Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. 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 Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio. Ah here we go live in Los Angeles on a radio only day. It is the Herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're on iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio. Back on TV next Monday. Knocked off because what has been a glorious World Cup. USA play Saturday morning against the Netherlands. Got a shot. We are out of the group stage. I'm gonna talk about soccer in five minutes. How about that? Love it baby, Greg ko Sell one hour from now, I'll a blazing five tomorrow. I get text that from time to time or tweeted that I hope you had a great, great last few days. In my career, I've I started in radio and then got into a simulcast thing and a podcast thing. So this is very old school feeling. You can go to us right now and get us live on Fox Sports Radio. Don't have to shed. Never showered this morning. It was great. No shower. I smell like the bottom of a barge. Does not matter. I am in a small radio studio in an undisclosed location. Never been happier. We're going to old school. We're bringing in scones from a bakery across the street. Got my Whole Foods coffee. This is old school today. So a couple of things to start. Always felt that outside baseball, I feel like baseball left me behind a little bit the pace of play. I don't think I've ever loved sports more. But they're all different. All the cultures of sports are different. The NBA's very player friendly. I got no problems with it. A soccer I see Ronaldo is going to sign a two hundred million dollars a year deal with Saudi Arabia Soccer. NBA superstars get paid and have huge control, bounce around all over the place. I got no problem with it. College sports, the coach has more power in the player. I got no problem with it. NFL the league, the shield has more power. But I think the NBA doesn't want to be like the NFL, but I also think the NFL doesn't want to be like the NBA. And there's a podcast called All Things Covered. Former Steeler Brian McFadden was on it with Patrick Peterson, a former teammate of Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals. That's the thing is kind of imploding, and that Patrick Peterson with some kind of honesty that pro athletes rarely throw shade at guys they know. Here it is vocally Kyler Murray is talking about and I don't like how he's doing that. I think he should keep some things privately, but it tells me he doesn't care about his head coach and he's putting everything when the head coach is basically saying Kyler Murray, don't care about nobody but Kyler Murray. That's just a matter of fact. So as the NFL has grown, the revenues have exploded. Star quarterback salaries the most important player are now I mean, like Messi, Ronaldo ish guys signing four or five hundred million dollar contracts. They're only going to grow and I'm here for it. But it is starting to feel a little bit like the NBA, where guys get these huge deals, they either don't work out, they're past their prime, they get hurt, and the team is trapped. That's what the NFL's always done a really good job of. They don't get trapped. I mean, the last ten years, you can't name bad contracts. Baseball's got dozens, NBA's got two dozen. But Arizona is a little trapped now trading for Russell Wilson because Denver feels trapped and they are. But trading for Russell Wilson was the right idea. Giving him a massive extension before you'd seen him play a game, probably wasn't. But where Denver's really screwed is Russell Wilson's out of his prime and they gave up all sorts of draft capital to get him. It's different in Arizona. Kyler's in his prime and they got all sorts of draft picks. The only way for Denver to really ease the pain, because these are the two situations where you're like, oh my god, these are like NBA contracts. The only way for Denver to ease the pain is to go out and find the best young head coach you can find, probably offensive, and save this thing because you don't have the draft capital to hit on four or five or six picks like the Seahawks did. We're literally five picks are all good turns around in an hour. So they've got to push control, all delete on their computer, reboot, go, get a new coach, new system, new ideas, new play catalog. I think you in Arizona, I think you can fire the coach. Their big issue is in draft capital or even his athletic ability, because Kyder can really ball. The problem is he's just difficult. Russell Wilson may be a tad cringe e. He's not difficult. He may be a tad delusional, overly optimistic. He's not difficult. Kyler Murray's just hard to coach. Ian Rappaport, very trustable guy, said here recently the coach could be irrelevant. I think it's always tends with Kyle, like I don't think with Cliffs, always very like he works hard, but it's very chill. With Kyler. It's always tense. So like I know, we all I mean including me, like I did a thing on this this weekend, we're all kind of focused on that relationship. I would imagine it's going to be tense with any coach and Kyler because he wants what he wants, he sees what he sees. He's very demonstrable about it, and he's kind of hurt a little bit, like quick and like come on, like it's he's very blunt. He's very blunt. So you have these two situations where the NFL is starting to feel a little NBA. And by the way, the NFL has borrowed things I like from the NBA celebrations after touchdowns, much better on social media than three or four years ago. They've lightened up, they've moved in the right direction player empowerment. But you don't want to become the NBA and baseball where teams get trapped because in the NFL it's still a salary cap league, bad contract, bad team. Off television, you go to the corner TV game, you do not you do not want to be the tests And it's amazing how fast it goes south. Belichick now that another right quarterback spent three hundred million dollars on free agency. None of the guys popped Judaan's okay, but like really none of them popped kind of any ralevant. That's Bill Belichick. So I think I think Arizona at least they both got their issues. I at one point, about a month ago, two months ago, said, should Denver and Arizona swap quarterbacks? Arizona just want somebody that's grown up and coachable. Denver's like, we got no picks. We need a playmaker because we can't fix the old line in one draft. We just can't do it. Don't have the picks. Something to consider. Okay, soccer fans, now, now, let me just say this. I don't think a sportscaster ever sounds dumber than he when he rips on soccer like it's not a political thing, it's here, it's growing. I have said that before. I have trice twice tried to buy into I couldn't afford it. Buy into an MLS team. I tried ten years ago. I tried six years ago that I grew up. My mom was British. I went to Europe as a kid. I was just really young, five six seven years old, early seventies, went to England with my mom and the Netherlands had a great player named Johann Kroif and they were a dominant team back then. So was England. England. I think weren't won a World Cup late sixties early seventies, and my mom's twin brother, Peter, I bought me this little play toy soccer game and for some reason, the little players, if I recall, they were like orange and I you know, I was like a little kid, pretend they were Netherlands because the family in England, my mom's family, big soccer fans, blah blah blah, boring. I moved to the Pacific Northwest. I'm from there, Sounders, Tony Cherski and goal like. I've always liked soccer, moved to Portland. Was a sportscaster than the late Clive Charles, the coach at the Portland Pilots. I've been around soccer. I'm not an expert on it, but I like it. You know, Soccer fans, however, are annoying. I watched the Tunnel World Cup. I'm pro soccer, pro soccer movement. Soccer fans are annoying, but it is explainable. They've been ignored, mocked, and often frustrated by the United States men's national team and meat heads. You know, you get kind of meat heads that it's not a tough guy sport. It's the wrong football, and when you lose, be one thing. If we won the World Cup and then you could, you know, trump those idiots. But in the end you get mocked a lot, ignored a lot, feel like you're bullied a little bit and ignored. So they're all a little bit delusional and defensive and protective, righteous, and they're just annoying. So believe it or not, all these soccer fans who have not attended a single practice, a single team meal, I haven't either, But I don't think I know more than Greg Burhalter. That's kind of a difference. I don't think I know more than Greg Burhalter. All the soccer fans do, and they're not happy with him. All I hear about is vetching and complaining on the interweb, and I'm thinking, quick review of what Greg Burhalter took over. There was a movie about it. It was called The Titanic. Okay, this United States men's national team was an embarrassment. I sat on my couch and watched US lose on a second tier field to Trinidad Tobago in twenty seventeen and qualifying for the World Cup. Remember that, like they didn't mow the lawn and like I don't know the pitch in like a year soggy field, it had rain. If I recall, we could not beat Trinidad Tobago we had We were bad defensively, no real vision, and the players didn't appear to like each other. There was this mix of young ascending players and old guys Michael Bradley, Clinton Debs is just bad. Is bad very quickly. Greg Burhalter, who goes to every practice philm meetings, actually knows the team. They started beating their arrival Mexico. They won the conquer Calfe Gold Cup, the Nation's League, they qualified for the World Cup, and then they go on beating in the group stage. And yet soccer guy is outraged and constantly bothered by Greg burr Halter. Soccer guy who coaches his son at Ayso and plays FIFA downstairs in the basement in his downtime, knows more than Greg burr Halter. No item. Now, all coaches make stakes. Pete Carroll Super Bowl, right, Bill Belichick, Benching, Malcolm Butler. Those are Hall of Fame level coaches in the Super Bowl. Nobody thinks burr Halter's perfect. Greg would tell you he's not. And I have not loved some of the substitutions. Shack Moore looks a little overwhelmed. But you have to add context to that. Because it's in Qatar, which is like playing you know, like in Vegas in the summer. It's hot, right, It's not an ideal place to have a World Cup. That's why we're putting it in the fall. It's a little cooler. Five substitutions. We usually have three light soccer three substitutions. Now you're allowed five. Why because of the heat. So you're almost offered double the substitutions. What does that create? Experimenting? You're going a little deeper in your bench than you probably would in another World Cup, and you're making some moves staggering some players minutes in the heat that you probably wouldn't make. In fact, you wouldn't make if this thing was played in Ireland in the summer, not in this heat and three substitutions. This is a different World Cup. It's just it's the times different, the heat's different, the substitutions are different. We just came out of a group stage, not an easy one. We didn't lose draw against England, Okay, didn't England beat I Ryan like six to two or something. But I'll give soccer fans this. Their angst is explainable. I've often called this low sports self esteem. It's like Cleveland brown fan or for years Buffalo Bills fan. You get eat up so much that when you have a glim glimmer of just positivity, you go crazy. Cleveland Browns go to the playoffs with Baker. Baker's better than Mahomes. No he's not, but I get it in this way. It works in the inverse in that because they're so defensive about how they've been ignored or treated and the disappointments, they go crazy every time you know something's not perfect. Just know this, nobody likes their soccer coach or slash football coach unless they win the World Cup. If Brazil doesn't win, guy's in trouble. Canada has been disappointing. Person could be in trouble. So some of the criticism, because it's in once every four year tournament is just based on urgency, right, like this is it. It's not like the NFL got a game tomorrow. Game tomorrow, can start oing three and make the playoffs. But the constant criticism by soccer fans of Burrholter. The substitution patterns at this World Cup are different. He's a very smart guy, but if you go back to what he inherited, it was a disaster very quickly. The improvements defensively for this team are staggering. Hell, I didn't even know who the Goldie was a year and a half ago. I mean, Matt Turner was you soccer fans didn't like him at all. But a year and a half ago, we're all asking, we almost have the Goldie? Right? Who's Who's Who's in the nets? Turner's been unbelievable. It's been unbelievable. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in nun Easter nine a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio I It was inevitable. Here's the news, a source told the place I used to work, ESPN. On Wednesday, the Rolls Bulls agreed to terms that will pave the way for the college football Playoff. Folks, We've got it. It's official, twelve team college football playoff in two years. A. It was inevitable. B there was way too much money on the table. This was gonna happen, and let's be on a sea here or three or see. It's another great tournament. March Madness is what sixty eight teams? World Cup is thirty two. College football will be twelve. It'll be glorious. We like tournaments, Yes, yes, like the World Cup. In March Madness. There will be some mismatches. Spain beat Costa Rica seven, nothing, it happens, but eventually the cream will rise. In college football, it'll be big dog against big dog. Expansion is here to stay Colin it devalues the regular season. Oh brother, Yeah, when Bama plays a Georgia or Tennessee in late October, nobody will go come on, beb Auburn won't mean that much. Well, it hasn't meant that much in the last seven eight years anyway. And by the way, the stadium will not be empty. I'll guarantee of that. Regional pride, local pride. I know, I know many of you think Baton Rouge and ann Arbor and South Bend, Indiana, and Madison, Wisconsin and Knoxville, Tennessee are suddenly now with a twelve team playoff just gonna be empty on the weekends. I'm here to say they won't be. They will not be ghost towns. It's all gonna be. Okay. If I could be kind of blunt here, i'd like to be, And since the show's called The Herd, I'm going to be. Big time. Sports are not here for your nostalgia. Nobody cares. ESPN created ESPN Classic. Absolutely nobody he watched it. It's done. I think they still have ESPN You and nobody watches that and they kept that one. That's how bad ESPN Classic was. Go to YouTube watch old Rose Bowls. You'll be you know, you'll have a time of your life. Nobody cares. The bottom line is college football is big time and you're gonna watch the big matchups. Sports or business grow or die. If we had a twelve team playoff this week in college football, Number one Georgia would have a bye. Number two Michigan would as well. Number three TCU would and so would USC And then you'd have Penn State and Clemson, both overrated. I would take Penn State, Ohio State and Tulane probably a blowout. Bama, Utah Fun Utah would move the ball, Tom Fun Bama and Tennessee. Kansas State. Now that Kansas State wouldn't have to face Brendan Hooker. Kansas State, yeah hook yeah, hand in Hooker. I'm sorry, Kansas State would probably win, probably maybe not, but you wouldn't watch that. Ohio State Tulane looks like an ugly one, but you know, Ohio State, by the way, knowing who they would play next, could absolutely come out flat. We see that all the time. I mean we watched I watched Ohio State before the Michigan game. Didn't they play Maryland and play particularly good? I watched Michigan before the Ohio State game. They played Illinois. They were terrible. So these initial matchups, you know you got if you know you're facing Georgia or USC or a Michigan could face Ohio State next, or vice versa, a very very easy chance that a Utah could slip in or a Cincinnati in their biggest game of the year and give you fits. This is not a twenty four team playoff. This is not a thirty sixteen playoff. You know you're a eleventh and twelve teams. You're gonna get a small college team and it's gonna be their super Bowl, so they're gonna play their arts off and you're gonna have a chance to have a real competitive game sometimes. And then sometimes you're gonna get Spain seven, Costa Rica nothing, and that's gonna happen, and we're all gonna be okay. It's not like the first round. The best part of March Madness has always been, in my opinion, it's not the final weekend. It's the first weekend. It's a blast. This is crazy. You get these matchups you'd never get, and there's always just awful games, those early morning games where nobody's in the stands and like a North Carolina is really really good and they're just too big and they beat somebody like Coastal Carolina seventy eight to like forty eight, and you can tell instantly it's like a good thing. This thing is early in the day and nobody's here. You're gonna get some of those, by the way, you get some of those in the Pac twelve Conference. You watch the USC Colorado game. Do you watch Alabama George to play the bottom of the SEC. There's a happy games every weekend. It's fun. But people, I'm not a big I didn't grow up in this classic kind of family with lots and lots of tradition. I mean, we were in a church family. Um, you know, I grew up rurally, so we didn't live in a you know, a subdivision around everybody and the kids all played on their bikes. I lived out in the middle of the sticks. You got, you gotta offended for yourself and did your own thing. So I'm not beholding the tradition. I think sometimes that stuff is weird. One time I lived in West Hartford and I had a neighbor and he was a sports fan, and we just started talking about something and I don't. I don't, I'm not a collector. And he collected stuff, and so he goes, oh, I've got a clock collection. And he was a little odd, but I felt safe. I'm an adult male, so I said, oh, let me see it. He had like seven hundred clocks in his basement, very nostalgic about all of them. And you know my takeaway as I walked out of his house, weird. Nobody cares that you collected baseball cards. Sports is growing, everything's expanding, NFL playoffs are expanding. I don't know. To me, the way I've always looked at sports shrink the regular seasons. Major League Baseball one hundred and sixty two games is idiotic. Get down to like a hundred. Start the playoffs in the same weather you plan during the regular season. Playoffs start August first. Believe me, I'm a sports talk show host. We would die for baseball playoffs August first. We're bored out of our minds. August first. Now that NFL teams don't play starters in the preseason, get down to one hundred games. Wow, what about the records again? You're a guy who collects clocks, baseball card guy weird who cares. Let's get to the playoffs hundred games NBA. I'd go down to like sixty four. I want my guys healthy. Anthony Davis can barely stay healthy. Now let's take twenty games off and get the best players to the playoffs. I've always believed band playoffs baseball hundred games, and then let's go longer playoffs August first, and wrap it up by the way October first, because September. Remember, the NFL doesn't start until like the Thursday after Labor Day, and the momentum in the NFL doesn't get huge. The ratings don't pop until it gets cold. More people go inside, like mid October, NFL ratings started just popping, but September's wide open for baseball. Now, baseball playoffs disappear unless your team is in it. Nobody's watching these things, so wrap it up by October first, own August in September. All sports is is real estate. Own it. Baseball have known enough real estate, not enough valuable real estate. I would shrink all playoff games in college football, twelve team playoffs. I'll give you one game against Panera bread like, I'll give you one game. If you're the University of Washington, you get Eastern Washington University. You can help fund the local state schools. Right Ohio State, you go play somebody in state. Then grown up games. These SEC teams are playing Citadel and Week eight. Nobody wins. Fans don't, players don't, nobody wins, Networks don't. It's awful. You can get again. Can you imagine you're a national championship team and you get a guy hurt against Citadel? Yeah, be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekday said noun easter not a empacific. Vince Carter, good dude, good player, loved his game, thinks the Lakers Anthony Davis. Supreme respect for Lebroun hinders him from taking the reins of the Lakers. I think it's a respect thing. He respects who in what Lebron James has done in the game. But at the same time, you are allowed to and you should and nothing wrong with you respect to him. But when that guy that you respect is now trying to give you the reins and wants you to take over and be the go to guy, and he can compliment you, you should take that as an honor and run with it. Sports fans are like bitcoin bros. You could burn them, break them, bankrupt him, they'd still jump back in. There are bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Let's see unregulated money, shocking bad actors showed up NFTs. Let's sell fuzzy images of monkeys for millions of dollars. What could possibly go wrong? I mean that Sam Bankman freed guy, the the the FTX guy. What a grifter that guy is? Did you hear him in the interview with the New York Times. There's going to be a time and a place for me to sort of think about myself and my own feature. But I don't think this is it like right now, I mean, look, I've had a bad month. Anthony Davis is sports cryptocurrency. No, he is. Short term bursts make you feel rich, but the inevitable letdown is coming. Simply not made to last, average work ethic, semi committed, history of injuries, are reluctance to play the position near the rim that he's supposed to, passive personality. It's he's sports cryptocurrency, and you keep buying into it and buying into it, no matter how many times you're burned. I told you coming into the season, I said, because of the criticism he's received, AD's going to be unbelievable in the first half, and you suckers are going to buy all into it again instead of moving him for picks and players, which the Lakers need wing defenders, they need shooters. It's like a grocery store. They have nothing. The shelves are empty, old Lebron and now surging crypto guy Ad. It's a house of cards, right, inevitable he will get hurt again. But you know it's like I saw a story this cracked me up. I saw this story this week, this city, and this story is so predictable. Miami nightclub owner mourns the loss of quote crypto nerds after FTX collapse, said the owner of a Miami nightclub. Yeah, they were ordering like twelve twenty four bottles of the most expensive champagne and showering themselves without even drinking it. In the crypto bros were so predictable, and that's that's Laker fan with a D. It was so predictable. He's gonna come out be gray, and he has been last seven games. He's a monster. But y'all understand what he is and has been for like four years. His only great stretch was in the bubble when he got like a three and a half four months sabbatical, a hiatus, and he was healthy. You think he's gonna be healthy in June if he made the finals and they're not hi. This is Jay Glazer. And you may know me for the world of football or fighting or even shows like HBO's Ballers, Well you don't know is for my entire life. I have lived in something I refer to as degree depression anxiety. So now I'm coming out with a new podcast, Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer, where each week will we talk about mental health. I hope to describe it, give it words. Listen to Unbreakable with Jay Glazer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Peter Schrager podcast, Guy Sports Guy reporter Guy Fox on his podcast was had Matt Rule on, who was a really good college coach and turned around a couple of programs, went to the NFL in Carolina and it was a mess. And you know, the media is kind of picking on him now because you know he's not blaming himself, but he was asked, hey, if you had to do it again, what would you do differently? I think I probably would just probably taking another job, you know. I mean, I think it's a great place, you know, the wonderful people, but I just don't know if I was a fit there. You know, at the end of the day, we talked about, hey, we're going to have a four year plan a five year plan. You know, if you tell me, hey, we got a two year plan, then then I'm gonna go get signed a bunch of free agents and do it. So, you know, what was a four year plan became a two year and five game plan real quick. You know what Matt Rule realized he realized the number one rule about the NFL. If you don't have a B plus quarterback, you can't win. Alabama won national titles with Greg McElroy, AJ McCarron and Jake Coker. You can be average at quarterback, slightly above average and win a national championship. Stetson Bennett. Look at the NFL standings currently, a FC East, Josh Allen and Tuah best two quarterbacks in that division. AFC North Joe Burrow Lamar lead it. Best two quarterbacks in the division. AFC South, most talented kid is Trevor Lawrence, but probably the best quarterback today is probably Ryan Tannehill leads the division. AFC West is led by Mahomes and Justin Herbert the AC. The NFC East is led by Jalen Hurts and dak alst Of the two best any order you want. NFC North, Well Kirk Cousins has been better than Aaron Rodgers this year because he's not hurt. He leads, NFC South, Brady Leaves leads, and NFC West Garoppolo leads. Now you can say, oh what about Garoppolo is better than Geno Smith, healthier than Matt Stafford this year and more coachable than Kyler Murray right now on a week to week basis, he's the best quarterback. That's the rule. That's why I've said I'll probably have to at some point if I ever sit down and have a beer with Lincoln Riley, and I'm sure it will happen sooner than later. But college gigs are great if you get the right brand, if you get into a Michigan Hardball left the NFL for college. He doesn't have a crazy owner, he chooses his own personnel. He can win ten games annually and not be great at quarterback. I mean J. J. McCarthy's talented, he's not great. Lincoln Riley's eleven and one at USC. This is the least talented team he will ever have at USC. Now, I don't think Nebraska's a great job. They ran off Scott Frost, who is smart guy and beloved there. But I mean even Belichick, Cleveland couldn't win New England Now not winning? Why average at quarterback? You gotta be B plus or you gotta at least be like Dak Kirk Cousins or above, or you're not going to be a playoff team in most years barring just breaks or a historically good defense. One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. Alexei lallis former defender for the United States men's national team and sometimes a verbal defender of Greg Burrhalter and Our Club. Ninety four and ninety eight World Cup performer. Alexei is joining US Fox Sports analysts from Doha. My friend, how are you? You've been wonderful? How are things? It's good? My friend? Greetings, Yeah, this is incredible, man. This is a it's been a really interesting tournament on the field. Off the field. You've got to seen our incredible Fox Sports set that we have down here in Doha, Qatar, and it's been great and it just rolls on, and especially when it comes to this US team, they're doing US proud and it's been fun. Okay, second youngest team in the tournament. Never Land's next. What will the match look like? You know there is the advantage where plan is underdog's house money. Could they get tight? I've seen this at March Madness. All tournaments are like this. Alexei the favorite, maybe leads one nil. Late they get tight. How Iran almost came back to score on us. Do we have a shot here? I My guess is we do. Absolutely we have a shot, Colin, And for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is, this is a very good US team. And you know, while you know back in the nineteen hundreds, back in the previous century, when I was running around it, which is kind of a happy to be there, and certainly getting out of the group was an accomplishment and the rest, to your point, was kind of gravy. That's not the way that this generation was brought up or the way that they look at this opportunity. And yes they are young, yes they are inexperience. Then yes, on paper, the Netherlands is a better team. But to your point, the US also, in a strange way, gets to return to what made us kind of successful in the past, which is that underdog rule and were expectations versus a Netherlands team. I think if you ask Netherlands, they are they recognize that they are coming up against a very good team. I don't think they're going to take us lightly. But I also think that this US team, whether it's Christian Polisic, whether it's Weston Mkittie, whether it's Matt Turner and goal are going to relish this opportunity. And it is an opportunity against a good team, not a great team. So if the US were to beat the Netherlands on Saturday, it would not be this historic, life changing type of moments. Would it be great and would it be celebrated, Absolutely, But then we have to also come to the realization a certain point that we should expect our team, and this team in particular, to be ready for these types of situations and to absolutely give them a game and do more than give them the game, you know, go out there and get that win. Not be stupid, be mature. And they are mature. They know what the World Cup is now, and there's plenty of talent, there's plenty of depth, and they're feeling they're feeling it right now. So listen. I like Greg burr Halter. He took over the Titanic. They conquer calf A Gold Cup, Nations League, they qualify, they get out without a loss. He's cleaned up the defense. I see a lot of positives I have not loved the substitution patterns. But I've tried to add context to that Alexei by saying generally you get three Qatar you get five. So it's a different substitution pattern you are playing guys, maybe you wouldn't. Maybe you're getting minutes to people looking down the road, I don't love what I've seen from shack More. He's been a bit overwhelmed. Is that a fair criticism that the substitution patterns or choices have not been ideal. It's a fair criticism. And you know, I give Greg Berhalter a B plus for so far. Now, like you said, all the things that he's done over the cycle, that's all fine and well, but ultimately we knew and he knows he's going to get judged in the World Cup. Well, you go undefeated in the group stage, you let in one goal on a penalty, you have two, you have two shuttles, shoutouts, and you really were the better team when it came to playing the best team in that group, which which was England. Having said that it's not been perfect, to your point, the substitutions, they have not been good and they have not come in and fundamentally changed the game. In a positive way, as if anything, when you're talking about a shock more and I think more importantly the hog right substitution the other day, it was mind boggling in terms of the way that those guys came in and not only did they not add anything, but I think that they really took something away and it was really problematic. So he's got to get those right going forward, whether it's whether he's using all five are using all three. The other thing, we've talked about this before on your show set pieces. Set pieces, set pieces, they are so important and this team has been a bisal set piece coach. They have an actual coach whose job it is. You've got one job set pieces, and this team has not been good on set pieces, and who knows, maybe it's that one set piece that that's the difference between this team beating the Netherlands and not beating the Netherlands. So they better find a way to fix that right quick because in the in the in the course of the game and the flow of the game, they might not get a lot of opportunities. But those set pieces, they are the great equalizer. Yeah, no, they are. And to your point, that's the second criticism they've been sloppy. There's a lot of questions about Geo Raina, and I would say, listen on a young team, he's like the teenager. He just turned twenty. Is it possible that there's rumors and speculation about the relationship Burhalter Geo Raina. I swear to god, I read something about a father in vaulved I don't know what it is. My takeaway, he's a kid, it's the World Cup. Is it possible that Greg just doesn't feel quite yet comfortable with him? Look, Greg Berhalter's job is to get the best collection of players on the field. Not the best players, but the best collection of players on the field. Now, Geo Raina might be one of those ultimately in the moment. But this is, as you said, a young player. This is a player that has shown that he has been fragile from a physical perspective. Yeah, and look, you don't you don't mess with it when it's going well, and it is going well. Would I like to see him at some point get on the field. Yes, But Greg Burhalter, just like any coaches any sports, he's not gonna do something that's detrimental. This is not a y Issa they nobody's playing games here. Nobody's you know, making a point or dying on a type of hill because somebody said something. You can be a com And I'm not saying that there's anything more on behind the scenes, but you know as well as I do that this is this is big boy and big girl type of stuff here. And you play the players that you think are going to win because that's what you're going to be judged upon. And if Greg Burhalter doesn't feel at this point that Geo Raina is going to help his team win, then he's there to make that decision. He is a good talent and it would be nice to see him on the field, and who knows, maybe against the Netherlands he ends up becoming on the field. I don't think he's gonna start, but it becomes on the field. Maybe he makes that difference right now, but I don't also don't think that this is a distraction in terms of what's going on behind the scenes with this team. I'm sure Geo is not happy about it, but no player is happy that's not playing. I don't think he's being a cancer or anything. But ultimately, Greg Burhalter, things have gone well and you gotta trust him given the track record so far. Yeah. And also great college basketball players and great college football players enter the transfer portal in great programs, sometimes people are unhamp You're not gonna be a roster where everybody is getting the minutes they want, especially on a national team. So politics injury, Um, if you had to guest today, play or not, I don't think we listen. Goals have been hard, so politic to me feels his skill would be really missed. Do you think he plays today? One hundred percent? He plays on Saturday. As a matter of fact, our own Jenny Taff just reported from from the camp that she interviewed him and he you know, he gave that smile and you could tell that this is a guy who while he was hurt, he's recovered. He's gonna be fine. I think he's gonna be a one hundred percent um. You know, will he will have some soreness, Yeah, but he's shown in this tournament he's grown through this tournament that he's he's gone from a boy to a man. To be quite quite honest, he had that wonderful moment. Obviously he's sacrificed for himself, his team and his country had to go to the had to go to the hospital. But you saw him after he actually greeted his team when they got back to the hotel, because he came from the hospital right to the hotel. I mean, this guy was smiling. And this is a shi This is a you know, as shucks type of type of personality off the field, but on the field, you know, he had his moment. He is a and just from a practical perspective, I think that there is nobody on the team that the Netherlands would game plan for other than Christian Polistic. That's how important he has become to this team in terms of taking players on and really causing problems for whoever the US is playing. Finally, Qatar got criticism. It's not an ideal site given the weather. It'd probably be more comfortable in Ireland right now. But be that as it may. Your takeaway, your honest sort of takeaway on how you've been treated as a site, just kind of the entire spectacle of it so far. Look, I mean from a weather perspective, it's been great, to be quite honest with you. And they moved it to November and December to appease FEFA that was really concerned. They also have climate control in the stadium, so it's been Christine conditions on the field and Christine conditions also for the fans in those areas. The Qataris have been have been wonderful and they have treated us incredibly. Um, you know, everything has been has worked the way that they said it was going to uh was going to work, and look, this is an advertisement to the world from a soccer perspective. Their team did not go on, so that didn't quite work out the way that they wanted in terms of guitar, but the actual tournament we've had some wonderful games on the field, and I think that that ultimately it's going to be a positive message and a message about a country and culture that is evolving, that is changing, that is doing things in order to you know, be part of the world in twenty twenty two and beyond, especially if you want to have that global commerce and that global travel and all the different stuff that's going on. So look, I can only tell you from being here on the ground that everybody has been has been wonderful and from a soccer perspective, it's been a really cool and interesting tournament. Alexi Lawless, I love your Twitter account. It's one of my favorites. I really do. You and Colin Quinn m the comedian I think are my two, yeah, my two favorite accounts. You know how highly I think of you and your work, and I have loved every second of this. Canada has let me down. That was my dark horse, peck to be really dynamic, but instead maybe it's us. I should be bought off. My friend. Hey, hey, listen before before you let me go here, just gonna I tell you your views and listeners out there that you have been a champion for this game for a long time, and I know you have made a point of putting it in your soccer spectrum out there, in your palette of sports out there, and you've learned along the way, and you have been you know, it's really important because obviously you come from more traditional American sports, but you recognized early on that this was going to grow, This was going to get bigger, even back in our ESPN days. You sought people out to learn about the game, and I appreciate that the soccer folks out there appreciate that, and I think that it has made you better because you have a responsibility. As you know that, I have a knowledge of all the sports that are going on, especially the ones that are going to continue to get bigger and bigger. I think we're seeing huge numbers in terms of people. There's the soccer ten. You've been there all along, so I really appreciate that. My friend Alexi Lawless Fox Sports crushing it. Thanks buddy, all right, see you

Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one. 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 Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowhern on Fox Sports Radio. Ah here we go live in Los Angeles on a radio only day. It is the Herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're on iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio. Back on TV next Monday. Knocked off because what has been a glorious World Cup. USA play Saturday morning against the Netherlands. Got a shot. We are out of the group stage. I'm gonna talk about soccer in five minutes. How about that? Love it baby, Greg ko Sell one hour from now, I'll a blazing five tomorrow. I get text that from time to time or tweeted that I hope you had a great, great last few days. In my career, I've I started in radio and then got into a simulcast thing and a podcast thing. So this is very old school feeling. You can go to us right now and get us live on Fox Sports Radio. Don't have to shed. Never showered this morning. It was great. No shower. I smell like the bottom of a barge. Does not matter. I am in a small radio studio in an undisclosed location. Never been happier. We're going to old school. We're bringing in scones from a bakery across the street. Got my Whole Foods coffee. This is old school today. So a couple of things to start. Always felt that outside baseball, I feel like baseball left me behind a little bit the pace of play. I don't think I've ever loved sports more. But they're all different. All the cultures of sports are different. The NBA's very player friendly. I got no problems with it. A soccer I see Ronaldo is going to sign a two hundred million dollars a year deal with Saudi Arabia Soccer. NBA superstars get paid and have huge control, bounce around all over the place. I got no problem with it. College sports, the coach has more power in the player. I got no problem with it. NFL the league, the shield has more power. But I think the NBA doesn't want to be like the NFL, but I also think the NFL doesn't want to be like the NBA. And there's a podcast called All Things Covered. Former Steeler Brian McFadden was on it with Patrick Peterson, a former teammate of Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals. That's the thing is kind of imploding, and that Patrick Peterson with some kind of honesty that pro athletes rarely throw shade at guys they know. Here it is vocally Kyler Murray is talking about and I don't like how he's doing that. I think he should keep some things privately, but it tells me he doesn't care about his head coach and he's putting everything when the head coach is basically saying Kyler Murray, don't care about nobody but Kyler Murray. That's just a matter of fact. So as the NFL has grown, the revenues have exploded. Star quarterback salaries the most important player are now I mean, like Messi, Ronaldo ish guys signing four or five hundred million dollar contracts. They're only going to grow and I'm here for it. But it is starting to feel a little bit like the NBA, where guys get these huge deals, they either don't work out, they're past their prime, they get hurt, and the team is trapped. That's what the NFL's always done a really good job of. They don't get trapped. I mean, the last ten years, you can't name bad contracts. Baseball's got dozens, NBA's got two dozen. But Arizona is a little trapped now trading for Russell Wilson because Denver feels trapped and they are. But trading for Russell Wilson was the right idea. Giving him a massive extension before you'd seen him play a game, probably wasn't. But where Denver's really screwed is Russell Wilson's out of his prime and they gave up all sorts of draft capital to get him. It's different in Arizona. Kyler's in his prime and they got all sorts of draft picks. The only way for Denver to really ease the pain, because these are the two situations where you're like, oh my god, these are like NBA contracts. The only way for Denver to ease the pain is to go out and find the best young head coach you can find, probably offensive, and save this thing because you don't have the draft capital to hit on four or five or six picks like the Seahawks did. We're literally five picks are all good turns around in an hour. So they've got to push control, all delete on their computer, reboot, go, get a new coach, new system, new ideas, new play catalog. I think you in Arizona, I think you can fire the coach. Their big issue is in draft capital or even his athletic ability, because Kyder can really ball. The problem is he's just difficult. Russell Wilson may be a tad cringe e. He's not difficult. He may be a tad delusional, overly optimistic. He's not difficult. Kyler Murray's just hard to coach. Ian Rappaport, very trustable guy, said here recently the coach could be irrelevant. I think it's always tends with Kyle, like I don't think with Cliffs, always very like he works hard, but it's very chill. With Kyler. It's always tense. So like I know, we all I mean including me, like I did a thing on this this weekend, we're all kind of focused on that relationship. I would imagine it's going to be tense with any coach and Kyler because he wants what he wants, he sees what he sees. He's very demonstrable about it, and he's kind of hurt a little bit, like quick and like come on, like it's he's very blunt. He's very blunt. So you have these two situations where the NFL is starting to feel a little NBA. And by the way, the NFL has borrowed things I like from the NBA celebrations after touchdowns, much better on social media than three or four years ago. They've lightened up, they've moved in the right direction player empowerment. But you don't want to become the NBA and baseball where teams get trapped because in the NFL it's still a salary cap league, bad contract, bad team. Off television, you go to the corner TV game, you do not you do not want to be the tests And it's amazing how fast it goes south. Belichick now that another right quarterback spent three hundred million dollars on free agency. None of the guys popped Judaan's okay, but like really none of them popped kind of any ralevant. That's Bill Belichick. So I think I think Arizona at least they both got their issues. I at one point, about a month ago, two months ago, said, should Denver and Arizona swap quarterbacks? Arizona just want somebody that's grown up and coachable. Denver's like, we got no picks. We need a playmaker because we can't fix the old line in one draft. We just can't do it. Don't have the picks. Something to consider. Okay, soccer fans, now, now, let me just say this. I don't think a sportscaster ever sounds dumber than he when he rips on soccer like it's not a political thing, it's here, it's growing. I have said that before. I have trice twice tried to buy into I couldn't afford it. Buy into an MLS team. I tried ten years ago. I tried six years ago that I grew up. My mom was British. I went to Europe as a kid. I was just really young, five six seven years old, early seventies, went to England with my mom and the Netherlands had a great player named Johann Kroif and they were a dominant team back then. So was England. England. I think weren't won a World Cup late sixties early seventies, and my mom's twin brother, Peter, I bought me this little play toy soccer game and for some reason, the little players, if I recall, they were like orange and I you know, I was like a little kid, pretend they were Netherlands because the family in England, my mom's family, big soccer fans, blah blah blah, boring. I moved to the Pacific Northwest. I'm from there, Sounders, Tony Cherski and goal like. I've always liked soccer, moved to Portland. Was a sportscaster than the late Clive Charles, the coach at the Portland Pilots. I've been around soccer. I'm not an expert on it, but I like it. You know, Soccer fans, however, are annoying. I watched the Tunnel World Cup. I'm pro soccer, pro soccer movement. Soccer fans are annoying, but it is explainable. They've been ignored, mocked, and often frustrated by the United States men's national team and meat heads. You know, you get kind of meat heads that it's not a tough guy sport. It's the wrong football, and when you lose, be one thing. If we won the World Cup and then you could, you know, trump those idiots. But in the end you get mocked a lot, ignored a lot, feel like you're bullied a little bit and ignored. So they're all a little bit delusional and defensive and protective, righteous, and they're just annoying. So believe it or not, all these soccer fans who have not attended a single practice, a single team meal, I haven't either, But I don't think I know more than Greg Burhalter. That's kind of a difference. I don't think I know more than Greg Burhalter. All the soccer fans do, and they're not happy with him. All I hear about is vetching and complaining on the interweb, and I'm thinking, quick review of what Greg Burhalter took over. There was a movie about it. It was called The Titanic. Okay, this United States men's national team was an embarrassment. I sat on my couch and watched US lose on a second tier field to Trinidad Tobago in twenty seventeen and qualifying for the World Cup. Remember that, like they didn't mow the lawn and like I don't know the pitch in like a year soggy field, it had rain. If I recall, we could not beat Trinidad Tobago we had We were bad defensively, no real vision, and the players didn't appear to like each other. There was this mix of young ascending players and old guys Michael Bradley, Clinton Debs is just bad. Is bad very quickly. Greg Burhalter, who goes to every practice philm meetings, actually knows the team. They started beating their arrival Mexico. They won the conquer Calfe Gold Cup, the Nation's League, they qualified for the World Cup, and then they go on beating in the group stage. And yet soccer guy is outraged and constantly bothered by Greg burr Halter. Soccer guy who coaches his son at Ayso and plays FIFA downstairs in the basement in his downtime, knows more than Greg burr Halter. No item. Now, all coaches make stakes. Pete Carroll Super Bowl, right, Bill Belichick, Benching, Malcolm Butler. Those are Hall of Fame level coaches in the Super Bowl. Nobody thinks burr Halter's perfect. Greg would tell you he's not. And I have not loved some of the substitutions. Shack Moore looks a little overwhelmed. But you have to add context to that. Because it's in Qatar, which is like playing you know, like in Vegas in the summer. It's hot, right, It's not an ideal place to have a World Cup. That's why we're putting it in the fall. It's a little cooler. Five substitutions. We usually have three light soccer three substitutions. Now you're allowed five. Why because of the heat. So you're almost offered double the substitutions. What does that create? Experimenting? You're going a little deeper in your bench than you probably would in another World Cup, and you're making some moves staggering some players minutes in the heat that you probably wouldn't make. In fact, you wouldn't make if this thing was played in Ireland in the summer, not in this heat and three substitutions. This is a different World Cup. It's just it's the times different, the heat's different, the substitutions are different. We just came out of a group stage, not an easy one. We didn't lose draw against England, Okay, didn't England beat I Ryan like six to two or something. But I'll give soccer fans this. Their angst is explainable. I've often called this low sports self esteem. It's like Cleveland brown fan or for years Buffalo Bills fan. You get eat up so much that when you have a glim glimmer of just positivity, you go crazy. Cleveland Browns go to the playoffs with Baker. Baker's better than Mahomes. No he's not, but I get it in this way. It works in the inverse in that because they're so defensive about how they've been ignored or treated and the disappointments, they go crazy every time you know something's not perfect. Just know this, nobody likes their soccer coach or slash football coach unless they win the World Cup. If Brazil doesn't win, guy's in trouble. Canada has been disappointing. Person could be in trouble. So some of the criticism, because it's in once every four year tournament is just based on urgency, right, like this is it. It's not like the NFL got a game tomorrow. Game tomorrow, can start oing three and make the playoffs. But the constant criticism by soccer fans of Burrholter. The substitution patterns at this World Cup are different. He's a very smart guy, but if you go back to what he inherited, it was a disaster very quickly. The improvements defensively for this team are staggering. Hell, I didn't even know who the Goldie was a year and a half ago. I mean, Matt Turner was you soccer fans didn't like him at all. But a year and a half ago, we're all asking, we almost have the Goldie? Right? Who's Who's Who's in the nets? Turner's been unbelievable. It's been unbelievable. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in nun Easter nine a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio I It was inevitable. Here's the news, a source told the place I used to work, ESPN. On Wednesday, the Rolls Bulls agreed to terms that will pave the way for the college football Playoff. Folks, We've got it. It's official, twelve team college football playoff in two years. A. It was inevitable. B there was way too much money on the table. This was gonna happen, and let's be on a sea here or three or see. It's another great tournament. March Madness is what sixty eight teams? World Cup is thirty two. College football will be twelve. It'll be glorious. We like tournaments, Yes, yes, like the World Cup. In March Madness. There will be some mismatches. Spain beat Costa Rica seven, nothing, it happens, but eventually the cream will rise. In college football, it'll be big dog against big dog. Expansion is here to stay Colin it devalues the regular season. Oh brother, Yeah, when Bama plays a Georgia or Tennessee in late October, nobody will go come on, beb Auburn won't mean that much. Well, it hasn't meant that much in the last seven eight years anyway. And by the way, the stadium will not be empty. I'll guarantee of that. Regional pride, local pride. I know, I know many of you think Baton Rouge and ann Arbor and South Bend, Indiana, and Madison, Wisconsin and Knoxville, Tennessee are suddenly now with a twelve team playoff just gonna be empty on the weekends. I'm here to say they won't be. They will not be ghost towns. It's all gonna be. Okay. If I could be kind of blunt here, i'd like to be, And since the show's called The Herd, I'm going to be. Big time. Sports are not here for your nostalgia. Nobody cares. ESPN created ESPN Classic. Absolutely nobody he watched it. It's done. I think they still have ESPN You and nobody watches that and they kept that one. That's how bad ESPN Classic was. Go to YouTube watch old Rose Bowls. You'll be you know, you'll have a time of your life. Nobody cares. The bottom line is college football is big time and you're gonna watch the big matchups. Sports or business grow or die. If we had a twelve team playoff this week in college football, Number one Georgia would have a bye. Number two Michigan would as well. Number three TCU would and so would USC And then you'd have Penn State and Clemson, both overrated. I would take Penn State, Ohio State and Tulane probably a blowout. Bama, Utah Fun Utah would move the ball, Tom Fun Bama and Tennessee. Kansas State. Now that Kansas State wouldn't have to face Brendan Hooker. Kansas State, yeah hook yeah, hand in Hooker. I'm sorry, Kansas State would probably win, probably maybe not, but you wouldn't watch that. Ohio State Tulane looks like an ugly one, but you know, Ohio State, by the way, knowing who they would play next, could absolutely come out flat. We see that all the time. I mean we watched I watched Ohio State before the Michigan game. Didn't they play Maryland and play particularly good? I watched Michigan before the Ohio State game. They played Illinois. They were terrible. So these initial matchups, you know you got if you know you're facing Georgia or USC or a Michigan could face Ohio State next, or vice versa, a very very easy chance that a Utah could slip in or a Cincinnati in their biggest game of the year and give you fits. This is not a twenty four team playoff. This is not a thirty sixteen playoff. You know you're a eleventh and twelve teams. You're gonna get a small college team and it's gonna be their super Bowl, so they're gonna play their arts off and you're gonna have a chance to have a real competitive game sometimes. And then sometimes you're gonna get Spain seven, Costa Rica nothing, and that's gonna happen, and we're all gonna be okay. It's not like the first round. The best part of March Madness has always been, in my opinion, it's not the final weekend. It's the first weekend. It's a blast. This is crazy. You get these matchups you'd never get, and there's always just awful games, those early morning games where nobody's in the stands and like a North Carolina is really really good and they're just too big and they beat somebody like Coastal Carolina seventy eight to like forty eight, and you can tell instantly it's like a good thing. This thing is early in the day and nobody's here. You're gonna get some of those, by the way, you get some of those in the Pac twelve Conference. You watch the USC Colorado game. Do you watch Alabama George to play the bottom of the SEC. There's a happy games every weekend. It's fun. But people, I'm not a big I didn't grow up in this classic kind of family with lots and lots of tradition. I mean, we were in a church family. Um, you know, I grew up rurally, so we didn't live in a you know, a subdivision around everybody and the kids all played on their bikes. I lived out in the middle of the sticks. You got, you gotta offended for yourself and did your own thing. So I'm not beholding the tradition. I think sometimes that stuff is weird. One time I lived in West Hartford and I had a neighbor and he was a sports fan, and we just started talking about something and I don't. I don't, I'm not a collector. And he collected stuff, and so he goes, oh, I've got a clock collection. And he was a little odd, but I felt safe. I'm an adult male, so I said, oh, let me see it. He had like seven hundred clocks in his basement, very nostalgic about all of them. And you know my takeaway as I walked out of his house, weird. Nobody cares that you collected baseball cards. Sports is growing, everything's expanding, NFL playoffs are expanding. I don't know. To me, the way I've always looked at sports shrink the regular seasons. Major League Baseball one hundred and sixty two games is idiotic. Get down to like a hundred. Start the playoffs in the same weather you plan during the regular season. Playoffs start August first. Believe me, I'm a sports talk show host. We would die for baseball playoffs August first. We're bored out of our minds. August first. Now that NFL teams don't play starters in the preseason, get down to one hundred games. Wow, what about the records again? You're a guy who collects clocks, baseball card guy weird who cares. Let's get to the playoffs hundred games NBA. I'd go down to like sixty four. I want my guys healthy. Anthony Davis can barely stay healthy. Now let's take twenty games off and get the best players to the playoffs. I've always believed band playoffs baseball hundred games, and then let's go longer playoffs August first, and wrap it up by the way October first, because September. Remember, the NFL doesn't start until like the Thursday after Labor Day, and the momentum in the NFL doesn't get huge. The ratings don't pop until it gets cold. More people go inside, like mid October, NFL ratings started just popping, but September's wide open for baseball. Now, baseball playoffs disappear unless your team is in it. Nobody's watching these things, so wrap it up by October first, own August in September. All sports is is real estate. Own it. Baseball have known enough real estate, not enough valuable real estate. I would shrink all playoff games in college football, twelve team playoffs. I'll give you one game against Panera bread like, I'll give you one game. If you're the University of Washington, you get Eastern Washington University. You can help fund the local state schools. Right Ohio State, you go play somebody in state. Then grown up games. These SEC teams are playing Citadel and Week eight. Nobody wins. Fans don't, players don't, nobody wins, Networks don't. It's awful. You can get again. Can you imagine you're a national championship team and you get a guy hurt against Citadel? Yeah, be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekday said noun easter not a empacific. Vince Carter, good dude, good player, loved his game, thinks the Lakers Anthony Davis. Supreme respect for Lebroun hinders him from taking the reins of the Lakers. I think it's a respect thing. He respects who in what Lebron James has done in the game. But at the same time, you are allowed to and you should and nothing wrong with you respect to him. But when that guy that you respect is now trying to give you the reins and wants you to take over and be the go to guy, and he can compliment you, you should take that as an honor and run with it. Sports fans are like bitcoin bros. You could burn them, break them, bankrupt him, they'd still jump back in. There are bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Let's see unregulated money, shocking bad actors showed up NFTs. Let's sell fuzzy images of monkeys for millions of dollars. What could possibly go wrong? I mean that Sam Bankman freed guy, the the the FTX guy. What a grifter that guy is? Did you hear him in the interview with the New York Times. There's going to be a time and a place for me to sort of think about myself and my own feature. But I don't think this is it like right now, I mean, look, I've had a bad month. Anthony Davis is sports cryptocurrency. No, he is. Short term bursts make you feel rich, but the inevitable letdown is coming. Simply not made to last, average work ethic, semi committed, history of injuries, are reluctance to play the position near the rim that he's supposed to, passive personality. It's he's sports cryptocurrency, and you keep buying into it and buying into it, no matter how many times you're burned. I told you coming into the season, I said, because of the criticism he's received, AD's going to be unbelievable in the first half, and you suckers are going to buy all into it again instead of moving him for picks and players, which the Lakers need wing defenders, they need shooters. It's like a grocery store. They have nothing. The shelves are empty, old Lebron and now surging crypto guy Ad. It's a house of cards, right, inevitable he will get hurt again. But you know it's like I saw a story this cracked me up. I saw this story this week, this city, and this story is so predictable. Miami nightclub owner mourns the loss of quote crypto nerds after FTX collapse, said the owner of a Miami nightclub. Yeah, they were ordering like twelve twenty four bottles of the most expensive champagne and showering themselves without even drinking it. In the crypto bros were so predictable, and that's that's Laker fan with a D. It was so predictable. He's gonna come out be gray, and he has been last seven games. He's a monster. But y'all understand what he is and has been for like four years. His only great stretch was in the bubble when he got like a three and a half four months sabbatical, a hiatus, and he was healthy. You think he's gonna be healthy in June if he made the finals and they're not hi. This is Jay Glazer. And you may know me for the world of football or fighting or even shows like HBO's Ballers, Well you don't know is for my entire life. I have lived in something I refer to as degree depression anxiety. So now I'm coming out with a new podcast, Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer, where each week will we talk about mental health. I hope to describe it, give it words. Listen to Unbreakable with Jay Glazer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Peter Schrager podcast, Guy Sports Guy reporter Guy Fox on his podcast was had Matt Rule on, who was a really good college coach and turned around a couple of programs, went to the NFL in Carolina and it was a mess. And you know, the media is kind of picking on him now because you know he's not blaming himself, but he was asked, hey, if you had to do it again, what would you do differently? I think I probably would just probably taking another job, you know. I mean, I think it's a great place, you know, the wonderful people, but I just don't know if I was a fit there. You know, at the end of the day, we talked about, hey, we're going to have a four year plan a five year plan. You know, if you tell me, hey, we got a two year plan, then then I'm gonna go get signed a bunch of free agents and do it. So, you know, what was a four year plan became a two year and five game plan real quick. You know what Matt Rule realized he realized the number one rule about the NFL. If you don't have a B plus quarterback, you can't win. Alabama won national titles with Greg McElroy, AJ McCarron and Jake Coker. You can be average at quarterback, slightly above average and win a national championship. Stetson Bennett. Look at the NFL standings currently, a FC East, Josh Allen and Tuah best two quarterbacks in that division. AFC North Joe Burrow Lamar lead it. Best two quarterbacks in the division. AFC South, most talented kid is Trevor Lawrence, but probably the best quarterback today is probably Ryan Tannehill leads the division. AFC West is led by Mahomes and Justin Herbert the AC. The NFC East is led by Jalen Hurts and dak alst Of the two best any order you want. NFC North, Well Kirk Cousins has been better than Aaron Rodgers this year because he's not hurt. He leads, NFC South, Brady Leaves leads, and NFC West Garoppolo leads. Now you can say, oh what about Garoppolo is better than Geno Smith, healthier than Matt Stafford this year and more coachable than Kyler Murray right now on a week to week basis, he's the best quarterback. That's the rule. That's why I've said I'll probably have to at some point if I ever sit down and have a beer with Lincoln Riley, and I'm sure it will happen sooner than later. But college gigs are great if you get the right brand, if you get into a Michigan Hardball left the NFL for college. He doesn't have a crazy owner, he chooses his own personnel. He can win ten games annually and not be great at quarterback. I mean J. J. McCarthy's talented, he's not great. Lincoln Riley's eleven and one at USC. This is the least talented team he will ever have at USC. Now, I don't think Nebraska's a great job. They ran off Scott Frost, who is smart guy and beloved there. But I mean even Belichick, Cleveland couldn't win New England Now not winning? Why average at quarterback? You gotta be B plus or you gotta at least be like Dak Kirk Cousins or above, or you're not going to be a playoff team in most years barring just breaks or a historically good defense. One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like. Alexei lallis former defender for the United States men's national team and sometimes a verbal defender of Greg Burrhalter and Our Club. Ninety four and ninety eight World Cup performer. Alexei is joining US Fox Sports analysts from Doha. My friend, how are you? You've been wonderful? How are things? It's good? My friend? Greetings, Yeah, this is incredible, man. This is a it's been a really interesting tournament on the field. Off the field. You've got to seen our incredible Fox Sports set that we have down here in Doha, Qatar, and it's been great and it just rolls on, and especially when it comes to this US team, they're doing US proud and it's been fun. Okay, second youngest team in the tournament. Never Land's next. What will the match look like? You know there is the advantage where plan is underdog's house money. Could they get tight? I've seen this at March Madness. All tournaments are like this. Alexei the favorite, maybe leads one nil. Late they get tight. How Iran almost came back to score on us. Do we have a shot here? I My guess is we do. Absolutely we have a shot, Colin, And for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is, this is a very good US team. And you know, while you know back in the nineteen hundreds, back in the previous century, when I was running around it, which is kind of a happy to be there, and certainly getting out of the group was an accomplishment and the rest, to your point, was kind of gravy. That's not the way that this generation was brought up or the way that they look at this opportunity. And yes they are young, yes they are inexperience. Then yes, on paper, the Netherlands is a better team. But to your point, the US also, in a strange way, gets to return to what made us kind of successful in the past, which is that underdog rule and were expectations versus a Netherlands team. I think if you ask Netherlands, they are they recognize that they are coming up against a very good team. I don't think they're going to take us lightly. But I also think that this US team, whether it's Christian Polisic, whether it's Weston Mkittie, whether it's Matt Turner and goal are going to relish this opportunity. And it is an opportunity against a good team, not a great team. So if the US were to beat the Netherlands on Saturday, it would not be this historic, life changing type of moments. Would it be great and would it be celebrated, Absolutely, But then we have to also come to the realization a certain point that we should expect our team, and this team in particular, to be ready for these types of situations and to absolutely give them a game and do more than give them the game, you know, go out there and get that win. Not be stupid, be mature. And they are mature. They know what the World Cup is now, and there's plenty of talent, there's plenty of depth, and they're feeling they're feeling it right now. So listen. I like Greg burr Halter. He took over the Titanic. They conquer calf A Gold Cup, Nations League, they qualify, they get out without a loss. He's cleaned up the defense. I see a lot of positives I have not loved the substitution patterns. But I've tried to add context to that Alexei by saying generally you get three Qatar you get five. So it's a different substitution pattern you are playing guys, maybe you wouldn't. Maybe you're getting minutes to people looking down the road, I don't love what I've seen from shack More. He's been a bit overwhelmed. Is that a fair criticism that the substitution patterns or choices have not been ideal. It's a fair criticism. And you know, I give Greg Berhalter a B plus for so far. Now, like you said, all the things that he's done over the cycle, that's all fine and well, but ultimately we knew and he knows he's going to get judged in the World Cup. Well, you go undefeated in the group stage, you let in one goal on a penalty, you have two, you have two shuttles, shoutouts, and you really were the better team when it came to playing the best team in that group, which which was England. Having said that it's not been perfect, to your point, the substitutions, they have not been good and they have not come in and fundamentally changed the game. In a positive way, as if anything, when you're talking about a shock more and I think more importantly the hog right substitution the other day, it was mind boggling in terms of the way that those guys came in and not only did they not add anything, but I think that they really took something away and it was really problematic. So he's got to get those right going forward, whether it's whether he's using all five are using all three. The other thing, we've talked about this before on your show set pieces. Set pieces, set pieces, they are so important and this team has been a bisal set piece coach. They have an actual coach whose job it is. You've got one job set pieces, and this team has not been good on set pieces, and who knows, maybe it's that one set piece that that's the difference between this team beating the Netherlands and not beating the Netherlands. So they better find a way to fix that right quick because in the in the in the course of the game and the flow of the game, they might not get a lot of opportunities. But those set pieces, they are the great equalizer. Yeah, no, they are. And to your point, that's the second criticism they've been sloppy. There's a lot of questions about Geo Raina, and I would say, listen on a young team, he's like the teenager. He just turned twenty. Is it possible that there's rumors and speculation about the relationship Burhalter Geo Raina. I swear to god, I read something about a father in vaulved I don't know what it is. My takeaway, he's a kid, it's the World Cup. Is it possible that Greg just doesn't feel quite yet comfortable with him? Look, Greg Berhalter's job is to get the best collection of players on the field. Not the best players, but the best collection of players on the field. Now, Geo Raina might be one of those ultimately in the moment. But this is, as you said, a young player. This is a player that has shown that he has been fragile from a physical perspective. Yeah, and look, you don't you don't mess with it when it's going well, and it is going well. Would I like to see him at some point get on the field. Yes, But Greg Burhalter, just like any coaches any sports, he's not gonna do something that's detrimental. This is not a y Issa they nobody's playing games here. Nobody's you know, making a point or dying on a type of hill because somebody said something. You can be a com And I'm not saying that there's anything more on behind the scenes, but you know as well as I do that this is this is big boy and big girl type of stuff here. And you play the players that you think are going to win because that's what you're going to be judged upon. And if Greg Burhalter doesn't feel at this point that Geo Raina is going to help his team win, then he's there to make that decision. He is a good talent and it would be nice to see him on the field, and who knows, maybe against the Netherlands he ends up becoming on the field. I don't think he's gonna start, but it becomes on the field. Maybe he makes that difference right now, but I don't also don't think that this is a distraction in terms of what's going on behind the scenes with this team. I'm sure Geo is not happy about it, but no player is happy that's not playing. I don't think he's being a cancer or anything. But ultimately, Greg Burhalter, things have gone well and you gotta trust him given the track record so far. Yeah. And also great college basketball players and great college football players enter the transfer portal in great programs, sometimes people are unhamp You're not gonna be a roster where everybody is getting the minutes they want, especially on a national team. So politics injury, Um, if you had to guest today, play or not, I don't think we listen. Goals have been hard, so politic to me feels his skill would be really missed. Do you think he plays today? One hundred percent? He plays on Saturday. As a matter of fact, our own Jenny Taff just reported from from the camp that she interviewed him and he you know, he gave that smile and you could tell that this is a guy who while he was hurt, he's recovered. He's gonna be fine. I think he's gonna be a one hundred percent um. You know, will he will have some soreness, Yeah, but he's shown in this tournament he's grown through this tournament that he's he's gone from a boy to a man. To be quite quite honest, he had that wonderful moment. Obviously he's sacrificed for himself, his team and his country had to go to the had to go to the hospital. But you saw him after he actually greeted his team when they got back to the hotel, because he came from the hospital right to the hotel. I mean, this guy was smiling. And this is a shi This is a you know, as shucks type of type of personality off the field, but on the field, you know, he had his moment. He is a and just from a practical perspective, I think that there is nobody on the team that the Netherlands would game plan for other than Christian Polistic. That's how important he has become to this team in terms of taking players on and really causing problems for whoever the US is playing. Finally, Qatar got criticism. It's not an ideal site given the weather. It'd probably be more comfortable in Ireland right now. But be that as it may. Your takeaway, your honest sort of takeaway on how you've been treated as a site, just kind of the entire spectacle of it so far. Look, I mean from a weather perspective, it's been great, to be quite honest with you. And they moved it to November and December to appease FEFA that was really concerned. They also have climate control in the stadium, so it's been Christine conditions on the field and Christine conditions also for the fans in those areas. The Qataris have been have been wonderful and they have treated us incredibly. Um, you know, everything has been has worked the way that they said it was going to uh was going to work, and look, this is an advertisement to the world from a soccer perspective. Their team did not go on, so that didn't quite work out the way that they wanted in terms of guitar, but the actual tournament we've had some wonderful games on the field, and I think that that ultimately it's going to be a positive message and a message about a country and culture that is evolving, that is changing, that is doing things in order to you know, be part of the world in twenty twenty two and beyond, especially if you want to have that global commerce and that global travel and all the different stuff that's going on. So look, I can only tell you from being here on the ground that everybody has been has been wonderful and from a soccer perspective, it's been a really cool and interesting tournament. Alexi Lawless, I love your Twitter account. It's one of my favorites. I really do. You and Colin Quinn m the comedian I think are my two, yeah, my two favorite accounts. You know how highly I think of you and your work, and I have loved every second of this. Canada has let me down. That was my dark horse, peck to be really dynamic, but instead maybe it's us. I should be bought off. My friend. Hey, hey, listen before before you let me go here, just gonna I tell you your views and listeners out there that you have been a champion for this game for a long time, and I know you have made a point of putting it in your soccer spectrum out there, in your palette of sports out there, and you've learned along the way, and you have been you know, it's really important because obviously you come from more traditional American sports, but you recognized early on that this was going to grow, This was going to get bigger, even back in our ESPN days. You sought people out to learn about the game, and I appreciate that the soccer folks out there appreciate that, and I think that it has made you better because you have a responsibility. As you know that, I have a knowledge of all the sports that are going on, especially the ones that are going to continue to get bigger and bigger. I think we're seeing huge numbers in terms of people. There's the soccer ten. You've been there all along, so I really appreciate that. My friend Alexi Lawless Fox Sports crushing it. Thanks buddy, all right, see you