May 7, 2021 • 41 mins
Colin reacts to Anthony Davis suffering another injury and what this means for the Lakers championship hopes with LeBron James still on the sidelines as well. He lays out a solution for the Packers to fix their relationship with disgruntled QB Aaron Rodgers. Plus, one of Rodgers’ former teammates AJ Hawk joins the show to separate fact from fiction regarding the reported disconnect between the reigning MVP and the Green Bay front office.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to
three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd
at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live
every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This
is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on
Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go on a Friday.
(00:28):
We are live in Los Angeles. This is the Herd.
Wherever you may be and however you may be listening iHeartRadio,
Fox Sports Radio and f S one. Alex Curry is
joining me today on Dodgers Angel series starts tonight. A
lot of stars in that series. Bad news for the Lakers.
(00:51):
Ad got hurt again. Alex, How are you this morning?
I'm doing fabulous. Colin, how are you doing well? It's
gonna be a big baseball weekend here in Los Angeles. Angels, Dodgers,
good team's bad bullpens, so they'll be wild, scoring late
in games, teams holding onto leads. Yeah, we got a
couple of things, Aaron Rodgers. In a second, let's just
start with this. So, I mean the NBA has been
(01:12):
a weird year. I mean, Denver lost their second best player, Brooklyn.
Guys can't stay healthy. Kawhi Leonard's hit and miss. Lebron's
been hurt. Now Ad got hurt last night, so in
the first quarter they needed him against the Clippers. He
gets hurt in the first quarter. He is so injury
prone that he literally twisted his ankle, but yet actually
(01:33):
left the game because of a back spasm. I mean,
it's like that operation game as a kid, like which
bone is healthy. They need him tonight. He's fifty fifty
if he can play. They've needed him when Lebron got hurt.
They're two and six and he's had the worst point
average in his career. In a brief stint, listen, here's
the truth about Anthony Davis is that he's not Tom Brady.
(01:56):
He's not Russell Wilson, he's not Lebron James. He doesn't
spend million of years, millions of dollars a year in
his body. He does not. He does not spend millions
on his body. He's more like Rashid Wallace, naturally gifted.
Not really a number one, more verbrilliant number two. You
can't necessarily depend on him physically. But god, he's unbelievably gifted.
(02:18):
But Rashid Wallace used to give the Blazers a check
before the start of every season for all the fines
for missing working out. He didn't like the weight room.
Anthony Davis doesn't either. He is not a grinder. He
doesn't take care of his body, and therefore his body
doesn't take care of him. That is why he has
so many small, nagging injuries. You have got to commit
(02:40):
to your body. The planes thirty three thousand feet, I
don't care if it's a private jet, I don't care
if it's the team plane. Thirty three thousand down, thirty
three thousand down, forty five, fifty five times a year,
working out, light, sleep, luggage to the hotel. It breaks
down your body. And the reality is Anthony Davis is
(03:02):
just not built to give you seventy five games in
the regular season and twenty in the postseason, and Lebron
is now tied to him for his career because Anthony
Davis knew his body gives out in him. He knows
his body better than anybody, and he's signed a five
year deal and Lebron is now tied to him, a
guy that's marginally committed, not a number one, a brittle body.
(03:28):
And this was supposed to be the year that Ad
took over. Remember this was the year he's twenty eight
years old. They win a title, and there was a
sense inside the room, the Lakers room, this is your team.
What happened? He came in in so so shape, He
got up to a terrible start. He has this year
the fewest blocks of his career, the fewest rebounds of
(03:50):
his career, the second lowest like field goal percentage. He's
had a terrible year, and He's missed the most games
of his career, and Lebron is tied to him. And
you know what, this really shows more than anything, And
this is such a truism in life. You couldn't run
from your problems, but you can't hide from him. Lebron
(04:11):
has moved three different times and he can't escape the
same issues. In the NBA. He went to Miami. D
Wade was old, got hurt a lot, and he goes
back to Cleveland. Kyrie was flaky, Kevin Love couldn't stay healthy.
Now he moved to Los Angeles, a d never healthy,
(04:34):
and Lebron is trapped because he doesn't want to play
with young kids. He doesn't want to teach him basketball.
When he went to Los Angeles, initially they had all
these kids. Kuzma's the only one left, and he wasn't
in love with him. Kuzma's now committed on the defensive end.
That makes Lebron happy, but in the end, he would
have gotten rid of Kuzma. So he didn't want to
play with young guys. He wants to play with old guys.
(04:55):
But old guys are brittle and stuck in their ways
and often and hard to deal with and harder to coach.
So Lebron is sort of trapped, and he keeps moving
around to solve an issue, and he just finds the
same issue in a different city. First, Dwayne Wade was
older and couldn't really play at a high level back
to backs, and then Kevin Love got hurt in Cleveland,
(05:16):
and Kyrie was a flake. And now he moves here
and a d sort of marginally committed and can't stay healthy.
This is not a championship team this year, and it's
the reality of Lebron's career. He now looks old, he
feels old. Sometimes he sounds old. He said a couple
of weeks ago. I'll never be one hundred percent again.
This was going to be the year that a d
took over, and instead, once again, Lebron is left with
(05:39):
a teammate he can't rely on. He came in in
marginal shape. This is why he's hurt more than ever.
These guys are pampered. They're not supposed to get hurt.
He got training staffs looking after him, twenty four to seven.
AD walks by him all the time. So once again
Lebron moves to solve an issue and it's the same
(06:02):
issue in another location. So the Aaron Rodgers stuff, it's
never ending. So right in the day of the draft,
I thought it was sort of a zany coincidence than
a year earlier the Packers humiliated Aaron Rodgers by drafting
Jordan Love, and one year later to the day Aaron
(06:24):
Rodgers I thought humiliated the Packers, Jay Glazer, Adam Schefter,
Ian Rapaport, all the exact same time suddenly broke the story,
all connecting to one another like I've never seen in
my entire career that Aaron wants out of Green Bay.
I don't know who fed him the information. I don't know.
(06:46):
I can guess who I think it is. I don't
think it's the Packers, but now Aaron's friends are out there.
AJ Hawks in our show in fifteen minutes, James Jones
on the NFL Network, saying Aaron didn't leak the story.
I speak with Aaron all the time. I talk to
him a lot. And it has nothing to do about
getting the GM fired. It has nothing to do about
(07:09):
getting a new contract and getting money, you know what.
I mean, Everything that Aaron Rodgers has done since he's
been a Green Bay Packer, this is not him. He's
not a guy that's gonna go out there and leak
all this stuff and say he wants out of the
air and be giving all this stuff to the media.
That's never been him. And the organization side of it
comes into place, and you talk about, you know, him
and the GM and the head coach working together. I
(07:31):
think is fixable. I think they'll be able to get
that stuff done. But I think that's what it's about, okay,
and that's important. James Jones, who talks to Aaron Rodgers
all the time, just said I think it's fixable. James
talks to Aaron Aaron talks to James, meaning Aaron's probably
told James it's fixable. Just you know, go get me,
(07:54):
Julio Jones, restructure my contract. I've said before, I'd peel
the band aid off and move on. If Jordan Love
can play. If Jordan Love can't play, then you're really screwed.
Then you have to figure out how to get Aaron
Rodgers back into camp and in Green Bay for years,
(08:14):
and we've had how many players have I had on
this show over the last month? And what's the question
I ask every player? And I preface it by saying
to each one of them, I ask every player this,
how many days does it take when you draft a
player to know that he can play or he can't?
(08:35):
And the answer from every player is always shockingly quick,
shockingly quick. Two practices. I asked somebody the other day
about Trubisky. Two practices, sam Acho, two practices you can
tell if a quarterback can't play. Well, green Bay's had
Jordan Love there for one hundred and fifty practices. Don't
(08:59):
you think they know the answer? Green Bay doesn't want
to move Aaron Rodgers, and because of COVID, none of
us were at those green Bay practices. Right. Green Bay
knows he can't play. Green Bay knows the answer. They're
the only ones that know the answer. They want to
make this thing work. They don't want to trade Aaron Rodgers.
(09:19):
They've seen one hundred and fifty practices. You don't think
they don't know if he can play or not. Every
stinking athlete that comes on their shows like, dude too practice.
This guy can make throwser he can't. They got one
hundred and fifty practices and they're like, oh, don't know.
It could go either way. I don't buy it. I
think Green Bay knows Jordan Love can't play in their weft.
And if that's the case, okay. Everybody makes mistakes in
(09:44):
the NFL. The key has always been own it, pivot
and fix it. The Cleveland Browns, to their credit, hired
Freddy Kitchens. Oh crap, this doesn't work, Boom outs to
Fan Ski. They fixed it. They didn't try to. Hey,
(10:05):
Freddie Kitchens just needs time. Now. Freddie Kitchens needs time
to come down to the GM's office and get fired.
They fired him. Stefanski's a home run Arizona. Josh Rosen
doesn't work, Boom Kyler Murray think they regretted by the
way Green Bay rolled the dice. We're gonna draft a
(10:26):
guy from Utah State who had a marijuana issue. Oh yeah,
two of his three years, he wasn't very good. They
rolled the dice, they whipped. It's okay. The Rams signed
Jared Goff to a massive contract, huge deal. Two years later,
we screwed up. Let's go get Matt Stafford Belichick. Not
(10:47):
this draft. The previous draft drafted two tight ends ten
picks apart from each other. This draft, this free agent
period nine months later. Yeah, I'm gonna go get two
tight ends. I missed on those guys. Carolina Teddy Bridgewater.
They paid him thirty one million bucks. He played fifteen games.
Caroline is like, yeah, you're not good enough. Let's go
(11:08):
get Sam Darnold. The key in this leak. Everybody makes mistakes.
The key is own it. Pivot and get the crap right.
Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Kyler Murray,
just go get the better guy. Kevin Stefanski. Get rid
of Freddy Kitchens. Everybody makes mistakes. The Murdock's own this company.
(11:32):
Some businesses work, some don't. It's just the way it
goes if if you're a frenetic and aggressive business person, entrepreneurial,
you're gonna make some moves that don't work. He can't
be afraid think business people are afraid of failing. Dana
White UFC. You know he puts cards up sometimes fights
(11:52):
or duds, hopefully more great. You can find the best
baseball scouts, a lot of them missed on gall Go
get the next guy, but a hundred practices with Jordan Love.
Would Green Bay be so desperate if they thought the
(12:13):
dude can play, let's go trade him, let him play.
You're not paying him anything for years. I mean to me,
this situation more and more Green Bay clearly doesn't want
to move him. We know that you can read every
story nobody's saying they do. And now from an Aaron
Rodgers side, James Jones, you're getting it's fixable. So go
(12:36):
fix it. Go get Julio Jones. He's on the market.
Restructure Aaron Rodgers contract so you get some cap space
and cut Jordan Love or trade him for a seventh
round pick. That's what New England did with Garoppolo. Tom
Brady didn't like it all right, Let's fix the problem,
get a second round pick, move on, make Tom happy.
(12:58):
By the way, Green Bay roll the dice. They thought
Aaron was declining. Oops he's not. New England thought Tom
was declining. Won the Super Bowl against Atlanta. Oops he's not.
Did you watch the games last year? Oops he's not again.
So just don't your mistakes. It's no big deal. Nobody's
gonna eat you. It's just whipped on that one. But
I think social media freaks everybody out. Oh my god,
(13:20):
I don't want to post this. Everybody will attack me.
I get attacked all day on social media. Checks don't bounce.
It's fine, come to work every day. We have fun.
Oh crazy, just nutty. So Aaron's friends are saying it's fixable.
That tells me we're moving. We're inching closer to maybe
getting back together again. Be sure to catch live editions
(13:42):
of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nay Empacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.
I used to not love flying. It's not like I
was a nervous flyer, but you know, heights didn't love him,
and then I kind of attacked it. I bungee jumped,
I did a lot of flying. I went to the
space needle anytime I could kind of attack my my
(14:04):
height thing I did, and I'm kind of over it.
Good for you, yeah, But there was something I learned
about myself. It was like I was eighth or ninth grade.
I didn't know the name for it, but I was
in the gym when I was eight or nine years
old and we were playing like hockey in on a
basketball court. It was great. It was so much fun.
(14:26):
I remember this, and I just happened to get lucky
and score the winning like goal yea, and kids jumped
on me and the pile got big, and I freaked
out and I remember just thinking, at the bottom of
this pile of twenty kids, I can't breathe. I don't
like this at all. I didn't know it's called claustrophobia,
(14:47):
so I haven't had people pile on me since, but
I remember that feeling as a kid kind of getting
off the pile and the teacher came over. The pe
teacher went are you okay? And I'm like, I didn't
like that, and he's like, oh, you're probably claustrophobic. It's okay.
A lot of people are. Alex and I were talking
during the break you're a little claustrophobic. Yeah, I probably
(15:07):
have that, you know, genetically in me. I don't. I
don't like being trapped. Yeah, you want to feel like
you're free. I want to feel like you're free. And
so one of the things I've owa's defended pro athletes
on my career lasts forever. I'm mid fifties. I could
do this to mid eighties if I'm alive. I mean,
you see, Larry King was on the air a week
before he died, like like people do Vince Scully until
(15:29):
he's eighty, and so I don't ever feel like I
have to win a negotiation or win this or win that.
Is that I can be on forever. But if you're
a pro athlete, you can feel trapped. I go to
a crappy team. The collective bargaining agreement is not pro player,
it's pro owner. The NFL's got the weakest union NBA union,
(15:51):
very pro player Baseball union, very pro player. Hell. The
umpire union is stronger than the NFL player union. The
coaching unions are stronger than the NFL player union. And
so sometimes if you're a star player, a quarterback, you
feel trapped. I think Russell Wilson's a really good guy,
but he's gone public twice. I want more money and
(16:13):
I want more players. Why he's trapped? What are his options?
Tom Brady did a documentary, had editing control, made sure
everybody in New England saw his wife saying Jiselle Bunchen
saying he wants to be respected. Could this just be
Aaron feeling trapped? They won't get him wide receivers, they
(16:36):
keep drafting developmental players. He watches Brady Mahomes, Josh Allen,
all their talent, and so he's kind of leaked some
stuff here and here and here, and you could say, well,
James Jones said he's not leaking stuff, okay, but didn't
Aaron After the NFC Championship, remember the postgame comments. He
kind of put it out there for Green Bay management
(16:59):
to kind of understand how he was thinking. Remember this bite.
A lot of guys futures, you know, uncertain you know,
myself included. That's what's said about it most getting this far. Obviously,
it's going to be an end to it at some point,
(17:20):
whether we make it past this one or not. But
just the uncertainties. He's tough, and the finality of it all,
that's kind of a message. That's kind of a message.
So what do you do? I'd call it professional claustrophobia.
(17:42):
Russell Wilson's always been Gohawks, but he thought he was
massively underpaid, and the rumors came out he wanted the Giants.
I was. I had two sources on that said it
was a real story. By the way, Russell Wilson unhappy
with the offensive line goes public Seattle in both instances
(18:02):
solved it. Brady was unhappy with Jimmy Garoppolo. Those stories
made ESPN the magazine. What happened? Garoppolo was traded. Some
of this may just be Aaron really doesn't hate Green Bay,
but he feels professionally trapped. Okay, restructure my deal, solve
(18:22):
all the issues. It maybe just be that simple. We
all consider today, Aaron wants out. That's all I hear
from anybody. Maybe it's Aaron wants a better deal and
doesn't want out. Maybe it's can we restructure my deal,
get me Julio Jones and stop drafting six offensive linemen
every year? Can we finally get a corner that's not
(18:42):
a reach from Georgia and go and get the best
Corner the second Round from Georgia, which Irban Meyer and
the Jags got. Maybe this is a cry for help,
It's a cry for restructuring. It's a little professional claustrophobia.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and un Easter ninety and Pacific. Hey, it's Ben, host
(19:03):
of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller along with my
trustee sidekick David Gascon. Would mean a lot to have
you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking,
what in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell
you it's a spin off of that Ben Maller show
could hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture
if you will a world will We chat with captains
of industry in media, sports and more every week Explorer,
(19:25):
some amazing facts about a human nature and more. Listen
to The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. AJ Hawk
is now joining us, brought to you by Mercedes. Ben's
the Best or Nothing. Former packer eleven years listen. I
am a believer aj you can fix any problem. I
tell my kids all the time. Hey, there's no unfixable problem.
(19:48):
We just had a pandemic. And I this morning, I
went and looked at the Dow Jones and it's at
thirty five thousand, and the economy people are getting jobs.
So I look at the air in situation and there's
been some animosity bah blah blah the Jordan love pick.
Do you believe though it is fixable? In Green Bay
with Aaron and the packers this morning? Well, I think
I kind of think like you do, where I feel
(20:11):
like everything is fixable, right, and when I look at
their situation, yeah, I think it's it's definitely fixable. I
don't think there's anything crazy from either side. I think
that would just cause someone to break things off completely.
But I do think it's an uphill battle. I think
the packers are gonna have to figure something out. I
don't know what they need to do or how they
do it, but I know I'm hopeful, as as a
(20:32):
Packer fan, that Aaron's back there. How about this, I'll
throw one at you. You go to Aaron and say,
because they could have done this, by the way two
months ago, we're gonna restructure your deal. It's gonna give
us cat flexibility, We'll give you no more of money
up front, and we're gonna go get Julio Jones with
the extra money he is reportedly on the market. If
you go you know Aaron better than I do, obviously,
(20:53):
if you go to him and say, we're going to
restructure your deal three years, guaranteed, fourth team option, but
you get him a lot of money up front, I mean,
thirty seventy to forty forty one years old. We're gonna
go a yet Julio Jones. Do you believe that's that's
pretty nice? Do you get the money, you get the
star number two or number one? Do you think he
would consider signing that deal? I mean, that's a that's
a heck of a situation you laid out there. Yeah,
(21:15):
I mean, of course he would love to play with
Julio Jones. But I know Aaron has even said before
in the past a lot of times too, like this
isn't about the money. Like I don't think he's trying
to break the bank to try to be the highest
paid person ever in the history NFL. Like who knows
he should be, probably, but I don't know if I
don't think that's his top priority by any means. But
I don't know if that's a plausible plan. But you
(21:36):
know what, Comin, I'm glad you put that out there.
Maybe that'll be something that we can watch play out. Yeah,
and by the way, I don't think that's terribly difficult.
I think it takes two phone calls, one to Julio's
age didn't want I don't think. I don't think I
laid out something here that's him. I'm not asking people to,
you know, land a plan on the Hudson. That's a
pretty easy one. Now, let's be honest about this though.
And this is where all all I said this before
(21:57):
is that if if my company right now, AJ hired
somebody and kind of made it clear that Colin, you
got a couple of years left. I'm not throwing a party.
Aaron knows he's better than Jordan, it's not that's not
the issue. Brady knew he was better than Garoppolo. He's
still looking on him, hovering over him. Can we acknowledge
(22:20):
that drafting Jordan Love just wasn't really smart. You got
to know the temperature in the locker room, and Aaron
didn't love it. That's fair, right, Yeah, even if you're
I don't even take into like what how Aaron would
feel about it. I'm just think talking about his play.
If you watched what he was able to do, how
he was playing, and where he was trending. Like, I
don't think it was the time to draft a quarterback.
(22:42):
That's not Jordan Love's fault that he was drafted there.
But I think then obviously Aaron comes out and wins
the MVP, and we say he's got tons of time
left I think at an elite level. But I don't
think it's about Jordan Love either. Like I don't think
he's asking for Jordan Love to not be on the team.
That's not something he's looking to do. I just feel
like the Jordan Love situation was one thing in a
string of things that had probably built up over the
(23:04):
last who knows how many years. I've said this before.
I can be a broadcaster forever. You could be a
podcaster for the next thirty years. Where I've always defended
pro athletes and especially NFL quarterbacks, is they're trapped. Hell,
they can franchise Taggy forever. And Russell Wilson's a nice guy,
but he decided a couple of years ago I'm going
(23:26):
public with stuff. I'm just gonna go public. He did,
got a new contract, and then he did it again,
and he got a new offensive lineman. And I think
Russell's a good guy, but he's trapped there. As you know,
the players CBA in the NFL is not the NBA.
You don't have the power. By the way, Brady was
getting ticked. He did a documentary. He let his wife
stay in the documentary. He'd like to be a little
(23:48):
more respected, could I not say? And this isn't a
criticism of Aaron, but when Aaron talked after the NFC Championship,
he planted a seed and that seed was, Guys, I'm
kind of trapped here. Could you do me as solid
and help me that? That was a little bit of
a plea for help after that loss, A little bit
of a professional claustrophobia is I can't get out of here.
(24:10):
Could you please get me more good players? I mean,
maybe you know, I know coaches use the media to
try to promote whatever the message they want their players
to be here. And so I don't know if Aaron
is definitely a calculated person, so as possible, anything as possible,
But I think it's just I don't know how you
feel cold, but I feel it's crazy that it's come
to this point, Like I feel like, Okay, some point
(24:33):
along the way, we should have felt this thing rumbling
and we should have found a way to make it
better and not get to this point where I never
thought we'd be. Do you think Aaron can be a
packer and Brian Goodencot could remain the general manager? Or
is that just too severed right now? I think he
(24:56):
absolutely could play for Green Bay with Goody as the GM.
I don't think it's about that either. I think I
said that earlier this week that I don't I don't
see Aaron out there promoting that he wants Goody fired.
I know it's been reported from different places, but I
guess we'll see whenever Aaron does speak. When's the last
time you and Aaron talked? What do you consider talk? Text,
(25:17):
phone calls? What was in person? What he I mean, Yeah,
I'm in constant, not constant, but I communicate with him
a good amount. What's his mindset today? That's a good
question today. I don't know. You know, he's on a
different you know, he's out there West coast, so three
hours behind me, so make sure not to send a
text two earway and wake him up, you know, three
in the morning for him. But uh, you know what,
(25:38):
I feel like he is very relaxed and I feel
like he's excited. Working out, looks good, he looks he
looks pretty trim. If you saw those pictures of him
at the derby, looks in lean mean, I think he's
ready to roll. I saw a story yesterday Aaron booed
by fans at a Brewers Minor League game amid packer
(25:58):
stair down. Do you think it is he concerned at
all that he's being viewed as the bad guy here? Well,
I think that the title of that should probably be
video of Aaron doing a commercial gets booed. Do you
think if Aaron was standing there in a second base,
they're gonna boo this guy? I don't know. I don't
know if it's the same thing there, But I don't
(26:19):
even know what your question was now, Colin, Well, no,
I mean, you're right, if he was there, they wouldn't boo.
But but what it tells me is there are people saying, hey, man,
you're you're doing Jeopardy. You're not one of us? Is
Aaron may be concerned that he is viewed by some
and Packer Nation as he's not happy and he just
wants to move on, and that there's gonna be some
(26:40):
people that aligned with the team over the stark quarterback.
I mean, I think it would probably be impossible not
to feel that a little bit, if you feel like
people are are turning on you or whatever. But I
think he also knows what like the true Green Bay
fans are like, and I'm sure he feels strong in
what he is doing right now, and he feels like
he's ustified. So I think everybody there, no matter what happens,
(27:04):
and no matter where what people are saying anywhere in Wisconsin,
if they say Aaron Rodgers is coming back and he's
he's back and he's ready to roll with an extension,
They're gonna be pretty darn happy, yeah them. If I
said today, Aaron Rodgers one year from today, where do
you truly believe he'll be Green Bay? How long before
(27:26):
a reconciliation happens? In your opinion? Geez? I mean, if
I don't want to, I'm not speaking for anybody like
I'm not speaking for Aaron ever, But I think there
I guess there seems to be a lot of work
to do. But like, I think you can work through everything,
but I don't know when that happens. I know what
June first is when they could possibly trade him and
all that. So are we gonna have to wait till
(27:46):
then to make any kind of progress? All right? All right?
A J Hawk Who I'm confused like you, Colin. I'm sorry,
I'm confused like you. I'm trying to figure it out,
just like the rest of us. Yeah. No, I mean, listen,
it's uh. Aaron's like when you're public, everything's more complicated.
And let's be honest, if he was an outside linebacker
at thirty seven, made two Pro Bowls, I'm not leading
(28:08):
my show with it like Lubig. I mean, you're you've
been around Aaron. Aaron lives a big, complex life. This
is all He's got stuff there. Everybody's talking about him
all day. Do you think he loves that? No, I
don't think he loves that part of it, But I
think he understands it and he knows this is what
this comes with a deal, this is how it works,
(28:29):
and he knows deep down how great of a player
he is and what he can do on the field,
and when you can do things like that, guess what
people seem to want to be around you and be
in your same orbit. But yeah, it's it would be
tough to think about like day to day it is.
There's a lot, a lot on his shoulders. I think
A J. Hawk Falmer Packer eleven years was at the
(28:49):
Kentucky Derby with Aaron over the weekend. All right, man,
I appreciate you coming on being honest with us. Appreciate it. Hey,
thanks for having me. I wish I had some more,
some more answers for you. That's okay. I ask questions,
you give as much as you can. That's the way
the game works. I appreciate it. A Jay, you guys
like football? Do you guys like the NFL Draft? Do
you guys like the NFL? I have you covered? I'm
(29:11):
John Middlecoff Three and Out podcast. That's where you can
hear it. Go subscribe right now. Used to work in
the NFL. Now I talk about it on that podcast.
Dive in this weekend Aaron Rodgers Draft Value, Eagles Draft Room,
Dive into it All three and Out podcast. Go subscribe.
(29:35):
So this is the headline of this story is here
is the reported asking price in a potential Aaron Rodgers trade.
It should be here is the speculation in a potential
Aaron Rodgers trade a high ranking NFC executive, So this,
(29:56):
you know, this is a is a big exact at
the top of the food chain NFC same conference eron
is In said the market for him is two first
rounders and one second rounder. And my thought is, well,
if that's it, no wonder green Bay doesn't want to
trade him. If that's the market, God, if that's the market,
Ron revera Coacha Washington should go to Malibu and stock
(30:20):
Aaron for the next two months, or buy a membership
to some Marriott club in Green Bay and stay there
for three months. That's all you got to give up.
Herschel Walker, a running back, was once traded for three
first rounders, three second rounders, and four players. Aeron just
had the greatest statistical season of his career. Was the MVP.
(30:44):
Two first rounders and a second rounder. That is it?
You know, you know who I think the GM or
the executive was. It was Ryan Pace, the Bears GM
who put that low ball off or out there, so
every other GM would go, that's all they're asking get
the Packers on the phone, because that is a nothing burger.
(31:04):
If I was Aaron and that's all I garnered, I
actually my ego wouldn't be bruised. I love it because
I want to go to a team that doesn't have
to give up everything. What you don't want to do.
I said this yesterday. Carmelo Anthony's a Denver nugget, says
I'll only play for the Knicks. And so the Knicks
were trapped and gave Denver a ton and then Carmelo
(31:25):
Anthony ends up on a Nick team that's all of
its best assets are now in Denver. What you want
to do is if you're ever moved, they don't have
to give up much. So that story that is nothing.
Two first rounders in a second might now that may
be the starting point. But Sam Darnold went for three picks,
Carson Wentz went for a third rounder and a second rounder,
(31:46):
and one of those can become a first rounder. So
that to me, it starts with a young player. If
I if I'm Denver, if I'm Green Bay, I would
want a young, very talented player that I got three
years until I have to pay him, Like Jerry Judy
Denver Broncos receiver. He'd be my number two receiver alongside
(32:08):
Davante Adams, and I don't have to pay him for
three years, so he's cheap. Then I want three first
a second. That's the starting point, Like, I'm not answering
the call unless we can start there. Three first, a
second and a player who can play a lot of
times general managers and this is the way it kind
of works. A lot of gms don't want like six
(32:29):
picks for a player because your team gets really, really young,
and as y'all know, a draft picks, forty five percent
of first rounders end up not being any good. I
was talking to Chip Kelly last night, who now is
the UCLA football coach, and I asked him, I said,
what's harder evaluating high school talent to college or college
(32:51):
talent to pros? And he goes nuns easier. They're both
unbelievably hard. You just have no idea. You think you
know and you don't know, and you knew all the
homework in the world. So I mean, you even go
to Alabama and Nick Saban if he brings in twenty
five players a year, about six to seven are great.
Seven to eight are good. And then there's guys that
(33:13):
just don't they get hurt. It's grades, it's behavior, it's
they just don't they transfer out, they can't play. And
that's Nick Saban. That's the best he's offering the five
star guys. What about programs that have three star guys?
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. TJ
(33:36):
Hushman Zada has unique insight into this Aaron Rodgers situation
because he is and was great friends with Carson Palmer,
who did the same in Cincinnati. Digs his feet into
the ground and says, I'm out of here and TJ
is now joining me live, so let's go back. You
(33:57):
were not you were no longer with Cincinnati. Carson Palmer said,
enough is enough, but take the audience back. There are
similarities to Aaron now and Carson then? Are there not similarities?
The same agent David Dunn and athletes first? And so
when Carson did this, what was it eleven years ago?
(34:21):
Carson dug his feet in the ground and said, this
is it. You guys made multiple promises to me, you
didn't keep them. I am not planning for the Bengals anymore.
And I'm sure it was very uncomfortable for him, but
he had to be uncomfortable to get comfortable, so to speak.
And he went to the Raiders and things were solid.
(34:43):
But when he got to the Arizona Cardinals, he started
to play really well, had the type of seasons year
in and year out that he should have been having
one Cincinnati. And so that's what confused me. If Aaron
Rodgers kind of back and off of this, his Asian
athletes first, and David Dunne, they've been through this before.
If you I think Aaron should dig his feed in,
oh yeah, steadfast, steadfast. If this is if you feel
(35:07):
this way, and obviously he does, because it's gotten this far,
you have to dig your heels in. Now let me
say this. I'll put a disclaimer out there. I've never
had this happen to me, Colin, But some men and
some women that are watching this show, they're gonna relate
to this. The only way they can fix this is this.
You know how you get some men there, they're dumb
and they do some dumb things. Dumb things that their
(35:27):
wives are significant others and they have to kiss up
and they go get her a nice gift because they've
done something wrong. The Packers, they can they can fix this.
Make Aaron Rodgers the highest paid player in the NFL
if you really want them back and you really want
to miss your quarterback, Hey, Aaron Rodgers, we're gonna make
you the highest paid player in the league. Other than that,
(35:50):
we can't work. So you know Carson very well. I
don't know if Aaron it's a little like Kevin Durant.
I don't know if he has the stomach to be
a villain. And there's gonna be a lot of people
that are gonna say dates and actress, He's Jeopardy's not
committed like Brady, he's the DVa's California Cool. They're gonna
(36:12):
be people in the Midwest that say that, I'm not
sure Aaron has the stomach for that. Over the next
three or four months, did Carson struggle, you know, because
there were people that say, oh, Carson, we committed to you,
you don't commit to us. Did he struggle with that? No? Ultimately,
fans of fans when he as long as he's planning
(36:32):
for the green Bay Packers, they're gonna love him. As
soon as he leaves to another team, They're not gonna
care about Aaron Rodgers no more. And then as time
goes by, they will realize his greatness and they will
once again love him. You have to do what's best
for you, because you look at the green Bay Packers,
what are they doing. They're doing what's best for the
green Bay Packers. Matt Laflour is going to do what's
(36:53):
best for the green Bay Packers and himself. They're gonna
do what's best for that organization. Aaron Rodgers is his
own organization. He has to do what's best for him,
and whatever negative feedback that comes with it, it comes
with it so well water off a duck's back. You
know I have said this. You have been able to
come on our show and say, hey, I watched Justin
(37:14):
Herbert practice. He's going to be a star. That's just
a practice that's just thrown around in Irvine with you
and I keep thinking to myself, green Bay has had
a hundred practices with Jordan Love. They either know he
can play or he can and you can't. I mean,
I'm sorry, I have a hard time believing that staff
is still you know, maybe he's good, maybe he's not.
Is it possible that Green Bay is freaking out because
(37:39):
they've seen Jordan Love and they maybe know they made
a mistake and he's not maybe not the guy. I
wouldn't say they're freaking out Colling. I'll look at it
this way. Aaron Rodgers was the best quarterback in the
league last year. He's an MVP for a reason, and
so when he has a type of season that he has,
I don't want to get rid of this guy. I
(38:00):
don't care how good Jordan Love looks. I do not
want to get rid of the best quarterback in the league.
And so Jordan Love may or may not be the goods.
But the year that Aaron Rodgers just had, even if
he was the goods, you want to run it back
one more time. And that's just common sense. I believe
Green Bay if they think Jordan Love can be their
(38:23):
next quarterback, you still want to run it back one
more time with Aaron Rodgers because of the type of
year he had last year. You know what, let's shift
to San Francisco. So one of the reasons I didn't
buy into Mac Jones going to the Niners is you
can't fool the players, and my takeaway was Jimmy Garoppolo
(38:43):
is a thick, good looking, pretty athletic move around guy.
And Mac Jones, I've seen all the pictures. You know,
he's six two, doesn't have a huge arm, not very athletic,
doesn't look good with a shirt off, smoking a cigar.
And my takeaway was, players, we're gonna sniff this out
in about five three or four practices maybe five going
(39:06):
so that he'd be the least athletic guy in that
team by a mile. This is why I said, if
you get justin Fields or Tray Lance, the latter's what
they did, at least players would go, Okay, he not ready,
but he's six four two twenty and he's running around
making fred warermess, you know, at practice, and so when
(39:27):
they went and got him, I do think some of
that waited on San Francisco that you cannot fool the players,
and that if you got Mac Jones, a lot of
those guys are like, come on, bro, that you can't
tell me we're getting rid of Jimmy g take me
to kind of being in the league. Because I do
think Trey Lance, whether he works or not is a
(39:49):
much easier sell to the players that if you say
eight games in next year, we're trading Jimmy g they
look at that athlete and go, all right, you can play.
I get it. I see him, I see him run
around right away. When it's different nowadays, though, colin OTA's
are starting and guys are out here training and then
(40:09):
they're working out. But when you get to practice and
it's all the first round picks. And I'll be honest,
when I was in Cincinnati, we drafted Leon Hall from
Michigan dB, Jonathan Joseph from South Carolina dB, their first
round picks. Right away. Me and Chad like every time
we go one on ones, we want one of them.
We won't shall. We wanted to prove a point against
(40:31):
those guys like y'all the first round picks, we're gonna
put y'all in yall place. And so had they drafted
mac Jones, they would have challenged him physically, they would
have challenged him mentally, emotionally completely, And if he can't
hold up in the locker room, exactly what you said
is gonna happen. We don't drafted this boy. This boy
(40:52):
can't even play we don't killed them already, and we
just in practice, and that's what will happen, Trey Lanton.
Are you they're out here into the California right now
working out together and so they're already building a relationship
with each other and both young guys. But you're right,
if they get mac Jones in there and he can't
hold up and they put his feet to the fire
(41:13):
and and he's crying and it's burning, it's not a
good fit. But who knows, maybe mac Jones been at
all Obama and what he had to go through, he
would have been able to deal with it. You just
don't know, TJ. Have a great weekend. Fox Sports. Love
having you buddy. As always, you're dressed to the nines.
You look fantastic. Hope you have a great weekend, Kyl
and I appreciate it. Happy Mothers to Day to all
the mothers out there as well. You guys, take care.
Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to
three eastern, nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and FS one. Find your local station for The Herd
at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live
every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. This
is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on
Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go on a Friday.
(00:28):
We are live in Los Angeles. This is the Herd.
Wherever you may be and however you may be listening iHeartRadio,
Fox Sports Radio and f S one. Alex Curry is
joining me today on Dodgers Angel series starts tonight. A
lot of stars in that series. Bad news for the Lakers.
(00:51):
Ad got hurt again. Alex, How are you this morning?
I'm doing fabulous. Colin, how are you doing well? It's
gonna be a big baseball weekend here in Los Angeles. Angels, Dodgers,
good team's bad bullpens, so they'll be wild, scoring late
in games, teams holding onto leads. Yeah, we got a
couple of things, Aaron Rodgers. In a second, let's just
start with this. So, I mean the NBA has been
(01:12):
a weird year. I mean, Denver lost their second best player, Brooklyn.
Guys can't stay healthy. Kawhi Leonard's hit and miss. Lebron's
been hurt. Now Ad got hurt last night, so in
the first quarter they needed him against the Clippers. He
gets hurt in the first quarter. He is so injury
prone that he literally twisted his ankle, but yet actually
(01:33):
left the game because of a back spasm. I mean,
it's like that operation game as a kid, like which
bone is healthy. They need him tonight. He's fifty fifty
if he can play. They've needed him when Lebron got hurt.
They're two and six and he's had the worst point
average in his career. In a brief stint, listen, here's
the truth about Anthony Davis is that he's not Tom Brady.
(01:56):
He's not Russell Wilson, he's not Lebron James. He doesn't
spend million of years, millions of dollars a year in
his body. He does not. He does not spend millions
on his body. He's more like Rashid Wallace, naturally gifted.
Not really a number one, more verbrilliant number two. You
can't necessarily depend on him physically. But god, he's unbelievably gifted.
(02:18):
But Rashid Wallace used to give the Blazers a check
before the start of every season for all the fines
for missing working out. He didn't like the weight room.
Anthony Davis doesn't either. He is not a grinder. He
doesn't take care of his body, and therefore his body
doesn't take care of him. That is why he has
so many small, nagging injuries. You have got to commit
(02:40):
to your body. The planes thirty three thousand feet, I
don't care if it's a private jet, I don't care
if it's the team plane. Thirty three thousand down, thirty
three thousand down, forty five, fifty five times a year,
working out, light, sleep, luggage to the hotel. It breaks
down your body. And the reality is Anthony Davis is
(03:02):
just not built to give you seventy five games in
the regular season and twenty in the postseason, and Lebron
is now tied to him for his career because Anthony
Davis knew his body gives out in him. He knows
his body better than anybody, and he's signed a five
year deal and Lebron is now tied to him, a
guy that's marginally committed, not a number one, a brittle body.
(03:28):
And this was supposed to be the year that Ad
took over. Remember this was the year he's twenty eight
years old. They win a title, and there was a
sense inside the room, the Lakers room, this is your team.
What happened? He came in in so so shape, He
got up to a terrible start. He has this year
the fewest blocks of his career, the fewest rebounds of
(03:50):
his career, the second lowest like field goal percentage. He's
had a terrible year, and He's missed the most games
of his career, and Lebron is tied to him. And
you know what, this really shows more than anything, And
this is such a truism in life. You couldn't run
from your problems, but you can't hide from him. Lebron
(04:11):
has moved three different times and he can't escape the
same issues. In the NBA. He went to Miami. D
Wade was old, got hurt a lot, and he goes
back to Cleveland. Kyrie was flaky, Kevin Love couldn't stay healthy.
Now he moved to Los Angeles, a d never healthy,
(04:34):
and Lebron is trapped because he doesn't want to play
with young kids. He doesn't want to teach him basketball.
When he went to Los Angeles, initially they had all
these kids. Kuzma's the only one left, and he wasn't
in love with him. Kuzma's now committed on the defensive end.
That makes Lebron happy, but in the end, he would
have gotten rid of Kuzma. So he didn't want to
play with young guys. He wants to play with old guys.
(04:55):
But old guys are brittle and stuck in their ways
and often and hard to deal with and harder to coach.
So Lebron is sort of trapped, and he keeps moving
around to solve an issue, and he just finds the
same issue in a different city. First, Dwayne Wade was
older and couldn't really play at a high level back
to backs, and then Kevin Love got hurt in Cleveland,
(05:16):
and Kyrie was a flake. And now he moves here
and a d sort of marginally committed and can't stay healthy.
This is not a championship team this year, and it's
the reality of Lebron's career. He now looks old, he
feels old. Sometimes he sounds old. He said a couple
of weeks ago. I'll never be one hundred percent again.
This was going to be the year that a d
took over, and instead, once again, Lebron is left with
(05:39):
a teammate he can't rely on. He came in in
marginal shape. This is why he's hurt more than ever.
These guys are pampered. They're not supposed to get hurt.
He got training staffs looking after him, twenty four to seven.
AD walks by him all the time. So once again
Lebron moves to solve an issue and it's the same
(06:02):
issue in another location. So the Aaron Rodgers stuff, it's
never ending. So right in the day of the draft,
I thought it was sort of a zany coincidence than
a year earlier the Packers humiliated Aaron Rodgers by drafting
Jordan Love, and one year later to the day Aaron
(06:24):
Rodgers I thought humiliated the Packers, Jay Glazer, Adam Schefter,
Ian Rapaport, all the exact same time suddenly broke the story,
all connecting to one another like I've never seen in
my entire career that Aaron wants out of Green Bay.
I don't know who fed him the information. I don't know.
(06:46):
I can guess who I think it is. I don't
think it's the Packers, but now Aaron's friends are out there.
AJ Hawks in our show in fifteen minutes, James Jones
on the NFL Network, saying Aaron didn't leak the story.
I speak with Aaron all the time. I talk to
him a lot. And it has nothing to do about
getting the GM fired. It has nothing to do about
(07:09):
getting a new contract and getting money, you know what.
I mean, Everything that Aaron Rodgers has done since he's
been a Green Bay Packer, this is not him. He's
not a guy that's gonna go out there and leak
all this stuff and say he wants out of the
air and be giving all this stuff to the media.
That's never been him. And the organization side of it
comes into place, and you talk about, you know, him
and the GM and the head coach working together. I
(07:31):
think is fixable. I think they'll be able to get
that stuff done. But I think that's what it's about, okay,
and that's important. James Jones, who talks to Aaron Rodgers
all the time, just said I think it's fixable. James
talks to Aaron Aaron talks to James, meaning Aaron's probably
told James it's fixable. Just you know, go get me,
(07:54):
Julio Jones, restructure my contract. I've said before, I'd peel
the band aid off and move on. If Jordan Love
can play. If Jordan Love can't play, then you're really screwed.
Then you have to figure out how to get Aaron
Rodgers back into camp and in Green Bay for years,
(08:14):
and we've had how many players have I had on
this show over the last month? And what's the question
I ask every player? And I preface it by saying
to each one of them, I ask every player this,
how many days does it take when you draft a
player to know that he can play or he can't?
(08:35):
And the answer from every player is always shockingly quick,
shockingly quick. Two practices. I asked somebody the other day
about Trubisky. Two practices, sam Acho, two practices you can
tell if a quarterback can't play. Well, green Bay's had
Jordan Love there for one hundred and fifty practices. Don't
(08:59):
you think they know the answer? Green Bay doesn't want
to move Aaron Rodgers, and because of COVID, none of
us were at those green Bay practices. Right. Green Bay
knows he can't play. Green Bay knows the answer. They're
the only ones that know the answer. They want to
make this thing work. They don't want to trade Aaron Rodgers.
(09:19):
They've seen one hundred and fifty practices. You don't think
they don't know if he can play or not. Every
stinking athlete that comes on their shows like, dude too practice.
This guy can make throwser he can't. They got one
hundred and fifty practices and they're like, oh, don't know.
It could go either way. I don't buy it. I
think Green Bay knows Jordan Love can't play in their weft.
And if that's the case, okay. Everybody makes mistakes in
(09:44):
the NFL. The key has always been own it, pivot
and fix it. The Cleveland Browns, to their credit, hired
Freddy Kitchens. Oh crap, this doesn't work, Boom outs to
Fan Ski. They fixed it. They didn't try to. Hey,
(10:05):
Freddie Kitchens just needs time. Now. Freddie Kitchens needs time
to come down to the GM's office and get fired.
They fired him. Stefanski's a home run Arizona. Josh Rosen
doesn't work, Boom Kyler Murray think they regretted by the
way Green Bay rolled the dice. We're gonna draft a
(10:26):
guy from Utah State who had a marijuana issue. Oh yeah,
two of his three years, he wasn't very good. They
rolled the dice, they whipped. It's okay. The Rams signed
Jared Goff to a massive contract, huge deal. Two years later,
we screwed up. Let's go get Matt Stafford Belichick. Not
(10:47):
this draft. The previous draft drafted two tight ends ten
picks apart from each other. This draft, this free agent
period nine months later. Yeah, I'm gonna go get two
tight ends. I missed on those guys. Carolina Teddy Bridgewater.
They paid him thirty one million bucks. He played fifteen games.
Caroline is like, yeah, you're not good enough. Let's go
(11:08):
get Sam Darnold. The key in this leak. Everybody makes mistakes.
The key is own it. Pivot and get the crap right.
Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Kyler Murray,
just go get the better guy. Kevin Stefanski. Get rid
of Freddy Kitchens. Everybody makes mistakes. The Murdock's own this company.
(11:32):
Some businesses work, some don't. It's just the way it
goes if if you're a frenetic and aggressive business person, entrepreneurial,
you're gonna make some moves that don't work. He can't
be afraid think business people are afraid of failing. Dana
White UFC. You know he puts cards up sometimes fights
(11:52):
or duds, hopefully more great. You can find the best
baseball scouts, a lot of them missed on gall Go
get the next guy, but a hundred practices with Jordan Love.
Would Green Bay be so desperate if they thought the
(12:13):
dude can play, let's go trade him, let him play.
You're not paying him anything for years. I mean to me,
this situation more and more Green Bay clearly doesn't want
to move him. We know that you can read every
story nobody's saying they do. And now from an Aaron
Rodgers side, James Jones, you're getting it's fixable. So go
(12:36):
fix it. Go get Julio Jones. He's on the market.
Restructure Aaron Rodgers contract so you get some cap space
and cut Jordan Love or trade him for a seventh
round pick. That's what New England did with Garoppolo. Tom
Brady didn't like it all right, Let's fix the problem,
get a second round pick, move on, make Tom happy.
(12:58):
By the way, Green Bay roll the dice. They thought
Aaron was declining. Oops he's not. New England thought Tom
was declining. Won the Super Bowl against Atlanta. Oops he's not.
Did you watch the games last year? Oops he's not again.
So just don't your mistakes. It's no big deal. Nobody's
gonna eat you. It's just whipped on that one. But
I think social media freaks everybody out. Oh my god,
(13:20):
I don't want to post this. Everybody will attack me.
I get attacked all day on social media. Checks don't bounce.
It's fine, come to work every day. We have fun.
Oh crazy, just nutty. So Aaron's friends are saying it's fixable.
That tells me we're moving. We're inching closer to maybe
getting back together again. Be sure to catch live editions
(13:42):
of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nay Empacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.
I used to not love flying. It's not like I
was a nervous flyer, but you know, heights didn't love him,
and then I kind of attacked it. I bungee jumped,
I did a lot of flying. I went to the
space needle anytime I could kind of attack my my
(14:04):
height thing I did, and I'm kind of over it.
Good for you, yeah, But there was something I learned
about myself. It was like I was eighth or ninth grade.
I didn't know the name for it, but I was
in the gym when I was eight or nine years
old and we were playing like hockey in on a
basketball court. It was great. It was so much fun.
(14:26):
I remember this, and I just happened to get lucky
and score the winning like goal yea, and kids jumped
on me and the pile got big, and I freaked
out and I remember just thinking, at the bottom of
this pile of twenty kids, I can't breathe. I don't
like this at all. I didn't know it's called claustrophobia,
(14:47):
so I haven't had people pile on me since, but
I remember that feeling as a kid kind of getting
off the pile and the teacher came over. The pe
teacher went are you okay? And I'm like, I didn't
like that, and he's like, oh, you're probably claustrophobic. It's okay.
A lot of people are. Alex and I were talking
during the break you're a little claustrophobic. Yeah, I probably
(15:07):
have that, you know, genetically in me. I don't. I
don't like being trapped. Yeah, you want to feel like
you're free. I want to feel like you're free. And
so one of the things I've owa's defended pro athletes
on my career lasts forever. I'm mid fifties. I could
do this to mid eighties if I'm alive. I mean,
you see, Larry King was on the air a week
before he died, like like people do Vince Scully until
(15:29):
he's eighty, and so I don't ever feel like I
have to win a negotiation or win this or win that.
Is that I can be on forever. But if you're
a pro athlete, you can feel trapped. I go to
a crappy team. The collective bargaining agreement is not pro player,
it's pro owner. The NFL's got the weakest union NBA union,
(15:51):
very pro player Baseball union, very pro player. Hell. The
umpire union is stronger than the NFL player union. The
coaching unions are stronger than the NFL player union. And
so sometimes if you're a star player, a quarterback, you
feel trapped. I think Russell Wilson's a really good guy,
but he's gone public twice. I want more money and
(16:13):
I want more players. Why he's trapped? What are his options?
Tom Brady did a documentary, had editing control, made sure
everybody in New England saw his wife saying Jiselle Bunchen
saying he wants to be respected. Could this just be
Aaron feeling trapped? They won't get him wide receivers, they
(16:36):
keep drafting developmental players. He watches Brady Mahomes, Josh Allen,
all their talent, and so he's kind of leaked some
stuff here and here and here, and you could say, well,
James Jones said he's not leaking stuff, okay, but didn't
Aaron After the NFC Championship, remember the postgame comments. He
kind of put it out there for Green Bay management
(16:59):
to kind of understand how he was thinking. Remember this bite.
A lot of guys futures, you know, uncertain you know,
myself included. That's what's said about it most getting this far. Obviously,
it's going to be an end to it at some point,
(17:20):
whether we make it past this one or not. But
just the uncertainties. He's tough, and the finality of it all,
that's kind of a message. That's kind of a message.
So what do you do? I'd call it professional claustrophobia.
(17:42):
Russell Wilson's always been Gohawks, but he thought he was
massively underpaid, and the rumors came out he wanted the Giants.
I was. I had two sources on that said it
was a real story. By the way, Russell Wilson unhappy
with the offensive line goes public Seattle in both instances
(18:02):
solved it. Brady was unhappy with Jimmy Garoppolo. Those stories
made ESPN the magazine. What happened? Garoppolo was traded. Some
of this may just be Aaron really doesn't hate Green Bay,
but he feels professionally trapped. Okay, restructure my deal, solve
(18:22):
all the issues. It maybe just be that simple. We
all consider today, Aaron wants out. That's all I hear
from anybody. Maybe it's Aaron wants a better deal and
doesn't want out. Maybe it's can we restructure my deal,
get me Julio Jones and stop drafting six offensive linemen
every year? Can we finally get a corner that's not
(18:42):
a reach from Georgia and go and get the best
Corner the second Round from Georgia, which Irban Meyer and
the Jags got. Maybe this is a cry for help,
It's a cry for restructuring. It's a little professional claustrophobia.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays
and un Easter ninety and Pacific. Hey, it's Ben, host
(19:03):
of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller along with my
trustee sidekick David Gascon. Would mean a lot to have
you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking,
what in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell
you it's a spin off of that Ben Maller show
could hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture
if you will a world will We chat with captains
of industry in media, sports and more every week Explorer,
(19:25):
some amazing facts about a human nature and more. Listen
to The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. AJ Hawk
is now joining us, brought to you by Mercedes. Ben's
the Best or Nothing. Former packer eleven years listen. I
am a believer aj you can fix any problem. I
tell my kids all the time. Hey, there's no unfixable problem.
(19:48):
We just had a pandemic. And I this morning, I
went and looked at the Dow Jones and it's at
thirty five thousand, and the economy people are getting jobs.
So I look at the air in situation and there's
been some animosity bah blah blah the Jordan love pick.
Do you believe though it is fixable? In Green Bay
with Aaron and the packers this morning? Well, I think
I kind of think like you do, where I feel
(20:11):
like everything is fixable, right, and when I look at
their situation, yeah, I think it's it's definitely fixable. I
don't think there's anything crazy from either side. I think
that would just cause someone to break things off completely.
But I do think it's an uphill battle. I think
the packers are gonna have to figure something out. I
don't know what they need to do or how they
do it, but I know I'm hopeful, as as a
(20:32):
Packer fan, that Aaron's back there. How about this, I'll
throw one at you. You go to Aaron and say,
because they could have done this, by the way two
months ago, we're gonna restructure your deal. It's gonna give
us cat flexibility, We'll give you no more of money
up front, and we're gonna go get Julio Jones with
the extra money he is reportedly on the market. If
you go you know Aaron better than I do, obviously,
(20:53):
if you go to him and say, we're going to
restructure your deal three years, guaranteed, fourth team option, but
you get him a lot of money up front, I mean,
thirty seventy to forty forty one years old. We're gonna
go a yet Julio Jones. Do you believe that's that's
pretty nice? Do you get the money, you get the
star number two or number one? Do you think he
would consider signing that deal? I mean, that's a that's
a heck of a situation you laid out there. Yeah,
(21:15):
I mean, of course he would love to play with
Julio Jones. But I know Aaron has even said before
in the past a lot of times too, like this
isn't about the money. Like I don't think he's trying
to break the bank to try to be the highest
paid person ever in the history NFL. Like who knows
he should be, probably, but I don't know if I
don't think that's his top priority by any means. But
I don't know if that's a plausible plan. But you
(21:36):
know what, Comin, I'm glad you put that out there.
Maybe that'll be something that we can watch play out. Yeah,
and by the way, I don't think that's terribly difficult.
I think it takes two phone calls, one to Julio's
age didn't want I don't think. I don't think I
laid out something here that's him. I'm not asking people to,
you know, land a plan on the Hudson. That's a
pretty easy one. Now, let's be honest about this though.
And this is where all all I said this before
(21:57):
is that if if my company right now, AJ hired
somebody and kind of made it clear that Colin, you
got a couple of years left. I'm not throwing a party.
Aaron knows he's better than Jordan, it's not that's not
the issue. Brady knew he was better than Garoppolo. He's
still looking on him, hovering over him. Can we acknowledge
(22:20):
that drafting Jordan Love just wasn't really smart. You got
to know the temperature in the locker room, and Aaron
didn't love it. That's fair, right, Yeah, even if you're
I don't even take into like what how Aaron would
feel about it. I'm just think talking about his play.
If you watched what he was able to do, how
he was playing, and where he was trending. Like, I
don't think it was the time to draft a quarterback.
(22:42):
That's not Jordan Love's fault that he was drafted there.
But I think then obviously Aaron comes out and wins
the MVP, and we say he's got tons of time
left I think at an elite level. But I don't
think it's about Jordan Love either. Like I don't think
he's asking for Jordan Love to not be on the team.
That's not something he's looking to do. I just feel
like the Jordan Love situation was one thing in a
string of things that had probably built up over the
(23:04):
last who knows how many years. I've said this before.
I can be a broadcaster forever. You could be a
podcaster for the next thirty years. Where I've always defended
pro athletes and especially NFL quarterbacks, is they're trapped. Hell,
they can franchise Taggy forever. And Russell Wilson's a nice guy,
but he decided a couple of years ago I'm going
(23:26):
public with stuff. I'm just gonna go public. He did,
got a new contract, and then he did it again,
and he got a new offensive lineman. And I think
Russell's a good guy, but he's trapped there. As you know,
the players CBA in the NFL is not the NBA.
You don't have the power. By the way, Brady was
getting ticked. He did a documentary. He let his wife
stay in the documentary. He'd like to be a little
(23:48):
more respected, could I not say? And this isn't a
criticism of Aaron, but when Aaron talked after the NFC Championship,
he planted a seed and that seed was, Guys, I'm
kind of trapped here. Could you do me as solid
and help me that? That was a little bit of
a plea for help after that loss, A little bit
of a professional claustrophobia is I can't get out of here.
(24:10):
Could you please get me more good players? I mean,
maybe you know, I know coaches use the media to
try to promote whatever the message they want their players
to be here. And so I don't know if Aaron
is definitely a calculated person, so as possible, anything as possible,
But I think it's just I don't know how you
feel cold, but I feel it's crazy that it's come
to this point, Like I feel like, Okay, some point
(24:33):
along the way, we should have felt this thing rumbling
and we should have found a way to make it
better and not get to this point where I never
thought we'd be. Do you think Aaron can be a
packer and Brian Goodencot could remain the general manager? Or
is that just too severed right now? I think he
(24:56):
absolutely could play for Green Bay with Goody as the GM.
I don't think it's about that either. I think I
said that earlier this week that I don't I don't
see Aaron out there promoting that he wants Goody fired.
I know it's been reported from different places, but I
guess we'll see whenever Aaron does speak. When's the last
time you and Aaron talked? What do you consider talk? Text,
(25:17):
phone calls? What was in person? What he I mean, Yeah,
I'm in constant, not constant, but I communicate with him
a good amount. What's his mindset today? That's a good
question today. I don't know. You know, he's on a
different you know, he's out there West coast, so three
hours behind me, so make sure not to send a
text two earway and wake him up, you know, three
in the morning for him. But uh, you know what,
(25:38):
I feel like he is very relaxed and I feel
like he's excited. Working out, looks good, he looks he
looks pretty trim. If you saw those pictures of him
at the derby, looks in lean mean, I think he's
ready to roll. I saw a story yesterday Aaron booed
by fans at a Brewers Minor League game amid packer
(25:58):
stair down. Do you think it is he concerned at
all that he's being viewed as the bad guy here? Well,
I think that the title of that should probably be
video of Aaron doing a commercial gets booed. Do you
think if Aaron was standing there in a second base,
they're gonna boo this guy? I don't know. I don't
know if it's the same thing there, But I don't
(26:19):
even know what your question was now, Colin, Well, no,
I mean, you're right, if he was there, they wouldn't boo.
But but what it tells me is there are people saying, hey, man,
you're you're doing Jeopardy. You're not one of us? Is
Aaron may be concerned that he is viewed by some
and Packer Nation as he's not happy and he just
wants to move on, and that there's gonna be some
(26:40):
people that aligned with the team over the stark quarterback.
I mean, I think it would probably be impossible not
to feel that a little bit, if you feel like
people are are turning on you or whatever. But I
think he also knows what like the true Green Bay
fans are like, and I'm sure he feels strong in
what he is doing right now, and he feels like
he's ustified. So I think everybody there, no matter what happens,
(27:04):
and no matter where what people are saying anywhere in Wisconsin,
if they say Aaron Rodgers is coming back and he's
he's back and he's ready to roll with an extension,
They're gonna be pretty darn happy, yeah them. If I
said today, Aaron Rodgers one year from today, where do
you truly believe he'll be Green Bay? How long before
(27:26):
a reconciliation happens? In your opinion? Geez? I mean, if
I don't want to, I'm not speaking for anybody like
I'm not speaking for Aaron ever, But I think there
I guess there seems to be a lot of work
to do. But like, I think you can work through everything,
but I don't know when that happens. I know what
June first is when they could possibly trade him and
all that. So are we gonna have to wait till
(27:46):
then to make any kind of progress? All right? All right?
A J Hawk Who I'm confused like you, Colin. I'm sorry,
I'm confused like you. I'm trying to figure it out,
just like the rest of us. Yeah. No, I mean, listen,
it's uh. Aaron's like when you're public, everything's more complicated.
And let's be honest, if he was an outside linebacker
at thirty seven, made two Pro Bowls, I'm not leading
(28:08):
my show with it like Lubig. I mean, you're you've
been around Aaron. Aaron lives a big, complex life. This
is all He's got stuff there. Everybody's talking about him
all day. Do you think he loves that? No, I
don't think he loves that part of it, But I
think he understands it and he knows this is what
this comes with a deal, this is how it works,
(28:29):
and he knows deep down how great of a player
he is and what he can do on the field,
and when you can do things like that, guess what
people seem to want to be around you and be
in your same orbit. But yeah, it's it would be
tough to think about like day to day it is.
There's a lot, a lot on his shoulders. I think
A J. Hawk Falmer Packer eleven years was at the
(28:49):
Kentucky Derby with Aaron over the weekend. All right, man,
I appreciate you coming on being honest with us. Appreciate it. Hey,
thanks for having me. I wish I had some more,
some more answers for you. That's okay. I ask questions,
you give as much as you can. That's the way
the game works. I appreciate it. A Jay, you guys
like football? Do you guys like the NFL Draft? Do
you guys like the NFL? I have you covered? I'm
(29:11):
John Middlecoff Three and Out podcast. That's where you can
hear it. Go subscribe right now. Used to work in
the NFL. Now I talk about it on that podcast.
Dive in this weekend Aaron Rodgers Draft Value, Eagles Draft Room,
Dive into it All three and Out podcast. Go subscribe.
(29:35):
So this is the headline of this story is here
is the reported asking price in a potential Aaron Rodgers trade.
It should be here is the speculation in a potential
Aaron Rodgers trade a high ranking NFC executive, So this,
(29:56):
you know, this is a is a big exact at
the top of the food chain NFC same conference eron
is In said the market for him is two first
rounders and one second rounder. And my thought is, well,
if that's it, no wonder green Bay doesn't want to
trade him. If that's the market, God, if that's the market,
Ron revera Coacha Washington should go to Malibu and stock
(30:20):
Aaron for the next two months, or buy a membership
to some Marriott club in Green Bay and stay there
for three months. That's all you got to give up.
Herschel Walker, a running back, was once traded for three
first rounders, three second rounders, and four players. Aeron just
had the greatest statistical season of his career. Was the MVP.
(30:44):
Two first rounders and a second rounder. That is it?
You know, you know who I think the GM or
the executive was. It was Ryan Pace, the Bears GM
who put that low ball off or out there, so
every other GM would go, that's all they're asking get
the Packers on the phone, because that is a nothing burger.
(31:04):
If I was Aaron and that's all I garnered, I
actually my ego wouldn't be bruised. I love it because
I want to go to a team that doesn't have
to give up everything. What you don't want to do.
I said this yesterday. Carmelo Anthony's a Denver nugget, says
I'll only play for the Knicks. And so the Knicks
were trapped and gave Denver a ton and then Carmelo
(31:25):
Anthony ends up on a Nick team that's all of
its best assets are now in Denver. What you want
to do is if you're ever moved, they don't have
to give up much. So that story that is nothing.
Two first rounders in a second might now that may
be the starting point. But Sam Darnold went for three picks,
Carson Wentz went for a third rounder and a second rounder,
(31:46):
and one of those can become a first rounder. So
that to me, it starts with a young player. If
I if I'm Denver, if I'm Green Bay, I would
want a young, very talented player that I got three
years until I have to pay him, Like Jerry Judy
Denver Broncos receiver. He'd be my number two receiver alongside
(32:08):
Davante Adams, and I don't have to pay him for
three years, so he's cheap. Then I want three first
a second. That's the starting point, Like, I'm not answering
the call unless we can start there. Three first, a
second and a player who can play a lot of
times general managers and this is the way it kind
of works. A lot of gms don't want like six
(32:29):
picks for a player because your team gets really, really young,
and as y'all know, a draft picks, forty five percent
of first rounders end up not being any good. I
was talking to Chip Kelly last night, who now is
the UCLA football coach, and I asked him, I said,
what's harder evaluating high school talent to college or college
(32:51):
talent to pros? And he goes nuns easier. They're both
unbelievably hard. You just have no idea. You think you
know and you don't know, and you knew all the
homework in the world. So I mean, you even go
to Alabama and Nick Saban if he brings in twenty
five players a year, about six to seven are great.
Seven to eight are good. And then there's guys that
(33:13):
just don't they get hurt. It's grades, it's behavior, it's
they just don't they transfer out, they can't play. And
that's Nick Saban. That's the best he's offering the five
star guys. What about programs that have three star guys?
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. TJ
(33:36):
Hushman Zada has unique insight into this Aaron Rodgers situation
because he is and was great friends with Carson Palmer,
who did the same in Cincinnati. Digs his feet into
the ground and says, I'm out of here and TJ
is now joining me live, so let's go back. You
(33:57):
were not you were no longer with Cincinnati. Carson Palmer said,
enough is enough, but take the audience back. There are
similarities to Aaron now and Carson then? Are there not similarities?
The same agent David Dunn and athletes first? And so
when Carson did this, what was it eleven years ago?
(34:21):
Carson dug his feet in the ground and said, this
is it. You guys made multiple promises to me, you
didn't keep them. I am not planning for the Bengals anymore.
And I'm sure it was very uncomfortable for him, but
he had to be uncomfortable to get comfortable, so to speak.
And he went to the Raiders and things were solid.
(34:43):
But when he got to the Arizona Cardinals, he started
to play really well, had the type of seasons year
in and year out that he should have been having
one Cincinnati. And so that's what confused me. If Aaron
Rodgers kind of back and off of this, his Asian
athletes first, and David Dunne, they've been through this before.
If you I think Aaron should dig his feed in,
oh yeah, steadfast, steadfast. If this is if you feel
(35:07):
this way, and obviously he does, because it's gotten this far,
you have to dig your heels in. Now let me
say this. I'll put a disclaimer out there. I've never
had this happen to me, Colin, But some men and
some women that are watching this show, they're gonna relate
to this. The only way they can fix this is this.
You know how you get some men there, they're dumb
and they do some dumb things. Dumb things that their
(35:27):
wives are significant others and they have to kiss up
and they go get her a nice gift because they've
done something wrong. The Packers, they can they can fix this.
Make Aaron Rodgers the highest paid player in the NFL
if you really want them back and you really want
to miss your quarterback, Hey, Aaron Rodgers, we're gonna make
you the highest paid player in the league. Other than that,
(35:50):
we can't work. So you know Carson very well. I
don't know if Aaron it's a little like Kevin Durant.
I don't know if he has the stomach to be
a villain. And there's gonna be a lot of people
that are gonna say dates and actress, He's Jeopardy's not
committed like Brady, he's the DVa's California Cool. They're gonna
(36:12):
be people in the Midwest that say that, I'm not
sure Aaron has the stomach for that. Over the next
three or four months, did Carson struggle, you know, because
there were people that say, oh, Carson, we committed to you,
you don't commit to us. Did he struggle with that? No? Ultimately,
fans of fans when he as long as he's planning
(36:32):
for the green Bay Packers, they're gonna love him. As
soon as he leaves to another team, They're not gonna
care about Aaron Rodgers no more. And then as time
goes by, they will realize his greatness and they will
once again love him. You have to do what's best
for you, because you look at the green Bay Packers,
what are they doing. They're doing what's best for the
green Bay Packers. Matt Laflour is going to do what's
(36:53):
best for the green Bay Packers and himself. They're gonna
do what's best for that organization. Aaron Rodgers is his
own organization. He has to do what's best for him,
and whatever negative feedback that comes with it, it comes
with it so well water off a duck's back. You
know I have said this. You have been able to
come on our show and say, hey, I watched Justin
(37:14):
Herbert practice. He's going to be a star. That's just
a practice that's just thrown around in Irvine with you
and I keep thinking to myself, green Bay has had
a hundred practices with Jordan Love. They either know he
can play or he can and you can't. I mean,
I'm sorry, I have a hard time believing that staff
is still you know, maybe he's good, maybe he's not.
Is it possible that Green Bay is freaking out because
(37:39):
they've seen Jordan Love and they maybe know they made
a mistake and he's not maybe not the guy. I
wouldn't say they're freaking out Colling. I'll look at it
this way. Aaron Rodgers was the best quarterback in the
league last year. He's an MVP for a reason, and
so when he has a type of season that he has,
I don't want to get rid of this guy. I
(38:00):
don't care how good Jordan Love looks. I do not
want to get rid of the best quarterback in the league.
And so Jordan Love may or may not be the goods.
But the year that Aaron Rodgers just had, even if
he was the goods, you want to run it back
one more time. And that's just common sense. I believe
Green Bay if they think Jordan Love can be their
(38:23):
next quarterback, you still want to run it back one
more time with Aaron Rodgers because of the type of
year he had last year. You know what, let's shift
to San Francisco. So one of the reasons I didn't
buy into Mac Jones going to the Niners is you
can't fool the players, and my takeaway was Jimmy Garoppolo
(38:43):
is a thick, good looking, pretty athletic move around guy.
And Mac Jones, I've seen all the pictures. You know,
he's six two, doesn't have a huge arm, not very athletic,
doesn't look good with a shirt off, smoking a cigar.
And my takeaway was, players, we're gonna sniff this out
in about five three or four practices maybe five going
(39:06):
so that he'd be the least athletic guy in that
team by a mile. This is why I said, if
you get justin Fields or Tray Lance, the latter's what
they did, at least players would go, Okay, he not ready,
but he's six four two twenty and he's running around
making fred warermess, you know, at practice, and so when
(39:27):
they went and got him, I do think some of
that waited on San Francisco that you cannot fool the players,
and that if you got Mac Jones, a lot of
those guys are like, come on, bro, that you can't
tell me we're getting rid of Jimmy g take me
to kind of being in the league. Because I do
think Trey Lance, whether he works or not is a
(39:49):
much easier sell to the players that if you say
eight games in next year, we're trading Jimmy g they
look at that athlete and go, all right, you can play.
I get it. I see him, I see him run
around right away. When it's different nowadays, though, colin OTA's
are starting and guys are out here training and then
(40:09):
they're working out. But when you get to practice and
it's all the first round picks. And I'll be honest,
when I was in Cincinnati, we drafted Leon Hall from
Michigan dB, Jonathan Joseph from South Carolina dB, their first
round picks. Right away. Me and Chad like every time
we go one on ones, we want one of them.
We won't shall. We wanted to prove a point against
(40:31):
those guys like y'all the first round picks, we're gonna
put y'all in yall place. And so had they drafted
mac Jones, they would have challenged him physically, they would
have challenged him mentally, emotionally completely, And if he can't
hold up in the locker room, exactly what you said
is gonna happen. We don't drafted this boy. This boy
(40:52):
can't even play we don't killed them already, and we
just in practice, and that's what will happen, Trey Lanton.
Are you they're out here into the California right now
working out together and so they're already building a relationship
with each other and both young guys. But you're right,
if they get mac Jones in there and he can't
hold up and they put his feet to the fire
(41:13):
and and he's crying and it's burning, it's not a
good fit. But who knows, maybe mac Jones been at
all Obama and what he had to go through, he
would have been able to deal with it. You just
don't know, TJ. Have a great weekend. Fox Sports. Love
having you buddy. As always, you're dressed to the nines.
You look fantastic. Hope you have a great weekend, Kyl
and I appreciate it. Happy Mothers to Day to all
the mothers out there as well. You guys, take care.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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