← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Colin Cowherd Podcast - NFL’s Toughest Schedules, Expectations For Aaron Rodgers? Expanded College Football Playoff
01:00:13
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- [00:00]
Advertiser/Host
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:04]
Colin Cowherd
What's up, y'?
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John Middlekoff
All?
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Colin Cowherd
Summer's got a different tempo. Everything's a little looser, brighter. One plan turns into another. You hear something, you stay a little longer. Next thing you know, you're somewhere you didn't plan to be. It's those in between moments. That's where the ideas hit. Conversations stretch out. Little memories sneak up on you. And sometimes it's just about what's in your hand. That color, that chill. The new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks. Guava and passion fruit flavors with mango pineapple flavored pearls. Yeah, that feels like summer before you even taste it. Funny how one small stop becomes the best part of the day. Start your summer rhythm with Starbucks. Try the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks.
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John Middlekoff
Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts why
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Advertiser/Host
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John Middlekoff
Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful. This is Daniel Cormier from the Daniel Cormier Show. This podcast is sponsored by Total Wireless, the official wireless partner of ufc. Power doesn't wait in the octagon or outside of it. You either make the move or you miss the moment. That's why you need a network that's just as powerful as you are. With Total Wireless, you get unlimited 5G data keeping you in the action from the walkouts to the knockouts. Now that's a total power move. Make your total power move today. Visit totalwireless.com or stop by your neighborhood Total Wireless Store. Additional terms apply. See totalwireless.com for details. You know how it's never really about where you're going.
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Colin Cowherd
It's about who you're going with. The right people can turn any drive into a great memory.
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John Middlekoff
That's something Toyota really believes.
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Colin Cowherd
They design vehicles around real life and
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John Middlekoff
real people, the ones who make plans
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Colin Cowherd
happen and bring everyone together inside. Everything is built with passengers in mind. Comfortable seating, smart layouts and space that actually works so everyone can relax and enjoy the ride.
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John Middlekoff
There's room for the people, room for
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Colin Cowherd
the stuff, and room for the moments that happen along the way. Because when people are the destination, the your ride is important. Learn more@toyota.com and find the vehicle that fits your people.
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Advertiser/Host
The volume.
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Colin Cowherd
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John Middlekoff
No. I watched it in my freshman year in college. It was my favorite show on television.
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Colin Cowherd
Colin, there is no question. NFL punished ESPN five years in a row, gave them crap games, punished them and it was their way of slapping their hand and saying, don't glamorize the ugly parts of our game, which our allegations to begin with probably most at some point were true, you know, on some steroid, you know, performance enhancing stuff. I don't remember exactly.
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John Middlekoff
Colin. It was the league. I mean, it basically paralleled what was going on in the NFL at the time. It was real, but it was just fake.
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Colin Cowherd
And so I, and I worked at ESPN and I said it on the air when I was there. I'm like, oh, we're being punished. There's no question. So do you think they punished the Niners and Kyle Shanahan?
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John Middlekoff
Well, I think we got to go back to Belichick. He was always at those league meetings. He refused to take the picture. He was the one guy that always really got after it. And I'm not even talking about the suspensions and the stuff. He always had a big beef with the people in the league office, had never coached, most of them had never played. They did not know what it was like to try to operate the thing, making the money. And it's where he always butted heads and he took it to the nth degree. I do think Kyle, I mean, Kyle's had money since he was a kid, you know, so Kyle carries himself and now he's really successful. I don't think he's afraid to piss people off. Right. He's not afraid to piss people off in his own building. He is not happy with the international travel and specifically this game. I don't disagree with him. I think Australia, I think we could talk big picture. Like, I'm not one of those people. I know you're not either. I'm not just like anti successful people. You're either growing or dying. The NFL, I think, is it tapped out domestically? How much bigger can it get? You know, no one wants to just, well, they're making enough that that's not how people think. Now. Is this going to work in 20, 30 years? We'll look back. I don't know, but I could see Australia. I mean, these two teams have to fly 16 years. I thought when he was at the owner's meetings with Florio and LaFleur kind of poked him. His main beef was with the Rams. You lived in Los Angeles for a long time. The 49ers have all their home games at Levi's Stadium and they have two other home games in Los Angeles where they have. I went to a game there once, felt like 75% Niner fans.
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Colin Cowherd
Absolutely.
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John Middlekoff
Same deal here in Arizona. They have multiple Niner home games. So the Rams, when they were going to get one of their games, they found out they're going to Australia, they start going to the league. You know, Kevin Dimoff, very well connected. We want the Niners. And so Kyle's going. Well, of course they want us because at their home game they got to go on silent count. So I. But I also think Kyle's much more in the school of a Bill or Sean Payton where he's not afraid to piss people off. It doesn't mean like Andy Reid, just because he's a nice guy isn't making his displeasures known. I actually have no problem with the no Monday night game because I thought the league did give him a solid. They do get the Dolphins and the Cardinals.
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Colin Cowherd
Yes.
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John Middlekoff
This Australia game's huge. Whoever wins that game, I think we would both agree, is going to feel like three wins because of the travel. But if you do lose it to get the Dolphins and the Cardinals, if you're the Niners, I think it's a pretty easy two home games. I actually think the Monday night game, if you told me I could get the next week the Dolphins at home because they're good, by the time they land, it'll be like Friday night. They do get Saturday, Sunday to kind of. Because once you go the Monday night game, then it direct, you know, just get you off a little bit. Now if you win the Australia game, it won't necessarily matter. You'll be feeling pretty good. But I don't think the Niners necessarily got screwed with that. You could argue, Colin, the Rams and the packers playing that Wednesday, Thanksgiving, they don't get a buy. Their buy is the previous week, where usually you get another week till you play on Sunday. That's their buy from Minor. Unless I'm misreading everything that I saw. Am I correct on it? And then they play the next that Wednesday. So they get the week off. Like they play on Sunday week off and then they play on Wednesday because the league. Because of those rules couldn't play the previous weekend on Saturday because of college and high school football. Right. So I'd argue the Rams, they don't just get a normal buy throughout. The packers, too. Like, that sucks. You don't think they're displeased with that? Like, this is, this is what happens with the expansion, the international game.
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Colin Cowherd
Yes.
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John Middlekoff
These teams, you know, a lot of these GMs talk to these coaches. They are furious. Now, a lot of them don't have the juice or the equity to say what Kyle's saying. Well, they're all thinking it.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah. And, and, and I will say this, that the international games used to get Jacksonville. I think the NFL has looked at research, looked at merch sales and said, guys, we got some mom here. We are really building something. So I will give the NFL credit. And I mean, you know, I own the volume. I mean, I, I know the understanding is you don't stand pat or you get gobbled up. You have to grow. That's the reality of business. You're trying to create scale. It makes you more powerful. You can buy better shows. If you stand pat in any business, you're dead. So I, the NFL and I, I, I'll tell you something. When I go, I go to Europe, I try to go every year with my son. It's our, it's our kind of dad son thing. We try to. He goes and he's still in college. He'll go over, do a class abroad every year in the summer and I'll go over early with him. His mom will go over late. And I see NFL stuff. Not a ton of it, but I see some of it. And so it's like, oh, yeah, you know, you'll go to a sports bar, you'll go to a pub, and you'll see stuff and it's like, oh, look at that. And so I'm going to defend the NFL and the international games. I don't, I, you know, Brazil felt like, wow, that is just that. Remember the Packers, Eagles went over there. But, you know, I just, I always push back. I'll give you an example. College Football Playoff, it's going to maybe go to 24. Everybody freaks out, John. Well, the regular season won't matter. Well, the College football playoff was 12 last year and the ratings were up from previous years. So they, so they tripled the size of the playoff or actually had a playoff and the ratings went up. Well, nobody will care about Auburn, Alabama, folks. Auburn versus Alabama is going to matter in that state for the rest of My life, Texas, Oklahoma, Those teams could be.05 Texas, Oklahoma is going to matter. I grew up in Washington State, the Apple Cup. Some years it was insane because somebody was going to the Rose Bowl. It was. I went to several. It was always huge. So I mean that it's. And we can circle back to that later. But my point is, I think international is just part of it.
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John Middlekoff
Well, I'll give you 1. The 49ers, they play two games, right? Australia and Mexico City. They want to go to Mexico City. I think if you just asked casual guy who's got the biggest Mexican fan base, they'd be like, Cowboys, Raiders. I bet if you quantified it, the Niners would be every bit as big, if not bigger.
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Colin Cowherd
Right.
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John Middlekoff
They actively wanted to play that game in Mexico City. They did a couple of years ago. I think ownership wise, I don't know if Kyle would agree with. They'd probably do it every year, you know, kind of like Jacksonville with London.
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Colin Cowherd
Right.
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John Middlekoff
And I think, you know, Kyle Salary and John Salary keeps going up. They're like, hey, we'll go to Mexico City every other year. They want that. They have no problem with that game. I think the Australia, the Brazil, like, I clearly, anyone that's met some from Australia, they love sports over there. Yes, I do think the time zone, you know, as someone that likes golf and you watch it sometimes when time zone gets off, look, they have to play that game at 10:35 Australian. Time to kick off now for them, they'll acclimate. Weird time for the people over there. Like, I, I understand the UK, London, France, they've expanded into Germany.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
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John Middlekoff
16 hour flight, Colin. I mean, you've been on some long flights. That's a long time, man. That's. That's a long. What would you guess if they're playing that game, technically Thursday for us, Friday, that they leave Saturday, the previous week.
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Colin Cowherd
Honestly, it's, It's. I've never gone to Australia. I once asked Lachlan Murdoch. You know the Murdochs are from Australia.
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John Middlekoff
Yeah.
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Colin Cowherd
And Lock. Lachlan obviously owns Fox. I asked him once, hey, you know, I was thinking about going to Australia. Lachlan's a really nice guy. I mean, just really, really cool guy. I mean, if you're around him, it's. He had a party at his house once. I was invited to. I walked in, he's knocking down Australian beer. Like he's just. It's a regular guy.
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John Middlekoff
Fosters.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
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John Middlekoff
Yeah.
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Colin Cowherd
I mean, he's just, he's got a. Just a cool setup in his house. But he said, ah, it's like, you live in Manhattan beach, don't you? It's. It's just like Manhattan beach don't go. So I think for a lot of the west coast players, you know, California has sort of an Australia feel to it. Now. If you take, you know, I. I don't know, I. People grumble about change and growth, but I got to tell you, if I was a pro player and I got to play in Brazil or Australia, I think maybe if I was a veteran, I wouldn't love it. But if I could open my season there, I think it would be kind of cool.
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John Middlekoff
I think players in general are less phased, Right. No different than, like, I think sometime employees or whatever are less phased by. Than management. Like, I think everyone looks at it through a different lens. I think that's something that keeps coaches up at night and front offices up at night.
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Colin Cowherd
Sure.
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John Middlekoff
Do you think Chris McCaffrey's lost much sleep about it? He's probably already got some hyperbaric chamber that will travel. In the travel case, you know, Matt Stafford, they're already preparing, sending food over there. So if it doesn't, you know, the players, they adapt. I remember working for Pat Hill, he's like, players adapt so much faster than coaches believe. You know, pro college, you name it. You could play on the moon tomorrow. They'd be like, okay, where do I put my cleats? And I think sometimes. And we talk a lot about it because the coaches talk all the time, so we react to them. Then you hear the players talk. Yeah, no big deal. We'll be ready. And you know what I found fascinating about the Rams is, you know, whenever I come down to do your show and I'm in Los Angeles, obviously, I spent most of my life in California, but I'm from Northern California. You know, in Northern California, the Giants, the warriors under Steph has become this huge brand. And obviously the Niners are like the Yankees of football up there. L A has that. It's just the Lakers and the Dodgers. The Rams are one of the rare. They're way bigger nationally.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
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John Middlekoff
Than they are. Like, you go locally. Yeah, you go locally. The Dodgers feel like the Yankees down there. Right. And the Lakers are just have historic, ingrained, soul to the people. The Rams just don't. And people, you know, some people push back. It's like, guys, they went to St. Louis for a long time and they were Super Bowls.
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Colin Cowherd
They were the Orange county team that was really, if you looked at la, was Raiders territory. Chargers was San Diego, the Rams. I remember Bob Starr was the play by play guy. You know, the Rams never felt like la. The Raiders felt like la. So you know, I, I mean, I don't know, I just, I mean I think they've done a great job in Los Angeles to build. I mean, how lucky are they? They have Stafford and McVeigh and Stan Kroenke and there's a lot I see during the season. You see a lot of LA Rams stuff in the city. But I don't know, you know the other schedule, it's funny, people say, you know, the toughest schedule was the Bears. And I'm like, I think Kansas City schedule, having to face Josh Allen, Matt Stafford, Joe Burrow three weeks in a row, all on the road, followed by Drake May, Justin Herbert, Brock Purdy. I'm like, that's six Pro bowl ish quarterbacks in a row. If you go 500, I mean honestly, you'd feel good about that. The Bear schedule is fascinating to me. So I do believe the NFL takes teams and wants to make sure that certain markets, I mean we always think the NBA is market sensitive, but Chicago is a massive television market and a huge sports town and was dormant in the NFL. It felt like for 15 years. The Bears are supposed to have the hardest schedule. Zero teams off a buy. Carolina, Minnesota to start, not brutal. At the end of the year they get Green Bay and Detroit both at home again. That's about as good as you're going to do in division. The toughest game, Seattle. They get extra rest and then they get Jacksonville, New England, you know, those are go either way games both at home. I looked at their schedule, then I looked at Denver's first six games or Kansas City's gauntlet of quarterbacks. I just. For all the advertisements last year, New England had the easiest schedule. It was ridiculous. I remember looking at it. The Niners schedule last year just jumped off. It jumped off your phone. You're like, jesus, this is just bad quarterback after bad quarterback. I didn't think the Bear schedule is that bad at all.
- [18:22]
John Middlekoff
Yeah, I mean, unlike college football, you know, Notre Dame's getting crushed. They go, well, we scheduled Michigan State 10 years ago and they were good. Now they suck. You know, in the NFL just rotates. So part of the reason I think if you look at the NFC west and the AFC west, they're playing each other this year. So those divisions, it's like are already good. And then it's like, oh, Seattle, let's play Kansas City, let's play Denver. Denver plays The Niners. And the other thing with the Bears last year is two of their three wins were against the Packers, a team that they just couldn't beat forever, and now they have momentum and confidence against them. The other thing is, if you just pull up their schedule that week three at night, Monday Night Football against the Eagles jumps out. I watched that game on my couch on Black Friday last year. Ben Johnson destroyed the Philadelphia Eagles, and Vic Fangio's defense ran it right down their throat. So to me, the Giants and the commanders got a lot of respect. They're both getting four, I think, combined eight primetime games. Yeah, Jaden Daniels had one of the great rookie seasons we've ever seen, but last year he was banged up. He's slim. It's like, is there coach any good? Like, Ben Johnson's a star and clearly Caleb, his ceiling. Who knows if he'll ever hit it, but he's damn good, right? Can Jaden even stay on the field? What? Does Caleb ever get hurt either? Is Washington's roster that good? You know, the Giants, I. Who doesn't like John Harbaugh, it's been very impressive. Same resume as McCarthy, we all think McCarthy and the Steelers think, you know, we'll see. John Harbaugh jolted back when he got Lamar Jackson, one of the most talented players we've ever seen. So I feel really confident about the Bears carrying it over. Those are the two teams that are getting the same treatment in terms of primetime games. It's like, I don't know, you know, can Jackson dart stay on the field the whole time?
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Colin Cowherd
Last year he was running around.
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John Middlekoff
He got hurt.
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Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
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John Middlekoff
The one thing you, I, you feel good about is, like, Caleb and Ben Johnson, you know, I, I would buy more stock in Ben Johnson if he was on the S and P. And clearly Caleb should just improve because his improvement isn't on stuff that's very tough to reach. His improvement is like, hit a wheel route, hit the out route on time. I'm not high on Minnesota. I've had Vikings sneaky, have a big fan base. I hear from them a lot.
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Colin Cowherd
Oh, no, no. They.
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John Middlekoff
In the last 25 seasons, we've had like five bad seasons. Like, they are a very consistent organization. This quarterback situation, though, you know, the JJ situation, if he doesn't win that job, to me, he won't even be on the team. Week one. Kyler's just a pretty fickle guy. He can look good. He can get injured.
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Colin Cowherd
Oh, you know, you've watched him in Arizona.
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John Middlekoff
Yeah, they gave him a couple million dollars To Carson. Carson Wentz didn't just get a veteran, minimum, no money. They guaranteed him seven figures. He's going to make $3 million. That's like the going rate for kind of like an older veteran backup. So they're hedging their bet a little bit. Like this could go up now. They have an excellent coaching staff, but to me, Minnesota is a little bit on tilt. Yeah, I'm betting against them. Same now.
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Colin Cowherd
I'm betting for Kyler. I kind of. I kind of feel like he's not going to be Sam Darnold. Good, because I think Darnold's better, but I'm kind of rude. I've always been a Kyler fan, understand all the nonsense. And if he fails in Minnesota, then it's on everybody else that attains him. I do think he's going to play well. He's a motivated player and I do think he's talented as hell. And they went out and got, you know, Juwan Jennings. Like they have real players here. I think they're somewhat limited. Although it should be noted the Vikings last year in division were four and two. That division's weird. It's a weird division.
- [21:52]
John Middlekoff
It's kind of like the North. You look up on Thursday Night Football and the Browns are beating the Bengals or the Steelers. You're like, what's going on? Just because it is. That northern element of football to me is like anytime those six teams play each other or I guess eight teams in the. In the AFC and NFC north, you're never shocked with an outcome. The schedule that by far to me is the hardest. And we knew it because again, we knew who everyone was playing. We just didn't know the dates. That's the crazy part about the NFL is it makes a big deal over something we already knew is the Patriot schedule is, oh, brutal.
- [22:25]
Colin Cowherd
I mean, they are on the road every third week for a long trip and they just.
- [22:29]
John Middlekoff
It's a lot of Seattle's and you know, Bears and Packers and Lions and Chargers. Obviously they play the Bills twice, the Chiefs, the Broncos. I do think the jets, who were an absolute laughingstock last year, do have a lot of good players.
- [22:46]
Colin Cowherd
Oh, God, their offense, if you take. If you put. If I said Sam Darnold goes back to New York and they had a good coach. Look at the jets offensive. I mean, they got both tackles set, running back, wide receiver, tight end. They actually have whoever the next quarterback is, is walking into a great space.
- [23:07]
John Middlekoff
They're assuming Geno is just not just completely shot. They're probably more likely a five or six win team than like a two win team. Yeah, you know it's hard. I mean we see a lot of Jim Tomsula won five games. You know it's sometimes I think people underestimate, you know like the season the Raiders and the jets have. That doesn't happen to even bad franchises. That that's a once in five years you have awful. You go ask Andy what six and eleven. Six and eleven feels brutal. Right. So you have the two or three win seasons. That's as bad as it gets. The Patriots. To me, I mean that, that opening night at Seattle, that place that, that place is going to be just. It's going to feel like an SEC game. You won't be able to hear yourself think that team is Seattle's clearly more talented. That's going to. That's a tough start spot on Wednesday night. Godspeed, Mike.
- [24:03]
Colin Cowherd
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- [28:13]
Colin Cowherd
So Aaron Rodgers signs a one year deal with the Steelers. You know I was thinking about this today, is that if you go back, you know, Aaron's career has had so many parallels with Brett Favre's. It's so weird, even though they're very different people, that the careers end and you're like, yeah, I kind of thought they'd get more Super Bowls. They both got kind of rigid at the end in Green Bay, right? Like they didn't want to learn. They just didn't love their situation. They were both talked about retirement in Green Bay. They both end up going to the Jets. It doesn't work for either of them. And then they go to better franchises. Aaron goes to the Steelers and Favre goes to the Vikings. Well, Favre's first year in Minnesota is one of my favorite years ever. He goes 33 and 33 touchdowns, seven pick. It was a magical year. It's one of the great NFL stories the last 50 years in the league it was in. I was rooting for them so hard that year until that terrible pick against. Was it Arizona?
- [29:13]
John Middlekoff
Awful.
- [29:14]
Colin Cowherd
Awful. But you know, I look at Aaron coming back for a year. The older you get, Tom Brady would tell you this, the more committed and obsessed you have to be. LeBron would tell you this because you're just. Your body doesn't react. It needs extra rest. It just. The reality is you age easier to get injured. You think there's a chance, I mean, DK Metcalf is on the slide. Still not a great O line. What kind of year do you think Aaron has his quarterback rating? We don't talk about QBR much. Has been in the like 23rd, 26th, 25th in the league. What kind of year do you think he has?
- [29:55]
John Middlekoff
Tom Brady, that 45 year old season just no longer wanted to get hit the team, that team was way more talented. They had younger core players that once Baker got there, the next couple years was making playoff runs and were a legitimate. Remember they went toe to toe with the Rams.
- [30:10]
Colin Cowherd
He didn't want to get him. Stafford's the only old quarterback that is willing to stand in. I was talking to one of his best friends last night. I was in la. I flew to Chicago and hit. One of his best friends was at a party I was at and I said, you know, tell Matt I have not that you care. I said, I really respect the fact that Matt is The last old guy in the league that will let go of the ball knowing he's going to get drilled. Aaron doesn't want it. Brady, the last year, Tom didn't want it.
- [30:38]
John Middlekoff
Elon, how could you? I mean, at that point in time, Tom at 45, like, what am I doing this for? Aaron did last year with that once his wrist broke to battle through that. Is he going to do that again for a team that now he has evidence that, yeah, our ceiling's only so high. You use the Minnesota example. I just pulled up their stats. Adrian Peterson, who was one of the great prospects of all time, was in like year two, had 18 touchdowns. Pretty sure they had just traded within the last couple years for Jared Allen, who'd go on to have a Hall of Fame career. He was an all. He was like T.J. watt five years ago that that team was just so much more physically gifted with young guys in their prime than this Steeler operation. Remember, him and McCarthy, like, had a bad breakup and, you know, time heals all wounds. And I guess maybe you forget, you
- [31:27]
Colin Cowherd
know, this, this, this is funny. Like, I remember when he was fired
- [31:32]
John Middlekoff
after the Arizona game. And that was very unlike Green Bay to fire a coach in season. And it was pret they lost to a terrible Arizona team at home, like 13 to 3 or something. Mike was fired on Monday morning.
- [31:43]
Colin Cowherd
I remember when Facebook was younger as a company now it's meta. And there was a story I read somewhere about, you know, hookups. Facebook hookups from high school or hookups from college. People that dated for years and years. Now they were in their 40s. They go on Facebook, they can reconnect. They reconnect. And that, that it was like. And I forget what the article was, but the article was, your memories are much greater than reality. Like, your memories are, oh, the sex was good, or oh, I had so much fun with her. And then you reconnect on Facebook and after about two dates, you're like, oh, God, this is why I dumped him. Or I dumped her. And it's the same way as people want to pretend that Mike and Aaron. It wasn't that bad. It was bad. I had two players on the packers that I had this really well sourced. They're like, Aaron couldn't stand Mike. Like, the play would come in from the huddle. Aaron was like, Aaron. I think one year with Mike, maybe it was the last year led the NFL in throwaways. Basically he would just, if Mike called a play, didn't like, he would get the ball, look around, throw it out of bounds. It was awful. And by the way, they're not the same guy. One guy looks like a Milwaukee cop, one guy looks like an actor. You know, like they're just not. Their sensibility is totally different. One guy's a little, and I think Mike's underrated as a coach. I think Aaron maybe is overrated a little bit now in the last several years as a quarterback. But this idea that it was okay, Aaron, you know, who are we kidding here? Aaron can be difficult. I mean, I've known three, four people with the Packers. I've known players, coaches. Aaron's moody, Aaron's difficult. And that's fine. He has every right to be a unique personality. But this idea they were Kumbaya is just bullshit.
- [33:27]
John Middlekoff
No, it got really bad. Remember, there was a lot of staff movement those last couple years. A lot of pressure about some underachievements in some of their playoff runs. The defense was pretty embarrassing. But again that that's what, 2018. I mean, we're almost halfway through 2026. So like you said, the separation, clearly they've rekindled a little bit over the years. Just BSing. There's a big difference of someone, you know, I'm glad I don't work with you anymore. But you could be Internet friends or texts here and there, right Then to spend the amount of time the offensive play caller and the quarterback in the NFL in an operation. Say one thing about Mike McCarthy. Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. He's not taking the Jags and the Cardinals job. I mean, this is, those are three of the most glamorous jobs in the history of American sports. This is, this is a team that is under the microscope. Their fan base is massive. You saw the pressure cooker a little bit last year and that's where I think Aaron took pride in. Like I'm playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Play hurt. Even though they had no shot. I guess I'm not surprised. I mean, by all accounts it looks like he got a race. Right. Which is clearly why he was holding out. But I, I, I, I think this thing, if you were betting the likelihood that it kind of goes like last year a little bit better or could go worse, you would bet on the odds that 42 year old quarterback, it goes worse.
- [34:48]
Colin Cowherd
Well also, do you think as Mike McCarthy built his Pittsburgh staff. Okay, so it was ugly at the end and the feeling was Aaron won and got Mike whacked. Okay. You don't think people hold little grudges? I mean, a little bit. What do you Think Mike's been saying, because, you know, I don't think Mike. I think Mike would like to play Will Howard and Drew Aller. I really do. I think Mike McCarthy wants to. He wants to get.
- [35:12]
John Middlekoff
You don't think the owners will allow that?
- [35:14]
Colin Cowherd
I don't think the owners let it go. I don't. And Omar Khan's powerless. He's irrelevant. I think the owners, the Rooneys, want to compete. Omar Khan is, in my opinion, one of the weaker GMs. He doesn't have any say here. What I believe to be true is if you and I had a terrible breakup last couple years and we came back and I hired a staff and I didn't know where you were and then you eventually came back, don't you think over the course of the months where I didn't know where you were, I'd be saying, well, yeah, this is what John does. Just guys just, you gotta, you know, boy, he's this guy, you know, he's a lot of work, he's, you know, super talented. But now I just think it's human nature. As Aaron disappears and is mysterious that McCarthy in private meetings with his new staff. Remember, the Steelers don't fire coaches. John McCarthy is going to be there probably until he retires. He's going to be there eight years.
- [36:19]
John Middlekoff
Aaron's going to get it. He's going to get his own quarterback in the next couple of years.
- [36:22]
Colin Cowherd
So Mike's there for another seven to eight years. Aaron's there for one year. So Mike is probably, you know, in closed door meetings over coffee, he's like, listen, we play nice. We say nice stuff publicly. The owners, I honestly believe deep down Mike's like, listen, this is what the owners want. The Rooney family, let's just be good stewards of the franchise. I don't think that's a conspiracy theory. I think that's what's happening. And you play nice to the cameras and you say the nice stuff. But let me ask you, if you were the coach of the Steelers and you knew you had a long Runway, wouldn't you just want to see if the young guys can play? Let's just sit here and think and
- [36:58]
John Middlekoff
play to the moment that they, Tomlin quit or whatever and Rooney did the press conference and he says we don't. Because he was kind of getting peppered like, isn't it time to maybe just rip the band aid off and just kind of reset for a year? And I think it's Art the third or the fifth or. That's not what we do. Here we come. And they are, they are the opposite of the Sam Hinkey, you know, Tank Sixers and which I can respect, but say they go 8, 9 or 9 and 8 and either miss the playoffs by game or get bounced. You're just in the same situation next year. But Aaron, it's not like he's going to come back for a third year. Right? And who's to say that Aaron can even make it through the year? Here's the other thing. Older players, historically guys and quarterbacks at 35, started breaking down. Now that number has been pushed back with health and Aaron clearly takes it seriously. But over the last couple years, a guy that's not exactly, exactly Lamar Jackson or anything has a torn Achilles. He broke his wrist, so he doesn't move around as well anymore. Their offensive line last year, you know, their left tackle's got a neck issue. They just declined his fifth year option. They just invested in somewhat of a project offensive tackle. Who's to say that he's going to make it through the, the season and play 17 games? It's just, it's. He's had two pretty major injuries over the last. Because that older players, you're, you're just a little more brittle. You definitely don't move as fast. One of Aaron's superpowers was always being able to get away. Even when you think about Favre on those Minnesota, that last year in Minnesota, he was excellent. The next year I worked for the Eagles, he got hurt when we were supposed to play him and his obviously was never the same. Remember, he got slammed like the goal line in a Sunday Night Football game. You just. Because you're just not quite as quick, even though your body goes. Well, I've made this move a million times. Well, this ain't 2017 or this isn't 2021. So I would just bet on the, the health to me would be a major, major question. That's the same thing with any of these older quarterbacks. That's why Stafford, you know, kind of got to pick your spots. I, you got to sit in there maybe when you're playing the Niners in Seattle, but if we're playing some random team like it's just hit the ground. Peyton Manning did a really good job of that throughout his career. Look at him. By the end of his career, his neck and shoulder didn't work. So you just, It's a, it's a brutal where there's nothing, there's nothing like this that the hits these guys take. And Aaron's Taken a lot over the years.
- [39:20]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah. So I did want to address the college football thing. So it looks like they're going to move in the direction of the 2014 playoff. And again, I did not grow up in a traditional family, you know, blah, blah, blah. So I like change. I don't like all change. Don't screw the Masters. Don't screw with March Madness. I mean there are some things I just think are, I mean I literally watch every shot the last couple days of the Masters. Like I just don't screw with it. And I think there are some things you can tweak. I think rules are very tweakable. But when people say college basketball, Colin, I mean it's, there are so many teams in the tournament, it's made college basketball's regular season irrelevant. Well, college basketball's regular season is three times as long as the 12 game college football regular season games. Right, right. Also in College Basketball with 68 teams, we don't have really, I mean anybody with life. We don't really argue on selection Sunday, you know, about a legitimate team not getting in. In college football we went to a 12 team playoff. Notre Dame had an argument to get in like that. That was a real argument. Now I said I thought Miami deserved more than Notre Dame, but Notre Dame had their argument. Right. Like that's just with 12, if you go to 24, like college basketball, you're going to get out of legitimate big time arguments. The second thing here is college football is more popular than college basketball and it's not particularly close college basketball. I remember telling Doug Gottlieb this. He admits it now, but at the time he, because he loved college basketball, he said college basketball is like a three week sport. College football is a four month sport. Now with the playoff it's a five. It's almost, you know, September, October, November, December, it's a four and a half month sport. So college football can doesn't have to play by college basketball rules. I understand that people say it can ding the regular season, but the way college football ended my entire life and I've been a fan of college football. It's the first sport I really fell in love with baseball and colle football. John it used to be sports writers voted on who should be number one. Then it was the stupid BCS system and then it was, I mean it was just in, it's gone. It was computers, it's been sports writers. It's like guys, we've all thought college football was the best movie with a ludicrous ending. So now we're just going to have a longer ending. And the other knock I have on college football as a gigantic fan is there's always been this kind of scarcity of big games where like Labor Day weekend, you're like, oh, I want to watch it. And you're like, there's only two great games because with a 12 team playoff, Notre Dame almost guaranteed to be in and two James Madison's, you're like, well then it's like a nine team playoff. Nobody wants to play big games. You get to 16 to 24. Okay, now, now I'm willing to play that tough Notre Dame out of conference game. By the way, Notre Dame's Pete Bavacqua knows he's for the expansion because he knows in his conference he needs usc, he needs a Texas.
- [42:41]
Advertiser/Host
He needs.
- [42:42]
Colin Cowherd
They have Texas scheduled in a couple years, although the game is very fluid. So my take is college football's ending always underwhelmed. It got very sec. It was always like, well, there should be more teams involved in. So I don't have a problem changing the ending to a movie when nobody really liked the ending to the movie.
- [43:06]
John Middlekoff
I would only be okay with it if we just remove all the crappy regular season games. Then you are mandated to only play other power four teams and maybe you get one non for that. Fresno State or whatever. You no longer get to play the Sisters of the Poor before the Auburn game. You no longer, you know, USC has scheduled some UC Davis types, which I understand even though I hate it now I get why they do it, that that has to go away. Yep. In the NFL, the, the, you know, the 49ers don't get to schedule Birmingham in the UFL Week 3. Let's you play other teams at your level. Are they just going to, you know, you and I are just some D1 double A guys. They have a 2014 playoff. It's pretty simple. You start right after the regular season ends. But in D1 double A, you don't have conference championship games. And then they have 24 teams make it. The top eight teams get a buy. 16 teams play at home venues. And you could only honestly go to home venues because I think one thing that pops, you know better than me, the economics of these neutral site games for the broadcast partners. The home venue games pop on. Remember a couple of years ago when Signetti came out of nowhere playing Notre Dame on that night game, you're like, this is incredible. Penn State, smu, I think they played during the day. But anytime this year, Alabama hosted or Oklahoma hosted Alabama at night on Friday night.
- [44:30]
Colin Cowherd
Huge.
- [44:31]
John Middlekoff
That, that works. So to me, if you go multiple games at home, I don't need expansion. But if it's inevitable, I'm just going to get behind it because I'm going to watch it. You got to start right away. None of this, these coaches, Dan Lanning's been talking about this. Kirby, let's just play none of these huge breaks. And to me, you would just start immediately. Yeah, I've been saying forever if they were going to stay the same because it was clear last year and it kind of became evident a couple of years ago. But last year I have a lot of respect for Ohio State and Indiana. Both teams did. They both could have just said, we're not playing this conference championship game. But not only they play, they played it like it was the national championship. I would turn that conference championship game because clearly it's a huge moneymaker for the Big Ten, the SEC. You take two teams, especially in the 24, it's like a, it's like a elimination game. You got to win that game to get into the dance. That was my thought with the 12 team playoff. Maybe. I don't know if that would change in the 24, but what happens in the conference championship game in a 2014 playoff? Why would anyone want the extra mileage if you're going to have to go even farther? Yeah, that would be one question that they have to figure out. These commissioners are already talking about it like, yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty clear that changes are on the horizon with these championship games. If we keep headed down this because a team could happen this year, we're not playing in it and you couldn't even blame them.
- [45:53]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah, I mean, one of the things that small colleges like I went to Eastern Washington and their argument is, yeah, we need that game against Washington State. And I've always like pushed back and said, listen, if your school needs a blowout loss to have a sports program, maybe you shouldn't have a sports program. And I say that to somebody that went to Eastern Washington University. My take is if you can't make the economics work without playing Tennessee and losing 56 to 10, that you shouldn't have sports, you shouldn't have that sport at your school.
- [46:23]
John Middlekoff
But this, all, this all gets back though, Colin, to the title nine thing. It's like football could afford at Eastern Washington to pay for itself. They can't have all the other athletics. That's where the business model of college athletics gets a little funky. It does not parallel pro sports at all, even though now football is being run like a pro operation.
- [46:41]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
- [46:42]
John Middlekoff
So it's that to me is the, the elephant in the room as we move in this economic kind of windfall that football and basketball is bringing in is tennis teams are getting cut. I mean, are all these, are none of these going to exist? They're all just exist at the club level. I think that's very possible in the next 10 years.
- [46:59]
Advertiser/Host
Foreign.
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- [49:43]
Colin Cowherd
Again this has been so I've talked, I have friends who are, you know, have kids playing tennis at college. And I've said it's just not sustainable when your business model is, listen, we're hemorrhaging money, but we feel like we're better humans because we have fencing. It's like, guys, that's not, that's not gonna last. We're seeing it across with AI. We're seeing it across all business models. A lot of stuff that we just said, you know, it's just, you know, it's just. But it's getting more severe, more bottom line with sports, just like the NFL, you guys are going to go overseas, you're going to have to deal with 17 games. We're going to move to 18 games. Everything grows over time. Everything grows. And if you're one of those people that's uncomfortable with it, I understand it. There's a lot of traditionalists in this country, I get it. But it's going to be a rough. If you're a sports fan, good God. I mean, baseball now drives me nuts. Like if the Yankees are playing, it's like, what but where? I mean, like, honestly, like I think baseball's kind of lost itself a little. It's like, you know, baseball. I don't love all your tradition, but it was nice when you were mostly a network product. People are bitching about Amazon prime has the Game seven, Cavs and Pistons now NBA would say, well, they have five times as many subscribers as a network does. So like, what do you. A cable.
- [51:02]
John Middlekoff
I don't understand the argument of Amazon. I've never met a human that doesn't have Amazon. My mother in law was just here for the week. She asked me, she says, do you guys ever go to the store? I said, jennifer, why would I go to the store when I could order everything from hammer to a toothpaste to you name it with one press of a button and they delivered to my house in five hours. Amazon's one of the most remarkable companies, what they're doing right now. And I wanted to ask you the Thursday night schedule, I. It's not that long ago and that schedule was. It felt like the London game, a lot of Jags, you could argue that is the best lineup. And it's been this way for a couple of years. Are they treating Amazon now like as big of an equal, if not their number one partner? That Thursday night schedule was mind blowing.
- [51:45]
Colin Cowherd
I thought it was better than Monday Night Football, actually. I thought, well, you know, it's funny. So remember when Fox had it briefly,
- [51:53]
John Middlekoff
Fox had the Thursday five years ago
- [51:56]
Colin Cowherd
and Fox just couldn't make the numbers work. But Fox really leaned on the NFL. I think I can say this now and said, guys, if we're going to do this, the quality has to be better. And we also need more rivalry games. So is it possible that, you know, we could get like same time zone teams? Like we'd love to have a Steelers. Ravens. Not Steelers, Chargers. And so I think, you know, Fox really went back and forth with the league and said, you know, we like Thursday, it's getting expensive, but can we have some more rivalry games in that? And I think the NFL obliged. I think they did a much. I think Fox and the NFL worked. It was really bad for a while. Fox got the league to give them some really nice, your Steeler Raven kind of level games. And I think Amazon now with the deepest pockets of any of the broadcast partners because of Jeff Bezos and I
- [52:45]
John Middlekoff
mean Netflix, they're a $3 trillion company, Colin.
- [52:47]
Colin Cowherd
I mean, I think the reality is you're setting it up for the next contract. And I mean you and I, I love Thursday night games because when, you know, I mean, let's be honest, when I go on FS1 Friday, my first hour of my show, if it's a good game, I got a game to talk. My show is always easier any sport when I've got a huge game to talk about, it fills an hour of my show.
- [53:12]
John Middlekoff
The game now feels, I would say football's never been more popular than sitting here right now. And that game feels more like appointment viewing than it ever has. So it's a timing of the league's popularity growth again. I think so many people have Amazon. It's a pretty easy thing to click on. I talk to people in the league they love. I mean the crew of guys from Carissa to Richard to Whitworth to Fitz, they got a good crew. Amazon's done a pretty good job. It's an easy watch and They've got.
- [53:45]
Colin Cowherd
I just talked to Krista Thompson. I saw her last night at a party in LA and we talked. I said, the first year. I texted her the first year, she's the host. And I said, your coverage is loose. It's not there yet. I said, you're close. But it's just everything feels loose. And she's like, yeah, we're kind of getting there, getting there. And then, and then I thought by year two, it's like, okay, you know, it's hard. You're starting. I mean, literally. Remote television in cold weather is hard. So I thought Amazon for about a year was a little clunky, but I thought by year two, they kind of hit it. I'm not a fan of so far necessarily what Netflix sports division I don't like as much as I like Amazon, but Amazon's been doing it longer and I think they found their, their footing.
- [54:27]
John Middlekoff
One thing Amazon has is when you win that game, especially as the season gets going and there are real stakes, it feels like a really big freaking deal because you just had a couple days rest, you won the game. I mean, they have the star player on the set. It feels like they just won a bowl game or something, you know?
- [54:47]
Colin Cowherd
Yeah.
- [54:48]
John Middlekoff
I mean, it's so the game. Every once in a while you get like a Bills against TUA in Miami. You know, it's inevitable. It's not every game's perfect, but there are some games where there feels like big stakes or big stories. Remember was it last year when Flacco got traded from the Browns to the Bengals and then beat the Steelers? You're like, I'm watching something that matters. And I don't remember that being the case when I first got in the league roll up. Who's the PGA guy? They were just starting trying it out. There'd be like three games throughout the year randomly. There'd be like a game week four game, week nine. I remember we played it. We played Seattle. And that's back to what you're saying. Philadelphia Eagles should not be playing Seattle in a Thursday night football game.
- [55:32]
Colin Cowherd
Stupid, right?
- [55:33]
John Middlekoff
Philly should play Washington. Seattle should play the Niners.
- [55:35]
Colin Cowherd
That's what Fox argued for. Like, you know, let's get better fresher teams that don't have a seven hour flight for sure.
- [55:43]
John Middlekoff
And it was just kind of a one off, weird deal. Now everyone knows how to handle it. They no longer mandate everyone playing on the games. Right. Because I mean, how many teams, what are there? Five or six teams?
- [55:55]
Colin Cowherd
Arizona, Cleveland. You know, I, for the record I never understood that. Goes back to our argument 10 years, 10 minutes ago. Ultimately, business wins. It used to be not long ago, everybody gets a primetime game. NFL's like, kick that thing to the curb. Like, get outta here, Cleveland. You're not on tv. Jets are not on tv. That's the reality of what's happening. And by the way, the holiday schedule, Christmas and Thanksgiving I thought was by far and away the best holiday season.
- [56:26]
John Middlekoff
It's the best games of the year.
- [56:27]
Colin Cowherd
Of the year. Even the international games, a couple of those games would be the best game of the week. I think it's just, even if you're well run as a business, it takes you time. It took Amazon like a second or third year to get their footing. It takes the NFL. It's taken the NFL. I think they've always been pretty intentional with their scheduling. I think over the course of the last three to four years, they've just gotten smarter.
- [56:52]
John Middlekoff
I'm actively rooting for the NFL to be successful until I die. It's been great for my career. It hopefully continues to be great. You get, you know, you see this a lot online. Like is could it ever is getting too big? Are they getting too. It's like I'd be trying these things out too. I know this, my wife, my fan. The Netflix games, the Amazon games will be on, on all the holidays and they will be on in everyone's home. The Wednesday game, like as you get older, you're not just, you're not a 24 year old kid going out, you're at home on Wednesday night, you're watching the game.
- [57:24]
Colin Cowherd
I was talking about this probably a year or two ago with a sports writer. And I said to the sports writer, I said, you guys are just, I said, remember, you guys write about yesterday. I'm a broadcaster, we broadcast about today and tomorrow you write about what happened yesterday. You love the past, you love history, you kind of cling to it. ESPN Classic, everybody thought, oh, I want to watch old games nobody watched. And I said, I said, newspaper people are cynical. You guys can poke holes through the NFL. This was somebody that was kind of an anti, kind of anti Thursday, anti, you know, pro tradition. And I said, the English Premier League, it doesn't matter who owns the teams. When Man United's playing, people care. Like we are too often in the weeds about it. The bottom line is in this country, I'm buying Peacock because I want to watch a Saturday game at the end of the year with a backup quarterback. And I know I work in the business, but when you look the numbers of what these streamers are getting, people are signing up, may cancel two days later. But people love sports. You know, it's interesting with the rating system has changed. Now they count out of home viewing, which. It didn't make any sense. My entire life, the big argument in my industry was, how the hell do you not count bars? Who watches games by themselves? Especially like World Cup, NFL World Series, March Madness. Who's ever watched March Madness sitting in a basement by themselves? Like, there are certain things we watch collectively, like World Cup. I've never watched the World cup game by myself. Like, you're always. It's a celebration. It's the Olympics. You're watching with family or friends. If you look at the numbers, the only thing that works on television is sports. 97 out of 100 of the highest viewed television programs are sports. The NFL for the rest of my life, will be king and will get massive numbers.
- [59:29]
John Middlekoff
What? I don't follow soccer really at all, but I know soccer. They don't play every day. So when Man U or Man City, when they play once a week or once every other week, depending on this, it's a really big deal. When the NBA playoff started, I remember clicking it because I knew the Lakers were on. And I went to espn. First wasn't on, then I tried whatever. Amazon prime wasn't on. It was on Peacock, basketball and baseball, it's not appointment. I'm just used to kind of going tnt. It was on forever. In football, everyone's like, oh, you can't put the Chiefs Dolphin game on Peacock. You can put it wherever you want. You have a week lead up, they're not playing the next day. You have a week to build up, and that's football. It's just the most suited for an economy where our attention is so tiny that it's hard to miss something because you have so many days to not miss it. Where these other sports, it's every day you're playing every day you're playing for the first time. Now basketball, whenever they play tonight, they'll just have four teams remaining. So it's pretty easy to kind of follow. But early on in the playoffs, you got three or four games going. Tonight, they're on different networks. It's, you know, football. Once the playoffs start, there's only one game going at a time. Even look at basketball, which Adam got a lot of credit for tripling his deals. Well, clearly the networks, this is not. They don't get treated like the NFL. The networks do whatever they want. They had Games that were, that were one game would start and then an hour later the other game would start. Like the Laker game would be at 5:30 when the other game tipped off at 4:30. My entire life in the NBA, it would be 4, 4:30, and then the other game would start when that thing ended. Well, those days are done because they go, we paid this much. If I get the Lakers or the Knicks, I'm throwing them on the prime time slot. I don't blame them. I'd be doing the same thing too. But clearly the NBA surely doesn't want that. They want everyone to be able to watch both the games. Well, that's no longer the case.
- [61:22]
Colin Cowherd
You know, another example, John, of the NFL, you know, looking forward, if not an agenda. They have a plan. So there's a lot of questions whether, because NBC went heavy into the NBA and you know, the NFL has attacked the NBA. Just look at the Christmas schedule. So there are some questions about is the NFL going to remain on NBC? So if you look at the Thursday night schedule, I mean, there's some games here, John, you know, Minnesota, San Francisco, like you, you could throw on 10 niner games that were more interesting than that. Houston, Pittsburgh, there's no rivalry there.
- [62:04]
John Middlekoff
The Atlanta, the Atlanta Falcons playing the Ravens. That one's weird to me. I know Carolina was in the playoff. How about this? Isn't the Cam Newton Carolina Panthers here?
- [62:15]
Colin Cowherd
Jacksonville at Dallas of all the Cowboy games, Jacksonville, one of the smaller brands in the league. I mean, they don't have real traditional rivalries. I mean, Detroit at Carolina, doesn't that feel a little bit to you? Like, like the NFL watched NBC take a big part of their sports budget, protect themselves and say, hey, we're going to go NBA and the NFL going okay.
- [62:39]
John Middlekoff
All right.
- [62:40]
Colin Cowherd
Because the Thursday schedule now is better than the Sunday schedule.
- [62:45]
John Middlekoff
Is there a chance that Amazon could own Thursday night and Sunday night in the next go round?
- [62:51]
Colin Cowherd
Absolutely. Absolutely.
- [62:53]
John Middlekoff
That's what you know, because clearly Netflix, their CEO, he's talked, he's been adamant. We don't want a full package. They've been big on Jake Paul fights, this Tom Brady roast, the Christmas games. Like their track record is pretty consistent with what they've said. The way they built separate from the events. The dude that climbed the. Did you watch that thing in Tokyo or whatever, the tallest building. They like doing stuff like that. Thursday Night Football is going really well. You know, we talked about this popularity. Why wouldn't they go, we'll take Thursday and Sunday night football again. $3 trillion company wouldn't. We're in business with Netflix here. The volume, they're very successful company. They're 300 billion. I googled it the other day, so 300 billion. 3. Like Amazon is gigantic and getting bigger.
- [63:41]
Colin Cowherd
And I, I don't think, and I say this and I know I'll get pushback. I don't think the NFL would ever screw Fox. I think Fox has been a great partner. I think, I think Fox does a great job. I mean, Fox puts Tom Brady on the games, then it's Greg Olson on the games. The quality of Fox's broadcast in my lifetime, our super bowl coverage has always been, been unbelievable. Like, I think Fox feels like the NFL. Honestly, if I, if you said Fox, I'd be like, oh, Simpsons, NFL, NFL for cbs.
- [64:11]
John Middlekoff
I, I would say the Masters.
- [64:13]
Colin Cowherd
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And by the way, for a long time, cbs, I was like, oh, March Madness Masters, NFL. To me, Fox is sort of like NFL, Simpsons, World Series. I mean, that's, I mean, an American Idol for a long time. So I don't think, I think that's a relationship that will be emboldened for years to come. NBC, you know, going back and saying, we're going to do NBA. What is the messaging?
- [64:42]
John Middlekoff
But you've talked about this before. Don't most people in the industry believe that they got overly aggressive on the amount of money they paid the NBA? So how do they get into a bidding war for what has been for a long time?
- [64:56]
Colin Cowherd
They can't.
- [64:57]
John Middlekoff
Sunday Night Football has been for a long period of time, the number one television show in America. Right? So why wouldn't Amazon, if they see what Thursday Night Football, which forever was viewed as a throwaway, was like, oh, Brian Roll Up's a genius. He just created something out of nothing. Sunday Night Football is the marquee game typically of the day. Everyone, you know, depending on the week, obviously Fox has good afternoon or CBS can have a great afternoon game. But the Sunday night game is the highest rated game of the day, typically on Sunday.
- [65:25]
Colin Cowherd
Listen, I don't think NBC, first of all, they could never outbid Amazon for obvious reasons. The second thing is they're going to hemorrhage on the NBA. ESPN will be fine because they were the incumbent. They don't have to build a new remote unit. So ESPN will be fine. Amazon's fine because they're Amazon. NBC is a traditional broadcaster. They have peacock. I just, I think they're going to lose a billion dollars. I think it's so hard to create a remote unit. The Travel, I mean, it's just the whole, it's like any business that starts up, you see this all the time. You overspend these AI companies. You're not going to get a lot of this money back. There's going to be a lot of losers and very few winners. AI people just spend like crazy. And I think NBC is in a survival mode now. The Ellisons are connected to cbs. You know, the Murdochs have done well with Fox. You've got Amazon, Netflix. Even though scalability wise, Fox is, is not gigantic. But their relationship to me with the NFL, it just feels deep and it feels respectful. And I think, and I'll say this, I think Fox is really good on the NFL.
- [66:33]
John Middlekoff
Think how many times over the course of just my life things. When I was a kid, we didn't have cable up until like right when I went to high school. I did not know there was a Sunday Night football game until I went over to my grandma's house and Paul McGuire, remember TheIsman? It used to be on ESPN. Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football at the time was on abc. So these networks, in terms of the prime time, it's always rotated a little bit when it came up to television deals, who bid on what package. If I was a betting man right now, just looking at the way the schedules have played out because, because Monday Night Football was bad years ago, ESPN changed their messaging, got back in good with the NFL. They had writers wanting the NFL to burn to the ground. So it's like, well, the company probably would go along with it if that happened. Not great business. They have done a good job building that thing back. And now Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football, especially this year, feel like the marquee nights. And if I was a betting man, I'd say Sunday Night Football, I would guess on Amazon. I would say Amazon owns Thursday and Sunday Night Football and then Fox and CBS has all the games, you know, on Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon.
- [67:45]
Colin Cowherd
John Middlekoff, former NFL scout three and out. Good seeing you, buddy. The volume.
- [67:53]
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