Colin Cowherd Podcast - Nick Wright on Damar Hamlin Aftermath, Harbaugh NFL Future, KD/Kyrie Sustainability

in ten minutes. We haven't had Nikki on for seven eight weeks. It'll be a blast today. Good thirty forty minutes with Nick Wright. Oh is enjoyable. So I thought I would open today with some thoughts on a very frightening scene with Damar Hamlin day night in Cincinnati. There's been a lot of criticism by the media of the

NFL of not canceling the game immediately. And you know, one of the things that I've learned running the Volume, and the Volume we're up to about thirty employees, is that our rule at the Volume is let's just get it right, whatever process it takes, Let's just get it right. Communication in this world. Some of us are in Delaware, some of us are in Sarasota, Florida. I'm in Los Angeles. People are all over the country, different time zones. My staff often is doing this at one in the morning.

Why you know, it's only ten for me and I try to think about that. Let's just get it right. But it's not easy, right, communications not easy, And I'm dealing with young people, good communicators, very verbal, good with tech. So when Monday Night happened, a lot of people weren't happy with a timeline. A lot of media people very critical of the NFL. And if you're an actor, they say, the greatest challenge is doing Broadway. Why because it's live.

TV films are edited. Ioways find that broadcasting is much harder than this podcasting. Why because it's live. Business is harder when it's live. I have known in my life twenty five people who have worked for professional sports franchises. An NFL game live game day is a massive, massive undertaking. The NFL had the protocols in place that first responders were on the scene and quite possibly saved DeMar Hamlin's life. That's the win. The NFL called the game that's the win.

I don't want to get too precious on Well, you know the coaches. The coaches are the ones who actually told the officials, who told the league. Well, that's okay. Let's say it was a natural disaster. The governor of the state can watch on television, but the governor calls the mayor. The mayor calls the National Guard. The National Guard leader talks to the people on the ground. They're seeing real emotions, real fear from people in a flood

or an earthquake. They're managing from the ground up. We do that a lot at the volume. I manage from my employees up. They tell me what they're capable of doing. That's what the NFL did. They leaned on their coaches who were next to the players, listening to the players cry, watching them sob and the coaches said, we can't play this game. And the NFL said in New York, okay, we're canceling the game. The people writing columns ripping the NFL.

You get three or four chances at a column. You can have lunch during the columns, stop writing, have a tune of sandwich, then start again. You have a copy editor. What if your column was live and you got one shot at it. That's why writing on Deadline. You're a baseball writer, Gaymns goes twelve innings, you have to write

you have one shot. Is harder? Is that? I think sometimes we have to realize in the media the stuff's hard that instead of being upset in the process on how decisions were made, we're thankful that the NFL's got great EMTs, great first responders, very compassionate coaches and players, and that eventually they got Monday Night right and hopefully saved Damar Hamlin's life. Live anything is difficult. Think about the NFL business. A big chunk of it is performed

not only live, but televised. I mean, just putting a camera on a reality show usually ends up people getting a divorce. Just putting a camera on couples, how many times do you see those couples in a reality show? Eventually they're separating. It adds stress. Live cameras go urgency. I look at that as possibly saving a wonderful young person's life. I'm just not going to nitpick the process. It's very possible. The NFL, you know, they're not watching

the CPR. There's a big difference between a player going into an ambulance or on a stretcher and seeing CPR live. Even first responders who've gone through it hundreds of times say that's traumatic. It's intense. You're saving somebody's life. Players seeing that, most for the very first time. So listen. The NFL does things I don't agree with. I don't like a seventeenth game. I don't like the preseason. There's an argument against Thursday night football. Those are valid arguments.

I've never liked the seventeenth game. You can't tell me safety matters and then want your guys that deal with sixty more punishing, punitive hits. You don't need the money, so why are you doing it. It's greed, It's billionaire greed. That's it. But in this instance, I think there's a chance we saved a person's life. That's what I take from what happened Monday night. So when Lincoln Riley took the job at USC Oklahoma, fans made a lot of

jokes about USC's defense would be going down the tubes. Well, it couldn't get worse than what he inherited. But Alex Grinch is under a firestorm of criticism for losing a huge lead in the last three to four minutes of that game against two lane and losing. All coaches have blind spots, and perhaps Lincoln Riley's blind spot is his loyalty to his friend defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. In Lincoln Riley's four bowl losses, he surrendered an average of fifty

two points. But it's also important, even in the transfer portal, to acknowledge what Lincoln Riley inherited a four win team with one legitimate NFL player, a second round defensive end. I was told this by somebody close to the program that when Lincoln Riley got there, they had about a dozen linebackers a dozen. This is usc the late junior Sayo played there. Clay Matthews played there lineback West Coast linebacker you for decades, they had twelve linebackers in the program.

None were NFL linebackers. Lincoln Riley was shocked by the lack of linebacker talent. The offensive line had thirteen or fourteen offensive lineman on scholarship. One Andrew Voorheis, a guard, was viewed as being able to play this year and eventually be draftable. So between linebacker and offensive line large important units. There were roughly twenty five athletes, one pro and one potential pro. That's what they inherited and the

transfer portal. Yes, USC got Jordan Addison and Caleb Williams from it, but most players that enter the portal are not playing enough for their liking. That's why they enter the portal. They're not starting, or they're being phased out, or they're being replaced at their program. So you can improve your team through the transfer portal, especially if you

get a great quarterback or a star receiver. But I would say a majority ninety percent of players that enter the transfer portal are not worth half a point in a college football game. We have to be realistic. What Lincoln Riley inherited was a mess. They didn't believe. They didn't say it publicly, but a third of the players on this team last year were not really packed twelve

football players. They weren't. They weren't packed twelve football players maybe at the eleventh and twelfth programs, but they were Divisioned one players. But they weren't viewed as people who should be anywhere near a top ten fifteen program. Lincoln Riley inherited a mess. He solved the offense in one off season. My guests, it'll take him an entire second off season to at least solve most of the defensive issues. The defense will be better next year. Let's get to Nick, right,

all right, my buddy Nick right, Um. We haven't talked to Nick in a couple of months. He's really busy. First things first is a smash hit. It's crushing. You know, it's funny, Nick, Thank you, buddy. You know, the show's so successful. I've really nicely decorated my house with all these you know, we get ratings bonuses. Yeah, I mean, just wealth, just hitting me in the face. But your producers won't let me show it off. They said, I have to turn off all the lights. They said, you're

you're you're shaming Colin Coward. Collin's doing this from a closet and you know, somewhere and I assumed the Upper Valley in Los Angeles, and I've got this palatial estate. I can't show it all. That's fine. Maybe at the end of the pod I'll get up and so people can see what a beautiful scene I have behind me. But go ahead. Sorry, the um, you know, I was I was thinking about this because we don't get you much anymore. And I do want to touch on the

Damar Hamlin situation. We're all praying for the young kid. I mean, he's got a huge life ahead of him. He's a wonderful guy. You can see the outpouring of affection for him, right. But I'm in the media sometimes, but I feel like I'm not of the media. They always say that about Austin, Texas. It's in Texas, it's not of Texas. I've never heard that, but I like that. Yeah, I'm in Park City, Utah, in Utah. It's not of Utah.

We drink there in party. Okay. So the reason podcasting is easier than broadcasting is because it's not live, and the reason broadway is harder than a film is because it is live. Ye, And the NFL business is not only live, it's televised. And I'm not going to pick it apart for how they canceled the game. They had first responders that saved his life. I listen, you and

I don't have the exact same politics. We have similar politics on a lot of things, and then on certain things, I'm basically left of linen and so you're you know, so on those things we diverge a bit, but that and I don't know if this is political or not, but it strikes me as a little political, the idea that the NFL by definition must be the boogeyman here. So there is the logistics of what happened. So I was actually listening to a great radio show in Kansas City.

It's on a rock radio station. But the friends of mine have done it for twenty years, called the Churchilaslow, and they've put on a lot of concerts, and they were talking about this and what Laslow, the host of it said. He was like, because he also thought the NFL being criticized for not instantly saying game off. He was like, there's nobody realized there's seventy thousand people there and that there is someone that has to make sure. Hey, how we all of these people don't know the exact

circumstance on the field. They're not watching the broadcast the inner you know what I mean. A lot of people the internet doesn't work great in stadiums. They know a player is hurt, and if all of a sudden it is just announced game canceled, don't you think they have a little concern of wait, are people going to get out of here safely? Are people? So even if they had measures ready for that, there's a lot of layers

it has to go through. And the idea that and I listen, you know Joe Buck really well, I know him a little bit. I am not doubting that Joe Buck was told, hey, the players have been you know, it's five minutes. But to me, unless you are trying to find a reason to say bleep you NFL, the reason the five minutes thing happened is it has written some were on a piece of paper. That's right. If there is a some type of on field incident and the delay is so long, you are allowed to have

five minutes to get back warm. And so when someone's like, so what do we do here, somebody said, well, I guess I guess they think that five minutes. But that was never gonna be five minutes and it was never gonna be played again, and the it was and I think smart people knew that, but they like to blame someone. So now that's what I think happened. Now here's my maybe two deep thoughts on it. Because we saw people get mad at the NFL. We saw people get mad

at tweets. We saw people get mad in tragedy, people search for a villain when often there isn't one. Often it's just shit. That was awful, and I hate that it happened. Furthermore, I I think lashing out at people who prevents people from having to do the moments of introspection of all Right, so if this is no one's fault and this is just the potential cost of football, yeah, oh boy, what does that say about me? Who bases my entire weekend around football? What does that say about me?

That's a hard That's like a hard moral question. Am I morally complicit in that? That's like a you know, we need a philosophic philosopher to talk us through it. You know what's easier? These fucking guys don't care about the players. Give me a break, Like, give me a break. And I'm not acting like the NFL is has always put players safety first. They clearly haven't. And I'm not an apologist for the league, but I'm gonna say one other thing. I don't even know if they can cancel

the game immediately without talking players union. I think there has to be a lot of phone calls that happened or something like that can be done. So I wasn't looking for a villain here. I just and and it is people rallied in the end and have done an amazing thing and the go fund me. But I wish it was more natural instead of searching for a villain.

It would have been just as easy to say, oh my god, what a remarkable job by the people who recognized in seconds his heart stopped, knew what to do, unscrewed the face mask, Zach gave him the defiberlation, CPR, all of it. And if you did want to be an NFL apologist, you know what you'd say, Hey, they have like they evidently have a protocol in place for what to do if a player's heart stops, even though in my entire life watching football, they've never had to

use it. And it was executed perfectly, Like I don't know that's the So I don't know if that's the right answer, but that's you and I agree on this one. Yeah, no, I think I even I try to personalize stories and say what would I have done? Or Since I've started the volume, we're up to about thirty employees, and one of our rules is, let's just get it right. Whatever the process is, let's just get it right. And so we don't get too precious on the process. As you know,

you know, I've been doing this for thirty years. What we do is small compared to like pro football. But over the course of sometimes you know, you do things in your marriage, on your show, with your kids, in parenting, and you come to conclusions in crisis and argument a school issue. How can I just get this right right? How can I morally get it right? How can I

get the decision right? Is? Things are sloppy, you know, things are Listen, man, When I watched there's a lot I didn't know about childbirth, and then I watched it live, I was like, I really like the final result. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that I can do without. Can I just come in after it's delivered next time? We all know professional athletes care about what they look like, and as you know, I care about what I look like. Right now, I've been wearing a lot of cuts clothing.

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so um. All right, I want to talk to you about There's two coaches in football that I think bother the media, but Jesus they're good. Brian Kelly has won everywhere instantly. He had a terrible incident at Notre Dame. A young man died. He is gruff, he turns purple when he's screaming at players. And Jim hark does a really really crummy cagn accent out of nowhere, but go ahead. Yeah. And Jim Harbaugh. And because Jim Harbaw, I think he's on the spectrum and he's awkward and he doesn't really

need the media. I think I get along with people. I struggle with him. People don't understand it. Harbor went forty four, nineteen and one in a division with arguably the mo talented team in football in twenty years, the Seahawks. The Seahawks won six games and went to three straight NFC Championship games with Alex Smith and Cap as the quarterbacks, and Cap had a nice moment. The Cap wasn't a

blue Chipper. Alex Smith was considered a bust and immediately contended for championships and contended at Stanford and turned Michigan into a contender. Yeah, so I thought about this. You know, when we do a show, I have opinions, but sometimes I'll sleep on it. Is that in college the NIL has actually helped coaches because it used to be you were felt guilty for making money because players weren't. Now

a quarterback at USC can make five million. Nobody talks about coaches salaries, but a lot of these situations at Michigan you do feel like your salaries published. You're the highest paid state employee at eight million. Or you go to the NFL make eighteen and nobody cares. Now you get fired sooner, but nobody cares. Is that? I think

to myself, I wouldn't I wouldn't leave Michigan. But I do wonder now once the players get paid, the downside, because I'm for the players getting paid, but the downside is, well shit, if I'm gonna have my players paid and they're gonna transfer any time. I'd rather just be a pro coach and make twice the money and not deal with the NC double A and we're gonna lose a lot of these great coaches and not have to deal with is he academically eligible? I would listen. I think

some people love recruiting. I think I would hate it. I think the grind of the travel, plus there has to be an element of and I don't want to sound like an old man. And again, some coaches love it, and maybe that's why they're coaches, because they love that thing. But of like trying to convince a seventeen year old to, you know, date you essentially, that seems again, I don't think i'd love it. I don't think it'd be like

what are you doing? Like, well, I got a fly to Baton Rouge because this seventeen year old kid that I thought was going to come play for me, now I think he's gonna go play for Texas, So I have to explain I have to win over him, his mom and his dad like that. So I would far prefer pro coaching, where you're dealing with with grown ups. You only have to worry about the football part, and you don't have to convince twenty twenty five new guys

every single year to come play for you. What is interesting to me is it does seem like the money in certain instances college you know, I mean, you tell me if I'm wrong. Colin in certain instance seemed like the money's bigger in college football. So like did melt Tucker, Who's what not one of the fifteen best coaches got ninety million dollars? Like knowing that very few NFL coaches have that. So I think for certain guys, college is

a better deal. Hardball. Here's the thing I want to say about Hardball, because I I think Hardball is a great coach, a great coach. And I made the point on your show five years ago when I was filling in for you, and then I made it again the other day that he has an argument that if the question is I need someone to coach my football team, but I won't tell you if it's college or pro, he should be the number one draft pick because you can say, well, I'll take Belichick. Well what if he's

it's Alabama? Like, well, you know what I mean? Okay, No, no no, no, I'll take Saban, Well, what if it's the Jets, Like Hardball has a proof of concept at both levels instantly good, So I think he's a great coach. The one thing I think the media is getting wrong with the Hardball story is this they're like, oh, the new owners of the Broncos, they're the Walton family. They've

got seventy billion dollars. When it comes to coach salaries, the difference between seventy billion net worth and seven billion network is irrelevant. Well, the coach salaries, it's like, oh, they can pay him twenty million a year, so can eighty percent of the owners, Like, as long as you've got more than a billion, you can pay the coach anything. So the idea that the dit Broncos have this leg up because their owners are so rich, I think people

have it wrong. I don't think it's the three richest NFL owners have an advantage. I think it's the four NFL owners that don't have real money are at a

huge disadvantage. So whether I think those teams are at a real disadvantage, but I think I think every I think eighty percent of the teams could hire a twenty million dollars a year coach on a four year deal, fire him and do that five consecutive cycles and have four hundred million of dead coach money and it doesn't affect their bottom line at all because they are multi

or Decca billionaires. I think there's a few teams, whether it's the Cardinals, the Raiders, whomever, where it's like, oh, man, do they have to keep the coach because they can't afford to pay the buyout? A couple NBA topics. So I try to watch half an NBA game every night in the treadmill. I love it, so that's my goal. So I get on the treadmill and I watch half an NBA game, usually like an East Coast game. So I watched Brooklyn and they're playing really well. And this

is where I tend to be in my career. I do football heavy, Super Bowl ends, I go skiing, or I go to Mexico, come back, and then I'm totally into the NBA, NFL Draft, NFL free agency, but I'm an NBA fan and I kind of block it off. I do Labor Day to February tenth as NFL see it's so funny. I'm this just real quip where you get to your question. I know people kind of perceive me as an NBA guy because I'm like the Lebron guy,

but I'm the exact same one. So I might watch a little bit more because of the coast I'm on, and I have met season tickets, so I go to some games and do that. But as far as the media I consume, I listened to a lot of podcasts. Yeah, I don't listen to any NBA podcasts right now, I'm not reading it like I am. It's to me, this

is it. Football season is football season with a few big time NBA games mixed in, and then the moment I get back from vacation, it is nothing but hoops for the next four months, and then go on another vacation and then we're in the NFL again, And this is just like the cycle that yeah, but go ahead, but go ahead. So one of the reasons I don't I think there are a lot of people in our profession, especially NBA people that they watch this early season stuff

and I always kind of think time out. I mean, last two nights ago, the Celtics gave up one hundred and fifty points to the thunder player without Saya, so it's it's not even some teams are arrested, are exhausted. Who'd you play the night before? It's like the San Francisco forty nine ers. Everybody that plays them the next week or two fourteen. So in the NBA, if you play, you know, if you play the Celtics the night before and they're arm wrestling you and playing defense the next night,

you're probably not gonna play well after. So I watched the Brooklyn Nets, and here's my takeaway on them. They're the Phoenix Sun Steve Nash team. They are totally built for the regular season. You come in light rest, the guys come in after shoot around, they get thirty minutes of film putting their shoes on, they watch them, and then you got to face Kyrie and Durant and Simmons and it's a hard matchup. You put them in a series and I can go at Kyrie six times defensively

where he won't play. I can put Simmons on the foul line in any big spot. That Brooklyn is tough with little prep, infinitely beat able. With with that, I agree with that. I think that's a smart take and but they also I will give them credit listen, since Kyrie came back, they're eighteen and three. They're also one game in December. Here are I got three potential issues

with Brooklyn. The first one is Kyrie's you know, you ever been to like a construction site and they have that little thing that the days without an incident, and every day it ticks up. It's like forty six, forty seven. We are approaching the most Kyrie days without an incident we've had in about six years, which means that some bitch might be going back to zero any moment. Now.

There there's a chance I think is getting reset. So everyone's like, oh, Kyrie's on his best behavior, and I'm like, yeah, I mean it's been six weeks and that's good, but I'm not. I'm not booking that as the norm. Okay, that's the first thing. Yeah. The second thing is this and this is a good thing and a bad thing. Then Durant is playing some some from an offensive perspective. Yeah, some of the best basketball in league history right now.

So I put a thing on the TV show yesterday where NBA dot Com will break the court down into zones, like not just quadrants, but like there's like eighteen of them as far as where you take your shots from right and red. If the color beneath you is red, it means you're below average. If it's the color of the court, it means you are average, and if it's green, it means you're above average. On those eighteen zones, Kevin Durant had fifteen green, two Beijian, one red. The one

that was ready. He has taken two shots from that area. I think he'll probably make the next one. It'll turn beijior green and another one he'd only taken five shots. So he is from every scoring zone on the court well above average, every single one. And I was like, wait, is this true for all the great players? Nope, I look Steph, it's like half of him. He has his spots, Lebron it's like a third of them. But he's killing you at the rim, Luke, it's the Durant is great

everywhere and he is taking tough shots. So the good thing is he's an amazing player. The bad thing is they need him to continue a level of offensive efficiency that would make Prime Jordan blush as far as what he's doing in the mid range and all of that. And the last thing is what you said, which is the Ben Simmons in the playoffs part of this. No one is talking about it and no one is thinking

about but it is a major concern. I want to say one other NBA thing to you, because Jannis in his last seven is averaging forty and the other night at fifty five and the Bucks are a game out of first place. Yeah, so here is why. In my opinion, Jannis and Luca have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt they are the two best players in the league.

Yannis won, Luca two. Every other great player in this league either this year in the last few years, if their second best guy isn't there, the team struggles to win half its games. Lebron lost ad team can't win half its games. Steph a couple of years ago didn't have Clay, they missed the playoffs. Yokich last year didn't have Jamal Murray. They're the sixth seat. Durant this year Kyrie was going when he was going to sabbatical. There's whatever you want to call it. They're they're dead in

the water. Luca last year, Dinna have a second best player whole second half of the season, playoff run. It's like Okay, I'll just take us to the conference finals. Jannis hasn't had Middleton all year. He's played seven games, and seven games he played didn't play well because he's still hurt. And they're a game out of first. That is,

those two guys are at a different level. The our teams can beat contenders even without our second best guy, And if you give me our second best guy, we'll probably win the whole damn thing everyone else no matter how great they are. And I threw Lebron in there too, because he's still unbelievable. They need their full cast of characters, not to win any games, but to contend. The Bucks can contend based on the power of Jannis alone, and I think the MAVs are showing they can do that

with Luca too very good. What do you make a year less than you, buddy? It's really what do you make of the offensive explosion in the last two weeks? I can tend. I would say every season has what they call the dog days, and I think after Christmas there's a three week lull when you're still experimenting with some defensive rotations. You're not here the trading deadlines, you're not showing off people, yet you're giving certain players rest, and so we're in The dog days are not the

end of the regular season because seeding really matters. It's not right up to the trading deadline because you're trying to show off certain people to move them. These are actually even though the season only starts in October, the dog days are like the day after Christmas until like January fifth to tenth, and that nobody's playing defense right now. Okay, so I listen. I think that's part of it. So

I'm really glad you asked me this. I'm really glad, and I have a much probably longer answer than you anticipated. But I think you're like good. So here. So the NBA right now, it's one hundred and thirteen points per game is the league average. It's the highest it's been in a very long time. Some context though, other than the last couple of years. In the last fifty the highest scoring year was nineteen eighty five. Everyone's like, oh my god, defense was so hard and they punched in

the face. It was one eleven per game in nineteen eighty five. The only time it was pre nineteen eighty five higher than this was the early sixties. This is a sidebar, but I think you'll like this. Nineteen sixty two, the NBA average one hundred and eighteen points per game. That was one hundred eighteen in nineteen sixty two. So whenever what else happened in nineteen sixty two, well will average fifty a game. Oscar Averager triple double your guy,

Dragonfly Jones. Part of the volume pointed this out. Elgin Baylor averaged thirty eight and eighteen, but he only played forty eight games. Colin. He only played forty eight games because Elgin got called up as an army reservist and could only play for the Lakers when he was on weekend leave, and he took coach flights and then dropped thirty eight a night on folks and then had a sixty one point finals game. Okay, So why do I bring all that up? Sixty two when all these crazy

records were set, different game. They're playing the in breakneck pace and no one can make shots, so it's just shoot miss, you get a rebound, shoot miss, get a rebound. Okay, So throw those records out. Nineteen eighty five, why would that be so high? Scoring? Wasn't three point line? It had been invented, but people barely shot it. Well, the ABA folded, the NBA hadn't fully expanded, and you had a massive talent. There's too many good players, too many

good players. Then what happens late eighties, NBA expands, early nineties, it expands again, and all of a sudden, NBA Finals games are eighty five eighty three, and you look around and you watch the Bulls jazz and it's like, that's Jeff Foster and Jeff Hornet check and I don't want to just say white guys here, but it was a lot like it's and it's not. But people don't want to say that because so much of the NBA is rapp in, like the Jordan legacy. They're like, no, the

nineties were great, No, they weren't. So now we go here. Three point line huge part to do with it, undeniable. People are taking a bazillion threes. Here's the other thing. Right now, if someone were to say the three best players in the NBA are Yannis Luca Yokich, well that's interesting. So now we're getting guys from Greece via Nigeria, Slovenia and Serbia. Yannis the other night he crossed up Chris

STAPs and got to the rim. I'm like, okay, that's a seven foot four inch lot Vian trying to guard a seven foot Nigerian Greek kid out on the perimeter. I'm not saying this because it helps my Lebron goat argument. I'm saying it because it's obvious. The players are packed, are way better, and you have the entire world to choose from, and so yeah, the defense isn't is physical, but the game is smarter that people understand it better. They understand where the efficient shots are. The three point

shot has proliferated. We're about to bring over a seven foot one inch French alien who's shooting step back one foot threes. Like, guys, it's just better. And it's not to me a coincidence that you go back to the mid eighties there was a scoring explosion. It's like you have oh my god, you have magic. You have Larry, the Aba is folded, you have Jordan come in, you have all these great players come in, and there were every team like all the great teams have like four

Hall of famers, And so that's my answer. So yes, I agree with you. I think the what I think it's gonna be interesting because your point is the scoring will go down a bit. You know, once teams care more well, right now it's at one thirteen and in nineteen eighty five one to eleven. So if it goes down just a little bit, we're gonna be scoring at the same rate as they did in the mid eighties. And there's you know, there's that's gonna be hard for

people to reconcile, but that's why things happening. I also think here's the other thing. Because there have been a ton of fifty point games, but they've all been by stars. It would be concerning to me, concerning the wrong word, but more noteworthy to me if it was I don't know if you remember this guy, Tony Delk, he played it for a long time. Yeah, he once had a fifty point NBA game, and he's kind of known as like the worst player to score fifty. That sounds shitty,

but you know what I mean. Yea, if a lot of average guys were dropping fifty, I'd be like, oh, these numbers don't mean as much. But it's like, oh, MBI dropped fifty, and Booker and Donovan Mitchell dropped seventies. A lot. I'm not gonna lie that was a lot, but it was also he had fifty eight at the end of regulation and then when all honest, it's the best players in the league dropping fifties, So that kind

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one seven for confidential help in Michigan one eight seven seven h O p E n Y or text hope n Y for six seven three six nine In New York, tennessee redline one eight nine nine seven eight nine Tennessee visit one eight hundred gambler dot in West Virginia. Finally, I love these, by the way, I always feel guilty. I tell my staff call Nick the first sign of no bail. No, No, I love doing it, and I hadn't been on in a while. But but we'll do it. Especially no, we got we can do this. Con I

love doing it, you know that. So I think I said this years ago when ESPN did the phone, which was a disaster, is that ESPN owed the industry to roll the dice on the phone because they had the capital to take big swings. They were making so much money eight billion annually. They owed the industry. It would have think about the industry today if it now owned the phone industry or on cable TV. And and by

the way, those big swings. I never worked for ESPN like you did, but I give them credit anyway for things. Also created thirty for thirty that's a big expensive swing and it was awesome. Yeah, and it was you know what I mean, it was awesome and like so that yeah, the phone is like known as kind of a disaster, but yeah, but go ahead. Yeah. So I think the Amazons of the world and the Apples of the world, to elevate society artificial intelligence, have the money take big

swings on things because small companies can't. And to advance society, that's important. So one of the things I believe, you know, I've been doing this long time. I've very large audience audio whatever. I never ever believe I'm the gatekeeper of any industry. I'm not going to tell people how to broadcast skip you. It doesn't matter, Max Kellerman, stephen A. Smith. We all have different styles. I'm a believer and lean

into you. Whatever you is, do more you. But I like occasionally and I believe in this strongly throwing out a theory that could be absurd because I don't want talk show host to feel they're trapped. I think I owe it in a weird way. I see myself as I'm not going to get fired for a crazy take. Who cares if anybody rips me. I have a huge army of followers behind me. So I like throwing out occasionally something that seems absurd. Okay, I like right like,

it's like I can do it. Who cares? It's I have the you have the cache, credibility and career that you can. You're not bulletproof, but you at least have you know, you're wearing it. You got some body armor on and you can take some slugs your way. Yeah, got it? Okay. So Mike Vrabel played with Tom Brady. He is absolutely one of the smartest coaches in the league. He knows the importance of the position, and he's now in a conference where Trevor Lawrence looks like a top

five quarterback. He's in a conference with Mahomes and Allan and Burrow and Herbert and Trevor Lawrence, all the good young guys are in his way, and Bryce Young's about to be there. That's right. And Vrabel is going to get on the phone after this season because there's no dead cap hit for Tannehill and he's gonna say, Aaron, get the f down here. Oh it's Nashville. I thought you're gonna say he's gonna try to sighting Tom No

because you said he was friends with Tom. Aaron, So he's gonna say, Aaron, he's gonna play to his vanity, Mahomes, Burrow, Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, I need you. He understands quarterback. Aaron's never had great defenses in green Bay. The one year he did, they want it, so green Bay simultaneously would take a hit. But because they're not paying Jordan Love and they could afford it, they can't afford to cut him, but they can trade it. They can't trade him and it doesn't

kill him, and they look at their division. Goss's not a superstar. Cousins has limitations, Justin Fields has a defensive coach and a dysfunctional organization, and they're like, screw it, let's give it a run. For two years, we found our two receivers. By the way, the cap hit isn't his punitive that My hot take is Rabel's going to get on the phone and try really hard to convince Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay's gonna say christ were walking on eggshells for twelve years. Here Listen, I don't think

that's crazy. Further, I thought you were gonna say Brady's gonna go there, and I was only gonna say that's crazy because I don't think Tom Brady's moving to Nashville. And again, I'm from Kansas City. I'm not taking a shy away. I'm not comparing myself to Apple or Amazon in this whole scenario. No, but in the No, what you are doing is you are saying people that have the ability to take big swings in any industry should

do it. So I you I in the in the ecosystem of sports broadcasting, I don't know, I don't know who. If you're not Apple or Amazon, I don't know who is there. You know, whatever it is, that's fine, it's fine. It we're listen. By the way, there's forty minutes into a Nick Wright Colin Coward podcast. The people are still listening. Either really love one of us or really hate one of us. So don't eyth matter? So the but um so, the Roger thing I'm gonna I hadn't thought about him

with Tennessee, here's what I do think. And Packer fans are killing me for this. But I said after they went four and eight and Aaron had the broken thumb, that they should start playing Jordan Love. And now they're like, oh, look at us now, and the answers really look at you. Now what am I looking at? Like the it'd be one thing if you were on this four game winning streak because Rogers is lighting it up. On the four game winning streak column, Rogers has four touchdown passes, he

has an eighty seven rating. They are averaging less than two hundred passing yards per game. They're on the four game winning streak because they have fourced twelve turnovers in four games. They have two defensive touchdowns two. Uh we now know was you know? I was dealing with a serious injury and melted down. They played they give me a break. I said, you gotta play love, and it's not necessarily punting on this season, but whatever, you've got

to play love. And the reason you gotta play love is the question I asked was, are you still in the super Bowl business in Green Bay? Because if you are, you're not winning it this year. And what you need to do is figure out can the kid play and if he can play a little bit, But you're like, Okay, he's not ready yet. Guess what. If you're still in the super Bowl business and you're keeping Aaron Rodgers, someone

will trade your draft pick for him. You can use that to help next year's team because this team is not good enough if he's If you're still in the super Bowl business and he is good enough, well, guess what. Then you have the conversation of do we trade Aaron? But whatever it is, they should have used this time to get information on Jordan Love. Instead, they are going to blindly pick up his fifth year option, blindly having seen him play one game against the Chiefs terribly last

year and a half a game this year. It's insane and they're not going to be able to trade him because nobody has seen him play. They're not gonna now maybe they trade Aaron, like you're saying, But the risk there is that Jordan Loves no good. Now I don't think he's no good, but it's on the board just because he hasn't played, and so I don't think the Packers have handled this right. I also don't think Aaron's made it particularly easy for them, like throughout this process.

But I think the idea. You know, Mark Schlayret came on my show and I said, no, what even my show. It was the day I was filling in for you. He came on your show, but I was talking to him and I set made the point that I thought the Packers should have played Love because they have to decide his fifth year option. And he said he believes they have already decided that they are picking it up. And he didn't say he was told this. I don't

want to misquote stink. He said he thinks his theory is that they're moving on from Aaron, that they've seen enough from Love that that the reason they didn't play him in this spot is because they knew this was Aaron the end. They were gonna let Aaron get his final run and see what happens. But it's an interesting situation they have found themselves in. Can I ask you one question before we go? Sure, everyone is saying the NFC's wide open. The NFC has no juggernaut. Why are

the Niners not a juggernaut? They feel like a juggernaut to me, man, how about this? So today a buddy of mine, degenerate gambler, great guy's a fireman and Connecticut good friend. He sends me shit all the time. He's a basketball scout on the East Coast. Is so great. And he said, for all those questioning brock Purty, he goes Matt Campbell will be one of the finalists for the Michigan job if Harball leaves. He's viewed as a

super sharp coach, he said. During brock Purdy's run, in the four years as a starter at Iowa State, they were thirty and seventeen, twenty five and ten in the Big Twelve, and seven and ten record against ranked opponents. Now that's not worthy. This is Iowa State this year with Matt Campbell four and eight, one in eight in the Big twelve. Wow, oh and four against ranked opponents. Do we have Tony Romo Kurt Warner on our hands, a great player that was undervaluated. Yea under evaluated short

under evaluated. Yeah, here's the thing. But I guess my point is, even if he's not a great player, the Niners won a game this year started by Trey Lanes. They won a bunch of games started by Jimmy Garoppolo. They're now undefeated with games started by Rock Purty. Sometimes a team is not reliant on the quarterback, and it would seem to be a team that has Nicky Bosa, Eric Armstead, an amazing defensive coordinator, that Hafonga who looks

like he plays three positions at once, the safety. They have the best left tackle in football, maybe the best running back in football, the second best tight end, two awesome wide receivers, team kicks ass Man, and now am I also kind of trying to speak into existence speaking of good great friends of yours that have gambling problems. I put, I did. I did this on my podcast What's Right with Nick right in the preseason gambling show. I put I did a whole preseason show where I

did my season over under Betsy. And then you can get on fan duel before the season super like you could pick an NFC winner and an AFC winner and parlay it. So just pick who's going to be in the Super Bowl. And before the year, Chiefs Niners was fifty to one, not even a winner, not Chiefs over Niners and Niners is just the Chiefs win the AFC, Niners win, THENFCO is fifty to one. I put a thousand dollars on a column, so I've got that's a

live bet right now. That's a I think the Niners to me, with what's going on in Philly with the injuries, are the favorites in the NFC. And the Chiefs are certainly at least co favorites in the AFC, And I think the Niners. I think people are talking about the NFC like it's wide open purely because and I get it, it's not just a rookie. It's a seventh round rookie. But the kids played great. Shanahan has proven he can

win in the playoffs without great quarterback play. And I think this roster is stacked, stacked, so do I. And Debo's coming back, and Debo's coming back. That's the other thing to look at. Which teams this time of year are getting healthier and which teams are getting more injured Philly is the most injured it's been all year. The Chiefs. Nobody cares because it's Mahomes. He hasn't had his number

one wide receiver for six weeks. They haven't had their number one running back, who's not very good, but for five weeks. Are both coming back. Like the teams, you gotta that's something you always got to watch. It's one of the things I worry about with your Bengals, Lyle Collins, like you had that offensive line continuity all year. Lyle Collins goes down, like how that is concerning to me?

One last vaulting before I go. I don't know if I believe this or not, but it is into I mean believe it, it's true, but I don't know if I buy into it. The Steelers are seven and two when t J. Watt plays. Seven and two when t J. Watt plays, that's crazy. That team's got no one on offense. I know Collinsworth was falling all ons about Kinny Pickett. Dude's got hands smaller than your daughter and he's got six touchdown passes. I don't think it's superstar all right.

Before we end hold on, I have to turn the lights on in here so everyone can see what your producers to pride the audience seeing. Hold on, wow, look at this. I mean that's beautiful. I mean, isn't it. Oh there's too much lights from being and down. I mean we got artwork, we got Christmas trees the middle of Harlem, New York. My man living a lot, and Colin told me. Colin told me, he was like, Nick, you're gonna move to New York City. Rant don't buy.

You gave me that advice. I'll say, everyone else like buy. And he's like, man, you're gonna live in New York. You're gonna live in different places. It's crazy expensive. I think Colin also knew I probably didn't have any money to buy at the time. He was trying to be nice and I haven't. It's great. I missed you. Rgeous. I'm gonna I'm gonna see you uh in person in Arizona. The volumes having a party. Oh really, Will I be invited?

Of course? Okay, all right, that'll be great. I appreciate you, buddy. Let's see you later, buddy. The volume. Make sure to check out the Draymond Green Show. I brought Draymond Green into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports. Unique perspective understands behind the Rope also chops up with guests like Gary Peyton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure download The Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcasts, only on the Volume podcast Network