Jemele Hill (2:00)

I think that ultimately who will become the Democratic nominee for president will be someone that has been out there and has shown that they won't allow themselves to be punched and just say thank you like they will punch back.

Jasmine Crockett (2:14)

Listen to Next Question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

John Middlekauff (2:23)

The volume. What is going on, everybody? How are we doing? John Middelkoff. That'd be me. Three and out podcast. That'd be the show. My voice is coming around. Had a wicked head cold, sinus infection, who knows? A lot of stuff going on, but we're battling, so you gotta bear with me. I'm down in Los Angeles because I got a call a couple weeks ago from a man, some of you have heard him, named Colin Coward. He's like, John, you want to come down to LA and McIntyre's, he's off for a couple days doing something. You want to fill in for a couple days? I said, you know what, Colin? I'm there because whenever he asks me anything, my first answer is always yes. So I'm here. We'll go over that experience really quick. Filling in for a couple days for McIntyre, Jason, and doing a little herd line news. So I did that today on Monday, do that again on Tuesday, do that again on Wednesday, and then head back to Scottsdale Collins here in LA with me from Chicago. So we'll discuss that experience, talk about some other football stuff, and do a little mailbag as well. At John Middlekopf. At John Middlekopf is the Instagram fire in those DMS and the plan. I think. I think I'll do a Go Low podcast tomorrow. A lot happened yesterday. I was watching on the plane, Keegan Bradley come back on Tommy Fleetwood, obviously, football. We got a little bit of a break now for a couple months. Couple months would be strong, about five, six weeks until training camp starts. So we just gotta. We gotta dig deep. And for me, I gotta. I gotta entertain. So I'm ready. So we'll have Go Low podcast tomorrow and we'll have podcasts the rest of the week as well. But I'll be on with Colin the next couple days. Exciting down here in Los Angeles. And let's record a podcast. But obviously, if you listen to this on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to 3Now podcast. We also have a YouTube channel, which all of our content is up there as well. So go check that out. YouTube. Just type in Middlekop. All of our content. We have you covered. Before we talk a little football, you know, I got to tell you about my friends, my partners in the official ticketing app of this podcast. Game Time. Best in the business. It's the summer, you know, I got the Dodgers here down the street. My Giants are actually hot on the trail. But if you want to go to one of these games, you want to go to a baseball game this summer, we got football games this fall, we got. We got any type of event. I saw Kenny Chesney, he just said, 20, 26, I will be back, back at the Sphere. The Backstreet Boys said we are coming to the Sphere. I think they're starting like this week. So if you want to go to an event, if you want to go to a comedy show, if you want to get out of the house, go enjoy yourself, do something fun, that's what I task every single person listening right now. Do something fun this summer and I'm trying to throw you a bone. Save you a little money while you're at it. So you guys know the drill. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use a code John for $20 off your first purchase terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem the code John for $20 off down the Gametime app today. Last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. Okay. In Los Angeles, shooting, taping, recording, doing the herd live. Which, which was cool. A couple weeks ago, Coward calls me. I actually was recording a podcast and I saw a missed call and I was like, he's gonna tell me they just signed the Kelsey's three and out is on the street. And I call him back and he's like what are you thinking? What are you doing in a couple weeks? Let me check the schedule. Look at my schedule. There's not much on it come the summer months. And he's like, would you be interested in McIntyre's out of town? I just. Someone brought your name up like yeah, why don't we just use middle cuff? Like yeah, I'd do it. And he's like okay. So I've known for a couple weeks I was going to come down here on Sunday yesterday. My mother in law's in town with my wife. So I'm like okay, I'm going to Los Angeles. You guys, you guys have a good time. And yeah, a couple years ago it was probably like 2019. Most of you were not probably listening to the show then. Some of you Die Hards. On the audio side, we didn't even have a video portion. I was doing three and out form then. This was before the volume and, and I came down here because I know a lot of guys on his staff at the time. A guy named John Goulet for any of you longtime Coward listeners was like his main producer. Now it's Ryan and Tuohy and some other guys that I've also known for a while. And I said hey, can I just come down and just kind of watch and just see how the sausage is made. And I remember coming down and being blown away. For those of us on the west coast, the show doesn't start until 9am they're in the meeting calling at the head of the seat like you know Godfather and then probably 10 plus people surrounding him, you know that work on the team and they are just firing through takes. Right? I mean today was a little unique it was after game seven of the NBA Finals. So you have some idea going in. You know, I would imagine they're going to talk some hoops and basketball, but it's just them throwing takes and Colin throwing takes back. And it is, it's really impressive. I mean, listen, this is. When you're a podcaster, obviously the volume is now way more than a startup, but, you know, you kind of lose one thing I miss kind of in the daily grind. And it's why as my family expands, hopefully that, you know, get an office and get a place where you can be around other people because the energy and the, the ability to be creative in those scenarios is pretty eye opening. And obviously when you have Fox the support here, I mean, they're like, hey, Middlecof, you're sitting at the front of the bird. Hey, Middlekoff, you're in this sweet hotel. I'm like in, in. I'm going to bring Chipotle to my room. But you know, you get there, I mean, I'm, I walk in, I was technically late, you know, had to wait for the car to pick me up. And then I'm sitting there. 6:15, they're already rattling off takes again, three hours until the show starts. So it's just, it's a really, really impressive operation. Ton of good people. And Collins, just a unique talent. He just gets there and he starts, he starts slinging them. It's also kind of, I would say less stressful for me given that me and him do a podcast, I don't know, 30 weeks a year for years on end now. So it felt pretty comfortable. Even though it's, you know, it's not a podcast. A little more corporate. You gotta, they're like, you gotta button that, that top button. We don't, we don't need that, you know, that taco meat flying out. But we've had some trailblazers, Jay Glazer and some Craig Carton now, so bald people are a little more welcomed in Hollywood. It's also cool that where the, where the Fox studios are and I think this is also where they shoot like the Fox pregame show where Terry, Jimmy, I think Jimmy actually just retired. But you know, Howie and Gronk and all those guys is kind of in that. It's also on like the Fox production lot. So I'm pretty sure they're like literally right next to it are where movies are shot. I mean, I pretty sure there's a street that's basically just New York City. There's a street that looks like Chicago and there are just. I didn't see any actual movies or television shows being shot, but it's pretty clear like this is a Hollywood lot where. And listen, as you get older, there aren't as many things that kind of, I think are kind of cool that are like, I'm gonna turn this corner and look down there, right? It's like I walked in to fill my water after the show and there's Paul Pierce. That's kind of cool. Paul Pierce, NBA champ. I was always a big fan of the teams he was on with, with DOC and kg. But then I remember walking out to go get lunch after the show. I'm like, this is where fucking movies and television shows are made. And it's just, it's kind of surreal. It really is. And these guys is kind of where they work and what they do. And you just kind of be, I say it all the time. This is, why do something you like? Because you, even when you do a cool job, you kind of become numb to it. Like these guys, every day, they know they got to come in with takes, they got to have stuff ready. There's an operation, there's an execution. And whether you work, you know, for a plumbing service or on the FOX lot, your job, you better enjoy what you're doing because you know, every day the sun comes up and you got to be ready to roll. I mean, these guys, I give them a lot of respect. They are up and at them early every day. I mean my, that's the one thing as a podcaster and I know when I do my best stuff, it's actually usually more toward like, I would say lunchtime afternoon. When I was doing radio for a while, I did the morning show a couple times. I hated it. I'm just, I'm not, not a morning person. Like, I'm not a huge sleep in guy anymore, but it does take my brain a second to wake up. It was, you know, you just, you're a guest, so you walk in, the meeting's going at 6:15 in the morning. It's not like I could canvass the landscape and like, where can I grab my coffee? So I wasn't even able to get coffee till 8 o' clock. So I basically was in the shower at 5:15, 5:20 in the morning. Didn't have coffee till 8. I remember just mentally got to tough it out and it was like, God, this is first world problems. I'm complaining that I haven't had caffeine in my own head. But really cool and just, just a pretty Pretty high level operation. Not shocking that Collins been at the top of the game for so long and there are a lot of people that many people on the outside don't know that clearly help make the show go round and just cool to get invited down in doing it. So it's nice to mix up the routine of the podcast world because we're just a little more wild, wild west. Do whatever the fuck. I want this a little more structured, you know, put on a nice shirt, shave in the morning so it's be presentable. No, no swearing. Look up straight, sit up, sit your have your back straight. Okay. Not no one told me that, but I was just trying to look presentable mainly for my mother. But other than that, I had a good time this morning. Okay. Couple NFL things we had. We actually talked about this on the show a little bit today that Jair Alexander, who played with Lamar Jackson at Louisville, who was most people thought like was going to get a restructured contract and stay with the packers, ended up getting cut. And then they made some comments that he was making too much money, not playing enough, which is totally understandable. Immediately signs with the Ravens and you know, anytime that a quote unquote, bigger name guy signs or guy former Pro Bowler signs with the team, it's like Jair Alexander signs with the Ravens. Simple reality. With the Ravens. Their defense has been good now since Lamar Jackson has got there. They have played championship level defense several times in the Lamar Jackson era. The one year I think was the second year when he won the MVP and they were the 1 seed and Derrick Henry went through them like as Nick Saban would say, shit through a tin horn. Maybe Birch hit a rat shit through a tin horn. That was bad. But over the last couple years, Lamar let him down. I mean, two years ago in that playoff game he was atrocious and last year he just played one good half of football where they really needed at least three quarters. And I've said this before about Dak Prescott and obviously Lamar Jackson is a better player than Dak Prescott. I for a long time and I don't know if I still feel that way now that Dax coming off a couple different injuries, I did think if his team was good enough, he could play well enough for them to win a Super Bowl. Now he hasn't done it, but if he just played three good playoff games, he is a good enough player. Eli Manning proved that he got hot a couple times in playoff stretches and they won the Super Bowl. If you have a good defense and you have a good team and you're like a top 10ish quarterback and you get hot, you can be a major freaking problem. Flacco did it one time, right? He'd been on a really good team, been on a really good team and they get scorching hot and they win the Super Bowl. And Lamar Jackson is better than these guys, obviously. But right now, like the biggest question with the Ravens is not going to be like how deeps are secondary. So secondary is always good. How good is their defensive line? I don't know. Top five in the league usually. Roquan Smith, second best linebacker in football. You could argue, you know, Fred Warner, banged up last year, might have been the best middle linebacker in football. Defense is what the Ravens do. It's literally their brand. Like you go to Taco Bell, what are you getting tacos? When I turn on Baltimore Raven football, I expect people to get crushed. And even last year, it's like their defense started a little weird, got figured out by the second half and they were fantastic. But in that playoff game, what happened? The offense let him down. Lamar had a fumble. Lamar had an awful pick. Obviously a couple of the drops from a star tight end like this game in this sport now has pretty consistently come down to, especially in the afc, the top quarterbacks making big plays in the big spots. Now, if your defense screws you, and it happened to Josh Allen a couple times, nothing you can do. If Lamar Jackson played in a game against the Chiefs where they scored 35 points, it's not going to be on him. Happened to Aaron Rodgers a couple times, but I think these last couple years, they were both two games that Lamar Jackson would like back. And listen, he's proven he's good enough. I've seen him play in the regular season. I do think he has it in him now, maybe as it goes by, and this happened to Peyton Manning, for a while there was like this. I sometimes hate the word narrative because it's just like, that's just a fact. It's not a. It's not a creative story. Peyton Manning, early on his career, I was a huge fan. Was not the most dependable player in the playoffs. He was a guy when they would play mainly the Patriots, he was going to be at a disadvantage. And then he figured out why. Because he's a great player and he was going to have great moments in the playoffs sooner than later. Some guys never do, right? James Harden clearly is just a guy that brights come on. It gets a little too bright for him. His style doesn't work like he's just not as good in the playoffs as he'd been in the regular season. For most quarterbacks who are great, they have playoff moments. I believe Lamar Jackson will and the Ravens signing this guy, whether he's good, if he's good, awesome. If you tell me that he plays in five games, Zero impact. I think he has zero impact on their ability to win a Super bowl because the only impact in terms of getting over the hump will be can Lamar Jackson have one of his I run for 120 yards and throw three touchdowns because I'll promise you this, if he does, they're probably beating the Bills or the Chiefs in one of those games. Pro golfers drive for show in Puff for dough. 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Katie Couric (18:17)

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John Middlekauff (19:30)

To all my small business owners out there, I feel your pain.

Katie Couric (19:33)

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John Middlekauff (19:36)

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Katie Couric (19:38)

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John Middlekauff (19:53)

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John Middlekauff (20:06)

At the end of the day, the.

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Jemele Hill (21:32)

See T mobile.com I think Democrats have for a very long time allowed Republicans to play them. So essentially, Republicans came up with a narrative and Democrats decided to play into that. And that only hurt the Democrats.

Jasmine Crockett (21:48)

I'm Kitty Couric. Jasmine Crockett, Democratic representative of Texas, is not known for holding back. And our recent chat on Next question is no exception. But when you hear how she got to where she is, her intensity makes perfect sense.

Jemele Hill (22:05)

It's just hard to imagine a world where you don't have enough people that care to do right by people. And so that same passion that carried me through as a public defender, that led me to want to change laws and thinking about the harm that will happen not just to my constituents, but just generally. Like, I carry that weight with me.

Jasmine Crockett (22:30)

Because you've seen it up close.

Jemele Hill (22:32)

Yeah.

Jasmine Crockett (22:33)

Listen to next question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

John Middlekauff (22:47)

I think we talked about this a little bit last week. You know, the NFL has been a lot different than basketball historically. Even Kevin Durant was asked when he got traded at fan Festival. He's like, yeah, I had an input. I told him where I wanted to go. And I let it be known, like, I'm interested in going to these places. So if you're interested in trading for me and you want me to stay, you better know that I want to come there. And that's kind of how the NBA works. And that's on the lighter scale. Typically it was like, Anthony Davis, I'm only going to the Lakers. You know, Kevin Durant, I'm only going to the Suns. It's actually surprising when it's like, I'll give you these three or four teams. Here are my four options. And the NFL over the course of the economic boom, which has been great for owners. We have a family friend who was taking a delayed honeymoon because they had a baby last year and they were in Italy and they saw Jerry's yacht and they googled it. I think the thing was like 70 or 80 million. So business has been booming for everyone involved in the NFL. The owners, the coaches, the players, everyone's gotten rich. But as these contracts have gone up and up and up, players have gotten a little more juice. I mean, part of the reason NBA players have so much juice is one, one individual guy impacts so much of the sport and two, like the top guys all make, I don't know, 250, 300, 400 million dollar contract. These contracts are huge. It's baseball. The top guys, they are getting 500, 600, $700 million. It was like Rafael Devers, like, we don't want to pay anymore. They signed him to a $300 million contract. So anytime that you pay people that much money in business, when you buy a company for $100 million, that's a big purchase. I mean, Google once purchased YouTube for a billion dollars. Didn't Shohei Ohtani just signed for 720? Didn't Juan Soto just signed for $700 million? I mean, these are astronomical sums of money. Well, in football now, these quarterbacks, you know, Josh Allen's over a course of six, seven years, Lamar Jackson, they've already talked about giving him a contract extension. These guys will have accumulated 3, 4, 500 million dollars. So you are very, very invested. But it's not even just the quarterbacks now. You know, Terry McLaurin's holding out. He wants $100 million guaranteed. Brandon Aiyuk last year held out. He got $75 million guaranteed. These are wide receivers. I like McLaurin more than Ayuk, but these are guys catching 75, 80 balls. This is not Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson, T.J. watt, Myles Garrett, Max Crosby. These guys are getting $100 million. This is like their third contract. I mean, so these guys now have a lot of power and it's become more of a player friendly league. You know, in OTAs, my first year in the NFL was 2010. And in 2011 the lockout happened and everything changed in terms of the rules at training camp and OTAs and double days and all that stuff's going to. Well, early on during the new CBA in the 2012, 13, 14, 15 range, there were teams getting in trouble. Remember Seattle, they got in trouble for being too physical in an OTA practice. Same thing with John Harbaugh. I think John Harbaugh ran some special teams drills where they put on shoulder pads. And what happened, they got turned in and they got dinged. I think practices that would never have happened in the 80s, the 90s, when it truly was basically on the. On the pie chart version, players had little to no say. You know, it was. You were well compensated and you were famous, but in terms of, like, you weren't telling the team what to do. Now it's like players like, yeah, we don't really show up to minicamps, and if we don't feel like practicing that hard, we don't practice that hard. And there's a. There's much more of a balance, I would say now than ever before. And when I see this story that there are several elements to the Rams taking the team to Hawaii, one of them is just simple business. The Rams did a deal with Hawaiian tourism. Hawaii's trying to get the tourism back after the fires. But I also think, like Lombardi, Parcells, Holmgren's, Shanahan's, Mike and Kyle Belichick, these old school coaches, this is not something that they would have done. This is a very modern thing. That's where Sean McVay strikes his balance of having a little collegiate feel to him. And you just see the way that it happened. And I think he learned. I think he learned a big lesson in the way he handled Jared Goff, because he handled the Jared Goff situation. Shitting on him publicly once, that he is something that he has been outspoken about and regretting for and something he's gone to Jared and talked about and just wasn't a good look. Something that coaches would have done consistently in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, even the 2000s. Now, I think you got to be a little more careful with that. And part of it is Jared Goff's a good guy and obviously a pretty good player. Just had a little rough stretch. Everyone got frustrated. But you look at the way Sean McVay handled the matt Stafford thing, handled it much more like an NBA situation. We want him here. We'll let him explore. We'll do whatever he wants to do. We want to do right by the player. We have a number, but this is important to us. We're on Matt Stafford's side. We're in this together. And I think a huge part of these OTAs now, because when I had John Schneider on the pod a couple weeks ago, if you haven't heard that, check that out. He was like, I think he told me this before the podcast started, is that they were going to cancel the last practice of voluntary minicamp. He's like, we're only going to have the Tuesday and Wednesday. These, these OTAs and minicamps are basically a glorified cardio workout. It's why it's so embarrassing. Some of these guys that skip these, that have kickers of 100, 200, $500,000 workout bonuses. Like, guys, I understand you're making 10, 15, $20 million, but in no other line of work, regardless how much you're making, would you just give away $500,000 to do something that you would be doing anyway. You're literally just at home working out. You might as well just go there and work out for a couple weeks and then bounce. This is really, really easy. So these guys take everyone to Hawaii, take their families, and it's a bonding experiment. I'm seeing clips of them playing golf and there is a lot of positive momentum for the Los Angeles Rams coming into the season. And the thing that has kind of slowed them down the last couple years, they started slow. If they could start fast and they could stay healthy. You know, Jared Verse and Fisk, the two guys they took out of Florida State. Obviously, if Stafford can play at a high level, you bring devonte, which I would expect to have a big year. I think the Rams are a team. I mean, they went toe to toe with the Eagles last year. Why? Because their physical style works. Matt Stafford is a quarterback that when he's playing at a high level, can play up against anyone in the league. It's Mahomes, that's Josh, that's Lamar. Like he can go toe to toe with those guys on an individual game basis. Maybe not over the course of 17 games, but I think you're just looking at more of a modern day football team. And that is kind of player, player friendly. I was flipping around YouTube yesterday, hanging out the hotel, and I watched this talk between Peyton, Eli and Bryce and Caleb Williams. And one thing that's always struck me, and I've mentioned this forever when I used to go to games a lot, is that these quarterbacks in the Peyton and Eli era, they're enormous. Peyton, Eli, Tom Brady, these guys are Carson Palmer, these guys. Philip Rivers, these guys are massive. Joe flacco, you're talking six, four and a half to six, six. All of them were 230 to 240 pounds. None of them could run, but they were just massive Roethlisberger fucking horses. And now you see them next to Bryce who's 5, 10, a buck 90, and Caleb, who is bigger than Bryce, but still relative to that era of quarterbacks, not that big. And I think, you know, and they were trying to give them advice and you know, Peyton's talked about he's, he's very positive when it comes to quarterbacks. Like he's not a guy that's going to be overly critical and shit on guys, which I would like, but that's not really going to be. His style is the record for interceptions in year one was Peyton Manning through 28. And he mentioned in this talk he threw 10 in his first three games. Football's hard and playing quarterback's hard. And I don't give a shit how hyped up you are. What your accolades were coming out of college. If you're going number one, even if there's a trade like with Caleb Williams, you're typically going to a bad team. You're not usually going to an Andy Reid, a Kyle Shanahan, a Bill Belichick led operation. So you go into a franchise that typically the coaching is unstable and the pressure is immense. And nowadays with social media, the intensity of it speaks for itself. But Bryce Young was really humbled and looking at it, I had forgotten, you know, what a big time barely lost in high school and in college, by his first year starting, they beat Georgia in the SEC championship. And if it wouldn't have been for a couple injuries, he might have been a national championship, national champion. All the guy had done is win. You know, Caleb, it's weird because his team his senior year sucked and they haven't been good the last two years. But his last year at usc, they were not good. But he didn't get any of the blame. The coach got all the blame, the program got all the blame. The state of USC football got the blame, the recruiting got the blame. It was not put on him. And in fairness, like in some of their games, even though they won, I remember they beat Arizona in an overtime game when he was at usc. Shit, the only reason they were in that game was him. But sometimes when that happens, like there's not my fault. And then all anyone's talking about is he's going to go number one, he's going to go number one, he's going to go number one, he's going T.O. go number one. And he did. And honestly, looking back, Ryan Poles didn't really even, I mean, didn't even bring in another quarterback during that time. So you have to think Bryce Young was as embarrassed as any Young Quarterback, I can remember and handled it as good as you possibly can. He was benched after a couple games and came back and I would say resurrected his career. Got to a point where it's like, he can be a legitimate starter in the league now for at minimum a couple years. Like, he's getting a little Runway now. He has proven that over the course of the second half of the season. And Caleb, it never got that bad, though there were some conversations last year that people internally were like, hey, let's go to Tyson. That was kind of crazy. And coach gets fired, everyone gets embarrassed, the franchise is in shambles. But you have to wonder sometimes. Humility. And it's easy to be like, you just got to humble yourself sometimes when you're young and everyone's giving you a reach around and everyone's calling you the greatest thing since sliced bread, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes you just got to get in the arena of whatever you're doing and just suck at it. To realize, like, this is hard because every old quarterback, and this is what Peyton and Eli were telling him. Like, this game's so hard. You prepare, you work so hard. And I think Eli said this is that, you know, it never gets easy. It gets easier because of your experiences, because of what you've seen, but it never gets easy. And I think for these guys, especially when you're a big time athlete like Caleb Williams, you're used to running away from guys, being able to make plays, being when you make the throws on the run, everything you can beeline it into an area that another guy can't make a play. Well in the NFL, that guy might be Marlon Humphrey, that guy might be Jair Alexander, that guy might be Ed Reed or Troy Palomal or who Fred Warner, who's covering your tight end, or Roquan Smith, or you name it, all these guys on all the good teams can play and all the coordinators in your division on defense are good. So being humbled sometimes in life is forced upon you when you're young, usually as you get older, it's pretty easy at different times in your life to humble yourself, to take a deep breath, to look in the mirror. Sometimes because we have perspective, we've been around a little bit longer. But when you're younger and you don't really know what you don't really know, sometimes it's fortunate. It happened to Bryce, it happened to Caleb, and you really get two options now for Caleb, you got Ben Johnson, who this is what's weird about this situation. And I've Said this before is the pressure coming into this year. I've seen in other spots. And this is what happened to Anthony Richardson. Like, the pressure was not on Shane Steichen. We've seen Shane Steichen. People think he's a good coach. We saw him win games with Garner Minshew. We saw him turn Jalen Hurts into a high level starting quarterback. Like, people think Shane Steichen knows what he's doing. It's an Anthony Richardson issue. It's like when Trey Lance was thrown in there. After a while, it's like, this is not on Kyle Shanahan. This guy can't play. I know Ben Johnson can call plays. We've seen it now for years. I know they had a talented offense, but his play calling, his trickeration, his feel for it. We talk about this all the time. Certain people just have instincts, right? Certain people are just instinctive about what they do. Some people it's with business. Some people it's with, you know, Colin and just his ability to hold a conversation and keep you engaged. Why he's great at doing what he's doing for a living. We see it with coaches, some coaches. If you just got me 10 quarterback coaches in the NFL and you gave me a whiteboard and a Sharpie and I just said, let's talk football, all 10 of them, and I'll give each of them 15 minutes, they would all blow you away. It would be insane. They could all get to the levels of football where your jaw would be on the floor. It's like, is this guy speaking Chinese? But if I gave them all the same team, same weapons, same old line, same quarterback, and we played two games, each of them got two games, there would be a couple coaches that would be dramatically better than the other at calling place because it is. There's a feel, there's an instinct to it. McVeigh has it, Kyle has it. Andy Reid's had it forever. Defensive coaches too, you know, and some guys aren't that good at it, like Jim Harbaugh. It's not really his thing. Don't even know if he would know how to do it. Doesn't matter. It's not. That's not what he's trying to do. But so many of these, Kevin o' Connell, like, they have a feel for calling plays. And you see some coordinators that immediately get overwhelmed. And sometimes it's. Their personnel is not great, but it's like, yeah, Lou gets. He's just not good at this job. He's just not that good at this job. Could he be better if he had Patrick Mahomes and Tyree Kill and Travis Kelsey probably would. But I think something's missing here. And I think sometimes when it comes to a guy getting their first job, I, I know Ben Johnson can call place and we saw with Sean McVay, like the guy could call if his quarterback could just kind of settle down. And he did. And Jared Goff was awesome early on. And that to me is the key. And this is what Peyton and Eli talked about. CJ Stroud was up there as well. I texted a buddy on the Texans. I said, God, this guy's. CJ's an impressive guy. Just. He's just an impressive guy. I know he had a rough season and the offensive line wasn't that good. When you watch him sit there with Peyton and Eli and you watch him talk football and leadership, you go, yeah, I kind of get it. I would keep buying stock in this guy. I believe might have been a year early on my Texans bet, but they're not going away. But I think if you're Caleb, you need to learn from these guys. Like just get rid of the ball. Just dump the ball. You can't. Not everyone's Steph Curry and shooting fade away threes. You can't always run around and try to throw deep bombs. And the way Jared Goff got his career back on track with Ben was just getting rid of the ball quick. Just getting the ball out of your hands. This is the NFL. It's a space game. And a team like the Bears, just like a lot of teams in the NFL, have a lot of really good offensive skill guys. The skill top to bottom on offense in the NFL has probably never been better. There are more running backs who can catch the ball. You know, historically for every Ladanian Tomlinson and Marshall Faulk, there were a lot of running backs who weren't that great at pass catching. So you usually had third down backs. @ Fox day I saw Shady. Shady was kind of unique. He catch the ball and he could run the ball. There were a lot of guys that struggled catching the ball. So if you were in third and seven, you'd yank that guy out of the game. Go around the league right now, look how many starting running backs are excellent in the passing game, right? I mean, if we consider Saquon Barkley's hands to be kind of meh. Shows you how. I mean, awesome. The standard is currently in the NFL in terms of catching the ball, I would say that's the quote unquote weakness of his game. Not that he has bad hands, but they're not, I wouldn't say Alvin Kamara or Christian McCaffrey or something, but my point is that is a huge element for these young guys is to learn. Like, it's not all on me. Because before in college, high school, it's always been on them. Like in the pros, it is a team game. It eventually comes all on you as you get older, as you become, you know, a better player. But, like, make the right decision, just keep the play going forward. I mean, a huge part of progress is just continuing to take a step right in whatever we're doing. It's like you never want to take steps backwards. And I think young quarterbacks, they kind of get caught up sometimes in trying to make these crazy plays because that's what they've done most of their career in the NFL. You will get humbled and you will get destroyed and you will get embarrassed. And in some of these cases, it can, it can ruin your confidence and derail a career. In others, it makes you way stronger and you come back better and you're an awesome player. So I think the Bears, they're going to be one of the better stories in the NFL coming up in 2025.

Katie Couric (40:09)

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Dan Flores (42:09)

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Jemele Hill (42:20)

Or cancel CT mobile.com I think Democrats have for a very long time allowed Republicans to play them. So essentially Republicans came up with a narrative and Democrats decided to play into that. And that only hurt the Democrats.

Jasmine Crockett (42:36)

I'm Katie Couric. Jasmine Crockett, Democratic representative of Texas, is not known for holding back and our recent chat on Next Question is no exception. But when you hear how she got to where she is, her intensity makes perfect sense.

Jemele Hill (42:53)

It's just hard to imagine a world where you don't have enough people that care to do right by people. And so that same passion that carried me through as a public defender that led me to want to change laws and thinking about the harm that will happen not just to my constituents, but just generally like I carry that weight.

Jasmine Crockett (43:18)

With me because you've seen it up close.

Jemele Hill (43:20)

Yeah.

Jasmine Crockett (43:21)

Listen to next question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Colin Cowherd (43:29)

The American west with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. Hosted by me writer and historian Dan Flores and brought to you by Velvet Buck, this podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best selling author and meat eater founder Stephen Rinella.

John Middlekauff (44:00)

I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say it seems like the Ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves.

Colin Cowherd (44:09)

So join me starting Tuesday, May 6, where we'll delve into stories of the west and come to understand that how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today.

John Middlekauff (44:21)

Listen to the American west with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, let's do a little middlekopf mailbag. Onmiddalcoff. Onmiddalcoff. Is the Instagram firing those DMs questions here on the show? Just fire into my DMs. This was one I was supposed to do last week, but my voice was just given out. So I think I battled back enough. We will answer your questions here. We'll start with Brandon. Short and simple. In your opinion, what is the most devastating moment in sports history? What is the worst decision you've ever seen as a Seahawks fan? I think you know what my answer would be. I would say devastating moment in sports history. The Malcolm Butler game for the Super Bowl. I mean, you, you were part of it. It's, it's hard to top that. I was thinking last night watching Tyrese Halliburton, I was on a treadmill here at the hotel trying to get a good little sweat on and my jaw hit the floor. Because when he starts banging on the floor and then they show the replay and you see that kind of explosion, you tear an Achilles in. The Malcolm Butler thing that ended the Super Bowl. So it's hard to top that. Like if you had torn your Achilles with five minutes left of a tie game and you have 20, 10 and 10, it would have been worse. But it looked like the Pacers could win that game and their star player tears his Achilles. It was crazy that the game was even close. So that was, there's been some injuries. You know, Dre Greenlaw popped his Achilles. But when you just think about devastating games, I don't think anything tops the Malcolm Butler situation. If you wanted a slow bleed, 28 to 3, it's pretty, pretty tough. That'll be, that'll be hard to overcome. 28 to 3. Second half against the dynasty because it's part of who you're playing, right? So when Malcolm Butler picks you off, it's, you're going to go back to back Super Bowls against Belichick and Brady. What makes Eli and Tom Coughlin so legendary is they beat those two guys like they were the team that took down the undefeated Pass. So part of it's who you beat. Mike Vrabel recently said, these next five weeks are the most important of the off season. And it had me thinking, how many players better put in the work before training camp or else they might get the ax? How many of these players rest on their laurels in vacation for versus how many are working with quarterback gurus and working with their teammates during this period? It's a good question. I, I think if you've been in the league a little bit, you realize how much is on the line and you realize you have perspective of how lucrative this is. So you would have to be a moron not to have something pretty set up over the course of the next five or six weeks, or however many weeks you're off to keep your body because you're pretty dialed in, right? Season ends, take a little break and then you. Most guys come back, start training at the facility and are in really good shape by last week. Well, you don't want to lose that, you want to maintain that. Now everyone's a little bit different, but I think most veteran guys, like if you just went around the league, like if I just, it's Monday today I'm recording this. If I just picked a player at every position, right? Sauce Gardner, Roquan Smith, George Kittle, Terry McLaurin, you just name it, every position. I'd be stunned if they all didn't work out today and work out hard, right? And I think you kind of listen, you got a couple times where you can kind of get after it, Fourth of July weekend, maybe if you're married, vacation. But these guys, they're not dumb. I mean, how many professions pay you 10, 20, $30 million? And once, you know, thing in the NFL, unlike the NBA, you see a lot of guys, careers end immediately. And a lot of these guys, some of these guys I just listed, weren't all top five, ten picks. So if I'm a fourth rounder and I go on to be a multimillionaire, I watch first rounders, guys I was drafted in the class with out of the league. I watch these guys at home, they don't work in football anymore. Where I think guys can get humbled is the youth. So if I'm a rookie, you know, I've always had, when I played Alabama, when I play at Texas, when I play at Ohio State, when I play at Michigan, I don't really leave campus all summer, maybe for a week. And now it's, it's on me. So luckily it's like, trust me, I know with my metabolism when you're young you know you can get away with it but veterans can't. But I also think veterans know. I know you're not high on Shador. How does an unbiased observer not see all the major red flags when he comes with Colin is usually against. That's just a backwards hat at the podium. But think shedeur is mature even though he's an arrogant. Not trying to pin you and Colin against each other but was wondering what you thought. Well, I talked about his speeding last week that I in my overall take was these cars in 2025 go a lot faster than they ever have. And going 90, 100 miles an hour is a much smoother ride than it would have been if you got caught in 1997 going 105 miles an hour in a Ford Explorer like you knew you were hauling ass. If you're doing 100 miles an hour in a turbocharged Ram truck, you might not even be paying attention. Now when I gave my take on that last week, I didn't realize he had been pulled over multiple times and was in trouble for the unpaid tickets. Now I would also be a hypocrite. I used to get parking tickets in college and never pay them. It's like an FU to the system but they would just go to my parents house and my dad wanted to kill me. So I think sometimes when you're young you can be just naive and not pay attention but once you get pulled over and you're the quarterback, I think you should be pretty dialed and like yeah, maybe I do need to slow it down. That's where it's like my original take was just thinking that he had been pulled over once, he'd been pulled over twice. Not ideal. And it also shows you like he's a fifth round pick. This isn't a story for most guys. Like if Will Howard gets pulled over or people talking about it, you know this guy's lightning rods probably he's a polarizing. He's just a. He's a headline. It's kind of like whether he's good or bad. Like Bronnie anything Bronny James did, it's like Bronny James had a taco. Front page espn.com it's kind of going to be Shador. Shador is not going to be covered like most 5th rounders. Shador is going to be covered like he was a top 10 pick. Especially once training camp starts. In an NFL scouting department are there certain people that specialize in specific positions? For example Are there a small group of guys that focus solely on scouting wideouts and others that have more knowledge about the offensive and defensive lines? Follow up question. What position group did you feel you did the best? No. Like if you are, you know, the college scouting director or you do the SEC or the Big Ten, you evaluate every player in your region. So if you're the college scouting director, you know, during the season you're writing up all the top four or five round guys and you get to later guys as the off season goes. If I have, like I'm in LA right now, like the year that I did the West Coast, I had basically the PAC 12, the Mountain West, Colorado and El Paso. I think any player, any position that was draft eligible and draft double was my responsibility. So even if, you know, scouting certain positions or players is more difficult than others, you have to learn to do it all. Now, when there are individuals like I think Howie has used Jason Kelce before, he would just give Jason Kelsey some offensive lineman, right? And he would let him focus and give his two cents on what he thinks of the offensive lineman class. There are individual situations like that, but any pure, like legitimate executive or scout is typically entrusted with doing his entire area, whoever's given to him. So it's not. You don't specialize in the position. I would say this. When you work in certain organizations, you become better at evaluating certain positions. Like in my experience, I worked at Fresno State, we had a bunch of NFL wide receivers and an NFL running back and NFL quarterbacks and NFL offensive linemen. So I felt really good about offense. And then I went to the Eagles, you know, Michael Vick, Brent Selleck, Shady McCoy, Jeremy Macklin, Deshaun Jackson, Jason Avant, like Jason Peters, Jason Kelsey, you just, you kind of see what high, you know, defensive guys. I wasn't, didn't work for the Steelers or the Ravens. So you, it gives you a little bit, you just, if you work for the Ravens, you're probably going to get pretty good at evaluating defense. If you work for Andy Reid, you're going to get pretty good evaluating offense. You know, if you, it depends who. You know, people that work for Saban forever, like they were good at evaluating offense or defense and then as time changed, they got good at offense too. But you kind of have to figure it out. I mean, I wouldn't feel best about anything in the secondary. I think DB in general, safety and corner is difficult. But I would say the thing I know the least of when it comes to the sport of football would just be feel Especially now that I'm out of it. Like I'm not dialed in. I'm like, this is. Could bang out every coverage like a coach. When you're in it, you're a little more in tune to that stuff. And it does matter because when you're evaluating someone, you can't be like, well he's, he's not a great man to man guy. It's like, well, he's not even being asked to do that. So you gotta, you kind of gotta know some defense to truly evaluate the DB position. That's where at linebacker and defensive line. There's so much stuff at the point of attack that even if you don't know all the defensive responsibilities, you can evaluate a pass rusher or a linebacker, you know, pretty easily without knowing the playbook. I'm a big Patriot fan and have a lot of belief in Drake May. When do you think Vrabel and May will be able to compete with Buffalo in the division and make a run at the playoffs? Also will be in Scottsdale in early July. Was wondering the best areas to visit. It's a good question. Visit it all. It's hot. I'll tell you this. Bring your swim shorts, it's going to be warm. I think you guys can make the playoffs this year. I think you can make the playoffs this year. I still, I understand he gets a lot of hype, but there'd be a lot of pressure on Drake May. It's a big difference between just losing in these games. Playing games don't matter in games that do matter. But clearly a lot of people in the league are high on him. The coach took the job because he's high on him. You know, I think Josh is perfectly suited to be a coordinator, clearly. And I just think your schedule sucks. I also think your division sucks. I think Miami's in shambles. I think that place is a ticking time bomb. I really do. If you were saying Colin said something today on the show that he thought New York, the New York Giants would be have the number one pick. I think Miami'd have a shot. I would take the New York Giants roster over Miami Dolphins roster in a heartbeat. Especially because they're going to trade Jalen Ramsey and who the hell knows what happens with Tyree Kill and with Tyree Kill little older now, not as fast. What if his career, I mean he's had a Hall of fame level, whatever 10 plus years, like what if it's just over now? He's never quite the same. So I think that really benefits you guys. Your division sucks. So I would say next week, or excuse me, next year, I'm picking you. Make the playoffs. I've listened to your interviews with Schneider and Spy Tech. Would love to hear more of these GM's interviews. Me too. Trust me, I emailed and texted a lot of people and they were the two that said yes. As I've listened to their advice and takeaways from all the great leaders they worked in and got me thinking about a mailbag question for you. What are some of the best lessons you learned from all the incredible people you've worked with? People like Pat Hill, Andy Reid, Howie Coward? Keep crushing it. That's a great question. I would say the number one thing I learned from Pat Hill, I've never been around a human being that took more ownership in his program. And you know, as a college football coach, like, he doesn't own the buildings, he doesn't own any of it. Right. He's just an employee of the state of California. And you would have thought Fresno State was owned by Pat Hill. Every day he'd like make sure the doors were locked at night. He just took so much pride in the program, so much ownership. And I never forgot that as I've gotten older and you know, I think as you get older and you know, you stuff is yours, whether it's like you own a home or, you know, this podcast is mine or things that I'm associated with, I just try to take great ownership because I look back and how much success he had. I think he was one of the first, if not the first non Power 5 millionaire coach and just think how much pride and ownership he took in everything. And I would say Coach Hill, like Coach Reed, they just, they just had this gravitational pull and I got very lucky. Like they were associated with each other, they had known each other forever. That there were just two guys that you meet them and you're like these type guys you want to be like in terms of the way they treat other people and how much respect that the people working for them have for them. It doesn't mean they agree with everything they do but leadership. And listen, I, it's, it's something I'm fascinated by and obviously working in the football world forever and you know, covering sports and football and watching it from afar. Something we talk about a lot, especially with quarterbacks. But some this we talked about instincts with play callers. Like some guys have it or not. I think it's kind of like that with leadership and coaches and Pat Hill and Andy Reid just have it like, whatever that is. Like, they were just natural at the head of the table, being the boss, and that's not something you can teach. And obviously, Andy just. Just incredible human being. I mean, just. I think him and Coach Hill both have this just be nice to people, just treat people well. Some people are going to disagree. You're going to have, especially in a public job like this, you're going to have some your moments, but just treat people well. One thing with Howie, he was relentless. I mean, he still is. I know people that still work for him. Just a relentless pursuit of just like the grind. How do we get better? What do we do? Are we every single rock, are we looking under? What can we. What can we make a move to get? Is this guy better than what we got? And there's a balance as you get an established team like they have now. But you can't just, you know, cut everybody when you, you know, some guy, it's just. It gets a little more complicated. But. But he's just a relentless pursuer of the business, you know, and his ability to interact with, from agents to media to other GMs, I would say second to none. He's obviously really smart, but I would say when I think Howie and being around Howie and still when I see him at the combine or whatever day, just aggression, you know, hungry dogs eat first. That's what. Something we used to say at Fresno State, but it's true, you know, and that motherfucker is hungry. He's got a couple Super Bowls, he makes a bunch of money. He's been to another Super Bowl. Like, he's pretty well accomplished. Most people consider him, if not the best, one of the best GMs in the league. You know, if. If he broke up with the Eagles tomorrow, 10 teams would hire him. And he works like it's his first year on the job. He just. He's just kind of a. I don't know, he's just grinder. Thing I'd say about Colin is.

Dan Flores (60:50)

You.

John Middlekauff (60:50)

Know, think about it. He's, I don't know, 60 years old. He's got to the top of the mountaintop in his profession. He made it like he accomplished it. And he still, like, create the volume, still doing podcasts on top of like. Like, all I do is the podcast. And I've got very, like some people ask me, like, you're able to create a living. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm. Our podcast does well, but that's my life. I dedicate everything I have to it. You know, the show that he does for Fox is obviously a big vehicle for the distribution of the podcast that I, that I benefit from the notoriety of him and in the brand. But he doesn't have to do all this stuff. I mean, he was mentioning someone he was going to dinner with tonight. I mean, he's just. He's just always in the pursuit. He's got a little Howie to him. You know, what's next? What are we doing next? And that's a really good quality to have because it'd be easy. And I never fault anyone. Once you make it financially, once you get a little older, like, yeah, I'm good, I'm cool, I did it. And that is not how he's wired. I actually see some similarities with. I mean, they're completely different, I would say personalities, and obviously they do different things, but him and Howie are just 100 miles an hour. Go, go, go. And intense. And it works on a serious note since it's. I can tell you're based on listening to your pods. I've had a couple people say you're based. I had to Google that shows you how out of the loop I am with some of these new terms. I didn't know what that meant. I guess to my knowledge, looking it up means like unapologetic about your opinions something. I'm 33 and I lost my father in 2022 unexpectedly. He was my best friend. Rock always knew what to say, when to say it, and to ease my mind, the only reason I got into football and eventually loved the Bills was because of him. The last time I ever saw him was the 13 second game. That was devastating enough. That was bad. My question is this. If you feel comfortable, do you mind explaining your situation and what you went through in detail? You want to share? I can tell that you have a good amount of guys in their 20s or listening to their pod. All of our situations are different, however, based on the questions you receive that aren't football related, I can tell you value and look up to have to say you are relatable, authentic, blah, blah, I guess. Are you just asking me to share my situation of losing my father? I remember hearing this a long time ago in the desert. I think Scott Van Pelt I heard say it is that you never truly become a man till your dad passes away. And it is true. It's not easy. I lost most of my grandparents relatively young. So some people, I had friends that hadn't lost any family members really up until they got to their mid to late 30s, even grandparents. So you See death early on. But it's a lot different when you lose a parent, especially a father. My dad's pretty old school. There was no, like, hugging and kissing in my family. I know some people. I'm sure I'll do that with my children. So it was not much talking about feelings in the sense of, hey, how am I trying to explain this? Turns out he was sick for a while, and I didn't know. Now I knew because he was off. He just was. Sounded like a different person. He was losing a bunch of weight, but it's not like he announced, like, I have cancer and I'm in trouble, because I don't even think he knew. He might have, might not have. And then he started getting really sick, and I got a call. I'm trying to remember one night something had happened, and he was in the hospital thinking it was like, you know, maybe a checkup old guy. My dad had me a little later in life. Like, I think he was 42, so this is, like, in his mid-70s. And mom's like, you should probably come to the hospital. And I went to the hospital, and it turns out that cancer had spread all over his body, and he was basically on life support. And it was like, man. Now, I would say the year lead up to his death, he had shown. It had just. He had just deteriorated. It just didn't quite feel like the same guy. And there are people. My brother was working with him at the time, and it was just different. He just wasn't the same. I used to talk to him once I left to college. I mean, forever, every day. But I talked to him a lot. He'd call me all the time. I wouldn't hear from him. And I just don't know if he didn't have the energy. He just wasn't all there. Maybe he knew inside. I don't know if he threw up the white flag. You know, he came from a generation. They weren't huge on, like, doctors because it was, like, showing weakness. But, yeah, I don't know what else to say beside, you go there. You know, he had been in poor health. But it's different when you show up at the hospital and they say, yeah, he's on life support. And you've heard that term, like, wait, what does that mean? Like, yeah, if we pulled the plug right now, he could not live on his own. Like, what? And then my mom, like, me and my brother were there. This is probably 2018. So Jeff's 28. I'm 33. My mom's like, Well, I can't do it. Someone's got to do it. He's not, I mean he's alive but he's not really alive. So it happened fast. It happened fast but it didn't really like I had kind of like a year realizing like something's just way off. So I don't know if I could mentally get wrap around that like this is. He's just getting old, he's getting a little sick. He doesn't quite realize yet. I don't know, it was tough and then it's just over. So it's just I think any piece of advice I would give to someone who has their parents around whether they're 50, 60, 70, however old they are, however old you are once you get to a certain age and, and that relationship no longer is like you're living under their roof and it's more of just it's almost you become a peer like you share your lives together with them. And what's weird, as they get older sometimes you help them out as they helped you out. Most of your life is really just value the time that you have with your family because it's going to come but you have no clue when that date is. And if you're 30 years old and your parents are 60 and 62, you might have 20 more great awesome years and that they're going to see your children. It's going to be sweet and something unexpected could happen. Someone gets sick, someone get an accident and it could end tomorrow. So anytime you get a chance because once it's over there's no God. I wish I could do this again with my dad. I mean I remember watching, I remember watching during Christmas break Jimmy Garoppolo had just been traded the Niners and they were playing the Jags and Jimmy lit him up. Up. I remember my dad wasn't quite even the same then. I think he lived another what would have been a couple more months after that. But I remember being on the couch in my, at my parents house sucks.

Katie Couric (68:17)

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Jasmine Crockett (70:44)

I'm Katie Couric. Jasmine Crockett, Democratic representative of Texas, is not known for holding back and our recent chat on Next Question is no exception. But when you hear how she got to where she is, her intensity makes perfect sense.

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John Middlekauff (72:53)

Huge Niner fan, born and raised in the Bay. Any interesting takes on Shanahan? Obviously is top five offensive head coach in the NFL. However, I can't help but feel like play calling has been very scripted in the lack of ability and game time adjustments. Because of this, the margin for error can be slim. As in everything in the game plan goes right, they'll win. If 10 to 20% of his plays don't work as expected, they end up in a close game against a team that they should destroy or lose to a good team they could easily beat. Will they get back to the NFC championship form this year? I do think we hear this a lot about coaches. I was watching on the plane right before the plane was taking off and I was like scrolling around YouTube. I saw this clip of Spags talking to the Kelsey brothers and he was talking about all of his years around Andy, just about how different the offense is now from when he showed up with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999. He was on that original staff to what they do now in practice, how different the concepts are. And Andy's always willing to adapt. You know, Andy Reid got his start in the NFL with Holmgren west coast offense and he's changed his offense over the years to different stuff. Now. Kyle's offense is never going to dramatically change like Coach Reeds is always going to be around the past. Kyle's is always going to be I would say predicated on the run. But you do have to look back and adapt and say how can we change things? And Jay Gruden said to me this last year is he thinks our drop pure drop back passing game sucks because Kyle doesn't want to drop back pass game like it's 2025 in the NFL. I'm sorry guys. We got to drop back and pass. You're paying a quarterback now $50 million a year who can throw the ball. Let's expand a little bit and it's, it's on him. I think he's. I admire a lot what Kyle stands for. Wants to shove the ball down your throat in the, in the run game. He values defense, he values defensive linemen. But for some weird reason he doesn't really value offensive linemen. He's admitted it. They will take skilled guys over offensive linemen now if you give them Trent Williams, I'll take Trent Williams. Most guys aren't Trent Williams. We should be taking guards and centers and backup tackles multiple times. Every draft game's won and lost in the trenches. Just take Owen D lineman. If anything Kyle should be able to create skill guys but he actually views it the other way. I can create offensive linemen. So that would be my one philosophical difference with the guy is his the way he looks at offensive linemen. It's like I do think that what his dad was able to do back in the 90s. The league's a lot different. Good teams back then might have had like two good defensive linemen. There are some teams now all four defensive linemen can pass rush. So if you have some shitty ass guard, he's going to get smart. I'd say NFC championship is seems a little bold but I do think that they could make the playoffs. Schedules might have the easiest schedule in the league. I think statistically they do. And it's one of those that like because you know some people always push back like don't try to overreact to schedule in, in the summer. True. Because you could have the Ravens on the schedule and if Lamar Jackson rolled his ankle the game before and he misses, it's a lot different game. Niners ain't playing the Ravens. Niners are playing a lot of the Jags and the Titans and the Colts and the Saints. If all things were ranked even 16th ranked offense, defense, head coach, middle of the pack for everything. And you had to choose your starting quarterback for the season with the goal to win the Super Bowl. Who are your top eight choices? I would go Mahomes. I would go Josh Allen and I would go Lamar Jackson would be my easy first three decisions. You know, people say that I'm. I don't mention Burrow enough. I would take Burrow fourth out of that group. I think Burrow's awesome. But I think in these type scenarios, I would take a little bit more mobile guys. I would go Herbert 5. I would go, you know, Stafford's a little older now. The one thing Jalen hurts gives me is the running element. But who his coach is kind of matters. That's the thing with certain quarterbacks. Like, what they do kind of matters. Like, you couldn't. If I put Jalen Hurts with Kyle Shanahan, it would not work. I mean, it just. It's not going to work. So I think what scheme you're running matters now. Could that coach play it? Stafford's a little older. CJ Stroud. I'm still high on rough little year. If the offensive line is not great, can be humbled quick. I think Jaden Daniels have to be a pretty hot pick right now. You know, golf, if the. If the offensive line sucks, like, he's in trouble because he can't fucking move. You know, the golf and the, you know what Kirk Cousins was four or five years ago, you give them bad offensive line, they're sitting duck. They just. They can't move. So I just think. What I think is great about the league right now is once you get past. So I go Mahomes, Josh, Lamar, Burrow, Herbert, jaden. I'll go C.J. my guy. Purdy. Who am I missing? I'm in Los Angeles. Stafford Baker. If Justin Fields doesn't work out for the jets, what do you think is next for him? Career backup gadget quarterback, new position. Exit the NFL to be accommodator. It's a good question. I would imagine if this year goes really bad, he won't be the quarterback for the jets next year. And then it's just he's going to be a backup, which he played it perfectly, right? He, like, was a starter, made a bunch of money because he was a top 15 pick. Then he went to the Steelers, got benched. But people are like, should he have been benched? And it was such a weird situation that some team is so desperate and they wanted to get rid of Aaron Rodgers so bad, they're like, here's $40 million, 30 of it, guaranteed. You're like, what? What are we doing here? So now you got Rogers or excuse me, now you got Fields of the Jets. That's going to be a disaster. It's not going to work. I promise you this, it is not going to work. I like Justin Fields. Seems like a great fucking guy, honestly. Wired like a backup in terms of clearly a high character guy, team first guy. I just don't think he's good enough to be a starting quarterback and I don't think the jets first time head coach, I don't. I think it's going to be weird, but good for him to get some money. Big fan. You've been a big inspiration for me. Two part question you've talked about quite a bit on how you didn't think about not being married for so many years and didn't care. I'm now 30 and pretty much all my friends are married except for me. Have a really good career and a good life friend group, but feel like I'm an outlier because I'm the only single one left. Any advice there? Football related question. What's the floor ceiling for the Steelers? Any hope Rogers goes Montana Chiefs mode and leads us to the AFC championship game. I would say one thing that helped me, if I'm being completely honest about my late 20s, even early mid-30s, I wasn't crazy social. I just, I was working a lot. My life balance was skewing like pretty out of whack. So I wasn't around it that often of just being around my friends and their wives and their girlfriends and feeling out of the loop that much, I guess. So it's also easy for me to be like, yeah, I didn't care. I wasn't inundated with it on a weekly basis. I was around it enough where it's like, yeah, I would like that. But I also, I was dead set on I'm not going to be do something that I don't want to do just because a bunch of other people do it. I was never gonna do that. I didn't do that. So I think you just gotta realize like, what are you gonna do? Just get married to get married? You're 30, that means you're really, really young, got a good career going, you got good people around your life. You sometimes just gotta. I'm not the most religious guy, but just feel like everything's gonna work out because there are things in your life that are out of your control and you look back. I mean, if I would have said 10 years ago what my life would be, I don't know if I would have believed it. So you just don't know how it's going to work and you just. I don't really know the dating scene in terms of like Internet dating DMs, however you're meeting people, I would just say actively date, actively try to meet people, be in the right head space. And I'm also a believer as you attract what you want. So when you are really serious and like, want to, you know, get into a serious relationship, you'll attract it. If, you know, successful men, if you're doing well in life, you're going to be okay. Like, you age well, I'll promise you that. And I would say the Steelers upside would be like 10, 11 games. If Rogers has a career renaissance, looks young, their defense is awesome and they can run the ball. I could See them Win 11 games in the playoff game. I do think that would be on the table and I think the floor would be. He gets injured. He doesn't play that many games. I think he would have an injury. You know, you're 41, you take a big hit. Think about. We can make fun of, like, how bad the Bengals defense was last year. I still feel like they hit hard. We know the Ravens hit hard. Miles Garrett said he's trying to fucking end his career, essentially, in a nice way. Buckle up, buttercup, because people are going to be coming for you. A year back, you mentioned Arizona and thought it was really scenic. Do you recall the name of the lake? I've been to Arizona once for my bachelor party to Scottsdale and Sedona and was a big fan of the desert geography in the mountains in the northern part of the state along with the lake. Any cities in Northern Arizona you would recommend? Prescott. Flagstaff. I have not been to Prescott. I have not even been to Sedona yet. Flagstaff is sweet. The lake I went to, I think was Pine Lake. I could be screwing that up. We were just there for a couple days. Maria was looking at some future client that ended up not working out. But I mean, when I. The lake, I mean, it was. It was solid. I wouldn't call it Lake Tahoe or anything. Flagstaff's cool. Sedona, I mean, I've. Everyone that goes there loves it, but yeah, it's a unique. It's, you know, the mountains in northern South Seattle are hard to beat. One of my favorite places in the world. When you were in your late teens and early twenties, who was your favorite player in each sport? Major League baseball, NFL and NBA. Baseball was easy. Barry Bonds, NFL, early 20s, probably Peyton Manning. That Would have been late teens, you know, late 90s, early 2000s. I love Peyton Manning, NBA. I don't really think I had. I mean, I loved Michael Jordan when I was a kid. I think I really had a favorite NBA player then. I hated Kobe because I hated the Lakers. And I still do. I mean, I hate the Lakers. I respect the brand. I respect how expensive it is, how big their fan base is. I mean, they do have, like, it's a real deal. But I fucking hate him. I really do. I hated Kobe, and then he retired. And I remember watching all these things. I'm like, I like everything about this guy. Had a weird relationship because I'm kind of a nomadic NBA guy in the 90s. Loved Michael Jordan. Bulls were my team, but I lived close Sacramento. And then they got good, and I was like, ah, this team's sweet. But then they couldn't beat the Lakers. That's when my Laker hate really started. And then I was around Stephen Clay doing stuff in the Bay, and I fell in love with that team. I'm like an NBA player. I'm just a nomad. AI Allen Iverson, maybe currently watching you on the Herd. And this is awesome. Congrats. Can you give us a behind the scenes of what it was like? How did Colin ask you were you nervous being live? How much? Prep. Love the podcast. I talked about this at the beginning of the podcast that I wasn't nervous. One, I'm not, like, auditioning. I'm not trying to get a job. So I look at it like he asked. He could ask me to do anything. At this point, what he's done for my life and my career, I would say yes. And two, I'm not going into a situation where I don't. I feel like when I do a podcast with him, One, I've watched a show or listen to a show for decades now, so I kind of know the way he ticks. I know the way he thinks. I've watched definitely last week the show a little more intently. Sometimes I'll have it on my office. And, like, the cadence of him and Jason, like, today is about, I'm sitting in Jason's seat. So I got to know, like, when I'm supposed to talk and you have people helping you out. It wasn't that intense because you have a lot of help. You have people that kind of tell you what you're doing. And I've done television. You know, when I first started in the Bay Area, I started doing television in, like, local tv. So I've had Earpieces in. I've been, you know, in a button up shirt with some makeup on my head, sitting on a studio. So it's not like something I've never done. And then my chemistry or just working with Colin. I mean, think how many shows we've done now the last three or four years for the volume on Sundays I've done, I can, I would imagine, 100 plus podcasts with him and most of our podcasts, 50 minutes to an hour. So I've just done a lot. It wasn't, it's the first time I'd ever done that, sat in this seat and done that for the show. But it wasn't that difficult just because I've done so many things with him. I followed him his entire career. I kind of know his takes. I know how to get him to get a little laugh. So I think this is also. If I had never done anything and you just sat me there, I would have been sweating bullets. I remember the first time I went on television in the Bay Area, it was very nerve wracking. I'd never been on television. Not saying I'm great or anything, but I just, I wasn't nervous at all. End of the day, I'm a podcaster. Like, this is, this is my job and I love it. I feel very, very fortunate I'm able to do it. In a weird way, there's not as much pressure when you do this, right? Like I'm just in a hotel room right now recording this and this is how I pay my bills. But when you do this every single day, especially me, I'm just, just me in front of a mic most of the time. Every once in a while we have, you know, John Schneider, John Spytic, no big deal. But Joe Klatt hit me back. Said he was just super busy, but we'll get him on. I got a couple other guys that I said they'll come on, but you just get used to doing this. So you just feel pretty comfortable with a mic and looking at yourself and talking. So it's one of those situations where they say this a lot in any line of work. The reps, the reps, the reps, it does matter. The more reps you do at something, the more comfortable you're doing. I saw Keegan Bradley. We'll have a Go Low podcast tomorrow. He won the tournament yesterday and he knocked out Tommy fleetwood on the 18th hole. And he said in the 18th hole he hit a shot. He knocked it like six, seven feet. And he said, I've hit that Exact same shot on the range 100,000 times. So when I stepped over the shot, I'm very comfortable doing it. I've done it a hundred thousand times. And when people ask me all the time, like, hey, I want to get into podcasting, I want to get into this, you just got to start, because even when you're doing it. And I've done a lot of podcasts. I had another podcast as well, and I've done this podcast before. We got on the volume that people didn't listen to, maybe people. Definitely people didn't see, but those reps and putting together a show and talking and just being there by yourself and having to do the content and having to create something semi interesting, even if 20. Whether 20 people are listening, 20,000 people are listening, 200,000 people are listening, or today, hundreds of thousands of people are watching. Like, every rep builds you up to a position where you can sit in the seat and just, like, do it. If I had to talk to Tom Brady tomorrow, right, and you just had to sit down with Tom Brady for an hour, do an interview, would I be a little intimidated? Sure. Tom Brady never met the guy, but would I be pretty comfortable after a couple questions in. Yeah, because this is what you do. So I think you get a situation like that. And again, I'm just. I look at it like I'm doing him. He's doing me a favor by everything he's done for me. So when he asked me to do something, my first answer is yes. It's not even, like, how much I'm getting paid. I don't know. Like, yeah, here's. Have this guy email me, you need me to buy my plane, Fly. I would have paid to come here. I would have paid to fly out here and to put myself at a hotel just to what I feel I owe the guy for what he's done for my life. Instead, they're putting me at the front of the bird. The guy, they living pretty nice in Delta. I never fly Delta Airlines, but when you do, you're like, oh, that's pretty nice. I'll talk about them Fugazi Friday. I wrote this down. Plain WI Fi, man. The best WI fi I've ever had on a plane was jsx because they used Starlink and the WI fi was elite. These other planes, you talk about a fugazi. Okay, last question. Big fan of the pod. I just wanted to get your take on the Kevin Durant being traded to the Rockets. You know what's funny and it's sad? I mean, I mentioned this today with Colin. I grew up 20, 25 minutes away from Arco arena where the Sacramento Kings played. And when I was in junior high, high school, they got really good and it became a really big deal. And when you have a team in a smaller town, you know, the Bay Area has obviously the warriors, but they have the Giants, the A's, the Raiders, the Niners. There's a lot going on. The. Look at, look at la. You get some of these markets where there's just so many teams. When you have a place like Oklahoma City or Sacramento with their basketball team, it's a really, really big deal. And I remember looking back on the devastation when Sac couldn't get over the hump against the Lakers. It was like it hurt the town. And looking back, they never recovered. But I do appreciate smaller markets in these situations. And sometimes as a smaller market, you get lucky. Like the warriors or excuse me, the warriors are not a small market. They used to be a low budget team, but they're not a small market team. They're big market. I mean, they've turned into like, I would say the Northern California Fornia version of the Lakers, but that's Steph Curry. The Lakers brand is bigger than the warriors brand, but you know what I mean. And the Kings got Chris Weber traded to them in the late 90s when he got caught getting high in a parking lot or something. And the Wizards just punted on him when Tyrese Halliburton tore his Achilles in whatever five, seven minutes into the game. Pacers are a little lucky that he's on their team. The Kings are such a fucking joke. They just traded to him Terrace Achilles. Not only does it devastate because you can't win the NBA championship, but that could change the course of his career. That was their opportunity to potentially win a championship. And now it's like, who knows they ever get back and you see Oklahoma City like, I get it. I was kind of bored. They don't do much for me. But I do appreciate how cool it is for their city. Yet in Game 7, when they were, the day that they were ended up winning the NBA championship, how ironic was it that it feels like Kevin Durant stole the show? Because Kevin Durant, it's weird, is just a bigger deal than the Oklahoma City Thunder. And a huge reason he's a big deal is because he became a superstar while he played for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And I went to those games, I went to games 1, 2, 5 and 7 in the Western Conference finals. The year the Warriors Ended up losing to Cleveland in game seven in the. In the NBA Championship. But that was the year that Clay had Game 6, and the warriors came back 31 on the Thunder. And I just remember thinking, like, this. This Thunder team looks incredible. They are so good. And Kevin and Russell, they were just so badass. And for whatever reason, he goes to the Warriors, I don't blame him. He didn't want to play with Russell Westbrook anymore, but after that Warrior situation, he's a special player. But it feels like these last five or six years have kind of just been wasted. Obviously, he had a torn Achilles in one of them, but Brooklyn and Phoenix, I mean, listen, I've been in the Scottsdale area now for whatever, three, four years. It's a good sports town because there are a lot of people that love sports. They just don't like those sports teams. Most people are like Vikings fans, Bulls fans, Chiefs fans, Niner fans. Everyone I know loves sports. They just don't care about, really, the Phoenix teams. Just. I think that brand's kind of dead there. I really do. And he wanted to go there. It's a cool place. But it feels like he's kind of wasted his last couple years and now he's going to Houston. Who, in theory, should be perfectly suited for him. I don't know. He's 37. He gets injured a lot. I'd be stunned if it. I mean, it just does feel like it's not going to end well. He's made a lot of money. I know he always says, I love to hoop. I love to hoop. It's like, well, do you really like. Or do you just like to hoop your way? Because some of your ideas. I think he's got great ideas. Like, some people, like, he's. He's creatively great once the basketball's in his hands, but, like, as when he becomes the GM of himself, like, where should I play? Who should I play with? What should I do? I think that's where he needs people in his life to be like, yeah, you know, it's like the director. Like when a guy's, like, banging out a record. Yeah. I think those three songs should not make the album. I'd put those two songs. He doesn't have that guy because everyone's working for him. He's got a bunch of people just telling him, oh, yeah, Kevin, great idea. Oh, hell yeah, Kevin. I think they just got into the spot of, like, couldn't get out of his own way because he could have been a player. The Kyrie, Brooklyn thing I mean, that was crazy. Even the Phoenix thing I thought was pretty crazy. The Houston thing, I don't know if I had to guess right now, probably like go the second round next year and be done. Go the second round a couple times, be a highly paid guy. But I'd be if I was a betting man right now. Does Kevin Durant win another title? That's what's crazy about sports. The Patriots did not win a championship when they had Randy Moss in the greatest offense of all time. And then their dynasty restarted when Julian Edelman became their best wide receiver and a bunch of other random guys throughout. So it's like the Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook team. If you played a seven game series of that team in their peak against this Thunder team, I think I take Kevin KD's team, yet they never won a title and this team, shit, they might. If you're a betting man, they probably win like two of the next three sports, man, you never know the volume.

Jasmine Crockett (96:41)

On the latest episode of Next Question with Me, Katie Couric, I sat down with Jasmine Crockett, Democratic representative of Texas. She's holding down the fort for her party in one of the most conservative states in the union.

Jemele Hill (96:54)

I think that ultimately who will become the Democratic nominee for president will be someone that has been out there and has shown that they won't allow themselves to be punched and just say thank you like they will punch back.

Jasmine Crockett (97:08)

Listen to Next Question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Dan Flores (97:16)

I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season one, Taser Incorporated.

John Middlekauff (97:33)

I get right back there and it's bad.

Dan Flores (97:36)

Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Colin Cowherd (97:46)

Why is a soap opera western like Yellowstone so wildly successful? The American west with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6, where we'll delve into stories, stories of the west and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today.

John Middlekauff (98:09)

Listen to the American west with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Jemele Hill (98:15)

I'm Jemele Hill, host of the sports and politics podcast Spolitics. And on the latest episode of Spolitics House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joins me for a candid conversation about the state of the Democratic Party Party. What do Republicans say to you privately that they won't say publicly?

John Middlekauff (98:30)

Many of them are in fear of their political lives. We continue to to say to them.

Colin Cowherd (98:35)

You were elected to defend your constituents and there's life after Congress.

Jemele Hill (98:39)

Make sure to listen to this episode of Spolitics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an iHeart podcast.