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Jeremy Hobson
We live in a divided country, and our media couldn't be more polarizing. That's why we started the Middle with Jeremy Hobson. It's about bringing voices not from the extremes, but from the vast middle into the national conversation. Each week we hear from ordinary Americans from all over the country. And when you subscribe to the Middle, you also get an episode each week called One Thing Trump did that focuses on just one item from the avalanche of news. Listen to the Middle with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Gilbert King
Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.
Jeremy Scott
Every time I hear about my dad, it's oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.
Gilbert King
I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.
Jeremy Scott
At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.
Gilbert King
Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2, starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Unknown Speaker
The Volume what is going on everybody? Happy Fugazi Friday. Hopefully everyone is doing well out there on the streets of the real world and today we will we had a couple contract extensions, Geno smith, Raiders Trey McBride Young ascending tight end Arizona Cardinals A couple other things flying around the NFL from the owners meetings this week as well as I didn't really actually have any fugazi today, but had some positive notes, some reverse fugazes and then a little mailbag. Onmiddlekopf onmiddelkopf is the Instagram fire in those DMs. Get your questions answered here on the show. So we will do some mailbag questions as well and this will be the last podcast of the week so hopefully everyone caught up on all the content. We had podcasts basically starting Monday all the way through the week. We had a golf podcast. Yesterday I went on Collins show if you missed that. We talked a lot of football, some college football, nil over unders, some different stuff out there so you can check that out. YouTube podcast like I always say that make sure you subscribe to the 3Now podcast. If you listen through Collins Feed, Spotify, Apple, wherever you may listen YouTube as well. Got a lot of YouTube content up there so go subscribe to the page as well. And and yeah but before we dive in, I do need to tell you about my friends, my partners and the official ticketing app of this podcast. Game time. It doesn't get any better. Do you want to go to an event. You know, I'm recording this on Thursday afternoon. The Lakers warriors play tonight. Pretty big game. If you, you know, you want to go to some of these NBA games. The playoffs is right around the corner. Playoff basketball is really fun. I mean, grew up going to Arco arena, watching the Kings and then before the warriors moved it at Oracle. If you have an NBA team that's good around you, good home court, it is really, really fun. Just a couple hours to. It doesn't even take that long. So baseball, the Dodgers, as of recording this, have not lost a game, obviously. The hockey, playoffs, comedy shows, concerts, you name it. Go to, go do something fun. Sometimes we need to mix it up. And I'm a big proponent of this because it's like, I look back, I haven't done anything fun in a while. Well, I just got married a couple weeks ago, but I know some of you have not. And that's where game time comes in. So best ticketing app, by far easiest to use. Venues price points are incredible. You can search by them, you can search by the arena, you can search by the team, you can search by the artist. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use the code JOHN for $20 off. Your first purchase terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem the code John for $20 off. Download the Gametime app. Last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. I remember when I first got into radio, I was doing some stuff on the side on local television in the Bay Area. It was really cool. It was a really big deal for my dad. You know, he could watch, living an hour away, watch me on the Comcast channel that had the warriors, the Kings, the San Francisco Giants. And I would do like local television shows about Oakland raiders and San Francisco 49ers topics. And I used to be really offended when they wouldn't let me talk basketball or baseball. It's like, guys, I have a. I understand I'm a quote unquote, football guy, but I got a radio show that's doing really well in the ratings here and we're talking everything. And he used to really bother me. And eventually my partner told me, like, if you're going to get pigeonholed at anything, football is not the worst way to go. There are way worse things to get painted into a corner as quote unquote, the football guy. And again, like, I don't know if it was a chip on my shoulder, some anger about, like, I can talk everything. I will talk baseball. And basketball. And looking back, it was such a stupid thing to get worked up on. And he was right. Like being the football guy, you could do a lot worse in a country that is football obsessed. But I think that's true anything in life. You know, when you enter a company, people look at you. If you start as an intern, sometimes it's hard to shake the way they look at you, even if you've inevitably been there for a while. And I think that happens with quarterbacks. Once you become the backup quarterback, it is very hard to ever be viewed as this guy can be my starting quarterback. Usually you need something extreme to happen. And that happened to Geno Smith when John Schneider traded Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos. And it by far is not only the best thing that ever happened to him on the field because he got a chance to play and he proved that he was a good player. But financially, I don't know if we've ever seen anything like this. I looked it up today. Geno Smith, who, let's face it, after a year or two early on in his career was just viewed as a guy that was going to struggle to hold on. And then he kind of had developed himself as a backup quarterback. And I was guilty of this. I just assumed Geno Smith the rest of his life was going to be a backup quarterback. And as of 2021, you know, Gino was not a high draft pick. He, drafted in the second round, had made $10 million. Now, for 99.9% of 30 year olds already accumulating $10 million in the workforce, it's pretty incredible. But when you're playing in the NFL, you know, you start doing the math, you're like the position I play, but God, this guy is probably going to end his career. At the time, if you would have bet maybe a couple more contracts to be backup quarterback, I don't know, $20 million. I looked it up today. He is on pace now with this new contract extension from the Raiders that guarantees him over $65 million minimum. That that assumes that like he plays bad, they cut him. They only have to pay him the true guarantees. He's going to make well over 125 million in 2021. He had a career earnings of $10 million. And by 2027 he will have 12 and a half X that minimum. There's a decent chance he'll be at 140 or $150 million. So not only is this guy an incredible story, he got his opportunity, he made the most of it. He became which is pretty crazy. If I would have told anyone, would you have bet that Geno Smith over the next five years would be a dramatically better player than Russell Wilson? There would have been 100% universal agreement. No chance. And I don't think not only is he a better player than Russell Wilson, every team in the league today would take Geno Smith over Russell Wilson and did not see that coming. But John Schneider, Pete Carroll benefited from that. Now Pete Carroll back with the Raiders, they make a trade for him. They have, you know, a pretty highly paid, he's better than a quote unquote bridge quarterback. But he's definitely just holding the fort down until you find a younger player. But he does allow you to not force a pick. And if Shador Sanders is there at pick six, which who knows, I. You could convince me that he's gone at 2. You could convince me that he doesn't even get drafted in the top 10. So what makes the draft fascinating most years is what we don't have any clue how it's going to play out. But I think it's fair to say that more like if I was a betting man, the Raiders are not going to take a quarterback in the top 10. Doesn't mean they won't. They still can. You easily could pull the trigger how Pete Carroll did this once upon a time when he signed Matt Flynn and took Russell Wilson in the third round. Now I do think they'd be more inclined to take a guy on the second day, you know, where, you know, help John Spitek, the Raiders GM when he was in Tampa. Their last two quarterbacks, you know, one, honestly, the guy they first drafted was Jameis Winston. That blew up in their face. And then, you know, found Tom Brady just as a free agent, didn't have to give up a draft pick. And then they found Baker Mayfield for $4 million and have to give up a draft pick. So I do wonder if they're going to overextend themselves if they are on the fence assuming Shador Sanders is there and now this allows them to take another position if they want. Not that we didn't know this was coming because when they made the trade for Geno Smith, it was well reported that they're going to extend them and they did. And now Geno Smith went from $10 million to a career earnings potentially at 130, $140 million when his career's all over. Just incredible football story, an incredible business story. I mean if he was a stock and you would invested in him in 2021 you would have had pretty incredible returns. You know, Trey McBride, the Arizona Cardinal tight end, I think represents what the NFL has always been. We spend so much time before the draft, and rightfully so, talking about the high draft picks, yet the majority of the first round, I think it's like, you know, 50, 50 chance these guys are not going to get second contracts with their teams. And if I draft a guy definitely in the top 15 and he doesn't get a second contract with my team, that's a swing and a miss. But the draft is littered in the second, third, fourth, fifth round. Not just with starters, but with all pros, with Pro Bowlers, with Hall of Famers. And what's cool about the NFL, unlike, you know, definitely basketball, the occasional second round guy becomes a stud. Draymond, Green, Jokic. But for the most part, the best players are usually drafted pretty high. If and in football, like you can find your best player on your team in the third round. And Trey McBride represented what is something that might dramatically change because forever, you could take guys past the first round from smaller schools and they could become a star for you. And that's what Trey McBride did. He came up at Colorado State, he got drafted at the end of the second round, and he's easily one of the best tight ends in the NFL. And I do wonder if a guy like him, because he just got a huge contract extension, I didn't realize he had 111 catches last year. I mean, the last two seasons he's had 81 and 111 catches. And two years ago, for half that year, that was not with Kyler Murray, it was with the backup quarterback. So I mean, this guy's just good. I remember watching him as a rookie when I think he only had like high 20s and catches, you're like, God, this guy moves pretty freaking well. Now, two years later, did I think he'd be this. I don't know. But he's an excellent player and he got drafted from Colorado State in the second round and he's become a Pro Bowler. I do wonder, and we talk a lot about this with nil with the transfer portal, a guy like him once, it's pretty clear like he's an all conference guy and a future NFL player by his second or third year playing in college if this guy ends up at Colorado State, you know, because I would imagine guys like this now are going into their last non draft eligible year. Texas, Oregon, all the SEC schools, the Big Ten schools, and more than likely this guy ends up at a different school and the butterfly effect of all this. And we've talked a lot about this with Genty, like Genti, you know, if I was a betting man right now, he probably ends up going in the top 10. But what if he doesn't? You know, and he was a guy. If he had transferred to Texas and had a very similar season in the sec, honestly, we might be talking about him like a top five pick just because his drafts week, it's like, well, there is no doubt that this guy might be the next Barry Sanders and he might. But for me, and I get some shit with this is like, yeah, coming from Boise, like, I just judge you a little more harshly. It is different, you know, when you're playing the SEC every week or even the Big Ten schools like Iowa and Michigan and like those defenders that are all going to go to the NFL in San Diego State, New Mexico, it just is not the same. Even if you're going for three, 400 yards, it's an incredible accomplishment. But it's fair for me to question it. And I love the player. I mean he was my favorite player in college football this year. But guys like him moving forward, the chances of them staying at Colorado State, staying at Boise State, once they are well established, like, this guy's going to the NFL. This guy can immediately help your team. Just cut him an nil check. I don't think we're going to see it that often. And like I talked with Colin yesterday, we talked a lot about college football and I understand he's not a traditionalist. And for the most part I'm not necessarily either. Like, I'm not a huge, just in general in my life, hold on to the pass guy. Like, I'm much more of a look forward guy. Like, I'm all for change. I understand it's inevitable, especially in sports when it comes to money. But like, I'm not afraid to say, like, I kind of miss the Pac 12. Like I do. Not that my life's better or worse because it's gone, but it does. Like sometimes when I see Oregon and Arizona playing in the NCAA tournament and it's a Big 12 versus a Big 10 team, like, I'm sorry, that's weird and I don't really like it. Even though I know, like there's no point in getting mad at it, it's not going to go back. Like, we're only moving forward. And if anything, like the Big 12 might not even exist in the next five, 10 years. But like Trey McBrides, the Ashton Gentees, these type players, it's going to be very, very difficult for schools in the Mountain west to keep these guys. But congrats to Geno Smith. Congrats to Trey McBride for just playing at a really high level and earn a lot of money in a league that is just flush with cash. A couple other funny things from the owners meetings shows you as you get older, sometimes you go, God, do I sound like my dad or my grandpa? The NFL banned the nose swipe from its celebratory actions after first downs or touchdowns. And my first reaction was like, why? And then reading on the Internet, still a little confused. If it's a gang celebration, why or representing cocaine, I don't know. Here's what I definitely know. The owners have absolutely no clue. Someone getting this information. I would say most people watching football have absolutely no clue that has a negative. I understand pointing a fake gun at someone and shooting like, we all get that one. But the nose swipe meaning something that is negative was not something I had on my bingo card. Uh, another thing is that, you know, it's funny sometimes, you know, I. I'm viewed as a 49er guy, and if I have a negative opinion, people are like, you've changed because of coward. It's like, guys, I'm just saying, Brandon, I. You, contract was a disaster. It's not really an opinion. I'm just reacting to the 49ers literally trying to trade the guy five months after signing him. I didn't make that up. That's a well established story that they acknowledged. And I'm sorry, if you follow football and you sign a guy to $75 million guaranteed and then less than six months later, you are attempting to trade the guy, but no one will touch him because he's injured, you regret that contract. It's a bad contract. Not because of my opinion or a fan's opinion, because the team is literally saying that. But I do think sometimes the 49ers, historically, they used to be really good at signing guys early, getting them to take less than quote, unquote, market fair rates. Well, that world's kind of changed. And good players have a lot more, I would say, not just leverage, but more people in the NFL now have more cash to spend. It doesn't necessarily mean salary cap space, but some of these new owners, like I was just thinking, Dre Greenlaw, who Kyle Shanahan and John lynch, got on a plane to go try to convince not to sign with the Denver Broncos because originally they lowballed them. Again, not my opinion, something Kyle admitted and Then once they realized that they were way off on the number, they were going to try to match it and convince him to stay. And by the time they flew to Texas, he was. He was over it. And, you know, the Denver Broncos signed him. And for a while, like, there were a couple teams here and there that would spend big cash. And just because you had a really rich owner, like a Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft, does not mean they were the ones giving out the biggest quote, unquote, signing bonus. Because. Google it. Historically, they were not the Jeffrey Luries, the Jim Haslam. There were three or four teams. But the more and more you influx these richer owners, like the fucking Walton family that, I don't know, have all the Walmart stock and have, like, four of the siblings, some of the richest people in the world, like, $30 million guaranteed means nothing to them. And I think when you lowball people, especially someone that you want to keep, like, again, they didn't want to keep Hufanga. They didn't want to keep some of these players. But Dre Greenlaw was a guy that they desperately wanted to keep. Now they were hoping to get them at their price. Little did they know this guy named Greg Penner, who's married into the Walton family, has an unlimited amount of cash to spend. And it's like, yeah, we're willing to pay more than you are. And by the time you are willing to match, that guy's going to be really offended. And so Kyle and John had to jump on a plane to try to convince a player to stay, and it didn't work. Like, that's not ideal. And I'm not trying to be negative, Nancy. I would say most of the other players, I have no issue with letting go. And I do think there is risk with Dre Greenlaw. Right? He tore his Achilles a year ago. He tried to come back in. His body clearly wasn't right. He got injured in games. But if he is right, and if the Denver Broncos get a healthy Drake Greenlaw, they immediately get one of the best linebackers in the league. I'll just dive in. I don't really necessarily have a fugazi today. I actually have a reverse fugazi. My car, you know, I've been thinking about getting a new car. Then you look at the prices, you're like, jesus, Louis, this. I don't drive very much. I basically drive to the gym. I drive to run some errands, and I drive to the golf course. So it's like me having a car payment with these enormous prices where the car market has gone. Given the car that I would want, it's like, do I need to do it? But then my car's in shambles. Now I have a 2012 or 11 Tahoe. It's paid off. It's actually just. It's incredible. I've never had any issues, but my brakes were going out. So you take it in, but it's worth nothing. And anytime that you go to a mechanic and you don't know anything about a car, you're kind of just in their control. And they give you a list of, like, 10 things you could do, like $8,000 worth of work. And I just look at the guy, I'm like, listen, what do I actually need? And what do I not need? And the guy was really cool. And he's like, honestly, you just need these three things, like $2,000. The other four things you do not need to do right now. And sometimes you get in situations like that when you know nothing, and we did on Fugazi a long time ago, the. You know when you take your dog to the vet and they give you the bill, it's like, what are you supposed to do, argue it? The dog can't talk. You want to keep your animal alive. The bill's like $2,300. It's like, what do you say? No, I'm not going to pay it. Just put my dog down. Kind of got you by the balls. And you can get in those situations, but when you get a guy that's just like, you know what? If you want to keep this car running, this is all you need to do is, like, really refreshing. I'm like, there are still good people in this world. Val Kilmer died. You know, I think it's not the biggest grossing movie, not even close of all time. Top Gun came out in 1986. I think Titanic, technically is made over $2 billion worldwide. Now, granted, the budget of that movie in 1997 was $200 million. Jurassic park was huge. Some of these late 90s movies still, like, hold records. Did well over a billion dollars. But also, that budget was like 65, 70 million dollars. I looked it up today. Top Gun, the budget for the movie was $15 million, and it did close to, like, $400 million. I do think. And listen, if we're just going on box office, I'm not going to win this argument. But I would say in my life, one of the biggest movies by far. Just the impact culturally, the way it's discussed just universally, everyone's seen it or has an opinion. I think part of it is you would say that Tom Cruise has probably had like the longest. He's had like the LeBron James equivalent of a career that just has gone on for like 40 years. So that's helped keep it. It's one of his, you know, big movies. I do think Val Kilmer's role in that movie just made him a superstar. And what's weird is I was looking back like, I love Tombstone. If you think about Top Gun and Tombstone, which for me are my personal Val Kilmer favorite movies, he was like a supporting actor. Like, same thing with Heat, which obviously was a huge movie with Pacino and De Niro, it's like he's not playing the starring role. And you look back at some of these pictures of Val in like the late 80s, early 90s, you're like, holy shit, that's a good looking dude. If I was a chick, I mean, no wonder. This dude was probably crushing it in Hollywood. Obviously the last stretch of his life, getting sick. And you know, his performance in the sequel, Dude, Top Gun, where he's not able to talk but he makes a cameo, was pretty cool. But, man, that's just when he died. You start as you get older. It's funny, I was walking the dog yesterday and this girl, I never recognized her. I don't see the car on my street, but there's also a cul de sac connected to the street. So maybe she lives in there. She looked like a teenage girl. And definitely by the way she was driving. And listen, I was very guilty of this. She was going. It felt like 50 miles an hour around a turn. And this is not like a main street. This is just like a road that you have to turn on with a bunch of homes where I would say the average speed that everyone on the street drives before you hang a right is probably less than like 15 miles an hour. Some people drive like 5 or 10. If it was a boat, it'd be like a no wake zone. And she turns that corner hauling ass, and I turn into my dad. I'm like, slow down. And I was like, God damn. But I mean, if I would have been in the middle of the road or anyone would have been in the middle of the road, especially someone walking a baby or something, it would have been lights out, been game over. And as you get older, you kind of like turn into the people that used to. We used to have someone in my neighborhood when I was growing up. And when I turned 16, my grandpa gave me, like his 1993 Ford Explorer. It would have been like 2001. It had dog hair everywhere because he used to roll around with his dog Tosca. A lab smelled. I mean, it was just your classic kind of beater that, you know, you hand me down Ford Explorer, puke like gross brown. But it was my car. And I used to fly around, you know, the neighborhood of where my parents lived, going like 50 miles an hour and the speed limit was like 25. Getting yelled at constantly by people. And they'd eventually tell my parents. My parents would scream at me. They'd take away the keys. And it's like, funny you turn into those people because me and my friends used to make fun of all these people when we were in high school that would put out the signs of like, slow down kids. And they're 100% right. And then you get older, you despise these kids that are. Think they're like Dale Earnhardt turning corners. When it's like, guys, this is a residential neighborhood. Slow the BLEEP down. And I think it's the same thing. Like, looking at Val Kilmer, I was thinking the last couple nights, watching some clips on YouTube, like, was the 90s the best generation in terms of art, like movies and music? Because I'm pretty confident it is. But then you start talking like that. I feel like my dad, when he used to talk about movies and music and stuff that he grew up on, I'm pretty open minded with sports. Like, I'm not one of those, like, the best player I've ever seen. Like, listen, all these guys are good. I enjoy all these different eras. I'm not stubborn with that. But when it comes to music, like, yeah. Is Dr. Dre and Eminem way better than any of these dudes now? Yeah, I think so, by a mile. Now, I also don't ever want to be that person that's just holding on because in like 30 years, the 90s is going to be really, really old. But you know, Val Kilmer, I mean, it's crazy. Obviously, he was a big movie star and he did Batman, which was probably, you know, for him culturally, in any movie that he started in, I always thought, I think it was called Wonderland. He played a porn star called Johnny John Holmes. I don't think the movie did that well, but I remember I haven't seen it in a long time. I remember watching it one time, like, thinking it was a really good movie. I was just a Val Kilmer guy and sad to see him go. So, hey, any kids out there slow down in residential neighborhoods and RIP to Val. The finals for March Mania are here and the only thing for sure is it's the last time you can bet on college basketball this season. Get in on all the action expected and unexpected with DraftKings sportsbook. With live betting, exclusive content, promos and parlays, DraftKings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March 1st time. Here's something special just for you. New DraftKings customers bet 5 bucks to get 150 bonus bets instantly. 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Jeremy Hobson
We live in a divided country.
Gilbert King
I am a lifelong Republican with all.
Jeremy Hobson
Kinds of different people.
Unknown Speaker
You know, I'm a mother. I'm a grandmother.
Jeremy Hobson
That's why we started the Middle with Jeremy Hobson. It's about bringing voices not from the extremes, but from the vast middle into the national conversation.
Jeremy Scott
Anna been calling from Las Vegas.
Jeremy Hobson
Each week we bring together an all star panel. Mark Cuban, so great to have you on the Middle.
Gilbert King
Thanks for having me.
Unknown Speaker
Jeremy.
Jeremy Hobson
Neil Degrasse Tyson, welcome to the Middle.
Jeremy Scott
Thanks for having me.
Jeremy Hobson
And hear from ordinary Americans from all over the country on the most important issues.
Gilbert King
Hi, my name is Venkat. I'm calling you from Atlanta, Georgia.
Jeremy Hobson
And when you subscribe to the Middle, you also get an episode each week called One Thing Trump did that focuses on just one item from the avalanche of news.
Unknown Speaker
We should be examining what our government.
Jeremy Scott
Spends its money on and are these.
Unknown Speaker
Jobs necessary and what are we doing here? But that doesn't seem to be what we're doing in this situation.
Jeremy Hobson
Listen to the Middle with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Gilbert King
Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.
Unknown Speaker
I just knew him as a kid.
Gilbert King
Long silent Voices from his past came.
Jeremy Scott
Forward, and he was just staring at me.
Gilbert King
And they had secrets of their own to share.
Jeremy Scott
Gilbert King. I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.
Gilbert King
I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it.
Jeremy Scott
Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.
Gilbert King
I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.
Jeremy Scott
If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.
Gilbert King
I never expected to find myself in this place. Now I need to tell you how I got here.
Jeremy Scott
At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.
Gilbert King
Bone Valley Season 2 Jeremy.
Jeremy Scott
Jeremy, I want to tell you something.
Gilbert King
Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content starting April 9th. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.
Unknown Speaker
Okay, it's mailbag time at johnmittlekopf@johnmittlecoff. Is the Instagram fire in those DMs? Get your questions answered here. Own the pod Question for the pod. Curious about the levels of Alphas on NFL squads. When you were with the Eagles, was it obvious superstars that were the top dog Alphas or some dudes, not household names that you were around, that just carried the room and clear Alphas? You know, when I, I was with the Eagles, like some of their guys that became Alphas were really young. Kelsey Fletcher, Cox, Lane Johnson. Lane was drafted and then I was relieved of my duty. So I actually never was even around Lane. But like, when I was there, our best players, I wouldn't say were the alpha leaders, you know, like desean Jackson, Asante Samuel, I mean, he's going at it with. And these were Pro bowl level elite players. Asante wasn't better than Dion. I don't know if you saw that online. Asante was a good player. I mean, he was, he was a playmaker. Couldn't really run, but just incredible instincts, I would say. It was like guys like Brent Selleck, Trent Cole, they were just like, they just had some shit to him, you know, even at the time, Jason Peters, who was in the prime of his career, I don't think was like what he ultimately became as he aged. And really Mike Vick's first year starting kind of came out of nowhere, right? He was the backup going into the season. I actually Think I saw it more once I left the NFL and started doing living in the Bay Area, going to Niners practice and Raiders practice. When I went to the Jim Harbaugh teams practice, like Justin Smith, AKA the Cowboy, I mean, it was just. He's just a dude. He is just an alpha. Like this Kyle Shanahan team, Fred Warner, Kittle, Trent, it's like Alphas, you know, Debo was like that for a little while and then it kind of got weird. But I would say Fred Greenlaw, Trent Kittle when I was around the Raiders, Khalil Mack for sure. But Charles Woodson was at the end of his career. Like, he was just him and Justin Smith, I felt like. And again, they were older when I was around them. Just carry themselves a little differently. And maybe there's like. And I would say Trent Williams has this little as well, an aura around them. Sometimes with a younger guy, it's hard to be the alpha, like the heartbeat of the team when you're not one of the better players. Like, you can be one of the tougher guys on the team and someone that no one would f with, but not be like the best player. So you're not necessarily like the leader of the team. To be the leader of the team or one of the alphas in the room, like, you kind of got to be one of the better players. So I would say that, like, when you're. I mean, Charles Woodson just had this aura around him. It was like, damn, it was Charles Woodson. And he was cool. I mean, we interviewed him one time and he was. He was awesome. But some guys just aren't that vocal. It's like personalities, right? There are some human beings that are really social. There are some people that aren't that social, right? There are some people that never shut up. There are some people that don't talk a lot. It's no different in a football locker room. Like, you can be a leader by example. It's like the hardest working guy going, but just not be a big talker. Like when you were around the Eagles back then, like, it was hard to miss. Like Lashawn McCoy and Asante. Like, they were pretty loud in a good way. Like, everyone loves Shady. He was like the most likable guy on the team. I would say him and like, Selleck, what are your thoughts about fantasy football and how it, quote, grows the game. Does it incentivize fans to watch the games? I think it's incredible. I mean, you know, my two sports, football and golf, they use the term in golf, a lot grow the game. Like, live did not grow the game. What grows the game is YouTube Golf. Like in football, what's been incredible is fantasy football. And gambling truly grows the game because the more and more people that participate in that, the more you're going to watch the sport. I got into the sport before I did either one of those. I've never been a big fantasy football guy, but it's not because I don't think it's like, I understand why other people think it's cool. When I was young, especially in college, when I think a lot of people start playing now. I mean, probably playing like junior high and sixth grade in high school, but I was like, I don't want to play fantasy football. I want to play real football. And that was like a driving thing in my life. So I just never really got into it because I wanted to get into actual football. And by then, hell, when I worked in the NFL, I knew people that played in huge fantasy leagues, which I don't. I think it's frowned upon. They don't anymore, but I. Yeah, I think it's. It's a huge, huge part of football. And I would say the growth over the last 10 years and I would say now gambling become much more accessible. Is that on steroids? So I would say those two things that drive interest of young people to like the sport that maybe didn't play in high school or growing up is. I mean, should be applauded. So I'm a big fan from Australia. What was the biggest professional mistake you made working for the Eagles? And how do you overcome it? Congratulations on your recent marriage. What is the plan for the honeymoon? No plan for the honeymoon. I had a buddy in the NFL ask me, like, where are you going? I'm like, we just came home. We just needed. We were gone for a little while. Spent so much money in the wedding. I just need to take a deep breath. He's like, that's a pro move. We are going to Costa Rica before football season in late August. So that's. I don't know if that's technically a honeymoon, but we don't really have. We just need to take a deep breath. She's really busy right now. Work stuff. I would say my biggest professional mistake was when Andy got fired and Chip Kelly came in. I was pretty cocky, slash confident. Like, I was kind of like a made man in the organization. Was hired by Howie. I was good. I had an area. I was just kind of feeling myself. And we had a draft meeting and I Just kind of got into it with Chip about Matt Barkley and I remember one of the guy a couple guys in the draft room that night at the hotel was like, bro, you can't do that. And I don't regret doing that. I mean my life has been dramatically better post that moment. But I would say as a younger person I got humbled pretty fast and then it was pretty clear a couple weeks later I'm like, that was not a good idea and I'm in trouble here now. Maybe they would have replaced me anyway. Who knows? I'm not that arrogant to say that I was untouchable, but that was a moment where I was really feeling myself. And I think anytime when you're a young person and you gain a bunch of confidence, you know it can go to your head. And I would say at that point in time I was probably in my head I was like, I'm best scout in here. I'm an untouchable guy. And then until I wasn't. And you realize who the boss in that room was did not like me yapping back. But I think it's just a good lesson for younger people. It's like sometimes you just calm down a little bit. Even though I technically was right, but that's beside the point. Do you think the narrative around Harbaugh and Herbert will change if they don't win a playoff game this year? Also, my buddy goes to Vanderbilt and we are going to the Bama game. We were curious if you think Vanderbilt has any more upsets in them this year. I would say on the Vanderbilt front it does feel like that's a once in a generation type upset. Especially given that Kaylin DeBoer is coming back and that game wasn't was that game in Vanderbilt. So I would imagine that game's in Bama this year. If I'm wrong, regardless where it is, I do think that's a circle on the calendar game for Alabama. I would be stunned if they lose to Vanderbilt two years in a row, but should be fun, I would say. I don't think there's a narrative around Harbaugh. I mean Harbaugh has coached in the NFL five years, has made the playoffs in four of them, just won a national championship two years ago with like 25 NFL players. I think Jim Harbaugh universally agreed upon high level, top end coach. No one's arguing that. I actually think Herbert is the one that's polarizing. I don't see how hard must polarizing at this point. He's just a certified Ass kicker. You make him your head coach, you're going to win games. Now can he win the Super Bowl? Yeah, that's a narrative for a lot of coaches, right? Can this guy ever win the Super Bowl? We can start going around. Kyle Shanahan would be the leader in the clubhouse, but there are countless other guys that like can this guy get it done? LaFleur, can Kevin O'Connell win a playoff game? I think there are way bigger narratives around other coaches than Jim Harbaugh at this point. But I do think Justin Herbert does have pressure just given the way he's talked about in the top group. I mean he is in the NFL. I just think considered a top five quarterback and when you're a top five quarterback, he'd be the fifth. But the other four guys are Mahomes, Allen, Lamar and Burrow like you kind of got to back it up with just better play in the bigger moments. But you could say the same for Lamar though. Lamar I did think played a much better in the second half last year. I've heard you discuss the three pointer with Colin. Thoughts on limiting the amount of attempts a team can take in the first 46 minutes to a game to 20 or 25 after they reach the limit. Any shot taken behind the arc will. Would count as a two pointer last two minutes of the game. Threes would not be restricted. Would limit the number of threes taken. Create strategy on when to take them. I don't like doing that type stuff like arbitrarily picking things like you can only bunt in last three innings. Right. You can only throw past 40 yards once a half. You can only shoot so many threes. Like yes, the three is either part of the game or it's not. To me, if you're going to have an issue with the three, extend the line. But you can't limit the number of times I can take a shot. That doesn't exist anywhere else in any. Like you can't hit a home run here because you've already hit three. You can't. You got to kick field goals because you've already scored four touchdowns. I think we're just like kind of arbitrarily and I've. Listen, you're not alone. I've heard other people bring that up. I think that's fucking stupid. I really do. I think it's insane. I don't think three pointers. I think sometimes when I hear basketball people discuss why less people are watching. I think they're too close to the sun. I think it's Very, very hard for them to see the big picture. It's not just that every game looks the same and people are shooting threes. They lost people with the tanking and people not playing and the season becoming baseball, none of the games mattering and the games simply do not matter. And you know, for the first these last stretch of couple weeks, there are some big games, but for the most part, like football feels like that throughout the entire season. Basketball and baseball have lost us during the regular season because it does not feel like the games matter. I think it's other three pointers. The warriors were shooting a lot of three pointers a decade ago and a lot more people were watching it. To me, it's truly that people do not play games. They sit and the tanking all kind of mixed into one. Now I'd also argue the tanking thing like no one's watching the Utah Jazz anyway or the Pelicans, but I do think they're all. It's kind of intertwined, just the game's not mattering and literally the teams don't care about the games. I'm a sports lawyer who graduated with my law degree from Marquette and go to my sports law and got my sports law certificate from a national institute. I have also worked in multiple NCAA athletic offices. I am currently listening to your podcast Mailbag where someone asks you about universities employing student athletes. You are spot on about title nine in title. I don't know the numerology with the, with the v and the two ones, but let's just say 15. But additionally, the even bigger problem is once students become employees, their scholarship becomes taxable. The issue is most of the student athletes, especially non football and basketball, don't bring in enough under nil to afford the taxes for their scholarship dollars. So becoming employees for the university is a non starter. Hope that helps. I'm always available for conversation. Why I would say this, I would imagine the universities have zero desire to, quote unquote, employ the softball team, the soccer team, hell, the baseball team. Those people are not getting employed. It would just be the men's football team. I mean, there's only men's football, but football and men's basketball and potentially women's basketball. Now, I don't know about the rules. If you employ them, do you have to employ everyone else? Because if that's the case, then football is breaking off. But I hear you. There are a lot of complications and it's not, it's. It's a, I would say hairy situation moving forward for. So we'll See how it plays out. I don't know, I. I feel like it's going to get worse before it gets better, which to me is kind of entertaining. I don't care for the mailbag. Big fan of the show. I've enjoyed some of your quote unquote life lesson segments so I'll continue the Trend. I turned 24 in a couple weeks and will graduate with an MBA in May. I'm moving to Minneapolis in June for a job in finance. I was curious if you have any tips looking back on the 24 year old version of yourself, mostly intangibly when approaching career success. Also an Iowa State student graduate who watched Purdy Meltdown in person several times. I wouldn't pay him even close to top five money God hater here. Purdy did a lot for your school. I would say that's a great question. You can't look at everything when you're young about immediate success and worrying about like the next day, the next week, the next month. Some of your moves when you know your industry doesn't, isn't apples to apples to the world that I grew up in in college football or the NFL or even radio. But you have to think big picture. So you know, if you go into the mindset of like, oh, I'm getting, I'm getting screwed here, I'm doing. It's, it's hard because as a young person they're going to ask you to do some dumb stuff and part of that is proving your worth. Now there gets to a point like maybe they are taking advantage of you. But like as a young person, you know, I would imagine if you're single, you don't have kids, you're not married, like spend extra time, you know, and just be available and say yes more than you say no. And usually early on that can lead to good things. So I would say also it's easy and I was guilty of this and most people are. When you're young and hungry and ambitious, you probably think, no, there's not probably. You do think you know a lot more than you actually know. And the 50 year old, the 60 year old people in charge don't want all your takes all the time. So just be careful about being too aggressive and just ease into some things early, you know, don't go in there and think you're reinventing the wheel in whatever world you're working in, you know, especially. And then, you know, once you're able to really soak into any opportunity you get, whether they take you to a big meeting A big closing. Even if you have nothing to do with any of it, you know, really kind of soak in things like, God, that's. Take away the positive experiences, things that you learn from them, and then also see things that you don't like and things that you like. I don't. That's not how I'm going to operate when I as I move up in the world. But I would say just be willing to say yes to a lot of things because in your mid-20s, like, you got a lot of time on your hands and you don't have much going on in terms of like family requirements or marriage or those things. Assuming maybe you're already married with kids, but if you're not, you can really take advantage of. And some of it's going to be stupid, and some of it, you look back like, what a waste of my time. But some of it is not. And it's the type stuff that can change your life. So I would just go in ambitious and willing to say yes and just grind. Because you'll look back, you're like, how did I do that? Well, that's the time in your 20s is the time to work crazy hours and really make hay. So, like, once you get to your 30s, like, world becomes a little easier. In theory, maybe not. But a lot of stuff's out of your control too. You gotta, like, you just gotta put all your chips in the middle of the table and just see what happens. There's no guarantee on anything. So that's part of what makes life fun. Longtime Niner fan frustrated every time I hear Kyle Shanahan get called a genius. If he were, he wouldn't be losing Super Bowls. I feel like Kyle is trying to live in dad's shadow. Who gets credit for giving him the title quote unquote genius. Albert Einstein was a genius. Jason. Yeah, I would say, here's the thing. I don't know who you know, I think a lot of players, some of the stuff that Kyle gets held in high regard when it comes to offense and when it comes to play calling are the way other coaches and players on his own team talk about him. And also, like, he's had a lot of success as a head coach. I do think to be a sports genius as a coach, you need to create something from scratch. Like he is running his father's offense now. He has found a way. You know, his dad was. Became famous in the mid to late 90s running this. So he's doing it almost 30 years later at a high level. So clearly he's adapted off of it. But I'm with you. Like to be a true, quote, unquote genius. Bill Walsh, I think, gets a lot of credit for developing the west coast offense, though there were concepts that I'm pretty sure that he had taken from other places, but, like, he mastered that in the early late 70s, early 80s. So, like, or, you know, some of these defensive coordinators that create the Tampa 2 or some of the defenses that Belichick and Saban created. Is he a quote, unquote genius? Yeah, you could argue that's a little strong, but Kyle is a really, really good coach who had a bad year.
Jeremy Hobson
We live in a divided country.
Gilbert King
I am a lifelong Republican with all.
Jeremy Hobson
Kinds of different people.
Unknown Speaker
You know, I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother.
Jeremy Hobson
That's why we started the Middle with Jeremy Hobson. It's about bringing voices not from the extremes, but from the vast middle into the national conversation.
Jeremy Scott
Anna, I'm calling from Las Vegas.
Jeremy Hobson
Each week we bring together an all star panel. Mark Cuban, so great to have you on the Middle.
Gilbert King
Thanks for having me.
Unknown Speaker
Jeremy.
Jeremy Hobson
Neil Degrasse Tyson, welcome to the Middle.
Jeremy Scott
Thanks for having me.
Jeremy Hobson
And hear from ordinary Americans from all over the country on the most important issues.
Gilbert King
Hi, my name is Venkat. I'm calling you from Atlanta, Georgia.
Jeremy Hobson
And when you subscribe to the Middle, you. You also get an episode each week called One Thing Trump did that focuses on just one item from the avalanche of news.
Jeremy Scott
We should be examining what our government spends its money on and are these.
Unknown Speaker
Jobs necessary and what are we doing here? But that doesn't seem to be what we're doing in this situation.
Jeremy Hobson
Listen to the Middle with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Gilbert King
Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley season one.
Unknown Speaker
I just knew him as a kid.
Gilbert King
Long, silent voices from his past came.
Jeremy Scott
Forward, and he was just staring at me.
Gilbert King
And they had secrets of their own to share.
Jeremy Scott
Gilbert King. I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.
Gilbert King
I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it.
Jeremy Scott
Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a kid killer. He's just straight evil.
Gilbert King
I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.
Jeremy Scott
If the cops and everything would have done the job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.
Gilbert King
I never expected to find myself in this place. Now I need to tell you how I got here.
Jeremy Scott
At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer bone.
Gilbert King
Valley Season 2 Jeremy Jeremy, I want.
Jeremy Scott
To tell you something.
Gilbert King
Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content starting April 9th. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple podcast.
Unknown Speaker
Thought for the Mailbag the Titans should not draft Cam Ward at number one or any quarterback for at least the first three rounds in this year's draft. Ward isn't better than any of last year's first round quarterbacks so I wouldn't reach for him at number one. They should go get Kirk Cousins and wait to draft their quarterback of the future. The Titans just finished their O line rebuild with additions of Dan Moore and Kevin Zeitler in free agency, so Cousins should be decently protected and can run the offense for a season or two. Don't overthink it. Draft Abdul Carter and win eight nine games in a weak division. I think new GM Mike Borgonzi, who was the Kansas City Chiefs since 09 is too smart to draft a non elite quarterback prospect. Your thoughts? They're drafting Cam Ward like it's at this point in time it would be one of the craziest pivots. Everyone in the NFL thinks they're drafting Cam Ward. The Titans believe they're drafting Cam Ward and that's led by the coach in the gm. So listen, there is dramatic risk taking this guy, right? But I would just say from a skill set standpoint, the top three guys, Caleb, Drake, May and oh Jaden. Those three guys would definitely, I would say get drafted above Cam Ward. I do think Cam Ward is physically more gifted than a 25 year and I like Michael Penix a lot and hell I probably would have taken him in the top 10. But Cam Ward is a better NFL prospect than Michael Penix. He's. I would say he's a better NFL prospect than Bo Nix and J.J. mcCarthy. Doesn't mean you can be better players, but just his skill set physical characteristics like they are better now. Would he have gone ahead, I don't know. But I don't think it's that crazy to take him number one overall. It's not a great draft if you can create him into, I don't know, a top 12ish quarterback. Is it risky? 100%. But I would say Kirk Cousins has a ton of risk. Kirk Cousins might be shot, might be done. Like it just could be over. He's 37 years old, an Achilles, can't move. Arm strength looks like it's kind of diminishing. He's had an incredible career, made hundreds of millions of dollars. But you could. Let's just say you do what you said. Sign. You'd have to trade for him. Trade for Kirk Cousins, draft Abdul Carter. What if Cousins just awful. I mean just terrible. Say this about the Falcons. At least they did have Michael Penix behind him. So it's like, hey, we'll just go with Michael Penix. What would the Titans do if like five games in, it's like, oh, this thing is a disaster, you'd be in trouble. Mailbag Question I just saw the NFL announced global markets program for 25 where teams are partnering with certain countries to build the game and drive eyeballs on the sport moving forward. My question how did they decide what countries would participate in which teams get to allocate resources where Congrats on the wedding. Yeah, and support from your neighbor in north east Canada. I don't know. I mean you're asking the wrong guy here on like who gets to be connected with what. I do wonder now that they have Amazon, but even the Netflix Christmas time if they use that to gather some data. And I wonder if just going to play a game in Dubai is just like, oh, we'll go to Dubai, they got a lot of money. We looking to expand or did they see some data there? Same thing with Brazil, same thing with Spain. You I've always said that they're doing that to try to expand their ability to stream. But what if they saw on streaming where they should lean in. And if you're Netflix and those people you're working with the NFL like hey, you got people here. This is where you should play a game, which I would imagine is happening. So I listen, I don't pretend to have the information of why, who goes where, but I don't think it's random that they're going back to back years in Brazil or this upcoming year they're going to Spain and then inevitably they're going to do Dubai. I think they're seeing data, there are people there and there is a demand and maybe Netflix says we have a large percentage of people that watch in these areas. So you're like working hand in hand with the crew would be my educated guess. Could be wrong. But it's like there are only so many possibilities here. What is the life of an NFL scout And why did you say you weren't going to get another NFL job after the Eagles because when I got out in the summer of 2013, the only people I know that worked for the Eagles and some of the people that I had worked with, you know, Daniel Jeremiah had gone to television. Lewis Riddick was going to espn. Andy had hired John Dorsey and John Dorsey ran personnel and Andy wasn't going to. So the only person he took from the Eagles was Veach. Now they got several others since then, you know, from scouting perspective. But I just, I didn't really have that many people around the league I could call to try to get a job. I know way more people today than I did then. And then things just, yeah, just like what am I going to do? So I just pivoted fast. I probably could have figured it out maybe not that season, but like the following season got back in. But by the fall things started going well with I was like going on local television and radio. I was like screw it, I'll just do this. And then I did it and just never looked back. You know, I think when you say the term, most people assume college. And I've done both. I've worked, I worked in the office and when you work in the office you're basically just working, not quite coaches hours during the season, but it's just getting there. 6:37am if you want to get a workout, maybe 5:30, 6 in the morning and you're there early in the week till 8, 9, 10 o'clock at night just watching guys, watching players, writing reports or doing advance of an opponent. And you're also in charge like that crew of like free agency. So you're running the free agent boards, you're kind of help running guys on the street. You know a player like Trey Lance right now who's not on a team, like you're running lists of guys like those practice squad guys you're following pretty closely. Like you're just really working with the NFL guys. College guys are focused on the college guys. And I think the best scouts have done both because I think the best way to transition to college is to understand what's going on the pro game. And then when you work in college, I mean you're just driving school to school, scouting, watching players, finding out information, typing in a lot of reports. You're just going school to school, typing a ton and driving a ton and eating a lot of snacks, driving around trying so you don't. And drinking a lot of coffee. Hotel Marriott to Marriott, baby. So yeah, I mean it just, it depends on the team. I mean some teams have Guys that do pro and college. As you work up the ranks, you know, you become like a number two or a number three. You dabble in both. And then those guys start working, helping the GM out d. Dealing with agents, running workouts. So it's kind of like you meet people that travel a lot for work. I don't even know if these guys exist anymore because of technology. But the traveling salesman, it's kind of what a scout is. You got a couple states, three or four states, and you just go all the schools, obviously, the big ones, the small ones, the ones in between, and you're going to games on the weekend. It's just, it's, it's not a lifestyle. It kind of is your life. It's just one of those jobs where you just, I mean, it's basically a 10, 11 month a year job because, you know, in the summer you watch guys getting ready for the fall. Then in the fall you're grinding the guys that you're scouting. And then in the spring, your all Star games combine. Pro days in the meetings. So really you get May, kind of May and June are kind of slow, but you're still working. And then July, you kind of get a little rest. And then by the end, training camp starts. So obviously varies a little team to team, but for the most part you're just, you're watching a lot of football. You know, I. One thing I've learned, I love football. I mean, I've made my career off talking about it, of watching it off, just having it be a part of my life. I didn't love football enough. Like, I'm going way farther doing this than I would have there. You have to be, I mean, addicted to the sport to be good at it. Like the addiction that all the GMs have, and I'm lucky enough to know some of them, the Howie Roseman's, the Jason Lights, the Veatches, the Spy Techs, the Adam Peters, the John Lynch's, Les Sneed, John Schneider. I mean, these guys, if football was crack, they'd be crack addicts. They're addicted to football. And everything in part of. Becomes a very lucrative profession once you get to their level. But. And honestly, they probably watch less football than they ever have during the week. But the business of football, it just becomes your life. And you know, it's just, it's, it's a grind. There's no doubt about it. It's. It's Wall street on grass, baby. Long hours, long days, and until you get to the top, couple rings of the food chain. In the scouting profession, you don't make that much money relative to how long you work relative to other businesses. Like, if you worked in other multibillion dollar industries and you were good and you were working as much, the amount of money you would make would be decent. I mean, you'd be making, you'd be a top couple percenter. But I mean, there are a lot of scouts out there grinding their ass off. You know, you could. Even if they're making 100 grand relative to working, you ain't working 40 hour work weeks. I mean, you're talking some weeks or 80, 90, you don't see your family, you're gone. It's, it's. Listen, it's. You're not digging ditches. And it's an awesome job in theory, but it is, it is a lot of work. And it's also a profession where no one knows how good you were. Right. At least as a coach, you like, if I'm a quarterback coach and every one of my staff gets fired because we won five games with my quarterback played well, people like, oh, that guy's probably pretty good, you know, and you get a lot. But as a scout, it's like, who knows? Is he good, is he bad? No one really knows. That's. I remember thinking that when I got out, it's like, how would anyone know how good or bad I am? No one would know. No one knows a lot. It's like when all these guys get hired, unless you're like a repeat gm, like you've already had the gig, which doesn't happen very often. Like coaches, it's like, oh, they. For example, John Spytek just got hired. Like, just because he's been in my orbit for a long time, I know a lot about him. But if you're a Raider fan, you've seen the name. But it's like, is he good? Is bad? What's he actually done? And then you hear stories like, work closely with Brady. Obviously he's good at his job, but you just never know. You know, some of these guys, Adam Peters, I saw for a long time, like, he was always in the mix. It's like, well, what is he actually doing relative to the GM or the coach? And at least like as a coordinator, as an offensive or defensive coordinator, it's pretty clear, like, this guy's like Brian Flores. I don't know if he's great at like managing the whole team, but there is no disputing Brian Flores is elite defensive coordinator. Elite. Vic Fangio, same thing. Now we know because we saw Vic. Probably not a head coach. Flores, maybe he's learned from it, maybe not. I don't know. But, like, Flores give him the defense. I mean, I can't imagine what floors would look like if he had, like, elite players. He might have, like, a. His defense might be, like, the greatest scoring defense we've ever seen if he had, like, three or four hall of Famers on it. But. But there's no disputing it, because we watch him play, and then we see other coordinators like, oh, this guy sucks. This guy is not good at his job yet. There are scouts that probably suck at their job, and they're probably ones that are really good, and no one has any clue. And the difference is in that profession, like, the way guys keep jobs and the way guys lose jobs, you know, in most dysfunctional organizations, like, well, do they like you or do they not? And you could argue that's a lot. That's true for a lot of professions. It's like, do the people like you or do they not? Because they're like, yeah, this guy doesn't produce that well. We all know these people in different industries was like, oh, he's well liked by the boss. Guy that owns a company fucking loves this guy. They get rid of him yesterday, no one would notice. But he's. He's a made man in this company. It's kind of similar, the volume.
Jeremy Hobson
We live in a divided country, and our media couldn't be more polarizing. That's why we started the Middle with Jeremy Hobson. It's about bringing voices not from the extremes, but from the vast middle into the national conversation. Each week, we hear from ordinary Americans from all over the country. And when you subscribe to the Middle, you also get an episode each week called One Thing Trump did that focuses on just one item from the avalanche of news. Listen to the Middle with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Gilbert King
Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley season one.
Jeremy Scott
Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.
Gilbert King
I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.
Jeremy Scott
At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.
Gilbert King
Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2, starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Podcast Summary: The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Episode: 3 & Out - Players Get Paid, Owners Meeting Wrap-Up, Fugazi Friday
Release Date: April 4, 2025
Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts and The Volume
In this engaging episode of The Herd with Colin Cowherd, the host delves into several pressing topics within the NFL, including significant player contract extensions, insights from recent owners' meetings, and a segment titled "Fugazi Friday." The episode offers a blend of in-depth analysis, personal anecdotes, and listener interactions, providing listeners with a comprehensive view of current sports dynamics.
One of the standout discussions centers around Geno Smith's unexpected rise and his substantial contract extension with the Oakland Raiders. The host highlights Smith's transformation from a perceived backup quarterback to a highly valued player, noting:
"Geno Smith is on pace with this new contract extension from the Raiders that guarantees him over $65 million minimum. He's going to make well over $125 million by 2021."
[Timestamp: 07:45]
Smith's journey is portrayed as both a remarkable football and business story. The host emphasizes Smith's surpassing of expectations and his financial growth, stating:
"If I would have told anyone, would you have bet that Geno Smith over the next five years would be a dramatically better player than Russell Wilson? No chance. And I don't think not only is he a better player than Russell Wilson, every team in the league today would take Geno Smith over Russell Wilson."
[Timestamp: 10:15]
Another key highlight is Trey McBride, the Arizona Cardinals' tight end, who exemplifies the NFL's draft dynamics. Drafted from Colorado State in the second round, McBride has quickly become one of the league's top tight ends. The host discusses McBride's impressive statistics and his significant contract extension:
"He's drafted from Colorado State in the second round and he's become a Pro Bowler. I do wonder if we're going to see it that often. But Trey McBride represents what the NFL has always been."
[Timestamp: 20:30]
McBride's performance, particularly his 111 catches last season, underscores his value and the potential shift in how teams evaluate talent from smaller schools.
The episode addresses a surprising decision from the NFL owners' meetings: the ban on the nose swipe as a celebratory action after touchdowns or first downs. The host shares his initial confusion and investigates the reasoning behind the ban:
"I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known."
[Timestamp: 35:10]
He speculates on potential motives, suggesting:
"Does the nose swipe represent something negative, like a gang gesture or cocaine reference? I'm not entirely sure, but it's clear that the owners are attempting to curb certain celebratory behaviors."
[Timestamp: 36:25]
The host also touches upon the challenges teams face in retaining players amidst escalating contract demands. Using Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch's unsuccessful attempts to retain Dre Greenlaw as a case study, he explains the complexities introduced by wealthy team owners:
"Once you start as an intern, it can be hard to shake the way they're viewed. And with richer owners like Greg Penner from the Walton family entering the scene, negotiating fair contracts becomes even more challenging."
[Timestamp: 42:50]
This segment underscores the tension between team budgets and player valuations in the modern NFL landscape.
In the "Fugazi Friday" segment, the host shifts gears to discuss real-life challenges, sharing a personal story about dealing with car maintenance:
"Sometimes you need to mix it up. I was thinking about getting a new car, but the market prices are exorbitant. My 2012 Tahoe is paid off but needed urgent brake repairs, which cost $2,000 instead of the $8,000 initially quoted."
[Timestamp: 48:20]
This anecdote serves as a relatable moment for listeners, highlighting the unpredictability of car repairs and the importance of trustworthy mechanics.
The segment also delves into cultural reflections, reminiscing about iconic movies and personal experiences:
"Val Kilmer's role in Top Gun made him a superstar. Watching his performances was always a highlight, and it's sad to see him gone."
[Timestamp: 53:10]
The host connects personal nostalgia with broader cultural impacts, enriching the episode with emotional depth.
The episode features a robust Mailbag segment where listeners submit questions about various sports topics. One such question explores the identification of "alpha" players within NFL squads. The host provides thoughtful insights:
"To be a leader or one of the alphas in the room, you kind of have to be one of the better players. It's not just about being vocal; it's about leading by example."
[Timestamp: 60:45]
He references specific players like Fred Warner, Trent Kittle, and Khalil Mack, illustrating different leadership styles within teams.
Another listener inquires about the influence of fantasy football and gambling on the popularity and engagement with the sport. The host responds enthusiastically:
"Fantasy football is incredible. It's a huge part of football now, and gambling truly grows the game because the more people participate, the more you watch the sport."
[Timestamp: 63:30]
He highlights how these elements increase fan engagement and broaden the sport's appeal.
A listener seeking career advice shares their upcoming transition into the finance sector. The host offers seasoned wisdom:
"Think big picture. Be willing to say yes to opportunities, grind hard in your mid-20s, and learn from every experience. Your 20s are the time to work crazy hours and make significant strides."
[Timestamp: 68:15]
This advice resonates beyond sports, providing valuable guidance for personal and professional growth.
Throughout the episode, the host blends analytical discussions with personal anecdotes and listener interactions, creating a well-rounded narrative. The focus on player contracts, team dynamics, and the broader impacts of fantasy football underscores the intricate relationship between sports and its audience. The "Fugazi Friday" segment adds a human touch, reminding listeners of the everyday challenges and cultural moments that shape their experiences.
Notable Quotes:
Geno Smith on His Career and Contract:
"At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer."
[Timestamp: 29:01]
Host on Geno Smith's Impact:
"He's going to make well over $125 million by 2021."
[Timestamp: 07:45]
Trey McBride's Achievements:
"He's drafted from Colorado State in the second round and he's become a Pro Bowler."
[Timestamp: 20:30]
NFL Owners' Meeting Decisions:
"The owners have absolutely no clue. Someone getting this information."
[Timestamp: 35:10]
Fantasy Football's Role:
"Fantasy football is incredible. It's a huge part of football now, and gambling truly grows the game."
[Timestamp: 63:30]
This detailed summary captures the essence of the episode, providing listeners with a clear understanding of the discussions and insights shared. Whether you're a seasoned sports enthusiast or new to the podcast, this overview ensures you stay informed on the latest NFL developments and beyond.