Best of The Herd

Jonas Knox and LaVar Arrington fill-in for The Herd and wonder who ‘misled’ who between Kirk Cousins and the Falcons. Patrick Mahomes wants to get back to having fun. LaVar pays fines for his play. And College Football Reporter for FOX and The Athletic, Bruce Feldman helps explain the crazy numbers and rules circling NIL.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio and noon to three Eastern nine am to
noone Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at
Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio
or FSR.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
It is the Herd Fox Sports Radio. LaVar Arrington Jonas
Knox in for Colin. You can find us on the
iHeartRadio app. You can also listen on hundreds of affiliates
all across the country, and we will be taking you
all the way up until three o'clock Eastern time noon Pacific.
LaVar and I do a show alongside Brady Quinn weekday

(00:53):
morning six am Eastern time, three o'clock Pacific, significantly earlier
than this show lot earlier. Bye, you can't hear us
weekday mornings on Two Pros and a Cup of Joan
when there's no Brady Quinn and it's just LeVar and I.
We'd like to refer to ourselves as Black and Drack
because I look like Dracula and LeVar. I'm black. Yeah,

(01:15):
so it's pretty simple for those of you listening here
and trying to figure out who's who that would be,
what that is. So I am a drack, he's black,
and we are often running here on this Tuesday morning here,
and you know, apparently not everybody feels like they were
told the truth from time to time. You know, some

(01:37):
people feel like in the NFL that maybe if they
would have had some different information, maybe things would have
gone a little bit, a little bit more. I guess
on the opposite spectrum with how they made their decisions
and how they opted to make those career choices during
the course of their illustrious, high paying NFL employment. And

(02:00):
one of those guys is none other than Kirk Cousins,
who was featured on Netflix's Quarterback season two, and he
talked about the decision to go to Atlanta and how
well had I known that, maybe I wouldn't have made
that move.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
I wasn't expecting us to take a quarterback so high
at the time. It felt like I had been a
little bit misled, or certainly if I had the information
around phegency, it certainly would have affected my decision. I
had no reason to leave Minnesota with how much we
loved it there. If both teams are going to be
drafting a quarterback high But I've also learned in twelve

(02:38):
years in this league that you're not entitled anything.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
It's all about being able.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
To earn your spot and prove yourself.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
So that's the last part is the best part of it.

Speaker 5 (02:49):
I mean, you've been in the league long enough to
understand that they handle things the way they handle things,
and you make your decision based off of the information
that you have and the possibility of what could take
place beyond that period. Like that's about it. Like it's
a pretty open shut situation. Like, Okay, how many other

(03:10):
players do you think have been misled that are in
a position of choosing in free agency? Like anybody could
come up with a reason as to why they feel
like they've been misled. What the bottom line is is
you have a job. It's a great paying job. You
are paid as a starter. They took a quarterback. It
wasn't Michael Pennix that you took your job or you

(03:35):
didn't get a fair opportunity.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
You played your way out of the job. It's like
you misled the Atlanta Falcons.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
They didn't feel like they were gonna have to use
Michael Pennix that early, but they had to because you
got the hips like you got hit, you didn't want
to get hit anymore. You start turning the ball over,
you start playing poorly, and they felt like they needed
to switch it up and see if they could get
a spark because you weren't playing well.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Is that is that fair?

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Although I would say this if you're Kirk Cousins, I
wonder if part of him not playing well obviously he's
coming off the injury, but he even alluded to, you know,
just sort of having to learn an entirely new offense,
having to learn all of these new things. That also
adding that on top of the fact that you drafted
a quarterback as high as you did. I just think

(04:27):
when you take a quarterback that high in the draft,
the clock starts ticking. And I wonder if Cousins felt
a certain way and could just never let it go
when he got to the season, because he can say
all the right things like, you know, listen, anything can
happen in the NFL to business. I think that he
looked at that and it was always in the back
of his mind, like I'm out here. I'm with this team,

(04:49):
I'm with this organization. Yet they went and did something
that I did not expect. They went and did something
that had I known that, I wouldn't have left Minnesota,
because he was successful Minnesota, and I wonder if that
added to the pressure that he felt in trying to
go out and perform and all doing so while coming
back from the same injury that Aaron Rodgers suffered, and

(05:12):
we saw that played out and he suffered it later
in the year. Well, if you wanted to stay in Minnesota,
and you had the opportunity to stay in Minnesota, you
make your choice. You make your choice. If the value

(05:33):
is there for you to want to stay, then you stayed.
But you made a choice. So there's no reason to
come back after all this time and say you were
misled or I would have stayed in Minnesota. Minnesota was easily,
clearly the best situation for you to be in personnel wise.

(05:55):
You have an amazing receiving corps, you got a dope
tight end, you got a good offensive line, you got
a running back, you got a pretty decent defense. You
were in position pole position to take over to the
NFC North and be a competitor in the North. And oh,

(06:15):
by the way, they did it with Sam Donald. They
did it with Sam Donald. Don't say I thought I
had a great situation here and this, that and the other,
and I could have did this and they were going
to draft a quarterback, then they're going to draft a quarterback.
Aaron Rodgers had to deal with them drafting quarterbacks multiple drafts,

(06:37):
multiple times. But I think Kirk Cousins he talked with
Minnesota and they let their intentions be known. Hey, by
the way, we'd love to have you back, but we
are going to address the quarterback position in the draft.
They were upfront with him, which is why he made
the decision to go to Atlanta, because he said, look,
I understand that I don't want to be in that situation,

(06:59):
so I'm gonna go sign and somewhere else where I
can be the guy and I know that. Oops turns
around that they drafted a quarterback too, And Kirk Cousins
is like, well, if I would have known that, it
would just stayed. I would have just stayed in Minnesota
and there wouldn't have been any issue whatsoever. And they
wanted to keep him. Kevin O'Connell wanted to keep him,
but it's you know, it just goes to show you

(07:20):
that you can't have it all. Because everyone talks about
Kirk Cousins and and you know he's he's won in
the you know, the business of business in the NFL
and contracts and guarantees and all that stuff. And right
when you think that you've got it all figured out, hey,
look I appreciate it, but I'm gonna go somewhere else.
I'm gonna make a ton of money and you guys
are going to draft a quarterback in the future. All good,

(07:41):
it's business here. Then business came back and bit him
in the ass a little bit. And know he's in
a bad spot. So he got his contract, He got
his contract. What type of a bad spot is he in?
He didn't get the contract of a backup. He got
the contract of a starter. You're you've got the contract
of a starter. Your team didn't definitively take a strong

(08:05):
step in winning last year. Atlanta is still a question
mark team. Michael Pennix. People are excited about him, but
it's still a question mark question mark for him at
quarterback as to what he can do for this team.
I think he may have released this prematurely. There's no

(08:30):
reason for you to put this out there. The bottom
line is you might have ended up in the same
exact situation in Minnesota. You might have got the yips,
you might have played bad, and maybe JJ McCarthy doesn't
get hurt, maybe he takes your position. Maybe you're a

(08:52):
backup with a starting quarterback salary and you have to
eat it like anybody else who loses their job.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
And one of the most competitive industries that exists.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
In the world. I think he took on too much,
to be honest with you. I think he got to
Atlanta and he took on recovering from an injury, learning
an entirely new system. Oh and by the way, the
clock's ticking because we just drafted a guy eighth overall.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
So all you got to do is eliminate. Eliminate one
of those those components. If you're in maybe even two,
you eliminate because he has to still deal with coming
off of.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
The injury, even if he's in Minnesota.

Speaker 5 (09:36):
And as far as going and learning a new offense,
that would be the only one that you would eliminate
because you were still going to have to fight if
they kept kirk Cousins. I do not believe that that
impacts if they take a quarterback or not. In fact,
I think that that's why kirk Cousins got the hell.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Out of that. Yeah, because they told him that we're
taking a clue in the end, if he decided to stay,
If you decided to stay and they draft a quarterback,
all of the circumstances he's facing except the playbook are
still in play. You gotta try to come back from
off of the injury. You gotta come back, and you

(10:17):
gotta hold off the rookie. It's happened before. It's happened before,
there have been quarterbacks that have been established quarterbacks for
their team. Somebody gets drafted and they're competing for that job.
In fact, for what it's worth outside of it being

(10:38):
a high draft pick. That's the only thing that makes
it a more valuable conversation, because the bottom line is
every single roster spot, not just starting, every single roster
spot is an intense battle to get it. It's like

(11:00):
playing It's like having the most amazing athletes play musical
chairs with one seat. Who's gonna get it? That's the NFL.
So to me, you got to always be prepared to compete. So,
whether it was a high draft pick or not, who's

(11:24):
ever backing you up. They want They most likely want
to start. They most likely want your job so that
they can put themselves in position where they can ask
for the type of money you're making. You're always competing,
So there's no to me, there's no such thing as
in this type of scenario, in this in this topic

(11:44):
line that you can say you were misled, because the
bottom line is if you don't understand coming into the
National Football League that you just got drafted or you
just got hired to take somebody else's job for less money,
And that's every single person that's brought in.

Speaker 5 (12:03):
If you don't understand that coming in, then you're behind.
You're behind. You can't mislead somebody. Oh, I thought I
was coming in just to be the starter. You're just
gonna only have me as a starter. No, there's somebody
there that if they can get the same results from
you like us Sam Darnold, and they don't have to
pay you what they pay a Patrick Mahomes or Dak

(12:25):
Prescott or Joe Burrow.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
If they don't have to pay that, that's who they're
going with until they can't. That's why rookie contracts are
so important. I don't have to pay you for being amazing.
I got three four years that I can go maybe more,
maybe longer if I want, and I can get that
talent at this price bottom line. I feel bad for

(12:50):
Kirk Cootsis. You should let me tell you why. Why
because this would have been the equivalent to the seventy
two Dolphins perfect season. When it came to the business
standpoint of the NFL, he could have walked away and said,
got them all beat. Everybody, got franchise tagged twice in Washington,
got all that money, and then became the first guy

(13:11):
to get a fully guaranteed contract. He even dangled Minnesota
and the Jets against each other and then sold everybody on.
I took three million dollars less to go play in
Minnesota because I liked it more. And then he was
about to get another extension. All of a sudden, he
gets an injury and he says, you know what, Oh,
you're going to draft a quarterback. No worry, I'll continue
this bank heist. I'll go to another bank in Atlanta

(13:33):
and I'll take from them. And he was about ready
to get out of there coming off an injury, with
all those hundreds of millions of guarantees that he's got,
and all of a sudden, the damn Falcons front office
is waiting outside with a squad car and they scoop
him up. And there goes this perfect run in the
NFL business world, gone man up and vanished like a

(13:54):
fart in the wind. Could have been perfect, everything lined
up just right, and the damn Falcons ruined it all.
Feel bad for Kirk. Wow, he got the contract. Yeah, No,
he's stuck as a backup. He's trying to get the
hell out of there. Hold on, hold on, It's all
about perspective again. Let me reiterate. He could have been

(14:14):
stuck as the backup at Minnesota.

Speaker 6 (14:17):
Yeah, but he liked it there. It was perfect, Everything
was perfect. Well, didn't take a pay cut and go back.
Take a pay kuite, go back they misled you.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
Get back some of.

Speaker 5 (14:31):
That signing bonus and go back to me. Yeah, right
to me, He's already he's already won. It's not he
didn't blimish his perfect record of handling business.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
At at a at a high level, not at all.
He got his contract. He wasn't misled on his contract.
He wasn't misled on them numbers.

Speaker 5 (14:55):
Now, if he comes out and he says some of
this stuff is based off of and and escalators and
playing time, Okay, I get that. If you were misled
that way, he has a legitimate right. He has a
legitimate gright. But as far as I'm concerned, the reason
why he's in the Hall of Fame of doing business
and doing contract is because he gets his money. The

(15:18):
money that he's going to get, he's going to get
whether he's a backup or whether he's a starter. And
if that's the case, he's already winning. You're winning. Michael
Pennix has all the pressure on him. If he doesn't
prove out, they didn't move you. You're the backup.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Something jumps off, you get back in, take your shot,
and then whatever happens next, you leverage it to maybe
try to get another deal out of it. That's how
it works.

Speaker 5 (15:49):
No reason to have hard feelings, no need to feel
sorry for him, and no need to be a victim
in the matter. You know, Kirk, I support you man.
You know your pursuit for perfection and all of a
sudd on the Falcons ruined at all.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
It's too bad, man. It is the Herd here on
Fox Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington, Jonas Knox in for calling
here on FSR. By the way, coming up later on,
Bruce Feldman's going to stop by. We've got some very
interesting information about a big time move that took place
in the world of college football, and we're gonna have
the herdline news, all the fun stuff here on this
three hour extravaganza coming up next here though, somebody is saying,

(16:25):
you know what, last year was a bit too much.
It's all about the revenge tour this year in the NFL,
and that's yours right here on FSR.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and newon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Hey, what's up, everybody? It's me three time pro bowler
LeVar Arrington, and I couldn't be more excited to announce
a podcast called Up on Game? What is up on Game?
You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Hutchman,
Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yep, that's right, Plexico Burus.
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game, We're going to be

(17:06):
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with Me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Houchman
Zada and Plexico Burrs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast from. It is the
Herd Fox Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington, Jonas Knox in for Colin.

(17:31):
Coming up in about twenty minutes from now we are
going to have the first installment of the Herdline News
starring the one and only Ryan Music. That'll be yours
here again twenty minutes from now here. On FSR, we
do have a team that's going full red ass mode
this year, and that team, Puffy Bottom, would be the

(17:52):
Kansas City Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs who find themselves
in unfamiliar territory getting exposed in the Super Bowl. Philly
put a clown suit on him early and that game
was over before halftime, and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas
City Chiefs spoke with Kay Adams on upping Adams, and
he talked to you know, let's have some fun again,

(18:14):
all right, Let's get back to the good old days.

Speaker 7 (18:16):
I think it's just us having fun again. I mean,
I mean, it's it's always been fun playing on the
Kansas City Chiefs, and that's what makes it special. And
I feel like last year, I don't want to say
it was pressure, but guys wanted to go out there
and win every single week, and not for the fun
of the game, just because we're supposed to. Let's guauther
there and have fun. I mean, the wins will come
if we play the way that we're We know we
can play. We have the talent, we had, the coaches,

(18:36):
we work harder than anybody in the NFL. So let's
go out there and have fun and let the resultsandle
in it.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
So it's gonna be different looking Chiefs this year. Not
so much pressure, not trying to go for three in
a row, none of that garbage. Get back to the
good old days. Just go out there and sling it
and put a smile on your face. I mean, it's
great to maskt that way. The loss certainly hit the.

Speaker 5 (18:56):
Reset on the record setting amount of wins in the
Super Bowl. It cleared out the dynasty talk maybe for
a summer, a summer maybe.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
Well, there's still a dynasty, aren't they? Are they? I
would think so? Yeah, maybe one more? Really they got two, right,
I think they've got three three super Bowls. Yeah, it's
a dynasty. It's a dynasty. But but okay, well then
let's say greatest dynasty.

Speaker 7 (19:33):
Right.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
If you set a record on three straight, that's pretty
that's pretty fly. That's pretty fly. Biz. I think it's
good because they are finding ways. You'll always see and
hear stories from the greatest to ever do it. Whether
they're teams, whether it's players, whether it's a coach, they

(19:55):
always find a way to motivate themselves to byre themselves.
And a lot of times is made up because they're
still the most elite football team in the National Football League. Alvin,
there you go, Hey kill them all. They are still

(20:19):
the gold standard of what a team is supposed to be,
how they're supposed to be ran, coached, players, quarterback, you
name it. They had more talent this year and they
probably do feel less pressure because winning one Super Bowl
feels very different than trying to win the third in
a row Super Bowl. And look at how they delivered

(20:42):
on that. Under those circumstances, they were still able to
deliver an appearance in the Super Bowl. So imagine a
better team, perceivably a better football team, more talent than
what they had last year, at least more weapons. For
Patrick Mahomes. It's probably going to be a more explosive defense,

(21:06):
a more explosive offense. The defense did most of the
carrying last year. If the offense resurfaces and is more
and is more aggressive and putting up points like they
did before, then now you're talking about that restoring of

(21:26):
the balance that you saw when the Cheetah was on
the team, and it was the Cheetah and Kelsey. There's
the possibility that they could have an offense as dynamic
and with plenty of explosive plays with this team that
they have coming in this season. So of course Patrick
Mahomes is going to be excited. They're going to have
a burr, you know, and and they're going to get

(21:48):
after it because they came up short and they probably
felt like that's one that they let get away that
would have been in the record books forever. So I mean,
give credit where credit is due. At least they're not
in a place of complacency. That's what you should be
concerned about. If we're listening to a quote from Patrick
Mahomes and it's like, uh, you know, we've won a lot.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
You know, we just get to work. It's the off
season and you know, we'll get to the season and
we'll see, we'll see how it goes. I mean, we've
won a lot here, We've had a lot of great success.
So with the runs that we've had, this run that
we've had during this time, you know, let's I mean,
everything's got to be everything's got to be a positive,

(22:33):
a bonus from from here on out because we've delivered
so much to you.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
You know, it's wild. The Chiefs are so unrelatable to
just about every single fan base and organization in the league.
All that they've known since Patrick Mahomes became the full
time starter is AFC Championships or Super Bowls, And the
two AFC title games they lost, they lost in overtime.
Other than that, they're going to the Super Bowl every

(22:59):
year and they're at least in the conversation to win
another title. There are fan bases starving out there. They
just want one. Can we make one?

Speaker 5 (23:08):
Bases that are just starving to make it to the playoffs.
I went to the playoffs two times in my career
and one I was playing one.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
I was into it and you, I mean you basically
assaulted Chris Simms, and the other one didn't you. I
was playing in that one. Then you burst his spleen. No,
I think maybe I think we might have got I
don't know. I don't I don't think that was me.
I think LeVar almost killed Chris Sims. I might have.

(23:40):
It's been a while. I remember the interception and I
got knocked out. Oh, I was out. I fumbled too,
By the way, it was a fumble. They didn't rule
a little fumble, but that was a fumble. That was
a fumble. Who hits you? I was a lineman. I
don't know.

Speaker 5 (23:56):
I still don't remember to this day, but I might
have hit him pretty hard, and I get I don't
remember me hitting him hard in that game. I remember
Sean Taylor spitting Uh Pittman's face. I think he got
kicked out of that game too.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
He spitting Michael Pittman's face. Like that's talk about a
yeah Sewn Taylor though, talk about Guy Zilla versus King Kong.
I mean, that would have been a nice little matchup.
Plus we would have not let anything happen to Sean,
and then a Mike would have had to deal with me.
Then we would all been kicked out because I would
have been whooping ass. Everybody would have been whooping ass.

(24:30):
So but I was knocked out? That gay? What you got?

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Lee?

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Lee? What are we looking at here? According to the
Google machine, LeVar Arrington did intercept Chris Sims in a
pivotal playoff game. But there's no evidence of you physically
hitting Chris. So what if you just like, if you
put it into AI, did LeVar Arrington kill Chris Sims? Like,
what would show up there? That's what you put in? Yeah,
physically no evidence of physically harming Chris Sims. Well, listen,

(24:59):
I feel like that's rack. Let's say I reported there,
but nonetheless, like it wasn't Chris Simms, it was it
was Brad Johnson. Well, but Chris Simms did have the
burst spleen or something like that in that game. I'm
almost positive there was a playoff game Chris Simms went
out because and Gruden was the coach, right, Gruden was

(25:22):
the coach for Tampa at that time, So yeah, LaVar
had forced fumble in that game. Look at that? Yeah,
you really did kill him. I forced a fumble, eight
tackles at forced fumble in an interception. Hell yeah, I might.
I might have hurting. I might have hurt h like
I'm pretty sure, Chris Simms. That's the hell of a game.
By the way, separate internal bleeding.

Speaker 5 (25:43):
I'm telling you, I was a beast when I when
I played. I mean, eight tackles, a sack of I
n t that. That's a hell of a game. I mean,
that's probably better than any other linebacker or defensive player
that had a game. That's that's an MVP performance.

Speaker 8 (26:01):
Damn.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
He really didn't remember. Didn't know? Damn I did, all right.
I used to be something before I start doing radio
with you. I used to be something, you man, and
it all went down hill ever since. Now told you, man,
you are at the top of the top and now
you're doing radio midday with Count Chocolate. How almost cursed.
We almost had to dump out and it was it

(26:25):
was a f bomb. You went. You were teammates with
Bruce Smith, Dion Sean Taylor. Do you look over to
your left and you got me Geryl Green, Mark Carrier,
the guy with two dumb tattoos, Marco Coleman a truck
from the nineties in the parking lot, and he's got
a he's got a thorn bush, a thorn bush around
his arm and his dog on his back. You know,
my had a mighty fallen Yeah, it's all good. Man.

Speaker 5 (26:48):
Part too, is that's why I rocked my gray beard
and I wear my little image glasses.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
I like to be incognito because you know, this is
who I am now, this is where we are, this
is what we're doing, this is what we're doing now.
On the subject though, of the playoff run for the
Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes talking about just getting
back to having fun again, I just I hope that
he and he probably won't until his career is over,

(27:15):
but I hope that he and Chiefs fans and that
entire organization understand how good they have it. I hope
that they really do understand it, because sometimes you can
get caught up in the weeds on you know, just
sort of oh well, listen, it's the grind day to day.
Patrick Mahomes also talked to Tom Brady's been talking to

(27:35):
Tom Brady a lot this from Upp and Adams, and
he spoke about the advice he's gotten from TV twelve.

Speaker 7 (27:42):
He always talks about being yourself. He thinks that, which
I truly believe too, is that guys can spot when
you're not authentic and you're not putting in the work.
And that's something that he did every single day. That's
why guys respected him so much. And that's all I'm
going to do for the rest of my career. And
I feel like I've done so far as I'm always
myself no matter if you like me or if you
don't like me, you know that I'm giving everything I
can hand to win the football game.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
So Brady giving him all the advice. Brady was a
guy who struck me as was constantly worried about the
grind and never satisfied with what he had. And even
Brady probably looks at the start of Patrick Mahomes's career
and goes, damn man, there's been no literally no decline
with the chief since Patrick Mahomes is taken and the

(28:22):
toughest division. Yes, it's not like he's doing it in
a week ass division. He's got to go to work
every single year. It's not been easy. So the road
that he's had, the hoe he's been doing it on
some real treacherous train and he's still been able to

(28:43):
navigate it. That's the biggest question here.

Speaker 5 (28:46):
As long as Patrick Mahomes stays healthy, you got to
assume the process is in play. The understanding of what
the defense needs to deliver and what the offense needs
to do in order for them to win is is
all solidified? If Patrick Mahomes were to go down, is

(29:07):
that the death of their successful run? That has to
be His health has to be maybe the biggest question
in terms of moving forward. As long as he can
stay healthy, which he has been known to get nicked up,
you know that ankle, like his ankles giving trouble at times.

(29:30):
If he were to go down, do they have a
contingency plan where they can still be the effective team
that they are when they have I mean, obviously they're
not going to be as good as they would be
with him in there. Do they have a contingency plan
where they can still win games if they were to

(29:51):
lose Patrick Mahomes for an extended amount of times?

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yes? And you know who that is, Gardner Minshew, What
are you worried about?

Speaker 5 (30:00):
Say this and that in that offensive scheme, he probably
would thrive.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
Hey, listen, Minshi's actually played a lot better than people realize.
Like if you just go look at his numbers, that
guy's going to be in the NFL for a long time.

Speaker 8 (30:13):
You know.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
The Raiders were a bit of a rough spot. By
the way, we're gonna have to edit some of the podcast.
Apparently Chris Sims was hurting against the Carolina Panthers, or
if you could use there, you go, Yeah, that's what
I'm showing that he burst him. But I might have
hurt though I might have hurting, but I don't think
I did. I do know that something happened to Brad
Johnson's ribs in pre season when I hit him. Now,

(30:36):
if you want to look that one up, Lee, look
that I got fined like ten thousand dollars for a
legal hit. I legally hit him.

Speaker 5 (30:45):
The man still had the ball in his hand and
I hit him, and I knocked the spirit, soul, mind,
everything loose and some of it out of his body.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
If I gotta find ten thousand dollars, I'd sell my son.
I got to get that money backs. By the way,
that fumble you forced was returned for a touchdown in
that seventeen ten victory from Sean Taylor. I didn't realize
that you really have to fall in a long way.

(31:16):
Look at me, just look to your left. This is life,
the memories. That's all you really can look for is
just to live in the memories. I guess fifteen thousand
for striking an opponent in the head. I'm not sure
if that's the right one that we're looking at. I
got that, yep, for taunting. Yeah, what was career five?

(31:36):
That's my career fines thirty five total, thirty five grand. Yeah,
I'll try to look for the other ones. So far,
thirty five so far. I was the highest fine dude
in the league one year until Harball or somebody somebody
got hit in in the Chicago Bears game. Jim Miller,

(31:58):
Jim Miller, Jim Miller annihilated. And that fine took was
that Hugh Douglas who was that? Yeah, his fine pushed
him to the top. I was number one on the list,
and you Douglas took it on that hit in the
Chicago game. Yeah, he took it away from me. Well, look,

(32:19):
I was hitting people in the head though, I'll tell
you that. If there's one thing I was doing, I
was what they call targeting.

Speaker 5 (32:27):
That's why I was a missile to your cranium. I
was a missile. That's how I used to in my mind,
Like I'd be lining up in the game, right, I'd
be in the game. Here we go, Sam sitting there
looking like like all right here we godopop, say.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
Out of there, out of there. Only thirty five grand.
It's not bad. Hey, man got out of thirty five grand.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
And some of those fines, I mean maybe those are
like my physical fines because I was getting fined, like
dudes wear their uniforms the way they want to wear
their uniforms. Now I was wearing. I was getting fined
for having my.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Sock to love. Hey, George Pickens got fined over for
two hundred grand last year by the Steelers. So I
didn't get fined by the team. I got fined by
the league. Well, the league was fine, league.

Speaker 5 (33:26):
The league was finding me for my uniform violations and
hitting people in the hit.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Dan Snyder never find you because being there was a
fine enough. So he should have keep paying a fine
for being the owner. Yeah, some would say he did.
Uh it is uh still looking for him to pay
some of that hits. The Herd here on Fox Sports Radio,
LeVar Arrington, Jonas knox In for Colin.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week. Within the iHeartRadio app, search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
I heard Fox Sports Radio LaVar Arrington, Jonas knox In
for Colin. Coming up in about twenty minutes from now,
we are going to have another edition of the herdline
news for you here on FSR. But right now we
turn it over to the man who covers college football
as well as anybody on the planet. He is none
other than Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, also of Fox.

(34:21):
You see him during Big New kickoff throughout the course
of the season. Best selling author, you can get him
on ex at Bruce Feldman CFB Bruce Good Morning, slash afternoon.
How are we feeling doing good?

Speaker 8 (34:33):
Actually, at Big twelve Media Days in Texas, ran into
a guy I think you guys know very well, good partner,
Brady klint Oh saying.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
Okay, no figure, look at that. Tell him We said
hello him, yes, please do. There's a lot of people
missing him such social so can you tell us here
just in looking at this whole story that's broken in

(35:04):
college football when it comes to Texas Tech and their
recruitment of Felix Ojoe. What can you tell us about
how this all started and sort of where we're at
because we're seeing different reports of what the actual contract is.
Saw the five point one and then it was two
million and change. What do you know of the deal
thus far?

Speaker 8 (35:24):
Yeah, So the story broke on July fourth, and I
was I was offline. I was with my family on
the holiday, and then the next morning, some of my
colleagues at the Athletic we were trying to confirm that
what was reported for five point one million dollars for
three years and ended up making a bunch of calls
and talking to people at Texas Tech who were who

(35:47):
would know, and myself and my two colleagues. We had
talked to several people, you know, in the process, and
they said, actually the figure is for seven to seventy
five year for three years, and it's not the five
point one. Now, there was a caveat to that, which
was that if things change in the revenue sharing model,

(36:10):
or if there's a lot of deregulation, then maybe it
can get up in a five million range. But the
deal right now is for what we're reported at the athletic,
which was three years at seven seventy five per We
had talked to the agent involved and the agent had said, no,
it's five point one. But when we had asked for

(36:35):
some confirmation of that, if he declined to offer that,
and so based on what we know and what we
could confirm that it was significantly less than what we're
reported on Friday.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
I have so many questions. Let's start here with the agent.
You got to believe the agent is trying to push
that number to the figure that he's pushing it too
because they have no intentions staying at Texas Tech.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
Correct.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
The idea that is is if we can say we
got to guarantee three year contract that that totals out
to the five million range, then if we're coming here,
you got to be in that. You got to be
in that parameter or within that realm of compensation for
us to even consider coming to your school. That's what
I would assume would be the priority of the agent

(37:25):
represented these these college athletes at this point. I mean,
would that be safe to say, well.

Speaker 8 (37:30):
I think the lamar I think on what's going on
here is you know, the agents who you probably you
know either were you know, ported by you know, going
into the NFL or work. I think those are you know,
a lot of them are their certified agents, and it
was a different landscape than what we have now. There's
a lot of nil agents who aren't certified by anybody,

(37:51):
and they're trying to get established. And so you'll see
a lot of times on social media, whether it's on
Twitter or whatnot or Instagram, you'll see the people credit
and just say so and so told me, and they'll
reference the agent and maybe they'll even include their Twitter handle,
and it's a way for them to build that person's

(38:13):
brand and help them kind of get established. But also
it is a way for that agent to try to
set the market or re set the market because most people,
you know, I'm hearing at the Big twelve and the
other schools, have no idea how much Texas Tech really
probably is on the hook to pay. But they just

(38:35):
think maybe what happens is the first dollar figure that's
put out there that people see on social media, that's
the one everybody ends up running with, and especially if
it's the biggest one. So now it's like that's the
one gets passed around. Well, is that the going rate
for a five star offensive lineman five point one million
for three years or is it what they are actually?

(38:56):
You know, on the hook for.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
The easy answer.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
The easy answer to that is it can't be the
going rate because nobody does it. You can't project out
to year three. Nobody does it. And let me just
ask this before I turn back over you Jones. But
in terms of guarantees, like and hearing that guarantee figure
being a part of the conversation, I mean, what type

(39:22):
of language, Because I was just saying during the break,
if my kid, which he got, offer more money from
other schools than the school he ended up going to,
but if they offered a guarantee contract to my kid,
you can't put language in there binding him to a
contract where he has to stay there for the entire time.
And if you did, we wouldn't take that contract. There

(39:43):
would be no reason to accept a guarantee contract for
three years if you're saying you have to be here
for three years because we don't know what the circumstances
hold for him or your school during the course of
that time. But I want the money guarantee. If I'm
a parent or I'm an agent, I want to guarantee.
Has there been any conversation surrounding that. If he were

(40:04):
to go into the transfer portal having a guarantee contract
for three years, what happens then? Do they sue him?
Do they sue the school?

Speaker 3 (40:12):
Do they do they what recourse is in place if
you do a three year, three year deal, because no
one's ever done a three year guaranteed deal.

Speaker 8 (40:23):
Right and there is I don't think there is any guarantee,
you know, in the true word guarantee, true sense of it.
I think that sounded good when he's probably told the
reporter as such, But right now, there's nothing that can
be signed anyway because of the way all of this
is set up. You can't have a signed contract right
now that specifically would be against any kind of rules. Okay,

(40:45):
And so there's that. Then there's the other part of it,
when you can say who can sue? You can sue anybody,
and you know in the country, you know it doesn't
mean you're going to win, but I'm sure they'll be
potential for lawsuits. But think about it this way. If
your and I've had these conversations with a football coaches
in the city, like if they're if somebody's going to
leave to go to a different school, let's say, you

(41:07):
know that's that's a second he wants to go to Texas. Well,
if you're a football coach you wanted to do you've
got to pay a buyout or you know, if it's
a contract, you have to get out of it, and
there's financial penalties that are often with that. And so
this thing is so different than I think the contracts
you probably add in the NFL or the contracts that

(41:29):
we see typically in pro sports. Because you know, you
got to remember, all of the athletes and your son
fits in a suit, they're not employees. You know, coaches
are employees, but college athletes that right now are not.
They're not deemed that now. Maybe at some point go
get to that designation, but it's not right now. So
we're in I mean, it's still such a messy situation

(41:52):
all the way around.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Bruce Feldman joining us here on the Herd Here Fox
Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington Jonas knocks in for Colin. You know,
it's not like Ojo's the only one this week, especially
for Texas Tech you've got Ashton Rowden, who's the four
star cornerback, or a four star running back. You've got
the four star cornerback in Donovan Webb. There's also speculation
that they're looking at Cooper Hacket, who's a five star

(42:15):
offensive tackle in the twenty twenty seven class. What is
the vibe there about Texas Tech at Big twelve media
days from people you talk to? Are they giving them
kind of the side eye or are they looking at it saying, hey,
fair play. They figured this thing out and they're going
out and they're spending and they're getting some of these
top recruits.

Speaker 8 (42:33):
It's next. It's funny, like we had these conversations with
a couple of coaches here. On one hand, one of
them said, hey, you know, good for them, Well they
can if they have it like that. I wish I
had that situation. Another coach was much more. He was like,
I think it's asinine how this is set up, and
I don't think that it's going to work this way,

(42:54):
and wondered, I I just didn't see it as a
sustainable model. It's no, you know, like, I think it's
great in one sense. If you're a fan of this school,
you're like, oh my god, we're beating Texas and we're
beating Oklahoma and we're beating LSU for records. We never
would have beaten them before, you know. And so there's that.
But you know, I get why coaches who are actually

(43:18):
in the business in the middle of this and know
it and know what it's like to have a locker
room and to try to maintain a locker room. It's
like it's unsustainable. And so it's a fascinating sperment that's
going on. And love it's for sure right now.

Speaker 5 (43:30):
There's so much that is on. It's just not structured.
And how can you have it structured when you've never
been here before and you don't have any comps to
be able to do it. And you mentioned the whole
employee deal, it's still not pay for play like that
is very very prominent. And how the language is used

(43:54):
as opposed to you know, what is taking place at
the college level. So if you you are not a
pay to play person, can you do that?

Speaker 3 (44:03):
Can you?

Speaker 5 (44:04):
And I don't want to put you on a spot
if you don't have the information, that's fine, but I'm
just curious in terms of language, the house settlement versus
the NCAA versus nil. It has to maintain being nil
specific or you're turning them into paid employees if it's

(44:25):
just the university paying them. So when we talk about
the rev share payment of the twenty million that's cap
to pay these teams and where that money comes from,
how it's given to the athletes, what is the difference
now with that house settlement between the money that is
given from the revenue sharing and the nil. So say

(44:49):
it's like the collectives that are paying them an X
amount of dollars for or they're getting nil deals, you know,
with different companies, whatever it may be, Is there a
distinct difference between that house settlement revenue and the nil
and how these these athletes are getting paid for nil deals.

Speaker 8 (45:10):
It depends on who you talk to. Certain schools say
it's not now, the schools say it has to be.
And what you've seen is a lot of places and
teams and we're just talking about one of them, the
most prominent one. Now they have front loaded their rosters
and I think you're seeing a lot of that go
on where teams are going to have budgets of forty

(45:32):
five and fifty and fifty two and as high as
fifty five million dollars this year. Now you're telling me,
all of a sudden, a year from now, they're going
to drop down less than half of that. You know,
we all know we've worked around sports and long enough
that's not the direction it ever goes in. So and
we also know that there's always workarounds when it comes

(45:53):
to college sports, whether it's a fag man, whether it's
a bag of McDonald's that's fulling cash, a way people
have gained the system. Why would we think it's not
going to happen with a lot of these schools.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Yeah, you forgot car in the parking lot at the airport,
you know, Bruce from somebody for somebody that covers college football.
I was making the joke, and I was half kidding
yesterday that it just it was so much easier when
this stuff was illegal, because we could just focus on,
all right, who's got the top recruiting class? However they
got it, They got it, but you you had the
usual suspects. And now you've got schools like Texas Tech

(46:27):
who all of a sudden, like oh wait a second,
like we could be a part of this dance as
well too. I just I don't know how it lands
with you, but it feels like there's a lot of
unanswered questions and I just don't know when we're going
to get to the end where this is what it is,
these are the parameters and let's just focus on college

(46:48):
football and college football alone again.

Speaker 8 (46:51):
Yeah, and for me, I mean that's kind of where
I land on. It's like, all right, show me who's
going to be on the field, and we're gonna well,
like I you know, I don't have a dog in
the fight, you know where I just want to see
you guys still love the games.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
But like.

Speaker 8 (47:04):
You know, right now, it's just I've been around long
enough to know that there's always workarounds and there's always
people who will work in the margins. And it's different
than the NFL, where you know, you get kish draft
picks or find if you have too physical a practice

(47:25):
or whatever they you know. But at some point I
think college football will get to a you know, collective bargaining,
but they're not there right now. And right now, I
think it's still going to be the wild while West,
even if they try to pretend it's not. This is
this is the reality, and this is how they operate, isn't.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
There isn't there a governing body just real quick that
that they're they when they did the settlement that they
get to or like a clearinghouse that they make sure
it's kind of telling you right. They can kill a
deal and say you're not supposed to get that kids.
The value of what you're paying him does not match
what it is that the kid is doing.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Where does where does that fall in? Where is that used?

Speaker 8 (48:08):
I I We're going to see how that plays out,
because you also have to get the cooperation from all
these NIL agents to put them the paperwork. Are they
really going to all do that? What are they? You know?
I just think there's a lot of things when it
comes to Deloitte, who's going to be the accounting firm
that's going to be involved with this, and the mL
former MLB executive who's now, you know, kind of the

(48:29):
top top of this. I believe it when I see it,
just because we've seen I'm talking to too many coaches
who are just kind of like rolled up their sleeves
and are like, oh, yeah, this is going to be
a mess because they know that's the you know, it's
not like the people involved, they're not different. There's just
more middle men involved and there's just more more rules

(48:51):
to kind of navigate for circumvent if you want to
look at it.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
Yeah. Bruce Feldman, Fox College Football Reporter one, Bruce Analyst,
Part one, financial guru. Now a lot of meat on
his stuff on the athletic Get him on ex at
Bruce Feldman CFB Live from Big twelve Media Days. Bruce
always appreciate it, man, thanks so much and hope to

(49:15):
do it again.

Speaker 5 (49:16):
Appreciate you, buddy, Yes, sir, alrighty, there he is, Bruce
Felvin with us here. So much to discuss, man, this,
I mean, the rabbit hole is such a deep rabbit hole, man,
and it's dark. I'm telling you, it's a dark rabbit hole.
This is going to get I see it getting ugly
before it gets better. There's a whole lot to work

(49:38):
through with already pulling the trigger on allowing this this
type of funds to go out and and somebody who
brings them funds to the table. It's just it's so much,
so much to it, and I've been you know, I've
been immersed in this for since it's happened. Jonas like
I've I've been connected to it and in several different

(49:59):
manners and capacities, and it is so confusing. It's so
even having it organized and understood, it's still very confusing.
And if it's confusing to people who are really really
in it and learning it and using it, then you

(50:20):
got to believe that everybody else is in the same
in the same situation. You know, it's it's not very
easily to understand because there are a lot of things
that are not in place that need to be in place.
Structurally speaking, there is not an infrastructure in place where
the current state of college athletics can thrive and be

(50:44):
successful in something's going to happen. It's like trying to
run a website. A web page that isn't programmed the
right way. It's going to crash and you're going to
lose all of the data and everything that's connected to it.
That's kind of what the NCAAA or what college sports
is on that that you'rectory right now.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
It's going to crash. It is the herd. Here on
Fox Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington Jonas Knox in for Colin