← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
THE HERD - Hour 1 - NBA fallout from FBI investigation, Vikings have a QB crisis, game 1 of the World Series tonight
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We talk about the billionaire class, the cost of living, and of course, the government shutdown. Listen to Next Question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, America's sweetheart. Johnny Knoxville here. I want to tell you about my new true crime podcast, Crimeless Hillbilly Heist from Smartless Media, Campside Media and big money players. It's a wild tale about a gang of high functioning nitwits who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist. Kind of like Robin Hood, except for the part where he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. I'm not that generous. It's a damn near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just totally muffed up the landing. They stole $17 million and had not bought a ticket to help him escape. So we're sitting like, oh God, what do we do? What do we do? That was dumb. People, do not follow my example. Listen to Crimeless Hillbilly Heist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up everybody? It's snacks from the trapped nerds. All October long, we're bringing you the horror. Boogity, boogity, boogity. We kicking off this month with some best horror games to keep you terrified. Then we'll be talking about our favorite horror and Halloween movies and figuring out why black people always die first. And it's the return of Tony's horror show Side Quests, written and narrated by yours truly. We'll also be doing a full episode reading with commentary. And we'll cap it off with a horror movie battle royale. Open your free Aha Radio app and search Trap Nerds, podcast and listen now. Thanks for listening to the Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and noon to 3 Eastern, 9am to noon Pacific Pacific. Find your local station for the herd@foxsportsradio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Now, let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go on a very, very interesting and frenetic Friday. It's the Herd, wherever you may be. World Series starts tonight. Blazing five in one. Whatever platform you're watching or listening, thank you for making us part of your day. So yesterday, before the show, there was the massive scandal. 11 states, 30 people. The gambling scandal heard around the NBA. Now the. The poker scandal. There's far more people involved. But the NBA's, let's be honest about the NBA. It's a big global target, right? And I read everything over the last 24 hours. You can read, I got up at four in the morning and I read for two and a half hours. The interesting part, everybody's talking Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier. Damon Jones part's fascinating. He was an unpaid member of the Lakers staff under Darvin Ham. No longer is friends with LeBron James. I don't believe LeBron knew anything. I'm sure of it. But he was found to be texting accusations, right, that he is saying, you know, bet Milwaukee big tonight because LeBron James had a bad ankle and was gonna miss games. And part of that text was, and enough so D. Jones can eat too. Keep your eye on Damon Jones and all of this. But I wanna, I wanna remind people of this. Not to be a wet blanket for all you fatalists, but if you go Back to the 1993 NBA Finals, Phoenix Suns, Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Bulls won. And then Michael went to baseball after. The headline of that series wasn't MJ against Barkley. Headline of that series was Michael Jordan and gambling talk. In fact, the series before, when they faced the Knicks, he admitted he was in Atlantic City the night before one of the games. And Michael Jordan was the face of, of the NBA. He was the most globally recognized athlete in the world. And people said, oh, it was just the tip of the iceberg. And the NBA survived. And it doesn't have nearly the money cachet or power. They just signed an $11 billion deal. They were in the hundreds of millions. Right now it's billions. And it was Michael Jordan, and now it's Damon Jones, Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups. So I think the NBA will survive. You know, people say it's the tip of the iceberg. And sometimes the tip of the iceberg is an ice cube and not much more than that. Uncle Colin is going to impart some wisdom here briefly. In 1876, one of my favorite years, frankly, the National League was formed in baseball. 1876, the National Leagues formed. Do you know their first betting scandal? Let's see, one year later, 1877, baseball's doing fine. They just signed a billion dollar contract too, by the way. The FBI wasn't even around there. The guy who founded it, J. Edgar Hoover, wasn't born yet. One year into the National League in 1876. I don't think FanDuel was around then. I'm just guessing. And he had a betting scandal. The mob, athletes, bad judgment. I mean, the craziest thing on all this. I didn't know La Cosa Nostra was still a thing. I honestly thought it was maybe a name of a restaurant in, you know, somewhere in New York, Columbia Circle or something. I'm like, la Cosa Nostra. I watch Goodfellas. It's over. I saw the final episode, the final scene. They went to black. Did Tony Soprano survive? It's over, right? All the wiretap. John Gotti. No. Apparently there were like 11 guys, la cosa Nostra involved. So listen, sports leagues have rules. And sports leagues warn. They're athletes and coaches and scouts and execs and they warn them. But the great thing about America is we have all these freedoms and people have the right to ruin their life. People make really bad choices. Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones, Terry Rozier, Dummies. What are you doing? You have 100 million in earnings. Again, keep your eye on Damon Jones. But go back to 1876, the National League. Year later, gambling issue. Go back to Michael Jordan, 1993, face of basketball globally. It's not going anywhere. It's not going anywhere. NBA is going to survive. Some say it's the tip of the iceberg. Tim Donaghy told me his was the tip of the iceberg. It wasn't. I was told Michael Jordan was the tip of the iceberg. Was it? But Colin, gambling wasn't legal. Well, I. I actually like legal gambling because it goes from the unregulated markets to now regulated markets with transparency and rules. It should be noted that Terry Rozier issue was spotted within six hours. The NBA knew about it. The NBA thought it was apparently not worth pursuing much. The FBI did. But I like all the transparency. I like legalized gambling. Vegas doesn't want cheats. The NBA doesn't. The sports books don't. The FBI doesn't. The NBA will survive whether it's the tip of the iceberg or not. So I'm watching the Chargers last night play the Vikings. And my takeaway by about the third quarter is they're actually opposites. The Chargers and the Vikings are opposites, and not just because they're in different conferences. The Chargers love their quarterback. All they hope is that his teammates around him can occasionally stay healthy. But they know he's the North Star, he's the franchise. He is the bedrock. For 15 years, he is worshiped in the building. The Vikings love all their players around the quarterback but have no idea who's going to lead him the next 10 years. They flirted with Aaron Rodgers. They settled for Carson Wentz. They had Daniel Jones in the building. They wanted to keep Darnold but wouldn't pay for him. So whatever's happening with JJ McCarthy, the messaging is weird and he's never available. So quarterbacks stabilize a franchise. So last night, the Chargers finally get Joe Alt back. What a. What a shocker. They can run on the left side. What a shocker. The blitz packages by the Vikings didn't work. So the Vikings love their coach and their defensive coordinator and their left tackle and their weapons. And the Vikings love everything around the quarterback. But the, but the franchise has. It's not stabilized because they don't know what's going on with J.J. mcCarthy. The Chargers are the opposite. They've got the most important part of this league. Quarterback one, coach two. And they're both going to be there for as long as they want to. Foreseeable future decade if they want. Harbaugh may retire. Eight, nine. Jim's got great energy. They just can't keep anybody healthy for any extended period. So as I watched last night, a thousand out of a thousand times, I would take the Chargers situation. They're making Justin Herbert throw more than any quarterback in the league because that's what they have right now. And slowly but surely, Joe Alt came back and they were good. But the Chargers know the truth in this league is that Joe Burrow got to a Super bowl with a bad old line. Justin Herbert doesn't need both tackles. He won't have Slater this year. Just give him Joe Alt and they can blow out anybody at any time. And here is Jim Harbaugh after the win. Joe makes a huge difference. He's a great player and I would say in his leadership getting eight, eight healthy guys out there is, you know, been a challenge and. But I think we'll be better for it. I know that because we're gonna have guys that are battle tested. Just to give you a sense, I've always said once you get your head coach, quarterback's the most important person. Left tackle is next, then a pass rusher. Look at this. Joe Alt's impact on the Chargers when he's on the field, they're 4, 0 if he starts and finishes a game and Herbert is a Pro Bowler. When he's not, Herbert is okay. And throwing 55 times a game with a passer rating in the 80s. So quarterback, left tackle, somebody to rush the passer and a weapon or two. It's just that the Chargers have struggled outside of the quarterback and the coach to have anybody available on, on Thursdays or Sundays or Mondays. They did last night and look how, look how easy it looks. J. Mac Rachel Nichols will talk more. She's really, really all dialed in on this NBA stuff, which is, I mean, I'm sure like you. I listened to two podcasts this morning, one last night, read everything I could. I've just. I think one of the things I've always loved is watching documentaries and I've watched over the years tennis scandals and NBA stuff and go back to the black sock scandal in baseball is that this is never going away. The mob, gambling, poor judgment, athletes. I think it's part of the athlete spirit. Some of them, they just like juice. They like energy, like being in the game. And poker games have been going on forever. The Chauncey Billups accusations are he was in on it. They were rigged and he knew it. Right. If that is true, the sentence will be highly punitive. But I do think we live in a time where people on the Internet are very fatalistic. No, not at all. Everything's the worst thing ever. And the only advantage to being 60 is you've seen everything happen four times. And I don't think a lot of our audience remembers the 93 finals. Suns, M.J. the talk. I can remember at one point in David Stern's career, Bob Costas interviewed him. It got incredibly testy because Bob the journalist was pressing him on the gambling stuff. And Stern, who was a combative fighter, the late, great David Stern. And I don't know if it was that finals or not, but Bob felt it was necessary. And he was right to press him on the gambling stuff. And remember that predates large, you know, the Supreme Court ruling. So I can remember the interview with Costas and Stern whenever it was. And it was highly combative. Yeah. So the reality is this and that. Just think about that. It's hard to explain. We didn't have all this social media stuff. Michael was very private. So when you were hearing things about Michael, a lot of it was innuendo. Innuendo. Michael acknowledged he was in Atlantic City during the Knicks series before the Suns Bulls finals. Imagine that today. Yeah, well, that's the problem. Like you said, fatalistic. A lot of these people on the Internet today are like, this is absolutely reprehensible. The integrity of the league is compromised. That is so overblown, it's not even funny. Like, this is not going to change anything. Last night's games, pretty incredible. Warriors Nuggets go overtime. Like this is. Is this an isolated incident, Colin, or do you think this is rampant throughout the league? I think the poker games have been going on in New York City, especially forever. By the way, thank you, staff. The costest interview was during the 93 finals. So, yeah, I mean, Bob was centerpiece on that and it was very appropriate. It was big J journalism. That's before we started handing out big J journalism awards. Bob would have certainly won. And it was a poignant, well crafted, spirited debate and appropriate for the time. So I just think I've just lived through all of this stuff. And again, I covered UNLV basketball when one morning the Las Vegas Review Journal had a picture of Richard the Fixer Perry in a hot tub with David Butler, Moses Gurry, Anderson Hunt, for the record, great guys. I mean, the easiest, most fun group of young athletes to ever cover, especially Scurry and Anderson Hunt. And so I've been around this forever. What about Calvin Ridley a year or two ago, betting in the NFL, they have to suspend him. Like this happens everywhere. Let's not freak out. Colin, would you agree that it feels like if you already did not like the NBA, you're going all in, bashing me. And if you like the NBA, you're like, okay, Chauncey Billups. If he's going and leaking information at poker games, yeah, he's an idiot. He's going to be done. But if he's just talking about it, not thinking that these guys are actionable, he's probably going to skate. I don't know what's going to happen, but I think you and I agree, Chauncey Billups probably not going to be coaching this year for Portland. Yeah, no. I think Chauncey, according to the accusations, is going to be in a bit of trouble. I do think Damon Jones is the one to keep your eye on. He's not even in the league now. I don't think. Right. He was a bounce around guy, very well liked. He was friends with LeBron and again, they're going to be people. I can assure you. LeBron's not involved in this stuff. Of course not. But I mean, that doesn't mean you can't have a friend. Well, Damon Jones is texting gamblers. You know, get D. Jones paid or whatever they said. That's right. Like come on, that's amateur hour, dude. You're dumb. Yeah. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeartRadio app hey, it's me, Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast Inside the Parker for 22 minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the biggest names and newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe in analytics or the eye test, we've got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, so do yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. There's nothing like sinking into luxury. At washablesofas.com, you'll find the Annabe sofa which combines ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price. And get this, it's the only sofa that fully machine washable from top to bottom starting at only $699. The stain resistant performance fabric slipcovers and cloud like frame duvet can go straight into your wash. 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His Fighting Oligarchy tour with AOC and other young progressives has become a movement. But is his message too far to the left? Well, he certainly doesn't think so. Does that sound like a radical idea? Is that too far left for you? Okay, okay, wait, wait. I get your point, Bernie. We talk about the billionaire class, the cost of living, and of course, the government shutdown, not to mention the current state of the Democratic Party. To me, the failure of the Democratic Party has been an unwillingness to recognize the real issues. Open your free iHeartRadio app search next Question with Katie Couric and listen now in the new podcast Hell in Heaven. Two young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one. One will end up dead, the other tried for murder not once. People went wild, not twice, stunned, but three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble and our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Blazing 5, top of the hour, Rachel Nichols, next hour as well. Listen. The Dodgers are historic. They are tied for the most World Series appearances, five by any National League team ever in a nine year span. They are in the playoffs now, 13 straight years. That's one shy of a baseball record. The only team in baseball history to have MVPs batting 1, 2, 3 in the everyday lineup, Ohtani, Bets and Freeman. So I said as the World Series starts tonight, if the Dodgers win this series, number one, they're officially a dynasty. And number two, I'd argue they're the greatest team. Most talented team ever, you say. Colin. What about the regular season, folks? They don't care about it. They're going to make the playoffs. They overwhelm with talent what they do with the Dodgers. If you get injured during the season, they don't risk it. There is no rush back. They'll push you to September. And the Dodgers treat their players and stars like a great teacher teaches treats her students. They're not going to hound you on attendance. Be great on the final. And that's how the Dodgers look at it. And this is a new phenomenon, by the way. The Dodgers have to win four Series to be World Series champs. Mickey Mantle had to win four games. So I have no problem saying the accomplishment is really impressive. The Phillies are stacked, the Blue Jays are stacked. The brewers were unbelievable. Even the low budget Reds have a superstar player. So I, I'm not taking anything away from Cal Ripken and the Iron man streak, but it's almost like work smarter, not harder. You know, Ripken's got one World Series title. If you ask most kids today, and most, you know, psychologists, they're like, yeah, you probably shouldn't work 80 hours a week. You should have a life, right? But baseball used to take great pride in you play through an injury, that's not smart. That's not what the Dodgers do. The Dodgers are, you're banged up, we'll see you September 23rd. And what they've assembled here, it's just really unique. I mean, they're a little like Kevin Spacey and usual suspects, they're limping around, not a threat. Then you look up and you're like, oh wait, they're the mastermind of the whole sport. Here's a team that had no bullpen, bullpen, nightmares. Now you're like, can't string together hips right against the back end. So I mean, we looked at the Dodgers one way in the regular season and all of a sudden you look at them now and you're like, they're dominating Milwaukee. They blow past Philadelphia. So tonight they're six and oh, in game ones dating back to last year, they're favored tonight. Here's what scares Dave Roberts. Here's his concerns about the Blue Jays. They're really athletic. I think that you mentioned Springer, who's a big game player. He's on a heater right now. Had a great, you know, last couple months. That guy right there, Vladimir, scares the heck out of me. And they're just a gritty group. They're very similar to our club. And they're tough. I think Ross Atkins, I think Marsha Power. They've done a great job with this club. Yeah, I mean, you have to look at the Dodgers differently. They do not attack it. Concerned about iron man streaks. And that doesn't mean what Cal Ripken accomplished isn't amazing. But it's different now. The analytics have changed it and the priority for the Dodgers. Blake Snell is a great example. What did he have 11 regular season starts and then he's Sandy Koufax in the postseason? You know, Dave Roberts told me yesterday, they, they on Roy, like they, they're trying to figure out what to do with him because they're starting. Pitching was so good. What do we do with him? And then they sit down. Andrew Friedman, pitching coach Dave Roberts, they go to him, hey, we're going to move you to the pen. You okay with that? He's like, absolutely. So it's just different. Baseball is faster today. It's smarter today. I think it's going to be a really, really good series. And I do think if the Dodgers win, having dominated and swept the Reds. Dominated, swept the brewers, soundly beaten the Phillies. If they do the same to a Blue Jays team that cruised through the Yankees, there's an argument. Greatest team ever, top to bottom. J. Mack with the news. No, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herd line news. All right, Colin, NFL Friday, we got big news for the Philadelphia Eagles, and that's A.J. brown. Colin did not practice Wednesday. Did not practice Thursday. That's not great. If you usually don't practice Thursday, you got major problems. If he's not on the practice field today, I would assume A.J. brown's not going to go, but it gets a little more muddled. So he posted something earlier this week on Instagram. I didn't catch it because I don't follow AJ Brown, but he wrote a caption using me, but not using me. Now I'm not sure what he's talking about. It's weird for somebody to go on social media and complain when you just had your best game of the season against the Vikings. Yeah. Um. I'll be honest. Like the Giant secondaries banged up. There's an opportunity here for A.J. brown to cook. I don't know if he's gonna play or not. This is not part of my blazing five. The wise guys, a lot of them. This is a really wonky week for numbers. A lot of wise guys like Philadelphia as a touchdown favorite. And their take is Giants don't beat the Eagles twice in one season. Yeah. And so I, you know, I. I've kind of j Macked. I have stayed away from Philadelphia all year because how do I judge a football team that can have the worst half by any offense in the sport and then in the second half score 28 points and dominate time of possession? So they've been out gained in every game. I. I think they've got coaching riddles to solve, and I, I think that. I think it's going to be competitive. I'll take the Eagles, but have to have. I have no idea what Philadelphia's offense produces. I have no idea. Yeah. I think this also comes down to the defense. Burns not practicing. Adibo. Their good cornerback not practicing. Giants a little banged up and mentally. Colin, how is New York handling that collapse against the Broncos? That was historic stuff. 33 points in the fourth quarter. You saw Burns going to the locker room yelling, why the hell are we rushing three? You know, Jackson dart mentally. Man, I don't make that mistake. We win, they cut the kicker. Then they bring him back to the practice squad because they needed a backup kick or whatever. So the Giants are a bit of a mess. But this A.J. brown thing, without him, Colin, their offense is basically played in a shoebox. And Saquon Barkley, I think you're going to talk about it a little more. He's averaging like 3.4 yards of carry this week. The most popular NFL narrative. What's wrong with Saquon Barkley? All offseason you and I talked about this. He had like 3, 400 touches last year. Look at his playoff that. You can't bounce back from that. So I have some concerns. I think the Eagles are a great teaser bet. Take them down to win by one. You know, if they lose this game, this opens the door for Dallas. If you guys want the Dallas Cowboys, if you think they can win the division, right now's the time to bet it. Because they beat the Broncos and the Eagles Lose column. We've got a huge situation in the NFC East. All right, let's move on to Brock Purdy. You know, it's funny, you haven't taken any shots at Brock Purdy lately because he's not playing. Yeah. I mean, he's only played two games a season. GM John lynch broke down where things stand with their $55 million quarterback. He's doing a really good job. We're taking the appropriate measures. What I can tell you is he gets better each week, each day. I do think we're getting closer to him returning a hard timeline because it's kind of a field thing. We're getting closer. We do know that. I think this week in particular, last week, I think we made some progress. And so that. Has Brock encouraged it? Has everyone encouraged? I think what has been established, clearly, is that Mac Jones is a younger reclamation project. Baker was older. Darnold was older. Daniel Jones and Mac Jones are both starting quarterbacks in the NFL. How great are they? I don't know, but Matt gets a great coach, and then Daniel Jones gets a great O line, great weapons, and a very good coach. But I think we have to be honest now. As much as we were critical of Mack and Daniel Jones, they are starters in the NFL. Not saying top 10. I'm not saying top 12, but they are starters. Daniel Jones makes too many good throws. And Mack Jones behind a very average offensive line with no Iuk and no Kittle and no Pierce, all. They are a very good offense. Not great. It's a good offense. Good. So the problem is they run into what potentially is an elite defense. So one of the big mismatches this week is the trenches. The Texans defense getting after Mac Jones. He's not exactly mobile. Okay. We saw Sam Darnold. I know the Seahawks won that, but Darnold did not look great in that game. No. I'm also worried about the Texans. Did you see this? Nico Collins still not practicing concussion. Christian Kirk not practicing hamstring. So who CJ Stroud throwing to? I want Texans here. I haven't bet it yet, but I think I'm on Houston. Do you have a play on this one? I like Houston. I think it's low scoring. The Niners after wins can stumble the last couple of years. And I'm. I'm. I think you just hit on it. Mac Jones lack of mobility against this defense. It. I think it's going to be low scoring. Yeah. I would tend to agree. Final story. Colin, I know there's a lot of gambling, NBA stuff. Happening, but the actual product has been tremendous. Yeah. So there were two amazing games last night. Both went overtime. And the Steph Curry show was unbelievable. So Aaron Gordon had 50, Colin. He hit eight straight threes to open the game. I was stunned. I didn't know he could do that. But Steph Curry beat him. He had 42 points, including 16 straight late in the game in overtime. Here's Draymond Green on Steph Curry dropping 42. He loved the moment. That's just who he's been since I've known him. You know, the bigger the moment, the more he rises. He's this quiet guy, you know, we all know Steph, like, right how he is, but he love the show, I think, you know, and so anytime it's a show to be put on, he's going to do it. And you know, he did that tonight in a major way. Man, when you watch that game, oh, there was so much talent on the floor. People forget Gordon was a defensive player when Orlando had him. And then he goes and he plays with Jokic, and you just forget how many big games and big baskets he's had. I think Gordon's one of the more underappreciated guys in the league, but he was like a top four or five pick. He's a huge, long, great athlete. He has developed into a pretty, pretty good shooter. Look at that. In transition. Just pull up three. So this was interesting. I don't know if you noticed this, but Jamal Murray, the late game superstar for denim, they put Draymond Green on him late, and I was like, ooh, that's a smart little wrinkle from Steve Kerr. There were so many good wrinkles. Now I do have some Nuggets fans, friends. Yes. I got some NBA fans everywhere and they are so upset with the coaching down the stretch, where was Cameron Johnson, our big free agent? I'm like, it's game two, guys. Can we settle down? Everybody's tinkering. Gordon is a fascinating player because he comes into the NBA as an athletic long defender. Last year, 43% from threes. And a lot of that's because you have to double Jokic. And so Gordon steps back. He used to shoot mid range and drive and slash. Steps back. He has become a lethal three point shooter. Yeah, it is interesting you bring that up. You know, he was drafted to Orlando. Like you said, top five. I think he went fourth overall. He's our savior. He's not a savior. He's an amazing, an incredible number three. Oh, he's the Jamal Murray. He's the best three in the league. Yeah yeah. I mean Amen Thompson maybe is a man. Gordon Gordon's better probably. Well Sengun I mean the one, KD's the two Amen Thompson for the time beings the three but Gordon and Amen Thompson would be the best threes in the league and I know some NBA fans. You guys never give the Thunder credit. We're talking SGA second hour. He had like a 50 burger last night. It ain't positive but make sure you stick around for next hour. SGA J Mack with the news. Well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd lie news so it is a There's a couple of games this weekend I can't wait to watch the one that's really fascinating and let me ask you this question. What are we to make of the Cowboys? Are they legitimate? So they beat the Jets, Giants and the Commanders without a fully healthy Jaden Daniels. They tied the packers, they almost beat Philly and then they lost a fourth quarter lead to Carolina and got smoked by the Bears. What are they Sunday is true serum. Denver's got a great coach and a great O line and a great defensive front. And Denver does not allow passing touchdown and Dax been on a heater. So the answer will be provided Sunday. No jets or Giants here the Denver Broncos defense little better than Carolinas. So in my opinion legitimate playoff teams can win on the road and the Cowboys this year have not been great on the road and Dax been great but he'll have to be sensational Sunday. To me this is the truth serum game for the Cowboys because they beat the jets and Giants and the wobbly Commanders. They tie the packers, almost feed Philly and then they get housed by the Bears and lose a fourth quarter lead to Carolina. What are they? Dax Good. I don't question that. Here's what concerns me about the Cowboys. Dax career versus playoff teams on the road 8 and 17. Now Denver made the playoffs last year. I'm projecting they're a playoff team this year. And if Denver is a playoff team and I think their coach, their roster, it's a playoff team. To me, Dak and the Cowboys have not been great in this spot. And Dak talked about facing an elite secondary with a Pro bowl level corner and safety and this pass rush credit and respect to them it's a little bit of both. Obviously they know that they go hand in hand for them, right? Corners can be a little bit more aggressive, sit a little bit more, play those routes knowing that they're getting home on defense with just their rush and leading the league in sacks right dominating on third down. So a lot of credit, a lot of respect for them. Just continue to go in there and play. My game starts with beating the pass rush and when you've got the receivers that do having confidence in them to win. So my take is the head coach, the offensive line, defense, huge significant edges toward Denver quarterback, clear advantage, Dallas. Both have really good weapons. Cowboys are probably better, but if you can give me a much better coach, a much better O line and a significantly better defense and they're at home, could it get ugly for the Cowboys? It's one of my blazing five picks. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific. There's nothing like sinking into luxury. At washablesofas.com you'll find the Annabe sofa, which combines ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price. And get this, it's the only sofa that's fully machine washable from top to bottom. Starting at only $699. The stain resistant performance fabric slipcovers and cloud like frame duvet can go straight into your wash. Perfect for anyone with kids, pets or anyone who loves an easy to clean spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slipcovers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style. Whether you need a single chair, loveseat or a luxuriously large sectional, Annabe has you covered. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Right now you can shop up to 60% off store wide with a 30 day money back guarantee. Shop now@washablesofas.com Add a little to your life. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. On the latest episode of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I sat down with Bernie Sanders, who is 84 years old, has spent 34 years in Congress and he can still pack a rally with people a quarter of his age. Denver, 34,000 people come out. Salt Lake City, 20,000 people. You know, huge turnouts. People are really dissatisfied about the status quo. His Fighting Oligarchy tour with AOC and other young progressives has become a movement. But is his message too far to the left? Well, he certainly doesn't think so. Does that sound like a radical idea, Katie? Is that too far left for you? Okay, okay, wait. I get your point, Bernie. We talk about the billionaire class, the cost of living and of course the government shutdown, not to mention the current state of the Democratic Party. To me, the failure of the Democratic Party has been an unwillingness to recognize the real issues. Open your free iHeartRadio app search next question with Katie Couric and listen now in the new podcast Hell in Heaven. Two young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead, the other tried for murder not once people went wild, not twice, stunned, but three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble and our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts until one night everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up everybody? This is Snax from the Trapp Nerds podcast and we're bringing you the horror every week all October long. Kicking off this month I'll be bringing you all my greatest fear inducing horror games from Resident Evil to Solid Hill. Me and Tony bringing backfire team on Left 4 Dead 2 and we just gonna be going over some of the greats. Also in October we'll be talking about our favorite horror and Halloween movies and figuring out why black people always gotta die first. The Umbral reliquary invites any and all fool brave enough to peruse its many curiosities. But take kid. All sales are final. Weekly horror side quests written and narrated by yours truly with a full episode read and a commentary special and we will cap it off with Horror movie Battle Royale, Jason versus Freddy, Michael Myers versus the Alien thing with the little Tongue Monster. October, we're doing it Halloween style. Listen to the Trap Nerds podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. The World Series begins on Fox as Shohei Ohtani and the reigning champion Dodgers take on Vlad Jr. In the Blue Jays game. One of the World Series coverage begins tonight at 7 Eastern on Fox. Yeah, I guess. You know I did so much reading last night on the Chauncey Billups stuff and the Damon Jones. If you go back to when Chauncey Billups was hired, there was a story regarding him and personal conduct that was troubling and maybe we've all been fooled this entire time. There are people like that. Blazing 5 Top of next hour. Yeah, I mean I always thought as a player he was a very thoughtful guy, but you know, it's one of those Things where you can think a person's a certain way, then you hear a story about him, and then the dam breaks a few years later. And there are people. I always feel like the truth does come out with everybody, but there are people out there that are, you know, it's almost sociopathic, that are good actors and they can put on one face and be another person. So these are just accusations. But the Chauncey Billup stuff is initially, was hard to wrap my brain around. And I listen to people I respect and trust, and I just can't. I can believe it. Of course I can. It's bad judgment. LeBron James, Damon Jones, our friends were. LeBron generally hangs out with smart people. You ever see those things, like those White House photos? You'll see, like, a president with their arm around somebody, and that person's like a convict. And it's been happening, you know, for 50, 60 years. You just don't know. You don't know what happens when people leave work and you don't know. You think you know. You don't know. So I, you know, just. I always root for Justin Herbert because, you know, whenever I hear this about a player, well, I mean, he's never won a playoff game. Well, Dan Marino didn't win a Super bowl, and Charles Barkley didn't win a NBA Finals, and those are two of the best athletes I've ever seen. Matt Stafford had no playoff wins 12 years in Detroit. And Sean McVay, of all the quarterbacks in the league, I want that guy. I want him so much, I'll pay a salary. And I'll pay Jared Goffs, too. He'd never won a playoff game. Smart people can predict and project. Any dummy can say, well, that guy's good. He's got four rings. It's too late. The way to get value, the way to beat the market, is to be ahead of the market. Sean McVay's like, I know he's never won a playoff game. I'm going to take him, pay for his salary and Goffs and trade him and give you a bunch of draft picks. It worked out. And so, you know, you want to beat the market, you don't want to chase the market. And 99 of sports fans are chasing stuff or telling you the obvious. So every exec I've ever talked to, every coach I've ever talked to that I've ever asked about Justin Herbert, they're all like, he's like, top four or five quarterback in the league. There are Sundays. He's outside of My homes. The best. Trevor Lawrence beat him in a playoff game. I've never talked to an exec that would take Trevor Lawrence over Justin Herbert. Never forget Rex Grossman got to a Super Bowl. Brad Johnson won a Super Bowl. So last year Brock Purdy as his team was all beat up physically. Brock Purdy went 6 and 9. Well, there was a lot of injuries 6 and 9 and Brock is a good quarterback. This year Herbert's 5 and 3 was similar issues. Nobody's healthy. That's a great quarterback. So I mean the defensive coordinator for Minnesota, Brian Flores is maybe the best defensive coordinator in the league and was sending blitz packages from the very first snap. And yet the Chargers never punted last night and we're 9 for 13 on third down with only one of their tackles. So Justin Herbert against blitz packages last night was 13 of 15. 123.5 passer rating against blitz packages. So you know, and here's the thing about being able to see the truth before production is that Oklahoma City won the NBA championship. Do you really know why? Because their GM Sam Presti saw the greatness of SGA before the Clippers did. That's why you're not winning that title without sga. Sam Presti's like that skinny guy from Kentucky who may have been the second best guy in his college team that is going to be a star. Sam Presti beat the market. Sam Presti didn't follow the market. If you follow the market, you never get value with anybody. Now you don't get value in the end when you have to pay sga. But if you want to get value on quarterbacks and left tackles and star players, you got to be ahead of the market, not trailing it and copying it. Right? You want to set the trend, not be part of the avalanche of the trend. And here's Harbaugh last night on, on Herbert's ability to beat the blitz over and over last night he was really doing a tremendous job seeing the field and which he always does. I mean, it's so rare that he doesn't, he doesn't see it or, or read it or know the exact coverage and where to go with the ball and, and then when it, you know, it's all covered, I mean, he, he did another great job tonight running and picking up first downs with his athleticism. He's just, just another stellar performance by Justin Herbert. You know, it's interesting if you go back to the Clipper OKC trademark, the Clippers saw what Paul George was. Good player. OKC Sam Presti saw what SGA could be, who did better. One team now runs the league, at least for the last 12 months. So, you know, it's easy to say, well, somebody had to find Derek Jeter when he was skinny and couldn't hit the curve. That's what scouting's all about. It's about seeing stuff before it happens. And nobody's perfect on this stuff and nobody expects you to be perfect. But you know, it's, you know, these people that are out there. Well, he hasn't won a playoff game. Go look at his coaches before Harbaugh and just, just, just doesn't mean he was great in that playoff disaster last year. But he's a special kind of player. Blazing 5. Top of the hour. Rachel Nichols. Next hour, Aaron Rodgers goes back. He gets to face the Packers. It'll be in Pittsburgh, which I think is a really interesting game. We could put the schedule up. I don't think it's a massive upset weekend. I like the favorites. It's, it's, you know, as the season goes on, the weather gets worse. Sometimes I just lean on the best quarterback. Like for instance, I'm just going to. My guess is Josh Allen beats the Panthers and that Baker Mayfield with an injury ravaged team beats the Saints. The tricky games are when you don't have your star quarterback. I'm going to take Jalen Hurts at home to beat Jackson Dart. It feels like a favorites weekend and a quarterback weekend because now you get to a point where everybody's got rosters that are incomplete. Everybody's injury ravaged. Right. It's week 8, week 9, week 10, week 11. Then some of your stars get healthy again in those injury ravaged weeks. Star quarterbacks like Herbert are better than average quarterbacks like Carson Wentz overcoming depleted rosters. So this weekend there are a lot of depleted rosters. In most instances, I'm just going to take the better quarterback. I do think Aaron and Green Bay, I don't think it's hostile, but it is tasty. You like Green Bay in that one, J. Mac, you know, I want to take Green Bay. They've let me down. So the first two weeks of the season they were lights out. Remember, beat Washington, beat Detroit, handily covered both. Everybody's been on Green Bay. I don't think they've covered a game since. And so I've been on a couple of those, so I'm a little reluctant. But you know what? I'm probably going to end up going in on the Packers. I just don't believe in the Steelers defense at all. And I think the Aaron Rodgers stuff is overblown against bad teams. You know, something just popped into my head. We were talking about being able to see the greatness of Matt Stafford before he won a playoff game or seeing the greatness of sga. There's an old piece of video the late Bobby Knight was asked about Michael Jordan, remember this, before he was in the NBA. And Bobby Knight said, he's the most competitive player I've ever seen. He is the best athlete I've ever seen play basketball. Bobby Knight and I didn't love a lot of things that he represented. Bobby Knight came out and said, that is the best basketball player I've ever seen. His ability, his mobility, his passion, his relentlessness. Bobby Knight said that. That is the bet. He went third. Jordan went third. Right. Portland had Drexler. Right? They went big. Hour two. Next on the latest episode of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I sat down with Bernie Sanders. We've talked many times over the years, and today he even throws a few questions my way. All right, are you ready for another question? Go ahead, hit me, Bernie. We talk about the billionaire class, the cost of living, and of course, the government shutdown. Listen to Next Question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, America's sweetheart. Johnny Knoxville here. I want to tell you about my new true crime podcast, Crimeless Hillbilly Heist from Smartless Media, Campside Media and big money players. It's a wild tale about a gang of high functioning nitwits who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist. Kind of like Robin Hood, except for the part where he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. I'm not that generous. It's a damn near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just totally muffed up the landing. They stole $17 million and had not bought a ticket to help him escape. So we're sitting like, oh God, what do we do? What do we do? That was dumb. People do not follow my example. Listen to Crimeless Hillbilly Heist on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everybody? It's snacks from the trap nerds all October long, we're bringing you the horror Boogity booty boogity. We kicking off this month with some of my best horror games to keep you terrified. Then we'll be talking about our favorite horror and Halloween movies and figuring out why black people always die first. And it's the return of Tony's horror show side Quest, written and narrated by yours truly. We'll also be doing a full episode reading with commentary, and we'll cap it off with a horror movie Battle Royale. Open your free aha Radio app and search Trap Nerds Podcast and listen Now. The Rich Russians Falling out of Windows podcast is back. Sad Oligarch Season 2 Since we left you in 2023 after season one, many politically motivated Russian millionaires have continued to die in suspicious circumstances. Season two gets very weird. Listen to Saad Oligarch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.