July 7, 2025 • 53 mins
LaVar Arrington and Jonas Knox fill-in on The Herd, recapping their 4th of July shenanigans. Justin Fields has the opportunity to make Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin look really bad. Plus, the guys explain how LeBron is the only thing keeping the NBA relevant this time of year.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio and noon to three Eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at
Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
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or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
It's a Herd Fox Sports Radio. Bavoy Arrington, Jonas Knox
in for calling here. You can listen to this show
on the iHeartRadio app. You can also find us on
hundreds of affiliates all across the country as we take
you all the way up until three pm Eastern time
(00:58):
noon Pacific time here on the Monday after a wild
Fourth of July week?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
What do you mean a wild pre A while, a
wild pre show meeting of the mines, and I mean
we could have did a three hour show on the industry,
but you know, behind the scenes storylines, I mean they're
really doozy. Yeah, definitely, mister Celsius. I blame Celsius.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
I love y'all's drinks, though it is Uh, it's been
a How was the fourth of July weekend. Huh did
you do it? Because here's the probably. It's on a weekend.
It started on a friday, so you just gave people
an excuse to get butchered for two days after you.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Heard the wildest story. So we got a rooftop lounge
on my house. Right, So we're going upstairs. Everything, well,
it must not be. We were up there, we're hanging
out and the way it's set up, you can't see
us up there. So if something's going on up there,
you can maybe hear it. Possibly, or if you do
something like say we were to shoot fireworks off or
(02:03):
something like that, you might have an idea that, Okay,
they can get up on the roof whatever. Right, but
it's a balcony, it's it's a rooftop lone. So we
go up there and we have one of those. We
have a safe portable fire pit. Fire pit gets let
lit up. But here's what, here's the problem. The girls
go up to do it and they put five door
(02:23):
of flames on there. Five so you got this big
ass flame and the flame was giving off black smoke. Right,
So we're sitting up there, we're listening to music, we're
having a good time. We're looking we can see all
of the fireworks from the piers in the beach City,
South Bay all the way out to wherever Orange County.
(02:47):
You could just see all of the fireworks going off.
So we're watching the fireworks and.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
I'm like, man, these these firemen are going the police
are going to have a busy night because you could
see the random fire works going up right, which, by
the way, fireworks in la is really a thing.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Bro Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I heard fireworks from nine a m. Literally non stop
until I went to sleep at like two am in
the morning.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
Yeah, white people light fireworks off during the day. I
mean it was the entire day. All you heard was
oh the whole day.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Anyway, back to my point, so the fire's going up,
and I'm like, man, firemen, cops, they're gonna have to
run around because you know, you make these wildfires, this,
that and the other, and we're not even thinking about
And sure enough you see a fire engine come out,
fire engine comes out that a die boom boom boom.
I'm like, oh man, you hear some fireworks going off
in our area. So it's like the firemen come up
(03:47):
in our area and it's like they turned the lights off,
but they're coming up in the area. Then next thing
you know, they get up and they're like one street
away from us. I was like, man, they're right here.
Something going on right Then I looked at our fire pit.
I was like, this fire is high. They drive past
the street, so I'm thinking they're about to go past
the street. They turned the lights on, turn the lights on,
(04:11):
turn down our street.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
I was like, yep, they coming here.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
I had to go down to the front, grab grab
and they were really really cool. I'm big time, you know,
support of first responders. I appreciate Redondo Beach Fire Department. Uh,
really really cool people.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
So I walk them.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Man, we walk up, they look at it, They're like, man,
everything's cool. He's like, but your neighbors are freaking out.
They are freaking out. I go look over the ads
and I see a whole crowd of people in two
three yards looking up.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Look it up out of high house.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
They thought that bad boy was burning down. So anyways,
I put we put it out. But that was that
was an eventful deal. And now in your mind, we
live in a day and age with cell phones that
can record. Now, I didn't want to record it because
anything shady might have happened, like, oh, get it on it,
this is on camera, da da da. But it would
have been interesting to see a camera shot of the
(05:05):
fire engine pulling down our street, then the fire department
coming into the crib, then us having a cool conversation
up on the on the rooftop, and then them leaving.
That would have been cool because that's never happened to
me before ever. So there you go. Emergency crew first
responders came to make sure the house wasn't burning down.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
You know what blows my mind the number of people
that decide, knowing all the warning signs, knowing all the dangers,
seeing all the injuries, seeing all that, and still being like,
you got it this year, I got it. Don't warn
Let's let's fire off four or five mortar bombs within
close proximity to somebody's house, children in cars and just
(05:46):
see what happens. We weren't doing that, by the way,
but in La everybody was. Yeah, they were.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I mean from nine am, literally from nine am to
one am, it was non It is not an over
exaggeration to say it was non stop. You could hear
the fireworks going off NonStop.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
From nine to one am so growing up in southern California.
And two you might remember this, But it used to
be if you wanted to get fireworks, you had to
go to a place called Fillmore. Then you have to
go somewhere out the Yeah, you gotta go to Film Country.
It's you can drive all the way inland to this
small town of Fillmore. By the way, I'll Pescador, a
(06:31):
great Mexican spot out there. But that was the place.
If you if somebody told you, hey, I'm going to Fillmore,
it's like, oh, hey, bring me back a Roman candle,
like a box of Piccolo Pete's. Like it was like
this undercover, under the radar spot that you would go
to get fireworks. Now now it seems like you can
get them anywhere. Like somebody's got like a trunk, then
(06:52):
they're selling fireworks out of them. Like there's some rock
band trying to make it in the business selling t
shirts out of the back of their car. Crazy they get.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Fireworks, rocket launchers, grenade launchers.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
I don't understand, oozies.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
It's just it used to be really hard to get
ahold of these things, and nowadays you can, Hey, right
there there, you go some more.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
There's some fireworks right there. Like I was like, over
the weekend, I was talking Isaac Lohancrawn, who's an anchor
here at Fox Sports Radio, and Isaac was telling me, so, oh, yeah,
we have a fireworks alley. I was like, what's that.
He goes, oh, yeah, it's an alley near our place
and people light off fireworks there. And he sent me
a video. I'm like, oh, you mean all this illegal
activity on video? You mean all that? He no, no, no.
(07:40):
Sheriff came by and said, hey, you guys are good.
Enjoy your Fourth of July. I won't tell you what.
Wait what that's just all of a sudden allowed. But
apparently that's what Fourth is July turned into. I will
say some of the dopest fireworks shows. One is in
State College, the one they do at Beaver State. It's
(08:00):
it's like connected and then sync with like music. It's
pretty dope, man, Like, if you're able to go to
a fireworks show that's like really a show, like even
the one at Disney they do every night. Yeah, oh
that's what the lasers and fireworks and on a crazy man,
when you could do it when somebody's doing it, right.
I've never got any type of a rush or any
(08:25):
type of a crazy feeling with with fireworks.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I just rather watch them. It's never been a thing
where I'm.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
Like, I gotta like this baptist, let's do it like.
That's just never been my thing. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I mean, I don't know why that is, but but
some people really really get off on letting off on
those those fireworks.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Man, they love seeing the they lighten the fuse. N
It's like, dude, augusta win, that thing tilts over and
points in the direction of either other fireworks or somebody,
and we got a problem.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Yeah, I was just seeing it all on social media
where the joints go in a different direction. Went to
the garage, blue start blowing the garage up, hit the
card and blew the car up, hitting kids like hit
hit family members.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Like what you doing it?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Like?
Speaker 5 (09:20):
I always tell this story, but I remember reading about this.
There was some dude in Maine. Him and his buddy
were out in the field somewhere like I won't be safe.
You know, there's no uh no property within within the distance.
So we've got some and the guy thought it would
be a good idea to take a mortar bomb, put
it on his head and then light it. What Here's
how the ending of that story went. Uh, he wasn't
(09:41):
going to lids anytime soon. I'll put it that way. Okay,
what are you doing.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
There was a couple of dudes that was lighting them
and then squatting on top of them, and then it
took off like that, and then and then the captions,
the captions be off the chain like like in my stomach,
like get in my belly, and you know what they
were talking about.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
The man's jewels was in his belly by the time.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
It's just it's the dumbest thing that people do to
try to go viral sometimes is during the fourth of
July fourth of July weekends that they it's crazy what
people do with these fireworks.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Yeah, it's it's it's I don't I don't understand it.
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
And I would also say this, if you want to
spoil yourselves, because Collins in Chicago and Ryan Music will
be out there, let me just little little recommendation. You
go to Navy Peer. There's a restaurant at Navy Peer
right up on top and during the summertime, they light
off fireworks two days a week. It's awesome And the
best part is professionals are doing it.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Go figure, it's not How many professionals do you think
do the fireworks during the course of a fourth of
July day?
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Less than one percent? Yeah, less than one percent. All
I know is.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
You can't comprehend it unless you lived it.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Nine a m. I was awaken.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
My windows are open and I'm listening and I hear
it's not non stop, And at first I didn't know
what it was. And then I asked a couple of
people like, man, yeah, it's four for July. Like what
you may is four for July. You wait till the night,
You wait till there's no point. It's like it's like, hey,
I'm gonna go lay out.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
By the pool. It's ten o'clock at night. You wait
till dusk, you point.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
You barbecue during today, You set off a couple of sparklers,
you throw the little white dips.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
That pop pop pop pop? Like what why is it
going all day long? Like? Who does that? How is
this possible that I can.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Hear fireworks going off non stop from nine am until
I went to bid at one am.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
In the morning. How many NFL players, do you think
woke up this morning. I ain't gonna like, huh, thank god,
well made a year. But also everybody can't say that
I need to get to camp down. I need to
get away from these people. I gotta get the camp.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
I mean, JPP was on the rundown. Ain't know, try
and get back into league. I mean talk about a
tailor to take caution of of sorts.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
By the way, Jason Pierre Paul under the radar. Great career, yes, dude,
I was looking at over the weekend. Ninety four and
a half career sacks. Yes, he's talked to it. He's
like he wants to get back in the league. It's
probably not gonna happen at this point, but I mean,
that would be cool for him to get back and
break a hundred sacks. But that would be pretty cool.
All you think about with him is the fireworks incident. Well,
(12:39):
I mean, because that's just how society. He's almost got
a hundred sacks.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
He will be forever remembered for blowing his hand off,
more so than having a dope career, by the way,
because people don't remember things like, oh, you had a
great career like people forget guys I had great careers,
they get drafted. How you forget about it? You forget
about careers, you don't forget about crazy.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
The fourth of July, it's gonna come up every day,
and it's been ten years every time. Guy's got almost
one hundred career sacks. He's got two super Bowl rings,
and uh, LeVar made a comment, you know, which I
thought was insulting before the show when I was I
was pointing out, I was like, hey, man, you know
Jpp's got two super Bowl rings. So I was like, yeah,
where's he gonna put up? I thought I was out
(13:22):
of line, which I thought was disrespectful because I did
not say that. But you look at his career. You
look at his career and you go, man, that guy
had a great career and did a lot of that
after the injury, and all anybody talks about is that
moment on fourth of July, and every single year he's
(13:44):
going to be reminded of it. The guy came back
and remember when he came back and played with a
cast on and still you know, continued his career. So yeah,
it's it's uh, this was a crazy weekend. Hopefully everybody,
Uh you know, didn't make any mistakes with those fireworks,
even though some did, like they do every year. And
now NFL players everywhere are like, all right, vacation's over.
(14:07):
Training camps right around the corner. It's grind time, bar
this is tis the season.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Season, Yeah, to be football, and listen, I'm excited for it.
There's a lot going on and there's a lot to
talk about, and that's what the NFL gives you, you know.
And I know we shots out to Independence Day, shots
out to the fourth of July. But now that we've
gotten those things out of the way, now those are
the topics of conversations we can touch on.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
And also should point this out. Our hearts are with
everyone affected by the Texas flooding. If you saw that
over the weekend, devastating, it's tragic, really really sad for
all those families and people involved. iHeart is partnering with
the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country to support
flood relief. The Kerr County Flood Relief Fund is helping
(14:53):
provide food, shelter, medical care, and long term recovery for
those affected. All donations go to trusted local organizations. Join
us in supporting recovery efforts at Community Foundation dot net.
They could use your help, whatever you can do to
try and provide some sort of support. Those family could
use it right now because just devastating over the weekend.
(15:14):
It is The Herd Here on Fox Sports Radio is
LeVar Arrington, Jonas Knox in for Colin, and up next,
apparently somebody's going to try and do something in the
NFL that hasn't been done by a quarterback in a
long time. We'll tell you what it is right here
on FSR.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Hey what's up everybody?
Speaker 4 (15:40):
It's me three time pro bowler LeVar Arrington and I
couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast called Up
on Game.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
What is Up on Game?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Huschman,
Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yep, that's right, Plexico Burris.
You can only name a show with that type of talent.
On it Game, We're going to be sharing our real
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up on
Game with Me, LeVar Arrington, t J. Hutchman's Outa and
(16:10):
Plexago Birds on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Yeah, it's a true story. Appropriate music is a perfect
song for it. Uh, it is the Herd Here on
Fox Sports Radio, LaVar Arrington, Jonas Knox in for Colin.
By the way, when LeVar and I we you can
normally hear us weekday morning, six am Eastern Time, three
o'clock Pacific alongside Brady Quinn when it's just LeVar and I.
(16:46):
Though we call the show Black and Drack because I'm Pale.
I look like Dracula and LeVar he's not. Yeah, he's dark,
He's black, and I'm strong alone and I'm on get
on baby, got back? Wait wait, wait, so wrong song.
So we'll be in for Colin today and tomorrow. By
(17:07):
the way, coming up in a little over twenty minutes
from now, we are going to have another edition of
the Herdline News starring the great Ryan Music. So that'll
be yours here again a little over twenty minutes from now.
Justin Fields is the starting quarterback for the New York Jets.
His teammate Andre Cisco spoke about what the expectations are
(17:29):
from Justin Fields heading into this season, and he seems
very optimistic.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
Getting to know him up close as a teammate has
been really, really special. I'm really glad that I get
this opportunity to get behind him and just support him
as you know he takes on that road. As you know,
we already know what quarterback means in the NFL, and
so I'm excited for him to just prove those who
are down wrong and those who are supporting right, because
I think he's gonna have a huge view.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
Got it. Tell me if you've heard this before, Jets
get a quarterback, uh huh, and he's going to h
He's gonna be the one that's different. This is one
this time, no no, but this time for real, Like,
this is the one that's going to be different. Like
this one here. This is like when I count my
son down when I'm trying to get him to do something.
I was like, hey, I'm giving you to the count
(18:12):
of five and then I'll get to four and give
them three.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Oh yeah, but you gotta know what the consequence is
before you do to count down, because if you don't
have a consequence, then it will never work.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
The problem is I'm like the Jets because I'll get
to four and then I go four and a quarter.
Oh no, four and a half. Oh no, you know,
because you know it's going to go back. You know
what's going wrong. It's like the Jets do is for
their quarterbacks. They're like, hey, you know what, he's the
guy this time, right, And then it's like week eleven
and they've won three games, like yeah, but no, no, no,
(18:47):
this week, everything's gonna change, and it just gets pushed
down the road and down the road and down the road.
And I hope it works for Justin Fields. A lot
of people think maybe you should have gotten more of
an opportunity in Chicago. A lot of people, including people
in Pittsburgh, think that he should have gotten more of
an opportunity, especially later in the year when Russell was
starting to struggle a little bit. But we've seen this
(19:09):
so many times before, and I think that's what makes
the Week one matchup so interesting is all the parallels.
Because Justin Field said no to the Steelers to join
the Jets, the Jets said no to Aaron Rodgers and
signed Justin Fields, and now Rogers is with the Steelers
and they're going to meet up in the first game
of the season. Yeah, it's just like all the parallels
(19:32):
of make make that matchup even more interesting as we
get closer.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
You know Tanner and Strange, right, Strand he's the new coordinator.
He was the passing gang coordinator for the Detroit lines.
They had some really really good success with that scheme
and what they've had. This is a team, this Jets
team has good bones personnel wise. You look at the offense,
(20:00):
they have players everywhere. You look at the defense, they
have players everywhere. There really is no real reasoning outside
of how horrible the dysfunction is within the up top
regions of the franchise as to why this team should
be in the position they're in right now, which is
(20:22):
a not very respectable, not very successful, not a winning organization.
So when you look at this scenario for Justin Fields,
I say, Okay, they bring in a qualified guy that
had success in Detroit with Aaron Glenn on the defense
side of the ball.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
So Aaron brings him over to New York for Justin Fields.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
For the other guys that are part of this organization
at this point, it's going to take a collective belief,
starting with Woody Johnson, and allowing for the culture to
be developed the way that Aaron Glenn understands a culture
(21:09):
needs to be developed to be able to win and
to be competitive. Ken Woodie Johnson change the spots on
his coat from what they have been. The answer is
unequivocally no, it's not going to happen. But what you
can do, what you can do for the sake of
(21:32):
your team, for the sake of your franchise, for the
sake of the fans, for the sake of your players.
You can stop being a presence that creates the dysfunction,
remove yourself from the equation, allow the people to do
(21:54):
the job that you delegated that you hired to do
the jobs. Allow Aaron Glenn to develop the culture as
a head coach. As that applies to the elements in
the spaces, it applies for this team. The team has
a good enough personnel where you can have success with
(22:16):
Justin Fields as your quarterback. That's not a qualifier. This
is a top draft pick. Not too long ago that
a lot of people were hanging their hopes and dreams
on that he could be the quarterback of the future.
For another team that has done the same exact things
in terms of what they've said about quarterbacks in Chicago.
(22:36):
So to me, the fact that it didn't work out
in Pittsburgh for Justin Fields, I think that's more so
a wash scenario. I do not look at it as
why would you think Justin Fields is going to have
success in New York when he didn't even have success
in Pittsburgh. I'm not going to draw that conclusion, Jonas.
I am going to look at it from the perspective
(22:58):
of does he have fear opportunity to have success in
New York?
Speaker 5 (23:03):
I don't know. I don't know because I don't know
what the.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Dynamic is between ownership and culture of the new head coach.
If the if the new head coach has an opportunity
to build the culture in an organic, strong intentional way, yes,
all of them have an opportunity to have success, to
have it right away with the amount of talent that
they have. But the big if here is if ownership
(23:27):
and culture remains the same and it continues to you know,
keep keep them in, you know, like bumpers and and
and playing playing uh bowling. Right, if you have the
bumpers up and you're you're you're really restricting them and
what it is they're able to do.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
I don't think there will be enough growth.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
I don't think there will be enough positivity and structure
for it to turn into the culture uh that Aaron
Glenn is probably hoping that he's able to do.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
By the way, sidebar on that if you're an adult.
In fact, I'll just put it this way, anybody over
the age of nine, if you use bumpers when you bowl,
you should be arrested immediately. And I'm talking at least
a month behind, like like hard time. You can't really
bowl if you're a real bowler. There's no possible way
you can bowl legitimately. If you're a real bowler and
(24:19):
you have you can't be taken serious. You can't be
taken serious. Yeah, you just can't spin it.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
You can't spin it the way that unless you're spinning
it directly down the center triangle or maybe the second
triangle out you can get it, but it's not going
to be as good an angle if you're gonna spin
that bad boy, and it's going to go out to
that like third fourth triangle on on the you know
what is it on the on the rumway or whatever
you call it. The lanes, the lanes, that's that's you
(24:45):
can't have that because you're going to hit the bumper. Yeah,
I would agree with you. I'm just just making sure.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
So the Jets side of this, like I, I am
skeptical that Justin Field has this success and you know,
like Andre Cisco says, well, we're going to see him.
You know, I can't wait till he's going to prove
a lot of people wrong. All right, Well, I'm skeptical
of it, as you laid out, because of what's going
on around him. Because the Jets have had a lot
(25:13):
of talent over the years. Joe Douglas drafted, Well, they've
had a lot of talent there. And I'm always a
believer of Listen, it's not about the furniture. It's about
the foundation. All right. If you've got really nice furniture
in the home, but the foundation is cracking, sooner or later,
that stuff's getting getting sucked down into a sinkhole somewhere.
It's just gonna happen. And I look at it and
I go, yeah, he's got all the talents. There's talent there,
(25:36):
there's pieces there, there's a reason why Rogers was open
to going there because he saw that, man, this is
a place where we could win. They've drafted well and
the whole thing was disaster. But let's just say hypothetical,
Justin Fields thrives in New York. That's a really bad
look for a Aaron Rodgers and a really bad look
(25:59):
for Mike Tomlin, because Mike Tomlin reportedly was the guy
who said no, no, no, we're going to stick with
Russ the entire way, there were people there like Arthur Smith,
the offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, who wanted Justin Fields to
take over. There was a lot of people there who
didn't want Justin Fields to lose the job at all.
And if all of a sudden he decides because the
Jets get because the Steelers gave him a low ball
(26:21):
offer reportedly to go to the Jets, and the guy
that was in the building that people were telling Mike
Tomlin should be the starter, goes to the Jets, of
all places, and thrives. That's a really bad look for
Mike Tomlin and Aaron Rodgers. Which is another subplot to
this whole matchup and this whole situation.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
As a season player, what I'll say is he's never
come close to breaking three thousand yards passing the ball.
He did not show the ability to push the ball
downfield at a level that moved people to have the
belief that he's the long term answer. Just the reality
of what took place last year. Now, if that had
(27:03):
something to do with the play calling or that has
something to do outside of him, I don't know, but
he what worked against him was when Russ got in,
he was pushing the ball downfield and they were having
success when he got in, and that early success. Whoever
made the decision, it made the decision, which Mike Tomlin
(27:24):
put himself out in front of it and said it
was his decision. It made him look like he made
a really good decision. Now what that looked like, or
what it looks like moving forward from what it looked
like moving forward with Russ, they did not bring Russ back.
So Russ did not do a great enough job where
Mike Tomlin putting himself out front of him saying Russ
is our guy, that did not equate to him coming
(27:47):
back and being part of the Pittsburgh Steelers for this
next upcoming season. Now, when I look at Justin fields.
I think it's a tremendous risk to think that he's
going to go from a sub he gets to two thousands.
The highest he's ever gotten in passing yards is twenty
five hundred yards in passing the ball. That's not very
(28:07):
impressive at all. Damn is that impressive? Is that impressive?
It's not, you know, I mean, I mean, guys, guys
challenge Saquan almost ran for how many yards? The bottom
line here is that I don't think you're going to
get to the next level of competition with a quarterback
(28:28):
that can't break three thousand yards plus throwing the ball
during the course of a season. I don't think you
can call somebody an elite passer that can be a
franchise guy for you if they can't break and have
those types of seasons where they produce more than.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
Seventeen touchdowns in a season. It's just not to me.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
It's a it's a stretch, and it's a long shot
to think that at this point you're actually going to
be able to see justin fields, be this quarterback that
we've never seen at the pro level.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Yeah, it's all about him using his legs like that's
always been his what separates him from everybody else. When
he had those huge, big plays in Chicago, it was
all about him using his legs. When you know, there
was a game his final year in Chicago where everyone said, man,
this is why they got to keep Justin Fields and
trade the number one pick because he had one game
(29:23):
late in the year against Atlanta and he was lights
out unbelievable. But then the next week they finished the
season at Green Bay and it was the same sort
of Justin Fields that you've seen. And when you bring
up the which which makes me think about this as
well too, when you because there's almost like a like
a triangular quarterback storyline to watch, and it's how does
(29:48):
Justin Fields do? How does Aaron Rodgers do? How does
Russell Wilson do? Because they're all kind of connected in
a weird way to where Rogers had conversation with Brian
day Ball. They have, you know, a great amount of
respect for each other. Russell Wilson's now with the Giants,
Justin Field's and the Jets, Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers
I don't even recall, and we talked about this at
(30:09):
the time. Did Pittsburgh even try and make an offer
or an effort to keep Russell Wilson. I know they did.
Justin Field. I didn't hear that. I don't think they
even tried. I did not hear that, which, like you
look at those three quarterbacks, you go, well, Justin Fields
hasn't really proven it, you know, Rogers, you know, seems
(30:30):
like the end is near. Russe really wants to keep
playing and really and Pittsburgh didn't even try and keep
Russell Wilson, Like there wasn't even a discussion about it.
It was like, oh, cool, he wants to come back here. Nice.
He doesn't get along with the offensive coordinator. So all
three of those teams are kind of all connected in
this weird way and look, like I said, I hope
(30:52):
it works out for Justin Fields. I'd like to see
him get an opportunity. It'd be nice if the New
York Jets had some stability and we're back, they're winning
ways like they were when Rex Ryan was there. I'm
just skeptical, man. And I also think, could you imagine
being a Jets fan knowing deep down in your soul
when you talk to people close to you, knowing, I'm
(31:14):
never gonna see my favorite team win a Super Bowl.
What's that feeling like, well, especially when your favorite Oh
they don't dang. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
I don't want to make this about the Steelers either,
but I mean, if you think about it, there's a consistency.
Kenny Pickett's best year in Pittsburgh was in twenty twenty two,
twenty four hundred yards all right, Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson
had no more than two thousand. Oh, Justin Fields didn't
(31:50):
break two thousand in Pittsburgh. But but Russell Wilson had
what I believe to be twenty five hundred as well.
So nobody is breaking Nobody is breaking the bank on
passing yards and Pittsburgh, which begs for the question of
(32:10):
what is what is the idea of what you had
twenty four hundred, two and eighty two yards for Russell
Wilson last year, last season. Nobody's getting a ton of
yards passing the ball from Pickett to Justin Fields to
Russell Wilson.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Yeah, they haven't. Pittsburgh hasn't had an answer at quarterbacks
since probably second to last year of Big Ben because
I think the last year it was a little rough.
They tried to draft Kenny Pickett to make that work.
That didn't work at all. That that fell apart and
he ended up elsewhere. And then they bring in Russell
Wilson and Justin Fields because it was on the cheap.
(32:53):
Justin Fields, they were winning games. But Russell Wilson came
back from the injury that he was that he was
dealing with. I believe there's a calf issue in training camp.
And then he came back and yeah, he did give
them a threat to throw deep. He gave them something
down the field, but it just they haven't had an
answer there.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
In six seven years, twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four,
you have had three quarterbacks play for your team, and
now going into twenty five, you will have four. Yeah
to me again, Now, if I'm the New York Jets,
I'm saying I Am going to have a measured feeling
(33:34):
of confidence towards Justin Fields. But at least he's younger,
he still has an athletic ability about him, and the
possibilities of his trajectory still going up. Trending up is
a possibility because I don't feel like guys are being
utilized the right way in the Steelers' offensive system. That
(33:57):
would be what I'm thinking. If I'm the New York Giants,
and that's what I'm thinking. If I'm the New York Jets,
and that's what I'm thinking, if I'm the Cleveland Browns.
And to me, now we get an opportunity to have
comps in terms of what is Russell Wilson going to
do this year? What is Kenny Pickett going to do
this year? What is Justin Phil's going to do this year?
(34:20):
And all of those things will relate back in a
way to what's taking place in Pittsburgh and what Aaron
Rodgers is doing in Pittsburgh and how they're coaching things
in Pittsburgh. I'm curious, Ken, Aaron Rodgers break three thousand
yards throwing the ball in Pittsburgh this year?
Speaker 5 (34:37):
Yeah, okay, I should. You're saying, yay, he should if
he stays healthy. I think he will. Well, let's see
it is the last three quarterbacks there have not done it.
And they're not Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I get that, but the last three quarterbacks and Russell
Wilson isn't a bad name. He's got the same amount
of Super Bowls as him. I mean, listen, Mason Rudolph
might have done it if he didn't get as salted
by Miles Garrett. You never know things are us which
you want to take it to, Sir.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
There it is the Herd here on Fox Sports Radio,
LeVar Arrington, Jonas Knox in for Colin.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week. Within the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd
to listen live or on demand. Whenever you like.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Food in the world, It is the Herd Fox Sports Radio,
LeVar Arrington, a real Jonas Knox filling in for Colin.
You can find us on the iHeart Radio app. You
can also find us on hundreds of affiliates all across
the country. You can find LeVar and I weekday morning,
six am Eastern Time, three o'clock Pacific, alongside Brady Quinn.
It's called two Pros and a Cup of Joe. And
(35:53):
when there's no Brady Quinn, it is black and Drack.
Here on this Monday morning, after a long holiday weekend.
I got it first after a long I don't know
why we can't just be happy for Deshaun Watson. Why
do you have to be so negative about the whole thing?
The guy got married. Congratulations Deshaun Watson. He's got a
(36:15):
one point three million dollar ring. He does yeah or
she does? Says his his band is worth up to
one point three million. Some people had that saying you
can't have money. Let me ask you that why why
is it worded that way? Worth up to one point
three million? Because it's only worth what somebody's willing to spend, right,
it could it could? It could a praise for that amount.
(36:37):
What is there incentives in it? Like, well, if you
meet all these incentives, it'll be worth one point three million,
Like what like don't go to the grab lab, it'll
be worth one point three You can't clean it with
a towel. That keeps the value. That's that's the incentive.
Don't don't clean it with a towe street tal is
(36:58):
tal is cleaner. That's a great point, all right. So
with that being said, speaking to speaking of Ohio, Lebron
James was hanging out at the Calves Practice facility and
there was a there was a picture that went out
(37:19):
of him there and some people started to speculate, oh,
is he going back home? Is he going back to Cleveland?
This and that? And he basically we spawned on social
media with something along the lines of I live here,
I practice here every off season. There's nothing different about this.
You practice at the Cavaliers. Yea works out there all
(37:39):
the time. He works out there constantly because he lives
out there, and so he said, that's not strange. No,
I don't think so he does it every year, and
that's not strange every year not I mean whatever, he's
working out there. It's their practice. That's strange to me.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
I don't know, all right, but there's a hundred different
places you could go work out other than another team
in the National Basketball Association, So that doesn't come across
this strain.
Speaker 5 (38:06):
Well he's starting, but okay, but his point was, I'm
here every off season. Are you all that bored? Go
get another plate of food? Okay?
Speaker 4 (38:17):
But is every off season like this for Lebron James.
That's the question Lebron has to ask himself, and that's
the question that needs to be asked and answered. Does
this off season give you something different than any other
off season? And the answer has to be yes, really, yes,
it does. Because of the uncertainties of what's going to
take place based off of the selling of the team
(38:39):
of the Lakers based off of bringing in Luka Doncic,
based on on where where they are as a team,
and and to me, it just seems like the handwriting
is on the wall that that this Lakers team is
possibly positioning themselves to be able to move on from
Lebron James.
Speaker 5 (38:59):
So and at context, yes it, I mean he has
to know that. I don't.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
I'm you can't be upsetting up in arms if people
are looking at you doing something that you've always done,
but in the moment of where that could be a
possibility of a destination for him to land.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
He's there working out, that's strange. I mean, but that's strange,
like if he was working out in South Beach, if
he was working out, I mean, I don't know if
he's hold on.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Now, If he's in South Beach and he's working out
on the beach or on Ocean Ave, you might be like, Okay,
speculate and he can give you a legitimate I just
like being in Miami, I'm always in Miami. If he's
in Cleveland and he's in the flats or he's just
doing what he's doing somewhere in and around Cleveland, he
(39:48):
can take the speculation and he can drown out the
special speculation.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
He can.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
He can, he can delete it. He can, he can
eliminate it. You're working out at Cleveland Cavaliers facility, that's weird.
I don't know if I was playing for to Washington
back when I was playing for the Washington Ridskins, well
then Washington Ridskins. If I were to be in Texas
and I'm working out at the Dallas Cowboys facilities, because
(40:17):
I've always worked out there first and foremost, why would
I always work out at the Dallas Cowboys facility for there? Man,
that's weird. B Well, that's weird. I don't know how
you don't see it that it's weird or you're being
an instigator.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
I'm not weird. That is weird. He does it every
officeus and there's nothing new about this. It's weird the
first time he did it. Okay, But if he does
it this mean it doesn't make it unwird. That he's
doing it for years. It makes it weird that it's
not weird. Look, I think that he enjoys the speculation.
I think he stirs that up a lot. I think
(40:52):
that's you know, he can try and be dismissive of
it and say, well, you know, you guys need to
get a life, basically and go get another plate of food.
And I'm here every offseason. I think he likes to
stir it up. He probably knows deep down this is
going to generate some sort of reaction somewhere or another.
I look at it from a general standpoint, this is
another indication that the NBA without Lebron, what do you got?
(41:18):
Because when he's gone and the end is near, what
what is there?
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Like?
Speaker 5 (41:25):
He really is the lifeblood of topics and discussion in
the National Basketball Association. He's great at it. And if
this is all winding down and he's out in the
next couple of years, people that cover the NBA, people
that love to talk about the league, Oh, it's not
as bad as everybody thinks it is, And you know,
(41:45):
they get pissed off and we point out that the
separation between the NFL and the NBA. You better start
stirring up some other storylines or stirring up some other
stars in the league. And I don't know, this isn't
a face of the NBA, it's a life of the NBA.
And without Lebron James it feels like the NBA's on
life support when it comes to interest, intrigue and talking points.
(42:07):
What else is there? Talent?
Speaker 4 (42:10):
I'd say there's talent. Yeah, there's talented young talented stars.
You have some older talented stars. You have star power
in the NBA. Is it interesting? I would say the
better question would be does the NBA have enough relevance
and enough to me cache to be interesting outside like
(42:39):
what Lebron James, or like Shaquille O'Neill, or like a
Kobe Bryant, or like a Michael Jordan or a Magic Johnson?
Do they have the ability to Is there a player
that exists that can transition into those positions of interest
outside of the talent on.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
The court, I don't.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
I think there are personalities within the NBA that could
be those. But I find myself asking the question, are
we in a day and age? Are we in a
time where social media and different things have taken away
It's really taken away the ability. It's desensitized fans. It's
(43:26):
desensitized fans, and for what it's worth, I think it
has desensitized athletes as well. How do you build as
big as Shaquille O'Neill or Michael Jordan, if you can
get a hold of them so easily. Now, granted, when
Lebron James was coming in, that transitional phase was that
(43:47):
stage was taking place, so he wasn't all the way
fully acclimated to being in a world where social media
dominated it, technology dominated it. Now, while you may see
the NFL because it leans so deep into the brand
and the shield that they don't seem to be losing
any momental and in fact, maybe even picking up momentum.
(44:09):
But in basketball, it's such a personality driven sport that
when you see the guys like Shaquille O'Neil, you see
them in person and it's like you've met like somebody
that came like from somewhere else. You meet these guys
and there was this sense of just Wow, I just
(44:31):
met this person. That element is gone, and I think
the homy element is there, like working out at a
different facility that is in the NBA and you play
for another team, the exchanging of jerseys, which happens in football.
But I just feel like it's weird how cool guys
are these days. And they're not only cool with one another,
(44:55):
they're cool with the fan bases like that connection is there.
And I don't think that the relevance of like the
praise factor or the the you know, posting them high
on a pedestal type deal don't. I don't feel like
that's prominent anymore. And I don't think that players actually
(45:15):
prioritize trying to be that type of a personality.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
Or a brand. I really don't. We've talked about this
before to where the NFL has its own ecosystem where
the NBA is starved for. We need a superstar, we
need big markets happy to dress. And in the NFL,
Patrick Mahomes plays in Kansas City like Rogers was in
Green Bay. It doesn't like the NFL. Anybody could be
(45:41):
a great team with a great quarterback, and because it's
its own ecosystem, it supersedes all the other big market
celebrity status that comes along with it. Man, it's not
like Patrick Mahomes has got this you know, vibrant personality
and this real colorful No. Guy just plays football. He
plays football, and he's on a team with with you know,
(46:01):
with the tight end who's dating Taylor Swift. Like it's
just it's.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Became more relevant than football. It's so don't think that
football isn't guilty of trying to find ways to leverage
celebrity as well. Yeah, but football's not determined on one player,
like the success and conversation around the NFL isn't just
determined on one player man Tom Brady retired sweet next
time the next Like John l Wait, I think it
(46:27):
comes down to what you mentioned earlier, is the relevance
of the franchises. Like Green Bay is not a big market,
it's not a great market, but the relevance of the
franchise drives it.
Speaker 6 (46:39):
Right.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
The people love their their franchise, the communities rally around
their franchise. They create a very very nice size, captive audience.
You have that in the NFL, and it's because of
the shield, and it's because of the brands of those franchises.
You have that in a few teams in the NBA,
but you don't have that collectively. So the relevance of
what you're to do has to exist in certain certain
(47:03):
markets in order for it to be as impactful as
you need it to be. And that's why you always
try to keep the Lakers as strong as you can,
maybe keep the Knicks as strong as they can try
to keep the Chicago Bulls as strong as you can.
You saw what they just did with the Dallas Mavericks.
You try to keep the Dallas Mavericks as strong as
you can. You have to try to keep those those
(47:24):
anchor teams, those anchor markets. You gotta try to keep
them stocked up with some type of relevant talent because
you're not the the franchises in these different markets.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
You just had.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
Okay, see when win it all, what's the buzz? Well
that's what What was the what was the what was
the parade like?
Speaker 5 (47:47):
After?
Speaker 2 (47:48):
You know?
Speaker 5 (47:48):
And I and I asked this question for anybody that's
driving around right now or listening on the podcast. Take
Lebron James out of the NBA, what do you want
to talk about? Heang like, honestly, you have to be
a real fan of the game to be able to
answer your question. And I think that's the biggest indict.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Now.
Speaker 5 (48:05):
I loved the NBA Finals. I thought it was great
because it was great basketball and you didn't have any drama.
There was no like, no subplots or issues going on.
It was just two really good teams who were pretty
evenly matched. Much more evenly matched, I think a lot of.
Speaker 4 (48:20):
Lebron James or Shaquille, Kevin Gronet, or there's Kevin Durant
or Steph Kurk.
Speaker 5 (48:27):
How many of those guys were in that series? Well,
that's the thing. How many?
Speaker 7 (48:32):
None?
Speaker 5 (48:32):
But that's but no, But that's that's great. That's the thing.
And those were the two best teams in the playoffs.
You know, it was a great series. I I had
thoroughly enjoyed it. But I look at the NBA differently
to where I think a lot of people focus on
this storyline attached to it and the name brand attached
to it, and after Lebron, you don't have a lot
(48:53):
of that. There's not a lot of that going on.
And with Lebron's career winding down, I think people are
going to get a harsh social reality when he's gone, Oh,
we've got to actually like put some work in and
really start pushing some You don't realize how much he
carried on us. Wow, that's a great point.
Speaker 4 (49:10):
I mean, and even earlier you talked about we talked
about JPP and the fireworks situation. If you have something
that happens in a major market, which by the way,
it's interesting that JPP was a giant and Odell Beckham
makes the catch as a giant. Like it's certain markets
where if you do something personally, it can take your
(49:31):
brand beyond the scope of just being a helmet in
jersey and cleats. But it doesn't happen very often. You
get used to seeing guys with helmets on being totally
covered up, and it's what the team is doing. In fact,
in most cases it's actually set up for the coaches
(49:51):
to actually become the stars of what's taking place. You
look at the coaches and they're singled out. You know,
look at how many times we looked at zerses On
on the New York side line before he got before
he got I can right, you can look at Stefanski,
He's got to look to him.
Speaker 5 (50:10):
You you look at day Ball, It's like he's got
to look to him.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
You you look at you know, any of these coaches
in and around the league, they get a ton of
attention because you can see them.
Speaker 5 (50:22):
You can see them.
Speaker 4 (50:23):
The dynamic of how we how we bring in or
or how we digest and how we receive the content
from from football is much different than how we receive
it from basketball. We are looking we almost look at
basketball players as entertainers like singers or actors, right because
(50:43):
you can see them.
Speaker 5 (50:45):
You can see them.
Speaker 4 (50:47):
And so with that being said, if you can see
these guys and listen, they're putting them in commercials like
the I think Progressive had uh the OKC thunder Kids
and the guys in their commercial, and you had the
Big Three and their commercial and stuff like that. They
get commercials and they are relevant to the audiences that
(51:08):
are consuming them. It's just that you don't have that
next level brand like a Lebron James that's in the
pipeline to actually carry it. From a megastar standpoint, there's
not one that exists. I can't think of one personality.
Anthony Edwards is the only personality that you could say
is comparable to the personalities that we've gotten to know
(51:30):
through the years where you want to know that individual
in particular.
Speaker 5 (51:35):
But you don't have a Kevin Garnett.
Speaker 4 (51:37):
You don't have a Paul Pierce, don't you don't have
those type of very big personalities that are making you
look at the game from an entertainment standpoint of the storylines,
not just the game itself and what the outcomes of
the games are and that's something that once Lebron James leaves,
(51:57):
you're gonna have to figure out what that conversation is
done dry. The well is dry once he's gone. By
the way, Steph Curry, you got Steph Curry. That's about it.
Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and I mean, if we're talking
in the animals of being the greatest ever, you'll say
maybe Draymond falls in like a Dennis Rodman type of category, right,
(52:21):
Like you had a superstar in Dennis Rodman but was
never thus star, but yet his brand was very pronounced
that's Draymond Green. So you have it in Draymond Green
and Steph Curry. There might be a couple more if
we really really dig deep for it. But I mean,
it's just it's not to the level of what we're
talking about with a Lebron James.
Speaker 5 (52:39):
By the way, our hearts are with everyone affected by
the Texas flooding. iHeart is partnering with the Community Foundation
of the Texas Hill Contry to support flood relief. The
Kerr County Flood Relief Fund is helping provide food, shelter,
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donations go to trusted local organizations. Join us in support
(53:00):
hoarding recovery efforts at Community foundation dot net. It is
the Herd here On Fox Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington Jonas
Knox in for Collin
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio and noon to three Eastern nine am to
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or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
It's a Herd Fox Sports Radio. Bavoy Arrington, Jonas Knox
in for calling here. You can listen to this show
on the iHeartRadio app. You can also find us on
hundreds of affiliates all across the country as we take
you all the way up until three pm Eastern time
(00:58):
noon Pacific time here on the Monday after a wild
Fourth of July week?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
What do you mean a wild pre A while, a
wild pre show meeting of the mines, and I mean
we could have did a three hour show on the industry,
but you know, behind the scenes storylines, I mean they're
really doozy. Yeah, definitely, mister Celsius. I blame Celsius.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
I love y'all's drinks, though it is Uh, it's been
a How was the fourth of July weekend. Huh did
you do it? Because here's the probably. It's on a weekend.
It started on a friday, so you just gave people
an excuse to get butchered for two days after you.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Heard the wildest story. So we got a rooftop lounge
on my house. Right, So we're going upstairs. Everything, well,
it must not be. We were up there, we're hanging
out and the way it's set up, you can't see
us up there. So if something's going on up there,
you can maybe hear it. Possibly, or if you do
something like say we were to shoot fireworks off or
(02:03):
something like that, you might have an idea that, Okay,
they can get up on the roof whatever. Right, but
it's a balcony, it's it's a rooftop lone. So we
go up there and we have one of those. We
have a safe portable fire pit. Fire pit gets let
lit up. But here's what, here's the problem. The girls
go up to do it and they put five door
(02:23):
of flames on there. Five so you got this big
ass flame and the flame was giving off black smoke. Right,
So we're sitting up there, we're listening to music, we're
having a good time. We're looking we can see all
of the fireworks from the piers in the beach City,
South Bay all the way out to wherever Orange County.
(02:47):
You could just see all of the fireworks going off.
So we're watching the fireworks and.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
I'm like, man, these these firemen are going the police
are going to have a busy night because you could
see the random fire works going up right, which, by
the way, fireworks in la is really a thing.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Bro Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I heard fireworks from nine a m. Literally non stop
until I went to sleep at like two am in
the morning.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
Yeah, white people light fireworks off during the day. I
mean it was the entire day. All you heard was
oh the whole day.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Anyway, back to my point, so the fire's going up,
and I'm like, man, firemen, cops, they're gonna have to
run around because you know, you make these wildfires, this,
that and the other, and we're not even thinking about
And sure enough you see a fire engine come out,
fire engine comes out that a die boom boom boom.
I'm like, oh man, you hear some fireworks going off
in our area. So it's like the firemen come up
(03:47):
in our area and it's like they turned the lights off,
but they're coming up in the area. Then next thing
you know, they get up and they're like one street
away from us. I was like, man, they're right here.
Something going on right Then I looked at our fire pit.
I was like, this fire is high. They drive past
the street, so I'm thinking they're about to go past
the street. They turned the lights on, turn the lights on,
(04:11):
turn down our street.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
I was like, yep, they coming here.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
I had to go down to the front, grab grab
and they were really really cool. I'm big time, you know,
support of first responders. I appreciate Redondo Beach Fire Department. Uh,
really really cool people.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
So I walk them.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Man, we walk up, they look at it, They're like, man,
everything's cool. He's like, but your neighbors are freaking out.
They are freaking out. I go look over the ads
and I see a whole crowd of people in two
three yards looking up.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Look it up out of high house.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
They thought that bad boy was burning down. So anyways,
I put we put it out. But that was that
was an eventful deal. And now in your mind, we
live in a day and age with cell phones that
can record. Now, I didn't want to record it because
anything shady might have happened, like, oh, get it on it,
this is on camera, da da da. But it would
have been interesting to see a camera shot of the
(05:05):
fire engine pulling down our street, then the fire department
coming into the crib, then us having a cool conversation
up on the on the rooftop, and then them leaving.
That would have been cool because that's never happened to
me before ever. So there you go. Emergency crew first
responders came to make sure the house wasn't burning down.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
You know what blows my mind the number of people
that decide, knowing all the warning signs, knowing all the dangers,
seeing all the injuries, seeing all that, and still being like,
you got it this year, I got it. Don't warn
Let's let's fire off four or five mortar bombs within
close proximity to somebody's house, children in cars and just
(05:46):
see what happens. We weren't doing that, by the way,
but in La everybody was. Yeah, they were.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I mean from nine am, literally from nine am to
one am, it was non It is not an over
exaggeration to say it was non stop. You could hear
the fireworks going off NonStop.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
From nine to one am so growing up in southern California.
And two you might remember this, But it used to
be if you wanted to get fireworks, you had to
go to a place called Fillmore. Then you have to
go somewhere out the Yeah, you gotta go to Film Country.
It's you can drive all the way inland to this
small town of Fillmore. By the way, I'll Pescador, a
(06:31):
great Mexican spot out there. But that was the place.
If you if somebody told you, hey, I'm going to Fillmore,
it's like, oh, hey, bring me back a Roman candle,
like a box of Piccolo Pete's. Like it was like
this undercover, under the radar spot that you would go
to get fireworks. Now now it seems like you can
get them anywhere. Like somebody's got like a trunk, then
(06:52):
they're selling fireworks out of them. Like there's some rock
band trying to make it in the business selling t
shirts out of the back of their car. Crazy they get.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Fireworks, rocket launchers, grenade launchers.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
I don't understand, oozies.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
It's just it used to be really hard to get
ahold of these things, and nowadays you can, Hey, right
there there, you go some more.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
There's some fireworks right there. Like I was like, over
the weekend, I was talking Isaac Lohancrawn, who's an anchor
here at Fox Sports Radio, and Isaac was telling me, so, oh, yeah,
we have a fireworks alley. I was like, what's that.
He goes, oh, yeah, it's an alley near our place
and people light off fireworks there. And he sent me
a video. I'm like, oh, you mean all this illegal
activity on video? You mean all that? He no, no, no.
(07:40):
Sheriff came by and said, hey, you guys are good.
Enjoy your Fourth of July. I won't tell you what.
Wait what that's just all of a sudden allowed. But
apparently that's what Fourth is July turned into. I will
say some of the dopest fireworks shows. One is in
State College, the one they do at Beaver State. It's
(08:00):
it's like connected and then sync with like music. It's
pretty dope, man, Like, if you're able to go to
a fireworks show that's like really a show, like even
the one at Disney they do every night. Yeah, oh
that's what the lasers and fireworks and on a crazy man,
when you could do it when somebody's doing it, right.
I've never got any type of a rush or any
(08:25):
type of a crazy feeling with with fireworks.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I just rather watch them. It's never been a thing
where I'm.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
Like, I gotta like this baptist, let's do it like.
That's just never been my thing. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I mean, I don't know why that is, but but
some people really really get off on letting off on
those those fireworks.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Man, they love seeing the they lighten the fuse. N
It's like, dude, augusta win, that thing tilts over and
points in the direction of either other fireworks or somebody,
and we got a problem.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Yeah, I was just seeing it all on social media
where the joints go in a different direction. Went to
the garage, blue start blowing the garage up, hit the
card and blew the car up, hitting kids like hit
hit family members.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
Like what you doing it?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Like?
Speaker 5 (09:20):
I always tell this story, but I remember reading about this.
There was some dude in Maine. Him and his buddy
were out in the field somewhere like I won't be safe.
You know, there's no uh no property within within the distance.
So we've got some and the guy thought it would
be a good idea to take a mortar bomb, put
it on his head and then light it. What Here's
how the ending of that story went. Uh, he wasn't
(09:41):
going to lids anytime soon. I'll put it that way. Okay,
what are you doing.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
There was a couple of dudes that was lighting them
and then squatting on top of them, and then it
took off like that, and then and then the captions,
the captions be off the chain like like in my stomach,
like get in my belly, and you know what they
were talking about.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
The man's jewels was in his belly by the time.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
It's just it's the dumbest thing that people do to
try to go viral sometimes is during the fourth of
July fourth of July weekends that they it's crazy what
people do with these fireworks.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Yeah, it's it's it's I don't I don't understand it.
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
And I would also say this, if you want to
spoil yourselves, because Collins in Chicago and Ryan Music will
be out there, let me just little little recommendation. You
go to Navy Peer. There's a restaurant at Navy Peer
right up on top and during the summertime, they light
off fireworks two days a week. It's awesome And the
best part is professionals are doing it.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Go figure, it's not How many professionals do you think
do the fireworks during the course of a fourth of
July day?
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Less than one percent? Yeah, less than one percent. All
I know is.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
You can't comprehend it unless you lived it.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Nine a m. I was awaken.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
My windows are open and I'm listening and I hear
it's not non stop, And at first I didn't know
what it was. And then I asked a couple of
people like, man, yeah, it's four for July. Like what
you may is four for July. You wait till the night,
You wait till there's no point. It's like it's like, hey,
I'm gonna go lay out.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
By the pool. It's ten o'clock at night. You wait
till dusk, you point.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
You barbecue during today, You set off a couple of sparklers,
you throw the little white dips.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
That pop pop pop pop? Like what why is it
going all day long? Like? Who does that? How is
this possible that I can.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Hear fireworks going off non stop from nine am until
I went to bid at one am.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
In the morning. How many NFL players, do you think
woke up this morning. I ain't gonna like, huh, thank god,
well made a year. But also everybody can't say that
I need to get to camp down. I need to
get away from these people. I gotta get the camp.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
I mean, JPP was on the rundown. Ain't know, try
and get back into league. I mean talk about a
tailor to take caution of of sorts.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
By the way, Jason Pierre Paul under the radar. Great career, yes, dude,
I was looking at over the weekend. Ninety four and
a half career sacks. Yes, he's talked to it. He's
like he wants to get back in the league. It's
probably not gonna happen at this point, but I mean,
that would be cool for him to get back and
break a hundred sacks. But that would be pretty cool.
All you think about with him is the fireworks incident. Well,
(12:39):
I mean, because that's just how society. He's almost got
a hundred sacks.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
He will be forever remembered for blowing his hand off,
more so than having a dope career, by the way,
because people don't remember things like, oh, you had a
great career like people forget guys I had great careers,
they get drafted. How you forget about it? You forget
about careers, you don't forget about crazy.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
The fourth of July, it's gonna come up every day,
and it's been ten years every time. Guy's got almost
one hundred career sacks. He's got two super Bowl rings,
and uh, LeVar made a comment, you know, which I
thought was insulting before the show when I was I
was pointing out, I was like, hey, man, you know
Jpp's got two super Bowl rings. So I was like, yeah,
where's he gonna put up? I thought I was out
(13:22):
of line, which I thought was disrespectful because I did
not say that. But you look at his career. You
look at his career and you go, man, that guy
had a great career and did a lot of that
after the injury, and all anybody talks about is that
moment on fourth of July, and every single year he's
(13:44):
going to be reminded of it. The guy came back
and remember when he came back and played with a
cast on and still you know, continued his career. So yeah,
it's it's uh, this was a crazy weekend. Hopefully everybody,
Uh you know, didn't make any mistakes with those fireworks,
even though some did, like they do every year. And
now NFL players everywhere are like, all right, vacation's over.
(14:07):
Training camps right around the corner. It's grind time, bar
this is tis the season.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Season, Yeah, to be football, and listen, I'm excited for it.
There's a lot going on and there's a lot to
talk about, and that's what the NFL gives you, you know.
And I know we shots out to Independence Day, shots
out to the fourth of July. But now that we've
gotten those things out of the way, now those are
the topics of conversations we can touch on.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
And also should point this out. Our hearts are with
everyone affected by the Texas flooding. If you saw that
over the weekend, devastating, it's tragic, really really sad for
all those families and people involved. iHeart is partnering with
the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country to support
flood relief. The Kerr County Flood Relief Fund is helping
(14:53):
provide food, shelter, medical care, and long term recovery for
those affected. All donations go to trusted local organizations. Join
us in supporting recovery efforts at Community Foundation dot net.
They could use your help, whatever you can do to
try and provide some sort of support. Those family could
use it right now because just devastating over the weekend.
(15:14):
It is The Herd Here on Fox Sports Radio is
LeVar Arrington, Jonas Knox in for Colin, and up next,
apparently somebody's going to try and do something in the
NFL that hasn't been done by a quarterback in a
long time. We'll tell you what it is right here
on FSR.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Hey what's up everybody?
Speaker 4 (15:40):
It's me three time pro bowler LeVar Arrington and I
couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast called Up
on Game.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
What is Up on Game?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Huschman,
Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yep, that's right, Plexico Burris.
You can only name a show with that type of talent.
On it Game, We're going to be sharing our real
life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up on
Game with Me, LeVar Arrington, t J. Hutchman's Outa and
(16:10):
Plexago Birds on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Yeah, it's a true story. Appropriate music is a perfect
song for it. Uh, it is the Herd Here on
Fox Sports Radio, LaVar Arrington, Jonas Knox in for Colin.
By the way, when LeVar and I we you can
normally hear us weekday morning, six am Eastern Time, three
o'clock Pacific alongside Brady Quinn when it's just LeVar and I.
(16:46):
Though we call the show Black and Drack because I'm Pale.
I look like Dracula and LeVar he's not. Yeah, he's dark,
He's black, and I'm strong alone and I'm on get
on baby, got back? Wait wait, wait, so wrong song.
So we'll be in for Colin today and tomorrow. By
(17:07):
the way, coming up in a little over twenty minutes
from now, we are going to have another edition of
the Herdline News starring the great Ryan Music. So that'll
be yours here again a little over twenty minutes from now.
Justin Fields is the starting quarterback for the New York Jets.
His teammate Andre Cisco spoke about what the expectations are
(17:29):
from Justin Fields heading into this season, and he seems
very optimistic.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
Getting to know him up close as a teammate has
been really, really special. I'm really glad that I get
this opportunity to get behind him and just support him
as you know he takes on that road. As you know,
we already know what quarterback means in the NFL, and
so I'm excited for him to just prove those who
are down wrong and those who are supporting right, because
I think he's gonna have a huge view.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
Got it. Tell me if you've heard this before, Jets
get a quarterback, uh huh, and he's going to h
He's gonna be the one that's different. This is one
this time, no no, but this time for real, Like,
this is the one that's going to be different. Like
this one here. This is like when I count my
son down when I'm trying to get him to do something.
I was like, hey, I'm giving you to the count
(18:12):
of five and then I'll get to four and give
them three.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Oh yeah, but you gotta know what the consequence is
before you do to count down, because if you don't
have a consequence, then it will never work.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
The problem is I'm like the Jets because I'll get
to four and then I go four and a quarter.
Oh no, four and a half. Oh no, you know,
because you know it's going to go back. You know
what's going wrong. It's like the Jets do is for
their quarterbacks. They're like, hey, you know what, he's the
guy this time, right, And then it's like week eleven
and they've won three games, like yeah, but no, no, no,
(18:47):
this week, everything's gonna change, and it just gets pushed
down the road and down the road and down the road.
And I hope it works for Justin Fields. A lot
of people think maybe you should have gotten more of
an opportunity in Chicago. A lot of people, including people
in Pittsburgh, think that he should have gotten more of
an opportunity, especially later in the year when Russell was
starting to struggle a little bit. But we've seen this
(19:09):
so many times before, and I think that's what makes
the Week one matchup so interesting is all the parallels.
Because Justin Field said no to the Steelers to join
the Jets, the Jets said no to Aaron Rodgers and
signed Justin Fields, and now Rogers is with the Steelers
and they're going to meet up in the first game
of the season. Yeah, it's just like all the parallels
(19:32):
of make make that matchup even more interesting as we
get closer.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
You know Tanner and Strange, right, Strand he's the new coordinator.
He was the passing gang coordinator for the Detroit lines.
They had some really really good success with that scheme
and what they've had. This is a team, this Jets
team has good bones personnel wise. You look at the offense,
(20:00):
they have players everywhere. You look at the defense, they
have players everywhere. There really is no real reasoning outside
of how horrible the dysfunction is within the up top
regions of the franchise as to why this team should
be in the position they're in right now, which is
(20:22):
a not very respectable, not very successful, not a winning organization.
So when you look at this scenario for Justin Fields,
I say, Okay, they bring in a qualified guy that
had success in Detroit with Aaron Glenn on the defense
side of the ball.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
So Aaron brings him over to New York for Justin Fields.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
For the other guys that are part of this organization
at this point, it's going to take a collective belief,
starting with Woody Johnson, and allowing for the culture to
be developed the way that Aaron Glenn understands a culture
(21:09):
needs to be developed to be able to win and
to be competitive. Ken Woodie Johnson change the spots on
his coat from what they have been. The answer is
unequivocally no, it's not going to happen. But what you
can do, what you can do for the sake of
(21:32):
your team, for the sake of your franchise, for the
sake of the fans, for the sake of your players.
You can stop being a presence that creates the dysfunction,
remove yourself from the equation, allow the people to do
(21:54):
the job that you delegated that you hired to do
the jobs. Allow Aaron Glenn to develop the culture as
a head coach. As that applies to the elements in
the spaces, it applies for this team. The team has
a good enough personnel where you can have success with
(22:16):
Justin Fields as your quarterback. That's not a qualifier. This
is a top draft pick. Not too long ago that
a lot of people were hanging their hopes and dreams
on that he could be the quarterback of the future.
For another team that has done the same exact things
in terms of what they've said about quarterbacks in Chicago.
(22:36):
So to me, the fact that it didn't work out
in Pittsburgh for Justin Fields, I think that's more so
a wash scenario. I do not look at it as
why would you think Justin Fields is going to have
success in New York when he didn't even have success
in Pittsburgh. I'm not going to draw that conclusion, Jonas.
I am going to look at it from the perspective
(22:58):
of does he have fear opportunity to have success in
New York?
Speaker 5 (23:03):
I don't know. I don't know because I don't know
what the.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Dynamic is between ownership and culture of the new head coach.
If the if the new head coach has an opportunity
to build the culture in an organic, strong intentional way, yes,
all of them have an opportunity to have success, to
have it right away with the amount of talent that
they have. But the big if here is if ownership
(23:27):
and culture remains the same and it continues to you know,
keep keep them in, you know, like bumpers and and
and playing playing uh bowling. Right, if you have the
bumpers up and you're you're you're really restricting them and
what it is they're able to do.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
I don't think there will be enough growth.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
I don't think there will be enough positivity and structure
for it to turn into the culture uh that Aaron
Glenn is probably hoping that he's able to do.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
By the way, sidebar on that if you're an adult.
In fact, I'll just put it this way, anybody over
the age of nine, if you use bumpers when you bowl,
you should be arrested immediately. And I'm talking at least
a month behind, like like hard time. You can't really
bowl if you're a real bowler. There's no possible way
you can bowl legitimately. If you're a real bowler and
(24:19):
you have you can't be taken serious. You can't be
taken serious. Yeah, you just can't spin it.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
You can't spin it the way that unless you're spinning
it directly down the center triangle or maybe the second
triangle out you can get it, but it's not going
to be as good an angle if you're gonna spin
that bad boy, and it's going to go out to
that like third fourth triangle on on the you know
what is it on the on the rumway or whatever
you call it. The lanes, the lanes, that's that's you
(24:45):
can't have that because you're going to hit the bumper. Yeah,
I would agree with you. I'm just just making sure.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
So the Jets side of this, like I, I am
skeptical that Justin Field has this success and you know,
like Andre Cisco says, well, we're going to see him.
You know, I can't wait till he's going to prove
a lot of people wrong. All right, Well, I'm skeptical
of it, as you laid out, because of what's going
on around him. Because the Jets have had a lot
(25:13):
of talent over the years. Joe Douglas drafted, Well, they've
had a lot of talent there. And I'm always a
believer of Listen, it's not about the furniture. It's about
the foundation. All right. If you've got really nice furniture
in the home, but the foundation is cracking, sooner or later,
that stuff's getting getting sucked down into a sinkhole somewhere.
It's just gonna happen. And I look at it and
I go, yeah, he's got all the talents. There's talent there,
(25:36):
there's pieces there, there's a reason why Rogers was open
to going there because he saw that, man, this is
a place where we could win. They've drafted well and
the whole thing was disaster. But let's just say hypothetical,
Justin Fields thrives in New York. That's a really bad
look for a Aaron Rodgers and a really bad look
(25:59):
for Mike Tomlin, because Mike Tomlin reportedly was the guy
who said no, no, no, we're going to stick with
Russ the entire way, there were people there like Arthur Smith,
the offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, who wanted Justin Fields to
take over. There was a lot of people there who
didn't want Justin Fields to lose the job at all.
And if all of a sudden he decides because the
Jets get because the Steelers gave him a low ball
(26:21):
offer reportedly to go to the Jets, and the guy
that was in the building that people were telling Mike
Tomlin should be the starter, goes to the Jets, of
all places, and thrives. That's a really bad look for
Mike Tomlin and Aaron Rodgers. Which is another subplot to
this whole matchup and this whole situation.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
As a season player, what I'll say is he's never
come close to breaking three thousand yards passing the ball.
He did not show the ability to push the ball
downfield at a level that moved people to have the
belief that he's the long term answer. Just the reality
of what took place last year. Now, if that had
(27:03):
something to do with the play calling or that has
something to do outside of him, I don't know, but
he what worked against him was when Russ got in,
he was pushing the ball downfield and they were having
success when he got in, and that early success. Whoever
made the decision, it made the decision, which Mike Tomlin
(27:24):
put himself out in front of it and said it
was his decision. It made him look like he made
a really good decision. Now what that looked like, or
what it looks like moving forward from what it looked
like moving forward with Russ, they did not bring Russ back.
So Russ did not do a great enough job where
Mike Tomlin putting himself out front of him saying Russ
is our guy, that did not equate to him coming
(27:47):
back and being part of the Pittsburgh Steelers for this
next upcoming season. Now, when I look at Justin fields.
I think it's a tremendous risk to think that he's
going to go from a sub he gets to two thousands.
The highest he's ever gotten in passing yards is twenty
five hundred yards in passing the ball. That's not very
(28:07):
impressive at all. Damn is that impressive? Is that impressive?
It's not, you know, I mean, I mean, guys, guys
challenge Saquan almost ran for how many yards? The bottom
line here is that I don't think you're going to
get to the next level of competition with a quarterback
(28:28):
that can't break three thousand yards plus throwing the ball
during the course of a season. I don't think you
can call somebody an elite passer that can be a
franchise guy for you if they can't break and have
those types of seasons where they produce more than.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
Seventeen touchdowns in a season. It's just not to me.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
It's a it's a stretch, and it's a long shot
to think that at this point you're actually going to
be able to see justin fields, be this quarterback that
we've never seen at the pro level.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Yeah, it's all about him using his legs like that's
always been his what separates him from everybody else. When
he had those huge, big plays in Chicago, it was
all about him using his legs. When you know, there
was a game his final year in Chicago where everyone said, man,
this is why they got to keep Justin Fields and
trade the number one pick because he had one game
(29:23):
late in the year against Atlanta and he was lights
out unbelievable. But then the next week they finished the
season at Green Bay and it was the same sort
of Justin Fields that you've seen. And when you bring
up the which which makes me think about this as
well too, when you because there's almost like a like
a triangular quarterback storyline to watch, and it's how does
(29:48):
Justin Fields do? How does Aaron Rodgers do? How does
Russell Wilson do? Because they're all kind of connected in
a weird way to where Rogers had conversation with Brian
day Ball. They have, you know, a great amount of
respect for each other. Russell Wilson's now with the Giants,
Justin Field's and the Jets, Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers
I don't even recall, and we talked about this at
(30:09):
the time. Did Pittsburgh even try and make an offer
or an effort to keep Russell Wilson. I know they did.
Justin Field. I didn't hear that. I don't think they
even tried. I did not hear that, which, like you
look at those three quarterbacks, you go, well, Justin Fields
hasn't really proven it, you know, Rogers, you know, seems
(30:30):
like the end is near. Russe really wants to keep
playing and really and Pittsburgh didn't even try and keep
Russell Wilson, Like there wasn't even a discussion about it.
It was like, oh, cool, he wants to come back here. Nice.
He doesn't get along with the offensive coordinator. So all
three of those teams are kind of all connected in
this weird way and look, like I said, I hope
(30:52):
it works out for Justin Fields. I'd like to see
him get an opportunity. It'd be nice if the New
York Jets had some stability and we're back, they're winning
ways like they were when Rex Ryan was there. I'm
just skeptical, man. And I also think, could you imagine
being a Jets fan knowing deep down in your soul
when you talk to people close to you, knowing, I'm
(31:14):
never gonna see my favorite team win a Super Bowl.
What's that feeling like, well, especially when your favorite Oh
they don't dang. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
I don't want to make this about the Steelers either,
but I mean, if you think about it, there's a consistency.
Kenny Pickett's best year in Pittsburgh was in twenty twenty two,
twenty four hundred yards all right, Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson
had no more than two thousand. Oh, Justin Fields didn't
(31:50):
break two thousand in Pittsburgh. But but Russell Wilson had
what I believe to be twenty five hundred as well.
So nobody is breaking Nobody is breaking the bank on
passing yards and Pittsburgh, which begs for the question of
(32:10):
what is what is the idea of what you had
twenty four hundred, two and eighty two yards for Russell
Wilson last year, last season. Nobody's getting a ton of
yards passing the ball from Pickett to Justin Fields to
Russell Wilson.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Yeah, they haven't. Pittsburgh hasn't had an answer at quarterbacks
since probably second to last year of Big Ben because
I think the last year it was a little rough.
They tried to draft Kenny Pickett to make that work.
That didn't work at all. That that fell apart and
he ended up elsewhere. And then they bring in Russell
Wilson and Justin Fields because it was on the cheap.
(32:53):
Justin Fields, they were winning games. But Russell Wilson came
back from the injury that he was that he was
dealing with. I believe there's a calf issue in training camp.
And then he came back and yeah, he did give
them a threat to throw deep. He gave them something
down the field, but it just they haven't had an
answer there.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
In six seven years, twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four,
you have had three quarterbacks play for your team, and
now going into twenty five, you will have four. Yeah
to me again, Now, if I'm the New York Jets,
I'm saying I Am going to have a measured feeling
(33:34):
of confidence towards Justin Fields. But at least he's younger,
he still has an athletic ability about him, and the
possibilities of his trajectory still going up. Trending up is
a possibility because I don't feel like guys are being
utilized the right way in the Steelers' offensive system. That
(33:57):
would be what I'm thinking. If I'm the New York Giants,
and that's what I'm thinking. If I'm the New York Jets,
and that's what I'm thinking, if I'm the Cleveland Browns.
And to me, now we get an opportunity to have
comps in terms of what is Russell Wilson going to
do this year? What is Kenny Pickett going to do
this year? What is Justin Phil's going to do this year?
(34:20):
And all of those things will relate back in a
way to what's taking place in Pittsburgh and what Aaron
Rodgers is doing in Pittsburgh and how they're coaching things
in Pittsburgh. I'm curious, Ken, Aaron Rodgers break three thousand
yards throwing the ball in Pittsburgh this year?
Speaker 5 (34:37):
Yeah, okay, I should. You're saying, yay, he should if
he stays healthy. I think he will. Well, let's see
it is the last three quarterbacks there have not done it.
And they're not Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I get that, but the last three quarterbacks and Russell
Wilson isn't a bad name. He's got the same amount
of Super Bowls as him. I mean, listen, Mason Rudolph
might have done it if he didn't get as salted
by Miles Garrett. You never know things are us which
you want to take it to, Sir.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
There it is the Herd here on Fox Sports Radio,
LeVar Arrington, Jonas Knox in for Colin.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week. Within the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd
to listen live or on demand. Whenever you like.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Food in the world, It is the Herd Fox Sports Radio,
LeVar Arrington, a real Jonas Knox filling in for Colin.
You can find us on the iHeart Radio app. You
can also find us on hundreds of affiliates all across
the country. You can find LeVar and I weekday morning,
six am Eastern Time, three o'clock Pacific, alongside Brady Quinn.
It's called two Pros and a Cup of Joe. And
(35:53):
when there's no Brady Quinn, it is black and Drack.
Here on this Monday morning, after a long holiday weekend.
I got it first after a long I don't know
why we can't just be happy for Deshaun Watson. Why
do you have to be so negative about the whole thing?
The guy got married. Congratulations Deshaun Watson. He's got a
(36:15):
one point three million dollar ring. He does yeah or
she does? Says his his band is worth up to
one point three million. Some people had that saying you
can't have money. Let me ask you that why why
is it worded that way? Worth up to one point
three million? Because it's only worth what somebody's willing to spend, right,
it could it could? It could a praise for that amount.
(36:37):
What is there incentives in it? Like, well, if you
meet all these incentives, it'll be worth one point three million,
Like what like don't go to the grab lab, it'll
be worth one point three You can't clean it with
a towel. That keeps the value. That's that's the incentive.
Don't don't clean it with a towe street tal is
(36:58):
tal is cleaner. That's a great point, all right. So
with that being said, speaking to speaking of Ohio, Lebron
James was hanging out at the Calves Practice facility and
there was a there was a picture that went out
(37:19):
of him there and some people started to speculate, oh,
is he going back home? Is he going back to Cleveland?
This and that? And he basically we spawned on social
media with something along the lines of I live here,
I practice here every off season. There's nothing different about this.
You practice at the Cavaliers. Yea works out there all
(37:39):
the time. He works out there constantly because he lives
out there, and so he said, that's not strange. No,
I don't think so he does it every year, and
that's not strange every year not I mean whatever, he's
working out there. It's their practice. That's strange to me.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
I don't know, all right, but there's a hundred different
places you could go work out other than another team
in the National Basketball Association, So that doesn't come across
this strain.
Speaker 5 (38:06):
Well he's starting, but okay, but his point was, I'm
here every off season. Are you all that bored? Go
get another plate of food? Okay?
Speaker 4 (38:17):
But is every off season like this for Lebron James.
That's the question Lebron has to ask himself, and that's
the question that needs to be asked and answered. Does
this off season give you something different than any other
off season? And the answer has to be yes, really, yes,
it does. Because of the uncertainties of what's going to
take place based off of the selling of the team
(38:39):
of the Lakers based off of bringing in Luka Doncic,
based on on where where they are as a team,
and and to me, it just seems like the handwriting
is on the wall that that this Lakers team is
possibly positioning themselves to be able to move on from
Lebron James.
Speaker 5 (38:59):
So and at context, yes it, I mean he has
to know that. I don't.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
I'm you can't be upsetting up in arms if people
are looking at you doing something that you've always done,
but in the moment of where that could be a
possibility of a destination for him to land.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
He's there working out, that's strange. I mean, but that's strange,
like if he was working out in South Beach, if
he was working out, I mean, I don't know if
he's hold on.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Now, If he's in South Beach and he's working out
on the beach or on Ocean Ave, you might be like, Okay,
speculate and he can give you a legitimate I just
like being in Miami, I'm always in Miami. If he's
in Cleveland and he's in the flats or he's just
doing what he's doing somewhere in and around Cleveland, he
(39:48):
can take the speculation and he can drown out the
special speculation.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
He can.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
He can, he can delete it. He can, he can
eliminate it. You're working out at Cleveland Cavaliers facility, that's weird.
I don't know if I was playing for to Washington
back when I was playing for the Washington Ridskins, well
then Washington Ridskins. If I were to be in Texas
and I'm working out at the Dallas Cowboys facilities, because
(40:17):
I've always worked out there first and foremost, why would
I always work out at the Dallas Cowboys facility for there? Man,
that's weird. B Well, that's weird. I don't know how
you don't see it that it's weird or you're being
an instigator.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
I'm not weird. That is weird. He does it every
officeus and there's nothing new about this. It's weird the
first time he did it. Okay, But if he does
it this mean it doesn't make it unwird. That he's
doing it for years. It makes it weird that it's
not weird. Look, I think that he enjoys the speculation.
I think he stirs that up a lot. I think
(40:52):
that's you know, he can try and be dismissive of
it and say, well, you know, you guys need to
get a life, basically and go get another plate of food.
And I'm here every offseason. I think he likes to
stir it up. He probably knows deep down this is
going to generate some sort of reaction somewhere or another.
I look at it from a general standpoint, this is
another indication that the NBA without Lebron, what do you got?
(41:18):
Because when he's gone and the end is near, what
what is there?
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Like?
Speaker 5 (41:25):
He really is the lifeblood of topics and discussion in
the National Basketball Association. He's great at it. And if
this is all winding down and he's out in the
next couple of years, people that cover the NBA, people
that love to talk about the league, Oh, it's not
as bad as everybody thinks it is, And you know,
(41:45):
they get pissed off and we point out that the
separation between the NFL and the NBA. You better start
stirring up some other storylines or stirring up some other
stars in the league. And I don't know, this isn't
a face of the NBA, it's a life of the NBA.
And without Lebron James it feels like the NBA's on
life support when it comes to interest, intrigue and talking points.
(42:07):
What else is there? Talent?
Speaker 4 (42:10):
I'd say there's talent. Yeah, there's talented young talented stars.
You have some older talented stars. You have star power
in the NBA. Is it interesting? I would say the
better question would be does the NBA have enough relevance
and enough to me cache to be interesting outside like
(42:39):
what Lebron James, or like Shaquille O'Neill, or like a
Kobe Bryant, or like a Michael Jordan or a Magic Johnson?
Do they have the ability to Is there a player
that exists that can transition into those positions of interest
outside of the talent on.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
The court, I don't.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
I think there are personalities within the NBA that could
be those. But I find myself asking the question, are
we in a day and age? Are we in a
time where social media and different things have taken away
It's really taken away the ability. It's desensitized fans. It's
(43:26):
desensitized fans, and for what it's worth, I think it
has desensitized athletes as well. How do you build as
big as Shaquille O'Neill or Michael Jordan, if you can
get a hold of them so easily. Now, granted, when
Lebron James was coming in, that transitional phase was that
(43:47):
stage was taking place, so he wasn't all the way
fully acclimated to being in a world where social media
dominated it, technology dominated it. Now, while you may see
the NFL because it leans so deep into the brand
and the shield that they don't seem to be losing
any momental and in fact, maybe even picking up momentum.
(44:09):
But in basketball, it's such a personality driven sport that
when you see the guys like Shaquille O'Neil, you see
them in person and it's like you've met like somebody
that came like from somewhere else. You meet these guys
and there was this sense of just Wow, I just
(44:31):
met this person. That element is gone, and I think
the homy element is there, like working out at a
different facility that is in the NBA and you play
for another team, the exchanging of jerseys, which happens in football.
But I just feel like it's weird how cool guys
are these days. And they're not only cool with one another,
(44:55):
they're cool with the fan bases like that connection is there.
And I don't think that the relevance of like the
praise factor or the the you know, posting them high
on a pedestal type deal don't. I don't feel like
that's prominent anymore. And I don't think that players actually
(45:15):
prioritize trying to be that type of a personality.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
Or a brand. I really don't. We've talked about this
before to where the NFL has its own ecosystem where
the NBA is starved for. We need a superstar, we
need big markets happy to dress. And in the NFL,
Patrick Mahomes plays in Kansas City like Rogers was in
Green Bay. It doesn't like the NFL. Anybody could be
(45:41):
a great team with a great quarterback, and because it's
its own ecosystem, it supersedes all the other big market
celebrity status that comes along with it. Man, it's not
like Patrick Mahomes has got this you know, vibrant personality
and this real colorful No. Guy just plays football. He
plays football, and he's on a team with with you know,
(46:01):
with the tight end who's dating Taylor Swift. Like it's
just it's.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Became more relevant than football. It's so don't think that
football isn't guilty of trying to find ways to leverage
celebrity as well. Yeah, but football's not determined on one player,
like the success and conversation around the NFL isn't just
determined on one player man Tom Brady retired sweet next
time the next Like John l Wait, I think it
(46:27):
comes down to what you mentioned earlier, is the relevance
of the franchises. Like Green Bay is not a big market,
it's not a great market, but the relevance of the
franchise drives it.
Speaker 6 (46:39):
Right.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
The people love their their franchise, the communities rally around
their franchise. They create a very very nice size, captive audience.
You have that in the NFL, and it's because of
the shield, and it's because of the brands of those franchises.
You have that in a few teams in the NBA,
but you don't have that collectively. So the relevance of
what you're to do has to exist in certain certain
(47:03):
markets in order for it to be as impactful as
you need it to be. And that's why you always
try to keep the Lakers as strong as you can,
maybe keep the Knicks as strong as they can try
to keep the Chicago Bulls as strong as you can.
You saw what they just did with the Dallas Mavericks.
You try to keep the Dallas Mavericks as strong as
you can. You have to try to keep those those
(47:24):
anchor teams, those anchor markets. You gotta try to keep
them stocked up with some type of relevant talent because
you're not the the franchises in these different markets.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
You just had.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
Okay, see when win it all, what's the buzz? Well
that's what What was the what was the what was
the parade like?
Speaker 5 (47:47):
After?
Speaker 2 (47:48):
You know?
Speaker 5 (47:48):
And I and I asked this question for anybody that's
driving around right now or listening on the podcast. Take
Lebron James out of the NBA, what do you want
to talk about? Heang like, honestly, you have to be
a real fan of the game to be able to
answer your question. And I think that's the biggest indict.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Now.
Speaker 5 (48:05):
I loved the NBA Finals. I thought it was great
because it was great basketball and you didn't have any drama.
There was no like, no subplots or issues going on.
It was just two really good teams who were pretty
evenly matched. Much more evenly matched, I think a lot of.
Speaker 4 (48:20):
Lebron James or Shaquille, Kevin Gronet, or there's Kevin Durant
or Steph Kurk.
Speaker 5 (48:27):
How many of those guys were in that series? Well,
that's the thing. How many?
Speaker 7 (48:32):
None?
Speaker 5 (48:32):
But that's but no, But that's that's great. That's the thing.
And those were the two best teams in the playoffs.
You know, it was a great series. I I had
thoroughly enjoyed it. But I look at the NBA differently
to where I think a lot of people focus on
this storyline attached to it and the name brand attached
to it, and after Lebron, you don't have a lot
(48:53):
of that. There's not a lot of that going on.
And with Lebron's career winding down, I think people are
going to get a harsh social reality when he's gone, Oh,
we've got to actually like put some work in and
really start pushing some You don't realize how much he
carried on us. Wow, that's a great point.
Speaker 4 (49:10):
I mean, and even earlier you talked about we talked
about JPP and the fireworks situation. If you have something
that happens in a major market, which by the way,
it's interesting that JPP was a giant and Odell Beckham
makes the catch as a giant. Like it's certain markets
where if you do something personally, it can take your
(49:31):
brand beyond the scope of just being a helmet in
jersey and cleats. But it doesn't happen very often. You
get used to seeing guys with helmets on being totally
covered up, and it's what the team is doing. In fact,
in most cases it's actually set up for the coaches
(49:51):
to actually become the stars of what's taking place. You
look at the coaches and they're singled out. You know,
look at how many times we looked at zerses On
on the New York side line before he got before
he got I can right, you can look at Stefanski,
He's got to look to him.
Speaker 5 (50:10):
You you look at day Ball, It's like he's got
to look to him.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
You you look at you know, any of these coaches
in and around the league, they get a ton of
attention because you can see them.
Speaker 5 (50:22):
You can see them.
Speaker 4 (50:23):
The dynamic of how we how we bring in or
or how we digest and how we receive the content
from from football is much different than how we receive
it from basketball. We are looking we almost look at
basketball players as entertainers like singers or actors, right because
(50:43):
you can see them.
Speaker 5 (50:45):
You can see them.
Speaker 4 (50:47):
And so with that being said, if you can see
these guys and listen, they're putting them in commercials like
the I think Progressive had uh the OKC thunder Kids
and the guys in their commercial, and you had the
Big Three and their commercial and stuff like that. They
get commercials and they are relevant to the audiences that
(51:08):
are consuming them. It's just that you don't have that
next level brand like a Lebron James that's in the
pipeline to actually carry it. From a megastar standpoint, there's
not one that exists. I can't think of one personality.
Anthony Edwards is the only personality that you could say
is comparable to the personalities that we've gotten to know
(51:30):
through the years where you want to know that individual
in particular.
Speaker 5 (51:35):
But you don't have a Kevin Garnett.
Speaker 4 (51:37):
You don't have a Paul Pierce, don't you don't have
those type of very big personalities that are making you
look at the game from an entertainment standpoint of the storylines,
not just the game itself and what the outcomes of
the games are and that's something that once Lebron James leaves,
(51:57):
you're gonna have to figure out what that conversation is
done dry. The well is dry once he's gone. By
the way, Steph Curry, you got Steph Curry. That's about it.
Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and I mean, if we're talking
in the animals of being the greatest ever, you'll say
maybe Draymond falls in like a Dennis Rodman type of category, right,
(52:21):
Like you had a superstar in Dennis Rodman but was
never thus star, but yet his brand was very pronounced
that's Draymond Green. So you have it in Draymond Green
and Steph Curry. There might be a couple more if
we really really dig deep for it. But I mean,
it's just it's not to the level of what we're
talking about with a Lebron James.
Speaker 5 (52:39):
By the way, our hearts are with everyone affected by
the Texas flooding. iHeart is partnering with the Community Foundation
of the Texas Hill Contry to support flood relief. The
Kerr County Flood Relief Fund is helping provide food, shelter,
medical care, and long term recovery for those affected. All
donations go to trusted local organizations. Join us in support
(53:00):
hoarding recovery efforts at Community foundation dot net. It is
the Herd here On Fox Sports Radio, LeVar Arrington Jonas
Knox in for Collin
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Colin Cowherd
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