The Herd with Colin CowherdColin celebrates and thanks all those who served our country his Memorial Day with you all by trying to be excited for the possibility of an NBA Finals matchup between the Mavericks and Celtics. Kyrie has finally ended up in the perfect situation with Luka Doncic to win a title. LeBron James is officially a free agent but the thought of him leaving LA is pretty much unimaginable. Plus, the great Tom Brady stops by to enlighten us all on his future endeavors, and another riveting Monday edition of: “Where Colin was Right and Wrong!”.
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Thanks for listening to the best of the Herd podcast. Here we go on a Memorial Day live in Los Angeles. Thank you to the brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives for the freedoms. Many of us, including my family, possess the families of those fallen heroes. God bless you, and you are in our thoughts today, and welcome to the Herd on a Monday Memorial Day, Tom Brady in one hour, we thank you for choosing us. Jamac It's not official, but it's sort of official. The Celtics lead their series three to all over the young and hobbling Pacers, your Mavericks. You have been on them all year. They just keep disposing of really good teams. They believe in themselves, and so I thought, on this Memorial Day, let's talk about the final. That's not official, but it sort of is sort of yeah, So let's talk Celtics and MAVs final. Oh forget Jinxes, that's what we're gonna get. It's about as good as you can get in the NBA. The big brand Celtics with two stars Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, and because of Mark Cuban's ownership, Dirk and the title, the MAVs carry some gravtas and wait in this league. And they've got the two best closers in the two best stars finishing games in Luca and Kyrie Irving. You have arguably the best player in the world Luca on a heater, and you have arguably the best domestic player in Jason Tatum. You have the drama of the Celtics duo when are Jalen Brown and Tatum finally going to deliver a trophy to this story franchise. And you have the Kyrie factor. He hated Boston, they didn't like him. So four big factors. If you're not going to have a dynasty Lebron, a Steph or a KD. This is as good as the finals can get. And if Porzingis is healthy, I think I kind of like Boston in seven, but I don't know that. I've been burying the MAVs all season. I didn't like him against Okees ok see. I didn't think they'd beat Minnesota. But Boston to the finals is probably the easiest sports prediction of the last year. They were forty one and eleven against the East, and then the Knicks fell apart and Haliburton's hurt and no Dame, no Jannis embid wobbly listen. That was an easy one. Everybody in the world picked Boston in the finals. There was no reason to be a contrarian. Dallas to the finals. Yeah, I missed that about six times. I said it last week. I think Boston in this group is too good not to win at least one title. They're weird, though odd Historically, they're a fifty to fifty bet at home against the Eastern playoff teams. And I think Luca is too gifted and too great for him not to win at least one championship. And this series actually reminds me of one I covered about twenty four years ago, the Blazers and the Lakers. So the Celtics are the Blazers, more quality B plus above players, A good staff gave the Lakers problems. Many times in the series you thought the Blazers a Scottie Pippin as a bonus, it could be Rashid Wallace, Damon Stodommeyer. They had really good players. They had the Lakers pinned in many games, took the lead in many games. That's the Celtics, a deeper quality team of B plus players. And then there's the MAVs, which remind me of a little bit of the Lakers. The two best closers, Shaq and Kobe, won the series in seven, the two best closers at the time on the planet, one inside one perimeter. That series went back and forth. Those were the two best teams. Both would have been beaten Indiana in the finals. One did the Lakers. Portland would have, but for a majority of that series I was in Portland. I thought Portland was better, and they were until that slam dunk from Kobe to Shaq, and then the closers coffees for closers closed it. And that's how I feel about this series. I've been betting against Kyrie and Luca now for a month and they're both in a heater, and Kyrie was a big swing and aggressive wins in sports, and offense wins in basketball. I know, I know, I know, defense wins championships. Yeah, I'm gonna take Mahomes fourth quarter. I don't care what his defense looks like. And it is really hard to bet against Luca and Kyrie because they are the two best closers in this series. And Barkley talked about it after as.
A guard A Michael A Kobe, give me some other guys, Tamack step Curry. That's no substant You can't. You can't stop great one on one players because you can make them take tough shots, but they gonna get the shot they won't. Kyrie and Luc are gonna get the shot they won't.
Yeah, the degree of difficulty Luca takes with about half his shots is remarkable, and it feels like sixty five percent go in. So I think I like Boston if Porzingis is healthy. But I've been saying this against every team that faces Dallas. I thought Okayse was gonna beat him with their youth. Luca was all banged up. I thought Minnesota would probably win their size in six or seven. I even thought the Clippers would give the Magic Mavericks problems. Is wrong wrong, wrong, wrong, can't wait for it. Celtics will wrap up their series. I presume tonight. Dallas will wrap up Theirs in a couple of days. And I want to talk about Kyrie Irving. I've had my issues with Kyrie Irving, although when they made this deal on February fifth, couple years ago, I said at the time, you got to take a swing. Mark Cuban's taking a swing. You got to get Lucas somebody, or he'll leave town. Kyrie is actually fascinating. He is the dilemma even the top gms in the NBA face when you have an all time talent that can be moody and difficult on a regular basis, what do you do? He was a disaster in Boston, mostly a disaster in Brooklyn. Before Lebron got the Cleveland nobody liked him and his first year was a tad turbulent in Dallas. But right now it's incredible. And in the NFL it's different. In the National Football League, your top stars usually get in line with the coach and the culture and the offense defense special team system. They get in line. But the NFL is not a star driven league. It's not it's a roster driven, shield driven, gm coach driven league with stars. The NBA is a star driven league like international soccer, and they're going to get what they want. And most guys are good guys, but some guys are petulant and moody and difficult and yet all world. And it's why even the best general managers like Pat Riley are going to take swings on a Jimmy Butler, a Kawhi, Leonard Kyrie Irving, a James Harden when you get these players that are just different. If that players in the right frame of mind, you get trophies, You secure your job, your coach's job, your family's security. And that's why people take swings. I mean, I think it's been PJ. Washington and Gafford have been very, very nice supplemental pieces, but no Kyrie and Dallas is already out of the playoffs. February fifth, twenty twenty three. We looked it up this morning. I said, when Dallas went after Kyrie, well, it's gonna be good or bad, but they're gonna be a handful and they're gonna be Knights that you can't stop them. And this is an offensive league over a defensive league. Do you realize in the playoffs, Kyrie leads the postseason and fourth quarter points and that's playing with Luca. That's playing with the best scorer in the playoffs. So Luca needed a running mate. They got him one with a history of being difficult and moody and tempora mental and his own guy. But I've been watching this league forever. An aggressive wins in sports, and you gotta take swings. And the Mavericks' best two closers in the world right now are planning in Dallas. Here's some thoughts.
Unbelievable, that's fine, they call him.
Some people miss the fourth quarter right, just amazing he's scored with thirty three.
Yeah, it's amazing.
You know, he's born for this situation.
You bore it for the Cloch situations.
So we just give the vote to him.
Going into Game four is still zero zero. And that's the type of motivation and mentality we have in that locker room. It's not just me. We feel like the job isn't finished and we're going against one of the greatest teams in the world. You know, they still have the capability of beating us on any given night. Got to appreciate where we are, but at the same time, don't take it for granted, and don't take the other team for granted, because they're pretty sure they're going to watch this interview. They're going to study all our habits and see if we, you know, lay down a little bit and get comfortable. I don't want to get comfortable at all. I want to push forward even more so and have our best game game four.
The best people in any business are in it to get the ring, and Dallas looks like they're good enough to keep Boston from getting it even one more time. So J Mack, they have been your team. I will say this for a three to zero series, the t Wolves Mavericks is a really fun watch. It doesn't feel that lobsided. Whereas Boston feels like significantly better than Indiana, Dallas feels better than Minnesota. But the games are tight. Dallas has too many bad half court offensive possessions, and when you have Luca and Kyrie, you have very few of those. So the right team is leading the series, but you can see Minnesota picking up a win. I doubt it, but Minnesota was built to beat Denver. As we've talked about, They're not built to beat Dallas. And there's also something about teams grow like Dallas. Before the PJ. Washington Gafford moves, they weren't the same team. It wasn't the same So they're a different team than they were early in the season. So that's why when you went into the Minnesota Dallas series, you could not take all their earlier matchups. We've seen that. You see it in college football now teams have an issue. Then there's the transfer portal, and you see it sometimes in the NFL where Houston's a laughingstock. Oh wait, they get CJ. Stroud and a good coach. They're a playoff team. So what's fun about sports if you pay attention are the trade deadlines the draft. The NBA draft does not give you any immediate help like the NFL does, but the trade deadline gives you help. Dallas is out of the playoffs, even with Kyrie, potentially without this front line to match up against an ok se and in Minnesota, so the supplemental players, it's just give Dallas credit. Big swing on Kyrie, big swing at the deadline. Dallas tends to be that's kind of the way to do it. Big swings in big d and it's paid off.
They would after Porzingis back in the day, they thought he would be the running mate for Luca. That kind of blew up they had Brunson, They blew that one right. They didn't want to offer him the money. And now the third third pitch and they hit it out of the park with Kyrie Irving. But to your point, Minnesota has led in the final five minutes.
Of all the midfields, very very close. But again, when these games are close late, one team's a brilliant offensive team, one team's based on defense. And you cross your fingers of cat is in the mood.
Okay, but isn't your take that Jason Tatum has struggled in late game scenarios. Does that give you pause for the finals?
There's no question, There is no question. I said it is Blazers Lakers. That series came down to a couple Kobe Shack plays. If you covered that series, Lakers trailed by double digits in most games. Phil Jackson acknowledge, we don't have a game plan for Rashid Wallace. We really don't know what to do. It was just back and forth. But in the end, Kobe and Shack with a difference one of the great series I've ever It's probably the best series I've ever covered in terms of intensity and talent. So I mean, I'll say this from an NBA perspective, Yeah, you cannot do better than Luca Kyrie and the MAVs against Brown, Tatum, the history, Porzingish, Drew Holiday and the Celtics. That is as good.
We've been very.
Lucky, March Madness, NFL Super Bowls. We've been on a string here for a lot of years. Celtics MAVs feels right.
It's just a tough one for rooting interests. I like Tatum a lot. I love Luka Dante's like, there's no one to dislike in the series. It's gonna be great.
It should be a fun one. Yeah, Colin Wright Colin wrong In forty five minutes, followed by Tom Brady.
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Lebron James is essentially now a free agent, according to Rich Paul, his agent. He said on TNT, you know he can go anywhere he wants. And this is the interesting thing. He's the Lakers' only elite playmaker and he is still overwhelm their biggest draw, Anthony Davis is great, not a big draw, sorry Austin ree fans. So the Lakers are totally trapped. In my opinion, Lebron could go to Philadelphia and join Joe Lmbid and Tyresse Maxi in the incredibly weak Eastern Conference and just assure himself a trip to the Eastern Conference finals at minimum. I actually think he could go play with Jalen Brunson and all those rotational shooters and players for the Knicks in again the very weak East and almost assure himself in Eastern Conference finals. But here's the thing, I know you think nobody wants to live in LA will sports stars do and celebrities do, and a lot of stars threaten to leave LA. Kobe did, and some get traded like Shack. But the weather, the vibe. Los Angeles is a city of hills and canyons. You could have Denzel Washington as a neighbor and never see him. And that's what Lebron James like. You can't duplicate Los Angeles anywhere. It is a nice, comfortable, breezy place to hide when you're a sports star. The Lakers don't have the wherewithal, the draft capital or the players to move anybody to get a star pick. They're not moving Anthony Davis and they're not moving Lebron James. He's their only playmaker. He is still the face of the franchise. He's got his titles, his legacy, the bag, several rings. I don't think he's going anywhere. This is the game that Rich Paul and Lebron James have been playing for years. They're playing it again, and Lebron will get a Max deal and potentially his son drafted with what the fifty to fifth pick. Colin Wright Colin Wrong top of next hour plus, Tom Brady joins us about five minutes after the hour, but really nice news for one of those NFL teams that drafted a quarterback in the first round, and that's coming up.
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Here we go, our two live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day, and thanks for joining us on this Memorial Day. To all the men and women, the brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives to make our lives, liberties, and freedoms that much greater. You are in our thoughts today, you and your families who have been part of this country and make great sacrifices forever for the freedoms now we all possess. Thank you on this Memorial Day. J Mac tom Brady's going to show up in five minutes. We got ourselves, the MAVs looking to close out Minnesota that's got all sorts of issues with Rudy Gobert's defense and Cats offense. And then we have the Celtics ready to close out a pesky and fun and fast paced Indiana team that's not quite yet but has been competitive.
Your buddy Jason Tatum had a really nice end of Game three. I think he had thirty six points, four key assists.
In the fourth quarter.
He was good, he was accepted. That was his best playoff game. Yeah, we do it every Monday. It's called Colin right, Colin wrong, and here we go. Where Colin was right, I said Luca on Tuesday last week, of all the remaining players, was the best player. Yes, he can be selfish, doesn't play well with everybody in his career, but he leads the NBA playoffs and points assists, third in rebounding indisputable. His degree of difficulty even on his made shots is like something I've almost never seen before. We were right on that where Colin was raw. But I was wrong on the Mavericks. I didn't know if they could beat the Clippers. I thought they'd losed a young and fun Okac. I thought Minnesota would dispose of them, probably in six or seven. But gafferd PJ. Washington, to go along with Oka and Kyrie, have become a really dynamic, energetic team that is tremendous if the games are close late.
I was wrong.
Where Colin was right.
Well, I said Boston would get to the finals and it would be sweeps or gentlemen sweeps. Throw in the injuries. They're forty one and eleven against the East. Part of it is the East is dreadful. The other part is the Celtics are deep, resourceful, and they improve their coaching staff. You are seeing what virtually everybody, including our show predicted.
Where Colin was wrong. Ant is not.
Quite ready to get to the finals. It was very good against Phoenix and Denver. He has struggled from the field team low plus minus. I love watching him play. I think he works really hard. I think by the end of next year he could be the face of the league with Wemby and maybe Luca. But right now he's shooting thirty nine percent from the field. He looks a bit tired, He's lost some energy and at times on his jumper he's lost some confidence. Where Colin was right, Robert Sala, according to reports, is going to get more involved in the offense, which worries me. I talked about this in the last couple of weeks with Nat Hackett. Since Sala arrived three years ago, it's the lowest scoring offense in the league, regardless of coordinator and quarterback. I like Robert Sala, but I thought Hackett was Aaron's buddy, not an elite candidate.
And here we are where Colin was wrong.
The Suns, according to a reporter Evan Sidery, are hoping to pursue Lebron James. What get older and more expensive. I don't get it. That one. I don't get at all. I hope this kid has got good sources, because I do not understand even doubling down on this group. I like Booker, but you could get a haul for him. What you don't want to be in this league is old, brittle, and expensive, and KD. Beale and le On together to me is problematic.
Where Colin was right.
Sean Peyton publicly this week we showed you earlier, came out and said bo Nicks is ahead of schedule. This doesn't surprise us. Bow Knicks at Auburn at Oregon insanely accurate. Sixty one college starts in two good conferences, so you know what you're getting. And I also think the key with bow Nicks he looks like a Sean Payton quarterback.
Where Colin was right.
DJ Moore, star receiver for the Bears, defended justin field to the end, and I said, wait until he has a couple of practices with Caleb Williams and he's going to be a Caleb Williams guy. This week, DJ Moore acknowledged, Yeah, this guy's good.
I like him a lot.
Pro athletes are mostly about winning, and some become later in their careers about money. Sometimes they go hand in hand. But Caleb Williams, in my opinion, is a transformative prospect. You need help, you need production, you need the right coach. But the kid is just different. Where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong on a Monday, it's Tom Brady's around the corner. What what's funny about that Chicago situation is, and you hear this all the time, is that a lot of times you're with somebody at work in any workplace, and you really like somebody and you think they're really good, and you feel a responsibility to sort of defend them. And I think Dj Moore felt a responsibility his buddy. I mean, when you're a star receiver and you have a young quarterback, I mean you're you're sitting next to each other on the plane at lunch, like that's your guy.
You need each other.
It's a timing position, a timing alliance quarterback and receiver. But if you watch justin Fields play and you watch Caleb Williams, Caleb gives you all the physical attributes, but a much better thrower of the football. So that here's DJ Moore talking about Caleb.
He was a quarter back last year and now we got Caleb and going right through.
H ll and back with him.
So I'm just looking forward to Sanwiti he put out. You can see the natural leadership is there, the natural armtown is there. Everything about him it's just always a positive thing. And uh, even when he has a bad like play, he's looking to learn real fast right after. I mean, that's all you can ask him.
Listen, in my life, my adult life, I could count on one hand the times I felt the Chicago Bears had elite offensive talent. I may be able to count that on one finger. This is a rare Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, good offensive tackles, DeAndre Swift, Gerald Everett Cole come out, Caleb Williams. The defense played well last seven weeks of the year, top five in the NFL. So it doesn't happen very often where I look at Chicago and think, oh, they could match up with the best offenses in the league, like a Miami, Baltimore, San Francisco Rams. I can almost and I've said this before, think about this. It is hard as the NFL has pivoted, and the fact that young quarterback play right now, at least physically, is better than it's ever been. They go to camps, the seven on seven, the quarterback stuff, The quarterbacks come in, more starts, more attention, more ready to play, at least at a physical level. And the Bears have never had a quarterback throw for four thousand yards. Just take a deep breath and think about that. Green Bay has had multiple quarterbacks do it in multiple seasons in the same division. So they're just limitations on what Chicago should do. So tom Brady's getting checked in right now, and I'll tell you when he's ready. All right, I'm gonna take a break. Tom Brady's around the corner and we'll bring him in next. Well, he's part of the team now. It's too bad I don't run a four, four or five and have good hands, because if we had some sort of network in or mural thing. I think we'd win. Tom Brady joining us live now from an undisclosed location, I'll just say it's nice. And he's got a better studio than I do today. All right, twenty three years, seven super Bowls, five MVPs. You said something recently, Michael Rubins, Michael Rubin's place, brilliant guy for fanatics, and you were there. And I want to play this bite because I had a little pushback on this roll that bite of Tommy.
You have fifty three guys on the team, and you think it's about you any about you, It's about us. And the biggest problem I see with a lot of the young players today, you guys are making it too much about I and me because of social media, because of branding and all that. It's fine, you're not gonna win. There was a difference between being a star and being a champion.
So I heard that and I said, in your era, you may have had a star quarterback coming out of coll Colledge every five years in Lway, a Peyton Manning, but even a big Ben was a nobody. Even you at a Michigan you're battling for starts. Could I make the argument that it's virtually impossible to come out of college Now, you're paid in il to come out of college and not be a bit of a celebrity. That it's harder to avoid those trappings today, Tom that it was in your era.
Yeah, that's a great point. I really that kind of hit home for me. When I went to the University of Michigan. I forgot we had lost in one of the playoff rounds and coach Harbought invited me back to do a national signing day and it was Jared Jeter was there, and they almost formatted the day at Michigan as the NFL Draft, and all these kids were basically coming from high school to college. And I remember leaving there that day thinking that it was a great event for the University of Michigan, and it was a really cool event for a lot of the players and the families who were being out of high school. But at the same time, I think we're doing a real disservice to those young aspiring athletes because we were giving them so much fame and notoriety just for playing high school football. And you're right, I think a lot of the things that we see now because of really the digital age and the proliferation of information spread so quickly to everywhere. There are so many young high school athletes that are getting notoriety and fame, and you're just at such a young developmental type of age, and it's just a challenging thing for your brain to wrap your head around it so much. I think when I look back to when I was coming out of college, when I was basically getting into the pros, there were such few outlets to cover you that you really felt like you had to do a great job. You had to do great things to get noticed, and that was really the motivation.
Man.
If I could ever.
Get on the of a sports illustrated, if I could ever get written about in the local paper, that will mean that I did something really extraordinary, And that was a not always the motivation, but that was really the effect of what you put out as an athlete.
And today it's obviously just so much different. So I don't know.
I think resilience and determination overcoming adversity, yes, those are really sustainable traits and players and athletes and obviously entrepreneurs, businessman. Look at you, look at all the things you've had to overcome, and I just don't want us to give so much to the younger generation before they really have the full perspective on what those things mean for them. So I recognize that change at Michigan that day. That was really like a punch in the gut for me to go, Wow, you know, we're probably gone a little too far with this, but you know, naturally the pendulum kind of swings and swings back, and I just hope these young athletes can really understand the what's really good to make their career, not their brand or their physical ability, but their connection with their teammates, their leadership ability, them wanting to put the team first above individual goals and recognition. When they show up every day, they are thinking what can I do to help the team win? Because that's the most fulfilling part about team sports is winning.
It's funny, Tom, I never want to disincentivize my kids. I always had the rule of the three c's. I said, if you could be curious, compassionate, and competitive, you're going to have a great life. And competitive is hard because Dad's going to have a nice home, will go on good vacations. And you were known to me of your many gifts. You had the right height, you had the work ethic. You're a smart guy, You're really competitive, and I think to myself, you can't be competitive jet scheme, how does Tom Brady? And in a weird way, I think to myself, Oh, I get competitive the broadcasting thing, because you're going to get people take shots at you and be snippets. So if you found yourself already with broadcasting, watching your tapes and getting hyper competitive, is that just sort of who you are.
There are definitely parts of me that are hyper competitive, and certainly they were as a player and as an athlete.
I love that competition. I relish that competition daily. I didn't give a.
Shit if it was practice, if it was a game, if it was ping pong, if we're playing trash ketball in the locker room, I wanted to win. There's other parts where I feel like I've matured a little bit and I don't necessarily have to be absolutely competitive at everything.
It's a little more selective.
I think if I want to put effort into something, then natural I'll be Naturally I'll be more competitive at it because I'll invest in a little bit of my time, a little bit of my energy into it. Certainly with the broadcaster. I don't think for me it's about competition. I think it's for me it's about did I put everything I could into it? And I did I give the fans everything that they tuned in for. And that's really how I end up gauging myself. And I'll have to look at myself at the end of every Sunday night, going did I do a good enough job? Did I live up to the belief that Fox had in me? Did I live up to the expectations of my teammates Kevin Burkhart and Aaron and Tom and Richie's Ions and rich Russo and our entire truck, the entire team.
That's that's ultimately how I judge myself in that new role.
Yeah, good guys to work for.
I want you.
I just saw a story. Sean Payton was texting me last night about bo Nix and how happy he was with him, and then he talked about it publicly, and we thought it was a good fit because so much in life is fit. You know, there's a million jobs our kids could get in the workforce, but what fits your personality and your drive and your ascension. And I thought bo I thought he was Drew brees with mobility. Neither throws a great deep both a little undersized. And I want you to go back to your first camp because I don't care it's Michael Pennix or it's Caleb. Now, Caleb's a little grooved in here. You know, Denver doesn't have a great roster. You know some of these kids, c J. Stroud had to wing it on the fly a little bit. I want you to You may have had nightmares about it and try to suppress these memories, but go back to your first camp. I don't view Tom Brady as nervous, but was their anxiety? Were there times you thought I'm over my skis here?
It's a great question, I think naturally as an athlete, we're all going to question as we move up to the next level.
Are we capable? Are we enough?
For most of the answers, I think we don't know. We're gonna have to wait and see the development. And everyone asks me all the time around the draft pre draft, which of these kids is going to be the most successful. There's two answers. One it's up to them, and two is show me the people that are around them and are helping.
To develop them.
It's not necessarily about someone's physical potential all the time. So much of it is about can you retain information, can you process it? Can you use the information? Are you willing to study and go through the intricate details of the game, like Drew Brees was, like Peyton Manning was, like Philip Rivers was like some of the all time great John Elway was some of the all time great quarterbacks were.
You could be very physically talented.
You could absolutely go to the wrong fit and have a coach instruct you to do things that are almost impossible.
To do right.
You can't assume that what these young athletes are being told that every coach is the same. Some coach may have one perspective, another coach may have another perspective. So why was I fortunate? Because I came into the Patriots when Bill Belichick was there. He's the one that helped develop me. Charlie Weiss was there, He helped develop me. Later in my career, Josh McDaniels was there. He helped develop me. I could not have been the player I was without people like that impacting my career. My first year, I had Drew Bledsoe to look up to. He took all the reps. I got to sit there from behind and watch him every single day. I had a real mentor to look up to and Drew so some of these teams and you look at Jordan Love who I was watching some of those clips that you had on before I came on, but he had Aaron Rodgers to watch. He got That's the best type of training, in my opinion, Watch someone else do it at a very high level, and then try to emulate them with your own personality. Maybe a little bit of the misnomer with the draft is that these players can come in and all of a sudden become this great professional player before they've really had the training and the development. And it was rare for quite a while for rookie quarterbacks to come in and play. Maybe if you're the first overall pick, but not if you're a second rounder, a third rounder. You had a chance to be groomed. Well, we're not allowing them to do that much anymore. Now we're throwing them out there. Let's see what you can do. And it's a really challenging thing. If I was a young quarterback in this day and age to go out there with the pressure of the agents and the families, the schools, the social media, the fans, the coaches, the owner. How did these kids live up to that? I think it's a real challenge for these young quarterbacks. Hopefully they go into a system that can embrace them, that can fit in multitude they are. Hopefully they have coaches around them that can develop them in the best possible way.
So the Chiefs are looking to do something that's never been done. And I grew up in the seventies, so it's hard for me to believe. Sometimes the Steelers didn't win three straight championships. You couldn't score on them. Forget Swan and Bradshawn, Frankohery, you couldn't score on them. And then there were Raider teams with Stabler and the Niners and the Cowboys in your teams. So I want you to go to the years that you won a Super Bowl. Let's stay in New England because in Tampa you brought everybody back, which can actually work the opposite whether you get too comfortable in New England. And Julius Edelman, who's become a friend, talks about this. Could you tell Tom in the camp after you won a Super Bowl, would there be days you'd be driving home thinking, man, we wait, that was a bad practice. We got a Super Bowl hangover?
Did you fight that?
Could you sense that.
There was? To win a Super Bowl is extremely challenging, as we know.
Even when you look the way the Chiefs won the Super Bowl last year against the forty nine ers, it is an incredible comeback so to speak. They played really well at the end. The margin of there was razor thing. Yeah, and that's the way it's going to be this year for them as well.
It's very rare.
I mean, I would played on an undefeated team. We were the best team, I think, one of the best in the history of football. In two thousand and seven, we go to the Super Bowl, we play less than our best game, The Giants play an awesome game and they end up beating us. All these teams in the NFL are very competitive, they're all well coached. The margin of theras raise oursin. So to win one Super Bowl is extremely difficult. To win two back to back what the Chiefs have done. I mean, as we know, in the history of the sport, nearly impossible to win three in a row. There's a reason why no one's done it. The reason why we haven't won three in a row because it's hard.
To win one in a row.
So to put three of those together in back to back to back seasons, with drafting last a very hard schedule, all the turnover and free agency guys continuing to be motivated, it's a big challenge.
And that's nothing to say that the Chief couldn't accomplish that.
Believe me, everybody would probably put them as one of the odds on favor to do it. But even that, there's not a fifty percent chance of that happening. There's way less than that. Those players are gonna have to show up every day. They're gonna have to put the work in like they have. Fortunately, they have a tremendous coach and Andy Reid who doesn't ever look backward. He's not gonna say, hey, you know, we're gonna because we were great last year, we're gonna be great again this year. He has a very veteran, experienced, championship level coach who holds those guys accountable. They've got a great quarterback in Patrick that, as we know, when he's on the field, he's as great as a football player there is in the NFL. Travis Kelce what he can do at the tight end position. It's really a great safety. Blanka Rashid Rice coming on as a rookie, Chris Jones. I mean, they've got Spagnulo back there as a decordinator, so they have a lot of great pieces.
But to win it all again is a momentous task.
No one's gonna put it past them, but we're all excited to show up and watch on opening day and see what version of the twenty twenty four chiefs, what they can do, and the goals they can set for themselves and whether they can reach them.
You know. One of the things you noticed, and again, I think you're a compartmentalizer. I kind of sometimes watch you. There are certain celebrities Jerry Seinfeld has this. I watch your brain how it works, and you tend to isolate stuff, compartmentalize it, become an expert at it. And that's why I think you'll be very good at broadcasting. One of the things you identified in Tampa was we got to get a right tackle. I need a blocking tight end. I want to power running back. You identified because the roster was good, but they had some holes. They had a very good guard center, guard Jensen, that was that was the strength of the team, and really young linebackers, little young in the secondary, but you identified clearly you and the coaches. Jason Light did one of the pushbacks on I have said on Aaron Rodgers, I said, effort went to a great old line, Tommy went to a great on line or made it one. Yeah, Russell Wilson did not and Aaron did not. And my belief is when you this is why Kirk Cousins do Atlanta works excellent young O line. I worry that when you get older, you got your money, you may be married, you got you don't want to get hit. And that just that shaky old line to a forty year old quarterback off an achilles surgery. I remember the year that you got hurt. You came back the first six or seven games. I would watch you. You didn't like people around your knees. I do think that all I care about the Jets is that O line. Does that concern you with Aaron that it's either old dudes or rookies and a lot of guys in their prime on that on line in.
New York.
So in the offensive line is such an important part of every great football team. If you show me a football team that doesn't have a great old line, it probably doesn't exist very often. If you are, you're pretty lucky, and you better have incredible strengths every where. So and the reason why is that offensive line is really they facilitate what happens on every run play. It's really up to them. Can they displace the line of scrimmage? Can they push the d line back? And then in pass protection, when it's a must throw situation, can we give our quarterback a chance to stand in there comfortably and make the reads. And when I've been playing against teams that have good old lines, I can hear it in the meeting rooms. I sit there in the front row of every Bill Belichick meeting for over twenty years. When he was coaching our defense and we were playing a good offensive line, I knew that it was going to be a long, hard day for our defense because in the run game, they were going to push us off the ball, they were going to create holes in space for them to run the ball well and possess it running it. And when it was a must pass situation, quarterback would have a chance to stand in there and make great reads and on the flip side of that, when I heard that our defense could tee off on that other O line and we can really.
Hold up in the run game with not as many bodies as we.
Needed to, I knew we were going to get a chance to force the quarterback and the mistakes, and we were going to have the ball a lot in terms of possession because they were going to be punning the football lot. So the choice is always made with I was fortunate I had a lot of great offensive lines in my career. I played with guys I had a lot of confidence to them up front. Certainly, the center position is extremely important. It's such a unique relationship the center and the quarterback have I loved all those guys I played with.
They were up front, they were getting.
Everyone coordinated, and when I felt like they had things under control up front, it gave me a lot of confidence to stand back in the pockets. So choosing a good team with a good old line is paramount to the success of a quarterback going to have a good season if your offensive line can't hold up in protection. And I know when I was at Tampa when we beat them in the Super Bowl, the chief said, is they really struggled up front.
They had a lot of injuries that year. Andy Reid and.
Red Beach decided to come back, revamp that O line, and they played tremendous football since they really invested in their offensive line. Joe Tooney came on board last year, they brought in Donovan smith yep, and they really revamped that line. And look at the way Pachaco ran. Even though he wasn't a high pick. Patrick could stand in there and make throws down the field. So they've got to continue to do that. All these teams need to make an investment in coaching and coaching the O line and developing the O line, and that's going to be the key to a lot of offense success this year.
Okay, let's look at the schedule for Fox so it gets released. We know you're doing the Cowboys Cleveland Browns game, so you got a pretty high profile game there with Dak Prescott. But if we show it on the screen, the Fox schedule, so when you play, you obviously watch some stuff. Maybe if you have a late night game, you watch the red Zone, But during your career, now you're gonna go headlong into this stuff, But during your career, I sit with a notepad for eight hours on Sunday. I've got no social life. How closely did you watch the other teams outside of film Tommy, and I'm not talking about film study. I'm and you didn't play in a lot of one o'clock games. You were usually on the late games because they want to get mister Brady on TV. How closely did you watch personnel or have you had to play catch up?
I watched every game. I try to pay attention and follow every team every week. It's that was our job. That was to understand the whole league the perspective, every game counts. Those games meant whatever games, they meant a lot to the division standings. Ultimately, because our team was very competitive, the conference standings were very important. You didn't look too much beyond that, and we never talked about the playoffs and so forth. But I knew what every division opponent was doing every week. Where there were upsets, where there were injuries, those were all very important to the success of our team. You have to win your division first. That's your best path toward the second round of the playoffs is win your division.
Of course, doesn't always.
Need to happen that way. A lot of teams have proven that wrong. But at the same time, if you beat those other three teams in your division, you got a great chance to advance to the second round of the playoffs. So I paid attention then, I'm paying attention now all these games We're going to have some perspective on as we go through the season. I'm very excited about our Fox slate that I'm involved in. We got some incredible games. We got Chiefs at the forty nine ers looking.
Forward to that.
We got a bunch of Dallas games. We have Dallas and the Lions, some really Dallas and the Ravens. I'm doing so a lot of the teams that I've had a lot of familiarity with, but also having Dallas on our roster is extremely important for They just draw a lot of eyeballs and I'll be excited to cover those games.
We'll have fun with your fam. Look like I saw one of your kids back there. Great seeing you, Tom. I can't wait to see in the building. And I know you're on vacation and I'm just taking time that you would otherwise be having a good time, and I appreciate it.
Hey, great to be with you. Good to see you working on Memorial Day.
And thanks to all the incredible people and very resilient families that have sacrificed a lot for us in this great day that we celebrate with our.
Families as kind of the unofficial start of summer. So hope everyone's enjoying their day.
All right. Tom Brady for twenty minutes, certainly appreciated that undisclosed location. It does have a nice beach, you can tell from that, you know, it's it's really interesting when you Tom paid so much attention to when he played. And I can remember one time years ago somebody meant somebody asked Aaron Rodgers about the Super Bowl, and he goes, I didn't even watch it. He's like, I wasn't in it. I was frustrated. I wasn't in it. Brady's just and this is why when people say how will Tom be as a broadcaster, I always say, well, people that are meticulous tend to be good broadcasters. If you're very much into details, compartmentalizing, isolating, studying, you'll be a good broadcaster. And you know, obviously you need a good company, good marketing, you need a good partner. It helps when you have good games but generally when people ask me, I say, if you're somebody that enjoys the process of work and details, that's what broadcasting is. It sounds like it's just eight seconds of saying something fun, glibs smart after a play. It's a lot of details and a lot of homework, and I suspect Tom's going to be really good at it. We'll do herd line coming up next
