June 11, 2025 • 42 mins
After Aaron Rodgers met with the media for the first time since joining the Steelers, Colin questions if Mike Tomlin is the right fit
He wonders if the Knicks have a real plan in place to find their next head coach after being denied the ability to talk to Ime Udoka, Chris Finch and Jason Kidd
Guest: Sean McVay
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noon 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. You're
(00:22):
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. Good show today,
Sean McVay of the Rams, Alexi Lalas. We're in Chicago.
It's The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you
may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day,
jamac I know your affinity in my affinity for soccer.
(00:43):
I'll get to that in five minutes. An absolute disaster
for the United States men's national team. Do not downplay it.
It is a disaster. It is rock bottom, and we
continue to grab a shovel and dig really, really bad.
I want to start, though. I think people sometimes think
(01:03):
I have something against Aaron Rodgers, and I just don't
care yet do I think I was the first media person,
like nine ten years ago to talk about his body
language and how he was increasingly playing safe and it
was too caught up in his passer rating and passive aggressive. Yeah,
I did, and that's right, But that's not going to
(01:24):
affect my opinion about Pittsburgh. I think he'll be fine.
I think he'll miss a couple of games. I think
he'll go you know, eight to nine, nine and eight.
That's fine. But instead of that, let's just look at
history of top older star quarterbacks past their prime when
they have gone to a new environment. There's nine that
come to mind. I'm not talking Andy Dalton or Joe
(01:46):
Flacco or Nick Foles. I'm talking stars like Cam Newton,
Aaron Rodgers. So there's nine that I would in recent history.
Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford, Philip Rivers went to Indy,
had a great year, Rogers with the Jets, Russell Wilson,
Kirk Cousins, Matt Ryan, and Cam Newton. Again, so how
did it work out for those nine? Well, let's put
(02:07):
him in two camps. One being successful. Brady won a
Super Bowl, Stafford won a Super Bowl, Peyton, Manning won
a Super Bowl, and Philip Rivers, I'll argue this all day,
had a great year in Indy. He was eleven and
five ninety seven passer rating. That road playoff game against Buffalo.
He threw for over three hundred yards, two touchdowns, no picks.
He was great. I mean, Philip Rivers had a shockingly
(02:30):
good year as last year in the NFL in Indianapolis.
And if and then you have the other camp, the
less successful camp, and that would include obviously Aaron Rodgers
with the Jets, and Russell and Denver and Kirk Cousins
in Atlanta, had Matt Ryan with the Colts, and Cam
Newton with Belichick in New England. What's the common threat?
What's the truth. The truth is, if you have a
(02:51):
defensive coach, as an old quarterback past your prime or
an inexperienced coach, it's gonna be turbulent. It's not gonna
be pretty. And the reason being older quarterbacks they need fit.
They can't just bulldoze or overwhelm you with talent. Aaron
(03:11):
Rodgers and his prime or Cam Newton in their prime,
they could be off in their mechanics, they could miss
a read it just they're like human erasers. Once you
get older, fit matters. Stafford needed, he needed McVeigh, Brady
sought out Bruce arians Peyton. Manning had some success early
with John Fox won a Super Bowl with Gary Kubiak,
(03:34):
and he hadn't Philip Rivers had Frank Reich. Now Matt
Bryan's tough because Matt Matt also had Frank. But Matt
was really done as a quarterback. But if you start
looking at it, it's pretty clear that the Steelers lost
their left tackle, their starback, their best receiver, and are
completely toned deaf on offense. This is going to be hard.
This is a defensive coacher and a defensive head coach.
(03:56):
That's what it is. And by the way, Arthur Smith
the coordinated six years in the NFL, three as a
head coach, three as a coordinator, one top ten offense
and the other five bad, ugly ineffective. So if you
want to teach an old dog new tricks, you need
Seesar Milan, you need an emotional behavior expert. And that
(04:21):
is not what Pittsburgh is. That's why I think older
quarterbacks Peyton Manning when he got Kubiak or Stafford got McVeigh.
And even though Arians and Brady had their fights, they
came out after the bye week and Tampa didn't lose
again for the rest of the year. Offensive coaches have
a feel for offensive lines the playbook. I mean, Brady
is largely admitted. They kind of laughed at Belichick's lack
(04:42):
of knowledge about offense. That's not a shot at Mike Tomlin.
It's a reality with defensive coaches. So I think it's
pretty clear it's going to be pretty bumpy. I think
I'm doing Aaron a solid saying nine to eight. My
guess is it could be seven and ten. I think
he will miss a couple of starts. They have a
great center, but I don't trust their O line Arthur Smith,
(05:02):
Mike Tomlin, They've got a rookie running back. They're crossing
their fingers on. And here's why Aaron chose the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
From my ego. I don't need it to keep playing.
A lot of decisions that I've made over my career
in life from strictly the ego, even if they turn
out well or always unfulfilling, but the decisions made from
the soul are usually pretty fulfilling. So this was a
decision that was best for my soul. And I felt
like being here with Coach t and the guys they
(05:32):
got here and the opportunity here was the best for me.
And I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
All right, Speaking of soul or lack thereof, the United
States men's national team is one year from the World
Cup on US soil, and starting this weekend they have
the Gold Cup, which matters. It's something, especially when you
have a new coach. And oh do we love to
blame the coach and never the players in USA soccer.
(06:00):
Last night was as bad as it gets. Forget the
fact that we have not beaten a European team since
twenty twenty one oh and seven to eight something like that.
Last night we gave up four goals to Switzerland in
twenty three minutes, the most humiliating loss ever. And that's
not a shot. That's not a shot at Switzerland. Okay,
great soccer country. That was embarrassing. Four goals conceded in
(06:25):
twenty three minutes. A year ago in the World Cup,
we only didn't we allowed like one goal in the
group stage, held England scoreless in the World Cup was
a year or two go held England screless. So hey,
that guy Greg Buralter doesn't know what he's doing. He's
not getting the most out of our highly skilled players.
(06:47):
Burhalter is out of here. And then Jurgen Klinsman, he
was a bomb, and then Bob Bradley's no good and
Bruce Arena. So they bring in Siolo Catino from Europe.
He's great with young players. He is, I'm told he
is unbelievable with young players. So last night he played
(07:08):
a lot of those young players and it was the
most humiliating loss I can ever remember for nothing twenty
three minutes. So it's time once again for Uncle Collins
twice annual USA Soccer reality check. Our talent pool. It's interesting,
(07:29):
it's the most interesting it's ever been, but it is
a really shallow pool. And last night, because our best players,
like Christian Poolisic who's played in ac Milan last couple
of years and like really difficult fifty game fifty match schedules,
he's taken a breather, and Serginio dest is taking a breather.
(07:51):
He's a European player too. Tyler Adams is injured, West
McKenny beat up a little bit, he's taken a breather.
There's an argument those are four of our best players.
So instead we played six MLS guys and Malisci Katino
is discovering we are very much in the kiddie pool
(08:12):
the shallow end. If we don't have our first eleven
in our best eleven, we don't have much. Now, we
got six or seven guys planned in Europe, and that's
more than we've ever had, but countries like Switzerland and
the top teams can often have double that, and you
just time and time again. I don't want to hear
about our best athletes play other sports. They do. But
(08:34):
when Christian Pulisic is out, our creativity are scoring, our
imagination are easily. Most skilled player is out. I'm sorry.
It's the Calves without Lebron several years ago. We are
not the same. So, I mean, it's obvious that America
is lacking highly skilled laborers in tech science and in soccer.
(08:55):
But last night was a reminder that if you take
Policic out, our top four or five guys are not
playing injury, little load management need a rest after a
rigorous European schedule. We don't have much. It's MLS. It
is just a bunch of nonsense because this coach, he's
the guy, he knows young talent, he develops young talent. Really,
(09:19):
four goals twenty three minutes, really, So go ahead, you
blamed Bruce Arena, Bob Bradley, I mean Greg Berholtzer, I
thought did an unbelievable job. You go to the World
Cup stage, we allow one goal. We have always historically
been about defense, great goalies and good defense because we
(09:40):
don't have as many skilled players. We just don't. I
know it hurts, we don't. We got about five, maybe
three last night. None. Here's a member of the losing
squad after the game.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
It's really easy to look at one game, one half
and be like, oh, this is all going to pieces.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
They can't come back from this. But you look, you
can build up the twenty one to two we.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Take down rockwas three zero, and then make it in the semifinal.
Like things changed not six months apart.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
So it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
We accept that it's not good enough and we realized that,
and so that's where that's where the disappointment comes in.
But at the same time, like we have to flip
the strip, we gotta make sure that we do not
come out like that average in especially as we enterne
Bold Cup.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Mauricio Pocatino four game losing streak. Bob Bradley didn't do that.
Jurgen Klensman didn't have that. Greg Burhaalser didn't have that.
I think it's a reality check. And this European coach
who was great and Tattenham, I think he got him
to a runner up. He's very known as very aggressive,
(10:45):
very attacking and great with young players. We don't have
the players that we can attack. If Polisic, Weston McKinney
and sergeniodsk are not there, we can't do that. We
just don't have the talent pool. I do not think
this guy is falling. I do not think it's falling.
But let's just say the roof needs repair. Jmack, you're laughing,
(11:07):
You are laughing. Go go ahead.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I don't want to say this guy's falling. Let me
just trash USA soccer for five minutes.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Listen.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
You could argue they started four guys who won't even
be on the World Cup roster next year.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
So I obviously the optics are terrible.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
I'm on a soccer text chain with like twenty guys
and they were just you know, hammering the US. It
was kind of a gutlass performance.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
It's one thing again, it is one thing to lose,
but to give up four goals concede four goals in
twenty three minutes. You're not ready to play? Yeah, you are.
That is hard to do in hockey and soccer. That
doesn't happen, Buch.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
It's okay. We're gonna be fine.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
We're gonna go win the Gold Cup and then we're
gonna go to like the quarterfinals or semifinals of the
World Cup in one year.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Don't It's gonna be fine.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Everything's fine.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Our soccer schedule at the Gold Cup, Trinidad and Tobago,
judging by last night, that's a coin flip. Don't stop it.
Saudi Arabia and Haiti, we're.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Going three and zero, probably outscoring them like seven to one.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Just work that down. Okay, seven goals, Okay.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
We're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Colin, it's okay, all right.
Speaker 6 (12:13):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Eastern non a em Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Welcome back, So actually a lot of stuff today. Alexi
Lallas is going to come in later. Risio Pocatino is
the coach of USA men's soccer. Last night and they
are in a free fall. Four straight losses haven't beaten
the EUROPEA team since twenty twenty one. And again, a
lot of their players played in these kind of rigorous,
intense European schedules, so some of them are taking time off.
(12:46):
I get it, but the gold couple was felt like
it mattered to me. Maybe it doesn't anymore. But six
MLS players among the starters last night got routed. I
mean it was just awful. So we'll talk about that. Hey,
I thought this was problematic and this this is every
New York Knicks worse fear coming to fruition. So yesterday
Imiodoku is a great coach, was with the Celtics for
(13:09):
personal reasons inappropriate behavior, got fired, went to Houston, very
good coach. The Knicks wanted to interview him since they
fired Tibbs, and the Rockets said no, they denied the
Knicks even an interview. Well, we all know Chris Finch
is great, he's with Minnesota. Let's get him. And the
t Wolves denied the Knicks an interview. That's over two
(13:29):
the Mavericks now, according to Shams, the Dallas Mavericks have
told the Knicks, Nope, you're not you don't get an interview.
With Jason Kidd. So the top three candidates high profile,
successful coaches. Nope, nope, nope. Okay, So does this mean
that the at times very impulsive, highly emotional James Dolan
(13:52):
had no plan? So I said this yesterday. Dolan has
always seen himself as an artist. He's in a band,
MGM Entertainment. One of his best friends is Irving Asoff,
who used to own a record label, a wildly successful marketer,
manager and promoter of talent, and still one of his
best friends. I believe, and that's okay that Dolan sees hims.
(14:13):
That's why I went to Vegas and created the Sphere.
Rock stars are among his friends. But as we know
with artists, sometimes they can be impulsive and they can
be emotional, and James Dolan always loves the company of stars.
And whether it's Phil Jackson is a GM, well, it
was kind of Jerry West was kind of running the
(14:33):
GM part. Let's get Amari Stodammeyre with bad knees. That's
always been James Dolean, impulsive. So when he went and
built the Spheres for a couple of years, he was removed.
I'm not saying he's not a smart guy, but he
is more artist than accountant. In my take is now
he's back in the fold, and there was. According to reports,
(14:55):
he listened to his players, his stars, and his stars
grumbled about Tibbs, who practice them hard, who plays him
a lot of minutes, and he acquiesced to his star players.
And now they don't have a coach and the top
three candidates he can't interview him. So when he was
gone for a couple of years, I had said this
multiple times and I did not consider it a shot
(15:17):
at James Dole. It was a reality. He was distracted
in Vegas with a spear a magical musical entertainment mecca.
It's nothing like it in the world, never been, but
it's supposed to be amazing. And all I'm saying is,
did he act impulsively because when he was not there,
they were pragmatic, they were patient, they had a plan,
(15:38):
and firing TIBs it's not the same. He was the culture,
So you just fired the culture and that not sheer
talent is why you were so interesting and captivating and
good for two years. It just feels very impulsive to me.
Somebody who is not He is now in his ninth
(16:00):
year entering his ninth year with the Rams. Sean McVay
is now joining US live, and we appreciate that he's
a busy guy. Great to see a Sean. As always,
you look rested as rested as you guys can be.
How are you doing?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
I'm doing good. You know.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
I don't know if my wife would agree with you
that I'm not impulsive, But other than that, I think
everything is good.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
So are so good?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
You know. I was talking to less Neat about this.
I said, you guys have done such a great job
building the defense. You gotta get some you gotta get
some toys for Sean McVay. And they go out and
they get ferguson the tight end from Oregon, who I
watched a ton of He's a real player, Davonte Adams
to go with Pooka, and I did feel like this
draft was a little bit of it. Hey, let's get
Seawn some Let's get Sewan some burst and some youth
(16:45):
and some different guys offensively, will the offense look the same? What?
Speaker 5 (16:50):
What?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
What? What is your sort of sense A star tight
end Davante Adams A healthy Pooka. By the way, Kyron
williams Now sounds like he is totally dedicated, very critical
of himself in the fumbles. Is the offense going to
look mostly the same?
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Yeah, you know what, I think we're in the process
of building that right now. Colin.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
What I do feel really good about is over the
last couple of years being able to, you know, really
lean into the draft with some foundational guys, and then
you can get a little bit more strategic and specific
with the way that we are onboarded, whether it's through
free agency even bringing home to Shelton back.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
I think it's a big deal.
Speaker 7 (17:25):
For our offensive line in the continuity adding Vonte as
you mentioned, and then in the draft when you have
six picks wanted to continue to add to our defensive front.
You get an inside backer who we like, and then
you get a skill position from each of the three
main groups with the end, receiver and impact. So we
are excited. I think Matthew's been outstanding leading the way.
(17:46):
But as you and I both know, we're building foundations
in the off season. We've got to continue to do
that into training camp and you hopefully say it's healthy
as you possibly can while finding your style of play
and identity that it is these guys best.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
You know I've been saying this is that I do
think as quarterbacks get older, offensive coaches have a different
sensibility with o lines, with pass protection, and it's just
the reality is that it's one thing when Stafford's twenty
six and he can bulldoze through some things, or Aaron
is twenty eight, but as Tom Brady aged and Peyton
Manning and Matt Stafford, it's different. There are certain things
(18:23):
they can't just talent out of How do you coach
Stafford today or an older quarterback than a younger quarterback?
Are there things that you understand? Are you like a
protective parent Sometimes he's thirty seven, and do you think
to yourself, hey, I'm not going to have him practice today,
or I don't want him doing that, or I do
you coach him a little differently, not only out of
(18:44):
respect but because of his age.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
Well, I think the first thing is is how do
we keep him mentally fresh throughout the course of the year,
knowing that the long journey he's going into year seventeen.
The good thing is he still loves football. I think
the bol is it this guy that is an sension.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Of the coaching staff.
Speaker 7 (19:01):
He's got such great ownership and economy, and number one,
are we connected all right? And then number two, how
do we set up a timetable and really a practice
rhythm and routine for him that allows him.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
To say as fresh as possible, feels.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
Good and rejuvenated by the time we kick off the season,
and then hopefully we're earning the opportunity to play games
after the seventeen that we're guaranteed. And so I think
the off season approach has been a little different than
in year's pats and he's been awesome.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
He I'll sit.
Speaker 7 (19:30):
Down and talk about what that looks like for training camp,
but he has certainly earned the right to have a
huge amount of economy influence on what's going to.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
Be best for him because he knows you know, he
knows himself better than any of us.
Speaker 7 (19:42):
And going into year seventeen, I share him really lucky
that we're able to do this again together.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
One of the most remarkable stats of last season. It's
one of those that's hard to believe. You can win
a few beers at a tavern if you had in
this bet he said, who's the least penalized team? And
he'd be like, well, it can't be the they got
a bunch of kids on defense. They don't know what
they're doing about a bunch of twenty three year olds.
You were the least penalized team. Your defense, I mean
almost across the board is twenty three, twenty four, twenty five.
(20:12):
So obviously that's mentoring. You do have a hands on
approach even to a defense. Were even you surprised that
they were that good because I thought, Sean, I thought
from week four to Thanksgiving, I thought they got about
every two weeks. I thought they got better. By the
end of the year, they were significantly better than week four,
And it's like that's teaching. Were you surprised at the
(20:34):
jump in performance? And yet there weren't a lot of
blown coverages, There weren't a lot of penalties. Was that
even shocking to you?
Speaker 7 (20:45):
You know, I don't know if I ever really looked
at it like at I think number one, I think
you got to get.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
The kind of credit to those players.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
But I thought our defensive staff as a whole, I
remember Chris Sule really going back to the lab. We're
at one and four over the bye. Okay, now we
have enough inventory of knowing what it's life like without Aaron,
We've got five games with the players, and how do
we maximize and accentuate their skill sets? And I thought
the fluidity and flexibility of our defensive coaching staff and
then being able to say, hey, are we improving throughout
(21:12):
the year. Guys are getting earned confidence from a way
to take practice. And I think you're right, there was
improvement throughout. I really thought from that New Orleans came
on and the end of the at the end of
the season represented where our defense really took control, played
really well.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
They made teams earn it.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
And I don't know that I looked at it like
that as much as man I really enjoyed going to
work there was It's huge, full of xuberant But they
played smart. Now, these guys are instinctual players, even though
they might be young in terms of experience, you know,
they played smart.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
They understood the situations that we.
Speaker 7 (21:43):
Were in and I think that's a tremendous credit to
Chris Shula, the defensive staff, and then obviously.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
The players being able to bring it to life.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
You have been at the forefront, Sean McVay joining us
for our radio audience. You have been at the forefront
of pre snap motion. Mike McDaniel does a lot of that.
You do a lot of that. I like it. I
like to make the defense think. I think the more
the defense thinks, potentially the slower they get as you
do that, and you keep being a very progressive coach.
(22:11):
What is the balance on that? Because like there's guys
like Aaron Rodgers has said, you know, he doesn't love
a ton of motion, and sometimes maybe Matt Stafford comes
to you, Hey, can we scale it back? Like what
is the how do you judge that between does Stafford
love motion? Does does not? All old quarterbacks do Sean
some don't like as much.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Sure, well, I think the first thing is Matthew's incredibly
open what we want to make sure we're accountable and
do an intent guy on everything we do not get
suing it to do it. And I do think that,
you know, if I'm being honest with myself, there's been
some times you get a little carried away, and there's
always a balance. You decide offensively when that both snapped
within the forty second Cocker twenty five seconds out of
(22:53):
the clock stoppage, and so we've got to use that
to our advantage with motions or getting out of the
puddle and snap in the football. And if I don't
have a reason for why this gives us an advantage
or what the intent is behind it, well then we
shouldn't be doing it. Matthew's incredibly open minded. He understands
the intent of what we're trying to get done, and
I think being able to have that give and take
(23:14):
in that balance of making sure it doesn't disrupt integrity
of them.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Being able to execute their jobs.
Speaker 7 (23:20):
Because you talk to a lot of those quarterbacks, as
you alluded to, you know they like to be able
to say, hey, all right, similar pictures, I can get
a feel for what it looks like the chests forward
with how those eleven guys should be dispersed and distributed.
But then there is a good give and take of
all right, well where does that.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Provide some relief?
Speaker 7 (23:37):
Maybe it's forgetting access for a receiver instead of getting
a bump on him. So we always try to have
a reason why we're doing it, to try to.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
Be able to affect.
Speaker 7 (23:45):
The offense in a positive way when we're motioning.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
So I think my favorite article I've ever ever read
in The Athletic was the story about you and Chris Peterson,
And I think the truth is most coaches I've ever
known in my life college are role I covered Jerry
Tarkanian years ago. He remembered every loss and the winds
just blurred. The winds just kind of into the ether. Oh,
(24:09):
the losses were painful. And do you find yourself? I mean,
because I think you're a good self evaluator. Do you
enjoy the wins as much as the loss is hurt?
Are you driving home after a win thinking, Man, I
had a good game plan. I'm feeling I'm going home
and having a good time to I can you do
that at this point.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
After a loss?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
No, after a win, are you enjoying the winds as
much as a loss has hurt? You?
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Know what?
Speaker 7 (24:36):
I think I've gotten a lot better Colin about I
don't know.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
I know when you.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
Win, man, that's a really good feeling, and when you
lose that it's.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
A bad feeling as well. But I will say this,
I think.
Speaker 7 (24:46):
There's a lot more appreciation for applying the appropriate perspective
how difficult it is to get that result. You're hunting
up how many people are influential and instrumental and being
able to bring that together.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
That's what I love about football so much.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
So what I'm trying to do a better job of
is making sure you don't ever take those things for granted.
I know I did in the early parts of you know,
our tenure here, and I think that's probably some of
the stuff that put up to me, and I don't
want to live that way, and I don't think that's
a sustainable way of doing it. I think you've got
to be able to cherish all those moments and then
(25:20):
lean into the hard ones where you've got an opportunity
to really hit those storms in the right way. And
a lot of my failures and shortcomings has really led
to that appropriate perspective that takes work to do every
single day.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Sean McVay, coach of the LA Rams. By the way,
five of his former assistants are current NFL head coaches.
You've had a ton of success coaching against your coaches,
and by the way, these are sharp guys. Lafleur and
Kevin O'Connell and Zach Taylor and Rahee Morris. Now Liam
Cohen is there do you feel when you you're the
(25:57):
mentor when you coach against the eyes that have come up?
You've got to switch stuff up. They know your audibles.
Do you find that a joyful experience or is it sometimes?
Are you liked? Could we could do? I have to
switch thing? Has it forced you to be constantly amenable
to change because you are now facing your system and
(26:20):
your coaches and your language so often.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
Yeah, And I think because we've got so many coaches
that are, you know, in different locations. I think every
single year you have to reassess and reevaluate and the
stuff that we did in seventeen and eighteen and now
you know, there's four fundamentals and principles.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
That are always going to apply to good football. But
from a.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
Tactical perspective, I think this league's too competitive.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
It's ever evolving. It always starts with the players. But
I don't know that you get too much into that now.
If you are going to slow it down, you know,
you got to be cognizant. They know some of the mechanics.
You might have to change up the word here or there.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
But because of the way that you have to might
guys up where these audio foot it is, you know.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
End up picking up so many things you know on
the TV copies. You have to be really mindful of
the self stuff.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
But those guys are instrumental and things here, and so
it's fun to go against them.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
And then you know, I do.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
Like going against other guys that there's not an emotional invetsment.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
In all right, Sean McVay is always coach, great seeing you.
Appreciate you stopping by.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Yeah, thanks for having me. I always appreciate it, Colin.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
You bet, you know, it's interesting talking about that. When
Kyle Shanahan came into the league. I was talking to
a coach about this couple of years ago. He goes,
half the league's running some of Kyle Shanahan's offense, So
a lot of the stuff he used to, you know,
fool people and cash people off guard. Your people are
practicing against all the time. But you know, and and
again people are have seen a lot of Lamar Jackson.
(27:47):
He's still extraordinary. But if it's a system or a
scheme and half the league is running it, it's harder
for McVeigh. A lot of people are using their language,
their scheme, their tempo. But he continues, he continues to win,
and that there was some little bit of audio difficulty
on that. I hope you can get through it. For
our radio audience. J Mac, You're you're taking a very
positive spin. I I as I watched USA soccer go
(28:12):
up in Flames last night, I thought of you because
of your little soccer business you have, and well, I
mean it's I mean, it's you know you've done, you
like it, and we both love soccer and the Alexi
Lawless is on later. But there is something to be said.
We keep bringing in new coaches and they all have specialties.
Some are big believers in the MLS talent, Some are
(28:33):
better with veteran teams. Some are better at developing younger talent.
That's Mauricio Pochettino. He's he's seen as aggressive and develops
young talent. But I do think last night was a
moment you see the gap of the Swiss talent and
our talent. When we don't have our top three to
four players. The gap the golf is so substantial, and
(28:56):
I think that's it's easier for US soccer fans to
blame the co coach because you can't replace the players,
you can replace the coach, So everybody always blames the
coach instead of a good hard look in the mirror
of our of our US soccer program.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
So just for.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Context, our starting lineup last night, I mean maybe lawless
will confirmed this. That was like our C group, not
even our B group. That was like our C team.
I don't know that Potchettino did this, but it felt
like he was like, you know what, I want to
rest our guys for Trinidad and Tobago. Let me just
throw out some of guys who are going to get
some burn who have not played with US before.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Do you know what the line is?
Speaker 4 (29:33):
The US is minus thirteen hundred against Trinidad and Tobago.
We're going to open a can on them this weekend
and we're gonna smoke Saudi Arabia and Haiti.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
It's gonna be fine.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
This obviously did not look great against a pretty damn
good European team with a bunch of kids who have
never really played or gotten capped with the US team.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Colin, I don't want.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
You to overreact, but I think you are.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Four goals in twenty three minutes completed not great. This
is a basis clearing double. That's four goals in soccer
in twenty three minutes is ugly.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
It's like fifty one nothing in the NFL.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Yeah, Okay, be sure to catch live editions of The
Herd weekdays and Noone Eastern, not a em Pacific.
Speaker 8 (30:16):
Hey, we're Covino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day
five to seven pm Eastern.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
But here's the thing.
Speaker 8 (30:21):
We never have enough time to get to everything we
want to get.
Speaker 9 (30:24):
To and that's why we have a brand new podcast
called over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun
in our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly,
because this guy is over promising things we never have
time for. Yeah, you blubber list lame in me.
Speaker 8 (30:39):
Well you know what it's called over promise. You should
be good at it because you've been over promising women
for years.
Speaker 9 (30:43):
Well, it's a Cavino and Rich after show, and we
want you to be a part of it. We're gonna
be talking sports, of course, but we're also gonna talk
life and relationships. And if Rich and I are arguing
about something or we didn't have enough time, it will
continue on our after show called over Promised.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
Well, if you don't get enough Covino and Rich, make
sure you check out over Promise and also uncensored, by
the way, so maybe we'll go at it even a
little harder. It's going to be the best after show
podcast of all time.
Speaker 9 (31:07):
There you go, over Promising and remember you could see
on YouTube, but definitely join us. Listen Over Promised with
Cadino and Rich on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Thought this was interesting. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred,
who gets a lot of heat, but Baseball TV ratings
are up up up last two years. They are considering
going to an automated ball strike system by next year.
Roboomps the player's major pushback. Taking away the human element
(31:42):
would ruin baseball one pitcher set. We used to have
travel agents and switchboard operators. We took away the human element.
We still travel and make phone calls. Let's not get
too dramatic, as we predicted. Baseball has been in a
two two year renaissance. The stars are in the right
(32:03):
places O Tawny Dodgers over Angels, Aaron Judge, New York,
Bryce Harper filial. But really the ratings aren't just for that,
They're because of radical change by Rob Manfred. The pitch
clock sped the game up by twenty five to thirty minutes,
a game bigger bases, more stolen bases, defensive shift was banned,
more base runners, universal dh more quality at bats. Change, change, change,
(32:28):
and it is all worked. When I hear what about
the human element, well that's happening with AI and science
and medicine and technology. When something's inefficient, make it faster,
more efficient. Nineteen calls were missed home played umpiring Yankees
red Sox on Sunday nineteen. You're okay with that? Nineteen.
(32:51):
The consequences for baseball are big. Never been more money,
five hundred million dollar contracts to players like Otani calls
one game. So Tennis had line judges and then they
got replaced by hawkeye technology. And this weekend record setting
ratings for the French Open. Take a deep breath. Everybody
(33:14):
is going to be okay. But this idea, if you
can increase efficiency and accuracy, I consider this robo umpiring.
You're not taking away all the umpires, but home plate umpiring.
By the way, there's a very strong umpire union. What's
that mean when guys think it's hard to replace him?
(33:36):
So the union makes it very difficult. And the hardest
part about umpiring is behind the plate. It's not first base,
it's not third base. It's behind the plate. So you
get older umpires who are protected by a union. Hard
to replace them except this way. Consider it like spell check, fast, efficient, easy,
(33:58):
without judgment. I have no problem with it. It is
radical change. And ll you know who doesn't like this.
It's catchers because catchers have been framing bitches for years
and that's over with the robowomps Jmack with the news.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
No, no, this is the herdline news.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Technology is stealing more jobs. Fascinating, unbelievable stuff. Let's go
to the NBA tonight, Colin. It's almost like we forgot.
Game three is tonight. The big news is Tyrese Haliburton.
What the helly If you watch him leaving the podium
after Game two, there was a bit of a limp, yep,
a bit of a limp.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Look, people are concerned.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Uh oh Halliburton, Well, he talked about it yesterday.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I'm fine, yeah, really, just a lower leg thing.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
I'll leave you at that.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I don't think there's anything more to elaborate. I feel
fine and be ready to go for Game three. Looks,
you know, you get to these seven game series, in
these long series for many reasons. I don't like seven
game series. Part of it is your stars get beat up.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Well, the Pacers haven't played a seven game yet. They
did play a tough sixer against the Knicks. I'm on
the Pacers getting five and a half tonight, Colin, is
that crazy? And I'm on the Pacers' money line as well.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I would take the points. I'm not sure if i'm
money line. We do you do think the Pacers? I
would say Oklahoma City. When we have two teams meet
in championship competition, the best defense usually wins if there's
a dominant historic offense or a dominant historic defense. Remember
who slowed down Michael Jordan. It was the Pippin' It
was the Pistons, right, you know the Lakers didn't with
(35:35):
magic in the offense. It was the Pistons that slowed
him down. So my take is when you have a
historic defense and the fastest pace in the league, I'll
go with a defense to win the series. So the
problem for the thunder.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
In they've had home court advantage throughout the playoffs. Every
Game three they've looked like garbage. They were down twenty
five to the Memphis Grizzlies. John Morank got hurt.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
They came back and won.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
They were down thirty at the half to Timberwolves, lost
by forty and they lost Game three in Denver as well,
for whatever reason, leaving home, the adjustment has.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Not been great on the road.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
And I don't know, I mean, j Doab and Chit
are shooting like garbage from three. Yeah, they're gonna need
somebody to step up. I don't know who helped Shay,
So I'll go. Pacers take a two to one lead
and finally some drama in this damn series.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
No good basketball team in the NBA has a different
efficiency more than Oklahoma City home and away, and he
theorized that Oklahoma City plays with tons of energy. It's
a very young team and even really gifted young players
do not play as well on the road. Rotational players
bench players that are young do not play as well
(36:41):
on the road in the playoffs, So there is a swing.
OKC at home is one team, OKAC on the roads another. Now,
Denver was different, Denver's old. So with the Nuggets home
and away against Oklahoma City, you didn't know quite what
you were. You always kind of got the same team.
I think Boston Hell, the Celtics have veteran players. Porzingis
Tata Brown. They're They're often better on the road than
(37:03):
at home. But the advantage Indiana have the night is
okse is not this. They're good, but they're not the
same team on the road due to their youth and
so many key rotational players. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
Next up, Colin is your boy.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Caleb Williams.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
We talked to yesterday about his issues in that red
zone drill with Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
That's how granul we're getting here.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
It sounds like Caleb is appreciating the tough coaching. Reports
are that he's putting in voluntary overtime to improve his
grasp on the Bears offense, and Ben Johnson addressed it yesterday.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
He's committed to learning the offense.
Speaker 10 (37:36):
We're not we're not where we need to be at
as a as a team, and he understands that. And
any chance he gets to get a few more full
speed reps, it sounds like he wants them.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
We've loaded him up.
Speaker 10 (37:47):
We've tried a number of different things, long play calls,
multiple plays at the line. We've dabbled here, tempo, we've
dabbled here, there and everywhere.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
I like any interesting, but I mean he's totally upfront.
We are not there yet and nor should they be.
But I but I have an interesting dinner tomorrow with
a Chicago Bears employee. Of note, I'm not going to
get into it, lots of information potentially on Friday show.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Well, I do like to hear that he's into the
voluntary overtime because remember Kyler Murray wouldn't do the mandatory
homework that they set him with on his iPad. He
wouldn't even touch it, did not look at his iPad
once in the owner. Then they had to put that
clause in. That just shows the difference and entitlement for
Murray to hey man, I want to win in Kayleb Williams,
I really like this. It just it stinks that your
(38:38):
quarterback is not going to get to the playoffs this
year because.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Of that schedule.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Final story, Colin, is this sin sin Nati Bungles. What
a disaster of an offseason?
Speaker 5 (38:47):
This has been.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Look at this Colin on the screen. That's their first
round pick, Schamar Stewart doesn't have a contract. He's showing
up so he doesn't get fined, but he's not doing
the drills. This is a total unmitigated disaster. Remember it's
coming on the heels with the Trey Hendrickson thing. Well,
listen to Stuart and what he's saying about the Bengals.
Speaker 11 (39:06):
I've never been a person to asks for more than
what I deserve. I'm perfectly content with what I deserve,
and I feel like you trying to implement something new
to me is unfair. Far I'll take it. I mean,
it just defends like, in my case, I'm a hundred
percent right, I'm ask for nothing I've never done before.
(39:29):
But in y'all casey, I just want to win. To
arguments that Winny more games. In my opinion, this is.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
This is ugly well they are. They are, without question,
the cheapest organization in the UNIFO.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
It sounds like, and just going off what he said, Yeah,
they don't want to pay him. What the you know,
historically the guy drafted and his slot has been paid.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
That's what it sounds like. Now, I don't know if
he's asking for more.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
You know, these negotiations you hate when they play out
of the media. But to watch him standing there and
not do drills while the rest of his team works,
and oh, by the way, their other best pass rusher
Trey Henderson. I mean he's not doing anything, like they
don't have him signed.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Colin.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
This is did you see the quotes by Joe Burrow. No, no,
Joe Burrow came out and said, yes, this is a distraction.
This is absolutely a distraction. So Burrow, now two years now,
has come out and being very outspoken that yes, it's
a distraction. And this is exactly what leaders do. Remember
I used to be critical of Andrew Locke, who I love,
(40:28):
but Andrew was always like hyper optimistic, everything's great over here,
and it's like, no, no, your drafts were bad under
Ryan Grigson. It's not good enough. Joe Burrow is not
going to do that. Joe Burrow is more of a fighter.
Joe Burrow is not going to be satisfied. So Joe
Burrow once again, yeah, this is absolutely a distraction. So
(40:48):
would you be surprised? First of all, you take what
his draft slot made last year and then you increase
it what somewhere between four and seven percent. This is
not real complicated for rookies in the first round. It's
kind of slotted what you make. So what a shock.
Cincinnati can't get it right and Burrow, to its credit,
is calling him out.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
But this is where you wish NFL players had the
power NBA players due, because Joe Burrow could call him
out only once, you know, let me see action. Maybe
if Joe Burrow said, you know what, I'm done with
this place. I can't deal with this crap. They're not
willing to put I don't want to play here anymore.
I want out and he starts to like pull one
of those NBA moves. That's what I want to see
(41:28):
Colin because he could say, oh, yeah, there's a distraction.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
They don't care. They don't care what the Trey Hendrickson think.
Why are they going to care.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
With a rookie who, by the way, had four and
a half career sacks in college, Like, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (41:39):
It's just a It is a.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Bad, bad look for the NFL because the Bengals are
a team could go. They got maybe Super Bowl aspirations
with that offense.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Well, only one star quarterback in the league didn't make
the playoffs. That's not an indictment of Joe Burrow. Joe
Burrow was statistically better than Mahomes last year. In fact,
you could argue Burrow was the best quarterback in the
league statistically last year, So think about that in a
quarterback league with an offensive coach, they had the best
quarterback statistical league and missed the playoffs. That's on upstairs.
(42:08):
J mckl the news, Well.
Speaker 6 (42:10):
That's the news and thanks for stopping by The Heard
Line News.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Power to you next,
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noon 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. You're
(00:22):
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. Good show today,
Sean McVay of the Rams, Alexi Lalas. We're in Chicago.
It's The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you
may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day,
jamac I know your affinity in my affinity for soccer.
(00:43):
I'll get to that in five minutes. An absolute disaster
for the United States men's national team. Do not downplay it.
It is a disaster. It is rock bottom, and we
continue to grab a shovel and dig really, really bad.
I want to start, though. I think people sometimes think
(01:03):
I have something against Aaron Rodgers, and I just don't
care yet do I think I was the first media person,
like nine ten years ago to talk about his body
language and how he was increasingly playing safe and it
was too caught up in his passer rating and passive aggressive. Yeah,
I did, and that's right, But that's not going to
(01:24):
affect my opinion about Pittsburgh. I think he'll be fine.
I think he'll miss a couple of games. I think
he'll go you know, eight to nine, nine and eight.
That's fine. But instead of that, let's just look at
history of top older star quarterbacks past their prime when
they have gone to a new environment. There's nine that
come to mind. I'm not talking Andy Dalton or Joe
(01:46):
Flacco or Nick Foles. I'm talking stars like Cam Newton,
Aaron Rodgers. So there's nine that I would in recent history.
Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford, Philip Rivers went to Indy,
had a great year, Rogers with the Jets, Russell Wilson,
Kirk Cousins, Matt Ryan, and Cam Newton. Again, so how
did it work out for those nine? Well, let's put
(02:07):
him in two camps. One being successful. Brady won a
Super Bowl, Stafford won a Super Bowl, Peyton, Manning won
a Super Bowl, and Philip Rivers, I'll argue this all day,
had a great year in Indy. He was eleven and
five ninety seven passer rating. That road playoff game against Buffalo.
He threw for over three hundred yards, two touchdowns, no picks.
He was great. I mean, Philip Rivers had a shockingly
(02:30):
good year as last year in the NFL in Indianapolis.
And if and then you have the other camp, the
less successful camp, and that would include obviously Aaron Rodgers
with the Jets, and Russell and Denver and Kirk Cousins
in Atlanta, had Matt Ryan with the Colts, and Cam
Newton with Belichick in New England. What's the common threat?
What's the truth. The truth is, if you have a
(02:51):
defensive coach, as an old quarterback past your prime or
an inexperienced coach, it's gonna be turbulent. It's not gonna
be pretty. And the reason being older quarterbacks they need fit.
They can't just bulldoze or overwhelm you with talent. Aaron
(03:11):
Rodgers and his prime or Cam Newton in their prime,
they could be off in their mechanics, they could miss
a read it just they're like human erasers. Once you
get older, fit matters. Stafford needed, he needed McVeigh, Brady
sought out Bruce arians Peyton. Manning had some success early
with John Fox won a Super Bowl with Gary Kubiak,
(03:34):
and he hadn't Philip Rivers had Frank Reich. Now Matt
Bryan's tough because Matt Matt also had Frank. But Matt
was really done as a quarterback. But if you start
looking at it, it's pretty clear that the Steelers lost
their left tackle, their starback, their best receiver, and are
completely toned deaf on offense. This is going to be hard.
This is a defensive coacher and a defensive head coach.
(03:56):
That's what it is. And by the way, Arthur Smith
the coordinated six years in the NFL, three as a
head coach, three as a coordinator, one top ten offense
and the other five bad, ugly ineffective. So if you
want to teach an old dog new tricks, you need
Seesar Milan, you need an emotional behavior expert. And that
(04:21):
is not what Pittsburgh is. That's why I think older
quarterbacks Peyton Manning when he got Kubiak or Stafford got McVeigh.
And even though Arians and Brady had their fights, they
came out after the bye week and Tampa didn't lose
again for the rest of the year. Offensive coaches have
a feel for offensive lines the playbook. I mean, Brady
is largely admitted. They kind of laughed at Belichick's lack
(04:42):
of knowledge about offense. That's not a shot at Mike Tomlin.
It's a reality with defensive coaches. So I think it's
pretty clear it's going to be pretty bumpy. I think
I'm doing Aaron a solid saying nine to eight. My
guess is it could be seven and ten. I think
he will miss a couple of starts. They have a
great center, but I don't trust their O line Arthur Smith,
(05:02):
Mike Tomlin, They've got a rookie running back. They're crossing
their fingers on. And here's why Aaron chose the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
From my ego. I don't need it to keep playing.
A lot of decisions that I've made over my career
in life from strictly the ego, even if they turn
out well or always unfulfilling, but the decisions made from
the soul are usually pretty fulfilling. So this was a
decision that was best for my soul. And I felt
like being here with Coach t and the guys they
(05:32):
got here and the opportunity here was the best for me.
And I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
All right, Speaking of soul or lack thereof, the United
States men's national team is one year from the World
Cup on US soil, and starting this weekend they have
the Gold Cup, which matters. It's something, especially when you
have a new coach. And oh do we love to
blame the coach and never the players in USA soccer.
(06:00):
Last night was as bad as it gets. Forget the
fact that we have not beaten a European team since
twenty twenty one oh and seven to eight something like that.
Last night we gave up four goals to Switzerland in
twenty three minutes, the most humiliating loss ever. And that's
not a shot. That's not a shot at Switzerland. Okay,
great soccer country. That was embarrassing. Four goals conceded in
(06:25):
twenty three minutes. A year ago in the World Cup,
we only didn't we allowed like one goal in the
group stage, held England scoreless in the World Cup was
a year or two go held England screless. So hey,
that guy Greg Buralter doesn't know what he's doing. He's
not getting the most out of our highly skilled players.
(06:47):
Burhalter is out of here. And then Jurgen Klinsman, he
was a bomb, and then Bob Bradley's no good and
Bruce Arena. So they bring in Siolo Catino from Europe.
He's great with young players. He is, I'm told he
is unbelievable with young players. So last night he played
(07:08):
a lot of those young players and it was the
most humiliating loss I can ever remember for nothing twenty
three minutes. So it's time once again for Uncle Collins
twice annual USA Soccer reality check. Our talent pool. It's interesting,
(07:29):
it's the most interesting it's ever been, but it is
a really shallow pool. And last night, because our best players,
like Christian Poolisic who's played in ac Milan last couple
of years and like really difficult fifty game fifty match schedules,
he's taken a breather, and Serginio dest is taking a breather.
(07:51):
He's a European player too. Tyler Adams is injured, West
McKenny beat up a little bit, he's taken a breather.
There's an argument those are four of our best players.
So instead we played six MLS guys and Malisci Katino
is discovering we are very much in the kiddie pool
(08:12):
the shallow end. If we don't have our first eleven
in our best eleven, we don't have much. Now, we
got six or seven guys planned in Europe, and that's
more than we've ever had, but countries like Switzerland and
the top teams can often have double that, and you
just time and time again. I don't want to hear
about our best athletes play other sports. They do. But
(08:34):
when Christian Pulisic is out, our creativity are scoring, our
imagination are easily. Most skilled player is out. I'm sorry.
It's the Calves without Lebron several years ago. We are
not the same. So, I mean, it's obvious that America
is lacking highly skilled laborers in tech science and in soccer.
(08:55):
But last night was a reminder that if you take
Policic out, our top four or five guys are not
playing injury, little load management need a rest after a
rigorous European schedule. We don't have much. It's MLS. It
is just a bunch of nonsense because this coach, he's
the guy, he knows young talent, he develops young talent. Really,
(09:19):
four goals twenty three minutes, really, So go ahead, you
blamed Bruce Arena, Bob Bradley, I mean Greg Berholtzer, I
thought did an unbelievable job. You go to the World
Cup stage, we allow one goal. We have always historically
been about defense, great goalies and good defense because we
(09:40):
don't have as many skilled players. We just don't. I
know it hurts, we don't. We got about five, maybe
three last night. None. Here's a member of the losing
squad after the game.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
It's really easy to look at one game, one half
and be like, oh, this is all going to pieces.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
They can't come back from this. But you look, you
can build up the twenty one to two we.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Take down rockwas three zero, and then make it in the semifinal.
Like things changed not six months apart.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
So it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
We accept that it's not good enough and we realized that,
and so that's where that's where the disappointment comes in.
But at the same time, like we have to flip
the strip, we gotta make sure that we do not
come out like that average in especially as we enterne
Bold Cup.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Mauricio Pocatino four game losing streak. Bob Bradley didn't do that.
Jurgen Klensman didn't have that. Greg Burhaalser didn't have that.
I think it's a reality check. And this European coach
who was great and Tattenham, I think he got him
to a runner up. He's very known as very aggressive,
(10:45):
very attacking and great with young players. We don't have
the players that we can attack. If Polisic, Weston McKinney
and sergeniodsk are not there, we can't do that. We
just don't have the talent pool. I do not think
this guy is falling. I do not think it's falling.
But let's just say the roof needs repair. Jmack, you're laughing,
(11:07):
You are laughing. Go go ahead.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I don't want to say this guy's falling. Let me
just trash USA soccer for five minutes.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Listen.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
You could argue they started four guys who won't even
be on the World Cup roster next year.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
So I obviously the optics are terrible.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
I'm on a soccer text chain with like twenty guys
and they were just you know, hammering the US. It
was kind of a gutlass performance.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
It's one thing again, it is one thing to lose,
but to give up four goals concede four goals in
twenty three minutes. You're not ready to play? Yeah, you are.
That is hard to do in hockey and soccer. That
doesn't happen, Buch.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
It's okay. We're gonna be fine.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
We're gonna go win the Gold Cup and then we're
gonna go to like the quarterfinals or semifinals of the
World Cup in one year.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Don't It's gonna be fine.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Everything's fine.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Our soccer schedule at the Gold Cup, Trinidad and Tobago,
judging by last night, that's a coin flip. Don't stop it.
Saudi Arabia and Haiti, we're.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Going three and zero, probably outscoring them like seven to one.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Just work that down. Okay, seven goals, Okay.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
We're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Colin, it's okay, all right.
Speaker 6 (12:13):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Eastern non a em Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Welcome back, So actually a lot of stuff today. Alexi
Lallas is going to come in later. Risio Pocatino is
the coach of USA men's soccer. Last night and they
are in a free fall. Four straight losses haven't beaten
the EUROPEA team since twenty twenty one. And again, a
lot of their players played in these kind of rigorous,
intense European schedules, so some of them are taking time off.
(12:46):
I get it, but the gold couple was felt like
it mattered to me. Maybe it doesn't anymore. But six
MLS players among the starters last night got routed. I
mean it was just awful. So we'll talk about that. Hey,
I thought this was problematic and this this is every
New York Knicks worse fear coming to fruition. So yesterday
Imiodoku is a great coach, was with the Celtics for
(13:09):
personal reasons inappropriate behavior, got fired, went to Houston, very
good coach. The Knicks wanted to interview him since they
fired Tibbs, and the Rockets said no, they denied the
Knicks even an interview. Well, we all know Chris Finch
is great, he's with Minnesota. Let's get him. And the
t Wolves denied the Knicks an interview. That's over two
(13:29):
the Mavericks now, according to Shams, the Dallas Mavericks have
told the Knicks, Nope, you're not you don't get an interview.
With Jason Kidd. So the top three candidates high profile,
successful coaches. Nope, nope, nope. Okay, So does this mean
that the at times very impulsive, highly emotional James Dolan
(13:52):
had no plan? So I said this yesterday. Dolan has
always seen himself as an artist. He's in a band,
MGM Entertainment. One of his best friends is Irving Asoff,
who used to own a record label, a wildly successful marketer,
manager and promoter of talent, and still one of his
best friends. I believe, and that's okay that Dolan sees hims.
(14:13):
That's why I went to Vegas and created the Sphere.
Rock stars are among his friends. But as we know
with artists, sometimes they can be impulsive and they can
be emotional, and James Dolan always loves the company of stars.
And whether it's Phil Jackson is a GM, well, it
was kind of Jerry West was kind of running the
(14:33):
GM part. Let's get Amari Stodammeyre with bad knees. That's
always been James Dolean, impulsive. So when he went and
built the Spheres for a couple of years, he was removed.
I'm not saying he's not a smart guy, but he
is more artist than accountant. In my take is now
he's back in the fold, and there was. According to reports,
(14:55):
he listened to his players, his stars, and his stars
grumbled about Tibbs, who practice them hard, who plays him
a lot of minutes, and he acquiesced to his star players.
And now they don't have a coach and the top
three candidates he can't interview him. So when he was
gone for a couple of years, I had said this
multiple times and I did not consider it a shot
(15:17):
at James Dole. It was a reality. He was distracted
in Vegas with a spear a magical musical entertainment mecca.
It's nothing like it in the world, never been, but
it's supposed to be amazing. And all I'm saying is,
did he act impulsively because when he was not there,
they were pragmatic, they were patient, they had a plan,
(15:38):
and firing TIBs it's not the same. He was the culture,
So you just fired the culture and that not sheer
talent is why you were so interesting and captivating and
good for two years. It just feels very impulsive to me.
Somebody who is not He is now in his ninth
(16:00):
year entering his ninth year with the Rams. Sean McVay
is now joining US live, and we appreciate that he's
a busy guy. Great to see a Sean. As always,
you look rested as rested as you guys can be.
How are you doing?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
I'm doing good. You know.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
I don't know if my wife would agree with you
that I'm not impulsive, But other than that, I think
everything is good.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
So are so good?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
You know. I was talking to less Neat about this.
I said, you guys have done such a great job
building the defense. You gotta get some you gotta get
some toys for Sean McVay. And they go out and
they get ferguson the tight end from Oregon, who I
watched a ton of He's a real player, Davonte Adams
to go with Pooka, and I did feel like this
draft was a little bit of it. Hey, let's get
Seawn some Let's get Sewan some burst and some youth
(16:45):
and some different guys offensively, will the offense look the same? What?
Speaker 5 (16:50):
What?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
What? What is your sort of sense A star tight
end Davante Adams A healthy Pooka. By the way, Kyron
williams Now sounds like he is totally dedicated, very critical
of himself in the fumbles. Is the offense going to
look mostly the same?
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Yeah, you know what, I think we're in the process
of building that right now. Colin.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
What I do feel really good about is over the
last couple of years being able to, you know, really
lean into the draft with some foundational guys, and then
you can get a little bit more strategic and specific
with the way that we are onboarded, whether it's through
free agency even bringing home to Shelton back.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
I think it's a big deal.
Speaker 7 (17:25):
For our offensive line in the continuity adding Vonte as
you mentioned, and then in the draft when you have
six picks wanted to continue to add to our defensive front.
You get an inside backer who we like, and then
you get a skill position from each of the three
main groups with the end, receiver and impact. So we
are excited. I think Matthew's been outstanding leading the way.
(17:46):
But as you and I both know, we're building foundations
in the off season. We've got to continue to do
that into training camp and you hopefully say it's healthy
as you possibly can while finding your style of play
and identity that it is these guys best.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
You know I've been saying this is that I do
think as quarterbacks get older, offensive coaches have a different
sensibility with o lines, with pass protection, and it's just
the reality is that it's one thing when Stafford's twenty
six and he can bulldoze through some things, or Aaron
is twenty eight, but as Tom Brady aged and Peyton
Manning and Matt Stafford, it's different. There are certain things
(18:23):
they can't just talent out of How do you coach
Stafford today or an older quarterback than a younger quarterback?
Are there things that you understand? Are you like a
protective parent Sometimes he's thirty seven, and do you think
to yourself, hey, I'm not going to have him practice today,
or I don't want him doing that, or I do
you coach him a little differently, not only out of
(18:44):
respect but because of his age.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
Well, I think the first thing is is how do
we keep him mentally fresh throughout the course of the year,
knowing that the long journey he's going into year seventeen.
The good thing is he still loves football. I think
the bol is it this guy that is an sension.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Of the coaching staff.
Speaker 7 (19:01):
He's got such great ownership and economy, and number one,
are we connected all right? And then number two, how
do we set up a timetable and really a practice
rhythm and routine for him that allows him.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
To say as fresh as possible, feels.
Speaker 7 (19:15):
Good and rejuvenated by the time we kick off the season,
and then hopefully we're earning the opportunity to play games
after the seventeen that we're guaranteed. And so I think
the off season approach has been a little different than
in year's pats and he's been awesome.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
He I'll sit.
Speaker 7 (19:30):
Down and talk about what that looks like for training camp,
but he has certainly earned the right to have a
huge amount of economy influence on what's going to.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
Be best for him because he knows you know, he
knows himself better than any of us.
Speaker 7 (19:42):
And going into year seventeen, I share him really lucky
that we're able to do this again together.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
One of the most remarkable stats of last season. It's
one of those that's hard to believe. You can win
a few beers at a tavern if you had in
this bet he said, who's the least penalized team? And
he'd be like, well, it can't be the they got
a bunch of kids on defense. They don't know what
they're doing about a bunch of twenty three year olds.
You were the least penalized team. Your defense, I mean
almost across the board is twenty three, twenty four, twenty five.
(20:12):
So obviously that's mentoring. You do have a hands on
approach even to a defense. Were even you surprised that
they were that good because I thought, Sean, I thought
from week four to Thanksgiving, I thought they got about
every two weeks. I thought they got better. By the
end of the year, they were significantly better than week four,
And it's like that's teaching. Were you surprised at the
(20:34):
jump in performance? And yet there weren't a lot of
blown coverages, There weren't a lot of penalties. Was that
even shocking to you?
Speaker 7 (20:45):
You know, I don't know if I ever really looked
at it like at I think number one, I think
you got to get.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
The kind of credit to those players.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
But I thought our defensive staff as a whole, I
remember Chris Sule really going back to the lab. We're
at one and four over the bye. Okay, now we
have enough inventory of knowing what it's life like without Aaron,
We've got five games with the players, and how do
we maximize and accentuate their skill sets? And I thought
the fluidity and flexibility of our defensive coaching staff and
then being able to say, hey, are we improving throughout
(21:12):
the year. Guys are getting earned confidence from a way
to take practice. And I think you're right, there was
improvement throughout. I really thought from that New Orleans came
on and the end of the at the end of
the season represented where our defense really took control, played
really well.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
They made teams earn it.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
And I don't know that I looked at it like
that as much as man I really enjoyed going to
work there was It's huge, full of xuberant But they
played smart. Now, these guys are instinctual players, even though
they might be young in terms of experience, you know,
they played smart.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
They understood the situations that we.
Speaker 7 (21:43):
Were in and I think that's a tremendous credit to
Chris Shula, the defensive staff, and then obviously.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
The players being able to bring it to life.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
You have been at the forefront, Sean McVay joining us
for our radio audience. You have been at the forefront
of pre snap motion. Mike McDaniel does a lot of that.
You do a lot of that. I like it. I
like to make the defense think. I think the more
the defense thinks, potentially the slower they get as you
do that, and you keep being a very progressive coach.
(22:11):
What is the balance on that? Because like there's guys
like Aaron Rodgers has said, you know, he doesn't love
a ton of motion, and sometimes maybe Matt Stafford comes
to you, Hey, can we scale it back? Like what
is the how do you judge that between does Stafford
love motion? Does does not? All old quarterbacks do Sean
some don't like as much.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Sure, well, I think the first thing is Matthew's incredibly
open what we want to make sure we're accountable and
do an intent guy on everything we do not get
suing it to do it. And I do think that,
you know, if I'm being honest with myself, there's been
some times you get a little carried away, and there's
always a balance. You decide offensively when that both snapped
within the forty second Cocker twenty five seconds out of
(22:53):
the clock stoppage, and so we've got to use that
to our advantage with motions or getting out of the
puddle and snap in the football. And if I don't
have a reason for why this gives us an advantage
or what the intent is behind it, well then we
shouldn't be doing it. Matthew's incredibly open minded. He understands
the intent of what we're trying to get done, and
I think being able to have that give and take
(23:14):
in that balance of making sure it doesn't disrupt integrity
of them.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Being able to execute their jobs.
Speaker 7 (23:20):
Because you talk to a lot of those quarterbacks, as
you alluded to, you know they like to be able
to say, hey, all right, similar pictures, I can get
a feel for what it looks like the chests forward
with how those eleven guys should be dispersed and distributed.
But then there is a good give and take of
all right, well where does that.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Provide some relief?
Speaker 7 (23:37):
Maybe it's forgetting access for a receiver instead of getting
a bump on him. So we always try to have
a reason why we're doing it, to try to.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
Be able to affect.
Speaker 7 (23:45):
The offense in a positive way when we're motioning.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
So I think my favorite article I've ever ever read
in The Athletic was the story about you and Chris Peterson,
And I think the truth is most coaches I've ever
known in my life college are role I covered Jerry
Tarkanian years ago. He remembered every loss and the winds
just blurred. The winds just kind of into the ether. Oh,
(24:09):
the losses were painful. And do you find yourself? I mean,
because I think you're a good self evaluator. Do you
enjoy the wins as much as the loss is hurt?
Are you driving home after a win thinking, Man, I
had a good game plan. I'm feeling I'm going home
and having a good time to I can you do
that at this point.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
After a loss?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
No, after a win, are you enjoying the winds as
much as a loss has hurt? You?
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Know what?
Speaker 7 (24:36):
I think I've gotten a lot better Colin about I
don't know.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
I know when you.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
Win, man, that's a really good feeling, and when you
lose that it's.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
A bad feeling as well. But I will say this,
I think.
Speaker 7 (24:46):
There's a lot more appreciation for applying the appropriate perspective
how difficult it is to get that result. You're hunting
up how many people are influential and instrumental and being
able to bring that together.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
That's what I love about football so much.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
So what I'm trying to do a better job of
is making sure you don't ever take those things for granted.
I know I did in the early parts of you know,
our tenure here, and I think that's probably some of
the stuff that put up to me, and I don't
want to live that way, and I don't think that's
a sustainable way of doing it. I think you've got
to be able to cherish all those moments and then
(25:20):
lean into the hard ones where you've got an opportunity
to really hit those storms in the right way. And
a lot of my failures and shortcomings has really led
to that appropriate perspective that takes work to do every
single day.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Sean McVay, coach of the LA Rams. By the way,
five of his former assistants are current NFL head coaches.
You've had a ton of success coaching against your coaches,
and by the way, these are sharp guys. Lafleur and
Kevin O'Connell and Zach Taylor and Rahee Morris. Now Liam
Cohen is there do you feel when you you're the
(25:57):
mentor when you coach against the eyes that have come up?
You've got to switch stuff up. They know your audibles.
Do you find that a joyful experience or is it sometimes?
Are you liked? Could we could do? I have to
switch thing? Has it forced you to be constantly amenable
to change because you are now facing your system and
(26:20):
your coaches and your language so often.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
Yeah, And I think because we've got so many coaches
that are, you know, in different locations. I think every
single year you have to reassess and reevaluate and the
stuff that we did in seventeen and eighteen and now
you know, there's four fundamentals and principles.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
That are always going to apply to good football. But
from a.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
Tactical perspective, I think this league's too competitive.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
It's ever evolving. It always starts with the players. But
I don't know that you get too much into that now.
If you are going to slow it down, you know,
you got to be cognizant. They know some of the mechanics.
You might have to change up the word here or there.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
But because of the way that you have to might
guys up where these audio foot it is, you know.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
End up picking up so many things you know on
the TV copies. You have to be really mindful of
the self stuff.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
But those guys are instrumental and things here, and so
it's fun to go against them.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
And then you know, I do.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
Like going against other guys that there's not an emotional invetsment.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
In all right, Sean McVay is always coach, great seeing you.
Appreciate you stopping by.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Yeah, thanks for having me. I always appreciate it, Colin.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
You bet, you know, it's interesting talking about that. When
Kyle Shanahan came into the league. I was talking to
a coach about this couple of years ago. He goes,
half the league's running some of Kyle Shanahan's offense, So
a lot of the stuff he used to, you know,
fool people and cash people off guard. Your people are
practicing against all the time. But you know, and and
again people are have seen a lot of Lamar Jackson.
(27:47):
He's still extraordinary. But if it's a system or a
scheme and half the league is running it, it's harder
for McVeigh. A lot of people are using their language,
their scheme, their tempo. But he continues, he continues to win,
and that there was some little bit of audio difficulty
on that. I hope you can get through it. For
our radio audience. J Mac, You're you're taking a very
positive spin. I I as I watched USA soccer go
(28:12):
up in Flames last night, I thought of you because
of your little soccer business you have, and well, I
mean it's I mean, it's you know you've done, you
like it, and we both love soccer and the Alexi
Lawless is on later. But there is something to be said.
We keep bringing in new coaches and they all have specialties.
Some are big believers in the MLS talent, Some are
(28:33):
better with veteran teams. Some are better at developing younger talent.
That's Mauricio Pochettino. He's he's seen as aggressive and develops
young talent. But I do think last night was a
moment you see the gap of the Swiss talent and
our talent. When we don't have our top three to
four players. The gap the golf is so substantial, and
(28:56):
I think that's it's easier for US soccer fans to
blame the co coach because you can't replace the players,
you can replace the coach, So everybody always blames the
coach instead of a good hard look in the mirror
of our of our US soccer program.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
So just for.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Context, our starting lineup last night, I mean maybe lawless
will confirmed this. That was like our C group, not
even our B group. That was like our C team.
I don't know that Potchettino did this, but it felt
like he was like, you know what, I want to
rest our guys for Trinidad and Tobago. Let me just
throw out some of guys who are going to get
some burn who have not played with US before.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Do you know what the line is?
Speaker 4 (29:33):
The US is minus thirteen hundred against Trinidad and Tobago.
We're going to open a can on them this weekend
and we're gonna smoke Saudi Arabia and Haiti.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
It's gonna be fine.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
This obviously did not look great against a pretty damn
good European team with a bunch of kids who have
never really played or gotten capped with the US team.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Colin, I don't want.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
You to overreact, but I think you are.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Four goals in twenty three minutes completed not great. This
is a basis clearing double. That's four goals in soccer
in twenty three minutes is ugly.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
It's like fifty one nothing in the NFL.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Yeah, Okay, be sure to catch live editions of The
Herd weekdays and Noone Eastern, not a em Pacific.
Speaker 8 (30:16):
Hey, we're Covino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day
five to seven pm Eastern.
Speaker 5 (30:21):
But here's the thing.
Speaker 8 (30:21):
We never have enough time to get to everything we
want to get.
Speaker 9 (30:24):
To and that's why we have a brand new podcast
called over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun
in our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly,
because this guy is over promising things we never have
time for. Yeah, you blubber list lame in me.
Speaker 8 (30:39):
Well you know what it's called over promise. You should
be good at it because you've been over promising women
for years.
Speaker 9 (30:43):
Well, it's a Cavino and Rich after show, and we
want you to be a part of it. We're gonna
be talking sports, of course, but we're also gonna talk
life and relationships. And if Rich and I are arguing
about something or we didn't have enough time, it will
continue on our after show called over Promised.
Speaker 8 (30:57):
Well, if you don't get enough Covino and Rich, make
sure you check out over Promise and also uncensored, by
the way, so maybe we'll go at it even a
little harder. It's going to be the best after show
podcast of all time.
Speaker 9 (31:07):
There you go, over Promising and remember you could see
on YouTube, but definitely join us. Listen Over Promised with
Cadino and Rich on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Thought this was interesting. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred,
who gets a lot of heat, but Baseball TV ratings
are up up up last two years. They are considering
going to an automated ball strike system by next year.
Roboomps the player's major pushback. Taking away the human element
(31:42):
would ruin baseball one pitcher set. We used to have
travel agents and switchboard operators. We took away the human element.
We still travel and make phone calls. Let's not get
too dramatic, as we predicted. Baseball has been in a
two two year renaissance. The stars are in the right
(32:03):
places O Tawny Dodgers over Angels, Aaron Judge, New York,
Bryce Harper filial. But really the ratings aren't just for that,
They're because of radical change by Rob Manfred. The pitch
clock sped the game up by twenty five to thirty minutes,
a game bigger bases, more stolen bases, defensive shift was banned,
more base runners, universal dh more quality at bats. Change, change, change,
(32:28):
and it is all worked. When I hear what about
the human element, well that's happening with AI and science
and medicine and technology. When something's inefficient, make it faster,
more efficient. Nineteen calls were missed home played umpiring Yankees
red Sox on Sunday nineteen. You're okay with that? Nineteen.
(32:51):
The consequences for baseball are big. Never been more money,
five hundred million dollar contracts to players like Otani calls
one game. So Tennis had line judges and then they
got replaced by hawkeye technology. And this weekend record setting
ratings for the French Open. Take a deep breath. Everybody
(33:14):
is going to be okay. But this idea, if you
can increase efficiency and accuracy, I consider this robo umpiring.
You're not taking away all the umpires, but home plate umpiring.
By the way, there's a very strong umpire union. What's
that mean when guys think it's hard to replace him?
(33:36):
So the union makes it very difficult. And the hardest
part about umpiring is behind the plate. It's not first base,
it's not third base. It's behind the plate. So you
get older umpires who are protected by a union. Hard
to replace them except this way. Consider it like spell check, fast, efficient, easy,
(33:58):
without judgment. I have no problem with it. It is
radical change. And ll you know who doesn't like this.
It's catchers because catchers have been framing bitches for years
and that's over with the robowomps Jmack with the news.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
No, no, this is the herdline news.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Technology is stealing more jobs. Fascinating, unbelievable stuff. Let's go
to the NBA tonight, Colin. It's almost like we forgot.
Game three is tonight. The big news is Tyrese Haliburton.
What the helly If you watch him leaving the podium
after Game two, there was a bit of a limp, yep,
a bit of a limp.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Look, people are concerned.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
Uh oh Halliburton, Well, he talked about it yesterday.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I'm fine, yeah, really, just a lower leg thing.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
I'll leave you at that.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I don't think there's anything more to elaborate. I feel
fine and be ready to go for Game three. Looks,
you know, you get to these seven game series, in
these long series for many reasons. I don't like seven
game series. Part of it is your stars get beat up.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Well, the Pacers haven't played a seven game yet. They
did play a tough sixer against the Knicks. I'm on
the Pacers getting five and a half tonight, Colin, is
that crazy? And I'm on the Pacers' money line as well.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I would take the points. I'm not sure if i'm
money line. We do you do think the Pacers? I
would say Oklahoma City. When we have two teams meet
in championship competition, the best defense usually wins if there's
a dominant historic offense or a dominant historic defense. Remember
who slowed down Michael Jordan. It was the Pippin' It
was the Pistons, right, you know the Lakers didn't with
(35:35):
magic in the offense. It was the Pistons that slowed
him down. So my take is when you have a
historic defense and the fastest pace in the league, I'll
go with a defense to win the series. So the
problem for the thunder.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
In they've had home court advantage throughout the playoffs. Every
Game three they've looked like garbage. They were down twenty
five to the Memphis Grizzlies. John Morank got hurt.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
They came back and won.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
They were down thirty at the half to Timberwolves, lost
by forty and they lost Game three in Denver as well,
for whatever reason, leaving home, the adjustment has.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Not been great on the road.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
And I don't know, I mean, j Doab and Chit
are shooting like garbage from three. Yeah, they're gonna need
somebody to step up. I don't know who helped Shay,
So I'll go. Pacers take a two to one lead
and finally some drama in this damn series.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
No good basketball team in the NBA has a different
efficiency more than Oklahoma City home and away, and he
theorized that Oklahoma City plays with tons of energy. It's
a very young team and even really gifted young players
do not play as well on the road. Rotational players
bench players that are young do not play as well
(36:41):
on the road in the playoffs, So there is a swing.
OKC at home is one team, OKAC on the roads another. Now,
Denver was different, Denver's old. So with the Nuggets home
and away against Oklahoma City, you didn't know quite what
you were. You always kind of got the same team.
I think Boston Hell, the Celtics have veteran players. Porzingis
Tata Brown. They're They're often better on the road than
(37:03):
at home. But the advantage Indiana have the night is
okse is not this. They're good, but they're not the
same team on the road due to their youth and
so many key rotational players. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
Next up, Colin is your boy.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Caleb Williams.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
We talked to yesterday about his issues in that red
zone drill with Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
That's how granul we're getting here.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
It sounds like Caleb is appreciating the tough coaching. Reports
are that he's putting in voluntary overtime to improve his
grasp on the Bears offense, and Ben Johnson addressed it yesterday.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
He's committed to learning the offense.
Speaker 10 (37:36):
We're not we're not where we need to be at
as a as a team, and he understands that. And
any chance he gets to get a few more full
speed reps, it sounds like he wants them.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
We've loaded him up.
Speaker 10 (37:47):
We've tried a number of different things, long play calls,
multiple plays at the line. We've dabbled here, tempo, we've
dabbled here, there and everywhere.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
I like any interesting, but I mean he's totally upfront.
We are not there yet and nor should they be.
But I but I have an interesting dinner tomorrow with
a Chicago Bears employee. Of note, I'm not going to
get into it, lots of information potentially on Friday show.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Well, I do like to hear that he's into the
voluntary overtime because remember Kyler Murray wouldn't do the mandatory
homework that they set him with on his iPad. He
wouldn't even touch it, did not look at his iPad
once in the owner. Then they had to put that
clause in. That just shows the difference and entitlement for
Murray to hey man, I want to win in Kayleb Williams,
I really like this. It just it stinks that your
(38:38):
quarterback is not going to get to the playoffs this
year because.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Of that schedule.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Final story, Colin, is this sin sin Nati Bungles. What
a disaster of an offseason?
Speaker 5 (38:47):
This has been.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Look at this Colin on the screen. That's their first
round pick, Schamar Stewart doesn't have a contract. He's showing
up so he doesn't get fined, but he's not doing
the drills. This is a total unmitigated disaster. Remember it's
coming on the heels with the Trey Hendrickson thing. Well,
listen to Stuart and what he's saying about the Bengals.
Speaker 11 (39:06):
I've never been a person to asks for more than
what I deserve. I'm perfectly content with what I deserve,
and I feel like you trying to implement something new
to me is unfair. Far I'll take it. I mean,
it just defends like, in my case, I'm a hundred
percent right, I'm ask for nothing I've never done before.
(39:29):
But in y'all casey, I just want to win. To
arguments that Winny more games. In my opinion, this is.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
This is ugly well they are. They are, without question,
the cheapest organization in the UNIFO.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
It sounds like, and just going off what he said, Yeah,
they don't want to pay him. What the you know,
historically the guy drafted and his slot has been paid.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
That's what it sounds like. Now, I don't know if
he's asking for more.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
You know, these negotiations you hate when they play out
of the media. But to watch him standing there and
not do drills while the rest of his team works,
and oh, by the way, their other best pass rusher
Trey Henderson. I mean he's not doing anything, like they
don't have him signed.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Colin.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
This is did you see the quotes by Joe Burrow. No, no,
Joe Burrow came out and said, yes, this is a distraction.
This is absolutely a distraction. So Burrow, now two years now,
has come out and being very outspoken that yes, it's
a distraction. And this is exactly what leaders do. Remember
I used to be critical of Andrew Locke, who I love,
(40:28):
but Andrew was always like hyper optimistic, everything's great over here,
and it's like, no, no, your drafts were bad under
Ryan Grigson. It's not good enough. Joe Burrow is not
going to do that. Joe Burrow is more of a fighter.
Joe Burrow is not going to be satisfied. So Joe
Burrow once again, yeah, this is absolutely a distraction. So
(40:48):
would you be surprised? First of all, you take what
his draft slot made last year and then you increase
it what somewhere between four and seven percent. This is
not real complicated for rookies in the first round. It's
kind of slotted what you make. So what a shock.
Cincinnati can't get it right and Burrow, to its credit,
is calling him out.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
But this is where you wish NFL players had the
power NBA players due, because Joe Burrow could call him
out only once, you know, let me see action. Maybe
if Joe Burrow said, you know what, I'm done with
this place. I can't deal with this crap. They're not
willing to put I don't want to play here anymore.
I want out and he starts to like pull one
of those NBA moves. That's what I want to see
(41:28):
Colin because he could say, oh, yeah, there's a distraction.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
They don't care. They don't care what the Trey Hendrickson think.
Why are they going to care.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
With a rookie who, by the way, had four and
a half career sacks in college, Like, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (41:39):
It's just a It is a.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Bad, bad look for the NFL because the Bengals are
a team could go. They got maybe Super Bowl aspirations
with that offense.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Well, only one star quarterback in the league didn't make
the playoffs. That's not an indictment of Joe Burrow. Joe
Burrow was statistically better than Mahomes last year. In fact,
you could argue Burrow was the best quarterback in the
league statistically last year, So think about that in a
quarterback league with an offensive coach, they had the best
quarterback statistical league and missed the playoffs. That's on upstairs.
(42:08):
J mckl the news, Well.
Speaker 6 (42:10):
That's the news and thanks for stopping by The Heard
Line News.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Power to you next,
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.