that and yet not tell her husband.

when they've already had some of those preliminary discussions? So, yeah, years later, we have validation that Urban's wife is again in the middle of this situation, and she didn't tell Urban. Again, Urban went on Big Ten Media Days and told us, not my opinion, told us how great his wife was, the relationship. They talk about not games, but people. You just, I just find Rick Petino. I find the Joe Paul situation.

I find Art Bryles. I like Urban, but I find Urban here. You're asking me to believe the unbelievable. This is not an alibi like Bob robbed a bank. Oh, no, he didn't. We have a receipt and a picture he was on vacation with his family. You're asking me to believe that husbands and wives don't talk, that coaches don't talk down the hallway. I just can't believe that stuff.

I said this yesterday sometimes that college coaches, unlike pro coaches, are salesmen. They're recruiters. The lifeblood of all college sports. John Calipar, he's not the world's best coach. He may be the world's best recruiter. Okay, Nick Sabin is acknowledged. may not be the best coach. I'm the best recruiter. Pete Carroll recruiting. A lot of these college coaches are great salesmen and their fan bases by them. They're messias. And do you think in Ohio

state today in Columbus is there full support for urban? No, I think there's some skepticism at this point because people see this is an issue that I think is very different. Even though when it was in 2009, what we as a society, what we on social media think is tolerable, the issue of domestic violence. I think there are some people who are really disappointed. I think there are some people who are probably, you know what, they got to wait and see approach. But a lot of it is looking at it going, this doesn't add up with a guy who we've heard talk about these issues. Again, this was, this isn't Bobby Petrino, by the way, who never professed to be any great human being or any great molder of men or anything like that. Urban does. Urban does. And he's talked about zero tolerance issues

with domestic violence and violence against women. He's also one of his big tenements, or one of his big points is honesty. And so you're just saying there's a disconnect here, or is it lip service? What do we make of this? Okay, the football coach, who has been since fired now, is Zach Smith, again, with Urban in 2009, Florida,

with Urban Ohio State now been fired. He is related to a legendary Ohio State coach, Earl Bruce. Earl Bruce and Urban are tight. Now, that leads me to believe, guessing, don't have facts that he hired him to begin with as a friend to his mentor. You know, absolutely. So Earl Bruce, who just passed away recently, he was ill for a long time. In fact, a year and a half ago, I was out in Ohio State practice in the spring, and Earl Bruce was there.

He was being driven around in a golf cart. And he's been in poor health for a while. But that is one of Urban Meyer's biggest mentors. He gave Urban Meyer a job in the late 80s on his staff. Zach Smith was a walk-on player for Urban when Urban was the first time he was a head coach, which was at Bowling Green, and he had taken him along. And, you know, you start talking to people who've been around Zach Smith as coaches. And did they say, did they know he was a domestic abuser?

That part is a little more murky. But you start hearing details about him being late for his own meetings. some of just character issues were all over the place. And so you're sitting there going, take a step back from this. Urban Meyer's career right now is obviously in serious peril at this point. And this is a guy who talked even in the Big Ten media days, E plus R equals O and all these leadership things. And yet his career is hanging by the balance because he supports a wide receiver coach

who by any standard is not respected in the industry. No, and it was kind of been a screw-up. And so you're kind of tied to somebody like this, and they can potentially take you down. And out of the loyalty of, again, this was his mentor's grandson. He goes way back with this assistant coach. He gave him a chance at Florida. And you're just kind of scratching your head saying,

man, I wonder how much he regrets. He didn't cut bait sooner with this guy. Never mind. It wasn't like this was about winning games. I think he has a better receiver coach right now. and Brian Hartline, who spent seven years in the NFL and was on his staff. Good Lord. But this wasn't about winning games.

This was out of a loyalty. You can say it's blind loyalty. But at what point did you say, man, this is a mistake? Urban just signed an extension, 8.5 million a year. Again, the cynic part of me thinks right now his leave of absence, they're negotiating and out. Does he keep his job? How does he keep his job?

I think the biggest opportunity for them to keep Urban Meyer is if there is some documentation or some proof that Urban Meyer put it up, ran it up to his superiors or to the Title IX office in 2015. Yeah, because then if that's the case, his only lie as to us, the media. But he didn't lie to his bosses and he could keep his job. Yes, and you won't get fired for that. You can get fired as we found out with Jim Trussell for lying to the NCAA.

Or your bosses. Yeah, or your bosses. But when it comes to lie into the media, there can be definitely workarounds on that. There's going to be a lot of damage control that would have to happen. No question. That's a very good point, Bruce. You're not going to lose your job lying to me, but you're going to lose your job.

First of all, lying to the NCAA, you're done. And your career's over. Lying to your bosses, you'll lose it. That's a really big point. If the lie is only, I just learned about it yesterday, but he had told his bosses three years ago, I think he keeps it. Yeah, I think he would too, because then there's some cover under the Title IX issue, which again, some of these things I think potentially could be out of Ohio State's hands if they cannot document it. Yeah, we got Title IX.

We have the Cleary Act, and that ties into federal funds, what schools get. If you are not doing what you're supposed to be doing, again, I go back to that 2009. Why would he have done it then if he knew in 2015 and not done it at that point? Bruce Feldman, thank you so much. Excellent work on this story that continues to be incredibly fluid. It is the biggest story right now in sports, in my opinion. Tonight we have an NFL game. You must watch this game.

And I don't say that about preseason games. I'll tell you why coming up next in the herd. So I am not a big believer in any of this preseason stuff, Joey Taylor. Preseason football after week three is the only week that, you know, a starters play a significant amount. But I do think tonight is going to be the beginning of a controversial Tim Tebow, Denver-like season. I have predicted this since Lamar Jackson got drafted. I said he's a project more than a prospect. He should sit the first year.

But he's a gifted athlete, and he's going to get drafted a little over drafted somewhere first, second round, and the fans are going to go crazy and want him to play. So tonight, here's what we know about the NFL preseason. Defenses are vanilla. No defensive coordinator shows anything. So the second thing we know is by the time Lamar Jackson gets into the game, he's going to be playing against guys who are going to be working at supermarkets in four months or four weeks. So he's going to be the best athlete on the field in regular games.

now it won't be close. So he's going to excel. T.J. Hushmanzado was on our show yesterday and talked about this. Lamar Jackson's going to have a nice camp. Here we go. You have to be basic because the guys that are going in, you try to get too fancy. Somebody's going to blow a assignment.

So you're going to play at one high show that's cover three or cover one. You're going to play a two high show, whether it's cover four, cover two, cover six. So it's going to be things he've seen in college already. He's not going to have to think about it. He'll probably go a drive into the third quarter. Flacco, the third preseason game with the starters. And so once again, Lamar's going to look like a superstar.

I foresee him playing extremely well in the preseason. Okay, so that's great, right? But first of all, Tim Tebow looked great with Philadelphia in a preseason game. He went like 11 for 17, two touchdowns, 1117 quarterback rating got cut the next week. Kellan Moore last year in this Hall of Fame game looked great. Now he's a Cowboys quarterback coach. So a lot of people are going to look. look good in the preseason. But here's the issue. Five teams drafted a quarterback in the first round.

Four of the five, Jets, Bills, Cardinals, Cleveland know the guy they drafted is the future and is probably the future at some point this year. There's nothing on top of them. Like Tyrod Taylor is not the future and everybody knows it. And Teddy Bridgewater and Josh McCown aren't the future and everybody knows it. And Sam Darnold's there for a year in Arizona is not the future and everybody knows it. And A.J. McCarron's not the future in Buffalo. But that's where Baltimore is different. Baltimore has a quarterback who last year was nine and seven. And who won a Super Bowl and was the MVP of the Super Bowl. And who, by the way, is 10 and 5 and 15 playoff games, including beating people like Tom Brady. And so when Lamar Jackson of those five first round quarterbacks comes into the preseason game tonight and flourishes, people are going to go, yeah.

But in Baltimore, there's a but. Winning record. Super Bowl MVP. Paid a lot. Franchise guy. Been great in the playoffs. There is somebody above him that could very well be here in four years. What does that translate to?

A quarterback controversy. We saw this in Denver, where Tim Tebow was not ready to play his first year. But because he was drafted in the first round and was profoundly popular in college, and the media was looking for something different, and Denver has a history of winning, and Denver had won Super Bowls, and the quarterback was good, Kyle Orton, but not great and always efficient,

Tebow becomes very attractive. Now we have Baltimore, like Denver. They've won Super Bowls. The quarterback's good, but in recent years hasn't been effective. It's a culture used to winning. The quarterback gets, in my opinion, over-drafted, and he, like Tebow, is going to look good in that preseason.

And all of a sudden, you're going to have a fireworks show. You are going to have a fireworks show. So I think it's going to be fascinating. I think Lamar is going to look good tonight. And I think, you know, Flacco, they say, is having a great camp. The word on Flacco has always been, he works hard when he has to. Right. It's not surprising that he's having the best camp of his career all of a sudden.

Yeah, Matt Ryan works hard all the time. Russell, hard all the time. Brady, hard all the time. Flacco's reputation in this league, he has his best years in games when he has to. That's why he's great in the playoffs, 10 and 15. and can be awful in preseason games, you know. Maybe he just gets complacent. He works better under pressure.

So I think tonight's going to be absolutely fascinating. I think Lamar is going to be fun to watch. And I think we're going to have our second Tim Tebow story. Now, by the way, I think Lamar is a better pro prospect than Tim Tebow. I never bought Tebow as a franchise guy. I think Lamar, two years in a system, may become one. I'm not saying he is. I don't think he's Darnold.

I don't think he throws the ball as accurately as Baker, but I never thought Tebow ever was a franchise guy, which is I rolled my eyes the whole time at Tebow. Lamar's a project, but he's a guy that you put in this league for two years behind Flacco, and in year three, you get the right pieces around him, good offensive line, you do a little bit of that read stuff? Yeah, I think it could work. Yeah, where I don't agree with you on Baker and Josh Rosen and

you know, I don't know, who knows what's going on with Josh Allen. But where I don't agree with you with those two, I believe that they should just start. Yeah. I do agree with you in this situation with Amar Jackson. But he kind of reminds me of a T-bo. I'm with you on the T-bo because of the popularity in college. And he runs a little bit. He runs.

But he also reminds me of Cordell Stewart. He has that kind of athletic, like running ability. And, you know, you needed a couple years to develop into a starting quarterback. So in this situation, this is a proper situation where you would want him to develop. it. But because he's so popular, you're going to have fans and media calling for him. Yes, that's right. So now again, the only way

Lamar is not a controversy is if Flacco comes out and they start six and one, they look great and Flacco looks great and then you're going to be, okay, okay, okay, maybe that could happen. Remember with Flacco, his quarterback passer rating over the last, since 2012, I think it's like 35th in the league, is behind Blake Bortles.

Now, the other thing that I do worry, the reason I can't totally put my arms around Lamar Jackson is he had a great college offensive coach, Bobby Petrino, as good an offensive coach as college football has. And he still completed less than 60% of his throws. Bobby Vitrino is not your typical

college coach. Bobby Petrino could coach in the NFL today. It'd be better than a third of the coaches, maybe half. He wouldn't be Belichick, Sean Payton, but he would be better than half. He's not Andy Reid, not Pete Carroll, but he's good. And he was under 60%. That line in college to pro, if you don't complete 60% in college, very hard to excel in the pros. We'll watch it all tonight unfold.

Lamar and the Ravens are really, really captivating. Greg CoSell, Rashad Jennings, around the corner. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart Radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. This is the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening live in Los Angeles, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me for our number two.

today, Greg CoSell in one hour from now. You're going to get smarter with football. Rashad Jennings, former New York Giants, got a New York Times bestseller book coming out. Very exciting. You know Joy that I like Dak Prescott. Yes. I don't think he has the best arm. I don't think he's the most talented quarterback. But he has a personality and qualities that I like. And those qualities are things when I read business books, they talk about leaders having. Smart but not a show-off. Confident but not cocky. Formidable, a calming influence when chaos is around you.

Since he's come to the NFL, he's had Jerry Jones being controversial and his star running back being controversial. And the Cowboys themselves are being controversial. And this week he talked about the anthem and it was controversial. and once again, none of it sticks to him because he's Dak Prescott. And what I always loved about him is what I love about all young quarterbacks. Who are the young quarterbacks that I like? Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott, Carson Wants, Jared Goff. Calm.

Noise around him, calm. Who are the quarterbacks I've been critical of? Cam Newton, Johnny Mansell, Baker Mayfield, James Winston, high, low, happy, angry, moody, inconsistent, accurate, inaccurate. Because when I read business books, they say leadership comes from certain key personality traits. When the world's on fire, are you gasoline like Cam Newton and Baker Mayfield and Johnny Mansell and James Winston? or are you a hose that puts it out like Russell Wilson? Look at Russell Wilson in Seattle. Richard Sherman saying this.

They're getting political. Pete Carroll this. Rock solid. Who is the rock solid face of Seattle? Don't hear much in the media. Russell Wilson. So Dak Prescott a couple of days ago did something that was hard to do. It is very easy to go on social media, Instagram and Twitter and say,

everybody should kneel, players' rights, social justice. Dak did the opposite. He said, well, football's my job. And I think it's a time and a place to protest. I don't think it's the games. Leadership isn't doing the easy thing. It's doing what you believe is the right thing and sticking to it and not bailing on your opinion. And Dak Prescott was pushed back.

And you know what Dak Prescott said? quote, go on social media and see it. Doesn't bother me. I said what I said. I've got an opinion. So does everybody else. I accept yours. You accept mine.

It's not about his arm. It's not about his size. It's about his leadership qualities. The Cowboys are a zoo. Des Bryant. Tony Romo. He walked into this league with a Tony Romo controversy. Then a Zeke controversy.

That a Des controversy. The Jason Witten retires. And his owner can't stop talking about the anthem. Dak Prescott is the calming influence to a noisy environment. And it's why I think for the next 12 years, they have got their franchise quarterback. Not as talented as Aikman, but not as erratic as Tony Romo.

A rock solid guy. Leadership wins games, not your arms or your legs. It's leadership, practice, standing by what you believe. And with that, we bring in former NFL running back, New York time bestseller, Rashad Jennings, Jags, Raiders, Giants, guys on Dancing with the Stars, guys writing books. By the way, you were one of the first people that saw Dak Prescott.

Absolutely, absolutely. Do you remember the game and what struck you? You know what? Coming out, playing against the Cowboys, this was his rookie year. Yeah. First start, fresh off. the boat. That's right. There was Giants Cowboys opening game. Opening game. Watching him was interesting. I remember coming back to a sideline after we have

gone on offensive. We've done our series. Come back to the sideline. They go out offense. Third down, you know how you started getting ready to go back. First down. It's like, okay. All right. Another first down. On third down, we're like, man, this is a rookie. We wait for him to stumble. Second quarter, still doesn't stumble. Third quarter, it doesn't stumble. I hit one of my teammates. I said, hey, this is not a regular rookie. We knew from day one he was going to be different. We knew day one he was going to have all the talent to go a long distance. So, I mean, he obviously has help. He had help. One of the best offensive line there. That helps. That helps, you know, have a consistent safety net. But you know, Rashad, everybody's had help.

Pretty special. Okay, Joe Montana had Bill Walsh. You got to have it. Nobody wins without help in this league. I like deck. By the way, I saw Kevin Sumlin's a football coach. Now at Arizona used to be at Texas A&M. I saw him. last week. He passed on DAC. Yeah. And he said, that's the biggest mistake I've ever made. I said, why? He goes, he's so smart. And I kept saying, what about him do you like? And he kept going,

he's so smart. And when I watch Dak's leadership, this is the latest example. By the way, that Twitter thing, that's not easy, by the way. He took a stance that 90% of people on Twitter at least are going to disagree with. Yeah, he's going to get hatred right away. I mean, anytime you're standing against what the wave is doing, you're going

against the current. It's going to be difficult. People are going to have opinions. But it's funny because we always say respect people's opinions. But if it's not like yours, then I'm not going to respect it. It's a very unorthodox deal. But, I mean, I'm proud of him because he believes what he believes, and he's stood for it. It's not the wrong part. Okay, so I'm not a big preseason guy.

Don't take much from it. But tonight, Lamar Jackson is going to come out, and people are getting tired of Joe Flacco. And Joe Flacco's pass-er rating since he won the Super Bowl has been below average. And Baltimore is a city. You know they win Super Bowl. bowls, that's a great organization. And they have high standards. This isn't Cleveland.

They got high standards. What do you think? I mean, I'm not going to give a knock on Cleveland, but. No, but I mean, Baltimore's a different standard. What do you think Lamar looks like tonight? What do you think we see this year with Lamar Jackson? You know, Lamar's going to come in. I think he has all of the tangibilities to be a great quarterback in the NFL.

Now, I don't know how well he could pick up the playbook. He was always able in the collegiate level to compensate maybe a lack of something breaking down or for us he maybe he didn't know what he was doing and he could take off running. I don't know if he's going to be able to take off running as much in the NFL, but he can move. He can get, he's wiggle. His wiggle is there. He can, uh, dink and dunk the ball down the field, but I don't know if he has a long ball or not.

That's going to be something fun to watch. Um, obviously Joe Flacco and I play with him in college, man. He's just a hardworking guy. He's going to keep, he's going to be consistent to show up every day. But Lamar, he seems like a competitor and starting off, um, right now to get an opportunity to playing the NFL, put his best foot forward. It's going to be special to see. You know, Flacco, even when he's successful, the game is not dynamic.

He's not an exciting player. Lamar, even when he struggles, it's going to be so dynamic. It's going to be hard for a fan to watch Lamar tonight run around. He could run around for four yards, but it's going to be so exciting compared to sort of the dull presentation of Flaco, who is a dropback, doesn't run, throws strikes, and so I think it's going to be a fascinating. thing to watch. Now, you were on, it's interesting. You have a book out called The If in Life, and you're working on four other books. This was a New York Times bestseller. Your road to

football is kind of a fascinating road. First of all, tell me about why your road you believe was different. For so many reasons, my road to the NFL has been vastly different. You know, I tell people a lot I was a short, overweight, chubby kid, glasses, asthma. I had a 0.6 GPA. You had asthma? Yeah, struggle big time with asthma. Because your dad was a smoker.

Yes, my dad smoked heavily. We didn't have the best relationship. And one time I was hospitalized, 13 years old, I'm in a hospital, I'm blowing through a peak flow and it goes a centimeter. And I'm fighting for my life, much less what I would accomplish in life. The doctors told my dad,

said, sir, you can't smoke. around your son anymore. We got out of the hospital. My mom would call certain restaurants checking the ventilation before we went. I was that bad off. When I got back home, my dad started smoking outside, right? A week goes by, he starts trickling back in the house for smoking. I'm in my room. Smoke seems through the vents. I smell it. I start choking up. Put a pillow over my face. I go upstairs. I knock on my dad's door. He's in the corner drinking and smoking like he always does. I say, hey, Dad, can you stop drinking and smoking to be there for me? He took a puff of his smoke, sip of his drink.

He looked at me and said, Rashid, what you want to do when you get older? Now, mind you, this is the first time you ever asked me that. Me and him don't have the best relationship. So part of me is excited. I get to say it, but I can see he's just saying it because he doesn't care. I take my chance and I say, Dad, I want to play running back in the NFL. Overweight kid, glasses. This is just a child's dream.

He took a puff of a smoke, sip of his drink. and he said Rashad, you think you'd be able to make it to the NFL without smoking and drinking yourself. And with tears in my eyes, I looked at him, I said, just to prove you wrong, I'm never going to do it. And I'm 33, never drink alcohol a day in my life. I never smoked a damn my life. Literally, just to prove him wrong. And what's special about it in doing that, he watched his little knucklehead kid prove him wrong. He quit smoking and drinking himself. And we both feel like we saved each other's life in that one little instance. God, that's incredible. But if I wouldn't it took that as a challenge, you know, if I would have had more hatred. If I would have used

that for excuses, I wouldn't be here having this conversation. So through the book, the if in life is a play on words when you spell out life, if is in the middle. And I go through 15 chapters to talking about different if moments in my life. You had a dancing with a stars thing, right? Yeah. I almost wonder, do people know you from that or football? The truth be told, probably more so dancing. do. I never forget. I came out of a sushi restaurant. A biggest sushi fan. Love sushi. And it was a couple. This was a man and a woman and they both recognized me at the same time. Right. And I could see him say, hey, that's Rashad, Jennings. And she said, yeah, that's Rashad. Now, he was

shocked. He was like, wait, how do you know him? And she looked at him and said, oh, yeah, that's the dancer. He didn't watch Dance for Stars. He said, no, baby, he played, play for a running back. He said, oh, you're cute. You're cute. think he's a dance. He played football and I'm watching them argue. So I walk over. I was like, listen, both of y'all are actually right. And they neither side knew me from the other. So it's amazing how much this opportunity of dancing has opened up so many doors. I'm actually open the ballroom studio back in my hometown. My university is going to name a department of dance after me. And I'm continuing to dance now. I'm about to post some stuff on Instagram in the next day or

so. So I love dance. I wish I was introduced to it at an earlier age in my life. God, you're so likable. Your story's amazing. By the way, I don't have any rhythm. So Joy. Sure you do, man. No, no, but I can see. I don't, you know, I start, it doesn't quite. Are you doing the twist?

Yeah, I need some social lubricant. I need a couple hyniquins and then I all of a sudden there's a lubrication in my hips. Listen, man, we'll cut on some music, man. I'll show you some steps. I'll show you some steps one day. Please do that. We have had some time in the break. here. There we go. We can do that. You know, when you look at football

now, and there is a lot of there's a lot of social stuff that's happening, I like the fact that you are okay with DAC, although you don't have to agree. Like, that's my takeaway. What's happened in America is, if you don't agree with me, you're an idiot. And you're

saying, I don't have to agree with DAC. Do you think it's harder in locker rooms? At the end of your career, the culture was changing in America, social media. Do you think it's harder to coach today? Did you notice the change in the locker room player empowerment? I mean, yes, you do? Yes, and no. I'll say yes just simply because social media reaches people instantly. Instantly. Yeah, insing Instagram. But yes, whatever message you want to get across

to somebody you can get across right now. We all are reporters at this point in time. It doesn't have to be filtered to get through a source of approval before us posts. And everybody believes what's post it is true and they run off of that right everybody has an opinion wants to be heard and oftentimes fallacies are more so follow it right um than truth and so and then you argue it's subjective is all these things so people are more so looking for argumentative uh post and in ways to hate people really fast rather than getting to the authenticity of the truth so i believe social media is just simply a tool that's it nothing more nothing less and what we do with it is up to us we can use social media to bring people together.

We can use it for hatred. We can use it for a division to separate. The choice is ours, but social media is a beautiful thing, depending on how you use it. His book is called The If in Life, How to Get Off Life Sidelines and Become Your Best Self. You are aspirational and inspirational at the same time. It is an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.

Rashad Jennings, New York Times, Best, Best. selling book. I don't even say running back anymore. Running back. Running back. New York Times bestselling author and dance studio entrepreneur. There we go. Very soon. Sunday on Fox is episodes three and four of the exclusive documentary about Baker Mayfield where he appears right here on the herd to confront Colin. 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 Sunday at three Eastern on Fox or stream it on the Fox Sports app. It's really fun to watch.

It's really fun to watch. I'm not a big fan of rookie quarterbacks having documentaries and brands, but it's very interesting to watch. Car shopping can be confusing. A lot of terms, dealer price, list price, invoice. Just go to Truecar.com, save three grand of MSRP. Buy seller holds coming up in about five minutes. I'm not a big fan of making excuses. Okay?

If you stink, own it. I don't want pointing fingers. I'm not a big believer in finger pointing. Now, I'm not saying there's not victims in life. There's a lot of victims in life. But what I see too often now, point, point you, fault, me. You're 45 years old and you can't get your act together. It's not your mom and dad's fault.

Look in the mirror. Okay, stop blaming people. So Cam Newton gets the most support in the way. Every time Cam Newton struggles, oh, he didn't have this, doesn't have that, doesn't have this. Yesterday, an offensive lineman was retired from the Colts. He was drafted in the 2014 draft, he retired. Now, if you go look, because of that retirement, Andrew Luck gets drafted. Here is the first two draft classes, the Colts drafted, to support Andrew Luck.

They're out of the NFL. Not a single player remains on the Colts roster. Almost all of them are out of the league. So the first two class, we know Indianapolis was bad, that's why they had the number one pick and drafted him. It's always imperative that the first two draft classes, after a quarterback has drafted, are strong classes. They were disasters. 70% of the guys are already out of the league by 2018. One never played a game.

Literally never played a game. One now retired. Let's go to Cam Newton. He was drafted. Cam Newton's first two draft classes. Luke Keekeley. Josh Norman. A starting right tackle.

Two defensive tackles, one a pro bowler. Kenyon Barner, who left his back. A.J. Klein. Great left in New Orleans. I don't want to hear about Cam Newton having no support. He's got a high functioning front office that in the first two drafts after Cam Newton arrived, they got a Hall of Fame linebacker Luke Keekely. He'll be a Hall of Famer. Josh Norman will be up for debate for the Hall of Fame.

Two defensive tackles, one's a pro bowler. Multiple starters on both sides of the football. I don't want to hear any more excuses. I don't want to hear any. Andrew Luck won 33 games in his first three years. And these are the first two draft classes after he was picked. Absolute, utter garbage. After a retired player yesterday, nobody is still on the roster. Seven or out of the league, one never played.

And one played one game in Indianapolis. And he still wins games. I don't want to hear about excuses. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So the Steelers are heading into the 2018 NFL season on a mission.

Mike Tomlin and company are trying to make up for falling short last season, and Ben's even changing his diet. And Tomlin praised Rothesberger's off-season effort. Sigelisk, M. I think that's reasonable. Regardless of position, man, we always say physical conditioning preseason anything else. So when the guy shows up in great shape, that's oftentimes the springboard for big-time play. And you and I have discussed the Steelers a lot, and I feel like this is the year for the Steelers.

Not that I'm doubting them, but I just feel like moving forward, like this is the year that you got to do it. You have all the pieces. Ben came into camp in shape. He's, you know, checking his diet. You still have Levy on Bell. Why is Big Ben now on a diet? What would have inspired him? I don't know, maybe probably Tom Brady having five rings.

Have you noticed what has happened? time. What's happened since Tom versus Time the documentary came out? Have you noticed Aaron Rogers now is talking about diet and Big Ben is gone in a diet and Joe Flath? Have you noticed the power and the reverential respect for Brady? Brady comes out with a documentary.

It is literally fundamentally changing how veteran quarterbacks eat. A lot of avocado ice cream getting sold now. Kevin Durant isn't backing down off Twitter despite the public criticism that he's getting for his social media media activity. On first things first, Chris Broussard dropped this little tidbit.

Durant texted me and said, you know, the guy you see now is the guy, is the real me. The guy in Oklahoma City was the phony. I was just trying to please everybody and do, you know, what I thought everybody wanted me to do. The guy I am now in Golden State, that's the real me. So that video spawned a response on Twitter from a user that called Durant a clown. that no one respects and Katie replied in a mocking fashion saying here's that clout you ordered and joy. I actually do believe him. I do believe that this is the real Katie that when he was in OKC it was kind of, you know, he wasn't getting the criticism that LeBron was getting. He didn't have quite the same expectations but was still widely considered the second best player in the league.

And we all know that he doesn't like strong criticism. They had to change the headline in the newspaper and such. But I do think that this is really who he is. Yeah. I think he was kind of soft in Oklahoma City, and I think he's kind of soft now, and I like, I was okay with both of them. I've never thought he's LeBron. I've never thought he's a killer like Kobe or Michael. I mean, this idea that, so what I'm supposed to, that's like me saying, the real me is the Fox Sports won me. The 10 years at ESPN, that was the phony me. No, they were both me, but you grow and you learn stuff and you make mistakes. Like, I just think Kevin Durant's aged, and now he has different sensibilities and a different, he has more self-awareness on what he is.

He has more freedom now because he's one ring. Right, he's validated. He's been validated. But I don't bite it for seven, eight years. He was just this big phony in the middle of the country pretending to be a bunch of stuff. No, I don't think he's saying he's a phony. I just think he felt like he couldn't really, like, be himself all the way. And he kind of held back his moral long lines of what he's saying.

It's real fuzzy. me. I don't know. The real Joy Taylor was undisputed. No, you were a phony on that show. This is the real you. The phonies is strong. But finally, some believe the Rockets missed their title opportunity last season.

I would agree with that. They lost veterans Trevor Reza and Luke and Valmutez this summer. And James Hardin has responded to all the doubters. He said, people said me and Chris can't play together. Then we're the number one team in the NBA. Obviously, you can look at the roster and look at different players and say that,

but you have to be on the court and you've got to be in the trenches and be in the war. Eventually, we'll figure it out. Do you think the Rockets took a step back? Yeah, defensively they did. But offensively, they didn't. So they're going to win a bunch of games. It'll only, it doesn't matter what happens in the regular season. We will figure out if they took a step back when they faced the Warriors.

And until then, you know they're going to win 55, 60 games because they have two great players and a really good coach. And Clint Capelle is good. And Carmelo can score. So we'll have PJ Tucker. Yeah, I mean, they're going to win a bunch of games. We'll determine if they've taken a step back in a seven-game series next June. But that's my issue with the Rockets.

Nobody's saying you're not going to be a great team. But nobody cares about the regular season great teams. The Toronto Raptors were a great regular season team. Remember how that turned out for them? Not so great. Right. Nobody cares about the regular season championships. Win when when it matters.

Joy Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. Okay, we do it from time to time midweek. It's a Thursday today. I'm your stockbroker. You ask for advice.

I tell you to buy it, sell it, or hold it. Buy seller hold. Here we go. Time to. Buy. Colin will decide if he'll buy it. Sell. Roger to tell.

Or hold. Who hold? Buy seller hold. Jason Garrett will be the head coach of the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. A lot of talk about Jason Garrett. is on the hot seat in Dallas. It should be noted he's at only one losing season there, and that was when he had chaos at quarterback,

and Tony Romo got hurt, and they didn't have effective backups. With all the controversy and stuff he dealt with last year, and with having the Super Bowl champions in his division, they still went nine and seven. And I would say this, I do believe it's the best Cowboys roster in years. Now, I don't think it's as good as Philadelphia,

and it may not be as good and as balanced as the New York Giants. But I will say this. They have young edge rushers, excellent young linebackers, excellent offensive line, star it running back, and Garrett's at least a behead coach. So John, bye, bye, bye, bye, Jason Garrett's going to coach the Cowboys all season long. Sticking with the Cowboys, Buy Seller Hole, Dak Prescott, will account for more touchdowns than Kirk Cousins.

Well, Kirk Cousins has something Dallas does not have. They have two really good deep threats. And when you have deep threats, it doesn't mean you have a high. higher passer rating, but it generally means you have more touchdowns. You get more easy touchdowns over the top. The other thing to remember is DAC Press Gun accounted for 29 and 28 touchdowns in its first two years all in. Kirk Cousins averaged 31 over the past three seasons. And Minnesota is a team that has a better tight end, better wide receivers, and I think with Kirk Cousins, they're going to throw the ball down the field. I think the Cowboys this year,

without Witten and Dez and new possession guys will be more of a run-oriented offense. So John, sell, sell, sell. I think Kirk Cousins will throw for more touchdowns than Dak Prescott. By seller hold, Matt Ryan will have a better season than Aaron Rogers, Carson Wentz, and Dak Prescott. Well, first of all, he's got better receivers than Dak Prescott. Nobody disputes that. He's got a better offensive line and better receivers than Aaron Rogers. The Falcons Offensive line is the most underrated in the league, probably top three or four.

And we don't know if Carson Wentz is going to be available in week one or two. Matt Ryan, by the way, over the last two years, has the second highest passer rating to Tom Brady in the National Football League. And again, Aaron Rogers and Wentz are coming off injuries. So, John, by, bye, bye, Matt Ryan's going to have a very good year and be. Because of personnel around him and injuries for others, he will have a better year than Wence, Dack, and Aaron Rogers. Buy Seller-Hold, the Patriots defense will take a major step back this season. Okay, so they lose Malcolm Butler. That's understood.

But the one area where I think they've absolutely improved is on the defensive front. And also remember, their best defender in the front seven, Dante Hightower, returns this year. My questions about New England are rebuilding their offensive line, their lack of dynamic playmakers on the outside, and a bunch of good, not great,

running backs. I also think this. If the Patriots defense faced on a regular basis elite veteran quarterbacks with their current personnel, I think you could argue they would take a step back. But the Jets may start a rookie,

the bills may start a rookie, and the AFC, Kansas City, going to start a young guy. Andrew Luck's coming back, we don't know. There is a lot of rebuilding and unknowns with quarterback play in the AFC. So, John, sell, sell, sell. The Patriots defense, I do not think we'll take a major step back. Buy seller hold, Baker Mayfield, will be the Brown starting quarterback by Halloween. Now, Halloween, John, is October, what, like 31st?

Yes. Okay, so that's about seven games in. Tyron Taylor in a cold weather city Buffalo led them to the playoffs. And he led him to the playoffs because he makes no mistakes. Makes no mistakes. So Tyron Taylor is not going to go to Cleveland and make a bunch of mistakes. Got a veteran head coach, he's a veteran quarterback. But five of the last six number one picks were quarterbacks before Halloween.

When you're the number one pick in the draft and the money you are spending, on that, never forget Cleveland's schedule. They open with Pittsburgh and New Orleans and face Oakland in week four. They are going to be one and three. And the owner Jimmy Haslam, who was run through coaches in Cleveland and run through coaches at the University of Tennessee where he's the number one booster is going to demand Hugh Jackson off in 0-16 season start Baker Mayfield. So John, by, bye, by. Baker's going to start. by Halloween. I'm not sure if he'll be completely ready, but he's going to start by that point. Last one, buy seller hold, Bryce Harper will never play in a World Series.

Well, he is a free agent at the end of the season, and what's becoming popular in baseball is rent a player. Because the Dodgers and the Cubs are very good teams this year. I watched the Dodgers play last night. They got a lot of sticks. Jock Peterson's now hitting, too. And in the baseball, you don't have to give up a ton to rent a star player for a couple of months. You don't have to buy him long term. So the Dodgers could rent him if they wanted to. Cubs did that with the Raldus Chapman. If he stays with the Nationals, I have questions about the dynamic in that locker room.

Anybody that loves the Nats knows they've underachieved for several years. So John, I'm going to hold on Bryce Harper. I want to see where he ends up. If the Yankees probably won't go after it. But if the Dodgers just rent Machado and let him go, they will. And they go long term on Bryce Harper. I think there is a possibility, Bryce Harper will be back close to his hometown in Vegas in Los Angeles and win a World Series.

The story today of note, Ohio State. We will give you the very latest on Urban Meyer. What's the very latest? We'll give you an update coming up next. When you're ready for a new car, Hyundai's on your team. They have a shopper assurance program, flexible test driving, transparent pricing, streamlined purchasing, three-day worry-free vehicle exchange.

Hyundai, USA.com slash shopper assurance. All right, just in, three days after naming him, their, quote, head breakfast coach, Bob Evans' restaurants, has suspended its endorsement deal with Ohio State Football Coach Urban Meyer, who's currently on paid leave, quote, at Bob Evans, we strongly believe in the family first values upon which the company was founded. Not the end of the world, but it is something. It is showing you that corporate America, which is uneasy with stories like this, is bailing

on Urban Meyer. Now, again, that doesn't mean he's going to get fired, but it is something. It is a reaction to the controversy yesterday. Advertisers don't want anything to do with the unknown. They don't have, they don't know what's going to happen. it's domestic violence. And so Bob Evans is like, we're out of here. My cynical view is right now Ohio State is doing two things, looking for an alibi

or renegotiating a contract and looking for a new coach. One of the two things are happening. We'll find out. I'll have more at that at the top of the hour. Plus, Greg CoSell here today, you will get smarter. The other story today is an NFL story. I learned something years ago. Joy, I don't know.

I've had 10 contracts, 12 contracts in my life. one of the things I've been taught is never back people into a corner. If you're negotiating a contract in any business, don't make demands and back people into a corner. You're going to pay me a million dollars or I'm not showing up to work. You're backing them into a corner. It's the old fight or flight theory. When you back a line into a corner, he's going to eat you or run, right?

A lot of these defensive players in the NFL are overplaying their hands. hands. Aaron Donald, I want to be paid like a quarterback. You're overplaying your hand. You're a defensive lineman. We're not paying you $25 million a year. You're not making $25 million a year. Earl Thomas today in the Players Tribune. Earl Thomas and came, sign me a new contract. It's like, dude, you're overplaying your hand. You're a 29-year-old safety. Nobody's paying safety is what you want to get paid now. The world has changed. Callieleel Mack won't reach out and talk the Raiders. Okay.

Well, you're overplaying your hand. These defensive players in the NFL are not watching the culture of football where nobody can stop anybody. Where Saxonville got shredded by the Steelers. Where Saxonville got shredded by Tom Brady. Where Saxonville got shredded by Jimmy Garoppolo. Where Saxonville got beat by Marcus Marioo two times. That's the great defense in the league with a nickname, Saxonville.

Nobody can stop anybody. The Eagles and Patriots, top five scoring defenses in the Super Bowl, gave up 800 yards. They punted once. There was one sack. I mean, 60% third down conversion rates between the two offenses. So I'm seeing, and this is just bad negotiating by players and their agents. Sports change.

In baseball right now, it used to be about getting starting pitchers. Maybe a closer, but relief guys were irrelevant. You had to have a closer. That was it. Bullpins now are not. more valuable than starting pitching. The culture's changed. I'm sorry if you're a starting pitcher, but the culture's changed. We used to have fullbacks in the NFL. We don't. Safety's used to matter. They don't. People don't draft safeties in the first round much anymore, unless you're

really, really special. Tight ends didn't matter at all. Then we had Gronk, Antonio Gates. Now, tight ends are more valuable. Sports used to be centers ran the NBA. You had to have a You couldn't win without a wilt, a Jabbar, a Bob Lanier, a Bill Russell, a Tim Duncan, a Keem, a Sheik. You couldn't win without a center. Analytics came into basketball. Nobody wants centers. And if you're a center, you've got to be able to shoot a three. Boogie Cousins, we like you, go shoot threes.

Anthony Davis, we like you, go shoot threes. The world changes. So centers now in the NBA can't overplay their hand. Dwight Howard, with you, without you. No big deal. Here's a minimum contract. in football, defensive players aren't getting the money of offensive players because the sport, all the rules in the NFL right now,

all the rules in football, period, are offensive. I mean, Nick Saban couldn't stop to Sean Watson in back-to-back championships. You can't stop anybody. So I see this all, I see it in my business. I see it in baseball. I mean, nothing against Bryce Harper. Ten-year deal, $400 million. If he can get it, Bray.

Brother, I love you, but you think I'm going to pay $400 million for a guy hitting $2.30? Because I get 45 Jackson, 100 RBI. I'm not paying that. And I love Bryce Harper, but I'm not paying that. Maybe half that because he can put butts in seats. I mean, if Bryce Harper couldn't put butts in seats, I wouldn't pay him anything. But the fact that he can put butts in seats, that may be in a city like New York that charges $150 a ticket.

You can make the numbers work in a New York or a Los Angeles. You know, I don't think it really feels big enough to make that work. But, and I love Bryce Harper, but I'm just seeing this. I got to see it all the time. Aaron Donald of the Rams, you just came out and said, 25 million or I'm not talking to you? I'm not paying you $25 million. I'm not.

So when you go into negotiations, I'm not an agent. I'm not a litigator. But when you go into negotiations, don't draw lines in the sand. Talk, communicate. keep an open flow of conversation. I get this or I'm not showing up. Doesn't work. Earl Thomas, dude, going to the Players Tribune.

Big mistake. I don't know who told you that was a great idea. You're overplaying your hand. Aaron Donald, $25 million. Who told you to do that? You can't be a defensive alignment, $25 million. J.J. Watt was unblockable. Great game they'd lose.

Bad game they'd win. That's just the position. And I'll tell you this, here's what's really happening in sports now. And Joy, you and I have talked about this. Analytics are truth serum. You and I can go have a beer at the bar and argue about sports all night. But analytics show you data. This works.

This doesn't. It's taken the dumb guy three beer in argument and thrown it away. It's taken away the guy that says, man, I'm a football coach. I got a gut feeling. this is going to work. There's no more gut feelings. You know analytically, oh, this doesn't work. So we're not going to do this.

And you can either embrace that stuff or not. But in basketball, it's taken out the guy at the bar that argues. It's taken out the, I got a gut feeling. This is the way this ball game is going to work. It doesn't work that way. Analytics have taken dumb guys out of sports. Hunch guys, gut feeling guy, is out of sports. God feeling was very reliable statistic for a long time.

It was. No, I mean, Joy, we grew up. I used to hear guys say this. I drafted that guy because he was a winner. And you're like, well, he played at Florida. Florida always wins football games. Every Alabama quarterback's a winner. What does that mean?

USC quarterback. Never been a USC quarterback in the Super Bowl. They're all winners in college. Cody Castle was a winner. Matt Liner was away. Everybody wins at USC. Every quarterback at USC over the course of four years starting wins a bunch of games. Also, by the way, Gronk came out yesterday in the NFL.

Some good news. Grunk says Tom Brady's a new guy. Tom Brady has changed. Here is Gronk talking in a very humorous way about Tom Brady, 41-year-old Tom at practice yesterday. Back in the day, it was a little bit more on you. You didn't get it right, a little bit more in your face. But, I mean, I don't see He's 40 going on 41 now.

I don't see you feel like you backed off on that a little bit, which is nice. He used to be mean to me. Glad he's not to these young guys. Yeah, Tom Brady has changed. You know, when you get the titles and the rings and the legacy,

I think you chill out a little bit, to be honest with you. I might have taken a little bit of his edge off. Yeah, I think, I remember hearing this years ago about Tom Brokaw, his family was talking about him, and they said, Tom Brokaw, you know, and he was in his 30s and 40s as the newsman at NBC was really intense. And then about his 50s, he lightened up.

And it's like, once you get the stack of money, once you get the legacy, once you get the academy, the Grammys, the awards, you just loosen up. We live in that tunnel. We got to get this. We got to do this. Pressure from our dads. Pressure from our peers. We got to make money.

Once you have it all, you take a deep breath. Greg CoSell next. Be sure to catch last. Live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. This is the herd hour number three live in Los Angeles. Iheart radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me in hour number three live. By the way, on the couch, one of my favorite guests.

The NFL season starts tonight, very fired up for that. Not going to be the greatest game of the year of Baltimore, Chicago, Mitch Trubisky. But an important game. But it's an important game because of Lamar Jackson. Greg Kosell in 15 minutes will have tape on why he's higher on Lamar Jackson than I am. I am cautiously optimistic. He'll also have a piece of tape on Dak Prescott. So we got some film on why likes or doesn't like Dak Prescott.

So Greg's coming fully loaded with opinions. He always makes everybody smarter. That's coming up in 15 minutes. And that piece of tape, he says, we'll define. the season. Okay, the Urban Meyer story broke just before our show yesterday. Today, we've had more developments. And I am incredibly, greatly disappointed, not only in Ohio State football, but when I think of Ohio State football and Urban Meyer, I think of Louisville basketball and Rick Bettino and Baylor football and Art Bryles and Penn State football at the end with Joe

Paul. Those universities and those fan bases and those coaches want me to believe the unbelievable that husbands and wives don't talk that coaches who live together in small spaces for 70 hours a week vacation together don't talk we now have texts

which show that Urban Meyer's wife also in Ohio State Athletic Department employee knew of a coach on her husband's staff beating his wife we know that to be true and she never told him for three years

I sit with my wife, and I'm sure you do this every night. When the kids go to bed last night, we talk for 90 minutes. We talk about our kids. We talk about our lives. We talk about our future. We talk about our house. We talk about vacation plans. We talk about schools.

Urban Meyer's wife, three years ago, knew about this, validated, verified on texts. And for three years, never told her husband. Man, that must be a really bad marriage. Oh, wait, it's not. because at Big Ten Media Day, Urban Meyer bragged about the relationship with his wife. Here it is. She's always weighed in. You know, and that's my best friend and soulmate, and she's been right there with everything,

especially when you start dealing with, you know, not necessarily who's going to carry the ball on third down. She has opinions too, but we don't chat about that. We chat about people. People. She's got a great spirit and a great love of people. and her heart's always in the right place. She's phenomenal. So absolutely I rely on her.

We talk about people. Well, is Courtney Smith a person? Because she was getting beaten by her husband who was a football coach under Urban Meyer. Not to be hyperbolic here, but when you brag about your relationship and then you want me the next day to believe we didn't talk about it.

Really? College football. coaches and basketball coaches are men often in small towns with power. Where pro fans are loyal to a point, college fans are loyal to a fault. Ohio State fans this morning will surround their coach because that's what they do in college towns. College football coaches have become Jack Nicholson. Remember his character and a few good men?

You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. It's a code. us against them. The big bad media out to get us. Civilians, average people don't get us. Why don't football coaches and basketball coaches like Rick Patino and Urban Meyer and Art Bryles

and the people at Penn State years ago, stop being Jack Nicholson. Start nurturing, not protecting. Start communicating, not protecting. And fans, it's on you. You are asking me to believe the unbelievable that for three years the wife didn't talk to the coach. We have verification that multiple wives on the staff knew and none of them talked to their husbands. And if they did, then the husbands who are coaches didn't talk to the boss down the hall,

who they talked to 15 times today, never brought it up once. I don't know if you fire Urban Meyer. Maybe you should fire all of Ohio State's football coaches for not coming up with better material. come up with a better excuse. Here's Courtney Smith, who's been pleading for help for years. You know, She said she wanted, she was going to have to tell Irvin. She was going to have to tell Irvin. I said, that's fine.

You know, you should tell Urban. We can't have somebody like this coaching young men. No, no, you can't. And you shouldn't. But increasingly, we see it over and over. Unfortunately, we have a victim here, and the town will put their arms around the coach yet again and ask me to believe the unbelievable. Let me shift to something with football that is a lighter note. Jared Cook's a good football player.

He says that John Gruden, the new coach of the Raiders, is showing the Raiders old grainy film from 1976. I laughed at this because I don't know how this Raiders, Gruden thing's going to work. Baseball is considered old, stuck in its ways, rigid and stodgy. But even 10 years ago in baseball, we didn't talk about launch angles and exit velocity. We didn't have defensive shifts. Starters were paid a lot more than bullpen guys. But baseball stuck in its ways, right, has made massive changes. What about football?

The NFL is like Silicon Valley. They change week to week day to day. Football doesn't even look the same on television than it did 10 years ago. Ten years ago, you had something called huddles and fullbacks. And the overtime rules were different. And the PAT rules were different. And you didn't have four and five receivers all the time. But that part, I think John Gruden can figure out.

What worries me about John Gruden is the other stuff, not the schematics, not the rule changes. The world has changed in 10 years. Ten years ago, an old white male coach could walk into a locker room that's diverse and say, no politics, and it was understood. If the old ball coach walks into an NFL locker room and says that today, he's racially insensitive or worse. There was no Twitter. was no Instagram. There was no Snapchat. The players weren't as empowered. But players today,

and rightfully so, have an opinion because we go to these games for the players, not the GM, scouts, and coaches. So I worry when I read this story, and I've got to be honest, I laughed at the headline. Jared Cook says John Gruden is showing the Raiders, quote, old grainy film from like 1976. I just don't think this thing's going to work long term. It may work for a year. Derek Carr is unbelievable quarterback, but I got to give my staff credit. They found something. I just can't figure out why John Gruden is not communicating and can't get a hold of Khalil Mack.

But we found out why their communication is so bad. Gruden is using America online. And he's trying to get a hold of Khalil Mac. Mac using this device and Joy, it's just not working. Someone keeps picking up the phone in his house. That's what it is. And then he has to keep starting over. So he's trying to get a hold of Callio Mac.

And the connecting, it's not working. Yeah, it's just not working. Maybe that's Kalil emailing him back. In 2008, when Gruden left, here was a headline. On internet television, that's how it was termed, both NFL.com. and NBCSports.com carried complete live games for the first time ever on that thing called the internet. That's the game he left.

And football, football is fluid, man. There's jobs that don't change in 10 years. They're called the post office. NFL, jettison the thing for a decade. I don't care if you're talking about it on football. that locker room is a completely different place. Coming up next, NFL football, Lamar Jackson and the Bears collide tonight. Greg CoSell on the couch, a couple of great pieces of video to get you revved up and make you smarter.

Can't wait for this. I'm all for good sportsmanship. That's why we're huge fans of Hyundai's new shopper assurance program. transparent pricing, flexible test driving, streamlined purchasing, HyundaiUSA.com slash shopper assurance. Learn more for yourself. Greg CoSell, 30 years NFL films as somebody that about seven, eight years ago, I started using it the other place. And I got such tremendous feedback that people said, can you do hours with him?

I get so much smarter talking and watching football. And it's an absolute pleasure. I think this is the second time I've had you in studio. I hope we put you in a nice hotel with comfortable seating on a plane and we're feeding you well. Let's start with this. Yesterday, Eric Mangini said

when you're a receiver and you go to New England, it's like a finishing school. Right. So Brandon Cooks their deep threat. Gone. Julian Mantleman, out. Danielle Mandola, gone. I mean, you look at Tom Brady. Gronk plays about 10 and a half to 11 games a year now

because of his injuries. What do you make of this offense, which could also be, argued is rebuilding its offensive line. Yeah, I think they're a little different, Colin, than most teams in the league. I heard you talk earlier today about fullbacks in the NFL, and there's really a dearth of them, teams don't use them. The Patriots do.

They have James Devlin, not a name that a lot of people would know, but he plays 25 to 30% of their snaps. Think about that for a minute. That's a lot of snaps. No team in the NFL is more multiple and diverse with their formations with a fullback on the field. So what they do is they create matchups. And there's no quarterback who's better than Tom Brady at dissecting and investigating and researching the defense before the ball is snapped.

That's key. That's the critical piece here. So the combination of the personnel packages they use, the formation variation, and Brady's ability to win before the ball is snapped makes their offense work. Now, it's still a little speculative right now with who they're going to line up at wide receiver. obviously, they just signed Eric Decker. And he's an interesting player because he's a veteran who understands route concepts, understands coverages. So we'll see how it all plays out.

But that's what they count on to be successful in the past game. For Des Bryant, it's a fascinating year. His go-to, tight-end veteran great-hand wide receiver, Jason went gone. Right. His talented, but at times demanding wide receiver, Des Bryant, gone. Ezekiel Elliott comes back, who could be a back blocker or receiver. You've got a piece of tape that you think is interesting. And take our audience through this with Dak, who I like, not the strongest arm, not the best athlete.

There's a leadership component here I like. Take us through the tape. Well, before we get to that, let's start with what the Cowboys clearly. They're telling you what they want to be on offense. They did this in 2014 with Tony Romo when DeMarco Murray had 319. carries. They did it in Zeke's first year in 2016. By drafting Williams, the offensive linemen out of Texas this year with their first pick, they're telling you they want their offense to start with the run game. Okay, that's what they want. So what that means is third down becomes critically

important. And if you look at statistics right here, third down in six plus, very important for Dak Prescott. He was very good in 2016, not as good in 2017. That's a critical down now for the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott. So what they need to do with him in these kinds of situations is define the throws. This is where the tape comes in. And this goes back to last year. As I said, he wasn't as good last year, but they need concepts to define the throws for Dak Prescott. And obviously, this is Terrence Williams, but here's what they did. They lined up with three wide receivers, to one side of the field. They knew they were going to get man. They're playing a division opponent, the Giants, so they knew what they were going to get. So what they do here is a natural rub or

pick concept. The corner was off on Terrence Williams. They run two verticals with the inside receivers, and then they run Williams underneath on the drag. So the concept defines the throw for Dak Prescott. These are the kinds of things you need to do with him. And then the other thing that they rely on, and you can debate this, you've probably talked a lot of. lot about this are those second reaction off schedule outside of structure plays. How much can you rely on them on third down to win and get you first downs? But clearly, Dak Prescott is capable of those kinds of things. A lot of people love the acquisition by Green Bay to bring in kind of a finesse tight end, a ball catcher Jimmy Graham, who's had some drops last couple of years with Aaron

Rogers. How do you think that works? Well, do you remember there must be four or five, six years ago now when they had your Michael Finley? Yes. Dr. Michael Finley, a great, great athlete at tight end. What they did a lot was they split him out as the single receiver, usually to the short side of the field and they would create matchups. I think you'll see more of that now with Jimmy Graham. That was very successful.

One thing we know about Aaron Rogers, there may not be a better back-shoulder thrower in the National Football League. And you line up a 6-6-67 Jimmy Graham split out. as the single receiver. Even if you put a reasonably athletic safety on them, the safety's not going to be 6-5 or 6-6. So you're going to get into those matchups with Jimmy Graham on the perimeter and the best back-shoulder thrower in the NFL and Aaron Rogers.

And I think that's the way they'll use Jimmy Graham. In that division, the Bears they play tonight. Matt Nagy's the new coach. He was Andy Reid's guy in Kansas City. Andy Reid gave the Eagles Doug Peterson. He won a Super Bowl. Now his next smart guy is Matt Nagy, and he develops these coaches, part of his tree. He goes to Chicago.

I'm a real doubter on Mitch Tribusky. I don't see it. I think his ceiling's very low. I've said I think he's a lesser version of Garoppolo. Well, you know, they've compared him. Nagy has compared him to Alex Smith, who, of course, he coached. And I'm not sure that that's a great comparison in terms of what Alex Smith is. But I think you have to look at the Barrett's coaching staff.

And I'm a big believer in coaching, as I know you are. Yes. So you have Matt Nagy, who comes from the Andy Reid School, very well-designed, well-schemed passing game. But who did they bring in as the offensive coordinator, Mark Helfrich, from the Chip Kelly School? So you have arguably the most interesting mix of offensive philosophies in the NFL. Matt Nagy from the Andy Reed School and Mark Helphridge from the Chip Kelly School.

How is that going to play out? You're going to see a ton of shotgun. You're going to see a ton of mystery. direction, deception, influence concepts. This helps a quarterback become far more efficient because things get defined because the defense, particularly the linebacker level, they don't know what they're looking at. There's a lot of movement behind the line of scrimmage on offense. And that's where I think it really helps a quarterback. And I think Trubisky will really be helped by this and will end up being a pretty high percentage thrower.

Speaking of Alex Smith, did the Redskins upgrade from Kirk Cousins to Alex Smith? I think from a tape perspective, I would say no. I think in their mind from a leadership perspective, they would say yes. But I think that Kirk Cousins on tape is a better quarterback than Alex Smith. Wow, okay. He's a bigger, stronger athlete. Yeah, neither one has a big arm. I think that one of the things that's always been troublesome for me watching Alex Smith on tape,

and there's no statistic for this. There's no statistic for balls that are. quarterback doesn't throw that should be thrown. Oh, that's interesting, right? And to me, that's where the analytics and Sabremetrics, whatever term you want to use, can't factor that in. There's no statistic for that. And when you watch as much tape as I do, and I see throws that should be made, for instance, there were three or four of them in the second half of the playoff game that Kansas City lost last year to Tennessee. Alex Smith should have turned the ball loose to receivers that were open within the design of the route concept.

He didn't turn them loose. And he was responsible for his own sacks. So Alex Smith has always had that issue to some degree. By the way, there's also a stat that husbands don't get credit for, Joy. Arguments we avoid because the husband just takes one for the team. Oh, I'm good at that. So am I. There's no stat for it.

Yeah. I'm just like, honey, you're right. Greg and I are like. Don't you just measure that in just like happiness and peace? Isn't that the statistic? So you guys get credit for that one too. Yeah. Yes.

Of course. Okay. Lamar Jackson plays tonight. Yeah. And, you know, preseason, it's a lot of vanilla defenses, but the time he goes in the game again. He can be playing against guys who are working at Ralph Supermarket. They'll be playing against you and I. Right.

Exactly. So what do you see on tape, piece of tape on Lamar Jackson? What do you see you like or don't like? First of all, I heard you're talking about Bobby Petrino. And Bobby Petrino runs a fairly sophisticated pass game. So these people who automatically. say that, well, he ran a simplistic offense. That's not true. Now, there's always a jump to the NFL no matter what offense you run. But he did not run a simplistic offense. Now, the key thing about

Lamar is I thought he was a little better from the pocket than people who are giving him credit for. And I want to show you this one play, which really, to me, speaks a lot about Lamar Jackson. We know he can run, okay? That's a given. We know that he's got great legs. This is a play where he stepped up, avoiding the blitz, and made, by the way, a big-time thing. throw. Now, what I really liked about this, he turns his back to the defense. So now he's got a free rusher coming on his front side, which he doesn't know yet. So now when he turns around, there is a free rusher right in his face, Colin. This is tough to deal with. You know what I like here? He doesn't just break down and run. What does he do? He steps up. Look at him reset. Good footwork,

good mechanics, good fundamentals, and this is not a routine, easy throw. Now, you can go back to the Bill Walsh school. Bill Walsh always believed that if he saw a player do things on tape, even if he didn't see it a lot, that he could then coach it because it's there. So Lamar Jackson needs to be coached, no question. But I think the people who are dismissing his pocket play are making a mistake. Yeah. By the way, Baker Mayfield, Cleveland. He's an accurate thrower. Compact delivery, quick twitch kid, very accurate thrower. I don't. You don't see a bust. I don't like the intangibles.

Yeah, and that's hard for us to know. I mean, and I'll be honest with you, it's hard for me to know that and talk about because I'm not with him every day. He's done some things, obviously, that might get people upset, but you'd have to be with him every day. But I thought the tape was really positive. And a very quick point on Baker Mayfield, I made it a point in last year, at Oklahoma, to go through all his third down completions, and there were a lot of them, 130, give or take. what really stood out to me was the large, large number that came within structure. There were only seven or eight in which he actually ran around and moved.

He actually played the position from the pocket within the structure of the offense. That's good news. Now, you are back tomorrow. You're going to have a breakdown on tape of Deshaun Watson. What's interesting is, the Texans and the Patriots, meet in week one. So Greg Kosell will join us tomorrow and we'll do the same sort of thing. We'll have different videos. We all get smarter.

Great seeing you, Greg. Here is Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Is it a great defendant Baker there? No, I told you. He throws the ball too precisely to be a bust.

If he has moderate to good protection, Baker will complete 63 or something percent of his throws. and if you do that in this league, it is now more than ever a precision league. I don't like all the, he's a little small, little runaround, a little cocky. But that part, I just think his ceilings closer to Case Keenham than Drew Breeze, which people are saying. And I think it's completely ridiculous to compare anybody to Drew Breeze, who's a top 15 quarterback ever. Baker to Jarvis, week one. That's my prediction. All right.

So, do you know that it's currently NBA Handles Week, Colin? NBA NBA handles Like your handels Handles, yes So to celebrate Seth Curry recently sat down with Steve Smith And he was asked

Who is his Mount Rushmore Of all-time ball handlers Here's his answer See who would I put in there I put myself on there Put myself, Kyrie You Karie, that's two more left Pistled

Pete and Magic Johnson He was up there It wasn't anything like I'm about to break your ankles tight but he can notice it. I can get from point A to point B, and there's nothing to do about it. So that's ball handling is about being efficient, so I had to put him in. It's a strong list.

I like it. I have my own Mount Rushmore, though. I love that he put Pete Marevich in. I love that because most people don't know about Pete Marevich. Mark Kregel wrote a book called Pete. Have you guys ever read that book? Pete Marevich is one of the most fascinating basketball players ever in the history of basketball, his childhood. I love that Steph Curry,

named Pete Marevich. Would you put Pistol Pete on your Mount Rush? Absolutely. Pete Marevich, there's very little footage of Pete Marevich, unless you live in Louisiana

and have LSU stock footage. Pete Marevich is one of the most fascinating players, his story, his game, he was resented early, he was so different, his father. God, he's just one of these guys.

You know, we always talk about old baseball. We never talk about the old NBA, because the NBA tends to be more of a look-forward lead than a look-back league. Right. Pete Marevich. is one of the few guys.

Go find his tape. Go YouTube it. Go buy books about him. Really, he would absolutely work in today's NBA. He could shoot threes when nobody shot threes. I would have

Kyrie Irving, Alan Iverson, Jason Williams, Jason Williams, and Isaiah Thomas. Jason Williams. White chocolate? Yes. I mean... You know what?

I actually like your list. Now, Isaiah was unbelievable. I don't have magic. on only because to me magic was, when I think of magic, it's not that he wasn't an all-time great ball handle but I think of him more as a passer facilitator. I agree. I don't have step on this

list because I think of him more number one as a shooter. He transformed the league with his three-point shooting ability. I can make an argument Isaiah Thomas is number one. Yeah, these aren't in any particular order. Isaiah Thomas was like Harlem Globetrotter like, if you would have put him,

you could have just tour around America of Isaiah Thomas showing ball handling, skills, and he's the best probably I've ever seen. And to me, Kyrie is just his ability to finish at the rim is just like nothing I've ever seen before. So that's my list. Moving on, Russell Westbrook is very good at basketball.

You give him a very hard time, but he's struggled with his three-point shooting, which is 31% career average from deep. And according to ESPN's Royce Young, he's looking to work on refining that this summer. He's been working on it this summer. I've been told he's, it's been a big time off season focus. What they've stressed, Zach, is a

work on a catch and shoot. Become a little bit better of a catch and shoot guy, but obviously in order to do that, there needs to be a catching before the shooting. It's hard to catch it from yourself. I think it's easier said than done. Most guys that come into this league as athletic but not

great shooters, Derek Rose, John Wall, Westbrook, I don't know, it's hard to explain. Like, sometimes they're they haven't worked on it. They've got their rhythm's not great, their shooting style. Very rarely does a guy come into this league for five years and you're like, he's not a natural shooter, and then he becomes a great shooter.

Like Steph Curry came in, Steve Nash came in, great shooters, and they remain great shooters. Now people go Jason Kidd, he never became a great shooter, but he took so many damn threes after a while. He had hit more than anybody else. Well, Russell's highest shooting percentage from three is 34%. That was his MVP year. But Russell's incredibly athletic and it is a good move to work on your three-point shooting as you're moving into later in your career.

Oh, God, yeah. So this is smart that he's getting on top of this now and working on improving that. Finally, Blake Bordell's believes that he's putting forth more consistent play than he has in the past. He's not completely mistake-free because who is? But he says the mistakes happen less frequently and are less costly than they have in previous seasons. I think the positive is that the lows aren't near as low as they were.

You know, they're still up and down, which is going to be, especially when you play our defense every day. but I think, you know, the ceilings or the floor has risen, I guess, in a weird way of saying that, that, you know, the lows aren't as bad. It's one, two, three bad plays compared to, you know, there were times last year, I'd go a whole day having a bad practice and, you know, not really feel good about it. So I think as long as you continue to kind of make those lows not quite as bad as they, you know, have been in the past, you know, I think we'll have a chance.

I've never been a huge believer in the Jags, and I'm not putting a lot of faith in them this either, but I do like that Blake is saying that. It's one thing that we've talked about a lot with Cam Newton, that it's so inconsistent with the play one week. It's great. One week, you have no idea who this person is. So it's good that he's balancing it a bit more is when it comes to the mistakes of Blake Borrell's.

But I'm not in on the Jags this year. I don't think you are either. Sean Watson's going to beat him twice and Andrew Luck's going to beat him once. Joy Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. I'll have some final thoughts on my greatest

disappointment with Urban Meyer in the Ohio State situation and also coming up best for last. If you thought time travel was impossible, one NFL star might just prove you wrong. That is next in best for last. When you're ready for a new car, consider Hyundai's on your team. Their shopper assurance program features transparent pricing, flexible test driving, and three-day worry-free vehicle insurance. Be part of the team at Hyundai. Go to HyundaiUSA.com slash shopper assurance.

Best for Lats, thoughts on the Buckeyes and Urban Meyer. In Los Angeles, we return the herd. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart Radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Great to have you in. The decision by Oakland to hire John Gruden

was already a little bit of a throwback move since he coached that team back in like 98 through 2001. But Gruden has really been taking this a one step further. So we begin our final segment with 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. So it was already a throwback.

But at February, at the combine, John Gruden came out and said this. Look, we're not running a 1964 operation here. But there are some things that happened in 1964 that were pretty damn good. And if you don't think so, go ahead and have a nice day. Okay, so he referenced 1964. Since then, players have said he's using grainy film that looks like it's from 1976. Yesterday, he was talking to players about the way the game is played, and he said this. Look, we're not running a 1964 operation here.

But there are some things that happened in 1964 that were pretty damn good. And if you don't think so, go ahead and have a nice day. I think I played that twice. But we thought to ourselves, some things in sports, you can argue, used to be better than current things in sports. So we thought we would play herd tub time machine. Here we go. With this machine, I can go back as far as I like. The herd tub time machine.

Okay, you give me the year and what we did, and Joy and I will say if we like it or don't like it. Would we like it back or we're glad it's gone? Okay, let's go back to 1998. In baseball that year, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa broke Roger Maris' home run record by a mile. McGuire hit 70, Sammy Stoza hit 66. Do you want to bring back the

bulked up sluggers crushing home runs? Well, I don't think people should take steroids or HGH because physically it's not healthy. But I will say this, they were cartoonish, they looked like superheroes and I thought that

home run race was not only historic but fascinating. I am for big Reggie Jack and Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, home run hitters in baseball. I wish it wasn't all we had like now with launch angles, but I liked it.

I loved it. It was my favorite year of baseball ever. I love when baseball has big personalities and big storylines, and it was the best. And the steroids is a side note for me. All right. Next year, John. Let's go back to 1976.

There was no such thing as a three-point line in basketball. So if you wanted to play basketball, you didn't really need to know how to shoot. Do you want to bring back an NBA with no three point line? No, because the one thing I do like about three point shots is that if you're down by 11 with two minutes left, you're very much in the game. Now, what I don't like about the three point shots, it can be repetitive to watch, right?

Centers don't matter. If you can't shoot, you're not in the floor. And you get more blowouts in basketball because teams are. so reliant. The hot team can take a lead on the bad cold team by 24 in the first quarter. But I do believe it makes late game deficits far more compelling. So I like the three-point line. I was not alive in 1976, so I only know one version of basketball. And it's fun. And I like it. So I'd like to keep it. All right. Let's go over to 1990. Herd tub time machine. That year in college football, national championship was split between Colorado and Georgia.

Georgia Tech. That's because there was no college football playoff or BCS. The college football national champion was decided by the AP poll and coaches. Do you want to bring back writers and coaches deciding who the champion is? No. By the way, nobody will ever say this because we like to complain about everything. But since we've had the BCS, we've gotten it right. We've gotten it right. Every single

every single matchup and every single team included, they've nailed it. So nothing against sports writers or coaches, but coaches have major agendas. And frankly, coaches don't even watch the games because they're coaching their games. So they give their ballot to the sports information director. I like the way it's done now. I do. I would like to expand it a little more. So would I.

I would like to do an eight team playoff. I agree. I think that would be more fair. Yes. It would have included a team like UCF that had an undefeated season. It would be more fair that way. I do like the way we do it now. All Power 5s get a team in, then three at large is one of them being a non-traditional power, like a UCF.

It lets the little guy in who will probably get pounded, but it'd be fun anyway. Right. All right. Let's go back to 1964. That year, UCLA basketball won its first ever NCAA tournament, and they had a pretty easy road. That's because the tournament didn't have 68 teams. It had 25. Do you want to bring back a 25-team NCAA tournament?

Yeah, because I think what's happened to college basketball, it's all about the bracket. I mean, seriously, nobody talks about the regular seat. I know Gonzaga, Duke, North Carolina, Michigan State, Kansas are all getting in. So I think sports now in a very fragmented world, we've got a million channels, a million blogs, a million websites, everything's on our phone, we're distracted. The way to get people interested in things is urgency. Baseball's got too many games. College basketball lets too many people into the tournament. If you made regular seasons and those conference tournaments matter,

my eyeballs would go, oh my God, Duke loses tonight? Duke's out of the tournament. I can tell you eight teams that are in next year. Eight to 16, I can tell you who's in the tournament. And I can tell you they're all going to be one, two, or three or four seeds. I got to disagree. Great shots of Coach Wooden, by the way. I got to disagree.

I think the bracket is fun. It brings in fringe fans. fans that don't pay any attention to college basketball whatsoever. And they make an incredible amount of money for it. Not that any of it goes to the players. But I do like it. And you have great upsets too with the way that the tournament is structured now. All right.

Herd tub time machine, John? Let's go to 2002. Someone had the bright idea to combine the excitement of basketball with trampolines. It was a sport called slam ball. I remember that. It was big for a while until it went defunct in the late two. thousands. Do you want to go back to slam ball, Colin? No, I thought it was

ridiculous, but it was one of those things The video is absurd. I don't know who invented it or who killed it, but I will say this. It created an entire industry of these warehouses full of those trampolines that

my son goes to. It's created an industry. This is one of those ideas that was not built last forever, but for the year two that it was available, it was outrageously funny. Oh my God. That clothesline was incredible. How do any of these guys have... It's like WW

basketball. How do any of these guys have knees? Right. I mean, look at those straight, tackling them. I disagree. We've got to bring this back. Now that we have social media, this would be incredible. And her tub time machine continued. All right, let's go back to

1985. That year, a man named David had a bright idea to rent videotapes. This led to the creation of the first blockbuster video. Do you want to do away with Netflix and go back to renting VHS tapes at

a store? I bet John Gruden does. No, God, that was awful. You'd go to the video store and I remember going to a video store. It was so inappropriate that had an adult section in the back of it. And unfortunately, they had all their

good thrillers next to the adult video portion of the store. So I was a local TV guy and I would go back to get like the Exorcist or, you know, some scary, the shining. Sure. And everybody thought, oh, like that TV guy's going back to get porn. And in the back of the store, they had this adult video stuff and I was always like, oh, Lord. Going to Blockbuster used to be kind of an event.

Like it was a fun thing to do. It was? I was go to Blockbuster and pick out a movie. and then the overpriced snacks there, which you never got. But I do not miss Blockbuster at all because the convenience of staying home and picking a movie with the remote is just, it's just better. I like binge watching, and I think the consumer does because we can watch everything on our terms. Yeah, I just binge Hammade Sale. It's a good watch. You should try it.

Yeah. All right, there we go. The Herd Tub Time Machine. So the words of Urban Meyer could come back to haunt him. There are several texts that indicate that it's hard to believe that Urban Meyer would not know about a football coach on his staff repeatedly assaulting his wife. He is no longer now a member of his staff. Right now, Urban Meyer is on administration. leave. Now, you can be cynical and think they're negotiating a way out, or you can believe the

university is trying to find a way to keep maybe the first or second best coach in college football. Now, Urban Meyer's contract has a clause in it, and it says as an Ohio State employee who supervises others, Meyer is required by the university's sexual misconduct policy to report knowledge of domestic abuse by a university employee, according to the policy. An individual need not be charged with or convicted of a criminal offense to be found responsible for domestic violence pursuant to this policy. What Urban Meyer needs is verification that he did at some point in 2015 if it appears there is proof that Urban Meyer, what I've read from the text, there is proof in 2015 that Urban Meyer was

informed of the allegations against this football coach, he has to find a piece of paper, a text, some viable form of communication that he informed his boss. According to Title IX, the Clarion Act, because from all the things I'm reading, it does appear that Urban Meyer was informed of it via a text at some point. He was notified of it. The question now, can he show that he informed others of it? Well, I mean, his wife was clearly aware of it. So is she not held liable for not reporting it if she did not.

Right. She is in like the nursing program. She is an Ohio state employee as well. She clearly is shown knowledge of it texting the wife of the football coach. Yeah, there's not denying that she had knowledge of it. Yeah. So if she had knowledge of it, obviously he and her talked. He has bragged about their relationship.

piece talked about how close they are and how much they talk. So to me, it seems like can he show proof that he indeed told his boss? By the way, Urban Meyer can lie to me all day. That doesn't mean he's going to get fired. You know, presidents, senators, governors, coaches lie to the media all day. That doesn't get you fired. You can't lie to the NCAA. Jim Tressel did and got booted.

And you better not lie to your boss. So it seems to me, without a shadow of a doubt, Urban Meyer knew something about. about it. Now it comes down to communication. Did he at any point inform his boss, Gene Smith, who is the athletic director? I understand smaller towns and college towns being more parochial. Most people in smaller towns grew up in smaller towns. Cities have more people, more transplants, not from the area. They tend to be a little less parochial. Let's all remember, though, before you go to your message board and Twitter to defend your ball coach, there is a victim here who called police nine times

and was handled and beaten savagely. It's the hurt. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports

and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert 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. street or 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 walks up to me. And he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What?

Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam?

It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast. Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was part of you. You just understood.

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

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