Thanks for listening to The 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. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. It is a Tuesday, A somber Tuesday, live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening or watching iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio, and f S one. Jason McIntyre is joining me alongside me as always today we know today I'll have a bit more of a somber tone as we continue to wait for word on the well being of Damar Hamlin, who collapse last night on the field. One of the things that that jumped out to me to start, we're so lucky as country to have first responders, EMT technicians. There's so many people we've dealt with so much in this country from a health standpoint over the last couple of years. And tip of the cap to all those people in this country that are always on the spot. Every NFL stadium has multiple EMTs first responders, and they are more than capable, and we hope save Amand's life. Last night, I want to start with this. So often I've probably been guilty of this. We complain about roughing the passer, the targeting rules, and the quick injections in college football, and the reason the league implements those is because of last night. About I think six months ago, Roger Goodell wasn't quoted, but somebody wrote a wonderful article about sort of the depth and the concerns of the safety of this sport, and that the greatest fear, whether it's the commissioner of NASCAR are or a promoter in boxing, or Roger Goodell last night is everybody's greatest fear. Football is much safer than even ten fifteen years ago. But it's football. It's large, fast men running full speed, tackling one another, and they're getting bigger and they're getting stronger, and they're getting faster. I see pictures from time to time on the Internet of high school football players who are two hundred and thirty five pounds and ripped, and I think, wow, could he tackle my son? It's scary out there practice as though have been cut back. There's less hitting in practices. I had a college football coach tell me years ago, once the season starts, they don't hit much at practice anymore. The equipments getting better. There are regulations everywhere. But but, and this is something the NFL and all football, but let's talk. NFL today has to look itself in the mirror. Do we really need a seventeenth regular season game. I don't like it. It benefits me because it extends the season. But I said it when I came out. You can't tell me safety's number one and add a seventeenth game Thursday night football. I enjoy it, But do we need players playing fatigued? Anybody who's ever random marathon or been athletic or skied, the accidents always happened when your muscles are most fatigued. I don't understand preseason football. I've been railing on that. Many of you don't get it either. College football doesn't have it. It's just another one hundred and fifty collisions for the athletes. If safety really matters, then we don't need Thursday night football, then we don't need a preseason. The league has taken steps, lots of them, but UFC car racing, football, boxing, hell, even baseball. They throw a hundred mile an hour pitch seemingly. You watch a baseball game, everybody throws like ninety eight miles an hour. Used to be high eighties, low nineties. Now people are getting over one hundred miles an hour to small ball, sometimes thrown in the wrong places. Sports is scary at times. I did think the NFL got it right. And hear me out on this. Any time you have a crisis, communication is hard. It could be in the cockpit of a plane, it could be during a flood. It's hard. People are panicking, people are scared. This was unprecedented. I also think they got it right. Maybe not on my timeline. I would have called it sooner. Maybe they did call it sooner, and it took seven eight nine minutes to get down to everybody to hear it. I don't know. The European Soccer Championships a couple of years ago, Christian Ericson, a wonderful player, collapsed. Once he was stabilized at a hospital, the game continued on. That seems completely inappropriate to me. Years ago, when Vince McMahon ran the WWE, a wrestler died, they continued the show. That's gross. Troy Vincent did come out and say the NFL did not consider giving players five minutes. Now, some people I think were confused. I was because I saw Joe Burrow warm up with a couple of passes, but players weren't warming up. Players were crying. Players were shocked, and they should have been. It's unprecedented. Joe Buck, Troy Aikman had been doing this for years. They didn't know what to say. Nobody knew what to say. The other thing that I thought about this morning is, you know a lot of people are rightly giving credit to Sean McDermott or Zach Taylor because the coaches may have made the ultimate decision, and we all think to ourselves, why didn't the commissioner? But you know how it works. Sometimes the president calls, a governor, calls a mayor, calls the Peace Corps, calls the National Guard and communication who's on the ground, who's there. Sean McDermott's listening to his players, He's watching his players cry. It's okay to me to lean in as a sport, lean into the people on the scene. They know what's happening, they know what's going on. They're seeing their players, sob not somebody watching on a camera in New York City. The people in Cincinnati knew how serious it was. And Sean McDermott had his arm around those players. It's okay to lean on him. Sean, what's going on? Tell us? What do you think? I think? Out of respect for the family, last night's to tie, right, We don't want to play this thing. We have ties in football. We have ties in football, and they exist, and this will be a tie gets out of respect for the family and his health. We make exceptions all the time. In fact, I think Baseball decided recently they were just going to use more tie breakers because they couldn't find a spot to play extra games, you know, playing games. This is a tie out of respect of the family in the moment. You know, I say once or twice a year, I'll say this. You know, love your life like your sports. And the reason I've said that for years is to have perspective on it. And I think last night, Wow. Tip of the hat to all the people at the network I used to work at. I thought they were all terrific. Scott van Pelt, I don't know McFarland know Scott. I know, Joe, Joe and Troy Great, the people in the truck, they did unbelievable work. But um, let's pray and I'm gonna take a break. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app. All right, we have three hours today. We're gonna get through it. The best weekend. The story on DeMar Hamlin DeMar Hamlin collapsing on the field last night. Um, you know I've said this before is that I was a pretty squirrely, immature kid seventeen eighteen, nineteen twenty into college. You know, one of the things you're finding out about DeMar Hamlin is the charity, the Toy Drive he's been part of. You know, I've I've I don't go to as many games as I used to, but when I was local in Tampa or Portland, Oregon, or Las Vegas, there would often be toy drives. I think Rashid Wallace in Portland a coat drive. I'm always amazed at how much athletes give back. Obviously we pay or we watch and they're entertaining us. But last night is a stark reminder that we also have to protect them. They give a ton to our communities. All my years of doing this, I'm taken back how lucky these leagues are to have these young people who are so committed. I mean, a football season ends and if you take three weeks off, you're almost shamed. You have to get back in practice. They work so hard. A college player getting ready for the pros, he'll go to Florida and Phoenix the minute his season is over and train right into a professional ota. That's why many rookie players by week thirteen or fourteen are more prone to injury and exhaustion. They call it hitting a wall because they've literally gone a year straight, no time off, no vacation, no resting your body, trying to be a profession. So so much of what makes sports gripping is the good emotion. I've been watching some of these bowl games and it's I don't even know any of these players, and they're so emotional, and my heart goes out to a kid who misses a kick, So um, it's it's understood. Um, you know, I was sick to my stomach last night. I just was sick to my stomach I did not want to go on social media. I didn't have anything I could add. Disappointed by some of the stuff I saw, but in the end, this is a stark reminder that athletes are not just here for our entertainment. They have to be protected at whatever costs it take. Now, it's it's football. It's really fast and it's really strong. But this is why they put in those roughing the passer penalties, and this is why they put in all these regulations. This is exactly why this is the greatest fear for anybody who loves sports. We've all thought about this. I saw something at a college game yesterday where a football player for TU Lane was knocked out, and I mean, I just felt sick. So we're all crossing our fingers. We're hoping for very good news. We are going to cover some sports today, but we'll keep coming back to this. It's going to be a somber show and should be a little somber today. I will say this, there is a story, a college story that's becoming a pro story that Jim Harbaugh will accept the job for the Denver Broncos if he is offered the job. Now, I had said yesterday, I think Michigan's a wonderful, wonderful place. He's done a great job. I wouldn't leave, but I was told by later yesterday afternoon they're going to offer him twenty million dollars, So that kind of changes things. Number One is in college football, when you're paid a lot as a coach, you often feel guilty because the players aren't being compensated, most of them. In pro sports, you don't. You just have to win very very quickly or the billionaire owner will fire you. So if you take twenty million dollars a year from Denver, you're gonna have to win by year two, and you better show big improvement by year one or they'll just see it as a rounding error and fire you. But there's a reason the twenty million dollar price tag changes everything. Number One, it's a very very rare commitment. Average NFL coach makes seven eight nine million dollars. That's a lot of money. Twenty millions a whole different ball game. And the other thing to remember is Jim Harbaugh did get a salary reduction that's incredibly rare for a high profile coach by the Missigan administration, and he was bothered by it. I've also been told that Sean Payton is a team that the owners are looking at. So Sean Payton's the number one option for any team. Harbo's number two. Harball had a very good record as a pro coach. I think he won like forty four games and lost eighteen or nineteen. He was a terrific coach, and he took over a mess in the Bay Area and turned it around immediately. But Sean Payton's the top coach. He's got a Super Bowl, and he's an offensive genius. If I was Sean Payton's agent, I would tell him let somebody else clean up the Denver situation. That will be the new starting point for elite coaches. You know, you may have to wait a couple of years, but if Denver's owners are gonna pay twenty million dollars, the salaries are gonna take a giant leap, and you can benefit off that in a couple of years. But what I've seen over the course of my life, I've seen this for broadcasters. I've seen this for players in all sports. I've seen it for executives. I'm not an executive, obviously. If you ever take a job just for money, it almost never pans out. It just doesn't. You've got There's a sea of money out there for talented people. Join good communities, join good teammates. If money is the driving focus on any job, it almost always comes with unrealistic, unrealistic expectations. But back to the beginning of this story, I very very good reporters. Bruce Feldman works at Fox. I'm sorry I don't have the other people. Bruce Feldman is one of the two or three people that is reporting this morning that Harball would accept the Denver Bronco job if it is offered. I am told the salary is twenty million for Harball, it would be greater for Sean Payton mid twenties. That's what I know. J Mac within the news, No, no, this is the Herdline News. Start with the Philadelphia Eagles, who can clinch the number one seed with a victory this weekend. Jalen Hurts, limited in practice last week Friday, did not end up playing against the States. There are reports that indicate he will be healthy enough to go. Too early in the week to tell for sure, but he should start against the Giants. The market is telling you that the lines up to fourteen Giants probably gonna sit some guys. He goes need the number one seed. Colin, would you force Hurts back this earlier? I you know, I think this goes back to the Let's ask the people that are around him. Let's ask Jalen, Let's ask the trainer. You know, professional athletes always want to play. This is the Miami situation which we talked about last week. That's more nuanced than people think. Tool wants to be out there. His career hangs in the balance, So Tool wants to play. The Dolphins are like, no, we're not letting you play. So I think you go to the player second. You go to the doctors first. So, I you know, especially after last night, we're all reluctant to say play in. But this is why teams have team doctors. You go to the player's second, You go to the doctors first. What do they say? The New England Patriots rough season all around, but they're still in the mix for a playoff spot and owner Robert Kraft not happy where they stand right now. A friend of the show, Albert Brier, of course, he comes on here regularly. He reports that Kraft is not pleased with the team's offensive coaching set up with Patricia, Joe, Judge and Belichick all kind of juggling roles. Here's what Brier had to say. My understanding as Kraft has made comments around the building that basically indicate he's not happy with where the offensive coaching staff is right now, I think that they could lead to shuffling at more than just the play caller spot. We could be talking about a new coordinator coming in with multiple position Canoe coaches. I think there are several guys on the staff who are not going to be renewed after the year. Now. Listen, mac Jones and the offense did not look sharp against the Dolphins defense that I think was down six starters, our secondary with backups yea, and they could I mean New England really needed to pick six to get back in that game. Yeah. I mean New England's winning with defense and special teams. That's how they're winning games. And they got lucky to beat Skyler Thompson, the third string quarterback. Yeah. And I also think what happens is it's, first of all, you have a sport where you're often missing top players, So not all losses are equal, not all crises are equal. But this was a predictable snaffoo. Like we all knew, you can't put a defensive coordinator as offensive coordinator. So when somebody does that and it backfires, you really put yourself in the crosshair of criticism. I had said before the season that I thought this would be Belichick's last year, that Kraft would have a sit down with him. I just I feel like it's just Bill wants to coach a certain way and with certain coaches and players, and that's not the winning way. You got it. Sometimes you have to coach players you're you're not in love with. You have to have coaches on your staff. You may have disagreements with um let's this is not this is not perfect, and Bill's tolerance for that, I think is somewhat limited. He has voiced that to people that he wants to coach only certain guys in certain ways. So I and also, when stuff leaks to the press, it's because somebody wants it to leak to the press. So this is Craft firing stuff out there. He wants Belichick to read it. You know, someone floated to me a scenario where, hey, remember Bill Belichick did not want to trade Jimmy Garoppolo Bill Belichick drafted Jimmy Garoppo. He was upset he get off Mac Jones, bring Garoppolo back in free agency because you're not winning a Super Bowl with Mac Jones or Bailey's appy. Yeah you can get you get to a super Bowl? Would Jimmy Garoppolo. That happened in San Francisco. You know, I think, um, that was the first time that the owner had stepped in over the coach and said we're gonna do something. Because this was Tom Brady wanted Garoppolo. Brady and Giselle were unhappy, went to Craft about it, right, So, I mean, it's it's I've I've never thought. I always thought Kraft and Brady. I've read the excellent books by Seth Wickersham, Ian O'Connor, Jeff Benedict have all written just fantastic books on this dynasty. All of them leave me feeling the same way. Kraft tolerates Belichick, respects Belichick, but doesn't love Belichick. It was always a Craft Brady relationship. He saw Tom, you know, almost like like a son, right, Like the age gap was so extreme. But I always thought Kraft and Belichick just tolerated each other at this point, the Garoppolo thing really heightened it. Final story last night in the NBA Donovan Mitchell crazy boy. I know not a lot of people were watching this with the other news happening in the NFL, but Donovan Mitchell scored seventy one points in an overtime victory. They rallied. The Calves did rallied from down twenty one to beat the Bulls. It was the most point scored seventy one the game since Kobe had eighty one two thousand and six. Donovan Mitchell and the Calves. I mean again, nobody's really paying attention to the NBA right now because the NFL is close to the playoffs, College Football World Cup just wrapped. But the Calves are incredible right now. And here's what Donovan Mitchell said about his career night last night. I think, you know, for me, not only did I do that, but I did it in the effort where we came back and one and it's how we won. That's really what for me. You know, I was like, man, like, this is you know, nuts, to be honest. So I'm I'm extremely blessed, you know, humbled that we I'm in that company, in that in that group. You know, I've always believed I can be, you know, one of the best players in the league. But I gotta keep working and this is just this is a big milestone. But at the end of the day, we got to continue to Those guys have all won, you know, at the highest level, and that's my ultimate goal. But to be there in the record books with them is It's truely incredible. Seventy one point in an NBA game fifty minutes is incredible. And they needed him too. Was a tough overtime game. He was efficient. This wasn't a guy jacking fifty shots twenty two or thirty four from the field, seven or fifteen from three. You got to the line, I believe twenty five times, eleven assists, a rebounds. Again, we'll do a lot of NBA February March April. This Cavs team is a legit threat to the Bucks, the Celtics, and I don't we're not going to talk about them today, but the Brooklyn Nets are kind of rolling right now. Yeah, but the Caves are legit in these good stuff. J Mack with the News. Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping by. The herd Line The primary story today is Damar Hamlin, who was injured last night collapsed. He is in critical condition in a Cincinnati hospital. I didn't race to social media. I didn't think I had a ton to add, like all of you, I was just sick to my stomach watching it again. I think the people that had to broadcast it live were tremendous. I also think it is okay for Sean McDermot and Zach Taylor. Specifically Sean McDermott, who's been in this league a while now as an assistant coordinator and a head coach. I think the league probably did lean on him a little bit of feed on the ground with his players. I go back to thinking how terrifying it would have been. There was a cardiac arrest, so you had somebody on top of that player, and and and for the record, I've only seen that happen once in my life in anything. Cardiac arrest happening live and first responders on the scene trying to revive them. It is a terrifying site. I saw it actually a year ago skiing and there was a big collision. Helicopter swooped in and I watched um first responders perform it was well. It was a day for me. I was done. It was a terrifying site. So the players saw that. So when you see Josh Allen crying and these players, there's just no way you can play that game. There's just absolutely no way. The NFL eventually got it right. But it's hard. It's hard that kind of stuff in crisis. I've been very fortunate in my life. I haven't been in crisis a lot. But what those players are seeing and what they're hearing, you can see these pictures minis stuff is. It's tough, and it happens infrequently. That's why we make the game as safe as we possibly can. Athletes are getting bigger and stronger. We'll take a break in La It's the Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter n a Empacific. Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking one in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of it. Ben Maller Share could hit overnights on fs are. Why should you listen? Make sure if you will a world will we chat with captains of industry in media, sports and more every week explored some amazing facts about a human nature and more. Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Mather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back for the record. Just for accuracy's sake, there has been a player back in the early seventies that did die at the end of a game. It was between the Lions and the Chicago Bears, and it was a Detroit Lions player who collapsed at the end of a game and then died going to the hospital thirty forty minutes later. So the game is much safer now, but players are also bigger, stronger, faster, and the collisions more violent now. So I watched when I was young. I don't remember when, but Darryl Stingley was a wide receiver who was paralyzed in a game. I can remember that the scene was very similar to last night, players weeping, and I don't even know if I watched it live or I saw a video of it, but it was very dramatic. So Damar Hamlin remains in critical condition in a hospital. Football is they could make it safer, they could reduce the number of games. It is football. You know, I never really understood footballs are very unique sport. There are guys that have played at the NFL and have been great players who didn't play high school football and didn't play college football. Antonio Gates for the Chargers Hall of Fame tight end will be he was a college basketball player. So unlike let's say golf or pitching in baseball, where you really need experience and reps a lot of the things in football. A lot of football coaches that recruit like their athletes to play multiple sports because they believe they can get better at things like handey coordination not playing football. So the idea that you have to hit at twelve thirteen years old is nonsense. That's just not the case. In fact, one of the moments that really changed how I sort of looked at the preseason. I always love when you get what they call disruptors, when somebody comes in and says I'm not going to do it that way, I'm gonna do it my way. And years ago Sean McVeigh was this young thirty year old coach came into the NFL and said I'm not going to play any of my starters in the preseason. Why would I do that? Why why would I have an older player in collisions? And people really push back. You have to do this. It's very important. The Rams started the season eight and oh. There's no reason to have preseason You could have inner squad games for some intense urgency. There's no reason to have preseason games. They're a rip off to fans. College kids don't do it. And college kids are eighteen nineteen years old. They have class, they can old practice at college seventeen hours a week according to the nc double A, and I watched the early games in September. Kids are ready to play. So why do thirty year olds need three more games of hitting? I do not believe that's good. I don't want to sit on a soapbox this morning. I don't like a seventeenth game. I've defended Thursday night football. You could certainly get rid of that. But I think fewer games, less hitting does not take away from the beauty and skill of the sport. That is my takeaway. I'm not here to be a hall monitor of all sports. Very capable people make decisions. Football morning in America. It's NBC Sports. It's Peter King. His perspective will be noteworthy this morning. I was saying this earlier, Peter, I do remember the Darrell stingy moment. I don't know if I was watching it live or tape. I don't remember. Here's where I wasn't bothered, Peter. Whenever we have a crisis, and I said this earlier, president calls a governor, a governor calls a mayor, a mayor calls the National Guard. You go to the people with their feet on the ground. I was okay with the league leaning on Sean McDermott, who's saying, hey guys, my guys can't play. I was okay with that. Now a lot of people aren't, and they think it should have been immediately canceled. But to me, in crisis, you always lean on the guy that's in the cockpit. You lean on people on the ground. Did it bother you that it seemed to take a while to cancel the game, Peter, No, not really. Colin, I didn't think there was any way they could play after the ambulance had left, and we heard that, we heard the emergency life saving techniques that were that were used. So I mean we we figured that the game probably was not going to continue. But look, you know, it's it's it's to me, it's a little bit crazy in real time to be suggesting call the game with an exclamation point. You know, take your time, make a reasonable decision, make a reasoned decision, and then let's all move on. That's what I think happened. And look, I don't know what happened. I don't know if Zach Taylor said our guys can't play and McDermott said our guys can't play, we don't know that. So I think it's best in times like this to essentially say, you know, let's let all precincts report yeah first, before we go making you know, basically decisions before we have all the information. Peter, let me throw this, I said, out of respect for the Hamlin family, I said, sports have ties. It's just a tie game. There's no space on the schedule. Let's not jam it in. Go to another series of tiebreakers if you have to. That's what baseball does. They Baseball came to a conclusion that they didn't have space in their schedule for some of these late season games to figure out who's in. They just go to tiebreakers. What about just saying, out of respect for the family, we're gonna make an exception it's a tie, which it certainly could have been, and just go with a seating from that point. Does that make sense to you? Well, I think what makes more sense to me is just to have it. To have the Bengals and Bills play sixteen games this year, and look, I have no idea what they're going to do. It really isn't the time today to be thinking about this, but it will be the time soon to think about this. And to me, Colin, I'm going to take you back a couple of years. I remember this is almost three years now, because soon after COVID hit, I remember writing and reporting a lot on what the NFL was thinking about the twenty twenty schedule. You know, they were considering all sorts of alternatives playing a twelve game schedule, not starting the schedule on time in September, maybe starting in October. They were thinking of everything, and at the time I remember specifically one leading voice in the NFL telling me, look, this is going to be one of those years. We're going to get through the year. This is going to be one of those years. Where people really shouldn't care if one team plays ten games and another team plays fourteen, because we are in just an extraordinary time in the history of this country. Well, I don't see the problem with the Bills and Bengals playing sixteen games instead of seventeen. And you know, wherever the games are played, whoever has home field. Let's not take this as so outrage if tom, if some team goes down a slot in the seedings, who cares. You know, the Bengals and Bills are both going to the playoffs where they play their games. I don't care, and they shouldn't either. Yeah. By the way, Cincinnati got to the Super Bowl playing road games last year. Buffalo has gone to Kansas City and one I think with the new technology and the helmets with coaches talking to players, it has eliminated some of the home field advantage. I'm with you. Good teams win they went on the road. You know, it's interesting when you're a baseball fan. When Steve Cohen bought the Mets, there was concerned by other owners that he would literally just spend whatever it takes, and other owners said that's not what we want here. Well he's done it. Now the Mets payrolls bigger than the bottom five or six teams in baseball, and it looks bad for the sport. So when the Walmart owners come into Denver, I think similarly, they don't you know, they don't want to bring in a disruptor. But the salary i'm hearing for hardball is twenty million. I'm hearing it could be more considerably for Sean Payton, and having covered the owners for years, that changes everything. I mean, the average salaries probably six seven. I wonder if inside the league that wouldn't play well. Just the twenty million, to me was startling when I heard that number. What was what's your take? I mean, all power to anybody if they can make whatever they want to make or whatever they can make, so good for them. But I guess my point would be I'd be a lot more concerned with instead of, you know, dangling twenty million dollars out there for Harbor, for Peyton. My first question would be, Okay, well we'll get to the money, all right, But I want to have a conversation and what would be your plan to fix Russell Wilson? Yeah, because honestly, Colin, nothing else matters, you know, George Young, the old Giants general manager, the late great George Young. I used to cover the Giants, and one of the reasons that he hated the idea of free agency coming into the league. This is before free agency was there. He used to tell me, he says players don't play better for more money. And you know, he's probably right. And I can tell you I doubt Jim Harbaugh is going to be a better coach whether you pay him ten million or twenty million. So I want to know, how are you going to fix this quarterback? And if you can fix the quarterback, then let's talk. And we have a lot of money to spend. But Colin one other thing, He's not the only guy who would be willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a head coach. If you look at three years ago what David Tepper did or Matt Rule, people in the NFL thought that was insane. The Giants said, I would never do that. You know, John Mara, I would never pay you know, seven or eight million dollars for a coach who has been in the NFL for one year and has just been in college football. So again, look, I think David Tepper he could get into a contest and spend a lot of money as well, But what does that really mean? You know, it's obviously we're doing a more somber show today, and we should. The one thing I'd said is, you know, I defended the NFL that canceled the game. There was a European Championship in soccer where a player collapsed was later stabilized, but thirty forty minutes later they continued the game. That feels inappropriate. Troy Vincent saying, we told nobody to warm up. People saw Joe Burrow throwing a ball in the sideline. They thought everybody was warming up. They really weren't. But the one thing I've I pushed back on when it happened is if you're gonna tell me safety matters, then don't take a boatload of money from Amazon and have a Thursday game, or don't at a seventeenth game and don't keep playing preseason games. Do you believe in light of this that the NFL those discussions do take place. I mean, I'll just lay that out there. Do you think somebody today is saying, you know, we've gotta look in the mirror a little bit here? I wish they would, but I doubt it, Colin, because I think what a lot of people around the NFL are going to say, is this kind of tackle happens two hundred times a week in the NFL. A guy's heart stopped. It's a freak thing. And again, whether it is or whether it isn't, we'll find out. There's going to be a lot of investigative bodies who were going to look into this. The NFL will, the nfl PA will, But what what happens, Colin, if this is simply a freak accident. Yeah. You know, Mike Ryan, the NBC injury analyst, he's a former athletic trainer, told me this morning that he said, listen, you gotta remember, you know, let's not draw any conclusions. And he said, there's a high school athlete here in Florida where he lives, who got hit with a lacrosse ball, heart stopped, it was resuscitated, and went on to play later in the year. And the only reason as heart stopped he got hit with the lacrosse ball in his chest. Yeah, and maybe the only reason that Damar Hamlin's heart stopped is that he was hit in the exact right location. By a two hundred and twenty pound wide receiver. I just think some things are kind of flukey. I've railed against seventeen games schedule forever. It's a dumb thing for a league that cares or says it cares about the health and safety of its players. But the other thing is the nfl PA signed off on it. So I'm not saying that it's all their fault. It's not all anyone's fault, but the NFLPA signed off on it, and so it's going to have to be something that both sides will agree to look at. I wish they would, I doubt they will. A year ago, somebody was a former player I think for the Patriot sent me something. It was some prospectus for a business about safer helmets, and it was kind of fascinating that had a different look where there was like ribbing on the outside of the helmet. It was a safer helmet. And I think there's only so much you can do with UFC or car racing. You can put cages in. These cars are going one hundred and ninety miles an hour around turns. There's only so much you can do. And I think with football similarly, there's just limitations on what you can do. But I do think do you believe today go back ten years? Obviously the games safer than thirty years ago, but ten years do you feel like the game is safer today, that things have been implemented in your coverage? I think the game is safer, But I do think there's one really important thing that the league plus the helmet manufacturers are working on which I think talking to people in the industry would be a gigantic help, and that is position specific helmets. In other words, for a quarterback, where you make the padding a little heavier, where you build out the model a little bit more is in the back of the head, so that you see when tuatangavaloa twice this year has gotten hurt. Theoretically, if when the head springs back to hit the ground, if you have more protection, it's going to cause less brain trauma. And so that is something that I think the NFL needs to fast track and get in the league as soon as possible. It's really smart. Actually, Peter King is joining us NBC Sports dot Com. You've been covering this league for so long, have you ever seen anything resembling last night? Darryl Stingley, you were probably you started back in eighty four. I don't remember even when what year it was was Stingley. Have you ever seen a yew that was pre stingly was pre me? Okay, yeah, Stingley was pre pre eighty four, But I really have not seen anything like that. And what made it so different, Colin, is sort of the frenetic pace for a few of the medical professionals there that you just sense when the camera was on him for a short period of time, Hey, let's go. This is real. This is not precautionary. This is the real drill. And also the tiers on the players. Players are used to seeing guys tar acls or whatever on the field. They're used to in practice. If a guy gets hurt, the coach moves the drill twenty yards away and they just keep going. They're used to that. They're not used to some whose heart stops on the field and whose life is in danger, they're not used to that. Nobody is. We've never seen it before, all right, Peter King, NBC Sports dot Com, thank you for joining us. Covered the NFL since the early eighties. Thank you, Peter. Okay, Colin, there are some Sports Bits today. Nick Wright joining us next hour. You know, I saw this story this morning. Tom Brady said it would bother him to sit out a meaningless Week eighteen finale. So Tom Brady wants to play. That's why I said earlier with Jalen Hurts, you don't ask the player if they're healthy. You go to the doctor first, then you go to a player, then you go to coaches. Tom Brady forty five years seven rings would be bothered not playing a meaningless game. You have to talk players sometimes out of hurting themselves or putting themselves in an harm's way. So also, David Carr is defending his brother Derek. Raiders are going to trade him. It's done, it's official, They're going to move Offen. His brother is saying it. He does not like the lack of loyalty by the Raiders for his brother, because Derek car often said it's all he ever wanted to be was a Raider. But when your bosses tell you they don't like you, it's amazing how competitive and invigorated a pro athlete can be. Derek Carr to the Jets feels so right, not great enough to overcome chaos. But that's a good roster, a very good defensive coach, a smart GM, suboptimal owners, but Jets Derek Carr feels like to me, it's a really good fit. Nick right around the corner. Hour two, Live in La. It's the herd.

Thanks for listening to The 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. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. It is a Tuesday, A somber Tuesday, live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening or watching iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio, and f S one. Jason McIntyre is joining me alongside me as always today we know today I'll have a bit more of a somber tone as we continue to wait for word on the well being of Damar Hamlin, who collapse last night on the field. One of the things that that jumped out to me to start, we're so lucky as country to have first responders, EMT technicians. There's so many people we've dealt with so much in this country from a health standpoint over the last couple of years. And tip of the cap to all those people in this country that are always on the spot. Every NFL stadium has multiple EMTs first responders, and they are more than capable, and we hope save Amand's life. Last night, I want to start with this. So often I've probably been guilty of this. We complain about roughing the passer, the targeting rules, and the quick injections in college football, and the reason the league implements those is because of last night. About I think six months ago, Roger Goodell wasn't quoted, but somebody wrote a wonderful article about sort of the depth and the concerns of the safety of this sport, and that the greatest fear, whether it's the commissioner of NASCAR are or a promoter in boxing, or Roger Goodell last night is everybody's greatest fear. Football is much safer than even ten fifteen years ago. But it's football. It's large, fast men running full speed, tackling one another, and they're getting bigger and they're getting stronger, and they're getting faster. I see pictures from time to time on the Internet of high school football players who are two hundred and thirty five pounds and ripped, and I think, wow, could he tackle my son? It's scary out there practice as though have been cut back. There's less hitting in practices. I had a college football coach tell me years ago, once the season starts, they don't hit much at practice anymore. The equipments getting better. There are regulations everywhere. But but, and this is something the NFL and all football, but let's talk. NFL today has to look itself in the mirror. Do we really need a seventeenth regular season game. I don't like it. It benefits me because it extends the season. But I said it when I came out. You can't tell me safety's number one and add a seventeenth game Thursday night football. I enjoy it, But do we need players playing fatigued? Anybody who's ever random marathon or been athletic or skied, the accidents always happened when your muscles are most fatigued. I don't understand preseason football. I've been railing on that. Many of you don't get it either. College football doesn't have it. It's just another one hundred and fifty collisions for the athletes. If safety really matters, then we don't need Thursday night football, then we don't need a preseason. The league has taken steps, lots of them, but UFC car racing, football, boxing, hell, even baseball. They throw a hundred mile an hour pitch seemingly. You watch a baseball game, everybody throws like ninety eight miles an hour. Used to be high eighties, low nineties. Now people are getting over one hundred miles an hour to small ball, sometimes thrown in the wrong places. Sports is scary at times. I did think the NFL got it right. And hear me out on this. Any time you have a crisis, communication is hard. It could be in the cockpit of a plane, it could be during a flood. It's hard. People are panicking, people are scared. This was unprecedented. I also think they got it right. Maybe not on my timeline. I would have called it sooner. Maybe they did call it sooner, and it took seven eight nine minutes to get down to everybody to hear it. I don't know. The European Soccer Championships a couple of years ago, Christian Ericson, a wonderful player, collapsed. Once he was stabilized at a hospital, the game continued on. That seems completely inappropriate to me. Years ago, when Vince McMahon ran the WWE, a wrestler died, they continued the show. That's gross. Troy Vincent did come out and say the NFL did not consider giving players five minutes. Now, some people I think were confused. I was because I saw Joe Burrow warm up with a couple of passes, but players weren't warming up. Players were crying. Players were shocked, and they should have been. It's unprecedented. Joe Buck, Troy Aikman had been doing this for years. They didn't know what to say. Nobody knew what to say. The other thing that I thought about this morning is, you know a lot of people are rightly giving credit to Sean McDermott or Zach Taylor because the coaches may have made the ultimate decision, and we all think to ourselves, why didn't the commissioner? But you know how it works. Sometimes the president calls, a governor, calls a mayor, calls the Peace Corps, calls the National Guard and communication who's on the ground, who's there. Sean McDermott's listening to his players, He's watching his players cry. It's okay to me to lean in as a sport, lean into the people on the scene. They know what's happening, they know what's going on. They're seeing their players, sob not somebody watching on a camera in New York City. The people in Cincinnati knew how serious it was. And Sean McDermott had his arm around those players. It's okay to lean on him. Sean, what's going on? Tell us? What do you think? I think? Out of respect for the family, last night's to tie, right, We don't want to play this thing. We have ties in football. We have ties in football, and they exist, and this will be a tie gets out of respect for the family and his health. We make exceptions all the time. In fact, I think Baseball decided recently they were just going to use more tie breakers because they couldn't find a spot to play extra games, you know, playing games. This is a tie out of respect of the family in the moment. You know, I say once or twice a year, I'll say this. You know, love your life like your sports. And the reason I've said that for years is to have perspective on it. And I think last night, Wow. Tip of the hat to all the people at the network I used to work at. I thought they were all terrific. Scott van Pelt, I don't know McFarland know Scott. I know, Joe, Joe and Troy Great, the people in the truck, they did unbelievable work. But um, let's pray and I'm gonna take a break. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app. All right, we have three hours today. We're gonna get through it. The best weekend. The story on DeMar Hamlin DeMar Hamlin collapsing on the field last night. Um, you know I've said this before is that I was a pretty squirrely, immature kid seventeen eighteen, nineteen twenty into college. You know, one of the things you're finding out about DeMar Hamlin is the charity, the Toy Drive he's been part of. You know, I've I've I don't go to as many games as I used to, but when I was local in Tampa or Portland, Oregon, or Las Vegas, there would often be toy drives. I think Rashid Wallace in Portland a coat drive. I'm always amazed at how much athletes give back. Obviously we pay or we watch and they're entertaining us. But last night is a stark reminder that we also have to protect them. They give a ton to our communities. All my years of doing this, I'm taken back how lucky these leagues are to have these young people who are so committed. I mean, a football season ends and if you take three weeks off, you're almost shamed. You have to get back in practice. They work so hard. A college player getting ready for the pros, he'll go to Florida and Phoenix the minute his season is over and train right into a professional ota. That's why many rookie players by week thirteen or fourteen are more prone to injury and exhaustion. They call it hitting a wall because they've literally gone a year straight, no time off, no vacation, no resting your body, trying to be a profession. So so much of what makes sports gripping is the good emotion. I've been watching some of these bowl games and it's I don't even know any of these players, and they're so emotional, and my heart goes out to a kid who misses a kick, So um, it's it's understood. Um, you know, I was sick to my stomach last night. I just was sick to my stomach I did not want to go on social media. I didn't have anything I could add. Disappointed by some of the stuff I saw, but in the end, this is a stark reminder that athletes are not just here for our entertainment. They have to be protected at whatever costs it take. Now, it's it's football. It's really fast and it's really strong. But this is why they put in those roughing the passer penalties, and this is why they put in all these regulations. This is exactly why this is the greatest fear for anybody who loves sports. We've all thought about this. I saw something at a college game yesterday where a football player for TU Lane was knocked out, and I mean, I just felt sick. So we're all crossing our fingers. We're hoping for very good news. We are going to cover some sports today, but we'll keep coming back to this. It's going to be a somber show and should be a little somber today. I will say this, there is a story, a college story that's becoming a pro story that Jim Harbaugh will accept the job for the Denver Broncos if he is offered the job. Now, I had said yesterday, I think Michigan's a wonderful, wonderful place. He's done a great job. I wouldn't leave, but I was told by later yesterday afternoon they're going to offer him twenty million dollars, So that kind of changes things. Number One is in college football, when you're paid a lot as a coach, you often feel guilty because the players aren't being compensated, most of them. In pro sports, you don't. You just have to win very very quickly or the billionaire owner will fire you. So if you take twenty million dollars a year from Denver, you're gonna have to win by year two, and you better show big improvement by year one or they'll just see it as a rounding error and fire you. But there's a reason the twenty million dollar price tag changes everything. Number One, it's a very very rare commitment. Average NFL coach makes seven eight nine million dollars. That's a lot of money. Twenty millions a whole different ball game. And the other thing to remember is Jim Harbaugh did get a salary reduction that's incredibly rare for a high profile coach by the Missigan administration, and he was bothered by it. I've also been told that Sean Payton is a team that the owners are looking at. So Sean Payton's the number one option for any team. Harbo's number two. Harball had a very good record as a pro coach. I think he won like forty four games and lost eighteen or nineteen. He was a terrific coach, and he took over a mess in the Bay Area and turned it around immediately. But Sean Payton's the top coach. He's got a Super Bowl, and he's an offensive genius. If I was Sean Payton's agent, I would tell him let somebody else clean up the Denver situation. That will be the new starting point for elite coaches. You know, you may have to wait a couple of years, but if Denver's owners are gonna pay twenty million dollars, the salaries are gonna take a giant leap, and you can benefit off that in a couple of years. But what I've seen over the course of my life, I've seen this for broadcasters. I've seen this for players in all sports. I've seen it for executives. I'm not an executive, obviously. If you ever take a job just for money, it almost never pans out. It just doesn't. You've got There's a sea of money out there for talented people. Join good communities, join good teammates. If money is the driving focus on any job, it almost always comes with unrealistic, unrealistic expectations. But back to the beginning of this story, I very very good reporters. Bruce Feldman works at Fox. I'm sorry I don't have the other people. Bruce Feldman is one of the two or three people that is reporting this morning that Harball would accept the Denver Bronco job if it is offered. I am told the salary is twenty million for Harball, it would be greater for Sean Payton mid twenties. That's what I know. J Mac within the news, No, no, this is the Herdline News. Start with the Philadelphia Eagles, who can clinch the number one seed with a victory this weekend. Jalen Hurts, limited in practice last week Friday, did not end up playing against the States. There are reports that indicate he will be healthy enough to go. Too early in the week to tell for sure, but he should start against the Giants. The market is telling you that the lines up to fourteen Giants probably gonna sit some guys. He goes need the number one seed. Colin, would you force Hurts back this earlier? I you know, I think this goes back to the Let's ask the people that are around him. Let's ask Jalen, Let's ask the trainer. You know, professional athletes always want to play. This is the Miami situation which we talked about last week. That's more nuanced than people think. Tool wants to be out there. His career hangs in the balance, So Tool wants to play. The Dolphins are like, no, we're not letting you play. So I think you go to the player second. You go to the doctors first. So, I you know, especially after last night, we're all reluctant to say play in. But this is why teams have team doctors. You go to the player's second, You go to the doctors first. What do they say? The New England Patriots rough season all around, but they're still in the mix for a playoff spot and owner Robert Kraft not happy where they stand right now. A friend of the show, Albert Brier, of course, he comes on here regularly. He reports that Kraft is not pleased with the team's offensive coaching set up with Patricia, Joe, Judge and Belichick all kind of juggling roles. Here's what Brier had to say. My understanding as Kraft has made comments around the building that basically indicate he's not happy with where the offensive coaching staff is right now, I think that they could lead to shuffling at more than just the play caller spot. We could be talking about a new coordinator coming in with multiple position Canoe coaches. I think there are several guys on the staff who are not going to be renewed after the year. Now. Listen, mac Jones and the offense did not look sharp against the Dolphins defense that I think was down six starters, our secondary with backups yea, and they could I mean New England really needed to pick six to get back in that game. Yeah. I mean New England's winning with defense and special teams. That's how they're winning games. And they got lucky to beat Skyler Thompson, the third string quarterback. Yeah. And I also think what happens is it's, first of all, you have a sport where you're often missing top players, So not all losses are equal, not all crises are equal. But this was a predictable snaffoo. Like we all knew, you can't put a defensive coordinator as offensive coordinator. So when somebody does that and it backfires, you really put yourself in the crosshair of criticism. I had said before the season that I thought this would be Belichick's last year, that Kraft would have a sit down with him. I just I feel like it's just Bill wants to coach a certain way and with certain coaches and players, and that's not the winning way. You got it. Sometimes you have to coach players you're you're not in love with. You have to have coaches on your staff. You may have disagreements with um let's this is not this is not perfect, and Bill's tolerance for that, I think is somewhat limited. He has voiced that to people that he wants to coach only certain guys in certain ways. So I and also, when stuff leaks to the press, it's because somebody wants it to leak to the press. So this is Craft firing stuff out there. He wants Belichick to read it. You know, someone floated to me a scenario where, hey, remember Bill Belichick did not want to trade Jimmy Garoppolo Bill Belichick drafted Jimmy Garoppo. He was upset he get off Mac Jones, bring Garoppolo back in free agency because you're not winning a Super Bowl with Mac Jones or Bailey's appy. Yeah you can get you get to a super Bowl? Would Jimmy Garoppolo. That happened in San Francisco. You know, I think, um, that was the first time that the owner had stepped in over the coach and said we're gonna do something. Because this was Tom Brady wanted Garoppolo. Brady and Giselle were unhappy, went to Craft about it, right, So, I mean, it's it's I've I've never thought. I always thought Kraft and Brady. I've read the excellent books by Seth Wickersham, Ian O'Connor, Jeff Benedict have all written just fantastic books on this dynasty. All of them leave me feeling the same way. Kraft tolerates Belichick, respects Belichick, but doesn't love Belichick. It was always a Craft Brady relationship. He saw Tom, you know, almost like like a son, right, Like the age gap was so extreme. But I always thought Kraft and Belichick just tolerated each other at this point, the Garoppolo thing really heightened it. Final story last night in the NBA Donovan Mitchell crazy boy. I know not a lot of people were watching this with the other news happening in the NFL, but Donovan Mitchell scored seventy one points in an overtime victory. They rallied. The Calves did rallied from down twenty one to beat the Bulls. It was the most point scored seventy one the game since Kobe had eighty one two thousand and six. Donovan Mitchell and the Calves. I mean again, nobody's really paying attention to the NBA right now because the NFL is close to the playoffs, College Football World Cup just wrapped. But the Calves are incredible right now. And here's what Donovan Mitchell said about his career night last night. I think, you know, for me, not only did I do that, but I did it in the effort where we came back and one and it's how we won. That's really what for me. You know, I was like, man, like, this is you know, nuts, to be honest. So I'm I'm extremely blessed, you know, humbled that we I'm in that company, in that in that group. You know, I've always believed I can be, you know, one of the best players in the league. But I gotta keep working and this is just this is a big milestone. But at the end of the day, we got to continue to Those guys have all won, you know, at the highest level, and that's my ultimate goal. But to be there in the record books with them is It's truely incredible. Seventy one point in an NBA game fifty minutes is incredible. And they needed him too. Was a tough overtime game. He was efficient. This wasn't a guy jacking fifty shots twenty two or thirty four from the field, seven or fifteen from three. You got to the line, I believe twenty five times, eleven assists, a rebounds. Again, we'll do a lot of NBA February March April. This Cavs team is a legit threat to the Bucks, the Celtics, and I don't we're not going to talk about them today, but the Brooklyn Nets are kind of rolling right now. Yeah, but the Caves are legit in these good stuff. J Mack with the News. Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping by. The herd Line The primary story today is Damar Hamlin, who was injured last night collapsed. He is in critical condition in a Cincinnati hospital. I didn't race to social media. I didn't think I had a ton to add, like all of you, I was just sick to my stomach watching it again. I think the people that had to broadcast it live were tremendous. I also think it is okay for Sean McDermot and Zach Taylor. Specifically Sean McDermott, who's been in this league a while now as an assistant coordinator and a head coach. I think the league probably did lean on him a little bit of feed on the ground with his players. I go back to thinking how terrifying it would have been. There was a cardiac arrest, so you had somebody on top of that player, and and and for the record, I've only seen that happen once in my life in anything. Cardiac arrest happening live and first responders on the scene trying to revive them. It is a terrifying site. I saw it actually a year ago skiing and there was a big collision. Helicopter swooped in and I watched um first responders perform it was well. It was a day for me. I was done. It was a terrifying site. So the players saw that. So when you see Josh Allen crying and these players, there's just no way you can play that game. There's just absolutely no way. The NFL eventually got it right. But it's hard. It's hard that kind of stuff in crisis. I've been very fortunate in my life. I haven't been in crisis a lot. But what those players are seeing and what they're hearing, you can see these pictures minis stuff is. It's tough, and it happens infrequently. That's why we make the game as safe as we possibly can. Athletes are getting bigger and stronger. We'll take a break in La It's the Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter n a Empacific. Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking one in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin off of it. Ben Maller Share could hit overnights on fs are. Why should you listen? Make sure if you will a world will we chat with captains of industry in media, sports and more every week explored some amazing facts about a human nature and more. Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Mather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back for the record. Just for accuracy's sake, there has been a player back in the early seventies that did die at the end of a game. It was between the Lions and the Chicago Bears, and it was a Detroit Lions player who collapsed at the end of a game and then died going to the hospital thirty forty minutes later. So the game is much safer now, but players are also bigger, stronger, faster, and the collisions more violent now. So I watched when I was young. I don't remember when, but Darryl Stingley was a wide receiver who was paralyzed in a game. I can remember that the scene was very similar to last night, players weeping, and I don't even know if I watched it live or I saw a video of it, but it was very dramatic. So Damar Hamlin remains in critical condition in a hospital. Football is they could make it safer, they could reduce the number of games. It is football. You know, I never really understood footballs are very unique sport. There are guys that have played at the NFL and have been great players who didn't play high school football and didn't play college football. Antonio Gates for the Chargers Hall of Fame tight end will be he was a college basketball player. So unlike let's say golf or pitching in baseball, where you really need experience and reps a lot of the things in football. A lot of football coaches that recruit like their athletes to play multiple sports because they believe they can get better at things like handey coordination not playing football. So the idea that you have to hit at twelve thirteen years old is nonsense. That's just not the case. In fact, one of the moments that really changed how I sort of looked at the preseason. I always love when you get what they call disruptors, when somebody comes in and says I'm not going to do it that way, I'm gonna do it my way. And years ago Sean McVeigh was this young thirty year old coach came into the NFL and said I'm not going to play any of my starters in the preseason. Why would I do that? Why why would I have an older player in collisions? And people really push back. You have to do this. It's very important. The Rams started the season eight and oh. There's no reason to have preseason You could have inner squad games for some intense urgency. There's no reason to have preseason games. They're a rip off to fans. College kids don't do it. And college kids are eighteen nineteen years old. They have class, they can old practice at college seventeen hours a week according to the nc double A, and I watched the early games in September. Kids are ready to play. So why do thirty year olds need three more games of hitting? I do not believe that's good. I don't want to sit on a soapbox this morning. I don't like a seventeenth game. I've defended Thursday night football. You could certainly get rid of that. But I think fewer games, less hitting does not take away from the beauty and skill of the sport. That is my takeaway. I'm not here to be a hall monitor of all sports. Very capable people make decisions. Football morning in America. It's NBC Sports. It's Peter King. His perspective will be noteworthy this morning. I was saying this earlier, Peter, I do remember the Darrell stingy moment. I don't know if I was watching it live or tape. I don't remember. Here's where I wasn't bothered, Peter. Whenever we have a crisis, and I said this earlier, president calls a governor, a governor calls a mayor, a mayor calls the National Guard. You go to the people with their feet on the ground. I was okay with the league leaning on Sean McDermott, who's saying, hey guys, my guys can't play. I was okay with that. Now a lot of people aren't, and they think it should have been immediately canceled. But to me, in crisis, you always lean on the guy that's in the cockpit. You lean on people on the ground. Did it bother you that it seemed to take a while to cancel the game, Peter, No, not really. Colin, I didn't think there was any way they could play after the ambulance had left, and we heard that, we heard the emergency life saving techniques that were that were used. So I mean we we figured that the game probably was not going to continue. But look, you know, it's it's it's to me, it's a little bit crazy in real time to be suggesting call the game with an exclamation point. You know, take your time, make a reasonable decision, make a reasoned decision, and then let's all move on. That's what I think happened. And look, I don't know what happened. I don't know if Zach Taylor said our guys can't play and McDermott said our guys can't play, we don't know that. So I think it's best in times like this to essentially say, you know, let's let all precincts report yeah first, before we go making you know, basically decisions before we have all the information. Peter, let me throw this, I said, out of respect for the Hamlin family, I said, sports have ties. It's just a tie game. There's no space on the schedule. Let's not jam it in. Go to another series of tiebreakers if you have to. That's what baseball does. They Baseball came to a conclusion that they didn't have space in their schedule for some of these late season games to figure out who's in. They just go to tiebreakers. What about just saying, out of respect for the family, we're gonna make an exception it's a tie, which it certainly could have been, and just go with a seating from that point. Does that make sense to you? Well, I think what makes more sense to me is just to have it. To have the Bengals and Bills play sixteen games this year, and look, I have no idea what they're going to do. It really isn't the time today to be thinking about this, but it will be the time soon to think about this. And to me, Colin, I'm going to take you back a couple of years. I remember this is almost three years now, because soon after COVID hit, I remember writing and reporting a lot on what the NFL was thinking about the twenty twenty schedule. You know, they were considering all sorts of alternatives playing a twelve game schedule, not starting the schedule on time in September, maybe starting in October. They were thinking of everything, and at the time I remember specifically one leading voice in the NFL telling me, look, this is going to be one of those years. We're going to get through the year. This is going to be one of those years. Where people really shouldn't care if one team plays ten games and another team plays fourteen, because we are in just an extraordinary time in the history of this country. Well, I don't see the problem with the Bills and Bengals playing sixteen games instead of seventeen. And you know, wherever the games are played, whoever has home field. Let's not take this as so outrage if tom, if some team goes down a slot in the seedings, who cares. You know, the Bengals and Bills are both going to the playoffs where they play their games. I don't care, and they shouldn't either. Yeah. By the way, Cincinnati got to the Super Bowl playing road games last year. Buffalo has gone to Kansas City and one I think with the new technology and the helmets with coaches talking to players, it has eliminated some of the home field advantage. I'm with you. Good teams win they went on the road. You know, it's interesting when you're a baseball fan. When Steve Cohen bought the Mets, there was concerned by other owners that he would literally just spend whatever it takes, and other owners said that's not what we want here. Well he's done it. Now the Mets payrolls bigger than the bottom five or six teams in baseball, and it looks bad for the sport. So when the Walmart owners come into Denver, I think similarly, they don't you know, they don't want to bring in a disruptor. But the salary i'm hearing for hardball is twenty million. I'm hearing it could be more considerably for Sean Payton, and having covered the owners for years, that changes everything. I mean, the average salaries probably six seven. I wonder if inside the league that wouldn't play well. Just the twenty million, to me was startling when I heard that number. What was what's your take? I mean, all power to anybody if they can make whatever they want to make or whatever they can make, so good for them. But I guess my point would be I'd be a lot more concerned with instead of, you know, dangling twenty million dollars out there for Harbor, for Peyton. My first question would be, Okay, well we'll get to the money, all right, But I want to have a conversation and what would be your plan to fix Russell Wilson? Yeah, because honestly, Colin, nothing else matters, you know, George Young, the old Giants general manager, the late great George Young. I used to cover the Giants, and one of the reasons that he hated the idea of free agency coming into the league. This is before free agency was there. He used to tell me, he says players don't play better for more money. And you know, he's probably right. And I can tell you I doubt Jim Harbaugh is going to be a better coach whether you pay him ten million or twenty million. So I want to know, how are you going to fix this quarterback? And if you can fix the quarterback, then let's talk. And we have a lot of money to spend. But Colin one other thing, He's not the only guy who would be willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a head coach. If you look at three years ago what David Tepper did or Matt Rule, people in the NFL thought that was insane. The Giants said, I would never do that. You know, John Mara, I would never pay you know, seven or eight million dollars for a coach who has been in the NFL for one year and has just been in college football. So again, look, I think David Tepper he could get into a contest and spend a lot of money as well, But what does that really mean? You know, it's obviously we're doing a more somber show today, and we should. The one thing I'd said is, you know, I defended the NFL that canceled the game. There was a European Championship in soccer where a player collapsed was later stabilized, but thirty forty minutes later they continued the game. That feels inappropriate. Troy Vincent saying, we told nobody to warm up. People saw Joe Burrow throwing a ball in the sideline. They thought everybody was warming up. They really weren't. But the one thing I've I pushed back on when it happened is if you're gonna tell me safety matters, then don't take a boatload of money from Amazon and have a Thursday game, or don't at a seventeenth game and don't keep playing preseason games. Do you believe in light of this that the NFL those discussions do take place. I mean, I'll just lay that out there. Do you think somebody today is saying, you know, we've gotta look in the mirror a little bit here? I wish they would, but I doubt it, Colin, because I think what a lot of people around the NFL are going to say, is this kind of tackle happens two hundred times a week in the NFL. A guy's heart stopped. It's a freak thing. And again, whether it is or whether it isn't, we'll find out. There's going to be a lot of investigative bodies who were going to look into this. The NFL will, the nfl PA will, But what what happens, Colin, if this is simply a freak accident. Yeah. You know, Mike Ryan, the NBC injury analyst, he's a former athletic trainer, told me this morning that he said, listen, you gotta remember, you know, let's not draw any conclusions. And he said, there's a high school athlete here in Florida where he lives, who got hit with a lacrosse ball, heart stopped, it was resuscitated, and went on to play later in the year. And the only reason as heart stopped he got hit with the lacrosse ball in his chest. Yeah, and maybe the only reason that Damar Hamlin's heart stopped is that he was hit in the exact right location. By a two hundred and twenty pound wide receiver. I just think some things are kind of flukey. I've railed against seventeen games schedule forever. It's a dumb thing for a league that cares or says it cares about the health and safety of its players. But the other thing is the nfl PA signed off on it. So I'm not saying that it's all their fault. It's not all anyone's fault, but the NFLPA signed off on it, and so it's going to have to be something that both sides will agree to look at. I wish they would, I doubt they will. A year ago, somebody was a former player I think for the Patriot sent me something. It was some prospectus for a business about safer helmets, and it was kind of fascinating that had a different look where there was like ribbing on the outside of the helmet. It was a safer helmet. And I think there's only so much you can do with UFC or car racing. You can put cages in. These cars are going one hundred and ninety miles an hour around turns. There's only so much you can do. And I think with football similarly, there's just limitations on what you can do. But I do think do you believe today go back ten years? Obviously the games safer than thirty years ago, but ten years do you feel like the game is safer today, that things have been implemented in your coverage? I think the game is safer, But I do think there's one really important thing that the league plus the helmet manufacturers are working on which I think talking to people in the industry would be a gigantic help, and that is position specific helmets. In other words, for a quarterback, where you make the padding a little heavier, where you build out the model a little bit more is in the back of the head, so that you see when tuatangavaloa twice this year has gotten hurt. Theoretically, if when the head springs back to hit the ground, if you have more protection, it's going to cause less brain trauma. And so that is something that I think the NFL needs to fast track and get in the league as soon as possible. It's really smart. Actually, Peter King is joining us NBC Sports dot Com. You've been covering this league for so long, have you ever seen anything resembling last night? Darryl Stingley, you were probably you started back in eighty four. I don't remember even when what year it was was Stingley. Have you ever seen a yew that was pre stingly was pre me? Okay, yeah, Stingley was pre pre eighty four, But I really have not seen anything like that. And what made it so different, Colin, is sort of the frenetic pace for a few of the medical professionals there that you just sense when the camera was on him for a short period of time, Hey, let's go. This is real. This is not precautionary. This is the real drill. And also the tiers on the players. Players are used to seeing guys tar acls or whatever on the field. They're used to in practice. If a guy gets hurt, the coach moves the drill twenty yards away and they just keep going. They're used to that. They're not used to some whose heart stops on the field and whose life is in danger, they're not used to that. Nobody is. We've never seen it before, all right, Peter King, NBC Sports dot Com, thank you for joining us. Covered the NFL since the early eighties. Thank you, Peter. Okay, Colin, there are some Sports Bits today. Nick Wright joining us next hour. You know, I saw this story this morning. Tom Brady said it would bother him to sit out a meaningless Week eighteen finale. So Tom Brady wants to play. That's why I said earlier with Jalen Hurts, you don't ask the player if they're healthy. You go to the doctor first, then you go to a player, then you go to coaches. Tom Brady forty five years seven rings would be bothered not playing a meaningless game. You have to talk players sometimes out of hurting themselves or putting themselves in an harm's way. So also, David Carr is defending his brother Derek. Raiders are going to trade him. It's done, it's official, They're going to move Offen. His brother is saying it. He does not like the lack of loyalty by the Raiders for his brother, because Derek car often said it's all he ever wanted to be was a Raider. But when your bosses tell you they don't like you, it's amazing how competitive and invigorated a pro athlete can be. Derek Carr to the Jets feels so right, not great enough to overcome chaos. But that's a good roster, a very good defensive coach, a smart GM, suboptimal owners, but Jets Derek Carr feels like to me, it's a really good fit. Nick right around the corner. Hour two, Live in La. It's the herd.