The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Why the Rodgers-LaFleur Connection Will Work

Episode Date: August 28, 2019

Colin comments on Ezekiel Elliott still not showing up to Cowboys camp, why he feels the Packers will be fine this season, who he thinks will win the Steelers-Antonio Brown divorce, and why he thinks the Colts were probably booing Andrew Luck. Guests include Nick Wright, James Jones, Joel Klatt, and Sam Monson.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio, at by searching herd. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go. We are packed. It is a Wednesday. This is the herd. Wherever you may be. However you may be listening. We are live on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor's in today. We are packed today. Now we're getting all sorts of stuff. There's no Zeeke for the Cowboys, Joy.

Yeah, I don't know. I really, I still am holding on faith that they get it done before week one, but I might be on an island with that one. Well, it's an interesting place to start today. So there's no new news on Zeke, a Zach Martin offensive lineman for the Dallas Cowboys came out yesterday. And here's what he said in regards to the holdout. Zach Martin talking about the Cowboys. Listen, we're preparing for the season and, you know, we're going to have to play with what we got. And what we got is a damn good back from Tony Pollard.

So, you know, obviously you'd want them out here, but we're preparing to get ready for week one. Okay, that sounds desperate. Dallas is not desperate. Tony Pollard, have you watched him play? Pretty good. 5.6 yards of carry. That would lead the NFL. Well, it's only preseason.

Yeah, that's right. It's only preseason for Dallas's only. line as well. Is everybody forgetting that Dallas's O line is healthier now than last year? That DAC is now in his fourth year, not his third year. The Amari Cooper will play all 16 games. And that Michael Gallup, who was a rookie wide receiver last year, has had a really good preseason in camp, that everything around the cowboy running back position is significantly better this year. The coordinator we think will be better. The quarterback is older and better. Amari an entire offseason is better.

Michael Gallup better. Do you need $18 million a year at running back? I'm not denying Zieg's better than Tony Pollard. But running back is weird in the NFL. Okay, let me give you a couple of examples. Seattle a couple years ago went and drafted a guy in the seventh round named Chris Carson. He could not win the starting job at Oklahoma State. He split time with a freshman his last year there.

Following year, Seattle spent a first round pin. on a running back. Rashad Penny. He can't beat out Chris Carson. Chris Carson's better than Rashad Penny. Well, that's just one example. Not really. How about Denver, Philip Lindsay?

Undrafted. They gave him a tryout because he was a local kid. He was undrafted from a non-football power. He's been a home run. Then they went out and got third rounder from Oregon, Royce Freeman. Philip Lindsay's better. Okay, so you got a couple examples. Now, let's go to the Chargers, Austin Echler.

Calvin Gordon. Pay him a lot. First round pick. Austin Echler went to something called Western State. It's in Colorado. I'm not sure if it's a university or a way station. We couldn't figure it out on Wikipedia. By the way, Justin Jackson's a seventh round pick. He also averages almost four yards of carry. Running back is different.

Matt Breedah at the 49ers, Georgia Southern. David Johnson for Arizona walked into this league and was a star, Northern Iowa, later rounds. Tareke Cohen for the Bears. Did you watch him in college on Saturdays at N-C-A-N-T? Is that a phone company or a football program? Who knows? Running back is instinct. It wouldn't be a shot.

Well, Tony Pollard didn't start at Memphis. Chris Carson didn't get all the carries at Oklahoma State and went in later rounds. Memphis puts a lot of guys in the NFL. Running back is different. Running backs are very dependent in most. cases on every running back was good for Mike Shanahan. Denver for years. Irrelevant who it was. If you were behind Mike Shanahan zone blocking, you rush for a thousand yards. This cowboy line has created three different thousand yard rushers. Dak will be better this year. Amari Cooper

for a full year. Jason Whitten helps a tight end. Michael Gallup in his second year. The offensive line is healthier. Upgrades it coordinator. By the way, the best Green Bay running back in terms of talent in the last several years, half a decade's Aaron Jones. I'm sure you watch them a lot at U-Tap. He went in the fifth round. This is not like a lot of positions in this league. You know, quarterbacks overwhelmingly come from the first round, the great ones. The Aaron Rogers, you know, you can give me Brady, but most of the great ones come

in the first round, the Elways and Marinos. Running back is all over the board, undrafted. Western Colorado, a directional school in Iowa or Texas. I'm not saying Tony Pollard's amazing. And I don't think you want to give him the ball 275 times this year. I'm not saying he's Levian Bell. I'm not saying he's Zeke. But I'm saying the Cowboys have more leverage than everybody is insinuating here.

Because he's going to make $600,000 this year. That's what Tony Pollard makes. You're paying Zeke 16. I can resign Byron Jones, if that's all I'm paying my running back. And I can re-sign Van derrash and Amari Cooper and give DAC 33 and not go sleepless at night. That's all I'm saying. This is not running back is. different and everybody for the Cowboys is better around the running back position than they were

a year ago. All right, let me go to this. There is, you know, I've been listening to a lot of, you know, talk show hosts and TV personalities. I consider myself a journalist, but let's not get into that. Anyway, I've been listening to a lot of this over the last, I would say, month or two. And there is some speculation. This is the common theme on Aaron Rogers and Matt LaFleur. You know, what happens when they go into a two-game losing streak, and Aaron wants to do what he wants to do,

and Matt Lefleur has his system? It feels a little problematic. I do not believe that is the case. In fact, I think the opposite is true. Aaron Rogers yesterday talked about his new coach and the new system. He's in every meeting. He leads every install. We spend time one-on-one as well talking about things.

There's been a lot of great discussions, a lot of creativity on both sides. You know, I think he's done some really, really smart things. He's not come in and said, hey, the past scheme was terrible. This is what we're going to run. He's been a good blending of some of the things that we're really good at, and then some of the great schemes that he's bringing to us from the places that he's been. I am going to now have a prediction that will be the opposite of everything I have heard in the media over the last month or two since Matt Lefleur and Aaron Rogers got together.

Are you ready for it? Twitter may not like this. I think Aaron Rogers and Matt Lefleur are going to have the best relationship in that division, and I'll explain why. Let's go to Mitch Trubisky and Matt Nagy

in Chicago. Did you watch Matt Nagy's frustration when Mitch Trubisky could not make pedestrian throws in that playoff game? Here's something I know about football. When you are a brilliant offensive mind, and Matt Nagy

qualifies for that, dude is all it. You get really frustrated when pedestrian quarterbacks can't fulfill the genius that you draw up on the whiteboard. Vic Fangio is gone in Chicago.

A great defensive coordinator. Translation, Bear's going to have to score some points this year. And Matt Nagy has scored points as a coordinator and a Coach, his entire career. What happens when they lose 27, 23 a lot? Okay, I don't think Matt Nagy and Mitch Trubisky by the end of the year is going to be as ideal as everybody thinks.

Let's go to Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins. Oh, they get along. Fine. Really? Kirk Cousins is 5 and 13 in primetime TV games. He has a brand now. He clenches his teeth in big games. Mike Zimmer coached for 35 years. before Mike Zimmer was given a head coaching job in the NFL. He's in his 60s.

He doesn't have a lot of years left. This is his big job. He is a great coach. He has a great defense. They have a star running back in Delvin Cook. They have two star receivers and a way above average tight end. Let me ask you, when Kirk Cousins chokes like a cat on a hairball in another primetime TV game, and you're in week seven, and you're already two back of Green Bay and one back of Chicago,

You think Mike Zimmer's going to come in? Kirk Cousins, high five! We'll get him next time, Tiger! I think that relationship is walking on eggshells. Okay, let's go to Matt Stafford and Matt Patricia. Let me ask you, how many big wins has Matt Stafford had in his career? Let's start with zero and work backwards. Because Matt Patricia watched Tom Brady win seemingly every big game

and make every big play in every big moment. That's his standard. Think he's going to get tired of Matt Stafford? By the way, Matt Patricia is not getting a second head coaching job because he is a disciple of Belichick, meaning if he fails in Detroit, he will fairly or unfairly be labeled as another Belichick coordinator who can't really get it done. This is his chance. He's a smart, successful 40-year-old guy.

I've known guys like that. This is his opportunity. he's going to have no patience on Matt Stafford putting up big numbers and can't make the play late in the game. Nagy and Trubisky, Zimmer and Kirk Cousins, Stafford and Matt Patricia, I don't see those as potentially great relationships for very long. Now let's go to Aaron Rogers and Matt LaFleur. if Matt LaFleur came from Tennessee. Okay, that's Marcus Marietta.

If you woke up every morning and drove to the facility with Marcus Marietta for a year, and then a year later you wake up and you drive to the facility with Aaron Rogers as your quarterback, it is Christmas every day at 5 in the morning in Wisconsin, I think Matt LaFleur is going to totally appreciate Aaron Rogers? I think Aaron Rogers, if Matt LaFleur is a little over his head or skis in a couple of games this year, Aaron has the ability to save the staff. I think this relationship is going to be fine. It's the other three relationships in that division I'm worried about.

Aaron and Matt, I'll predict it now. They'll win the division. It won't be a perfect relationship. Aaron's demanding. Aaron's smart and demanding. Smart and demanding people are hard to work for. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy a fruitful relationship, but it's never easy. not easy coaching Kobe Bryant.

It's not easy coaching Michael, Jordan, or LeBron. That doesn't mean it can't be fruitful, but it's not easy. It's just not. I mean, successful. Steve Jobs, guys worked with him for 15 years. There were no easy weeks with Steve Jobs. Bill Gates, Elon Musk. You know, that's the way it is.

But I'll go the opposite. Aaron and Matt will have a better relationship and appreciate each other more and get frustrated with each other less than the other. all the other quarterbacks and coaching relationships in the NFC North. I believe some of the kids call that a hot take. What do you make of it, Joy? I mean, I think you're probably right. Plus, Aaron Rogers is by far the best quarterback in that division.

By far. It makes it a lot easier to enjoy your job and have a good relationship when you're coaching an all-time talent. By the way, I think Stafford's a huge talent. That's part of the frustration. I think Stafford's a mega talent. He's got a little Cam Newton. Like there are so many things, so many boxes checked.

I mean, I would honestly put Cam Newton over years ahead of Stafford. And I think their talent is, Matt Stafford's one of the most talented quarterback arms in the league. So that's another thing where Aaron Rogers has talent, but I got a Super Bowl. I got a lot of playoff wins. He knows how to win, and he's clutch.

Matt Stafford, I'm getting a lot of fourth places. So I think the Matt, Patricia Matt Stafford, could get really ugly by week 12 if you're in fourth place, and Stafford's not delivering in big spots. Yeah, the only way I see the Aaron Rogers relationship, before a relationship going sour, is if it's a complete, utter disaster. Like, if they have any level of winning,

it's going to be a success. Good stuff today. Nick Wright, James Jones, Joel Clatt. We are, oh, man, Joel Clatt and I start arguing in August. Oh, boy. But we already got things we disagree with. That's coming up. Coming up next, Big Ben, A, B, firing shots, what it all means next.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. days in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From

viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast. Learn the Heart Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field

and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins.

losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you here on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Cleverhood. Cliver Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff.

Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rec, 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time.

You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenopausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with Deanna Maria Riva, where I call on my GenX squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening on my own.

I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How can it be getting naked at 50 with a new guy? That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting.

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It's great to have you in. Nick Wright's around the corner. Joy Taylor joining us. Fun day. This is a really fun time of the year. I love working late in August. I got all my information now. outside of a Zeke and a Melvin Gordon holdout who's healthy, who's not,

what rookies look good, what don't. I'll re-address my top two takes of the day. Running back is a strange position in the NFL. Guys who are not even super productive in college often pop in the NFL based on the blocking schemes of the coaching staff in the NFL, the offensive line prowess in the NFL. Tony Pollard, I think's going to have a nice year. Dax better, Michael Gallup's better. Jason Witten's back.

Amari Cooper a full year. and the O-line is healthy. Everything around running back for the Cowboys should be better, and their coordinator will be better. I don't think Zeke has as much leverage, and he is great as he thinks. Tony Pollard can win games in this league with a supporting cast that's better around him in every position.

My other takeaway is I think Aaron Rogers and Matt LaFleur will get along great. He and Mike McCarthy got along great forever. I mean, that was a very nice relationship for a long time. Let's not make it into 10 years of gravel road. It was a nice smooth drive on the auto bond until the end. Here's my other take today, and I want to talk about this for a couple of minutes. Antonio Brown in Big Ben.

Everybody's taking sides on this. First of all, Hard Knocks has been a big disappointment. Only thing saving it is John Gruden is a hell of an actor. At this point, I'm not sure he can coach, but he is a great actor. And Antonio Brown is being made to look good. Obviously, the Raiders have some say in the content. You don't want to make him look bad. You want Antonio Brown to feel good about himself.

And you can take sides on this. I've said, A, B, is too high maintenance for me, not interested. But I also think Big Ben, stop trying to win the moment. This is why I criticize Baker Mayfield. Quarterback sometimes, just eat it. Just eat it. You're going to have a young receiver. He's a little cocky and crazy.

Eat it. You're the quarterback. That's why we pay you so much money. Sometimes quarterbacks don't win the moment. That might knock on Baker. He's always got to win the argument and win the moment and win the commentary and win that. Stop it. Quarterbacks are paid not to win the moment.

Let the superstar receiver win the argument. Let the superstar receiver win the offseason. You're the quarterback. So stop talking about it. Big Ben said the other day it ruined a friendship. A, B, I wasn't perfect. Stop talking about it. A.B. came out and said we were never friends.

That's now since been deleted on Twitter. Here's all I come back to on this. The greatest revenge. Have you ever heard this story? Or this term. The greatest revenge is living well. So it doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what A.B. thinks.

Ben thinks. Joy thinks. The media thinks. It doesn't matter. Because when there's divorces and breakups in sports, here's the only true barometer of who wins it. Who wins after the divorce? Who won Westbrook KD?

KD. He won titles. LeBron Kiree. Karee couldn't get along with anybody in Boston. LeBron gets to finals. Des and the Cowboys. Who won that divorce? Cowboys made the playoffs, won a playoff game.

Des still unemployed. Eagles and Chip Kelly. Who won that? Eagles, they got to a Super Bowl. Khalil Mack and the Raiders. Kalil got to the playoffs. Raiders got to fourth place. Who won that?

Kaleo Mac. Look around. Kauai and the Spurs. Kauai was MVP of the finals. Spurs, great organization. Exit stage right first round of the playoffs. I think first round, first or second, I forget. Is it first?

Yeah. Every one of these breakups are not determined by sports talk show hosts. They're not determined by the media or even the players in the moment themselves. The winner, the winner, the greatest revenge is living well, is who wins. And then years later, you look back and go, God, Des, he was really flaky. Man, Kyrie Irving, talk about difficult. Westbrook, nobody can play with him. Chip Kelly.

That college thing just didn't work. By the way, it did work. Ten and six, ten and six. Live well. Win a lot. That will determine Big Ben, A.B. Who wins? And I think you know what side I'm on.

I think Pittsburgh is going to win their division, get home games, and end up minimum in the AFC championship. Here's Joy with the News. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So, Jadabian Clowny's been holding out of Texans camp.

He was reportedly planning on signing his one-year franchise tender and returning this week until some trade rumors started swirling. And the dolphins have expressed interest in Clowny, and that could be a landing spot for him, according to Ian Rappaport. Clowny has already met with head coach Brian Flores and members of the Dolphins' front office in person. He would allegedly prefer to be with the Eagles or with the Seahawks. Who wouldn't?

Who doesn't want to be with the Eagles? I think that makes sense. The trade doesn't really make a lot of sense to me for Miami because he is going to, he can't sign a long-term contract with the new team until after the season. Right. So he'll be an unrestricted free agent in 2020 and he's owed $16 million this year. So it's a very expensive rental for a rebuilding team. So a trade doesn't, I don't understand the trade move for the business.

Clowny, as we watch these videotapes of Clowny, Joy, it reminds me of his high school tapes and it reminds me of his college tapes. He is a great highlight player. Yes. But is he as productive as they thought he would be? No. Is he always as healthy as they thought he would be?

No. When I watch these pictures of Judavian Clowny, you would think 32 teams are lined up to get it. His video highlights out of high school. It's the best high school football defensive player I think I've ever seen. The high school, his college stuff, it was at South Carolina,

was some of the most dominating stuff I've ever seen in my life. With Clowny, it's not talent. He gets dinged up a lot, and he tends to be a burst player, but he's the second best pass rusher on his own team at Houston. And so I watched this video, and I'm like, God, wouldn't everybody want Chedavian Clowny? But it doesn't appear there's a lot of suitors lined up for him. Well, he's obviously a physical specimen.

Yeah. And as you said, his highlights, he pops off the screen. He looks like he should be LT, or just the most dominant defensive player in the league. Look at the speed for size. know that's not true. So he's, and it's not that he's not a great player, he is, but it's a matter of fits and purpose.

And for the dolphins, why are you going to give up draft picks for DeJavian Clowning? That's insanity. Or Tunzel, the left tackle. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm pretty sure he's off the table, which he clearly should be. That's how he just doesn't make sense. I mean, the dolphins are rebuilding.

So if this was a position where you felt like you could get in there and then resign him, or you could get him there and he's going to make you significantly better, or, I don't know, help your possibly new young quarterback and Josh Rosen. It's just not the side of the ball that you really need help on. And it's a very expensive one-year situation. So we have to watch and see what happens with this because obviously there's a lot that could develop. But I don't see why the Dolphins would be the ideal landing place for him.

So the NFL team owners and players union have begun negotiating the next CBA, which could take effect in 2021. And a big topic of discussion and something we've talked about a lot is the length of the preseason. Well, Falcons owner, Arthur Blank, is in favor of a change. He said, I think four games is not necessary. We need some preseason games for talent evaluation for sure. With our first and second year players and developmental players, players who are free agents coming into our scheme.

The vets need some of that, but not a whole lot of it. So I think we can do with less preseason games. Jerry Jones, on the other hand, still a fan of the preseason. He said, I'm one of these guys that there's an element of preseason that's exciting to me, but everybody doesn't look at it that way. We want to see competing right down to the last down. and so getting there with the preseason doesn't happen. So we're taking a look at it.

It has been a subject of evaluating, looking at critiquing since I've been in the league for 30 years. They are reportedly discussing an expanded regular season to make up for the revenue lost by shortening the preseason. The league's making enough revenue. Let's stop with everything being about the money. They're making more than enough revenue. Half the league is undrafted.

We're not billionaires. So we think that way. Billioners tend to not think that way. That's why they're billionaires. But that's what it's. it all comes down to. As much as conversations that we have about injuries and the value

of the preseason and if we need four games for some teams obviously it's more and you know what are the fans getting out of it. They have to pay full price. Players aren't getting paid. It's a complicated situation but at the end of the line it all comes down to

money. So how are you going to replace the revenue made from losing say one or two preseason games? That's what's going to come down to for the owners. I am not in favor of expanding the regular season at all. Now, I know that could mean a lot more money for guys, but one of the most important parts of football to me and what makes it so relevant is the sense of urgency

that every single game matters so much down to the last down. September's not going to be as big if you have 18 games. Just not. You can go 0 in 3. You've got 15 left. It dramatically changes. September, I think. I think it changes the sport.

So I'm not in favor of. expanding to more regular season games, but I don't foresee a dramatic change in the preseason either, because I think more and more teams are just going to sit their starters. It's going to become less competitive. It's going to be more of just an extended exhibition games for, like he said, developmental players and rookies. And that's just the way it's going to go because they're not going to sacrifice money. Finally, this was everywhere. Kobe Bryant and Shaq had plenty of success with the Lakers. They led the Lakers to three straight NBA titles from 2000 to 2002, but Kobe is still upset over what could have been.

Who would Shaq if he had your work ethic? He'd be the greatest of all time. If Shaq had your award? He'd be the greatest of all time. For sure. He'd be the first to tell you that. For sure. I mean, this guy was a force.

Like, I have never seen. I wish he was in a job. I would have had 12 rings. I don't think he's wrong. No, I mean, 12 was a lot, but they would have definitely had more success. But Shaq responded with his own reason for why the Lakers did not win 12 rings. He commented on Instagram and said,

you would have had 12 if you passed the ball more, especially in the finals, against the Pistons. Hashtag Facts. And then he said, you don't get statues by not working hard. I'm on Team Kobe here. Shaq was not a good practice player. I love Shaq, but he was a distracted player by his third year in the league. He was completely distracted.

And I love Shaq. Kobe responded on top. Twitter. We reminded everyone that he still admires Shaq. He said, don't get it confused. He was still the hashtag MBE most dominant ever. It's just kind of funny. It's just another way for us to talk about Shaq and Kobe.

I don't think that they really have a bad relationship. I think at this point they've figured it out. But it is fun to wonder what would have been. And I don't think it's all on Shaq. Like, anytime you have situations like that, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that can not just be you know, Shaqton when to practice hard.

Okay, fact. NBA Dynasty's never last as long as we think they're going to last ever. Even MJ quit ones came back. They never last. We thought Warriors, seven years. Two years, they were wearing each other out by the end of the second year. It's a lot. It's a lot. A lot of stars in that league. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. So my friend Nick Wright, you know, in the summer, I just sit in grind out these shows. Nick Wright does not. He's a global traveler. He was in Barcelona, Zurich, Austria. For all I know, he was a at the Arctic, the well-traveled, well-quafed,

Nick Wright, via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Well, you look great. Barcelona, great food. I listened to you on radio yesterday, and I'm so happy that you had a great time with your fam. So I may be crazy on this, but it is weird about running backs in the NFL, Nick. They come undrafted.

They come from directional schools. Everybody in Dallas is better around the running back this year. Tony Pollard, could I make an argument? I could play him. I could make Zeke sweat it out a few weeks. All right. So here's the argument against it. Because I think that everyone acknowledges that running backs a fungible position,

that for the vast majority of running backs, you can get 80% of the production for 10% of the money. So why spend the money? The question that I think people are swaying away from the correct answer to, how valuable is the spread? How valuable is that extra 20% that you can get with a truly great running back? Because while I think you shouldn't pay Melvin Gordon, and I think even a LaShawn McCoy maybe is replaceable, the great ones,

and there's only a couple right now. Todd Gurley has been, and we saw what happened to the Rams once he stopped being great. Zeke's the most important player on the Cowboys because their quarterback so limited, because they've invested in the offensive line. So I understand the analytics. It's a throwing game, and you can find NFL-level running backs. But great running backs, I think, are still valuable. Zeeks's one of the great running backs, and we've talked about this before.

There's two ways to look at the beginning of Dallas's schedule. One way is, Giants, Washington Dolphins, man, we could win those games without Zeke and really make him sweat it out to your point. The other way to look at it is, if you go, go one in two in those first three games. Your season is finished before we hit October 1st. That's Zieg's portion of the leverage. It looks like they're going to play week one without him.

I think the Giants could beat them. If Zeek's not out there, I'm not as high on Tony Pollard as some seem to be. Aaron Rogers, Matt LaFleur. I did this morning what I believe the lexicon for it among the kids now is hot take. I think his relationship, Aaron and Matt, is the best in that division, because I think Matt's going to appreciate him coming from Marcus Mariotta. And I think Zimmer is going to get frustrated with cousins. I think Nagy's going to get frustrated with the limitations at Trubisky.

And Matt Patricia, this is his first and last head coaching job. It's going to be very impatient with Stafford. I think Rogers and LaFleur are going to get along great. What say you? I don't think that we should, just because Aaron Rogers seems to have a poor relationship with some members of his family. And just because our friend Greg Jennings and Aaron don't have the greatest relationship, I don't think we should act as if Aaron Rogers has a long history of criticizing or crushing coaches.

He's not your beloved Big Ben who does. He has a history with Mike McCarthy where for the first nine years, it went really well, and then it got stale while Mike McCarthy's schemes got stale, and it seemed to really go sour starting with that devastating loss in the NFC championship game to Russell Wilson to Seattle Seahawks. Relationships work the best when both parties' incentives are aligned. Rogers and LaFleur's incentives are perfectly aligned. This could be Matt LaFlears' one and only coaching job if it goes poorly.

Rogers knows, for his sake, it is the best case scenario that he never has another head coach, that this is his last head coach. And Rogers, I believe he's the most talented quarterback we've ever seen in this league. He can't go three straight years, not winning his own division, much less not making a Super Bowl. So I agree with you, Colin. I think both guys, especially early, are going to be on the same page. I think LaFleur will appreciate he has a quarterback who can actually throw as opposed to what he had in Tennessee. And Rogers will appreciate he has a coach and schematic guy who is going to get some guys open before the ball is even snapped as opposed to what he was dealing with Mike McCarthy.

So I agree with you, at least over the next 12 to 36 months. I think this relationship will be great. Is it possible shifting to Andrew Luck that some of the booing was about the situation and not just about Andrew Luck and that the media's overwhelming take that people in Indianapolis are heartless, cold, and horrible people is overstated? Of course, that's correct. And I hate agreeing with you on everything, but this is spot on. A little, I'm going to pull back the curtain a bit to the viewers.

One of us in the media in general, our favorite things, is to wag our fingers at you the naughty fans. Because it is the ultimate Captain Easy Stance take. I mean, it is, just look at how dignified I am. I would never boo the athlete. Okay, listen, those folks in Indy, I do not think would have booed his press conference. but in and people came out and said those aren't real fans. B.S. Those are the realist fans.

You know how I know it? Not only were they at a preseason game, they were there at the very end. Those are your diehards. And your diehards are invested. We ask people to be deeply financially and emotionally invested in sports. It's why there's 24-hour shows and networks like this, but you're not going to have a three-hour. or talk show about once upon a time in America, even though people love going to the movies.

Sports are different. And those fans there felt betrayed, even if that's unfair and irrational. Even if Andrew Luck was doing the right thing for himself. And with 24 or 48 or 72 hours perspective, people saw it. In real time, they're thinking, wait, what? For the second time in three years. I paid for season tickets and he's not going to play. I get the booing. Just like I understood in the moment, Raptors fans cheering that they saw KD went down. I don't think they were happy once they knew he blew his Achilles. I think in the moment they're like, man, this dude is giving us buckets. It's killing us. And now he's off the floor. It's an emotional momentary reaction. And I don't think they should be, the city of Indianapolis should be judged for it.

Finally, I want to hear Kobe Shack. I'm a Kobe guy. You're not a huge Kobe guy. Kobe says, I got 12 more rings if Shack wasn't so lazy. And Shaq says, I'd have more rings if you pass. What's your take on that? Okay, so I think the Shack work ethic stuff is a little unfair. People forget what a monster he was in Orlando before he even got to L.A.

His weight truly ballooned after he played through an injury in the 2002 NBA playoffs and into the 2002 NBA finals where they did, in fact, win a championship. But also, big guys are never going to be able to work out the way small guys are. With that said, Shaq probably could have been a slightly better practice player, slightly better workout guy. Kobe also could have been a slightly better teammate. Like, did the relationship go sour when Shaq didn't practice, or did the relationship go sour when Kobe tried to throw Shaq under the bus to the police in Colorado?

probably a little bit of both. Kobe has a very good job at some revisionist history, and Shaq's right about that Detroit Pistons NBA final series, where Kobe was awful, except for game two. He had a four of 13 in there, a 7 to 25.

But your point that dynasties don't last as long as we think they will or think they should is absolutely correct. Yes, in a vacuum, Kobe and Shaq should have won five or six rings together, but there's egos, there's different age profiles. And by the way, for Kobe, he wouldn't tell you this.

Getting two rings without Shaq was more important and more validating for him than if he would have gotten four more with Shaq and zero without him. Both guys got what they needed out of the relationship. Nick, right? Of course, first things first. My favorite moment of our network, our young network came this morning when not only I, but Enos Cantor was shown showing great affection to Nick Wright's hair. Folks, our network now is dependent solely on how Nick combs his hair. This is a beautiful

television moment in America. Look at that. He appreciates... Look at that. I appreciate that, Colin. Enis had gone on Twitter when I said that the Celtics plan going from Horford, Kyrie, Anthony Davis to Kimba, Jason Tatum, Enis

Canter was a disaster. He said the only disaster is my hair piece so I had to bring him on the show. So he knew that these glorious locks, they're totally real. I don't know where they came from, but they're totally real. And just before I go real quick, you mentioned at the top that you don't travel. If you don't travel, it would probably make sense for you to sell one of your seven horns, not in Los Angeles. I'm just saying, seems to be a waste of resources, my friend.

Get out of here. Nick Wright, good talking to you, buddy. All right. We'll take a break back in a second, live in L.I. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in.

I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

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

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

Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose. On my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, our heart radio app.

Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliver Show, I'm bringing you. conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes,

hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. podcast. What's up fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about Define the Odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he

gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get to flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the bar like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah. You figure it out real quick. Get your ass up. Get your ass up. and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. By the way, welcome back.

I got to thank my staff. Behind the scenes this week, you haven't seen this, but it should be noted. I'm dealing with a massive head cold. Temperatures. I'm in and out of the bathroom. My staff has done a remarkable job. I have had more concoctions on this set in the last four days to get me through this week. Let's hear it for the staff behind the scenes.

Don't get love. I am drinking something now, which appears to be thorough flu without the drugs. I've got like seven things lined up here. Thank you to our staff. You do not miss this week. There's a lot going on. Joel Clats coming up this hour, James Jones next hour. So I think one of the more interesting teams this year will obviously be Cleveland, the Baker-O-BJ

thing. It can be very interesting. And I don't think every NFL team is interesting. I think Tennessee will be good. I don't think they're fascinating. There's teams in this league. I think the Rams will be a very good team. I don't think they'll be fascinating.

We've kind of seen what they are. I think New England will be good. They won't be fascinating. The two teams I'm really interested to watch. There's two or three. I think Green Bay with Aaron and Matt Lafleur is really interesting. I think Cleveland with Baker and the pressure and the cockiness and OBJL be really interesting. I think Carolina is going to be really interesting because Cam Newton has had one great year.

But Carolina's got a new owner, and he doesn't give a rip about how great you were in the rearview mirror. This guy comes from Pittsburgh, David Tepper. He wants to win. He doesn't care about your. MVP award. He doesn't. They've got a new owner. And this Carolina team, I'm tired of hearing about Cam doesn't have support. He's had three different offensive linemen in eight years make the Pro Bowl. He's got a borderline Hall of Fame wide tight end in Greg Olson. McCaffrey has been a home run at running back. The third home run running back he's had. He has had five of his eight years,

they've had a top 10 defense. They've replaced all sorts of coordinators and people to make Cam uncomfortable. Cam, you got to win. And if you go through Carolina's schedule, remember, the home field advantage in the NFL is a field goal. So I'm going to take Carolina's schedule based on the games in which I think they'll be favored. And if you're a great franchise quarterback, you don't lose games you're favored, right? Brady and Breeze don't lose a lot of games. They're favored. Peyton Manning didn't lose a lot of games in the regular season. He was favored. Let's look at their schedule. Week one, Rams. They should lose that game. Rams have better players. Week 2, hosting Tampa.

Week 3, hosting Arizona. Those are wins. They got a better quarterback in those situations, and they got better players. Let's say they lose at Houston. That's a coin flip to me, but the Texans would be favored in that game, and I love Deshawn Watson, and I like their roster outside of the offensive line. They're 2 and 2 through 4. Host Jacksonville, W. At Tampa, W.

At San Francisco. San Francisco, folks, is still rebuilding. Carolina is not rebuilding anywhere on that roster. W. Tennessee at home. Depends on where that game is played. It's at Carolina. It's in Charlotte. I give that to them.

Because those two teams' rosters are very similar. Home team wins. W. At Green Bay, it's not fair to say that Cam has to go to Green Bay and beat Aaron Rogers. That's not fair. So that's an L. Atlanta at home, W. At New Orleans, it's not fair to make Cam have to beat Drew Brees in the Superdome. That's not fair.

L. Washington, W. at Atlanta. Close game, L. Again, losing to Atlanta. A team I love and think wins the division. for me to say Cam has to win that. Seattle at home, W. At Indy, now with Jacoby Brissette, W. Saints at home, W. That's 11 and 5. That's a very, based on where the games are played, the overall rosters, and will you be viewed as a favorite or an underdog? Franchise quarterbacks don't lose games in the regular season. They're favored. And they're not supposed to.

you look at Carolina's schedule, 11 and 5 is incredibly attainable. This is not a brutal schedule. Ooh, they got to play the Rams. They get them at home. You know, they got to play the Seahawks. They get them at home. Who, they got to play Tennessee that has a winning right. Oh, they get them at home.

So if this team goes 9 and 7 or 8 and 8, that is on cam now. Now, my feeling is he got injured, he came into the season injured. I think Atlanta is going to rebound big time this year. And I think the NFC is just frankly stocked. I even think Tampa's a tough out. They may beat Tampa twice, but Tampa with Bruce Ariens and James Winston and those offensive skill people, that's a tough out. Tampa's going to score a lot of points this year.

Don't know if they'll stop a lot of teams. They'll score a lot of points. Tight end's good. Receivers good. Quarterbacks, interesting. They've upgraded their own line. So I think the three teams I really want to watch this year. Cleveland, obviously.

Aaron Rogers. Keep your eye on this team. New owner. He's not going to pay Cam based on some plaque he won and game he got to when he didn't own the team. That's not the way billionaires work. It's my team. I got a light bill and a cable bill. Pay it. You got to pay my... I'm paying...

I've got to pay bills now for this new team. So I want guys to help me pay the bills. And you pay those bills with winning. 11 and 5 is very attainable for Carolina. Coming up next hour, James Jones is going to stop by. And a new angle supporting the Colt fans, a new angle on that.

I thought about driving to work today. Hour 2 in L.A. It's the Hurt. Want more HARD? The HARD streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart Radio app. Search HARD to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Hour 2. What are you doing? We're live in L.A. This is the HARD, wherever you may be,

and however you may be listening, amongst the Palm Foods, in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio and FS1, Joy Taylor, is joining us. James Jones, former Packers, going to be here in about three or four minutes. Good to have you. Joy, how are you today? I'm doing good. I'm not sick yet.

I have fever for two days. Fevers done. That's good. So now it's just, you know, can't breathe and can't taste food. Last night, I didn't eat yesterday until last night I had a piece of fish. And my whole takeaway was, what's the point of having like a hamburger or chicken wings? I can't taste anything anyone. So I might as well eat something healthy.

Which don't sound sick, so that's good. All right. It sounds like a million dollars. Fantastic. Pro. So, listen, I want to address something, first of all. People did not like the Andrew Luck booing, but I want everybody to think about something for a second.

Obviously, it's not the way we would hope he would be treated. But there is something to be said. If you leave a company and the company is pissed, it's because you mattered. If you leave a relationship and you break her heart, because she was in love. Sometimes people are booing people and other times they're booing situations

that include people. I want you to think about this. So when Andrew Luck walks off the field, Indianapolis fans are like, we're going to go from this to Jacoby Brissette. Jacobi Prissette could be offended. Andrew Luck, they loved you because you matter. Eli Manning,

Think about this for a second before you have an opinion. What quarterback has blown us away in the preseason? Daniel Jones. We ripped the Giants when they picked him. He's been really good. Daniel Joneses look really good. Every time they put him in, he looks really good. In fact, don't tell anybody.

He looks better than the old guy that we've had like four straight losing seasons. If Eli Manning, it would have been announced was retiring walking out that field. With the two Super Bowls, with his evaporating play, with what we've seen with Daniel Jones, you know what the relationship would have been, the crowd reaction would have been?

What? Oh, right. We love you, Eli. What's the Ariana Grande song? Thank you next. What's the song? That's it. Yeah.

Okay. Peyton Manning's one of the three greatest quarterbacks I've seen in my life. Three or four. Indianapolis got over Peyton Manning really quickly. Why? Suck for Luck campaign. Because all we talked about for a year was, have you seen this kid at Stanford?

Listen, the bottom line here, Eli Manning has won more than Andrew Luck. And if it was announced that he was leaving at the same time at the end of a fourth quarter of a preseason game with what we've seen with Daniel Jones. I think there would have been people in that stadium going, oh, Eli, that is just terrible news. Anyway, whoa!

This is a relationship. Cold fans are giving Andrew a compliment. We're screwed. We don't have anybody close to you. You're amazing. They weren't just booing luck. They're booing the situation. Indianapolis got over Peyton Manning in about five minutes.

because of Andrew Luck. And New York's going to get over Eli in those two rings, and he's a puppy dog and everybody loves him. In about half a minute because of Daniel Jones. When people are mad, you leave a company, it's a compliment. You matter. Not every employee does. Not every quarterback does.

But Jacoby Brissette's good, but luck is great. All right. With that, let's bring in a man who played in the NFL for nine NFL seasons. Most notably, of course, the Green Bay Packers. where he was not only an asset to the organization and beloved and cheered often. Also, a good friend of Aaron Rogers, and sometimes receivers and errands don't click, but you and Aaron are tight then. You're tight now. It's good to have you. By the way, let's go back to your relationship. Let's start it with there,

because I think Aaron and Matt Lafleur are going to work fun. I think they're going to be really, really good together. I think Matt's going to appreciate off Marcus Marietta, how gifted Aaron is. And I think Aaron's going to appreciate the youth and the uniqueness and the ideas and the progressive nature of a young coach. I think they'll be great. Matt Nagy and Trubisky, that ain't going to work forever. But let's start with you and Aaron Rogers. When did you click and why?

We could click my rookie year. And the reason why I believe we clicked, it was authentic. Like, I'm a jokester. So just because Aaron Rogers is a star quarterback, hey, you get the joke too. The joke is on you too. And I always came off like that. And it always was authentic. I never was trying to disrespect nobody.

Never came off like that. And I think when I started doing that and I let him know, like, you're just another guy. You're one of the guys, too. You're not up here. We're down here. You're one of the guys. And I think he kind of embraced me on that role. And then we just started getting closer and closer, started hanging out off the field and all that.

And our relationship grew. And, you know, now we're here now. By the way, it doesn't, you don't have to get along with people. I mean, Calvin Johnson was a very quiet person. I don't think Calvin Johnson would always click if you were. a Baker Mayfield or a Cam Newton or a big personality. Calvin's a quiet guy. So he may click with certain people.

Tom Brady's rare. He seems to get along with everybody from Randy Moss to West Welk to Julian Edelman. A, B, and Big Ben don't ever appear like they were great friends. I don't think you have to be, or am I wrong? Do receivers and quarterbacks have to be buds? Not off the field, no. I mean, on the field, I mean, you can separate it.

You can get on the field and let's go to work. Let's win some ball games. I'm one of the best at my position. You're one of the best at yours. Let's go out here. Let's dominate. Off the field, yeah, we don't got to hang out. Our family's got to hang out.

We don't got to be best buzz. But when we get on the field, hey, let's be on the same page. Let's go to work and let's put a good product out there. A.B. I saw you at a Raiders practice. Yeah. How are you in A.B.? Tell me the story.

Me and A.B. are close. I mean, he's a good friend of mine. You know, just sitting there talking to him at Raiders camp. He's happy. They're happy that he's there. was around there. I mean, you talk to Mark Davis, you talk to a lot of those guys who have sat down with him. They love

him. They love him. They say he's an unbelievable team guy. They all embrace him. They love him. And you can tell that AB understands and believes in his heart that is genuine. When it comes to the owners, when it comes to coach, when it comes to Derek Carr,

he believes it's genuine. He doesn't in Pittsburgh. Not with the quarterback. Could I say this? He wasn't as valuable in Pittsburgh as he will be in Oakland. He will be more important in Oakland. Maybe he wants, I mean, Juju Smith-Schuster, Big Ben James Washington, that organization wins every time a receiver leaves.

They have weapons, but to lose a player like that, I know it's easy to say that they're going to be fine now, but we've got to wait until this season unfold because that is a big weapon that you're a loser. I'm a fan of Juju. I think Juju is going to have a phenomenal year. But I think when teams start coming in there trying to take it, it's going to get harder. I think he will continue to have success. But losing a guy like that is going to be tough to say the offense is just going to take off.

What about the helmet thing? I mean, I get everybody wants a helmet. Tom Brady's helmet this year weighs a pound more than last year. It's a pain in the butt. But Tom's not holding out of camp. No. And you're exactly right. And I feel the same way.

Listen, we all, every time you go to a different team or every time you start, I want my helmet. I've broken that helmet in. I've had that helmet my whole career. I want my helmet. But at the end of the day, it's not just you that has to change your helmet. Every receiver in the National Football League has to put on a helmet similar to yours. So it's not just you. Do I understand he wants his helmet?

But at the end of the day, okay, you can't have it. We've got to go out there and play and find us a helmet that we can play in. All right. So that's a fair criticism. He got a little over dramatic on the helmet. It's a reality of equipment. I want to ask you, before I'm going to end it today with the Aaron Roger stuff. So I want to go into the Aaron Andrew Luck stuff.

Listen, I get it. All we do with fans is, as an organization, we demand that you pay us a bunch of money, and then we encourage you to drink, and then we put you amongst other alpha males. And in a crowd, guys tend to act in football games, goofier and more aggressively than they do in real life. It's like Twitter. Give somebody some anonymity. They're all tough guys. If some guy walked up to you that banged on you on Twitter, it'd be shaken, and can I have an autograph?

Isn't some of this luck thing is? Luck's great. Yes. They pay a lot of money. They're four Budlights in. That nobody in Indy hates Andrew Luck. In fact, I would argue, most great quarterbacks are polarizing. Brady, you love and him or hate him.

He's married to a supermodel. You know what I mean, there's a hate factor with Tom. There's about a handful of great quarterbacks. Eli Manning's hard to hate. Andrew Luck's hard to hate. Russell's hard to hate. They're not booing Andrew. They're booing the situation.

I agree and I disagree because at the same time, you've seen this guy battle through injury. after injury, after injury, come back, play at a high level, give you everything he has. And for him to say, I'm stepping away from the game, for that to be your first reaction to boo him, I think that's disrespectful. I think your first reaction should have been to clap. And then maybe when you sat down like, dang, man, you know what I mean? You probably could have thought about something.

But right then and there, for him to walk off the field, all that he's been through, all that he's battling, you don't know what he's battling mentally. And everything that he's given you as a fan base, your star quarterback walking off the field, you boo him his last game in Indy just because he decided to walk away and choose his life over the game of football. Now, again, I think that sounds great.

But I said this yesterday, or the day before, if you called off a wedding a week before, and by the way, you were right, it wasn't going to work, you were at each other's throats constantly. You didn't think it was fair to have children with a woman and then know you were going to leave their relationship. You were right to get out. But the first day and hour you announced it,

the father-in-law, he wants a piece of you because you hurt his little girl. There is something about us. I mean, you're a smart guy. I never see you with a temper. But if you get a bad call in a football game, and there's a guy holding your arm and there's no PI call, you're not in the best source, right?

You're not, but I just think the situation was different. Like, everybody's seen it on their phone, all right? So everybody had a chance to kind of digest this thing. I mean, it was Dana announced first quarter of the game, so he was on the sideline the whole time. So everybody's seen it. Everybody knew what was going on. So I just believe in that point of time right there,

everybody in the stadium knew. Everybody on TV knew. Like, when he walks up, off the field. They should have put him on the jumbotron. They should have said, thank you, Andrew. Everybody should have stood up clapping just because of what he'd done for that organization, what he's given that organization, all the injuries that he's fought through. I feel like the organization should have put up on that jumble. Thank you. Even if it was during the game, everybody knew. Thank you, Andrew. And everybody right there should have stood up and clap.

You do not boo the quarterback that has sacrificed so much and giving indie fans so much to cheer for over the years. You do not boo him off the field. Let me go back to Aaron Rogers, who you have a strong relationship with. Now, people will say, of course, James is going to support him here. I do think Aaron's fine. I don't, I said this earlier. It doesn't matter if it's Beyonce. It doesn't matter if it's Elvis Presley. You can go back in time. The really gifted people, I don't think Tom Brady's really gifted. I think he's talented and a grinder. I don't think Derek Jeter is gifted. I think A-Rod's gifted.

I think Derek's talented and a grinder. Aaron's in a different classification. He's in the John Elway. I mean, there's about six of these guys. You're like, oh, they're different. Brett Farv's in this. Like, they're just different. In music and entertainment and acting, you know, there's Leonardo DiCaprio,

Samuel L. Jackson. When you're talented, not just a grind. I'm a grinder. I got a bad voice. I still slur. I'm a mess. But when you're talented, you are more difficult. Because since sixth grade, things have come easier.

And so I do think Aaron's difficult, but I'm okay with Aaron's difficult. But I think this thing's going to work. I do. I just kind of feel like Aaron needed a young guy in the room. I mean, McCarthy looked like a Milwaukee cop. Aaron looks like a model from L.A. even their body chemistry. They were like different cats.

So take me to what you think the relationship is going to look like. Well, when I went out there for training camp, I was talking to him about the relationship. And he was basically saying that, listen, everybody's blowing this thing up too much. Like me and me and Coach LaFlor have a great relationship. We meet two, three times a week. We talk. The communication is great. He was talking to me about the offensive system, loves the movement.

It's constant movement. So I know everybody wants to get. get on, oh, man, the audible is this. He was telling, there is not even going to be a lot of time too audible in this office. We're doing a lot of movement. Pre-snap. Yes, pre-snap. So we're going to get a lot of good looks from the defense that we want.

It's going to be a lot of easier throws. So it's not like when we play with Coach Mike, we just line up and, okay, I'll get you in the right play. It's a lot of movement. So the audible situation is not even going to be that big of a situation unless it gets into two-minute situation or something like that. But I think the main thing that I took from it is he respect. Coach LaFleur. He looks, he knows Coach LaFleur, knows what he's talking about about offense, knows what he's talking about about quarterbacks, even though that Aaron Rogers

is probably the best quarterback that he's ever had, but he respects him. And he's basically embraced the whole role of new offense, and this is how it's going to go. So I think the relationship is going to be great just because they both respect each other at a high level. All right. James Jones, Thursday night football returns on Fox, the NFL Network and Amazon Prime Video this year, kickoff week four Eagles Packers. Boy, that'll be a good game. Network exclusively carries Thursday night football games, weeks two and three James Jones. We love having you. I watch all

the time on NFL Network. You're crushing it. Appreciate it, my man. You're crushing it. Thank you. I think we take a break here, right? Whenever I interview somebody without a commercial, first of all, I got a head cold. James, I am literally I'm just, I'm out there this week.

I get a pass on this stuff. By the way, all you guys, when I'm 70 doing this show and do this, don't call me crazy old man. I'm crazy middle age man. This is just who I am. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the TikTok podcast, network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite

therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross,

because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines,

as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th.

And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office, Blue, 42. A rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean.

I'll bet you a paramedipausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with Deanna Maria Riva, where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fan. Fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be.

Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How can it be getting naked at 50 with the new guy? That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or two.

years of laughter and dive into it unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of My Cultura podcast network available on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I got a quick trip to Vegas this weekend. Got to make some bets. I got a lot of bets to make this year.

A lot of things cooking on that. Here is Joy with the news. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So the Zeke holdout. He's been holding out in hopes of becoming the highest paid running back in the NFL. And one person who agrees with Zeke is former cowboy wide receiver, Michael Irvin, when he was asked if he thought that Zeke had earned the right to be the top paid running back.

He said, I don't see how Zeeke should come out of this the second highest paid when he's the top running back. If his deal was up, he would be way above maybe even girly. But now that your deal isn't up, Jerry can give him a little. little something past early. He's earned that right. The other thing people say is that Zeec doesn't have any leverage. That's not true. Jerry, he wants to win another Super Bowl. Zeke gives him that best opportunity. He's the most important man on that team. Well, the biggest leverage Jerry Jones has, if you're asking two years out in any industry for a new contract, generally a billionaire or an owner will give you, sometimes if you're

valuable, the peace of mind, financial security for life. but they won't also elevate you to highest paid because they want to send a message that if you want to get paid early, I'll give you what you're seeking, which is I don't want to break my ankle and not get some money and live a better life. The downside to come in two years early.

What Jerry has said is we don't want to set a trend in the league where players just come in two years early. I'm really, really good. It's very dangerous to say, okay, I'll give you the most money and the financial security. Generally in life, you've got to choose one of the other. Well, also, you have to pay your franchise quarterback.

Right. So it's not like he's the only guy in the team that's up for a contract while he's asking for those two things. And look, nobody is saying that Zeeke isn't incredibly talented or possibly the best running back in the league. He's certainly the best, most talented player on that team. But how much value does he actually have? And that's what we're about to find out. Now, I still believe that they will get this contract done before week one because I think that it's going to come down to someone budging. and I don't think that Zieg, being two years out,

really wants to leave that much money on the table. Now, the team put out a few weeks ago that they offered him somewhere between 13 and 14 million, because Gurley is being paid $14.375 million per year, $45 million guaranteed, and Levion is the second highest paid at $13.125 million per year with $27 million guaranteed. Both great contracts and well-deserved.

But the Zieg situation, like making him, like you said, the top, the highest paid running back, to me is irrelevant. I think Gurley's deal is outside the realm of anyone's deal moving forward. Like he topped the market and then he wasn't available and didn't do anything in the Super Bowl. So in a lot of ways, Gurley kind of swung, Gurley's contract swung the momentum of running back contracts. People in our business and people in pro sports, always forget this. I'm more valuable now than I was 10 years ago because of where I work. FS1's a new company, right?

It's not a massive factory with 40 years of history. Everybody's situation in Arizona, Dallas, is different. Like in Tennessee, they have a great offensive line. They don't need to pay a running back a zillion dollars. They can give anybody the ball and get 900 yards. So, like, the idea that Zeke, everybody's argument is he's more talented. His value is ultimately, Dax not great. If Dack was great, Jerry Jones would not pay him this money.

To a degree, I mean, I think that when it comes down to playoff situations, and do you want to win a super, do you want to be Tennessee or do you want to win a Super Bowl? Well, with Zeke, they're not winning Super Bowls. With Zeke? No, no, like so far, yeah. That's my argument with Zach. Like, why that's why he shouldn't take less money because, I mean, you've been taking less money and they haven't put a Super Bowl team around him. So I take less money now. Right.

It makes no difference. But I don't know. I just think you need to have talent at the end of the day. like obviously you want to make sure everybody gets paid. I will say though in Zieg's case, I'm for everyone getting paid. I'm very pro player. Everyone make a billion dollars and, you know,

take care of your family and whatever. It's not coming out in my pocket. So I'm full for everyone getting paid for sure. But I do think Zique is in a unique situation and he's two years out. And he has a pass of being very irresponsible. So I don't think he has the leverage to go in there like, I've been a model citizen and I've not brought you any drama.

And I've, you know, I'm performing at the highest level in the league and this and that. Like he's not in the same situation as a lot of other guys in that spot. So Ben took the high road this week and apologized for criticizing Antonio Brown last season, but A.B. is really not ready to forgive yet. He responded to Big Ben saying that he ruined their friendship and tweeted, never friends just had to get my ends shut up already. Obviously, this then prompted people to pull up former tweets of Antonio Brown

and hugging Ben at the Pro Bowl and calling him the goats. And then, of course, AB also called out Emmanuel Sanders for saying that Peyton Manning was a, quote, far better leader than Big Ben after signing with the Broncos in 2014. And he said, that was terrible. You don't throw your former quarterback under the bus, the guy who makes you who you are. Oh, that's interesting. Did AB have to erase, delete those tweets? Maybe.

I mean, I don't have a problem with that. But the bigger issue is this. Enough already from both of them. Like Ben's saying that at this point didn't do anything for me. It just, it only, it really was like more of an indictment of Ben because you should know better. You have to know your personnel. You have to know your friends to know that that's not something that's going to be taken well by Antonio Brown. That's really on you.

You're the one that started this. So if that was the case and you felt it in that moment, that's a situation where you have to swallow your ego and go fix it right away. And maybe it's not fixable, but you have to do everything in your power to, make it fixable. So it's a little bit too late. But Antonio Brown, you know, defending Ben and then not liking Ben is completely reasonable. We do that all the time. That's when relationships deteriorate, things change and your opinions on it change. It's just a messy situation. And it only just further proves the point that this relationship had clearly deteriorated between Antonio Brown and the Steelers. And it was time to move on. Pittsburgh got a ton out of it. I mean, low draft pick, didn't pay him

anything. 75 touchdowns, a zillion yards. Everybody's squawking about this relationship. It made A-B. Rich and the Steelers pay nothing for the first four years of his contract. They paid him a nickel and he gave him 12 touchdowns a year. This relationship was great. Everyone just needs to have gratitude on both sides. Yes, God, it was a great relationship. Yes.

So finally, Andrew Luck spoke in his retirement presser about taking some time to relax and be with his family, but that's not stopping networks from offering him another career opportunity. According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, there's a lot of interest in luck as a future TV analyst. Really? He said if Andrew Luck wanted to be an NFL TV analyst, networks would have interest in talking to him about it. According to execs, I contacted yesterday.

There is some pessimism that Andrew Luck would have interest in being an NFL TV analyst. Or how about not be great at it? I don't think he'd be a great analyst. He's not... Yeah, when I first saw this, I was like, I don't foresee that. Joe Montana wasn't a great analyst. The late Bill Walsh, this is a big mistake, people. I get into this debate about once, twice a year, with a critical call me.

And I always say, what do you like about the person? Well, they're smart. And I said, there's a lot of boring smart people. Is Charles Barkley smart? I don't know. But he's smart enough to be funny as hell on television. Terry Bradshaw, he's really good on television. You don't have to be a scientist.

You have to be smart enough, a little bit of an actor, a little dynamic. Well, yeah, I don't think it's, I mean, not to discredit what we do for a living, but. It's not a smart business. It's not a smart business. It's an entertainment business. Do you have confidence on the air to project well to the audience? Joe Montana is smart. I don't think Tom Brady would be a great TV analyst.

No, me either. And that's not a knock on Tom Brady. You know who would be? I'm trying to think of who would be great. You know who would be great? Aaron Rogers. Yeah. Aaron Rogers would be a great TV analyst.

It's not about smart. You have to be smart if you are an analyst, obviously. But the number one thing, the first thing, the most important thing is that you're entertaining. an entertainment business. It comes down to ratings and audience. So, like you said, I mean, you can get anyone to go read a book on TV. That's not interesting. You have to make it interesting.

And not that Andrew Luck isn't an interesting guy. He's not. He's super nice and unbelievably smart and very cultured. Okay, so there you go. So you just said nice, smart cultured. That doesn't mean good television. No. And the nice thing to me is the most important thing.

Because when you are an analyst, you're put in situations where you have to be critical, right? That's why Peyton Manning doesn't want to do it, because Peyton Manning would be an incredible analyst. He would be great at it. Tony Romo's great. I thought he would be good. He's ended up being great.

You do have to not have a fear in what Payton Manning talked about when he said that he wasn't interested, is that you have to be not afraid to be critical. Like, you have to say critical things from time and time, and I don't see Andrew Luck in that space. I mean, Andrew Luck, notoriously taking credit for everything that goes wrong on any side of the ball. Like, it's my fault they fumbled on defense.

It's like anything and anything that weren't everything that went wrong for the Colts was Andrew Luxfall. He's not going to be critical on the air. I don't think his personality is a TV personality. I really don't. I don't think Brady would be great TV. I don't think Montana was. I think we all just want to see what he does next. Right now, Troy Aikman works on TV.

Well, Troy Aikman was willing as a player, he would bark at teammates. You go watch those old NFL films. You know, Chris Collinsworth was a wide receiver from Florida. when Florida was no good in football, who would think Chris Collinsworth would end up being a star? I mean, if you go look around all these networks, Howie Long, you would have never, I guess, that tough fist fight guy,

that tough fistfight guy with kind of the crew cut haircut would be a TV star. That didn't make any sense. I mean, don't get me wrong. If a network does hire Andrew Luck, we're all going to watch. Watch him be average. Who knows?

Maybe it'll be super interesting. I don't picture that for him that grind after saying that he wants to spend time and relax with his family. All right, join with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. Joel Clatt, college football, big weekend.

You got USC, Clay Hilton's in trouble. Stanford Northwestern. We just saw Florida, Miami. He'll tell you who he thinks the best teams are. One will surprise you. Auburn, Oregon. So it's a college football weekend. Joel Clatt is a well-meaning analyst.

You know, he's wrong a lot. It's okay. I mean, not everybody can just boom, knock out great comments. commentary every day. So Clat's going to join us next. It'll be arm wrestling on the air. Please join us. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo's Slice Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Keer Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. and we're still chasing it

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

Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast. Learn the hard way.

Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game.

This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, ref, Mom, I'm a one. want you to wave at her. What?

Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliffer Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenopausal chin here you do.

So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with Deanna Maria Riva, where I call on my GenX squads from Ohio to Hollywood, as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be.

Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How can it be getting naked at 50 with the new guy? That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears or tears of laughter,

and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, How Hard Can It Be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of My Cultura Podcast Network available on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joel Clat, the voice of college football at FS1. Hey, hey.

Look at you. Are you ready for me? Oh, man, I cannot wait. Wait, all summer, I've been waiting for this. Ten minutes are wrong. Okay, let's get the NFL thing out of the way. Let me guess. You're one of these media people.

You are just outraged by how Andrew Luck was treated. A hundred percent I'm outraged by it. The Indianapolis fans are a disgrace. Oh, that's gosh. Why? I'm sorry. Wait, you're defending the fans for booing a guy? Four Bud Lights in, fourth quarter preseason game, jarring sudden news.

Listen, four Bud Lights in doesn't give you an excuse to do anything. Everybody's like, oh, don't worry, honey, I was drunk. Ah, it still happened. No, no, no. I think that it was a total disgrace. First of all, I think this entire reaction is born out of jealousy and resentment. Oh, Lord. And it fuels an entitlement that I think is epidemic of our culture.

And it's like, what does Andrew Luck owe the guy in the third deck? Nothing. All right. He already, listen, he already paid the ultimate athletic price, which was his body. His body is finished. He cannot play anymore. He cannot play. There's a standard by which you've got to play and mentally prepare and be in.

You've got to be all in to do it at the level that Andrew Luck wants to do it at, and he cannot do that anymore, so he's going to step away. And I also thought it was selfless of him. He's stepping away from money. He could have gone through the motions. Hey, guy in the third deck on your fourth beer, as you like to say. You want Andrew Luck to just go through the motions and take your money for the next three years and not be competitive and sit out and not play hard,

just take a paycheck? Of course not. You're asking for a lot of contextualization in the moment for a human being. You never had a temper tantrum in your life or threw a, through a rosin bag. Why do you want everyone to be kids? You want everyone to be kids. You want dessert first. I mean, you want to be a, you desperately want to be a child. React like a child. I got Dr. Lour over here. All right, let's get into college football. Let's do it. I tell you what team you like. You like Texas, because I think you like their quarterback, because he, he, he reminds you. reminds me of you in college. Not a ton of talent, but a ton of heart. That's a good line. And you know what? He's got an immense amount of talent, way more than I had.

I like him. Sam Ellinger a lot. I think Sam Ellinger is the best value in the Heisman odds by far. He's all the way down there like 25 to 1, not getting much love whatsoever. And yet when you look at Power 5 football since the year 2000, there's only been five players that have thrown for 25 touch. passes and run for 15 touchdowns. He's got a Tebow quality. He's incredibly likable and the players. And he's an alpha. And they feed off him. He's very Tebow-est to me. He very much is. By the way, Tim Tebow is one of those guys that threw for 25 and ran for 15. The other guys are guys like Marcus Marriota, Johnny Mansell, Cam Newton, and Lamar Jackson. They all won Heisman trophies. This guy is the reason they won 10 games. He only turned the ball over six times. He had his biggest games and big moments. Ask Georgia how physical, how tough, and how quality of a leader Sam Ellinger is.

I really like Sam Ellinger. I like Texas. I think there are a coin flip with Oklahoma to win the Big 12. Yeah, I like them. I don't know. I've always liked Texas football, even when I was a kid. I like the uniforms. I think it's the Unis.

I love the Unis. I love the Unis. My favorite uni in college football. I don't even know why. I still get nightmares kind of from the uniform. Quick story about Texas. Okay, so if you don't know, you can Google it and YouTube it. My last play of my college career was against Texas.

They beat us 70 to 3, Vince Young's National Championship here in the Big 12 championship game. They put me in the hospital. That was my last play. Yeah. The first thing I remember, I don't remember the game, Colin. You know what I remember? I woke up in like a Texas Memorial Hospital in Houston, a University of Texas Memorial Hospital, and the doctor had the longhorn stitched in his coat. And I was like, no, they're coming after me. What's happening? And I freaked out. You know what I remember? You had about eight guys wide open and you missed all of them that game. Oh, here it is. Way to go. And and bang lights out. Oh, Lord. Yeah, right on the chin.

I'm going. All right, let's shift to this. Harbaugh. You and I have defended Harbaugh. We have. Okay, but this is his best group of receivers. This is his best all line. Yeah.

Shea Patterson, year two. Urban Myers out of the conference. I'm done with excuses. Wisconsin doesn't have their quarterback right, although I love their all line and the running back. Mission's got to win the Big Ten now, right? I agree. And it's actually why I've put them ahead of Ohio State,

at least in my poll. Because, and you have to contextualize this a little bit even further. It's not just that Urban is gone. This is the first time that we've seen this in college football history. A team and a program lose a guy that won 90% of his games at the school and a first round draft choice at quarterback and Dwayne Haskins and a defensive coordinator. And by the way, just to throw on top of that, Ohio State has lost the most first round defensive players of the last four years in college football.

Wow. So if Michigan does not. beat Ohio State this year. There's no more excuses because everything you said about Michigan is correct. This is their best offensive line that he's had. They've got the best core of wide receivers, I think, in the conference. Shea Patterson now has an offensive coordinator and Josh Gaddis that suits him more. Two years now starting. And you still have Don Brown as your defensive coordinator. Great. There are no excuses for Michigan. They have to win the Big Ten and compete for a playoff spot this year or it's going to get messy in Ann Arbor. Um, yeah, there's,

listen, when I look at Clemson and Alabama, I put them here. Even Georgia, who everybody loves, there's only two teams among the ACC and the SEC who have winning records in the last three years against top 25 teams. Clemsonsons is great, Bama's is great. Georgia's only 500. So I don't put Georgia in that class. I do think they probably have the third best personnel in the country. Sure.

Is there a team? Let's take Alabama out. Let's take George out because we all kind of, the three in the country we all agree with. It's Georgia. That's right. Yeah, yeah. That would be the third one. Yeah.

I would agree with that. So pass that. Throw me a team like, everybody's on LSU. I'm not as big on LSU because they're in the same division as Alabama. You're not even the best team in your division, right? So to me, you've got to have a conference championship caliber team in order to compete for a playoff spot. And then you've also got to be balanced enough not only across your team, but your coaching

staff in order to win. Colin, this is, I'm going to say Texas. I think I think that's probably, I think I agree with you. And here's the reason, because Texas we saw physically can go up and stand toe to toe with the likes of a Georgia. Yes. And physically beat them up. Remember now, Georgia had run for over 300 yards in five straight games leading into the SEC championship game last year. Then they ran for over 100 against Alabama and Colin, guess how many they ran for against Texas?

72 yards in the Sugar Bowl. That was a physical beat down for first. three quarters at least. Meanwhile, Texas is running for 178 yards. Yeah. And so, and there's also this way, people in Oklahoma are going to get upset with this, but there's also coach makeup. Think about this. Just real quick, when we talk about coaches that win national championships, they generally don't call their own plays. If you look back all the way back to 1990, there's only two guys that won a national championship while calling their own offensive plays. That's Jimbo Fisher at Florida State.

and Steve Spurrier at Florida. Everybody else is a CEO. So while I love Lincoln Riley, I really do. I think he's the best coach that has not won a national championship. I don't think it's the right blueprint to win one. Whereas Tom Herman, I think, fits that blueprint. And again, Oklahoma fans can be mad all they want. They've had great teams, historic level quarterback play,

and they haven't gotten it done in large part because they've been too offensive-centric. All right. The top five quarterbacks for you in college football this year. Trevor. Trevor Lawrence Clemson, that's a no-brainer. Tua. I'm not as high as everybody else is. I like Justin Herbert a lot at Oregon.

I think he's a good talent. Let's see him win some games away from Monson Stadium. I like Sam Ellinger. He's not a pro, but he's good, yeah. Yeah, but remember now, you can be a great college player and not a great pro prospect. Jake Fromm's good. And then I like Jake Fromm from Georgia. Jake Fromm plays really well in big moments.

He played great against BAM in the SEC championship game. last year. I like him. And the reason I love, I mean, I'm flat in love with Trevor Lawrence is because you talk about playing best when your best is needed. When you look at those guys, and in particular in a comparison to Tua, when Trevor Lawrence faced a top 30 defense last year, Colin, his numbers went through the roof. His completion percentage went way up. His touchdown to interception ratio was better. Six touchdowns, no interceptions, and his rating went way up. When facing better defenses, meanwhile, if you did the same experiment with Tua in his four games against top 30 defenses versus the other competition,

his completion percentage went way down. He went six touchdowns, six interceptions. Wow. And his rating went way down. So you can make the argument that Trevor is a better big game player than Tua, even though we saw Tua in the national championship game a couple of years ago beat Georgia in that comeback fashion. You know, Alabama quarterbacks tend to play within a system structure. I'll tell you, though, he's got Jerry Judy. Oh, Jerry Judy is good. Yeah, he's fine.

I like, I like Lauren. I'm a Trevor Lawrence guy. I like Trevor Lawrence. I saw him in high school. Because one of us on the weekends puts a little extra time in. I'm sorry, one of us? Yeah, I went down, saw him playing San Diego at a camp. That's when you're committed to your profession.

You were out there sailing in the sea. I was out there looking at high school football tape. Where else do you sail, first of all? Second of all, while I'm in here digging in into these quarterbacks in college football. You're out there riding the horse like Zorro of Baker Mayfield's not going to do anything with the Browns. You're still on that one.

Nope, I gave that one up, not even interested. May not talk about it until December. All right, I want to move to something because I see this thing right here, and this is a bunch of hooey. So I always let you have an upset pick of the week. Okay, give me your two. One of them's ridiculous. Go ahead. Why is it ridiculous?

Go ahead. I throw them out there. I like Oregon over Auburn. Oh, God. That's not even an upset. It's a great. Yes, yes, it is. Three and a half.

Jack Fox bet. Okay. A little company plug there. It's not Oregon beating Auburn with the better old line and the better NFL quarterback. That's not an upset. That's just a game. Let me give you an upset. Hey, get that bell ready.

Here's one for you. Based on what? Collins odds? Hey, no. Hey, based on my take, that's not an upset. I'm telling you it is. Oregon plus three and a half Fox Sports bet the new company here. That's not an upset.

How about a new rule? That is an upset. I got to create new legislation to keep you. you on me up and up. I've got to take games with over a five-point spread, six-point spread. Well, that would be an upset. All right. Let's see. A six-point spread. I'll give you one right now. Go ahead. Do you have that bell thing? Okay. The bell thingy. Northwestern goes to Palo Alto and beat Stanford. You stole that for me. Hey, it doesn't matter where I get my information. Oh, my goodness. This is unbelievable. What? Behind the curtains here, Colin and I had a conversation 30 minutes before a show and I was like, I tell you the game I really like. I think Northwestern goes in a

meet Stanford. He goes, no, really? Do you really think that? And now you're using it against me on this, on the bell segment? Prove it. Thank you, Joey. Wait, wait. No, I said prove it.

I'm taking it. Yeah, no kidding. Prove it. That's a good one. Prove it. Don't the cell phones now just record all of our conversations? There's a matter where I get my upset. If I stole it from you, it's still usable.

You are a thief and a liar and a thief. No, no, there's an old saying. I steal from everybody. It's called research. You steal from one guy. It's called a thief. I steal from everybody. It's just research.

If I was just stealing from you, I'd be a thief. That's Big J journalism right there. You're a travesty and a sham and a mockery. Where's a better place to get your favorite? He's a Travis Shamockery. All right, Joe Clatt, game, it's a fight in Lane Kiffons against Ohio State. Noon. Noon, Big Noon Saturday.

Debut at Big Noon Saturday. Here we go. And 11 a.m. is Urban and Reggie and Brady and Matt and Rob Stone, everything. All right, real quick, M Drive. Go to MDrive for Men.com today. refine your brine, burn fat, have abs and look fantastic. That's the one thing clats got over me.

He's still got abs. That's right. You can't steal them. That's the only thing you got over me. All right, hour three coming up. To 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending. Opinions are flying. And nobody's telling you exactly what happens. That's where Sports Slice comes in.

I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs,

the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer-beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the end up. brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlic.

On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing,

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

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

about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up guys? This is Cleverterter The 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations

about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, A, ref. want you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Brett. My mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. 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 CJ Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding where. to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows.

Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stopped by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too.

Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He run up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So Moneyball, the book came out, to my favorite sports book of all time. it's called Moneyball by Michael Lewis.

It came out 16 years ago, and I think soon after that, analytics really took hold of baseball. The general manager now hands the manager the lineup. About 15 years ago, decade and a half. I think the NBA analytics started taking hold about 8 to 10 years ago. So basketball, the NBA, was the second pro league in America that really started depending heavily in the front office on analytics. I think in the NFL, it's been the last three or four years,

Belichick perhaps longer, that you can't really talk about football and you seem kind of ill-suited to talk about it if you don't bring up some obvious analytics. And sometimes they're not obvious, but I think it's important. You don't want to sound like a dope. I like man-analytics, which is analytics mixed with alpha males that dominate locker rooms. I don't think you should reduce athletes to numbers.

But the running back situation in the NFL, the analytics say you probably shouldn't sign any of them to a second huge. contract. So I bring on from pff.com, pro football focus, I think they do a tremendous job in their grading system, Sam Munson via the Coward Global Satellite Network. All right, so let's just talk in your business. What are the Colts losing with Andrew Luck's retirement? How good was he? Yeah, I mean, they're losing one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Andrew Luck finished third in our grading last season. You remember, we go through and we grade every single player, every single throw

of every quarterback in the NFL. If you include the playoffs, Luck was the number three quarterback behind only Patrick Mahomes and Drew Breeze. And the real tragedy of this thing is that, you know, that was Luck's best season. He was a career year for him. And I think this system is the best system

they've had in Indianapolis throughout his entire career as well. The situation has never been better. So we're seeing Luck walk away at a time where I think on paper he's never been in a better situation. So I think it's just a shame for all of us

that we're not going to get to see. what luck in this system with some added weaponry, with that offensive line getting even better, would have looked like in 2019. Now, Jacoby Berset's a big, strong kid. What does PFF say about his chances for success? Yeah, and he's an interesting quarterback because, you know, he's always looked on the conservative end of the spectrum when you look at quarterbacks. He's always had a pretty low number of big-time throws and a pretty low number of turnover-worthy plays as well.

So he's not putting the ball in harm's way, but he's not making the ball. those big throws that a guy like Andrew Luck, for example, makes regularly. And, you know, the other thing that the Brissette sort of stands out with his numbers is he holds the ball an extremely long amount of time. One of the longest in the NFL in terms of holding onto that ball, but also doesn't, it takes a lot of sacks that he shouldn't. And I think that's an issue. But things have changed since he was last in the lineup.

It wasn't a good situation when he was thrown in there in 2017. Now we're going to get to see him in an offense that sped up Andrew Lerett. Lux average time to throw by a good sort of three, four-tenths of a second, which doesn't sound like much, but is an age in terms of every single pass. So I'm kind of curious to see whether Brissette can take a step forward in this Frank Reich offense that did help out Andrew Luck so much. You know, remember, Brousset is only 26 years of age. There's still, I think, a lot of potential that Frank Wright could turn him into the pretty good quarterback. I would say he's one of the best backup quarterbacks in the NFL. And then this year we're going to see, you know, how far up

the starting list he can get. Sam Munson joining his pro football focus. I think most people understand Zeeke is a better running back than Melvin Gordon, but the Cowboys offensive line is significantly higher-graded, I would imagine, than the Chargers. So let's just zero in on Zique. My contention, Sam, is this. Dak should be better. Amari Cooper had an entire off-season with Dak.

Michael Gallup had a very good preseason. Jason Witten returns. Cowboys O-line appears to be healthier, that everything around Zeke could be better, plus a new coordinator. Kind of break it down how you guys look at Zeeq's value big picture. I would argue the Cowboys O line doesn't get enough love and all this Zeeck talk. Yeah, absolutely. The more we pour into the data and the more our data science guys look into it,

offensive lines and run blocking is far more important in determining how well you're going to run the ball than who the running back is. And other things are as well when you look at the box count, you know, how many guys are in the box, and what determines that isn't how good the running back is. It's whether you line up with three wide receivers. It's whether you dictate that the defense can stack the box against the run. So the bottom line is you need to go three or four things down until you get to how good the running back is to determine whether you're going to have success carrying the football or not.

And for Dallas, for Dallas, excuse me, all those other things are in good shape. The offensive line should be back to its best. As you said, there's a whole bunch of stuff that looks better than it did before. So suddenly the fact that Zika is the running back is of less and less importance, and they should be able to put in a replacement running back, somebody else, and not have a giant drop-up because that run blocking should be spectacular. Because they now have wide receivers, they can spread the field and cause the defense to have to back off the box and basically open up the running game.

Yeah, this has been my contention that Zeeq has leveraged not as much as everybody thinks. Two quarterbacks that have always reminded me of each other are Cam News, and Big Ben. The size, the stature, the arm strength, sometimes lack in precision. I want to talk about both. Let's start with Cam Newton. They have a new owner. He doesn't care about Cam's earlier MVP year.

It doesn't mean anything to him. He's now paying the light bill here in Carolina. Grades on Cam Newton, what do you expect? What about last year early he was actually very effective, not so much late? What do your grades last couple of years say about Cam? Yeah, and honestly, the grading on Cam says that that one year MVP caliber season is kind of, it's an outlier right now. It's really the only season where we've seen what he's truly capable of. And every other season, whether it was

before or after that, he hasn't graded nearly as well. Now, obviously, you can point recently to injuries. And that's another way that Big Ben and Cam Newton are a bit alike, is that they're both these monstrous, huge, bodied quarterbacks that everybody thinks will be durable because of that. But they expose themselves to a lot of hits because they're so big and they're so powerful, and it's starting to take their toll. Both these guys have been banged up. Both these guys miss a lot of time, and we're getting further and further away from the time where Cam Newton was one of the best, if not the best quarterback in the NFL for a stretch. Heading into this season, we've only got him ranked 16th, obviously in a league of 32 teams,

so he's basically slap bang in the middle of all the quarterbacks. Now, I like Big Ben more than Cam, but he has a better old line than Cam, and I do think sometimes his precision is really spotty. Do you, so I like Big Ben more than Cam, but I don't put him top five in the league. Where do you grade Big Ben? Because this is a big year for him. It is, and I agree with you that I think his situation is better.

We have him number eight heading into this season. And honestly, it's a lot of legacy stuff there as well. If we were basing it just on last year, I don't know if he would be that high. But the thing that really defines Ben Rothesburg is he's always made a ton of big plays. I think he was second in the NFL behind only Patrick Mahomes last year in terms of big time throws, our highest graded quarterback plays. But the thing that differentiated him last year from the other years is that suddenly he was making way more mistakes. And there were far more turnover-worthy plays than there were in previous seasons.

And that tends to fluctuate a little bit. So the question will be, can he eliminate more of those this season and kind of raise his level back just by not making that many mistakes again? Let's talk about a couple of young guys. Kyler Murray, you guys are very high on him. He did not have, you know, it was a spotty hit and miss preseason. Do you still hold him in high regard? Yeah, I think we have to. You know, we've seen him play for an extended period of time in college

at an extremely high level. You know, Baker Mayfield is the best college quarterback we've ever seen. And Kyla Murray wasn't quite Baker, but he was closer to him than anybody else we've seen. So closer than Sam Darnold, you know, Josh Rosen, closer than any of the other. of those other guys. And it's definitely true that he's not in the greatest situation in the world in Arizona in terms of spotty offensive line play, the guys he's throwing to or a work in progress at least until some of those young guys step up.

So we may see Kyla Murray have an up and down rookie season, but I think that by the end of it, we'll be pretty convinced that he is, you know, the guy in Arizona for the foreseeable future. And finally, Daniel Jones, I think his performance was something in the preseason. And if not optically, it gained a lot of momentum among the fan base, among the media in New York, which I think puts real pressure on the GM and the ownership in New York. But what does the data say when you watched his timing throws, when you watched his patient, his release? What does pro football focus?

PFF.com think of Daniel Jones. Yeah, it's interesting. He's definitely been comfortable back there. He's looked good and probably better than we thought he was going to look throughout this preseason, and given how we graded him in college, which was, you know, good, not great. Certainly nowhere near the Kylo Murray level. But interesting, even his preseason grade hasn't been quite as good as I think the general perception of his play has been when you really break it down, throw by throw.

And, you know, there's a bad fumble in there that we charge to him that won't show up in the box score, that kind of thing. He hasn't been quite as spectacular as I think a lot of people are thinking. But ultimately for the Giants, you've got to ask yourself, what are you losing by starting Daniel Jones. You know, I don't think this team has any real designs on contending this year, at which point this season has to be all about finding out what you have in Daniel Jones unless you think that throwing him out there would hinder his development. I don't think we've seen anything so far to suggest that would be the case. So, you know, PFF wasn't in love with

Daniel Jones as a prospect, but right now we'd be asking the question of why not start him week one. Good stuff. PFF.com. This is the one Chris Collinsworth, one of the majority of shareholders there. Sam, we love having you on the show. Thank you so much. Anytime, Colin, thanks for having me. See, now, he goes with my theory, which is the offensive line never gets nearly as much credit for the great play of running backs. I do think Zeke's good, but the analytics in sports are fascinating. You know, for years, it was the bullpen was overlooked. For years, you know, strikeouts were terrible. And then analytics said, it's okay to strike out. It's really not that big of a deal. Bullpens are

undervalued, they should be more valuable. In the NBA, you've got to have a big. Analytics said, no, not really. What you got to have is people that shoot threes and spread the floor. The NFL is increasingly telling you, running backs are largely dependent on the blocking schemes of the offensive coordinator and the offensive line. The Cowboys O' lines had 3,000-yard rushers. Now, I think Zeeks really special.

But is he special enough to pay him? You know, they offered 13. He wants 17. Is he that special? Because, you know, again, this is a lot of. a hard cap leak. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. So, Dedevian Clowny's been holding out of Texans camp. He was reportedly planning on signing his one-year franchise tender and returning this week and then trade rumors started swirling. And the Dolphins have expressed interest in Clowney which could be a landing spot for him.

According to Ian Rappaport, Clowney has already met with head coach Brian Flores and members of the Dolphins front office in person. He's report, reportedly would prefer to be with the Eagles or the Seahawks, which makes sense because you want to, you know, be with the contender. I don't know why this is something that makes sense for Miami. Miami's in a total rebuild, and he's not, in addition on the side of the ball, that's going to benefit your new quarterback. Let me throw this out at you.

Outside of, like, the top 12 picks in the NFL draft, the hit rate on draft picks is pretty low. You get to the second round, third round, fourth round. 30% of the guys just don't make it. If you're a good team and there's about six good teams in this league, Tennessee's one, they could really use a pass rusher. Why not give up a second round pick? I'm with you. I mean, for the dolphins, I think you need all the picks you can get.

Yes. Certain teams where you need as many opportunities to try and find a great player in talent as possible. But for a team that's just right there on the verge and just needs a few more pieces to really be considered a contention. What are you harboring draft picks for? Like the days of like, we need all the draft picks we can get. Like, for what? I mean, it's been proven that you have guys that come from all over the place to be a part of the NFL and they're successful.

The draft is very hard to evaluate. We're just talking about that. Nobody expected Daniel Jones to be anything. So I don't, I'm with you on the draft picks. If I'm a contender, just make a move, be aggressive. Once I get my quarterback and once I have my, like, left tackle, my center to protect my quarterback, after that, I'm, you know, it's, I mean, that's, that to me is that's the house and that's the insurance to the house. Right. And this is, this isn't the ultimate's one-year rental because in 2020, he's going to be an unrestricted free agent.

And he'll play his butt off because he can make a ton of the market. Exactly. Exactly. He doesn't want to have a bad season. So, but that's exactly all of those reasons are why this makes no sense to me from Miami. It just, just for what? Like, I mean, obviously he makes you better, but is that what's going to align with your ultimate goal as you grow. They need six players that are B's, not one A. Right. Like they need a bunch of B players right now. Your first two years in a rebuild, you just don't want to be a disaster anywhere. I think that that's where a lot of teams, and just for that matter, individuals get into issues.

Like when you're in a situation like the Dolphins are in, where you are in a rebuild, you don't know what you are. You don't even know if you have the guy in Josh Rosen. What is your goal? Is your goal to sell tickets? Is your goal to be interesting or is your goal to build a Super Bowl-level culture in your franchise and win a Super Bowl? Because there's pieces and moves that you need to make to align with that and just randomly signing someone that's a star and fun, but is going to inevitably eventually inhibit your ability to build a winning franchise. That's not, like a temporary fix is not going to aid that. So I don't really see value for the Dolphins there.

So the NFL team owners and players union have begun negotiating the next. XCBA, which would take effect in 2021. A big topic of discussion is the length of preseason. We've obviously talked about this a lot as well. Falcons owner Arthur Blank is in favor of a change. He said, I think four is not necessary. We need some preseason games for talent evaluation for sure with our first and second year players and developmental players, players who are free agents coming into our scheme.

The vets need some of that, but not a whole lot of it. So I think we can do with less preseason games. Jerry Jones said, I'm one of the guys that thinks there's an element of a preseason that's exciting to me. But everyone doesn't look at it that way. We want to see competing right down to the last down, and so getting there with the preseason, that doesn't happen. So we're looking at it.

It's been a subject of evaluating, looking at critiquing, since I've been in the league for 30 years. Obviously, this comes down to the bottom line, which is money. And reportedly, the owners are discussing an expanded regular season to make up for the lost revenue by shortening the preseason. I am very much against that. I think that part of the allure and the excitement of the NFL is a sense of urgency, game to game, every game, every down matters down to the last second.

And adding games, I think it changes the entire league, like the entire game. Forget about if teams are ready. Let's just think about the NFL's always cared about optics. It's very much a television show. In fact, I think one of the strengths of the NFL, baseball struggle with this, the NFL hasn't. I mean, they get that TV schedule and they put all the big teams in the perfect slots. Football's a TV show. And Jerry Jones is a TV, he loves TV stars.

Look at the optics this year of preseason. Cam Newton gets hurt. Andrew Luck gets bird. Lamar Miller gets hurt. If for no other reason, an empty stadiums and bad football, that the optics of it. 80 yard field. Right. 80 yard field in Canada.

If for optics, you'd be like, let's just shorten it because it's not a very good television show. Let's make it a two-week show than a four-week show. I just don't, I've never thought it to good look on television. television for the league. I agree. And also, your local fans are paying full price for not a great product. The players aren't getting paid. It's just, it's something that needs to be amended for sure. And I think everyone's on the same page as that, but nobody wants to lose any money. So, I mean, one theory that was slowed out there was that to make it sort of a fan fest thing. I think for sure they need to lose one game regardless. Like, it's too long.

Lose one game. Make it feel more urgent. Make it feel like, okay, football is really common. not okay training camps here well we got four preseason games and most of them are irrelevant and we're really kind of waiting for the third one turn it into a fan fest turn it into a you know a scrimmage where you know no one of that's locked up no starters knowing that you could you know is going to affect the season be lost and make it into something that gets fans excited about it do a festival I don't know but like be creative with it with with the moment that you're losing I just think it's not valuable for fans and it's not I know it's hard to to watch.

Finally, Kobe Bryant and Shaq had plenty of successful Lakers. They led L.A. to three straight NBA titles from 2002, but Kobe is still thinking about what could have been. Who would Shaq be if he had your work ethic? He'd be the greatest of all time. If Shaq had your awards. He'd be the greatest of all time. Sure.

He'd be the first to tell you that. For sure. I mean, this guy was a force. Like, I have never seen. I wish he was in a job. I would have had 12 rings. 12 was a lot, but maybe a few more. But Jack responded and said you would have had 12 if you passed the ball more,

especially in the finals against the pistons. Hashtag facts, you don't get statues by not working hard. Kobe then responded, said, don't get it confused. He was still the hashtag MDE, most dominant ever. And now there's a little update. So Kobe said, there's no beef with Jack. I know most media want to see it, but it ain't going to happen. Ain't nothing but love there.

And we too old to beef anyway. hashtag 3P, and Shaq responded, it's all good, bro. When I saw the interview, I thought you were talking about Dwight. Is that how you spell his name? That's cruel. Oh, it's so good, especially because Dwight is back there now. The two of them are just, they're the best. They're excellent.

It was a great time in the NBA. The Shaq, Kobe, Phil Jackson stuff. I covered some of those series. The NBA was fun. Those guys were, yeah, it's the only time in my life, you had the two best closers in the NBA on the same team. Like Michael and Scotty were great, but Scotty wasn't a top three closer. He was just a great player.

You know, Bird and Mikhail were great, but Mikhail wasn't a top three closer. You had the two guys you wanted that could finish at the rim, one of them big. Kobe was athletic. And it was destined to not work forever. They were just too big for the room to play together forever. Like you said earlier, these dynasties never last as long as we think they're going to. And this was a firework. show. I mean, this was, Shaq was in movies.

Kobe was the legend. He was the next MJ. It's always fun to imagine what if, but it obviously just didn't, it didn't come down to just this, and Kobe knows that too. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lie News. We call it the Presser Cooker, several

press conferences this week, one by Belichick. I just don't think were handled particularly well, and how would I handle them? That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9-8. on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. All right, welcome back.

By the way, tomorrow at this time, we're going to give college football picks, our marquee three. I've been doing Blazing Five for years, obviously. On Fridays, they give out my NFL picks this year. I'm going to do three college picks in this segment on our Thursday show. Three games, most will be nationally televised, we'll keep a track record, and you will be able to take those picks and you potentially will be able to make lots of money with those picks. So that will start tomorrow. It'll be called our marquee three. Three college games I'll be picking

tomorrow. So it is time for a new segment. I see a lot of press conferences called and held. And it is my belief that when politicians or coaches or people make mistakes at press conferences is because they just sort of ad lib them. They're fluid. They don't take them seriously. and I thought this week we had four different examples of where players, stars, coaches didn't address an issue and were not as forthright and authentic as they should have been to own the press conference. So here we go, another edition of Presser Cooker. All right, let's start. Every week we hear a lot of people yapping.

Now, Colin's going to tell us what they should have said. It's time to step inside the press. I'm getting official now with an open. So we start with Bill Belichick. Monday, the Patriots head coach was asked about Andrew Luck's retirement. And some people came away thinking he hadn't heard anything about it. He's a good player. Yeah, I didn't see that. But I haven't really followed them. So we all have to make our decisions. He made his. I respect it. The Patriots later issued a clarification that Belichick meant to say. that he didn't see it coming, but clearly that could have gone better. So, Colin, you put your hoodie on because you are now. Bill Belichick, tell us what you really wanted to say about Andrew Luck.

Listen, the bottom line is I don't talk about our players much, our injuries much, our game plans much, because I think that puts us at a competitive disadvantage. But I can talk about a retired player, and Andrew Luck is as fierce and as tough a competitor as we have faced. We had success against Andrew Luck, but it was hard earned. He has a right to retire on his terms. If you look at what he's faced and what he's overcome and what he's accomplished, one of the all-time great competitors, mumble, mumble, mumble.

I wish him the best. All right, to the Steelers, in an interview with Michelle Tafoya, Ben Rathusberger, says he regrets criticizing ex-teammate, Antonio Brown. Big Ben said, I wish I wouldn't have done it because, well, you saw what happened, and obviously it ruined a friendship. I just got caught up in the heat of battle. So, Colin, you put on your jersey because you are now Ben Rathesberger. What was it that you really wanted to say about Antonio Brown?

Listen, I don't have any opinion on previous relationships. I think it's disrespectful to my current teammates. All these relationships come back in six months and see the results. I think I'm going to be happy. I think my teammates are going to be happy. But I'm not going to put my organization in a constant negative light getting into a public spat about an employee who's now part of another organization. I love my teammates.

I love my team. Judge this severed relationship on the results this point forward. All right. To the Panthers. Monday, Cam Newton was limited in his return to practice due to a foot sprain. Panthers head coach Ron Rivera was asked if Cam will be ready for week one. And here is what the coach said. Hey down your line.

He can be ready. There's no doubt in my mind. I mean, everything he's been doing, everything he's done, he's done exactly what he needed to. And we're at the point now where, you know, it's just a matter of time. But once we start our prep, our actual prep for the Rams, that he's back on the field. So Colin, you put your hat and eyeglasses on because you are now Ron Rivera.

Was there anything that you wanted to say? Listen, there's pressure on all of us here. This is the National Football League. Injuries or not, we have to win this year. We have a new ownership group this year. Our new owner does not care about our previous accomplishments. If we don't win the division, if we're not a playoff team, hard choices will have to be made.

I should be the first one out. And you're going to have to look position to position, including quarterback, about future employment. The pressure's on. This league's about pressure, and I'm totally comfortable with it, and so is Cam. Pressure in the presser cooker. Finally, Patriots tight end, Rob Grunkowski gave an emotional speech where he explained why he retired from the NFL. Football was bringing me down, and I didn't like it. I was losing that joy in life, like the joy.

I'm sorry right now, but, oh. I could play right now if I wanted to play, hands down. I could run fast right now. I'm feeling good. Mentally wise, desire wise, it's not there. Colin, you are now gronk. Tell us, are you really done with football for good? First of all, my party crews just docked. I've been here like five minutes. Tom Brady is very persuasive. And if Tom Brady calls me in November, I'll certainly take the phone call. But I'd be honest with you, I got a lot of options. And right now, I'm on CBD oil. I am high as a kite. I don't have any of you. I don't have any. idea what I'm talking about.

Seriously, I'm getting back on that boat in like five minutes max. Seacrest out. There you go. That was pretty good call. I think I really nailed Gronk. You know, it's funny about all these athletes. You know, New England's funny this year because

if you look at the Patriots, I saw something yesterday with New England, where Josh McDaniels, we never think of New England as the most upfront organization in terms of honesty. but yesterday Josh McDaniels came out and he goes, I don't really know what we are offensively. And it's really interesting because I think they're being totally honest. I think New England's going to be very choppy in September. So first of all, this is a stat that's amazing.

In the last five years, New England has a better playoff record 12 and 2 than a September record 11 and 6, which is just astonishing. So they're not good. But think about this. Josh Gordon came in late. Right. Demarius Thomas was hurt. Julian Edelman Miscamp was hurt.

They drafted Neil Hary, who's a rookie. Chris Hogan left and Gronk left. I don't think New England. I don't think the passing game is going to be really, really tight until October November. I really think for the first time, New England, I think they're going to be really choppy. There's two teams, I am almost sure, that are going to be great in September. Pittsburgh, they've looked great, they got something to prove. I think they've made upgrades to their defense.

I think Pittsburgh, knowing that Cleveland's a real threat, hearing that all offseason, is going to be totally focused and totally dialed in. I think the second team is the Rams. I think McVeigh got embarrassed in the Super Bowl. He had a very, very difficult offseason. Cooper Cups back. Gurley's back. We've got to remember, they were beat up.

I think their locker room's better now. I think the Rams and the Steelers, those teams totally focused, a little embarrassed in the offseason. season, super talented, will be tough outs early in September. We'll see you tomorrow. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind, 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,

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