Thanks for listening to the Best of Herd podcast. Are you 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, I am back. It is Tuesday in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio FS one. Had COVID test at negative. Feel great, could have worked yesterday. Some corporate protocols. All good, being safe here, Joey Taylor is joining me. We are ready to go, and we have breaking news at the very top of the show. Joy breaking news. Well, you know that's what we do here. We are on top of it. I am trying to find it at Yeah. So, Juan Soto is considered the best young baseball player traded to the Padres for four or five prospects. And Eric Hosmer, who's a very a professional hitter. Yes, so it's fascinating about this. Just my initial thoughts because I thought the Dodgers had a chance, so the Padres were willing to spend money. I thought the Padres were a small market team. We all did for years. They Manny Machado Tatis, Josh Hayter, the bullpen guy from the Brewers, great closer, a monster. They got him yesterday. Now Juan Soto. So this goes back to something. I don't know this to be true, but it feels true. What I'm about to say. The Warriors literally do not care about blowing through the luxury tax. Why because the California economy is so strong right now. They don't care about the luxury tax. They can charge so much to their fans, so much for sweets. That Golden State has broken the code. It's a cheap code. We don't care about the luxury tax. We'll blow through it. They're making seven hundred million a year. The average NBA team makes two hundred and fifty. That's a healthy NBA team. The Padres are the only small market team in baseball due to the California economy. They play like the Yankees. They have Juan Soto, hater Machado Tatis, that's like a Yankee lineup. And I think it's because they can charge more for beers, charge more for parking, charge more for sweets. In the California economy, I know nobody wants to live here. I keep hearing that, but that doesn't make any sense to me. I can't explain it. Maybe it's because the NFL left San Diego and now the entertainment choice beyond the beach is the Padres and they have leverage. But that is an unbelievable In baseball, it's very clear there's the Mets, the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Braves, Houston, big markets, and then there's everybody else, Like the Padres are the small market team that spends like a big market. Explain it to me. I think it's the hundred billion dollars surplus California has as a state. During COVID, forty five states went broke. California flourished because Zoom is located here, and Docu sign and Netflix and many of the companies we used in the pandemic. And so I'm just trying to figure this out. How San Diego a small market. Their ownership group, it's just an ownership group. It's not one of the richest people in the world. It's a remarkable move by the Padres and good for them. I know they were ticked off they lost their NFL team, But good for the Podres. What a roster that is now. That is up there with the Dodgers and the Yankees in terms of pure overall talent. Wow, Wan Sodo to the Padres for five prospects, Eric Cosmer. That is a big boy move. That is a gigantic move. When they got Hater yesterday, I was like, wow, are they a big market team? Well, they stood going all in if they have young talent as well, Right, spend a little money, make a big move for a rising star in Juan Soto and if you're giving out prospects. I mean, that's that's what baseball is. So a huge move. And I can assure you that the big market team, the Dodgers, were interested. Everybody was interested. Yeah. Wow, that that I remember when I was much younger, Steve Garvey went to the Padres. That was a massive move. Steve Garvey to the Padres. Guan Soto is considered for the next ten years as good as any young player. So I'm just trying to figure out we all we always think of like to me, San Diego market size feels a little bit like Kansas City. It feels a little bit like Pittsburgh. I mean, Pittsburgh's got an NFL team. Pittsburgh it's got a hockey team. Pittsburgh's got a major university, it's a biotech center. Uh. You know, Pittsburgh's got a NFL team. San Diego's got just a baseball team. It's a small market. What maybe that is working in their benefit right now? See your point. They had Wuan Soto and Josh Hayter in a day. Wow, that is just a field changer. That just tilts the field. Congrats to San Diego, great place to live, great baseball roster. Wow wow Wow. Okay, that happened thirty seconds before we went on the air, so we had to address it. Let me now address to Shaun Watson, which most of America addressed yesterday, but I wasn't here. Um, so the ruling is out six games, you know that. So here's my takeaway that through the course of life, there are lies that are accepted. If you get pulled over by a cop, how many drinks did you have? The answer, of course is always just one. Right, you lie to a cop. I'm I'm going to jail for that. You can lie to the media. I've been lied to multiple times. Politicians lie all the time. I will not do this. They do that. I will not raise taxes. They raise taxes. You can get reelected doing that. We lie to ourselves, spouse's friends, right, like we call him white lies or FIBs convenient. Don't want to hurt feelings. You don't line to a judge like that's the standard, right. You can't lie to a judge. Deshaun Watson lie to a judge. If you read the fifteen page report by Judge Sue Robinson, she didn't think he told the truth. He got six games for a preponderance of evidence against him, which was collaborated did by one party, two party, third party. Her report is, yeah, we have a collaboration of evidence here, six games. That to me gives Roger Goodell. Maybe they should put perjury in the next CBA because lion to a judge, that's a no no. Remember, he initially and throughout denied all of these claims outright lies, and then he negotiated with victims. But in her fifteen page decision, and some of it talks about body parts. So you know not that this is a family show, but I'll just skim over it. She does not buy that he's telling the truth. That to me is another six games. So Roger Goodell has something to weigh here. So Roger Goodell, because remember, commissions never really get criticized for coming in harsh. Rob Manfred the Baseball commissioner, he got criticized for just bringing up the idea of robots for umpires behind the plate. That thing's still going on. But when he suspended Trevor Bauer no pay for two years, he was defended for that. Bosses, executives, commissioners are rarely criticized for going harsh on penalties. Joy and I have talked about for years. The NFL always comes in light and gets club for it. So Roger Goodell, right now, the feeling is outside of Cleveland. This is light. Feels light to me. Six games from Judge Sue Robinson. I'd add six for Lyne. I'd go to twelve, but he asked to weigh this because the NFLPA has said they'll sue the NFLPA, and the Browns came out immediately. We're very satisfied with the ruling. Why because they know it's light. I mean it was about fifteen minutes after it happened. The Haslums came out, Oh, this is very difficult for us, but we accepted. Yeah, there's a reason they accepted. So Roger Goodell has things to way, though, so should he add games? Because he's gotten in trouble before for light punishment and this is viewed as light by most reasonable people. I think I'm reasonable. You may not always think so, but I think I tend to be reasonable. I would double it to twelve six for what the judge said. And remember two years ago the NFL and the NFLPA decided on this process. So this process gave you six games. I double it for the lying part, lack of integrity to a judge. But if he adds six games, the NFLPA will probably sue and it'll be in the news cycle for a year. You don't want that. It's a business. It's a front facing business. Can you add one or two games or three? In the NFLPA threatens to sue, but they don't. The game start and the story's over. That seems more realistic to me. But I don't want to hear about how Deshaun Watson did not play last year. He wasn't serving a suspension. That was his choice. Just stop talking. If that's your argument. Stop. What will be interesting here now is what the commissioner does, Rob Manfred send a guy home for ugly violent accusations, two years, no pushback, six games feels light. I would double it, but I know if I was commissioner and doubled it, I'd probably get sued. And now it's in the news cycle for a year. Let's be realistic. That's what you don't want, right, Remember the Kaepernick story, regardless of where you fall on it, it was in a news cycle for a year and the ratings went down. So the other thing to remember, Roger Goodell has one advantage here. The Haslums are not well liked among owners. So a couple of years ago, after suspending Zeke for six games, Jerry Jones was furious. Jerry Jones has power and is well liked by most owners. He wanted to get Roger Goodell fired. Owners wouldn't let him. And Jerry's got power. Jerry's made a lot of people money. Haslem's are persona non grata among owners because they gave Watson a fully guaranteed deal. That's like, that's like other leagues do that. NFL never does that, So the other owners would have no problem if Goodell came in and hammered the Browns. Plus they may play the Browns right, so Goodell has some leverage here. What I would do is not what commissioners would do, but you have to weigh it. If you don't add anything, you're gonna get clubbed by the media. Fair not. You're gonna get club by the media until the games start and then people move on. But I think sometimes you have to make decisions on what you think your core values, what you think is the right thing to do. Six feels light. I would add six games for lying to a judge. That was always the one like, right, we all kind of understand, you know, you put your hand in a Bible. That feels serious to me. I mean, when you get pulled over by a cop, they don't bring out a Bible. They may bring out a breathalyzer, but they don't bring out a Bible. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app, so if you're just tuning in, the Podres swooped in and beat much bigger market teams to get Juan Soto, regarded as one of the top two or three young players in the game. The Nats are rebuilding, they're terrible, so they get four or five top prospects from the Padres, and you know, that's how you rebuild. What's fascinating. I just went and looked during the break at the Padre's ownership group. It's not one of the richest groups in baseball. Walter O'Malley's grandson is the chair, and then he has an investment group of people. But they went and got Joe Hayder. They went and got now Juan Soto. The it's Josh Manny Machado. I mean, the Dodgers had Manny Machado rented him, and the Padres swooped in and paid him big boy money. I think he's having a nice year and Tattoos is a great young player. So they have got all stars everywhere up and down this lineup. And it's fascinating to me because they're the only small market team that can compete with the big boys financially and I can't figure it out. When I heard the Padres were involved in this, I thought, how how in the world are they affording this. They do not have one of the top ten rich groups. They don't have a cable package like the Yankees and the Yes Network. I mean, the Dodgers average forty eight thousand people per game. That's ten thousand more per game then number two. So the Dodgers drive so much revenue from their stadi which is a bigger than average stadium city field. You know, seats like fifteen thousand less than Dodger Stadium. And the Dodgers have a great history, a great stadium. But you're talking about parking charges, beer charges, program charges, seat charges. You go to a Dodger stadium, there's me forty five restaurants in there. They are driving massive revenue from their stadium, their TV local TV rights. LA's the second biggest city in the country. Podres don't have that. They don't drive nearly the game day revenue. They don't charge nearly as much for seats. So good for the Podres. I don't know how they're doing it. I mean, this would be like the Mariners. In fact, Seattle's really a more affluent market. Minneapolis and Seattle are much more affluent than San Diego because they're corporate hubs. San Diego's always been considered kind of a beachy town, you know what I mean. It's chill, qual calms down there, but it's not like a corporate hub. So good for them. Don't know how they're doing it, but it's fantastic for baseball that they pulled a great prospect away from your New York's and your Los Angeles markets. Wow, the thoughts on Deebo Samuel's contract. So the Niners signed Deebo Samuel seventy five million, seventy three million, fifty eight guaranteed. I thought it was very team friendly, so it did not reset the market at all. He's only the eighth highest paid receiver, and after this year, when ten hundred guys get paid, he'll be the eighteenth highest paid receiver. The bonus is tied to him or interesting, he only gets six hundred and fifty thousand perty year. If he has three hundred and eighty or more rushing yards. He'll earn only one hundred and fifty thousand. If he scores three rushing touchdowns in any one year. That's chump change, meaning the bonuses are only two and a half percent of the contract. Those are chump change, meaning they don't really reward Debot if he becomes a part time running back, but they don't punish the forty nine ers if he becomes a part time running back. So outside of Cooper Cup and maybe including Cooper Cup, I felt Deebo Samuel felt like the most important receiver for anyone team last year. At the end of the year, they were using him for everything. Well, this contract allows Kyle Shannam to use him however he wants to use it. So Debon his agent agreed, if you pass uses how you want to use us, big edge to the forty nine ers. And they're just giving him a three year extension on top of the one year he has left. They're not locked in forever. The style the Niners will use him obviously shortens careers, not extends it. So Debo just took a three year extension on one year, so at the end of it will be thirty. And my guess is they'll move on, which is about when you want to move on for the role he will play. So I mean he got good money, but I mean the bonus structure doesn't punish the forty nine ers, doesn't necessarily reward him. He wanted to get paid, he got it, and but it's only it did not reset the market. It's not a Tyreek Hill deal. It's very team friendly. Cooper Cups deal I thought for Cooper Cup was very very team friendly. Now Cooper said, I don't need to be the highest paid guy. I just want to HI win championships. But I mean, if you look at that list Davonte and DeAndre Hopkins and A J. Brown and DK metcast Stefon Diggs, you and I watched Deebo Samuel for the Niners because remember this too, he'll become a bigger part of this offense because they don't have an elite quarterback. Davante Adams does, Cooper Cup does, DeAndre Hopkins does, Stefen Diggs does. So the Niners could use him as a running back half to time. They could use him a lot at running back. He was the centerpiece last year and that's with Garoppolo. Also, remember George Kittle gets hurt, Brandon I yous young, so they're gonna rely on Debo a lot. Felt like a win for the team. There be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and non East. They're nine a Empacific. So I'm gonna throw this at you, Joy. So people think Colin, you do a show that's very California. I'm time out. They're winning it everything. So when I used to work for ESPN and the Yankees in the Red Sox dominated baseball. It was an arms race. That's the only baseball teams I talked about. Well, the Red Sox now feel like a small market team. They're not even in the hunt for Juan Soto. They let go of Mookie Bets. And it's not like Boston's a tiny economy. It's got fifty one universities in its metro space, Harvard Mit. It's highly educated. Now Fenway Park does not seat many people, that's true. But baseball's arms race when I lived out East was the Yankees and the Red Sox. That's all I talked about. The arms race in baseball now appears to be San Diego in La Yes, I mean Machado, San Diego, La Juan Soto, Dodgers and a Pod Rays and the Padres now have outbid them twice. So now now Soto's not making the big boy money yet, but they gave out a ton of prospects which the Dodgers could have. Dodgers farm system is fantastic. You can tell if you watch them. Every time they bring a guy up eats a star. But and what I'm saying here, I'm not trying to be pro anything, but look at what we have in sports, and what is the common thread. What is the NBA team that literally doesn't care about the luxury tax? Warriors a California team. They make seven hundred million a year. The average NBA successful team makes two hundred and fifty million. That's tied to the California economy. They can charge three times as much for suites and tickets and beers because all those Silicon Valley kids. What is the NFL team that has an endless supply of money for guaranteed contracts. It's the Rams because you got to have that money in that bank account to pay those guaranteed deals. The Rams, it's like they're dealing with a Swiss bank. We've been joking about this for years. What is the baseball team that literally now is an all star team? Money does not appear to be an issue. It's the Dodgers again the California team. Let me throw in the LA Clippers, who have decided to build a five six billion dollars franchise. The Rams yesterday, according to Forbes, are now the second biggest franchise five years in town, second most valuable franchise in America. Football Cowboys, Rams, what do you think that is? They just left Saint Louis. It's California's economy. So now we have a story where San Diego on one horsetown is literally outbidding and out maneuvering big markets. It has to be the California economy. There's nothing else that explains it. The Warriors is obviously you couldn't do what the Warriors are doing in Minneapolis, which is a fine city and a corporate hub. But you start looking at the Rams, the Warriors, the Dodgers, the Padres. What is ironic is the biggest brand in LA sports is arguably the Lakers, and they're the mom and pop store. They feel like they can't compete, They can't compete with the Warriors because of their money's Silicon Valley money, and the Lakers money is Genie Buss, the Bus family, and that's what they own maybe some real estate. I don't know they're holdings. But the arms race in baseball has shifted west, and to me it is Silicon Valley tech money. It's the only thing that explains it. But I mean, Boston right now apparently can't compete with San Diego. If you go look at the last two years, they're letting Mookie Bets go to California. They can't compete that. Ten years ago Podre's Dodgers couldn't. It was a totally different deal. Fascinating stuff. I don't get worked up over baseball trades muchment This is show you, YOI look at that. Look at that Podre roster. Now I'm George Reister, host of the Reister or Wrong podcast. This is the intersection where sports, business, society, and pop culture beat the truth absolute fire on Monday's, Wednesdays and Fridays. Facts only. Make sure you check your feelings at the door, because nobs is allowed. We keep it one hundred. This is where real conversations happen. Listen to the Rights Are Wrong podcasts on the iHeartRadio, Apple Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Eric Manginie Fox Sports analysts getting all worked up. You know, Eric, all right, COVID Thursday. I'm back Tuesday. You cannot penetrate this course straight ready to work. Let's start with this Deebo Samuel eight highest paid receiver. There's some incentives. They don't punish the Niners or make him rich. It's like two percent of the deal. I looked at it and I thought to myself, all the nine can now use them however they want. I thought, outside of Cooper Cup, he was the most valuable receiver I watched in the NFL Week ten on. Did the Niners get a really good deal? Well, they got a good deal. I don't think it's a steel by any stretch. Whenever you sign a player a year early, you're expecting to get some some sort of discount on the money because you've given up a year of the contract that you had for for drafting him. They could have really played him out next or played through this year and then franchise them. So there's that component of it. And it's not like he's had three consecutive years of gigantic production. It's it was last year was the biggest year, and it looks like it's trending and it's going to continue to trend that way. I think it's I think it's a fair deal for both sides. Um you know, it's interesting. We've we've I get a little pushback on this, but I have now four different sources that I trust that you know, Deebo wanted his money because Garoppolo's leaving town and they don't know what they're from. Trey Lance and I listen, I trust my sources on this is that they're concerned about Trey Lance's accuracy. It's not pretty. We saw it last year. He completed like fifty seven percent of his throws. Fifty eight percent. Now, that doesn't mean he could not get up to sixty two sixty three. Matt Stafford has never had a super high completion percentage. He's very successful. But when will you watch the Trey Lance starts and be concerned? What will you see that would concern you somebody who's formerly worked with that in that area the Niners, Well, it's gonna be how well he handles the process, how well he handles the mechanics, the huddle, the game situations, that things like that. There's gonna be a learning curve and you expect that with essentially a rookie quarterback. As he's got such limited playing time, that's to be expected, but what's his presence like, how well is he able to to adapt to the different situations, how well is he able to come up in big moments? And is he is he going to rely more on his feet or or almost exclusively on his feet when he's in trouble. I think that's something that to watch as well. But he's he's taking over a team that's been run by a guy who you can you can knock him, but he's but he's one yeah, and he's handled it, yes, extremely well. He's well liked, he's got he's got a presence, and now Trey's got to come in and show that he can he can get up to that level or at least not be detrimental to the things that are going on. So you are in Cleveland. I'm not sure if you're there today, but you you live in Cleveland. So six games felt like the Brown's got a break to me, the only one division game in it. And in week seven on they face this gauntlet of Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen. I think Matt Stafford I thought the first six games, they only face one elite starter, uh, and he didn't make the playoffs, and that being Justin her Herbert. So when you live in Cleveland and you listen to the Cleveland media, what is their interpretation of the six game suspension? Well, I don't listen to Cleveland media very much, um, but but in terms of reaction, I would imagine the building is ecstatic. Who who thought that the suspension was only going to be six games? I would have I would have thought, you know, that that would be the ideal situation for Cleveland to only get six games, and that would have had to come after he appealed a much longer suspension. So there their well positioned to move forward with Jacoby Brusatte. They obviously planned for him to miss time. I expect that they planned for him to miss significantly more time. So they take to get what he's gotten so far. They've got to be over the moon with that number. Okay, I didn't talk to you about this because I was out again, and now I'm back about the Kyler Maria Stronger than ever. Core strength overcomes anything. All these setups, all these years matters. Joy and this awful green juice I drink every morning I got to get from my kids call it lawn clippings. So the Kayler Murray thing, now I was in the I defended him because my takeaway is we can talk about what somebody's worth. He leaves that organization tomorrow, they're in chaos. If I can hire somebody, even if they have flaws, and they take me to every day drive to work, I can compete with anybody. And to me, that's what Kayler does. Aaron Rodgers a little too prickly for me. I think sometimes leadership stuff with Kayler is an ideal to me. But if you help me win and you help me compete, I'm gonna pay you. What did you make of it going public and then being taken out the four hours weekly at home studying clause. How did that land for you? I would much rather deal with with Aaron Roy's being prickly, then with then the idea of signing a young quarterback who I had so little faith in in doing the work, the the not even the bare minimum amount of work for a quarterback, that I needed to organizationally put a clause in the contract that he studies four hours, and then I needed to define the contract and say that you can't watch video games, or or watch TV or listen to music. That's unbelievable. I don't know how how you can feel good about making that commitment if then you feel like this guy needs to do at least four hours work that that's unbelievable. And then the reaction had they knew it had to go public. There's no way that that something like that is not going to go public, and then to take it out after after the fact, it just seemed like you're you're trying to put a band aid on a problem that you created. That that's it's not going away. If he if he struggles, if if he runs into any problems, if he throws bad interceptions, everyone's gonna he's gonna be bringing up was he setting enough, is he working hard enough? Is he doing what it takes to develop that this is This isn't going to go away the rest of his career unless he just has unbelievable year after unbelievable years. See now, I take the my stance is this, you know you've dealt with two crazy owners, the Jets and the Browns, so you know owners how they are that the front office is fine with him Bidwell. The owner, Michael Bidwell, was bitter he had to pay him early, so he made sure that was in there, and he made sure it got leaked to stick it to him. He didn't really care, and that's why he reduced it a day later. He took it out. The owner wanted that in to embarrass him. You don't buy it. I don't. I don't believe that. I don't think that the owner is sitting around going maybe I need to throw in a four hour study clause that's never been put in in the history of the league for this play, or that I'm about to pay, you know, close to a quarter of a billion dollars to I can't imagine that the owner was having any type of conversation like that. And then if the owner did, wouldn't you put in a much higher clause, like why would you only put in four hours? What's that? Thirty four minutes a day over the course of seven days, assuming he watches some game tape, you know, on game day after the game, like a lot of guys do, thirty four That's that's what I'm okay paying two hundred and thirty million dollars for. I mean, if I was owner, I'd put that clause in significantly higher. So I don't think. I don't think it came from from him. I think it came from from collectively them saying as an organization, he's not doing enough and we need to create a habit. And the only way we're gonna guarantee we'd create a habit is by tying into his money, which is a bad idea. All right, you and I disagree, So I'm gonna throw something at you, Uh, mister Manginie. In my entire career of broadcasting, ambiguous leadership has never worked. Clear structure has always worked. With that. I read you this from Matt Patricia. The new way they're doing business in New England. Well, you know we'll all be sharing responsibilities based on what periods were in at practice. So yeah, shared responsibilities. You know, we're all kind of handle all the coaches, all the way across the board. We all kind of worked together. You know. Blichick will jump in and help us too. One that seems very fuzzy and ambiguous to me. I don't get it. I do not. I mean I in my life, if I have eight bosses, I got none. Didn't that sound weird? Well, look, don't don't confuse ambiguous answers from New England players and coaches to ambiguous leadership. There's there's nothing ambiguous about who's leading that team, and that's Bill, and Bill's going to make all the decisions and he'll have clear cut responsibilities for each person who's in that offensive staff room. Now, they may be going through the process right now figuring out what works best. Does Matt end up calling the plays on game day? Do they have some sort of combination of who calls the plays? And we did that in San Francisco or where we had different guys call in different situations of play, So that's that's not out of the norm. And then it comes down to who's got final say on the game plan, and ultimately Bill will have final say in the game plan. But then there's who has finals say before it gets the Bill. Is that Matt is that Joe Judge. That stuff will be clearly defined in the building. But the person who talks about how it's defined, that person's going to have a problem. So everybody knows you bet you better go up and be ambiguous, otherwise you're going to have a real headache when you show up the next day or when you get done at the podium. Right, you and I disagreed on everything. That's the way I like when our relationships got tension. The California Midwest thing. You're drinking green juice. I've bought a coffee. It's just different. I'm not saying this taste good. Believe me. I'm not trying to sell anybody else on drinking it. There's no way you could be saying that that's good. Eric Mangini, good seeing you all right. 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. Patton our Doozy, he's a coach college football coach in Pittsburgh. He has joined the chorus of college football coaches saying we got to have guardrails on the Nio sou and I do think you need guardrails in transfer portal. You know all the do gooders are like kids can go wherever they want. Well, you have to have some integrity. Even the NFL, the pro league has like trading deadlines and salary caps. You want some guardrails, whatever they are. I'm not the expert here, but one of the things a lot of times in life, you and I can want something badly, like way more than anybody else, but we just don't have the means to get it. Some kids have great dreams, but they've got bad environments. They don't have the money or the support, and they just can't get what they want no matter how hard they work. I know everybody tells you hard work pays off. Some of the times it does. College football, though, is different. It's the one sport in America. The more you want it, the more you get it. Period. There's no reason for Nebraska to dominate the nineties. There's no players in the state. They're not surrounded by states with players. But Nebraska wanted it more in the nineties weight rooms. They had the best weight room, the best weight program in college football, and a great coach, and they dominated the sport. Alabama today that's not a rich state. In fact, they have another rival in state Auburn. They want it more. Many universities could be much better at football college football, but they're basketball schools. Yukon, Syracuse, Kansas, Ucla, Duke. Their basketball schools. A lot of their boosters line up with hoops. They could commit more to football, but they're divided. The NIL is proving once again, whoever wants it more wins. That's why Texas, Texas A and m Oklahoma, Oregon, Miami, Ohio State, Florida State are crushing. They're paying more money. As Lane Kiffin has correctly pointed out, it's free agency. It's pro football now. You can buy players. You can buy high school players, and they are some schools are. Stanford has the richest alumni in America. They've all that Silicon Valley money. Stanford could literally get a couple of their boosters and dominate the sport. It could literally just buy all the best high school players. But they don't want it that badly. They've got a brand. Their brand is academic first, so they'll compete in NIL, but they'll be Stanford occasionally good, not consistently dominant. They've made that choice, and it's a fine choice. It's a great university. As they always said, if you're smart enough to get offered a scholarship to Stanford, he can't be dumb enough not to take it. I would love for my kids to go to Stanford. I got one left. Maybe you will but they've made their choice. The truth is USC's a school, they have rich alumni. La is the biggest economy in California. It's the richest state by a mile. But we got pro teams all over the place, a beach, there's a lot to do. People are distracted, the money split fragmented. It just doesn't matter that much. It's not that USC can't offer Caleb Williams a lot. They've got prominent boosters and powerful connections, but it matters more in Alabama and College Station and some of these places like Columbus, Ohio. So basically, in the nineties, the thing, the element that drove the sport was world class weight facilities. Nebraska's was number one, and then after that in two thousands, it was facilities. Kids went for facilities. Now it's not facilities. Now show me the money cash. There's no reason for Oregon, it's not a rich state. But Phil Knight is all in. There's no reason for Miami to be as dominant as they are in recruiting, but they've got a booster. They're all in. So it's hard to meet for me to root against people who want it more. And I think college football's never been about the big markets. It's never been about Boston or La or New York or Philadelphia or Chicago. It's small towns that are defined socially. You go to work Monday, your college football team one. Everybody's happier in the office, and you go to Norman, Oklahoma. The social scene is driven by Sooner football. It matters more to them, and they're having a great recruiting class and they will continue too because they have made a choice football. College football matters here. It's hard to root against people who are deeply embedded and invested in something in anything in life. Cowboy note, that's interesting. The receiver James Washington, former Steeler, is going to be out for two months, two and a half months potentially. And it's interesting with the Cowboys. Three of their first five games they faced the Buccaneers weapons galore, Rams, weapons galore. Bengals may have more than both. So the Dak Prescott that we have watched since that rookie year when he went thirteen and three has been sort of supported. Dak, great old line, Dak run first, Dak, don't have to carry the offense, Dak. But what's interesting now you have Noahmari Cooper, no right tackle, Lyle Collins, no Cedric Wilson, wildly underrated number three receiver that had forty five catches and six touchdowns. Now no James Washington, and of fading Zekiel Elliott and the offensive lines getting old. So we always looked at Dak as somebody who could take really talented people, you know, keep it in the fairway, be competitive, good at the podium, good intangibles, limited talent. But now he's gonna have to do what Brady did in New England for twenty years, is take your Troy Browns and your Dion Branch and your Danny mn Doola's nice players and make them stars and really really valuable. And I don't know if that's in his tool shed. So Ceedee Lamb going from a number two to a one. That'll work fine. He's a great talent. He'll have ninety five catches, ten touchdowns that I don't worry about. But Michael Gallup has no shot to be Ceedee Lamb as a two. Now, no James Washington, Jalen Tilbert's a rookie. They're gonna depend on him. You know. It's it's in an aging offensive line. The good news for the Cowboys is it's a really really bad division. But I think Philadelphia is going to be significantly better. So I've seen the protected DAC, the run first ac operate the offense, Dack. Can we see the bro you gotta take over? Oh lines an old running backs fading. You don't really have a number two, three four weapon like a Cincinnati, like a Rams, like maybe a San Francisco. I don't know if we're gonna I don't know if we can do it. I just I don't know if that's in the tool shed for Dak. Can he do that? But the James Washington news is thin wide receiving corps gallup coming off the ACL probably not available week one. Oh now James Washington's not available, and they open up with Brady and those weapons and burrowing his weapons. You start Owen two. We talked about this last week. Mike McCarthy starts Owen two with Dan Quinn on that staff. Watch out to Dallas media if they did a private straw vote today, overwhelmingly would want Dan Quinn as the head coach. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdayson noon Eastern not Ampacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. Baseball has often been because of no salary cap a team sport of have and have nots, where the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Astros and the Braves have big money now because of Steve Cohen the Mets, but over the last two to three years, the Padres, who don't have the richest ownership group, they obviously have some money now they have Josh had, Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis signed a three hundred forty million dollar extension. Tony Gwynn Junior, who played in the BIGS for eight years, he's a Padre analyst for six seasons, joining us live now already at the stadium. You know, I've asked this question Tony, that baseball San Diego feels more like a Minnesota or a Seattle, where it's not one of these you know, where there's just endless capital, but they spend now close to a Dodger or a Yankee. Explain this to our audience. Because there's one pro team in the market, San Diego state, I've never thought of it as a huge market, a little bit in the shadow of Southern California. Where's the money come from, Where's the financing come from? Because they are just signing a massive deals. Well, look, I think it really boils down to ownership, right, and the willingness to go out and spend. I think this is proof of that. Right. This isn't, as you mentioned, this isn't the biggest media market where revenue is coming in at as a higher rate as a New York team would. But certainly for the Padres, this ownership has made that commitment. Really from day when they took over. They were very honest with the city in terms of the plan and how they would go about getting to this point, and they've held their into the bargain. And this is further proof that when you have a committed ownership, no matter where you are, you can make things happen. Well, some of it feels like, hey, the Dodgers are so committed that the Padres say, listen, this is the game in our division and all boats rise here because every time the Dodgers come to town they set out. Is some of this pressure from the Dodgers. I don't know if it's pressures, but if if you want to compete being in the same division as the Dodgers, You're gonna have to rise to the occasion. There's just no way about getting to that level that the Dodgers have been at so consistently for so long. Unless you're willing to take your salary upwards. You know you're not gonna get to that level. But with the help of drafting and developing and being able to spend money when it counts in the right spots, I think the Dodgers certainly are a driving force behind the Padres and really every team in this division having to kind of, you know, look under the hood a little bit and see how much further they can go. What is the I mean, seriously, what is give me the top four in the batting order after the trade? What is it gonna look like? I mean, me and my partner Jesse Agler have been going back and forth and this the last few days. It I mean, my guess is that Bob Melvine likes to go left right left or right left right to his lineup, and if Fernando is leading off, you can see a scenario which Soto's been hitting behind him, Manny behind him, Josh Bell then behind him, and then you know, Luke Voight then follows he can go right, left, right down the entire portion of the lineup, and then it would be a daunting task for any rotation. It doesn't matter who we're talking to. Dodgers myths to get through a lineup like that without being taxed when they got towards the end of their their outing. And you know that's where this game has made at. Now you get into that bullpen after taxing a starter, you can have some success. We've seen the Padres do it throughout the year. So far, you guys are drawing great. I just looked up the attendance numbers today, your fifth and Major League Baseball. It's a gorgeous stadium. Now, to me, this puts immense pressure on Bob Melvin. Um. I mean when you get that's the downside to having this line up is as Aaron Boone is finding out, as the Dodgers manager finds out. Is Melvin secure if they don't make the playoffs? Does he have to win now? No? No, I don't think so. I think Bob is definitely secure. The Padres really are in the position to him are in right now. In large part, dude, to Bob Melvine, Um, you start this season, and you lose a guy like Fernando Tatts junior after the way you finished the last season, that could have easily snowballed into this season. But from that, from the day Fernando got hurt or it was announced he was hurt, he was out in front. He gave the guys like a day to kind of almost get it out of their system, and then it was back to work. And these guys have had this kind of workmen like attitude all season long. They've done far better than anybody expected without Fernando Tatt's junior and I think a large part of that is due to Bob Melvine's leadership. So to answer your question, I don't think he's under any pressure to win this year, but there is a window. I don't think there's any question about that. There's a window that the Padres are trying to capitalize on, especially with this reported move that's going down Juan Soto. Does he change the chemistry of the team. Do you play a different style with him? What will he do to the way the Padres look? Obviously he's a great player, but sometimes you know, milkie backs. For the Dodgers, I feel like they're just more athletic. He forces everybody to be more aggressive, more detailed. What does Soto do to change the Padres? Very similar, very similar characteristics for Mooki in Juan in terms of what they bring to a lineup. He's gonna lengthen out this lineup a whole lot more. And when you have a presence of a Juan Soto, it really changes the dynamic. The beauty. The beautiful thing about Juan Soto, in my opinion, is that for his talent, as talented as he is, he plays the game like he need to move a runner over, he can move a runner over. And the Padres have won the majority of their games this year, low scoring, tight games, very few mistakes early on, and for as explosive and as talented as as one is, he can play the game of baseball. And I think that fits well into this locker room. I think it fits well into this lineup. And you know, that's just that's just the baseball element. I mean in terms of what he brings individually, the power that the Padres lacking, He's instant punched in the middle of that lineup. Yeah, you watch that Mets team. They went out and got power a couple of weeks ago. Right, Like the Yankees have the power, the Dodgers have some of it. Houston's got some, the Mets added some, and now the Padres are adding some. Well, we got a top heavy sport. Maybe, but there are six or seven great rosters. Those Dodger Padres series are gonna look like an All Star game. Tony gwyn Junior, Padre's analyst, obviously his late father, Tony Gwynn, mister Padre, it's great, Senior. Congratulations, your job just got even cooler. Congrats, Thank you God. I appreciate you having me on