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Colin Cowherd (0:00)
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Colin Cowherd (1:55)
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New York Giants reportedly now interested in Aaron Rodgers. I'm not sure I feel about that yet. He's obviously better than what they have in the building. Aaron may want to stay in New York and not come west. He's got a place there, I'm not sure. But the bigger story with a better team is the RA retained Matt Stafford. I thought they had the money because they don't pay anybody on defense. So that doesn't surprise me. I. I will tell you, I was told yesterday that Stafford and his people thought it was a 50, 50 proposition. Whether he stayed. It got a little bit contentious with. With Matt Stafford, and contentious maybe is the wrong word, but they. They had a market and they. And they made sure they kicked the tires on the Raiders. That's why they went skiing. And I told you this. Why did that skiing thing get out? Because Stafford, his agent, wanted it out. Stuff gets out when people want it out. So Stafford and his agent wanted everybody to know that he and Tom were up skiing in Montana. But to me, that was the signal that he really wanted to be a Ram. If that doesn't get out, that, you know, I mean, ask yourself this stuff gets out when you want it out. If it does it. There's a lot of secrets in the world that don't get out. Nobody wants them out. So when I. When I saw that, my takeaway. He's trying to make things uncomfortable for the Rams, and he probably got more money. But once I heard the Raiders and the Giants did not offer Stafford a third year, what's the point of leaving? That's. That's. That's the advantage. If you give me another 50 million that I wasn't gonna get from the Rams, I'm taking the money, especially in Nevada with no state tax and I'm playing indoors, So I would take the money. So Stafford is in. This is a guy that has a chance the next two years. If you look at that roster, if they can get a left tackle in a corner, they have a chance to win another trophy. That's a real team. So this is not. This is not a small bit of news. This is a big deal. And Stafford is intellectually in a very elite group in this league. And McVay makes his quarterbacks be dialed in and prepared. And Stafford, I mean, you've seen those social media clips. There's been a little documentary on Stafford's work ethic, it is very aligned with McVeigh. It was funny. McVeigh went out and during contract negotiations, usually your bosses don't say good things about you because you know they're trying to, you know, they don't want to tell you how great you are. McVay came out and said, yeah, yeah, like he's unbelievable. So what it's telling you is McVay wanted it to happen, but Stan Kroenke ultimately makes the call. The owners writing the checks. So McVay wanted it out there that Stan Kroenke knew. Yet there's nobody. We are not going to be the same football team without Matt Stafford. We are not going to be the same franchise. So for Sean McVay to give flowers, you know, a week before they signed him, that was a message to Stan Kroenke. And the Rams are rolling. I mean, you got, you got Harbaugh and Herbert in the same stadium. You don't want a Hammond Egger at quarterback. I do think they thought about Aaron Rodgers, but you know, I saw a story yesterday that Aaron was interested in bringing Devonte Adams. They're already, they've already got a receiver in Cooper cup they're trying to move off of. They don't want another expensive receiver. So this feels like the right fit. Well, let's be honest, coming off an injury, Luka is not playing great right now. He's one for nine last night from three point land. But everybody hedges their bet in the media. We've all been doing this for years, including me on LeBron. We just don't want to say, you know, is LeBron like the second best player in the league? Nobody wants to say that. Right? It's hey, Jokic, Giannis. I have watched LeBron in the last week outplay Ant Edwards, Luca Jokic and Kyrie Irving. He has been the best player in the NBA in the last week on every single night. Is LeBron the best player in the league? No. On any given night, is LeBron the best player in the league? Yeah. His defense right now, it looks like he's 27. It's insane. His energy better than Luka. His shooting right now better than Luka, his on ball defense, his scoring. LeBron at 40 years old has better consistent energy than any other Laker. Now Austin Reaves is close. Austin plays hard all the time. But LeBron's fourth quarter energy, it doesn't even make sense. His on ball defense right now, this is the best defense he's played in eight years. He's a better defender at 40 than Luka is at 26. His energy, I'm telling you right now, is LeBron showing off. And I'll get to Steph in a second. It feels like Steph is kind of showing off to Jimmy Butler. Like, listen, old man, you know, And I feel when Tom Brady beat Mahomes at Arrowhead Stadium in the AFC championship, and then he beat him in the super bowl, everybody by then was falling in love and sort of was saying it, you know, like Brady's old Brady, you know, not a lot left in the tank for old Tommy. Mahomes is the new king, and Brady beat him twice in Arrowhead and overtime and in the Super Bowl. Tom Brady reminding you, yeah, it goes through me. And LeBron is reminding everybody right now, yeah, the west for 10 years. The east went through me 10, 12 years. However long he was over there, now the west is going to go through me. So at minimum, and I understand that Luca got hurt, hadn't played for a long time. He's playing himself back into shape. Like, I get it. And he'll be a better shooter. His jumper right now is short consistently. That's like cardio. That's legs his jumper short. But at 40 years old, LeBron James last year had last year, at 39 years old, LeBron had 84 dunks. When Michael Jordan was 39, MJ had 21 four times the dunks of a guy known for dunks, Michael Jordan at the same age. And I think LeBron this year is better than LeBron last year. And the other thing is, because AD was traded to Dallas, LeBron is hyper aware that he has to play better defense because Luka is a lousy defensive player and Austin Reaves is Limited. So LeBron is like, oh, oh, you need me to do that too? All right. His defense is insane. So he's averaging 25, 8, 9. That's not what. That's not the part that's blowing me away. It's the energy and the defense. And you know, this. It's. I feel like I've said this for years. I think the NBA playoffs should be a three game first round and then five games, even through the finals, I think create urgency. I mean, March Madness college basketball doesn't have much talent and it gets tremendous ratings. Why there's urgency. I mean, you know, Cooper flag, take him off Duke. They got a couple of decent players. But a Duke game with Cooper flag against Xavier will get a better rating maybe than like the Western Conference or Eastern Conference finals because it's like, you have to watch. You got two and a half hours, somebody's out. Could be Duke and Cooper flag. And so I think there needs to be no more urgency. And I also think in the NBA regular season, I'd cut it down to 68 games, start it six weeks later, get away from college and pro football, you know, start playing Christmas. Start playing Christmas, not your first TV game. Start playing then. So I understand that if you're LeBron, you're Steph Curry and you're not with a championship team on a treadmill to nowhere. It is so clear between Stephen LeBron that these moves have absolutely energized these guys. And just watch LeBron's defense, it is elite. And he has outplayed Ant Luca, Kyrie and Jokic in the last week. He has been the best player on the floor. And Here is, here's LeBron after.