August 19, 2024 • 40 mins
He tells you why he was right about Caitlin Clark and wrong about Daniel Jones.
4-time New York Times bestselling author Ian O'Connor joins the show to discuss his latest book about Aaron Rodgers
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Boy, we got a good show today. Hour one flew by.
It's Hour two live in Los Angeles. It is The
Herd wherever you may be and however you may be
listening or watching. Thanks for making us part of your day.
Five minutes e and O'Connor's got a new Aaron Rodgers book.
It's fantastic. I got multiple people on the staff wrapping
it up. Just all sorts of classic stories. Family, Brett Fard,
(00:46):
Jordan Love coaching, pushback. Also Vince Young, Next hour in studio.
This is the seat. This is the best Texas team
since his team that won the Natty. This is the
Texas team that needs to play the championship. Also is
Collins were stopped five. This is a good Texas team now,
no excuses. Staff's good players, good they got two quarterbacks
(01:06):
that can play.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
We think maybe he.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Can sell you on Quinn. Youewers, I know you're not
the biggest.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
He's a little loose. I told you reminds me of
Jay Cutler.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
That's early, Youwers. I think he's grown up and matured
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I'm a fan. Well we'll see. I want, you know,
I want him to win. Texas football is big, it's fun.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
You could say that, but do you actually want it?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, I don't trust them. I like him, I don't
trust them. Texas football is always a wrung lower than
you think they should be. Like when Oklahoma's good, they're good.
When Bam is good, they're good. A good Oregon team,
it's gonna be a good Oregon team mostly, you know Harball.
Last couple of years, we're like, they got NFL dudes,
they were good. I'm always like this, man, Texas can
(01:46):
play with anybody. And then they lose to like Oklahoma State,
and it's like, well, what's going on here? All right?
We call it Colin right, Colin wrong? On a Monday,
plenty of both. Here we go where Colin was right.
Caitlin Clark breaks the WNBA rookie record. Also, Angel Reese
is on fire, setting records. They both should have been
on the Olympic team. I kept saying, Caitlin just had
(02:06):
to overcome the silly early WNBA schedule. She is a
rising star. Her an Angel Reese on the WNBA All
Star team beat the Olympians. She's I'm telling you, she
is a playmaker. She her passing is so incredibly undervalued.
She is really the rare big score. That's unselfish. She's
got the Lebron quality like she loves to pass. And
(02:30):
she's already broken, already broken the WNBA rookie record. And
by the way, Indiana now seventh in the WNBA standings.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Here come the fever where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I'd like to apologize for supporting Daniel Jones last week.
I will never do it again. It's like justin Fields,
he just makes too many mistakes. Has just got a
forty five passer rating, no touchdowns in the preseason. He
just makes to This is a bad throw. You got
to go along on that. You can't let Stingley pick
that ball off. That's a rookie, missus. You've been in
this league too long. And I mean he's a nice kid.
(03:03):
I feel bad for him, but you know, it's Zach Wilson,
it's Justin Fields, it's Daniel Jones. You can't make these mistakes.
You're facing backups in many of these instances, vanilla schemes.
You can't make these mistakes. Where Colin was right, Bonnix
looks like a perfect fit. Six scoring drives in seven
drives in the preseason, totally under control, accurate, good in
(03:29):
the muddy pocket. I said before the draft, this kid fips,
and I'll say it again, do not be shocked if
he is not the best, at least in year one,
the best of the rookie quarterbacks. Denver's offensive skill is
undervalued tight end, receiver and running back. I think they're
better than average. He has been absolutely sensational. I said
(03:50):
before the draft, this is the guy that'll work with
Sean Payton, and you're seeing it live.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Where Colin was raw, Drake.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
May I thought, look better than I thought he would
all use. In the last preseason game, he had his
footwork down through with confidence, was accurate. I still don't
love his accuracy, but I thought I thought from first
go around to second like it was noticeably more under
control through a beautiful deep ball. Wasn't cod but you
(04:18):
know he does. When you watch these highlights, he looks
like the comp My NFL executive sources said, they said,
you're gonna see some Justin Herbert, And I'm telling you
I saw in that game glimpses of Justin Herbert.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Where Colin was right well.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I said Caleb Williams last week would be the most
exciting can't turn the TV off quarterback in the league
this year, not saying the best, but the most exciting.
I'm watching this game against Cincinnati. You can't shut the
TV off. He's fascinating. He's got a little Lamar, got
a little Mahomes, little Josh Allen, spinning, moving, running, throwing
off bounce. Now, the criticism is he can be too
(04:58):
much of an ad libber. I'm not saying that's wrong,
but so can Josh Allen. And it's a lot of
fun to watch. This kid is magic and he will
be that one o'clock window on Fox watch the games
because he's going to be in that one o'clock window
a lot. He is sensational. Where Colin was right well,
the Atlanta Falcons got their edge rusher edge rusher that
(05:20):
they were so harshly criticized for during the draft, and
the reason they drafted Pennix is, you know what you
can't get at the trading deadline. You know what you
can't get in a trade before a season starts, a young,
talented franchise quarterback. Nobody's given CJ. Stroud away, and they're
not given Michael Pennix away. I did not criticize Atlanta.
(05:40):
I said, listen, if you can get a Michael Pennox
at that point in the draft, you take him. You
figure out safety later, you figure out edge rusher later.
And they got Matthew Judon from the Patriots, a massive
upgrade for Atlanta. Been searching for an edge rusher for
several years, where Colin was raw the United States men's
now national team. My bad landed big swing and landed
(06:04):
Mauricio Focatino. And this is a guy that has coached
Harry Kane Messi, neymar this is a real coach. Now.
I kept saying they're gonna get rejected, they're going to
get fit the hand from all the top guys. But
he has coached Chelsea, he has been This is being
(06:30):
viewed as a huge swing, a huge get, and universally accepted.
And I didn't trust the United States Soccer Federation, the women, Yeah,
the men didn't trust him. Tip of the cap.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Where Colin was right, Well, well, well what was brought pretty?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Playing without starters this weekend with like a backup for
Carolina two for six for eleven yards, but no Christian McCaffrey,
no Trent, no Depot, three draws, no scores. It's funny.
And have Hall of famers to carry him running for?
Oh boy, not a lot of zip? There Isn't it funny?
(07:10):
I've said before. Put him in Carolina, put him with
the Giants on line. It's not that I don't like him,
but this idea that he is this wildly creative, strong armed,
generational talent. He basically got a Mercedes. Don't run it
into a tree, you know, don't hit the garage door
when it's opening. When he played with backups, how do
(07:31):
you look?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Where Colin was right?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And stub Hub announced ticket sales college football up forty
two year to year, and it's because of the conference
realignment games. That's what stub Hub announced. I pushed back
on the idea that transfer portal, the NIL and conference
realignment was going to kill the sport. Folks. I grew
up in the West Coast. I was over cal against
(07:59):
Oregon State. Give me Oregon against Ohio State, USC against Michigan,
Texas against LSU or Florida. StubHub announcing conference realignment is
not only not puncturing college football, They're almost up fifty
percent year to year in sales. People want new, they
(08:22):
want fresh, they want fund and that's what conference realignment is.
And the transfer portal, by the way, new star quarterbacks
Riley Leonard at Notre Dame. I want to see it.
I'm excited for where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. Really,
He's written six books, four New York Times bestseller. This
one's fascinating on Aaron Rodgers. Out of the Darkness, The
(08:45):
Mystery of Aaron Rodgers. It comes out officially tomorrow. My
friend Ian O'Connor one of the best columnists in this
country for a long time and a world class reporter.
So you know, you and I through the years have
talked about Aaron, and you chose Aaron. There was some
proximity and he's with a Jets. He's so very few
of our athletes have mystery. You know, we see him
on social media. We know everything about everybody. We don't
(09:08):
know everything about Aaron Rodgers. So let's start with the
family dynamic. It's don't I don't know of another star
athlete that it's to this point. Is he talking with
his family now?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Ian, there might have been some communication electronically Colin recently.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
Obviously, I have to see him in the book.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
I think you read it where he had a moment
at Lake Tahoe last summer with his father Ed, and
Ed planted himself in the crowd at that celebrity golf
tournament that Aaron plays in every summer, and Aaron saw
him on the ninth hole on Saturday and decided to
go over there and give him a hug. He was thinking,
should ignore him, should I act like I'm on the phone.
But for some reason that day he went over and
(09:52):
gave his dad a hug. Now Ed when he saw Aaron.
He turned around and there he was, standing fifteen feet away.
He couldn't believe it. He froze because he forgot what
it felt like to have his son in his presence,
and to have a son looking at him. It had
been nine years almost So Aaron hugged him. They said,
I love you. It was emotional.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
Ed was crying.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Aaron had to go back and finish his golf round,
and there wasn't really any follow up, but both said
on the record in my book that they want a relationship,
and that's really the first time Aaron has ever said
since the estrangement started in twenty fourteen that he wanted
a relationship with one of his family members.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
So hopefully that's the start of something better.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
One of my takeaways where I found I had great
sympathy for Aaron. It really bothered me. He was almost
I mean, the Brett faarrv relationship almost felt at times
like hazing. It was really ugly, and it made me
think less of far Of and more of Aaron Rodgers
as you did your digging. Jeff Peerlman had written about
some of this stuff. But were you surprised? I found
(10:56):
myself rooting for Aaron on that chapter like it made
it I was, he got emotional about it. I'm thinking, God,
who would treat a young employee like that? Were you
surprised by it?
Speaker 6 (11:07):
No? Not really.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Brett fav never had any intention of teaching Aaron anything,
and I can see it a.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Little bit from Brett's perspective. He was a living legend.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
He was the one who made the Green Bay Packers
the Green Bay Packers again after some down years following
the glory years of Lombardian Star.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
And so he had done so much for that franchise
and all of a.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Sudden they hire his replacement, and he's expected to train
that replacement to expedite his departure. And so I could
see it from his perspective, but he treated him really
poorly those first couple of years.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
The third year, I think that relationship started to get better.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
It's funny because Colin, I think now their relationship is
pretty good because Aaron got kicked out almost in the
way that Brett got kicked out. Now, I understand that
Aaron wanted the trade, but they wanted to move on
to Jordan Love, just like the Packers back.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
In the day wanted to and move on to Aaron.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
So they both experienced this iconic franchise that they did
so much for his first ballot Hall of Famers moving
them out. And I think they have that shared experience
that they can talk about together.
Speaker 6 (12:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It's you know, I've had a couple of knocks all
address both on Aaron's play one of them is he's
barely above five hundred as a quarterback in the playoffs
and the only functional operation for most of his time Minnesota,
Kirk Cousins was five hundred against him that he benefited
greatly from a very smart front office, good offensive lines,
(12:36):
offensive coaches. Would you push back on the you know,
he's barely above five hundred Mahomes, isn't Brady's not in
the playoffs? What's the pushback on that?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
The pushback is the guy he's always compared against his
Tom Brady, obviously and will be forever.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Brady has the seven rings.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
He made it look easy, but he had Belichick arguably
the greatest coach ever, and he had the best offensive
coordinator in league, and Josh McDaniels and Aaron never had
those things. So I'm not saying he would have won
six rings in New England like Brady did, but he
would have more than one, that's for sure. And also
if you look at him, listen, they went it in
twenty ten, they should have two peeded in twenty eleven.
(13:13):
They were fifteen and one that year, dominating the league,
and then unfortunately they had a tragedy of the week
leading into that Giant's playoff loss, Joe Philbin tragically loses
his son that really had.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
A profound impact on that team.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
But even taking it back to a football context, in
twenty thirteen through sixteen, they lose every year. So from
the outside looking in, Aaron's a loser, loser, loser, loser
in those four seasons. But he made magical plays in
sudden death games in each of those four seasons, and
that gets totally forgotten.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
So that's my pushback.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
I could go over the plays he made, he probably
remember all of them, but one in particular, the drive
at the end in twenty fifteen against Arizona. He threw
two hail mary's to tie that game in the final seconds.
He basically won a heart of yours because it was
fourth and twenty. I think on the first one he
threw it out of the end zone sixty yard. It
was a line drive hail marray the Jeff Jannis so
(14:07):
I think had two catches that year. And then he
throws hail mary in the final seconds to score the
final the tying touchdown.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Janis making that catch as well.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
McCarthy should have gone for two points there because the
previous year they lose in Seattle after Aaron made that
great drive at the end to tie it following the collapse.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
But McCarthy didn't go for two.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
They lose the coin toss again and two straight playoffs
end with Aaron never touching the ball in overtime. Of course,
in sixteen, he makes one of the great postseason passes
ever to beat Dallas. Then they lose to just a
better Atlanta team in the NFC Championship game. So I'm
not saying that your numbers work. I mean that they
are what they are. He's eleven and ten in the
(14:48):
postseason and he can't run away from that. But I'm
just adding a little context to those numbers.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
You know, he does feel like and listen, he's not
the only guy that pushed back on the vaccine. Okay,
he's not all right there, and I do think there
were government overreaches. I live in California. They wouldn't let
people go to the beach. I'm not going to beat
him up too bad on that. I may disagree with him.
I took a vaccine, but I don't think it's fair
to beat him up because he's not You're not one
on one on that, but there is the Darkness retreat
(15:15):
the Iahwaska there there he feels quirkier. Now I've I've
kind of pointed to he's not married, he's got no kids.
He kind of lives in his own orbit. If I
started doing Darkness retreats, my wife would be like, all right,
get a divorce attorney. So I kind of blame that.
He's kind of a when you get rich and you
get old and you you don't have to sacrifice much
for others, it does change you. I feel like he's
(15:38):
gotten more conspiratorial and a little odd. Doesn't feel he
feels like a quarterback slash podcaster in the last three years.
Is that fair? Can you explain that? Do you see that?
Speaker 6 (15:51):
I see it? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
But the thing is with the conspiracy theory is he
started with that in high school, studying the jfk assassination
and coming to believe, like many Americans, it was a
conspiracy involving a government agency. And so he's actually had
that as part of his life for a long time.
He's gotten more public about it, and some of his
conspiracy theories are a little wackier and more vile.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
I guess.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
But what happened there was he studied Operation Northwoods, which
actually happened in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
It's one of the.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Most vile plots ever hatched by a government official in
this country, where the Joint Chiefs of Staff had a
plan to have the US military attack American military and
civilian targets. Yeah, blame it on Castro as justification to
start a war with Cuba. Thankfully, President Kennedy nixed it.
But Aaron studied that and was fascinated by it, and
he now thinks there's an Operation Northwoods behind everything, and
(16:45):
of course there isn't. So yeah, that's part of his life,
but it's been Conspiracies have been a part of his
life for a long time. He's just been more public
about it since COVID really changed his life in twenty
twenty one.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, it's fascinating. This book is so interest out of
the darkness, the mystery of Aaron Rodgers. I won't give
away the first chapter, but the story of his great
grandfather is. It's completely fascinating. Your work on this, you
went a mile deep, and it's just it's sensational. New
York's interesting. You know, people view him as sort of
(17:21):
the savior. In fact, I'm gonna get to this in
a second. Let me go back to green Bay. It
ended out of the darkness retreat, he came out of it,
and they just moved on. Now, they didn't draft Jordan
Love to sit. They were going to move to Jordan
Love anyway. But there is this sense that green Bay
just had enough and bailed. Is that overstated the exit?
(17:44):
When when the Packers jettison Aaron, was it coming anyway
or did they truly with your reporting, did they truly
just were they exhausted with Aaron the guy?
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Now they were exhausted, And with Aaron and green Bay,
you had the downside of the drama, but you always
had the upside of making the playoffs. Basically every year
when he was healthy, and he's a first ballot Hall
of Famer, But that last year in green Bay they
didn't make the playoffs. They had an opportunity that last game.
He did not play well, he was injured a lot
of the year. He seemed to be declining a little bit,
(18:16):
and they said, we're out of here. They wanted him
out of green Bay, and he did see a great
opportunity with the Jets because of what that could mean
to his legacy. And always being compared to Brady. Well,
Brady's at seven rings and I'm at one. I'm never
closing that gap. But if I win one in New
York for a franchise that hasn't been to the Super
Bowl since January sixty nine, that's going to feel like
(18:38):
three rings. So it worked for him, but clearly Green
Bay wanted him out, just like Green Bay wanted Brett
Farbo out after he lost the NFC Championship game to
the Giants, and they wanted to move to Aaron. Very
similar situations. Both parties needed a divorce and Aaron had
to change the dynamic of his career. It was one
postseason bitter moment after another for what for twelve years.
(19:01):
He needed a change and he saw opportunity in the Jets,
and that opportunity is still there.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Let's be fair here. Aaron treated Jordan Love from your reporting,
better than far have treated him.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
That's clear right by far It's not even close.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah, and good relationship with him. Do you believe there
is still resentment about Green Bay? Aaron tends to be
I think it's fair. He can ghost, he can be
a little bit of a grudge holder. For the record,
I think Belichick is as a coach, and you've done
a book on him. Do you think the Green Bay
situation today? If you asked him privately, does Aaron still
(19:38):
resent the Packers?
Speaker 6 (19:41):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, I think just the greats, they feel slighted and
they never forget it. Yeah, And Aaron holds a grudge
like he holds the football with a very firm grip.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
He never lets go.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
That's how he got into the Jimmy Kimmel ness because
Kimmel had mocked him and he was waiting for an
opportunity to get him back, and he picked the wrong
moment to do it, and he got himself in a
lot of trouble. And so there's no question if you
asked Aaron which team he'd like to face in the
Super Bowl as a member of the New York Jets.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
It's the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
And that's what fuels these guys and real or imagine slights,
And let's face it, Yeah, he wanted the trade.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
He got the trade, but it was more like a
firing to me.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
I think the Packers wanted to fire him, and I
think he knows that, and I think he'll never forget.
This is a guy who out of high school, didn't
have a single scholarship offer.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
He gets humiliated at the draft. He got thirteen ten
on his SATs.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
He's a great quarterback, and he's got to go to
the local community college. Those things add up to that
gigantic chip on his shoulder that still has not gone away.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Well, we've seen a couple of moments, and I could
blame Robert Sola for this as well, where Aaron you
know a lot of passive aggressive stuff in Green Bay
with the front office. He'd go on a local radio
station and or talk to media and you know, very
intentional stuff. He also made a very intentional comment about
you know, solid didn't give him a tip if he
was playing, And I thought, oh boy, here people are
(21:04):
what they are. You know, you can hire somebody with
a reputation. After about six months to a year, that
employee becomes what they are. Do you since that if
this thing goes sideways, Aaron's not going to take the hit.
Like my take is Aaron gun point a finger at
somebody if this thing goes sideways? Do you feel and
you're close now because you're in the city as a columnist,
(21:27):
do you feel slight it's at the very beginning of
potential issues if it goes sideways. An ugly blowout lost
with the Niners in Week one.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Not that early, but I do think if the Jets
are two and five, this could really go south and
get ugly in a hurry, because he's lost some of
that goodwill from Jets fans.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
They loved him last year.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
New York City fell in love with Aaron like I've
never seen the city fall in love with a superstar
coming in from another market.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
It was unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
But that all went away with the enjurre the offseason controversies.
The Jets, of course, being the Jets, they got all
the downside of employing Aaron Rodgers and none of the upside.
So if they're having a losing season, first of all,
everyone's getting fired. Sala's getting fired, Hackets getting fired, Joe
Douglas is getting fired, and Aaron might get fired.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
Woody Johnson loves having a star quarterback.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
If Aaron plays a decent level of football and they
have a losing season, it's possible what he will bring
him back with the new coach, but chances are if
they don't make the playoffs, Rogers is out of the.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Building with everyone else in that jet organization.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Out of the Darkness. The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers. Let
show the cover if we can again, six books for
New York Times Bestseller. He goes a mile deep on
this stuff. Sometimes you'll be sympathetic to Aaron. Sometimes he'll
frustrate you. And again he's one of the few American
athletes where there's mystery. We know everything, we know what
people have for lunch. Now with Aaron there's a lot
(22:59):
of layers. The onion appeal back and you do a
great jobby and his always thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
You're the best column. Thanks very much.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
All right, Yeah, it's I just flying flew through the book.
Have you do you have it yet? Guys? And our
staff Greg's going through it and our staff.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
I'm not on your level. So nobody sent me a
free book. But I will say that that's fascinating. He
got over thirteen hundred on his SATs, didn't have one
scholarship offer, was angry at the world, said I'll go
to junior college. Lansa caw the.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Story on his junior college year. That's fascinating. I mean,
it's really good stuff. In his grandfather in the war
his junior college year. The FARV stuff is brutal, his
family dynamics. There's a chapter on the Jets. So it's
just I mean what, We've all.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Had chips on our shoulders. None of us carry them
around for twenty years.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Oh I do you? Oh yeah you do? Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Oh I didn't know that about you. Okay, all right,
interesting talk off air about some of these chips. I mean, listen,
we all have. Why do you think I played in
multiple men's.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Basketball My wife Anne once said to me she I
was complaining. I said, yeah, I get tired of hearing
about hair. Everybody's balanced in life. She goes, Honey, you're balanced.
You have a chip on bow shoulders.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I mean, Colin, I play in multiple men's basketball league
because you want to prove to your high school coach.
I couldn't even make the high school team. I was
too small. We had a good we had a good team.
I was like, I'm not good enough. I guess what.
I'm good enough? Darn right, darn Dak gummett.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I had talked to your coach. It wasn't it wasn't
your play, it was your as.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I just win titles as an adult.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
One more heard The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
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Speaker 1 (24:45):
So much stuff going on, just flying through a Monday,
Vince Young, Chris Collinsworth, Next Hour. J Mack with a
news no, no.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
No, this is the Herd line news all right.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I'm sure a large portion of our audience can't wait
for Nick Wright to come on this week and talk
about this play for an hour. But Patrick Mahomes threw
it behind the back pass. Colin see that? Oh my god.
The internet melted down during a preseason moment Mahomes had
with Kelsey Listen. It was like a little behind the.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Back, Mahomes said. Andy Reid had been begging him to
do it.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Yeah, it's preseason mess around, have fun. Mahomes explained during
the endgame interview that the play definitely was not planned.
He's a captain, ad lib.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Sure Travis didn't run the route he was supposed to.
Speaker 5 (25:38):
Run, and then it was kind of a behind the
back pass kind of because I was mad.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I was pissed off at Travis. He was supposed to
run a.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Flat route I don't know if you can hear me
on the broadcast. I'm yelling at him and then he
doesn't run it, so out of spite, I do it
behind the back pass.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
But now it's going to be a highlight.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, he's just screwing around out like that.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
You know, out of spite, I may just take the
show off the real third hour.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I don't know good luck with that, but.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I will say this, there is an element like you
see Caitlin Clark with the little Steph Curry comparisons, there
is a mahomes element to what's he going to do next?
You know, they're gonna do ring around the rosie in
the backfield. They're always doing some crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So much, especially when you're young, so much of your
success is tied to others. And Andy Reid's personality is
very much mahomes Is. They are pushers, they are creators.
They get a kick out of it. They like high
leverage moments to show off. Like I mean, if he
would have gotten a conservative defensive coach, it would not
(26:37):
look like this. We forget that now. In basketball, it's different.
Kobe was going to score against everybody, like, yeah, Wemby's
going to score and be productive regardless of Arry Lance.
But in football, especially quarterback, where do you go if
you don't have the right OC and the right protection.
I mean, it can really change things. I mean Trevor
(26:57):
Lawrence right now, you think you have Trevor Lawrence, lann
would Andy Reid? He'd have only one playoff win? I
don't think so what was the story?
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Sean Payton had said that they wanted mahomes in the draft,
remember in New Orleans, but I think they ended up
with Marshall Lottimore, who was great. But like what happens
if Sean Payton lands with Patrick mahomeson? I mean New
Orleans is a monster. Peyton's still in New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Like I always said this, if Drew Brees would have
been given the okay to play for the Miami Dolphins,
the Alabama dynasty with Nick Saban never had right, he
would have won games with Miami, he would have stayed
for a long time. Alabama would have had to hire
somebody else and that person could have been successful. Like
so much of life is in pencil, not penn and
(27:41):
just Situationally, if Drew Brees, who got the okay from
the Saints, doctors did not get the okay from the
Dolphins doctors, and next like, okay, I'm not going to
stay in this sport with second tier quarterbacks out just
who was a big athlete. But it's like, you know,
it's like Nick wanted some but that didn't that lib.
He wanted somebody that was accurate, moved the chains. Let's
(28:04):
rely on my defense. So history gets changed by these
little moments that we tend to forget about.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Yeah, that's a great point. Second story, bit of a
whopper here. So the Celtics won the championship and are
now for sale, and there's a report that Jeff Bezos
is a candidate to purchase the team. Now I just
asked the staff where's this from? Because I didn't see this.
So I was locked in on NFL. And apparently Bill Simmons,
Celtics fan, who you are pretty familiar with, right, Yeah,
(28:31):
he's the one mentioning Bezos as a candidate to purchase
the Celtics. I find that a little interesting.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Well, he already he's already dipped. Amazon now is more
than dip their toe in sports. They have at they
have an NBA package, they have an NFL package. So
I don't. I don't think it's strange at all. Bezos
is a sports fan. That doesn't shock me at all.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Well, I was looking at the Bill Simmons angle a
little bit more like, I mean, I know he's a Celtics,
but is he connected enough to happen?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Why would he float this?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
And then we he didn't float it. He probably heard it.
Floating is just a theory. I doubt he floated it.
He probably heard from something.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Let's put Phil Simmons's names out out there. It's almost
like it's a good thing to have if you're in
like a contract dispute with your.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Own Why are you so cynical out there?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
I didn't realize it was out there on the internet
that Simmons is.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Uh what I can you just give people credit for
potentially having inside information? Would be a big break for him, huge, huge, Well,
I think Bezo says this reservoir of money because of Amazon.
I mean, Amazon's the only company we all use, I
mean literally all of us use that. There's not a
lot of those kind of companies out there. That's it.
And so you know.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
He's got that asking price is around six billion dollars.
Bezos has a net worth of one hundred and ninety
five billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
He's doing I would give six to own it that franchise, which,
by the way, if you look at the contract, so
Tatum's under contract, Jalen Brown's under contract, the GM's under contract.
He's brilliant. The coach won a title. Like, if you're
gonna buy a team, now you're gonna pay more. The
Clippers went for two and everybody said that's too much,
but they're worth now four. So to me, there's very
few places in America globally that you can invest in.
(30:16):
You don't know if IBM is gonna be around here
in twenty five years. Celtics are gonna be around here,
Manchester United is gonna be around the Yankees are gonna
be around, the Dodgers. You don't know if these companies
are gonna be around.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Yeah. Final story, this college. I love this stuff. I
hope you like this one. Uh So, during the Olympics,
Dennis Shrewder took a shot at USA basketball. He's playing
for Germany, obviously saying that the European game was no
entertainment straight IQ. Okay, he's basically saying, you know, USA
basketball is kind of like low level hoops. Kevin Durant
(30:50):
saw that, right. So then when the USA won gold,
Kevin Durant posted a photo of the team holding their
medals and captioned it entertainment and IQ. Remember I saw that,
and I was like, what is he? What's he talking about?
It was a jab clearly at Dennis Shruder. So during
a recent Twitch stream, Shrewd fired back saying Katie was
(31:11):
weak as a person for making that post.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Like Kevin Dura, shooter has played himself out of about
five NBA lockers. That's he's done. And I also think
if you look at our roster right now, between the
coaching and between our players, I thought the team was
I thought it was a much bigger lift to beat
Serbia a third time than people gave him credit for.
(31:35):
That's a hard lift, you know. I don't think I've
said this before on the air. Over the last twenty years.
If you look at the great teams in NBA history,
even the bad Boy Pistons, how many of those guys
became gms and coaches like the really great team. Look
how the heatles the spurs those guys end up being
(31:56):
super successful in business. I mean magic Johnson back in business,
Kobe in business. Like you just think basketball is all talent.
You're not winning Olympics and you're not winning NBA champion.
I mean the Warriors, Like Dramond's got one of the
most instinctive, intelligent games I've ever seen. He's turned six
seven into a post game on offensive catalysts. So I
(32:18):
always think, you know, we always tend to think of
baseball as a thinking man's game. And it may be,
but I think that's undersold in basketball. Spacing, self awareness,
like the great players are almost all have a real
understanding of life beyond themselves. Understanding chemistry. You're on a
tiny plane, thirteen guys, six matter. You've got to be
(32:42):
You have to understand the room and the temperature and
getting along with others and being coachable. I basketball is
as smart sport.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Okay, it is smart. But why is Kevin Durant this
This is like one of his things. Somebody says stuff
about him on the internet, He's gonna fireback. You think Lebron,
I'm sure Lebron saw the shooter. By the way, he
doesn't Carey doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Well, that's Lebron. That's everybody's got a different personality. Tom
Brady always felt corporate, Aaron Rodgers feels like a podcaster
who's a little loose. Both work, Joe Burrow goes to
fashion Week dyes his hair, and Josh Allen's small town
guy keeps to himself. Everybody gets Kyler Murray he's he's
(33:23):
gaming the minute he can. Jordan Loves got a different
personality than Aaron, Who's got a different personality than Farv,
who has a different personality than bark Star. It's okay
to be different.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
People are taking jabs at us daily on carey, every hour.
We don't care. None of this. I care.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
It is okay. If you do what we do for
a living and you do care, it's it's okay. I
don't think it's healthy for me. I've got kids, of
family and on business.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
I don't think it's healthy for anyone to care what
people are saying.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
I think I think Kevin likes to play the game
of social A lot of people I know do. I'm
not interested, but that's okay. You know, as you age,
you're gonna understand your kids will see the world differently.
It's okay. Yeah, I'm not gonna get into whizzing matches
with the random guy screaming stuff. But some people like
(34:11):
the game of it.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
J Mack of the News, Well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by the Herd Line News.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I am so excited by something I saw this weekend,
I cannot contain myself. That's next, tire Rack.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking, what in God's name
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of it. Ben Maler shaw a cult hit overnights
on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will?
Speaker 6 (34:51):
A world will?
Speaker 7 (34:52):
We chat with captains of industry in media, sports, and
war every week explore some amazing facts about human nature
and more. The Fifth Hour with Ben Mather on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
August thirty, first Big Noon Saturday kicks off a huge
season opener between eighth rank Penn State and West Virginia
with the big noon kickoff crew coming to you live
from Morgantown. Don't miss the most watched game window in
college football beginning August thirty first on five.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
So if you go to the last game in Denver
where Nat Hackett was coach, it was Christmas. He got
fired before the end of the season. Think about how
bad they were twenty twenty two, Christmas four and eleven
in total cap hell, deficient on draft picks, coach disaster,
I mean literally fired him first year before the season
(35:43):
was over. Russell Wilson looks cooked. Culture's broken. I mean
they're in cap abyss and now it's August twenty twenty four.
Bonix looks like the franchise quarterback, not paying him for
like four years. Sean Payton, he got his quarterback. Cap
situation clears up next year, got their picks back major major.
(36:09):
I would say, culture upgrade. Russell's gone young quarterback with
a young roster eighteen months. That's all it takes. And
I think, I really do think this is part of
the secret sauce of the NFL Houston Texans man overboard disaster.
Get the quarterback and the coach right. One year playoffs.
(36:30):
Bengals were two and fourteen. Joe Burrow arrived year two.
They're in the super Bowl. You didn't even know if
you like Zach Taylor. You can't do this in baseball
in the NBA. Baseball in the NBA, they have their straints,
but they're like that container ship stuck in the you know,
the canal down in Panama, Like good luck turning it
around quickly. The aircraft carrier. NFL's much more the sailboat.
(36:53):
You just have to get a couple things right. You
can be in cap hell, you can be missing draft picks.
Get the coach in the quarterback right. Done Burrow, Zach
Taylor keeping together good for years. C J. Stroud, Demiko Ryans.
But it is this organization. On Christmas twenty two in
any other sport, you felt like he was in an
eight year hole. And I'm watching I'm watching the preseason stuff.
(37:17):
Bo Knicks has been absolutely incredible. Seven drives, scored on
six of them. It's not like he's just picking up
first downs. I mean Pittsburgh Russell Wilson five drives, one
first down, bone Knicks has had seven. He scored a
touchdown or they've scored in six of the seventh and
Sean Payton talking to Diana Russini in the podcast Scoop City,
which comes out tomorrow, talking about when he knew bow
(37:38):
Knicks was the right guy.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
What did you know it was the guy say you wanted,
no matter what.
Speaker 8 (37:42):
The individual workout. After the meeting we went on to
the field in about throw sixteen, I just said to George,
this is a guy, I'd say the single most important
trait besides his processing, which is always hard to really measure, yeah,
I'd say, is his ability to throw from the dirty pocket.
You know, there's it's a little bit of penetration and
he can kind of take that quick step yep and
(38:04):
be right on point.
Speaker 6 (38:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
It's more athletic than you think. A lot of poise
sixty one college starts. There's very much a Drew Brees thing.
I mean, go back to the Saints. In fact, I
was looking this up this morning. The Saints before Sean
Payton and Drew Brees got there, they were terrible, okay,
And I think they were three and thirteen the year
before they got there, and then the next year we're
(38:28):
breezing Peyton. I believe the next year they got to
the NFC Championship, like it happens fast in this league,
and so it's exciting, exciting time. I'm watching him, and
I don't think it's too early. I don't think it's
I don't think it's too early. I'm watching it. It's
pretty obvious.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
I'm happy, you're happy, Colin.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
By the way, here it is Saints and Drew Brees
in New Orleans three and thirteen pre arrival, ten and
six NFC Championship, second worst offense in the league to
one of the top five. I'm telling you, these people
tell me Denvers no talents, nonsense. This receiving corps, this
tight end core, these running backs, it's B B plus stuff.
I think they're really good.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
I don't think so.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
Wild Carter Division, which one.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Wild card they will vie for a wild card? You
guys have him at five wins. I got him at eight.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
The guys in Vegas do. I don't have them at
five wins.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
I am at six.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
By the way, Ian O'Connor, if you missed it, was
talking about Aaron Rodgers, really interesting stuff, and he was
talking about the chip on Aaron's shoulder where it develops.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Aaron holds a grudge like he holds the football with
a very firm grip.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
He never lets go.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
That's how he got into the Jimmy Kimmel mess because
Kimmel had mocked him and he was waiting for an
opportunity to get him back, and he picked the wrong
moment to do it, and he got himself in a
lot of trouble.
Speaker 6 (39:47):
And so there's no question.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
If you asked Aaron which team he'd like to face
in the Super Bowl as a member of the New
York Jets, it's the Green Bay Packers. And that's what
fuels these guys. They'll never forget. This is a guy
who out of high school didn't have a single scholar
you've offer. He gets humiliated at the draft. He got
thirteen ten on his SATs, he's a great quarterback, and
he's got to go to the local community college. Those
things add up to that gigantic chip on his shoulder
(40:10):
that still has not gone away.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, it's I'm looking forward to it. I think it's
going to be I think the season is going to
be very interesting, very interesting. Vince Young and Chris Collinsworth
join us next hour. You can feel you can it's
almost we're about We're about ten days away from You
can smell the grass and it smells like fall. We're
not there yet, still a little stormy and humid, but
(40:34):
everybody now getting kids back into school, so there's steps
and stages to football season. We're getting close.
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.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Boy, we got a good show today. Hour one flew by.
It's Hour two live in Los Angeles. It is The
Herd wherever you may be and however you may be
listening or watching. Thanks for making us part of your day.
Five minutes e and O'Connor's got a new Aaron Rodgers book.
It's fantastic. I got multiple people on the staff wrapping
it up. Just all sorts of classic stories. Family, Brett Fard,
(00:46):
Jordan Love coaching, pushback. Also Vince Young, Next hour in studio.
This is the seat. This is the best Texas team
since his team that won the Natty. This is the
Texas team that needs to play the championship. Also is
Collins were stopped five. This is a good Texas team now,
no excuses. Staff's good players, good they got two quarterbacks
(01:06):
that can play.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
We think maybe he.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Can sell you on Quinn. Youewers, I know you're not
the biggest.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
He's a little loose. I told you reminds me of
Jay Cutler.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
That's early, Youwers. I think he's grown up and matured
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I'm a fan. Well we'll see. I want, you know,
I want him to win. Texas football is big, it's fun.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
You could say that, but do you actually want it?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, I don't trust them. I like him, I don't
trust them. Texas football is always a wrung lower than
you think they should be. Like when Oklahoma's good, they're good.
When Bam is good, they're good. A good Oregon team,
it's gonna be a good Oregon team mostly, you know Harball.
Last couple of years, we're like, they got NFL dudes,
they were good. I'm always like this, man, Texas can
(01:46):
play with anybody. And then they lose to like Oklahoma State,
and it's like, well, what's going on here? All right?
We call it Colin right, Colin wrong? On a Monday,
plenty of both. Here we go where Colin was right.
Caitlin Clark breaks the WNBA rookie record. Also, Angel Reese
is on fire, setting records. They both should have been
on the Olympic team. I kept saying, Caitlin just had
(02:06):
to overcome the silly early WNBA schedule. She is a
rising star. Her an Angel Reese on the WNBA All
Star team beat the Olympians. She's I'm telling you, she
is a playmaker. She her passing is so incredibly undervalued.
She is really the rare big score. That's unselfish. She's
got the Lebron quality like she loves to pass. And
(02:30):
she's already broken, already broken the WNBA rookie record. And
by the way, Indiana now seventh in the WNBA standings.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Here come the fever where Colin was raw.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I'd like to apologize for supporting Daniel Jones last week.
I will never do it again. It's like justin Fields,
he just makes too many mistakes. Has just got a
forty five passer rating, no touchdowns in the preseason. He
just makes to This is a bad throw. You got
to go along on that. You can't let Stingley pick
that ball off. That's a rookie, missus. You've been in
this league too long. And I mean he's a nice kid.
(03:03):
I feel bad for him, but you know, it's Zach Wilson,
it's Justin Fields, it's Daniel Jones. You can't make these mistakes.
You're facing backups in many of these instances, vanilla schemes.
You can't make these mistakes. Where Colin was right, Bonnix
looks like a perfect fit. Six scoring drives in seven
drives in the preseason, totally under control, accurate, good in
(03:29):
the muddy pocket. I said before the draft, this kid fips,
and I'll say it again, do not be shocked if
he is not the best, at least in year one,
the best of the rookie quarterbacks. Denver's offensive skill is
undervalued tight end, receiver and running back. I think they're
better than average. He has been absolutely sensational. I said
(03:50):
before the draft, this is the guy that'll work with
Sean Payton, and you're seeing it live.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Where Colin was raw, Drake.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
May I thought, look better than I thought he would
all use. In the last preseason game, he had his
footwork down through with confidence, was accurate. I still don't
love his accuracy, but I thought I thought from first
go around to second like it was noticeably more under
control through a beautiful deep ball. Wasn't cod but you
(04:18):
know he does. When you watch these highlights, he looks
like the comp My NFL executive sources said, they said,
you're gonna see some Justin Herbert, And I'm telling you
I saw in that game glimpses of Justin Herbert.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Where Colin was right well.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I said Caleb Williams last week would be the most
exciting can't turn the TV off quarterback in the league
this year, not saying the best, but the most exciting.
I'm watching this game against Cincinnati. You can't shut the
TV off. He's fascinating. He's got a little Lamar, got
a little Mahomes, little Josh Allen, spinning, moving, running, throwing
off bounce. Now, the criticism is he can be too
(04:58):
much of an ad libber. I'm not saying that's wrong,
but so can Josh Allen. And it's a lot of
fun to watch. This kid is magic and he will
be that one o'clock window on Fox watch the games
because he's going to be in that one o'clock window
a lot. He is sensational. Where Colin was right well,
the Atlanta Falcons got their edge rusher edge rusher that
(05:20):
they were so harshly criticized for during the draft, and
the reason they drafted Pennix is, you know what you
can't get at the trading deadline. You know what you
can't get in a trade before a season starts, a young,
talented franchise quarterback. Nobody's given CJ. Stroud away, and they're
not given Michael Pennix away. I did not criticize Atlanta.
(05:40):
I said, listen, if you can get a Michael Pennox
at that point in the draft, you take him. You
figure out safety later, you figure out edge rusher later.
And they got Matthew Judon from the Patriots, a massive
upgrade for Atlanta. Been searching for an edge rusher for
several years, where Colin was raw the United States men's
now national team. My bad landed big swing and landed
(06:04):
Mauricio Focatino. And this is a guy that has coached
Harry Kane Messi, neymar this is a real coach. Now.
I kept saying they're gonna get rejected, they're going to
get fit the hand from all the top guys. But
he has coached Chelsea, he has been This is being
(06:30):
viewed as a huge swing, a huge get, and universally accepted.
And I didn't trust the United States Soccer Federation, the women, Yeah,
the men didn't trust him. Tip of the cap.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Where Colin was right, Well, well, well what was brought pretty?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Playing without starters this weekend with like a backup for
Carolina two for six for eleven yards, but no Christian McCaffrey,
no Trent, no Depot, three draws, no scores. It's funny.
And have Hall of famers to carry him running for?
Oh boy, not a lot of zip? There Isn't it funny?
(07:10):
I've said before. Put him in Carolina, put him with
the Giants on line. It's not that I don't like him,
but this idea that he is this wildly creative, strong armed,
generational talent. He basically got a Mercedes. Don't run it
into a tree, you know, don't hit the garage door
when it's opening. When he played with backups, how do
(07:31):
you look?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Where Colin was right?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
And stub Hub announced ticket sales college football up forty
two year to year, and it's because of the conference
realignment games. That's what stub Hub announced. I pushed back
on the idea that transfer portal, the NIL and conference
realignment was going to kill the sport. Folks. I grew
up in the West Coast. I was over cal against
(07:59):
Oregon State. Give me Oregon against Ohio State, USC against Michigan,
Texas against LSU or Florida. StubHub announcing conference realignment is
not only not puncturing college football, They're almost up fifty
percent year to year in sales. People want new, they
(08:22):
want fresh, they want fund and that's what conference realignment is.
And the transfer portal, by the way, new star quarterbacks
Riley Leonard at Notre Dame. I want to see it.
I'm excited for where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. Really,
He's written six books, four New York Times bestseller. This
one's fascinating on Aaron Rodgers. Out of the Darkness, The
(08:45):
Mystery of Aaron Rodgers. It comes out officially tomorrow. My
friend Ian O'Connor one of the best columnists in this
country for a long time and a world class reporter.
So you know, you and I through the years have
talked about Aaron, and you chose Aaron. There was some
proximity and he's with a Jets. He's so very few
of our athletes have mystery. You know, we see him
on social media. We know everything about everybody. We don't
(09:08):
know everything about Aaron Rodgers. So let's start with the
family dynamic. It's don't I don't know of another star
athlete that it's to this point. Is he talking with
his family now?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Ian, there might have been some communication electronically Colin recently.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
Obviously, I have to see him in the book.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
I think you read it where he had a moment
at Lake Tahoe last summer with his father Ed, and
Ed planted himself in the crowd at that celebrity golf
tournament that Aaron plays in every summer, and Aaron saw
him on the ninth hole on Saturday and decided to
go over there and give him a hug. He was thinking,
should ignore him, should I act like I'm on the phone.
But for some reason that day he went over and
(09:52):
gave his dad a hug. Now Ed when he saw Aaron.
He turned around and there he was, standing fifteen feet away.
He couldn't believe it. He froze because he forgot what
it felt like to have his son in his presence,
and to have a son looking at him. It had
been nine years almost So Aaron hugged him. They said,
I love you. It was emotional.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
Ed was crying.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Aaron had to go back and finish his golf round,
and there wasn't really any follow up, but both said
on the record in my book that they want a relationship,
and that's really the first time Aaron has ever said
since the estrangement started in twenty fourteen that he wanted
a relationship with one of his family members.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
So hopefully that's the start of something better.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
One of my takeaways where I found I had great
sympathy for Aaron. It really bothered me. He was almost
I mean, the Brett faarrv relationship almost felt at times
like hazing. It was really ugly, and it made me
think less of far Of and more of Aaron Rodgers
as you did your digging. Jeff Peerlman had written about
some of this stuff. But were you surprised? I found
(10:56):
myself rooting for Aaron on that chapter like it made
it I was, he got emotional about it. I'm thinking, God,
who would treat a young employee like that? Were you
surprised by it?
Speaker 6 (11:07):
No? Not really.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Brett fav never had any intention of teaching Aaron anything,
and I can see it a.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Little bit from Brett's perspective. He was a living legend.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
He was the one who made the Green Bay Packers
the Green Bay Packers again after some down years following
the glory years of Lombardian Star.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
And so he had done so much for that franchise
and all of a.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Sudden they hire his replacement, and he's expected to train
that replacement to expedite his departure. And so I could
see it from his perspective, but he treated him really
poorly those first couple of years.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
The third year, I think that relationship started to get better.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
It's funny because Colin, I think now their relationship is
pretty good because Aaron got kicked out almost in the
way that Brett got kicked out. Now, I understand that
Aaron wanted the trade, but they wanted to move on
to Jordan Love, just like the Packers back.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
In the day wanted to and move on to Aaron.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
So they both experienced this iconic franchise that they did
so much for his first ballot Hall of Famers moving
them out. And I think they have that shared experience
that they can talk about together.
Speaker 6 (12:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It's you know, I've had a couple of knocks all
address both on Aaron's play one of them is he's
barely above five hundred as a quarterback in the playoffs
and the only functional operation for most of his time Minnesota,
Kirk Cousins was five hundred against him that he benefited
greatly from a very smart front office, good offensive lines,
(12:36):
offensive coaches. Would you push back on the you know,
he's barely above five hundred Mahomes, isn't Brady's not in
the playoffs? What's the pushback on that?
Speaker 5 (12:46):
The pushback is the guy he's always compared against his
Tom Brady, obviously and will be forever.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Brady has the seven rings.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
He made it look easy, but he had Belichick arguably
the greatest coach ever, and he had the best offensive
coordinator in league, and Josh McDaniels and Aaron never had
those things. So I'm not saying he would have won
six rings in New England like Brady did, but he
would have more than one, that's for sure. And also
if you look at him, listen, they went it in
twenty ten, they should have two peeded in twenty eleven.
(13:13):
They were fifteen and one that year, dominating the league,
and then unfortunately they had a tragedy of the week
leading into that Giant's playoff loss, Joe Philbin tragically loses
his son that really had.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
A profound impact on that team.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
But even taking it back to a football context, in
twenty thirteen through sixteen, they lose every year. So from
the outside looking in, Aaron's a loser, loser, loser, loser
in those four seasons. But he made magical plays in
sudden death games in each of those four seasons, and
that gets totally forgotten.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
So that's my pushback.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
I could go over the plays he made, he probably
remember all of them, but one in particular, the drive
at the end in twenty fifteen against Arizona. He threw
two hail mary's to tie that game in the final seconds.
He basically won a heart of yours because it was
fourth and twenty. I think on the first one he
threw it out of the end zone sixty yard. It
was a line drive hail marray the Jeff Jannis so
(14:07):
I think had two catches that year. And then he
throws hail mary in the final seconds to score the
final the tying touchdown.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Janis making that catch as well.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
McCarthy should have gone for two points there because the
previous year they lose in Seattle after Aaron made that
great drive at the end to tie it following the collapse.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
But McCarthy didn't go for two.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
They lose the coin toss again and two straight playoffs
end with Aaron never touching the ball in overtime. Of course,
in sixteen, he makes one of the great postseason passes
ever to beat Dallas. Then they lose to just a
better Atlanta team in the NFC Championship game. So I'm
not saying that your numbers work. I mean that they
are what they are. He's eleven and ten in the
(14:48):
postseason and he can't run away from that. But I'm
just adding a little context to those numbers.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
You know, he does feel like and listen, he's not
the only guy that pushed back on the vaccine. Okay,
he's not all right there, and I do think there
were government overreaches. I live in California. They wouldn't let
people go to the beach. I'm not going to beat
him up too bad on that. I may disagree with him.
I took a vaccine, but I don't think it's fair
to beat him up because he's not You're not one
on one on that, but there is the Darkness retreat
(15:15):
the Iahwaska there there he feels quirkier. Now I've I've
kind of pointed to he's not married, he's got no kids.
He kind of lives in his own orbit. If I
started doing Darkness retreats, my wife would be like, all right,
get a divorce attorney. So I kind of blame that.
He's kind of a when you get rich and you
get old and you you don't have to sacrifice much
for others, it does change you. I feel like he's
(15:38):
gotten more conspiratorial and a little odd. Doesn't feel he
feels like a quarterback slash podcaster in the last three years.
Is that fair? Can you explain that? Do you see that?
Speaker 6 (15:51):
I see it? Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
But the thing is with the conspiracy theory is he
started with that in high school, studying the jfk assassination
and coming to believe, like many Americans, it was a
conspiracy involving a government agency. And so he's actually had
that as part of his life for a long time.
He's gotten more public about it, and some of his
conspiracy theories are a little wackier and more vile.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
I guess.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
But what happened there was he studied Operation Northwoods, which
actually happened in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
It's one of the.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Most vile plots ever hatched by a government official in
this country, where the Joint Chiefs of Staff had a
plan to have the US military attack American military and
civilian targets. Yeah, blame it on Castro as justification to
start a war with Cuba. Thankfully, President Kennedy nixed it.
But Aaron studied that and was fascinated by it, and
he now thinks there's an Operation Northwoods behind everything, and
(16:45):
of course there isn't. So yeah, that's part of his life,
but it's been Conspiracies have been a part of his
life for a long time. He's just been more public
about it since COVID really changed his life in twenty
twenty one.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, it's fascinating. This book is so interest out of
the darkness, the mystery of Aaron Rodgers. I won't give
away the first chapter, but the story of his great
grandfather is. It's completely fascinating. Your work on this, you
went a mile deep, and it's just it's sensational. New
York's interesting. You know, people view him as sort of
(17:21):
the savior. In fact, I'm gonna get to this in
a second. Let me go back to green Bay. It
ended out of the darkness retreat, he came out of it,
and they just moved on. Now, they didn't draft Jordan
Love to sit. They were going to move to Jordan
Love anyway. But there is this sense that green Bay
just had enough and bailed. Is that overstated the exit?
(17:44):
When when the Packers jettison Aaron, was it coming anyway
or did they truly with your reporting, did they truly
just were they exhausted with Aaron the guy?
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Now they were exhausted, And with Aaron and green Bay,
you had the downside of the drama, but you always
had the upside of making the playoffs. Basically every year
when he was healthy, and he's a first ballot Hall
of Famer, But that last year in green Bay they
didn't make the playoffs. They had an opportunity that last game.
He did not play well, he was injured a lot
of the year. He seemed to be declining a little bit,
(18:16):
and they said, we're out of here. They wanted him
out of green Bay, and he did see a great
opportunity with the Jets because of what that could mean
to his legacy. And always being compared to Brady. Well,
Brady's at seven rings and I'm at one. I'm never
closing that gap. But if I win one in New
York for a franchise that hasn't been to the Super
Bowl since January sixty nine, that's going to feel like
(18:38):
three rings. So it worked for him, but clearly Green
Bay wanted him out, just like Green Bay wanted Brett
Farbo out after he lost the NFC Championship game to
the Giants, and they wanted to move to Aaron. Very
similar situations. Both parties needed a divorce and Aaron had
to change the dynamic of his career. It was one
postseason bitter moment after another for what for twelve years.
(19:01):
He needed a change and he saw opportunity in the Jets,
and that opportunity is still there.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Let's be fair here. Aaron treated Jordan Love from your reporting,
better than far have treated him.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
That's clear right by far It's not even close.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah, and good relationship with him. Do you believe there
is still resentment about Green Bay? Aaron tends to be
I think it's fair. He can ghost, he can be
a little bit of a grudge holder. For the record,
I think Belichick is as a coach, and you've done
a book on him. Do you think the Green Bay
situation today? If you asked him privately, does Aaron still
(19:38):
resent the Packers?
Speaker 6 (19:41):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Yeah, I think just the greats, they feel slighted and
they never forget it. Yeah, And Aaron holds a grudge
like he holds the football with a very firm grip.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
He never lets go.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
That's how he got into the Jimmy Kimmel ness because
Kimmel had mocked him and he was waiting for an
opportunity to get him back, and he picked the wrong
moment to do it, and he got himself in a
lot of trouble. And so there's no question if you
asked Aaron which team he'd like to face in the
Super Bowl as a member of the New York Jets.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
It's the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
And that's what fuels these guys and real or imagine slights,
And let's face it, Yeah, he wanted the trade.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
He got the trade, but it was more like a
firing to me.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
I think the Packers wanted to fire him, and I
think he knows that, and I think he'll never forget.
This is a guy who out of high school, didn't
have a single scholarship offer.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
He gets humiliated at the draft. He got thirteen ten
on his SATs.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
He's a great quarterback, and he's got to go to
the local community college. Those things add up to that
gigantic chip on his shoulder that still has not gone away.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Well, we've seen a couple of moments, and I could
blame Robert Sola for this as well, where Aaron you
know a lot of passive aggressive stuff in Green Bay
with the front office. He'd go on a local radio
station and or talk to media and you know, very
intentional stuff. He also made a very intentional comment about
you know, solid didn't give him a tip if he
was playing, And I thought, oh boy, here people are
(21:04):
what they are. You know, you can hire somebody with
a reputation. After about six months to a year, that
employee becomes what they are. Do you since that if
this thing goes sideways, Aaron's not going to take the hit.
Like my take is Aaron gun point a finger at
somebody if this thing goes sideways? Do you feel and
you're close now because you're in the city as a columnist,
(21:27):
do you feel slight it's at the very beginning of
potential issues if it goes sideways. An ugly blowout lost
with the Niners in Week one.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Not that early, but I do think if the Jets
are two and five, this could really go south and
get ugly in a hurry, because he's lost some of
that goodwill from Jets fans.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
They loved him last year.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
New York City fell in love with Aaron like I've
never seen the city fall in love with a superstar
coming in from another market.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
It was unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
But that all went away with the enjurre the offseason controversies.
The Jets, of course, being the Jets, they got all
the downside of employing Aaron Rodgers and none of the upside.
So if they're having a losing season, first of all,
everyone's getting fired. Sala's getting fired, Hackets getting fired, Joe
Douglas is getting fired, and Aaron might get fired.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
Woody Johnson loves having a star quarterback.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
If Aaron plays a decent level of football and they
have a losing season, it's possible what he will bring
him back with the new coach, but chances are if
they don't make the playoffs, Rogers is out of the.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Building with everyone else in that jet organization.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Out of the Darkness. The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers. Let
show the cover if we can again, six books for
New York Times Bestseller. He goes a mile deep on
this stuff. Sometimes you'll be sympathetic to Aaron. Sometimes he'll
frustrate you. And again he's one of the few American
athletes where there's mystery. We know everything, we know what
people have for lunch. Now with Aaron there's a lot
(22:59):
of layers. The onion appeal back and you do a
great jobby and his always thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
You're the best column. Thanks very much.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
All right, Yeah, it's I just flying flew through the book.
Have you do you have it yet? Guys? And our
staff Greg's going through it and our staff.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
I'm not on your level. So nobody sent me a
free book. But I will say that that's fascinating. He
got over thirteen hundred on his SATs, didn't have one
scholarship offer, was angry at the world, said I'll go
to junior college. Lansa caw the.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Story on his junior college year. That's fascinating. I mean,
it's really good stuff. In his grandfather in the war
his junior college year. The FARV stuff is brutal, his
family dynamics. There's a chapter on the Jets. So it's
just I mean what, We've all.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Had chips on our shoulders. None of us carry them
around for twenty years.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Oh I do you? Oh yeah you do? Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Oh I didn't know that about you. Okay, all right,
interesting talk off air about some of these chips. I mean, listen,
we all have. Why do you think I played in
multiple men's.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Basketball My wife Anne once said to me she I
was complaining. I said, yeah, I get tired of hearing
about hair. Everybody's balanced in life. She goes, Honey, you're balanced.
You have a chip on bow shoulders.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I mean, Colin, I play in multiple men's basketball league
because you want to prove to your high school coach.
I couldn't even make the high school team. I was
too small. We had a good we had a good team.
I was like, I'm not good enough. I guess what.
I'm good enough? Darn right, darn Dak gummett.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I had talked to your coach. It wasn't it wasn't
your play, it was your as.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I just win titles as an adult.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
One more heard The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search her
to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
So much stuff going on, just flying through a Monday,
Vince Young, Chris Collinsworth, Next Hour. J Mack with a
news no, no.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
No, this is the Herd line news all right.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I'm sure a large portion of our audience can't wait
for Nick Wright to come on this week and talk
about this play for an hour. But Patrick Mahomes threw
it behind the back pass. Colin see that? Oh my god.
The internet melted down during a preseason moment Mahomes had
with Kelsey Listen. It was like a little behind the.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Back, Mahomes said. Andy Reid had been begging him to
do it.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Yeah, it's preseason mess around, have fun. Mahomes explained during
the endgame interview that the play definitely was not planned.
He's a captain, ad lib.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Sure Travis didn't run the route he was supposed to.
Speaker 5 (25:38):
Run, and then it was kind of a behind the
back pass kind of because I was mad.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I was pissed off at Travis. He was supposed to
run a.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Flat route I don't know if you can hear me
on the broadcast. I'm yelling at him and then he
doesn't run it, so out of spite, I do it
behind the back pass.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
But now it's going to be a highlight.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, he's just screwing around out like that.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
You know, out of spite, I may just take the
show off the real third hour.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I don't know good luck with that, but.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I will say this, there is an element like you
see Caitlin Clark with the little Steph Curry comparisons, there
is a mahomes element to what's he going to do next?
You know, they're gonna do ring around the rosie in
the backfield. They're always doing some crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So much, especially when you're young, so much of your
success is tied to others. And Andy Reid's personality is
very much mahomes Is. They are pushers, they are creators.
They get a kick out of it. They like high
leverage moments to show off. Like I mean, if he
would have gotten a conservative defensive coach, it would not
(26:37):
look like this. We forget that now. In basketball, it's different.
Kobe was going to score against everybody, like, yeah, Wemby's
going to score and be productive regardless of Arry Lance.
But in football, especially quarterback, where do you go if
you don't have the right OC and the right protection.
I mean, it can really change things. I mean Trevor
(26:57):
Lawrence right now, you think you have Trevor Lawrence, lann
would Andy Reid? He'd have only one playoff win? I
don't think so what was the story?
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Sean Payton had said that they wanted mahomes in the draft,
remember in New Orleans, but I think they ended up
with Marshall Lottimore, who was great. But like what happens
if Sean Payton lands with Patrick mahomeson? I mean New
Orleans is a monster. Peyton's still in New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Like I always said this, if Drew Brees would have
been given the okay to play for the Miami Dolphins,
the Alabama dynasty with Nick Saban never had right, he
would have won games with Miami, he would have stayed
for a long time. Alabama would have had to hire
somebody else and that person could have been successful. Like
so much of life is in pencil, not penn and
(27:41):
just Situationally, if Drew Brees, who got the okay from
the Saints, doctors did not get the okay from the
Dolphins doctors, and next like, okay, I'm not going to
stay in this sport with second tier quarterbacks out just
who was a big athlete. But it's like, you know,
it's like Nick wanted some but that didn't that lib.
He wanted somebody that was accurate, moved the chains. Let's
(28:04):
rely on my defense. So history gets changed by these
little moments that we tend to forget about.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Yeah, that's a great point. Second story, bit of a
whopper here. So the Celtics won the championship and are
now for sale, and there's a report that Jeff Bezos
is a candidate to purchase the team. Now I just
asked the staff where's this from? Because I didn't see this.
So I was locked in on NFL. And apparently Bill Simmons,
Celtics fan, who you are pretty familiar with, right, Yeah,
(28:31):
he's the one mentioning Bezos as a candidate to purchase
the Celtics. I find that a little interesting.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Well, he already he's already dipped. Amazon now is more
than dip their toe in sports. They have at they
have an NBA package, they have an NFL package. So
I don't. I don't think it's strange at all. Bezos
is a sports fan. That doesn't shock me at all.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Well, I was looking at the Bill Simmons angle a
little bit more like, I mean, I know he's a Celtics,
but is he connected enough to happen?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Why would he float this?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
And then we he didn't float it. He probably heard it.
Floating is just a theory. I doubt he floated it.
He probably heard from something.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Let's put Phil Simmons's names out out there. It's almost
like it's a good thing to have if you're in
like a contract dispute with your.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Own Why are you so cynical out there?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
I didn't realize it was out there on the internet
that Simmons is.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Uh what I can you just give people credit for
potentially having inside information? Would be a big break for him, huge, huge, Well,
I think Bezo says this reservoir of money because of Amazon.
I mean, Amazon's the only company we all use, I
mean literally all of us use that. There's not a
lot of those kind of companies out there. That's it.
And so you know.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
He's got that asking price is around six billion dollars.
Bezos has a net worth of one hundred and ninety
five billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
He's doing I would give six to own it that franchise, which,
by the way, if you look at the contract, so
Tatum's under contract, Jalen Brown's under contract, the GM's under contract.
He's brilliant. The coach won a title. Like, if you're
gonna buy a team, now you're gonna pay more. The
Clippers went for two and everybody said that's too much,
but they're worth now four. So to me, there's very
few places in America globally that you can invest in.
(30:16):
You don't know if IBM is gonna be around here
in twenty five years. Celtics are gonna be around here,
Manchester United is gonna be around the Yankees are gonna
be around, the Dodgers. You don't know if these companies
are gonna be around.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Yeah. Final story, this college. I love this stuff. I
hope you like this one. Uh So, during the Olympics,
Dennis Shrewder took a shot at USA basketball. He's playing
for Germany, obviously saying that the European game was no
entertainment straight IQ. Okay, he's basically saying, you know, USA
basketball is kind of like low level hoops. Kevin Durant
(30:50):
saw that, right. So then when the USA won gold,
Kevin Durant posted a photo of the team holding their
medals and captioned it entertainment and IQ. Remember I saw that,
and I was like, what is he? What's he talking about?
It was a jab clearly at Dennis Shruder. So during
a recent Twitch stream, Shrewd fired back saying Katie was
(31:11):
weak as a person for making that post.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Like Kevin Dura, shooter has played himself out of about
five NBA lockers. That's he's done. And I also think
if you look at our roster right now, between the
coaching and between our players, I thought the team was
I thought it was a much bigger lift to beat
Serbia a third time than people gave him credit for.
(31:35):
That's a hard lift, you know. I don't think I've
said this before on the air. Over the last twenty years.
If you look at the great teams in NBA history,
even the bad Boy Pistons, how many of those guys
became gms and coaches like the really great team. Look
how the heatles the spurs those guys end up being
(31:56):
super successful in business. I mean magic Johnson back in business,
Kobe in business. Like you just think basketball is all talent.
You're not winning Olympics and you're not winning NBA champion.
I mean the Warriors, Like Dramond's got one of the
most instinctive, intelligent games I've ever seen. He's turned six
seven into a post game on offensive catalysts. So I
(32:18):
always think, you know, we always tend to think of
baseball as a thinking man's game. And it may be,
but I think that's undersold in basketball. Spacing, self awareness,
like the great players are almost all have a real
understanding of life beyond themselves. Understanding chemistry. You're on a
tiny plane, thirteen guys, six matter. You've got to be
(32:42):
You have to understand the room and the temperature and
getting along with others and being coachable. I basketball is
as smart sport.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Okay, it is smart. But why is Kevin Durant this
This is like one of his things. Somebody says stuff
about him on the internet, He's gonna fireback. You think Lebron,
I'm sure Lebron saw the shooter. By the way, he
doesn't Carey doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Well, that's Lebron. That's everybody's got a different personality. Tom
Brady always felt corporate, Aaron Rodgers feels like a podcaster
who's a little loose. Both work, Joe Burrow goes to
fashion Week dyes his hair, and Josh Allen's small town
guy keeps to himself. Everybody gets Kyler Murray he's he's
(33:23):
gaming the minute he can. Jordan Loves got a different
personality than Aaron, Who's got a different personality than Farv,
who has a different personality than bark Star. It's okay
to be different.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
People are taking jabs at us daily on carey, every hour.
We don't care. None of this. I care.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
It is okay. If you do what we do for
a living and you do care, it's it's okay. I
don't think it's healthy for me. I've got kids, of
family and on business.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
I don't think it's healthy for anyone to care what
people are saying.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
I think I think Kevin likes to play the game
of social A lot of people I know do. I'm
not interested, but that's okay. You know, as you age,
you're gonna understand your kids will see the world differently.
It's okay. Yeah, I'm not gonna get into whizzing matches
with the random guy screaming stuff. But some people like
(34:11):
the game of it.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
J Mack of the News, Well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by the Herd Line News.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I am so excited by something I saw this weekend,
I cannot contain myself. That's next, tire Rack.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking, what in God's name
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of it. Ben Maler shaw a cult hit overnights
on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will?
Speaker 6 (34:51):
A world will?
Speaker 7 (34:52):
We chat with captains of industry in media, sports, and
war every week explore some amazing facts about human nature
and more. The Fifth Hour with Ben Mather on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
August thirty, first Big Noon Saturday kicks off a huge
season opener between eighth rank Penn State and West Virginia
with the big noon kickoff crew coming to you live
from Morgantown. Don't miss the most watched game window in
college football beginning August thirty first on five.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
So if you go to the last game in Denver
where Nat Hackett was coach, it was Christmas. He got
fired before the end of the season. Think about how
bad they were twenty twenty two, Christmas four and eleven
in total cap hell, deficient on draft picks, coach disaster,
I mean literally fired him first year before the season
(35:43):
was over. Russell Wilson looks cooked. Culture's broken. I mean
they're in cap abyss and now it's August twenty twenty four.
Bonix looks like the franchise quarterback, not paying him for
like four years. Sean Payton, he got his quarterback. Cap
situation clears up next year, got their picks back major major.
(36:09):
I would say, culture upgrade. Russell's gone young quarterback with
a young roster eighteen months. That's all it takes. And
I think, I really do think this is part of
the secret sauce of the NFL Houston Texans man overboard disaster.
Get the quarterback and the coach right. One year playoffs.
(36:30):
Bengals were two and fourteen. Joe Burrow arrived year two.
They're in the super Bowl. You didn't even know if
you like Zach Taylor. You can't do this in baseball
in the NBA. Baseball in the NBA, they have their straints,
but they're like that container ship stuck in the you know,
the canal down in Panama, Like good luck turning it
around quickly. The aircraft carrier. NFL's much more the sailboat.
(36:53):
You just have to get a couple things right. You
can be in cap hell, you can be missing draft picks.
Get the coach in the quarterback right. Done Burrow, Zach
Taylor keeping together good for years. C J. Stroud, Demiko Ryans.
But it is this organization. On Christmas twenty two in
any other sport, you felt like he was in an
eight year hole. And I'm watching I'm watching the preseason stuff.
(37:17):
Bo Knicks has been absolutely incredible. Seven drives, scored on
six of them. It's not like he's just picking up
first downs. I mean Pittsburgh Russell Wilson five drives, one
first down, bone Knicks has had seven. He scored a
touchdown or they've scored in six of the seventh and
Sean Payton talking to Diana Russini in the podcast Scoop City,
which comes out tomorrow, talking about when he knew bow
(37:38):
Knicks was the right guy.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
What did you know it was the guy say you wanted,
no matter what.
Speaker 8 (37:42):
The individual workout. After the meeting we went on to
the field in about throw sixteen, I just said to George,
this is a guy, I'd say the single most important
trait besides his processing, which is always hard to really measure, yeah,
I'd say, is his ability to throw from the dirty pocket.
You know, there's it's a little bit of penetration and
he can kind of take that quick step yep and
(38:04):
be right on point.
Speaker 6 (38:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
It's more athletic than you think. A lot of poise
sixty one college starts. There's very much a Drew Brees thing.
I mean, go back to the Saints. In fact, I
was looking this up this morning. The Saints before Sean
Payton and Drew Brees got there, they were terrible, okay,
And I think they were three and thirteen the year
before they got there, and then the next year we're
(38:28):
breezing Peyton. I believe the next year they got to
the NFC Championship, like it happens fast in this league,
and so it's exciting, exciting time. I'm watching him, and
I don't think it's too early. I don't think it's
I don't think it's too early. I'm watching it. It's
pretty obvious.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
I'm happy, you're happy, Colin.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
By the way, here it is Saints and Drew Brees
in New Orleans three and thirteen pre arrival, ten and
six NFC Championship, second worst offense in the league to
one of the top five. I'm telling you, these people
tell me Denvers no talents, nonsense. This receiving corps, this
tight end core, these running backs, it's B B plus stuff.
I think they're really good.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
I don't think so.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
Wild Carter Division, which one.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Wild card they will vie for a wild card? You
guys have him at five wins. I got him at eight.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
The guys in Vegas do. I don't have them at
five wins.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
I am at six.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
By the way, Ian O'Connor, if you missed it, was
talking about Aaron Rodgers, really interesting stuff, and he was
talking about the chip on Aaron's shoulder where it develops.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Aaron holds a grudge like he holds the football with
a very firm grip.
Speaker 6 (39:36):
He never lets go.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
That's how he got into the Jimmy Kimmel mess because
Kimmel had mocked him and he was waiting for an
opportunity to get him back, and he picked the wrong
moment to do it, and he got himself in a
lot of trouble.
Speaker 6 (39:47):
And so there's no question.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
If you asked Aaron which team he'd like to face
in the Super Bowl as a member of the New
York Jets, it's the Green Bay Packers. And that's what
fuels these guys. They'll never forget. This is a guy
who out of high school didn't have a single scholar
you've offer. He gets humiliated at the draft. He got
thirteen ten on his SATs, he's a great quarterback, and
he's got to go to the local community college. Those
things add up to that gigantic chip on his shoulder
(40:10):
that still has not gone away.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, it's I'm looking forward to it. I think it's
going to be I think the season is going to
be very interesting, very interesting. Vince Young and Chris Collinsworth
join us next hour. You can feel you can it's
almost we're about We're about ten days away from You
can smell the grass and it smells like fall. We're
not there yet, still a little stormy and humid, but
(40:34):
everybody now getting kids back into school, so there's steps
and stages to football season. We're getting close.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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