Best of the Week on The Herd

Jason McIntyre, in for Colin Cowherd, gives his Super Bowl tiers, his College Football Playoff tiers, talks about Micah Parsons being sent to Green bay, and is joined by Rich Ohrnberger. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio, our number two.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Here on the Herd, It's me Jason McIntyre joined by
Rachel Nichols.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
We are in for Cowherd.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Oh boy, I might plugin was not really working there,
but now we're fine. Rachel, I'm about to unveil my
Super Bowl tiers. It's going to make a certain fan
days very I'm worried. I'm not gonna lie. I've seen
these tears. I'm a worried about you.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
So it's funny.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Rachel is very caught off guard and she's wearing Chiefs red.
I believe today she was caught off guard yesterday by
the Chiefs in the meeting and like laughing and I was.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Like, oh ray, so nice.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
And then today when I unveil my tears, she was
really caught off guard.

Speaker 6 (01:09):
So listen.

Speaker 7 (01:10):
Bruce Taylor Swift red by the Way Taylor.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
Apologies yet.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
So Bruce Feldman, my guy, he's coming up in five
minutes talking about Yeah, college football, I Notre Dame Miami.
We need to talk a little more about that. Anyways,
let me do my Super Bowl tiers. All right, folks,
here we go. So we have four tiers of the
teams that can win the Super Bowl. And let's get started,

(01:34):
shall we.

Speaker 8 (01:36):
All right?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Tier number one, faux show for sure. These teams are
the elite, the best of the best. Baltimore Ravens, no
doubt about it, need no explanation. Josh Allen's Buffalo Bills,
the phi let Out FIA Eagles been defending Super Bowl champs.
I don't need to explain those three. Now the Niners,
some people are gonna be surprised by. I'm just gonna
let's be obvious. Don't read too much into what happened

(01:59):
last season.

Speaker 5 (02:00):
They were a.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Mass unit, and I know the wide receiver room has
some issues. Currently, they're going to be fine. Okay, this
is a schedule based prediction. That's why they're Super Bowl contenders.
I also like to move bringing back Robert Sala Go.
Look at the quarterbacks they face this year. Guys, it
is a cakewalk. They should be fine. I think they'll
probably get the number one or two seed in the NFC.

(02:22):
The forty nine ers should be in the four shore
super Bowl contender list. All right, let's go to the
second tier, a little larger, a little more robust.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
The Green Bay Packers.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yes, I have the Packers in the four reel category,
joined by the Atlanta Falcons. I don't mind revealing. When
I was in Vegas last week, I bet the Falcons
to win the division and yes, win the NFC A
bit of a flyer. The offensive line injuries has me
concerned right now. But nevertheless, Denver Broncos in the four
reel category. That defense should be the best in the league.

(02:56):
And I think the Nix Peyton combo is much better
than I thought. La Rams fourth in the four reel category.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
They probably could get bumped up to one now.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
That Saffer's fine, but as Rachel noted, the left tackle
situation some cause for concern. And I'm gonna put the
Bengals here because Burrow's not gonna stop chucking and duckin.
He is just going to keep throwing to keep the
Bengals in every game. And I do believe offense should
keep them in the Super Bowl contending category. Let's go
to the third tier of super Bowl contenders. Hey, there

(03:27):
they are carry gout for now. The Kansas City Chiefs
are a super Bowl contender. Yes, I had them missing
the playoffs. Yes, the tackles are an issue. I don't
care how good the Ohio State kids looked in practice.
Is a long season, folks. The running back situation is dicey.
Travis Kelce. I'm not going to use the washed word. Oops,

(03:47):
I just did. I think he'll be okay. But let's see,
it's a full season and the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
And then of.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Course the defense. I mean, Jalen Hurts just put a
number on them in the Super Bowl and you look
at that tape of that and you're like, oh, there's
holes off all over the place.

Speaker 5 (04:01):
I have Detroit and four.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Now I also have them missing the playoffs. I know
that's gonna make people upset Washington in the four. Now,
as we talked about yesterday, Rachel noted, the defense is
very old, has a lot of questions. I think the
offense keeps them in gains and I'm gonna have the
chargers here. I really like the Chargers. They're a bit
more sleeper now that Slater's out for the season. Let's
go to the final category, super Bowl contenders. For your consideration,

(04:26):
the Arizona Cardinals.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
I have them in the playoffs. Houston Texas, I just.

Speaker 5 (04:30):
Don't love them.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
They got entire new offensive line. Yes, the defense will
keep them in gains, Yes, the divisions, but that offensive
line has me really nervous.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
I have Jacksonville here, They're my surprise team.

Speaker 5 (04:43):
In the AFC.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
I think that offense isn't going to rival the Bengals,
but I think it's gonna be very, very good. And
oh my gosh, this this can't be real. And then finally,
for your consideration, the Minnesota Vikings. Yes, I'm buying ja
Jim McCarthy and those are my Super Bowl contender tears.
So listen, there's some news breaking. I don't know is

(05:07):
this Are we sure about this? Come on, guys, I
don't want to go with that if it's not accurate.
So let's bring on Bruce Feldman, my guy college football analyst,
covers the sport for Fox. Bruce in his just awesome
family room there, looking sharp as ever, new haircut, ready
for the season. Bruce, what's the excitement level for you?

(05:29):
Texas Ohio State.

Speaker 8 (05:32):
Can't wait, Jason.

Speaker 9 (05:33):
I mean, this is the best week one we've ever
had in college football. You have one Verse two matchup
as obviously you remember Texas was knocked out of the
playoff last year by the buck Eys, and now you
have the arch manding factor.

Speaker 8 (05:46):
You have new coordinators.

Speaker 9 (05:49):
At Ohio State on both sides of the ball, including
Matt Patrichudo's never really coached in college football and now
he's got to defend arch.

Speaker 8 (05:56):
That's huge.

Speaker 9 (05:56):
You got two other top ten matchups later that weekend.

Speaker 8 (06:01):
I mean, it's.

Speaker 10 (06:06):
All right.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Let me just quickly ask about this Matt Patricia. He
is the rocket scientist. If memory serves from his days
in New England Detroit, Matt Patricia kind of a divisive figure.
But as you said, he's had all off season to
prepare for Art. He's also got maybe the best defensive
player in the country and Downs. I think they kind
of bottle up the Texas offense here. Bruso, what's your

(06:29):
read on that one.

Speaker 8 (06:31):
It's going to be.

Speaker 9 (06:32):
Interesting to see what kind of answers does he have.
Does he do a lot of what Jim Knowles, who
was the offense the defensive coordinator last year. Did it
such a good job for Ohio Sate. As you mentioned
Caleb Downs, their safety. I think he's the best defensive
player in the country. He's just a unique chess piece
because he's so smart and what they can do with them.
They have two elite linebackers who are really special athletes

(06:52):
in sunny styles and r bel reeves.

Speaker 8 (06:54):
The d line is.

Speaker 9 (06:56):
Mostly new right. They have talent there, but it's new guys.
The part that I think I'm most curious about in
this game is it's not just Arch. It's four new
starters on the offensive line. You lost a top ten
pick who's now with the Saints at left tackle. It's
a lot of new guys and it's a tough road environment.
I mean, we'll see how Patricia does, you know, long

(07:18):
term this season. It reminds me a little bit of
a similar situation Texas faced early last year on the
road when they went to Michigan.

Speaker 8 (07:27):
Wink Martindale, who hadn't been in college.

Speaker 9 (07:30):
He stepped in it at Michigan and it was a
mismatch Sark versus wink Martindale. Early in the year, Stark's
still there is a more mobile quarterback, albeit less experience.

Speaker 8 (07:40):
In Quinn viewers.

Speaker 9 (07:43):
And it's also a new offensive line though, and that's
the part where I'm fascinated to see how Arch does
behind a new group that is going to.

Speaker 8 (07:50):
Be feeling its way out in a very hostile setting.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Let me ask you, Bruce, are you surprised that Arch
did not throw a pass at all in the SEC
championship game or.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
The two playoff games?

Speaker 3 (08:01):
They had a couple of running packages for him, but
not one pass. To me, to an outsider, that's kind
of a lack of confidence in him getting it done
in a big spot. Or was there dynamic with Queen
youwers that maybe I don't understand.

Speaker 8 (08:15):
No, I just think it's in the moment.

Speaker 9 (08:17):
Look when mid season Georgia comes in there and they
are slaughtering Texas, they bench Ewers, give Arch a chance.
Arch gave him a smart for a second, and then
Georgia just overwhelmed him too.

Speaker 8 (08:30):
I think I wouldn't read too.

Speaker 9 (08:32):
Much into anything that happened last year with that Texas team.
You know, remember the year before Texas came very close
to playing for the national title. They lost to Washington
and Michael Pennix. You know, it wasn't like yours is
a scrub. Yours has played a lot. You know, he
operated well at times in the offense, and I think

(08:53):
it was just about like, hey, let's make sure when
Arch is really ready, he's ready to go. And I
think having an all a full off season to kind
of grow into this position and get ready, I think
it's probably ideal for them. But I you know again,
I wouldn't you can always second guest play callers.

Speaker 8 (09:11):
On both sides of the ball.

Speaker 9 (09:13):
I wouldn't, you know, see Starkeys, it's as good as
there is in college football, especially in like third down
stuff and different you know things. Obviously you can hindsight
his twenty twenty I'm sure there's a bunch of calls
in that game. Sark would have loved to have back,
but credit to Jim and Oles, he had answers.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, let's go to Miami. Notre Dame obviously a rich
history between these two.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
I'm on the.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Irish here, but there are some questions about Notre Dame
a quarterback. Their defense is stacked love the running back.
Where are you on this matchup?

Speaker 9 (09:42):
Yeah, it's not just the running back you're talking about.
Jeremiah Love is fantastic. That running back room is deep
behind him, JD.

Speaker 8 (09:48):
Price. They have some young backs they really like. But
again CJ.

Speaker 9 (09:51):
Carr, you know, he's a talented passer, but this is
his first big test, right And they're going to Miami
and this is a completely new defense. And I'm not
saying how it's going to go for Matt Patricier or not.
But in Corey Heatherman, we have a much more experienced
college defensive coordinator who's stepping in. Miami was awful on
defense last year. They were explosive on offense with cam Ward.

(10:14):
I think Miami is going to be much improved this
year because of the defensive side of the ball. And
I think everything I've heard at a Quarrel Gables has
been very positive on how Corey Heatherman has changed things.
I think this is a tricky spot for the Irish.
They're talented, as you said, but again, new quarterback. That
place can be pretty loud. It's not the old range howl.

(10:36):
But ask players on the on the Notre Dame team
that got blown off the field like forty eight to seven,
Like when Manny Diaz was there. That place can get
loud in the right spot, and I expected to later
this weekend. And again, Carson Beck is now the starter
at Miami. There's been a lot of positive reports coming

(10:57):
out of there from the coaches I know there. They
have a really good offensive line. I would not at
all be surprised if Miami beats them this weekend.

Speaker 8 (11:04):
All right.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
I got to ask Bruce, You're like, the coach is
a positive on Carson back. Have you ever got preseason
negative stuff from coaches on a quarterback?

Speaker 8 (11:12):
Yeah, definitely, Oh, you definitely do.

Speaker 9 (11:15):
But those are the things you shy away from bringing
up and saying, oh yeah, coaches are kind of skittish,
skittish about this guy. I mean, maybe some of the
stuff you talk about around it may come up, but
there's definitely a bunch of stuff where you end up
in the back of your head and sometimes you talk
about it. You know, we have a podcast where we'll
talk a little bit more about the stuff I might

(11:35):
be concerned about at Ohio State or the stuff I
might be concerned about on this team of that team.

Speaker 8 (11:40):
But you know, you kind of balance all the information
you get.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Okay, So does Beck lose the game? With a pick
or stripsack fumble. How does he blow this one?

Speaker 4 (11:50):
I just don't have a lot of faith in the guy.
And this is coming from.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Somebody last year at this time who was like, oh yeah,
Carson Beck, he's got to be the favorite to go
number one.

Speaker 4 (11:57):
In the draft.

Speaker 8 (11:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (11:59):
I know.

Speaker 9 (12:00):
You can't get so over your skis on the draft
component of this, because that's what people thought.

Speaker 8 (12:04):
And then you know what happened.

Speaker 9 (12:05):
Brock Bauers went to the NFL and Lad McConkie went
to the NFL, and the receiving group beneath him wasn't
very good, and he pressed. I mean, right now, he's
got a really good offensive line, he's got an elite
running back in Jordan Lyles, and they have a lot
of young talent at receiver. So you know, again, I

(12:25):
know this. The Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Munkan, who had
Beck early on, was very effusive in how smart he is,
how quick his release is and all those things. I mean, look,
give a lot of credit also to Shannon Dawson, Miami's
OC because going into last year, the NFL had a
fifth round grade on cam Ward.

Speaker 8 (12:47):
Where did he end up getting drafted? A couple of
months ago.

Speaker 9 (12:50):
First overall, I'm not saying it was it was all
Shannon Dawson, but Shannon Dawson the offense quarter and knows
what he's doing, and I would expect Carson Beck will
have a pretty big year in this system.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
That's good insight. Let's go to the other matchup LSU Clemson.
Another bet that I made was Clemson undefeated regular season.
Obviously if they clear this hurdle or favored the rest
of the way. I'm just curious. This is a battle
of these quarterbacks who everybody seems to like for the
draft next year. Club Nick and neuss Meyer. Where are
you on these two heading into the season.

Speaker 8 (13:22):
I like them.

Speaker 9 (13:22):
I think they're both really smart quarterbacks.

Speaker 8 (13:25):
They don't have like great size.

Speaker 9 (13:27):
Nuss Meyer's more of a gun slinger coaches kid, you know.
I think both guys are really good leaders. They see
the field really well. The part that we're going we
need to see a big step up from them is,
especially with Garrett Usmeyer, is how they play.

Speaker 8 (13:45):
Against ranked teams. You look at the numbers, they were
not good.

Speaker 9 (13:48):
Neither guy was really good, but Garrett really struggled and
now a little like Arch Manning. He's got an entirely
rebuilt offensive line. They had four offensive linemen who's eight
in the Senior Bowl, including you know the Patriots top
five pick Will Campbell. So now you got to rebuilt
offensive line. That place is going to be even more
hostile at night than what you're going to have in Columbus.

(14:11):
And unlike the Buck guys, this defensive line Clemson has.
Peter Woods was one of my highest guys on my
Freaks List.

Speaker 8 (14:18):
I think he'll be a top five pick.

Speaker 9 (14:20):
He's a three hundred ten pound defensive tackle who runs
for eighty five.

Speaker 8 (14:23):
They have like three other guys.

Speaker 9 (14:25):
On the defense who I think will be top forty
picks next year. And then they have another guy, Sammy Brown,
who when he's able to come out for the draft,
I think he's going to go really high as a
linebacker who can run, who can run like the win
Tom Allen's a new defensive coordinator. I think this is
a big upgrade from what Clemson had on defense last year.

Speaker 8 (14:43):
I'm a little nervous about.

Speaker 9 (14:45):
The Clemson pick now because now I see that you're
on the vandwagon the national to go God.

Speaker 8 (14:51):
As soon as you said it is kind of rolled back.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Well, I'm not going to lie like I've been down
on Dabo for Dabbo for a couple of years now
since he refused to go to the portal, and then
you came on my podcast. You were like, Bro, this
defensive line is filthy. I'm worried for Nusmeyer. In the opener,
I think he could be under some pressure. So you
have Clemson as number one in your college football playoff seatings.

Speaker 9 (15:13):
Huh, I do you know a couple of things. As
I mentioned Tom Allen, everything I've heard has gotten the
defense much more in stinct.

Speaker 8 (15:21):
They were like out of it last year.

Speaker 9 (15:23):
They had some players, you know, some inexperience in key spots.
As I said, now, Sammy Brown is a second year player.
He was a true freshman playing a lot last year
and a key role. The other big thing is when
Clemson was winning national titles, they had elite receiver play.
That's when even right before when the program started to
get closer, when TOAJ Boyd was putting up big numbers,

(15:45):
they had elite receivers. They dropped off in the last
few years. The receiver room is backed closer to where
it used to be. You know, Bryant West West Coast,
a big time guy. They have three guys there who
are really big athletic playmakers. Like how club Nick has
continued to mature. He showed hesm playmaking ability. We saw
that at times last year. And again, you know, they

(16:08):
did go in the portal a little bit, or they
have a good defensive end they took from Purdue.

Speaker 8 (16:12):
I feel like everybody got a good player from doing.

Speaker 9 (16:14):
They were awful last year, but still they you know,
I like where Clemson is now. I would caution people
on this, Like last year Clemson got blown out by
an SEC team in the opener by Georgia.

Speaker 8 (16:27):
LSU lost their opener.

Speaker 9 (16:28):
Brian Kelly's never won an opener since he's been at LSU.
Clemson made the playoff even without you know, like you
can stumble out of the gate and still have a
really good season. The thing to watch for for me
on the LSU side, I think LSU's really talented. They
got a ton of freaky athletes in the receiver room
for ness Meyer.

Speaker 8 (16:49):
But Brian Kelly's put so much in this game.

Speaker 9 (16:51):
You know, he's put Clemson Tiger Pauls all over the
facility just to kind of reinforce how big of a
deal this game is. You lose the game, you do
worry about does some of the air come out of
the balloon? And how do he bounce back from it?
They have not a big opponent the next week, but
a couple of weeks later they have Florida, and Florida
beat them last year.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah, and anybody watching, he has his predictions on the
screen for the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Seven is Iowa State?

Speaker 5 (17:15):
Now?

Speaker 4 (17:16):
Was that before or after their win over Kansas?

Speaker 10 (17:18):
No?

Speaker 8 (17:19):
That was before? Really that was before. Yeah. Look, Matt
Campbell's a really good coach.

Speaker 9 (17:24):
When I spoke to him for a while this summer,
one of the things that he stressed is, you know,
five years or so ago, they had the best season
in Iowa State history. They finished number nine. Then the
culture of the program kind of got away from them
a little bit for a variety of reasons. He was
telling me and talking to some of the players inside
the program. You know, he's got rock Obeck, Anthony Beck's son,

(17:46):
who is just a gamer. He's a really tough kid.
He makes finds a way to make plays in the clutch.
He's just got like kind of the winner quality to him,
and he ended up beating out an Elite eleven, you know,
higher rank to recruit JJ Cole ended up transfer and
out for the job and hung onto the job.

Speaker 8 (18:03):
And I think it's a big deal.

Speaker 9 (18:05):
Like he talked about how much Rocobec has helped in re.

Speaker 8 (18:09):
Establishing the culture there.

Speaker 9 (18:10):
You saw it last week when he trusted his guy
on fourth and three in a tough spot with a
little over two minutes left.

Speaker 8 (18:17):
He went for it and it paid off.

Speaker 9 (18:20):
And again Matt Campbell, over the last couple of years
has been one of the most conservative coaches when it
comes to going for it on fourth down, and he
was like, scraped that. I trust my guys to come through.

Speaker 8 (18:30):
They did.

Speaker 9 (18:31):
I'm not saying they're running the table, but I think
they're going to win the Big twelve and I do
think they'll.

Speaker 8 (18:35):
Be a playoffs.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
I don't think Texas Tech in there anywhere, Bruce, that's
my long shot to make the playoffs. But I do
see Arizona State. We love that team. Quarterback coach Texas Tech.
Any thoughts they can they sneak in?

Speaker 9 (18:49):
I mean they spent a ton of money on the portal,
they got a big budget, They've upgraded on both lines. Now,
Quentin Joyner, who was at USC last year, really their
most talented running back. As we reported, you know, a
couple of days ago, he's out for the season with
an injury. That's going to hurt them because now they
have two, you know, largely unproven backs. So we're gonna

(19:10):
have to shoulder the load. We'll see how this is
going to go. I mean, I think they'll be pretty good.
I don't know if they to me. The gap between
all these teams and the Big twelve is so close,
you know. I just think that there's there's nobody who
has Ohio State, Penn State, you know, Lsu, Georgia kind
of talent in this It's not even close. Like so

(19:31):
in here, it's very bunchie. It's like which quarterback do
you trust the most and which which.

Speaker 8 (19:38):
Team can just kind of go on a roll.

Speaker 9 (19:39):
Last year Arizona State, I felt like they fed off
Camp Skataboo's energy and they went from being the team
everybody thought was at the bottom to win in the
whole winning the whole conference and then almost knocking Texas
out of the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
You know.

Speaker 8 (19:51):
So I like Kenny Dillingham. I think he's a great
fit there.

Speaker 9 (19:56):
You know, I think there will be the other team
in the playoff, but you never know what the big twelve.
The teams you think are going to be really good
just bottom out, and the teams you don't expect much
from they end up surging.

Speaker 5 (20:06):
All right, Last one, real quick.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
Bryce Underwood is the new quarterback at Michigan. This is
the kid who got like a ton of money, right,
wasn't he heavily recruited by some some donor. He flipped
from LSU to Michigan. What's the status on the Wolverines here.

Speaker 8 (20:22):
Yeah, he's going to be the guy.

Speaker 9 (20:23):
I mean, he's six six four two point thirty, can
really run. You know, he was the top ranked high
school quarterback in the country last year. He's got, you know,
high level playmaking skills. Everybody down there is excited about him.
But he's still a true freshman quarterback. The thing that
would that would give me pause about him is he's
a true freshman quarterback and there is not a ton

(20:45):
of elite talent around him.

Speaker 8 (20:47):
On offense.

Speaker 9 (20:48):
He does not have anything close to what Penn State
has in the running back room. He has nothing close
to what Julian's saying at Ohio State has from the
receiver room. You know, the all line is not what
it used to be when JJ McCarthy was playing behind it.

Speaker 8 (21:04):
Then they had like one of the best old lines
in the country.

Speaker 9 (21:07):
I think right now it's pretty good, but I don't
know if it's any more than that.

Speaker 8 (21:10):
Last year it wasn't even that, you know. And by
the way, last year.

Speaker 9 (21:13):
They had Kalel Mullings who they leaned on and really
won some games for them. That guy's gone. I think
they're more of an eight and four kind of team.
I'm fascinated to see how he does. You have a
new offensive coordinator, Ship Lindsay comes in. I don't expect
them to throw it all over the yard, but they
couldn't pass it at all last year. I think they
will be able to throw it some because you have

(21:35):
a guy who last year they wanted Alex Orgy, who
is like similar size, really athletic, probably not as instinctive
of a runner, and struggled as a passer, and they
did not have difference makers outside.

Speaker 8 (21:49):
You know, Colston Levelin was a really good tight end,
but he got banged up.

Speaker 9 (21:54):
It's hard for me to look at Michigan and say, oh, yeah,
they're anywhere near as.

Speaker 8 (21:57):
Good as Penn State or Ohio State. I don't feel
like that right about right now, about them, all.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Right, Bruce Feldman, Fox Sports, great stuff, He's king of
college football. Enjoy the opener, Bruce. Everybody will be watching
you and following you online. Thanks buddy, Thanks you all right,
great stuff for Bruce Feldman. Now, folks, I don't want
to sound like a five alarm fire, but we have

(22:23):
major seismic news. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are engaged.

Speaker 5 (22:30):
Do I mean to do the alarm?

Speaker 4 (22:35):
So teenage girls at home? Yeah, people are freaking. My
wife just texted me about it.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
So Taylor Swift's I guess Instagram post your English teacher
and your gym teacher are getting married with.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
A stick of dynamite. Congrats to the happy couple.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Maybe we'll do a little more on this later in
the show or the entire final hour.

Speaker 5 (22:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
We may have to bump a guest to bring on
like a wedding plan. I don't know what the game
plan is. There is no playbook for this, but maybe
we'll get Colin to call in and offer his thoughts
on the couple.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
Remember when people thought this was a hoax. They were like, oh,
this is a fake relationship. Remember that nonsense.

Speaker 7 (23:11):
Yeah, but you know, real swifties knew the truth.

Speaker 5 (23:14):
They knew.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yes, by the way, you and your family, did you
guys see Taylor Swift out here so far?

Speaker 7 (23:18):
Of course we did. I got two teenage darters. Come on,
this is like Target demo Central.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
I know our audience is like ninety percent men, but
I'm gonna be real.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
I went to the concert. It was fire.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
It was amazing, the best concert I've ever seen.

Speaker 7 (23:32):
I would say this for all the guys out there
listening to this news, this is a reminder to shoot
your shot. Okay, Because Travis Kelcey wanted to meet Taylor Swift.
He thought she was pretty obviously one of the smart
most successful women in the world, and went to the
stadium during her concert to try to meet her.

Speaker 5 (23:52):
Didn't work out, so.

Speaker 7 (23:53):
Instead he went on his own podcast and put out
the call and just said into the air, I would
like to go out with Taylor Swift. Taylor, please, I
want to go out with you.

Speaker 5 (24:05):
And it worked. It worked.

Speaker 4 (24:07):
Jason, Yeah, shoot your shot. It's never too long a shot.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
So, by the way, Rachel, our staff is now saying
that you are wearing Taylor Swift red, which you announced
in the first hour. I did, and then they got
engaged in the second hour. Are you do you know something?
Do you want to tell us anything?

Speaker 11 (24:23):
Nothing?

Speaker 5 (24:23):
We're gonna talk about on TV?

Speaker 3 (24:25):
All right, coming off next, we'll just tear up the
rest of the show and just do Taylor Swift and
Travis Kelcey got engaged. Everybody's excited, everybody's fired up, and
we'll probably talk about Michael Parsons too, because this is
a sports show.

Speaker 4 (24:36):
That's next.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
One more heard. 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 12 (24:52):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio. You could catch
us weekdays from five to seven pm E during two
to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course
the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 5 (25:04):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.

Speaker 12 (25:06):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on
in the world. We have a lot of fun talking
about the stories behind the stories in the world of
sports and pop culture, stories that well, other shows don't
seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact
that we've been friends for the last twenty years and
still work together.

Speaker 8 (25:22):
I mean that says.

Speaker 12 (25:23):
Something, right, So check us out. We like to get
you involved too, take your phone calls, chop it up.
As they say, I'd say, the most interactive show on
Fox Sports Radio, maybe.

Speaker 5 (25:32):
The most interactive show on planetar.

Speaker 12 (25:34):
Be sure to check out Covino and Rich live on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app from five to
seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific, And if you
miss any of the live show, just search Covino and
Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on
social media that's Covino and Rich.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
We're back our number two here on the Herd. It's
me Jason McIntyre in but Colin Cowherd's goned by Rachel Nichols.
We have Albert Career coming up. Albert Brier just a
fountain of information.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
The guy's amazing and listen.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
I know it's football season for college in NFL, but
you know, I love me some NBA and Rachel loves
the NBA too. We have a fun, spicy NBA topic
for later in the hours, just a few minutes.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
NFL fans don't worry, and given.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
How people seem to feel about this guy Richel, I
think they're gonna like our take on it.

Speaker 7 (26:26):
Yeah, a little conversation going on with that.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yes, yes, yes, it'll be fun. But that's later in
the hour.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
That Greg Jennings, my guy, Greg Jennings, bodybuilder slash former
NFL wide receiver. He's gonna be in the final hour.
Greg Jennings is like Arnold Honestly, he is so jacked
right now. The guy's a machine, all right. So earlier
this week we did my Super Bowl tiers and the
forty nine ers in the top tier really ticked everyone off,

(26:54):
understandable chiefs roy tier three. So I was like, why
don't we.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
Do it for college football?

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Sure, staff is like, yeah, on board, got it.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Here we go College Football National Championship Tiers. Let's start
with the group we're calling the head of the class.
By the way, head of the class. Shout out to
my brother. We would watch that show in the nineties
all the time.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
Was that iving given? Yes, Robin, give it, Thank you?

Speaker 3 (27:17):
Rachel all Right, head of the class top college football contenders.
Should be no surprise that Clemson is up there. If
you listen to Bruce Fellman when he was on this week,
They're stacked. They have one of the best defensive lines
in the country. They have sixteen starters back. Clemson's in there.
Ohio State defending champs, have the best player in the
country Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs, an elite defender, Penn State Ratuons,

(27:38):
Drew Aller, and eventually James Franklin's gonna win a big game?

Speaker 4 (27:42):
Am I right? Is that gonna happen?

Speaker 6 (27:44):
Now?

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Alabama surprised some people someone in the morning meeting, was
I Alabama? Jay? You sure, folks? Alabama? From the notes,
five star quarterback Ty Simpson has been waiting on the
bench for a few years to take over for Jalen Milroe.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
Does not sound like Arts Manning or what.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
This is a really good team and I'm a buyer
in Kailin de boor I didn't know that Belichick.

Speaker 5 (28:07):
Rachel had that earlier.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Belichick was going to Washington before he got to UNC.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
Guess who was at Washington. Kayland wore smart as hell.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
I like Alabama to make the playoff and contend for
the Natty. All right, let's go to the next group
called the Honor Roll, something I was on I think
in seventh grade and not much more after that.

Speaker 5 (28:25):
The Honor Roll. Obviously, Georgia Bulldogs are going to be there.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
However, they are replacing fifteen starters, so I do think
there's a pullback. I know they don't replace, they reload.
Don't worry with five stars.

Speaker 4 (28:37):
They're in the mix.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
I don't see them winning it, but they'll be in
the mix. Notre Dame I like a lot. There is
a buy on Marcus Freeman. I think he's an elite
coach and I think the NFL comes calling very very soon.
I love their ground game. Quarterback is a question, but
my guy, I have a couple of Notre Dame insiders
who are very plugged in. They like the quarterback a lot.
Oregon Ducks is a bit of a mystery. This is

(29:00):
again as a buy on a coach, Dan Lanning, He's
gonna have them competitive. I gotta be honest, I haven't
heard a damn thing about Oregon since Ohio State smoked
him seventy four zero or whatever it is.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
And not Rose bull Do you.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Remember that game that was unbelievable what Ohio State did
to them? But Oregon Dan Lanning will be fine. And
then the Texas long Orange book them Arch Banning and company.
I think they lose this weekend and then go on
a bit of a heater against bad team. So Texas
is in the mix on the honor roll. And finally
we have a waitlisted I was waitlisted at one university

(29:35):
when I applied, I got into eight.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
I was weightlisted at the other.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
And the waitlist here is LSU with nuss Meyer at quarterback.
We'll see what they're made of in the opener against Clemson.
You the team of my youth. Yes, I owned the
Miami starter jacket. I'm not gonna lie. It was so
fire when I was in seventh grade. But I like
the U. I just don't love Carson Beck a lot,
like the coaching staff, and I think Notre Dame gets
them as weekend.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
My guys sellers.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
The quarterback at South Carolina, I think they're going to
be spicy. He's the guy I would watch coming out
of nowhere to like go number one. Maybe he carries
the game Cocks to the playoffs. And finally, Mike dark
horse the Texas Tech Red Raiders. I was in Vegas
last week. I bet some teams in college football. Texas
Tech to make the playoff was one of my long
shot bets. I love what they did in the portal.

(30:22):
There's your college football tiers from your boy. All right,
let's bring in our guest, Albert Breer, mister Monday Morning Quarterback,
as is always obligatory, I have to ask him about
Ohio State right out of the gate, Breer, are you disappointed?
I didn't have the buck Eyes winning at all? Already?

Speaker 5 (30:44):
All right, who'd you have?

Speaker 3 (30:45):
So?

Speaker 5 (30:45):
I was looking at my following.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
You weren't even paying attention, paying attention. That's on me, No, no, no,
I had ohist.

Speaker 5 (30:52):
You want him in the tier though? I was paying
attention for that?

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Thank you. Okay, So I think they're could be very good.
But I do think Penn State probably gets him this year.
Clemson's loaded, and Alabama as a team I bet to
win the Natty or you bet Alabama? Yeah, all right,
we'll see.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
We'll see.

Speaker 6 (31:08):
Like I like, I think Ohio State's one of those
teams where I think will be a lot better November
than we are in September. It's I mean, fourteen guys
drafted more than that made NFL rosters. It's a lot
to replace. There's a question, of course at quarterback. I
think the game on Saturday is going to be a

(31:31):
rock fight. I think both teams have excellent, excellent defenses
that from when i've heard, are way ahead of the
offenses right now. But yeah, I mean, like the way
the thing's set up now where you know you can
have some bumps early and still survive to make the playoff.

Speaker 5 (31:47):
I think they'll be in good shape going into December.

Speaker 8 (31:49):
Now.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
There's a rumor on a message board that you will
be at the game this weekend, and I also saw
you'll probably be in the locker room, maybe doing the coin.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
Toss or something like that, because you're be in the
locker room. But I will be in the stadium. I
do have access for that.

Speaker 6 (32:03):
I guess that's a big issue this week right, Like
I'll be okay, I'll be in the stadium, so yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:09):
No, it's I'm excited to get out there. Man.

Speaker 6 (32:12):
It'll be my two sons first game there with two,
which is going to be pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, all right, final college football got to ask about
arch Manning. I keep asking every guest this week, do
we know if he's good? I mean, yeah, I'm enough
with the UTSA highlights, Okay, can we wait to see
him live bullets against a good team with a smart defense.

Speaker 8 (32:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (32:31):
You know what's interesting, actually, jmack I asked around about him,
you know, going back to.

Speaker 5 (32:37):
You know, like May when you started to see him.

Speaker 6 (32:40):
Popping up as the number one overall pick in mock drafts.
And you know, with all due respect to him, I
can't remember that ever happening before. Where you a guy
who has two college stars being projected in the next
year's draft to that level. So you know, the guys
who are on the ground, who do the school calls
and have been in Austin, you would all say, like,

(33:00):
the physical tools are there.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
He's a great kid.

Speaker 6 (33:04):
You know, he's been raised right, so there are a
lot of like great pieces to.

Speaker 5 (33:08):
Put together there.

Speaker 6 (33:09):
But I mean, I think the leap that everybody's making
here is they assume that he's got all the stuff
that Peyton and eel I had And so they're making
that leap where they say he's Peyton and Eli plus athleticism,
And I don't know that's really respectful to how difficult
it is to see the game, to think the game
the way that Peyton and Eli did. And that doesn't

(33:31):
mean that Arch won't get there, But there's a process
in getting there.

Speaker 5 (33:35):
You know.

Speaker 6 (33:35):
Part of it is playing against better competition, which will
happen on Saturday for them. Part of it is, you know,
when teams get six, seven, eight games of game tape
on you figuring out what you do well, what you
don't do well, and now they're able to game plan
more specifically, can you CounterPunch? You know, there's still a
lot that we have left to find out about Arch Manning,

(33:56):
And I think he'd agree with this, like I, as
far as I've never talk to him before, but far
as what I know about the kid, I think you'd
agree that there's still a lot left unknown about what
he's going to be as a quarterback. And unfortunately, you know,
the way all this stuff works today, we're never going
to give a kid like that the opportunity to to

(34:16):
just let that happen naturally, but you kind of wish
that it could.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
Yeah, no shot of that. All right, let's shift our
focus to the NFL. Listen, I don't love talking about
the Cowboys. They sink right, They're the longest drought in
a conference championship game in the NFC by a mile.
And then you Michael Parson showing up at the airport.
I'm going to get a second opinion on my back.
His brother is tweeting out this is going twelve rounds.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
I mean, at what.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Point does this turn from circus to kind of like
some Shakespearean act where it's really just sad and depressing.

Speaker 6 (34:49):
Yeah, I mean I would say that like a lot
of this is kind of you know, what Jerry's invited
over the last few years, the way he's handled a
lot of these contract negotiations. The pacing of it actually
isn't much different than the negotiation with Zach Martin two
years ago, with the the negotiation with Ceedee Lamb and
Dak Prescott last year, where you know, offers were made

(35:11):
very early in the off season and then there was
you know, basically radio silence. The team goes to California
for camp, there's not much movement, and then at the
very end there's a push to get a deal done.
Now we'll see what happens and what results from that
final push to get the deal done, you know. But
I'd say there are you know, a couple of key
differences between this one and those.

Speaker 8 (35:32):
You know.

Speaker 6 (35:32):
One certainly is you know, the the public rankor that
this sort of taking place over the course the last
three or four months, where a lot of this stuff
has gotten out there and become kind of nasty in
the public forum, whether it's between you know, Jerry and
the agent, David Mulligeta, whether it's between Micah and the
team itself. Obviously there's this stuff at the stadium that

(35:56):
last preseason game with the nachos and the lying on
the training table, So this one's gotten more public publicly
nasty than than than those before it. The other difference
is just kind of how these guys are seen in
the locker room.

Speaker 8 (36:09):
You know.

Speaker 6 (36:09):
And I would say, you know, Dak and CD and
Zach Martin were all beloved figures in the locker room,
and I don't.

Speaker 5 (36:17):
Know that it's quite that way with Micah. It doesn't
have to be.

Speaker 6 (36:20):
He's a great player, you know, He's a motivated player,
you know, and I think that if you pay him,
he's going to be worth every penny. But that does
add a different twist to the tenor negotiations, and so.

Speaker 5 (36:33):
I could see them getting a deal done in the
next week.

Speaker 6 (36:36):
I could also see this, you know, turning into something
that drags into the season where you know, all of
a sudden, Michaeh. Parson's back is acting up or his
ankle is acting up, and you just kind of have
this like weird, sideways sort of season from one of
your very best players, which of course can put the

(36:58):
rest of the team in a tough spot too.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
Yeah, at what point, I mean, Micah probably has a
little more ammo to empty the clip. I mean he
could simply go on his own podcast and go off
yeah and shift the attention from Jerry.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
He could control the narrative. Jerry can meet the media
as much as he wants.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
I mean, I know, he's a billionaire and he's the owner.
I think Micah has the leverage here. Let me get
on the screen, Albert. We looked at the twenty twenty
one draft, all the best players in the first round,
and Jamar Chase signed DeVante Smith extension. All these guys
got their deals early. Hell, the DeVonta Smith deal has
done seventeen months ago. Okay, there's one guy on the

(37:36):
list who doesn't have a deal. Doesn't this even further Ammo,
Like Jerry doesn't know what the hell he's doing.

Speaker 6 (37:42):
But again, like this is sort of the way that
they've handled it, like and I think that's part of it,
is he does know what he's doing, you.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
Know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (37:49):
Like, and I think there's a piece of it, like
for a lot of these owners it's keeping the money
in your own pocket for as long as you can,
and that could be an element here. It's control over workforce,
which is something Jerry's talked about in the public forum
and in the private forum too. Of the of the
of the ownership meetings wait, wait, hold on one of

(38:09):
the leaders in the pack when it comes to that stuff,
and making sure that everybody knows who's in charge, you know.
And then I think there's also the entertainment aspect to it,
you know.

Speaker 5 (38:19):
And I a.

Speaker 6 (38:22):
Couple of years ago, I would have told you were
crazy for saying these things, And I thought people were
kind of off base.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
When they did say it.

Speaker 6 (38:28):
But the more it's happened this way and the less
aggressive that they've gotten about doing deals in the months
of June and July, the more.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
I thought, like maybe there is, you know, a.

Speaker 6 (38:40):
Side benefit that he sees in this whole thing, that
they're going to be in the A block and a
lot of you know a lot of shows like this one,
you know, like that they're going to be the most
important thing over the summer. I mean, will we really
be talking about the Cowboys right now if it weren't
for this, No, j mac No, I mean it's sort
of I don't know. I mean that maybe because the
coaching changed, but they didn't. I mean, all due respect

(39:02):
Brian Schottenheimer, this wasn't like a headline grabbing higher.

Speaker 5 (39:06):
You know, Dak's coming back for another year. I just
I don't know if there's anything.

Speaker 6 (39:10):
That will capture the imagination of the public that's going
on there right now.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
And so if you want to be a real.

Speaker 6 (39:16):
Conspiracy theorist about this, you could look at it and say,
Jerry's going to get a deal done his way early
or you're going to have to wait until late. And
the headlines may be part of the benefit for Jerry
when it comes to all that.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Okay, So Albert, you're a smart guy. You've been in radio,
TV writing, you cover the league forever. Do you want
to win headlines and be in the A bloc in
July and August, Or do you want to be in
playoff games that matter in January and get into the
game in February?

Speaker 5 (39:48):
Like, well, you know what my answer is exactly and.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
That's the only reason I'm pushing back.

Speaker 8 (39:52):
Now.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
You said an interesting phrase. I almost didn't like it
where you said control over players? So are other any
are any other owners speaking in that tone like that vibe, Hey,
we got to let them know who's in charge?

Speaker 5 (40:06):
Or is that just you think that?

Speaker 6 (40:08):
I mean, like most of them think that way, if
you want to the truth of it, most of them
think that way. I mean, that's why there are so
many rules in the CBA that pertain to this sort
of stuff, you know, like whether it's franchise tags, it's strengthening.

Speaker 5 (40:20):
The rules over holding out.

Speaker 6 (40:22):
I mean, guys have to pay fifty thousand a day
for for for days they miss in training camp, you know,
And that's why players have had to get more creative
and doing things like holding So like, if you don't
think your owner has has has that in the back
of his head and how you can maintain control over

(40:45):
his workforce like you are either you know, rooting for
one of the teams, the rare guy like that, or
you have your head in the clouds about the way
these guys operate, just reality of it, you know what
I mean. Like so, I think Jerry's a little bit
more forceful about it, and Jerry's probably one of the
more vocal guys inside the meeting room.

Speaker 5 (41:03):
But it exists everywhere, and it's all over the CBA.

Speaker 6 (41:06):
You know, there's so many different things in the CBA
that the point to it, even the length of it,
you know what I mean, Like doing a ten year
deal where you have the opt outs, Like what is that?

Speaker 5 (41:16):
That's control over workforce? So I mean, I know that's
sort of a corporate term for it, but it's exactly
what it is.

Speaker 6 (41:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
Well, I mean Jerry can go to the table and
say we have you for the next three years. You
can't do anything, come play. And honestly, I'm at the
point whereer you know, I'm not rich or wealthy.

Speaker 5 (41:33):
If I were a.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
Rich guy and I sided with Michael Parson, I say, Micah,
I got you. I'll float some of your lifestyle. I
don't want you going a plane. Get your contract. You
deserve it, You've earned it just like everybody else in
your draft class, go screw listening to him. I mean, again,
maybe that's a little aggressive on my.

Speaker 6 (41:48):
Part, but I mean, but that's the thing is like,
so what Jerry's told him is like, we have you
for the next three years.

Speaker 5 (41:55):
Well, why do they have him for the next three years.

Speaker 6 (41:57):
Because for the next three years because they have the
last year was contract franchise Tag one, franchise Tag two.

Speaker 5 (42:04):
And so those are mechanisms of control, you know.

Speaker 6 (42:08):
And I mean there are teams that are more aggressive,
so they don't have to use those mechanisms of control
because they don't want it to come to that point
with their players. You know, in a lot of cases,
you have a good relationship with your player and you
just don't want it to come to that.

Speaker 5 (42:22):
You may believe that you should have control over.

Speaker 6 (42:24):
Your workforce, but you know, the Eagles are a great
example of it. Like where you mentioned DeVante Smith, like
they never things, never, like came even close to coming
to a head with him because you did him so early.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
You know, Aj Brown, They revised his contract, they.

Speaker 6 (42:40):
Gave him, you know, a big bump when when he
had outplayed the contracts he initially signed so.

Speaker 5 (42:49):
There are definitely ways to avoid it. There are definitely
teams that don't want to exert it.

Speaker 6 (42:54):
Jerry's just never been afraid to exert these sorts of mechanisms.

Speaker 5 (42:58):
And again, like that whole thing like I have.

Speaker 6 (43:01):
You for the next three years, even though you're only
under contract for the next year, is of course, you know,
a pretty clear way of explaining to your player, like
even after your contract expires, I still have you because
of the rules that we put in.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
I don't like that.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
I mean, maybe the WNBA player should talk to the
NFL guys and be like, hey, hey, o you guys,
this is a playbook.

Speaker 5 (43:24):
Is what we're going to do.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
But the other thing looking at that, rayshaw On Slater
got a new contract July twenty seventh, two weeks later
torn patella out for the year. He doesn't have to
worry about anything, Albert, he got he got his money, right,
don't rush back.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
We're good, you.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Got your contract. We're happy, like I'm.

Speaker 6 (43:44):
I mean, Cale McGary's another one that's not his high profile,
but he got hurt in Atlanta, I think a few
days after his contract. There are tons of examples of it,
for sure, and that's that's part of the leverage that
owners have is fear that something like this is going
to happen.

Speaker 11 (43:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
So if I'm Micah, Hey man, I just saw what
happened to McGary, what happens later, I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (44:02):
I don't want to go out there.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
My back is hurt. I mean, honestly, you have to.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
If you're Dak Prescott and you probably know him as
well as anybody who covers teams, at some point he
has to think, hey man, I got paid.

Speaker 5 (44:13):
I don't care.

Speaker 4 (44:14):
We're not winning the Super Bowl, We're not sniffing it.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
I mean, I think the Eagles have a better chance
to repeat than Dallas does even getting to the playoffs,
and I think Dak is probably fine with that. Hey
I'm wealthy. I've got generational wealth. I got my girl,
I got my kid.

Speaker 5 (44:26):
I'm fine.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
I don't care.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
At some point, you just have to not care because
if the owner doesn't seem to care, why should the quarterback.
I'm just going to go play and make money, and
that's it.

Speaker 6 (44:35):
Yeah, I mean, I see what you're saying. I mean,
but there's also like, you only have so many years
to maximize your time in the field. You know how
you're going to be remembered and all that different stuff.
And I think, you know, Dak's not really wired that
way where it's where it's like, okay, well like my
owner as all and as I am, so I'm not
going to put as much into it, like I just

(44:57):
I have a hard time envisioning ever seeing anything that
like that happening with that particular guy like Dak. Prescott's
not that way. But I would agree that like it
doesn't always send the best message to your locker room
when you're doing these sorts of things, you know, I mean,
I think in a lot of ways, these contract negotiations

(45:18):
send messages to the locker room. And I think, you know,
for example, like Terry McLaurin in Washington, I think one
of the tricky things about that one is, and and
was over the course of the last few months, was like,
I mean, if you're if you're in a negotiation with
somebody who isn't all that well liked or well respected
in the locker room and there's a dispute, well, I
think guys kind of you know, just look the other

(45:40):
way on it. But if it's a guy like a McLaurin,
like they're gonna be guys in the locker room.

Speaker 5 (45:45):
They're gonna look at it and say, like, you messed
with that guy.

Speaker 6 (45:48):
And now that they've paid him, they can point and say,
you know what, we took care of him like it was.
It got a little messy, but in the end we
were we were able to find a solution and he's
happy and we're happy, and that that's the kind of
guy that we pay. So yeah, I think more often
than more often than people realize, players keep score by contract,

(46:11):
players keep score by money, and so you know they're
paying attention to the way that you handle these sorts
of negotiations because they know if one of the biggest
stars in the team can be treated a certain way,
well they're certainly not going to be exempt from it.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
All right, let's move off the Cowboys. I know management
will love that. I do have to ask.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
I'm taking some heat in Chicago, Albert Okay, Yeah, they're
upset with me, Kyle Long. Is they taking jabs at
me like this? Caleb Williams Ben Johnson stuff. Again, I'm
listening to the quotes and I'm looking at the actions
of Ben Johnson, and I'm just telling you from my
point of view, something's going on there. It doesn't feel
like it's off to a good start. They've had like

(46:53):
four or five months together, and the messaging from Ben, Now,
maybe this is his personality. I don't know what's upbringing.
I don't know it's background. It just doesn't seem positive.
And then they signed pagent to a random out of nowhere.
This guy came out of nowhere and they just signed
him to a deal. I'm like, what is happening? So
to maybe talk talk Bears fans off the ledge or
sign with me either one.

Speaker 6 (47:13):
I think he's being I think I think Ben's being
intentionally tough on on on Caleb Williams like.

Speaker 5 (47:19):
I think that's that that that's really the long and
short of it.

Speaker 6 (47:24):
And this has been being himself and this is the
way he coaches, and you know, as far as I
can tell, like Caleb has been.

Speaker 8 (47:31):
On board with it.

Speaker 6 (47:32):
And it produced some really ugly days early in training camp,
like it did not look good. But if you talk
to Ben about it, what he would tell you is
we were going through a process where we wanted to
feed him through a fire hose and give him as
much as we possibly could overload him with information, overload
him with scheme, and then come back and narrow down

(47:54):
what he's doing and figure out what he does well
and what he doesn't do well. So of this stuff
that he doesn't do well out and build an offense
around his strengths. And so I think, like you juxtaposed
the early days in camp against the second preseason game,
and you see a guy who was playing much faster.
You see a guy who's playing much more confidently because

(48:16):
they had figured out exactly.

Speaker 5 (48:18):
What he does best.

Speaker 6 (48:19):
They they've honed in on that, and then they really
sort of fine tune some of the stuff as far
as how fast he's playing, how quick the ball is
getting out, all of that. And I know it didn't
look quite the same against Kansas City. It wasn't quite
as sharp against Kansas City in the last preseason game.
But I think this has gone according to plan, and
you know, a lot have to see what it looks

(48:40):
like when the regular season starts. But I think people
who've been around Ben would remind you like they had
days like this with Jared Goff and training camp in Detroit,
and nobody made us big a deal out of it
because golf was already a proven commodity. We already had
an idea of what golf is. You know, we'll see
if it works with the younger guy.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
That's positive and upbeat, and I like it. I appreciate it.
I do have to ask Caleb kind of had the
run of the show last year.

Speaker 4 (49:07):
He could do whatever he wanted. He was watching film
by himself.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
Reportedly, well, guess what the year prior at USC he
was also just doing his own thing, a lot of
backyard football, Right, So two years of just hey, freelance,
make a play, go go get us some points. How
tough is it going to be to go from that
into follow my lead? Drop read react quickly, Like it's
probably at least a year with Ben before we see

(49:32):
anything close to what he wants.

Speaker 6 (49:33):
Right.

Speaker 5 (49:34):
Well, it's a mentality change, you know.

Speaker 6 (49:36):
I mean, you're you're trying to coach a playing style
out of somebody, and that's not an easy thing to do,
you know.

Speaker 5 (49:42):
I think beyond just that, like in.

Speaker 6 (49:44):
College, like he was asked in a lot of cases
to be the best player on the field, and I
think you saw that reflected in the way that he played.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
It was a lot of big play hunting, a lot.

Speaker 6 (49:58):
Of passing up the the easy stuff. And what they're
trying to teach him to do is play the game and.

Speaker 5 (50:08):
Play quarterback.

Speaker 6 (50:11):
In a more between the lines sort of ways instead
of constantly coloring outside the lines. You can run and
scramble to create throws in the NFL, you can't do
it all the time. And I think of Mahomes because
I'm doing a story on Pat and Pat and I
talked about this, you know, earlier in the months, is like,

(50:31):
if you look at his numbers, Mahomes' numbers, he averaged
over ten carries a game when he was at Texas Tech.

Speaker 5 (50:38):
That number for his NFL career is under four per game.

Speaker 6 (50:42):
And that's a very intentional thing that for Mahomes was
going from having to be the best player on the
field and almost every play too.

Speaker 5 (50:50):
I've got good teammates around me.

Speaker 6 (50:52):
I can trust them, I can get the ball in
their hands, and then when I need to be superman,
I can always put the cape on. That's what they're
trying to get Caleb to do in Chicago is there
are going to be certain plays where we just want
to have your hands at ten and two on the
wheel and just run the offense, and we know that,
we know that you're capable of the bigger stuff when
we need it, but it can't be all the time.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
And I think there were.

Speaker 6 (51:13):
Points last year we saw what happens when he's trying
to be that guy all the time and they're trying
to dial that back and say, just play quarterback four.

Speaker 5 (51:21):
Times out of five and then that fifth.

Speaker 6 (51:22):
Time you can go and show everybody exactly what you're capable.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
Your analogy for Caleb got me thinking of the great
movie Old School, where Will Ferrell, you know, used to
be a party animal. Then he's really resigned to the
birds and his wife's like, we don't want to see
old Frank the tank and then he just comes out
and he's beer bong and or funneling whatever the kids
call it.

Speaker 5 (51:43):
Anyways.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
Albert Breer, Monday Morning, Quarterback.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
Great stuff as always, Hey, good luck to your buck
guys this weekend.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
I loaded up.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
I could use a new car, so let's go, buck guys.
You have money on them, Yeah, a couple of bucks.

Speaker 5 (51:57):
I like it. I like it for me too. It's
been a while.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
Yeah, yeah, we'll do all right, Albert, Thank you, all right?
Great stuff from Albert Brewer right. Coming up next, Rachel
tells us who fans think is the most annoying player
in the NFL. I'm gonna guess it's a Cowboy. But
that's just a guess. That's next. Be sure to catch
live editions on The Herd weekdays at noon. Easter not
a em Pacific. Good morning, Los Angeles. It's me Jason

(52:26):
McIntyre here on the Herd. Happy afternoon to the East
Coast folks. It's Friday. It is a beautiful day of
culmination to a spectacular week. Listen, Rachel Nichols and I
have had a banger.

Speaker 5 (52:41):
Of a week hosting this show.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
I mean, listen, we had the Taylor Swift.

Speaker 7 (52:45):
No days are out of a home, the engagement, no
days off, you know every day.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
I'm looking at my notes here.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
I angered the Chicago Bears fan base with this Caleb
william stuff.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
I'm just hoping, Rachel, we can close with and it's
some good news on a Friday, and good news that
keep living Green Bank.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
We were gifted basically, I mean, the gift that keeps
on giving like this is amazing. Michael Parsons traded by
the Cowboys would have happened like two hours after our show. Yeah,
and I walked into the morning meeting and I said,
are we going to just do three hours on Michael Parsons?

Speaker 5 (53:19):
We could?

Speaker 3 (53:19):
Coward texted me that should be the entire show. I
was like, yes, sir, not to yes, sir, Coward will
be back next week. But let's start there. Let's start
with the Green Bay Packers basically putting on ski masks,
going into Dallas and stealing Michael Parsons from the Cowboys
for peanuts. I cannot believe that this trade happened. I
think obviously Green Bay won the trade. There's many angles

(53:42):
to break down here. I'm gonna go with the Packers
angle first because I do think and I haven't seen
a lot.

Speaker 4 (53:47):
Of other takes on this.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
I think the Packers are right there as one of
the best teams, not only in the NFC but in
the league. This puts them in the serious super Bowl consideration.
I had them in my Tier two for Super Bowl
contenders earlier this week.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
They clearly vault to one.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
I mean, I don't think people realize just how good
Micah Parsons is. Okay, this move going from Dallas to
Green Bay, I believe is bigger than the Matt Stafford
trade from a few years ago. When the Rams got
Matt Stafford, everybody was excited. Obviously it led to a
Super Bowl. But Michael Parsons is in his prime. He's
only played four seasons in the league. Matt Stafford was

(54:23):
thirty three, a little older. You know, the Christian McCaffrey
trade was big. Khalil Mack trade was big. This is seismic.
I mean, folks, Michael Parsons again. I know he takes
a lot of heat for inside the locker room stuff
his podcast. We will address that because it bears some discussion.
But let me just remind folks, Michaeh Parsons in year

(54:44):
one was runner up Defensive Player of the Year. Okay,
He's been an All Pro three times in four years.
He has twelve or more sacks in every season he's
played so far to start his career. It's not hyperbole
to say Michaeh Parsons is already on track to be
a first ballot Hall of Famer after four seasons. He's

(55:05):
in the discussion with the likes of Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White,
Miles Garrett as one of the greatest pass rushers in
NFL history after four years. Now, we don't know what's
gonna happen, obviously, but Parsons is a terror coming off
the edge. And if you're the Green Bay Packers and
you look at your defensive roster and you're like, oh,
we got Gary, we got some good linebackers.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
We've got a good team, which you didn't have with.

Speaker 5 (55:28):
That blue chip superstar.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
Where you go in the divisional round of the playoffs
and the opponent looks at how we gonna how we're
gonna block Michael Parsons. What are we gonna have to
adjust stuff? You have to scheme specifically for Parsons. Now,
teams have done that in the playoffs with some success.
But you look at Gary coming off the other edge,
and this Green Bay defense suddenly is a wrecking crew.

(55:51):
And I would like to point out that their odds
after the draft to win the Super Bowl were plus
twenty two hundred. Okay, that was after the draft, and
I'll tell you why the draft is important. This morning
they went to plus twelve hundred. So right now the
Packers are right there cream of the crop. They're in
the Ravens, Bills, Chiefs, Niners. They're right there at the top.

(56:12):
And the draft is important because I missed this, and
I was kicking myself this morning for missing this.

Speaker 4 (56:17):
I think everybody did.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
But at the draft, the Green Bay Packers in the
first round. We know what they don't do in the
first round, right, They don't take wide receivers.

Speaker 4 (56:26):
Aaron Rodgers bemoaned that fact.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
He openly was like, we don't draft receivers in the
first rome.

Speaker 5 (56:31):
We need one.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
I need some help.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
Packers have a really good wide receiver room. It's deep,
it's young, it's talented. They got a lot of guys,
and they drafted a wide receiver in the first round.
I was like, oh, Matthew Golden. It's not like he's
Jeremiah Smith or something. Golden really nice player. He's like
five to eleven buck ninety. I know it's a burner,
but it was a mild surprise. They broke character at

(56:54):
the draft getting Matthew Golden, and I.

Speaker 4 (56:56):
Should have noticed at the time.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
But smart businesses some times adapt and change and say
we've done things one way, we're going to make an adjustment,
and we're going for Golden. Now, their wide receiver room
it doesn't have that high end Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson.
But in terms of depth and talent, it's top four
in the league. Golden is gonna.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
Be that guy. Get him on your fantasy team.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Now you add Michael Parsons a massive trade. What did
we hear from NFL pundits all week? Guys, Packers, They're
not gonna get Michael Parsons. They don't do that. They
don't make these huge, splashy trades. Haven't done that forever.
Once again, the Packers break character, go out and get
a superstar, a blue chip.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
How do we stop that guy coming.

Speaker 5 (57:39):
Off the edge.

Speaker 3 (57:40):
And I believe the green Bay Packers probably will be
in the NFC Championship Game. I I'll say likely against
the San Francisco forty nine Ers. And then we get
the Trent Williams matchup against Michael Parsons, and, boy, green
Bay fans, you've got to be absolutely geeked. I got
a buddy who is a Milwaukee Brewer fan, and he's

(58:01):
a green Bay Packers fan, and he's doing cartwheels. He's
like Brewers baseball, Packers football.

Speaker 4 (58:06):
It's a great day in Green Bay.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
And by the way, for those who are saying, well,
Packer's overpaid, and we'll address it. Jordan loves contract. They
got him early. Guys, he is only the thirteenth biggest
cap hit at quarterback in the league.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
You want to take a guess who's first this season,
Dak Prescott biggest cap hit in the league.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
And let's move to Dallas now and address that side
of the trade.

Speaker 5 (58:31):
I want to start.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
Positive because I want to ear Muffett Cowboys fans. This
is going to be a little negative. So there's this
fun exercise that I've been told to do. You know,
you turn thirty years old and you're supposed to look
back at your younger self and like write a little
letter and say, man, don't you wish.

Speaker 4 (58:48):
You knew this at twenty?

Speaker 3 (58:49):
And then you do it at you know, at thirty,
you're like, oh, man, in my twenties, relationship stuff, maybe
you're finding a potential mate, work, you're getting out of college,
and some stuff you could look and you give it
to your younger self and hand it down to your
kids relatives. So when you do it at forty, it's
mostly about you know, having kids, buying a house, that
next step of life. But when you read about this,

(59:13):
the one thing that it keeps coming back to is
you need to act with less emotion in relationships and work.

Speaker 11 (59:20):
Just chill out, calm down now, if you couldn't tell
I tend to get emotional sometimes specifically about sports, and
I think Jerry Jones got really emotional here and made
a horrific decision.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
Okay, if we're to believe Michael Parsons, who told Jane Slater,
by the way, she's going to be coming up as
a guest here in about thirty minutes. He told Jane
Slater that after news broke this week that there were
trade talks for Michael Parsons, Micah and his agent who
his agent's really good, went to the Cowboys with quote empathy,

(59:54):
and they wanted to get a deal done, and allegedly,
according to Michael Parsons, Jerry Jones got very, very emotional
and told Micah and his agent play on the fifth
year or leave, folks. That is not how you run
a football team. That is amateur hour. Amateurs act on emotion.

Speaker 5 (01:00:13):
Pros.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
They look at the numbers, and the numbers said, Jerry,
you bungled this badly.

Speaker 5 (01:00:20):
And for those out there who.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
Were screaming, Jay Mac, wait a minute, they.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
Didn't overpay, and they got an extra first round pick, and.

Speaker 4 (01:00:26):
They got Kenny Clark.

Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
Kenny Clark cain't very good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
But that's another story.

Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
Guys.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
The reason that this got this far was because Jerry
didn't do this last year.

Speaker 5 (01:00:38):
If he had gone.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Last year and said, you know what, we can't afford Ceedee, Lamb,
Dak and Micah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
You do this last year.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
You could have made the deal last year and got
more for Michael Parsons.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
Why wait so long?

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
I mean, at worst, if he had done this at
the beginning of the offseason, Jerry gets a bidding war
started several teams.

Speaker 5 (01:01:01):
Now there's a.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
Report that the Raiders had called, but they were late
to the game.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
I understand he's a billionaire, and I understand he's had success,
you know, thirty years ago with Jimmy Johnson winning a
bunch of Super Bowls. But did Jerry just totally misplay
his hand here? Well, yeah, clearly he bungled this so badly.
Folks paying Dak and Lamb and knowing that you can't

(01:01:27):
pay Micah like you should have done this last year.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
Now, Jerry Jones took it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
Went in front of media on Thursday after the trade,
and guys, he claims he's been thinking about this trade
for a long time.

Speaker 13 (01:01:43):
We did think it was in the best entriest of
our organization, not only the future, but right now this
season as well. We've gained a Pro Bowl player in
an area that we had big concern in. Our concerns
in on the inside of our defense. The facts are, specifically,

(01:02:06):
we need to stop the run, and we haven't been
able to stop the run at key times for several years.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Boy, if I was allowed to use expletives on the show,
I would have come out of that quote and said,
what the are you talking about?

Speaker 4 (01:02:22):
We need to stop the run.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
We kind of alternative universes Jerry Jones, Livgan Folks, Okay, fine,
you knew you needed to stop the run at the draft.
Let's take a look at the Cowboys draft, shall we.
They got an offensive lineman, an edge rusher, a quarterback,
a running back, a linebacker, an offensive lineman. Oh there,
I pick two hundred and seventeen. Mister, we've got to

(01:02:48):
stop the run. You waited two hundred and seventeen picks
to get a defensive tackle? What like Jerry's saying stuff
that doesn't even make sense, guys, I got a buddy
who's a Cowboys fan. His daughter plays on my daughter's
volleyball team. You know, we've known each other with coach
soccer together. He texted me, I'm literally crying right now.

(01:03:10):
After the trade, he was like, what are we doing?
And you know this isn't just Jerry screwing up the
Mica deal and then trying to lie to everyone's face,
Like what do they call that? I think it's called
gas lighting. Hey, we knew we needed to stop the run,
so you know we added Kenny Clark, Like, bro, well,
come on, nobody's believing that. And oh, by the way, Jerry,

(01:03:30):
how's the recent track record of trades? Remember what they
got Mingo, the wide receiver from the Carolina Panthers. Yeah,
he's on ir to start the season, and even when
he returns, he's looking at being the projected fourth or.

Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
Fifth wide receiver on the roster.

Speaker 5 (01:03:45):
They gave up a.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
Fourth round pick for Mingo, and uh, do you remember
Trey Lance? They thought Jerry thought he had a great
deal for Trey Lance. I mean, he gave up a
fourth round pick for Trey Lance, not on the roster
through a whopping Sorry, he played four games.

Speaker 5 (01:04:00):
Trey Lance played four.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
Games after Jerry Jones straighted for him. I mean, does
this guy even nobody's doing. One of the producers here
as I'm walking up to the set goes Shay, I
had a good line when you left the morning meeting.
If Jerry Jones wore his shirt inside out to the
facility today, would anybody in Dallas have the cajones to

(01:04:23):
tell him, hey, billionaire owner, boss, your shirt's inside out?
Because it feels like nobody is telling Jerry what he
needs to hear. And the Cowboys right now are a disaster.
By the way, they're odds because I know you guys
love odds to win the Super Bowl sixty to one,
longest that they've been since twenty fourteen before the season.

(01:04:43):
That's according to ESPN. So the Cowboys are launch shot.
They're probably gonna win five games. I know there's some
people out there who are like, hey, we got four
first round picks now, Jay in the next two years.

Speaker 4 (01:04:54):
We'll address that later.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
Rachel and I have many layers to this story, so
be patient. It's the super terrific happy three hours of
Micah Parsons and the Green Bay Package.

Speaker 5 (01:05:05):
Rachel I'm fired up. If you couldn't tell I'm a
little emotional.

Speaker 7 (01:05:08):
This is It's an incredible story and not the way
we thought this was gonna end even.

Speaker 14 (01:05:13):
I mean, we talked about this possibility of the package
trade all through yesterday's show, and every single person we
had on, including Greg Jennings, was like, Framebay doesn't do
business this way.

Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
Unbelievable turn of events Coming up next Dallas.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
Forget about Micah for a moment. Earlier this year, you
guys traded Luca. I mean, who's under fire more Nico
or Jerry? Like it's getting ugly in Dallas. That's next year.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
On the heard, be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays at noon Eastern a em Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (01:05:52):
Welcome back, Rich Ornberger, fourth round pick of the Patriots,
went to Penn State. Obviously, we'll ask them about James
Frank and let's bring him in. Radio guy in San Diego,
Colt College football.

Speaker 4 (01:06:04):
Guts really doesn't ever stop working.

Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
Ritch.

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
How you doing man, Good.

Speaker 8 (01:06:09):
Good morning to you. Jason.

Speaker 10 (01:06:11):
This yeah, this is true. I was up until about
eleven thirty called football on the West coast and then
woke up for a six o'clock radio show. So you're
catching me right in the prime time of my day.

Speaker 8 (01:06:22):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
Yeah, I love that you never stopped working. Hey, we
have it good. We're talking about sports. Let's start, obviously
with the big news. Micah Parsons shipped from Dallas. Now listen,
we had several guests on the show this week, rich
and all of them said the same thing. Oh, Jerry
o'cave at the last minute, Packers. They don't do these big,
splashy moves. Everybody. I don't think anybody called this. Everyone

(01:06:43):
was wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:06:43):
How shocked were you that Micah got shipped to Green Bay?

Speaker 10 (01:06:47):
I was shocked like everybody else. I thought exactly what
you said would come true, that eventually Jerry Jones would
come to a census or cave, or Micah Parsons might
come down from whatever number was unapproachable for the cowboy.
I figured that this would this would go down where
one day they would be, you know, twenty twenty five

(01:07:07):
years from now, they would be putting Parsons in the
ring of a hunter at at and T Stadium or
whatever the sponsored name, right, will be on the top
of the stadium at that point, and he would be
telling stories about how I saw a stat today that
in the common draft era, there's only been twenty nine
first round draft picks that have gone to the Pro
Bowl in their first four years in the NFL, and

(01:07:29):
only one of them hasn't played for the same team
in their fifth season, and that's Michael Parsons.

Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
Wow, oh my, that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
Now, Lison, you've been around the league, you're with the Patriots,
obviously you've seen a lot of things. Does this rank
high up there in terms of just wackiness, because I'll
be honest, I think this is bigger.

Speaker 5 (01:07:48):
Than this McCaffrey trade.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
I think it's bigger than Stafford, bigger than Khalil Mackett's,
like Michael Parsons has been pretty damn dominant, and it's
the Cowboys.

Speaker 10 (01:07:58):
It's not just franchise is shifting for the Packers and
the Cowboys, frankly, but it's also league shifting. It does
have the same feel to it as the Matthew Stafford
trade and slightly potentially more impactful because this takes the
Packers to a different level divisionally inside the NSC North
and this obviously plummets the Cowboys already paltry chances and

(01:08:23):
making themselves into a struggling team from last year into
a playoff contender this year. This really was a poor
move by the Cowboys, and it was a head scratching
move for Jerry Jones. He's a guy who typically likes
to make a show of his franchise, but at the
end of the day, he's a businessman and he knows

(01:08:45):
what's good for business. And Micah Parsons would have been
a good decision, a good business decision. And so I
think something happened here that's not being one hundred percent
accurately reported as it stands today. Something to me more
personal occurred here, and whether that being Michael Parsons, and

(01:09:05):
he was pretty honest about his feelings around these negotiations.
Didn't appreciate the public nature of the negotiations and some
of the things that Jerry was saying during those public negotiations,
or perhaps Jerry Jones had, you know, something stuck in
his crag here, but this felt like it went beyond
business for some reason.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
Yeah, usually after these big trades happen of stars, whether
it's NBA or NFL, you start to hear, oh, well,
this guy's reporting this now, and it was like, well,
where was that when it was.

Speaker 4 (01:09:36):
Actually going down in the locker room.

Speaker 3 (01:09:39):
I'm just curious. In your time in the league, obviously
you saw guys maybe not locked in goofing off, but
it didn't make it into the media.

Speaker 5 (01:09:48):
Do you think that maybe.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
There were some people protecting Micah in that locker room,
because you don't move off.

Speaker 4 (01:09:54):
A star like that if there aren't some lingering issues.

Speaker 10 (01:09:59):
I'm never gonna say never. But from a characters standpoint,
I haven't heard anything negative about Micah Parsons. All you
hear about, all you read about, all you see is
his leadership. Now, obviously it's been reported that he was
disgruntled with his pay, and there is a prideful nature

(01:10:20):
amongst NFL players, especially the special players like Michaeh Parsons,
where you're looking around the league and you directly tied
the amount of respect that your franchise is giving you
to the amount of money that they're paying you. And
if you don't feel like you're being paid enough, you
don't feel like you're being respected.

Speaker 8 (01:10:38):
Enough as a player or as a man.

Speaker 10 (01:10:41):
And I think that attitude started to grow within Micah Parsons,
and maybe some of that sentiment was shared with teammates,
but from a leadership or from a standpoint of taking
the game seriously, I saw and heard none of that coming.

Speaker 8 (01:10:56):
Out of the Cowboys camp.

Speaker 10 (01:10:58):
I guess we'll see what reporting on veils itself here
in the aftermath, as the dust settles in the dust clears.
But as it stands right now, all I've heard is
that he was a role model and a great example
for young players on that team, and obviously a huge
contributor on the field for the Cowboys. And this came

(01:11:18):
out of the clear blue that he's been traded and
he's no longer going to be in Dallas.

Speaker 4 (01:11:23):
All right, Rich, let me ask you this.

Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
You are being defensive of Michael Parson's, understandably so, but
you did go to Penn State. Michael Parsons went to
Penn State. Now, he also set out the COVID year.
Remember that, Rich, he decided I'm not going to play
at all. Were you surprised at that decision. I don't
know if we spoke about that at the time, or

(01:11:47):
maybe we hosted a radio show together, but I think
we were surprised that Mark, Michael would sit out to season.

Speaker 8 (01:11:53):
Yeah, look, some of.

Speaker 10 (01:11:55):
Those things, Man, when you rewind back to those times,
some of those things do linger with people. And of
course it depends on you know, maybe what side of
the fence you're on at that time. But I think
the further we get from there, I think many people
have had the ability to compartmentalize, you know, their feelings

(01:12:19):
or others' actions because it was a very unique time
in all of our lives. I mean, that was almost
an understanding between the union, the players, and the NFL
owners that this is just going to be a very
different season. It's going to be a very different feeling season,

(01:12:40):
and there's going to be obviously accommodations made and many
sacrifices made for those who.

Speaker 8 (01:12:46):
Are actually going to show up and play.

Speaker 10 (01:12:48):
And then likewise, there are going to be certain people
who are just playing uncomfortable doing it. And I guess
as a retrospective, anything's possible. So if you told me
that Jerry Jones took umbradge with the fact that he
didn't play, and then that got somehow reconstituted in his mind,

(01:13:09):
I when he was reviewing Michael Parsons as a player
in his organization during these negotiations.

Speaker 8 (01:13:16):
I suppose I would believe.

Speaker 10 (01:13:17):
You, but it would be hard to believe that Jerry
Jones would let something that happened literally a handful of
years ago affect his decision making today, especially when he's
been such a standout player since.

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
All right, let's go to college football.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
So obviously you went to Penn State, played there before
getting drafted, and a lot of people like the Niley
Lions this year to win the national championship. I have
a ticket on Penn State. I got to ask the
James Franklin stat. You see it on the screen there,
one in sixteen against top five opponents. Listen, I get it.
If you want to write off, hey he's one in
six you know he's two and seven, that's fine. We're

(01:13:55):
talking about a seventeen game sample size of gagging in
the biggest spots in the sport.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
Is this the year Franklin overcomes it?

Speaker 5 (01:14:03):
Or I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:14:04):
Maybe it's not that big of a deal to you.

Speaker 8 (01:14:06):
Rich Well, look, it certainly is a big deal.

Speaker 10 (01:14:09):
As an alumni, you want to see your team have success.
But in terms of James Franklin, and I know him personally,
he's a great man. He's a really solid recruiter, and
obviously he's been able to create a culture and really
have a rebirth culturally there at Penn State after some
of the things that that program went through, and it's

(01:14:33):
been incredible the heights that he's brought the program too.
Now you can say one thing and also live in
the reality that we're living in where he is one
in sixteen against top five opponents, and that does hurt
some of the conversation about the greatness that he has
exuded since taking this head coaching position at Penn State.

(01:14:55):
It's a problem, and I'm sure it's one that keeps
him up at night sometimes when and.

Speaker 8 (01:15:00):
He sees that stat he's having a similar reaction.

Speaker 10 (01:15:03):
I promise you to all the Penn State alumni who
would be proud if it was the inverse, if you
were sixteen and one against top five teams.

Speaker 8 (01:15:10):
Right, YEA doesn't mean he can't win a national title.

Speaker 10 (01:15:14):
Doesn't mean he can't win against top five talent this season.
Of course it doesn't, because every single football season is
a different year. But does it mean that he has
to change the approach and continue to tweak this thing
and not rely that his way last year is going
to be the right way this year? Well, well, no,

(01:15:34):
he has to continue to evolve and work at this
thing and make sure that his teams are ready to
play in the biggest moments of the biggest games, where
so many times we've seen failures, and I think he's
I think he's up for that challenge. Knowing his attitude
and his effort on a daily basis, not only from
getting to know him, but also through other former colleagues

(01:15:57):
and players that I was teammates with who have been
honor currently on his staff, I think he's the type
of coach who won't rest until he fixes this problem,
and that fix could be in for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (01:16:10):
Last question, Rich, real quick, Ohio State. You know a
team you're dimly familiar with Ben's, say big rival. They
are hosting a gentleman named arch Manning making his official launch.
I know he started a couple games, But your best guess,
just to be clear, we're all guessing as to whether
Arts is gonna be good, bad, or at whatever. Your
best guess as to how Art performs at the Shoe

(01:16:30):
on Saturday.

Speaker 10 (01:16:32):
My best guess is he's going to be prepared obviously
coming from the great football lineage that he does, you know,
the family that he comes from. He has access to
some of the greatest football minds, and he's a text
messager or a phone call away. And then he's been
raised in this, He's been given the best avenue for

(01:16:52):
success possible. And then also I appreciate the way Texas
handled him last year, you know, leaving him a year
to be an understudy learning the speed of the college
game more way from the daylight and the bright lights
of that stadium down in Austin, as opposed to being
thrust into it and showcasing him at times and still

(01:17:12):
having some success. So my best guess is that Arch
Manning is going to live up to the billing and
I can't wait. I think he's an explosive athlete, which
is rare to say about a Manning playing football.

Speaker 8 (01:17:25):
And I also think that he's got a live arm.
He can touch anywhere on.

Speaker 10 (01:17:29):
The football field, and he can do it with the
type of feathering and layering that you absolutely need to
have with the sort of athletes you're going to see
on the defensive side of the ball now in college football.

Speaker 4 (01:17:41):
So Texas money line or what.

Speaker 8 (01:17:44):
You know, I don't hate it.

Speaker 5 (01:17:45):
I don't hate it, all right, I don't hate it.

Speaker 8 (01:17:48):
I don't hate the money line. I'll tell you what.

Speaker 10 (01:17:50):
That's where the value is. If you believe in Arch Manning.
That's the money line back okay.

Speaker 3 (01:17:55):
Rich Ornberger, radio host, former NFL player, former Penn State star.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
Thanks a lot, Rich, have a great weekend, buddy, anytime.

Speaker 8 (01:18:03):
J Max, you too,