Colin Cowherd Podcast - Burrow Injury Scare, Payton Trash Talk, Rodgers $$$ Haircut with Middlekauff

In fact, I think it's the most beautiful part of North America I've ever ventured into, from the waterfalls, kayaking, the landscape, good meals, early cocktails. So it's great to be back. The Herd Podcast, brought to you by Netflix. Let's start with the story of the day Joe Burrow pulled up rolling out right non contact injury at Cincinnati Bengals camp today and the result is talk about a thank God, a calf injury, a calf strain. So Joe Burrow and I now have one thing in common in

our life. Two I was a quarterback awful he's a great one, and we both had a calf strain briefly painful, more annoying. The biggest concern with calf strains is often you think it's solved, you think it's healed, you rush back. But I think it happens. I don't know if dehydration is a part of it, but in the Midwest and during training camps, it is unbelievably hot, and we know what's going on with climate change in America. This is the hottest summer on record in the history of our country.

The good news is a calf strain keeps you mostly out of camp, doesn't keep you out of games. It would have not only changed the Bengals, but the division, the conference in the National Football League. Burrow, who we had on this podcast network last year as a guest for about fifteen sixteen podcast interviews. Coming out of college, I thought he was going to be a better version of Tony Romo. Good arm, not great, good mobility, not a blazer, a gamer, throw a few picks, but willing

to throw it into tight windows. He is a better version of Tony Romo, much better. But Romo was always underappreciated because he's a cowboy quarterback. We tend to beat up on cowboy quarterbacks more than any other franchise what Burrows really become and he's done it without camps. Remember the pandemic was his first camp. Then he had an injury, then there was appendectomy surgery, so he missed last year's camp.

Now he's going to miss this year's camp. So he's never really had a full camp in four years in the NFL. Nonetheless, I think what he's become is, along with Patrick Mahomes, the best situational quarterback in the league is that. I think Josh Allen's bigger, stronger, with a better arm, and more mobile, a better athlete, but in situational football, Josh can uncork some wild throws. I don't trust Josh Allen as much in those key moments in a football game. And I think that's really what has

separated Mahomes from everybody else. It's not just the talent, it's the ability in big spot trailing late, everybody knows you're throwing to throw pinpoint balls into tight spaces, be it Travis Kelcey for Mahomes or Jamar Chase t Higgins or Boyd for the Bengals. So Joe Burrow is going to be fine. I was talking about this to day

at FS one, We're really lucky right now. There's obviously enormous wealth and attention and fame heaped on young athletes and all sports, but we don't have a single quarterback right now. I'm talking the big namers, the stars, the franchise guys, Lamar, Jalen, Mahomes, Burrow, Herbert, Trevor Lawrence. We don't have a pain in the ass. We got very nice guys leaders often dads as coaches or a strong guidance in their family. We got quality guy. He's running

these franchises that are mature beyond their years. I mean, it's pretty legendary that Justin Herbert is constantly seeking ways to avoid the media as he gets into Chargers practice, Burrows the same way we had him on fifteen podcasts. He wasn't scripted, but you could tell he was the son of a coach, never got in the way of himself, never took any bait if he thought it was a question that would get him in trouble. So it's a sigh of relief. He is one of the absolute faces

of the league. Joe Cool and it's a CAF strain which are painful briefly, and then you tend to think you're through him before you are, so sometimes you rush back, but he'll be fine. The other quarterback story of note while I was gone was Aaron Rodgers taking a thirty five million dollar haircut for the New York Jets over the next two years. You know, I've always questioned, not necessarily Aaron Rodgers' commitment, because nobody gives back thirty five million.

Owners don't, that's for sure. But the questions I always had about Aaron Rodgers were not about his talent, his intellect, or his commitment. The truth was Green Bay doesn't have an owner. There's nobody to really stand in front of you and call you out. You're the most powerful person only in the town, the organization, the state in Milwaukee.

I call it the Green Bay quarterback syndrome. They both became the same guy, kind of threatening retirement, frustrated with a franchise, not getting free agents, not having an owner that can go out, take a big swing and get you a guy like Stan Cronkey can do for the Rams, or David Tepper could do for the Carolina Panthers. That's the downside not having an owner. Sometimes you got a call a guy. He's on the tarmac and his private jet, his golfstream and he goes and gets Matt Stafford. That's

how it happened with the Rams. So I think for both Brett Farv and Aaron Rodgers, they got tired of Green Bay. It's not that they were too big for the room. But it's a unique environment being a superstar quarterback on a franchise in the smallest town in American sports, with no owner, that can't acquire free agents on a regular basis. So I think New York's a better fit form actually right now. And he looks at himself, he looks at his weaknesses and says, I got to be

more engaged with young guys. I got to stop talking about retirement. And I can't be paralyzed if I'm not the highest paid quarterback or second highest paid quarterback in the league. The data is clear. If you're a top two or three paid quarterback, Mahomes now is about seventh that puts you in line to win a Super Bowl

about seventh. If you're a top two paid quarterback in this league, you will have to sacrifice somewhere a good tight end, a second elite corner another good interior defensive lineman. Your franchise will have to make sacrifices somewhere.

objectively one of the worst coaching jobs. I would say we've seen two of them the last couple of years, right, Urban Meyer and Nathaniel Hackett. They literally did not finish one season. We've seen a lot of one and done coaches. They were fired before the season ended in year one. I mean, it was all time disaster. Now Urban little more unique, had a long resume of success while at college.

Hackett clearly, I think, and now you see in New York was hired for one specific player and then that player decided to sign with Green Bay, and then they went with their second option. They were able to get it to go. But remember when they hired the guy to help them with the clock, like twenty four hours into his tenure.

I'm just I'm not going to do year two. So the other thing that's happened is the league is now so defined by the quality of your quarterback. Is that if Brian Flores has a relationship issue with Tua, you're out. People can't you can't have it. So I mean, if Belichick did not have his legacy, that Matt Patricia move would get him fired. So we're seeing we're seeing wealthier owners. Also, that wealth creates a belief that I'm worth this much money.

You need to win immediately. That's why when Dion Sanders flushes out Colors program, he's not stupid. Dion realizes if he doesn't win by year or two, he's gone. You got to get guys out now. And it's not the most graceful way to do it, but kind of there's the door, see your way out. And I think in the NFL, like when Sean Payton calls out that team, what he's doing is he is sending a message to the locker room it wasn't Russell's fault. He's still our guy.

And the second thing is he's letting everybody in the building know because remember what he did when he first got there, John, he changed lunch, he changed you know, team lunch got changed. He wouldn't let certain people into certain areas that Nathaniel Hackett did so, and I'm sure some of them grumbled. And so now he's reinforcing his theory or his system on this. You can't hang out with the players, you can't have your kids around the building,

no interns in meeting rooms. So he's reinforcing it over and over. That was a disaster. We're doing the opposite of that. So I think sometimes, you know, he's a I've had dinner with him before, I've had coffies with him. Sean is very comfortable with the truth and confrontation, and not everybody is. So I think it's just his way of verbally cleaning out the room, starting over, nuking the old culture.

has an unlimited amount of money. And if you do, if he does not win quickly, like within the first three years, if he's not making the playoffs, they will just move on, you know. So it's like, and what's he going to do? Get a third job? You know, this could be it. This is an awesome opportunity. He knows it. They got some talent. It's to me, it's a little bit of a throwback to the guy that taught him is Parcel. This is a Parceales type move.

We just don't see it that often anymore, right, And part of it is the best coach in the league. And I'd even say the younger guys McVay, Kyle, they wouldn't do this, but Sean is not cut from that cloth. So I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish we had more of it, Colin.

a sensibility, a culture. Sean was just too smart, too current, too competitive to sit in the sidelines for years. Remember Parceles did broadcasting for a brief stint, then he went off to coaching again. Some people like Bill Kauer, they almost pivot to a different lifestyle. Like Sean. Shawn's got one speed. It's zero to sixty. I don't care if he's golfing, dinner, having a bottle of wine. He's competing

the story talent. He's into it. So I and I. You know, Denver is one of those I've said before, it's the Steelers with mountains. It's like Pittsburgh. For most of my life, Denver's been well owned, well run, unbelievable loyal fan base, great local marketing. It's really been a very stable organization since like the seventies. I remember the Orange Crush defense in Craig Morton, but you know, they went through a post Lway kind of a whole. But I always feel like Denver for pro athletes is a

really good free agent market. Peyton Manning moved there. I mean he grew up in the South, Peyton Manning moved his family in his business operations the Denver a suburb. I think you can get a roll in there pretty quick. I just have a hard time believing Geno Smith is now better than Russell Wilson. I'm just not gonna believe that. I think Russell bounces back and Geno Smith probably a little bit pulls back and we get a truer picture of what that trade's about.

awesome stretch. Most guys have the one off season and then kind of you know, resort back to what they maybe a better version of what they were, no longer a backup. But is he gonna throw thirty touchdowns every season for the next three seasons and we're going to look up he threw one hundred touchdowns over however, you know, fifty games, probably not right. And that's another team. A lot of teams, you know, Denver needed a shake up, They needed a Bill Parcell come in and just rattle

some cages. Then there are the teams like the Giants in Seattle, which got to Lions a little bit last year, got to really sneak up on people. The Chiefs have. Everyone's been coming at them for five years and they hit right back, no problem. Belichick inviety for twenty years. It'll be interesting how some of these teams, especially in the NFC, which we all kind of agree is not great.

Is Seattle's just a lock to win ten games? Drafted pretty good, but like the quarterback, he's just gonna sustain the Giants a lot of pressure. Now a lot of guys getting paid. Is our team really that talented? Do they benefit from winning some of those close games? Coaches good, but it's a lot more difficult to just win on a yearly basis when you do not have Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes. I mean, you got to be

good in a lot of different phases. What makes the Niners they've been pretty lucky because they haven't had to pay a big time court. They're elite at all these positions, so they can kind of overcome it, right, But it's if you do not have a star quarterback, you usually don't just rattle off double digit wins every single season.

a modern coach. He's very much a defensive coach like Tomlin, Pete Carroll, Robert Sala emotional like they're they're they emote and they're not afraid to tell you what they think. I think sometimes offensive coaches can be a tad more calculated, you know what I mean, in the off season, In the season a little more calculated game playing. You know, offense is a lot about hiding what you're doing. Defense is manhood, alpha, blowing stuff up, getting in your face.

Here we come, this is what we this is what we do. Solid firing back at Peyton because they play each other in like week five, Did that surprise you? No?

a lot of tangible pressure. One thing with the Jets, they got a lot going on, right, You have cameras there, you got people talking about them. They're in you could argue, on paper the best division in football. You have a coach in GM at this season, let's say they went seven games, like, are they gonna? Would they get fired? It's pretty hot in there, given what they just invested in Aaron Rodgers, though I do think the Aaron Rodgers it was almost like Aaron kind of forced his way there.

Then he did like a three month onboarding process where he interviewed them, right, he was kind of feeling them out, seeing it, and then he came away impressed to do that contract renegotiation. So to me, that's a pretty big win for the organization. It makes them look like he views them as competent. Now, ultimately, you've got to get it done come Sunday. But I understand why Robert Sla went to that, but he also said that we didn't hire Nate Hackett because of Aaron Rodgers.

I was bad at. You know, was I too reckless here? Was I a good teammate there? And I thought, you know, every stop, I've tried to get better at something I was not very good at. And you know, if this is my last stop, this is what I am. But I do think when you move, you kind of look in the rear view mirror and you go, all right, let's get better at stuff. Some out of your control, some very much in your control. So I do think that it feels like Rogers, he's not talking about retirement.

It's more about commitment, much more connected to young players in camp. And the truth is, like I always felt like in Green Bay, like how much he made mattered, Like it felt like it was a thing. Now and you know New York, he's going to get taxed to a much higher level. So it's not just a thirty one million dollar tax or a thirty one million dollar pay cut. He's losing a lot of money. Smart move, unique move. What did you make of it?

aren't going well, self created. That wasn't all Green Bay's fault, but it was just time for a divorce. And then he comes here. He has a lot on the line. You know, legacy why sometimes is stupid, but he wants to be considered because really, his contemporaries right in the last fifteen twenty years are Brady and Manning. He's never gonna kept Tom. But like he goes to a new place.

Peyton went to Denver, resurrected him and got him to multiple Super Bowls in one to one and we view Peyton even in a higher regard than we already did, and we held him pretty high. Can you imagine if he just goes Joe Montana and makes like the Chiefs immediately good like he goes to the Jets and they're just AFC Championship Game, super Bowl. Even if he doesn't win a super Bowl, it'd be a big, big moment for him because he would get more credit than Sala

or Joe Douglas or the Johnson family. He has a lot on the line here. And I back to what I said about his onboarding process. I think he's seen they have a lot of talent. He likes the vibe, I think New York Whatever's fitness personality in this thirty nine year old version of Rogers, and he knows like a short, short lived time like more often than the not, he's or he's not going to play the forty five. So really it's probably the next forty eight year, you know,

two years maybe three, but retired the retirement conversation. He's all in on these couple of years and just knows that for him personally, you can look at it being a little selfish even though he's doing the right thing. He could really really change the perception of the way we discuss him.

Marino Breeze. It's a crowded space. Mahomes is now absolutely in it.

he was difficult. Like I look at how and I think about this all the time in my career. It's hard to end. Like Johnny Carson last week on the air, You're great, last great show. Bye, I'm going to play tennis. That is so rare. It's like it's choppy for everybody. It was choppy for Michael Jordan, it's choppy for Tiger Now. I do think Aaron three years in New York, a couple of AFC Championship appearances, win or lose, I think we look at him different. I think it keeps him

in the top ten all time. Yeah.

if you have success in the playoffs. Travis Kelsey talked about this a couple of weeks ago, saying he was underpaid. His marketability the rest of his life has changed because we view him as a winner, as a great player. Look at Draymond right, could have got more money, knows where his bread's buttered, and he, for the rest of his life will be viewed as one of the great winners. And that's how we talk about these sports. James Harden is going to have all this money, but once his

career is over, no one's going to care. Not a soul, right, So he Darryl Morriy. So Aaron does this. He did everything he could possibly do in Green Bay, and it was clearly going down the wrong road. I think it would be disproportionate how much credit he'll get if let's just say this year they are in the AFC Championship game relative to the coordinator, relative to the head coach, relative to anyone in that organization. Besides maybe like a Garrett Wilson, if he becomes a star, Aaron will get

of the pipe chart. I would say like eighty five percent, especially now with the pay cut. And I also think pay cuts I heard you talking on your show earlier today. I don't care how rich a guy is. It's rare to just most humans do not give money back. But you're talking a level like Aaron's worth hundreds of millions of dollars just on the field, let alone what he's made off the field. It's not ultimately as crazy to his lifestyle. But I do think it sets the tone

in the organization. It really is a Tom Brady like MoU It's something Tom would have done. Tom did it right, and I think it kind of sets the tone for the organization. It makes it Robert solids job easier, especially if they can coach him hard. If he's being more relatable to younger players, like you said, which has been something that's been a bugaboo in Green Bay. He just wouldn't work with him. It was nowhere to be found.

He was around in the off season. He can say it's overrated all he wants, but it clearly matters.

is the place they have all your tickets. Download the game Time app and the redeem code colin that's me cooln for twenty dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply and with it you get twenty bucks off twenty bucks no matter where you live, wherever, go out and have some fun this week. Download game Time today. It's so easy. Last minute tickets concert Major League Baseball, lowest prices guaranteed. So I wanted to talk briefly because you and I

grew up with a lot of Pac twelve football. Colorado announced they'll be leaving in twoenty twenty four, back to the Big twelve. USC and UCLA are leaving the conference. The PAC twelve is eroding quickly. The Big twelve currently has a better TV deal than the Big PAC twelve does, and that's a big part of it. You get guaranteed payouts. I thought the misstep by the PAC twelve still searching

for a partner. I thought the real misstep. If I would have been the PAC twelve commissioner a year ago, I would have gone to Apple and said, listen, we know if we put them on as streaming service, we're not going to have the size of audience. But we have so many of our graduates at our school Stanford, Washington, cal USC UCLA, so many Apple employees probably went to PACK twelve schools. We feel like you represent our values and our vision. I would have gone to Apple and said,

you know, we'll sign a contract with you. We can still have games Notre Dame, USC, Washington, Michigan, Oregon, Oklahoma. We can still play games out of conference for schools to make money aligning with other big name schools. But I would have gone because I think Apples a progressive company. I think the PAC twelve's always been sort of a leader in offenses. Chip Kelly's sort of changed the way offenses maneuvered in college, briefly in pro but back to college,

and I think they got a little precious. And I told my PAC twelve friends this for years. There's too much to do in Seattle there's too much to do in the fall in Los Angeles, in San Francisco and Phoenix. We're not Starksville, Mississippi. We're not Lubbock, Texas. We're not you know, Madison, Wisconsin, which is a fun city.

They didn't do it. They've been a little finicky, and I think they're in danger of the conference dissolving. Yeah.

one in Northern California cares about football. The forty nine was one of the biggest brands, you know, so people love football in California pro football. But I think three, four or five years ago under Larry Scott, it just felt like they didn't care. Now Oregon cared, usc in theory cared, some of the programs carred, but as a whole, as a partnership, it never felt like the Big ten, which I would say academically is pretty forward thing. I mean, they got powerhouse programs.

that's not the end of the world. But the moment usc and it wasn't just that day they left. Clearly they had realized this is not going to work. What does Oregon and Washington do though, because you know, Oregon truly cares. They just gave their coach a raise, which I would imagine part of that is like, hey man, we would stay here for a little bit, We'll figure

this out. Is it inevitable that because my theory is that we're just going to head to AFC, NFC, Big ten, SEC some semblance of that, where it's just basically two huge conferences and then they both meet up in the playoffs twelve fourteen teams or whatever like the NFL. It feels like where we're headed. I know the Big twelve is creating this, but don't they end up just bleeding

with some of the top ACC teams? Is the major Power five is just in two separate conferences all most like the National Football League.

Oregon do have large loyal followings. They sell out their home games. Both have been in national championship games Huskies have won, so I think they have value.

to say? They simply care more. And when USC and UCLA jettison the PAC twelve after this year to go to the Big Ten, I remember talking to former athletic director Mike Bonnet USC, and he asked me a couple of years ago. He said, you know, it was right after they hired Lincoln Riley, right after And I said, you know, and before the Big Ten pivot. I said, if I was you, I would figure out a way to get these Michigans and these Iowa's and these Nebraskas and these penn States to do home and homes. I

don't care if I lose some of these games. Those Midwest fans in October, they'll make the trek out here. And then I swear to God. A month later, you know, they moved, they pivoted to the Big Ten. But I think both USC and UCLA, I don't think the weather's that big of a deal. They got four home games because they play each other to end the season. It'll be fine, you know, USC and ucll going the road four times. You know, most of those late September, October,

early November. There won't be blizzards. But I think USC had been thinking about it for years. They were really frustrated. They considered going independent, kind of doing a Notre Dame a BYU for years. So I think some things are inevitable. And I think the PAC twelve in that ultra competitive, sort of big ten sec world, I think it was inevitable the PAC twelve was gonna shrink exactly.

going to disappear. Cal potentially could, and maybe they just don't care that much, because I'd say they really don't.