Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Hurts, Russell Wilson, NCAA

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
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Sports Radio. Ah, here we go on a Wednesday, live

(00:25):
in Los Angeles. This is The Herd, wherever you may
be and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports
Radio FS one. It's great to have you and Chris
Ballard GM of the Indianapolis Colts. They had a great draft.
It's gonna be joining me next hour. Lane Kiffen SEC

(00:49):
football coach Old miss the polarizing controversial Lane Kiffin joins
us and Nick Wright at get Nick Wright in his
Twitter account. It's gonna be joining us in about thirty
minutes from now. Joy, how are you. It's Wednesday. It's
beautiful the summer. It feels like it's officially here. There
was more traffic when I drove to work today. I
don't know about you, but I saw a lot of traffic.

(01:11):
How about you? There is more traffic but again, like
I said yesterday, where's everybody going work? They don't want
to tell our governor that, but they're going to work.
Or maybe they're just you know, I know, people are
just wanting to get out of the house. So they're
just at five forty five in the morning. It was busy.
They're trying to keep their routine. I guess I don't know.
All right, Well, we'll start with this. There's a big

(01:32):
story out. Bob mcgainn wrote for you know, newspapers in
Wisconsin and Green Bay for like four decades. Now he's
at the Athletic, which is a great landing spot for
a lot of these young and old writers. Bob McGinn
is not a clickbait guy. He doesn't do media. We
invited him on the show today. He's not a guy
that does a bunch of media. He's not looking for attention.
He's very covert. He really just does you know. He

(01:54):
writes columns and that's it. But of course, if you criticize,
you know, packer fans are a very strange group. If
you ever criticize Aaron Rodgers, Aaron's the victim. We're just
picking on erin Nobody ever picks on Drew Brees. Nobody
ever picks on Tom Brady. Eron is the one quarterback
in the league everybody's just picking on anyway. Bob McGinn

(02:16):
says in his column this week about the Packers draft
public nice at ease aside. My sense is Matt Lafleur,
the new coach, fresh from a terrific thirteen and three
baptismal season, simply had enough a Rogers act and wanted
to change the narrative. With a first round talent on
the roster. The Packers would gain leverage with their imperial
quarterback in his passive aggressive style. If the Packers do

(02:40):
indeed want to become a running team next year, they
surely wouldn't want Rodgers rocking the boat and becoming even
more difficult to coach. So the point being he calls
him imperial, you know, I doubt he's just making this up.
You know, it's his opinion. In Bob McGinn is certainly
more qualified than any Packer fan to have an opinion.
But I went last night and I went on Twitter

(03:01):
to watch it, and what a shock. Whoever criticizes Aaron Rodgers,
that's who the Packer fans attack his brother criticized Aaron Rodgers.
He's a loser. His dad criticized him. He just sponging
off him. Bob mcginzay isn't nobody coach at Greg Jennings.

(03:23):
He's a bitter. It's always blamed the messenger. Ask yourself
this in life. Why doesn't this criticism happen to other quarterbacks?
Why are we just picking on Aaron nobody's picking Russell
Wilson had one article written about him, that's it. Everybody
else likes him. Everybody likes Tom everybody likes Matt Ryan,

(03:43):
everybody likes Breeze. I don't see these articles about Jared Goff.
I don't see these. I mean, it's like, do you
think we're making stuff up with Baker Mayfield? Or Baker
Mayfield got lousy judgment? Do you think we're making stuff
up about Aaron Rodgers? Or maybe he's passive, aggressive and
prickly and difficult to get along with it and has
a big ego? Do you? I mean, why would we

(04:05):
pick on Baker Mayfield? He's in Cleveland, It's not like
it's a really important franchise. Why would we pick on
Aaron Rodgers? Everybody likes Green Bay green Bay's is the
small town underdog. You know. Green Bay's one of those cities,
one of those teams, like the Saints and the Packers.

(04:25):
They're kind of like. America likes them. America can hate
the Raiders, America can hate the New York teams and
the Philadelphia teams and the Patriots. Everybody likes green Bay.
So why nobody picked on Farm all the time? Why
are we picking on Aaron Rodgers. You'll meet people like
this in life. Somebody's watching my show right now, and
he has a much more successful brother than him, or

(04:46):
more successful sister, And instead of blaming himself, he's the victim.
Mom gave them brabby. They've been very lucky. I mean,
they got certain breaks. Certain people want to play the victim,
and Packer fans always blame the messenger. Aaron's a victim.
In fact, I saw this come out yesterday. This was ridiculous.
So there was this graphic that made it all over

(05:07):
the internet yesterday. Touchdown passes the first round draft picks.
Aaron's only had one in his career. As if first
round draft picks are everything, I mean Pete Carroll's butchered
half his first round draft picks. He's a legend drafting.
Why what he does in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth,
and seventh round. So, first of all, this is deceptive.
The Packers did not have a first round pick when

(05:29):
they drafted Jordy Nelson. They took Jordy Nelson top of
the second thirty six, and he had seventy touchdowns with
Green Bay, so that would have put Aaron closer to
the middle of this mix. Also, as Russell Wilson had
great support offensive line support, no, you know, great wide
receiver first round pick support. No, nobody complains. Russell Wilson

(05:51):
doesn't complain about it. Nobody asked to defend Russell Wilson.
He just makes it work. So, in my opinion, nobody
in life, nobody in life is oh as a victim.
Nobody gets talked about this like Aaron Rodgers. If you
think Aaron just a victim of bomb again and a
victim of Greg Jennings and a victim of Mike McCarthy,

(06:11):
He's just a victim, victim, victim, victim. I can't help
you because I don't think people are victims. I think
your reputation over the course of twenty thirty fifteen ten
five years in any industry is Jay Cutler at a
reputation is difficult. He just got divorced. I don't like
to hear that, but he's difficult. He was difficult before that.
He's difficult. People I know no Jay Cutler and like

(06:33):
him and say he's just a pain in the butt.
Jay's a pain in the butt. Jeff George a pain
in the butt. I mean, I've known people who know him.
Jason Whitlock defends him, knows him. You know, Aaron's a
pain in the butt. He's prickly, he's can be err again.
He's passive, aggressive, he's an eye roller, he's a finger pointer.
Nobody's just picking on him. And by the way, I

(06:54):
first round wide receivers guaranteed success. Then the Detroit Lions
be the Patriots because they drafted a first round receiver
at one point, not long ago, three years in a row.
Since when has that been the tipping point on success?
You know they don't draft first round wide receivers. Well,
they do it just so happens. Marvin Harrison went in

(07:14):
the first round to Peyton Manning was great. So Peyton's
got a zillion touchdown passes to a first round quarterback
Marvin Harrison accounts for more than a half those. I'm
sure all right shift gears to deaths. So yesterday was
actually over the last week, and I thought yesterday was
a tipping point on this. A five star point guard

(07:35):
from UCLA who had committed decided, I'm not gonna go
to Ucla. I'm gonna go play in the G League.
His name is Dayshawn Nicks. Now that is three five
star high school players that are saying, we're not going
to college. We're gonna go We're gonna go to the
G League. So bottom line is the NBA has been
creating this G League for years and years and years
and years and years because they want to control quote

(07:57):
their players, slash assets earlier, and the players also want
to get paid. Some kids just don't want to go
to college. There's some good and bad to this. The
good for a kid is he plays against pros, he's
gonna make some scratch, he's a pro earlier. And a
lot of kids don't want to go to college. That's
not you know, not everybody's both for college. The downside
is the coaching is gonna be egregious at sometimes the
towns you're playing and are awful mostly, and I don't

(08:19):
think it's a great platform to show your smile, your game,
your personality like Duke Kansas Syracuser. A college program is
for a year, but the top ten to twelve high
school kids in the country now are going to go
to the G League. They're not going to go to
college basketball. That's not the end of college basketball. College
basketball's regular season has been irrelevant for fifteen years. College

(08:39):
basketball has been a three week sport. It's a bracket,
not a sport for the last fifteen years. Nothing's going
to change there, and we also have to be comfortable
with sports do change. When I was a kid growing up,
there was no UFC. Boxing was awesome, and then UFC
arrived and boxing shrank for about ten years and UFC
ruled the world, and now boxing and UFC are both viable.

(09:00):
When I was when I was growing up, I'm sure
this was the case where joy the Olympics were big,
Like the Olympics were everything. I don't have a friend now.
The World Cup now is what my friends watch. That's
the big global event. I'm not saying the Olympics don't matter.
People will watch it, but my buddies that I live
around in Manhattan Beach, they're all World Cup guys. They're
not into the Olympics and curling. It does gymnastics. They

(09:22):
don't care. They're into the World Cup. In the seventies,
when I was a kid, baseball was king in the
World Series was everything. Now football is the king and
the Super Bowl rules the world. Sports change. College basketball
is no longer a growing, thriving business. But do you
know what this comes you know what this comes down
to is that once again, and I hit on this

(09:43):
theme all the time, doesn't matter what business you're in,
you gotta adapt, you gotta evolve. And basketball is always
been a sport where the players more important than the coach.
That's just a fact. That's just a I'm not saying
basketball coaches don't matter, but you win when you have talent.

(10:05):
In the NFL, you can have all sorts of talent.
You got a bad coach, you're a bad team. In
the NBA, you've got a bunch of good players. They
may fight and you may not win a championship, but
you're gonna win some games. You're gonna win some games.
And basketball, the NC double A is a big slow
footed red tape bureaucracy, and they should have seen five

(10:25):
or six years ago that the NBA was creating a
G League and it was getting better and better and
better and better. And the NC double A this morning
reacted to that G League move by saying, oh kkk,
we're gonna pay the players now. Okay, we'll give them
money for likeness and YouTube. Okay, we were wrong on that.
No no, no, no no, no no. You can't treat your

(10:46):
wife like crap. And then she's rulling the walk out
the door on you, and you go, hey, I got
some roses for you. It's a little late if you
treat somebody like crap for fifteen years. Oh honey, I got,
I got, I got some roses. She's packed her suit
case and left. Ncuble a big slow, a reactive, not proactive.

(11:07):
You could see this G League coming. It was like
a slow left hook, you know. It was like it
was like you saw it coming. For ten years, they
create the G League, and then they found Gatorade and
a supporter of it. They were growing, growing up, growing it,
and slowly but surely, what they were doing is saying, hey,
NC double A, we think you're a bad business. Our
kids want to get paid and play with other pros

(11:29):
earlier like they do in Europe, and we're gonna start
paying them in the NC double A. No no, no, no,
no no, no. Sat up and you know they're big
ivy ivory towers and they just didn't recognize it. And
this morning the young players are leaving in the NC
double A. Now this morning reacts and goes, well, we
probably should have. Okay, now we'll give you some money
for your likeness. It's too late. Um. I don't think

(11:50):
it kills college basketball. I think the regular season's been
dead for a decade and a half. I still think
we'll watch March Madness. I still think people that live
in Madison, Wisconsin will watch the Badgers play. I still
think people that live in Lexington, Kentucky will watch the
Wildcats play. People that live in Syracuse will watch Jim
Bayham his team play Tobacco Road, UNC Duke. They're gonna
still watch those guys play. And there's still gonna be

(12:11):
some really, really good players that will play in the
NBA that will go to college. But this is about
the NC double A not paying attention, bureaucrats, big arrogant
not watching what's happening fundamentally at the kind of G
league level. It's been happening for years and years. It
started and it was pretty bad, and then it got
like Gatorade, didn't it used to be called something else.

(12:31):
Then it was the G League for Gatorade. Then they
put more money into it, more and more, and they
woke up this morning and the G League now pay
guys half a million bucks. You know, if you're the
right guy. So you know, I don't feel sorry for anybody.
I think. I think the world changes. I've been doing
sports forever. Baseball is not as big as it used
to be. The World Cup's bigger, The Olympics don't feel
quite as big. College basketball is shrinking, boxing was big,

(12:55):
shrunk back, UFC didn't even exist. XFL tried left it
make come back. Everything's changing. Sports gambling now is legal
in Europe. Years ago. Now it's legal increasingly in America.
You gotta see the changes before they hitch in the face.
And the NCAA was slow and reactive, not proactive on this,
and it costs them some players. That's life. Coming up next.

(13:18):
Jalen Hurts got drafted, but do you know why the
Eagles drafted him. It's because of a current NFL player
that's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app Mothers
Days around the corner. Go to one eight hundred flowers
dot com right now, it's twenty four multicolored roses thine

(13:41):
undred flowers dot com. Click the radio icon, enter the
code h e ar D. You know I've said this before.
Steph Curry is not as great a basketball player as
Lebron James, but he has unbelievable influence, more influence than
Lebron James. Every high school basketball, AU basketball, college basketball game,
it's three point Now, that's Steph Curry. People. I'm not

(14:03):
saying people forget this, but the three point shot was
around for twenty years. It was around for twenty years.
It was considered a bad shot wherever, and then Steph came.
And now if you if you don't have four guys
on the floor that can shoot it, it's a huge liability.
You can have one guy that doesn't shoot at three,
a power forward or a center. Outside of that, they
even want Anthony Davis, the Lakers now to shoot some threes.

(14:25):
So the influence Steph has had is greater than Lebron.
Lebron's just a better player. You know, maybe Patrick Mahomes
will be better all time than Russell Wilson, Brady all
that stuff, But Russell Wilson's influence is undeniable. Tom Brady's
not getting guys drafted. Russell Wilson got two A drafted,
He got Johnny Manzel drafted, he got Kyler Murray drafted. Frankly,

(14:48):
he got Baker Mayfield drafted. All these short guys. Nobody
used to want to draft anybody under six three as
a quarterback. And Jalen Hurts got drafted this weekend. And
what did Philadelphia's GM, Howie Roseman say. He goes, well,
we missed on Russell Wilson in two twelve and twenty twelve,
and that's who we wanted. We had a plan, we
had a vision, and it started with Russell Wilson, and

(15:09):
he got picked by Seattle right before us. So we
went with Nick Foles. And you know, there would be
no Carson Wentz in Philadelphia if that had happened in
the Eagles, My guests would have a Super Bowl or
two more than they had. So Russell Wilson now gets
Jalen Hurts drafted because Howie Roseman's like, we missed on Russell,
We're not doing it again, and I see a lot
of Russell Wilson. What's interesting about this is when you

(15:32):
have influence, generally speaking, the copycats miss Michael Jordan had this.
Michael Jordan was a ball dominant guard. It used to
be your port guide, was a passer. Your guards didn't
take up too much space. It was a big guys league.
It was a centers league, and then Michael Jordan came
in and you're like, oh, you don't need centers. They

(15:55):
had Bill Winnington, Will Purdue, Luke Longley. It's not a
center league. You can just have a ball dominant guarded
as all the scoring. And so everybody started falling for it.
Let's get Iverson, and let's get Marbury, and let's get
Stevie Francis and let's get Damon Stodemeyer. And he didn't
get any titles. They were all good players, but people.
It wasn't until Kobe came along, and even Kobe needed bigs.

(16:18):
But Kobe shared the most traits with Michael relentless, super
super basketball and human being, smart, aspirational, coachable enough, and
then finally, you know, Kobe was about eighty five percent
or eighty percent Michael. You finally found of all the
all the people that looked and kind of played like him.

(16:38):
It was like, oh, one, finally works. But he needed
a center, Shack and gasol, and he needed a great brand,
the Lakers. Russell Wilson's got a lot of guys out there,
Jalen Hurtz and Baker Mayfield and TWA and Johnny Manziel.
I think one of them eventually, we're gonna find a
copycat that's going to be about eighty eighty five percenter Russell.

(16:59):
I think Kyle Murray to me, is interesting like Russell
baseball player, Like Russell knows how to slide and not
get hit. Like Russell throws a beautiful football, Kyler Murray
throws a beautiful football. But I do think there are
things that Michael Jordan brought to the table that other
guys just didn't have. And I think there's stuff Russell

(17:20):
Wilson brings to the table. I mean his family was
like college presidents and went to Dartmouth. I mean, by
any standard of brainpower for a pro athlete like Russell's boom.
Russell also had a chip on his shoulder. As college
coach at North Carolina State said hit the Road, we
like Mike Glennon. He also is maybe the most emotionally
mature person I've ever met at twenty two years old

(17:41):
when I first met Russell Wilson. So there are some
things with Russell that are so unbelievable that you'll never
be able to duplicate. You can duplicate his size. Kyler
certainly kind of plays like him, but I think Russell
and Michael are just so otherworldly that you could get
a duplication. Kobe is a duplication, but just the relentless

(18:03):
relentlessness of Michael will never be duplicated. It's like Roy
Williams said this week, I've never met a player that
practiced harder, worked harder, played harder, cared more, and it
just nothing else like that with Michael. Same with Russell Wilson.
I mean between the dartmouth dad, the chip on the shoulder,

(18:24):
He used to run as a kid through malls, weaving
in and out of people. His childhood was unique. And
then he let's be honest, about it. Whereas Michael got
Phil Jackson, Russell got Pete Carroll. That helps to it
helps to get a Hall of Fame coach, that helps
to joy with the news. No, no, turn on the news.
This is the herd line news. Well, you've been very

(18:47):
nice to Cleveland's as of research, No kidding. Yeah, but
Baker Mayfield did struggle a lot in his second NFL season,
and you were you were on top of that. But
Brown's GM, Andrew Berry is confident that Baker can put
last season behind him and get back on track in
twenty twenty. I can assure you there's nobody who's more
focused and determined to put last year behind him and

(19:08):
take a step forward than him. We are excited about
the environment that we've created around that position and there
around that room in general. We really do expect him
to have a fantastic year. I know Kevin and the
staff have done a really nice job with the virtual
offseason so far, implementing the new system, and we think
that he'll be able to thrive in it this season.
He'd better because they have tons of talent. Like I

(19:31):
was thinking last night, I think I'd picked Cleveland for
second in the Vision behind Baltimore because I have no
idea what we're getting from Big Ben. I don't I've
told you before, big Ben has never been a grinder,
offseason grinder. I have no idea. I think as you
get older, you heal more slowly, and I don't think
he's taken the greatest care of his body all the time.
So I think Cleveland's loaded. I think they're absolutely And

(19:54):
I do think Baker's going to play better this year. Well,
he took a significant step back from his rookie season.
He was really good and impressive in last year. But
last year was not a great situation for Baker, and
I'm going to look at this year. I'm willing to
give Baker actually two more years because considering the circumstances
this year, and he has another new coach and new system,

(20:16):
a new situation to get accustomed to everything. I'm not
saying that he shouldn't be significantly better than he was
last year. Last year was a disaster. None of us
knew what was happening in Cleveland last year. It was
like it was unexplainable what was happening in Cleveland last
year if it was any other team other than Cleveland's
but they are in a good situation this year, but
everyone is, you know, kind of behind the curve. So
I'm going to give him another year because of that.

(20:39):
But you're right, he does have so much talent around him.
Oh it's it's absurd. I mean they are so offensively.
Only the Chiefs have that many good players. That's it.
How they're going to play as a team, I don't know,
but he and his numbers should take a step up
this year regardless because of what he has around him.
So Jameis Winston is officially a Saint. He signed a
one year, one point one million dollar deal with a

(21:00):
max value of four point seven million in incentives, and
he said he can't wait to learn everything he can
from his new team, being a part of new all
the Saints being apart with Drew Brees, Taysom Hill, Seun
Pay coach, Joe Lombardi, coach Pete carmartha junior. When you
think about that room, it's like a Harvard education in
quarterback school. So I wanted to put my ego aside,

(21:24):
put the money so aside, to think about my family,
think about my career. It was no better position than
to be in the same room with someone that I've
really looked up to, someone that I admired since I've
been playing this game, and Drew Brees, I love the attitude.
Love it. I did you. I'm not expecting to see
a lot of Jameis Winston this year. We know that
what kind of role Taysom Hill plays in this offense,

(21:46):
and Drew Brees is obviously this is going to be
his team as long as he's healthy. But I do
think James has a lot of football left in him.
And where I thought that he would take a step
up with Bruce Arians, or at least we would see
something different with him and Bruce Arians, he was still
in the same environment. So maybe being in a different
environment will change how Jamis approaches the game. And he

(22:08):
did have eye surgery. We know what he's done. He's
a highly productive player, but he does have a ridiculous
amount of turnovers. He's right, that is an incredible room
to be in. Chasom Hill talks about all the time
learning from Drew Brees. You've talked about your experiences with
Drew Brees in the gym, you know, the old place,
like he's a grinder and there couldn't really be no

(22:29):
better pro to learn from than Drew because of his personality.
Being around someone say like Tom Brady, you're Payton Manning.
Obviously there's amazing greats, but Drew Brees has a certain
personality that lends to at least what we've heard learning.
So this is a great situation for Jamis Winston, and
I think that after this year he'll get another opportunity
to be a starting quarterback somewhere in the league, depending

(22:49):
on how this situation goes. Obviously, and speaking of Ben Roethlisberger,
the Steelers had to rely on Mason Rudolph and Delvin
Hodges and Ben Roethlisberger was hurt early last season, but
the team does and seemed overly concerned with adding anyone
else to the quarterback room as Big Ben continues to recover.
GM Kevin Colvert said that the team has not had
any negotiations, has not made any offers to any vetteran

(23:11):
quarterbacks this offseason. I don't know how I feel about that.
They were in the playoff conversation towards the end of
the season last year with Mason Rudolph and Delvin Hodges,
But as you just mentioned, a few moments ago with
the AFC. North Cleveland has a lot of talents, and
we're expecting Baker Mayfield to take a step up this year.
We already know what's going on with the Ravens. We

(23:33):
have no idea what Sincinnati's going to be, but they
are going to be assumably better with Joe Burrow in
this situation. But we don't know what has Ben Roethlisberger.
He's not had that reputation of taking care of his body.
He's been hurt since surgery in September, he was hurt
in week two of last year. Every considering everything that's
going on right now, so it's not like you're able

(23:53):
to get out there and get back at it as
you normally would. I don't know what to expect from
Ben Roethlisberger this year, but they seem incredibly confident that
he's going to come back and be able to be
his normal self. I don't know. It makes me nervous
that they have no interest in bringing in a veteran quarterbacks.
We know what Mason, Mason, Rudolph and Dock Hodges are.
Yeah right, yeah, I mean we know exactly what they are,

(24:16):
and it's not good enough in that division to it
was frankly remarkable. They were they were viable at the
end of last year, viable and they were What did
Jimmy Jonathan say? The most valuable position is the backup
quarterback other than your starting quarterback. I just I don't
know what their strategy is here Joy with the news.
Well that's the news, and thanks for stubbing Thirdline News.

(24:39):
He's the host of First Things First. He's my buddy
and we disagree in a lot. Joining us now via
Mercedes Ben's the best or nothing is Nick Wright. Okay,
let's start with this. Bob McGain very respected writer, very
respect that he's worked for almost four decades and many
prized institutions of writing, he said Matt la Fleur. He

(24:59):
suggests that has had enough for Rogers and that's why
they got Jordan Love. How how what did you make
of that comment? Well, listen, you're right. McGinn has has
plugged into the Packers as any writers has plugged in
with any team. He's obviously getting this from vary informed sources,
the front office, coaching staffs obviously talking to Bob McGinn.

(25:21):
So what I made of it is, who the hell
do these people in Green Bay thinks they are like honestly, like,
like what exactly do they think they do around there?
The new GM, Brian Gudenkunz, who is first decision he
made his general manager of the team, who had a
first round pick, Durwin James is on the board, and

(25:41):
he's like, let's trade out of this pick. Who could
use a future Hall of Famers safety only so the
next year they had to spray up in the draft
to draft to safety. Or Matt Lafore who's bathed himself
in such glory. He was the offensive coordinator for the
ten franked offense with the Rams. He left and they
became the second rank office. Then he goes to Tennessee.

(26:03):
He coordinates the twenty fifth ranked offense in football. He leaves,
they become the twelfth rank offense. Then he goes to
Green Bay and for the first time in forever, they
have a below average offense. Those people think, you know,
they're sick of tolerating Aaron Rodgers. I'd love to hear
the leak story in the media trade of how of

(26:24):
how TWI and Pagan are sick of dealing with Colin Goward,
Jimmy A. Brice and the folks that are like, oh,
he's moody, he's passive aggressive. To quote Dom Draper once again,
that's what's the money's for guys, to make him feel
good and to deal with it. I know we feel
differently about this because he called me this weekend to

(26:47):
discuss it. And I'm gonna be totally honest with you, Colin,
because I do love you, and because we are so
close friends, I totally stand bag during that conversation. I
let you think I might kind of agree with you,
only because I wanted to do this on the radio.
Say actual, first of all conversation, I said it aside,
but this is ridiculous and Rogers should be furious. All right,

(27:08):
you make good valid points. Let me support everybody's bagging
on Philadelphia drafting Jalen Hurts, and my takeaway is it's
a Super Bowl bubble roster. You know they're in that
eight nine teams and Carson Wentz can't finish the season.
As much as I love him, I think he has
the second best arm in the league, honestly to Patrick Mahomes.
But I think it makes sense when you have a

(27:29):
very good team. This is why RG three is behind Lamar.
You find a stylistically somewhat similar player. Jets went out
and got a Sam Donald clone from a school nobody
watches play, but he's very much plays like Donald. So
Jalen Hurts is gonna play this year. I think he's
probably better than we all think. It's a pro prospect.
It didn't bother me at all. Did it bother you? No,

(27:52):
it doesn't bother me at all. I didn't love Doug
Peterson coming out and being like, let me make this clear,
Carson's are star quarterback because he didn't need to say that. Yeah,
I mean when FS one hired me and then you
would take vacation and I would fill in no One's
in a press release. Let me make this clear. Nick
Rights not replacing Don Cowards. Nobody thought I was. But

(28:15):
if that Freas release came out, you might be like, well,
why did youn't even need to say that? This is
something I don't know here, But I actually think Jalen
Hurts might be the first player drafted because of Taysom Hills.
I don't buy Taysom Hills a starting NFL quarterback at all.
So he's completed seven passes in his career, but he

(28:37):
is a valuable weapon, and for the team that goes
for more fourth down conversions than any team in the league,
and for the team that goes for more two point
conversions than any team in the league. Jalen Hurts absolutely
can get on the field and help you right now,
even if Carson Wentz is healthy for all sixteen games.
So I like to pick a lot actually, and I

(28:58):
think it gives him a chance to develop and we'll
see if in three years maybe he is a Bible
starting quarterback. But in the meantime, he'll get on the field, unlike,
of course, the guy the Packers draft who they hope
never sees the field for two years unless they decide
they're just stick tolerting Aaron rod Let's shift to basketball
the last dance. So I said yesterday, the Pistons are

(29:20):
viewed as they should be viewed. Muhammad Ali was handsome
and great and glamorous and classy, and that's how he's viewed.
Larry Holmes was a heavyweight champ, but the rest of
it he wasn't. That's how he's viewed. And if you
do it doc on Larry Holmes, it doesn't portray him
like it portrays Muhammad Ali and his greatness and his
global touch. I think if you look back in history,
the Pistons come off bad because I don't think they

(29:42):
were good for the league. They were inartistic, they tackled people,
and they lack class when they eventually lost the crown.
You don't like how they're being portrayed. I'm told, well, listen,
I you know, it's a ten hour documentary, and so
you would think you would have time to tell the
whole story. But I mean, I guess, I don't know. Listen,

(30:03):
I've never made a film. The Dock goes from Jordan's
sixty three point game against the Celtics and then immediately
goes to the Scottie pipp and Migraine game, the game
seven loss to the Pistons, which is interesting because it
skipped the year after from the sixty three point game
when you got swept by the Celtics, there after that
from the Pistons whoops them in the year from that

(30:25):
when the Pistons whooped them too. But I guess, listen,
if Jordan's got some creative control again, include that full
story of his career of the dock. But you were there.
The fact. The matter is it I didn't like the
fact that it listened. Nobody likes Isaiah Thomas, but me
evidently I maybe he's rubbed people the wrong way, and
I get it. You know, Generation X needs safe spaces

(30:46):
and if people don't shake their hands, they're gonna go
cry and things like that. US millennials were tougher. We
were brought up arders, so we wouldn't have been so
upset about us miss handshake thirty years later. But that
Pistons team Collins could have won four were consecutive titles.
They should have won three consecutive titles if they didn't
get homes on a foul call on Bill William Beer

(31:07):
in the eighty eight finals. And I don't think Isaiah
gets the respect he deserves. That he did beat Magic,
he did beat Birds, he did beat Jordan repeatedly, and
he did it without another top fifty player on his roster.
He did it without another all time great offensive player
anywhere around him. And so listen, Anderson's the Jordan Docks,

(31:31):
so they're going to focus on that part of the story.
I just think that those Pistons teams, especially in the
late eighties before they got old, we're just all time
all time good. Well, I see, I think I don't
think they've aged well because I think they were so
much about toughness. In fact, if you just change if
they had today's rules, they would just be an average
team because they didn't have a lot of shooters. To

(31:53):
your point, Isaiah was their only truly gifted offensive player.
I think that they're like the Baltimore Ravens with Ray
Lewis Trent Dilford. They wouldn't they would not age well
they because you couldn't grab wide receivers. But given the
rules that the NBA allowed with the Pistons and the
NFL allowed with those Ravens defenses, they were great in
their moment. They were They were unbelievable. And one other

(32:17):
thing that I did really like about the dock Uh
these last two episodes was it showed you in the
shot against Cleveland, it reminded you that Ron Harper was
on the calves and maybe should have been guarding Jordan.
And they talked about Dennis Rodman being on the Pistons
and being such a great defender and then and maybe they'll,

(32:37):
you know, investigate this in the next six episodes. It's
so interesting because Ron Harper then ended up playing with
Jordan and Rodman then ended up playing with Jordan's and
I just remember being told that these guys would never
seem up with their rivals. They and you had all
these guys, they end up on the polls. I just
I'm very fascinated to see how it plays out. That's

(32:59):
it's frankly, if Nick drives you crazy, it is the
mythology of now players are just joining forces. Yeah, Michael
ended up with the best euro Ron Harper, Dennis Rodman
the best coach. Yeah, it's funny, outworks, it is interesting.
And load management, by the way, is something only soft
young players. Du Hey, Dennis, you back from vegans. I

(33:22):
don't know. I mean that seemed to happen thirty years ago.
But what do I know? My buddy Nick right, good
talking to you, my man. N see if I see? Yeah, yeah,
it is funny. The methol I always use the George
Brett rule. I love George Brett, grown as my favorite
baseball player. He and Pete Rose, and you know a
player will take a couple of days off and everybody
bangs on him. George Brett miss thirty games a year. Now.
Some of it was just he's playing on that astro

(33:44):
turf in Kansas City. A guy needed a break. It
was like one hundred and forty. It was like you
were like a rotisserie chicken plan on that turf. The
second thing was George played his butt off and he
got hurt a lot because he just played so hard.
But it's like we just forget that that players miss game.
It wasn't called load management, but you know, guys did
their thing. Uh, it's it's the mythology of sports. Jordan

(34:07):
was still great, but Nick makes me laugh. Coming up next,
great news for the NBA going forward. And they didn't
ever think about it, or maybe they didn't didn't have
the guts to do it, but the league is changing.
It is and it's great. That's coming up. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and nun
Easter nine a m. Pacific. Whether you're working from home

(34:30):
or working on your fitness. You want to hear your music,
not your roommates. Raycon's Wireless ear Budge on the Way
to Go fifteen percent off your Raycon order Today by
Raycon dot com, slash Heard by Raycon dot Com Slash Herd.
Those things are great By the way, they're fantastic. So
what do they say? The mother of a necessity is
the mother of invention. Is that most great inventions happen

(34:54):
because it like solves a problem. Oh I need something,
let's invent it. People don't wake up up in the
morning and just woo, amazing idea. I'm going to invent this.
It's usually there's an obstacle, there's a problem. Oh, let's
let's create this to you know, to avoid the problem.
And the NBA's got a situation on its hands, and

(35:14):
I think necessity is going to be the mother of
a radical change. The NBA, now, according to a report,
is increasingly open to delaying next year. Forget this year.
I think they're gonna get this year in somehow, some way.
My guess is some way next year they're gonna start

(35:34):
it at Christmas. That's what they're saying. This is what
they should have been doing forever. But especially if you'll
watch the last decade half decade, there's two things happening
in football that it's bigger than ever, stronger than ever.
Number One is legalized pro sports gambling, folks, NFL is

(35:56):
that rolls out across the nation. You can bet Sunday's
College Jam, pro football growing, growing, growing, growing. Why do
you want to get run over by that mac truck.
We don't bet on basketball, not like we bet on football.
We don't bet on baseball or hockey, not like we've
bet on football. So legalized gambling is going to make
college football in pro football a bigger mac truck. Why

(36:17):
start in October, November, and December and get your arts kicked,
start Christmas and then remember, by January there is no
Monday Night Football and Thursday Night football to go up against.
The rest of the week is yours. College football is
mostly done by then, So you want to start in
Christmas and then extend into the late summer when you
run on a post. Charles Barkley was on our show recently.

(36:39):
He believes this. I believe this. The NFL is going
to be forced because of the virus to move next
season back, and what they're gonna find is the ratings
are better. Here's Barkley comas football is king on the world,
Pro football is king Kong. We ain't never gonna compete
with them. We should start the NBA season around Christmas.

(37:00):
So I think we should showing the scene the seventy
five or seventy games. Christmas should be the big day
like we do every year. We have set five games
on Christmas Day. That would be a great way to
start the NBA season. Yea, why are we starting in
the middle of college football season? In pro football? I mean,
it's just two muss going on. We're trying to compete
for dollars and now think about this, now, Collins, there's

(37:21):
going to be worse going forward trying to compete with
those dollars of the NFL and college football. Yeah, and
Barkley nails it. Charles gets it. Is that this sports
gambling is the first reason why college and pro are
just becoming a mack truck. You just got to change now,
and Madam Silver smart enough to get it. The second
reason is quarterbacks are the most important position in pro

(37:43):
football and they're getting better faster, And there's a lot
of reasons for this. Number one, the NFL is adapting
and adopting to the college football game, so kids coming
in they play earlier. The second thing is it started
about five six years ago. This generation of quarterbacks coming in,
they're all need seven on seven and camps. They've got
twenty thousand snaps ten thousand live snaps by the time

(38:04):
they're fourteen years old. It didn't used to be that way,
it did, you really, You played a couple of high
school games, you played a few at college games, and
went to the NFL. Took years for Eli Manning to
get adjusted. Peyton Manning was still making a ton of mistakes.
By year four, eleven games into his pro career. They
give Lamar Jackson the job and you're like, Oh, he's

(38:25):
ready to go. He's ready to win games. So between
the legalized gambling and the improvement of NFL quarterback playing
quarterback play, overall, it's making the NFL just more fun
to watch most there's thirty two NFL teams. One we
know is going after a quarterback next year. One Jacksonville,

(38:45):
New England, Washington, Stidham, Dwayne Haskins. We're not sure, so
we can't make that. We can't make that claim. One
Cam Newton cannot get a job. He can't get a job.
What does that tell you the saturation point? Cincinnati has THEIRS,
Miami has THEIRS, Chargers have THEIRS, Indianapolis for a year
has THEIRS. And with Jacob Eeson, maybe they've got theirs.

(39:08):
They're just not many jobs open. And next year we
have two superstar level quarterbacks coming in Trevor Lawrence and
Justin Fields. So we know that Jacksonville is probably gonna
get one of those, and then on New England or
you know whoever, A Washington's gonna get the other one.
So and the other thing, the NBA has got something
going against it, and I think the NBA, increasingly a

(39:30):
global sport's gonna do fine. I love the NBAS can
do fine. It does have one thing going against it.
So as NFL and college football ratings are incredibly secure,
that doesn't mean they're going through the roof, but they're
very secure and they're gonna be secure going forward. NBA's
got a little dilemma on its hands. Any of you
guys have kids that are under like twenty three years old,
they don't want TV. They my kids don't even know

(39:53):
it exists. I'm not sure the last time my son
watched television. He's on his phone, he's on his computer screen.
My daughter occasionally will watch Netflix and wants TV maybe
a movie occasionally. So what does that mean? Well, that's
how that's how the NBA makes its money makes its

(40:15):
money on TV ratings and kids. They have a huge
young fan base don't watch TV. So if your primary
fan base is young and they're increasingly not watching TV,
and we know the NFL and college are TV sports,
why put yourself in the crosshairs of that mac truck
for three months. Get out of that space. Start in December,

(40:39):
roll unopposed deep into the summer. And again, necessity is
the mother of invention. They didn't plan on doing this
five years ago. The virus will move them into this.
I think it's great for the NBA, Great for the NBA.
Chris Ballard Next one more Herd. The Herd streams twenty
four hours a day, seven days a week within the

(41:00):
iHeartRadio app. Search her to listen live or on demand
whenever you like. How you doing, everybody, It is a Wednesday,
live in Los Angeles. This is the Hurt. Wherever you
may be and however you may be listening. We're on iHeartRadio,
Fox Sports Radio, and FS one, one of my favorite

(41:21):
gms in the NFL. Chris Ballard's gonna be joining us
in a couple of minutes, and Joey Taylor is joining
me as well. Plus Lane Kiffin. Last hour. He's always
he's taunting me on texting me. Kiffin is polarizing even
when he texts me. He's controversial, even when he texts
me on my first share, No, I'm not gonna share it.

(41:43):
You always do this. Well, I can't give up information.
These are gold bars of information. I cannot give these out.
I know that you're because you do this so often
on the show. I know that you do this at home.
You're that person that's like like, and then they're like,
what what is it? You're like, no, never mind, never mind.

(42:03):
That is no worry about it. That is me. Okay.
So Chris Ballard is coming on. So Chris Baller, I
have about six gms in the NFL that I text
and uh, you know, Tom Tells goes my buddy with
the Chargers. We'll go to dinner and I don't give
away any of the secrets. But once the draft's over,
I think it's okay to say Chris Ballard liked Michael

(42:23):
Pittman and Jonathan Taylor and Jacob said and he landed
all of them. And I knew that. So when I
watched the draft and they had Pittman and Jonathan Taylor,
I'm like, oh my god, he's gonna get both these guys.
And I went crazy on Instagram and Chris Ballard entering
his fourth season, so I mean, no, I can share
stuff now that the draft is over. Let's talk about Pittman.

(42:45):
You had asked me some quote, we had talked about
Pittman or texted about Pittman. This was somebody, Chris, you
really liked and you got him. That must have been
a great feeling for you. Well, thanks for having me
on Hi Joy. How you doing it? Every time i'd
listen to it. So I've been home, you know, last
I don't know what month and a half, and so

(43:07):
I'm listening to your show, and every time you'd bring
up Pittman, I'm cringing, going, you freaking kidding me. He's
pumping this guy up. And he's a great player, Chris,
He's a he is a you know what I Chris,
You know what I liked about him? Freshman year he
came to USC he played and he was a dominant

(43:28):
special teams player and I thought, God, this kid is
eighteen years old. He walks into the program. I think
he's their best special teams player. Did you go look
at that film? We saw it all. So we always
do in ours do a great job going back and
look at him and look, guys that I'll never forget
when we drafted Charles Tillman, you know when I was

(43:49):
early in my career in Chicago and he was a
great He was a great teams player right away. I
mean guys that you know football players that you know
they just find a way to produce no matter what
you ask him to play in. And you know that's
one thing that Michael is you. Every year you saw
him get better. You saw him dominate on teams early
in his career. Um, you saw him go through a

(44:11):
multitude of different quarterbacks and still produced it wide out. Um.
I mean it's I think it's almost overlooked. Everybody says, well,
he didn't have a thousand yards is junior year, but
I think he averaged over seventeen yards to catch. UM.
So no, we feel very fortunate to get him, um
and think he's going to be a great addition to
our to our team. And n and NFC general manager

(44:32):
after you drafted Jonathan Taylor text me and said, you
know Ballard is kill him. This I said before, I
don't see a huge gap Uh, Jonathan Taylor and sa
Quon Barkley. I think Jonathan's feet a plus, his speed
a plus, so I and I think Barkley's great. So
that's not a knock on sa Quon Barkley. Um, the

(44:55):
people do wonder if Jonathan Taylor can catch it much? Uh?
Is that is Dot's talk about him? And is that
a legitimate criticism? Um? Well, I mean it's the way
they used him. Uh, you know we thought, we thought.
I mean, if you actually when you look at when
you break down all these catches from this year and
how we're going to use him in the past game.
I mean, look, there might be three or four backs

(45:18):
and you're talking Kamara, you know, you're talking McCaffrey. Um, now,
the kid that Kansas City drafted that you can really
be true mismatches in the passing game. But the rest
of them. Frank Frank Bunt this point up to me
because I kept asking questions about, you know, how we're
going to use on third down, you know, and especially
even on early downs, how we're gonna use it because

(45:40):
Chris most of the most of the balls that backs catch, swings,
checkdowns and screen games. That's it, and that's how we'll
use our backs, and Frank and I think we think
Jonathan's going to be very good at that. Look, we
think Marlon Max good at it. Yeah. Um so, now
the ability to have two backs that both can create
explosive plays, both hit the run game and the passing

(46:00):
games really get help You've had. Really, if you go
back to your career in Kansas City, you drafted Travis Kelsey,
Tyreek Hill, you got Darius Leonard and Quentin Nelson, Malik Hooker,
now Pittman, Taylor. Jacob Eason's an interesting prospect, and I
want to talk about him. Is that Eason? I You know,
I grew up in the Northwest, and so I've seen
a lot of Easton. I probably watched ten games a

(46:22):
year that were on TV strong Arm. I did think
sometimes when defense has made shifts in the second half,
he could struggle. But he didn't throw to NFL wide receivers.
He had to throw a lot of guys open at
Washington last year. So I think he's a little bit
of a project. But if I said to you, he
could start in the following year, not this year. Is

(46:43):
the z project to be that good early enough? Well,
I've kind of pumped the brakes on on the starting,
on the starting, everybody bringing out that, you know, that
narrative just from the plain fact that he's got work
to do. You know, he's really been a one year
starter in college and he's got a lot of work

(47:06):
to do, and Jacob knows that. But we feel good
about the situation we're putting him into it, feel good
putting him behind Philip and Jacobe, letting him compete and
get better and grow with Frank and you know, his
leadership and his ability to coach quarterback. So look, we
think Jacob's got a lot of talent, but he's got
a ways to go, and he knows that. He knows
he's got a lot of work to put in Chris

(47:27):
Bowler joining his COLCHGM. So I've always had this, I
always pushed back on this for years and years. I
was told, you just draft the best player available. And
the analogy I always used if I went to the
store and my wife said we need milk, cereal and eggs,
and I came back with a rake and I said,
well it was seventy five percent off, She'd be like, well,
that's not what we need. And so I've you know,

(47:50):
what I mean. So I'm always like, yeah, I get
best player available if you're in a total rebuilding situation.
But the Chargers needed a franchise quarterback and linebacker. You
needed a number two wide receiver um and you also,
I believe, needed to be a little bit more dynamic offensively.
So where is the best guy available? Uh? And and

(48:13):
just he's really really good and he fits a need.
How do you balance that? Well? That's I mean, look,
you don't want to on draft day. And I'll learned
this for a long time ago. Don't ever, don't ever
pass up what you think is a great player. If
you think the guy is a unique, special talent, I
don't care what position he is. It's I brought up
the you know, the when we talked about Quentin Nelson.

(48:36):
They asked me. He goes, well, you know, great player
versus you know, versus need, And it just happened. They said, well,
you can't take a guard at six, and I said,
well why not? I said, this guy's a unique talent.
That's that's who we're taking. We're taking unique talent. So
he never pass up a unique talent. And then number
two when it comes need versus best player, well, if

(48:58):
the guy's not a unique talent and it's even then
you're going to take the knee. You know, our whole
vision this offseason was to create Look, we needed to
add more what we thought could be star players. Yes,
and you know that's where Buckner came into play. When
we got into the as, I had some guys with
some unique traits offensively to help, you know, our offense

(49:21):
create more explosive plays. That's where Pittman and that's where
Taylor came into playing. Philip rivers. You know when he
has protection. He's only a year removed from having a
very good year. I think sometimes you know, recency bias.
He struggled last year, but if you go two years ago,

(49:41):
it was very good in the end. There you know.
The knock on him is yeah, a lot. It's some
interceptions you don't love. He's not terribly athletic anymore, if
he ever was. What was the day you made the
decision to bring Philip in? Do you remember it? The
discussions you were having. Yeah, we had discussions internally, you know,
all through when we started a value I mean, we

(50:01):
do a deep evaluation of our own team, which is
some I mean those are difficult discussions internally, you know,
because it's it's players that you like, But you know,
do we need to do we need to try to
improve in these positions. And you know, Frank and Nick,
our offensive coordinator, both had exposure and history with with
Phillip m And you got a chance the guy that

(50:23):
knows the offense. Um. They know what he's going to
bring to our football team. And look, we've played against
him early in the season. I mean, I mean we
played against in Week one and he and he played
Willie well against us, and you know, and when you
watch the one thing about Philip UM that I think
is underappreciated, like he didn't worry about his stats. He's

(50:44):
playing the win. And there's some of those interceptions. Look,
i mean, they got to come down and he knows it, Um,
But Philip's going to play to win. He's not going
to play to protect himself. There's times in games where
he's gonna make throws that other people won't even try
when they're down in the game, but he's trying to
create a big play. So we think we can have that,

(51:05):
We think we can protect him, we think we're going
to be able to actually we're gonna be able to
run the ball with him and do some things to
help Philip out, and just his presence and experience and
things that are not always you don't always see on
the field that he's going to bring to an organization
we thought we needed. Chris Boundard was the former Bears

(51:27):
director of scouting that he went to the Chiefs and
ran their football operations. Now his fourth year as the
coach general manager was voted the executive year a couple
of years ago by the Pro Football Writers Association. He's
joining us here on the herd. So a lot of
people worried about the you know, the whole virtual nature
of it. But we had said the XFL did a
virtual draft the w NBA that it did a pretty
good job. I thought it looked great. I gotta be

(51:48):
honest with you. I love seeing kids with their families.
I loved it. I thought it was incredibly emotional. I know,
we'll go back to the other way. But were you
pleasantly surprised by how fairly seamless the draft came off
or was there a lot of little issues behind the scenes.

(52:09):
I would say the little issues popped up before we started,
you know, just everybody getting comfortable with the technology that
we were using. Um, the you know, people are scared
of the unknown column. Yeah, I mean you know how
that is. I mean people are scared, like when trying
to change anything. Uh, They're scared of the unknown. They're

(52:29):
scared of looking stupid in front of the world. Unfortunately,
you know, free, I've been in enough times where it
doesn't bother me. Um, you know anymore you're gonna make
you know, things aren't always going to go the way
you plan. And I think that's what you know, had
people worried about, you know, what we were getting into.
But look, get the league. Give the NFL credit. You

(52:50):
know that a vision of how they wanted this thing
to look, and they pulled it off and like it
was the special look to be able to do this
with our families is really special. I think it humanized
the NFL. Yes, Um, for a lot of our fans.
I mean, I think they look at our league differently
knowing that, Look, you know, we do have we do
have families, We do have children, and and I tell

(53:12):
our group all the time, every decision we make effects
not only not only our organization but our coaches. Families
are families. You know everybody in our everybody in our organizations, families, um,
and I think it was good for them to be
a part of it, and I'm good for the you know,
our country to be able to see that there is
another side for this. Yeah, I think your perfect word.

(53:33):
It really humanized the league. It really did. I found myself. Uh,
it's just it's just crazy how much how much fun
I had watching it. I think I watched more of
them and I always I've loved it forever. But I
don't think I turned it off more than five minutes
or missed five minutes. I sat eating sandwiches, potato chips
and coronas and watching the draft and cheering people on.

(53:54):
So I did for three or four days, the whole day.
There's nothing better than when your sons sit behind you
and are questioning every move you made, like, Dad, what
are you going to take this guy here? No, I'm
not well one on, I don't understand. That is great, Chris.
Congrats to you and the Colts knocked it out of

(54:14):
the park as always, and we'll talk soon. Thanks for
having me on you bet, Chris Ballard. Yeah, that's that's
really what it did. It was. It was incredibly humanized.
I thought it was the NFL. One of their themes
and their commercials is family, and I just saw a
bunch of families. I just saw a bunch of families
a whole weekend and it made me happy. And I thought,
and the NBA's different. You know, this is not a
knock in the NBA. The NBA model, it's not that

(54:36):
there's not families, but it's more of a worship sport.
You find the talent, the talent becomes great, they get
a shoe deal young you kind of they walk on
stage at six foot nine and you look up at them.
And that is the NBA's model. In the NFL, very
few players outside of a quarterback are worth half a point.
They're part of a collective, in a group, and watching

(54:57):
them in a group with their families, it felt on
brand to me. I thought it was really special. I
really thought it was great. Coming up next, I see
this headline, have the Packers done enough to maximize Aaron
Rodgers career? I've got some thoughts on that. Coming up.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio

(55:21):
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worry yesterday, very nice, very hip. So you know the story.

(55:43):
Bob McGinn covered the Packers Forever rights in the Athletic.
You know that he thinks, you know, Matt Lafleur is
not going to deal with Aaron Rodgers the way Aaron wants.
And they went with offensive linemen and running backs and
tight ends and blockers, and they're going to make more
of a run game instead of relying on Aaron Rodgers.
That's that's kind of the story by McGinn today. Is

(56:04):
the passive aggressive stuff and the imperial sort of demeanor
of Aaron Rodgers. Lafleur has probably already you know, seen
it and not in love with it. Um. I trust
Bob McGinn. He's not making stuff. I don't believe Aaron's
the victim of all this stuff. We've got enough stories.
Brother Dad teammates this some of It's true. I don't
know Aaron. I've met him one time. I'm never gonna
tell you what he said in that one time, even

(56:26):
though I could, I don't think it. It wasn't something
I would have said meeting me for the first time.
It wasn't about me. By the way, Aaron's a different cat.
I've known a lot of guys who have played with him,
A different cat, super talented, just like everybody else. Just
like broadcasters, I know, some are easy to work with another,
some are more difficult, are confidence, some have low self esteem,

(56:48):
some are needy, some are not. Aaron's got some great
strengths and he's got some liabilities. But I don't think
he's a victim of all these reports. I think at
some point, drip drip, drip, drip drip. Oh the Fawcet's on.
But I saw this story. Have the Packers done enough
to maximize Aaron Rodgers' career? So they're talking about, you know,
if you look at the draft capital spent on skill

(57:09):
players since he came into the NFL, and they show
this graph and oh, Green Bay's way down there, But
nobody wants to admit the team's all way down there.
That don't draft a lot of wide receivers and running
backs in the first round. Maybe you've heard of them.
They win a lot. Atlanta, Seattle, Green Bay, Houston, Pittsburgh,
by the way, New England. Here's the teams that do

(57:32):
draft a lot of skill players. Cincinnati, Detroit, the Raiders,
Saint Louis, Rams, Tennessee, Jacksonville, and Cleveland are way up there.
Here's here's what Green Bay's drafted in the first round
since Aaron Rodgers became the starter. Mostly guys from big
schools who play defense. AJ Hawk linebacker, Ohio State defensive tackle,

(57:56):
defensive tackle, linebacker, USC Clay Matthews pretty good, two tackles,
defensive end, defensive end, safety, safety, knows tackle, Kenny Clark
UCLA good player, cornerback, defensive end, safety, very few busts,
and mostly defensive players. That's funny. That sounded a well
run franchise. Here's the other thing Aaron's had since he's

(58:18):
been there a week division, A stable franchise, an offensive
minded head coach, always a legitimate number one receiver, Davante Adams,
Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, and guess what above average offensive
line play six times there's been a Pro Bowl, Pro
Bowl offensive line award that's above average, so its old

(58:39):
lines above average. Always had a number one receiver, stability,
offensive minded head coach in a week division. And since
when is drafting skill people in the first round an
indication you're a great franchise. I mean, I'm sorry, but
Chris Ballard with the Colts has traded out or down

(59:00):
in the first round. That's what he does. That's what
most of the good exacts I know. They're not looking
to move up in the draft. They're looking to move
down because they don't want to pay a guy a
bunch of money who's never played in the NFL. Pete
Carroll's whipped on first round picks. What he doesn't do
is whiff on the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth round picks.
So the idea that, oh, green Bay first rounds not
drafting quarter wide receivers. So what is that? I mean,

(59:25):
how many great wide receivers as Brady have won? Randy Moss,
that's it My point, he said, plenty of support. Russell's
had better defenses Russell Wilson, because you know Brady and
Russell Wilson have had better defenses. Well, that's because Bill
Belichick and Pete Carroll are the two best defensive coaches

(59:45):
arguably in the league. Sean Payton has often had to
you know, you can say Drew Brees has had better
offenses often because Sean Payton's one of the smartest offensive
coaches in the league. So Aaron's in the mix season
the middle. His whole lines have been good. He's always
had a number one receiver, you know, stable, offensive minded coach,

(01:00:05):
fairly winnable division. I mean, let's be honest. Chicago, Detroit.
You know, I love Matt Naggie, but the Chicago has
been a mess a lot in the last fifteen years,
and Detroit's always a mess. Minnesota's got a good front office,
but they can't quite get the quarterback thing right. Here's
Joy with the news. No, no turn on the news.
This is the Herd Line News sponsored by Mercedes Bets,

(01:00:28):
the Best or Nothing. Well, I think that Jerry Krause
looked a little bit better in these two episodes of
The Last Dance. Trending up if you will, Yes, but
he didn't look great in the first two episodes of
the Last Dance. Was kind of pained at the villain.
But Charles Barkley thinks that more of the blames should
be on owner Jerry Reinstorf instead of Kraus. He didn't

(01:00:50):
take down apart anybody think that's a fool. That thing
was all orchestrated by Jerry Brown's dark. The notion that
that little man broke up the bull is the nine
and a third. Jered Ryans broke up the bruises. He
didn't want to pay anybody. He only paid Michael the
last two years. When he had Michael out a bargain,

(01:01:11):
he was happy, so he didn't want to pay Michael.
He paid him those last two years and he had
Scottie on a great deal. That's the reason he broke
up the bulls strictly because of money, but to try
to make Jerry Cross to be the bad guy. I
thought that was very just. This is genuine by Jerry
Ryan's dark in fairness, Ryansdorff's reputation he's a baseball first,

(01:01:35):
cheap guy. Kraus was a baseball first guy. But you
could argue, even though he was petty, Jerry made two
or three unbelievable moves firing Doug Collins for Phil Jackson.
Doug Collins was winning like Michael was flourishing and Chicago
was winning with him. So Ryanstorff's always been known as
the guy that loves baseball and kind of cheap. That's

(01:01:56):
been his reputation forever. I've softened a little bit on Krause,
not necessarily from what I've seen from the last dance,
but just because he did. He does deserve credit for
all of those aggressive moves that you just mentioned, and
Reinsdorp does deserve the blame for not paying anyone. But
multiple things can be true at once. You can be
responsible for making the decisions that put together a dynasty,

(01:02:18):
and you can also be responsible for the ego and
decisions that broke up a dynasty. And look, you can't
take away the six championships that they have and the
dynasty that they were a part of. That that doesn't
go away just because history is telling you that there
were some conflict within it. I look at it this way.
You meet someone and you like them, then you have
to appreciate everything that they went through to create that

(01:02:39):
person that you are meeting today. You are you are
the results of your collected experiences. Right, So if you
remove Kraus and put in a very functional likable, huggable executive.
Maybe they don't win the championships that they do because
he is more attached to players and it doesn't have
the aggression to make those trades. I think there's enough
blame to go around. But that said, what were they

(01:03:00):
gonna win ten championships? Like? They did what they did.
They accomplished what they did. For me, My feeling about
executives and owners is that if you weren't already a
celebrity before you got into that position, say for example,
pat Riley or Jerry West or Magic Johnson, I don't
really need to know who you are or have any
kind of perspective on your personality. When that becomes a situation,

(01:03:23):
generally it becomes a problem. Jerry Jones superstar. We know
what it is with Jerry Jones, so you know what
you're getting. But if you are not that person and
you're out in the front, it creates problems. It's because
your ego is bigger than it should be. Didn't win
anything without Michael Jordan. The guys on the court had
to do the winning. Yeah. So the Lions were open
to trading the third overall pick, but ended up keeping

(01:03:44):
it and got Jeff Acuta. But GM Bob Quinn was
asked that they thought about taking Tua and then trying
to work out a trade with Miami, but he said
the idea was just too risky. I'd say much easier
said than done. Much much. How do how do I
know that too was their guy? How do I know
that they didn't really want an offensive tackle which they

(01:04:05):
had talked a lot about. So there's so many maybes
in that conversation that it really That's why it doesn't
happen in the NFL. Listen, we all trust each other.
As GM's on draft weekend, I take no one's word.
So I couldn't sit there and for the Lions organization
truthfull league consider something like that because you never know
what can happen. I try to keep an open mind

(01:04:26):
when it comes to the draft. One of the things
joy that I think, not that it drives me crazy.
I think it's a weakness of the American media, politics
and sports. Is just saying I was wrong. I've got
a totally different opinion. I think Dave Gentleman, I've been
very critical of him. I thought he had a great offseason.
I thought the New York Giants had a great I
think he drafted. I had a great weekend and with

(01:04:48):
the Lions, even though they've been a mess, I looked
at their draft and I was like, I would have
traded down, But in the end I thought they got
a bunch of good players, and so I just don't
understand why I would have moved one spot down if
I could have gotten somebody else did they get. I
wonder if they got paralyzed by trying to make the
perfect deal instead of just moving down and getting more

(01:05:10):
draft picks. Well, they did say they never got a
firm offer, so they had a lot of conversations about it.
Maybe if they had been more aggressive about really wanting
to trade down. They were probably kind of timid about it.
As he mentioned, they weren't really trusting the situation because
I mean, he's right, like, no, I don't. It's hard
to imagine that someone would pull something like that. But
it's the same as a handshake deal if you don't

(01:05:31):
have it in writing, That's just what it is. Like
someone else must have had to have seen it to
prove that it happened. They didn't see it. How can
they How can they prove that if they were going
to take to that and work out that trade with Miami.
That Miami wasn't just gonna go take an offensive tackle,
you don't know, so they didn't have a firm offer.
I thought for sure Detroit was going to move. I'm
with you because they could. If they had a firm offer,
you imagine they would have gotten a lot for that

(01:05:52):
for that space. But people really felt comfortable saying where
they were, and I think overall it worked out well
for everybody because if Detroit didn't have an offer that
they trusted or felt like was worth it, everybody got
the guy that they wanted. Miami didn't even have to
move to get to it. That's incredible at the fifth spot,
with so much nervous energy going into the draft that
they weren't going to be able to do that, So
I think it worked out for everyone. Finally, the Packers
drafted Aaron Rodgers when Brett Farbe was still solidly the starter,

(01:06:15):
and now Rogers in the same situation with Jordan Love,
but Brett Farb isn't worried about how Rodgers was going
to handle it and the addition of Love to the
locker room. No one wants to replace Aaron unless Aeron
chooses to be replaced. Uh, you know, so there's there's
no worry for him that he's going to be Auston.

(01:06:36):
He's too good as a player. It's funny because Aaron
and I were talking about it last year, how he
gets how I was when he came here. But I
think he's got many good years barring injury, ahead of him.
But you do have to start grooming the next guy.
And Eric gets it. I think you can get something

(01:06:57):
and not love something like I can. I can. I've
worked with bosses who have done things. I get why
they're doing it, but I don't have to love why
they're doing it. I don't think Aaron's overjoyed, but I
think he's smart enough to see like, yeah, I mean
like they did this with me, Like I get it.
Here's the thing with Aaron. If his offensive lines are
as good as they've mostly been. I didn't like the

(01:07:17):
Packer's own line last year. I thought it was one
of the weaker ones they'd had, and that's why they
drafted a guard two guards in the center if their
offensive line, and they also drafted a blocking tight end,
which helps your line. If their offensive lines are good
for the next three or four years, is Aaron's going
to not go? I mean, Aaron's a guy that takes
care of his Body's a California guy. He eats right,

(01:07:38):
he works out. The question simply becomes Aaron's gonna play
as long as he wants to play, as long as
he doesn't take shots. That's clearly if you look at
this draft for the Packers, Joy, they're gonna ask him
to throw less. It's gonna be more garoppolo San Francisco offense.
So if Aaron's stays healthy, Jordan Love will be a
pick that gets moved because I think you can make

(01:07:58):
a completely compelling argument. Unlike Ben that doesn't take great
care of his body off season. Aaron's got six years
left if he doesn't get hurt. He's a California living guy.
He's got a house in Malibu. He's probably surfing on
the weekends. He's probably semi vegan issue. I mean, Aaron
could play for six years and it wouldn't shock anybody

(01:08:18):
I know. That's why I think it's so strange that
they took Jordan Love in the first round. If they
had taken a quarterback in the third or fourth round,
even in the second round. I wouldn't I wouldn't be
moved by that. I would just assume that he's just
you know, if he comes in develops into something, maybe
he's a trade piece or a solid backup. Great, But
trading up in the first round for Jordan's love. And

(01:08:38):
with Aaron Rodgers right now, you're thirteen and three, we're
in the NFC Championship game last year, it's madness to me.
That's my issue with it. He's I don't think he's
ever going to see the field, and you're in a situation,
You're in a win now situation with Aaron Rodgers. That's
my issue with it. I don't think Aaron Rodgers is
concerned about losing his job. He's Aaron Rodgers. I agree
with you. He has six years left at least. Who

(01:08:59):
knows how these things keep trending as long as he
doesn't get injured. But that's that's the point. I don't
I don't see the value in that. Pick joy with
the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping
by Thirdline News. I saw this story. This is interesting.
You know, I want to wait to top of the hour.
I'm gonna wait to the top of the Hour, Lane

(01:09:20):
Kiffin is gonna be joining us next hour, AJ Hawk.
He's going to defend Aaron Rodgers. I guarantee it. Here's
my thing. All these articles keep coming out, Am I
supposed to believe everybody's picking on Aron? Maybe he's not
the easiest guy to get along with. Why can't we
just admit that that's okay? I'm very difficult. I've listen,
I've worked in this business for twenty five years. I

(01:09:42):
think I'm pretty easy to get along with. I work
with people who are difficult. They're talented. Some people are
harder to work with. Aaron's kind of difficult to work with.
What that's not like? It like? It's okay. You can
say that Brady's easy to work with. Aaron's a little
more difficult to work with. Jay Cutler was impossible to
work with. And I know Jay. I bet him a
couple of times. And I would say that to Jay's face.
If Jay came on, I'd say, Jay, you are hard

(01:10:03):
to get along with. I would say it right to
his face. I'd say it to Aaron, but he'll never
come on the show. Color would come on the show.
Some guys are harder to work with you. Just say it.
Lebron gets along with everybody. Michael Jordan did not get
along with everybody. It's okay, just be honest about it.
They'll just be honest about it. Be sure to catch
live editions of the Herd week days and noon eastern

(01:10:24):
a Empacific. And by the way it's been some people
have said if the Green Bay Packers had an owner,
and an owner would sit there and go, no, I've
flown Aaron Rodgers on my private jet before. I know
Aaron Rodgers, I know Danny Kilpatrick. I'm not going to
draft a quarterback. I don't want to look Aaron in
the eye that if the Packers had an owner, you

(01:10:45):
wouldn't draft Jordan Love because you'd have a relationship. You know,
Tom Brady and Bob Kraft were tight, Peyton Manning and
her say tight, Drew Brees and Gail Benson, And you
could make the argument that an owner would say no, no, no, no,
no no, no. Aaron's going to be here for three
or four years. Let's let's worry about that next year.
This Jordan Love guys a little bit of a risk.

(01:11:05):
We need, we need players. I think I don't know
if that's true. I think you could argue it. AJ Hawk,
play eleven years nine for the Packers is joining us
the Hot Cast with aj Hawk his podcast of the
many things he's doing. So let's just throw this out there.
I'm an owner, you're Aaron Rodgers. I'd have a hard
time if I really was close to you, and I
think I would be as an owner. Aaron's got a

(01:11:26):
lot of financial interest and a lot of global interests.
Does a lack of an owner in this situation maybe
hurt Aaron Rodgers? I don't know if that's an interesting question.
Someone brought that up to me yesterday and I hadn't
really thought about it much until then. I mean, it's possible,
but I mean it's kind of how it's structured though.
With Mark Murphy being the president there, I guess he

(01:11:47):
kind of acts like an owner, but you don't truly
have like a I mean there's no Jerry Jones there,
that's for sure. That kind of has his guys, I guess,
and it seems like but yeah, maybe it may have
changed things a little bit if the Packers did have
an owner, if you felt like those emotional ties to
the guy. But I think when you look at the
history of what teams do. A lot of times they

(01:12:10):
try to remove emotion from their decisions, and obviously they
weren't really thinking about their ties and relationships when they
traded up in the first round to get Jordan Loves Yeah,
he does. Mark Murphy and Aaron. I mean, Mark Murphy's
a smart dude, if I recall, I think he's an
Ivy League guy, super smart guy, played in the NFL.
To he and Aaron, are they tight not tied? As
their relationship, I've not read much. That's a great question.

(01:12:33):
I'd kind of be speculating, But no, Mark Murphy seems
to be on good terms with everybody there. He's not
around a whole lot as much as as the GM
and the coaches. Obviously he's handling all the business side
of things. But yeah, I mean I think he and
Ian Mark have a good relationship. When so Bob McGinn
comes out with an article and it's gotten a lot

(01:12:54):
of play today that you know, maybe Lafleura sort of
tired a little bit of Aaron and sees the prickly side.
What did you make of the article that's become kind
of a talking point for shows like mine? Today. Yeah,
I saw that article yesterday, and I don't know. I mean,
I just I wonder who's talking to who's saying that.
I can't imagine that la Fleur would ever verbalize that

(01:13:15):
if that's the way he was feeling. And there's no
way you come in there and you've only been the
head coach for one season and you can say you're
you're sick of Aaron Rodgers and all the great things
that this guy does on the field and what he
does for that community and everything. So I don't see
a whole lot of truth to that. And even if
that was the case like that, I just I don't know.

(01:13:37):
I can't envision the scenario. Would you'd be a head
coach of the football team and you wouldn't want Aaron
Rodgers as your starting quarterback? But can aj Can we
admit his brother called him out a family member? Did
some teammates have there was the article that they deny that,
you know, Murphy said, don't be the problem. Is it
possible to acknowledge this? Aaron's not for everybody. I've worked

(01:13:57):
with broadcasters who are great, but there they divide rooms.
I don't see all these articles over ten years coming
out on Brady or Breeze or Russell Wilson. Is it
possible that Aaron does rub people occasionally, even family members
the wrong way? It's his personality. I mean, I don't know.

(01:14:18):
I have a hard time seeing that, just because the
relationship I've had with him over the years and still do.
But I mean, who is for everybody? Think about you, Colin?
If you were for everybody, you wouldn't have a job
like you gotta be polarized, you have to. You have
to be loved and hated. I feel like to make
some kind of impact. I feel like whatever profession you
may be in, I mean, why did you tune Why

(01:14:40):
did a lot of people tune in to watch Floyd
Mayweather fight because they wanted to see him get beat finally,
and boy gets the last last he never got beat,
So I don't I mean, I'm sure I guess in
theory that that makes sense, But it's when it comes
down to the NFL, it's all about production and what
you do on the field, and Aaron has done at
such a high level for so long. I just don't

(01:15:00):
see that being the case. People are suggesting that the
Packers haven't done enough for him. If you go look
at the drafts, the first round pick since he's been there,
it's been overwhelmingly defense. Do you think that's right? Do
you think it's been too heavy on the defensive side
for him? I think in certain years that's the right
thing to do. I feel like if there was ever

(01:15:22):
a year where you're gonna go out there and get
some weapons for Aaron, it was this year. I mean
that the receiving class in this draft was so deep.
There were so many studs that you could buy the way.
I mean, you could get guys in the second and
third round. I feel like that are really really good
players that could step in from day one and make
an impact. I think that when you look at what
Green Bay did, obviously trading up to get Jordan Love Like,

(01:15:44):
I don't know exactly why they traded up. Maybe they
were scared somebody was going to come back into the
first round and get him. It didn't seem like it
was something you needed to do to trade up. But
then when you look at the rest of their picks,
they didn't even take a receiver in the draft. I
know they brought punches in, which is going to help
for sure, but I feel like in the short term,
like the present day, you have this window with Aaron there,

(01:16:05):
and now it kind of looks like a rebuild with
what you did in the draft, when there are anything
butter rebuild. They were one game away from the super
Bowl last year, and you can say it didn't look
as it wasn't as pretty as years passed or whatever,
but that's just because the expectations are so high in
Green Bay and that's a good thing, because they've been
so good for so long that that was the more

(01:16:25):
confusing thing I think after the first round pick of
Jordan Love is what they did after that, getting a
running back when you already have two running backs on
the roster that are really really good in the second round.
And I'm not saying anything bad about aj Dillon there
as a running back, or even Jordan Love. I feel
like he's kind of in a weird spot too, to
where he's got to be thinking, all right, green Bay drafting,

(01:16:46):
this is awesome. I could go learn from Aaron and
watch him do what he can do. But how long
am I gonna be sitting on the bench because Aaron
doesn't look like he's slowing down to me. Annie has
four years left on his contract because I just felt
like it was I mean, maybe two years from now
you go out there and you find the quarterback to
hopefully eventually be the guy that replaces Aaron, But I
just think it's too soon. What would it Aaron text

(01:17:07):
you after the picks? Did he Well? I didn't. I
let it breathe that night. I didn't. I didn't reach
out that night. There's no reason for that. But I
thought to him a little bit since the draft, and
he's gonna he's saying doing all the right things. I mean,
he I honestly, I think for him, he's such a
competitor too. He's just gonna go out there in the
field and let that kind of speech for him. And

(01:17:28):
I think it's not coming from him, but for me,
if I've tried to put myself in his shoes, the
most frustrating thing would be all of like the everything
I'm outside of that locker room that he's gonna have
to deal with. I have no qualms about that. He
and Jordan Love are gonna get along great, and I
think it's gonna be a good relationship, but it's gonna
be everyone else on the outside asks him. Like I
mentioned this, yesterday to somebody. I can't imagine whenever the

(01:17:51):
players get back to Lambeau and they have their first
open media session, like the swarm of people that are
gonna be around Aaron and Jordan Loves ac sected their relationship.
I'm trying to figure it out. And it's not going
to die down either, Like it's going to continue throughout
the course of the season. I feel like, and that's
what I think is going to get wearing. If you're
a guy in Aaron's shoes. Now, that's actually a really

(01:18:11):
good point, is that you're you're That's like why people
didn't want to bring Tebow onto teams at the end.
They're like, Tim can play, but we don't want the
constant questions to the starter. Uh, you know for a
guy that's going to be a backup, and in Jordan
Love is going to be a notable backup, which I
don't think you want. It's a very fair question, Listen.
I have no problem admitting I think Aaron's great. I
think I would be ticked off if I was a

(01:18:34):
Packer quarterback with four years left and this was the
draft pick. I have no problem saying that aj I
would probably be pissed, and I would tell friends I was,
but I think for the cameras i'd play nice. Is
that's that seems like you have to be at some
point you are the franchise guy. But if Aaron's pissed,
you're What you're saying is he got a right to be? Right? Yeah,

(01:18:56):
I mean doesn't. I think anybody in his shoes would
probably be pissed. And I don't else they reached out
to him before, not and let him know. And I
think that equity he has built up over his time deserves,
you know, at least some kind of warning that this
was happening. I can't imagine what his phone was like
after they trade it up and took Jordan love like
that is what I could imagine would be. You're like,

(01:19:16):
all right, man, nobody died like there's nothing. Yeah, they
drafted the quarterback. I'm still the guy here, and I'm
gonna make sure everybody knows that whenever we get back
on the field. But yeah, of course he has a
right to be pissed, and he should be. And I
think that any competitor would be. And no one's scared
of competition. And I'm not saying Jordan loves competition right
now for him, I just want to know what, like

(01:19:37):
what the plans are from front office there in Green
Bay with not only that pick, but the whole draft, Like,
do you think you're you're rebuilding or something? Because you
have a ton of great players, you had an opportunity
to add some more pieces that you needed. And I
feel like the pieces they picked up help them more
in the long term and not in this window they
have right now with there and they're at least four

(01:19:58):
years left on his contract. Hot Good stuff, by the way,
The Hot Cast with AJ also AJ and Pat McAfee.
He's a funny guy on their YouTube show. Good talking
to you Man. I love talking to you. Thank you,
you bet. You bet person in life that's always been
in your corner his mom, Mother's Day Celebrator one eight
hundred flowers dot Com, twenty four multi colored Roses thirty

(01:20:19):
nine ninety nine one eight hundred flowers dot Com Enter
the code h E RG. Yeah, no, I get that,
you'd roll your eyes. I think what they did in
the draft is they got a blocking tight end or
running back in the guard and a center in the guard.
I think they looked at San Francisco and said, we
got to get better in the middle of our offensive
line because we got eaten alive. We couldn't block them,

(01:20:39):
and so we're gonna get a blocking tight end. We're
gonna get three interior offensive linemen. We're gonna get another
running back. We're not gonna let Aaron Rodgers be a
pinata and sit back there and get crushed. We're gonna
run the football more. He's gonna pass it twenty three times,
not twenty nine. That's what it felt like to me.
Lane Kiffin. Next Hour always fun, It's the Hurd. Be

(01:20:59):
sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and
noon Easter nine a m. Pacific, Our number three live
in Los Angeles. This is the Herd. Wherever you may
be and however you may be listening. We are live

(01:21:20):
on iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio, Sirius XM channel eighty three,
and right here on f S one. Lane Kiffin olemass
football coach. Controversial, polarizing Lane Kiffin. He gets mad because
about two months ago or a month ago, I was
going to have him on and his story broke and
I had to bump him and he was texting to you,
I'm getting bumped by you now. And then the other

(01:21:42):
day we were going to have him on and another
story broke and we had to move him. And he's like, oh,
I get I'm just like the bump guy. Now I'm not.
You're not the bump guy. But stuff happened. And sometimes
during a show off news breaks twenty minutes before a show,
we're trying to get people on. We're constantly kind of
you know, updating, updating, updating is the show go We
don't book four weeks in advance. So he's probably upset.

(01:22:03):
He's as mad as me at me as the Packers
greet Aaron Rodgers is with their front office, Joy is
joining me. Joy, how are you? How? I am good?
By the way, the Aaron Rodgers thing with a J Hawk,
I thought the Packers draft. I didn't think they framed
it right. So this this I remember years ago, I

(01:22:25):
spoke in front of a bunch of athletic directors, about
three hundred athletic directors for the NC double A was
me and Tom Brady's agent, Donnyee. We were at a
Los Angeles hotel and Donnie and I took a bunch
of questions and one of the criticisms I gave all
these athletic directors. I said, the problem with the NC
double A is you're not good at framing stuff. I mean,
I'm like Jay Billis leads you around like a like

(01:22:47):
a puppy on a leash. You guys are never in
front of everything. You're always behind everything you have. You
have no statement, no brand. What are you define your direction?
So your critics can't. I think the Green Bay Packers
draft was very, very explainable if you had just come
out and said, listen, we got pushed around last year

(01:23:11):
twice by San Francisco and once by the Chargers, pushed
all over the field. We wanted to get stronger upfront,
so we went and got a blocking tight end, three
interior offensive lineman, and a hard to tackle running back.
And then Aaron's had a couple of injuries and were
scared that if it happens, we gotta have somebody as

(01:23:35):
gifted as Aaron Rodgers behind him. And we think Jordan
Love is a rare, unique mahomes like talent. Eventually, and
then I think you quiet the storm, just come out
and say, do you guys, I mean, we gotta find
you know what find do? We have a sound effect
that sounds like a press conference is happening. So often

(01:23:56):
these coaches and general managers don't prepare for the bank storm,
and so they go up and they step up, Joy,
and they have nothing to say, and so instead of
defining their position, it's murky and it leaves everybody to guess, Oh,
you don't like Aaron Rodgers. Oh you didn't help him
with a wide receiver. So you know, I think the

(01:24:16):
Packers didn't do I'm not saying the Packers whiffed on
their draft. What they whiffed on is explaining their draft.
Just walk up in front of all the reporters and
just and just be confident and be kind of relentless
in your mission statement, which is any chance, okay, pretendis

(01:24:37):
to presscards. Okay, A Joy ask a very probing question
to me, like you're like, you don't like my draft?
Why did you trade up in the first round to
take a quarterback in Jordan Love? That had a lot
of questions when you have Aaron Rodgers, who has you know,
four to six years of high level play left. Because
Aaron is so gifted. One of the problems we have

(01:24:58):
had that when he is in frequently hurt, there's a
drop off in talent. We thought Jordan Love had some
of Aaron's abilities, though not for the next year, and
so it was actually a compliment to Aaron Rodgers that
we finally found a guy that exhibits some of his
skills which are so unique at such rarefied air that

(01:25:19):
in a year, if Aaron twists an ankle, we have
somebody that at least we don't have to change the
entire offense because Jordan can do a few things Aaron
can do. He's not Aaron Rodgers though. Okay, that that
there you go, you comp Okay, give me the second question.
You don't like the rest of the draft picks. This
was a very wide receiver and skills player heavy draft.

(01:25:43):
You didn't feel like making into the NFC Championship game
and going thirteen and three last year that you're just
right there. You want to take one of those high
level skill players in the draft over a quarterback that's
not going to see the field for a year of
fake news. No, not now, I would say, I would say,
first of all, joy, really fair question. You watched us

(01:26:04):
play the Chargers in the forty nine Ers we were
physically beat up at the point of attack. We don't
think that's fair to Aaron. We don't think it's fair
to ask Aaron to throw the ball thirty two times
against the pass rush we can't block, So we drafted
a blocking tight end, two guards as center, and got
a power running back. We thought, as an organization, we
failed Aaron Rodgers. We put him in the crosshairs, trailing

(01:26:25):
big early to take body blow after body blow. We
were a finesse football team. We failed Aaron. We wanted
to get more physical, so we went blocking tight end,
interior lineman, a running back who can block too and
make plays. So we're not putting Aaron Rodgers as a
pinata to have the Chargers or the Niners defensive front overwhelming.

(01:26:49):
And so now if you frame it like that, it's like, oh,
I get it. It was actually supportive, But instead it's
you have to have a game plan when you go
to him. I don't show up for the show without prepping.
You can make an argument that what they were doing
is showing Aaron Rodgers love. Listen, every time Aaron gets hurt,

(01:27:13):
there's such a drop off an athletic ability or a
different football team. Jordan's the first guy in four years
in the draft. We thought he's got some of Aaron's magic.
He's not there yet, probably not close, but maybe in
a year. Afaron twisted ankle. He can stop for a
couple of weeks. We don't have to change the entire offense.
He's got Aaron's great arm. He can move like Aaron.

(01:27:34):
He's smart, Like I mean, you could just just and
then just say we got overwhelmed. We were unfair to Aaron.
He got beat up in three games last year that
had good pass rushes. We didn't want to do that again.
But instead you're wishy washy and you don't have the
right answer, and so everybody frames it and Nick Wright.
We got Nick Wright so fired up he came on
this morning. He didn't think the Packers front off us

(01:27:56):
know what they're doing. The new GM, Brian Gudenkuns, who
is first decision he made his general manager of the team,
who had a first round pick. Drwin James is on
the board and he's like, let's trade out of this pick.
Who could use a future Hall of Famers tasty for
Matt Lafore, who's bathed himself in such glory. He was
the offensive coordinator for the ten ranked offense with the Rams.

(01:28:19):
He left and they became the second rank office. Then
he goes to Tennessee, he coordinates the twenty fifth ranked
offense in football. He leaves, they become the twelfth drank offense.
Then he goes to Green Bay and for the first
time in forever, they have a below average offense. This
is ridiculous and Rogers should be furious. I think it

(01:28:41):
was just poorly framed. I don't think it was a
bad draft. I think it's poorly framed. You watched him
play the Chargers. You watched him play the Niners. They
were a finesse football team that got punched in the neck.
They don't want to be as finesse a football team.
They want to get tougher. Here's a story, Luca Dantas,
John Morant, Zion Illiamson or Trey Young. Which young star

(01:29:02):
would NBA execs build around. ESPN asked twenty members of
the NBA World Coaches Scouts executives to rank those four
men based on their talent and potential to lead a franchise,
and here is how they finished. Luca number one, Zion
number two, John Morant number three, and Trey Young a
distant fourth. Here's the thing. Luca is already great, so

(01:29:27):
he's the surest bet. He's already averaging twenty nine points
a game. My question about Luka dantage. He's not overly athletic,
and he played against pros in Europe when he was sixteen.
So are we seeing the ceiling now? For the record,
the ceilings twenty nine points a game, nine and nine,
it's a great ceiling, but this is kind of it,
like what you see is what you get. Whereas with

(01:29:48):
John Morant, I mean he went to Murray State, he
was obviously a late bloomer. He did he was not
ranked by recruiting services, So I think John Morant was
spectacular and he is just scratching the surface. Zion, the
NBA can't figure out his body yet. I'm not sure
the Pelicans or Zion can figure out his body yet.
He's a baby. Trey Young's good. I don't think he's

(01:30:08):
as good as those three potentially, But this is not
a knock on Luca. But I think European players often
play against pros earlier, so they're more mature coming to
the States. I think Luca is about ninety of what
you're gonna see it's really good athletically. I don't think
he's gonna change. I think this is it. He's a
twenty nine thirty point a game guy. He's gonna win

(01:30:29):
a couple of MVP. He's gonna win a bunch of
scoring titles. He'll finish his a top ten score of
all time. Like Dirk, he's a better player. I think
he's he's a point guard, so he has the ball
in his hands constantly. He'll have more control and more
points because he's better earlier than Dirk. But Dirk was
the hell of a player. I don't have a problem
with it at all. I do think it should be
considered though, that Luca is more mature early. It's what

(01:30:52):
I always said about Sam Donald and Baker Mayfield. Baker
came into the league and by the time he played
as a rookie was twenty three years old. Sam Darnold's
still not three, and so I thought when Baker came out,
Joy remembers this. I said, I think Baker is closer
to his ceiling. What you're seeing is what you're gonna get.
This is kind of his act. Whereas Sam, I think
you're like John Morant. I think Sam is just starting.

(01:31:15):
His offensive line last year was atrocious, atrocious, and his
receiving corps was bad. So I think Baker was older.
He had more college starts, double the starts, significantly older,
he had way better college coaching Lincoln Riley, and he's
right at the ceiling. Whereas Sam, I think, is scratching
the service. That's John Moran, John Morant. We're just seeing

(01:31:37):
the beginning of this Jess, the beginning of John Morant.
Jah could John could average twenty ninety game two, but
he's not there yet. He's just not He just needs reps.
That's why this year and the virus, it's not helping
these young guys. They need the reps, they need the games.
Guess who's up next? Lane Kiffin Controversial, polarizing, We're not
bumbling him new He'll never come on. Sure to catch

(01:32:00):
live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the
iHeart Radio app. Whether you're working from home or working
on your fitness you want to hear your music, not
your roommates. Raycon's wireless here buds way to get him
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Slash Herd is mad at me because I bumped him
a couple of weeks ago because we had big stuff

(01:32:22):
going on. Well, you know, he doesn't give us the
first interview anymore. He goes on fine bomb. I text him, Hey,
I had my guys called Kiffen. He's like, yeah, I'll
get to you after this. I'm like, what what do
I chopped Liver? I like the third guy you're gonna
talk to. So now we got the old miss football
coach on first year at Ole Miss. He's gonna chop
it up with recruiting. You know, he's gonna do well.

(01:32:42):
So we didn't bump you today. Maybe if you didn't
bump me, I wouldn't bump you later. Never thought about that. Yeah,
I'm like, mystery relevant do you? But that's that's that's
an FC bias that you have. I never was bumped
when I was at sc with you. I was always
your first choice. That is funny. Now I'm just down
there in the SEC so I gotta go on, fine
bombs can't get you anymore. Well, you know what you're

(01:33:03):
gonna You're gonna crush it there. I will say this
about the SEC, and and I've said this for years,
I think it's important for the Pac ten to be relevant, Lane,
because when USC played Texas, that got a twenty two
national rating. When Alabama plays Clemson it's a sixteen. The
SEC is good, but I do worry about the West
Coast kind of disappearing. And you you know, the West Coast,

(01:33:25):
is it possible, Lane, people in the South just frankly
care more about college football. Well, I think that's proven, Um,
you know, with attendance, and you know, look at spring games.
You know, sixty to eighty thousand people come in the
spring games. So um, that's always kind of been an issue,
you know, but that's that's how why you gotta win,
and you gotta win with style here, you know, or

(01:33:46):
else they're not coming because there's so much to do
different in the South. So, um, there's good and bad
to both. But you know, college football is best when
USC's rolling, you know. And so you know, there's only
there's only a few programs that and that can actually
match the SEC, you know, the Alabama's and in Auburn's
and LSU and obviously USC is one of those. And

(01:34:07):
when those great runs were happening and Coach Carroll's thirty
fourth straight you know, three hisman winners I think in
four years. You know that that was obviously special, not
just for your USC but for the whole country. Yeah,
how do you recruit against Nick Saban and LSU and
these kind of Georgia now is rolling? How does all
misrecruit against them? What's your what's your sales pitch? Well,

(01:34:28):
the SEC's is the strongest it's ever been. Um, you know,
being in there, you know at Tennessee and whatever. Um,
however many years ago that was it was strong. Um.
But I mean just the draft. I mean look at
the draft and you know you gotta go play, you
go play Alabama. I got four offensive players in the
first fifteen picks of the draft. You know called Sarka said,
I said, your son could have called players last year

(01:34:49):
that roster, you know than geez so but to recruit
against him, you know, it's just like when we went
to Tennessee. You know, um, you've got to come in
and say, okay, hey, we're starting something new. So do
you want to come in at the front of something.
You know, probably play a lot more as a freshman
than if you go to those programs and start something
special versus just coming to something that's already already on
top or on the way down. Compare Lane Kiffin today

(01:35:13):
with the two thousand and nine Tennessee volunteer Lane Kiffin?
Where are you better? Oh? So many areas and I
think everybody should be better than they were in two
thousand and nine. But I think just you know, being
the CEO and handling everything in the program. You know,
I was so offensive driven and you know, basically the
head coach, but calling the players on offense and then

(01:35:34):
delegating everything every everywhere else. And then and then I
went to you know, Nick Saban and saw a different
way because coach Carroll was kind of like that. He
was calling the defense and you know, and then you
went to coach Saban. He wasn't calling anything, but you know,
he was the CEO of everything. And I really took
a lot from that to see the accountability of everybody
in the program. You know, when the head coaches everywhere?

(01:35:56):
What what did Saban and Pete um They're really different guys,
but there's probably some similarities. What did they have in
common to you? What? What was a common thread with
Saban and Carroll, they had their philosophies nailed and they
were completely different. Basically nothing the same in any area
about how to run a program, but they had it

(01:36:17):
nailed now. Also, that was experienced too. You know, that
was coach Saban's fourth or fifth head job and coach
Carroll's third head job, and so you know, they'd say,
especially Coach ro say, hey, I learned a lot through
that process to get to where I am now to
have these things. So when I look back at working
for both those guys when Sutton came out, they already
knew their answer. This is how I'm going to deal
with this player issue. You know, this is how I'm

(01:36:38):
going to deal with this area and you know, down
in the weight room, whatever it is. And part of
that is that they're amazing and extremely smart, and part
of that is experienced. What was Pete Carroll's philosophy, I
would say the best way to describe it was, you know,
we were gonna win, but we were gonna have fun
doing it, and you know, we're going to treat you

(01:36:58):
like professionals, you know, and so, uh, you know, it
was just it was different. It was you know, it
was fun and everyone enjoyed it, and he just he
made it that way. He made it that the that
the players and coaches wanted it to come to work.
He'd always say, create want to versus have to. When
your coaches are driving in, your players are coming to

(01:37:21):
work out at sixty do they feel like they have to?
And it's mis role and they're just going to get
yelled at when they get there, and no one really
wants to be there. You know, they're just gonna sit
at their desk and sit at their desk. Or is
it a fun environment that they're excited they're getting to
work early in the morning. The coaches are too, because
because they want to be there. And when you create
that environment, he'd always say, you know, it's a lot
more successful because everyone's excited to be there versus just

(01:37:43):
you know, looking at the clock. Now, Nick's a little
more intense. Um. But there had to be some fun
in Alabama's program, right, Yeah, Like fourteen times a year,
fourteen days a year when we had way better players
everyone we lined up against that was fun. Yeah, that

(01:38:04):
is a good point. That's that's not a shot on
coach statement. He'd say the same thing. I've seen someone
asking him about funny fun once that you know, Fund's
holding up a trophy, handed it to the next person
and say all right, let's go win another one. You
know that doesn't he the fun part doesn't. That just
doesn't exist in his mind, which is which it works.
Both plays work. Yeah. By the way, in the NFL,

(01:38:26):
uh twenty games, you coach five and fifteen. College record
is excellent. You've won twice as many games as you've lost.
And that's rebuilding Tennessee. And that's rebuilding. Uh fau. What
go back now? Because you got some young coaches in
the NFL. You got your Sean mcvay's and your Shanahans
Matt Lafleur. You've done both. What is the primary difference

(01:38:47):
college dupro as a coach? Is it the billionaire owner?
It's it's the owner, but it's also the players. I mean,
you're talking about you know, growing men with families and
understand this is a job. You know, I lose this
job of not making any money. You know, we're talking
about young kids, the eighteen year old kids coming in
and so um, they're very different. I like college more

(01:39:10):
because because I always say, in college, the kids chose
where to go, so they're more passionate about the program.
I choose to go to Old miss. I choose to
go to USC, so I've been a fan, you know,
of it, and I wanted to do really well. I'm
more invested versus this team picked me, or this team
signed me in free agency and I'll be with another team,
you know, you know, four years down the road. So

(01:39:32):
I just always thought it was different the NFL. You know,
you see go in NFL locker room thirty minutes after
a game and you're not really sure who won or
who lost, you know, when you go to the locker room,
because yeah, it's a business. It's just onto the next
one college. You know, you can definitely tell you know
that it's just the the investment, in my opinion, you know,
the business. Yeah, yeah, the NC double A has got

(01:39:53):
a new ruling where players can be compensated for name
and image, and you know, it's it's just the re
all of the life we live in. Where do you
kind of land on that stuff? I mean, I think
it's great form, that's well deserved, and you know, go
back to the great players of you know, all those
years and you know, three Heisman's at USC and those

(01:40:13):
guys are getting nothing out of it, and you know,
go there and here's Derrick Henry and you know they're
you know, scraping by just to get get money to eat.
But I just don't know how it's going to be managed.
I mean, you're open up a can of worms. I mean,
how can you manage donors that you know, if you
come to this school, you know, the day you get here,
I'm gonna buy one thousand year jerseys for a hundred bucks.

(01:40:34):
I mean, I don't understand how that's going to get managed.
And that that part scares me a lot. Yeah, by
the way, how I've I've asked Brian Kelly this and
Mac Brown this lane if you had do what's the latest?
How many weeks of practice do you need before your
first game? I guess is my question? With the virus?
How many weeks of practice? Well, selfishly, we need a

(01:40:56):
lot because we're a first year staff. You know, this
has killed first year STAF apps because you don't know
anything about your players. You've missed all of spring ball
with them, you know. I mean that's so critical, all
those meetings, all those practices, um so the first year
programs that this is you know, a lot harder you're
taken out of hammer or something. You know, well, those
players already know the system. They've coached those those players.

(01:41:18):
It's not that big a deal, you know. It's you know,
it's more like the NFL. The NFL doesn't have it.
They got you know, ota days that some people don't
ever show up for all offseason and they're fine now
they have preseason games. But you know, I would I
think everybody wants, you know, at least thirty extra days,
you know, an extra month. Obviously you got August, but
have July two. Um. But at the same time, even

(01:41:40):
though this would hurt us as a first year program,
if you only get training camps, you only get training camp,
you know, it is what it would be the same
for everyone. So um, you would just manage how you
practice better, you know, and you just you know, start
with shorter practices and you know, build up. So as
long as the same for everybody, you know, I think
we all want to play this thing on time. And

(01:42:00):
this discussion I've read this morning about you know, in
the spring, I mean that might be good for us
because Alabama, LSU all those first rounders. Did you see
pick they ain't gonna play if you're a first rounder,
Are you really going to play a season of football
right before the NFL Draft? I don't think so. Yeah,
that's interesting. You know you might be good for us. Yeah,
you know it's interesting. Lane. You have done something that

(01:42:22):
is that is very difficult to do, and most politicians
can't do it. You've reinvented yourself. You had the USC
situation Tennessee and there was like an image and it was,
you know, I don't know about Lane Kiffin. Then you
go to fau you turn it around you and co
to the year a couple of times, and you go
to Alabama and now you get the old miss job,

(01:42:42):
which is, frankly, it's an sec multimillion dollars a year job.
It's a very covetive job. It's a good it's a
very good college football job. So let's go back to
when people were crapping on you, and how hard was
it for Lane Kiffen the guy when you're getting you're
getting a lot of bad coverage. Were there nights were
you thought to yourself, I'm never gonna get to where

(01:43:05):
I think I where I think I was headed. I'm
not going to get there were there sad nights. Yeah.
The thing that bothered me the most was was it
wasn't you know, you weren't graded on a fair scale.
You know, everybody said, okay, USC and whatever twenty eight
fifteen or something like that, Like I mean like we like,

(01:43:25):
you know, we're you know, we're one and ten or
something like that, and so it was just I just
felt it was unfair because we had thirty less scholarships.
I mean, you know the whole deal. Oh yeah, anyway,
you know, when it hits all your juniors and seniors
can leave. They all can leave, so you gotta recruit them.
And you got to sign a number one recruiting class
in the country, which we did with kids knowing they're
not gonna play in a bowl game for two years

(01:43:47):
and then lose thirty scholarships and those thirty players you
don't get. They go to the other Pac twelve teams.
So that that's the part that bothered me the most
was just Okay, hey this guy can't coach. But everyone
forgot about that. Yeah, it was tough. Well, you reinvented yourself.
When did you? Where were you the minute? I think
Jimmy Sexton's your agent. The minute you heard you're getting

(01:44:10):
an SEC head coaching job. Again, where were you? Well,
I was in FAU and it actually had multiple SEC jobs,
but um just really and I was I was really
enjoying FU and everybody say, oh, you're just going to leave,
to leave, you know, like most coaches would to go
to the SEC. I just really thought Old Miss was

(01:44:32):
a special place. And I've been on the other side
to see it. At Alabama in three years with coach
Saban we lost two regular season games, that's it, and
they're both told Miss and so I was down there
on the other sideline, you know, when Katie Perry's there,
you know, for game to end, the places rocking, you know.
So you know five years ago there in the sugar row.
You know, we're not talking about a program that hasn't

(01:44:52):
won for twenty years or something. So I was excited
about it. Yeah, where are yet today? Where are you
right now? Do we lose him? There we go? Can
you hear me? I think he's driving around southern California?
Oh are you there? Can you hear me? I want

(01:45:15):
to get him. I want to ask him one more question.
I want to ask him where he is? I got
Lane Kiffin, We're gonna hunt him down for trying to
I think he's I think he's in southern California. His
phone just dropped, you know, the virus. Yeah, oh there
he got there. He called right there. Let's I want

(01:45:35):
to put him back on. I'm waiting for him. Joy's
got the news. I'll get to that in one minute.
I got to go. I want to get a couple
more questions in with him. Do we have him? Now?
There we go. I got him again. So before you go,
my last question was gonna be where are you right
now this second? I am right up the street from
you in Manhattan Beach. Did you see the electric blue
waves last night? No? I didn't, but I heard people

(01:45:57):
were sneaking down to the beach. Explain that to the audience.
You gotta go see it. It's crazy. I guess it's
Frank ten and which is why you see it kind
of like brown and red during the day and then
at night thing give out this like blue light to
defend themselves, and it's crazy. You're really looking at waves
and light. It is crazy, all right. Lane. By the way,

(01:46:18):
Lane's a heck of a fisherman, so I know he
loves the beach, so I'm not making any attempts to
allure him to USC eventually. I'm just saying he likes
the beach, he's got you know, kids play stuff here
in Manhattan Beach. All right, But when do you head
back to old Miss Oxford in the south? As soon
as they let us work, you know, we're we're not
allowed to go into the officers like most people yet.

(01:46:40):
So um, you know I've heard it's been thrown out.
You know they're shooting for two weeks from now, so
ready to get back there? Um, get this thing started.
Why didn't you schedule an out of conference game on
the West coast? You guys played Cal a couple of
years ago. Are you gonna come out here so people
can see you? Um? You know those things are done,
so our events calling, you know, like there are already

(01:47:02):
six years out and things like that. But I know
they have done that before, like you mentioned cow and stuff.
So UM, I told him we'll schedule USC. Let's go.
I like it. I like it. Good talking to you,
all right, guys, have a good week, all right, Lane Kiff,
and no more bumping him. Schedule USC, let's go. I'm
all for it when those Southern teams, they don't come

(01:47:23):
out West much. Tennessee played Cal a few years ago.
Oh Miss played Cal aubren and Arkansas came out and
got whacked by USC a couple of times. Hey, Nick,
you know West had Colorado. We've got a conference out here.
It's okay to come out here. Joy with the news. No,
no turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well,

(01:47:45):
we're all discussing the Packers drafting Jordan's love has the
shock of the first round. Bob McGinn has covered the
Packers for decades, and he believes the team made this
move because of the dynamic between Aaron Rodgers and Matt Lafleur.
He said, public nice of these aside my census. Lafleur,
fresh from a terrific thirteen and three baptismal season, simply
had enough of Rodgers act and wanted to change the narrative.

(01:48:07):
With the first round talent on the roster, the Packers
would gain leverage with their imperial quarterback in his passive
aggressive style. If the Packers do indeed want to become
a running team next season, they surely wouldn't want Rogers
rocking the boat. And becoming even more difficult to coach.
Now that's a that's quite that's quite a right up
on the situation in Green Bay with Matt Lafleur and

(01:48:28):
Aaron Rodgers. We had Nick right on earlier who was
very emphatic about how kind of ridiculous that's that situation
appears to be. And I gotta say I totally agree
with Nick. I can't even process that statement. I mean,
not to be you know, not to be outrageous, but
it's Aaron Rodgers. So he's imperial for a reason. We

(01:48:51):
all know he's passive, aggressive. Everyone has a different personality. Yeah,
you don't have to be likable and lovable, And I
think that part of the criticism of Aaron Rodger is
that he's not that he's not a cuddly guy. He's not.
He's not Peyton Manning and charming and doing the commercials
and funny and lose somebody has the commercials. But even
in the commercials, he's kind of coy. That's Aaron Rodgers' personality. Yeah,

(01:49:13):
he's still an all time great, first ballot Hall of
Famer argued, as as he has been argued as the
best quarterback of all time. With nowhere near the accolades
that Tom Brady has. For a very long time, until
that Atlanta's Super Bowl, it was a it was a
debate about Aaron Rodgers being a better quarterback than Tom Brady.
That's since been put to rest, but still people feel
that he's more talented Imperial quarterback Matt Lafleur, who is

(01:49:37):
not Lafloor. I don't know. Do we know if Matt
la floor is a good coach? I don't know. No disrespect,
but I don't know what this is even about. So
you need to gain control over Aaron Rodgers. Would you
be thirteen and three in the NFC Championship Game without
Aaron Rodgers? These are all legitimate questions. I do think
these stories are always about Aaron though. Don't you think
that's weird? It's always Aaron. I don't think it's weird

(01:49:59):
because he is. The Green Bay Packers, as we talked
about earlier, they have not had a defense for a
very long time. They even openly said they really weren't
going to worry about defense. They we're just gonna ride
Aaron Rodgers coat tales. So however far he was going
to take them, They've only has a recent started to
put together a defense for him. He have to put
up thirty five points every single game to even be

(01:50:19):
in the conversation for winning. He's a super Bowl winning quarterback, MVP,
he's incredible. Of course, the conversations about him, what else
would it be about it? Maybe maybe let's turn the
tables and let's defend Aaron. That Green Bay is a
small market and small markets tend to be a little
more defensive and have I mean, we see this, the

(01:50:40):
small market fan bases get very defensive about stuff because it's,
you know, the only team in town, and that Green
Bay maybe is a little defensive, that Aaron is imperial
and does sometimes carry an air that he is sort
of you know, his you know what, doesn't stink, and
green Bay gets a little defensive about it. So you
can make an argument this draft was Bay being a

(01:51:00):
little defensive about Aaron. Yeah, I think you can make
that argument that the small market teams tend to be
a little small market sometimes and maybe Aaron Well I
said this last week. I think Aaron and Green Bay's
always been an odd fit. It's a it's an odd fit.
I've always thought it's a little bit of an odd
fit doesn't mean it's a bad fit, but it's it's there.
They can be insecure and needy, and Aaron can be

(01:51:23):
a little passive aggressive it in the end, sometimes it
doesn't all jibe well. If that's the case CRIMEA River,
there's plenty of teams that would be very grateful to
have Aaron rodgers imperialistic attitude for their franchise for the
next four US six years. You'd be grateful for what
you have. There's nothing worse than an ungrateful fan base.

(01:51:44):
And I'm not saying that Green Bay is. I'm just
saying this idea that Aaron Rodgers should be something other
than what we know Aaron Rodgers to be along with
his greatness, is just it's kind of silly. We'll talk
more about this story this afternoon on joy Chat at
three thirty Eastern on Caffeine Free app Go download it
and subscribe to the Fox Sports channel. So the nuts
up you get to see what Kevin Durant and Kyrie
Irving are going to do together. But hopes are very high,

(01:52:07):
and during a Twitter Q and A, Jamal Crawford said
he believes that they can bring a title to Brooklyn.
He said, I think they will get a chip. I
know I'm speaking premature, but knowing both of their games,
they will go together wonderfully. All you can ask for
is a chance, and they will have that. The Nets
have a thirty and thirty four record without Katie and
Kyrie only playing twenty games this season. Until the season

(01:52:27):
was suspended, they were seventh in the East. I do
kind of feel like we've sort of been out of sight,
out of mind with Kevin Durant as far as a player,
and the conversation that Katie's not going to come back
as good as he was before the injury. I don't
buy into that at all. I think the biggest question
mark for me is what they're going to do culture wise,
who's going to be their head coach? And that's why

(01:52:49):
I think Tylu is such a great prospect for this situation.
He's already dealt with huge personalities obviously coaching Lebron James,
and he coached Kyrie before. This is a street and
formula situation. We all know how talented Kyrie is. Whatever
you feel about Kyrie's personality or his antics or how
he gets along the team is one thing, and we

(01:53:09):
know what kd is, So can they find a way
to put all of this together. We know coaching obviously
matters a tremendous amount more in football than it does
in basketball, but in this situation, I think that it's
it's crucial that they get the right guy in that
in that position. So finally another NBA prospects has chose
the G League over college. Five star point guard Dation

(01:53:29):
Nix has committed from UD committed from UCLA, and we'll
sign with the G League's new Pathway program. He's the
third player from this class to bypass college in favor
of the G League and UCLA at that which has
put many a player into the NBA. Obviously a kind
of a different program now, but he signed with UCLA
in November. He is the first player to go back

(01:53:51):
on a signed letter of intent to join G League.
He will join Jalen Green. Reportedly will join Jalen Green
and Isaiah's Todd on the new team that is based
here in LA. I know people are very skeptical about this,
but I'm with you. As you said earlier, college basketball
has become a three week sport. The regular season of

(01:54:11):
college basketball is really not very relevance We pay attention
to it for March Madness, for the tournaments, but there
is value of course and education. Now this particular G
League program is actually giving scholarships as well, so they
are going to be able to go back to school
and finish school after they're done with their career, if
that's what they choose to do. I like it as
an option. I don't think it kills college basketball because,

(01:54:34):
like I said, college basketball is what it is and
that's not changing. I think it's just the sport is
just evolving. There's guys have huge followings, they don't feel
like they need the platform that college basketball gives them
as far as getting their name out there, and the
G League is actually putting some actual money and effort
into developing their platform. How it will look in five

(01:54:54):
to ten years, who knows. But I don't think it
kills college basketball that this is an option for players.
I think it's a better option than them having to
go overseas to play if they don't want to gootiate
to college. Yeah, I mean it's college basketball has been
marginalized for a decade, so it's I don't I don't
watch the regular season much, so I don't I don't
think it kills college basketball. I think it's the MC

(01:55:16):
double A, slow heavy footed. You could see five six
years ago the G League was building and they didn't
pay attention to it, and they should occurred more favored
with their players and paid them for their likeness, and
they wouldn't be as willing to jump, you know, to
a minor league, but a paying league. And you know
it's MC double A is very reactive, not proactive, and

(01:55:37):
they're paying a price today. They're paying a price. By
the way, it's not a coincidence they came out today suddenly.
Now they're all about paying players for their likeness. Had
you done this three years ago, which is you know,
basketball's culture is fine the player, pay the player. Yep,
you should have seen this coming. This, This train was
coming on the tracks a long time ago. It was

(01:55:59):
joy with the news. Well that's the news, and thanks
for stopping by The Herdline News Free agencies behind us.
Draft is behind us. We're gonna pick, We're gonna do
over unders on NFL teams. We're gonna do the AFC
and the NFC East coming up next. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays in noon eastern
nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and

(01:56:21):
the iHeartRadio App. Tonight on FS one, It's Wednesday Night
I Racing. Catch some of the biggest stars in racing
as they hid their simulators in battle on some of
the best dirt tracks on the circuit. It all starts
tonight at seven eastern on FS one and the Fox
Sports App. Get your free credit scorecard today even if

(01:56:41):
you're not a Discover customer, and includes your FAKA credit score.
Learn more Discover dot com slash credit Scorecard. Brett Farve
was on Rich Eisenshow Today I Guess and said that
he thinks Aaron Rodgers will eventually end his career somewhere else,
which Tom Brady's ending his career somewhere else. Peyton Manning
ended his career somewhere else. Brett farvend that is career
somewhere else, Joe Montana ended his career somewhere else. Johnny

(01:57:04):
Unitis ended his career somewhere else. Yeah, I mean, it's
it's that's not a shock. But far apparently talked to
Aaron Rodgers that Aaron was surprised by the pick, So yeah,
I mean, let's see everybody's saying the right thing, like
Aaron will be this this. Yeah, Aaron, we had a
j Hawk on earlier. Aaron's not going to be overjoyed

(01:57:24):
by this. I don't. I think that's fair to say
that Aaron Rodgers wouldn't be overjoyed by it him playing
somewhere else. Listen, let me just say this, Aaron, it's
not a perfect fit, cool California celebrity guy. He's now
dating and very close to another celebrity. And it's Green Bay,
and it's it's it's a small market. I mean it's

(01:57:46):
it's a tiny, tiny little town. He's never been a
perfect fit. I've always thought, I'll be honest with you.
The La Chargers they got justin Herbert, La Chargers is
a place where he could go to. He's got to
play in Malibu. We'd go to the Chargers. Chargers have
tons of players. They got two pass rushers and two

(01:58:06):
or three good receivers, and two good tight ends and
U two three good corners, and so, I mean, I've
never thought it's interesting these Uh, if you got the sound,
it's interesting this the sounds out today that basically Brett
Farve said, I think Aaron will end his career somewhere else,
and that he was surprised by the pick. I don't
I don't think that is uh, I don't. I don't

(01:58:27):
think that shocking. I think a lot of quarterbacks listen,
teams move off people, and and but I do think
Brady feels like New England, Russell Wilson feels like Seattle.
Big Ben feels like Pittsburgh. Montana felt like San Francisco.
And I think Aaron's done a really good job to
ingratiate himself with Wisconsin basketball and Milwaukee Bucks basketball. I

(01:58:49):
think he owns a part of the Milwaukee Bucks. So
it's not like Aaron hasn't tried to fit in. He
really has. He's been a very much pro for the
state of Wisconsin. But I mean it's you know, I
was I was in Tampa, if I recall, I don't
remember the exact years I was there, but Shack left Orlando,
and Shaq was just too damn big for Orlando. He

(01:59:09):
was just too big. He was just too big for Orlando. Lebron.
I mean where he had to build this museum of
a house, basically an Akron to hide. You know, he
had to build you know, he had to make everything
available in his house. He's just almost too big for
Akron and Cleveland, and you know it's I think you

(01:59:29):
can make an argument that Aaron's not an ideal fit.
He's made it work. He appreciates Wisconsin, he appreciates Green Bay.
But there are times they don't have an owner. They
sometimes they've gotten a little defensive with Aaron. He hasn't felt,
you know, quite loved enough. You know, Breeze always feels

(01:59:54):
loved in New Orleans, Oways feels love. You know. The
funny thing about it, I've heard this before that Drew
when the season's over boom, he's off to California. But
the sense is that Drew is New Orleans. He's been
very helpful, full New Orleans very much. He's been helpful
to the city. But you know, Drew season's over boom,
he's out in Cali. Aaron, I've seen him sometimes in

(02:00:16):
the offseason in Wisconsin. So Aaron's made the effort. But
if he doesn't feel like I still think it's strange
and has to have some effect that the Packers don't
have an owner. That's who Tom Brady went to. He
went to his own nerve when when he was unhappy,
he went to his owner. That's an advantage that there's

(02:00:39):
a connectibility there that you know, the Packers just don't have.
They just don't have it. So that'll we'll talk about
that tomorrow. I think Aaron. Listen if you said tomorrow
Aaron plays sometime for a team out west. I'm I'm,
I'm all for it. A lot of quarterbacks they move

(02:01:00):
and aunt. James's movin, Cam's movin, Brady's movin'. Lot of
'em have moved. I'm here for it. Lot of you
be fun. Philip Rivers now is occult. I'm all here
for it. I'm I'm for it.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Hurts, Russell Wilson, NCAA